Thank you to all who read and reviewed!
Chapter 7
"Wait, what?" Eric asked, frowning in confusion. "José and Miguel? Who are they?"
Deeks rolled his eyes. "Their aliases from the undercover assignment in the cartel. Duh."
Eric blushed slightly. "Oh. Right. I knew that."
Normally, Tony would have tried to make some funny comment, but he couldn't muster up the energy. He knew that he had made the right decision in staying to see out the case, especially since he and G would have to go in undercover again. Nevertheless, he still felt conflicted and guilty, even though there was no logical reason for that. If anyone should feel guilty, it should be Gibbs, but the man never seemed to feel guilty or regretful. At least not when it came to Tony.
With a small sigh, Tony brought himself out of his thoughts again. G was speaking to Eric
"-to find us some mid level cartel people in the area. And I'll speak to some people to update our cover to say that we got out of prison. If it's all right with Tony, we'll go in tomorrow afternoon and hopefully put this case behind us soon. Sound good, Tony?"
"Uh, yeah great," Tony muttered, trying to ignore the sudden apprehension building. Something felt off, like something bad was about to happen and he needed to stop it.
G closed his eyes briefly, seeming to consider something. "Okay. Eric, find us some guys to meet with, and then head home for tonight, everyone. Deeks, you still planning to stop in with Sam?"
Deeks nodded, heading downstairs to grab his things. The rest of the team muttered farewells and left as well. G, however, made no move to leave.
"Are we going, or do you usually just sleep here?" Tony gently prodded.
"Right, yeah," G said softly. "Just have a bad feeling about this for some reason."
"Feels like something bad is going to happen?"
"Yeah. You feel it too?" G asked, heading for the stairs.
"Yep. Hopefully nothing, though."
"Doubt it. If it's affecting both of us, then it's probably something. Maybe we're just getting paranoid."
"Getting paranoid?" Tony joked. "G, you were paranoid before I even knew you."
"And you weren't?"
"I never denied it. I would maintain that I had legitimate reason, growing up with my father," Tony said, relishing in the fact that he could be open with G, instead of hiding behind his 'joker frat boy' persona.
"Well, by that reasoning, so do I," G pointed out, grabbing his bag and tossing Tony's to him.
"True," Tony admitted. "Let's call a truce and say we're both somewhat paranoid, but both have good reason for it."
"Okay, that works for me. Although I would prefer to call it 'staying alive'."
Tony laughed, some of the tension and guilt disappearing with the lighthearted- for once- banter.
The car ride to G's place was spent in comfortable silence, with Tony managing to fend off his dark thoughts for once. When they reached the house, G headed up to unlock the door while Tony grabbed his bag.
"Nice place," Tony commented as he stepped inside.
G shrugged. "It's got a roof and walls. It works."
Leading Tony down a hallway, G opened a door, gesturing to the bedroom inside. "You'll be staying in here. Bathroom's right down the hall, second door on the left."
"Thanks," Tony said, dropping his bag on the bed.
"I was going to order dinner while you get settled. Chinese okay?" G asked, standing in the doorway.
"Yeah, sounds great."
"Anything in particular that you want?"
Tony shook his head, pulling off his jacket and tie and draping them over a nearby chair.
"Okay. See you in a bit then." G retreated out of the room, leaving Tony alone with his thoughts again.
Letting out a bone-weary sigh, Tony changed into an old t-shirt and sweatpants. He pulled out his cell phone as he left the room, tapping into a text conversation with Ellie.
How pissed off is gibbs?
Sticking the phone back into his pocket, he wandered into the kitchen, where G had just hung up the phone, presumably having called the takeout place.
"You look comfortable, and that seems like a great idea. I'm going to go change too. Beer's in the fridge if you want one," G said as he headed out of the room.
Tony grabbed two beers out of the fridge, placing them on coasters on the coffee table and relaxing into the couch. It was nice to have a chance to relax, sit down, and enjoy a beer with an old friend, especially after the events of the day.
Tony jumped when his phone went off twice in succession a minute later, making G, who was just walking into the room, laugh.
"Bit jumpy there, huh?" the other agent asked, lifting an eyebrow in amusement. "Food should be here in about half an hour," he added, taking a sip of his beer.
Tony nodded again, pulling out his phone to check the messages. Sure enough, it was Ellie.
Somewhat. Not as bad as weve seem before though. Y?
*seen
Resisting the urge to sigh again, Tony responded.
Jw. Hows the case going so far?
Not so bad. Might actually b able to figure this one out without u! ;)
Haha thx but im sure you guys would b fine without me
Maybe. Good thing this assignment is only temporary. Teams weird and off with u gone
:)
Tony ended the conversation with a simple smiley face, not having the heart to tell Ellie that it most likely wasn't temporary.
"Tony," G broke the silence.
"Yeah?" Tony asked, still looking at his darkened phone screen.
"Gibbs called me while you were on your way here."
Tony closed his eyes for a second. "Let me guess- he wanted to tell you that I should turn around and head back to DC immediately."
"No. Well, he did mention sending you back ASAP, but that wasn't the main thing," the lead agent paused, seeming to consider his next words carefully. "He told me to be careful, and to keep you safe, and that he expected you back in DC in the same shape you'd left in. He seemed pretty concerned about you, Tony."
"Really," Tony muttered bitterly. "Never seems that way when I'm actually with him."
G placed a gentle hand on the other agent's shoulder. "I know. And I'm not saying this is any excuse, but Gibbs has always had a difficult time expressing his emotions as words. He most likely just doesn't know how to tell you what you mean to him. But aside from that, he told me to watch carefully for any signs that you were getting sick. Because you'd had the plague."
"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm always careful with my health, I'll seek medical attention if I feel sick, blah blah blah," Tony said, rolling his eyes.
"Not what I meant, Tony," G said gently. "And, for the record, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't seek medical attention on your own. I was more wondering how you got- and survived- the plague in the first place."
"There was a woman- Lowell, I think. I don't really remember much of the actual case, as I was a bit busy trying not to drown in my own lungs at the time. But she'd had a daughter that was raped, with a lot of Navy suspects. NCIS never solved the case, and she wanted us to reopen it and find out who it was. The way that she decided to do that was to send a letter filled with genetically altered pneumonic plague. I had the misfortune of opening that letter and inhaling some of it. The whole place went on lockdown, and Kate and I went to the hospital. She had a cold, so it was just precautionary in her case. She didn't actually have the plague, thankfully. Anyways, while we were having tons of fun sitting around the hospital, Gibbs, Abby, McGee, and one other agent tracked the letter to Lowell. She said she had a cure that she would give them if they reopened the case." Tony paused, taking a gulp of his beer. This conversation would be a lot nicer if he was a lot more drunk.
"So they got the cure?" G asked, looking mildly horrified.
"No. There was no cure. Lowell had a brain tumor, so she was kinda confused about stuff. And it turned out her daughter wasn't actually raped, so the whole thing was for nothing. Lovely, right?" Tony flashed a sarcastic grin.
G swore under his breath. "But if there was no cure, then how did you survive?"
"Gibbs ordered me not to die, and he stayed with me for the rest of the day, until he got kicked out. Also, oxygen masks help."
"Damn," G muttered, definitely looking horrified now.
"And the icing on the shit cake- Kate got shot in the head right after I went back to work." Tony wearily scrubbed a hand over his face. "Can we talk about something else now, please?"
G opened his mouth to respond, but the doorbell rang at the same time. "That'll be the food," he said instead.
Tony put his beer down on the table and stood up to help G with the bags.
G reached for his wallet in his pocket as he opened the door. Instead of a Chinese food delivery, he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
A/N (Benny)- Seems like a great place to stop it! I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, so I might go back and edit a bit later. Please drop a review and tell me what you think. Also, last showing of the musical is tomorrow, so wish Elfy luck!