Consequences of Love and War: Chapter 34
A/N: I know I've said multiple times that I like getting reviews (and I do), but I really only like them when they're about my stories. If you have a personal attack against me, either keep it to yourself or send it via private message; there's really no need to leave an anonymous yet public review in a story that tells the world just how little you think of me. (Don't bother looking for the review; I already removed it, because it was rather inappropriate for this site). FFN is a fun place; let's keep it that way.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get back to the story (which I hope you're still enjoying, regardless of your personal feelings about me as a person).
Ziva was shaking out her wet hair, fresh from the shower, when she heard the unmistakable sound of a vibrating cell phone on the nightstand. She glanced up, eyebrows raised. Tony raised his hands defensively. "Don't look at me," he protested. "It's your phone."
"I do not know why they call this 'silent'," she grumbled, reaching across the bed toward her phone. "It is still quite loud." Tony chuckled as he perused his tie collection, realizing belatedly that the one that looked great with the suit he was wearing must have been at his apartment.
Ziva glanced at the display before accepting the call. "Hello, Gibbs," she said calmly.
"You at your place?" he asked without preamble. She raised her eyebrows at his brusque tone.
"And good morning to you, too, Gibbs," she said calmly. The growl she got in return was enough to tell her that he was less than amused.
"Ziva."
"Yes. We are at my apartment," she replied in response to his earlier question.
"Need you to go pick up Kirkan," he ordered. "He lives in Bethesda. You're the closest."
She frowned at his words, giving Tony a puzzled shrug at his questioning expression. "Why does he need someone to pick him up?" she finally asked. "He has been getting to NCIS without difficulty."
"He's been getting a lot of publicity since the press conference yesterday," the supervisory field agent replied. "Some real nut jobs out there sending in threats. We need to keep a close eye on him, make sure nothing happens."
She rolled her eyes; a child-sitting assignment. Still, she knew better than to argue, and it wasn't as if she had anything urgent going on at the office that she had to get back for. "We will go get him," she promised. "Is there anything specific—." She stopped talking when she realized she was talking to dead air; he had hung up on her. "That we need to look out for," she grumbled, finishing the sentence as she tossed the phone onto the still-crumpled sheets from the night before. She had to fight back a smile at that; the Honey Dust from their anniversary had made another appearance. She decided around 0200 that Raspberry Kiss was definitely her favorite flavor, and Tony certainly hadn't seemed to disagree. The lack of sleep had been completely worth the extra ten minutes it took them to complete their morning run.
"What'd the boss want?" Tony asked as he secured the second-best tie choice around his neck.
"We are to child-sit Kirkan," she complained. He looked over at her and grinned. "What?" she asked. He just kept grinning. "What?"
Tony DiNozzo gave a low whistle as he pressed the intercom button to the lobby of Peter Kirkan's high-rise condo. "Swanky," he said with a nod of approval. Ziva glanced over at him and frowned.
"He is a successful author," she pointed out.
"Have you seen McGoo's place?"
"Good point." They waited a few more seconds before they heard a soft chirp and the intercom came to life.
"Can I help you?"
"We're here to see Peter Kirkan," DiNozzo said. There was a pause before the doorman spoke again.
"Call 1203 at the box to your right," he said. "He can buzz you in from his unit."
"So what do you think?" Tony asked as he dialed the number. "Think we should get a place with a doorman? How much do you think a place like this costs?"
"More than either of us could afford," Ziva replied. "And I was not aware we were getting any sort of place." He just smiled knowingly as they waited for Kirkan to answer.
Five minutes later, they were on the twelfth floor, waiting outside unit 1203 for Kirkan to open his door. When the door did open, though, they both blinked in surprise.
"You guys must be from NCIS," the short, exotic looking woman said as she swept long, thick straight dark hair away from her gray 'ARMY PHYSICS' tee-shirt. "Pete's in the kitchen." Her large almond-shaped eyes, which looked slightly bloodshot, blinked once before she turned and headed back down the hallway. "Pete, the NCIS agents are here," she called out before turning down another short hallway. DiNozzo's eyes continued to follow her retreating form, trying to figure out what just happened.
"What?" he asked when he turned to see Ziva watching him with eyebrows raised.
"I did not say anything," she replied. "I was just thinking that she is very attractive."
"Is this when I'm supposed to say that I didn't notice?" She smirked slightly but didn't reply.
"Pete?" the woman's voice called out. "Where the hell do you keep your headache medicine?"
"Medicine cabinet in the master bathroom," Kirkan called back in reply. "I don't know if they're any good. They might be old—they're Alyse's pills." Tony and Ziva followed the sound of his voice to the large gourmet kitchen, where a disheveled Peter Kirkan in a tee-shirt and shorts was standing at the stove over what appeared to be a pan of scrambled eggs. Tony idly wondered if Marines sign some sort of contract when they join stating that they would never wear a tee-shirt that doesn't have 'USMC' on it somewhere. "Agent DiNozzo, Officer David," he greeted, nodding them toward barstools on the other side of the kitchen island. "Sorry about this," he said, gesturing vaguely around him. "Bit of a late start. Too many half-priced bottles of wine last night. Can I get you two anything? The coffee's hot. I think I also have some orange juice, and if you want something to eat, I have the makings of an omelet, uh, probably have some bacon and sausage around here somewhere…" His voice trailed off as he abandoned the eggs on the stove to search the fridge.
"Coffee will be fine for me," Ziva said.
"Sure," Kirkan replied, walking away from the fridge to pull a purple and gold University of Washington mug from the cabinet. "Agent DiNozzo?"
"Tony, will be fine," he corrected. "And so will coffee." Kirkan nodded and grabbed a second mug.
"Cream and sugar?"
"Yes," DiNozzo said, at the same moment that Ziva replied, "No." Kirkan smirked slightly as he got Tony the cream and sugar before returning to his eggs. He was just scooping them out onto a plate when the dark-haired woman entered the kitchen.
"Eggs, Pete?" She made a face. "I don't care what people say, it's a horrible hang-over food. Horrible. Do you have cereal or oatmeal or bread, or anything with carbs?"
"You know where everything is." He glanced up to see Tony and Ziva trying to appear unobtrusive and failing miserably. "Oh, sorry. Jess, Agent Tony DiNozzo and Officer Ziva David from NCIS. Tony, Ziva, Dr. Jess Ting. She's a chief resident in general surgery at Walter Reed."
"Sorry about before," Dr. Ting said, digging into her bowl of cereal with gusto. She waved her hand absently near her head. "Little bit hung-over. And already about three hours late for work." She took another spoonful of the cereal before she registered the looks on the NCIS agents' faces and started laughing, shaking her head emphatically. "Oh, no," she said. "No no, no no. Pete—no. No offense, Pete, but oh God, no. My boyfriend is in the guest bedroom, putting on his leg."
Ziva frowned. "I have lived in America for six years now, but I still have some problems with your idioms. I am not familiar with that one."
Kirkan laughed and shook his head. "Not an idiom. She's speaking literally." As if on cue, they heard footsteps coming at them from down the hall.
"Hey, Jess, did you mess with my leg?" the tall blond said as he entered the kitchen, a frown on his face as he looked down at his prosthetic leg below his black gym shorts, and this time, it was Ziva's turn to raise her eyebrows appreciatively. "It doesn't feel quite right."
"I didn't touch your leg," Jess replied before eating another spoonful of cereal. After swallowing, she continued, "I bet it doesn't feel right because you just ran five miles with your walking leg."
"Yeah, that probably wasn't my best idea ever," the blond man agreed. "I think I need new shoes. And I need to start keeping a running leg in my trunk or something."
"Because that's not creepy or anything," Dr. Ting replied dryly. "Besides, do you think the Army is going to give you another prosthesis? Those things cost a few thousand dollars, and you aren't exactly using yours for official Army business."
"It was official Army business that caused me to need a prosthesis," he pointed out.
"Which is why you get them for free."
He shrugged. "Well, if they won't pay for it, I'll just have to find another way to get one. Maybe I'll marry a rich doctor and have her buy it for me."
Dr. Ting snorted. "Good luck with that." Her eyes back down on her bowl of cereal, she missed the look of consternation on her boyfriend's face. She finally glanced over at him and frowned. "Really, Bryan? Really?"
"What?" he asked, confused. She reached over and plucked at his shirt.
"Do you really have to wear a West Point shirt every time you have an appointment at Walter Reed? Believe me, the twenty-year-olds in the amputee clinic get it. You were an officer. You're better than them and all that. Do you really need to rub it in?"
"I'm not... And what about you, with your Army Physics shirt?"
"I'm going to put a scrub top over it!"
"My head hurts too much to listen to you guys fight," Kirkan interrupted. He waved toward the door. "Argue in the car on your way over to Reed. Besides, I have to get to NCIS to help them find my wife."
"My appointment with J.P. isn't for another hour and a half," Bryan protested.
"Oh, you're going to see J.P.? I didn't know he was still around," Jess said, the argument about the shirt—as well as the comment about Alyse—forgotten. Bryan nodded.
"Couple more months of his amputation fellowship left to go," he said. "Then he's PCS-ing to San Antonio. I think he's being deployed again later this year."
"Never did understand why they send rehab docs to war, when everyone who needs rehab comes back home," Jess said thoughtfully.
"Which one was J.P. again?" Kirkan asked with a frown.
"Went to med school with Ellie, graduated the year before her, worships at the Church of Tressel every Saturday from September to the beginning of January," Jess said. "Married to Stacey, who's a pediatrician at Georgetown."
"Deployed to Ibn Sina in Iraq a couple of years ago," Bryan added. "Rehab doc specializing in amputations. Obviously."
"Tressel?" Tony asked. The other four the in condo all turned to face him. Kirkan, Bryan, and Jess all raised their eyebrows; Ziva only groaned. "Ohio State?"
"Do not encourage him," Ziva said warningly. "He will not stop."
"West Point, West Point, University of Texas," Bryan said, pointing to each in turn. "No Buckeye fans here." Ziva smirked over at Tony, who shrugged in defeat.
"I really should get over to NCIS, guys," Kirkan said a minute later.
"Yeah," Bryan said, the light mood of the room instantly gone. "I'll just hang out in the surgeon lounge until my appointment." He drained his coffee and rinsed out the mug before putting it in the dishwasher. "Oh, I almost forgot," he said to Kirkan. "I talked to one of my buddies at Camp Phoenix. He's a helicopter pilot, knows Alyse but mostly by reputation. Has no idea what you do, so he doesn't know who does." He blew a stream of air through his lips. "The FOB has been at threat level red since Alyse went missing, so he wasn't sure if it was anything or if it was just a result of that, but there was one difference that struck him. He said that there was a medic who was interested in being flight trained, so he would make a point to come out any time the chopper came in for an evacuation, just to watch. He hasn't seen the kid once since Alyse was kidnapped, not even that day, when they had several to take to the air base from the attack on the convoy." He shrugged a shoulder and headed for the door. "Like I said, don't know if it's anything, or if the kid just got bored watching them load up helicopters, but I figured I should pass that along. Anyway, the offer to help still stands, so if you think of anything you need, don't hesitate to ask." He smiled thinly at the door before nodding to Tony and Ziva. "It was nice meeting you guys. Find my friend."