The inquest
Tony fidgeted with the tie, he hated wearing ties. He glared at Paula the reason he was wearing the tie in the first place. It was the inquest into whether Paula was at fault for Ziva's death.
No question there Tony thought it was her fault. He glared at her again, if it wasn't for her stubbornness we wouldn't be in this mess Z would be here safe and well
"Tony I - Tony turned around Paula backed up with the look on her Ex's face.
"You'll get what's coming to you"
"It wasn't my fault" Tony raised an eyebrow he wasn't going to fight with her not now he was going to let the hearing do that for him.
"We are here for the inquest into the death of Special Agent Ziva David"
"It's David like Da-Veed Spelt D-a-v-i-d"
"Right"
"Now in front of me I have four reports, three of them tell me the exact same thing, one does not"
Tony looked over at Gibbs, if this was as simple as he said it was going to be all reports should have stated the same thing. McGee also looked over the young man just as confused as Tony.
"Special Agents Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee's reports are all the same down to the last detail. Agent Cassidy's however is not"
Paula's brow crinkled she'd written the report like she always had including everything. "Excuse me sir but what was wrong with my report?"
"Your co-workers reports all state your pervious relationship with Agent DiNozzo yours how ever did not"
"My personal life has nothing to do with this inquest" She said defectively. The table of men and women in front of her all collectively raised an eyebrow.
"It has everything to do with this inquest Paula, in the other three reports it is clearly stated that you and Anthony had a relationship prior to him coming to work at NCIS. This relationship didn't end well, according to his report."
Paula rolled her eyes which was noticed by everyone in the room. "Would you please state what Agent DiNozzo said to you about the radio mic you gave to Agent David"
"He told me that it wasn't working properly but I told him that I had seen it being fixed"
"Is this true did you see it being fixed?"
"No of course not I just said it so he'd stop bugging me" Tony's fist clenched in his lap. He knew better then to yell at her now. The laugh in her voice as she said it made him even more angry and want to lash out, he was glad that Gibbs was sitting beside him other wise he would have done something for sure.
One of the women on the panel in front of him noticed this change in Tony. She didn't say anything but she did write something down.
"So you knew that the radio mic wasn't working?"
"Yeah, so it was just ment to be a raid routine David knew like we all do that in this job we put our lives on the line when ever we're out on the field."
The looks of shock at how casual she had said this was evident. "Well thank you Agent Cassidy I think we will here from Agent DiNozzo now"
Tony stood up and walked to the chair Paula had been sitting in.
"Agent DiNozzo could you please tell us how you knew that the radio mic was broken"
"Sure we had used it on a previous case I was the one who had reported it not working."
"What was the next case?"
"The Rudolpho Case we were ment to have a replacement mic by then; but it hadn't come in. Agent Cassidy had been placed in charge as Agent Gibbs was other wise busy. When she pulled it out I stated that it was the broken one she looked at me and said she'd seen Abby fix it that morning. Which I thought was strange seeing I had been with Abby helping her with a case all morning and Paula had never come down."
"Did you question her then?"
"Yes I went to question her but she walked away giving the mic to Ziva, I went to change with her but Cassidy told me not to said that we had to stay with the mic we were assigned. Which was weird we usually changed to the ones we preferred we'd always done it. Ziva shrugged and muttered that all the power had gone to Paula's head I chuckled and walked away"
"Is it right that Agent Gibbs had come back to the case later that day?"
"Yes we were at the house when Agent Gibbs arrived"
Paula rolled her eyes with a smirk on her face.
The entire panel had seen the look on Paula's face it was one of success she thought she had won this.
"One last question how did your relationship with Agent Cassidy end?"
Tony looked confused "uh ok Paula thought I was cheating on her"
"With?"
"Err she thought I was seeing Ziva"
"Thank you"
Tony shook his head in confusion don't know what that has to do with this he shrugged and sat down. As he did Paula stood up.
"I fail to see the point of that question, the reason we broke up has nothing to do with any of this" she was getting angry and defensive.
"I disagree it all relevance to this, your report states that Ziva didn't listen to your order that she went into the house anyway. Yet the three other reports, state that if it wasn't for agent Gibbs you all would have gone into the house; that it was agent Gibbs that noticed the trap. Yet in your report you say you noticed it this along with other inconsistencies leads me to think you didn't care much for the safety of Agent David-
"That's just stupid the bitch tried to steal my boyfriend of course I was going to get revenge."
There was a collective gasp, from everyone on in the room Gibbs grabbed Tony's arm before he could do anything, but Tony wiggled free and walked out.
Kate saw the door open and Tony walk out she got up. "Hey is everything ok" Tony turned to see his friend near the door.
"She- she-That bitch did it on purpose she killed Z on purpose"
"WHAT?"
Kate pulled him into a hug and watched as people started to walk out. She was calming down from the news till she saw Paula walk out and grinned at Kate.
"Bitch" Kate muttered.
"What did you call me?"
"Nothing all I said was you're turned will come" Paula looked at her strangely
"Bad things come to those who wait"
"You've been hanging round that dork to long its good things come to those who wait"
Kate raised an eyebrow "I know the saying but what you did wasn't good it was far from that, it was cruel, and Kama will get you Kama always does"
