Chapter 18

"I can't believe Gibbs backed down!"

Tony, Tim and Ziva had holed themselves in the spare room. Not that it really mattered, since K-Unit were out patrolling the area – though they were sure that was just an excuse to get out of doing work – and the AIS and MI6 teams were getting along quite happily in the adjourning room. Gibbs had disappeared to ... wherever Gibbs disappears to.

Currently, Tony was in a state of shock. Shock that his boss had actually backed down.

"Get over it Tony," Ziva sighed.

"I can't," he said, "This just never happens! I don't think Gibbs has even backed down from the Director!"

"Tony, would you please be quiet?" Tim said, "I am trying to work."

"I just cannot believe this," Tony said, completely ignoring his team mate.

"Tony!" Ziva said loudly. "Will you please do your work?"

"Alright, alright! Jeez, no need to yell."

There was silence for, maybe ten minutes; silence which was filled with the steady clatter of McGee's laptop. Then, Tony decided to open his mouth again.

"What's up with that AIS chick?" He asked.

"Desiree?" Ziva frowned. "First of all, she's at least half your age, so please do not call her a 'chick'. It makes it sound like you are going to hit on her. Second of all," she said over the top of Tony's splutters, "I do not understand the question."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Well, she's a bit...strange. Cold. Not very friendly, like that Rider kid."

"You have done nothing for her to be friendly towards you," Ziva pointed out, "In fact, was it not you who questioned NCIS Intelligence when you were told she was an Agent?"

"Well, you've got to admit that finding out one of the top spies in the world is twenty years old is a bit unbelievable."

"Finding out someone as annoying as you could be up there on the NCIS chain of command was unbelievable," Ziva snapped, "But you did not see me making a fuss of it."

Tony grumbled something under his breath, though thankfully Ziva didn't hear. Or at least, pretended she didn't hear.

"She is kinda strange though," Tim said, looking up from his laptop.

"Yes, thankyou McProbie," Tony acknowledged, smirking at Ziva, "See, someone else agrees with me."

Ziva rolled her eyes before turning to McGee. "How do you mean?"

"Well she...she has this look about her," McGee said, fidgeting uncomfortably, "Like she's been put through too much. Sorta like Gibbs."

"Are you comparing our fearless leader to a twenty year old wannabe?" Tony asked.

"No! Well, er...kind of. Um..." McGee trailed off, highly confused, "There is something similar about the two."

"She has been through a lot, okay?" Ziva ground out.

"And I suppose you would know," Tony retorted, leaning back in his chair.

"I do. Not all of it," Ziva snapped, "But enough to know that you have no right judging her the way that you are."

"Oh?" Tony smirked, "Care to enlighten us then?" Even McGee looked at Ziva with interest.

The Mossad liaison officer scowled. "It is not my story to tell."

"In other words, you don't know it," Tony said, unaware of just how close Ziva was to punching the man.

"Or she could be doing what most considerable people do, and keeping her nose out of other people's business."

The three jumped – McGee even let out a rather high pitched squeal, to the numb amusement of the other two. They spun to see the subject of their heated discussion leaning casually against the doorframe with a rather disinterested expression, an iPhone in her hand.

"Desiree!" Ziva exclaimed, "How-how much of that did you hear?"

Dessi shrugged. "Enough."

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's rude to eavesdrop?" Tony snapped. He was almost immediately pinned with hard blue eyes. Instinctively, he cowered back slightly in his chair. There was a fury behind those cool depths that he had yet to encounter.

"Didn't yours ever tell you that it's rude to talk about others behind their back?" She asked. Her voice was quiet, dangerous.

"He didn't mean that," Ziva said, though without much heart. When those blue eyes flickered to her, she sighed. "Okay, he did. But he doesn't know anything –"

"Hey!" Tony said, hurt.

"– about you," Ziva finished, shooting Tony a glare.

Dessi raised an eyebrow, before tossing the iPhone to Ziva. "James wants to talk to you."

Ziva frowned, putting the iPhone to her ear before leaving the room. Realising that he was now alone with McGeek and the rather volatile girl, Tony gulped. "Look, I didn't mean to offend you or anything–"

"Shut it, DiNozzo," Dessi sighed, dropping down into the nearest chair. "Ziva's right, you don't know anything about me." Her words held no heat; her previous anger seemed to have just disappeared off the face of the earth.

"And I suppose you're going to lecture me now?"

"Do you want a lecture?"

"Er..." Tony grimaced, "Not really, no."

.

Matthew, Rose and Alex sat in the main room around a stack of files. Each had one open in front of them, riffling through the enormous stack of sheets. And they were getting absolutely no useful information.

"I hate this," Alex grumbled.

"Stop complaining!" Matthew snapped.

"It's boring!" Alex retorted. "Just because you have no life, and this is how you pass the time–"

"Calm it!" Rose all but yelled, glaring between the two boys. They had been like this all day, sniping at each other, muttering insults, and it was really getting on her nerves. Worst still, nothing she said would shut the two up for long. Where the heck is Dessi when you need her?

They worked in silence for a little while longer before Alex threw his file on the ground in annoyance. "There's absolutely no useful information in this! We'd have better luck if we went out and physically searched for the bloody ghost!"

"Alex!"

The boy sighed. "Sorry. But it's true. We need more information."

"Maybe I can help with that."

The three looked up to see a grinning Ben Daniels, laden down by bulging bags.

"Hey guys!" He said cheerfully. "How's it going?"

"Ben!" Rose exclaimed, jumping up to give the man a hug, "We didn't know you were coming here today! Why didn't you tell us?"

"And what is that?" Alex asked, pointing at the bags.

"Just some stuff we borrowed with no intention of returning," Ben grinned, dumping a sackful of God-knows-what in front of them.

"Erm...we?" Rose asked.

"Me'n James," Ben explained. "We filched it out of Willard's office. Figured it could be useful."

"Anything beats looking through those," Alex sighed, gesturing to the huge stack of files scattered on the floor.

"Hang on, where is James?" Rose asked, frowning. Matthew too, looked rather interested.

Ben shrugged. "Mossad recalled him. Said that they've already got an agent in this joint venture. I suspect that's why Ziva's on the phone outside."

"Well, aren't they a friendly bunch," Rose muttered.

"They didn't become the most ruthless agency in the world by being friendly," Matthew pointed out, only to receive a "shut-the-hell-up" glare from Alex.

.

"You're not really cut out for this," Dessi sighed, "You're the little fish, floundering around in the big kids' playground."

"That's a rather strange image," McGee commented.

"It's true enough," Dessi said, "This is a world of spies. MI6. Mossad. AIS. We all know what we're dealing with; we do it every day. But then, there's you."

"Hey! That's insulting to us, you know!" Tony snapped, "We can hold our own as well as you 'spies', if not better!"

Desiree raised a rather cynical eyebrow. "Now that's an insult to every Intelligence Agent out there on the field, risking their lives so you have ones to live."

Tony scowled. "What makes you think that we're not as good?"

"You're just not," she said, rather simply, "You're an investigative service, for crying out loud. You're the guys who go out to a crime scene, and gather the intelligence that we put to good use."

"Which means that you rely on us," Tony said smugly.

"Relying on you to give us information is not the same as relying on you to go out on a mission to make sure some psychotic idiot doesn't blow up the world, or to start a nuclear war, or to force the world into a state of complete anarchy," Dessi said, rolling her eyes, "Heck, the information you collect doesn't even make up one quarter of the intelligence we rely on out in the field."

"Sorry to interrupt," McGee cut in, "But where exactly is this going?"

"Wherever you want it to go," Dessi said, with all the vagueness of a true spy.

Tony and McGee exchanged wary glances. They'd dealt with spies before. Heck, they dealt with Ziva on a daily basis. But it was usually the whole physical aspect, like being beaten up by a woman, that they dealt with. This was the first time they were faced with the mind games which spies played; from here on, they would have to tread very carefully.

.

"Really!" Ben laughed. "Oh, that girl is priceless!"

He, Rose and Alex were going through the things he'd snatched from Willard's room. Rose had taken the time to fill Ben in on the events he'd missed out on. She'd taken great pleasure in recounting each and every stage of the face-off between Dessi and Gibbs.

"You should've seen the look on some of the NCIS agents' faces!" Rose grinned. "It was like they'd never seen Gibbs back down or something!"

"So, I take it that Dessi's become our honorary unit leader, then?"

Rose nodded. "Why not."

Matthew had gone outside, perhaps to talk to Ziva (who was still on the phone). Or maybe he just needed to get away from Alex for a while. It seemed to take a lot of effort for the two not to physically start attacking each other.

Alex meanwhile, was going through what appeared to be a diary or sorts, or a reflective journal. Whatever it was, Willard had written quite a lot of things in, only he seemed to be using some sort of code. Either that, or he had really bad grammar.

"Hang on..." Alex suddenly muttered, after rereading the same phrase four times in a row.

Rose and Ben looked up questioningly. "Yeah? You found something?"

Alex blinked. "Well, maybe...here, take a look at this sentence, and tell me what you think."

Ben took the journal and frowned thoughtfully at the passage Alex had pointed out, while Rose read it over his shoulder.

"It...it seems to be locations he's met up with his boss..." Ben trailed off.

"Michaelis Menten!" Rose said excitedly. "Look! These three places are mentioned so many more times than the others – the park with the wildflower blooms, the alleyway with eternal light, and the shed behind the blue-grass building!"

"Erm...none of them make any sense," Alex pointed out.

"He's a lot more poetic than I thought," Ben commented.

Rose frowned. "Yeah, I think we're going to need help with figuring this out."

"I got it," Alex smiled, before turning to the closed door and shouting, "Dessi! We need help!"

"That's your plan?"

.

"...I'm not asking for much. I don't need your pity. I don't need your sympathy. What I need is your corporation, so we can end this once and for all," Dessi finished, crystal blue eyes fixed on Tony, "That's all I ask."

A shout from Alex in the next room drew Dessi's attention. And as she left, head held high, fighting against the flow of the world, Tony couldn't help the grudging respect he felt building for the girl.

.