Disclaimer : Still own nothing. Just having fun.
Warnings : General spoilers for The Usual Suspects in this chapter.
Author's Note : Thanks for all the alerts, favs and reviews. Enjoy seeing what you guys are thinking.
We're going undercover in a few chapters, but just need to check in on the other characters first.
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12:30pm – Bullpen – NCIS Headquarters, Washington, DC –
Obviously satisfied with her results, Colvin smirks, and Gibbs fights the urge to smack it away. While he's never struck a woman before, he thinks this might be a good time to start. His fingers find themselves into a fist. When he starts to raise it, Fornell points to the landing where Director Jenny Shepard watches scene unfold.
Gibbs pulls a slow breath, stepping so he can no longer reach Colvin.
"Jen, is that you?" Colvin's eyes flick up to the landing.
"Why, Veera, what a surprise. Why don't you come up to my office so we can catch up?" Shepard replies, her tone more biting than even Gibbs is used to.
"Been fun boys." Colvin winks, picking her way to the steps.
With a wicked smile, she follows Shepard into her office. Once they're gone, Gibbs turns back to Tony and Fornell, unsure who he should head-smack first. Both Fornell's unleashing of that virago on his agency and Tony's brash decision to return to his undercover persona seem equally worthy. When Tony slinks away from the bullpen, Tim bolts after him. Gibbs stares Ziva down until she heads out as well.
"What the hell was that?"
"Your office, Jethro," Fornell responds, his request almost an order.
Gibbs allows his friend to lead the way to the elevator. The doors barely close before Fornell smashes the emergency switch. Under their feet, the car jolts, and the lights dim to back-up power.
"Tobias."
Fornell presses his hand against the buttons, staring intently at his shoes.
"Look Jethro." He glances up. "You don't understand."
"Then make me."
"It's not that easy." Fornell laughs, shifting his body against the wall. "Colvin's tied to that case just like DiNozzo. The agent that blew the Carreras case was under her command. Even though she didn't okay it, she was in charge when it went to hell. Clean up wasn't easy and she barely managed to salvage her career. She'll do whatever it takes to get her pound of flesh…even tried to send her stepson in undercover."
"That missing agent?"
Fornell nods grimly. "You got it."
"So she's got a bug up her ass? She came here and threatened my team."
"And you think I let her?" Their eyes meet and Gibbs breaks contact first. "Come on, Jethro, you really think I'd let her waltz in here and do that without a reason? If she knows about McGee and David, what do you think she's got me?" He pauses for long second. "She found out things that I buried, too."
Staring intensely at his friend's anxious features, Gibbs waits for an explanation that doesn't come. "What does she know, Tobias?"
Fornell sighs. "Diane took me to court again last year to re-evaluate our custody arrangement. Said I worked too many hours to be a good father. She tried to take away the one night a week that I actually get to see my daughter. I had one too many beers after a bad day and Long story short, I wrapped the old Taurus around a tree. Some rookie cop took pity on me and called in a few favors to get the reports changed. Even though they say that I fell asleep at the wheel, Colvin found out I'd been drinking. If that comes out, I'll not only lose my job, but also Emily."
Gibbs runs his hand over the back of his head. "Still told ya not to marry her."
"I'll keep that in mind when I run into your next ex-wife."
An uneasy silence envelopes the pair. Fornell scrapes his shoe over the rough metal floor. The scratching noise echoes through the tiny car, makingGibbs' skin crawl. Pressing his head against the wall, he swallows hard, thinking about what could happen to his team. If Colvin gets her way, McGee'll be rotting away in prison term while Ziva gets shipped back to Israel or Tony will go on a suicide mission into a drug cartel.
Neither option seems particularly appealing.
"Don't beat yourself up too much, Jethro. DiNozzo knew about this."
"He what?"
"I told him Colvin was coming. When she found out I was poking around the old Carreras case files, she got into my e-mail and found what McGee sent. By the time I got back to my desk, she'd figured out the connection between DiNozzo and the case. I managed to stall long enough to call one of you. Picked DiNozzo since he's higher on the contact list. I told him about the files and how she was going to get him back undercover, told him to lay low until the whole thing blew over. He came here on his own."
"He chose to go back?"
"Seems that way."
"I don't think –"
"It might be different than you think. We haven't figured out what Carreras is up to yet, but DiNozzo seems to believe that he's moving on from the cocaine trade. Don't know what, but there's a lot of money at stake." While Fornell launches into a discourse about the case's possibilities, Gibbs tunes him out to listen to his brain churn instead.
Quinn's interview about paying for girls. Chase's journals centering on violent thoughts and Ducky's belief that he'd acted them out. That dead teenager that has to be from a different country. Anthony Masterson's bank account.
Carreras has a new trade in a new city.
When Gibbs suddenly releases the emergency stop, the elevator lurches upward.
"Jethro, what's -"
"That sonnuva bitch is selling girls and he's setting up DiNozzo's alias for it."
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12:41pm – Staff Lounge – NCIS Headquarters, Washington, DC – Concurrent with Gibbs and Fornell's Discussion in The Office –
When he slumps back against the Formica counter, Tim lifts his head just enough to watch Tony. Seated at one of the lunch tables, the senior agent studies his clasped hands while his legs bounce at alternating rhythms underneath. He leans forward, dropping his head onto his arms with a quiet moan.
His shoulders tremble.
I've never seen him so nervous.
"Tony?"
He flinches. "Yeah, Probie?"
Tim's fingers find their way to the jump drive on his keychain. Even though he knows Tony has nothing to do with it, he just needs to hear the words. He clears his throat, staring at an unidentifiable stain on the floor.
"The bank account?"
"You really think it's me, McSuspicious?" When Tim's questioning eyes meet his, Tony laughs. "Well, it's me, but not. That money's not mine, but the identity is. I went undercover as Anthony Masterson…a really, really long time ago."
"Masterson?"
"Marlon Brando's character in Guys and Dolls?" Tony jokingly hangs his head when Tim nods. "Figures you've seen that one."
Tim smiles apologetically, shrugging his shoulders.
"Not that it's important where I got the name from. I used it back in Baltimore with the Angel Caido. Got really close too before the Feebees blew my case." He presses his lips together, features screwing in disgust.
"You mean Colvin?"
"Yeah, her and an agent named Josiah Losko."
"Losko?"
"He was pretty much Keyser Soze with a badge." Tim's confused expression makes Tony pause. "Come on, Probie. The Usual Suspects. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne. That damn Baldwin that no one can remember. Guy spends the whole movie pretending to be scared of the devil, only to be him."
Wracking his brain, Tim wonders whether he's seen the film before. With all the movies he watches to keep up with Tony's off the cuff recommendations, he can't quite keep track. He shakes his head.
"You failed today's film test, Probie. Try again tomorrow." Tony chuckles humorlessly, dropping his gaze to his hands again. " 'The greatest trick the Devil ever played was convincing the world he didn't exist.' Losko used to be one of those guys who hung out at the precinct, pretending to be friendly with the unis. Went out drinking with a buncha detectives one night. I guess they were bragging about how an undercover guy from narcotics managed to pull off a job that the feds couldn't. Losko called in a couple favors, threats, and who knows what to get my case punted from local to federal. And you know how that story ends."
"Actually, I don't."
When Tim slides into a chair at the table, Tony hops to his feet. Hands on the back of his neck, he paces the length of the kitchen, exhaling loudly.
"I spent almost a year undercover before it all went up in smoke. Right before Losko passed my information to the federal prosecutor, he managed to convince some higher-up that the office had a leak. Moved in without a search warrant. My old partner figured it out and warned me so I was able to walk away from the cartel in time. When I got back to work, the whole precinct acted like I was the one who took the case federal. We thought the Angel Caido was done…we didn't get to celebrate for too long…" He laughs, shaking his head. "None of the evidence from Losko's raid made it past the preliminary hearing. Illegal search and seizure. The case got thrown out and everyone thought it was my fault."
"Come on, Tony, you don't think that's true…right?" The look on Tony's face speaks for him, forcing Tim to move on. "Well, what about your evidence? Your reports? Didn't you submit anything?'
"Losko buried it all. My reports, my pictures, everything just vanished. I wouldn't be surprised if it's somewhere under the Hoover Building. He even got my witnesses cut loose from WitSec. That man destroyed my case."
Tony takes a place at the counter, crossing his arms as he sags against the Formica. One of the probationary agents wanders into the lounge to raid the fridge, oblivious to the ongoing conversation. The man removes a pink lunch bag that Tim's pretty sure doesn't belong to him, and eyes an unoccupied table until Tony glares him down. With a shrug, he slinks out of the lounge.
"Did Losko work for the cartel?" Tim asks once they're alone.
"Probably. That's what a lot of people thought. But we never found out. Right after the case got thrown out, he took a bullet right in front of his house. Chalked it up to a drive by, but the murder's still open."
Tim presses his lips together, running his hand across his chin. "So how does Colvin fit with all this?"
"Losko was her direct report. This shit storm went down right while she was on vacation. Imagine getting back from your family's trip to Disney World to find out that someone you're responsible for blew one of the state's biggest cases. She's probably still trying to dig herself out of that mess." Tony laughs darkly as he hoists himself onto the counter. Long legs rapping against the cabinets, he hunches forward, meeting Tim's eyes. "You ever want to go undercover, Probie?"
I'm not sure if I ever could…
"Don't know. Guess I haven't thought about it much," Tim says, drumming his fingers on the table.
"That's bullshit, Tim." Tony grins. "Everybody always wants to go undercover. It's supposed to be exciting and fun…and it is, at first. You get this chance to step away from your life and become someone else. Everything that you don't like about yourself? Just change it in your undercover identity. But when you put on someone else's clothes and sleep in their bed, you take over their life. After a while, the lines between you and your identity start to blur. You start to think like they do, act like they do. If you're not careful, you forget who you are."
"Did you?"
"The worst part about being undercover was coming home," Tony continues without acknowledging Tim's question. "I had to put together what was left of my life. My friends who weren't cops wouldn't call me back because I went AWOL for almost a year. Most of them didn't understand what I'd just gone through. Even my fiancée didn't understand and I still don't know what happened. Came home to find the ring and a letter on my nightstand. My partner tried to keep her informed, but she couldn't accept that deep cover meant no contact with anyone but him. Wendy just didn't understand that everything I did was to protect her."
"How come you never said anything?"
"It never came up."
Even though he wants to know more, the pained look on Tony's face stops Tim from asking.
"Is that why you left Baltimore?"
"Yeah. When the captain tried to send me on another undercover job, I just couldn't do it again, so I quit. The rest is history."
When Tony gestures to the grandeur of the lunch room, Tim figures that's how the senior agent found his way to Gibbs' team. While they sit in an uneasy silence, Tim tries to understand what would make Tony go back into the Angel Caido.
He rises from his seat. "Then why go back?"
"So Colvin can send you to prison and Ziva home so I can be all alone with Gibbs? No, thank you very much. I do less paperwork with you guys here." The tone of his voice betrays the levity of his words.
"Come on, Tony, those threats were just bluffs, right? There's no way she can arrest me for doing my job, and I don't think she can deport Ziva."
The way Tony shifts his weight quickens Tim's pulse. He realizes there may be some truth to the threats. Tim drops his gaze to the floor, starting to feel sick.
"Please tell me that she can't send me to prison. I'm just doing my job."
"Look, McGee, I don't know," Tony replies with a shrug, "but I'd rather not find out. Doesn't matter, I'd go back anyway. I've spent the last five years looking over my shoulder. Even though no one knew I was undercover, I've always been afraid that someone might recognize me. Now that I know they're in DC, it's just a matter of time. I need to get the target off my back."
"If no one knew who you were, you should be fine, right? You should be safe?"
Tony shakes his head. "If there's one or two here already, it's just a matter of time before more come. They're like ants. You see one, but there's always more. They'll just keep coming until they're stopped. Keeping you and Ziva here is just icing on the cake." When Tim's wide eyes glance to him, Tony adds. "Not like going to prison's even a possibility."
Tim doesn't know what to say, so he starts picking at a smear on the table while Tony reaches for an open pack of cookies on the counter. When he holds one out, the younger man smiles tightly and looks back at the tabletop. After Tony inhales all the cookies, he grabs a bag of chips.
So this must be why Tony got banned from the lunch room months ago…
"You think we should head back to work?" Tim asks.
When Tony frowns, the fluorescent light enhances the deep creases on his face. He stares into the bag, shifting the chips around, eventually shaking his head. Tim nods silently, rising from his chair so he can take a place next to his friend.
Neither of them speaks as they finish the bag.