A/N: Thank you to everyone who left reviews or faved this story. Have to say that you're all a pretty cynical bunch since the general consensus is that Abby is faking lol. Mind you, I can understand why you feel that way :D.

Serieux Part 2

Chapter 9 Phone Calls

Hermione ended her Skype call to Sirius… ah bugger, Tony. When would she ever get used to calling him that? Perhaps she should ask him for tips - how did he handle it when he went undercover. It was so easy to slip and that would prove disastrous – perhaps some sort of charm to prevent her saying his real name. She'd have to give it some consideration when she had a spare moment.

So anyway, she'd just got off the phone with him and Merlin's ghost, he'd been hyped up, almost manic even after his run after work. He was ranting - Abby Scuito and Gibbs, James and Dumbledore, his cousins Tonks and Bellatrix, McGoo, Remus and Pettigrew, even Cornelius Fudge and his boss Vance received honourable mentions. He was raving about rules and numbers, switching off radios, poison ivy, being locked up in a cell and a whole bunch of stuff that obviously made perfect sense to him but was just plain gibberish to Hermione.

If he hadn't been quite so frenzied then she'd have tried to get more sense out of him, but seeing him like that, wild, wounded, confused and conflicted, she decided to let him vent. She figured it was better out than in as her mother's friend, an oral surgeon was wont to say or her father with his slightly more macabre dental humour took delight in informing his victims... err patients prior to an extraction – when in doubt, rip it out. Shuddering at the thought of having a tooth removed the muggle way, Hermione thanked her lucky starts that she had never had a tooth extracted.

Anyway she was happy to let Ser…Tony get it all out of system. At some point later on she could go back and get some clarification…okay a barrel full of clarification. So instead of shrink/ confessor she'd simply been a friendly ear as he let loose.

He'd promised to call her and tell her how today had gone. She'd known that today was the day he was informing NCIS he was resigning and even with being treated like yesterday's garbage all year, she knew that it was a huge step for him. He'd worked there for fifteen years, all of them on the same team and he really felt like the team was his family. Sadly, that said a lot about the Black family and how they'd mistreated Sirius as a child and young adult as to why that bunch of lunatics at NCIS would seem like kin him.

She knew a fair amount about his new 'family' because following their reunion they'd had a lot of long talks about everything that had happened to each other since his 'death' at the Ministry of Magic. She'd been trying valiantly to understand why he had stayed with this bunch of people, who according to what Toby had shared with her, had treated Siri-Tony like dirt over the years. When she confronted him about it he'd responded that they reminded him of people he loved and left behind…forever as far as he was concerned. He'd described his time in Baltimore – a steep learning curve for the wizard-in-hiding who was trying to fit in, pretending to be a Long Island born non-magical cop.

He shared with her how he had a partner he'd thought he could trust like his former Auror partners, Frank Longbottom and James Potter during the first war. Explained that his Baltimore partner had ended up betraying him and the badge. He described how he'd gotten close to Danny Price – the first person in his new life that he'd let gain his trust in a way that only law enforcement and those who have fought shoulder to shoulder in the trenches could truly understand. According to him, constantly putting your life on the line and relying on you partner, created a bond that was as close as a marriage (depending on the health of the marriage) sometimes much, much closer. He revealed to her how devastated he felt when he discovered his partner, his brother cop turned out to be corrupt.

Hermione knew that for an honest non- magical cop, being dirty was possibly the most unforgivable sin there was. For Sirius, who'd seen the travesty of Death Eaters infiltrating the Ministry and even more insultingly, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, it was a heinous crime. Understandable really as he'd ended up being shafted, thanks to corruption, bribery and the leader of the light, Dumbledore insisting the corrupt individuals be given a second, third and fourth chance - at his expense. Hermione realised that with the subsequent debasement and bribery that inevitably followed, it made Sirius' hatred of corrupt cops totally reasonable.

Thanks to these soul-baring sessions, she was at least able to make partial head nor tail of his incoherent comments about Gibbs, James Potter who was his brother in all but blood - and Professor Dumbledore. Previously, he'd explained to her how he'd met Gibbs during the same case that had revealed that yellow bellied snake Danny Price's treachery and how Gibbs had offered him a job and he'd decided to take it. She gathered that initially it had just been a way to escape from Baltimore and the hurt and painful memories it evoked.

Yet as days turned to weeks and months, he'd slowly begun to trust Gibbs, despite of his resolve not to let his guard down again. He told her haltingly, how they'd worked together as partners, learning to anticipate each other's actions and to communicate without words. Sirius had explained how rare and magical – non pun intended – that ability was in their business; not to mention what an advantage it gave them against the 'dirtbags'. He told her that Gibbs felt like a big brother and their crime solve rate was soon the talk of the agency.

He revealed a little reluctantly to Hermione at first that Gibbs had often reminded him of James Potter – his good qualities, not the bad ones. His championing of the innocent and his support of the brave men and women who served their country and their families had struck a chord with him.

He described to the young woman who'd never known them growing up, how James had been a staunch champion of the light – not impressed with purebloods, just like Gibbs was unimpressed with politicians and officers, but championed the little people. How Gibbs wasn't interested in rising up the promotional ladder – he was all about the job and protecting those people who couldn't protect themselves. He explained to her that James had never tried to use his family connections to score promotions or cushy jobs because of his blood status – he'd wanted to succeed by his own merit.

Hermione decided her expression must have conveyed scepticism, since Tony had paused mid-stream of consciousness and studied her, wanting to know what was wrong. At first he'd feared she didn't believe what she was telling him about Harry's dad. She'd explained somewhat guardedly that she didn't see the parallels that he clearly did between what she'd learnt about Gibbs and James Potter. The truth was that she'd started researching Leroy Jethro Gibbs soon after learning how he'd been treating Tony since the shootout in Iran last year.

She had decided fairly early on to make Gibbs pay for turning Tony into a shadow of the confident professional he'd developed into in the 'six years' he'd spent in Baltimore. Under Gibbs influence he'd been reduced to perpetually questioning himself and everything he'd done since he'd been forced to live this double live. So having expressed her desired for payback to Toby he had forbidden her getting even until after Tony had departed the agency.

Typically, she'd approached the task with her usual methodical and exhaustive research of the subject prior to solving the challenge of how. Sirius didn't know that she was investigating Gibbs – had his life under a microscope, searching for a muggle way to make him pay. She didn't want him to know either, in case he forbade her from putting her plan into practise, so she needed to be cautious.

The point was that between her own investigative methods, pumping Toby for juicy data and what Si…Tony (she really couldn't afford to slip) had shared with her over a few nights when they'd get together and chew the fat, she had her own ideas who Gibbs was like and it definitely wasn't a Marauder named James.

Honestly, the grandiose surety of the man that he was not only right but indispensable was all too familiar. The cloak and dagger antics whereby only he knew everything that was occurring, and made damned sure no one else on his team knew enough to put it all together and therefore act contrary to his plan, was another tactic which was strikingly familiar to Hermione.

The fact that Gibbs could, and did curry favour with those of questionable moral fibre when they had something he wanted or could prove useful to his needs was also spookily reminiscent of another individual of her acquaintance. As was his wrath and viciousness if anyone dared to question him or deviate from his rules.

Of course Gibbs bonhomie was severely lacking which was one very major difference – he was an antisocial grump most of the time. Plus, his eyes, although apparently a charismatic shade of blue and seductive (at least for women/men of a certain age) weren't able to twinkle benevolently, giving the impression of a genial grandfather who had your best interest uppermost in his mind. Even so, the similarities were still striking.

Gibbs with his arrogant self-belief that he always knew best – rule 51 that sometimes you're wrong - was testament to the fact it took him so many years – fifty rules worth - to reach. A fairly simple concept most children grasped relatively early in their lives, yet he'd managed to spent so long in positions of authority and power while remaining ignorant, definitely reminded her of someone else.

That someone most definitely was not James Potter. Even the former Marines hairstyle and personal style of dress reminded Hermione of another individual, who like Gibbs, seemed to revel in being outlandish and out of step with the masses. It was like he wanted to demonstrate he wasn't one of the sheep or the sheeple as Harry sometimes called them. People who act like sheep – incapable or unwilling to think for themselves.

At first Tony roundly denied that Gibbs was like Dumbledore, even taking into account the whole need to know crap, like Domino, and ignoring the day-to-day secrecy which was part and parcel of who he was and how he led the team. He also refused to acknowledge all the instances of running off alone to 'save the world' and not letting anyone know what was going on – like that whole business with Maddie Tyler. And all the crap with his former boss, Mike Franks every time they were in the same country.

Finally, Hermione had stated neutrally that if there weren't strong similarities between the two leaders, then how had he so easily identified who she'd been taking about? She pointed out she'd never mention their former headmaster's name at any point in the conversation. He'd brought it up.

Which had put a swift stop to his protestations. He'd clammed up on the subject but maybe it hadn't stopped him continuing an internal dialogue about it. If there was any doubt that he'd continued processing the things they previously discussed, then tonight's Skype call was testament to that fact.

Hopefully, at some point she'd be able to decipher all his rantings. But today she'd only been able to glean was that he'd seemingly accepted that Gibbs was more Dumbledore-esque than like his best friend, James Potter. That and he'd poured his heart out to Ellie, and she'd had his six – which she'd learnt was a good thing. She presumed that he'd finally bitten the bullet and told her about the radio being turned off while he was working undercover, since he'd been agonising over if he should share with her for several weeks.

Finally, after he'd done dumping emotionally on Hermione and gone quiet, she'd suggested he play his magnificent baby grand piano for an hour or two to help unwind before he went to bed and he agreed. He'd played for her a couple of times when she'd had dinner at his apartment and she'd been left speechless. Apparently Anthony DiNozzo had been a more than competent musician and thanks to his memories and continued hours of practise sessions, Sirius now was too. She wondered if he'd used the Time-turner to reach such a high standard of musicianship and decided it was a query for another time.

He could also do amazing things with a guitar, although somehow Sirius and a guitar was much more in keeping with her image of him when she'd first met him. He'd looked more like a Bon Jovi wannabe, well he would have looked more like him if he hadn't been half starved and hyper vigilant. And then there was the pallor that would have done a Goth proud after 12 years' incarceration and extra time hiding out from the Aurors and Death Eater scum once he'd escaped.

She hoped that the music would help him burn off the strong emotions he was obviously feeling – so strong, so toxic that their talk had left Hermione far from relaxed herself and with the beginnings of a headache. Thanks to her psychology degrees she knew what she was feeling was a type of vicarious stress. She was resigned to spending time on the cross trainer to burn it off, before she went to bed tonight if she didn't want to spent the night tossing and turning.

Hermione got the feeling that music had become an important way for Sirius to cope with stress and too many emotions and bad memories. This was one instance where being a wizard had it all over being non-magical. He'd be easily able to shrink his piano and guitar and take them with him when he returned to London.

~o0o~

Fornell dropped a very dejected DiNozzo home at his Georgetown apartment. The day had consisted of a series of turbulent incidents, emotions and bruising confrontations. He was glad today was over but the trouble was that tomorrow didn't look as if it was going to be any better.

Which was one reason why he'd had to organise to take another day off work to watch DiNotzo's ass tomorrow. Tempers were running hot after Abby Sciuto's mental meltdown today and that was sans Jethro, who had gone missing after his tantrum this morning, failing to return to NCIS. When he found out about Abby he was going to be extremely pissed off that his precious darling Abby had been arrested and thrown in a cell. Perhaps he should be wearing a keflar vest!

While Tony had been utterly shattered by her admittance to the psych ward, feeling responsible for her supposed psychotic break, Tobias was feeling decidedly less compassionate or charitable. Of course, call him cynical but it seemed to be awfully convenient timing that immediately after the first time she'd been made to accept personal responsibility for her outrageous actions and bullying she would have what used to be called a nervous breakdown. On the other hand, the amount of shock she was likely to have endured would have been immense after she'd been forced to accept personal responsibility for her outrageous actions and bullying for the first time in her tenure at NCIS.

Still, even if Abby was playing them all for fools, Tony had called off the payback that Fornell was planning for McGee and Bishop, making it clear he just wanted to get through the next few weeks as amicably as possible and leave. He didn't want any more debacles like the situation with the Goth on his conscience. Tobias reluctantly agreed to call off his plan and he put it on his to-do list of things to attend to. Shame that the plan was abandoned but he promised.

One thing he hadn't been able to fathom in a million years is why someone like Tony would let Abigail Scuito get away with the crap she pulled today. He'd tried to explain to Fornell on the drive home how Abby had insisted on hugging the stuffing out of him when he'd started working at NCIS; which Fornell thought was a pretty lame excuse for taking all her years of abuse. So he told him that for 12 years when he was incarcerated no one touched him with any degree of affection or anything else, he'd started to see things differently. It wasn't til he'd escaped from Azkeban – the magical equivalent to Alcatraz on steriods - that he'd been hugged for the first time in more than a decade. His godson Harry had hugged him like a normal human being instead of a homicidal maniac when they'd finally been reunited at Hogwarts.

And it was essentially only Harry that ever touched him affectionately so when he'd first met Abby, he was closed off and incredibly averse to being touched. Especially after his two-year stint as a vice cop so that he'd rebuffed her attempts at affection, but in typical Sciuto fashion, she'd totally ignored him. He didn't know if she'd instinctively known that he was starved of affection or it was just a fluke because she was so used to hugging everyone, but it had helped heal some of his emotional scars. For that reason alone, he had always been incredibly lenient towards her when she acted like a spoilt brat.

Of course, because she was Gibbs favourite, if he'd tried to force her to comply with NCIS protocols and procedures he'd no doubt have felt Gibbs boot so far up his ass that he'd have heartburn. Fornell conceded that was a fair assessment and he also paused to wonder how anyone could endure what DiNozto had; solitary confinement for so many years and not be stark raving insane. He knew he couldn't endure it – would have topped himself rather than be forced to live like that when he was innocent and with no prospect of release.

~ o0o~

After heating up some day old left-over Chinese and grabbing a beer he sent a text to Emily asking if she was still coming home for the weekend, waiting for nearly an hour before she texted back to say yes, she'd need to be picked up, Finally, after eating his dinner he grabbed a second beer and sat down at the computer to make the Skype call as promised but not looking forward to being the bearer of bad tidings.

Hermione was going to be really cranky when she heard. Half the time she was fussing over DiNozzo like a wounded puppy dog and the rest of the time she was drooling over him, undressing him with her eyes but then, he'd noticed that reaction a lot. He wondered if it was because women naturally seemed to be more intuitive or at least in tune with their intuition and acting upon it. Did they sense the duality within him or was that a threesome (no that wasn't the correct word…maybe triality, if that was even a word) or did they just pick up non-verbal cues on his hidden pain? Whatever, it was time to bite the bullet and called the British Minister of Magic.

To be honest, if someone had told him this time last year he'd be on a first name basis with Britain's most powerful witch, he'd have arranged for them to spend time in a pleasant sanatorium 'til they got their head on straight. On the other hand, if anyone had told him he was going to reconcile with Diane and then some lunatic intent on revenge would kill her, he wouldn't have believed it either. He'd come to the conclusion that fact was weirder than fiction.

When Hermione answered she seemed tense, so he asked if she was okay.

"I've just spent half an hour on the phone with Siri ah Tony and I have a headache."

"Ah good! That makes this call a lot easier since you probably already know most of what I was going to tell you." Fornell sounded relieved and he took a long gulp of his cold beer.

"Unfortunately, although Tony ranted for most of that time, he was pretty much incoherent and rambling. I didn't have the heart to ask him what he was talking about, so I just let him vent. Actually I was tossing up calling you to see if you'd heard anything."

Tobias groaned. "Oh yeah. I went with him today to watch all the fireworks. You could say I bit off more than I could chew."

"You saying your thick lustrous head of hair you have got slightly singed, Tobes?"

"Very funny, Madam Minister. It was just my eyebrows and lashes," he replied, rubbing his shiny mostly hairless pate ruefully. "Just for that, I'm going to make your headache worse," he promised, getting set to launch into his account of what transpired.

"Okay, let me grab a glass of wine," Hermione responded laughingly. "After a minute or so she was back, settling down, looking resigned. "Okay…go ahead."

Which Fornell did, proceeding to give her a sitrep while Hermione took copious notes, which he was learning was situation normal for the perfectionist witch who was very definitely a Type A personality. When he reached the end of his account, he finished up with the request from NCIS Director Vance to speak to her. He'd been somewhat surprised that she hadn't exploded in righteous anger or demanded extra details as he made his report but apart from her obsessive scribbling, she'd listened intently. When she remained silent for several minutes after he was done with his sitrep he prompted her.

"What do you want me to tell Director Vance? That you want Abby charged with the assaulting the Director of a foreign law enforcement agency? Throw the book at her if she's faking or that you want her hung, drawn and quartered?"

"No, I want you to tell him I'll be in DC on Wednesday and I'll see him then." Hermione replied brusquely."

"Ah Hermione, is that a good idea? I thought you were supposed to maintain secrecy about magic?"

"Yes we are, but I'm not going to go introducing myself as the Minister of Magic, Tobes. Nor go in riding a broom or waving my wand around."

"But they know you're the minister of the law enforcement agency that has appointed Tony director. They have security cameras up the wazoo and facial recognition software. They'll use it to try to figure out who you work with and they find it highly suspicious when they find that you aren't a member of the House of Commons and that you don't have a digital footprint." He tried to make her see reason.

"Who said I don't have a digital footprint or have a seat in the House of Commons? I'm the Minister for International Cooperation, as were all the former Ministers of Magic too. I'm expected to floo there a couple of times a month, put in an appearance for a few sessions of parliament and or question time. As the current minister I'm supposed to ask a few Dorothy Dixers and that way I get my name recorded in the Hansard…"

"What the hell is Hansard? I thought it was a one hit wonder boy band and who or what is a Dorothy Dixer anyway?" Fornell interrupted her discourse.

Giggling at his denseness, she rolled her eyes, reminding him of his teenage Emily. "No, not Hanson, Toby, the Hansard is the name of the written transcripts of debates held in both houses of parliament in Britain and also many other commonwealth countries too. As for Dorothy Dixers, they're highly prepared questions, written by the government and posed by one of their own members.

"They have the dual purpose of using up some of the Opposition's question time or to give the Prime Minister or cabinet minister an opportunity to publicise achievements or policies it wants highlighted or enable them to launch an attack on the opposition. They're named after an agony aunt in the US who used to make up her own questions then answer them for her column."

"Anyway…" she continued, "the Minister of Magic is the king or queen of the Dorothy Dixers plus, I have to turn up for all State Dinners and the likes, so if they go poking around they'll find I'm a minister of an obscure and patently fake portfolio and rightly conclude it is a front for a classified organisation. They'll assume it is some sort of super-secret black intelligence agency and be satisfied."

Fornell was frowning. "But why go to all that trouble? Clearly it's not for NCIS."

"Because of busybodies, historians, academics, genealogists, tax collectors, squibs suddenly turning up out of the blue as adults - seemingly fully baked but with no record of them being born or educated if they've come from certain pureblood families. Obscenely wealthy investors who seem to not exist on paper – families like the Malfoys who Sirius' cousin Narcissa married into, more fool her.

"They abhor muggles but don't mind benefiting from their economy and invest heavily in companies and real estate. To the outside world the Malfoys and others of their ilk, even Sirius' family were/are reclusive and wealthy old families who are rarely if ever seen but their financial presence is felt strongly on the stock market." Hermione explained patiently.

"Mmm… like Howard Hughes and people's fascination with the man."

Hermione nodded emphatically. "Exactly! Not sure how much you know about history of magic in the UK but once upon a time, magical and non-magical folk coexisted together fairly peaceably. After all, everyone has heard about arguably the greatest wizard the world has ever known – Merlin - but when it became obvious that witches and wizards were in danger of dying out, they opted to go underground and live separate and in secret. Partly because of the persecution from non-magical humans but they also created the problem too with their pure-blood marriage. Not that the pureblood families would ever admit that of course.

"Still historians would be bound to notice a bunch of prominent old families simply vanishing off the face of the planet, especially these days with their digitalised data bases and groups like the Mormons with their interest in genealogy. So we couldn't just up and vanish completely. It would have been highly suspicious and conspiracy nuts would have gone nuts."

Fornell nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. I guess I never thought about it like that. Okay… but Hermione, if you come out here as Tony's new boss, you are going to need an entourage befitting a UK minister to keep your cover intact."

"Well obviously, Tobes. I'm not stupid. I may not have been in office long but I've started assembling an awesome ministerial staff." She sounded like she didn't know whether to be cross with him or highly amused.

"I know Hermione, and I'm sure you have wonderful people but if they're coming here, and they don't know what a cell phone or a computer is, that's going to start ringing alarm bells, Kiddo." He took a risk and called her the nickname that Tony called her sometimes. The soon to be ex-NCIS agent had warned him in all seriousness that if he shortened her name in any form she'd likely hex him into the next state. So Fornell held his breath while the tell-tall furrow in her brow appeared.

Apparently deciding that the kiddo wasn't worth making a fuss about, she scowled at him instead.

"Hellooo. Muggle born, Toby." She responded sarcastically. "I have one pureblood member of staff – the rest of my people are either half-blood or they're muggles like me. My personal assistant is a muggle who was a former Head Girl of Hogwarts and she gave up trying to get ahead at the Ministry of Magic and went back to the muggle world. She had to go back to school and was working her way up the ladder in the Civil Service when I tracked her down and offered her a job."

"And my protection detail contains two burly muggle born classmates of mine who I'll bring with me. They also ended up going back to the muggle world - until I enticed them away. They're all well versed in muggle technology and pop culture. So it's under control."

"Okay, but let's meet prior to you heading to NCIS – work on strategy and get everyone briefed. Do you want me to make reservations for you to stay somewhere befitting your position as Minister of International Cooperation? Of course, you're welcome to stay at mine but that might raise eyebrows and blow your cover."

"Thanks, Toby but you're right. Better if I stay at the hotel with my staff. And Penelope can make the reservations when she books our flight."

"Penelope?" he quizzed.

"My personal assistant, Penelope Clearwater." Hermione responded.

Deciding that it was a weird coincidence, Tobias mentally reminded himself to call his Penelope before he forgot, then refocusing on the present. He nodded in approval, deciding that she seemed to have things under control. "Okay. So tell me you're going to insist that Tony leave NCIS immediately because it isn't safe for him to stay?"

"No I don't think so."

"Once Gibbs finds out about his precious surrogate daughter he's going to be really pissed and the rest of Tony's team, with the exception of Ellie Bishop already seem to think it's his fault Abby went off the deep end. Including Tony," he warned. "He blames himself too. Of course, a surprising amount of people want to give him a medal – Abby has her fair share of detractors who've somehow managed to get on her bad side over the years."

Hermione snorted and he heard her mumbling about being suspicious timing before responding. "Tony wants to leave the agency he's worked at for 15 years as a competent professional, not to skulk off on the sly like he's done something wrong. I know that's super important to him. Closure and validation is something he never got after 12 years of being falsely imprisoned.

"He never got the exoneration he was entitled to for what he had to endure. Furthermore, he had to spend the last years of his life hiding in the shadows and creeping around, his reputation is tatters. This job means everything to him and he wants to leave with his head held high. I want him too as well."

"Yeah… I hear you, Hermione. I want that for him too. But…what you might not appreciate, if he goes out in the field with the team and they're pissed off with him, even if it is a subconscious hesitation when he needs backup, that could cost him dearly – even his life. At least insist that he doesn't go out in the field with his team…please."

"I'm sorry, Tobes. I won't ask him to do that. That is punishing him when he's done nothing wrong. It's repeating what Gibbs has done to him, this year in particular - sidelining him, trying to make him feel irrelevant, denigrating his skills and the contributions he made to the team. I won't play into Gibbs hands for his final few weeks as an NCIS agent. I won't!" Hermione vowed heatedly.

"Dumbledore made a totally arbitrary and highhanded decision that the destruction of Sirius' life was acceptable collateral damage for the greater good. All so Harry could grow up at his Aunt Petunia's moulded into being the perfect victim who'd willingly sacrifice his life to fulfil a megalomaniac's vision of what needed to happen. Now he's being forced out of a job he loves by another egomaniac who wants to sacrifice him to his own greater good because of his deep-seated feelings of inferiority. I'm sorry…I know he's your friend but Gibbs is a menace and a prize jerk and I will make very sure that Tony wins this time."

Fornell had a brief mental picture of what a teenage Hermione must have been like. Single minded, passionate and utterly convinced she was right. It was like Emily only to the power of ten which was a truly scary thought. Of course, with her brains, she probably had been right – just as she was now. Just not exactly practical, even if her heart was in the right place.

"I understand but Tony's safety…his life is more important than his self- esteem, at the end of the day, Kiddo." He argued equally determinedly.

Hermione nodded. "I'd say that in his case they're both pretty important, Toby. But I think I have a solution…a compromise that will keep him safe and let him finish his tenure on his own terms and with his dignity and integrity intact."

Fornell was curious – it was an occupational hazard for an investigator after all. "Okay, so what's your plan?"

"It needs more work. I'll share it with you when I see you. In the meantime, can we keep him out of Gibbs way 'til I have time to get to DC?"

"I'll ask Director Vance," the fibbie promised. "Maybe he can send Gibbs on a fool's errand to keep him out of our hair for another day. That's if he decides to grace us with his presence tomorrow. Inquiring minds want to know what he's been up to today that would stop him answering his phone in direct contravention of one of his most critical rules – the bastard!"

~o0o~

Gibbs looked at his phone in annoyance as he made his way down to the basement where the good bourbon was situated and grabbed a mason jar, knocking the dust out of it and pouring himself a very healthy measure. All of the team had been trying to get in touch with him, multiple times. Couldn't they take a hint that he didn't want to talk to them. Knocking back half of the Jack he started as the phone rang again.

Getting ready to fling the damned thing against the wall, Jethro paused and noticed it was an unknown number. "Gibbs," he grunted as he answered his phone.

"Jethro," a despised British accent replied. "I understand you've been looking for me?"

"Need some intel. DiNozzo has been appointed director of some secret agency. What have you heard about it?" Gibbs challenged his informant, not beating around the bush or bothering with social niceties, but then again it wasn't anything unusual.

"Nothing until now. Had heard you were being even more of a a bastard than usual…trying to make him leave, though. Looks like you got your wish." His caller told him mockingly.

"Listen Kort!" the ex-Marine snarled, "How can you not know which agency he's working for?"

"I've been busy, no time to keep up with gossip about agency hopping of personnel. Why do you care? He's off your team – thought you'd be dancing with joy," the CIA operative goaded him sarcastically.

"I need you to find out, Kort." Gibbs growled, pissed off with his taunting.

"Why don't you just ask your boy, Jethro," he taunted him.

"I have, he's not saying."

Laughing derisively, the one eyed spook mocked him, "Well, well, well. That's rather embarrassing. I'll see what I can find out but it's going to cost you," he warned him before ringing off before Gibbs could respond.