Chapter 8: Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment (Lao Tzu)
Aldrich Killian had had the decency to wait until DiNozzo and Stark were back in DC for about two weeks and had finished finalizing the interior decoration of their kitchen before he attacked and kidnapped Pepper Potts.
What he had not calculated in while performing this act of sheer stupidity was that he would have not only Iron Man going after him as soon as he found out. No, Tony recruited the Hulk and Loki, and Phil Coulson couldn't be kept away even if they wanted to. The Department of Homeland Security long since had found out that the washed-up drug-addict Trevor Slattery was posing as the Mandarin, and let everybody think they bought it while looking for the bad guys behind the scam. Killian kidnapping Coulson's girlfriend had made things very personal for the director of the daughter organization of the DSH, namely S.H.I.E.L.D..
Of course, Killian had not been amused that 20 years after Tony Stark had left him waiting on top of that hotel in Switzerland also Pepper Potts was trying to the rid of him as soon as possible because a) he was creeping her out, b) Stark Industries had its own genius at hand and didn't need him, and c) Phil was waiting to take her to lunch.
His annoyance showed a little, if you counted yellowing eyes, that fiery hue of his skin and slightly scorched sleeves as, well, a little.
Happy ended up with some rather nasty burns when he tried to save his boss-lady, and the entire incident of Pepper Potts slamming her rather pointed Jimmy Choos right between Killian's legs and almost scratching his eyes out before his bodyguard could take her down went viral in minutes in the social media after passerby people as well as employees posted videos showing the incident from multiple angles. At the same time, the emergency hotline received dozens of frantic calls, and J.A.R.V.I.S. contacted his creator.
Tony Stark would have found it funny how Killian walked afterwards, if not the bodyguard had had a very rough grip on one of his best friend's hair and a gun against her head, his driver/head of security lay on the floor with 2nd and 3rd degree burns, and J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him that he had lost them in traffic at some point because some traffic cameras were offline and Miss Potts did not have her phone on her.
It was easier than any of them thought to follow their tracks. People shared videos, posted where they had seen the limousine. They only lost her when Killian switched the entire escape to a helicopter or private jet and thus entered a small airport, either having people there, or just stealing one of the aircrafts and disabling whatever GPS tracker the aircraft might have had, because J.A.R.V.I.S. could not follow – no matter what he'd hacked so far.
By that time a severely pissed off Phil Coulson had been contacted by a furious Iron Man and agreed to work with the three people he trusted having his back when going for the guy, while also getting governmental institutions to help.
Stark arrived in Manhattan only minutes after J.A.R.V.I.S. alerted him, with the order from his boyfriend to kill that fucker and to call immediately after he was done, leaving a frantic Dino in DC. By the time he landed, Banner was already donning the 'Hulk pants'. Loki was already in his combat gear and still on the phone with Phil, reassuring the director of New S.H.I.E.L.D. that no harm would befall the Lady Pepper.
Tony Stark stepped out of MARK V the second he touched down on the platform, immediately starting to activate protocol over protocol as if he had planned for this exact eventuality already years ago.
Suit after suit was assembling and leaving the mansion in Malibu, manned by J.A.R.V.I.S. and fanning out to look for Pepper, while the AI simultaneously continued hacking into anything he thought valuable to find her. When Phil half-heartedly tried to intervene and bring up national law, his image on the screen only received a glare from the engineer.
"Do you think we care about national law when our family is attacked?! Keep going, Jarv."
The AI did not even affirm his creator's encouragement and simply did keep going.
Phil did not even sigh.
"Give me another two minutes to get the official authorization… Virginia will kill me if you get arrested because you filleted this asshole…"
Tony just gritted his teeth and told J.A.R.V.I.S. to ready MARK XVII for him before assembling the rest of the Iron Legion that was stored in Manhattan to make sure nothing happened here while they were gone.
Nobody even thought about informing the other Avengers when Loki gathered the other two men around him and teleported them to California to join the director of S.H.I.E.L.D..
It was Pepper who called him when everything was over.
Not T.
T was in the hospital, having an emergency surgery performed to get the rib out that was piercing his lung. A bunch of cardiologists and orthopedists were crowding the OR, too, to fix his thorax and cracked sternum, get the shrapnel out and pray that the heart was not too damaged. Dino as his medical proxy had approved the entire procedure, feeling so out of his wits that he did not even try to figure out what would T do.
That came later when they were waiting. It was again J.A.R.V.I.S. who saved the day, suggesting methods to efficiently restore his creator's breastbone. It was also the AI who made sure that the reactor would not be touched or photographed, let alone stolen by anyone. The armada of Iron Men around the building made sure of that. That, and the fact that the artificial intelligence had somehow entered the communication system in the hospital, chatting with the doctors in the surgery room. This way, they at least had firsthand information.
Pepper, Phil, Bruce, and Loki were at the hospital, telling everyone who told them to go home, the surgery would take a few hours, to go fuck themselves. It also served as a diversion tactic – everybody knew something had happened, there would not be a metal suit positioned at every possible entrance or exit if not. But nobody would really know yet who had been hurt. Happy already was in the building, his burns being treated. Pepper was the one who had been kidnapped and not really been treated nicely right from the beginning. Nobody would assume the Hulk or the Asgardian God had been harmed, but who knew? Speculations flew high and nobody really knew a thing.
Most probably because J.A.R.V.I.S. also made sure that nothing he did not approve of did leave the building. The AI was exploiting his full computing capacity in a way he never had before, steering all those suits while keeping the social media on the tightest leash it had ever been on since the invention of the internet.
T would have been proud.
Dino just sat on his couch, wrapped up in one of T's many blankets, phone in hand, charger plugged in, waiting with them. He sat there, paralyzed, looking at the aquarium but not really seeing how Kate the fish and Yinsen were swimming their rounds, thinking back those few years when his best friend went missing in the Afghan desert.
By the time a doctor came, announcing that Mr. Stark survived the surgery and would most probably recover fully, he still sat there, cursing his father and his stupid credo of DiNozzos don't cry (or faint). Fuck him. He would cry all he wanted over almost losing his boyfriend, his best friend, again.
Pepper stayed with him on the phone, snapping at Phil when he asked her to finish the call and get checked up herself. She had been refusing all the time, looking astonishingly neat and clean for having been kidnapped and fighting for her live in an inferno only hours ago. Only Stark and she knew what had happened in the end when they had confronted the head of A.I.M. – Loki and Phil had ended up saving President Ellis, while the Hulk was happily smashing Killian's goons – after all, those extremis-enhanced people were a bit more durable than his usual opponents.
It was Dino who told her that it was fine, that he would go to bed now, maybe take the day off tomorrow, advising her to do the same. He got a shaky laugh as answer. As if. Both of them would need the distraction work created.
He must have dozed off then, ignoring the first two calls by Gibbs before answering his phone and heading out in the middle of the night to catch the guy who had killed another Petty Officer. He wanted to tell his boss… some very unflattering things, to get rid of him, he wanted to go to the other end of the country and be with T, and not hunt for some crazed person who thought it was a good idea to go around and murder other people.
The explanation Hey boss, Tony Stark's my boyfriend, he was hurt, and you can shove that stupid job where the sun doesn't shine was something that would not really leave his lips, though. Also, Pepper talked him out of revealing too much. Once the word was out, there was no going back. Even though Gibbs was no blabbermouth, sooner or later he would have everyone in the office nagging him to get closer to Tony Stark. He didn't even want to think about Ziva's and McGee's reactions. The Mossad agent would most probably try to somehow exploit their connection, while McGee would pout about the fact that he wasn't Tony Stark's boyfriend.
Also, her argument that being too close to Tony was not always fun, was rather valid in the moment – after all, Killian had gone after her to get to Stark. She had been freed, Killian was dead. But who knew how many other Extremis lab rats were still around, trying to fulfil their master's quest?
"I'm afraid that it is better if you lay low for a while, Dino. I know, it sucks, I wanna break down that door and just curl up in bed with him, I can't even imagine how you feel. We will keep you updated, and have you over here the earliest moment possible without causing too much of a public interest."
So, he went to do his job, and, obviously, it sucked to be a Petty Officer. The red shirts of the Navy, it seemed, always there when somebody needed a victim. A sad smile crossed his lips, T would have loved this comparison, would have laughed as he sent him out to catch the bad guy with a kiss and pinching his ass before closing the door and curling up in bed with at least three blankets, working on something until Dino called to let him know that he would've to stay in the office, or cuddling up to him once he came back home.
At least T was in the wake up room now. Pepper was there, J.A.R.V.I.S. was there on her phone, sending him texts every few minutes to keep him updated on his boyfriend's status.
At the crime scene, Tony was bagging, tagging, and taking pictures, business as usual. He did not even try ordering McGee, or Ziva who had only recently (and temporarily) been allowed back on the team for training reasons to do anything. They would just question everything he said, anyway, so he did it himself.
Gibbs watched how Tweedledee and Tweedledumb stood there, idling around, watching the SFA doing his job. They did not even try to figure out what they could do, waiting for Gibbs to finally order them to go and question the neighborhood.
By the time they had reached the second house (because dividing up the houses and taking only half of the time questioning pissed people who had been woken by the fuss the LEOs and the NCIS created obviously was also something that needed to be ordered), DiNozzo had found the gun, and Gibbs had called Vance.
McGee wouldn't be happy that he'd have to join David for her next round of FLETC training concerning crime scene procession.
The fingerprints on the gun had led them to their criminal, a rather foolish loan shark who wanted to make a statement to his other debtors by killing this client.
The stupid face he made when Tony asked if it wouldn't have been smarter to let the guy live and maybe get his money back instead of facing prison-time for the rest of his life had Gibbs snort amusedly while standing in the observation room. The kid had worked nonstop for the past four days, solving the case more or less on his own as Gibbs tore into David and McGee with a viciousness that normally had DiNozzo react and place himself protectively in front of any Probie.
He'd definitely done that when the lead agent and the computer geek had tried intimidating Ned Dorneget when he had joined them as their TAD. His other colleagues obviously had lost the privilege of puppy protection, which very recently had led to Gibbs taking a stuttering and shaking McGee to the real gun range while leaving Ziva to her own devices. She had to learn for another test, anyway. At least that what she should be doing. She had whined more than once that she needed time for that, instead of finishing her paperwork.
Vance had joined Gibbs in the observation room, witnessing how DiNozzo closed yet another case. The young man looked tired and worn out, which could be explained by him spending the past days in the office. But Vance also knew what had happened to his friend, had observed the agent, as he was checking his phone more often than normal, sending messages back in a speed that Leon could only dream of ever achieving, sometimes looking rather worried, while starting to smile softly during the past day when looking at his texts.
The press conference to announce that Anthony Edward Stark had been injured while saving his CEO's life had been held the day after the entire incident by a calm and collected Pepper Potts. The rather detailed list of injuries, including a collapsed lung, as well as the prognosis of full recovery made the director wonder what they didn't release. And why DiNozzo didn't request leave to visit his friend.
There were a few reports of Iron Man chasing fire people and annihilating them. Since Stark was in the hospital, nobody really believed those, though. Especially, since nobody could prove what they had seen, there were no videos, no pictures, no nothing, and when they claimed that somebody had wiped their facebook/twitter/whatever-else accounts and cell-phones, they were labelled crazy. After all, the internet didn't forget anything, right?
It also made those tin foil hat wearing people start to spin one or the other conspiracy theory that Tony Stark had invented S.K.Y.N.E.T. and was controlling all of them already.
Vance had had laughed heartily about that. StarkPhones and Pads were little masterpieces, to that he could agree. But a self-aware artificial intelligence? Yeah, sure.
"Did the other two contribute anything substantial to solve the case?" he asked, grinning as DiNozzo did not stop at the crime at hand, but also made the buffoon blab out his rather illegal methods of lending money, most probably solving a few more crimes in the process.
Gibbs also did not avert his gaze from the one-way mirror.
"Abs ran the prints. Ducky told me a story I didn't know yet. Palmer mastered his first solo autopsy. DiNozzo did the rest of the work. Tell me again why I'm keeping the them, Leon?"
Vance's smile faded as he continued looking at the younger man on the other side of the mirror.
"I already told you two days ago, Jethro."
He'd had to. When Leroy Jethro Gibbs marched into your office and demanded answers it was not that easy (read: impossible) to blow him off. And actually, Leon had thought the agent would realize that something was off earlier.
Two days ago…
Gibbs was just walking down the stairs from MTAC when he heard David bragging again about the prowess of her new boyfriend. He had heard rumors, his source of what happened behind his back on his team, Rick Balboa, making a rather disgusted face when retelling into what detail the former Mossad agent went when trying to get a reaction out of Tony.
DiNozzo obviously rarely reacted at all, staying professional and on business. In the past few days something had been off with the younger man, though, and obviously, this time the former Mossad officer had chosen the possibly worst moment to taunt him. She'd cornered him at his desk, with McGee leaning against hers, both of them unaware of their boss heading back to the bullpen. DiNozzo most of the time had a 7th sense for Gibbs' whereabouts, mostly to keep himself out of head slapping distance, his eyes briefly flitting to the stairs. He expected Tony to make a somewhat crude joke before returning to work to Ziva telling him about her love life and how her new boyfriend Michael greeted her with a quickie almost every day.
Now, this was something Gibbs himself did not necessarily want to know, but Tony's reaction had been so sharp and biting that it also surprised the older agent.
"Ya know, there's two reasons for a quickie, Officer David. One of them is that you cannot wait for it." DiNozzo trained those green eyes at the woman, his face not showing any emotions as he waited for her to take the bait, his tone making it clear that it was not meant as a joke.
Of course she did fall for it, line, hook, and sinker.
"And what might be the second reason, agent DiNozzo?" she asked, that smirk of which she thought it was sexy and mysterious trained at her colleague. She did not even realize that he was not joking back and that she was heading for a reply she most probably would not like.
Well. Her problem.
DiNozzo just glared at her.
"That you cannot wait for it to be over", was what DiNozzo said, still glaring at her, the corners of his mouth not moving in the slightest to indicate the smirk everybody was waiting for. His nostrils flared, as if he had smelt something bad, having Gibbs question himself since when he paid that close attention to his senior agent's nose.
Ziva, on the other hand, this time understood exactly what he meant, gritting her teeth. She obviously also hadn't had enough, yet, approaching the topic from a different angle now, directly aiming for the SFA's feelings.
"Oh, Tony, why can't you just show some joy for the people who can make a relationship work? You're obviously not made for pure love, but that's no reason to be so rude about our carnal pleasures. Yes, I am unavailable now, so you should stop pining, but there are certain women who would take even…"
DiNozzo had gotten up from his chair and in her face by leaning over his desk before she could finish this particularly rude sentence, making the ex-Mossad officer take a step back.
"Now listen, David, if you don't get nice, I'll give you blunt", he growled, his hand crashing down on his table. "I don't care whom or what you fuck", he spat, a side glance straying to McGee who seemed to shrink in his place only by this brief eye contact. "I care even less about who or what fucks you on your father's orders. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to talk to you about anything else than work. If you cannot do this, feel free to find another job."
There it was, the disgust in DiNozzo's voice, this tone he saved for child molesters, rapists, and that spider that kept invading his locker on a regular basis, hiding her nest of baby-spiders in there. Gibbs had watched the entire thing, now hurrying down the last few steps as David got into a more defensive stance, her hands resting on her hips.
"As if the director does not know that I am a lot more valuable to the team than you are!"
Tony was spared an answer by Gibbs' angry bellow of "Ya think?!" The younger woman spun around, once more betrayed by her self-proclaimed Ninja abilities. Her lead agent was moving right in front of DiNozzo, making her move back towards her desk, almost bumping into a quivering McGee.
"Wanna go and find out?" He growled, thinking about his own musings only a minute ago, puppy protection and whatnot. He got a shocked stare and a miniscule headshake as answer.
"Agent DiNozzo told you multiple times that he was not interested in the things you do in your private life. I expect you to respect that. I expect both of you to respect your senior agent, your superior agent, even though I cannot believe that I even have to say this. Both of you are treading a very thin line in the moment. Your FLETC reports are so bad that I could kick you off the training program without any further explanation, David. Both of you still can't process a crime scene without being told what to do, and both of you refuse to learn something from people who know how it's done. Tony and I are doing all the work, including correcting and grading your homework!"
Well, since he was already at it, and it obviously had worked wonders on Abby's attitude, why should he stop reaming those two? Yeah, maybe he shouldn't have done it that publicly, but by now he wasn't that sure that they would understand anything else.
"Both of you will attend some more courses, Vance already approved, so don't even try whining. McGee, I'll see you at the gun-range at 14:00. David, didn't you need some time to learn for a test? You're both due for Maryland tomorrow 09:00. Cynthia has your traveling info."
If it was bravery or pure stupidity, he did not know, but McGee did actually speak up.
"B-but the case, boss…?"
The Gibbs-glare now hit him, making the younger man squirm again.
"The case? The case to which you two contributed nothing until now? Will be handled by the MCRT. DiNozzo and I did well enough without anyone else for almost two years, why should we need dead weight slowing us down? Now go and get your travelling info", he repeated, watching them as they scrambled away, before breathing out a belly deep sigh and turning around to DiNozzo.
The younger man was still flushed with anger, his hand cramping around his cellphone as he watched the two miscreants hurry up the stairs before training his eyes on his lead agent.
"I… uh… Abby called… gun was wiped down, magazine and remaining bullets weren't. She'll be running the prints and wanted to call when she knows more…", he started his sitrep, taking a deep breath, the fingers around the cellphone still flexing, the other hand moving up to comb through his hair.
"You had lunch yet? I can wait for Abby's call." Unconsciously, Gibbs was mirroring the other agent's gesture. He really sucked at this communication thing. Tony spoke Gibbs, most of the time, though. He'd hopefully understand that this somehow was his boss' way around rule #6 for all the things that had happened since… he'd been blown up on that fricking ship. Well, at least the start of pretending not to apologize while he wanted to do nothing more.
Sometimes his own rules were really stupid.
DiNozzo didn't smile the way he used to when Gibbs was completely on his side and he had all of his attention. He nodded, though, his features softening.
"I could eat, Boss", was what he said, before he hurriedly left, not wanting to embarrass Gibbs by witnessing how the older man realized that the Boss had slipped off his lips for the first time in months.
Gibbs indeed realized the Boss, something that made him desperately try to hide a smile. He also realized that something in Tony confronting Ziva had not made it to her mind, but definitely had rattled something in his. First of all, he had glared at McGee when telling her he did not care about her sex-buddies.
It wasn't until McGee nervously plopped down on his seat and David announced that she would notify her father of her ghastly treatment by the NCIS that he realized that Tony had brought up Eli David when telling her that he did not want to know about her escapades, and the wheels inside his head started turning. What did DiNozzo know that he didn't?
Knowing that his SFA would not stray far, after all he was waiting for that info from Abby, even though Gibbs had said he would take it, the lead agent sent both of his other agents home to pack, ignoring the relieved sigh by McGee who was glad about having evaded another humiliating shooting lesson from his boss. He waited until both of them had left before he went to search for his second in command.
Still two days ago
He did not have to look for long to find his SFA. Tony had made it as far as it took to get to the snack automates, had taken a seat on the window sill instead of a chair and was resting his head against the cold glass as he closed his eyes against the rare gleam of sun at this time of the year.
He had already devoured the sandwich he got from the machine, the empty wrapper placed on a chair right next to him, nursing a bottle of water, his thumb ghosting over the screen of his phone as he readjusted the position of his head against the window.
Just when Gibbs thought about how to catch the younger man's attention, he lifted his phone, one of these new monstrosities without keys. McGee had been pouting for days when he realized that Tony had had that particular StarkPhone long before he could brag with his newest acquisition.
"Hey… it's me…"
Turning his face into the sun again, DiNozzo was listening to the person he had called.
"I just wanted to hear your voice… I'm not interrupting any treatment, right?"
Gibbs mentally scolded himself for standing there, listening to the younger agent's call but somehow also could not make himself leave. Tony had been so closed off lately; there were not even rumors in the gossip mill – which was weird, because not even the ones he had started ages ago were being told anymore…
"Nah, it's just been one of those days all week… what do you mean by they already have you walking?!"
Taking another sip from his bottle, DiNozzo seemed a little livelier than a few moments ago, his voice getting louder.
"But the surgery was only two days ago! That's good, right? That's great!"
Surgery, huh? Well, that explained at least why DiNozzo had been even more closed off in the past few days than before. It also explained his lack of patience for David today if he was secretly worrying for someone.
"I think it's totally okay that you're completely bummed after a trip to the toilet after major cardiothoracic surgery. Don't overdo it, yeah?"
The person at the other end of the line was talking again while DiNozzo repositioned his head against the window once more, seeking for another cool spot.
"Headache… Mossad chick's been after me the entire morning, first trying to head slap me, then annoying me with her Mossad boyfriend… Vance really owes me for putting up with them…"
Taking a step back, Gibbs watched the younger agent put his bottle in front of him on the window sill before running a hand over his forehead. Vance, huh?
"Nah, I'll just pay Ducky a visit later – he knows what to give me that doesn't make me too loopy. I'm on my lunch break, officially and Gibbs-approved, and I found a place in the sun. Not gonna move till that bottle's empty… or that stupid cloud up there fucks up my perfect little break. Then I might go and hang out on Delores' couch for a while."
Delores, huh? Well, that at least explained why the head of HR had sent him a nearly gibbsian death glare. This time he really turned to leave, hearing Tony laugh into his cellphone.
"Yeah, they're fine, but I think that Kate the fish actually is a boy, and not a girl…"
Gibbs frowned a little at this, but the wheels were still turning. McGee and Ziva were involved in something. Vance knew. And DiNozzo knew enough to tolerate their behavior towards him and not force their leave from the team. And Ziva's boyfriend and her father also were involved.
Well, it seemed like Vance would get a second visit today.
Cynthia simply pushed a button on her desk that would notify her boss – for more there was rarely time when agent Gibbs flew in on his broom with a short "He in?" Of course he was in, otherwise the lead agent of the MCRT would not even head up to the director's office. Sometimes, though, she wished that he would bump his head against a locked door, if only once. She might not survive the following laughing fit, but maybe it would be worth it?
Gibbs this time really got loud, she could hear him yell through the door. The noise died down pretty soon, though, making the director's PA wonder what they had cooked up this time that involved agent DiNozzo, and who dared not telling agent Gibbs. The loyal Saint Bernard joke about the younger man once had fit so well, and sometimes it still did. But Gibbs had been just as loyal to Tony, at least before he'd suffered from amnesia. Sometimes she wondered if he even remembered his special connection with the former detective from Baltimore, if he knew that he had brought him here, keeping the obviously pining young man at an arm's length for reasons she only understood after she'd heard of the first Mrs. Gibbs.
When Vance notified her that he wouldn't take any calls for the next 30 minutes, she at least knew that her boss had survived Hurricane Gibbs breezing into his office, displeased once more for whatever reason.
And Gibbs had been displeased. Fucking pissed might be a more accurate description.
So, Ziva had lost her security clearance. That was nothing new to him, he still wondered why she had had one right from the beginning, but then, Jen had vouched for her, so he had not really thought about it, still grieving for Kate, still trying to cope with the entire situation.
And again, DiNozzo had been the one who tried to figure out why the heck they now had a Mossad-liaison working on crime scenes. He had sniffed out the entire Ari thing in no time, and, distrustful as he was by default started digging deeper.
He had notified Shepard that their new liaison was sticking her nose in things that were not her business, being shushed immediately by Jen. Around that time he'd become the most annoying around Ziva, keeping her off balance, unknowingly fucking up some of her well-planned deceptions to her employer to provide her former employer with critical information. Around that time the plans to ostracize Tony had started.
"He has noted down a lot after Shepard told him that Ziva was none of his business and that his job was to be your good little lap dog and to keep you in line. He couldn't really prove what she did, since even the director was working against him. When he took over team lead, it got worse. Shepard used him for the undercover op, and he was shunned by his own team, even Sciuto and Mallard were unknowingly contributing."
"Why didn't he come to me right from the beginning?" DiNozzo came running because of a paper cut if he needed some attention (which, secretly, always had amused Gibbs to no end, sometimes indulging the younger man). Why…? Why didn't he trust him enough to…?
"You had just lost agent Todd. Ziva saved your life. Jennifer knew her and was her friend. What do you think?"
Leaning back on the couch, the agent sighed.
"He thought I wouldn't believe him if he had no prove. And then… I forgot…" Looking at the director, Gibbs frowned. "Why did you? Believe him, I mean. You only joined the DiNozzo fan club a few months ago."
Vance's sincere gaze strayed to his window, mirroring Gibbs' position on his sofa, folding his hands on his stomach.
"A carefully planned op was blown. Insiders claimed the mole was from here. David did not have security clearance back then…", he started, shaking his head about how well Mossad had planted their mole in the intestines of NCIS. A mole that, thankfully, still was doing her best to avoid getting back her clearance with her behavior lately.
"But McGee has", Gibbs deduced, not even needing to see Vance nod.
"And Tony figured it out."
Vance nodded again.
"She… let's say she pays with sexual favors, and I honestly don't know whether he's too bummed out to keep her from using his computer afterwards, or if he's involved and just acts like that. We bugged their flats, computers, cell phones, and God, does she overplay it…"
"TMI, Leon", was what Gibbs growled at that, receiving a side glance from the director.
"Actually, it's not. If I'm reading you in, I'll do it thoroughly, and you will hear that McGee is nearly mute while David is screaming like a banshee while they're at it. He stays in bed afterwards, and she's rummaging around in the apartment, using his clearance to get to information and then forwards it…"
It just got him another frown from the MCRT lead agent who was starting to really doubt his own gut. Yeah, something was off with David and McGee, but he'd appointed it to some childish jealousy of DiNozzo for whatever reason in combination with the realization that both of them were not really made for their current jobs.
"How does Rivkin fit into the entire scenario?" he then asked, catching Vance off guard.
"She riled DiNozzo earlier, trying to shove in his face how she manages to maintain a relationship while he could not even find a hooker. He told her he didn't care who mounts her on her father's orders. I guess she missed that, because she was too miffed that he really was not interested, neither in her sex life, nor in her", Gibbs explained, too tired of this entire charade to play games of hide and seek the info for now.
Vance obviously was not tired of the game, yet.
"Why do you think she is still working here, and not already sitting in GTMO?"
Those ice blue eyes were staring at him, he could almost hear the click in the other man's brain when finally the puzzle pieces came together.
"You're feeding her false information." Of course they were, exploiting the situation the best they could. It was only a matter of time once one mole had been found out for another one to take their place and the entire game would begin anew. By keeping her, they had control over what the other side knew.
"Somebody got suspicious and sent Rivkin", he then added, having Vance nod.
"Our mole in Mossad said he's directly connected with the director. I'm actually glad that she's in FLETC for the next few days. Another mission blowing up in her face might make them even more suspicious."
"Does DiNozzo have sufficient backup?" The op hunting the frog had been bad enough, Gibbs was still asking himself why DiNozzo had even taken it. Unsanctioned (but he had not known that), no backup at all, and Jen had him do his day job in addition to keep the horror twins in check.
"Dorneget's been partially read in, but he's still on sick leave. Tony has a hacker on the hand that leaves McGee in the dust. Up to now not even Rivkin found out that her flat is bugged. That guy sure wants to get done with saying hello before asking her all kinds of things, and she does not even get it that she's being interrogated."
Gibbs rolled his eyes at this piece of information.
Leon grinned.
"TMI?"
"Still trying to shake off the mental image of her and the Elf lord. Tony needs to know that I know. We're not keeping this from him. Ziva will go for him when this thing blows up in her face."
This had been the sum-up of the past months. Tony, the scape goat, the whipping boy of the team. And he had just watched how they treated him.
Now he was really sure where his loyalties should be.
And ashamed that it took him so long to figure this out.
"Why didn't you tell me right from the beginning? Two members of my team commit high treason and you don't trust me enough to help with the op?" Yes, that also bugged him.
Leon simply looked at him.
"Rule number four."
This got him another pair of rolled eyes.
"Why the fuck does suddenly everybody live by my rules?!"
Back to present time…
Gibbs stood at the window overseeing the parking lot, once more secretly watching his second in command as he left the building.
Once their suspect had confessed more or less every crime he had ever committed simply because he was not the smartest cookie in the jar, the rest of the day had moved on rather quickly.
DiNozzo had typed his report, fiddling with his phone every now and then, before getting ready to leave. They'd both have the next day off, having spent the last few days at the Navy Yard more or less 24/7.
"Gotta be somewhere, DiNozzo?" he asked, trying to keep his usual snark out of his voice after the younger man had checked his phone for the 20iest time in the past five minutes.
He got a deer in the headlights glance back, but the lead agent just had cocked his head, looking at his SFA. Obviously, that still worked.
"Looking up flights to LA, Boss… friend of mine had a… really nasty accident. Getting back to the paperwork now…"
Gibbs just continued watching his SFA, could see how he once again would put his own needs back because he thought his lead agent had a different idea of spending his day off, mentally already starting to work on a heap of cold cases… and that was when he asked himself when he gave up having a life outside of NCIS? He had told Tony that Vance had read him in, and then both of them dug back into their files. If not for watering some plants and having to heat the house to safe his valves from bursting in winter, he would hardly go home at all. And the younger man also had started living at the Navy Yard in the past few days…
"You done with your report?" he therefore asked after a moment, not wishing this empty life on anyone. DiNozzo nodded.
"The transcript from the interrogation still needs to be done and he actually gave enough leads to at least seven more crimes he committed, so…"
"I'll take care of the transcript. Take the day after tomorrow off, too. We're on cold cases for now, being two people short. Dorneget's back on desk duty next week."
All he got was a confused look, making him roll his eyes and sigh.
"That was English for Get out of here and visit your friend before I change my mind in case you didn't notice, DiNozzo!" the older man barked, doing his best not to laugh when his SFA hastily grabbed his stuff and hightailed out of the bullpen with a "Thanks, Boss" tossed into the room.
He was not sure why he moved to the window, watching DiNozzo jump into a rather nondescript car and driving off the yard. The past few months had been confusing enough, sometimes he was missing the younger man goofing around to loosen the atmosphere. When had the environment in his team become this hostile? Why had he not done anything against it?
Balboa didn't stage whisper this time. His entire face spelled Softie when he grinned at the MCRT lead agent from the other end of the room. Gibbs simply ignored the other man and returned to his desk, focusing on his computer. Contrary to popular belief he actually was able to do his job using those machines.
It was just less annoying having other people do the research and the paper work.
J.A.R.V.I.S. had sent a Quinjet, sparing him the troubles of getting a flight and having to travel to the hospital at Average Joe's speed. He could see a bunch of people who chose to camp outside the building, most of them paparazzi who just waited to get the best shot of the heavily injured Tony Stark leaving the hospital. He was praying for a sudden snowstorm in Malibu to simply get rid of them.
The jet landed on the helipad, and Dino slipped into the building more or less unnoticed, accompanied by a guy from the security who had strict orders by Mr. Jarvis to lead him directly to Mr. Stark's room.
He was prepared for a lot, mostly for finding his boyfriend pale and exhausted, hooked up to all sorts of cables and hoses, most probably asleep. Not that he cared, he'd be happy sitting right next to the bed on a chair, watching T breathe whilst holding his hand.
He had not expected to be greeted by some really loud voices, it actually sounded a lot like the catfights T and the lovely Miss Potts got in every now and then, mostly because she was unhappy with something T had done – most of the time the engineer even deserved being yelled at.
So when Dino opened the door he was not really surprised by the sight of his flushed and angry boyfriend who indeed was hooked up to all sorts of machines and cables, staring at an equally flushed and angry Pepper who didn't look as neat and sorted as she usually did, glaring at her head of R&D.
Dino was wondering why not a bunch of highly qualified doctors stormed the room, T's heartrate and the hysterical beeping of the corresponding machine should have made a lot of people nervous. The two brawlers simply continued staring at each other.
It was the inventor who spotted his boyfriend first.
"Oh, finally somebody with a brain! Tell her to move her ass out of my hospital room, take a shower, throw on something else than these ratty yoga pants and then go and make up with Phil, for heaven's sake!"
Dino didn't get any further with his answer than "Uh…" before the redhead replied, voice still loud and shrill, her eyes not leaving the man in the bed.
"And I told you that it's too dangerous…!"
Stark interrupted her.
"We've been arguing for half an hour now, for fuck's sake! I'd say if you didn't blow up the building by now, we're pretty safe, and so's your boyfriend who did not deserve to be dumped without any further explanation!"
Dino wanted to say that arguing with a person fresh out of cardiothoracic surgery also wasn't the best idea, the words dying on his tongue when the fiery redhead finally turned around to their new visitor.
Fiery, indeed.
The orange glow in her eyes definitely was something new.
