Can I Come Back?

Chapter 5

A/N: Hi guy's, sorry for the long update but I've just been struggling with how to put things and write them. This chapter was supposed to be out a couple of days ago but I've been in and out of hospital the past two days so it's out a bit later than intended. Hopefully this chapter should be good. Sorry for any mistakes, I do try to do everything right. Thanks – Haylee!

McGee, Gibbs and Ziva were gathered in a small house about 2 and a half miles from where Saleem's camp was. The small house had been there base for the past two weeks, watching and waiting. McGee was sat at the table on his laptop going through the files they had found on Saleem and his camp, while Ziva was on the phone on the far side of the room to all her contacts seeing if they had anything on Saleem. Gibbs was standing by one of the windows looking out for any danger that might arise. In his hand was Tony's knife which he had left at Gibbs the last time he was there. Tony's knife had a light brown polished wooden handle with a plain silver blade. Gibbs had gotten the knife for Tony two years after he started working with him because Tony would always comment on how cool it Gibbs's.

FLASHBACK 7 YEARS AGO

Tony was sat at his desk filling out reports when a small brown box was dropped on his desk. He jumped slightly and looked up to see it was Gibbs who had done it.

"Boss?" he asked, looking back and forth between Gibbs and the box on his desk.

Gibbs looked up from his desk that he had just sat down at to Tony. "Open it and find out, DiNozzo" he said.

Tony gave a slight nod "Right" he said and picked up the box. He opened the lid to see white packaging. He then pulled off the packaging and stopped when he saw a knife. A Zero Tolerance Combat Folding Knife to be exact. The same as Gibbs's but different colours. Tony looked up at Gibbs in surprise.

Gibbs shrugged "It stop's you from using mine" he said, not looking up from the paper work in front of him.

Tony smiled and picked up the knife in his hands, feeling the weight. "Feels nice" he mumbled to himself. He looked back at Gibbs "Thanks, Gibbs".

"Uh huh" Gibbs said, watching out the corner of his eye as Tony continued to examine the knife with a smile on his face.

END FLASHBACK

Gibbs gave a small sad smile at the memory, but was quickly knocked from his thoughts when movement from outside caught his eye. He put the knife in his pocket and half whispered/shouted "McGee".

McGee had just finished going through a file when he heard Gibbs call his name. he turned to see Gibbs giving him a signal that someone was outside. McGee nodded and got up slowly and walked over to Ziva and placed a hand on her shoulder, telling her they had company. Ziva nodded once and hung up the phone, telling them she would call them back.

They all grabbed their guns and aimed at the door and waited. Both the front and back doors where kicked off their hinges and a group of army men ran in, with guns and all.

"PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN" one of them yelled in the room.

Gibbs was about to start shooting but stopped himself when he noticed they were wearing military uniform. US military.

"McGee. Ziva. Stand down" Gibbs said, putting his gun down, as did the military men. "What are you doing here?" Gibbs asked.

One man stepped forward and said, "Following my order's".

"Which are?"

"Find and escort Agent's Gibbs, McGee and David back to Washington DC" he replied.

Gibbs frowned "By who?" he demanded.

"NCIS Director Leon Vance" the man said, "Now come with us" he said, making way towards the door.

Gibbs gave an angry sigh and clenched his fists.

Washington DC

16 hours later Gibbs, McGee and Ziva, along with two of the military men, stepped off the elevator at NCIS and found Vance standing at the top of the railing.

"Gibbs, McGee, Ziva! My office, NOW!" he shouted and turned back to his office.

Once they had all gathered in Vance's office and sat down on the chairs in front of his desk, Vance leant forward on his elbows.

"What the hell were you doing out there!" Vance said, voice low and full of anger.

Vance didn't give anyone enough time to answer so he continued "Two weeks! That's how long I've been looking for three of my agents, because they just suddenly dropped off the face of the earth with no one knowing where the hell they went!".

"I want answers, and the truth. Now!" Vance demanded.

Gibbs sighed "We were tracking Saleem's movements".

Vance frowned "Saleem?" he questioned.

"Saleem Ulman" McGee spoke up "He's a terrorist".

"That's it. You're tracking a terrorist? Why?" Vance asked.

Ziva looked between Gibbs and Vance then said "Michael Rivkin's mission was something to do with Saleem".

Vance rose his eyebrows "And what's that got to do with you guys?".

"Because my father put Tony on Rivkin's mission, so he could finish it" Ziva answered.

Vance sighed and closed his eyes briefly. He should have known. "You won't find him with Saleem. Agent DiNozzo is dead" he said, looking at the three people before him.

"We know that, Director" Gibbs said, tone strong, yet guilty.

"Saleem didn't kill Agent DiNozzo, the storm did. So why go after Saleem?" Vance asked, trying to understand what was going on.

"Because it was Tony's last mission" McGee answered "We can't kill or defeat a storm, so we go after the reason Tony was heading that way in the first place. We go after Saleem and make him pay".

Once McGee finished, Vance looked at them shocked "Why didn't you come to me? I would have never allowed this to happen!".

"Which is exactly the reason why we never told you, Leon. You wouldn't allow it so we had to do it our way" Gibbs said, his voice rising with every passing moment.

Vance gave a heavy sigh and rubbed his eyes with one hand. He was about to say something when the door opened and one of the military men that came with Gibbs, McGee and Ziva walked in.

"We need to talk, Director Vance" he said seriously.

Vance nodded "Agent Gibbs, you and your team will wait downstairs. I will call you up when I'm ready".

Gibbs gave a shake of his head and got up from his chair and walked out, followed by McGee and Ziva. Gibbs stormed down the stairs to the bull pen and went to his desk and sat down. At that moment Abby and Ducky stepped out the elevator and walked towards the team.

"Where have you been? I've been trying to track you down for the past two weeks!" Abby said in shock. They didn't tell Abby nor Ducky because they didn't want them caught up in the mess.

"Abby, we…" McGee trailed off, not knowing what to say to her. They all knew she wouldn't be happy about being left out the loop.

"You went after Saleem without telling me?! Abby shouted coming closer to McGee.

As Abby was showing and explaining her annoyance to McGee and Ziva, Ducky walked over to Gibbs desk.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but as much as I liked young Anthony, you cannot keep doing this".

Gibbs ignored him and pulled out some files of his desk.

Ducky sighed "Anthony wouldn't want this. He wouldn't want the team keeping secrets from each other. If you're going to get revenge Anthony's dead" Ducky leant forward and lowered his voice "You let everyone help. We're at team, we do it together. You, McGee and Ziva weren't the only ones that knew him".

Gibbs stopped moving with the files in front of him and looked up at Ducky. He knew Ducky was right. Tony wouldn't want the team to be doing this, but Gibbs couldn't back down from his former Senior Field Agent death. His son's death. He also knew that if he had told Abby and Ducky about what he was doing then they would immediately say they would help. Which is the reason why he left them in the dark. To keep them safe, from not only losing their jobs, but possibility from Saleem, if the plan didn't work.

Gibbs was about to reply to Ducky when he saw out the corner of his eye Vance burst out his office and down the stairs, sliding on his coat. The military guy was not far behind him. Gibbs rose to his feet, but Vance shook his head and continued to the elevator along with the guy.

Gibbs looked at Ducky as soon as the doors shut and was met with the same confused looed.

Vance parked his car and walked up to the entrance of the building, doors sliding open as he did so. Once inside he walked up to the reception desk.

"I'm NCIS Director Leon Vance" he said. The woman behind the desk nodded.

"Room 354".

He nodded his thanks and walked down the hall until he reached the room.

Outside the room were two military guards "NCIS Leon Vance" he said and the two men moved aside. Vance thanked them and walked into the room. He stopped a couple of steps in and looked at the sight before him 'My god' he thought.

Before his eyes was the one and only Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo laying in a hospital bed.

TBC

A/N: Hope that was okay. Tell me if you want anything added. Please tell me what you think. Thanks, Haylee!