JF34
The weather outside had picked up between Gibbs and Leon's arrival and when dinner had been finished. It seemed that they were experiencing their first snowstorm of the season. Kelly had begged Gibbs to spend the night in their other guest room, she really hadn't wanted him driving in the wild weather, outside. It had almost come out of nowhere. One minute it was getting cold and becoming freezing, the next minute, the wind picked up and the swirled around them. The snow came down thick and fast, the wind picked up even more and Kelly knew her dad hadn't put the snow tyres on his truck, yet. She worried for his safety and begged him to stay the night.
That was how Gibbs found himself in the other guest bedroom in Tim's apartment. He could hear Leon still moving around in the other guest room. Footsteps in the hallway distracted his thoughts and he wondered if it was Leon or Tim. Kelly had begged off for bed, a little while back. Tim had excused himself too and he had left Leon and Gibbs to entertain themselves. As soon as they had left, Gibbs delicately explained to Leon that Tim still had to help Kelly shower. That seemed to amuse the Director, before he sobered up and realised that Kelly was still recovering from surgery.
Gibbs lay under the covers, thinking about what Tim had theorised in the kitchen to him. As soon as he said it, he dismissed it as a wild theory, but something was gnawing at Gibbs about it. Flinging the covers back, he realised that he needed to talk it out, himself. In Gibbs' mind, like Tim said, it sounded too much like a piece of the puzzle falling into place.
As Gibbs came out of the guest room, he bumped into a freshly showered Tim in his NCIS tee and sweatpants. Tim had the full coffeepot and a mug, in hand and was heading to his office. At the tilt of Tim's head, Gibbs made his way to the kitchen, meeting Vance in there, too. "Grab a mug and join us in Tim's office." Gibbs told the Director. "Tim's got the full pot and it's hot."
Leon followed Gibbs into Tim's study and the three men had chuckle. Gibbs and Vance both changed into their sweats, too. "Three of the greatest minds at NCIS and we're sitting around drinking coffee in our sweats at 2200 on a Friday night." Leon mused out loud at the other two men, causing a small chuckle between them. "We sure know how to live."
Tim sat his in desk chair, tapping his fingers on his newly restored desk that Gibbs had done for him. A desk he felt he shouldn't have a claim to, now. He was thinking and contemplating. He was strumming his fingers on top of the desk, flexing them out and repeating the motion, again.
Gibbs took a seat opposite Tim's desk and Leon taking the other tub chair opposite his desk. The three men drank their coffee in silence. "This apartment is really warm and cozy, for how miserable it is, outside." Gibbs murmured out loud, not expecting a response from anyone.
"It's because it has its own central heating system. It's not part of the tot building system." Tim replied to his boss. "The thermostat is on the wall behind the panelling that covers the European laundry. When Penny was redoing this place, she had it put in, claiming she felt the cold easier as she got older."
Gibbs was mulling over Tim's crazy theory from after dinner, the more he thought about it, the more it made a twisted kind of sense. "Tim?" Gibbs broke the silence. "Is there anyway, we could track past movements on our servers? Digital movements from years ago."
"I suppose, but it would take some time." Tim answered his boss and Leon wondered what the two men were cooking up. "How far back do you want to go? I may have to access the physical servers that are buried in the Appalachian mountains."
"That would require a second code writer." Leon reminded his genius agent. "I can do it for you, but we will need to have concrete evidence. We'd need more evidence than just speculation to convince Sarah Porter, too. We'd need her ok. What are we speculating on, anyway?"
"Ziva and Delilah." Tim mused out loud, before explaining everything, just the way he had to Gibbs earlier in the evening.
"Whoa!" Leon exclaimed, gently. "This actually makes a sort of twisted sense. What are you thinking, exactly?"
"That I was used as a lure. Ziva used Delilah to hide her dealings with Parsa. Delilah used me to let Parsa infiltrate our network. She wasn't counting on Parsa attacking the gala and killing her." Tim theorised out loud. "Is it possible that Delilah was a sleeper agent for Mossad and Ziva knew, activating her? Were they a team? Or do they have an entire cell? A network of sleeper agents? Did I get too close without knowing I was too close? You both have to admit, the gym story was flimsy and I didn't see it."
"Tim, you loved her." Gibbs reminded the young man. "Not like the way you love Kelly, but you did love her. Remember love is blind."
"Love isn't just blind, it's also ignorant and stupid." Tim muttered and Vance chuckled at him.
"Tim, we've all been taken in by a pretty face before." Leon comforted him. "Look at Lee Waun Kai, the Korean spy Jackie killed."
"Jenny, Diane, Stephanie, Rebecca, Hollis... I could go on but I think I've made my point." Gibbs grumbled, good naturedly.
"OK, but I was still sucked in by her." Tim admitted, still not feeling any better about the situation.
"Not just you, Tony was sucked in by Ziva, too." Gibbs reminded both men.
"Eli had to have known, after all he is the one who sent her to DC. She was Ari's handler." Gibbs theorised out loud, to the two men. "She arrived right when Jen did. When Jen was made Director of NCIS."
"You think she knew?" Tim asked Gibbs. "I mean we all know she had her own agendas while in that office. Look at Tony and La Grenouille and her last stand, out in California."
"Her crusade against you." Gibbs supplied softly. "First with the Benedict shooting, with your sister and the dog mauling incident. You were green and she kept alienating you from forming any kind of bonds with me and our team. She was constantly ordering me to leave you behind, to ride the desk, to schelp for Abby."
"Well yeah, safe to say that she hated me." Tim mumbled out loud.
"Jenny and Ziva had a relationship." Leon admitted out loud, not really focused on the conversation. "After the meeting when I dismantled your team to hunt for the mole, Ziva discreetly slipped back upstairs to me. She told me she had been in there, with Jenny, before they'd left for LA and left something behind. She took some lingerie. A lace thing with straps and flimsy pair of panties. It's wasn't in a bag, no this had been worn."
Tim smiled softly, at the mention of Ziva retrieving the lingerie. He had been with Ziva when she double backed to the office. When she had came back, she gave him the story that they had been a gag gift from Tony. "I am an idiot." Tim declared. "Sorry boss, I broke rule three. And rule thirty-nine."
"Never be unreachable?" Leon asked and Gibbs clocked his eyebrow in response.
"Don't believe what you're told, double check." Tim facepalmed his head into his hand for a second. "There's no such thing as coincidences. Gibbs, I saw the lingerie that Ziva retrieved from the Director's office. Ziva told me they were from Tony. Boss, if Tony had of bought Ziva lingerie back then. We all would have known about it. It didn't register with me at the time, but Delilah had the same lingerie. I mean it was a really common style and colour. That's where rule thirty-nine comes into play. My mind should have put two and two together along time ago."
"Work was probably the last thing on your mind there, Tim." Gibbs chuckled at the young man, softly. Leon did too. Tim felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "Safe to say, it's OK. You're a man, just like the rest of us. We've all done something stupid once or twice, in the name of love. Some of us have even done more crazy things in the name of lust. You're not God, you couldn't have known."
Tim flushed a deeper red and refused to meet either of their eyes. "Quite a few women have thought I was God, though." Tim quipped with a dry chuckle at Gibbs' questioning gaze.
"His daughter?" Vance asked, pointing to Gibbs, enjoying seeing him squirm.
"I refuse to answer that question." Tim grinned at the Director. Gibbs let out a sigh of relief that Tim was being usual private self.
"On the grounds that you may incriminate yourself?" Vance mused out loud with an amused chuckle. Vance took pleasure in seeing Gibbs unnerved. By t he wasn't as unnerved as the Director expected Kelly's father to be.
"That and among many, many other reasons." Tim said. "Look we're getting off track, here. We need to think about Ziva and Delilah and if there is a connection between the two of them."
A knock at the door startled the three men and the door opened up at Tim's voice to enter. They weren't surprised to see Kelly standing there, after all she was the only other person in the apartment. "Hey Sweetheart, is everything OK?" he asked her. Her hair was messed from sleep and she was all rumpled. Tim smiled a wide, genuine smile at her. His eyes sparkled with the love, affection and attraction he felt for the young woman.
"Ah, yeah." Kelly replied, taking in the three men dressed in their sweats, the coffee mugs and the empty coffee pot. "What is this? A Mensa meeting for NCIS personnel? Babe, your phone is making a weird noise and I can't shut it off. "
Tim took off in a flash, running down the hall, through the living room and down the hall to the other side of the apartment, into his bedroom. "Guess that noise was important." Gibbs grinned at his daughter and Leon.
Gibbs, Leon and Kelly ventured out of his office, into the living room and were met with Tim looking at his phone. Lost. "Tony's safe, for now." Tim confided in them. "He's activated plan C. Said that when he got to the location of plan A, things didn't look right. He thought he had been followed. He skipped plan B, in case he had been and lost any tails he may have had."
Tim had deliberately kept the conversation as vague as he possibly could. "That's good, right?" Vance asked out loud. Gibbs hadn't reacted yet, he and Tim had worked together a long time, he knew Tim wasn't finished.
"Boss, he signed off the message quoting the numbers forty-four, seventy and seventy two." Tim admitted, the look of worry amplifying on the newly minted SFA's face.
"Hide the woman and children, I know. That's forty-four. What's seventy and seventy two?" Vance asked, as Kelly had come to snuggle under Tim's arm. She didn't want to admit, but the more she heard, the more concerned she was becoming.
As soon as Tim had mentioned how Tony signed off his message, she knew that she would be taking a leave of absence from work and that it was highly probable that her and Tim would be separated from each other for a while, until whatever the threat that had the three of them on edge, had been neutralised. "Rule seventy two is to always be open to new ideas." Kelly said softly, facing the Director. "Right Dad? But even I don't know rule seventy. I thought I knew all your rules, Dad."
"Gonna break rule six Tim." Gibbs mumbled, in apology. "I stole rule seventy from you. I heard that you quoted it to Abby and Bishop on our last case with CGIS. Abs said you made it up, but I told Tony that it was a good rule and he should consider it an official rule. Keep digging until you hit bottom."
"So, what's our next move now?" Leon asked the stupid question, looking at Tim and Gibbs. He was deliberately trying to not look at Kelly. He knew what their next move was, what he didn't know was who would have to deliver the blow to the young Gibbs woman. Tim, the boyfriend or Jethro, the father.
"Kelly, you're not going to like what I have to say." Tim began softly, raising her chin gently to look into her eyes. He was hoping to convey his feelings for her, wordlessly. That it was breaking his heart to do it, but it had to be done for her safety.
"Well, don't say it." Kelly quipped, but she knew that resistance would be futile. "Come on, let me stay. Please baby, please!"
"You're going!" Gibbs exclaimed to her. "Things are volatile and dangerous, Tony had to take his newly found daughter and run. You're going. We built the want you out of harms way. We need you safe."
"No, I'll stay. Tim can protect me." she argued, standing her ground.
"Honey, no." Gibbs argued, before preparing to list more reasons why. "Tim will-" He caught the look Tim was giving him and immediately closed his mouth, mid-word. Tim obviously had a plan and he trusted Tim.
Tim ushered her to follow him and muttered to Gibbs and Leon to excuse them, before taking Kelly down the hall into their bedroom and closed the door behind them.
"Let's hope that Tim can reason with her." Gibbs sighed out loud. "I hate it when she gets like this. She is so strong-willed and stubborn."
"Gets that from her father, no doubt." Leon teased with a grin. "You can be stubborn as a mule when you want to be."
"Her mother." Gibbs returned the grin with one of his own, before it softened into a nostalgic smile. "Shannon's stubbornness could outmatch mine any day of the week. She was feisty and strong-willed too, just like our daughter."
It was a long, somewhat agonising wait for Gibbs, and to a much lesser extent, for Leon. At the sound of the bedroom door opening, Gibbs snapped his head up to look at the couple, in particular his stubborn daughter. She smiled at Tim before giving her father a hug.
"I'll go wherever I need to go, to stay safe. I promise, Dad. Tim made some very valid points about safety to me. He made me realise I was being too stubborn and strong-willed. I am sorry." she apologised, seriously as she hugged her dad. "Promise me you and Tim will watch out for one another. If anything happens to either of you, I couldn't bear it."
"Good man, Tim." Gibbs praised him, patting Tim on the back before muttering. "I could have used you when she was a teen, would have lead to a lot less fights."
"And the moment is gone." Kelly deadpanned.
"Kelly, go pack a bag honey." Gibbs told her. "We need to get a move on now." As soon as Kelly was gone, he turned to Tim. "I am not going to ask you how you reasoned with her, but I do want to know what's your plan?"
"Call Ellie, she's going with Kelly. Protection detail." Tim told his boss. "Does Jackson still have that storm shelter in his basement?"
"Stillwater? That's your plan?" Gibbs asked and honestly, it was simple, but brilliant. Definitely not what he was expecting because he knew that Tony and Tim's plan was very detailed and meticulous.
"We, you and me, already established that Ziva wouldn't touch Ellie because she doesn't know her. Ellie is our back up plan, she is trained and can get word to us if she needs assistance. But I honestly believe the two of them would be ok. Jake could even go with them, if Ellie really wants." Tim explained to his bosses. "I need to be here, for both the computer code and to have your six, Gibbs. It's like you said, your are the team lead, they will come after you first."
"Agreed." Leon said softly, not letting his voice carry to Kelly in the bedroom. "What about me?"
"It would be political suicide to take you out." Gibbs said in reply. "Plus you have Carter and Benson. You need to be seen in and around DC and Ziva knows that. We need to have Ducky take Jimmy, Breena and Abby in and give them a detail. We need Abby's skills here and it will tip our hand if everyone else suddenly leaves DC too."
"I'll start writing the code, as soon as I get Kelly on the plane." Tim admitted. " I have got her convinced she needs to leave, to be safe, but I know that there will be at least one more attempt, not to leave."
"We'll see if SecNav's plane is available." Leon said, pulling out his cell. "What airports are nearest to your father, Gibbs? Think small and regional, let's avoid the crowds. The less people who see them the better."
"Benton, its more of a light plane airport, but it's five minutes from Dad in the next town over." Gibbs told them. "Or there is the Schlecks aero-field. It's ten minutes, due west of dad, off the Rothberg road."
"We will fly into Benton." Vance mumbled into his cell. He looked at Gibbs and Gibbs immediately knew that the unspoken order was to call Ellie and have her pack a bag. "Jake should stay in DC. If anyone is watching, it should look like she is away for work. Jake works at the NSA, with the DoD connections, if there are sleeper agents, we don't want to tip our hand, just yet."
Gibbs immediately called Ellie and within an hour, she was being let into Tim's apartment building. She had caught a cab and given Jake the story that Gibbs had given her. That they had a priority one out of town case on board a ship, that she would have no phone reception and would contact him when she could. That if in case of emergency, Gibbs could get word to her.
"I'm here." She said breathlessly, as she blew into the apartment, as soon as the metal doors of the elevator opened. "Director?" She stopped suddenly, she hadn't expected Leon Vance to be at Tim's apartment, in sweats, at the late hour. Nor had she expected Gibbs in his sweats.
Tim had gone into the bedroom and changed his clothes. He stepped back out in his favourite jeans, shirt and warm sweater. Kelly and Gibbs smiled at the relaxed and casual looking Tim. Kelly openly ogled her boyfriend, causing her dad to lightly tap the back of her head. It had been decided that Tim would drive the girls to the airport, twenty minutes away at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, where Sarah Porter's plane was waiting.
"Tim, I am coming with you." Gibbs announced suddenly, heading down the hallway to change his clothes.
"Good idea, we stick together." Leon added, following Gibbs down the hallway, before diverting into the other guest bedroom.
"Ah, what's going on?" Ellie asked, beginning to not like the feeling she was getting in the pit of her stomach.
"You're my babysitter." Kelly mumbled and Ellie had a look of surprise on her face.
"I am a probie agent, I can't babysit you." Ellie denied.
"Yes, you can." Tim reiterated to her. "You can and you will. You're the only one left Gibbs and I trust. El, Tony's gone. There's a big threat, Tony discovered he has a daughter and has gone into hiding to protect her. Gibbs, Vance and I are in danger. You're safe, you never met her and she doesn't know you. You have to protect Kelly and Jack. Watch your six. You can do this, El. We believe in you."
"He's right, Bishop." Gibbs agreed. "Now, let's talk codes." Gibbs ushered her into the kitchen so they could talk in private, as he had some water another swig of coffee before they headed out.
The five of them made the twenty minute drive from Tim's apartment without any dramas and Kelly was thankful that the terrible weather from earlier had ceased and it had calmed down, drastically. They passed through security without any difficulties. Which was only made easy by Vance pulling a few strings and making some calls from the back seat of the agency issued sedan that Tim was driving.
As they arrived at the tarmac, Kelly began getting antsy. Gibbs had tried to reassure her that everything would be ok, but she wasn't buying it. The departure room was empty and Tim suggested he take Kelly over there, while Vance and Gibbs brief Ellie in more detail on the threat hanging over their collective heads.
Tim opened the door and ushered her inside the empty room, which was no bigger than a few shipping containers wide. There was rows of those plastic moulded chairs, that weren't built for comfort, to choose from. Tim looked at Kelly closely. He could tell that she was scared, perhaps even terrified. She hadn't admitted it yet, but he knew she would. "It's ok to be scared, Kell." Tim murmured as he pulled her into his arms.
"Good." She replied, softly "Because I'm terrified."
"I want you to remember something." Tim said softly, as he held her in his arms. "Remember what I told you in our bedroom? That I love you and I will do anything to keep you safe. Even if that means we have to be apart for a while. Remember that I am skilled and highly trained, that I will be safe. That I have Gibbs' back and that he has mine."
"I remember, but it doesn't help me worrying. You know I love you, too. Right?" Kelly asked, making sure that Tim knew. That hadn't had much alone time and everything had been crazy since he found out about his biological parents. They had just turned up the heat another notch in their relationship and it all began unravelling. "How am I going to sleep without you by my side? and what about Sharni?"
"Gibbs is going to drop Sharni off at a boarding kennel. She will be safe and well cared for." Tim told her, gently. He hadn't wanted to alarm the woman he loved that he wouldn't put it past Ziva to harm the dog, if she had gone rogue. Tim knew that Ziva had been a ruthless killer when Jenny had bought her into the agency, from Mossad.
Tim drew her face to his and kissed her lips, softly at first, then sensually. He was pouring all of his emotions into the kiss. He hadn't realised how much he would actually miss her until they were in this very moment. Kelly kissed him back, just as eager. She felt it had been too long since they had shared more than just a kiss and was cursing her body for interrupting their mutual exploration of their relationship. "When all this is over?" She asked, breaking the kiss.
"We'll go away together." He promised her with another kiss, this one just the barest brush of his lips against hers. "We will spend some time alone, getting reacquainted." He grinned at her, the flirty, dirty grin he knew made her go weak at the knees.
"I think I'd like that." She smiled at him, and kissed him again. "I am going to miss you so much." She bit her lip, trying not to cry, but her emotions were overwhelming her and she was struggling to maintain a lid of them.
"Ellie will be with you and Gibbs will be with me. Everything will be ok." Tim reassured her, as he saw the plane roll into position for boarding and Leon Vance waving at him that they were ready to board the ladies. "Do you trust me?"
"Always." She grinned at him, as he placed his arms around her and escorted her from the departure room.
"Remember, you aren't going to be able to contact me, but Ellie will be able to. Only call in case of an emergency." Tim reminded her again. They had been through all of this at the apartment before they left, but it needed to be repeated. "Listen to Ellie. If you don't see Ed waiting, do not disembark from the plan and have Elie contact me."
Ellie had both of their bags. She watched as Kelly hugged her father and then Tim, before kissing Tim. He whispered something in her ear and which made her blush profusely. That had made her smile, that her friend was the kind of boyfriend that was a romantic. Ellie handed Kelly her bag and hugged Gibbs and Tim a goodbye hug, before the two of them boarded the plan.
"Ed Gantry will meet them at the airport in Benton." Tim announced, as they watched the door close and SecNav's plane get into position to take off.
"Jack knows the girls are coming and the cover story, inside and out." Gibbs added, soothing both Leon and Tim's minds.
As soon as the plane was in the air, Tim and Gibbs let out the sigh of relief that they had been holding in. Vance took the keys from Tim. "Let's head to the yard. We need to get to work."