Tony sat at his desk grinning wildly as Ziva stared mesmerized. This morning everything about him was different; he hadn’t said one word except the usual greetings, when she offered him the new, extra raunchy Playboy magazine, he had declined, his hair was fully spiked up and she had to admit he was looking hotter than ever. She shook her head and turned to the blank screen in front of her. She opened her emails and after deleting two unimportant messages, she clicked compose.
‘Shalom, Jen...’ Ziva stopped abruptly.
Jenny Shepard had always been the one person who she could talk to about her problems, but not anymore. Not since LA. She knew Tony still blamed himself for Jenny’s death and that no matter how many times she tried to convince him that there was nothing he could have done, he would always blame himself. It was a complete repeat of the breakup with Jeanne, except somehow...worse.
She was brought back to reality as she was cast in a shadow. Tony stood over her desk with a crooked grin on his face.
“Is there something I can help you with, Tony?” she asked, discreetly closing the window that was occupying her monitor screen.
“Actually yes Ziva. I was wondering...why were you writing an Email to a dead woman?”
Before she could answer, Gibbs walked in looking somber.
“Grab your gear,” he said quieter than usual.
“What have we got, boss?” Tony asked.
“McGee’s car was in an accident on the way to work.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Does it look like I’m kidding, DiNozzo?” Gibbs heard the quiet disbelief from his colleagues and rubbed his temples. He knew this was going to be a difficult case but he had forced the director to let his team have the investigation. The good thing was McGee wasn’t dead. Tony and Ziva didn’t know that and they were pacing uncontrollably around their desks.
Tony dared to ask.
“Is he...well...dead?” Gibbs heard the fear in the young man’s voice and for the first time today, looked him in the eye.
“I won’t lie to you. He’s not dead but he’s in a bad way.” As he said that, he saw a figure in the corner of his eye. He turned to see Abby standing there, her arms hugging herself tightly as tears rolled down her pale face.
Gibbs fought the urge to run over to her and cradle her like she was Kelly, and instead, held open his arms to her.