Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them. I merely borrow them from time to time.
Suddenly the door to Abbys lab opened again. But different to my expectation Ducky entered the room not Gibbs. He seemed to be really surprised when he saw me but soon he smiled.
“Anthony! What a nice surprise to see you in Washington!”
“Hello Ducky!”, I smiled.
Then I went over to him and hugged him. I didn’t like admiting it but I was really happy to be with them again and I felt at home in an instant.
“And where is Ziva?”, I wanted to know.
As a response to my question Abby and Tim only grinned.
“What?”
“Ben, her fiance, stopped by a short while ago and now the two are in the office together.”, Tim finally answered.
“Then you have to excuse me. I’m going upstairs!”, I told them and got up.
“Don’t disturb them too much!”, Abby shouted.
Whereat I had to own up that I really was nervous. Because when I went to the office it was clear that I would meet Gibbs too. And I didn’t know how he would react to me. Meanwhile Ducky stayed with Abby and Tim, as far as I got to know they talked about a tissue specimen. So I walked through the notorious hallways to the office, thereby I got almost wistful. As in Abbys lab nothing had changed and I really missed all this in the last years. Not before I saw Ziva at here desk my bad mood vanished. A dark-haired men sat on her chair and she on his legs. The two were kissing and didn’t seem to sense anything what was around them. Casually I leant agains on of the filing cabinets which were put up next to the desk and watched them.
“Agent David! You’re on duty!”, I tried to state sternly.
Dumbfounded they spun around. While the man seemed to be embarrassed Ziva looked at me with disbelief in her gaze. Slowly she got up.
“Tony?”, she asked after a few more seconds. “I don’t believe it! I didn’t think that I would ever see you here again!”
Shortly after that she pulled me into a tight embrace. We stood like that at least for several seconds. Only when we heard someone clear his troath Ziva pushed me away lightly.
“Don’t you want to introduce us?”, I asked with a grin.
“Ben? May I introduce?”, she turned towards her fiance. “Anthony or simply Tony DiNozzo. A former colleague and a good friend of mine. Tony this is my fiance Benjamin Salomon.”
“I’m glad to meet you!”, the man friendly smiled and trusted out his hand.
After we shook hands Ben sat down on the chair again, Ziva on his legs. I lent against my old desk.
“Do you tell me who became the new team member?”, I wanted to know.
“There is no new team member Tony.”, Ziva sighed.
“What?”, I didn’t understand directly what she meant.
“Tim, Gibbs and I, we work together. There is no-one else.”
That was a new information for me. Gibbs hadn’t reoccupied my billet?
“He didn’t hire someone else?”
“Let me tell it this way, there was someone about four years ago. To be exact, a woman, Serena Everst if I remember correctly, But Gibbs treated her worse then me. Because of that she requested a transfer to another team after less than six months. To my knowledge she works now with Agent Sunderland. Since that time everbody who should be transfered to our team refused to work under Gibbs.”
“Do you actually know where he is?”, I wanted to know from Ziva.
“I don’t know it for sure but I think he is meeting Fornell!”
“Fornell?” I asked bewildered.
“Yes, as far as I can gather it involves our latest case. We are required to investigate together with the FBI with joint competence. But I think you can imagine how enthusiastic Gibbs was about this suggestion.”
“Oh yeah!”
Thereby I spontaneously thought of the many scenes where I had experienced Gibbs with agents of the FBI.
“But why are you actually in Washington? Don’t you like beeing in Spain anymore? Or are you on vacation?”, with these questions Ziva finally broke through my thoughts.
“No, I’m here because I need your help. It’s about my new case. Several dead marines and our only usable trace leads to Washington.”
“Traitors don’t have to expect something from me and my team!”
Surprised I spun around, when I suddenly heard that biting cold voice behind me again.
“Hello Gibbs! I’m glad to see again too!”, I growled through gritted teeth.
Bugged he rolled his eyes and went to his desk. There he sat down and skimmed through the file he had brought with him.
“And Agent David? Ran me down enough?”
Instead of answering him Ziva only closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her fiance put his arms protectively around her. How I realized at this gesture situations like these seemed to have happened before too.
“What’s the point of that Gibbs?”, I asked as neutral as possible. “Ziva and I were only talking about my time in Spain!”
“Take on a ride who you want but not me!”, Gibbs yelled thereon.
Shortly after that he took the file and left. Stunned I looked after him, because it appeared that I was the only one who understood the ambiguity behind these sentence...
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