As Gibbs and Tony climbed the stairs to the directors’ office, they were both deep in thought. Gibbs was thinking about how he was going to get Jen to let them continue to look into DiNozzo Sr.’s death, the only NCIS connection being he was Tony’s Father. Tony was thinking about how he was going to get thru this meeting without having to go too deep into his relationship with his Father.
When they got to the directors office, Gibbs strode right in without knocking, as usual, while Tony paused briefly to give her assistant a smile. They both went in front of her desk and stood at attention, hands clasped behind their backs.
As Director Shepard looked at them over the top of her reading glasses she said, “Go ahead and take a seat.”
After seating themselves, Gibbs kept his gaze trained on the director’s face while Tony couldn’t quite look her in the eye. Staring instead just above her head.
“Agent Gibbs” she began “Care to explain why, when I came in this morning, I had an urgent message waiting for me from the director of the FBI?”
“That’s probably my fault Director” Tony responded before Gibbs could say anything.
Gibbs shot Tony a look that clearly said what in the hell do you think you’re doing, which Tony was trying hard to ignore.
“Go ahead Agent DiNozzo” Director Shepard said as she leaned forward on her desk, removing her glasses.
“Fornell informed me of my Fathers passing” he hesitated slightly “I’m the one that insisted Ducky do the Autopsy”
She raised her eyebrows “Do I even want to know how you got him to agree to that?”
“Probably not” Tony said with a small smile.
“I see,” she said as she sat back in her chair. The two agents sat silently as the director just looked at them both.
“Very well,” she sighed. “Agent DiNozzo, if you could just wait outside for a moment, I’d like a word with Agent Gibbs.”
As he started to rise out of the chair she continued “And Tony? I’m sorry about your Father, I do understand.”
“Thank you” Tony said quietly.
As soon as Tony shut the door, Gibbs began “Listen Jen, I know we might have overstepped our authority here a little bit”
“Just a little Jethro?” she smiled.
Gibbs smiled back, and then turned serious, “We need to do this investigation Jen, for Tony’s sake”
“I know Jethro. That’s why I’ve already talked to the FBI Director and he’s agreed to let you handle it, for now.” She replied.
Gibbs just raised an eyebrow, “What’s the catch?”
“There are two actually,” Jen answered “One, they want two of their agents to work with you. And before you say anything yes, Fornell will be one of them.”
Gibbs just snorted “And the second?”
“Tony is to have as little to do with the investigation as possible,” she said firmly. “I don’t want him going rouge on us.”
As Gibbs started to say something, she interrupted “There’s no negotiation on this Jethro.”
“I was about to agree with you, Jen.” Then as he got up to leave, Gibbs said, “I know one of my rules is to anticipate,” he paused, “ but you have to make sure that you anticipate correctly.”
As he left, she just smiled “You don’t make it easy Jethro.”
When Gibbs came out of the directors’ office, he found Tony standing at the railing. As he approached he saw that Tony was watching McGee and Ziva enter the bullpen. They both stood there silently, observing the other two agents as they talked.
“You ready for this?” Gibbs asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Tony responded.
Down in the bullpen McGee had arrived first, Ziva right behind him. McGee turned to her and asked “Did you see the news this morning?”
“No, was there a large story?” she said.
“Big story” Tim answered
“What?” Ziva said.
“Never mind” he muttered, shaking his head. Picking up the remote for the plasma, he said, “Look, It’s all over the news”
As they both stood there and watched, scrolling across the bottom of the screen was a report of how businessman Dominick DiNozzo had been found dead in a D.C. hotel room of unknown causes. Ziva stood there, staring at the screen with a look of concern on her face.
McGee said softly “Do you think Tony knows yet?”
“He knows” Gibbs said from behind them, causing them both to jump.
They both turned around to find Tony already seated at his desk with Gibbs standing there, looking at them with no expression on his face. Ziva noticed immediately that Tony was still wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday, causing her concern to go up a notch.
McGee turned to Tony “I’m sorry about your Father.” He said sympathetically.
“Thanks McGee” he replied soberly.
Ziva approached Tony’s desk “Is there anything I can do?”
Tony wiggled his eyebrows up and down “Anything Ziva?”
Ziva just rolled her eyes as she went back to her desk “Never mind”
Tony just smiled and thought to himself “God I love giving her a hard time”
As the team got settled at their desk, McGee and Ziva looked at each other then at Tony. Ziva got up and went over to Gibbs desk and just stood there waiting. Gibbs looked up at her.
Ziva said, “So, are you going to fill us in?”
“What do you mean Officer David?”
“We are investigating Mr. DiNozzo’s death, yes?” Ziva replied. “We need to know what happened.”
Tony and Gibbs looked at each other across the room, Tony giving a slight nod of his head to him. Just then Gibbs phone rang.
“Gibbs” he answered. Silent for a moment, he then said, “Be right down.”
Saying to his team “Let’s go, Abby’s got something. I’ll fill you all in when we get down there.”
They all hurried on to the elevator behind him. McGee and Ziva curious to find out what was going on and Tony, he was anxious to find out what had killed his Father.
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