Gibbs wasn’t surprised to find that there was a specially designated area at the Houston airport for private planes, complete with multiple hangers and several runways. It was almost the norm at larger airports. It kept the smaller jets out of the way of larger commercial passenger planes, and it gave the air of exclusivity that those rich enough to afford the luxury of having their own planes expected.
Lundy parked his truck in a small lot that was next to hanger bay 7. He got out of the truck, and motioned for everyone else to follow suit. He raised two fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle. A moment later, a small inset door in the side of the hanger opened and a dark haired young man who didn’t look old enough to drive to Gibbs stepped out. He smiled brightly when he saw Lundy.
“Levon! Good to see you man.” The kid moved with a noticeable bounce in his step. He reminded Gibbs of an eager puppy.
“Good to see you to JD.” Lundy shook hands with the kid. “You pilot or copilot today?”
Gibbs frowned. This…teenager…was a pilot? Gibbs studied him closer. Maybe it was just the fact that he was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers that made him look so young. He had to be older than he looked to get a license. At least Gibbs hoped so.
“Pilot.” JD laughed. “Buck lost the coin toss.”
Lundy arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t use Ezra’s two headed coin did you?”
JD grinned brightly. “Might have.”
Lundy snickered. “Better hope he doesn’t find out.”
“He won’t.”
Lundy ruffled JD’s hair. “Good boy.”
JD batted his hand away. “You’re as bad as Buck.”
“Doubt that.” Lundy laughed. “He got the plane ready?”
“Just finished the preflight check.” JD nodded. He pointed to the truck. “You need help with your luggage?”
“Nah.” Lundy shook his head. “Even Joe didn’t pack that much.”
LaFiamma rolled his eyes. “Just because I don’t want to look like a bum doesn’t make me some kind of prima donna, Cowboy.”
Given that the man was currently wearing a suit that likely cost more than Gibbs made in a month, he had some doubts about the other man’s statement. No one spent that sort of money on a suit if his appearance wasn’t decidedly important to him. The black suit, with a dark blue silk shirt and a lighter blue tie with a pattern of small black diamonds made LaFiamma look more like a male model, a high priced attorney or a businessman than he did a cop.
Tony was similarly well attired. His suit was a dove gray, with a light green silk shirt and a slightly dark green tie. It was the sort of look that would have had Abby giving him an appreciative once over and commenting that every penny Tony had spent on his designer clothes was well spent. Gibbs would have felt underdressed if it weren’t for the fact that Lundy was in jeans.
“As you probably guessed, the fancy looking feller with the dark hair is my partner Joe LaFiamma. Joe, this is JD Dunne.”
“Nice to meet you, JD.” LaFiamma held out his hand.
“Same here.” JD shook LaFiamma’s hand, smiling. “Heard a lot about you.”
“All good, I hope.”
JD’s smile got brighter. “Mostly.”
LaFiamma pointed a finger at Lundy. “You told him the truth, didn’t you?”
Lundy shrugged. “Nothing but gospel, boy.”
“Asshole,” LaFiamma muttered but he was smiling.
“That other fancy dressed dude is Tony DiNozzo. Tony, JD.”
“Pleasure,” Tony held out his hand.
JD shook it. “Any friend of Lundy’s is a friend of mine.”
“He’s family, JD.”
The correction was soft, but it was clear it meant something to JD by the way he gave Tony a second once over. He nodded. “Definitely nice to meet you then.”
Tony seemed to be taken momentarily off his stride by JD’s reaction, but recovered quickly. “You know stories about Levon?”
“I got a couple of duzzies I could share.”
“Sweet.” Tony raised a fist, and JD bumped it with his. “We need to talk.”
“Shame Ez is busy.” JD smirked. “He’s the one with lots of stories.”
“Thank God for small favors,” Lundy said. “The last of our group is Jethro Gibbs. Gibbs, JD Dunne. Don’t let his baby face fool you, the kid is older than he looks.”
JD stuck out his tongue at Lundy before offering his hand to Gibbs. “Nice to meet you, Sir.”
Gibbs nodded, shaking JD’s hand, successfully reining in the urge to tell him not to call him ‘sir’. He wasn’t sure why the kid called him ‘sir’. There wasn’t any thing in Lundy’s introduction that marked him as an outsider in the group. Maybe it was just his being older than everyone else.
“You don’t need to sir him, JD.” Lundy said, shouldering his backpack. “It makes him tetchy.”
JD raised both eyebrows. “Same way it does, Chris?”
“Pretty much.”
JD grinned. “Might not want to say anything to Buck then.”
“Why?” Gibbs asked.
“Because if it bothers you, Buck will just keep doing it.” JD shrugged. “He claims it’s part of his charm.”
“Well, he is one of them most charming pricks I know,” Lundy offered dryly, rolling his eyes. He started walking around the hanger. Tony moved to follow, a garment bag carelessly slung over one shoulder. Gibbs wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one that one bag, with suits, was all Tony seemed to be bringing.
“You have some of the strangest people as friends, Levon.” LaFiamma pulled a small carryon case behind him, walking in step with his partner.
“Oh like you can talk.” Lundy snorted. “I’ve met some of your friends.”
“Please. None of my"“
“Manny.”
Joe frowned. “Okay, so maybe he is a little--”
“Sally.”
“Hey, she’s not even what I’d really call a friend. That was just…”
Gibbs stopped listening, looking toward Tony. “Are they always like this?”
“Most of the time, yeah.” Tony chuckled.
As they rounded the hanger, the plane was readily visible on the tarmac. The white finish, gleaming brightly in the sun, was broken only by a black ace of spades painted across the tail section. Tony whistled in silent appreciation. JD gave him a delighted grin.
“Pretty, isn’t she?”
“Very.”
“If you guys want to just go ahead and board, I’ve got to finish up a few things here, and we’ll be ready to take off.”
“Sure thing, JD.” Lundy gave him a two finger salute, getting a wink and a similar salute in return.
“Hey, Levon?” Tony called out as he followed the blond up the steps into the plane.
“Yeah?”
“What does you friend Ezra do?”
“As little as possible, Slick.” Lundy laughed, tossing his bag into an overhead compartment and flopping down on one of the leather seats.
Tony gave him a dirty look as he neatly hung his garment bag in the closet provided for that purpose. Kate might have accused Tony of being a pig, but when it came to taking care of his possession, he was far more particular than she’d given him credit for.
“Seriously, Levon, what does he do?”
“Ezra handles financial investments.” Lundy shrugged. “He tried to explain it to me once, but all I can honestly say I ever really understood was that’s a lot like playing poker.”
After putting his bag in the same compartment Lundy had used, LaFiamma sat next to his partner. Tony took a seat opposite Lundy. Gibbs sat next to Tony. He expected to get some sort of warning glance from LaFiamma, and the other man didn’t disappoint him. It was clear LaFiamma still didn’t trust him. Lundy, on the other hand, didn’t even bat an eye.
Conversation drifted between Lundy, LaFiamma and Tony covering topics from details on their cases, to their coworkers and friends, to movies they’d seen or would like to see, renovation plans for the house, and sports. Gibbs was under no obligation to participate, but they didn’t make any effort to exclude him either. Watching and listening to them Gibbs was painfully aware of how this sort of lighthearted banter and general life related discussions had been absent from his team since Tony left. If they still talked and teased each other, it wasn’t where Gibbs could overhear it.
Twenty minutes after they were airborne, Tony became restless. He pulled out the flash drive Lundy had given him, playing with it. Gibbs knew Tony had already reviewed the information on it, but he could understand Tony wanting to go over it again. He knew first hand that it was best to be prepared when going up against Fornell.
Lundy watched Tony fiddle with the flash drive. He pointed to what Gibbs could only think of as the ‘office area’ of the cabin. It had a desk, at any rate, and a plush looking office chair.
“Unless he’s suddenly changed his habits, Ezra usually keeps a spare laptop in the desk drawer.”
“He leaves a spare laptop on his plane?” Tony looked surprised.
“Guy makes his living keeping up with the markets worldwide. He says he can’t afford not to be able to connect any time, anywhere.” Lundy shrugged. “He’s got a back up to his Blackberry and cellphone too.”
“He have technical difficulties a lot?” Joe asked.
“Dunno about a lot, but he did at least once. Cost him a pretty penny too.” Lundy shrugged again. “When I asked about it, he said he didn’t want to ever again be at the mercy of some times frail and unstable nature of the devices upon which his livelihood depends.”
Gibbs thought this Ezra must be a smart guy. He’d never be able to do half the things McGee did, whether the damn computer was working or not. Tony had been the least adept of the team and even he did better than Gibbs ever managed to do when it came to making a computer behave.
“He won’t mind if I use his computer?”
“Man didn’t baulk at letting us use his plane. Doubt using his computer will faze him much. Especially since anything sensitive will be protected.”
Tony nodded and got up. He headed for the desk, settling into the plush leather seat with a satisfied sigh. The laptop was where Lundy said it would be, and with no trouble at all Tony had it plugged in and booted up.
Gibbs watched him study the case file. He couldn’t tell by the younger man’s expression just what details he was reviewing. He itched to talk to him, to have the sort of one on one discussion he had with him when Tony had first started working at NCIS. And it would definitely be a safer topic of conversation than rehashing why Tony quit and if he would consider coming back to NCIS. Gibbs wasn’t sure he was ready to ford that breech again yet or not. He kept hoping Tony would make the first move.
Lundy nudged Gibbs with the toe of his boot. “You waiting for an engraved invite?”
Gibbs glared at him. Lundy just stared calmly back at him, unruffled. It was decidedly annoying.
With a silent sigh, Gibbs undid his seatbelt and got up. As he headed toward Tony, he was aware that LaFiamma switched seats. There was no doubt in his mind LaFiamma did so in order to keep an eye on Gibbs. Part of him wanted to be pissed by the clear display of distrust, and another part of him still found it reassuring that Tony had someone watching his six. Gibbs shook his head. He hated ambiguity.
Gibbs sat down in the seat facing the desk. Tony glanced up, making eye contact. He didn’t seem overly surprised or wary. If Gibbs didn’t know better he’d have thought Tony and Lundy had planned this.
“Do you think she did it?” Tony asked quietly.
Gibbs pursed his lips, considering the question not needing Tony to expound further on who or what. He sighed. “Probably.”
“Me too.” Tony nodded. Green eyes flickered away before meeting blue again. “Proving me innocent doesn’t require we prove her guilty.”
Gibbs raised both eyebrows. “You want her to get away with murder?”
“Hell no.” Tony grimaced, shaking his head. He rested his elbows on the desk, leaning forward slightly. “But have you thought about what happens if Shepard is convicted?”
“She goes to jail.”
Tony snorted. “And the collateral damage…you think about that?”
Gibbs brow furrowed. “Collateral damage?”
“I realize politics isn’t your strong suit.” Tony cocked his head to one side. “But you can’t honestly believe there wouldn’t be a hurricane size shit storm that comes out this. Seriously, Gibbs, how could it not? Convicting the director of a federal agency of running an unsanctioned investigation of a foreign national and murdering the man is going to have an impact on more than just Shepard.”
Gibbs frowned. He hadn’t honestly thought about it.
“She misused government equipment and personnel, Gibbs. That alone will guarantee someone on Capital Hill will want to take a closer look at just what is going on in a small agency they never heard of.” Tony made a small moue of distaste as though he’d bitten into something sour. “An oversight committee going over every penny spent, every shot fired, every case worked…my won’t that be fun.”
Tony shook his head. “And I can think of a least a dozen cases we worked where the rules got bent. They take a closer look at how things were done…even if we never officially stated it in the reports they are bound to find out about locks that got picked, computers that got hacked into, mail that was taken without a warrant, suspects that were lied to or never formally read their rights, lack of cooperation with other agencies….trust me, something will come up that will bite you in the ass.”
Tony sighed and raised a hand to rub tiredly at his eyes. Gibbs wondered just how much sleep he’d gotten the night before. He had a feeling Tony’s wasn’t nearly as restful as his own had been and he suddenly felt guilty for having gotten a good night’s sleep.
Tony looked at him, expression sober. “If what we suspect is true, Shepard is chest deep in shit and she’s at the top of the hill. Given how shit flows, just how deep do you think it will be when it gets to where you are? Where McGee, Ziva and Abby are? Ducky and Palmer?”
“What about you?” Gibbs asked, noticing Tony had left himself off the list.
“I already got a lifeboat.” Tony nodded to where Lund and LaFiamma sat. “An oversight committee can’t fire me or force me to resign. They can’t reassign me to a crap detail for punishment. They can’t dock my pay, watch my every move or double check my work. At best they can call me back to question my actions, but I always have the Nuremburg defense to fall back on. I just followed orders like a good little soldier should.”
Gibbs considered what Tony said. He was right. If one of the higher ups decided to put NCIS under a microscope since Shepard took over, things could get ugly. And it wasn’t even just her…no, Tony was right about that too. Many of the cases they’d work rules had been bent. Gibbs had outright broken several. He’d gotten away with doing so because he’d been right, and the end result had been worth it, but an outsider looking in might see him as tainted by the same ‘corruption’ as Shepard. The worst thing was Gibbs wasn’t entirely sure they’d be wrong. Tony’s point about him being a hypocrite had been an unexpectedly accurate and decidedly painful hit. His recommitting himself to the principles that had guided him for most of his life might have come too late.
“Damn.”
“Exactly.” Tony looked at him steadily. “So my question to you is how do you want to play this?”
“You think we should let her walk?” Gibbs made a point of trying to include Tony in the decision.
“There is no ‘we’, Gibbs.” Tony bit his lower lip, sitting back. “My goal is to prove my own innocence. Whether Rene Benoit was murdered or committed suicice is not my problem.”
“You can’t tell me you don’t care.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t care, Gibbs.” Tony met his gaze squarely. “I said it’s not my problem.” Tony’s lips curled upward in a bitter smile. “I’m not even a federal agent any more, Gibbs.”
“That can be fixed.”
“How?” Tony snorted. “You think now would be a good idea to have Shepard reinstate me?” His tone was laced with biting sarcasm.
“Tony"“
“She might be the target of an FBI investigation and could easily be fired for misconduct and abuse of her office if nothing else.” Tony rolled his eyes. “And let’s not forget the bitch already used me like a cheap whore. So, no, I don’t even want to consider what asking her for a favor might cost me. Thanks anyway.”
“I didn’t mean her"“
“It doesn’t matter, Gibbs.” Tony shook his head. “I’m not coming back to NCIS.”
Gibbs paled hearing that stated so bluntly. He thought that last night he’d made some headway toward fixing things. Tony hadn’t seemed quite so lost as when he’d left to go running last night, and he seemed okay at breakfast. There was no anger or veiled hostility, no resentment or disappointment either. He acted the way he had for as long as Gibbs had known him.
Gibbs took a deep breath and released it. “You know I said the same thing.”
“I know.”
“I changed my mind.”
“I know that too.” Tony smiled. “But you went to Mexico and didn’t have any firm obligations there. Me…I went to Houston where I have family, friends and a job. Not the same Gibbs.”
“Everyone wants you back.”
“Maybe.” Tony looked away.
“There’s no maybe about it, DiNozzo.” Gibbs wanted to shake him. Was it really that hard to believe the rest of the team missed him? “Didn’t what I said last night tell you anything?”
Tony’s expression was unreadable. “If I said yes to coming back, what happens then?”
“What do you mean what happens?”
“Everything back to normal, right?” Tony arched an eyebrow.
His first reaction was to say ‘yes’, but Gibbs hesitated to speak. He felt like he did when any of his ex-wives always put him on the spot. Whatever he said would likely be the wrong thing.
“I don’t want things back the way they were. The way things were is the reason I left.”
“Things changed when I was gone,” Gibbs reminded him. He might not have wanted to see it, tried to actively ignore it, but as Tony pointed out last night, things had changed.
“Yeah, and I was one of them.”
Gibbs’ jaw tightened. “It will be better,” he insisted quietly, sounding more confident than he truly felt.
Tony shook his head. “You can’t step in the same river twice. And I don’t think I really want to.”
“But you don’t know for sure?”
Tony sighed. “I’m not going to give up what I have in Houston on the chance things in D.C. will have improved in my absence. Or hope that old habits won’t be resurrected.”
Gibbs tried to smile. “I thought you were a risk taker.”
“I was.” Tony looked sad. “Then Kate died. And John. And Paula.” Tony’s gaze shifted to the window. “I nearly died more times than I care to count. The only woman I ever said ‘I love you’ to and actually meant it is trying to frame me for murder.”
Tony cleared his throat. “I can’t risk more any more than I can stand to lose, and right now, Gibbs, I don’t have anything to put on the table.”
Everyone had a breaking point, Gibbs knew that. He’d found his own when the Cape Fear exploded and nineteen men died needlessly. He couldn’t tell Tony to just suck it up any more than he could promise the reasons he left NCIS in the first place wouldn’t resurface.
Gibbs swallowed hard. “What about the others?”
“If they want to talk to me, I’ll listen.” Tony stated firmly. “I owe them that much. But I’m not making any promises.”
Gibbs nodded. Abby and Ducky might stand a chance of changing Tony’s mind and convincing him coming back to NCIS wasn’t as big a risk as he seemed to think. McGee and Ziva, Gibbs wasn’t so sure about. The one person he needed to make certain didn’t say anything to Tony was Shepard. She’d already tipped the balance once, he had no illusions that she could fuck things up again.
“You want some coffee?” Tony asked.
“I’d love a cup.”
“While I make a pot, how about you go through that again,” Tony pointed to the computer. “Maybe we can find a way to keep everyone else at NCIS from being tainted by Shepard’s little vendetta and still see to it she doesn’t get away with murder.”
Gibbs nodded. He still had people to protect. And maybe this would give him another angle to work with Tony. He wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet.
Author's Chapter Notes:
On the plane. Gibbs and Tony talk a little more.