Los Angeles��"OSP Lab
Tony and Abby were hard at work, processing evidence as fast as they could while still being effective.
“What d’you got for me?”
“Jeez, Boss!” Tony jumped a foot in the air.
“Oh, hi, Gibbs,” Abby said calmly. She was used to him sneaking into the lab. “We found a partial print on a doorknob that doesn’t belong to the victim. We’re running it through AFIS now.”
“Good work, Abs. Can I borrow your assistant for a minute?”
Tony looked up.
“I guess so, but I need him right back. I’m up to my pigtails in evidence!” she yelled after them as they walked out.
“What’s up, Boss?” Tony asked.
“No.”
“That’s not really a yes or no question, Boss.”
“I’m not your boss right now, Tony.”
“What?” Tony’s temper started to flare up. “Boss, you can’t quit again! We can’t get through this case without you! Gibbs��"”
“Relax, DiNozzo. I’m not quitting. And for the last time, I didn’t quit before! I retired!”
“Then why aren’t you my boss?” Tony was genuinely confused.
“Last year I got to see how well you can lead a team. I was surprised, and proud. I’ve got no idea where to start looking for Eli David, or his hit men. Here in LA, there’s no boat for me to work on to help me come up with an answer. Maybe a fresh set of eyes would help. If you were in charge of this case, what would you do?”
“Wow, Gibbs. This is the second time today you’ve asked for my opinion. You feeling okay?”
“Don’t get used to it. And no, I’m not. Making the decision between dead sailors and losing an agent does that to a person. Now answer the question!”
“Well…” There was no way Tony was going to tell Gibbs that when he got really stuck, he’d sneak down to the evidence garage to ask Palmer’s opinion. Absolutely no way. “I’d hold a campfire.” Before Gibbs could respond, however, he added, “I know you don’t like them, but they work.”
“I know; I’ve seen it. Help Abby finish up whatever she’s working on, then I want you both upstairs. I’ll get everyone ready.”
“Everyone?”
“Yes. Ziva has every right to know. She won’t pass the information on to her father; even if she wanted to we wouldn’t let her. Now move it!”
“I thought you weren’t my boss.”
“I changed my mind. You can be in charge of the campfire, but I’m in charge of you.”
“Got it, Boss.”
“Abs,” Tony said, more to himself than to her, “Gibbs just said something about Eli David using hit men. What if this is like the Rivkin thing last year? Wait… It can’t be, can it? She likes Werth. Stupid, steroid-popping, nose breaking…”
“Tony…” Abby said warningly.
“You’re right, Abs. I guess it’s better than a trained killer hired by your father to keep killing until you leave the people who care about you. Especially when the last time you tried staying with him he sent you on a suicide mission, where you almost died in the Sahara until the people you chose to leave came and rescued you��"”
“Tony! Stop ranting! You’ve had your share of messed up girlfriends, too. Remember the one that was actually a man? Not to mention this one,” she muttered under her breath.
Tony glared at her. “I heard that, Abs.”
She shrugged nonchalantly. “Come on, I’m done. Which means Gibbs knows I’m done. Which means that if we don’t get upstairs soon, he will personally come and get us.”
“You go ahead. I just remembered something Gibbs told me to do.”
“Okay…but don’t touch the evidence!”
“I won’t, Abs. I’ve seen what you do to people that do.”
When Abby was out of sight, he pulled out his phone.
“Hey, Jeanne.”
“Tony?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m going back to Washington.”
“Now?”
“No, first thing tomorrow.”
“Oh. Do you have time for coffee before you leave?”
Tony laughed sadly. “I don’t even have time for this phone call. I’m really��"”
“I’ll come with you,” she blurted.
“What?”
“Give me some time to pack, and I can buy a plane ticket and a hotel room.”
“Jeanne…I appreciate that, I really do. But I won’t have any free time for a while. It’d be a waste of your time, and your money.”
“Don’t worry about that. If Anthony DiNozzo is anything like Tony DiNardo, he’s worth it. Besides, I miss DC. I haven’t been able to fit in out here. Believe it or not, I was even starting to look for an apartment.”
“All right, but like I said, I’m going to be really busy. I have to go now. See ya, Jeanne.”
“Bye, Tony.”
Los Angeles��"OSP Headquarters
Ignoring the curious stares (except for Gibbs’, which was angry, as usual), Tony got straight to business.
“Campfire,” he said simply.
McGee, Gibbs, and Ziva immediately gathered around him, out of habit.
“Excuse me, what?” Kensi asked on behalf of the entire LA team.
“It’s a campfire. We gather around and throw out ideas. It’s how Tony solves cases,” McGee answered.
“Is he in charge now?” Callen asked Gibbs.
“Nah, but campfires are his thing; I don’t want to take away from that.” He then turned his Gibbs-glare on his team as they shared knowing chuckles and grins. Even Ziva’s mouth twitched upward.
“Right, Boss,” Tony said, grinning, fueled by the team’s smiles. “It has nothing to do with the fact that ordinarily you hate campfires…Actually, you just hate talking in general.”
Luckily for Tony, Gibbs had also seen Ziva’s flicker of a smile. Instead of smacking Tony, he just grinned along with everyone else.
Tony, not wanting anyone to think they could get off as easy if they were to pick on his boss, smacked himself in the head. “On it, Boss!”
Then his expression changed into a more serious one. “Okay, so what do we know?”
“We know that we won’t be able to access phone records for the leader of a foreign agency,” Eric grumbled.
Tony and Gibbs both turned to him, Tony doing his best impression of the Gibbs-glare, and Gibbs giving him the real thing.
“Let me rephrase the question: What do we got?” Tony growled.
“We’ve got a pretty good idea who did it,” McGee pointed out. Immediately he regretted it as every terrace of a smile was erased from Ziva’s face. “Never mind…” he muttered.
“Gibbs, why am I here?” Ziva asked sharply.
“Three reasons: You know the suspect and how he works; I need all of my agents here, not babysitting you; and,” he finished with one of his rare smiles, “because I said so.”
She sighed, not liking any of his reasons.
“Hey, Probie!” Tony exclaimed, suddenly excited.
“What, Tony?” McGee wasn’t sure whether to be curious or annoyed.
“Do you remember what you said before we went to rescue Ziva in Africa?”
“Tony, I told you, I was joking about the leather pants.”
Abby looked up. “Ooh, who’s wearing leather pants?”
“I was seeing if he was listening. He wasn’t.”
“What are you talking about?” Tony asked. “I was talking about when we were down in Abby’s lab, and you said something that made…What was her name...? Anyway, it made that new agent quit.”
“Becky?” Abby asked.
“Yes! It was Becky! Do you remember, McProbius?”
“…I think so…” McGee was starting to look excited. Abby was trying to remember exactly what was said, and everyone else was just confused.
McGee, Tony, and Abby were talking about the lack of information regarding Ziva’s disappearance.
“And no one’s telling us anything. So we have two options,” Abby said.
“And they’re both illegal,” Tony added.
“Hack into Mossad…” McGee began.
“Or hack into Vance,” Abby finished.
Tony grinned. “I know Option Two is out of the question, but what about Option Number One? Could you do it?”
“Definitely.”
Gibbs finally lost his patience. He smacked them simultaneously. “DiNozzo! McGee! Do I need to remind you that the rest of us have no idea what you’re talking about?”
“They’re going to hack Mossad,” Abby said admiringly.
“Forgetting about the legal issues, of course, are you sure you could do it?” Hetty asked.
“I believe in McGee,” Gibbs said simply, but forcefully. “Now what was that other option?”
“Uh, I’ll tell you when I don’t have the feeling that Big Brother is watching us,” Tony said, glancing suggestively at the screen behind him.
“Well, I for one am exhausted. It’s been a long day, and we have a plane to catch in the morning. I suggest we all try to get some sleep,” Hetty said.
“Hetty’s right. The hit man��"or men��"are in DC, waiting for Ziva. I think my team can keep things under control tonight at the hotel,” Gibbs addressed the LA team. To Tony and McGee, he said, “I’ll take the first shift. You two look like you could use a couple hours’ sleep.”
“And what about you, Boss?” Tony asked, concerned.
“I’ll get some coffee. Now let’s go.”
Los Angeles"Hotel
Ziva was sound asleep when Tony and McGee came to relieve Gibbs.
“If anything happens, call me,” he ordered.
“Will do. G’night Boss.”
McGee had brought his laptop, and Tony was playing solitaire with a deck of cards. After a few minutes, Ziva’s snoring broke the silence. Tony grinned. It brought back memories of their first undercover mission. They had been married assassins. One morning he’d suggested that she see a doctor. When she asked him why, he’d said, “Because you snore like a drunken sailor with emphysema!” He chuckled at the memory.
“God,” McGee said. “Should we wake her up?”
Tony chuckled again. “I wouldn’t. She sleeps with a gun under her pillow. But be my guest…”
McGee shook his head and went back to whatever he was doing on his computer. After a minute of looking like he was debating with himself, he stopped typing again. “Tony…Today, why did you"”
He groaned. “Does there have to be a reason?”
“With you, yes. Tony, you pick on me every day, but today you’re completely against it. I think ‘why’ is a reasonable question!”
“Tim, I’m your friend. It’s funny when I pick on you,” he began.
“Hilarious,” McGee muttered sarcastically.
Ignoring this, he continued, “But Beal is your enemy. He’s trying to make you look bad.”
“And just how is that different from what you do?”
“I make you look bad in front of everybody, as a joke. Beal makes you look bad in front of Abby, for a purpose. Ant it needs to stop,” he said, growing serious. “Right now, we need to focus all our resources on protecting Ziva. Sorry if I seem insensitive, but this is about her, not Abby. You and Beal need to get over your differences and help us stop this dirtbag before it’s too late.”
“What do you want me to do, Tony? Call a truce?”
“Whatever it takes.” Tony’s hard expression softened again, and he lowered his voice. “McGee, in Somalia"and you might have been asleep at this point"I told Ziva that I couldn’t live without her. That’s the truth. I don’t know what I’ll do if she goes back to Israel.”
“What about Jeanne?”
“It’s complicated,” he said, closing the conversation.
The rest of the shift was spent in silence.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The title speaks for itself. Gibbs puts Tony in charge of a campfire. There. Now you know.