What's Best for Tony Ch 7/7
Title: What's Best for Tony
Fandom: NCIS
Season: Season 3 AU
Raiting: T (to be safe)
Pairing: None planned so far
Summary: Sometimes, you have to do what's right for you, regardless of how anyone else feels. When Tony finds out he was purposely left out of a team dinner, a fact which the whole team laughs about in his face, he decides to do what's best for himself. This time, there's nothing to run away from, but maybe he'll eventually find something to run to. AU-tag to end of 3.12 Boxed In.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or make any profit from this.
The following days were truly the first time Jenny Sheppard hated her job as director of NCIS. True to his word, her email and paper inbox had both started overflowing almost immediately with reports other agents had written up against Officer Ziva David, following the show down, the first one dating two days after she was officially a member of the MCRT. There were hundreds of infraction reports and she'd spent most of that night and the next morning reading them. She'd spent the entire afternoon on the phone and in MTAC with dozens of team leaders, putting out feelers to see if Ziva would be welcomed anywhere. Jenny was surprised to learn just how much those other leads valued DiNozzo and they all admitted that after what they'd heard of the Mossad officer, none were keen to work with her. Eventually she made the one call she didn't want to, which put her in touch with Special Agent in Charge Lara Macy. Macy ran a high level spec ops team based in LA which focused on terrorism. They'd had assignments around the world and it was the only place she could find to stash Ziva until this whole mess blew over. She could force the team lead to take the officer as Ziva's contacts would come in handy with their work, but she knew that Macy would limit what the woman had access to. Balboa had been right. Ziva wasn't an actual agent of NCIS. She was there on behalf of Mossad and that was where her loyalties lied. She shouldn't have a high clearance level or access to anything classified, and that included MTAC.
By the end of the week, a major upheaval had occurred for the small DC agency. Gibbs was gone. His memory had started to return, but the loss of his girls was too recent for him to deal with. Not that he'd ever really processed it in the first place. So he ran away from it all to spend his days on a beach with his old boss. He'd left Tony in charge of the team with a simple "You'll do." Hardly a confidence booster, but anyone who knew Gibbs knew that it was a ringing endorsement. Many of the agents, as well as employees of NCIS were thrilled for him and took over an entire restaurant for a night to throw him a party and celebrate. The day after Gibbs "retired," Ziva received her transfer orders. The director had fought long and hard with Agent Macy, but eventually got the other woman to relent. A direct order as her boss had helped. So once again the MCRT was back to just three men. Stan had decided to stay on as SFA. All three men knew McGee was nowhere near ready for the job, plus odds were the director would give them a probie and he didn't want Tony to have to deal with training two new team members. He was good enough friends with the man though to admit he was happy when Tony got the promotion. He deserved it.
The director did in fact ask them to use a probie, but she let the team pick the agent as a group instead of forcing someone on them. That was a mistake she didn't plan to make again. It'd brought her more grief than she'd ever care to admit. Michelle Lee was greener than McGee had been, but all three had taken her under their wings. At the end of every work "week," the team got together at Tony's for dinner, where they hung out and decompressed. It started as a team building exercise but quickly became a regular thing. They even invited Abby and the autopsy squad sometimes. Abby was becoming easier to handle in high doses though after a long talk with Tony. He reminded her that she never used to act this way. She didn't go all out with the heels and skirts and overboard with the Caf-Pow and Gibbs worship until after Kate had died. The girl had spent a few days reflecting after that, and had a nice long chat with the sisters, before coming to the conclusion that he was right. She was much more laid back before she lost her best friend. She vowed to find a cohesive mesh between the Abby she'd been then and the Abby she was now. She also promised not to pick on everyone so much. Just because she was hurt by Gibbs' departure didn't mean she was the only one.
As for Michelle, after a few months she started showing real potential. They'd initially chosen her due to her law background, knowing her contacts would come in handy, but she showed a true interest in becoming a field agent. Each man had something different to teach her and she listened closely to everything they told her. As with all things in her life, she wanted to do her best. She also didn't want to let anyone down. Eventually she'd become so comfortable with the team that as soon as her little sister, who she was raising, was kidnapped, she went straight to Tony. She showed up at his door at 2am shaking and barely holding back tears. She explained what happened and while it took a week, the team was able to use the text messages she received to find the bad guy and save the little girl. The bad guy was just another loser with something against the navy. He planned to use Michelle to get classified information he could sell to our enemies as payback for his marriage falling apart. His wife was a Lieutenant and she'd been out at sea for a year. They'd been having trouble for months and it finally came to a head the day she got back home on a two week leave. He killed her in a fit of rage and decided, in his deluded brain, that it was the navy's fault so he went after the easiest target he could find. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't counting on the agent to tell her team lead. He wasn't expecting the ambush, the swat team outside his house. He was taken out by a sniper when he tried to use the small girl as a human shield. It didn't work so well considering his six foot frame.
The crisis cemented the team together as one cohesive unit. They were given a week off after all was said and done to recuperate. Michelle was afraid to go home though, especially since they lived alone. So naturally the two Lees moved in with Tony. He had a large, three bedroom apartment and it didn't take much work to move the girls in. Michelle's apartment had been pretty sparse and she didn't want to keep any of the furniture she had. She didn't want anything that reminded her of the place her sister had been kidnapped from. Amanda had taken to Tony immediately and spending a week with him had helped her begin to heal. He did force both her and her sister into therapy though.
When the team returned from their time off, they found Gibbs waiting at Tony's desk. Apparently he wanted his job back. The director knew she could not split up her new MCRT. The team worked so well together. There was hardly any friction and while the first few weeks were awkward, they became a solid, cohesive unit and their case closure rate was actually three percent higher than Gibbs' former team. But the director also knew that Gibbs was very good at his job, so she decided to create a second MCRT, headed by Gibbs and gave him a new team. One member was Special Agent Brett Langer, an FBI agent he'd worked with before and liked well enough. Langer had wanted to make the jump to NCIS for a while. He was also given a tech savvy, but seasoned, senior field agent. For the final member he insisted Ziva be brought back. This caused some friction, obviously, but it was Gibbs, so everyone expected that. People were still icy towards her when she returned, but this time she at least had learned to respect her superiors and learned that she needed to do as told without arguing and belittling people. The NCIS human resource seminars, as well as working with Callan, Nate and Macy, had helped straighten her out.
When Gibbs finally remembered everything, he and Tony hashed things out over cowboy steaks and beers. They were both disappointed to no longer be teammates, but they both agreed that this was for the best. It was time for them both to move on. It was time to do what was best for Tony.
The End.
Fandom: NCIS
Season: Season 3 AU
Raiting: T (to be safe)
Pairing: None planned so far
Summary: Sometimes, you have to do what's right for you, regardless of how anyone else feels. When Tony finds out he was purposely left out of a team dinner, a fact which the whole team laughs about in his face, he decides to do what's best for himself. This time, there's nothing to run away from, but maybe he'll eventually find something to run to. AU-tag to end of 3.12 Boxed In.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or make any profit from this.
The following days were truly the first time Jenny Sheppard hated her job as director of NCIS. True to his word, her email and paper inbox had both started overflowing almost immediately with reports other agents had written up against Officer Ziva David, following the show down, the first one dating two days after she was officially a member of the MCRT. There were hundreds of infraction reports and she'd spent most of that night and the next morning reading them. She'd spent the entire afternoon on the phone and in MTAC with dozens of team leaders, putting out feelers to see if Ziva would be welcomed anywhere. Jenny was surprised to learn just how much those other leads valued DiNozzo and they all admitted that after what they'd heard of the Mossad officer, none were keen to work with her. Eventually she made the one call she didn't want to, which put her in touch with Special Agent in Charge Lara Macy. Macy ran a high level spec ops team based in LA which focused on terrorism. They'd had assignments around the world and it was the only place she could find to stash Ziva until this whole mess blew over. She could force the team lead to take the officer as Ziva's contacts would come in handy with their work, but she knew that Macy would limit what the woman had access to. Balboa had been right. Ziva wasn't an actual agent of NCIS. She was there on behalf of Mossad and that was where her loyalties lied. She shouldn't have a high clearance level or access to anything classified, and that included MTAC.
By the end of the week, a major upheaval had occurred for the small DC agency. Gibbs was gone. His memory had started to return, but the loss of his girls was too recent for him to deal with. Not that he'd ever really processed it in the first place. So he ran away from it all to spend his days on a beach with his old boss. He'd left Tony in charge of the team with a simple "You'll do." Hardly a confidence booster, but anyone who knew Gibbs knew that it was a ringing endorsement. Many of the agents, as well as employees of NCIS were thrilled for him and took over an entire restaurant for a night to throw him a party and celebrate. The day after Gibbs "retired," Ziva received her transfer orders. The director had fought long and hard with Agent Macy, but eventually got the other woman to relent. A direct order as her boss had helped. So once again the MCRT was back to just three men. Stan had decided to stay on as SFA. All three men knew McGee was nowhere near ready for the job, plus odds were the director would give them a probie and he didn't want Tony to have to deal with training two new team members. He was good enough friends with the man though to admit he was happy when Tony got the promotion. He deserved it.
The director did in fact ask them to use a probie, but she let the team pick the agent as a group instead of forcing someone on them. That was a mistake she didn't plan to make again. It'd brought her more grief than she'd ever care to admit. Michelle Lee was greener than McGee had been, but all three had taken her under their wings. At the end of every work "week," the team got together at Tony's for dinner, where they hung out and decompressed. It started as a team building exercise but quickly became a regular thing. They even invited Abby and the autopsy squad sometimes. Abby was becoming easier to handle in high doses though after a long talk with Tony. He reminded her that she never used to act this way. She didn't go all out with the heels and skirts and overboard with the Caf-Pow and Gibbs worship until after Kate had died. The girl had spent a few days reflecting after that, and had a nice long chat with the sisters, before coming to the conclusion that he was right. She was much more laid back before she lost her best friend. She vowed to find a cohesive mesh between the Abby she'd been then and the Abby she was now. She also promised not to pick on everyone so much. Just because she was hurt by Gibbs' departure didn't mean she was the only one.
As for Michelle, after a few months she started showing real potential. They'd initially chosen her due to her law background, knowing her contacts would come in handy, but she showed a true interest in becoming a field agent. Each man had something different to teach her and she listened closely to everything they told her. As with all things in her life, she wanted to do her best. She also didn't want to let anyone down. Eventually she'd become so comfortable with the team that as soon as her little sister, who she was raising, was kidnapped, she went straight to Tony. She showed up at his door at 2am shaking and barely holding back tears. She explained what happened and while it took a week, the team was able to use the text messages she received to find the bad guy and save the little girl. The bad guy was just another loser with something against the navy. He planned to use Michelle to get classified information he could sell to our enemies as payback for his marriage falling apart. His wife was a Lieutenant and she'd been out at sea for a year. They'd been having trouble for months and it finally came to a head the day she got back home on a two week leave. He killed her in a fit of rage and decided, in his deluded brain, that it was the navy's fault so he went after the easiest target he could find. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't counting on the agent to tell her team lead. He wasn't expecting the ambush, the swat team outside his house. He was taken out by a sniper when he tried to use the small girl as a human shield. It didn't work so well considering his six foot frame.
The crisis cemented the team together as one cohesive unit. They were given a week off after all was said and done to recuperate. Michelle was afraid to go home though, especially since they lived alone. So naturally the two Lees moved in with Tony. He had a large, three bedroom apartment and it didn't take much work to move the girls in. Michelle's apartment had been pretty sparse and she didn't want to keep any of the furniture she had. She didn't want anything that reminded her of the place her sister had been kidnapped from. Amanda had taken to Tony immediately and spending a week with him had helped her begin to heal. He did force both her and her sister into therapy though.
When the team returned from their time off, they found Gibbs waiting at Tony's desk. Apparently he wanted his job back. The director knew she could not split up her new MCRT. The team worked so well together. There was hardly any friction and while the first few weeks were awkward, they became a solid, cohesive unit and their case closure rate was actually three percent higher than Gibbs' former team. But the director also knew that Gibbs was very good at his job, so she decided to create a second MCRT, headed by Gibbs and gave him a new team. One member was Special Agent Brett Langer, an FBI agent he'd worked with before and liked well enough. Langer had wanted to make the jump to NCIS for a while. He was also given a tech savvy, but seasoned, senior field agent. For the final member he insisted Ziva be brought back. This caused some friction, obviously, but it was Gibbs, so everyone expected that. People were still icy towards her when she returned, but this time she at least had learned to respect her superiors and learned that she needed to do as told without arguing and belittling people. The NCIS human resource seminars, as well as working with Callan, Nate and Macy, had helped straighten her out.
When Gibbs finally remembered everything, he and Tony hashed things out over cowboy steaks and beers. They were both disappointed to no longer be teammates, but they both agreed that this was for the best. It was time for them both to move on. It was time to do what was best for Tony.
The End.