The Cascade Effect Chapter Three/???
The Cascade Effect
Rating: R(Will Go Up to NC-17)
Summary: One Event, One Minor change in the way something happens can change a lot of events in the future.
Disclaimer: I don’t own so no sense suing.
Chapter Three
Their next few cases had been interesting but the case that had caused him the most worry to date was the guy shooting Marine recruiters. It wasn’t the fact that a sniper was taking them out but the way they planned to catch the guy. When Gibbs had suggested that he would go under as a marine recruiter Tony’s heart had just about stopped. He wondered if Kelly knew what her dad was doing. If she did he couldn’t see her wanting Gibbs to risk himself like that.
“What if he succeeds?” Tony asked Kate and Gibbs after Kate had explained why they had decided that Gibbs needed to be out in the open.
Gibbs’ response “He Won’t” wasn’t very re-assuring.
His worry still didn’t stop him from discreetly perusing Gibbs in his Dress Blue’s. The man certainly was sexy, he could see why he’d been married three times.
After making sure the comm’s worked all they could do was wait. After several hours and several kids going in Tony had to comment.
“What are you doing? Giving away free X-boxes in there? That’s the tenth kid this morning.” Tony asked Kate.
“He’s really good at this. I’m even thinking of signing up.” Kate told him.
“What about potential snipers?” Tony asked.
“You’ll be the first to know.” She told him.
“No, Gibbs will.” Tony said, before continuing. “Just tell me he’s still wearing his vest.”
There was silence as Kate looked at the floor near the desk Gibbs was sitting at.
“He said it was visible under his shirt.” She didn’t sound too happy.
“I knew it. If that sniper doesn’t kill him I will. Of all the stupid idiotic things.” Tony mumbled, finishing off his sandwich. ‘Hopefully Kelly doesn’t find out otherwise she’ll be on my case as well as Gibbs’ even if she does know about this op’ he thought, keeping an eye on the recruitment office.
When it was all over Tony was relieved, despite the fact he’d shot the killer and the FBI was taking the credit yet again. He should have known that it was just the calm before the storm.
They were finishing up their reports when the elevator doors opened with a ding. Tony glanced up from his report at the same time Gibbs and Kate did to see who their visitor was.
Where is he?” the woman growled to Tony. Raising his hand he pointed in Gibbs’ direction.
“What the HELL were you thinking?!?!?!? Putting yourself in the line of fire like that!!! That is one of THE MOST STUPIDEST, IDIOTIC THINGS YOU’VE EVER DONE!!!!!! What if the glass HADN’T stopped that bullet from ripping right through your head? Or you heart? Do you think that you vest can save you from a shot to the head from a SNIPER?!?!?” The young woman ranted.
“Kelly….”
“No, you listen to me! I am sick of you acting like you’re invincible!!!!!” Gibbs winced as she continued to rant at him.
“Kelly, I’m fine. Nothing happened and nothing would have happened.”
“Sure, you probably didn’t wear your vest either.” The look on his face told her everything she needed to know.
“You went WITHOUT YOUR VEST?!?!?!” she screamed. Tony let loose a quiet snicker, it wasn’t every day that you saw Gibbs getting berated.
“And You!” she whipped around to face Tony before starting in on him too. “You’re supposed to be the one with common sense! You should have made sure he wore his vest, Tony!”
“Hey! I wasn’t his partner on this one Kelly. Yell at Kate, she’s the one that let him go without a vest. I believe her words to me were ‘he said it could be seen through his uniform’ and I was out in the car ready to nab potential suspects.” He said, trying to turn the young woman’s anger away from him. He could see why Gibbs never told her anything, she was just as hot-headed as Gibbs himself was.
“Yeah, I also heard that YOU went after the suspect ALONE, Tony. You could have been shot, you could have been killed! You are almost as bad as my dad!”
“Kelly! Calm down, sweetie. I’m fine, DiNozzo’s fine. Nothing happened.”
“It COULD have, though! Do you think I want to lose my FATHER too????? I wish you would TELL me when you’re gonna run an op like this. A least give me SOME sort of warning, Dad.” Kelly said.
“Kelly we’re all fine. No-one was hurt. You should know by now that being an Agent is dangerous and I can’t always tell you when I or someone on my team is going to have to go undercover. Just calm down, sweetie.” Gibbs said, pulling his daughter into a hug.
Once she’d calmed down she pulled away before walking over to Tony.
“You’re not going to berate me some more are you Kelly?” he asked as she walked towards him.
“No, Silly.” She said before pulling him into a hug. “I'm glad you’re okay too.” She whispered as Tony stood there awkwardly. It certaintly wasn’t every day your Boss’s daughter hugs you in front of said boss.
“Kels, I think you’ve startled DiNozzo enough for one day.” Gibbs said with a laugh.
“Maybe.” Kelly said, pulling away from him and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Thanks for being on my dad’s six Tony.” She told him before turning around and sitting down at her dad’s desk.
Kate was confused though. Her profile of Gibbs didn’t mention anything about children from any of his two previous marriages.*
As they left for the night Tony smiled and waved goodbye to Kelly. She’d managed to corner him before he’d left and ask him about going to see the new movie with Johnny Depp. He’d agreed only because he knew Gibbs wouldn’t be over-protective if it was him taking Kelly to see the movie instead of her going with a bunch of her friends from school.
A few cases later and Tony’s heart about stopped in his chest again. Gibbs had been shot by a cheeky terrorist. Thankfully it was a through and through and the EMT’s were on their way.
Kelly came running in with Abby and was glad that he was fine. Tony knew it was the first time that Abby was meeting Kelly. Gibbs, who was slightly out of it, was unable to introduce them so Tony did.
“Abby, Kelly. Kelly, Abby.” Tony said as he walked with the EMT’s to the ambulance.
“Boss, you okay?” Tony asked.
“Fine, DiNozzo. Need to find that bastard though.” Gibbs told him as the EMT’s loaded him into the ambulance. If it weren’t for the fact that both Kelly AND Tony would berate him for not going to the hospital Tony knew he wouldn’t be going at all.
Later that night Kelly called Tony because her dad was once again stewing over the bastard that shot him and Gerald. She’d woken to the sound of two gunshots and had managed to sneak a peek into the basement where her dad was. There was a picture of that terrorist and it looked like her dad had shot two holes into the picture.
“You know how your dad gets, Kelly. He’s like a dog with an old bone. Throw him a juicy steak to chew on and he will but once that’s gone he goes back to gnawing on that old bone. The terrorist is your dad’s old bone right now.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just worrying sometimes. Especially when he gets to the point where he starts snapping at everyone, even me.” Kelly told him.
“It will take a while for him to get to that point. We both know that.”
“I know. Keep an eye on him for me?”
“I’ll always be on his six. You know that Kelly.”
“Thanks Tony.”
“No problem kiddo. Get some sleep, okay. Goodnight,”
“Night, Tony.”
They hung up and Tony began mulling over things in his head before falling asleep, visions of just what he’d like to do to that asshole terrorist floating around in his head.
Their next case was one fucked up case in which Tony had, once again, pretended to be disgusted by something he wasn’t. At the end of it all with Voss dead and Kate deciding to be a royal bitch by asking him what it was like to tongue a guy Tony had had to grab his gear and leave before he revealed something he didn’t want anyone to know yet, if ever. The fact that even after the case was solved she would bring it up was really beginning to piss him off. He was very close to filing a formal complaint and Gibbs knew it. He’d been talking to Kelly when Gibbs had gotten in one night shortly after the case and had overheard his complaints about Kate’s attitude and lack of respect for him as the senior field agent. Yeah, he knew part of it was because he acted like an overgrown frat boy but, that was his way of handling stress and it had helped to diffuse the tention on more than one occasion. Recently Gibbs had been riding Kate’s ass whenever she would bring up the Voss mess.
When they got called on a case of a missing marine, who was EOD, Tony knew things were gonna go sideways somehow. He should have known better than to go after a guy and trail him, alone.
He’d begged and pleaded for Gibbs to let him trail Sacco and he’d been allowed to do so. At first he’d thought Gibbs had said no but, it was just his hearing being funny after the explosion on the EOD training range. Gibbs had told him that he had to check in every hour though. Tony didn’t mind doing that.
He was in the NCIS issue sedan trailing Sacco when his phone rang.
“DiNozzo.”
~“What’s the word?” Gibbs asked him.
Sacco just left the base. I think he’s heading home for the night.” He told him.
Gibbs told him that they had found their missing marine, Cohen, and that he was dead. Gibbs didn’t want him to pick Sacco up and was shocked as Sacco pulled into the same bar that their missing marine, Atlas, had last been seen at.
~ “DiNozzo, watch your six.” Gibbs told him before hanging up, as per usual.
“Always.” Tony said, even knowing Gibbs wasn’t there and hung up.
He’d walked in and ordered only ginger-ale and had been rather discreet in his tailing. The man hadn’t seemed to notice him. As he walked out of the bar he pulled his phone from his pocket and called Gibbs; checking in like he’d promised to do. It wasn’t a minute into his conversation with his boss that he’d realized something was very, very wrong.
~“Hey” Gibbs said to Tony as he answered his call.
“Gibbs.” Tony began.
~What’s Up?” Gibbs asked.
“Sacco just left the bar off… Uh… uh…uh…I’m not feeling so well.” Tony said as his head began to spin, his vision blur and he started to stumble.
~“Tony? You okay?” Gibbs asked, concerned. Kate looked up from her perusal of the evidence they had just received.
“Think I screwed up, boss.” Tony told him before his phone fell from his hand and he fell into the bumper of his car. He managed to get his keys out of his pocket and tried to open his vehicle, but the keys fell from his slack grasp as his vison went dark and he collapsed to the ground.
~“Hey, DiNozzo. Can you hear me?” Gibbs asked, worried at the lack of response from Tony.
~“Hey Tony!.... Tony!....Tony, do you hear me?! We’re coming for you!” he shouted, standing from his desk and heading for the elevator.
They arrived at the crime scene and found a cell phone near the vehicle that Tony had signed out of the motor pool. He pressed the last call button and his phone rang, coming up as DiNozzo. It seems the same person who had taken Atlas, took Tony too.
Back at the office Kelly came running in.
“Dad, where’s Tony? Did you find him yet? Is he gonna be okay?”
“Kelly, calm down. He’ll be fine. We think we have a lead, we’re going to check it out now. Go down to Abby’s lab and wait okay. We’ll bring him back.” Gibbs told her, glad that they had been on their way out and no-one else was around but him and Kate.
Nodding, Kelly headed towards Abby’s lab and a, hopefully, comforting goth.
A few hours later and Kelly got word that they had just arrived with Tony. She immediately headed for the elevators and ultimately, the bullpen.
Walking off the elevator she saw Tony standing in the middle of the bullpen.
“Tony! You’re okay!” she yelled as she ran towards him before throwing her arms around his neck and whispering into his ear. “I was so worried about you when I found out you’d gone missing.”
“Hey, it’s okay Kelly. I’m fine, I’m alive and well. You know I’m hard to kill.” He told her, trying to make a joke to cheer her up. He’d started to become less nervous about hugging Kelly because everytime he saw her she hugged him, whether Gibbs was there or not. Thankfully Tony knew Gibbs wasn’t worried about anything, hinky, happening. He knew that Kelly was more like the little sister he’d never had.
“Tony, isn’t she a little…young…for you?” Kate asked, not having recognized Kelly because she’d only met the girl once and all she was seeing was the back of the girl’s head.
Tony pulled away and glared at Kate, along with Gibbs. McGee was just confused.
“That is low, Kate. Even for you. You remember Kelly, right?” Tony said as Kelly turned around and glared at Kate as well.
“If you weren’t a federal agent I’d punch you, Agent Todd.” Kelly told her, the barely concealed contempt and anger in her voice and expression had Kate taking a step back.
Kelly turned back around to face Tony. “You still gonna take me to see that new movie you promised to? Or do you need a rain check?”
“Nah, I’ll still take you. Besides, I want to see it too.” Tony told her as he moved to sit at his desk,
“You better not have messed anything up, McGee.” Tony told the loaned junior agent before starting a conversation with Kelly about her university classes and how they were going.
It was a few weeks later and Gibbs had just gotten worse about the un-named terrorist and finding him. McGee had once again helped them on a case and him and Abby were stood by Gibbs, who had once again slept in his office chair.
McGee and Abby were debating on whether to wake Gibbs up or not. When Gibbs did wake up he was more of a bastard than normal and his doubt over McGee’s ability to refine the search parameters of the facial recognition software that was searching for the terrorist. While McGee told him his idea, Gibbs went to the filing cabinet that held his spare clothes and pulled out a bright red pair of underwear. Thankfully they couldn’t see his raised eyebrow at Tony’s choice in undergarments nor his discreet feel of the, rather soft, fabric.
“Ooh, Gibbs! I dig ‘em!” Abby exclaimed. He’d held them a little too high as he reached in to grab his own clothes from the drawer.
“Tell DiNozzo.” Gibbs told her, he wasn’t in the best of moods since he’d once again slept in the office and hadn’t had his coffee yet. The cup on his desk had been pretty much empty and cold.
McGee continued explaining how the database worked and how he planned to optimize it.
“The FBI has a software program they use on photos of children that have been missing for years to show what they’d look like today.” McGee told him as they followed him.
“I know what that asshole looks like today, McGee.” Gibbs growled.
“I know you do, Boss. But to create that program the FBI needed age specific criteria.”
“So McGee spent half the night using their criteria to develop a program that can tell a person’s age from a photo.” Abby told him.
“I used the FBI algorithms for cordiodal strain, pore size, wrinkles, adipose tissue and the length of the nose and ears.”
“Which keep getting longer the older you get whether or not you wear earrings so you might as well wear them.” Abby told him as he rubbed his left ear where there was a small hole.
The piercing he’d gotten when he’d turned 16 to piss his dad off had never grown closed like they normally would. On occasion he’d wear the earring but not often. Abby seemed to have figured out he had his ear pierced and seemed to be trying to subtly tell him he should wear it more often.
“This you can do?” Gibbs asked, just to be sure.
McGee told him he could do it in a few hours which made Gibbs agree to call Norfolk. He couldn’t resist asking where McGee had stayed last night though and making a comment about Abby’s bed, which was a coffin. McGee had more balls than he’d originally given him credit for.
As the day progressed he became more and more frustrated. McGee had finally managed to find out his age and when he would have graduated from school in the UK at 21. He had refined the search parameters and had had one hit that had gone no-where. Tony and Kate had gone to lunch with Ducky and almost two hours later had not returned.
When Tony did return he told him that he was up shit’s creek without a paddle. Tony told him that he needed to see Moby Dick. He didn’t understand the reference. He went to speak with Ducky and as they were talking Ducky remembered that the terrorist had known anatomy. He’d gone to medical school. It was one more step in the right direction. He made McGee add in those parameters and Tony made a comment about the creek him and Kate were up. When Kate finally called in she told him she had food poisoning from some bad oysters. She told him that Tony was right about not eating them during a month without an R.
He headed out for more coffee. Not long after and he walked back into the bullpen to find a huddle consisting of Abby, McGee Tony and Ducky. They’d finally found that bastards name. Ari Haswari. He would finally be able to put him in his place. As him and Tony headed out to check on Kate Tony told him that Kate hadn’t eaten oysters; she’d had the tuna salad.
“That bastard’s got her!” He ground out heading back to his desk to try and find Kate and get her back from that Hamas terrorist.
They had Kate back but, the CIA had given Ari a get out of jail free pass so he could get information on Al-Queda. It pissed him off. He had managed to get Ari alone to talk to him. He paid him back by shooting him in the shoulder like he had done to Gerald and himself. If Ari ever stepped foot back in the states though, he had better hope that he didn’t come alone or show his face to Gibbs and his team.
TBC…
*Yes, I said two marriages. There is a method and reason to my madness. Things will be explained, be patient.
AN: That concludes this chapter. Hope you’ve liked the interesting twists and the different perspectives and interactions between chracters. As always, Comments, constructive Criticism and Reviews are welcomed. I love feedback. Flames will be fed to my dragon and flamers sent to Briarcliff. That said, Hope that this story is as fun for you guys to read as it is for me to write.
Chapter Four>