The Cascade Effect Chapter Nine/???
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 Nine
A few months had passed since Ziva had shot Ari and they’d had to send one of their own out of the area so that she would be protected. They’d gone it alone, just Gibbs, Tony and McGee but finally she was coming home and would be back to work now that she was medically cleared to do so.
Tony had gone into the office after a weekend off and was mumbling to himself about where Kelly had taken him to eat.
“I shouldn't have come into work today. Gibbs sees me like this....” Tony trailed off as he was interrupted by a voice behind him.
“He’ll probably be as horrified as I am Agent DiNozzo.” Tony turned around to look at the person who had spoken.
“You mind telling me, uh, what you're doing here again?” Tony asked.
“Uuhhhh, waiting.”
“For what?”
“To start work. Does everyone always come in this late?”
“It's 0700.”
“In Mossad we start at 0500.”
“Okay, let me rephrase the original question: 'what the hell are you doing here, Ziva?”
“I see, Gibbs didn't tell you.” Ziva said.
“Tell me what?” Tony asked.
“Mossad has assigned me to NCIS as a Liaison Officer. We're going to be working together.”
“Uh-huh. Does Gibbs know about this?”
“He should. Mossad has assigned me to be a Liaison Officer. Here are my orders, signed by Director Sheppard.” Ziva said as she handed over the papers to Tony. She went and sat back down taking a drink of the coffee she had swiped from McGee.
“Does anyone have a key for this?”
“That’s Kate’s desk!” McGee said, obviously upset.
“Yes, when does Special Agent Gibbs come in?”
“Now.” Toy said seeing Gibbs walk off the elevator. He handed the folder back to Ziva.
“Special Agent Gibbs.” Ziva said, holding her hand out.
“Ziva.” Gibbs shook her hand. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I’m looking forward to working with you.” She told him. He raised an eyebrow before taking a drink of coffee and walking around her heading up to MTAC where he knew the Director would be.
“I stand corrected. It appears he didn’t know. I feel like a donkey's butt.” She said, walking back around the desk to sit down.
“Donkey's butt?” McGee asked Tony.
“I think she meant 'Horse's ass', McGee.”
“Yes, that, too.” Ziva said, sitting down.
~MTAC~
“Something I can help you with this morning, Special Agent Gibbs?” Jenny asked as Gibbs sat down next to her.
“Yeah, I've got a personnel issue, you know anything about that?”
“I take it Ziva arrived a few days early? Right. Before we get into this, I’m gonna need a refill.”
Gibbs flipped the lid off her coffee cup and then poured some of his coffee into her cup before setting it back down next to her.
“Well, that was sweet. Not necessarily sanitary, but sweet.”
“What is she doing here, Jen?” he asked pointedly.
“If we're going to fight a global war on terror, we need to work closely with our allies.” She told him, not realizing just what kind of problems she was causing.
“That's good, put her on somebody else's team, mine is full.”
“I want her with you, Jethro. You’re down one member so your team is not full.” She said, a petulant look on her face.
“My team is full Director. Plus Mossad trained her to spy and kill, not to investigate crime scenes. Send her to the CIA.”
“Just to be clear. This is not a request or a debate, Agent Gibbs. I know that it’s rather soon after Agent Todd’s Death but you need a fourth member.”
“Anything else you want to change about my team, while I'm here?” he asked, knowing that she was in for a rude awakening once Kate showed up later that day.
“This is not up for debate, end of conversation. Now, I have meetings that I need to attend and things that I need to oversee.” Jenny said standing up and leaving. Gibbs followed shortly after, angry that Jenny would try and replace Kate. She had apparently not gotten the memo that Agent Todd was alive and well and would be returning to work today.
He went downstairs and told Ziva to pack up her trash. Ziva misunderstood that he was telling her to get out. There were only a few people that knew the truth about what had happened that night and they knew he could trust Ziva. Once he’d set her straight and got the reason why she’d requested the assignment. Walking off the elevator Ziva went to sit at Kate’s desk and he stopped her, sending her to sit at the desk by McGee’s. Since Kate would be returning soon he couldn’t allow her to have that desk.
When they got the call about the Marine dressed as a Civil War Re-enactor he had her go along to observe and made sure that she handed over all of her weapons. He did let her keep the knife she had hidden at her waist. While they were busy tracking down leads he went to speak with the director who was once again watching from the balcony over the bullpen.
“She seems to be fitting in well.” The director said to him. That just made him angry and he was looking forward to the look on her face when their absent agent walked through the elevator doors.
“She almost killed my entire team yesterday.” He told her, stressing the fact that he wasn’t happy with it.
“How?”
“Driving home from a crime scene.”
“I should have warned you, I think she was an Eastern European cab driver in a past life.” Jenny told him just as the elevator doors dinged open. They watched as Tony looked up and smiled, the person that had just disembarked was just out of sight of the balcony.
“Kate! The doctor finally sign your return to work slip?” Tony called out just as the person walked into view. Gibbs smirked as he heard Jenny gasp in shock.
“Yes, Tony. It’s about time too. I wouldn’t want Gibbs to have to put up with you alone for too long.” Kate said jokingly. Looking around she noticed the woman standing near Tony and raised her eyebrow. “Who’s this Tony?”
“Oh, Special Agent Caitlin Todd meet our new Mossad Liaison Officer Ziva David.” Tony said, smirking slightly.
“Good to have you back Kate.” Gibbs said coming up behind Kate and startling her.
“It’s good to be back Gibbs.”
“Special Agent Gibbs, what is going on?” Director Sheppard said walking up to them, the anger obvious on her face and in her voice.
“Director Sheppard meet Special Agent Kate Todd. She’s been out on Medical Leave due to a broken leg. This is the missing member of my team that I mentioned earlier. She’s also the one that Ari Haswari tried to kill. We placed her in protective Custody when we realized that Ari was going after the women I work with and care about.” Gibbs told her, smirk firmly planted on his face.
“Why wasn’t I informed that Agent Todd wasn’t killed?”
“You were. If you actually read the memo’s on your desk you would know that and wouldn’t have assigned another member to my team.”
Ziva’s eyes were wide with shock when she realized that the woman that her half-brother had killed was actually alive.
“Who was on the rooftop with you if Agent Todd was out on leave?” Jenny asked.
“Special Agent Paula Cassidy. She was temporarily assigned to my team by Director Morrow because of the threat on my life. Kate was the one who was running the protection detail but Paula was the one who was standing in for Kate in backing me up.” Gibbs told her.
Jenny wasn’t sure what to do so she decided to keep Ziva on Gibbs’ team for now until she could figure out how to sort this mess out. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to send Ziva back to Mossad considering that she wanted to be away from there for a while.
Kate sat down at her desk while Tony filled her in on their current case and explained that Ziva was only observing for now. Once Kate was caught up she was a great help. She had discreetly shadowed Ducky, the Forensic Anthropologist Lady and Ziva when they went to track down landmarks of the map. She was the one to discreetly take care of the two men while Ziva took care of the female doctor.
Once they had wrapped up the case Gibbs watched as Kate took it upon herself to get to know Ziva, inviting her over to her place for dinner that night. Tony had been invited but had declined since he had plans. Gibbs knew that those plans were with Kelly but had no intentions of telling them that. He’d heard Ziva ask about the young woman who had visited him, which had been Kelly, and Tony’s response to her question. Tony was being cautious on who he told about Kelly and Gibbs was thankful of that. While he trusted Ziva to some extent she still believed that Kelly had been killed along with Shannon and he had no plans to change that knowledge yet. He’d also seen Jenny’s reaction to Gibbs with the unknown woman as well. He knew their new director was jealous and wanted a chance to get back with him but there was no chance of that happening.
When Tony left he headed straight for Gibbs’ house where he would be picking Kelly up for her debut. He’d been teaching her to play the guitar since shortly after he’d met her and had also been teaching her to dance more than just a traditional Waltz. There was an Amateur Dance Competition going on at a local dance hall and then later they were going to a small Jazz Club that Tony went to where there was an Amateur Night happening.
Tony picked Kelly up, he whistled softly when he saw the beautiful flowing pale blue gown that Kelly was wearing. Thankfully he had been able to change before he’d left work and his suit matched her dress wonderfully. It was a pale charcoal suit with a pale blue dress shirt and polished black shoes. The dress brought out her eyes wonderfully and accented her natural figure beautifully. It wasn’t too revealing but it also wasn’t very stuffy either. She could pass as a member of High Society easily.
“You look stunning Kelly.” He said as he kissed her hand gently.
“Oh, Tony. You’re such a sweet talker.” She said giggling softly as she took his hand allowing him to lead her to his car.
Once they were on their way he glanced at Kelly from the corner of his eye. “You ready to dazzle them with our version of the Tango?”
“Yeah, just a little nervous. You remember the CD?”
“Yeah. It’s right here.” He patted the small bag that sat next to her on the seat.
Before long they had arrived at the dance hall and were seated, awaiting their turn to take the stage. Several contestants went up before their number was called. They headed back to the backstage and handed the DJ the CD.
“Number One.*” Tony told the man. When the first chords of the song began they heard the announcer and headed out onto the stage. They started slow, like it was a traditional Tango but when the tempo picked up they began to pick up their pace, throwing in plenty of their own original moves in the process. Once the song had finished and they had taken their bows to the large amount of applause they headed off stage. Once the competition had finished and the pacings were announced they prepared to leave. They had placed 4th out of the 20 some odd pairs that had competed. It wasn’t bad ofr their first dancing competition. They would have stayed for the rest of the categories but if they wanted to make it to the Jazz Club they needed to leave right after the competition.
“That was fun!” Kelly exclaimed as they headed out to Tony’s car.
“Kelly! Hey Kelly wait a minute!” a male voice called out from behind them.
“What do you want Alex?” Kelly asked turning around to face the man.
“You were great up there. I thought maybe you’d like to give it another go. You know me and you would be great together,” he said, leering at her.
“I told you it’s over Alex. I’ve moved on and I’m not gonna fall for your lies again.” She told him spinning around to walk off.
He grabbed her arm and said “I lied? I never lied to you. C’mon Baby give me another chance.”
“Let me go Alex.”
“C’mon Baby, Don’t be like that.”
“I said let me go!”
“I’d let her go if I were you.” Tony said, having had enough of her ex-boyfriend.
“Fuck off old man! This is between me and my girl.”
“I’m not your girl Alex.” Kelly said ripping her arm from her ex-s grip.
“You are mine!”
Tony pulled his gun and flashed his badge in the asshole’s face, “I’m a federal Agent and if you don’t quit harassing Kells you’ll be sitting in a six by nine cell. Kelly go get in the car while I take care of this dirt bag.” Tony said, preparing for a brawl.
“Who the hell do you think you are old man?”
“None of your damn business. Now get the hell out of here!” Tony told him.
“I’ll have your badge for this! My dad’s a lawyer!” the kid called over his shoulder as he turned tail and ran.
“Don’t bet on it.” Tony mumbled as he got in his car. “That the ex that’s been stalkin’ you?” he asked Kelly once they were on their way to the club.
“Yeah, thanks for getting rid of him Tony. I was about to have dad scare him off if he didn’t leave me alone.”
“No problem Kelly. If he continues to bother you just tell me, I’ll take care of him. You know I’ll always have your six just like I do your dad’s.” he told her.
“I know, thanks Tony.” She leaned over and kissed him on his cheek.
“Don’t let your dad see you do that. He’ll think I’ve corrupted his baby girl.” Tony said with a laugh, knowing Gibbs had seen her do that several times already. He’d actually freaked out the first few times but Gibbs had explained that it was Kelly’s way of showing her affection and that she saw Tony as an Older Brother which had made Tony feel extremely relieved as he saw Kelly as the little sister he’d never had.
They arrived at the club and Tony parked the car before getting out and opening Kelly’s door like a gentleman.
“Why thank you kind sir.”
“You’re welcome milady.” He said exaggerating a high society British accent and making a sweeping bow. He then pulled out his guitar and linked his free arm with Kelly’s as they headed inside. Kelly would be playing the guitar while Tony would play the Piano. It was to be a haunting and melodic piece that they had created together through trial and error and was the first piece of music that Kelly had ever written. They hadn’t added lyrics because it was an instrumental. Once they had finished their piece they sat down and had a few drinks while listening to the others that performed. They left shortly after 0100 and Tony dropped Kelly off before heading home himself and crashing. He needed to be at work by 0700 so he needed to get at least a few hours of sleep.
TBC…
AN: Yes, I did take into account Ari being a sniper. In the episode Kill Ari (Part 1) I noticed that it wasn’t a very good scope and so if he fired before she was fully turned around he would have thought it was Kate. Hence the mentioning of Paula’s haircolor changing. Hope you enjoyed that particular twist. As always reviews are greatly appreciated and Flames (and the flamers) will be dealt with accordingly; most likely being fed to my dragon and sent to the Bog of Eternal Stench.
*The song that I am referring to can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C6xDjQ66wM it’s Shakira’s Objection off of her album Laundry Service. It is the Spanish version as I think that one sounds better than the English version though both are good.
Chapter Ten>