Fic: More His Speed (CSI:Miami/NCIS x-over) - DiNozzo/Speedle - NC-17 - Chapter 18/?
Title: More His Speed - Chapter 18
Word Count: ~2,400
Pairing: Tony DiNozzo/Tim Speedle (NCIS/CSI: Miami crossover)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings and/or Spoilers: Hot boy sex isn't really a "warning", but eh.. *shrug* Spoilers for "Grace Period."
Author's Notes: This all started with me talking to heartspeedand trying to figure out how to crossover Miami and NCIS... and it all just exploded like WOAH. The fic follows Tony and Speed through their relationship.
Summary: Someone targets a friend of Tony's.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. *pout* They belong to CBS.
Chapter 18
“Do you know them, McGee?” Ziva asked, fluorescent orange watch cap plastered on her head, as she and McGee looked at the pictures of the deceased agents.
“Jim Nelson and I went to FLETC together. I was at his wedding two months ago.” McGee mentioned with slight disbelief.
“This better not be another recall drill.” Tony groused as he and Speed walked in and sat at Tony desk. “We had floor seats for the Wizards this afternoon.”
“It’s Agent Cassidy’s team out of the Pentagon, Tony.” Ziva said.
“They were attacked.” McGee pursed his lips.
“Is she okay?” Tony asked, concern written across his face. Speed frowned a little.
“She survived.” McGee turned back to look at the photos on the plasma screen.
“Her men weren’t as lucky.” Ziva supplied.
“Well, what the Hell happened?” Tony demanded of the rest of the team.
“That’s what we’re going to find out, DiNozzo. Grab your gear.” Gibbs strode past the bullpen toward the elevator. “Grab your gear!” He shouted at his team. They all grabbed their stuff and headed for the elevator. Tony glanced back to find Director Shepard watching him from the stairs.
_+_+_+_+_
“Swabbed his apartment.” Ziva brought Yahzeed Fahad’s Driver’s license up on the plasma screen. “Not a trace of explosives.” She continued. Speed watched Tony run his thumbs over the black band that was secured over the badge in his hands. “He was a former sailor. President of the Muslim Society for Promoting Peace. Tony checked out his friends. Their alibi holds up. They were at a restaurant when-”
“You going to make a point soon?” Paula Cassidy interrupted.
Ziva brought up the footage of the man Cassidy was sure she saw enter the store on the screen. “Yes. Who did you see entering the building yesterday, Cassidy?”
“I’m not convinced that it wasn’t this guy.” Cassidy looked over at Tony. “I mean, how do we know that Ducky didn’t make a mistake?”
“Tony?” Ziva prompted.
“Because Ducky doesn’t make mistakes, Paula.” Tony replied as Speed discreetly wheeled his chair closer to Tony’s.
“Which means that what you saw yesterday was, by definition, mistaken.” Ziva turned back to the screen.
“Look, even if he did die the day before, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved.” Cassidy defended. “Right… Tony?”
Tony glanced at Ziva and validated Cassidy’s proclamation. “She does have a valid point, Ziva.”
“And we don’t even know what his cause of death is. I mean, for all we know he could have committed suicide.” Cassidy gestured toward the plasma screen.
“A suicide bomber who commits suicide before his bombing?” Ziva laughed incredulously. “I mean, it doesn’t make sense!” She shouted.
“No, it doesn’t!” Tony raised a finger as he stood from his chair and walked over to the two. “But it does raise an interesting point.” He paused. “Imagine if you will, ladies, an assisted suicide of a suicide bomber who suicided before his suicide bombing. It’s kind of like how many chucks would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” He was interrupted by Gibbs slapping the back of his head.
“DiNozzo! What the Hell is wrong with you?” Gibbs asked, turning to stand in front of his senior agent.
“I am just trying to lighten the mood of the room a little bit, Boss.” Tony glanced around to the others for some assistance.
“I got a better way. Leave. And take her with you.” Gibbs pointed at Cassidy.
“Works for me.” Ziva added.
“That works for me too, Day-vid.” Cassidy snapped back at her, pronouncing her last name incorrectly.
“Dah-veed.” Ziva corrected mildly.
“Re-evaluate the crime scene.” Gibbs sat at his desk. “Do not come back until you figure out how the guy she saw got out before the explosion!” “He shouted after Tony and gestured at Cassidy. Tony and Cassidy left for the elevator.
_+_+_+_+_
Tony and Cassidy walked into the cleared out store and paused in the doorway. “Okay, I’ll do the left, you do the right.”
“Okay.” Cassidy affirmed with a deep breath, her eyes watering a little.
“Are you okay?” Tony asked, concerned.
“It’s just so dusty in here.” She replied.
Tony placed a hand on Cassidy’s shoulder. “Paula, you don’t have to do this.” He said quietly.
“We both know that I do. When did you start being so caring?” Cassidy flicked her eyes toward him before stepping forward to investigate her agreed-upon side of the room.
“I have always been caring.” Tony lifted his hands in surrender. “I come from a very caring family. The DiNozzos, in fact, are celebrated for their caringness.”
“Right.”Cassidy rolled her eyes a little as she pulled on her gloves.
Tony squatted down to get his gear in order. “Maybe I wasn’t as caring once as I am now.” He turned a bit to look at her.
“What brought that on?” Cassidy asked. Tony just stared at a spot of the floor in front of him. “Or should I say ‘who?’”
“Well,” Tony shifted his attention to the wall, “you get older; you change.” He stood and ran the beam of his flashlight over the wall, looking for a distraction as much as evidence.
“What’s her name?” Cassidy bent to pick up her own flashlight. Tony just looked at her. “Please tell me it’s not Ziva.”
Tony stared at the wall some more. “It’s not Ziva.”
“Good.”
“Her name is Jeanne.”Tony supplied. ‘And Speed.’ He thought to himself.
“Do you love her?” Cassidy asked investigating a section of ceiling.
“Yeah, I do, Paula.” Tony said quietly. ‘But only as a good friend.’ He sighed.
Cassidy looked over at him. “Wow. You really mean that. What’s the problem?”
Tony sighed again and looked at Cassidy. “I can’t tell her.”
“Why can’t you tell her Tony? It’s just three simple words: I love you.”
Tony shook his head. “It’s not so simple. We were on this climbing wall, and she made a little… bet. First to the top gets to say ‘I love you.’”
“You lost on purpose.” Cassidy stated.
“No. I won.” Tony fixed a significant look at her.
“And you didn’t say it?” Cassidy shook her head. “You know Tony, it’s a cliché, but it’s true. Life is too short not to tell someone you love them if you do.” Tony stared at her with sad eyes. She didn’t understand. “And you do.”
_+_+_+_+_
Tony took the clipboard that Cassidy handed him. “You guys miss me today, Abs?” He asked.
“Why? Where were you?” Abby joked as she walked up to the two who were sorting evidence on the table in her lab.
Tony glanced at her. “Never mind.”
“Of course, I did, Tony!” Abby squished in hug around his shoulders, but pulled back quickly when Tony let out a pained grunt. “Sorry! Are you okay?”
Tony looked over at Cassidy. “Cassidy hit me.” Abby glared at her, and Speed raised an eyebrow.
“If I’d punched him, Abby, he wouldn’t be standing.” Cassidy placated, which caused Abby to lightly punch Tony in the shoulder.
“Oh!” Tony flinched and looked up at Abby, clearly surprised that she’d hit him.
Abby frowned at him. “Never lie to a woman, Anthony DiNozzo.” Speed gave him a prod in the back as if to say ‘or me.’
“What do we got, McGeekle?” Tony asked as he walked over to McGee at the computer.
“Well, Ducky is still saying that Yahzeed was dead when the bomb went off, and Abby is saying he was alive.” McGee explained as he typed on the keyboard.
“What did Gibbs say?” Tony asked.
“Where the Hell you been, DiNozzo?” Gibbs walked into the lab and Tony winced a little.
“Solving the mystery of the vanishing dirt bag, Boss.” Tony replied.
“Yeah, well it took long enough.” Gibbs gave a glance to the evidence on the table as he passed it.
“He found a secret passageway into the store next to it. It was actually quite impressive.” Cassidy piped up.
“It turns out both places were part of a magic/joke shop that closed down about twenty years ago.” Tony shared, turning slightly to look at Gibbs. Speed sneaked a hand around to settle on Tony’s lower back.
“So I was right. You didn’t see Yahzeed enter the building.” Ziva said, but not taking pleasure in being right.
“Thank you for pointing that out… Officer Day-vid.” Cassidy groused.
“Dah-veed!” Ziva barked back, causing Abby to look at her wide-eyed.
Tony walked over to where Abby and Ziva stood by the evidence table. “But now we know we’re looking for another man, and we’re hoping… praying… you can pull a print off that.” He told Abby.
“If there is a print, if there is a fiber, if there is a drop of dried sweat, I will find it.” Abby declared resolutely.
“Not bad.” Gibbs affirmed before stalking out of the lab, Tony close behind him.
“hey, uh, Boss?” Tony caught up to Gibbs outside the elevator. “I’ve got a question for you.” He checked to make sure that no one was listening. “That thing you said yesterday. We were really supposed to have the weekend duty Cassidy’s team took?”
Gibbs looked at him. “Yep.”
“How did we get out of that?”
“I asked.” Gibbs deadpanned, as the elevator dinged.
Tony looked a little sick as Gibbs got on the elevator. “So that really could have been us.”
Gibbs turned to look at Tony. “It could have been us every single damn day of the week. Sometimes it has been. You want to worry about something, worry about tomorrow.” Tony thought about that with a slightly scared expression.
_+_+_+_+_
“For a terrorist whack job, Umar is an amazing programmer.” Abby declared. “Amazing enough to fool me! This recreates Yahzeed’s voice flawlessly.” She typed a little.
“Now you know why you found traces of latex in my throat and mouth, Abby.” Yahzeed’s voice said from Abby’s computer.
“Why, yes, I do, Yahzeed.” Abby replied as if the voice was a living person.
“What about you, Tony? And I like your shirt, by the way. It’s sexy.” Yahzeed’s voice asked.
“Thanks.” Tony answered. “It’s from the George Peppard collection. I… Abby.” He frowned.
Speed snickered before leaning forward and whispering in Tony’s ear. “I agree with Yahzeed’s voice about that shirt.”
“Sorry.” Yahzeed’s voice said.
“Sorry.” Abby reiterated.
“Umar didn’t need a CAT scan for Yahzeed.” McGee said, turning to the rest of the team. “He poured hot latex down his throat and cast a mold.”
“Ewww.” Yahzeed’s voice contributed as Abby made an appropriate face.
“All he had to do was laser-scan it into his computer, input the results to the program.” McGee explained with a hint of smugness.
“Mystery solved.” Abby added.
Tony turned and looked over his shoulder at Cassidy. “Umar was who you heard type-talking on the phone, Paula.”
Cassidy gesticulated to try and portray her confusion. “The guy that I saw was not carrying a laptop and typing. I would have definitely noticed that.” She gave a slightly nervous laugh.
“Means he wasn’t working alone.” Gibbs stalked into the lab, followed by Ziva.
“Hey, Gibbs! Why no Caf-POW?” Yahzeed’s voice greeted. Gibbs gave Abby his patented Gibbs Stare and Abby turned back to her computer. “I’ll shut up now.”
Gibbs nodded and turned to face everyone. “Your team was set up, but they weren’t the target.” He told Cassidy.
“Yahzeed was.” Ziva clarified. “They were trying to stop his Sunni-Shia peace conference.”
“By turning him into a suicide bomber?” Cassidy asked.
Tony looked at her. “It almost worked Paula.”
“But luckily for us, Yahzeed lost his head… literally.” Ziva drew a line across her neck with her fingers.
“Well, we don’t know that it didn’t work.” Cassidy argued. “At this point, who’s going to show up to this thing?”
“Oh, you’d be surprised, Cassidy.” Gibbs walked out of the lab.
“We’re not the only ones who refuse to bow down to terrorism.” Ziva supplied.
“They’re going ahead with the conference anyway?” McGee asked.
“Now that we’ve cleared Yahzeed.” Ziva confirmed.
“But we only got one of them.” Abby piped up. “What if somebody else tried to stop it?”
“We kill them, Abby.” Ziva said matter-of-factly
“We catch them.” Tony corrected, a vaguely worried look on his face. “That’s the preferred term.”
Cassidy brought her hand up to her mouth in thought. “I like hers better.”
_+_+_+_+_
“This was Yahzeed’s dream, to show the world that these terrorist groups do not speak for us. We thank you for making it a reality.” Abdul told the group gathered in the mostly empty room.
“Well, at least something good is going to come from all of this.” Tony said, mostly to himself. Speed stood off to the side on general protection detail.
Gibbs’ phone rang and he answered it. “Yeah, Gibbs.”
“Boss, either Abdul or Jamal is a match.” McGee said through the phone.
Gibbs hung up and was immediately behind Abdul. “Hands on top of your head!”
Tony turned to the commotion. “Boss?” He asked, hand poised to draw his weapon.
“It’s one of them, DiNozzo.” Gibbs barked; holding Abdul’s hand on top of the man’s head. “The prints found on Umar’s laptop match the painting gear.”
“What laptop?” Abdul asked.
“Where’s Jamal Malik?” Gibbs demanded.
“He was here a minute ago!” Abdul defended as Gibbs determined that Abdul wasn’t the bomber.
“Ziva! It’s Malik! Find him!” Gibbs shouted to his team. The secret door opened and they all spun around to find Jamal standing in the door way with a bomb strapped to his chest.
“Behind you!” Tony yelled to Cassidy. Jamal’s thumb twitched over the trigger button. Cassidy was across the room and knocking Jamal to the ground on the other side as the door snapped shut. “Paula!” Tony and Gibbs hit the door right as it closed.
“Allahu Akkbar!” Jamal shouted as he pressed the button, the following explosion shaking the building and causing debris to fall. Mortified, the occupants of the room looked at the wall where Cassidy and Jamal had disappeared. Speed crossed the room and stood next to Tony who rested the side of his head on the wall, hands splayed next to his head. Tony just stared into space. Speed held onto Tony in silence. Some more debris fell from the ceiling, and Tony punched the wall, which remained resolutely in place. Tony let out a gasped sigh and crumpled to the ground. Speed crouched down, pulling Tony close.
“Paula.” Tony whispered resting his head against Speed’s chest.
“I know, Tony.” Speed kissed the top of his head and gently rubbed his back.
“She-” Tony choked on a sob.