Work Text:
Mysterious Losses
by kaleecat
The elevator doors opened to the quiet of the early morning bullpen. Gibbs strode out while taking a sip of his coffee, looking for his team as he rounded the corner into their cubicle area.
"Mornin' boss," Tony said with a grin from behind his file covered desk. From the collection of empty coffee cups It was obvious the younger man had been there for awhile.
Gibbs nodded back and headed towards his desk. "Where are David and McGee? It's 8:30."
"McGee's down with Abby doing the geek speak thing. Haven't seen Ziva."
Settling in behind his desk, Gibbs drained his cofffee cup and tossed it hard into the trash can. It had been only a few months since Ziva David joined the team and he still wasn't comfortable with her presence. It still pissed him off that Shepard just dumped the woman on his team. Mossad trained or not, she didn't have the necessary training or background in his opinion, not to mention she had a chip on her shoulder that killing Ari had made worse.
Turning on the computer and logging in, Gibbs mused on the realization he had had several weeks after that whole disaster with Kate, Ari and David. He made a lot of mistakes during that period--a mistake in trusting her to help take out her half-brother and in asking Shepard to help him out with the stake-out. Ziva did the job but in retrospect, it made Gibbs uneasy that she now had possibly compromising information when she was so tight with Shepard. He certainly wasn't sure of her loyalties.
He glanced up towards MTAC, and he certainly didn't trust Shepard and her secret plans. Her constant flirting, innuendos and contradictory behaviors were only adding to the annoyance.
"Boss?" Tony's soft voice interrupted his musings.
"What DiNozzo?"
"Got you some coffee."
Gibbs turned around and took the offered cup with a slight smile. Taking a drink he held his hand out for the folder Tony held out in his other hand.
"Those are the hard copy MIA-KIA reports. Mail put them in my box by mistake."
"Thanks Tony," Gibbs said absent-mindedly and started flipping through the report pages, only to stop at the highlighted listings on page 4. He looked up at Tony who was standing there with a serious look on his face.
"Your work?" he asked sharply.
"Figured I would save you some time looking for the name." The look on Tony's face was unrepentant.
"And how did you know what I was looking for?" Gibbs asked. He wasn't angry. It actually impressed him a little that DiNozzo had noticed his bi-weekly ritual. Yet he wasn't sure how the younger man had guessed the name of the commanding officer he was tracking on the list.
"You left your notes out a couple of years ago, I saw them when you asked me to get a file off your desk."
He could always count on DiNozzo to be creative in his research and ideas. It was only one of the reasons the man made such a good senior agent. Gibbs held Tony's gaze for a few moments, letting him know that snooping was not appreciated but then gave in. For all the head-slaps, he appreciated Tony's input.
"So pull up a chair and tell me what you've found."
Gibbs pulled out the folder and yellow notepad he had been using for the past several years as Tony went to his desk and retrieved a file from the locked drawer then pulled the chair up next to Gibbs' desk.
"Col. Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill, Air Force. Former Special Ops imprisoned in Iraq during the first Gulf War, rescued by a Marine insert squad after he escaped, and returned home. Retired from active service following the death of his only child with his service weapon. Resumed active service for an unspecified mission then retired again. Assigned to Norad, Deep Space Telemetry at Cheynned Mountain since 1997." Tony recited the information softly with a few references to his own notes.
"And. . ."
"Deep Space Telemetry sounds a bit suspicious to me. Especially when you take into account the list of casualties that track back to his command. Why him, Gibbs?"
Gibbs sipped his coffee and glanced down at the latest report. He couldn't really explain why he started tracking O'Neill's name in the reports, or why he kept up with the other man's career. One day he had recognized the Colonel's name on the official KIA report for a Marine Gibbs had trained and that peaked his curiousity.
He explained this to Tony and then glanced around to make sure they were still alone. "I was on the team that rescued O'Neill. The man managed to escape after 4 months in an Iraqi prison, he were part of a reconnaissance
team and ran into him at the same time a patrol was taking him back to prison. I recognized him from the MIA report and had the team step in. We talked a couple of times afterwards but then...things interfered and we didn't talk again."
Tony nodded at his hesitation and said in a soft and sad voice, "There was a lot happening in your own life."
Gibbs simply took a sip of coffee of his coffee. "I'm intrigued and annoyed. There are a lot of casualties that are attributed to O'Neill's command yet not one of them has been investigated by NCIS. There are no investigative reports of any kind that I can find. Everything to do with O'Neill is blacked out. That's a lot of good soldiers and not enough accountability from my viewpoint."
"Did you ever ask Director Morrow about it?"
"Once. I got shut down pretty damn quick."
"You don't like the unanswered questions."
"Nope."
Tony's phone rang and he got up to answer it just as David rounded the corner & dumped her backpack on her desk.
Gibbs stood up with a frown, snapping, "What clock do you live by David? You're late."
"Sorry, Gibbs, I. . ."
He interrupted, "Never say you're sorry Officer David." He tossed the empty coffee cup alongside the other in his can and put the folders they had been looking at in his drawer and locked it. The phone slammed down and he looked over at Tony expectantly.
"Boss, we've got a dead Navy Lieutenant in DC."
"Gear up! David call Ducky with the address, get McGee out of the lab and tell him to meet us at the truck. DiNozzo you're with me."
Gibbs grabbed his gear as Tony copied the information down and handed it to David. With backpack over his shoulder, the younger man followed Gibbs toward the elevators. Slamming his hand down on the button, Gibbs turned around to scowl at David.
"Where do you think you're going, David? You were late. Stay here, call Ducky and get started on the background," he snapped and stepped into the elevator as the doors opened.
With an ugly look on her face, Ziva started to protest. As Tony stepped in next to him, Gibbs leaned out and held his hand on the opening to keep the door from closing. "If you have a problem with following orders Officer Da-vid," he snarled softly, "Then you are certainly free to find employment elsewhere."
He let the doors shut on her white face and glanced at Tony who snickered. "DiNozzo," he said in warning.
"Got it, boss. So do you want to look at those files some more tonight?"
Gibbs reached out as if to head slap Tony, but instead stroked his hand down the back of his head in a caress.
"My place tonight, we'll have steaks. I'm tired of the tiny water heater at your apartment."
Tony gave him an insouciant grin, "But it makes water conservation a lot more fun."
The doors opened and Gibbs hit him with a soft head slap then stepped out into the garage.
~end?~