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Monday Morning, Navy Yard, Washington DC
NCIS Director Jenny Sheppard sighed has she sipped her coffee wishing she add something stronger into the bitter drink. Mondays were general hell and she wouldn't be surprised if this one went down in her record book has the worst Monday ever. She shook out two extra strength aspirin and washed them down with her coffee in a futile attempt to ward off another headache.
"Director Sheppard, Agent Gibbs, Agent McGee and Officer David are here to see you," Cynthia said in a polite voice while glaring at the three people who stood in front of her desk. She had been floored when the Director had told her that Tony DiNozzo had resigned from NCIS on Friday afternoon.
Jenny took one last sip of her coffee and latched onto the simmering anger that had been bubbling all weekend. "Send them in Cynthia, and hold my calls for the next twenty minutes," Jenny replied letting some of the anger bleed into her voice.
Jenny studied the three people who stood uncomfortably in front of her desk. Gibbs was his usual stoic self, McGee twitched nervously and Ziva was perfectly still.
"Anthony DiNozzo tendered his resignation on Friday afternoon effective immediately," Jenny said bluntly.
Predictably the room erupted has Gibbs, McGee and Ziva spoke at the same time, each voice getting louder and louder each passing second has they tried to drown each other out. Jenny watched them impassively and finally after three minutes of shouting, an uneasy silence finally blanketed the room.
Jenny leaned back in her chair; she had no intention of starting the conversation. If they wanted to know why Tony had left NCIS, they could damn well ask.
"B-but why Director Sheppard?" McGee stammered when it became clear that Gibbs or Ziva wasn't going to ask the question.
"His exact words were "I've gone as far as I can go within NCIS and it’s time for me to move on"," Jenny quoted from memory.
"And you didn't try to stop him?" Gibbs choked out in a stunned voice.
Jenny glared at him and Gibbs was rocked to his core at the fury in her eyes. "How dare you say something like to me! Do you honestly think I was going to let Tony go without a fight? Do you think I was going to let one of the best agents NCIS has ever had walk away without a backwards glance?"
"Well, he's not here is he is he?" Ziva replied with her typical bluntness. McGee and Gibbs winced at her words.
"I offered Tony his own team in Rota, Spain, he turned it down. The SecNav offered him a position of Senior Intelligence Analysis in Bahrain, and he turned that down as well," Jenny said coolly refusing to be baited by Ziva. She didn't them that the Secretary of the Navy, Douglas Stewart, had offered Tony several other jobs including the position of Head of Operations in the Middle East. Ironically Tony's old boss, Tom Marrow, now the Director of Homeland Security, had found him a job with a very hush-hush government organization.
McGee fought down a surge of jealously. How on earth could Tony, who had a useless degree in sports of all things, be offered his own team in Spain or a plum position in Bahrain? He suddenly brightened: with Tony out of the picture, he would be Gibbs’ Senior Agent.
"Your new Senior Agent will be starting tomorrow," Jenny said holding out a file to Gibbs. He made no move to take the file from her and Jenny dropped the file with a loud thud on her desk. "Liam Massa served as the Agent Afloat aboard the USS Queenfish and the USS Jimmy Carter. Before that, he was stationed at Pearl Harbour, Okinawa, and Guam. Agent Massa has a Masters Degree in International Relations from Georgetown University and he's also fluent in six languages including Mandarin, Japanese and Korean.”
“Pardon me Director Sheppard, but why are you bringing in an outsider? I think I did a good job has Tony’s Senior Agent while Gibbs was on his...sabbatical,” McGee demanded unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
Jenny glared at McGee and Gibbs winced at her expression; McGee was about to have his ass handed to him.
“You left an ongoing investigation to go to a book signing, you did several media interviews on my time,” Jenny said in an icily voice. Jenny had been floored when she had heard McGee’s voice on the radio while coming back from a Senate Sub Committee budget meeting. “You failed to hand in paper work. You questioned Tony’s authority in the field and in the office. You barely qualified on the shooting range a month ago. You had your chance and you blew it big time Agent McGee.”
McGee’s face burned and he looked at the floor. True; he had taken off during an ongoing investigation but they had been waiting for a warrant on a Friday afternoon before a major holiday. It had taken Lee hours to find a judge who was willing to sign the warrant. It wasn’t his fault that people were calling his cell phone at all hours demanding interviews. It wasn’t his fault that he had barely qualified on the shooting range. He had spent the entire weekend on a book signing tour and he could barely open his hand on Monday when Tony had dragged him down to the shooting range for his mandatory qualification session.
“Did Tony leave any letters?” Ziva asked in a subdued voice, thankful to escape a tongue lashing from Jenny. She suddenly froze. Abby was going to go ballistic when she found out that Tony had left NCIS without saying goodbye.
“No,” Jenny replied bluntly. She had asked Tony the same question and he had laughed bitterly saying there was nothing left to say. “Make sure that Tony’s desk is cleaned out for Agent Massa tomorrow morning. I expect all of you to make him feel welcome at the Navy Yard,” Jenny stared at McGee, her unspoken warning very clear. She held out the personal file to McGee and it was a subdued Ziva and a sullen McGee who left her office. Gibbs didn’t move.
“Tony’s really gone, isn’t he?” Gibbs said in a low voice. He knew that things had been rocky since he came back from Mexico. “I never thought Tony would leave me. I always thought we would...one day we would...”
Jenny sighed and took off her glasses, feeling the anger drain out of her. There had always been a spark between the two men. Jenny knew that Tony was attracted to Gibbs and Gibbs felt something for Tony, but he had never acted on it always citing Rule Twelve as an excuse.
“You never said anything, and he wasn’t willing to spend the rest of his life waiting for you,” Jenny replied in a tired voice. “You only have yourself to blame Jethro.”
Gibbs sighed heavily and with a sudden burst of clarity, Jenny knew that Gibbs resignation would be on her desk by the end of week.
In another galaxy...
“Well Agent DiNozzo, how do you like Atlantis?” Colonel Samantha Carter demanded as she joined Tony on one of the balconies. Tony had been assigned to Atlantis as Special Agent Afloat by General O’Neil. A former cop and a highly regarded Federal Agent, Tony knew how to sooth ruffled feathers, when to look the other way and when to apply the law.
“Amazing, I still can’t believe I’m in another galaxy,” Tony replied staring up at the sky with a smile. “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think something like this would happen to me.” He was so busy in Atlantis; he barely had time to think about the life and people he had left behind on Earth.
“I’ve been doing this for almost fifteen years and it’s still amazing,” Sam replied with a smile. “Come on, we have a lot of work to do.”
Tony followed her inside and never looked back.