The Manual
- Chapter 3: When I ignore you...
...give me your attention -
Gibbs was absently tapping away at his computer, not really paying attention to what was typed on the screen. DiNozzo and McGee and looked over a few hundred times trying to figure out what was going on around here. The fact that all three women had come practically together, and that the Director was hurt was somewhat unusual. The fact that Gibbs didn't seem intent upon punishing Ziva or Abby was not completely unusual but there hadn't even been a good Gibbs' stare. The two were very puzzled, but even more so when Ziva and Abby went to the Director's office and didn't come back for near on twenty minutes. After ten minutes of Ziva being back and Abby having departed for her lab, Gibbs still hadn't said a word, and so Tony had decided to inquire.
"So Zee-vah what did the Director want?"
"It is of no conquest."
"Concern," McGee corrected automatically.
"Oh but we're both very concerned, aren't we McGook?"
"Tony..." McGee sighed.
"It is need to know," Ziva answered.
"Since when did you run errands for the Director?" Tony was almost put out at the fact that Jenny had chosen her over him.
"Not that kind of need to know. It was girl talk."
"Oh...well McGee and I love girl talk!" Tony assured leaning across his desk. His face connected with his desk moments later.
"I don't," Gibbs snapped. "Back to work DiNozzo."
"On it Boss."
"Going for coffee," he announced disappearing into the elevator hearing Tony again inquire about the girl talk. As he came back from getting his coffee, he stopped on a bench outside head quarters and removed the journal from his jacket pocket. He began to read the next entry trying to figure out if there was some other way to get back in Jenny's good graces then buying her a new bag.
Men are infuriating. That's just all there is too it. This whole keeping a journal is a brilliant idea because now I can rant for all the times I've held my tongue...
And just how many times was that?Gibbs had to ask himself, her temper so suited her, and he found it rather amusing sometimes how she would set and stew. Of course the few times she'd exploded hadn't been pleasant, but its was still fun.
Rant 1: Gibbs. Really. I realize its very difficult for the man to comprehend that I'm trying to improve NCIS relations with sister agencies and internationally as well. He's damn lucky to have Ziva! And what do I get? Grief. She's better than all of his agents combined and eventually he's going to come around to see that and of course I won't get the luxury of saying I told you so, but it will be nice when he comes around to my way of thinking. Until then I believe conversations about personnel issues will occur frequently. I even tried to ignore him, claiming I needed more coffee and what do I get? His coffee. Not that it wasn't sweet; it just wasn't all that sanitary, although I was half expecting some retort about how I didn't mind before.
Now we get to the good stuff, Gibbs smirked. He skimmed ahead and was very disappointed not to find any memories of some foreign city.
You know usually when I ignore him he gets the message that I'm simply waiting for something worthy of notice. Coffee, sweet as it is, is not exactly worthy of notice. Of course if he had ever actually given me flowers I might have fainted. The odds of him ever doing that though are slim to none so I don't have to worry about it, its nice that he's predictable, even if being predictable means I need to buy more boxes of Advil.
I have faith in Ziva; I just hope she has enough patience not to kill Jethro before he accepts her.
Gibbs truly wondered if Ziva had ever considered murdering him on the spot, he'd ask her someday in the very distant future. This predictability he didn't like so much. It was one thing that she got under his skin like no other woman (alive) had, but the fact she found him somewhat predictable was going to grate on his nerves. He'd have to do something unpredictable and buying flowers was just as good a move as any. However he had two options. He could bring them to her at work, where she might faint and everyone in the building would know inside five minutes that he brought them, he could have them delivered, like he had the orchids a while ago (and she said he never sent flowers!), or he could bring them by her house. He supposed delivery really didn't count, especially since he didn't actually sign the card, but if he brought them buy her house, she could faint without wondering if the whole agency saw. Note to self, stop by florist on way to Jen's. In the meantime, he could bring her his coffee and hunt for a new purse, that he would have delivered, no way in hell he was going to own up to the fact he actually went in a store and bought one.
He got up from the bench, tucking the journal away, and headed back through the garage up to the bullpen. As he was waiting at the elevator, he noticed the far side door open. It was rather suspicious and he placed his hand on his gun. A second later the redhead peaking around the door was enough for him to relax, but not to quell his curiosity. Jenny walked out the door in a pair of flats, and moved quickly toward the exit. It didn't take him long to realize she'd slipped her detail. He sighed dramatically and began to trail her, knowing that she was likely to end up in trouble and with a sprained ankle running wasn't an option. She was good though, he noticed she kept to the blind spots and shadows staying away from the cameras. No doubt her security detail thought she was in the building somewhere and by the time they realized she wasn't she would be off the premise. He followed not really caring where he walked just stayed out of her line of sight. Either she had no clue she was being followed, knew he was following her and didn't care, or knew he was following her and was going to slip him. He personally put his money on the first or last, she would definitely care if he was following her. She had just reached the street when he his cell phone started vibrating. It was DiNozzo. Boss, we can't find the Director...Nah he'd let Tony stew for a little while. He watched her move toward the coffee shop they both seemed to favor and just as she was reaching for the door, he came up behind her.
"Fancy meeting you here," he greeted. She huffed clearly put out and glared at him opening the door. "Already bought you a cup." He handed her his cup of coffee and took her arm gently, pulling her back down the street. She still said nothing. He could play her game and so he rambled on about the case and paperwork and his team in a way that sounded eerily like Abby and she had no real choice but to tune out his voice, even as he pulled her along back to headquarters. There was no real option in her going; he wasn't about to let go. His first idea had been to bring her to her nearest detail member and dump her on them, but then he decided he'd go all the way up to her office. He let go of her arm once they were in the squad room and followed her all the way up stairs happily chatting her ear off, fully aware that his team was looking at him like he was insane. She sat down at her desk trying to find a way to ignore him while he sat in front of her and watched her work, still rambling on.
He's turning into Ducky, she thought amused that he was trying very hard to provoke a reaction out of her as he'd changed the topic of conversation to her own interests. So far she hadn't participated but ignoring him and telling him to get the hell out of her office were starting to seem like good ideas. Or trying to find another way to shut him up. Finally she decided to retreat to MTAC. At least from there she could lock him out. She sent Cynthia a quick email and a minute later her loyal assistant appeared.
"Director, do you need me to set up any transmissions for you, I was about to go to MTAC to get a file."
"No Cynthia, I'll get the file. I could use a walk." She stood and slipped by her loyal assistant who then glared at Gibbs who stayed seated and simply glared back. He figured she'd be gone five minutes. When ten passed he moved to join her in MTAC. He went to try the door but it was locked and he found that even using his retinal scan he wasn't getting in. He turned back to call her cell phone and noticed Cynthia standing there.
"She locked me out."
"Shocking," the younger woman said moving back to her desk. Gibbs resisted the urge to head slap her. Some how he didn't think Jenny would be very happy if he did that. He retreated back to his desk and waited for a case to come in while he figured out how to Google purses. He found he thought was similar to the one she had and called the store. Apparently it was some black leather large tote bag. Like he knew the difference between tote and handbag. He asked if they could have it delivered, gave them the name, his credit card number, and as he glanced at the weather reader and noticed the predicted forecast, asked if they wouldn't mind throwing in an umbrella.
An hour later he watched as a young sales man was escorted up to the Director's office with a large box. He knew Jenny was still holed up in MTAC and so wasn't surprised that five minutes after the delivery man had left Cynthia was seen bolting across the cat walk to the door of MTAC on her cell phone. The door was opened and Cynthia was let in, only to leave three minutes later followed by the Director. Both women walked back toward her office and he gave them an extra minute before going up there himself, his team again starring at him. He walked past Cynthia's desk as she wasn't there and into office, not bothering to knock as always.
"Did you order a new bag?" He heard Cynthia ask as he came in.
"No, I haven't had the chance to." He felt both their eyes on him as the door closed behind him.
"Sorry Director I should have..." Jenny held up her hand.
"It wouldn't matter much Cynthia, some people just don't listen," she replied. "Could you see to it that I'm not disturbed?"
"Of course Director." Cynthia bolted from the room glaring once more at Gibbs for good measure.
"So whadya get?" She put the box on the ground by her feet and turned back to her work, content on ignoring him. He moved around and picked the box up and took the bag out himself. "Nice. Black's nice. Think brown would go better with your shoes right?" She said nothing but he noticed her eye quirk up in amusement. "Well I think it's a very nice bag. Great size for snakes, don't you think so? Oh and look an umbrella, matching the bag. Gee you know I don't get what it is with women and how everything down to the lipstick as to match every thing else. Its to much work."
She bit her lip to restrain herself from laughing.
"Really, I don't get it. I'm sure you would look just as nice in sweats as a suit," he paused a minute cocking his head to the side. "Actually I know you do, but that's beside the..." her hand muffled the rest of his sentence. She held it there a minute before letting go, hoping it would shut him up. "You really should learn to take compliments." No such luck. Desperate times... This time she sent an email to DiNozzo, who a minute and half later was knocking on her door.
"ENTER."
"Director, kinda hoping I could borrow the Boss."
"DiNozzo?" He questioned in the ‘you better have a damn good reason for this' tone.
"Boss, uh...McGee needs you to supervise something." Jenny smirked. When all else fails, blame the Probie. Poor Tim.
"This better be good DiNozzo," he mumbled slapping his senior field agent upside the head.
"Yes Boss, hey Director, nice Coach bag," he commented as Gibbs dragged him out t he door closing. Peace and quiet. She then went about the pain staking process of organizing her new purse.
---
Jenny was standing in the kitchen fixing herself another Lean Cuisine later that evening.
She was sure that was all she ate if Noemi wasn't around to cook. It was a sad fact really; she used to like cooking, though she was smart enough to realize she wasn't all that great. She sighed stirring around the food in the black plastic dish, starring at the purse on the other end of the counter. She didn't really think he would buy her a new purse, but it was very, very sweet of him to do so and she promised herself that she would get him something in return, maybe a bottle of bourbon or something. He wasn't certainly learning this lesson well, she'd barely said two words to him after the snake incident and he was persistent. She seriously wondered though what was going to happen when all of this was said and done. If he ever suspected she'd set him up it would be hell, on the other hand, she knew she would have to overreact if she caught him sneaking the journal back. It was just her nature and he would know something was off if she brushed it off. Caught in her dilemma she didn't hear the knocking on the door till it was more like pounding and the bell was constant ringing.
"Alright! Alright!" She snapped pulling herself out of her thoughts and grabbing her gun as she made her way to the door. She pulled it open and found Leroy Jethro Gibbs with a bouquet of flowers in front of his face, standing on her doorstep. "What Jethro?"
"Sheesh, didn't mean to disturb your beauty sleep," he mocked. "I thought I'd drop by and see if you'd eaten dinner yet, I got extra Chinese."
"Oh..." She paused; Chinese food sounded a whole lot more appealing than microwave dinner. "Sure." She let him come in, closing the door behind him. He turned back to her and held out the flowers.
"And these are for you." She took the bouquet of orchids and lilies hesitantly. "They won't bite."
"I'm sure they won't, I'm just...concerned."
"About what?"
"You. You don't usually bring me flowers."
"Well I thought I'd trying something different, besides I felt bad about your purse, though I see that you already got a new one."
"Uh huh. Thank you for that by the way," she responded helping him unload the Chinese boxes.
"You weren't seriously going to eat Lean Cuisine for dinner were you?"
"They're good!" She protested.
"Eck..." he shook his head distastefully throwing the offending food away. "Good thing I came by. When does Noemi get back?"
"What makes you think she's gone?"
"You're not eating good food and there's nothing in your freezer. Run out of leftovers?" She said nothing but grabbed some plates and silverware. She set the table and he laid out the food. She starred at the food, General Tso's chicken. He hated that.
"General Tso's?"
"Ordered it accidentally," he said not missing a beat. She didn't buy that for a second, but she'd go along with it. "Nice to see you're not ignoring me anymore."
"It's difficult when you're sitting in my kitchen."
"And here I thought the flowers won you over."
"Oh they were a nice start," she assured. "Keep it up and see what happens."
"Will I get to deal with the FBI as I please?"
"Hm...no."
"CIA?"
"No."
"The media?"
"God no!" She assured. "But flowers would be a nice gesture next time you get me to clean up your mess."
"I'll keep that in mind," he responded. "It's not like I've never sent you flowers though."
"Oh really? When exactly did you send me flowers?" She inquired quirking her eyebrow. He would either answer her and thus admit to the orchids or just smirk and it would go unacknowledged. He smirked. Too predictable. She was about to taunt him into giving it up when the house phone rang.
"Some one actually knows your home number?"
"You do."
"Yea but that was..." he paused, and glared at the offending object as it rang again. If it was some guy calling her that was not Ducky he was going to pick up the phone.
"Could you hand it to me?" She asked as he was within arms reach. He said nothing and she sighed getting up again to grab it when it the answer machine.
"Jenny, Ziva. About yesterday and what I said about the..." Jenny quickly picked up the phone turning off the answering machine.
"Ziva."
"Oh Shalom. I didn't think you were home."
"It took me a minute to get the phone."
"I didn't interrupt anything did I?"
"Why would you think that?"
"Uh Abby."
"Abby?"
"She put a tracker in Gibbs' wallet and it says its at your house so we..."
"We'll discuss this tomorrow Ziva." She hung up the phone and placed it back in its holder.
"Ziva alright?"
"She's fine. For now."
"For now?"
"Hm...you wouldn't mind if I happened to suspend Abby's caff-pow privileges would you?"
"And why would you do that?" He inquired wondering if she would actually come and mention her missing journal.
"An assortment of reasons, but the first is in your wallet."
"My wallet?" He echoed. She held her hand out for it and he handed it to her. She took it and split the seam. "Jen!" She held up the GPS tracker. "What the..."
"Care to know how it got there?"
"I'm curious."
"Ziva pick pocketed you, gave it to Abby. Abby implanted the bug gave it back to Ziva, who replaced it."
"And you caught her at some point..."
"The replacing part."
"How..." She glared. "Right...yea that would result in loss of Caff-Pows for a few days."
"And Ziva?"
"A head slap. In front of DiNozzo."
"Excellent," she smiled. He nodded. There was a thought. She was very adorable when she smiled that way. Endearing, sweet. It made him want to wrap his arms around her and figure out ways to make her smile like that all the time. Then again, that smile usually meant she was either a) incredibly happy or b) working up some evil plot of mischief. He was definitely going with b this time.
So does that make her adorably evil? He pondered that thought for a moment. Yep, good thing she's not telepathic. He would never make the mistake of calling her adorable, he was sure it would end in either a tongue lashing, or physical slap and for a very slender woman, she packs a mean right hook. His jaw hurt just thinking about it. So he decided she would never hear that thought vocalized, but he was going to continue thinking it, especially if it kept that ridiculous smile on his own face.
"You going to finish that?" Her question cut through his thoughts as she pointed at his half cut spring roll. He rolled his eyes and slid it on to her plate. She smiled happily and munched on it. Adorably evil it is.