Only With You
Author: A'serene
Category: Crime, Romance
Rating: Adult - NC-17
Contents: Gibbs should learn how to listen.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS.
A/N: So this was original supposed to be second entry for the 3rd Jibbsfest, but it kinda took on a mind of its own and so without further ado...
"DINOZZO! I want an update now!" Gibbs shouted entering the lab to find his entire team gathered around Abby's computer. They scrambled trying to getting out of his path, Abby being the only one to smile sweetly and worm her way out of trouble as she did every time.
"Uh Boss, it's not good," Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo began hesitantly, knowing the words ‘not good' equaled head slaps.
"We have three couples, each partner somehow involved in the military, now how could it get worse?" Gibbs sarcastically inquired.
"Well Boss, we've been tracking the couples' movements before they died and..." McGee continued but true to form fell silent at one glare from Tony.
"And..."
"AND," Ziva David interrupted. "We discovered they were going to some sex helper." Gibbs looked at her in surprise.
"Marriage Counselor Boss," Tony translated cringing at Ziva's understanding of the term.
"That is what I said," Ziva responded.
"Well you two played the married couple so well last time, gear up," Gibbs ordered enjoying the fact that Tony and Ziva would probably drive each other nuts and he would perhaps get five minutes of quiet.
"Problem with that plan Boss," Tony said.
"You have a problem with this DiNozzo, David?"
"No, but the counselor only takes uh..."
"Older couples," Abby interjected helpfully. "Both have to be over forty."
"Who has to be over forty Abby?" came the voice of the one woman Gibbs did not want to see at that particular moment, he could only imagine what his team was capable of coming up with if presented with two targets.
"Uh the people we're helping, Director," Abby tried.
"Oh, so what was the urgent 911?" The team found interesting spots on the wall, Abby glancing from Gibbs to the Director. "Agent Gibbs?"
"I didn't call you," he assured, feeling that he was already in over his head.
"Abby said you needed me to come down here for something, so what's the problem."
"We will need to send some undercover, Jenny," Ziva explained glancing at her teammates for help.
"Right, she's right, ah Director," Tony agreed "And we thought, uh you tell her Probie."
"Why me?" McGee protested.
"McGee?" Jenny questioned and watched the younger Agent look pleadingly over at Abby who seemed unable to control laughter.
"You see Director, we need people over... uh certain age, of which neither of us are, well except for Bossman."
"Jethro?" He remained silent glaring at his team.
"Ah Tony there you are, have you seen Jethro?" Ducky called entering the lab.
"Right here Duck."
"Ah Jethro, Director."
"Ducky."
"Abby did you pass along the information?"
"Sort of, we haven't exactly gotten through it all, the Director answered the call."
"Which I still haven't been told what it's about?"
"Oh dear," Ducky sighed. "I see I've come too early."
"To early for what?"
"To early for us to finish," Abby jumped. "So based on lots of investigation and cross referencing through the computers and..."
"Today Abby!" Gibbs and Jenny snapped.
"Sheesh, anyway all of us have determined that the most likely person to have killed them or who could help us is a marriage counselor, but naturally said counselor wouldn't want to talk to us and has lots of lawyers so we could really only determine one way to get to her and that was to send someone undercover but like I said we aren't uh... the right age," Abby explained proudly.
"Which led you to..." Jenny baited.
"Well Gibbs is the over the right age," Ziva began.
"And uh we thought since you two were partners and Ziva and Abby aren't old enough that you would go," Tony finished.
"And this was your brilliant idea DiNozzo?" Gibbs questioned.
"Yes Boss." WHACK. "Boss it makes sense... and we couldn't send you by yourself, what if she's dangerous!"
"And I was the best choice you could come up with?" Jenny asked.
"Think of it as a, what was the word, ah yes, vacation," Ziva piped up smiling wickedly at her long time friend. Thinking back to a time when Jenny had used similar words on her to convince her to go undercover with her new partner and play the loving wife.
"And besides marriage counselors are supposed to fix marriages, so I suppose this one time it would be okay for Mommy and Daddy to fight." Gibbs was reading the print out on the counselor and smirked, catching Jenny's attention.
"We'll have to use someone else," Gibbs stated finally uttering more than a few words. Jenny met his eyes and read the paper he held out.
"Boss?" McGee piped up. "I checked that thing four times, you fight the criteria, minus the being married part."
"You missed the part where it says couples with children," Jenny read.
"Oh no, we took care of that," Abby assured. "Meet your Gibblet."
"Still not a bad combination," Tony whistled lowly as the image from the Morph-Pro program was project on the plasma screen.
"And what happens if we have to bring in pictures or something?" Jenny questioned and Gibbs sighed in exasperation. "What?"
"That's not helping," he warned only loud enough for her to hear.
"You can't seriously be considering this?"
"No."
"Good."
"Ah Boss, we have an idea for that."
"More brilliant ideas DiNozzo?"
"Actually this was McGeeks, Probie take it away," Tony called across the room.
"Well..."
"What Timothy means is that you have two children right here," Ducky said. "Abby and Anthony."
Silence.
"Well she is the favorite," Tony remarked.
"Only because I don't get into trouble!"
"I don't!"
"Do!"
"Do not!"
"Do!"
"DINOZZO!"
"Sorry Boss." Gibbs rubbed his forehead momentarily trying to sooth the growing headache. "Hey how come Abby never gets yelled at, or Ziva for that mater."
"Oh Ziva's getting yelled at," Jenny assured grabbing her friend's arm and all but dragging her into the hallway. The door closing quickly but Tony noticed the two enter the elevator and watched it stop between floors moments later.
"Uh oh," McGee gulped.
"So what else do you have on this?" Gibbs demanded.
"Well Jethro I have examined all the bodies, in every case either the wife or husband was killed first and the other forced to watch, whoever did it was methodical, precise. I would hesitate to say surgical but certainly had training," Ducky said.
"And the weapon was usually the wife or husband's own weapon," Abby chimed in gesturing to the large piles of knives and guns sitting on her table color coated by couple. "The only thing they have in common is the military and this marriage counselor."
"And the fact they were childless or had grown children," McGee added on.
"Children who didn't keep in touch that much," Tony clarified. "And don't seem that broken up by it either, but they all have alibis."
"Is there a reason why none of you have just gone to question her?" Gibbs inquired irritated.
"Well Boss, we were afraid we might tip her off," Tony defended.
"He is correct, you'll need to get close, trust her, and a counseling session is the only way to learn her behavior, to learn if she would have the ability to do this."
"There a reason she only does older couples?"
"Well there is one couple who is her ‘success' story, but they still keep in touch, frequently," Abby said.
"We're thinking she's sleeping with one of the parties."
"The husband?" Gibbs asked going for the obvious choice.
"Ah... we're not sure," Tony replied drifting off as the lab doors opened and Ziva and Jenny walked back in, Ziva with a self-content smirk and Jenny looking visibly calmer, but Gibbs could detect the fury lurking beneath the surface.
"So how exactly do we meet her?" Jenny questioned.
"You need a referral from another couple, anyone of our morgue's guests would suffice," Abby answered. Gibbs looked at her in surprise and without so much as word took her arm and it was she being led to the elevator. Abby watching as the seed of her plan took root. "You know sometimes, Mommy and Daddy should fight."
"Here, here," Ziva and the others chorused.
---
They had simply stepped on the elevator, and he waited for the doors to close before flipping the emergency switch and turning to glare at her. Not surprised, she returned the Gibbs' glare with one of her own and didn't so much as flinch as he took another step closer to her. She was aware of the rules of this game, there were none, and she was also fully aware that when it came down to it, she could be just as stubborn as he was.
"What the hell were you thinking?"
"It was your team's idea," she reminded.
"It was DiNozzo's idea, that should tell you something," he snapped.
"He did just fine as team leader when you were off drinking on the beach," she returned arching an eyebrow. "And who did you think they would suggest?"
"Not you."
"Yea, well I don't have to like it either."
"Don't want to be Mrs. Gibbs?" She made a face.
"What number? The second or fourth?" Going with the tactful agreement that one wife in particular didn't get counted in the failed marriage category. He ignored the dig, he knew she was fully aware she didn't get counted in that category, but he also really didn't want to tempt fate, because even pretending to married to her meant pretending to be in a relationship and with her that was not something he wanted to pretend about.
"Shepard-Gibbs, then."
"Oh yes I'd love to explain to my Bosses that one," she remarked sarcastically. "Did you miss the undercover portion of this? There's no way I can go in being the Director of NCIS and somehow I think Leroy Jethro Gibbs would consider that his own hell, if not being married altogether."
"So aliases?"
"I thought you were the one who said this was a bad idea?"
"Well you okayed it, Director, and you are the Boss," he mocked. She stepped back out of his personal space taking a deep breath.
"This is ridiculous."
"Oh yea," he agreed seeing the end of the fight in the distance.
"Don't suppose she would just confess the second we walk in there?" He chuckled.
"Not likely." Silence ensued as they were left to their own thoughts because pretending to be married to the other was certainly not just an everyday occurrence or even an unemotional one.
"Well this will be interesting."
"How so?"
"I have a son, I'm not old enough to have with a daughter who doesn't look a thing like me and just how many years are we going to be married?"
"Eleven."
"Eleven?" He shrugged his shoulders at her echo, and knew she was mentally counting backwards to where eleven years would have put them. "Positano." Another shrug. "So how exactly am I supposed to have kids who are in their twenties and early thirties?"
"Mentor kids, not biological, explains away the appearances and the age," he came up with.
"Jobs?"
"Well they're military couples, Marine and... what would you like?"
"I don't know, what exactly would a military wife do? My mother stayed home, lived a life of luxury," Jenny said.
"Can't exactly picture you as a housewife," he said with a grin that she knew meant he was trying.
"Cop?" He shook his head. "Doctor?" Again with the head shaking. "Defense contractor?" This time the head shaking came with a look of distaste. "Well do you have any ideas?"
"Scientist."
"Scientist?"
"Yea, military hires them all the time to do stuff. We had to work together," he began.
"Okay, simple. I can live with that. What do I study?"
"The little ocean things."
"Very specific Jethro, I'll handle that, just nod your head." He nodded. "Well better go put Abby out of her misery." Jenny flipped the switch back and hit the button for the lab.
"Abby?"
"Oh please, this has her name written all over it," Jenny remarked as the doors opened and he let her get off first. The team was waiting suspiciously close to the door but looking as if they were each caught up doing something, which Gibbs knew was a farce.
"Alright listen up, don't call unless there's a terrorist attack, we'll stay in contact through Abby," Gibbs informed.
"Ziva, you stay with Cynthia, make sure no one knows I'm gone," Jenny ordered. "Hopefully this won't take very long."
"DiNozzo, you're in charge, get me some answers on any other targets, McGee get background on this woman as well as all the other patients, I want everything down to her grocery store."
"On it Boss!" DiNozzo responded moving from the lab, with Ziva in tow. McGee turned back to the computer he was working on.
"Ducky, we'd appreciate anything you could tell us about the couples, personally, general things," Jenny said.
"You're not pretending to be any of them."
"No, but she has point, we want to be the most like the couples she's been targeting," Gibbs answered.
"I don't imagine that would be difficult," Ducky muttered leaving the lab. Perhaps they might actually learn something from this.
"Abby!" Gibbs snapped and the Goth bounced straight in front of him.
"Yes oh great one."
"No Caff-Pow for the rest of the day," Gibbs commanded and watched the younger girl's face fall in surprise.
"But Gibbs..." But Gibbs and Jenny had already left the lab.
"Told you suggesting the Director wasn't going to be a good idea," McGee reminded.
"Oh shut up Timmy!"