𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 ━━ 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐳𝐳𝐨

FORTY FIVE | for good

"Just brought some coffee for everyone." I settle the cups down at the top of each agent's desk, stopping last at Tony's.

"Where's yours?" He nods to my now empty hands. "God, Eva, I swear —"

I peck him on the lips, shutting him up instantly. "Calm down, Tony. I already had mine on the car ride over."

When I try to return to my desk, he pulls me back down by the collar of my buttondown, bringing me in for another kiss.

"McGee over-bleached his teeth."

Now that's not a sentence you need to hear while kissing.

But I pull away nonetheless.

"Is that so, McGee?" I glance back at the newly promoted agent, cocking a brow. "Tony, you're not even making fun of him. Why should I believe you?".

"Because I am your. . .Gibbs."

"My Gibbs? That's a new way of calling me your —"

Tony turns me around before I can finish my sentence. And then, I see him. The silver-haired, shabbily-dressed man running up the stairs.

"What is. . .?"

"I have no idea."

We wait a couple of minutes, of course, to give him some privacy. As soon as the appropriate amount of time passes, we dial Cynthia's deskphone.

Our new boss sits with his hands balled. "Come on. Don't tell me you don't eavesdrop, Cynthia. Every director's assistant eavesdrops."

"He's coming, he's coming." Ziva warns in a desperate tone.

"Hey, uh, Gibbs." Tony greets him with a wave. "Just visiting the neighborhood or. . .taking your desk back?"

Without a word of reply, Gibbs makes himself at home in the vacant, isolated desk in the back.

Tony waves the rest of us over to the opposite side of the floor.

"Okay, I've got an idea." His fingers snap together. "Maybe he lost his memory again and forgot he quit his job."

"Wouldn't he be sitting at his old desk then?" McGee points out.

Ziva rolls her eyes. "If Gibbs wanted us to know what he was doing, he would've told us."

"Because obviously he tells us everything, Ziva." I growl out, causing all three of them to cast confused looks. "Too much caffeine."

"Gibbs is back."

Speaking from directly behind, Jenny startles all four of us.

"On temporary reassignment." She walks through the bullpen. "The Paulson case."

"Paulson?"

"Petty Officer Derrick Paulson. He knocked over a bank and killed two of his accomplices. But the money was never found." Tony dictates the findings of the case.

"Paulson's prison cell." Gibbs speaks into a cellphone. "I want to see what was in it."

And just like before, he's gone within the next moment.

We spy on him through the camera installed in Abby's lab. Of course, he notices us eavesdropping quite easily. Tony and I take Gibbs to locate Paulson's sole visitor in prison, a former Navy sailor named Mickey Stokes.

"Gibbs seemed awfully quiet in the car." Tony shuts the door behind him, watching Gibbs already head toward the front door.

"Well, when would he have gotten a chance?" My eyes roll. "You really think he came back here to take his job back? Because you're way more nervous now."