Ameliorate - Bishop Entanglement Version

Bishop volunteered McGee and her to take the evidence down to Abby. Or well rather, she made sure Tony and Gibbs got in the elevator together before grabbing McGee’s arm and cheerfully announcing that they’d take the evidence to Abby. She hoped that it would force Tony and Gibbs to talk, maybe help ameliorate whatever mood Gibbs was in.

Alas, when they returned to the bullpen it was obvious that Gibbs and Tony still hadn’t talked. Still Bishop wasn’t about to give up. She would make them talk eventually.

Of course, when Gibbs demanded Bishop take Tony and go talk to a witness that they’d dug up, she’d protested and suggested that he could go with Tony.

Gibbs had just glared and asked, “Do I look like I want to go with Tony?”

Bishop had sighed and given in, for now. Once they reached the car, Tony had hissed, “Stop it.”

Bishop had pretended not to know what he was talking about, but she was pretty sure that Tony didn’t believe her. Especially not when he continued, “Gibbs wants you. Stop trying to set him up with me. He doesn’t want me. The response in the bullpen just proved it.”

Bishop was pretty sure that Gibbs had intended to say something to the effect of do I look like I’m making a suggestion, but the latest confusion had made him say the other instead. Still, it wouldn’t do any good to get into it with Tony, right now. If their personal lives affected the case, they wouldn’t be personal for much longer.

While Gibbs knew that things weren’t what they seemed with Tony and Bishop's relationship now, they definitely didn’t want that spread around NCIS. “Let’s just question the witness, honey.” Bishop suggested, falsely sweetly.

Tony shook his head. He knew it wasn’t over, but Bishop was right. They did have a witness to question.

Of course, having the witness not provide them any useful information didn’t help and they headed back to NCIS with shoulders hunched. Neither of them wanted to be the one to inform Gibbs that they had nothing. This whole case was looking like it was going to be pulling teeth to find anything useful.

Oh the witness had been happy to talk to them. They knew far more about her morning rituals than either of them wanted to know, but all she could tell them is that she saw suspicious movement in the fog and when she went out to investigate had found the dead body and called the police. The evidence Abby had wasn’t giving them anything either.

All Ducky could tell them is that the lieutenant was killed by a blow to the head. The fog had finally cleared up and Gibbs ordered everyone back to the scene. When Bishop tried to suggest that Tony and Gibbs ride together, both of them glared at her.

Bishop sighed and consigned herself to not having an easy time getting the two of them together. This would clearly require some concerted effort after work if she was going to get the two of them together, but that would require some serious sneakiness since it would also be more obvious if the two of them went on a date somewhere and the lawyers would clue into this. Maybe she could plan something for the upcoming weekend if they finished this case in time.

Back at the scene with less fog they were able to find a few pieces of evidence that they missed initially and get a better idea of what actually happened. Tony took some pictures of the tire marks for Abby, hoping that she would be able to get the make and model of the car based off of them. After they were sure that they had every shred of evidence available they headed back to NCIS headquarters again.

Unfortunately, despite Bishop’s wish for a quick case so that she could get back to planning how to get Gibbs together, the case dragged on. Abby did match the tire tracks, but they matched to a common SUV that did not help narrow down their suspects at all. Well, actually, if they had any suspects that would be progress.

Currently all they had was a smattering of evidence, a vague idea of what may have happened, but nothing that led them to any suspects. Bishop was splitting her attention between all the papers that currently surrounded her, letting her brain percolate on them in the background, and also watching Gibbs and Tony. For two men seated as next to each other as you could be, they were definitely not communicating well.

Even their normal case related communication seemed to be lacking. Bishop dearly wanted to drag them into a conference room or interrogation, didn’t matter to her, and make them talk about their feelings. Of course, she should probably have a little chat with her husband first since he seemed the most stubborn, right now. Gibbs, at least, appeared to be considering that he had feelings for Tony if the looks she caught when Tony wasn’t looking were anything to go by.

Of course, if Gibbs wasn’t going to speak up, looks would make no difference, especially not ones timed to only occur when Tony wasn’t watching Gibbs. Shaking her head, Bishop hoped that they made enough progress for Gibbs to send them home tonight. She would really like to give Tony a piece of her mind and make him realize that Gibbs wasn’t into her, but he was jealous of her because he was into Tony.

Blinking at the papers in front of her, Bishop felt like there was something she was missing, something just out of reach. Glancing up at Tony and then over at Tim who still had no idea what was going on, Bishop realized what she was missing. Or rather what was missing from one of the few statements that they had managed to get.

One of the people made no mention of the fog this morning. “Gibbs, I think I have something.”