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Tony cursed as he realized that NCIS Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs had been the one called to the crime scene of the dead sailor in front of the cafe. It wasn’t the first time he’d met Agent Gibbs and it probably wouldn’t be the last. However, as he was currently undercover, he really didn’t want Agent Gibbs to recognize him.
He tried to slip back into the coffee shop. He was technically supposed to be working anyway, but he’d joined everyone else in crowding around the body. It’s not like there was anyone looking for their coffee. They were all staring at the dead Navy personnel with all the curiosity that one can muster over a dead body.
Why did the sailor have to die in front of the cafe? Tony wished he could say it was unrelated to the cafe itself, but honestly there were some strange going ons that he was investigating. It was entirely possible that the sailor had actually been poisoned or something.
Tony really hoped he was wrong about that because if he wasn’t NCIS was going to demand access to the coffee made for the guy. That would make it infinitely harder for Tony to avoid contact with Agent Gibbs. It wasn’t that he disliked Agent Gibbs. More that he couldn’t afford to have his cover blown and the people running the cafe figure out that he was a cop.
Tony wanted to duck out the back door of the cafe and avoid the whole scene, but that would be even more suspicious and wouldn’t help him get the evidence he needed to take down the owners of the cafe and whoever else was involved. Tony tried to play it cool, putting on his sunglasses in hopes that it would limit Gibbs ability to recognize him. He knew he probably wouldn’t be that lucky.
They’d spent enough time together at Baltimore with the money laundering case that Tony was pretty sure Gibbs could recognize him anywhere. He’d declined Gibbs offer for a reason, though. He knew the job he was currently doing kept people safer than being part of the NCIS MCRT who only dealt with people after they’d died.
In theory, his job going undercover with cartels and various other criminal organizations could stop deaths before they happened. It usually didn’t work out that way, but he could hope. This one wasn’t supposed to involve any deaths in all honesty and Tony wondered if it could be traced back to the coffee shop or if someone else had setup the owners in an attempt to take over their territory.
Alas, the NCIS Agents descended on the coffee shop with their evidence bags and Tony had to step back and let them. The owners wouldn’t like this in the slightest, but Tony couldn’t stop them from doing their work. Even if he could, he knew Gibbs didn’t let things drop.
“I know you,” Gibbs grunted.
Tony pasted on his most charming smile, “I’m pretty sure you’re mistaken, officer?”
Gibbs growled. “NCIS. Agent Gibbs.”
“How can I help you, Officer Gibbs?” Tony was purposefully calling him the wrong name in hopes of lessening Gibbs’ chance of recognizing him. Gibbs appeared to drop it, but Tony doubted he was that lucky.
“I need you to walk me through what you saw,” Gibbs ordered.
Tony sighed and started recounting the days’ events for Gibbs. It had started off pretty boring with just the regulars. Tony and one other person were working the counter for the before work rush. Tony hadn’t even noticed the sailor until the mélange of people standing around the dead body drew his attention.
He didn’t tell Gibbs, but he’d been watching the other attendant in an attempt to determine whether he was involved with the owners or clueless of what the purpose of the cafe was. He wished he’d seen something that would help with the investigation, but he really hadn’t. All he’d seen was the other guy pour coffee and then add a shot of something before giving it to the sailor.
It hadn’t been long after that the sailor collapsed outside and drew the attention of everyone. Tony had run over with everyone else, so as to not draw attention to himself. He had no idea if the coffee was the problem or if it was something the sailor had before he’d gotten the coffee. He hadn’t noticed the sailor having any issues until he collapsed on the street.
Someone had started CPR and Tony had just stood and watched like a normal coffee shop employee with no idea what was going on. Gibbs gave Tony one of his cards and Tony pocketed it instead of revealing who he was and saying it was unnecessary. Gibbs had already looked at the ID he had that listed him as Tony DiaMonte and if he’d made the connection to Tony DiNozzo, he hadn’t said anything.
The NCIS Agents left and Tony returned to his normal job, which right now involved a lot of cleaning counters. He paid more attention to anyone that came in wearing a Naval uniform after that. He wanted a heads up if NCIS was going to descend on them again.
He really wished that his undercover operation wasn’t running smack dab into the NCIS investigation, however. It became pretty obvious that his co-worker was not innocent as the day progressed. He didn’t seem to be limiting the poisonings to Naval officers and Tony had no idea how he was picking his victims, but there were at least 2 others that were given a shot that looked similar to the petty officers.
As they weren’t Navy, the regular cops came and took them away. They did a very poor job of investigating and Tony knew they wouldn’t put the pieces together. Hating the fact that he was going to blow his cover, but not being willing to let the guy continue killing no matter who he worked for, Tony shot off a text to Gibbs with the police docket numbers and a suggestion that they might have something that tied to his case.
Tony was still trying to figure out if they guy working with him today was a hitman or just a serial killer using the coffee shop as cover. Tony highly doubted that the guy was actually associated with the owners as the coffee shop was supposed to be one of their money laundering facilities, which means that they wanted it to be squeaky clean with no evidence of any wrong doings.
Later that day, NCIS came along and arrested his co-worker. No one said anything to Tony and he was grateful for that. It would be hard enough to keep his cover without them calling him out for the tip.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean that Gibbs wasn’t aware of who he was. Gibbs had already called the police department he was working for to find out what op he was on. Gibbs waited until his contact at the police department said that they cartel had been taken down before contacting Tony again.
This time he showed up at Tony’s fake apartment. The one that was rented under Tony DiaMonte’s name. While the op was over, Tony still had to move all of his personal belongings back to his real apartment.
“Why are you doing this?” Gibbs demanded.
“What?” Tony looked up at Gibbs in shock. “How did you find out about this place?”
”I knew who you were that day.”
“Well thanks for not blowing my cover then.”
“You could do more good joining my team.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You have an incredible future ahead of you. Don’t waste it on the drug cartels.”
”I don’t think it’s a waste.”
Gibbs waved his hand dismissively. “You know as well as I do that when you take down one another one will just take its place.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “Working for NCIS is better how?”
Gibbs grunted. He hated explaining this shit. “Not everyone is good at investigating like you are. We need people like you.”
“That still didn’t answer my question, Gibbs.”
“The cases we work on involve getting justice for our armed servicemen.”
Tony nodded. “It’s a great cause, but I don’t see why you need me.”
“It would have taken us a lot longer to find the guy without your help as the police would have never brought those cases to our attention.”
“Still not seeing why I should leave what I’m doing to join NCIS.”
“You can be yourself.”
“I happen to like undercover.”
“NCIS does that as well, but when we take someone down it doesn’t leave a power vacuum that someone else steps into.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Just come to headquarters tomorrow. I think you’ll like the deal.” With that parting comment, Gibbs left.
Tony glared after him. He wouldn’t admit it to Gibbs, but he was getting tired of going undercover. Weeding out corrupt officials was important, but he could see the appeal of NCIS as well. He wasn’t sure how Gibbs had figured that out, but Tony couldn’t stop himself from at least checking out what they were offering him to jump ship.