Balancing Act

The next day we were back at the office and I was a bit envious of my sister. We had been up until the wee hours of the morning having a good time at the party. Jen got to sleep in, she got to stay in her nice warm bed with Jethro at her side. On the other hand, I was counting down the hours before I got what my sister was enjoying at the moment. Of course Hannah, Leah and JD were completely embarrassed by Ziva and me dancing the night before. The icing on the proverbial graduation cake for the girls was having Jen, Kate and Abby dancing too.
While Tony and the team continued working on the case, I looked over some case files. I desperately tried not to fall asleep at my desk, but it was getting hard not to. Within minutes I went over to the couch to catch a few minutes of shut eye. Unlike Jen and Jethro who had been coffee aficionados for my entire life as well as being the ones who always mainlined coffee whenever they were this tired, my feeble attempt at replicating their way of staying awake wasn’t working as planned. I had left my office door unlocked just in case anyone needed something or they needed to drop off a case report for me to read. As I started to doze off two things came to mind. The first being that before long I would be leaving the building to meet up with Jen for lunch. Then the second was hearing Nick utter the words he said to me the first night of our honeymoon as I fell asleep in his arms that night.
“You look like an angel when you sleep, my love.”
From that point on I had been Nick’s angel. Then when the girls came along more angels were added. As I fell asleep, I secretly hoped that the team was making further progress in the case so that I could get SECNAV off my ass. But I had a gut feeling that by the time I woke up that I would have that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I was told that they hadn’t made any progress.
It was quite clear that we were still on the mend not only from the night before but also from the departure we had to endure prior to last night. An hour or two later I was woken up by Tony knocking on my office door. Even in the half dazed state I was in I knew that he was up here to give me an update on the case.
“Come in Tony.” I said as I got up and went over to the front of my desk.
As Tony came in he had that same bewildered look on his face that he had the night that he went to give Jen his answer about having his own team. On top of his bewilderment, Tony had a somewhat major case of déjà vu as we were position in my office the same way he and Jen were when he had gone to her for relationship advice during their case where Sarah had been a suspect.
“That was weird.” Tony said.
“Having déjà vu, Tony?”
“You can say that.”
“Don’t worry its apart of our charm. Now what do ya have for me?” I asked.
“We’ve hit a road block with the case. We chased down leads; Ziva worked her contacts and got nowhere. The murderer has covered his tracks pretty well.”
“Great, this is just what I need today.”
“I know, SECNAV wants answers.”
“Not just SECNAV, Tony. The other Directors are trying to snake us out of jurisdiction on this case.”
“Second guessing your decision to succeed Jenny?”
“Not anymore. Just thinking that we’re gonna need to call in the cavalry at this rate.” I said.
“But Gibbs and Jenny are retired. And Abby said that Gibbs is planning on taking your sister down to Mexico to see Amira since her birthday is coming up.”
Once Tony had brought Jen and Jethro’s impending trip there was a look that came across my face that Tony picked up on. It was a look of worry and panic with a hint of concern. I knew that once Jethro got down to Franks’ little piece of paradise that it was virtually impossible to get him to comeback state side. I also knew that Jen was easily persuaded and was even more persuadable now. Tony was able to read me just as he had been able to read Jen when she was in charge.
“Don’t worry Jay, they won’t take up residence down there. Abby won’t let them and they would dare be away from Kelly and Liza for an extended amount of time.”
“I hope you’re right Tony.”
“I am; Jethro wouldn’t want to be away from his girls for too long. Any of his girls.” Tony said explicitly including Ziva, Kate, Abby and I in the same category that Jen, Kelly and Liza were in to assure me that he was right.
We both stood in place for a few seconds trying to figure out a way to get this case solved. I was silently debating on if I was going to pull my sister and brother-in-law away from their retirement or not.
It wasn’t until Palmer came in saying that he wasn’t far with the bodies when I had decided to call our veterans back.
Tony had gone back down to the squad room after I had instructed him to tell the others that I was calling for help and I had told Palmer to call Ducky, saving me a phone call.
Then after about five rings, Jethro answered their home phone.
“We need you guys; we need help on a case.” I said.