NCIS Headquarters, Washington Navy Yard

Fornell offered her one of the coffee cups he had. "Long black."

Fiona shook her head. "No thanks. I think I've had enough caffeine the last couple of days to wear a hole in my stomach."

"Suit yourself," Fornell said taking a sip of his cup.

Fiona frowned. "Why? Is that an NCIS secret handshake or something?"

"No. But Agent Gibbs is a coffee addict."

Fiona pursed her lips and eyed her companion. "Share his habit and he's supposed to co-operate?" The elevator doors opened and she followed Fornell out.

Shaking his head, Fornell sighed. "Not likely, but when it comes to working with Gibbs, you'll try anything."

They walked along the floor passing bullpens along the way. Fornell stopped at one man's desk. And Fiona could feel his suppressed hostility the moment the two agents' eyes met.

"Agent DiNozzo?"

Deciding to cut in before the fireworks started, Fiona offered her hand to the NCIS agent. "Agent Fiona Larsen, I'm here to see Agent Gibbs?"

"Tony. Gibbs won't be more than a couple minutes. If you wanna take a seat..."

Fiona got the feeling that he wasn't comfortable being in her vicinity, as he was quickly making an exit, while trying not to appear rude. He grabbed a colleague on his way and she would have given anything to hear what they were talking about. Because the way the other guy was looking at her, she could swear he was scrutinizing her from head to toe. Introductions weren't necessary. She knew Gibbs on site. He was the older man with a commanding presence who was striding toward them without so much as a hint of interest.

"Don't say it." Gibbs brushed past his fellow colleagues dropped his jacket over the back of his chair.

The younger agent, who'd been talking with Tony, clamped his mouth shut, and looked from Gibbs to Fornell and then back again. He looked as though he was wondering if he should duck for cover, or pretend to be invisible.

Gibbs placed his coffee cup on his desk. He logged onto his computer, ignoring Fornell as the man approached him.

"Nice to see you didn't take that early retirement."

Agent Fornell smiled at Agent Gibbs, but Fiona wasn't surprised to see it wasn't reciprocated. "I know why you're here and you're wasting your time," Gibbs said with a brief glance in her direction. For a moment, Fiona thought she noticed a flicker of pain in his eyes, but it was quickly masked and what she read after was frosty indifference. "Maybe my superior's didn't explain the situation clearly, Agent Gibbs," Fiona offered calmly.

"Oh it seemed pretty straight forward to me. You want me to forget that Ari Haswari killed one of my agents, that he threatened the lives of hundreds of civilians and that none of you are doing a damn thing about it. I won't apologize for being perfectly honest with you here, but short of arresting me, there's nothing you can do to stop our investigation."

"Your director might be looking the other way for now, Jethro but..." Fornell tried to reason.

Fiona couldn't believe how quickly Gibb's demeanor changed from being professionally distant to intentionally damning. "Don't pretend we're friends, Fornell, because I blame you as much as myself for what happened to Agent Todd. And I have nothing more I want to say to you. Either of you."

With is hard gaze focused on her, Fiona found she was at a loss for words. Gibbs grabbed his jacket and strode around them.

The young agent spoke up, "Ah we going somewhere boss?"

"McGee take Agent Larsen to MTAC. Tell the Director that he can give this one to someone else."

"And Fornell?" Tony asked.

"Is leaving…"

Fiona stood there in disbelief as she watched a tense exchange between Fornell and Gibbs, followed by Gibbs swift departure. Shifting uncomfortably, she looked over at the young agent who Gibbs had called McGee. "I guess I'm following you?"

"This way." McGee indicated allowing her to walk with him upstairs.

Gibbs was halfway to autopsy when he changed his mind about letting McGee front the Director on his own. Hadn't he grudgingly agreed to play nice, hear them out? He pushed the emergency stop button, and then level 4, and the emergency stop again. Maintenance had to love his operational technique.

Tony could barely conceal his surprise when he watched Gibbs walk past his desk headed this time, in the opposite direction. "Forget something, boss."

"Yeah, I have a meeting," Gibbs answered gruffly and jogged up the stairs. His boss wasn't fazed by his abrupt entrance and waved him over. "You can go, McGee."

"Ah sure, boss," McGee answered quickly. He was about to offer an apology to Agent Larsen, but thought better of it and snapped his mouth closed. He chose instead to straighten his jacket and shuffle out of MTAC as quickly as possible.

Taking a call for Agent Larsen a few minutes later, McGee could have sworn they would have barely had enough time to compare notes, let alone resolve the jurisdiction issue, when he saw them leaving MTAC.

Pausing on the landing, Gibbs shook his head in disbelief. "You're his handler?" he asked incredulously.

"Why is that so astonishing? You think I'm too young to be watching someone like Ari?"

"In my professional opinion, yes."

"Well I'm glad my superiors disagree with you."

"Tell me Agent Larsen, how many men have you profiled?"

Fiona was bristling but it didn't stop her from realizing that they'd gained an audience. McGee was hovering awkwardly nearby; he seemed torn between making his presence known and trying to disappear into the décor. "What has that..."

"How many?" Gibbs demanded losing patience.

"About sixty." She said with a confident tilt of her chin.

"When you've tripled that, and spent another ten years in this field of work, then maybe I might consider you ready to handle someone like Ari." Gibbs left her standing staring open-mouthed after him.

McGee felt for her. He cleared his throat and tried to apologise for intruding on their conversation.

She waved off the apology and turned to him with a frown. "Is he always so condescending?"

"Don't take it personally. He'll warm up to you eventually."

"I don't need him to warm up to me. I need him to respect my abilities, and let me do my job."

"Actually, that brings me to why I had to come up here. This message came for you." McGee passed her the note, and he watched her face cloud over.

"Great." She crumpled the note in her hand, and headed down the stairs. "Looks like I can look forward to another day of this." She rounded the corner of Tony's desk and made a bee-line for Gibbs. "I don't expect you to let this go, but please respect my position on this. All I'm asking for is a little co-operation…"

"You mean ignorance," Gibbs slotted in.

Fiona let out a sigh. "I have to get back to the office. I'll phone you with an update as soon as I can." She turned to leave,but paused and gave him an appealing look. "Just ask yourself if you've made this personal. There's more at stake here than you willing to admit."

Gibbs didn't say anything, and he noticed Tony and McGee watching him intently as Fiona left the building. As soon as the elevator doors closed he met McGee's gaze. "I want you to alter Kate's records."

"Can I ask why?" McGee queried hesitantly with a raised eyebrow.

Gibbs gave him a narrow look, but answered him anyway. He knew Tony was just as curious, but he was just smart enough to keep his mouth shut. "I want Ari's contacts to believe that she's still alive."

The only reason Tony hadn't reacted first was because he was still reeling from coming face to face and conversing, if he could even call it that, with Kate's look-alike. The reality of what Gibbs was doing hit him like a slap in the face, along with the realization about the significance of what seeing her in Israel and meeting her today meant. She was the Mossad connection. Which meant that she knew Ari first hand. She may have even worked with him for a short time. She was the one who would have assessed him years back when they first made his appeal to the government. Gibbs changing Kate's records meant one thing. Ari's loyalty would be tested, or if they thought the betrayal was bad enough, it would ensure his death. Because it wouldn't take much convincing to have his superiors believe Fiona and Kate were the same person. Did Gibbs really know what a dangerous situation that put her in? Not to mention how wrong it was to do so without her knowledge or consent. Had the possibility of mistaken identity even crossed her mind? Tony stood slowly, going over his approach in his head. He had to choose his words carefully. Gibbs would take any negativity as a personal attack right now. "You do know that Agent Larsen has regular contact with Mossad don't you?"

Gibbs' jaw stiffened and he looked up from his monitor at Tony with a cool stare. "I'm counting on it."

Tony slid back into his chair. Something that had only just crossed his mind, made his blood run cold. What if Ari hadn't intended to target Kate? What if he'd confused Fiona and Kate, and killed the wrong woman? It couldn't be. Kate and Ari had history. He knew her from the time he'd held her captive in autopsy. He'd kidnapped her last year for an attack on the President. He had to know the difference. Didn't he?

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Notes: I know I haven't updated this in awhile - sorry, I've been too mopey to write drama. :P I hope there are still readers following this. I'm not done, I won't abandon writing NCIS, I promise.