Winning has never been so easy

ALL CHALLENGE RESPONSES ARE COMPLETE AS POSTED. PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ASKING FOR MORE OR SEQUELS.

Title: Winning has never been so easy

Author: PNZ

Fandom: NCIS

Characters: Tony DiNozzo, AJ Chegwidden, LJ Gibbs, Tim McGee, Ziva David

Genre: Gen

Prompt: Surrender

Word Count: 741

Warnings: no beta

Author Note: This takes place after Dead Air

~~~

“I have a bone to pick with you, young man,” AJ Chegwidden said in a – hopefully pretend – annoyed tone.   

Leaning back in his chair with a tiny half smirk upon his face, Tony DiNozzo replied simply, “Ah.”  

“Ah? That’s all you can say? That’s it?”  

“I take it you saw it then?”  

“You bet your ass I saw it, after all the jabbering you did about it. Of course, I saw it!”  

“And you liked it,” Tony said with confidence, his smirk more pronounced. He leaned forward now, eager to hear AJ’s thoughts. “More, even – you want more.”  

“Don’t you start with me, son. I don’t want to hear it,” AJ gruffly replied. His voice may have an annoyed tenor in it, but his body gave off the idea of amusement.   

“But you have to hear it!” Now the smirk had grown to a full out grin. Tony didn’t care about the finger wagging in his face by the retired admiral, he had won the bet. “You have to listen to all of it because I was right.”  

Pulling some paperwork out of the normally locked drawer of his desk first, Tony then stood up and came around his desk to stand in front of his friend.  “Do you surrender, Sir? Do you yield?” he asked in a quiet teasing voice.

With quite the put-upon sigh, Chegwidden answered, “I yield, you complete pain in the ass. Even if I don’t mind.”  

“Hot damn! Winner’s choice it is,” Tony exclaimed, racing off to the Director’s office before anyone could stop him. He was amazed that they were able to have that entire conversation without interruption in the first place.

“Well, I better go after him.”

“Why?” McGee asked, speaking up for the first time.  

“Well, I don’t want to miss the show.”

“What was that all about anyway?” Ziva asked, getting up as if to also go upstairs and see ‘the show’.

“Where do you think you’re going, missy? And that was about a bet between Tony and myself.”

“What bet? What does that have to do with him running off to Vance’s office?” demanded Gibbs, his gut churning.

“I want to see this ‘show’ you speak of,” Ziva said, answering the earlier question.

“You weren’t invited to see it.”

“And it’s too late at this point for any of you to see anything,” Tony said coming back down the stairs.  

“All set?” AJ asked, grabbing Tony’s bag for him.

“Yep, paperwork is put through and Delores verified that all is well on her end.”

“Going on vacation without telling me, DiNozzo?” Gibbs asked, anger in his voice.

“Nope, resigning without telling you, Gibbs. I wish you luck in finding a new Senior Field Agent, as this one is no longer yours to use and abuse.”  

“What?” “What are you talking about” “This isn’t a time for jokes, DiNozzo!” Came from all sides.

“Oh, I don’t owe you any explanations, people. You didn’t even notice that all of my personal belongings were cleaned off my desk and area for the past two weeks. I don’t need anyone’s permission to leave a place of employment where I don’t feel respected or safe.” He looked at his coworkers in the eyes as he said this, none of which could hold his gaze.  

At their silence, he and AJ resumed their exit. Agent Balboa stopped them by the elevator as they waited for it to arrive. “Good luck, Tony, I hope the next place treats you better. But I have to ask, what was the bet?”

“Oh, I bet AJ that there was at least one remake that was as good as the original. And if he liked it, then I would get to quit on my own terms without him pulling any strings.”

“What movie?” Another agent called out from the bullpen, pen ready to write down the title. Everyone knew Tony’s expertise when it came to films.  

“The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which was remade in 2005, an homage to the 1960’s television show. If you haven’t seen it yet, go for it. And do not pay attention to the reviews. They were all a bunch of jerks trying too hard to sound important.”

And with that, Tony stepped into the elevator with his friend and exited the heinous orange offices of NCIS to start a new chapter in his life.  

Hopefully before anyone told Abby about what had just happened in the bullpen.  

2 Comments

Leave a Reply