Undercover

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

            Tony sighed and stretched as the plane rolled to a leisurely stop at Los Angeles International Airport.  He turned his phone on as he grabbed his carry-on and jacket from the overhead bin.  There was just one message on his phone, from Bishop.

            How’s LA? Hope u get back soon we got a case and gibbs is being crazy. Think he’s missing headslapping u :) haha but hurry back!

Tony laughed and texted back

            Well LA currently looks like the inside of a plane… Sorry bout the case but I’ll probably be here for a while. Hopefully he’ll go after mcgee with the headslaps instead of u good luck

            Tony hit send, swung his bag over a shoulder, and exited the plane.  He was annoyed that he had to wait a few minutes outside the plane for his planeside-checked bag, but at least it was faster than waiting by the baggage claim. 

Once his bag came out, Tony quickly popped up the handle and dragged it behind him as he headed towards the exit of the airport.  As he walked, he again got strange looks because of the weapon holstered on his hip.  He shrugged them off easily enough, it wasn’t often these days that people walked through airports carrying guns without also being handcuffed and dragged away soon after.  Still, he liked it better when people looked at him with respect because he was an officer of the law, not a potential terrorist. 

Looking out the glass doors of the airport, he saw that the sun was shining brightly- a major improvement over cold, snowy DC.  Putting on his sunglasses and a bright smile, he headed outside.

            G Callen was standing outside the doors, leaning seemingly casually against a wall, checking his phone.  In reality, Tony knew he would be using his phone’s camera to inconspicuously check out the surrounding area. As he approached, G put his phone in his pocket and stepped forwards to greet him.

            “Hey, Tony.  Good to see you again,” Callen said, reaching out for a handshake.

            “G! Nice to see you’ve managed to get through the past seventeen years alive and mostly well.  I see you still have that facial problem though- you’re just not as good looking as me,” Tony replied as he warmly grasped G’s hand and used it to pull him into a brief hug.

            “In your dreams.” G laughed as they walked to the car.  “I’ll always be better looking than you- and I can say it in more languages.”

            “Well, the languages part is certainly true, but it only means that you can lie about your appearance in more languages,” Tony lightly teased as he slid into the passenger seat of the car.

            “Yeah, I can lie about my appearance in more languages: by saying that you are better looking than me, I would be lying.”  G started the car and pulled out of the parking lot at Gibbs-level speeds.

            “Okay, okay you win,” The DC agent gave in.  After a moment, he asked, “So why am I here?”

            “Sam is out on medical leave; we are an agent down,” G’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as he replied.

            “Yeah I know.  Gibbs did inform me of that and Abby said he got shot but that it wasn’t too bad.  But that still doesn’t explain why I’m here.  I wasn’t sent here to help out when you got shot a while ago. Why is it different now?”

            G sighed.  He looked much older than he had seventeen years ago; more so than just natural process of aging.  Probably a part of this was due to the fact that his partner had been shot, but that was not all of it.