Retrouvailles Revisited

Chapter 2 - The Assignment

"Good morning Christopher."

"Oh, hell, what is it 'King' you don't call me that this early in the morning for nothing unless it's bad news."

"Depends on what you call bad news. You are being detailed to D.C. They still have a few holes from their recent losses. Evidentially the Director has an assignment that he thinks you can assist with. So go get your gear together including your passport. Unfortunately I do not know how long that you will be gone"

"Tammy. I'm going on a vacation" he says laughing.

"Where to?"

"Your old stomping ground Washington."

"Oh I have some great memories from being in D.C." Gregorio states. I'll give you a list of places to go. Maybe you can catch up with Percy. Suspecting she has found some good places to party since she has been there. I have only spoken to her once since she has been gone. I think she wanted to put us in the rear view mirror. "

"You can say it Tammy" LaSalle remarks. "You mean put me in the rear view mirror. We all know I'm the primary reason that she took off."

"I didn't say that to accuse you LaSalle" Tammy says softly.

"I know Tammy. I've done enough of that myself. I knew I should have spoken up when she first said she was leaving. Then when she showed up on the scene that day, I was relieved but not smart enough to rethink the situation."

"I never told you that on her last day we verbally spoke about 'what if'. It was too late then. It will take a long while to get her out of my heart though. Don't look at me like that Tammy. You know that I can be a knuckle head too. You also knew what was going on with us. I just couldn't see it. I thought I had stopped it but you were right. She's right here" he says as he points to his heart. "That's why you haven't seen me out a lot. I'll spend time with you guys and the boys on boy's night out, but I'm not ready to find another woman. Not until I can ditch this feeling, I mean these feelings."

"It hurts doesn't LaSalle? I miss her too. I had a long time to think in my counseling sessions. I can't believe that Sonja and I bonded so quickly. We had a lot of talks about you Christopher. I would gamble even further than what I said before. I think that the girl fell in love with you and if you will be honest with yourself, I think you cared more than you want to admit to yourself."

LaSalle was quiet as he got his stuff out of his desk and closet. "Tammy I need to go pack. Take care of yourself and the nerdy one. Text me Percy's phone number when you find will you please?"

Thanks to modern technology, Christopher LaSalle had no problem finding the D.C. NCIS offices. The first thing that he noticed was the heavy level of security and reminded himself that their office was recently bombed and there were several assassination attempts on agents and staff. He had hardly walked through the common area when he noticed the Director waiving to him from the balcony.

"Good Morning Agent LaSalle. Welcome to D.C. Is everything going well for you?" They exchange some small talk. "Well, I have some news for you. I will be detailing you to a multi-unit Task Force. It's a good thing we told you to bring your passport. You might well need it."

"I have been impressed with your leadership while your team searched for Agent Pride last year. This assignment will allow you to broaden your scope of the mission of NCIS and give you a different vantage point of agency interactions that we undertake. I know from your reports that you have worked with the FBI and the Coast Guard but there are a great number of agencies that we work with all over the world."

"Here is the address that you will need to report to in the morning. It's a non-descript looking building so put it in your directional equipment and it will get you there."

"Good luck and remember to keep your head down. While you're here, would you please take a few minutes to greet the team downstairs including the new workers in the lab? They could use seeing a friendly face.

Well, I guess I'm not in Kansas anymore LaSalle thinks. All I need is to be around a bunch of 'suits' that I don't know. Wish I could have stayed in 'Nola'.