Title: variations on a theme of resolution

Disclaimer: Characters et al very much not mine. Alas.

Summary: Five ways the team probably won't get back together. Set after series five finale. Tiva.

Notes: A few short scenes. With more than a few hints of Tiva. Because I'm that girl.

XxX

1: "You're not going anywhere, DiNozzo."

Five hours have passed.

Five hours have passed since they received their orders and Tony sits in his apartment, trying to figure out what the hell to do. He should pack. He should start to prepare himself for this new life. And yet, he cannot bring himself to pack a single item.

He doesn't want to leave this place. He's settled. He's… well, he might not be happy at the moment, but, goddamnit, he's been happy here. He's not ready for this new imposed future. Not yet. But what is the alternative?

There's a knock on the door and when he opens the door he finds Ziva standing there. She should be at her apartment, packing, he thinks. He invites her in. She's smiling. She's smiling and she's happy and that's really not what he was looking for. He wants dark and brooding and angry and something that's not this. He barely registers the presence of Gibbs, McGee and Abby until they enter his apartment.

"Don't pack," Ziva says.

He looks at her, bemused.

"You're not going anywhere, DiNozzo," Gibbs informs him.

It's a joke, he thinks. It's a joke and somehow they're all getting some sort of perverse enjoyment out of teasing him in this way.

"Vance changed his mind," Gibbs continues.

"What? Why? Ho…?" Tony starts, but Gibbs shakes his head slightly in response, his features darkening and becoming more intense briefly, before relaxing into neutrality.

This is something that won't ever be revealed, he realises. Something has happened, some behind-closed-doors agreement that cannot be mentioned. He hopes Gibbs didn't have to make some compromise. He knows they'll never know. But it won't stop him speculating.

Abby has brought a bottle of some sparkling alcoholic drink, and opens it, pouring it into glasses from his kitchen.

They clink glasses against each other, and as they drink he hopes to God that things will start to get back to normal now. But for now, he's not going to worry about that.

Five hours have passed and Tony's relieved that the situation has been resolved.

XxX

2: "He's gone?"

Five days have passed.

Five days have passed since they received their orders and McGee is at his new desk, trying to not compare his new team with his old team. He is failing miserably.

He's not spoken to any of the old team besides Abby since everything changed. Even Abby is no longer Abby as she once was. She's quiet, withdrawn, convinced that Tony and Ziva will never be heard from again. She's convinced that she can no longer speak to him in plain sight without some obscure and horrific consequence. She's convinced that Gibbs is plotting something.

The final thought is not necessarily unrealistic. Rumours abound about Gibbs's plans but then that's nothing entirely new. Gibbs knows something, they say. Gibbs is doing covert investigations into agency business, he hears. Gibbs is working with the FBI to bring the director down, so the grapevine informs him.

It's more than a little ludicrous, McGee thinks. At least the FBI version is. The others… he wouldn't put it past his boss… Former boss.

The phone rings and he answers. "McGee."

"He's gone," the voice on the other end of the phone says. It's Abby. A happy Abby.

"He's gone?" McGee asks, confused, needing clarification.

"Vance," Abby tells him. "Vance is gone."

"Gone?" he asks dumbly.

"Gone," Abby repeats. "It was Gibbs, McGee. Gibbs found something on Vance and now Vance has gone. I don't know where. Vance is gone and so everything can go back to normal, McGee!" Abby delights in telling him.

McGee smiles, feeling the infectious nature of her happiness.

And then, he wonders, briefly, if normality can ever be achieved. And then he abandons this thought; madness lies that way, he realises.

Five days have passed and McGee is looking forward to normality.

XxX

3: "It's like the whole universe has gone insane and it's up to us to do something about it, Ducky!"

Five weeks have passed.

Five weeks have passed since they received their orders and Abby is in her lab, talking to her replacement Tony and Ziva. Her mood has deteriorated in their absence. Her music is less upbeat.

She doesn't like this new atmosphere.

The new Tony, Ziva and McGee – she's yet to care enough to learn their real names – come down to her lab only on rare occasions. She thinks she's done well in scaring them off. She sees the real McGee sometimes. He tries to get her to go to lunch with him sometimes, but mostly his efforts are pushed aside.

Ducky is her more constant companion. Ducky and Gibbs. Although it is practically impossible to speak to Gibbs anymore.

Ducky comes to her lab, trying to alleviate her depression.

"Everything will be sorted out soon, Abigail, mark my words."

It's nothing new. He's said this before. And yet, after five weeks, nothing has been sorted. But somehow, somehow she finds comfort in these words.

"It's like… it's like the whole universe has gone insane. And it's up to us to do something about it, Ducky!" she replies. She is infused with new hope.

"And what exactly do you propose, Abigail?" he asks with only a small amount of amusement.

"We need to convince Vance that everything was better when the real team were working together."

"And how might we do that?"

"Patience, my dear Ducky," she says with a smile. A plan forms in her head.

Five weeks have passed and Abby is finally feeling optimistic.

XxX

4: "What are you doing here?"

Five months have passed.

Five months have passed since they received their orders and Gibbs is entering a hospital room in Tel Aviv.

"Gibbs?" the occupant asks, confused.

"Ziva," he nods.

"What are you doing here?" she asks.

He tells her the truth. That he is investigating a bombing in Tel Aviv that involved naval officers. That involved her and her colleagues. That involves Tony.

"Tony?" she asks. "Tony is in Tel Aviv?"

He doesn't buy that it is news to her. He keeps tabs on his former team; knows what they are up to. He knows for sure that Tony and Ziva have kept in close contact. But he isn't interested in these details. "We believe that a petty officer from his ship may have set off the bomb," he responds.

"Why?" she asks. It is the question of an investigator and not a victim.

He smiles slightly. "That's what we've got to find out, Ziva."

"Okay," she replies. "And how can I help?" There is a pause. "Are you here to get me out of this place?" She looks so enthusiastic about this prospect that he cannot help but give a short laugh.

Instead he tells her that Tony will be arriving at the hospital soon after he's finished surveying the scene and questioning colleagues of the petty officer. He tells her that they will be liaising with McGee regarding the petty officer's possible involvement in online extremist activity. He tells her that Abby should be calling soon with forensic details from the petty officer's apartment.

And then, after this, he sits back and answers the questions she has about the case, and a few more subtle queries about the team.

Five months have passed and Gibbs won't admit how good it feels to be working with his team again.

XxX

5: "I hear that things have changed."

Five years have passed.

Five years have passed since they received their orders and Tony sits on the couch in his apartment next his former partner. How things have changed in five years. Vance has left. Gibbs has a new team. McGee is working for him. Abby is, well, still Abby. A little less optimistic, but still essentially the same. He no longer lives on a ship.

Ziva is… in his life. She travels the world, but visits DC increasingly frequently, liaising with the Israeli embassy. She stays with him when she's in town and he finds that he dislikes it more and more when she leaves.

He remembers the first time she stayed over. A knock on the door and there she stood, soaked by the rain that poured torrentially that night. He'd emailed over the previous months, talked occasionally on the phone, and of all his former team, god he missed her most. He hadn't realised it until she'd gone; until their once a week emails were not enough for him. He hadn't expected her that evening, had no idea that she was even in the same continent as him, and yet, there she stood.

He's still not sure who instigated the kiss. Or whether he even actually got as far as inviting her inside. But she came in anyway and stayed with him.

Since then, their relationship has evolved. But into what, he's not sure.

She sits in next to him now, eating pizza, drinking beer.

"This is my last visit for Mossad," she tells him.

And he feels it, his breath leaves him, her words wounding. But she smiles. He can't understand it.

"I am leaving Mossad," she continues. She still smiles. "The new NCIS director has approved my contract." He still doesn't understand. "Gibbs wants me to be on his team," she informs him. And now he starts to comprehend.

"You're going to work for NCIS?" he asks.

"Yes," she replies.

"You'll need somewhere to stay," he responds. And he is immediately surprised even as the words leave his lips. But he doesn't regret the semi-offer.

"Yes," she says, her eyebrow raised in question.

His smile starts to mirror hers.

"I hear that things have changed. That the team has been split into two and that the other team leader is a slave driver," she comments, amused.

"He likes camp fires, too," he responds.

She laughs.

Five years have passed and Tony is thinking about a past he misses and new beginnings.

XxX