Obdurate

Gibbs and Tony hit the ground running. Well Gibbs did at least. Tony stopped to take a breath after the car finally stopped going at breakneck speed through the highways and came to a stop in the NCIS garage. He was quick to follow Gibbs in to NCIS headquarters to figure out what had McGee spooked.

McGee nodded his head in greeting as Gibbs and Tony approached him. “Grab a conference room. I just need to finish copying this data and I’ll meet you there.”

“Where’s Ziva?” Tony wanted to know, noticing that she wasn’t at her desk.

“I don’t know. I went to use the bathroom and when I came back she was gone. It appears she finished the paperwork though. At least, it’s on GIbbs’ desk again.” McGee poorly explained.

“Doesn’t she need to be in on this?” Tony demanded, wondering why McGee would call Gibbs and Tony in, but wouldn’t make sure Ziva was present as well.

“Um. No. I’ll explain later in the conference room, please.” McGee stuttered a little bit even though he’d mostly grown out of his stuttering, it still sometimes happened especially in unfamiliar situations like this one. He had no idea how Gibbs and Tony would take this news.

Gibbs glared at McGee for holding out on them as to the full explanation, but McGee just waved his hands in the direction of the conference room as he gathered up the things he needed to show what Ziva was doing and followed them. He normally wouldn’t presume to do such a thing, but he knew the sooner he explained what was going on, the better off he’d be and they needed to be in the conference room for that if they were to stand any chance of keeping this a secret even temporarily.

He knew he should have Vance in with them too, but he didn’t want to be too presumptuous with his already tentative standing amongst the team. He’d let Gibbs and Tony decide what to share with Vance.

He just hoped that what he had to show them would go a little ways to rebuilding the trust amongst them. In addition to the overwhelming amount of evidence he’d gotten off her computer, he’d also managed to get quite a few security camera tapes of the bullpens. He’d been astonished when he reviewed a few of them just how obdurate Ziva had been on them.

She couldn’t see that she had done anything wrong. She couldn’t see that there was even the slightest chance she had made a mistake. She was so resistant and hardened in her thinking that she would never see her downfall coming. Director David really should have tried to train her out of being obdurate, but it was way too late now.

Even if this didn’t build up trust between him and Tony and Gibbs, McGee knew that Tony and Gibbs would make sure Ziva was taken care of in a manner befitting the crime.