No Matter What

“Why look who it is!” McGee called out as he neared the elevator that Tony had been waiting for. “You’re up bright and early sunshine!”

“Shut up.”

“Why so grumpy?” He teased, making a face at him.

“I’m not grumpy,” Tony retorted. “Just tired.”

“Stay up too late last night with Nat last night?” McGee cooed as the doors shut.

Tony smiled proudly. “No, I was in my bed by twelve last night.”

McGee shot him a confused look, raising one brow. “You didn’t sleep with her on the first date?” He asked a little astonished.

Tony stood there and smiled. “Nope.”

“Wow,” He huffed. “I never thought that day would come.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened as Tony exited first heading to his desk. McGee trailed behind, looking a little suspiciously at both Natalie and Tony as if they were hiding something.

“Good morning boys,” Natalie greeted as the two walked past.

“Morning Nat,” McGee replied chipperly.

“Morning,” Tony said grinning like a fool.

“Gibbs said that he would be right back,” Natalie said, grabbing a few folders on her desk. They were stacked full of papers about various suspects in their latest case on drug traffic involving the a navy officer.

“These are for your guys,” She said handing each of them one. “He said you better study up on this case, it’s going to be a long one.”

“Great,” Tony scoffed. “Another drug ring,” He complained, taking it to his desk and plopping it down on the surface. “Why can’t we get something interesting around here?”

“The dead Marine last week that was beat with the Lords of Rock game wasn’t interesting enough for you?” McGee asked, flipping through the file folder.

Tony laughed. “No, that one was kind of funny.”

“Funny?”

“Ziva keeps staring at me,” Natalie announced out of no where.

“Zee?” Tony said, waving his hands in the air, but she just kept concentrating on Natalie at her desk. Her dark eyes felt like they were burning holes into Natalie’s fair skin.

Natalie tried to find the answer to Ziva’s intense gaze, but came up blank every time. Even though they were great friends, there was always something about Ziva that still scared Natalie a bit.

“She’s prefect,” Ziva grinned, sitting up in her chair quickly.

“Perfect for what?” Gibbs asked, running down the steps from MTAC.

“To go undercover!” Ziva announced happily, impressed with her own idea. “Natalie fits the description of that dealer we took down the other day.”

“Nat doesn’t even know how to shoot a gun!” Tony jumped in quickly, obviously trying to protect his latest love intrest.

“Doesn’t mean we can’t teach her,” Gibbs said with that smirk.

“We let her go into the ring and get us some insight on what they’re planning next,” Ziva began to explain. “Then, we keep contact with her, that way if she’s in trouble we can step in.”

“What if they sniff us out?” Tony proposed. “Then what is she supposed to do?”

“They won’t,” McGee spoke up. “We can wire her with cameras that way we can be far enough away but still see everything.”

The four of them turned to Natalie, who seemed completely unaware of what had been planned without her.

“What?”

“Grab your gear Nat,” Gibbs said.

“I don’t----“ She didn’t even have a chance to finish her sentence before the ends of three guns were being handed to her. She didn’t even bother to grab one.

“I’ve never gone in the field before,” She admitted sheepishly. “I just work the desk.”

“Today, you get to become an honorary agent,” Gibbs noted.

“I can’t even fire one of these.”

Gibbs smirked. “Tony’ll teach you,” He said slyly.

“Boss?”

“You heard me.”

“Right Boss.”

“Now get down there, we don’t have a lot of time before we need to make this happen.”

Natalie quickly shut down her computer and stood up from her desk, following Tony to the elevator.

“I’ve only ever used a shot gun before,” She mentioned. “But that was for hunting.”

“Think of it as a shorter shot gun,” Tony said. “And you’re only hunting if you’re being hunted.”

After a short elevator ride down, they stepped off on to the shooting range. She had only ever shot deer in her life, once she had shot a turkey, but her father helped with that.

Tony led her over to a booth and told her to wait there while he grabbed ear muffs and a target sheet. She looked down the empty target range and tried to realize what she was doing. She had just gone from being an office help to a field agent in zero to sixty.

“Here, you might want these,” Tony offered, handing her a pair of red ear muffs.

“I don’t even have a gun to fire.”

“You’re using mine.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“Alright,” She sighed as he pulled his gun from his waistband on his pants. She held the heavy metal weapon in her hands, hoping and praying that she wouldn’t screw this up.

“Ready?” He asked, pinning up the target sheet on a pair of hooks and sending it way back with the click of a button on the wall next to him.

“Can I say no?” She asked jokingly.

He chuckled. “I’ll help you.”

He moved over to behind her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her back in to his chest. He took her hands in his, placing the gun in a shooting position, letting their fingers linger on the trigger.

“It’s going to kick back,” He warned. “Not as bad as a shot gun though. No bruises, I promise.”

She closed her eyes as they pressed their fingers against the trigger, producing a large boom and causing her to stumble backwards into Tony’s chest.

She leaned her head on his shoulder and looked up. He felt her weight change against his body and placed his gun on the counter in front of them.

“I can’t shoot a person,” She whispered. “I just can’t.”

“Nat,” He sighed, reaching his palm up to her cheek and cupping it. “I won’t let them do this.”

“I’m not cut out for the field,” She whimpered.

“I know that,” He whispered, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

“You have to tell Gibbs,” She begged.

He pulled her in tighter, if that was even possible, leaning down to kiss the top of her head softly. He knew there was no way in hell that Natalie was ever going to be able to pull this off. Though it seemed like a great idea, deep down, this was going to hurt her.

“I will,” He answered, placing another kiss on top of her head as her body shook in his arms.