DISCLAIMER: These characters belong to DPB, CBS, Paramount, et al. No copyright infringement is intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to abby_forever for beta'ing this for me. She's the best.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
All Dressed in White
By Jaina
The church was quiet and still. Motes of dust shimmered in the early morning light floating down through the high stained glass windows that glowed orange, red, and gold with deep shimmering blues and greens. A small but respectable amount of people filled the seats on either side of the aisle. They sat quietly, leafing through the program and talking softly with the people around them.
Those sitting on the right seemed a bit more animated, happier and more enthusiastic than those sitting on the left side.
In front of the gathered people and the priest presiding over the rites stood a man and a woman. The man had short cropped brown hair and wore a dark suit with matching dark tie. The woman beside him wore her long curly dark hair loose, letting it flow down her back. The creamy ivory dress that she wore was held up by spaghetti straps and bared her back.
Even as the priest droned on solemnly, she shot quick adoring glances at the man beside her. Every time their gazes met, a smile tugged at her lips, breaking the serious look she was struggling to maintain.
At a discreet cough from the priest, Ziva jerked her eyes forward to focus on him again, looking suitably penitent. Her right hand, held loosely at her side, reached out to take Tony's hand. His fingers wrapped through hers and squeezed lightly.
"Do you Anthony DiNozzo, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
He cleared his throat, squeezed the hand holding his, and looked directly into her eyes.
"I do," He said simply.
An aide stepped up next to Director Sheppard as she focused on the screens in front of her. The screens were split between several different missions, but she was clearly watching the center screen.
"Director," the aide spoke as quietly as she could, "Ms. Sciuto just came in." Jenny looked over immediately. "She's waiting by the doors."
"Thank you, Scoletti," Jenny said with a dismissive smile.
She took a breath, and one final look at the screen before she slowly walked to the back of the room. She took a spot beside Abby and slowly folded her arms over her chest as she refocused her attention on the screen that she'd been watching.
"Something I can do for you, Abby?"
"Oh." The forensic scientist seemed almost surprised to see her standing there. "No, I mean, I know that they have a mission going on today and it wasn't classified so I was just gonna..." She gestured towards the screen. "If you don't mind."
Jenny considered the risks for a moment. It wasn't a request that she'd usually grant, but for today she'd allow it. Abby's security clearance wasn't something that she'd yet had cause to regret, and there were no missions presently being shown in MTAC that had higher clearance than Abby was cleared for.
"Of course," She said with a nod. She hesitated for a moment and then gave Abby a pat on the shoulder. "McGee and Gibbs know what they're doing."
"...You may now kiss the bride."
Tony grinned and took his time lifting the short veil back over her head. He caught the glint of impatience in Ziva's eyes and added just a hint of smugness to his smile.
From their distance she was the only one who could see it. In response she narrowed her eyes fractionally.
Tony finished tugging the veil down behind her, taking a step closer to her to make it easier. He dropped one hand to Ziva's waist and tugged her closer until they were touching. His other hand tangled in her hair, tilting her head up to meet his lips as he leaned down.
He brushed her lips with his and then tasted them again. Pushing against them, he slipped his tongue into her mouth. She responded just as ardently, until Tony had to remind himself that they were still in front of a church full of people.
He pulled away reluctantly and turned to face the crowd of people. There was stunned silence for a full minute before the priest cleared his throat and pronounced.
"I now present you, for the first time, with Mr. and Mrs. Anthony DiNozzo!"
People broke out into cheers, clapping and wolf whistles as the happy couple headed towards the front of the church.
The sound of a door being busted open caught and jerked Abby's attention to the screen.
Through the grainy video, she could see McGee darting through the door. The camera shook as Gibbs followed him in. Shouts of "Clear!" echoed as they moved through the small apartment.
When they met back at the center of the apartment, Gibbs lowered his pistol.
"Know what we're looking for, McGee?"
McGee shrugged. "Poison." He shrugged. "It could be in anything, Boss."
Gibbs did not look happy. "Then get looking, McGee. It's not going to find itself."
McGee grimaced. "Right, Boss." With a resigned glance around the room, he picked a spot and started looking. "Tony and Ziva are going to owe me for this, big time," He muttered as he started picking through a pile of discarded mail. The camera's microphone caught the words with a distant hiss.
Gibbs walked out of the room in the opposite direction, leaving McGee out of sight. Abby caught a disorienting glimpse of Gibbs as he moved to search the bathroom and caught a reflected image of him in the mirror.
He tugged open the bathroom cabinet, destroying the reflection, and searched it carefully, opening up the few scattered pill bottles that sat in there. He opened a box of band-aids and spilled them out to make sure that nothing else was in there.
A box of tampons gave him a moment's pause, but he dutifully looked into them as well. He dropped them quickly back to the shelf, and closed the cabinet, going to search under the counter and behind the toilet. All the nasty places that people had found to hide things that they didn't want to be found.
"Gibbs!" McGee's voice echoed as he called from the other room. "Boss, I found something!"
Quickly Gibbs exited the bathroom and headed back towards the living room. "What've you got?"
McGee held up a small bottle full of a clear liquid. "I checked. It has no smell. I think it's the poison that Abs was looking for," He said excitedly.
"Good," Gibbs said quickly. "Get it back to Abby. We need confirmation on this before we move."
"Right," McGee said. Abby watched him as he started towards the door. She took one last look at the screens and then headed for the doors to MTAC.
She'd have everything ready in her lab by the time they got back.
The sooner she could identify the substance and positively match it, the sooner this whole thing would be over.
Ziva whirled the knife through her fingers and plunged it into her steak, carving off a healthy bite, before she caught it with her fork and began to chew it up.
She went to cut a second bite. Tony's fingers clamped around her wrist, with bruising force and then loosened slightly.
"Enough with the scary Mossad assassin stuff," He hissed into her ear, "More with the sweet domestic housewife."
She glared. "Let go of my wrist or my knife will be in your hand," She said under her breath.
Tony let go. Ziva made an effort to cut her second bite more daintily.
"Thank you," Tony said sarcastically.
Ziva rolled her eyes.
"How is everything?" A voice from behind them made them both jump.
"Great," Tony said through gritted teeth. "Just great." His gaze fell on Ziva's hand, wrapped so tightly around the steak knife that her knuckles were white.
"Good." The wedding planner rested a hand on their shoulders. "Oh," She said lightly, "Do you mind if I have a word with you crazy kids for just a moment before the cake's cut?"
Ziva gave the woman her brightest smile. "Of course." She stood, looking down at Tony. "Coming, Dear?"
"Right behind you, Sweetie," Tony said, dropping his hand to the small of her back as he stood, to guide Ziva forwards. Only a small brush of movement against his side alerted him to Ziva's small movement as she palmed the knife that she'd been using from the table and made it disappear somewhere into the folds of her dress.
He shot her a quick look, but she didn't respond, just kept following the woman in front of them.
She led them into a small room off of the main reception hall. She smiled at them. It was a shaky smile and it instantly put Tony on edge.
"I just wanted to say thank you. It's been a real privilege," The word came out far more harshly than she'd obviously intended for it to be, "To be able to plan your wedding. It was my pleasure, and I was especially happy to have an opportunity to help you have such a beautiful wedding, since you'll be shipping out soon." She nodded at Tony. "But, unfortunately that's not going to happen now." She brought her hand out from behind her, and held it steadily, pointing a pistol directly at Tony's heart.
"H-hey, take it easy there," Tony said as lightly as he could manage. He raised his hands slowly in the universal symbol of surrender. "You don't want to do this."
"Why not?" The woman's voice was suddenly harsh and cold. Her face was sharp with barely restrained tension and violence. "Your Navy destroyed my husband - killed him less than three weeks after we got married, and all they can say is that they're deeply sorry. That's it?" Her voice was indignant and not a little insane. "So, yes, I do want to be doing this."
Tony titled his head in resignation. There was a flicker of motion and the woman gasped. Ziva's knife was suddenly protruding from her shoulder. Tony moved instantly to knock the gun out of her hand.
"That's why," He said simply as the door exploded inwards behind them. "'Bout time, Boss," He called over his shoulder, without looking back. "Seems like our girl here was escalating in her pattern of violence."
Gibbs glared. "Good thing your partner was prepared."
Tony smirked. "Well there's a reason I keep the little missus around."
"Gibbs?" Ziva's voice was pleading.
Gibbs tried to hide a smile. "Go ahead."
Ziva smacked him in the back of the head, and elbowed him in the ribs as she walked past.
"Oof," Tony gasped. "Boss, why'd you let her do that?"
Gibbs shook his head. "You're lucky that's all she did, DiNozzo."
The elevator doors opened slowly. Abby tackled Ziva with a hug the moment that they opened. Ziva let her hands drop to encircle Abby's waist and held her close until Abby slowly pulled away.
She looked up and down Ziva and then smiled. "Nice dress."
Ziva twitched the material of the long skirt with one hand. "You like it?"
"I do," Abby said with a grin for her own pun.
Ziva wrinkled her nose and stepped out of the elevator to follow Abby into her lab. She led her into the small office in the back. She leaned up against the desk as Abby sat down.
Abby caught one of her hands, holding it loosely. "I watched you get married today."
Ziva looked surprised. "I didn't know - Jenny let you watch," She concluded.
"Yeah," Abby said slowly. "She thought I was worried about the raid that Gibbs and McGee were doing on her apartment."
Ziva chuckled. "You did not tell her the real reason."
Abby shook her head slowly. "It's not everyday that you watch your girlfriend get married to some guy."
"You were jealous."
Abby shrugged but said nothing to confirm or deny.
Ziva stared. "You cannot seriously be jealous that I was fake married to DiNozzo for a mission to catch an insane homicidal wedding planner."
Abby shrugged again. "It did kinda suck seeing him standing up there with you." She remembered something and hit Ziva's arm with her fist - hard. "Seeing you make out with him."
Ziva choked. She had forgotten that moment. "We had to make it look believable."
"There's believable and then there's wedding porn," Abby said crossly.
"Ah," Ziva said slowly, pulling Abby up from her seat, "But no matter how I kiss DiNozzo in front of a dozen junior agents who will never see us again," She slipped her hands around Abby's waist and bent to press a kiss to the lowest line of Abby's spiderweb tattoo. "You are the only one who will get to take this dress off of me when we get home."
Abby laughed as her arms settled around Ziva's neck. She held her pout for a moment longer. "I'd better be."
Ziva sealed the bargain with a kiss that left no doubt in Abby's mind.
The End