Warnings: Spoilers for "Stop the Bleeding"

A/N: NCIS is back! YAY! I'm so happy that our show is back. Thought "Stop the Bleeding" was one of the best premieres of the entire show. And NO I did not get romantic vibes between Tony and Joanna, I think that's a bit of stretch people. Anyways, that means my tags to the episodes set in the "Unconditionally" verse are back too :). All of these tags take place after "Tiny Photographs" so yes, baby Jack will be included in some :) Enjoy!

The Unspoken Rule

"Was It Right?"

Soft notes from a lullaby carried down the hall in their apartment. Tony DiNozzo stood with his back against the wall outside of his newborn son's nursery, listening to his wife sing to the baby. It had been incredibly difficult to leave just a few days after Jack's birth but Daniel Budd had still been at large. Leah might not have spoken out about Tony's running off to complete rule 45, but her eyes had certainly said enough. If only she had been there for some of those phone calls, the cat and mouse game that Tony and Budd had been playing all summer—then she would have known that Budd had threatened Leah, threatened Jack, and left Tony very little choice.

He wasn't going to stand there and lie—that bullet in Budd had been as much for Leah and Jack as it had been for Gibbs. At least Leah will appreciate it, Tony thought, angrily. Gibbs was alive but something had been off the moment he returned home. How long were things going to remain awkward between him and Gibbs? Tony wasn't sure his stressed, beaten down state of mind could take it right now. He needed Leah to focus him, to ground him... to bring everything back to normal. The entire flight home all he could think about was holding both his wife and son in his arms again...

Leah had stopped singing and was softly speaking to the baby as she laid him down for the night. "Come on my little fuss budget. It's time to go to sleep. I miss Daddy too, but he has to find the bad guys that hurt Grandpa Gibbs and stop them from hurting anyone else. Once he does that he'll come home to us, promise."

Tony felt his eyes well with tears. Tired, you're tired, he told himself. After landing he had gone directly to NCIS to debrief Vance and the SecNav, the Secretary of Defense, and from there he'd grabbed a shower in the gym, the spare clothes from his go-bag, and proceeded to start his report. Now, he finally stood in his apartment, the home he shared with Leah, their cat and their son, and he was on the verge of tears. He was jostled back to the present when a startled grasp bounced off the walls. Leah had stepped out of the nursery and found him standing there. "Hi," he whispered, giving her a smile, "sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"I didn't even hear you come in. How long have you been standing there?" Leah asked, softly.

"How ever long Hush Little Baby is," Tony replied, still rattled, still trying to come to terms with what happened in that alley. Yes, Budd had shot a CIA officer, had eventually pulled his gun on Tony... but after he had been taunted and shot once in the knee by Tony...

Leah was smiling at him, broadly, relieved and happy to see him, unaware of his inner turmoil at the moment. "When did you get back to D.C? Why didn't you call?"

Tony sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Last night, late. I had a lot of work to do at NCIS..."

She reached out and lifted his new tie. "Did you go shopping?"

He smiled, whimsically. "Joanna."

"Ah, well I did ask her to take care of you while you were over seas."

"She did her best. She meant well."

Leah glanced up and looked into his troubled expression. "Is it over? Did you get him?"

Tony's brow furrowed. "It is never over, Leah. But yes... one giant piece to the puzzle is taken care of."

She could sense that something was troubling him. Something had happened to him overseas, something that he wasn't sure how to come to grips with. "Tony, whatever happened did so for a reason."

He rang his tongue over his lips, picturing Budd reaching for that weapon. At that point there was no other choice. And it wasn't like Budd was going to go with Tony willingly. "I killed him, Leah. I cornered him. I taunted him. I shot him in the knee... and when he pulled his gun on me, I fired. Was it the right thing to do?"

"I'm not sure there is an answer to that."

"Wasn't like he hadn't threatened me, or Gibbs, or you and the baby—my team. I was protecting everyone I love, right?"

Leah's heart broke for him. Tim had stopped by a few days ago, concerned how cold Gibbs reacted to Tony and vice versa. He was concerned that there was this rift forming between the two agents that was not going to be bridged and he feared what that meant for everyone. "Tony..."

Tony didn't let her finish, he reached out and took her face between his hands and kissed her, desperately. He didn't want to talk about this anymore. He wanted to just forget for a little while, because tomorrow he knew he'd be facing it all over again. For now, being with her made everything in the world right again.

Jack let out a little whimper from the nursery. Tony pulled away from his wife and silently went to get the baby. Lifting the small baby out of the crib and he cradled him in his arms. Jack opened his eyes and looked at his father, studying him. Tony smiled at the baby and kissed his cheek. He found the rocking chair that was made by Gibbs while the older man had been recovering over the summer. While the former marine never mentioned it, it was clear to Tony that he was still in a lot of pain the day that he had delivered the furniture to the apartment.

Rocking back and forth, watching Jack fall into a blissful sleep in his daddy's arms, Tony thought about the last few months. He thought about what he'd done in Shanghai. "I don't know if it what I did was right, Jack, but I did it for you—and Mommy. I hope you can understand that someday."

"He will, Tony," Leah said, startling him a little as she leaned down to kiss his cheek. She ran her hand over her son's head. "And now, since you're home, I am going to go grab a nap."

"Alright, we'll try to keep it down," Tony joked as she disappeared from the nursery into their bedroom. He took a deep breath and looked down at a sleeping Jack. He shifted the baby slightly and rested him on his chest, rubbing Jack's shoulders, softly. "You know what? To make sure Mommy sleeps, I think you and I are going to stay here... just like this."

While he rocked his son, he swore he saw a smile and it was this that finally grounded Tony after such a long time feeling adrift.