Disclaimer: If I owned NCIS, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction for it.

A/N: I'm hard at work on the next chapter of Operation: Lois Lane, but real life has been crazy lately. After watching 9x17, though, this little ficlet popped into my head and insisted on being written. Because there was definitely some tension between Gibbs and Tony after Gibbs chose Dorneget for that field assignment, in my opinion.

Tag to 9x17: "Need to Know."

Sometimes it feels like everyone's moving except for him. Well, except for him, Abby, Ducky, and Gibbs, but those three don't count. They're practically institutions of this place. They were here before he was and probably still will be long after he's dead and buried.

Ziva and Tim on the other hand… they're his probies.

Except McGee makes more money than him these days, and now he even seems to have his own probie in Ned Dorneget. Ziva isn't ahead of him yet, but then again, she only just became an official agent this year; she's still got time.

Most of the time Tony is proud of them, proud of himself for teaching them so well. Every now and then, though – particularly on days like today – he feels as resentful, petulant, and left-out as Molly Ringwald in the beginning of Sixteen Candles.

It isn't fair. He taught his probies and taught them well, but he was here first. He's Gibbs' right hand man (never mind the fact that Ziva seems to be taking over that role more and more often these days), the Senior Field Agent. He does more paperwork than anyone else on this team, Gibbs included. He's worked and he's worked, and what does he have to show for it at the end of the day?

An empty apartment (not that he gets to see it very often, mind you) and a measly government salary.

Huh.

And while he loves his job and these people, really he does – why else would he have stuck around for so long? – every now and then he wonders where he'd be today if he'd taken Rota.

Particularly on days like this one, where Gibbs smacks him down in favor of the probiest of probies. (Which, if he's going to be completely honest, kinda stings… and he doesn't mean literally. He's used to the headslaps by now.)

On days where Ziva questions why a woman like Ava Baransky would ever be interested in him. (Even if a secret part of him agrees with her. Especially because that part of him agrees with her.)

On days where Tim effortlessly forges his signature, making him feel even more superfluous than usual.

But then Gibbs has him help interrogate a suspect, and Tony realizes that Gibbs wasn't punishing or belittling him. Gibbs trusts him to perform tasks that the probies (yes, Ziva included) aren't ready for yet. In a sense, they're protecting them, he and Gibbs.

Then Tim tracks him down to complain about the cluelessness of probies, and Tony gets to play the smug mentor.

Then Ziva invites him out for drinks, enthusiastically describing her time at Montgomery Prep, and asking him what he plans on getting Jimmy and Breena for a wedding gift.

And then he remembers why he stayed; he remembers why he stays.

And it sure as hell isn't for the pay.