AN: This is the sequel to the story Matters of the Heart, Matters of the Mind. While that story was more or less from McGee's point of view, this one is from Tony's. And fair warning, there are several moments where Tony doesn't make sense or elaborate on things, but those will be resolved if you just keep reading. The lack of explanation is for a reason. Also, this story is longer, and won't be updated as often, because it's not totally finished yet. Anyways, enjoy.

Chapter One: Back to Work

Two and a half weeks had passed since the incident in the hospital, as Tony finally drove to work for the first time since he was shot. Tony had firmly decided that whatever happened in the hospital would stay in the hospital and was in no mood to address what had happened there. Ever.

The fact that he couldn't stop thinking about it, wishing he could do something about it, was certainly not going to color his decision as to the right course of action. Neither was the fact that he hadn't even seen McGee since that day. Or the fact that he had really wanted to see McGee, but hadn't had a fucking clue what to say. Not to mention how he felt about seeing the younger agent today.

Walking into the bull-pen, Tony was suddenly jumped by a very excited Abby, who gave him a huge hug and then began jumping up and down in excitement. "Tony! I have a surprise for you down in my lab!" Abby then grabbed Tony by the arm and started dragging him towards the elevator.

He barely had a chance to notice that Ziva was the only one in the bull-pen.

Abby's lab was decorated with banners and streamers and all sorts of other things to welcome him back. Tony grinned in appreciation. Abby turned and looked him straight in the eye. "Don't move." Then she disappeared into the back room.

Tony took that moment to look around the room. As far as he could see, McGee wasn't here either, which made him feel torn. The part of him that really wanted to see McGee was devastated, but the part of him saying that there was no reason for him to want to see McGee was thinking something more along the lines of good riddance. Part of Tony really hated the latter part of himself.

Abby reappeared with some sort of box, which she shoved into his hands. "Open it, open it!" she demanded excitedly, practically shivering with the need to start jumping up and down in excitement again.

Tony ripped off the black wrapping paper and then pulled out his knife to cut the tape holding the box shut. Inside was a photo album. Inside were all sorts of pictures of the team—some of which he was fairly certain shouldn't have existed. Because there wasn't anyone with a camera around at those moments as far as he knew.

Tony looked up at Abby with a huge grin. "Thanks, Abs. This is awesome. But…how did you get these pictures?"

"I hacked into the security cameras and saved specific frames as pictures. It took ages to go through them. McGee helped me sort through them, but he didn't really know what I was doing. He just thought I was being me." Abby smiled at Tony. "Okay, now go back up and start working, or Gibbs will have your head for slacking off on your day back."

Tony grinned. "Right. Thanks, Abs. Really." He disappeared into the elevator.

The ride up was just long enough for Tony's divided mind to start arguing about his current situation. He found himself using his free hand to massage his aching temples.

When the elevators dinged open, Tony plastered the usual grin on his face and strutted across the room towards his desk. He deposited the photo album on his desk, and then leaned on Ziva's, trying to catch a glimpse of the book she was reading, but found that it was in Hebrew—or some other language that he didn't understand.

"Good morning, Zee-vah."

"Tony," she responded, looking up at him, "I almost forgot you were coming back to work today. How are you?"

"Fine. Well, assuming this isn't hell and I have to do the same paperwork over and over again." Tony grinned at her.

"It's not hell, Tony, grab your gear, we've got a dead marine." Gibbs entered the room fluidly and without any warning. "Where's McGee?"

"Dunno, boss. I haven't seen him."

"He said he was going to go down and help someone who was having problems in Cyber Crimes," Ziva answered.

"Well, go tell him that if he wants to stay a field agent he better get his ass up here, David."

"On it boss." She disappeared onto the elevator as Tony walked over to his desk and bent down to grab his stuff.

His abdomen erupted in pain, and he had to take a few deep breaths to clear his head before he could stand back up, gear in hand. "You okay, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"Yeah, boss. Just a little painful to bend down still." Understatement of the year, he added silently.

"Then don't bend down," Gibbs suggested.

"Right, boss." Tony followed him onto the elevator and out to the car, where they waited for McGee and Ziva.

When McGee and Ziva appeared at the car and climbed in, McGee immediately began apologizing. "Sorry boss, no one down there could figure out how to get into this guy's computer because they thought there was a fifth level of encryption and—"

"McGee, don't apologize. It's a sign of weakness."

"Got it, boss."

"No you don't, you still do it every time, McGee," Tony challenged.

"DiNozzo."

"On it, boss." Tony head-slapped himself for Gibbs.

The rest of the drive was silent. When they got to the crime scene, Tony was given the duty of taking pictures as McGee and Ziva searched the area for more evidence. Once Tony was done photographing the body, he was called over by McGee to take pictures of something as Ducky and Palmer started assessing the body.

McGee had found a bloody knife, which Tony, stupidly, bent over to take a picture of. His vision went black with the pain. When he could see again, McGee was holding him upright by the arms, and right in his face. McGee's lips were moving, but Tony couldn't hear anything. Slowly he regained his hearing. "…hear me? Tony? Are you okay?"

Tony blinked a few times, nodding blankly, looking extremely dazed.

"Okay, Tony. We're going to go sit down by the car. Do you understand?" McGee's eyebrows were drawn together in worry, and he bit his lip while he waited for Tony to respond.

Tony nodded again, but that seemed to be making him slightly dizzy. "Y-yeah. I understand."

McGee nodded, and then gently led Tony over to the car and sat him down on the hood.

The motion hurt a bit, but it helped Tony's head start to clear up. He suddenly realized how close he was to McGee. "I'm fine, McGee. Here." He handed McGee the camera. "Go take pictures or something. I'll be back over in a minute."

McGee was hesitant, but decided not to argue. He took the camera from Tony, gently squeezing Tony's hand as he did, and went back over to the knife to document.

Tony's head was swimming with thoughts that he could only half-understand. Maybe he had been pushing it coming back to work this soon.

When Tony regained the ability to think clearly, he was left with the distinct impression that part of the confusion was because of his previous close proximity to McGee. The angry side of him was telling him that McGee was evil and doing Satan's work and didn't he remember last time? The other part of him was joyously proclaiming that see, McGee didn't hate him, and that if Tony hadn't been in so much pain, maybe he could have kissed him. The tiny voice of reason was telling him that wasn't the thing to do at that moment, but it was being drowned out by the angry no way in hell.
By the time he had really regained his bearings, everyone was headed back towards the car, and Ducky and Palmer were nowhere to be seen.

Tony felt totally useless. He was half-dragged into the car by Ziva while the evidence was getting put away in the back of the car.

They drove back to NCIS to the sounds of McGee and Ziva discussing some of the evidence. Gibbs looked at Tony in the rear-view mirror and shook his head slowly. Tony took that to mean that he wasn't allowed to do any field work until further notice. Which honestly suited him just fine after that last fiasco.