Chapter 1

Gibbs thanked Pacci for the file and then sat at his desk. He opened the file and carefully started to read it, wanting to make sure he knew everything there was to know about Tony DiNozzo. After all, the man was going to be starting the following week, so Gibbs needed to be sure about who he would be working with. He had already seen what Tony could do, both under pressure and when he was relaxed. It had impressed him immensely, which was why Gibbs had made sure to get Tony into NCIS in the first place.

Gibbs smiled as he flipped through the many commendations Tony had received since starting his police career in Peoria- Tony had gotten many awards for outstanding work and for capturing criminals that had eluded many officers before him. He had even gotten a couple of inter-office awards. Those commendations only served to make Gibbs feel smug about getting his way. Then there were the several complaints in Tony's files. Gibbs had looked through them already, and they had made him feel confused. Many of the complaints coincided with his awards. A few of the complaints were from disgruntled criminals Tony had arrested, but that came with the job. The rest were from co-workers. One of the complaints mentioned that Tony had beaten up his partner in the squad room in Philadelphia. Another one was about Tony abusing his power as a detective to get the evidence he needed. Quite a few of the complaints seemed to come from his boss in Philly, which Gibbs thought was odd. Captains usually protected their team, but this one seemed to hate Tony, for absolutely no reason at all.

"Hey, Pacci," Gibbs called.

"Yes?" Pacci asked as he came back to Gibbs' desk.

"I need you to dig into a file for me."

"Sure. Whose file?"

"Captain Damien Walter. He's a Philadelphia PD captain. I want to know everything about him, particularly anything relating to Tony DiNozzo."

Pacci nodded. He took a seat at his desk and began typing, finding the information he needed almost immediately. He printed out a few pages and gave them to Gibbs. "There's more if you need it, but these are the parts relating to DiNozzo."

"Thank you, Chris." Gibbs scanned over the pages and shook his head. His suspicion had been confirmed. Tony had gotten into Philadelphia PD's arson unit after being recommended by the mayor. That had meant that the captain's own favourite, a street cop with zero experience, was passed over. Walter had had it in for Tony from the very beginning. Gibbs was even willing to bet that the complaints were fake, used to try and get rid of Tony. He was going to have to speak with Tony about that when he had a chance.

Tony walked into the bull pen on Monday morning, his eyes wandering around the large, open space separated by desks and some partitions. It was amazing to see how many people were in the room, working together to solve cases. It was completely different to what he had experienced in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Peoria. Completely different. With a smile, Tony walked over to a desk with his name on it. He already felt comfortable there, a little overwhelmed by it all, but comfortable nonetheless.

"I guess this is where I'm going to be sitting," Tony said quietly to himself. He put his coffee cup on the desk, dropped his backpack that Gibbs had given him the week before next to the desk and then walked around to the chair.

"DiNozzo, good to see you here finally. I'm Chris Pacci," said a guy that had just come over.

Tony looked up at the new face. "Nice to meet you. Do you work with Agent Gibbs too?"

"Not anymore. I have my own team now. But I did work with him for a few years. You must be really good, cause Gibbs never takes agents on if he doesn't believe in them."

"I've been a cop for the last six years."

"No wonder Gibbs wants you on his team. Six years on the streets definitely classifies as experience."

"What's Gibbs like as a boss?"

"That depends on who you ask. For me, Gibbs was a great boss, but that was the extent of our relationship. Trust me, you'll make a decision about him within the first week."

"Pacci, are you scaring my new agent?"

Pacci turned around, smiling. "Of course not, Gibbs. I was just introducing myself. It was nice to meet you DiNozzo," Pacci stated before walking away.

"DiNozzo, get up, we've got a case." Gibbs grabbed his own backpack and made his way to the elevator, Tony right behind him.

"What should I do, Agent Gibbs?" Tony asked when they arrived at the crime scene.

"Take witness statements," Gibbs answered before moving off to photograph the scene.

Tony was glad to be taking statements. He had been to dozens of gory scenes before, but this one definitely topped the list. The body had been blown up, and was literally in bits and pieces all over the ground. Blood was everywhere. Tony felt like he was going to be sick, so talking to the people that were almost a mile away was a definite plus.

"Okay, I'm Agent DiNozzo with NCIS," Tony began, feeling a sense of pride as he spoke. "Who can tell me what happened?"

Several people came forward, some crying, others looking as sick as he felt. A woman spoke up from the back of the crowd.

"He was walking past the store, talking on his phone. Then I heard this weird thump sound, so I looked up and the building on fire. The man was on fire too, and he was dropping to the ground when he just suddenly exploded," she said, tears streaming down her face.

"What's your name, ma'am?"

"Emily. Emily Smith."

Tony wrote the name down with the information she had provided. Then he turned to another person who had started to speak, writing down everything they said.