THE STAND

After the case was over and him, McGee and Ziva were coming into work the following day and saw that Gibbs had come back and moved all of his stuff and McGee's back to their old desks Tony knew what had happened, Gibbs had come back, but Tony liked being in charge and this infuriated him the way Gibbs would just expect everything to go back to normal. McGee and Ziva seemed to be happy Gibbs was back but standing in the back was Michelle Lee looking like a lost puppy with her box of belongings so Tony walked up to Michelle and said, "Agent Lee put your stuff down for now and wait right here." Tony walked back over to where Gibbs was sitting and said, "Just what in the hell do you think you are doing? You just come back and think you can take over again like nothing has changed, well it has and this is my team now Gibbs not yours because you quit. Do you realize what it has been like these past 4 months and the broken pieces that I had to pick up, huh, well, do you?"

Gibbs stood up from his seat and glared at Tony before he was going to speak thinking he could get Tony to back down but he just stood there and glared back with his arms crossed string at him waiting for an answer. He walked around the desk and attempted to get up in Tony's face but instead Tony didn't back down again, so Gibbs snarled at Tony saying, "This is my team Dinozzo these are my agents I left you in charge to keep them on the straight and narrow but from the looks of things maybe I made the wrong choice maybe I should.." But Tony interrupted him saying, "Yeah maybe you should have because all the time you were taking your Mexican siesta I had to hold this team together just about when things get back to normal around here you jump right back in and screw everything up. Just because you throw a temper tantrum and leave doesn't give you the right to just screw with all of our lives Gibbs I will fight you on this." Gibbs glares at Tony and says just four words, "My team, and my rules."

Tony had left after Gibbs said that because he didn't think he could contain his anger anymore but instead of heading out of the building or to the gym he ran straight up to the director's office and barged right in and stood right in front of Jenny's desk before she has a chance to say anything Tony says, "Either him or me you have to choose director!" This was something that Jenny had feared she had seen the way that Tony was treated by his other teammates and Abby while Gibbs was in Mexico and she saw the way Gibbs had come back and just cleared out the desks and plopped all of Tony and McGee's stuff on their old desks. This had caused all of Tony's anger to come to a head but she could see his side of the story also that's why she hated the decision she was going to make. After her little speech in Gibbs' basement the previous night she felt at least partially to blame but she had made her choice. Jenny said, "Tony you are a very good agent and but Gibbs is the best and I am sorry but I am going to be sorry to see you leave." Tony was dumbfounded at first but then he grew angry and yelled, "Madam Director I thought that you were smarter than that he's not 100% and I don't care if he was your former lover in Paris but the thing that you have to watch out for is the Mexican drug cartels that could come looking for him because he murdered Pedro Hernandez. Yeah that's right the same drug lord that murdered Shannon and Kelly. Well how about your best friend, Ziva and how she lied and said Gibbs was the one to kill Ari Haswari when she was the one to do it and besides that she did it under orders just to get on Gibbs good side. You know madam Director I bet in 6 months this place will fall apart without me just wait and see!" With that Tony stormed out of her office and down the stairs where he grabbed his belongings, left his gun and work phone on his desk and stormed out of the building.

3 MONTHS LATER

Fornell stormed out of the elevator at NCIS with Agent Sacks and Probationary Agent Tony Dinozzo, Tony was probationary because it was protocol for every Agent but when it was over he was going to be Fornell's SFA. Sacks looked very unhappy because he still thought that Tony was guilty of the murder that he was framed for by 'Chip'. When Gibbs first saw Tony he scowled at him and Tony saw this and just crossed his arms and smiled his 1000 watt smile at him which pissed Gibbs off even more partly because he knew he was to blame for losing Tony to the FBI because in those 3 months he had regained his memory and realized what he had done. The second reason was he knew that Tony went to the FBI just to piss him off, but he couldn't blame Tony for any of this and that is what pissed him off the most.

McGee looked over at Tony and gave him a dirty look when Tony saw this he just laughed at him and said, "What's the matter McOverwhelmed, did you find out that there is a lot more to being SFA than what you thought, not so smart are you now McGee, oh by the way if you ever doubt my education again just go to the Harvard Alumni page for 1984 and check the masters degrees there."

Abby had heard that Tony was back and upstairs in the bullpen, when she got there she ran up to him and hugged him as hard as possible then let him go and slapped him across the face. Tony had been expecting something like this because he knew that Abby hated change and loved Gibbs so she would try to make this all his fault. Tony just held up his hand signaling that nobody should do anything then said to Abby, "Abs that is your one and only shot, you will not try to pin me leaving on me because you think that Gibbs is the second coming and because of that it will come back and bite you in the ass. I am just glad that I got out of this loony bin and house of lies and deceit that's right I am not just a dumb jock I know every single one of yours secrets and where and what the skeletons are in your closets." Tony gave each one of the people in the bull pen a good long stare that clearly said, "I know all about you." Tony then turned towards Tobias and said, "Sorry Toby I thought I could come back here and take it without getting into an altercation but clearly I was wrong." Tobias looked at him with sympathy and said, "I understand Tony with this bunch of disrespectful idiots I would find it hard to."

Ziva was sitting at her desk listening to all that had been said between everyone but the thing that had gotten to her was when Tony had mentioned all the skeletons in everybody's closets and thought to herself, "could he really know that I killed Ari on orders from my father so I could get closer to Gibbs?"

Jenny had been half way down the steps when she had heard Tony's comment and knew that when he looked at her he was thinking about the op she had running with him when he quit she also knew that Tony had went to see Jeanne and spilled everything to her including who her father really was but after several weeks she had come back to him and forgiven him and now they were going stronger than before.

Gibbs was also thinking about the dirty laundry he thought the he had safely hidden away, the Ari debacle and also when he had murdered Pedro Hernandez in Mexico, but the look on Tony's face said it all that he did know and if push came to shove would bring it light for everybody to see.

5 MONTHS LATER

Through Jenny Gibbs had heard that Tony had gotten engaged also he found out that his bride to be was the daughter of the arms dealer La Grenouie or the frog, but soon after that had also heard that he had been killed by a rival arms dealer and Jeanne was heartbroken but was also expecting this to happen sooner or later. Jeanne had confronted her father on the subject during the weeks after Tony had told her the truth and he had told her that it was all true. She had went back to Tony and found out he had a new job and they had settled their differences and were getting married in the spring what she hadn't told Tony yet was that she was 5 weeks pregnant but was planning on telling him that night because she had learned never to take things for granted because they can be taken away in the blink of an eye. Gibbs was sitting in his bullpen and looked around and was thinking to himself how could everything fall apart so fast. The first thing of course was Tony quitting and the second was 4 months after that McGee had requested a transfer back to Norfolk because he realized he couldn't take Gibbs' temper and all of the work that had been dropped on him by Dinozzo when he left. Someone had sent him a note that had told him Ziva was following orders when she had killed Ari in his basement so when he confronted her at his house one night and she confirmed it he told her to go back to Israel to her father even before she had a chance to explain but right before she was to go to the airport he decided to give her a chance and when she did he told her there was only one way that he would forgive her and that was for her to quit Mosaad and become an American citizen so she could become a full time Agent instead of a Liaison Officer and she took it. Then there was Jenny, Gibbs had found out that she was sick with a genetic but terminal disease and wouldn't let her do anything but when retired agent William Decker died he sent Ziva and Langer, who had taken Tony's spot as SFA after McGee had transferred back to Norfolk, on protection duty but Jenny had ditched them and ha died in a firefight in a rundown dinner in the desert. Asst. Director Leon Vance had stepped in and taken her place and that was where he was now. Gibbs hears stories through the grapevine about an exceptional FBI agent that is moving up the ladder very fast in the Bureau and is being groomed for the directorship in the distant future. Also he heard that his wife had just given birth to their first child, a son, Ryan Jacob. It seems that for Dinozzo the best thing for him to when he was quit NCIS.