Tony slid into the passenger seat of Special Agent Genia Stanton's car.

"Whaddya know about what's going on, Probie?" Tony asked, without preamble.

Genia winced from the smell and offered her teammate a Tic-Tac. When he started to refuse, she insisted. "Please, for my sake? And I'm not the probie, remember? That's Mark."

"You're both probies, probie," Tony continued. "Give me info. Don't leave me hanging."

"FBI picked up Baxter and Conner Bixby and their crew this morning," Genia began. "Coffee?"

"What?" Tony asked distractedly, wanting her to get back to the subject. He picked up the Starbucks cup she pointed to in the passenger side cup holder and took a sip. Perfect. "Thanks. Go ahead, please."

"Apparently Agent McGee is alive and has been in deep cover for the past eleven months."

"Deep cover? You're freakin' kidding me. He's not trained for that. Who does he think he is, G Callen?"

"It was my understanding he was undercover when this began?" Genia asked, now confused.

"Well, sort of," Tony explained. "Ducky and Tim were both playing undercover roles for a shakedown, take down kind of thing. A one-night scenario. It went sideways. Ducky was made and they shot him, point blank, before we could get to him. Tim was in a vehicle that we saw explode. We assumed they figured out they were both agents and took them out."

"But apparently they had only made Dr Mallard, and McGee was able to get away with the rest of the crew," Genia continued, finally understanding the situation.

"That doesn't make any sense," Tony said. "He would have told someone. Gibbs. Me. Director Vance…"

Tony's face transformed to stone before her eyes. Genia hadn't gotten to know Agent DiNozzo very well yet, but she was a good investigator and profiler. She knew people. And she knew that regardless of whether or not he was actually involved, Director Vance was now the object of a certain senior field agent's ire.

Tony slammed his head back against the headrest, seething. When Jenny was director, she had recruited him for some undercover work that he was woefully unprepared for. Had Vance done the same thing to Tim? Had he known all along that Tim was alive and let us all grieve? Let Abby leave? Let Gibbs…change?

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the same thing happen to you?" Genia asked.

"Meaning?" Tony asked.

"You were undercover. They saw your car explode. You didn't die."

"I came home!" Tony said, pissed off. "I didn't disappear for almost a year and let everyone grieve!"

"I'm just saying I'd think you wouldn't have assumed he was in the car," she said.

"He stayed gone. There's only so long you can hold out hope. You weren't there. You don't know for how long we waited for him to show up." Tony allowed the silence to envelop them after he had finished his rant. He watched as Genia drove, barely even looking at him. "How do you know all this?" Tony asked.

Genia snorted derisively. "Can't learn anything on Team Gibbs you don't do it your own self." Her accent suddenly reflected the neighborhood she had grown up in.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Tony grimaced.

The new members that had been flowing in and out of the team in the last year had definitely drawn the short straw. It really was a shame. Genia was the kind of agent any team leader would beg to have on their six. Beautiful, black, proud, intelligent, and from one of the most poverty-stricken areas of the city, she radiated the kind of confidence you only get by beating the odds. She was the first woman in her family to graduate from college. The first girl from her neighborhood to pursue law enforcement. She had pulled herself up and defied the haters. Tops in every class. Doctorate in psychology and criminology. Yet Gibbs called her "Jeff" because he didn't want to invest and lose again.

"Not on you," Genia answered. "I get it."

"He wasn't always like that."

"I know," she smiled at him. "Maybe he won't always be."

Tony shrugged. He had lost the ability to predict how his boss would react.


Special Agent Mark Rivera stood next to Agent Gibbs, waiting for instruction. Actually, it would be more accurate to say he stood slightly behind Agent Gibbs. As Agents DiNozzo and Stanford approached their teammates, it was apparent Gibbs had no idea Rivera was even there.

"Where is he, Boss?" Tony asked.

"Interrogation," Gibbs nodded in the general direction.

"So…let's go," Tony said, pushing past the others.

"Not yet, Tony," Gibbs said, putting up a hand to stop him. "FBI gets him first. We aren't allowed to be briefed until they finish. Vance is with them."

Tony's face became stone again. "Vance," he muttered.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"Not allowed?" Tony continued. "That's our teammate."

"They know, DiNozzo, but he's risked his life for information our government needs."

"And that's more important than me finding out why he let me live in hell for eleven months?!" Tony shouted.

"Yes!" Gibbs shouted back, coming to stand nose to nose with his senior field agent. "Look, Tony, I don't like it either."

"I've just been thrown for a loop," Tony said. "Did they know? All this time?"

"I don't know," Gibbs said. "We'll find out soon." He turned his attention to the rest of his team. "Mutt, did you get the Barnes case transferred to the other MCRT?"

"Um…" Agent Rivera stammered, "I didn't know I was supposed…" he stopped speaking at Gibbs' look. "I'll take care of it, Sir. Thank you, Sir."

"Why are you thanking me?" Gibbs asked.

"I'm sorry," Mark continued.

"Never apologize!" Gibbs countered. "It's a sign of weakness."

"Jeff, did you forward those photos to McAffee?" Gibbs asked Genia.

"Yes, boss," Genia answered. "Took care of it myself before I left to pick up DiNozzo."

"Good work," Gibbs said. "I need coffee." He stalked off down the hallway, leaving them staring, Mark's mouth agape.

"He's never told me that before," Mark complained softly.

Tony wandered away to take a seat in a separate area, wanting time to mull over the happenings of the day. He still couldn't wrap his head around the idea that Tim had survived, yet hadn't told him. How could both be true? Maybe it wasn't really Tim.

"Agent Gibbs?" an FBI agent Tony hadn't yet met appeared from the corridor Gibbs had indicated earlier. "They're ready for you and your team."

"He stepped out for coffee," Tony explained. "But we're on our way."

"Here," Gibbs said, materializing from a room to the left. "Let's get some answers."