Hospital
"Hey Tony." Gibbs said, as he walked in on DiNozzo reading his magazine.
"Hey Boss. What is new?" DiNozzo asked. DiNozzo knew Gibbs was looking him over.
"How are you feeling?" Gibbs asked. "You ready to get out of here yet?"
"More than words can say, Boss." DiNozzo answered intensely.
"Let's go then. I am signing you out." Gibbs said to DiNozzo's interest and surprise. DiNozzo shot up from Gibbs' comment, ready to leave.
"What are you doing, Gibbs?" Vance asked opening the door.
"DiNozzo is checking out." Gibbs answered. DiNozzo quickly became quiet and withdrawn again, looking down at his sheets and avoiding eye contact with Vance. "And, he is coming with me." Gibbs said forcefully.
"Gibbs." Vance said in a warning tone.
"Leon." Gibbs said in a warning tone of his own that he would not argue about this. The no-nonsense tone of Gibbs' voice made DiNozzo get out of bed and change in the bathroom. As Tony packed up his stuff and got ready to sign his discharge papers, he could not avoid making eye contact with Vance, who was giving him wordless warnings.
"Let's go, Tony." Gibbs ordered. Tony followed Gibbs, but the repeated warnings he had gotten from Vance while he was in the hospital kept him very closed lipped for the time being. Tony got into Gibbs car. After some time driving, Tony noticed that he did not know where they were at.
"Where are we going, Boss?"
"You'll see soon." Gibbs answered. After a few hours of driving, Gibbs drove up a long driveway to a cabin located at the top of a hill in the middle of forest land.
"Tony." Gibbs said with a smile, as he got out of the car. On the backseat, he picked up the manila envelope that he had gotten from the safety deposit box. When DiNozzo did not move, Gibbs walked over to the passenger side and opened the door. "Tony?" Gibbs said again this time softly with a hint of concern. DiNozzo got out of the car and followed Gibbs to the cabin door. After knocking several times, the door opened to reveal the former Secretary of the Navy Phillip Davenport.
"Agent Gibbs." Davenport said in surprise. "Agent DiNozzo, would you come in?" Davenport said solemnly and reluctantly. Gibbs entered first and DiNozzo followed Davenport to his living room.
"I have been staying by myself here, since E.J. . . . since she died."
"I am sorry, Mr. Secretary, sir." DiNozzo said sympathetically, feeling uncomfortable about being there and now interrupting his grieving process. Gibbs put a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Sit down, Tony." He said guiding him toward the couch. Gibbs sat down next to him.
"We would like to make sure that the people responsible for Agent Barrett's death are brought to justice. The man responsible for poisoning her and then injected himself is a member of the Phantom Eight. Here is a picture of the eight man squad that is led by Sean Latham." Gibbs laid down the picture that he found from Mike Franks' file on the coffee table for him to see. DiNozzo also looked, surprised by how Gibbs had such a picture. He was glued to it and examined the photo for other members that he knew.
"And, your niece died protecting these files." Gibbs then pulled out the manila folder from Tony's safety deposit box. "Can you help us here?"
"Right before I resigned, I gave Latham an okay to try a new strategy to stop terrorist that involved essentially giving our enemies access to the Watcher Database, using the microchips with a special GPS feature installed to track who was using the chips. Right when I resigned and Levin died, I gave E.J. an order to handle Levin's new microchip. However, Latham had different ideas under a new SecNav and went ahead with his strategy without the new SecNav's approval. He sold all of the new microchips to the highest bidders."
"What happened to you, Agent DiNozzo?" Davenport asked curiously.
"Uhh, Members of Phantom eight gunned me down in my apartment. E.J. was there too, sir." DiNozzo said. "We were ordered to follow some terrorists that had one of those microchips."
"They were compromised. Then she was injected with poison at the hospital." Gibbs added obviously irritated with that fact.
"You have to recover those microchips." Davenport said.
"We have been ordered by the new SecNav to stay out of it. And, there have even been threats of our team being split up by pursuing this."
"Let me see what I can do, Gibbs." Davenport said enigmatically, not giving any details of his plans away.
"Thank you, Mr. Secretary." Gibbs said, shaking his hand.
"Agent Gibbs. Agent DiNozzo. "
Gibbs and DiNozzo headed back to the car. Gibbs started the car and felt Tony's eyes watching him, as he started down the long driveway.
"Tony?" He finally said. "Is there something on your mind?"
"Boss, I have been ordered to. . ." DiNozzo started to say but stopped.
"Track the other microchips? I am cancelling that order, Tony." Gibbs said forcefully, returning Tony's stare.
"That order came from Vance. Not all of the microchips where given to the wrong people. Do we really want to deactivate them?" Tony started to argue and question Gibbs.
"Yes Boss." Tony said, after receiving the strong Gibbs stare. Tony swallowed hard, looked down, and remained quiet.
Gibbs pulled up at his home. They both got out of the car and headed inside.
"Your clothes were brought here in several suit cases. They are sitting in the bedroom." Gibbs said.
"Oh, thank you, Boss." Tony said surprised and appreciative.
Next Day in the Squad Room
"Tony!" Abby screamed as Gibbs and DiNozzo got off the elevator and headed for the squad room.
"Tony!" Abby yelled and jumped into the arms of DiNozzo.
"Ugh, hey Abs." Tony strained himself as he grabbed her and nearly fell over backwards. Gibbs smiled and tried to steady DiNozzo.
"Good Morning Gibbs. Good Morning, Tony. Welcome back." Ziva said.
"Good Morning, Ziva. Thanks." Tony responded with a smile. "McGeeeeeee!" Tony said with opened arms.
"Good Morning." McGee said as he typed away. "Good to see you back Tony. Oh, I talked with your father yesterday."
"No!" Tony asked with a haunted look.
"He called your desk." McGee added.
"Please tell me that you didn't tell him I was in the hospital." Tony begged.
"Ugh, I did actually. He wanted to know where you were and how to reach you. He specifically asked me if you were okay, so I did tell him that you were about to be discharged." McGee said.
"Boss, we had a body delivered to autopsy this morning. It is the body of Navy Lieutenant Commander Russell Nguyen. Died at sea, and the USS Seahawk just docked."
"Nguyen?" Tony repeated.
"Yeah why?" McGee asked, realizing the answer as soon as he asked it. "You were once the agent afloat aboard the USS Seahawk."
"How well did you know him, Tony?" Gibbs asked concerned, not liking that the victim was someone a- still-recovering Tony knew.
"I just knew him professionally and for only a very short time. I really wasn't aboard the Seahawk that long." Tony answered and cringed at the thought that he did know the victim.
"Yeah, this is Gibbs." Gibbs said into his ringing cellphone. "I'll be right down, Duck."
"Tony? Did you want to come?" Gibbs asked cautiously before he headed to autopsy, now wishing he did not even offer.
"Sure, Boss." Tony answered. Tony followed Gibbs to autopsy a little hesitant now of what he just volunteered himself for.
Gibbs and Tony entered autopsy to find the commander stretched across a metal table. Tony approached the table with Gibbs, but he once again could not look at the face of the victim.
"Anthony!" Ducky yelled excited to see him. Tony jumped at first.
"Hey Ducky. How are you?" Tony responded to Ducky's greeting.
"Oh Anthony, you have missed so much in your absence. Mr. Palmer will have to catch you up to speed on Brenna. Also the tap dancing classes that you and Mr. Palmer were taking." Ducky's latest comment earned a small laugh from Gibbs. "But, I am up to four dates now with the lovely Ms. Whiley from next door, Anthony."
Gibbs waited for Ducky to finish before asking some investigator questions.
"So what do we know about our victim?" Gibbs asked.
"His body was found near a storage area on the ship. He was strangled from behind. He does have a small incision on his left wrist, indicating a microchip was in his arm." Ducky's comment caused DiNozzo to shudder, which did not go unnoticed by either of them.
"Tony, are you all right? You want to go back upstairs?" Gibbs asked, walking over to him to see how he was handling the topic. Ducky joined him as they both watched Tony.
"I talked with the current Agent Afloat aboard the USS Seahawk this morning. He ordered that anyone who had contact with Ngugen in the last six hours to remain aboard, so you could question them." Ducky offered Gibbs, but they both watched a distant Tony.
"All right, Tony. Let us go aboard the Seahawk. Okay?" Gibbs said walking closer to the distracted field agent. After Ducky whispered his name too with no reaction, Gibbs grabbed his arm just above the elbow.
"Are you all right Tony?" Ducky asked, noticing the lost look in his eyes.
"Oh yeah, sorry Duck. . .yes, I am fine." Tony said with a smile. Gibbs kept his grip on Tony arm.
"Let's go Tony." Gibbs said softly, pushing Tony toward the elevator door. As Gibbs hit the button for the squad room, he noticed that Tony had gone back into a quiet and withdrawn state. Angrily, Gibbs slammed the emergency stop, causing Tony to jump.
"Okay Tony." Gibbs started to say, softening his tone. "You need to talk to me. What is on your mind?" Gibbs asked.
"I a-I just was wondering how far back this microchip thing goes. You know, maybe he had that thing in his arm back when I was an agent afloat." Tony explained. Tony closed his eyes and tilted his head up toward the ceiling of the elevator.
"It is possible." Gibbs offered, watching Tony suspiciously. "Tony?"
"I'd like to get my hands on one of those microchips. Just to see what the buzz is all about." Tony admitted to Gibbs. Frustrated, Gibbs gave him a disapproving look but also nodded in agreement.
"Don't get any ideas, though, DiNozzo." Gibbs warned softly, which earned a small laugh from Tony. After Gibbs released the emergency stop, they quickly reentered to the squad room.
McGee and Ziva watched as they reentered, waiting to following Gibbs' lead.
"All right. We need to get to the Seahawk, and question those aboard, who last saw our dead commander."
Vance's Office
"Before you do that, Gibbs. . . " Vance entered the room, causing everyone to refocus. "I need to see you in my office Gibbs. I need you and Agent DiNozzo." Gibbs turned to look at Tony, who looked surprised, but who immediately stood up to follow. Gibbs and Tony followed Vance up to his office. When the door opened, it revealed Secretary of Navy Jarvis and Sean Latham. Tony tensed up when seeing them both, which did not go unnoticed by Gibbs. As they went to sit down at the table, Gibbs gave him a gentle nudge to show that they were in this together.
"All the microchips have been recovered." Latham explained. "At least the microchips that fell into the wrong hands." Gibbs gave him a disapproving stare.
"So, I am pulling Agent DiNozzo from this assignment." SecNav explained. "There is no longer a threat." Gibbs nodded in understanding but did not believe anything being said. "And, there is no longer a need to search for these microchips."
"Is that understood?" Vance added.
"Yes." Gibbs said lying, not believing anything that he heard.
"Yes, sir." DiNozzo said, nervously agreeing, constantly watching Latham's moves.
"All right then." Vance said, standing up indicated that they needed to leave. Gibbs and DiNozzo looked at each other and prepared to leave the room.
