Hey, glad you guys seem to like the first chapter, hope you like this one as well! Thank you to anyone who reviewed and alerted! To the anonymous reviewer, you seem to have guessed where I'm going with this! That won't happen for a while though! Anyways enjoy!

It was an accident, Tony decided. It had probably just slipped out from years of routine and McGee hadn't even noticed. Hadn't realised that he had called him "Boss" as they were leaving.

When he had first heard it he knew his head had jerked up to look at McGee, hoping that he meant it the way it sounded, like he trusted and respected him as much as he had Gibbs. He had thought that was what it had meant when Tim hadn't taken it back, hadn't apologised for his mistake and corrected himself calling him Tony or DiNozzo. It had made him think that maybe he wasn't doing such a bad job like everyone was saying.

That was the worst part; he knew they were all saying it. Comparing the joker of the pack to the fearless leader. Questioning his capability to lead the team effectively. He wondered if the others were thinking it too. Whether McGee and Ziva were drawing comparisons and finding him not up to the task.

Which was why he had decided McGee hadn't actually meant it that way at all. It had just slipped out without him even realising, and if Tony was stupid enough to point it out and ask him what it meant he would probably say he hadn't even realised he had done it. Which is why Tony wouldn't ask. Ever.

He blocked out the arguments in his head and focused on the crime scene in front of him. It was their first murder since Gibbs had left, and he knew that everyone would be watching him on this one, would want to see if the agency's best team crumbled without the legendary leader.

Glancing around he saw the rest of the team working diligently, Ducky and Palmer were crouched over the body making their initial examination while Ziva was questioning witnesses in the distance. McGee was slightly off to the side of the body, moving outwards in what Tony knew would be a meticulous search pattern, snapping photos and making small sketches and notes on the crime scene while Lee followed behind, picking up and bagging anything he pointed out.

He felt slightly lost for a moment, not sure what to do within his new role. The team was working well like the experienced people most of them were, and while he knew McGee had to patiently explain some things to Lee, he was more than picking up the slack for the slower Agent. Frowning he headed over to Ducky and crouched down beside him, hoping he would know what to do after the ME had given his opinion.

McGee sighed as Lee once again almost failed to pick up something he had pointed out, backtracking he gave her time to notice it on her own, before giving a gentle reminder when she failed to spot what he was looking at. While she fumbled to quickly place it in an evidence bag McGee took the opportunity to look around. He knew Tony would be nervous about his first murder as agent in charge but Tim knew he could handle it. He had a team that was mostly used to using their initiative to see what needed to be done, and it was like he had said, Tony was a good agent, one of the best, not that Tim would ever admit it to his face unless Tony was really having a self doubt crisis.

However, that was looking more and more likely. Glancing in Tony's direction Tim saw the almost lost expression on his face as he looked around, uncomfortable and unsure what he was supposed to do. He knew everyone was having a hard time with Gibbs leaving, and while Abby was being most vocal and open with how much she missed him, Tim suspected Tony was having an even harder time. He had been plunged into an entirely new role, while Tim's and Ziva's had only adapted slightly. The thing that hadn't changed, and never would as far as Tim was concerned, was that they all had each other's backs. Tim was still dealing with it as well but he knew he was needed by the others, and so pushed any issues he was having to the side. He needed to do whatever he could to make this easier on his partner, which was why he was doing everything in his power to ensure Tony's first crime scene was as efficient and well managed as possible. They could slip back into the teasing, easy flowing dynamic later.

Looking down he saw Lee was now finished bagging and tagging everything he had photographed and so they moved on to a new area. He snapped more pictures and triple checked all of his measurements before he allowed Lee to do her piece. He didn't want anything to mess this up for Tony. While Lee was bagging once more an idea occurred to him and he subtly pulled out his phone and texted Palmer asking if they had anything on the victim's identity, and Ziva seeing if her witness statements had produced anything useful so far. Within minutes he had a reply from both, with a name and age from Palmer and a vague description of a car from Ziva. He debated for a minute whether he should do what he was thinking, before looking up decided it for him.

Tony was wandering around again, looking between him and Ziva and obviously wondering who he should go to check on and oversee. He could see the tension in Tony's shoulders and decided that his plan would definitely be put into effect, but first he could help out here. Quickly thinking over something he could say he waved Tony in their direction, and didn't miss the relieved expression that he now had something to do.

"What's up Pro... McGee?" he asked as he approached, and Tim offered a smile.

"Hey, just wondered how far out you wanted us to extend this search radius, we've almost finished up a general sweep of this close area but did you want us to go further?"

He watched for a moment as Tony debated, and was relieved to see that his confidence was growing as he thought, Tim knew this had been a good question to ask, to remind Tony that after his years of sketching crime scenes and photographing evidence he knew everything he needed to manage one and make decisions like this. Tony knew how far from the body usable evidence was generally found, hell he knew almost everything about crime scenes, he just had to remember that he was in charge of the small decisions like this now, but was perfectly qualified to make them.

"I think if you extend slightly further, maybe twenty feet? After that point there probably won't be anything to find, but if you find something right on the edge of that limit keep going until there's been nothing for a while."

Tim smiled and carefully chose his next words while trying to make them sound casual and unplanned, hoping to reinforce the point he had been trying to make.

"On it Boss."

He turned away before he could see Tony's reaction and began snapping more photos, suppressing a grin when there was only a small pause before he heard more confident and purposeful footsteps moving in Ziva's direction. Chancing a glance upwards after a few moments he smiled to see Tony talking to Ziva, the evidence of a conversation with the banter they had been missing for the last week making him hopeful that Tony had been given the gentle nudge he had needed to find his feet. He hoped so, as there was no way he was keeping up this Boss thing, yes he respected Tony, but he was not doing this once Tony's confidence made it's reappearance, he didn't think he would be able to take the ego boost it would give him.

Still, it was his job as senior field agent to make Tony's life easier, and having his first case solved as quickly as possible would do that, and it wouldn't hurt to keep up the Boss thing until Tony's self confidence was built up enough that he didn't need it.

When he had finished photographing the next area he slid his phone out once more and hit the fake call app, with an apologetic glance at Lee he motioned that he needed to take the call, but indicated that he would be only a few steps away if she needed something. She smiled hesitantly and he moved until she was out of earshot and rang someone in cybercrimes who owed him a favour after he had helped them out the other week, and who he knew would currently be on their break. He knew this would be a onetime thing, but if it helped Tony solve his first case as leader swiftly, Tim knew it wouldn't be necessary a second time. As soon as he knew he could do it Tony's confidence would soon be back in full swing, and Tim had no doubt he would soon be branching out and trying out his own leadership style, he was trying not to imagine some of the things Tony might dream up.

Once the person on the other end picked up he quickly outlined what he needed done and gave them the information they would need. With a quick thanks and a reassurance that their debt had now been repaid he hung up the phone and moved back to take photos and finish cataloguing the crime scene.

Tony breathed a sigh of relief as he climbed into the van. After some uncertainty at the beginning he thought his first crime scene had gone pretty well. He went over and over it in his head, and apart from the fact that the bagging and tagging had taken slightly longer than usual, he couldn't see that anything had not measured up to Gibbs' standard, that people would be able to criticise.

The only thing that was bothering him was that McGee had called him Boss again. He had thought the first time was an accident, but twice in such a short period of time? Maybe McGee was trying to tell him something? Or maybe he was just reading too much into it. After all, he hadn't done it again after that, had slipped back into DiNozzo or Tony. The more he thought about it the more accidental it seemed, something from force of habit. He decided to forget about it.

As soon as he stopped that trail of thought he began to worry about the rest of the case. The crime scene had gone well but that didn't mean this would. For the past week the team had been flipping through cold cases. That was something they could do. They worked well individually, and occasionally asked for the others opinions and bounced ideas off each other.

They had sometimes swapped files, Tony and Ziva handing theirs off to McGee if they discovered some technical aspect that hadn't been explored, and just doing what they usually did. That had been easy. They could do that without Tony doing anything differently. But actually running an active case? Tony would need to make decisions, brief the director on their progress... he was dreading it.

The team had the highest and fastest solve rate in the agency, and he had to keep that up. What if he couldn't do it? What if they couldn't find anything? He couldn't afford his first case in charge to become a cold case. He just couldn't.

McGee arrived back at the navy yard before the others, having driven the evidence back in the agency sedan, while the other three stayed to clear up and took the truck and Ducky and Palmer drove the autopsy van. He dropped the evidence off in the garage, signing it over to the tech on duty with orders to take it to Abby as soon as possible, and headed back to the motor pool.

Once the car had been returned he headed for the squad room pulling out his phone as he went and making a call. It only took the person on the other end two rings to pick up,

"Hey James it's McGee, how did you...

That's great, I just got back so if you could bring it up to the squad room...

Thanks again James... and if you could keep this between us?...

Yeah just a onetime thing...

Yeah it's Tony's first case in charge, and I just want it to go well...

See you in a minute."

He had a smile on his face as he stepped out of the elevator. Nodding to a couple of agents he knew, he headed over to Tony... to his desk and sat down, quickly booting up the computer, wanting to be ready for when James arrived.

It was only a couple of minutes later when he saw the man enter the bullpen, making his way swiftly towards him brandishing a flash drive.

James was what Tony called a classic geek, glasses and all, but he had a good sense of humour, and only had a slight confidence problem. McGee liked him, and trusted him not to say anything to anyone. McGee would look at cases and in return James would let him use the equipment from the sub basement to develop the programs he wrote. It was a relationship that benefited them both, but he wouldn't exactly call them friends.

"Well McGee here's the information you asked for." James handed over the drive, and McGee smiled gratefully,

"Thanks for that James... we just need this first case to go well you know?"

James nodded in understanding,

"Yeah the rumours have made their way down to my domain..." he trailed off as McGee's face darkened momentarily,

"Any way... I have to get going."

"Thanks again James."

He shrugged,

"I owed you one." He turned and walked off.

As soon as he was gone McGee got to work. Plugging the drive into the computer he loaded up the ground work James had already done. It wasn't much, and it was the easy bit, but it meant he could delve straight in rather than gathering this first like he usually had to.

James had pulled up the man's service record, list of family, the people in his unit. He had also done a preliminary background and financial check, as well as pulling up details of where he had been found and the surrounding areas making notes of any traffic cams and anything else he had thought could help.

McGee immediately began some searches, opening up the program he had written himself a couple of years back and had been tweaking ever since so it gave him exactly what he needed. He plugged in the information about the car Ziva had gathered from witnesses as well as the names of friends, family and colleagues that James had supplied. He set the program running to check through DMV records and see if any of these people had the slightest connection to the blue sedan and the partial plate.

While that was running he turned his attention to the traffic cams, emailing a friend to see if he could get the footage sent through sooner rather than later. While he was waiting for a reply he accessed the man's email accounts, using the contacts list to make a more detailed list of friends and plugging it into his search for the car. Pulling up his phone records he did the same with the names on there. Just as he finished that he saw the others getting off of the elevator, thinking quickly he opened his email account and set up two messages, one to Ziva and one to agent Lee. When Tony gave out assignments he could fire off what he already had to the two of them and hopefully ensure the case moved along as fast as possible.

By the time he had finished that Tony had dropped his pack by his desk and turned towards him.

"What you got McGee?"

Tim tapped a few keys and brought up the petty officer's record,

"Petty Officer Kyle Brendon, third generation navy, clean record both before and after he enlisted, not so much as a parking ticket. He had been home from his latest assignment for about a week, and was apparently staying with family off base for the duration of his leave. Unmarried, no kids, next of kin is listed as a brother, both parents deceased."

Tony nodded, "Okay, good work McGee... how'd the parents die?"

"Car crash earlier this year, it was ruled an accident."

At Tony's look McGee gave more information,

"They were driving to visit some relatives in some pretty poor weather conditions, the father lost control of the car and it rolled, they both died instantly."

"Okay... Ziva you got a description of a car leaving the scene right?"

She stepped forwards and flipped through her notes,

"Several people reported a car with the same description moving at some speed out of the parking lot just after Ducky's time of death. One managed to see a partial plate, but no one saw the driver."

Tony seemed to consider his options for a moment before he nodded, apparently having made a decision.

"Ziva, try to see if you can find the car, check his friends and family see if anyone has access to a car matching that description... and figure out who he was staying with. McGee, contact the brother and ask him to come in, and try and find a motive, pull his phone records, bank records, see if anything funny was going on. Lee... go and see Abby. Help her go through the evidence and crime scene photos. I'll go see Ducky."

McGee and Ziva looked at each other and smiled at Tony's new found confidence, before moving to their desks while Lee walked off towards the elevator.

As soon as Tony was out of sight McGee walked over to Ziva who looked at him questioningly,

"Don't worry about finding the car I have a search running, I'll email you the results as they come through... I've requested the traffic cam footage for the surrounding area so I'll try pull a whole plate off of that when it gets here, you could probably just focus on who he was staying with. "

She raised an eyebrow and he felt himself blush,

"I may have called in a favour to get a head start on this one... I just want it to go well."

She looked at him for a second before she smiled,

"You did it on purpose didn't you?"

He frowned at her not sure what she was talking about before he remembered she had been there when he first called Tony Boss, he blushed slightly even as he shrugged,

"Not that time."

"You did it later?"

"At the crime scene. I called him over and asked for advice on how far out we should search... he needed it."

"Yes he did... I think it helped."

"I hope so... I never thought I'd miss the Tony with an ego the size of America."

She smiled again,

"I'm sure he will soon return McGee... and then we shall wish he had not."

He grinned,

"Probably,... I'll send you those searches."

Making his way back over to his desk he got back to work.

The Director smiled as she put down the report,

"Your team did well Agent DiNozzo. Keep up the good work."

He smiled pleased, and obviously relieved that it had gone so well. They had seemed to work so efficiently on this case. By the time he had returned from autopsy McGee and Ziva had been able to tell him where the petty officer had been staying and found an ex girlfriend that owned a car matching the description. There had been some emails that showed a grudge over a difficult breakup, and as they were filling him in McGee had received the traffic cam footage and they had managed to pull a full plate.

The confession had been easy to get once the evidence had been presented, and the girlfriend's gun retrieved in a search of her car and matched to the wound. The case had been closed by the end of the day. He knew this luck probably wouldn't continue, but maybe now that people had seen this case go so well things would get easier.

As he walked down the stairs back to his team, he felt better than he had since Gibbs left. He could do this.

I know I didn't go into much detail on the rest of the case solving process, but otherwise it would have dragged out, and I wanted to just focus on the little bits of help Tim is subtly giving Tony.