Chapter 3~

*Ten Years Ago*

Gibbs needed coffee.

Which wasn't new by any means, but now the NCIS agent's need was greater than usual. What the Hell had he been thinking when he had hired DiNozzo? He couldn't think of one agent- not one- that exhausted him to this extent.

…And the kid had only been at work for five hours. How the heck was he supposed to handle the other four?

"Done!" the gleeful cry was heard from across the bullpen as the agent in question threw down his pen and gave a satisfied look at his work. "No más papel!" he beamed and Gibbs wondered what the reaction would be once he brought out the other three files the kid was supposed to fill out.

Unfortunately though, his news was postponed when Tony decided to pop up another question instead.

"Hey Gibbs… When do we have lunch?" From their respective desks, Vivian and Sam looked up, both with identical looks of shock. The thoughts were clear on their faces- He's done for.

It was kind of sad really, that his agents were that scared of him that they wouldn't ask if they could eat. Gibbs hoped that DiNozzo didn't follow in their footsteps.

"Right now." He said, looking down at his watch and nobody moved. Tony looked around skeptically, probably waiting for someone to announce where they usually went out to eat. Truth be told though, Gibbs never really announced official 'breaks' and his agents would never ask. As a result, they would just bring in their own food to eat at their desks throughout the day.

"Um…Alright then." Tony continued at the lack of response. "I'm just going to…Go pick up some food." He finished awkwardly while Sam and Viv exchanged worried looks, still watching Gibbs as though they expected him to blow.

It didn't happen though, as Gibbs simply opted to continue typing on his computer, not giving the slightest retort at anything that had just happened.

"So…We're going to go out too?" Sam asked and Gibbs thought evilly of how fun it would be to tell him no, when his phone rang, demanding his attention.

"Gibbs."

"Agent Gibbs." Cynthia's voice came through the earpiece "The director would like to see you."

"Be right there." He told her and hung up, glancing down again at his watch. "Going to go see the director. You have thirty minutes." He told them and almost smiled as he watched the two scramble.

"You do realize that lunch break has always been there?" he asked flippantly and marched over towards the Director's office.

No sooner had Anthony DiNozzo's file been closed before it was reopened and reread again, this time being the sixth in a row.

Tom Morrow simply did not understand it! He had sat in this very office, working with anyone who would be willing to go onto Gibbs' team, bargaining and begging, going as far as to make agents submit their personality test so that he could weed out anyone who might be able to work with the man!

Then, the moment Morrow finally gave in and allowed the man to pick his own agents, he brings back the very last person the NCIS Director would expect.

A local cop. Of all things. Not only that, but one with a loud mouth, reckless streak, and a name that meant trouble. What on Earth was his agent thinking? To have someone like Anthony DiNozzo become an agent?

"Director." Well, Morrow supposed now he would have the chance to ask the man himself.

"Agent Gibbs." He greeted and took a seat at his desk, shifting through multiple files to get back to the one that was on top and placed it gingerly in front of Gibbs, tapping it with his index finger.

"Anthony DiNozzo." He started and Gibbs said nothing, not touching the file before meeting his eyes and nodding.

"Yes sir."

"I don't understand. I sent you the best agents- What does this kid have they don't?" he asked and Tom could already see about a million smartass remarks beginning to fly through agent's mind.

"Can't really list them all out." He finally settled with and the director rolled his eyes.

"He sounds like a handful."

Gibbs let out a light scoff and ran a hand over his face, giving the impression that the light comment was an understatement.

"Oh yeah. Handful sounds about right." He said and Morrow raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair as he decided to be frank about the whole thing.

"Jethro, I don't know anything about this kid- or what on earth possessed you to bring him here. I don't need to know. What I do need to know is if you have enough patience for this, and if he's worth it."

"I think he'd make a good agent."

"Doesn't answer my question."

"Yeah…I think he's worth it."

Tony swears that he was trying to stay out of trouble. Cross his heart. He went straight the Deli a few blocks away to get food and was coming straight back. Honest.

Of course, he was Anthony DiNozzo after all, and that name was said to have literally translated to 'trouble magnet'. Which was why he wasn't all that surprised to see the burning building that was nearby.

"Damn." He muttered and pulled over. Part of him reasoned that he wasn't a fire fighter, and should move his ass along and ignore the crying and injured people all together. The other part of him told him to shut up and pull the stupid car over. Sitting back had never been much of his style anyway.

"Sir, I need you to stand back." A man spoke as Tony popped out of the car. Rolling his eyes, Tony flipped out his temporary badge that Gibbs had given him until his new one was made and thrust it at the guy.

"NCIS Special agent Anthony DiNozzo." He told him "What can I do?" The man's face quickly morphed from annoyance to relief as he nodded warily.

"Thank God. Sorry Agent DiNozzo, I thought you might have been another gawker. We have it mostly covered here. Injured are over there, and the unscathed to your right. We got everyone out so-"

"JACOB!" Tony jumped, hearing a horrified scream and let his hand instantly fall to his gun. A woman had suddenly stood up, her face chalk white as she screamed bloody murder.

"Aw, shit." The man who was talking to Tony muttered and ran over, trying to restrain the woman as she attempted to run into the building which was now engulfed in flames.

"No! No! My baby's in there! Jacob ran back in! JACOB!" Looking around, Tony saw the group of firefighters scrambling in attempt to reassemble. From above, there was an echoing crack of the first of the building beginning to fall… They weren't going to make it.

Shedding off his jacket, Tony wondered what was with him and having that damn hero complex before running in.

*Present Time*

"What the Hell? Tony!" McGee cried as he choked on his coke that he'd been drinking.

"What?" the agent in question responded, looking completely offended by the tone his friend had used.

"You ran into a burning building. That was about to fall." Abby supplied helpfully "and also lied to get into the scene."

"I didn't lie!"

"Well Anthony, you weren't exactly Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo yet were you? You were Probationary Agent DiNozzo, so not really an agent at all."

"Probie." McGee added with a slight smirk and Tony rolled his eyes.

"Senior Field Agent." He corrected and jumped when the autopsy doors unexpectedly slid open. Turning around, the group saw Jenny walk back, a satisfied smirk on her lips. Next to her was a graying man, with his arm around a petite looking woman who grinned when she saw them all.

"Tony!" she beamed and pushed her husband away so she could embrace the man.

"Hey. So you finally made it." He laughed as she let go and grinned at Alex who was standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Finally? I'm proud to say I made within ten minutes flat. You should be impressed Rookie."

"I would have been impressed if you picked up a pizza along the way."

"Why? Are you hungry?" Scarlett suddenly fussed "Did you eat breakfast this morning?"

"Scarlett, you already fed him today." Alex told her and the older woman frowned as she took in her surrogate son's appearance critically. "You look skinny." She frowned and Tony smiled, trying not to roll his eyes.

"How did you get in here?" he asked "You were supposed to call so I could escort you up."

"Well, after you texted me…Sorry I didn't respond by the way, I didn't really know how to get it to work."

"I did." Scarlett cut in "but he never listens to me."

"No you didn't! Anyways, we got here and I was about to call you-"

"Actually I was, because my husband doesn't know how to work a phone that has a touch screen."

"I do too! Ugh, as I was saying. Director Shepherd just appears and brings us up, like she was waiting for us the whole time." Alex finished and Tony threw a questioning look at Jenny, which she returned with a small smile.

Realizing after a couple seconds that introductions were in order, Tony quickly turned to the rest of the group.

"Alright, um…Guys this Alex and Scarlett Smith. Alex, Scarlett, you remember Gibbs, Abby, and Ducky? Well, this is Jimmy, Ziva, Tim, and you met the Director already." He introduced and his three friends perked up as they studied over the couple with great interest.

"So you're Ziva!" Scarlett beamed "Tony never told me how pretty you were!"

Oh dear lord…

"Uhh…Scarle-"

"…and you're Tim? Huh. You were right Tony…Sweetie, we need to get you a decent meal. How much have you been eating?" Scarlett asked skeptically and Tim gave a look of pure bewilderment.

"What? How much have I…? Well, I…Um…" From the corner Tony cleared his throat, his cheeks already flaming in what had to be embarrassment. Ziva was smirking, her eyes already telling him that she was planning on spending lots of time with his ex-partner and wife.

"Scarlett…" he said quietly, giving her a look that was similar to one of a kicked puppy. "Can we please move on?" the elderly woman rolled her eyes, but nevertheless turned to the rest of the group and smiled.

"Alright. I suppose I can finish talking with all of you later…We have plenty of time for that." She added with a small smirk in Tony's direction. Beside the agent, Alex clapped a hand sympathetically on his shoulder, looking slightly amused as he did so.

"Where were you guys?" he asked gruffly, looking around discreetly at his friend's coworkers with a critical eye.

"Um… The part where Tony just ran into a burning building."

"I'm sorry. He did what?" Scarlett sputtered out before Alex gave her a side look and shook his head. The woman paused as though she wanted to argue, but kept silent after sending both her husband and Tony an incredulous look.

"Yes." Ziva said, obviously enjoying her team mate's discomfort "He was just driving by and decided to run into a burning building."

"There was someone inside." Tony added with far less bravado than he would usually. In fact, if anything, he looked slightly nervous.

Gibbs smirked to himself from the opposite side of the room. He had remembered Scarlett and Alex vaguely, and mostly associated them in good terms. However, he couldn't help but notice a small and unpleasant emotion flickering around inside of him as he saw the three of them together- though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Shrugging the thoughts away, he figured he should just be grateful that Scarlett Smith was here to keep the agent quiet for more than five minutes.

"Well!" Ducky chortled, pleasure eliciting his face as he clapped his hands together "I suppose now we can continue with our new guests! I believe that it was a half an hour later when Jethro received his first of many calls regarding Anthony…"

*Ten Years Ago*

"He did what?" Gibbs yelled over the phone, letting his newly refilled coffee fall from his hand and splash dramatically to the floor. Vivian and Sam had just returned and froze as their boss's face flushed with anger.

"And who was the idiot who let him in? Why would a Navy cop go and investigate a civilian fire?" There was a pause in which some panicked squabbling was heard from the other end. Gibbs looked at his phone with uttermost disgust, throwing it to the side without responding.

"Stay." He snapped at his two agents and hit the elevator door with more force than particularly necessary.

One day. DiNozzo hadn't even been here a full day and he had gotten into trouble. Hell, it wasn't even technically at work. He was on God damn lunch break!

For what seemed to be the billionth time today, Gibbs wondered what he had done to himself.

The fire itself wasn't too hard to find. All Gibbs had to do was follow the sirens and smoke. As it turned out, finding Tony hadn't been too difficult either.

He was at the top of the building.

The little son of a…. Seriously?! How does something like this even happen? Scowling, Gibbs felt himself rush out of the car and push pass guards with a mere flip of his ID.

"That your boy up there?" one of the men asked and Gibbs recognized it as the man who he had been on the phone with earlier.

"Is there anyone else up there with him?" Gibbs asked, choosing to ignore the first question.

"Yeah. Six year old little boy. The woman screamed that her son went back inside and the kid scrambled in there and grabbed him- they bottom part of the building fell off though so he kept climbing so he could hand the boy off to them." The man said gesturing to the men on the ladder. Gibbs felt the tension in his body loosen a bit when he saw both the little boy and Tony get on, slowly getting closer to the ground below, which had been covered with a blow up mattress in case they had decided to jump.

Good. Gibbs needed the kid in good condition. Not because he gave a damn about his wellbeing, but because he was going to commit murder the moment he saw him again. Didn't the kid know that he was becoming an investment of Gibbs' personal time? He didn't have time to go saving him whenever the guy got into trouble.

Which was why his heart almost stopped when the ladder broke.

Tony seriously needed to locate himself a rabbit's foot. Or one of those cool four leaf clovers…He never could find any of those when he was a kid.

Either way, he needed one because he was so freakin unlucky. All and all grabbing the kid inside the building had been the easy part. He escaped with minimal burning that would barely be noticeable over the next couple of days. Piece of cake right?

Of course not. Because of all things in the world to happen, the ladder broke.

Really? One may ask.

Yes. Really. And it took all of the young agent's training to make sure the little boy who had been squirming in his arms seconds before, had gone into the fire fighters hands, who was fortunately on the stable part of the ladder.

Which left him to spiral downward. Tony could vaguely make out the screaming that was ringing in the background over the rush of wind in his ears. He felt like a ragdoll, jerked around as he flailed wildly for something- anything to hold into, but to no prevail.

Tony knew enough science to be fairly positive he wasn't going to die. The building he had just climbed off of was about 100 feet up, and he was about half way down when the ladder broke, making him falling roughly fifty feet onto the mattress below.

Ugh…That was going to hurt…A lot. Bracing himself for the landing, Tony almost didn't notice that everything suddenly went black. He was still simply waiting for the blowing pain to come.

Slowly, the man became aware that a soft trickle of aches were flowing through his body, and that many voices were clouding around him. If panicked whispers were fuel, the human footprint would have just doubled in size.

"Sir? Agent DiNozzo." Someone was saying and an annoying poke went to his arm. "Agent DiNozzo." The person tried again and this time Tony wanted to tell whoever it was to shut up and leave him alone. The pain was getting more intense and all Tony wanted to right now was sleep.

"Get out of the way." Someone else muttered and the ex-detective almost jerked awake at the sound of it. No…His luck couldn't be that bad. "DiNozzo. I am not paying you to sleep around. You're already twenty minutes late."

Yep. His luck apparently could be that bad. Groaning, the Italian allowed his eyes to flicker open slightly to reveal his Boss looking down disapprovingly at him.

"Hey Gibbs." He mumbled and felt someone else jerk next to him.

"Agent DiNozzo, my name is Scott." The guy told him and grabbed his arm so he sat up straight dizzily. "I'm an emergency medical technician alright? Let's get a look at how you're doing…" Shining a bright light into each of his eyes, Tony jerked back and hissed.

Him and Scott were going to have problems.

Unfortunately for him, Gibbs apparently found the need to have grasped his other arm and forced him back towards the rather annoying doctor, who was now attempting to touch his wrist and neck.

"Let go!" Tony snapped, trying to jerk away, but sadly found he was too weak to do much flinch away.

"Quit being a baby." Gibbs muttered from his side and Tony shot him a wary look.

"How did you get here anyways?" he grouched and Gibbs simply raised an eyebrow, telling Tony he really didn't want to know the answer to that question. "Um…I won't get fired for this…Right?" he asked hesitantly and Gibbs shrugged nonchalantly.

"I don't know. Pretending to have jurisdiction at a crime scene and telling people that you have a higher rank- doesn't make you look too good does it?" Wincing Tony tried to hit Scott when he began to run his fingers through his hair.

"Dude. Maybe if you were like twenty years younger and a chick okay?" he snapped and turned back to his boss. "A kid was in there…The building was collapsing and those people." He said angrily as he gestured towards the firefighters "Were being too slow."

"You don't think I know that?" Gibbs asked sharply "Rest assured, that is the only reason I'm not firing your ass." He claimed and then looked thoughtful for a moment "and next time, you aren't leaving the building alone. I can't even send you out to lunch without something happening. What was the point of hiring you if you're going to die on my on your first week?" Tony opened his mouth to argue, but choked when a thermometer was shoved down his throat.

"Ack!" he coughed and tried to take it out as Scott began to pack some stuff away.

"Alright, Tony? Can you answer some quick questions for me?"

"I'm not five."

"Great. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Count them yourself."

"What's your name?"

"I'm pretty sure you know, considering you just said five seconds ago."

"Do you know the year?"

"I'll buy you a calendar for Christmas." Tony snapped and Scott grimaced slightly before turning to Gibbs.

"He's got a mild concussion. Nothing too serious, though I would recommend taking him to the hospital to double check that. He's also going to be sore for a few days-"

"Well yeah, I had you poking me for ten minutes." Tony huffed under his breath.

"How do you know it's a concussion?" Gibbs cut him off and Scott clicked his tongue.

"Well, the obvious attitude it one symptom-"

"He's always like that." Gibbs offered and Tony blinked in objection. Scott let a small smile grace his lips, but continue his medical spill.

"The dilated pupils and knot on the back of his head are also indications. Like I said, he answered all of the questions… Somewhat coherently, so I'm pretty sure it is small, but like I said, scans would be the most efficient way to check." Nodding thankfully, Gibbs stood up, pulling a now almost unconscious agent with him.

"Hey, stay awake." He said, shaking him slightly.

"Huh? Oh…Hi." Tony muttered and suddenly jumped. "Oh my God Gibbs! The kid! Is he alright? Is he hurt? Did I-?"

"DiNozzo. Shut up. He's fine. His mom told me to tell you she was sending you flowers."

"Hmm…Okay. Just make sure they aren't lilies cause I'm allergic to those." Tony mumbled, drifting back into his stupor. Rolling his eyes Gibbs somehow managed to fling the kid into the car and consider his agent's mustang which was parked to the side of the road. Shrugging, he decided he'd just make the kid walk all the way back here later to pick it up. He seemed in good enough shape.

"Are we going back to the office?"

"Yeah. A concussed agent will do me so much good filling out paperwork." The older man said sarcastically and Tony scowled.

"Where are we going then?"

"I don't know DiNozzo…I would say back to your apartment but…" he turned and gave his agent a look.

It had been an on and off argument ever since Tony was hired. Gibbs had fully expected his newest addition to pack right up and move to DC. Unfortunately, Tony quite liked his apartment with his neighbors who included an eight year old little girl and her grandmother. The newbie was under the impression it was alright to drive three hours to work every morning.

"Gibbs, I really don't need a new apartment. This one is fine." Tony yawned as he looked at his watch and then back at his boss. He had just been released from the hospital and had creepily found his new employer at his house when he got home.

"I'll explain this…Again." Gibbs sighed "You are a federal agent now. That means your personal life is dangerous too. Now you need to understand that when someone comes to kill you I don't feel like driving three damn hours to save your sorry ass!"

"Alright, alright." Tony pouted and looked around the room "I'll get it up in like a week or so…Maybe a month…or two…" Gibbs pressed his fingers lightly to his temples. Day one hadn't even begun and he wanted to strangle the kid.

"Don't say it." Tony sighed and Gibbs gave a mild smirk.

"I don't need to. Just know that if you aren't out of that apartment by next week, you're fired."

"I'm sure that'll make an interesting report. Fired because he didn't want to move… Hey, if we aren't going to my place, where are we going? You aren't really going to take me to the hospital right? Because I feel fine and…" Gibbs let him prattle away for a couple more minutes. He actually had considered taking the younger man to the hospital, but figured that it could wait until this afternoon. It would give him time to place the phone calls to work and explain why he wasn't going to be there the rest of the day with his new agent.

After replaying his conversation with the director, Gibbs wondered vaguely if this incident proved Morrow's point or his.

"Where are we?" Tony's voice edged its way back into Gibbs head and wordlessly, the other man got out, waiting for DiNozzo to stumble after him. "Is this…Your house?"

Whose house did he think it was? Opening the door, the Agent waited until Tony was inside before directing him towards the guest room and then found himself sitting on the couch, contemplating what the hell to do with him next.

Well, Gibbs thought as he pulled out his phone to start his calls, it wasn't like DiNozzo was five or anything. How much trouble could the kid get in just by being at his house?

Hey everyone (: So yeah, I know I've been away for awhile and I want to apologize for that. Hopefully the next chapter should be up much quicker... Maybe I'll start getting to the interesting stuff too. I know you guys must be bored of set up chapters by now.

Thank you all for your concerns regarding Felicity's wellbeing. She's doing a lot better now... The doctor's told me that her survival rate just went up past sixty percent which is amazing progress, considering it started out at 30...

One last thing I want to address before crashing is this: Before I write I always reread my past chapters (I don't really know why...Probably just to get me back into the flow of the story again) and I noticed at the very end of my AN last chapter I really sounded like a complete bitch. I was actually surprised no one called me out on it. I just wanted to say that I am very sorry about that. I could use the excuse that I was really stressed about Felicity, but that doesn't give me the right to take it out on you guys.

So yeah. That's all. I feel like I say this often but I PROMISE the next chapter will be super long and amazing. I'm going to dedicate my saturday night to it (: Love you all!

~Kensi