A/N: Happy New Year, everyone, hope it brings good things to all of you. Thank you beta Bunny, for all of your help and support. Thanks again to all who review, alert and/or favorite, glad that you're enjoying it!

Note: The flashback is in italics.

Gibbs screeched out of the Hoover Building parking lot disbelieving that he was going back to the Navy Yard empty-handed. Abby was going to murderize him. She expected him to be able to fix everything. What if this wasn't fixable? His fingers cramped around the steering wheel. NOPE. This was fixable, had to be. Tony was just in another part of town, in another agency, not in a coma or six feet under. He just had to calm down and figure it out.

What had Fornell said, something about Tony not wanting Kate to know he couldn't handle painkillers? Would Ducky know anything about that? Would he tell him if he did? The M.E. would be furious with him that he had not resolved things between himself and Tony. He dreaded the tongue-lashing he would get from the man; he had not made it out unscathed when he'd been down there to tell him about his AWOL SFA less than an hour ago. Gibbs thought maybe it would be even worse this time around. He was right.

The M.E. had, at first, listened quietly and attentively, and then laid into him with a fury Gibbs seldom witnessed from the older man. He had actually backed Gibbs into an autopsy table in his agitation, pointing a finger into the lead agent's face.

"This was bound to HAPPEN, Jethro, you can't possibly think that that boy would keep taking your abuse and -"

"I DON'T abuse him!"

"You let me finish, Jethro! How many times have I warned you about this? YES, he needs a strong hand and YES, he responds to your 'tough love', but for God's sake, he's needier and more tender-hearted than you THINK, and he needs to know he's not just another one of your agents destined to end up on the proverbial trash-heap of those you've tossed out on their backsides! You were GOOD to him when he first started, better than you were to any of the others before. What happened, Jethro? What made you start shutting him out? Did he say something, DO something he shouldn't have?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, he did! And I can't HAVE it, Duck, I can't make my team my family, it doesn't work, you can't stay objective!"

"Ahhh...he was GETTING to you...HERE!" Ducky pointed his index finger into the middle of Gibbs's chest. "I see. Well, we can't have THAT, now CAN we? With Abigail, it's FINE, she's not out in the field with you, but with Anthony...Let me tell you a secret, Jethro…"

Ducky lowered his voice to almost a whisper as he poked his finger several times into Gibb's chest now. "You-are-too-LATE! You were too late when you dragged him here from Baltimore, otherwise you never would have bothered!" He backed off a little, giving Gibbs some breathing room. "Tell me something, Jethro, do you really think that's fair to the boy?"

"Is WHAT fair to the - him?"

"Taking him in, teaching him everything, making him feel like he's important in your life, and then suddenly, for no reason, treating him like you barely know him? This isn't the start of it, this is the RESULT of weeks of poor treatment of him on your part. What happened to make you turn your back on him these months ago? That's making you cross with him? It ISN'T the pills, we BOTH know that, that was just the match that lit the fuse. What caused the powder keg to evolve in the FIRST place? He couldn't possibly have behaved THAT badly on the job -"

"He COULD, and he DID! And I got to clean up the FALLOUT from it!"

"Mmm. Let's see - two months ago... that was May...what happened in -" Ducky stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening a bit as realization dawned. "Oh. Yes. I see."

. . . . .

It was late in the afternoon when Ducky got the near-frantic call from Kate that she and Gibbs were bringing Tony in for an 'outpatient' call and to be ready with all the medical supplies he could muster. He shook his head in dismay - if it was that serious, why bring Tony to HIM, take him to the emergency room, for heaven's sake. But his friend and lead agent must have had a good reason, and maybe Kate was being a little over-the-top with her concern. She got that way when Tony was threatened or injured, unless it was she who was doing the threatening and injuring.

Unfortunately, he knew he was wrong when Gibbs and Kate dragged Tony into autopsy.

Blood was dripping steadily from his mouth and nose, and ran down his cheek from a gash under his left eye. What in God's name had HAPPENED, and why weren't they in the nearest ER?

Gibbs explained it all to him while he checked and x-rayed, cleaned and stitched. They had been working a joint case with Fornell's team, and he and Tony had walked into a hotel room that they had been using for a stake-out, only to find two armed men who promptly relieved them of their weapons and phones and proceeded to interrogate them.

Gibbs seemed the most likely of the two to have the information they wanted, surmising he was the lead agent in the operation. But in typical fashion, DiNozzo had led them astray with his motor-mouth, telling them that he was just an informant and got forced into helping NCIS and the FBI, and wasn't about to die for either one of them. Let Gibbs go and he'd tell them what they wanted.

In the end, they had locked Gibbs in the bathroom and, not happy with the information he was providing them, started to beat him to a pulp. Gibbs had heard every slap, every thud of a fist or foot landing on him, had heard the ugly snap of a green-stick fracture to his wrist as they twisted it savagely, but no cries, no noise at all from his agent.

Instead of making him proud, it made him appalled. What sort of person took that kind of abuse without even a groan or outcry of any kind? Gibbs really didn't want to think about it, it was almost as if the kid ENJOYED it. For almost five agonizing minutes, Gibbs was forced to listen to his SFA being assaulted, while he screamed and kicked at the door, trying everything in his power to break it down or at the very least, distract them. They were very distracted, however, by Kate and Fornell slamming through the hotel room's main door and shooting both of the men, killing one of them.

He heard Kate call for an ambulance while he continued to kick and scream to be let out. Fornell heard him through the confusion and let him out, nearly getting himself run over for his effort as Gibbs barreled past him to his downed agent.

"Tony, it's Gibbs, ambulance is on its way."

"Ducky."

"Ducky's not here, kid."

"Want…Ducky…no hospital."

"Tony, you're bleedin' like a stuck PIG!"

"Won't …go..."

"You'll go where I TELL ya to go!" Gibbs bellowed at him, surveying all the cuts and bruises that were visible and imagining all the ones that weren't.

Tony tried rising from the carpeted floor. "Lemme up..." he slurred, sounding half in the bag.

"You stay down, that's an order!"

"You can't make me...go to the hospital...illegal...won't go."

Kate looked to her boss for instructions. Gibbs sighed heavily, going back to trying to staunch the flow of blood from Tony's face.

"Call Ducky, tell 'im we're on our way."

"He could have internal injuries, Gibbs."

"Don't you think I know that, Kate? I can't force him to go, he'll only sign himself out AMA anyways! Help me get him out to the car, carefully."

Once they were out at the Charger, Tony spoke up again. "Blanket. On the seat...can't get blood on it."

"You WOULD worry about that now, Tony."

"Boss'll…take it…outta my pay."

"Damned STRAIGHT I will," Gibbs growled into Tony's ear, holding him upright while Kate prepped the back seat. But he had no intention of doing any such thing. His own blood was still pounding in his head, making his eyeballs vibrate - he couldn't get to Tony, to stop them, to help him. But he could hear it all, the thuds, the sickening crack of Tony's wrist bone...

Tony grunted in pain as Gibbs lowered him as gently as he could into the back seat.

"Kate, get in beside him, this side, help keep him propped up or he'll be on the floor by the time we get there."

She did, and for once, sitting that close to her partner, she hadn't had to slap, punch, or elbow him for misbehaving.

After a dozen stitches, a few x-rays, and a soft cast, Tony was led to Abby's lab to try to get comfortable on her futon till Gibbs could write up his report, scream at Fornell and come collect Tony to settle him in Gibbs's guest room for the night. The lead agent had stayed through the entire exam, and steadied him when Ducky had put two sutures in each of Tony's lips and three on his left cheek.

That had been Gibb's downfall, watching as the young man gritted his teeth and strained every muscle in his body in an effort not to cry out in front of his boss and the M.E.

As soon as Ducky was done and Gibbs felt Tony could manage on his own, he dismissed himself to go do the requisite paperwork. He felt Tony grab his sleeve on his way out, and stopped.

"Than's, bosth.," DiNozzo lisped through the ice pack and swollen lips.

Gibbs merely stared at him, his eyes betraying nothing now. No sympathy, no trace of concern, and Tony stiffened a bit at the change in the man, but immediately threw up his own walls in defense. Okay, Gibbs was pissed at him. He thought he had done everything right and the man STILL wasn't happy with his work. Ducky's wary eye caught the exchange and gave Tony's leg a solicitous pat as his boss strode out of the room.

"This has upset him GREATLY, Anthony. Give him some time."

"Didn' looh upset t' ME..."

"I assure you he is indeed. Come, let's take you to Abigail, she's been waiting impatiently for you."

Ducky helped him down from the table and steadied him before they made their way to Abby's lab. Tony knew he certainly wasn't on his game at the moment, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of inexplicable loss - something had changed with his boss, no matter how much Ducky assured him otherwise.

For whatever reason, Gibbs had shut himself off from Tony, and the young man with the reputation for being carefree and Teflon-coated felt it as surely as if a bucket of ice water had been tossed on him. Maybe Gibbs was sick of him now, disgusted with him. He probably already had someone else in mind to replace Tony.

Well, not much I can do about it at the moment, Tony thought as he collapsed onto Abby's pseudo-sofa.

He'd confront Gibbs in the morning, when they'd both gotten some rest.