Notes: So glad this story is intriguing most of you. Here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 4:

Tim and Delilah worked long into the night digging into the history of the DiNozzo clan. A search on and other family tree building sites seemed to confirm the story told to them by Roberto DiNozzo. His grandfather came through Ellis Island and between the Italian Passenger List and the Register of new immigrants through Ellis Island, their name was changed from Dinozolio to DiNozzo.

They also found that the Long Island paper "Newsday" had a email link where you could request articles from their entire back catalogue so Tim sent off an email to them requesting any information on Anthony DiNozzo and his family from the years 1960 through to 1980. After that here was really little else they could do but wait, so they went to bed to try and get a couple of hours sleep before work the next day.

Tim arrived back at work the next morning still exhausted from the night before and as he walked past Tony's desk, rather than receive a cheerful hello or a witty remark, Tony just watched him walk to his desk with a frown on his face.

Tim sat down and said, "Morning Tony. Morning Bishop," before turning on his computer.

Bishop responded brightly but he only received barely intelligible "morning," from Tony. He also noticed that Tony's response was not lost on Ellie Bishop and there had been some tension between them since Tim came back from his holiday, but she was not about to get in the middle of it. Hopefully whatever was annoying them about each other would sort itself out without her intervention … God she hoped so anyway.

Gibbs strode into the room and appeared seemingly oblivious to the tension between his team but was actually keenly aware of what was going on and the tightrope he had to walk between them. He knew Tim was trying to be discreet about what he found out, but unfortunately Tim wasn't very good at hiding his feelings and his suspiciousness towards Tony was shining through. He also knew that Tony didn't miss much that happened around him, even if he appeared to be nothing but a clown when at work, so Gibbs knew that Tony was fully aware of Tim's sudden withdrawal from Tony and he knew Tony wasn't about to shrug it off and hope it blew over. Tony liked to confront problems head on, especially if he felt he was the problem.

He needed to ask Tim what he had found out and hopefully get to the bottom of this mess today, but in the meantime he had not just the Director and the Secretary of the Navy, but also the President of the United States wanted to know what caused the death of Admiral Barclay and as much as he wanted to sort out this whole DiNozzo mess, he had to get this off his desk first. At least getting that finished would keep them busy and he could talk to Tim under the pretence of this investigation without Tony then becoming suspicious of him. Gibbs sighed at the thought of what lay ahead.

"Right, I need all of your reports, notes and findings typed up, filed and on my desk by lunch. No excuses!"

The team nodded and worked silently for the rest of the morning. The silence itself was disturbing because no matter how busy they may be, Tony would still manage to so something to lighten the tension, or Tim would compare notes or double check something with his colleagues, Ellie would bounce around from sitting at her desk, to sitting on the floor, to running to the snack machine, rarely still for more than an hour, and Gibbs would have to tell one, or all of them, to shut up and get the work done. But not today, today the silence was deafening. Even Vance noticed it from his perch above them. Vanced quirked an eyebrow at Gibbs, but Gibbs simply shrugged, hoping the Director would let him sort it out. Yep, the sooner he could sort out this mystery the better.

But first; Admiral Barclay and the report that will show the leader of the free world that one of his top ranking officials accidentally killed himself by drinking a quart of whisky, snorting a ton of cocaine and performing electrical repairs in his leopard print bra and panties.

After the reports had been handed in Gibbs decided to discuss their findings individually in the interview room. With a big case it wasn't unusual for Gibbs to discuss each members notes with them, but it wasn't usually done in the privacy of an interview room. Gibbs hoped this would allow Tim and Gibbs to speak without raisings Tony's suspicions any higher. It didn't work.

First Gibbs called Ellie in and went over her notes and reports and made sure that everything she had supplied matched that of the other members of the team. He knew this report would be gone over with a fine tooth comb and he was not about to have his arse raked over the coals because of a typo or a discrepancy in the field notes. Before she left though, she had to discuss the elephant in the big orange squad room.

"Do you know what the heck is going on with Tim and Tony?" she asked.

"No, what is it?" he asked not wanting to let on that he was aware of the tension.

"Oh come on, you had to have noticed. Tim has been weird and twitchy since he came back from holidays and every time Tony tried to say something to him he got all jumpy and fidgety. It's like he doesn't trust Tony all of a sudden. And now Tony is all pissy at Tim because he doesn't know why Tim is like this and so Tony has the sulks on and isn't talking to anyone. I don't know if you noticed but you could have heard a pin drop in there this morning."

Gibbs looked up at his youngest team member. He knew Ellie was very fond of both, especially Tony and he knew it wouldn't be long before she decided she needed to mediate herself. He just hoped he could get it sorted before she poked her nose in. "I'll deal with it. Just let it go for now and don't do or say anything to them until you speak to me OK."

She squinted her eyes at him, "You do know what is going on don't you." She crossed her arms over he chest, "Fine, I'll not say anything to them but whatever it is needs to be sorted and soon. It is getting very uncomfortable out there."

Gibbs sighed, "I know. Send Tony in next."

Ellie nodded and left and a few moments later Tony strode in and took a seat opposite Gibbs. Their conversation was short and too the point and Tony's responses were clipped and terse. When they were finished Gibbs was actually hoping he could get away without having to discuss the issue but he was wrong.

"So, you aren't going to ask me what is wrong, which means that you know what is wrong, which means you know that McGee has a bee up his arse about me, which means you know what that bee is." He stopped and waited for Gibbs to answer but Gibbs remained silent and stared at his SFA. "So are you going to share it or do I get to continue playing the game 'Guess what Tim's pissed at me about' because to be honest Gibbs … I'm not a fan. I prefer Jeopardy."

"I'll talk to him," Gibbs responded.

"You'll talk to him, right!" Tony spat out angrily and stood abruptly, ready to storm out of the room but before he opened the door he turned and Gibbs could see that the anger was only covering up genuine hurt that Tony was now allowing to just show, "Have I done something to him? Did I say something? I mean I went around last night and Delilah was acting the same way? I just… I don't understand what I could have said or done to upset them. Sure Tim I understand, I annoy him on a daily basis, but Delilah… I thought she and I were friends."

Gibbs sighed… again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. Tony was obviously genuinely confused which meant that either Tim was wrong and this must have been a big misunderstanding, Tony genuinely had no idea about not being a DiNozzo … or Tony was an incredibly good actor and more devious than he could have ever imagined. "I will talk to him, I promise and I will let you know what is going on. Just give me some time and maybe just back off from Tim until it is sorted. Can you do that?"

Tony shoulders slumped from his previous tense posture indicating that he wasn't willing to fight it anymore. He nodded and left the room.

A knock on the door bought his last agent, and hopefully some answers.