Clearly I'm not sticking to the planned schedule but hopefully there are still a few people out there reading. Please R and R if you have the chance. Thanks!


Gibbs waited unhappily for Ducky to arrive and ran a hand over the scratchy beard that had formed in the last week.

Over the course of that week everyone from his team, his former team he reminded himself sternly, had visited at some point. Ziva had brought groceries and cooked. Tim and Tony had stopped by and set up a new television and DVD player that Gibbs still hadn't figured out how to work on his own. Even Ducky had dropped by every day to gently nudge him in the direction of the required anti-inflammatory.

Abby's visits had been painful though. The young Goth girl had brought whirlwind of energy and anecdotes. Tales from NCIS over the last week, filling him in as if he would be back when this was all over. Every time she talked about him coming down to her lab he got a pang in his chest. Not that he was willing to admit it out loud but he missed his team. Abby's incessant chatter, Ziva's mispronunciation and misinterpretation of American slang, Tim's self help tapes and Tony's endless teasing. He missed it all and every time Abby reminded him it was like pouring salt in a wound. So he nodded and reassured her even though it tore at him every time.

Today though, Ducky had deemed him recovered enough from the initial surgery to try his hand at his first PT session. Gibbs was normally the type of person that threw himself into physical therapy and rehab if only to be done with it sooner and be back to what he considered his real job. However, this time there was nothing at the end of the tunnel for him to drive towards. Even if this knee injury hadn't come along he was only nine months out from the mandatory field agent retirement limit. Like the FBI, NCIS caped the service of its field agents at 55 years old. The rehab on his knee was supposed to take three months. There was no point in making the team, or himself, go through this twice. So here he was waiting for a ride from his oldest friend headed off to a destination he only wanted to ignore.


At NCIS the mood wasn't any better. The first week hadn't been bad, Tony could pretend that Gibbs was on leave, even though he couldn't remember the older ever having taken a sick day or leave in the last 9 years he'd worked with him. However, staring at the desk still strewn with the remnants of the Greaves case Tony felt a physical ache in his chest. Vance had scheduled a meeting with him for 10 am. Tony was pretty sure he knew what it would be about.

Two hours later and 10 am had arrived. Tony went to Vance's office like he was walking to the gallows. His slow measured steps moving towards certain doom. He paused open the door and greeted Cynthia.

"Director Vance will see you now."

"He pushed open the aluminum door, "Tony, welcome have a seat. The Italian man obeyed and sat in front of the large desk that dominated the space in front of the bank of windows. "Good morning Director."

"I'm going to cut to the chase. As you know Gibbs is going to take his retirement after his medical leave is up. Based on his recommendation and your past performance I'm going to make you the head of MCRT. You'll have McGee and Ziva available to you as they will remain on the team, at least for now. You'll have to pick up a fourth to fill in the gap in the team. I've got a stack of files, about five new probationary officers that would make a good fit on the team. You've earned this Tony congratulations."

Tony shook his hand and accepted the files. "Thank you Sir." There was nothing else he could say. He may have been proud that he earned the position but this wasn't how he wanted to do it.

Just as ponderously he made his way back down to his teammates and dropped the files onto his desk.

Ever eager McGee piped in from his desk. "New case?".

"Nope. New probies."

Ziva looked up at that. "Another temporary agent? How long will this one be with us?"

"This one's for real Ziva. We're accepting another member onto the team. With Gibbs retiring they made me the boss." He shrugged helplessly still not sure how to come to terms with the conflict roiling in the back of his mind. One side of him was doing jumping air guitar singing routine in excitement over getting chosen, and more importantly recommended by Gibbs, to head up MCRT. The other side of his brain was frozen in shock and fear at the reality that Gibbs really wasn't returning and that he wouldn't have Gibbs' gut to rely on.

"Congratulations." Ziva stood from her desk and approached his holding out her hand for him to shake. "We should take you out to celebrate tonight." She offered up her brightest smile.

"Yeah Tony you earned this one, eight o'clock tonight at Duffy's." chimed in McGee. "Good luck telling Abby though."

His teammates easy acceptance had loosened a knot in his chest that he hadn't even known was there. Somewhere in the back of his head he was sure they would blame him for Gibbs not returning, or taking his place. Their support was like a balm on that open wound. However, he muttered a curse word after accepting his teammates good wishes. Abby. How he was going to tell her was still a mystery even to himself.


After lunch Tony made the walk down to forensics. From the elevator door he was immediately assaulted with the sounds of loud angry bass drum beats thumping out their deep, throaty rhythms.

"Hey Abs."

The young Goth woman turned with more agility than Tony would have thought possible in three inch black stilettos and wrapped her arms around his neck. He offered her the Caf-Pow in his hand after she backed away enough to allow him to breathe. She set it carefully on her desk with a thank you.

"What brings you to the wonderful world of Forensics Tony? New evidence in the Meyers case?"

The case she was referring to was the first one MCRT had taken since Gibbs leave was effective. They had been toiling away on cold cases until the day before when Vance finally needed to take them off the bench before the other teams were buried under a mountain of new cases.

"No new evidence. I still think it was the girlfriend."

"Tony, you always think it's the girlfriend." She playfully swatted his arm and smiled. The Agent in question returned a half hearted smile. "So why'd you come down."

"I wanted to see if you wanted to go out with Tim, Ziva and I tonight. Eight O'clock, Duffy's"

"Sure! I haven't been out with you guys in forever!" She bounced slightly on the balls of her feet and asked the question Tony had been hoping to avoid. "Are we celebrating something?! We're always celebrating something when we go to Duffy's."

"I got a promotion. MCRT lead." He tried to smile but the lopsided grin fell short.

"I think I'm busy tonight." Abby's demeanor clouded over faster than a summer storm rolling in.

Tony tried to think of something to say but couldn't defend himself. She turned her back on him and started typing viciously on her keyboard. He knew she felt betrayed but he couldn't figure out how to fix it. He turned and walked away and as he was almost out of the door he heard a dull thud, like the sound a full Styrofoam cup makes when it hits the bottom of a garbage can.