A/N: Thanks for the great reviews, guys. Here's a longer chapter to make up for the long waits in between updates. Thanks for reading!

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Once Ducky stormed into the lab, things degraded quickly. Accusations flew from everyone all at once. It took less than ten minutes for one of them to spout off something completely unforgivable.

That someone just happened to be McGee.

Ziva and Ducky both winced when Abby decided to take offense.

She punched McGee.

Hard.

Silence reigned – for about two minutes.

Fidgeting, Ducky cleared his throat. "Ah, Ziva, perhaps you should take McGee … away." The normally verbose doctor seemed to have difficulty finding words.

Ziva nodded grimly. Looking at McGee, she realized just how immature all of them were being. She was particularly angry at herself. As a Mossad officer she had been taught control since she was a child. How could any of them have let this happen? Abby had never hit any one of them – well not like that. McGee was not bleeding, but the soft tissue around his eye was already starting to swell. He was going to have a spectacular glimmer in a few hours.

Glimmer? She frowned in frustration. Stupid English! Glimmer, twinkler, brighter…

Sighing in defeat, she grabbed McGee by the arm and towed him towards the elevator. He did not even protest. His expression was dejected. Well, Abby had hit him. He looked so depressed and hurt that Ziva had to suppress the urge to comfort him like she would a lost child. She was not even sure what he had said, to be so punished. She had been busy arguing with Ducky, who was trying to blame her and Timothy for DiNozzo's antics. Suddenly, Ziva growled.

This was all Tony's fault.

** * ** * ** * **

Tony looked up briefly when the elevator dinged. What he saw surprised him, but he studiously turned his attention back to the quarterly inventory report his was working on. Whatever had happened with Ziva and McGeek – Officer David and Agent McGee, he corrected himself – was absolutely none of his business.

He could hear his two teammates walking closer – neither were speaking. Bad sign, he thought. No talking meant whatever had happened – yes, he'd noticed McGee's reddened eye – hadn't been an accident. He wondered – fleetingly – who had hit him.

None of your business. Back to work, he told himself. He grimaced minutely when the 'voice' reminded him of his father. So polite, so cold, so politically correct. It disgusted him.

But he couldn't stop. He had to be serious. No one would respect him if he wasn't. Just a week, one week, and then he could go back. Everyone would know that he could be serious, he could get the work done, and that he wasn't just the class clown, the court jester.

Risking another quick glance at the slow moving pair, he forcefully told himself not to worry that it was only the first day.

He could do this.

McGee's pained expression and Ziva's threatening and frustrated demeanor flashed through his mind even as he tried to focus all of his concentration on the unimportant bureaucratic paperwork before him.

Even in the few minutes it took McGee and Ziva to reach the Team Gibbs Zone, 'none of my business, none of my business' had already become Tony's mantra.

** * ** * ** * **

Timothy McGee stifled a groan.

He should have stayed home today. *

It was like The Twilight Zone come to life. Tony was serious. Gibbs bawled them out over the tiniest thing. Ducky chased him screaming out of Autopsy. Abby hit him. Ziva was – well…

He glanced over at his partner. She had his arm in a death grip and was silently hauling him off the elevator and towards the beginning of the madness. Nothing was wrong with Ziva, he supposed. She was angry and frustrated, but he couldn't blame her.

She was just trying to live through this – same as him.

At least he had one ally left.

Somehow, he wasn't feeling any better.

His thoughts went back to Tony. The man had just barely raised his head when the elevator doors opened. For a brief second Tim had thought that Tony might say something. Anything. But the senior field agent had turned back to his work without comment – without so much as a flicker of interest. Tim felt his stomach sink down to his boots.

Whatever was going on here – and something was going on here – his gut told him that it wouldn't go away until Tony snapped back to normal.

And Tim had no idea how to make that happen.

Heck, he wasn't even sure what normal was for Tony anymore, much less what to do about it.

Erg.

Tim sat down at his desk quietly, avoiding looking directly at Ziva.

He knew what he would see on her face – anger and frustration. He just didn't want to deal with it. All he could bring himself to feel was screwed – as in completely and utterly without hope to survive the day.

Powering up his computer, he decided that now would be a great time to re-vamp his resume.

** * ** * ** * **

Casually, Gibbs strolled out of MTAC. He took the stairs slowly, carefully observing his team, searching for any signs of improvement.

They were all three at their desks, ostentatiously hard at work. Nothing wrong with McGee and Ziva getting some work done, but he sighed as DiNozzo placed another form in his out box.

His breath caught mid-sigh when Ziva glanced over at Tony, allowing him to see her expression.

She was angry. At Tony.

The Mossad officer must have made some noise, because McGee looked up, too. Gibbs cursed himself for a fool when he noticed the purpling bruise on the junior agent's cheekbone. Damnit, Abby said everything was under control!

DiNozzo hadn't hit him – that much Gibbs knew. Serious Tony was, well, a gentleman - coldly polite, haughtily aloof, and tolerant to a fault. No, Tony hadn't hit McGee.

But then, McGee really wouldn't need the help. Each and every member of "Team Gibbs" had rough spots. Tony had a knack for finding them and an even better knack for avoiding them. Gibbs suspected that was one of the main reasons Tony was still on his team. Sure the man was annoying – but he always knew where the line was and he had never crossed it.

And, so far, Tony had made sure that no one else crossed these invisible lines either.

When Gibbs' alpha male attitude started rubbing Ziva's control issues too hard, Tony said something stupid.

When Ziva's threats hit too close to home, Tony super glued McGee to his desk.

When Ducky began to feel overlooked because of one too many interruptions, Tony would ask a ridiculously open ended question, and then listen to the entire answer.

When McGee said something a little too careless or judgmental around Abby, Tony loudly mocked the concept and then quickly distracted the pair.

Gibbs shook his head – McGee hadn't had a fair chance to learn where all of these lines lay. Tony had always been there to subtly drag him back to safety. And Gibbs, himself, had become a little too dependent on Tony.

No wonder everything had gone to hell in a hand basket.

He really should have known better than to leave the hooligans unattended.

Damnit – there was no strategizing through one of Tony's moods.

How the hell was he supposed to fix this?

** * ** * ** * **

Miss Abigail Scuito clomped angrily around her otherwise empty lab, clenching her fists and muttering under her breath. She was the very epitome of "pissed off". First her friend had questioned her – logically, Abby knew that Ziva was only worried because of Tony's dramatic change, but, still. Interrogating friends was so not cool.

Then McGee managed to somehow make Ducky mad. Who made Ducky mad? The man had the patience of a saint. Abby had quickly tried to distract McGee; she tried to get him to talk to her, like he was supposed to in the first place. That hadn't gone so well.

"Why did he have to say that?!? Tony isn't useless!" she cried out suddenly, addressing Major Mass Spec. "And, and….and he's not…."

Vibrating with fury, the goth choked back the rest of the sentence. No, Tony wasn't What McGee Said. Still, she shouldn't have hit him.

"Oh my god! I hit McGee!"

Well, now she felt awful.

Torn between guilt and undimmed anger, Abby paced faster. Part of her wanted to rush up to the bullpen and beg for forgiveness. Another part thinks that he deserved it.

Nobody insulted her friends.

Especially friends of her friends – people who should know better.

Abby sighed shakily.

She missed Tony.

** * ** * ** * **

Jimmy Palmer moved through autopsy as quietly as he was able. Dr. Mallard was in a truly vicious mood and the less attention Jimmy attracted, the better.

Normally, he remained oblivious to any internal "Team Gibbs" issues – but today it was rather hard to.

Everyone was griping about what was wrong with Tony.

Jimmy thought it was rather obvious, himself. After all, he'd been there, too.

Well, not literally, but, sort of there. He'd been in the same situation – well, okay, not really, but he'd tried the same stunt that Tony was pulling.

It never worked, not even for him.

As an all around geek, Jimmy had tried many times to change his personality. He'd thought that maybe the other kids didn't like him because he talked too much. He'd go a few days without talking. Or maybe they wouldn't be friends with him because he was bad at baseball. He broke his arm during tryouts. Maybe it was the funny glasses. He ran into walls for a week.

It had taken him a while to realize that no matter what he tried to change, the other kids never liked him more, but always less. His mom told him it was because they knew he was pretending – that he was lying. No one likes to be tricked, and you can't be something you're not.

So little Jimmy had learned to like who he was – to be comfortable being himself. Sure, he never became the popular one, but his newly developed confidence in himself and his abilities served him well. He made friends, impressed teachers, got a good internship, and felt better about life in general.

He shook his head. He doubted this was something that the other's would be able to understand. Ducky, from his stories, had never much cared to be left on the side lines. No, the elderly doctor was much to outgoing for that, never shy. His cheerful personality and startling intelligence would always reserve him a place in the 'in' crowd.

Abby, bless her, was just too enthusiastic about life, too much of an extrovert, not to have friends. Jimmy would never be able to picture her in the 'in' crowd, but Abby didn't need those people – she would always be able to form her own crowd. Hers was the type of personality that accepted people, no matter how they dressed, where they were from, or what they looked like. No, Abby would always find a place to belong. If she didn't, she would sooner change the place than who she was.

Now, Jimmy had to admit, Tim was probably not a popular guy. He was probably one of the geekier kids at his school, but normal enough that he was sure to have a few friends – and trusting enough that they would be close ones. McGee also had a loving, supporting family. If he got teased, Tim would always have someone to turn to that would tell him he was perfect, just the way he was. Oh, sure, Tim had probably tried Tony's idea at least once, but Jimmy doubted he was familiar enough with rejection to recognize it from Tony. After all, McGee saw only Tony's façade – the jock, the popular guy. Tim was close enough to normal that he didn't have to pretend to be accepted, but far enough from it that he still envied the 'crowd'.

Ziva – well, Jimmy would bet his entire childhood coin collection that Ziva wouldn't had never been exposed to the kind of group dynamic that might support acceptance or rejection based on normalcy. Being trained as a Mossad officer, no doubt from childhood, probably forced her to grow up quickly. As an assassin and a spy, she learned very quickly to hide her emotions – to fit in where ever she went. Jimmy didn't think Ziva had ever experienced rejection by a group of people that she honestly wanted to belong with.

And Gibbs – Gibbs was a marine.

Jimmy shook his head again. Tony acted the very epitome of the popular guy. He was good looking, came from a rich family, sported an over confident attitude, and boasted loudly about his prowess with the opposite sex. He played the part well – but Jimmy easily spotted the 'differences' from the real thing. Tony was loud and rude, but he wasn't brash – he didn't offend beyond repair. His insults and smart comments almost always disguised 'helpful hint' or 'much needed reprimand'. Yes, Jimmy had known immediately that Tony had never been one of them.

What had taken Jimmy longer to figure out was why. Surely Tony could have been one of the 'in' crowd if he'd wanted to. What was Tony hiding? Careful observation turned up some helpful facts. First off, Tony was an only child and showed no love, not even a twinge of affection towards his father – even in the sparse comments about his family. He rarely spoke of his personal life, beyond boozing and skirt chasing and college fantasies. Jimmy slowly came to realize that this stuff wasn't important to Tony in the least. Once he knew what he was looking for, it had been easy to form a conclusion.

Tony had been rejected by his family, for whatever reason, and by his peers.

He'd recognized the signs in Tony, and even appreciated the subtle recognition Tony had given him in return. Outcasts unite! He thought, stifling a grin. From day one Tony had covertly 'accepted' Jimmy's presence in the team. He hadn't done anything that the others might notice, but he hadn't had to.

He'd given Jimmy a cool nickname autopsy gremlin, teased him with the same enthusiasm he'd shown McGee or Ziva, and even taken the time to 'correct' his mistakes with the same loud and insulting manner he used on McGee.

The others would never recognize such a seemingly clumsy overture of friendship, but Jimmy did.

Because they had more in common than anyone cared to realize.

** * ** * ** * **

A/N: What can I say? I have a soft spot for Jimmy. I'm trying to build his character, so it'll be a little easier for me to write him in Who's the Boss? Besides, he can make things a little more interesting here. What do you think? Thanks for reading and please, please review!