You know the drill, I don't own or make money so don't sue.

THANKYOU TO: 'Klariss' (x2, lol) 'yaonne-san' 'Melanie Malfoy' 'AngelEyes' 'kamadi '



Bright and early Tony followed Gibbs out of the elevator, it had been a relaxed atmosphere with Gibbs for the last few days and their discussion in the early hours of the morning hadn't seemed to make things awkward between them. In fact, Tony even felt more comfortable around Gibbs than he had ever felt previously.

Tony sat at his desk when Gibbs stopped in front of it; Tony just rolled his eyes and stepped round him because if Gibbs wanted to act like this, then for the moment Tony was okay with it. He didn't mind the fatherly way he was acting towards him as it just made him feel comforted and wanted.

When Tony sat down he watched Gibbs move towards his own desk, it wasn't long before Tony was bored.

Tony looked left, people were walking back and forth, busy at work, nothing special, they didn't appear to be rushing any more than usual. Ziva and McGee were out talking to a witness on a case that Tony wasn't allowed to know anything about as were Gibbs orders.

He also announced to the whole building that if anyone even suggested to Tony what the case was about that he would come down upon them like a tone of bricks and they'd be out of NCIS in less than a minute. Tony actually heard the whole building gulp together.

Thinking about maybe going down to see Abby or even Ducky or Palmer, Tony started to rise from his chair, and out of nowhere came the slap to the back of his head. "Your not thinking of going somewhere are you Dinozzo?" Gibbs asked in a polite tone. "No Boss, just erm… thought I saw something moving over their…?"

Tony's face showed how poor he thought that excuse was, he cringed. Gibbs just shock his head and smiled, "Come on, I'm heading down to see Abby, I'll drop you off at autopsy on the way." "Boss, can't I just see Abby…" Tony asked, hoping that Gibbs would say yes just so he could find out about this mystery case.

"No, and you know why Tony."


"Anthony... Jethro… I didn't expect to see you down here" Ducky all but stuttered out the words, he felt extremely guilty for not believing that Jonas knew where Tony had been kept, and after they got Tony back, he had heard all the rumours that had been floating around the building.

He wasn't sure if they were true but by the way Jethro had been acting recently, he guessed that something extremely bad had happened. So when he saw Jethro bringing Tony into autopsy, he wasn't sure what to say. He had talked to Jethro the other day but that conversation hadn't gone down to well.

It had ended with Jethro telling him that he was a 'complete and utter bastard who had let his stubborn inflexible look on life get in the way of helping a family member'. Ducky was sure that if he was a few years younger Jethro would have went for him. By the look of Tony, he was also pretty sure that the poor lad had no idea what had happened in that meeting of Jonas', he was glad of that, but it also made him feel gut wrenchingly guilty.

"Hey Ducky, guess who I get to spend the rest of Gibbs' time at work with… ding ding ding… got it in one!" Tony smiled, as he jumped up to sit on one of the empty autopsy tables and swung his legs back and forward whilst he watched Gibbs do a 180 degree turn and leave without so much as a nod to Ducky.

The smile that was once on his face turned to a frown, 'what the hell?' Tony turned to Ducky about to make a comment on Gibbs' odd behaviour but saw that he was looking at him, with an odd guilty look on his face.

"Ducky? Are you okay?" Tony asked with a furrowed brow.

"I'm sorry Tony. I know you don't know what I'm going on about but I need you to know that I'm sorry for it" Ducky asked desperately in a slightly depressed tone.

"Duck, your right, I don't know what your talking about but you don't have to apologise, your already forgiving! So don't worry about it" Tony said, waving a hand as if to brush the whole previous conversation aside.

Ducky shook his head negatively and moved forward to stand in front of Tony, lifting an arm he placed one on Tony's left shoulder and squeezed slightly in a comforting gesture. Then he made eye contact, Tony saw that whatever was going on had upset him greatly and made a note in his head that no matter what, he would forgive Ducky, as he had already paid any price.

"Anthony, when we found Jonas we all were called to a meeting at his home. He told us about Thomas, and that he had you trapped in a house. I didn't believe him… I didn't believe that Thomas was a vampire; I didn't believe that Jonas knew where you were! I didn't believe that you were alive! I think… I think I didn't want to believe you were alive!"

Tony looked at Ducky wide eyed, "You… you wanted me to be dead" he whispered in pain from the idea that someone he thought of as an uncle would be so… harsh!

"NO! No never… I think it's the idea that we had left you for 7 months! We didn't look for you for seven months and in that amount of time, things happened to you…" Ducky lifted Tony's chin so he could again speak to him whilst looking at him, he saw the pain that those seven months did to him. They reflected from Tony's eyes as easily as if it was mirrored glass,

"…Anthony… I need you to know that I have never wanted you dead, but it was easier for me at that time to hope you were because then I wouldn't have had a helping hand in letting that-that monster do those things to you!" Tony held a breath for a long and agonising moment then let it out slowly, gulping, as his salivary glands seemed to be going into overdrive, he finally spoke,

"Duck… I know this was hard for you to say and I know you didn't have to say it but… its okay, I understand… in a strange sort of way. Let's just put this behind us okay?" Tony flustered trying to get the right words out but when Ducky smiled slightly he relaxed.

"How bout you just sneak me up to Abby's lab…. Or even better! Tell me what the case is about… come on… no one will know, it'll be our little secret" Tony lifting a hand, indicated with his thumb and finger a space of about an inch, whilst tilting his head and making puppy eyes, Ducky just shook his head. "Sorry Anthony, but Gibbs has warned everyone not to mention anything, no mater how small the detail."

"For the love of God! I don't even know if the body is male or female!" Tony shouted in expiration. Ducky saw that Tony was getting slightly annoyed at being kept in the dark, but as he looked closer he saw dark circles surrounding his eyes.

"Anthony, are you sleeping well?" he asked politely. Tony just waved his hand to bat the question away, "Night terrors. Nothing to worry about" he jumped down from the autopsy table and wandered round the room.

"There's nothing to do here" he said changing the question with ease, ignoring Ducky's shocked face, "Gibbs could've at least left me some toys!" Tony joked, but when hearing no response looked back to Ducky, "What's wrong now?"

"Night terrors? When did this start? Never mind, stupid question. Would you talk to me about them?" Ducky asked alarmed, he knew the effects that came with them as he had seen many people with them in his lifetime, but few had them at Tony's age, although it wasn't heard of.

"There's not much to say really… Gibbs says that there back because of the whole Vampire kidnapping" Tony said exaggerating the last two words.

"Anthony, I want you to tell me what happened, please" Ducky asked sympathetically.

"Duck…" seeing no backing down Tony sighed, why did he have to keep telling people, "look he hurt me, I'm not denying that, but… there were times when it wasn't too bad you know? I mean I know it was… r-rape, but I'm just saying that at times… Gawd, at times I liked it!"

Tony looked at Ducky, eyes pleading for him to understand. Ducky heaved a sigh, "Dear boy, you know as well as I do that sometimes the body reacts to stimuli against the will of the mind" Tony shook his head dramatically, "No, I mean I know that, but it wasn't always like that all the time. Once, when he bit me I swear I actually enjoyed it. I just lay there thinking that maybe I could grow to love it, love him. At some point in time I started feeling attracted to him and I tried not to, I did try, but in some sick twisted sort of way… I miss him... the feeling..."

Tony watched Ducky's reaction to his words, hoping that he wouldn't just laugh them off or try and tell him it was just a reaction, as he knew that over time a person can become attached to their kidnapper but he just didn't think that it could all be due to this. "Anthony, I don't really know what to say, or tell you, but I just want you to know that no matter what… I'm just glad your back safe and somewhat sound"

Ducky smiled and Tony felt slightly better, it wasn't what he had expected Ducky to say but it had been so much better than anything his mind had come up with, smiling slightly he moved the conversation onto more insignificant things.


Gibbs stood in Abby's Lab watching as the rest of the gang worked out the finally preparations. He had noticed how the grouped had seemed to immediately fuse back together once Dinozzo had returned to the everyday background of the job. Sure he had to do some retraining to make sure he was up to scratch but so far he had excelled through it all, even going so far as to set new personal best scores on some of the more scientific aspects of the job.

Apparently Tony had been doing a lot of reading the last few months and had picked up a lot of useful information on the way. When Tony was presumed dead, the team had almost lost all sense of friendship. Abby spent most of her time going out to parties and not really talking much when someone came down to check on evidence, she started keeping her questions to facts, straight to the point, not her usual round about way of getting there and no explanations on how things had turned up.

McGee became so inward, hardly speaking at all, and yet there would be times where he would crack. Gibbs had once walked by the break room and seen McGee shouting his head off at a younger, new NCIS agent who had been almost in tears.

The team had appeared to form cracks and Ziva's behaviour was no improvement, she had started making jokes, inappropriate jokes at the worst possible time that had made Gibbs have to give her so many warnings that she was unbelievable close to loosing her job, but thankfully before that had happened they had found Tony again and now they all appeared to be mending.


When Tony walked through the front door to Gibbs' house, he jumped in surprise. McGee, David, Palmer, Ducky and Abby were all standing there in spectacular outfits underneath a sign that had the words 'welcome back' inscribed on them. To one side of the room was a long thin table adorned with many kinds of pizza's and pasta dishes and on the other side was another long thin table that was covered in bottles of alcohol.

Wines, beers, lagers, mixers, you name it; they were all on the table. Tony's mouth hit the floor; balloons were littered all around the room, some hovering with brightly coloured tassels spinning off from the ends, the whole room looked amazing. "Wow…" Tony managed to spit out, he was speechless and couldn't describe how loved he felt at this very moment, so instead he just bolted towards the crowd and grabbed them in a group hug mumbling 'thank you' to them all.

This just made everyone laugh and pull the group hug into a much tighter embrace. Everyone thinking the same thing, 'Thank God for bringing Tony back to where he belongs!' The party began.


It was late by the time people started to drift home, they had all called for a taxi as they had left their cars at work, due to the fact that they knew there would be drinks. When the last person left Gibbs closed the door and turned to Tony,

"So this case we were on, male body, aged between 35 and 40… found dead in the forest…" Tony put up a hand to halt Gibbs in his tracks, "Does this mean I've passed all my tests?" he asked, Gibbs smiled, "Yes Dinozzo, you're officially an NCIS agent again"

Tony grinned widely, "Cool!"

'Yes' Gibbs thought, 'Definitely glad to have his senior agent back, cool sums it up pretty well'.


Fin.

Okay just a huge thanks to eveyone who has read the story and a bigger thanks to those who reviewed it. I tried to include all suggestions and I hope you have all enjoyed it, I would have carried it on a little longer but my muse is calling out for 'The Life of Bert'. Thank you all!