There's Always Tom Morrow

by SASundance

A look at how things might have gone if the MCRT had to face the consequences of ignoring protocol, procedures and the rule of law. In this universe Tom Morrow holds his agents accountable and delivers well earned smack downs and consequences when they screw up and praise when deserved. This series consists of tags from season 1 and each tag is a stand-alone vignette.

21. Chapter 21: Nonpareil

A/N: Thank-you to everyone for their comments on the last chapter. The next tag is one that for the longest time I was worried about – obsessing on what I would write for this episode. After all, there have been so many fanfics written about Missing and I always try to come up with something fresh, so I was not looking forward to this one. Until I came across a piece of research one day and then the plot bunnies came rushing out to play. I know I have said that each of these tags are stand-alone and won't result in a sequel, so if someone wants to write one they have my permission… but I'm revoking my invitation that for this particular tag. All bets are off for Nonpareil – I'd really like to write a follow-up some time in the future as this plot has fired up my muse.

Warning: This tag contains cross over characters although it isn't a crossover story. I've chosen not to name them in the characters list because I don't want to spoil the surprise. I've also been advised that for some of the tags in this series, the appearance of crossover characters – JAG and CM are not canon compliant with regards to the timelines.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed writing it. a definite change of pace from the last tag...and shorter. Thanks as usual to the unsung hero - my beta reader Arress!

Mea culpa - I just realised that I neglected to to give credit where credit was due. In the third last scene much of the content was either written by Arress or inspired by her thought processes. Bad Sundance!

Series: There's Always Tom Morrow

Title: Nonpareil

Episode: Missing

Characters: L.J. Gibbs, Tony DiNozzo, Caitlin Todd, Timothy McGee, Tom Morrow, Tobias Fornell.

Nonpareil

Anthony DiNozzo muttered something to the bullpen at large about showering, and wandering down to the showers and his locker to get clean clothes. He was desperate to wash the sewer and the stench of death off him, if that was possible. As an experienced homicide investigator, he wasn't feeling terribly sanguine about his chances but he could at least get rid of the physical grime of his abduction and incarceration.

His announcement of his intention to hit the showers drew a rash of sarky comments from his colleagues.

"Oh, thank the Lord. You're rife, Tony."

"I didn't want to mention it, Cate, but he smells like a septic tank."

"I think you mean the sewer, Tim"

"Well whatever, he reeks to high heaven."

"Hurry up and go, DiNozzo… you're stinking up the whole bullpen. It's so disgusting…

Although he heard Cate and McGee's joking comments about him smelling bad, he wasn't in the mood to laugh. Being dragged through a sewer while you were drugged into unconsciousness and waking up to find yourself locked into a cell-like room down in the sewer with a decomposing corpse and an almost corpse as your new companions was not exactly the most humorous of circumstance.

Climbing into the elevator from which he'd alighted from a mere 30 or so minutes before, he felt his limbs were leaden… heavy. It was incredible what a difference half an hour makes – when he arrived back from the sewer, he was bouncing around on the balls of his feet, his body thrumming with a buzz that made him feel like he could go on forever.

Tony could barely manage to keep his eyes open; he wanted nothing more than to be home in his apartment where he was safe.

Safe from the smell of death.

Safe from the memories of young Filipino women – more girls than women. Left to die of dehydration and starvation in a shipping container amidst the Pacific Ocean.

Safe from the harsh jokes of his team – although strictly speaking, McGee wasn't a teammate – he was a workmate or colleague.

He figured that Vanessa the barmaid had drugged him with BRON, like her other victims, so he reckoned that the high he'd been experiencing was probably a combination of BRON and adrenaline from the flight or fight survival mechanism that enabled him to escape that torture chamber and drag Gunnery Sergeant Bill Atlas through the maze-like tunnels of the sewers and save his life.

Now he recognised that what he was experiencing was an adrenaline dump where his adrenal glands were finally catching up with the concept that he was no longer in danger and it was safe to relax. Having depleted his body of not only adrenaline, but other stress hormones such as cortisol, his body was fighting back sternly and demanding that he stop and let it recover.

Unfortunately, he knew that he could never relax or get proper rest while he could still smell all the foulness of the sewer and the poor guy who'd died down there on his own. Who knows how long it took him to die of starvation – although realistically, he would probably have died of dehydration first.

Tony desperately needed to get himself under the hot water – the hotter the better - and try to wash away as much of the nauseating odour that hung around him like a clingy but unwanted lover.

Unfortunately, he knew from bitter experience working other crime scenes that decomposition odours clung to your body, working its way into your pores, sticking to even the fine nasal hairs, which meant you could smell the perfume of au de corpse for days or even weeks later. Perhaps he wasn't normal… maybe he just had a vivid imagination, but he knew that at the very least he could get clean and change his clothes. That way other people wouldn't throw up when he emerged, ready to work.

As Tony alighted from the elevator, he recalled the jokes cracked at his expense about his stench. Cate telling him to hurry up and leave because he stunk up the bullpen. How disgusting he was. It wasn't a new refrain from their probie. 'DiNozzo you're a pig... you're disgusting,' was a common enough rexhortation that found its way past Cate Todd's lips fairly frequently.

You're disgusting, DiNozzo…

Chase anything in a skirt… you're disgusting you know

How was it kissing a he/she... keep it in your pants, can you… you disgust me

Was he/she your type… oops my bad… anything with a pulse is your type.

Suddenly he had a flashback to kissing Amanda Reed, aka Lt. Cmd. Voss, except in his vision she was attacking his mouth while stabbing and disembowelling Special Agent Christopher Pacci, searching through the blood and gore of the elevator looking for his SD digital photo card. The scene went on and on, the blood gushing out of him like a river and Chris was desperately trying to stuff his small intestines inside his gut, while she continued pulling them out. Meanwhile, Amanda was continuing to attack Tony's mouth, her teeth like tiny needle sharp razors feeding off his mouth as he desperately tried to escape.

The more he struggled, the more violent she became… with him and Pacci too. Until finally, Cate appeared, sidling up so she could murmur mockingly in his ear, "So, what's it like to kiss a he/she, DiNozzo?"

Meanwhile, as she smirked at Tony, she seemed completely impervious to Pacci who was flailing around on the ground in agony. Desperate to help his friend and fellow agent, he tore himself away from her, ripping great pieces of his flesh off his face in the process and Amanda proceeded to devour them clinically.

He dropped down to help Chris and right before his final breath, Pacci locked eyes with Tony and asked plaintively, "So, DiNozzo, what's it feel like to kiss my killer? Kiss the murderer of a federal agent?"

Suddenly the scene changed and they were at Chris' grave. As he was being lowered into the six-foot hole, he sat up in the coffin and pointed his finger at Tony. "You could have saved me, Tony, if you hadn't been such a manslut."

Cate was smirking at him. "Hope it was worth it, DiNozzo. You disgust me!"

"He's a whore, Cate. What did you expect? He's disgusting," Gibbs declared, walking up and slapping him upside of his head, propelling him to fall into the grave with Pacci. "I wish I'd never hired him. All he's interested in is getting laid."

WHen can I have his desk, Boss?"

"He's alive, McGee,"

"But you said I could have his desk, Boss…"

"I know… I'm sorry… I thought he was dead… this time."

"But I like this desk… plus Abby wants me to stay in DC.

" I know. Don't worry… Tim, I always keep my promises."

"We just have to get rid of the chauvinist pig, Gibbs. He stinks up the place too much."

Tony grabbed Gibbs by the arm. "No… stop… you said I was irreplaceable… you said you were worried about me."

"You misheard me… I said you were replaceable and we were going to. Vanessa was going to make sure you didn't ever see the light of day and McGee was going to have your desk."

"You always have to mess it up for everyone, don't you, Tony. Why couldn't you let me have your spot?"

"He's selfish… has to be the centre of attention. But you know he's smarter than you, don't you, Tony"

"A box of rocks would be smarter than DiNozzo, Cate."

"When can I have his desk, Boss? You promised."

"I know… I was sure Amanda Reed or Vanessa would kill him for us."

"Don't worry you two, all we need to do is find a pretty girl and his dick will do the rest."

"He's a male chauvinist pig… he's disgusting."

Tony reached out from the grave. "No, Gibbs… you depend on me to watch your six."

"And look what it got me – a through and through and you let that dirt bag get away. So, I've decided to start over and train McGee up right to watch my six."

"Yeah… Timothy is smart; he doesn't kiss cop killers, he won't be off flirting with murders while you're getting shot by terrorists, Gibbs."

Suddenly the corpse from the sewer joined into the conversation. "Can you believe him; he was flirting with Vanessa while I was lying in the sewer rotting."

Gunnery Sergeant Atlas was there too, shaking his head at him and looking revolted. "Yeah, well, at least you were dead. I was slowly dying of starvation and all he could think about was flirting with a piece of skirt as I drew my last breaths. It's disgusting!"

Racing to the head, Tony began to throw up violently as the voices all hammered away inside his head. They hated him, but he couldn't blame them; he'd let them down. His father was right… he'd ended up in the gutter and hurt everyone he cared about.

Ten minutes later his head had almost stopped ringing and his stomach ceased heaving at last as he hauled himself to his feet, and then it hit him… suddenly.

Gibbs was hoping he wouldn't come back because he'd given his desk to McGee. He wanted the rookie from Norfolk to watch his six.

Gibbs had sent him off to follow Major Sacco, who was their chief suspect at that time, without backup.

Without backup?

And yet the very last case they worked on, Chris had been killed because he was following a cold-blooded murderer… without backup.

A coincidence surely?

Hell, no. Gibbs didn't believe in them! He reached over and gave himself a head slap for being so stupid.

Gibbs was all knowing – always knew so much more about their cases than he shared with the team – loved to pre-empt them with the clues they'd just unearthed to prove that he was better than they were.

Did the boss even suspect Major Sacco by that point or did he already know that the seemingly benign barmaid Vanessa was their murderer when he sent Tony out to follow him. Was he hoping the barmaid would kill him too if he was sent out alone?

That seemed awfully hit and miss. Forget about it, McGee. He's still alive!

Maybe Gibbs had co-opted her to kill him. They were in it together – Vanessa, Gibbs, and McGee. Was Cate in on it too? What about Abby? She was dating McGee - he even got an ass-tatt or a tatt-ass for her. What about Ducky or Tom Morrow – hey… he just realised, he was Director Tomorrow. Wonder if he realised that? Perhaps he should tell him.

Slapping the back of his own head again, he yelled, "Focus! DiNozzo!" See, that's why Gibbs wants you gone, Anthony. You're a dumb ass… no wonder he needed McGee to be his 2IC. He wouldn't let Gibbs get shot or lose focus because the director has an amusing name.

But Gibbs wouldn't conspire with a murderer, even if he did want to get rid of him. Especially someone who was killing off his beloved Marines. No way would he do it. Hang on, unless…

Those Marines who were being killed by Vanessa – they weren't exactly innocent upstanding examples of the Corps. They'd allowed their girlfriends, most little more than children, to die of starvation aboard a ship. If there was one thing that got Gibbs' anger going, it was when kids and women were hurt or killed. Maybe the boss thought that what Vanessa was doing – getting revenge for all her friends who died such a horrible death, was justified. Perhaps he agreed to turn a blind eye to her vendetta if she took care of Tony too. That made much more sense.

Or alternatively, what if Gibbs had used him as bait so Vanessa would lead them to where she had stashed Gunnery Sergeant Atlas – wonder if Atlas' nickname was C1 cuz the name of the first vertebra which held up the head… the noggin…the skull… the cranium was the atlas vertebra? FOCUS!

Yeah, so he was the bait and with a bit of luck, Tony would lead them to Gunny Atlas and Vanessa would shoot him with his own gun. That would show everyone what a joke he was as a federal agent.

After all, ever since Cate joined them, Gibbs seemed to be unhappy with his performance. Then McGee turned up after a case in Norfolk and started going out with Abby and suddenly Gibbs is giving him his desk. Maybe Abby was in on the plan to kill him because she wanted Tim to be in DC. They probably wanted to live together and with him stationed at Norfolk that wasn't very practical, so she'd convinced Gibbs to put TAT (Timmy-Ass-Tatt) on the team.

After all, it was the worst kept secret in NCIS… in Delaware County… in the good old US of A… Planet Earth… the Milky Way that Abby was as good as Gibbs' daughter and he'd do anything to keep her happy. If Abby wanted McGee to have Tony's spot, Gibbs would make it happen.

Then again, maybe Abby had nothing to do with it and the boss was simply fed up with him because he was such a screw up at his job. Because, what self-respecting senior field agent lets their senior supervisory agent get shot by a terrorist? He should have made sure Gibbs was wearing a bullet proof vest or gone into Autopsy in his place. No wonder Gibbs was trying to get rid of him – a part of him couldn't blame the boss – he was a screw up and pretty damned annoying.

And thinking back, it wasn't the first time that Gibbs had tried to kill him, either. A few months ago, he'd fallen out of a plane at night when Gibbs, who was fully trained to do parachute jumps thanks to his Marine training, dragged him aboard a night time training mission. No way was Tony supposed to be on the highly dangerous night time exercise since the only jump training he had was a couple of stolen moments learning how to land and seriously, at night when he couldn't even see where he was landing, those few minutes hadn't been real helpful. Plus, he was shoved out of the plane far off target from the designated landing zone.

So, the question remained. Did Gibbs drag him on a highly risky exercise because he was just hoping he'd screw up and get killed because he was an idiot and inexperienced – a deadly combination. Or had he actually enlisted some of the Marines to deliberately chuck Tony out of the plane. After all, the chances of an untrained civilian surviving a night time para jump weren't good. Night jumps were considered high risk, which was why the elite paratroopers practised the skill so frequently.

And Tony realised now he knew what to look for, that it wasn't the only time before today that Gibbs had tried to make a position on the team for McGee by arranging for Tony to be killed. The exhausted agent vividly recalled confronting the sniper who was killing the Marine recruiters in a shoot-out in a grungy alleyway where he was alone with no one to watch his back in a shootout. And since the sniper had managed to kill two Marines, they already knew he was extremely dangerous.

Sure, Gibbs and Cate were undercover inside the recruiter's office, but it was a joint task force with the FBI, so really, there was no excuse not to have another agent backing him up. Not unless Gibbs was hoping the sniper would take him out. Yes, Gibbs hated working with feds from other agencies, or even agents from NCIS who weren't his handpicked team, but he wouldn't have had to work with them. Tony would have been the one to be partnered up with the fibbie, not Gibbs, or if it came down to it, he could have borrowed one of their own agents for the stakeout. Hell, Gibbs was happy to borrow McGee when it suited him, so why not this time to watch Tony's back?

When Gibbs, Cate, and the FBI agents arrived at the alley after the shootout, were they expecting (hoping) to find him dead, shot by the sniper?

Were they disappointed?

No, Gibbs was pissed – he yelled at Cate… some crap about not stopping to put on her cover when she ran out of the office.

Wouldn't want her to bring the Corps into disrepute by pretending to be a Marine and then appearing outdoors naked… well, the way Gibbs went off, she might as well have been stark naked. Of course, that was way more important that having his six.

So, he was supposed to be going down to shower and change into something clean, but seriously, how safe was it for him to be here and vulnerable in a shower? He'd be a sitting duck for Gibbs and McGee to have another crack at getting rid of him. He needed to get out of here, get help, find someone who would believe him because it sounded totally hinky. Maybe Balboa or Pacci would help him. No, not Pacci, he was dead… dead because Tony had been swapping spit with Amanda Voss, no Reed, when Chris needed his help.

Pacci was a nice guy, a really nice guy. He would have helped him if he asked, but now he was dead and everyone else probably hated him for making out with his killer while he was dying. No, that wasn't right, was it? He was so confused and he needed to figure out what to do. He was supposed to let Ducky check him out, but he felt too vulnerable in Autopsy. Ducky talked to the dead and made sure that they found justice, but what of the living? Would he listen to Tony if he wasn't dead? And he was Gibbs' friend, could Tony trust him – he wasn't sure.

Finally deciding that he couldn't risk taking a shower and a change of clothes in the NCIS locker room, nor could he risk going to see Ducky either. He would have to find someone else to help him, but he needed to shower – the stench of the sewer was making him retch.

Tony slipped out of the building via the evidence garage so that he avoided most people still in the building. Grabbing a tarp on the way out, the senior field agent draped it over the driver's seat of his beloved 1990 Corvette ZR1 to protect it so the ooze of the sewer and the odour didn't permeate his precious car's upholstery. Having worked his share of stinky crime scenes, Tony knew if it did pervade the carpets and seats, he'd never get it out.

Once in the Corvette, he drove straight home, knowing that he probably had a head start of 30 - 40 minutes tops before Gibbs came after him. If he wanted to stay alive, (and right now with the degree of betrayal he felt, he wasn't even sure that he did) he needed to duck back to his apartment. He needed to clean up (desperately) and collect one of his backup firearms from his gun safe, since he'd lost his gun when Vanessa drugged him and then used it to kill Major Sacco.

Tony decided that he'd throw some clothes in a bag and collect his emergency vanishing kit – consisting of the things he'd need in order to disappear in an hurry – his backup weapons, numerous false identities, burner phones, and cash to vanish. Then he would figure out who to approach for help. Sadly, he'd have to leave his phone at his apartment because they could use it to track him. He'd need to get wheels too, but that could wait.

~o0o~

Tony had been a little optimistic about how long it would take to be missed by his boss.

Soon after they'd arrived back from locating Tony, Gibbs had disappeared to interrogate their serial killer, Vanessa, the waitress from the bar, leaving his agents to write up their reports. By the time he returned to his desk several hours later it was late and Cate had already completed her report and headed off home. According to Balboa, Abby had come up to the bullpen looking for DiNozzo and ended up dragging Timothy McGee home with her for the night when she failed to find him.

He looked in his inbox for DiNozzo's report and searched his desk and couldn't find it, so finally he checked his email to see if his SFA had emailed it to him, even though he knew Gibbs hated not to have a hard copy submitted. Maybe he decided to piss Jethro off to pay him back for his crack about his desk.

He'd been running around acting like a perfect pest, a Irish Setter on steroids ever since they'd found him, Vanessa, and Gunny Atlas in the sewer system. Even after they'd finished processing the scene hours later, DiNozzo was still running around getting on his nerves and pissing him off. Here they'd been, busting their gut for hours trying to find him, thinking he was dead, and then after they'd found him he was annoyingly fine. To top it off, the ex-cop kept bouncing up and down in the elevator, demanding Jethro tell him he'd been worried when he went missing.

The bottom line was that Gibbs hated it when anyone tried to tell him what to do, hated having anyone force his hand, wanting to dictate what he should think or feel. But lately, after the fuckup with the terrorist smuggling himself into Autopsy in a body bag, thereby getting one up on Gibbs, and then Chris Pacci getting killed by some greedy, murderous dirt bag, the veteran agent was angry. Okay… he was angrier than usual. But more importantly, he was even less inclined to allow anyone try to back him into a corner and make him show his vulnerability, especially emotionally. Fuck that!

Pissed that somehow, despite having no intention of letting slip how worried he'd been about his annoying and childish SFA, DiNozzo, god damn him, had somehow managed to worm it out of him. Jesus, Jethro. Telling him he was freakin' irreplaceable? He'd never let the team hear the end of that confession – you weak SOB.

Furious at himself for being such a damn-fool sap, but mostly at DiNozzo for being so damned needy - an emotional vampire - he struck out hard at the agent, to punish him. Needing to pay him back.

Spying the geeky kid from Norfolk gave him an idea. McGee was still sitting at DiNozzo's desk - and why the hell was he still here anyway? He called over to him, 'Forget about it, McGee, he's still alive!'

Gibbs wasn't sure which expression was the most priceless, McGee's caught in the headlights - what just happened and can I please just crawl under the table or will the ground open up and swallow me look - which was utterly priceless. Although DiNozzo's was equally satisfying too and told Jethro he'd struck one of his soft spots – he went from wearing a light-up-the-room, self-satisfied mile-wide grin to a look of shock, disbelief, horror, panic, and dejection. It was so damned funny, but unlike McGee who couldn't school his confusion and fear to save his life, Tony unfortunately could. All too soon his emotional distress became a mask of studied indifference.

Still, to have provoked what was for DiNozzo, such a dramatic reaction to Jethro's crack about him not being dead was pure gold as far as Gibbs was concerned.

Feeling much less angry, the team leader settled down at his desk to check once more on the progress of the search for the terrorist who'd invaded his territory and taken his people hostage. When Jethro returned after the successful interrogation of the waitress after her confession, he felt a weight lift off him at wrapping up yet another case. Now he could refocus on finding that smug MF terrorist who managed to outwit him, although he was determined to have the last laugh.

Gibbs pushed away the pesky flicker of guilt about the now empty desk over the other side of the partition which up until last week had been Christopher Pacci's desk. Focus was necessary to catch monsters, he'd shown that when he took out that freak, Kyle Boone, proving that sometimes you had to just eat, sleep, and breathe a case to catch a killer, or in this case a terrorist. Sometimes there was collateral damage during warfare and this was a war. Pacci would be the first to understand that.

Curious about his agent, Gibbs wandered over to Hank Balboa's desk to speak to him.

"Is DiNozzo still around?"

"As far as I know, he went to have a shower, but that was a couple of hours ago. He hasn't come back yet."

"Probably gone home in a huff because of what I said. I'll put my foot so far up his ass when he comes in tomorrow, he'll have hiccups for leaving without doing his report," Gibbs threatened. "Everyone else wrote theirs up before leaving… even the green probie from Norfolk. Maybe I should hire him and toss DiNozzo out on his ass," he muttered, making his way back to his desk and sitting down, his attention once again captured by the flashing display of faces.

~o0o~

Hank couldn't believe the crap that was coming out of Gibbs' mouth. DiNozzo had been drugged, abducted, and pursued by a serial killer who subsequently tried to kill him and Sergeant Atlas when he managed against the odds to escape. If Tony had gone home without completing his reports, well, good on him. No one, apart from Gibbs, would have expected him to finish them tonight anyway, but he definitely hadn't returned to the bullpen to grab his stuff.

More concerning to him, though, was Jethro's threat to sack Tony and hire McGee in his place. Gibbs was so full of shit – there was no way he'd carry out his threat, first and foremost because he depended too much upon DiNozzo. But the amount of harm he would do to his working relationship with his SFA (who in Hank's humble opinion was a saint to be able to work with Gibbs) was immeasurable. Especially currently with his latest obsession, which was horrendous for everyone around him, DiNozzo was even more vital than ever.

"I'd have seen him if he went home," Balboa objected, standing up and heading into the MCRT's bullpen to check out DiNozzo's desk. "His jacket is still here plus his creds and weapon. Maybe he got into trouble in the showers?"

Sighing when he received no answer, verbal or otherwise, he checked Gibbs out and found him hypnotized… again. This was getting ridiculous. How the hell had Gibbs gotten cleared to return to work anyway? There was no way he was capable of juggling all the balls an SSA needed to be able to care for their team, plus work the cases that came in… not while he was so obsessed with learning the identity of the terrorist.

Shaking his head, Hank felt irritation at Gibbs' damned obsessiveness – like he was the only one who cared that the agency had been infiltrated so effortlessly. Obsession wasn't the most effective measurement of how much someone cared or how effectively they could function. The way Gibbs carried on, though, he acted like he was the only one who could or would be capable of tracking down their terrorist – he could be such a damned arrogant dick.

Meanwhile, Gibbs' team was floundering, basically they were out of control. DiNozzo as the loyal 2IC tried to hold everything together, but Todd needed a good kick up the pants and Abby was trying to pull a fast one, getting her boyfriend from the Norfolk Field Office hired on to the MCRT. She'd been hinting to Gibbs that he really needed a full-time computer geek, but she'd only started suggesting it once Michael Jackson aka Timothy McGee started running around like an overeager puppy, wanting to please her.

Cate accused DiNozzo of being his lapdog, constantly looking for his approval, but Balboa didn't see her getting on McGee's case. Maybe the militant agent thought it was fine for him to disfigure himself with a tattoo just to impress Abby because she was female. Or did she think was it okay for the lab tech to exert power over the poor sap because he was a guy being humbled and she was female doing the patronising, because the ex-Secret Service agent didn't seem to have a problem with reverse discrimination. Double standards much?

Balboa had noticed that Tim had certainly been hanging around the Navy Yard a lot lately for someone who was assigned to the Norfolk Base Field Office. And another thing, Gibbs had called him in TAD to help search for DiNozzo after he'd been abducted. Since it was 195 miles by road from Norfolk, VA, to the Navy Yard in DC, basically a three-hour drive, so how the heck had McGee turned up so promptly to join the search for DiNozzo when he went missing?

Based on what he'd heard tonight, he wouldn't be surprised if the MCRT gained itself another newbie soon. While Hank figured that they could probably do with another experienced agent, especially since Gibbs had pretty much checked out, he wasn't convinced them acquiring yet another probie right now was a good idea.

Probies were a lot like kids, cute at times and fun to have around to be able to laugh at their naivety, to tease and make them gas the truck, but it was also time consuming training them. Plus, like babies, having them too close together was a lot of work for the grown-ups, especially when it came to potty training. All jokes aside, the MCRT was supposed to be the agency's premier investigative unit for MAJOR CRIMES – not a kindergarten class for probies.

Standards had already slipped with Todd's hiring, and combined with Gibbs' obsessive need to get even with their anonymous tango and his basically checking out. That wouldn't improve if Jethro took on a second raw recruit. This situation tonight was a prime example of slipping standards; no one seemed to know (or care) about DiNozzo – where he was or, more importantly, how he was.

Sighing a second time, the SSA realised the futility of expecting Gibbs to see to that particular task of checking on his 2IC, since he was already fixated on his nightly attempt to identify the terrorist. Balboa figured he'd better go down himself and make sure Tony hadn't passed out in the shower. He couldn't believe that Gibbs' SFA been drugged with BRON by the serial killer and Gibbs hadn't insisted he go to the ER and get checked out by a professional.

Sloppy… unforgivably sloppy. Human Resources would have a fit!

Thankfully, when he went down to check, Tony wasn't collapsed in the shower block, nor did he appear to be anywhere in the building when Balboa went looking for him. Worried, he found that Gibbs' SFA must have sneaked out of the building via the evidence garage; without completing his report, which was momentous. According to security, he'd driven out past the security guards at the gate and Hank just hoped he was fit to drive, but surely Ducky would have given him a cursory once over at the very least. Wouldn't he?

Deciding to stop off at Tony's place on his way home, Balboa headed back to his desk to finish up his paperwork which seemed to multiply like bacteria. As he finally shut down his computer and left the building, he tried to engage Gibbs, informing him that he'd been unable to find DiNozzo on the premises, but he was still zoned out. Probably reliving the siege in Autopsy again, he decided in disgust. How ironic was it that he was breaking one of his own precious rules about walking away when the job is done? Still, Gibbs always was a wallower – it almost seemed as if he enjoyed basking in his own misery and anger. Certainly, he seemed to relish making the rest of them suffer along with him.

Stopping off at Tony's apartment on his way home, because Hank thought that based on what he'd gone through today, and his unusual behaviour – ducking out without telling anyone, someone should check and see if he was okay. Unfortunately, although his car was in his parking space, the lights were out in the apartment and Tony wasn't answering the door or his phone. Although Balboa was still antsy about his status, he'd clearly managed to get home in one piece. Probably just experienced an adrenal dump and had gone out like a light.

As the NCIS agent got back in his car and headed off home, he thought back to Gibbs' so-called joke (at least he hoped it was a pathetic joke) about McGee and Tony's desk when they'd first arrive back. The former Marine had the most pathetic sense of humour; no wonder two of his three ex-wives attacked him with sporting implements and one cleaned out his bank accounts before divorcing him and marrying Fornell.

Balboa totally wouldn't have blamed DiNozzo if he'd throttled Jethro when he uttered that crap about still being alive tonight. Totally justifiable homicide! There probably wouldn't be an agent on the floor (apart from the MCRT) that would have blamed him if he had brained the team lead for that crack. More likely they would all have been clamouring to give him a water tight alibi elsewhere or else lined up to take a swing at him too.

Hank decided to have a word with the SFA tomorrow, check that he was okay. After all, someone had to.

He put his car into gear, slipped in the clutch, and drove off.

~o0o~

Gibbs had dozed sporadically through the night, although mostly he consumed prodigious quantities of extra strength black coffee, picking at crappy Chinese takeout, while glaring at his computer monitor as dirt bag terrorists flashed across the screen. Around 0700, he headed down to the showers after rummaging around in DiNozzo's filing cabinet, commandeering a clean t-shirt and pale blue and white striped button down shirt.

Arriving back in the bullpen at 0800, having ducked out to get his obligatory dose of caffeine to kick start his system for the day, he automatically took note of his team. Cate was sitting at her desk, reading her emails. DiNozzo's desk was empty and there was no evidence that he'd been in yet. No jacket over the chair, no backpack under the desk – although his backpack was probably logged in as evidence, since it would have been in the car after he was drugged and dragged into the sewers by Vanessa. Maybe DiNozzo was down in the lab, visiting Abby. Cate looked up as he approached his desk.

"Morning, Gibbs. The director was looking for you. Ducky got called up too and Special Agent Fornell went up to Morrow's office, along with a red-headed woman who didn't look happy to be here," she reported efficiently.

Gibbs grimaced, hoping that the redhead wasn't the former Mrs. Gibbs and soon to be former Mrs. Fornell. Although he couldn't figure out what Diane would be doing here with Tobias since they were separated, Jethro couldn't imagine another redhead they had in common. Taking his coffee cup with him, he climbed the stairs up to the mezzanine level, hoping that perhaps Fornell had come bearing some fresh leads from the siege.

As Jethro entered the director's office, he noticed the temperature was very frosty. Morrow, Fornell, and even Ducky were scowling at him. What the hell had he done to piss everyone off now? He glanced at the redheaded female, initially relieved that it wasn't his ex-wife, Diane, but his preliminary feelings of reprieve rapidly morphed into anger after he recognised the visitor.

"What the hell is she doing here, Fornell," he snarled at his frenemy and shooting his death glare stare at the young woman in the room.

"Oh, trust me, Gibbs. This was not my idea. Special Agent Fornell dragged me here kicking and screaming, insisting that Director Morrow needed to hear my information firsthand. This is the last place I want to be and you're the last person I want to speak to," Special Agent Vivian Blackadder retorted.

Strangely, it was Ducky who reacted next. "Oh, for Pete's sake, Jethro. Do us all a favour and sit down, shut your mouth, and just listen. Dear Vivian has important news about Anthony. Most disturbing – you really should have let me take a look at him last night, at a bare minimum.

"But you should have escorted him to an ER and ensured he was medically cleared after his ordeal. Instead, you made him work the crime scene and come back to the office as if nothing had happened. Really, my boy, you should know better than that… you do know better," the veteran ME scolded him gravely.

Gibbs looked at his companions as if they'd all just declared that unicorns and dragons were real. "What are you talkin' about, Duck? DiNozzo's fine. He was zipping about like a pinball on Caf-Pow when we found him last night. I had him process the scene to calm him down or none of us would have gotten any peace. He needed to work off the adrenaline," he protested, bemused by all the fuss.

Morrow gave him the look he reserved for particularly clueless probationary agents and barked at him, "If you took such damned good care of your agent, who don't forget, was drugged and potentially a danger to himself, then tell me – when was the last time you set eyes on him?"

Gibbs couldn't understand why everyone was getting their panties in a twist or why the hell Blackadder was here. "Last time I saw him was when we got back to the bullpen and he went to take a shower and bag up his clothes from the kidnapping. He was fine… fine enough to be annoying."

"And this morning?" Fornell queried, his expression curiously blank.

"Well, no... but I went out for coffee." He grabbed his flip phone and called Abby. "Can't talk now, Abbs. You got DiNozzo down there? No, have you seen him today? Okay."

He looked at the four inscrutable faces and shrugged. "So, he slept in. Wouldn't be the first time," he quipped as Fornell glared at him.

"He's not at his apartment. I've already checked, Gibbs."

Getting pissed off, Jethro demanded, "What's he supposed to have done wrong, Tobias. What do you want with him?"

"Oh, it's not him who's in deep shit, Jethro. It's you. Any idea why he approached Special Agent Blackadder in a highly distressed state at her apartment at 10.30pm last night, stating his life was in danger?"

Gibbs looked shocked. "That's bullshit! Why on earth would DiNozzo go to Blackadder's place if he was in trouble? He'd come to me."

Sneering at her former team leader, she taunted him, "So, you didn't know that Tony and I are still good friends? We get together at least once or twice a month, work permitting, and see a movie or go to a concert or have a meal. And you wanted to know why he didn't come to you? That's simple. Tony believes that you're trying to kill him. He's pretty sure you've tried more than once before, but last night was the closest you've come to succeeding."

Gibbs features darken with anger. "What is this? Some bad joke that DiNozzo and you cooked up to pay me back for last night, Viv?"

Viv was angry and as Gibbs was no longer her team leader, she wasn't worried about pissing him off. "Oh, believe me, I have better things to do than waste my time on you. I'm only here because I'm worried about Tony. He's a good guy and there was clearly something very wrong with him last night."

Ducky interjected, "Wrong how, my dear?"

"He was hypervigilant, paranoid. Said he couldn't trust anyone at NCIS because they were either in on the plan with Gibbs to get rid of him or they couldn't stop him because he has so much power. He said he thought about going to you for help, but then he remembered that you were in on Gibbs' plan to kill him too."

Ducky looked confused. "I most certainly was not," he protested.

"So, you weren't there when Gibbs ordered Tony to impersonate a dead football carrier inside a body bag so you both could abscond with the real corpse? You weren't with him when Gibbs phoned him once the body was at NCIS so he could flip the bird to Fornell and the FBI and get Tony tossed out on the Beltway, still trapped in the body bag? My bad… I must have got part that wrong!"

Ducky's face fell. "Ah. Well yes, yes, you're right. I was there, although I didn't suggest Jethro make that call to Agent Fornell. That was foolhardy," he temporised.

"Did you report his dangerous behaviour? Did you explain to Tony that you disapproved of Gibbs' actions? Did you even bother to make sure he was okay? I saw him two days later and he was still stiff and sore. Did you even give Gibbs a piece of your mind about him pulling such a childish stunt and endangering his agent's life for no good reason?"

Ducky looked chagrined and shook his head. "No, I didn't and you're right, it was unforgiveable and dangerous. I should have spoken up; I should have made sure Anthony was all right." He looked across at Gibbs who was looking like he'd like to break something or someone. "That was an incredibly ill-conceived act, Jethro, and I must accept some responsibility for not speaking up."

Viv seeing Tobias looking amused at her smack down speared him with a scathing glare. "And you… if Tony wasn't such a nice guy, at the very least, you'd have been facing a charge of reckless endangerment. And what if he'd been hit by a car or a semi-trailer? What an idiot!"

"They stole my body from Air Force One, Blackadder. It was a once in a lifetime case and they filched it." He pouted childishly.

"And by acting like a stupid dick, you could have ended your career, just because Gibbs always has to be the one on top," she scolded Fornell fiercely. "Do you realise you could have kissed goodbye to your 20-year career and your pension, you idiot?"

Tom Morrow coughed to get attention from the others in the room. "Special Agent Blackadder, perhaps you could explain where DiNozzo is now?"

"Well, the plan was to get him some medical assistance at the hospital, get his injuries attended to, and hopefully have him evaluated for the drugs, until Big Ears here turned up at the ER after I'd finally talked Tony into going to the hospital," she gestured at Tobias. "Tony heard his voice and he panicked. Said Fornell tried to kill him by tossing him out on the Beltway, that he was part of Gibbs' plot to get rid of him. When I went outside to tell him to leave, Tony took off," she revealed, scowling at the FBI senior agent.

Everyone was talking at once, but Tom issued an edict to shut their mouths before demanding, "Why is this the first I'm hearing about injuries? I take it this is in addition to him being drugged?"

Gibbs looked ropeable. "He was fine… I would have noticed if he was hurt."

The female agent, who had worked with him and Tony on the MCRT before Gibbs tossed her out on her ass, shook her head in disgust at his denseness. "Of course he was hurt! He was dragged into a car by a female perp who weighed… what 115 pounds max, probably less, and DiNozzo is a six foot two inch male weighing approximately 175 pounds. She then removed him from the car at the entrance of the sewer. Do the math! How the hell do you think a tiny female managed to get him down in the locked room under the streetscape?"

Looking at his blank face, she threw her hands up in the air. "She dragged him by his feet down the stairs, so not only did he have numerous assaults to his skull hitting the steps on the way down, but his back and buttocks were covered in a mass of contusions and scratches. The petri dish of bugs and bacterium taking up residence in a sewer getting into any open, broken skin wounds will pose a real concern for blood poisoning if they aren't attended to."

Tom glanced across at Donald Mallard, who looked rather shaken. "Doctor? Is Agent Blackadder correct?"

Nodding sombrely, he made eye contact with each of the males in the room. "I fear so. Vivian is correct that such a slightly built female could only move an unconscious male on her own by either their shoulders or their feet, and the feet would be the most practical for Vanessa. Although not the best option for young Anthony, I'm afraid.

"It would most definitely result in considerable bumps, bruises, multiple cuts and scratches plus, I fear that he would inevitably experience numerous blows to his head. It would be difficult without proper imaging equipment to know if his unconsciousness was a result of being drugged and/or because of a concussion. And then, as young Vivian pointed out, there is the whole issue of Anthony's exposure to opportunistic bacteria that could have hitched a ride in any open wounds."

"So, Tony needs urgent medical treatment, is what you're saying?" Morrow clarified, staring daggers at Gibbs.

"Most assuredly, Director. And then there is the apparent manifestation of paranoia, which is worrying, although I may know what's going on with that. Excuse me, Gentlemen and Lady." Ducky pulled out his phone and made a call.

"Ah… Mr. Palmer. That abstract you located this morning. I would be most grateful if you could run it up to the director's office, post haste. Many thanks, dear boy."

Morrow looked across at the two FBI agents. "So, what I don't understand is why you showed up at the ER, Special Agent Fornell?"

Looking uncomfortable, he explained, "Blackadder called her supervisor when she and DiNotzo arrived at the ER."

Viv chimed in, "Barber said she would come down and interview Tony and then Special Agent Fornell turned up instead."

"Why?" Morrow demanded. "What was your interest in the matter?"

"Absolutely nothing, I swear. Blackadder's SSA, Caroline Barber, decided after thinking it through that she didn't want to get involved with the MCRT in any shape or form because of Jethro. She pulled some strings and, because I share a soon to be ex-wife with the Second B for Bastard, TPTB decided to send me to deal with the situation instead. Apparently, no one at the FBI wants to deal with him… and I've been appointed as the Gibbs Whisperer, but I had no prior knowledge that DiNozzo was accusing him or me of a plot to kill him."

Seeing the big shit eating grin that Gibb wore, presumably at the thought that he had the whole of the FBI browbeaten, Tom snapped at him, "Making the rest of the alphabet agencies refuse to deal with you is nothing to be proud of, Gibbs. In case you've forgotten, you have an injured, vulnerable agent out there in the wind because you didn't do your job."

Ducky was frowning. "You said that he was convinced that Gibbs was trying to kill him, Vivian? Do you know what sparked that delusion?"

"Probably because when they arrived back in the bullpen from the crime scene last night, he," she pointed at her former team leader scornfully, "told some probie called Timmy that he couldn't have Tony's desk because he was still alive."

Ducky and Fornell looked at Gibbs as if he was dog crap stuck on their shoes.

"Oh, Jethro. How could you be so terribly cruel?"

"Low blow, Gibbs. Kicking your man when he's been drugged and injured is yellow."

Morrow looked ready to explode. Taking several deep breaths, he locked eyes on his former MCRT agent, addressing Blackadder. "What, if any, other instances did Agent DiNozzo believe were examples of Gibbs trying to kill him, Special Agent?"

"He mentioned at least two examples, Sir, but he was also very distressed and talking real fast, jumping all over the place. He was talking about letting Christopher Pacci down and messing with his killer and ranting about getting Gibbs shot when the terrorist infiltrated NCIS. But Tony did mention the case where Gibbs dragged him up in a C130 on a night time jumping exercise and he got thrown out of the plane – nearly broke his neck. Said Gibbs had enlisted those Marines to help get rid of him by pushing him out the plane.

"Plus, the other instance he mentioned was the joint case with the FBI on the Marine recruiter sniper murder. He said Gibbs refused to give him backup in the surveillance car while he was watching Gibbs' back. When Abby located the shooter by triangulating the sound of the bullet, Tony took off alone to try to stop the sniper and with no backup, he nearly bought the farm."

There was a knock on the door and Morrow called, "Enter," and a tall thin bespectacled young man came in and handed Ducky a scientific journal article.

Ducky looked at it surprised. "I thought it was just an abstract you'd located, Mr. Palmer."

Palmer nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, it was, but when you called down before I thought that you might need the full article, so I tracked it down and printed it off, Dr. Mallard. I could do a lit search, and track down other articles cited in the article," he offered earnestly.

Ducky patted his arm. "Thank you, James, that's very kind. I'll let you know if I should require it, but this should be quite sufficient for now."

Palmer nodded and headed out of the office as Ducky quickly glanced at the article. Looking up, he explained, "My assistant, Mr. Palmer, brought this to my attention when I arrived first thing this morning. It's a paper describing 44 cases of mental disturbances arising from the abuse of the drug 'BRON'. Which is actually something of a misnomer, it's an over-the-counter (OTC) cough suppressant which contains methylephedrine, codeine, caffeine, and chlorpheniramine and is available in Japan and other South East Asian countries.

"The two major psychiatric symptoms they observed included affective disorders and more pertinently, hallucinatory - paranoid states. This second state is what I believe we're dealing with in Anthony, since he was drugged with this particular drug cocktail yesterday."

Gibbs shook his head in denial. "I'm telling you, Duck, DiNozzo was fine… he was more than fine. He was jumping all over the place like a hyperactive frog in a sock – or an Irish setter pup. He wasn't hallucinating or paranoid… I'd have noticed," he insisted stubbornly.

Ducky stroked his bottom lip as he read the article. "Yes, well, that would probably be the caffeine, perhaps the codeine you're describing that was affecting him. Don't forget that Vanessa drugged Sergeant Atlas with enough BRON to knock out a horse, so we must assume that Anthony also got a similar dose too. Unfortunately, by not ensuring that Anthony received a proper examination, which would have included blood tests, we can only rely on the data we have for the gunny," he concluded, giving Gibbs a stink eye before continuing.

"So, if he received a dangerously high dose of codeine and caffeine, it would have had Anthony practically jumping out of his skin. Plus, the normal adrenaline boost he would have gained from a fight or flight response – when he both had to fight, dragging a semi-conscious man to safety and fleeing from the killer as he did, meant he would have been on a doozy of a chemical high."

He referred to the paper again. "Hmm… well, according to the authors of this article, it's the methylephedrine which is responsible for the paranoia and hallucinations. I'd say that he probably arrived back here, had an adrenal dump (crash) and the methylephidrine was metabolised by the liver, causing the paranoia and delusional thoughts to manifest. The authors also observe that for the affective disorder symptoms, long term abuse was the norm, but for the hallucinatory-paranoid group, it occurred over a short time frame and a low dosage. I'll need to research this in more detail, talk to some experts, but since we're surmising that he received a whopping dose of this BRON, which is in actuality a cocktail of four other drugs, then I think it's safe to assume this is the culprit."

"Is the condition permanent or temporary?" Fornell wanted to know.

"That is part of what I'll need to research, Special Agent Fornell. Then there is the wild card that is Anthony. He has some highly idiosyncratic reactions to different drugs that we're aware of, so it may complicate the situation." He stood up resolutely. "Perhaps I would better serve Anthony by going down to my office and looking for answers about his paranoid hallucinations."

Tom nodded his assent. "Keep me in the loop please, Doctor."

Ducky acknowledged the directorial command. On his way out of Morrow's office, the medical examiner stopped in front of Blackadder. "I'm deeply remorseful over my actions driving Anthony away from me rather than seek my assistance, Vivian. He might be delusional, but that doesn't mean that his feelings aren't valid. I'll try not to let him down again in the future."

Blackadder looked at the medical examiner cynically. "What if this can't be fixed, what if he does something rash, what if he does have a concussion or a serious head injury?"

Ducky bowed his head. "Indeed, my dear. All we can do is try to find him and pray that no harm comes to him."

Fornell snorted and as Ducky departed, Morrow raised an inquiring eyebrow. "What now, Agent Fornell?"

"First thing, we find him and later I will be investigating those claims he made to Blackadder. They are serious and I can't simply brush them off."

Gibbs erupted angrily. "He's hallucinating, Tobias – didn't you get that? No one's trying to kill him."

"Maybe not premeditatedly, but I've got to say that if what he reported about what went on in this agency is true, then it sounds like procedures and protocols are being ignored," Viv spoke out heatedly. "Why hasn't it been investigated previously?"

"Agreed. If it happens once it might be an accident. More than that, there are either systemic issues that need identifying and addressing or something untoward is going on," Fornell maintained, fatalistically.

The senior supervisory agent of the MCRT became enraged. "I'm not going to have a bunch of dumbass fibbies messing about, sticking their… uh, noses into my business. My team. My rules."

Morrow scowled. "Stand down, Jethro," he ordered angrily before turning to the FBI agents. "Naturally, NCIS will co-operate fully in your search for Special Agent DiNozzo and any subsequent inquiries into his allegations. I'm rather keen to know myself, but I agree with you that they should take a backseat until after we've located him. I'm extremely concerned about his welfare, based on the intel that's been shared this morning. I'll set you up in Conference Room 1 and you can have access to his personnel file and talk to anyone who may be able to shed some light on where he might go. Anything you need, just yell."

"Hang on, Tom. DiNozzo's my agent. I'll be damned if the FBI stumble around trying to find him. I know him best – therefore, I should locate him. Fornell and Blackadder can go- "

"I said shut it, Gibbs," Morrow growled, interrupting what he suspected would be a crude insult. He led the two FBI agents out of the office. "Special Agent Blackadder, if you'd like to head to the conference room downstairs, I'll have DiNozzo's records delivered to you ASAP. Let me know how else I can help."

He stalked back into his office and found Gibbs getting ready to make a break for it. Glaring at his most infuriating agent he pointed to a seat. "Sit down, Agent Gibbs."

Gibbs folded his arms, scowling as he remained on his feet in a confrontational stance.

Morrow went very still. "That wasn't a suggestion, Agent. Don't like it, take a hike. My agency. My rules." He looked at Gibbs who looked shocked, but sat, reluctantly. "Right, let's talk about sending DiNozzo off to follow a suspected serial killer without backup. After all, it's only one week since we all learnt the hard way that even the most experienced agent working without someone watching their back can be deadly. Chris didn't know he was following a killer, but Tony was following Sacco who was suspected of murder. Why would you send Tony out alone after what happened to Pacci? C'mon Gibbs, the real reason?"

"He was pissing me off with his constant yabba yabba. Besides, he works best without a net or an audience – he's an undercover specialist."

"Gibbs, every fucking one pisses you off… especially since the siege. You have the tolerance level of a spoilt self-absorbed teenage princess. Me… me… me. My team, my rules… blah, blah, blah. As to working best unsupervised, that's quite possibly because you and your probie are difficult to work for and with. You have anger issues, you're rude, you're disrespectful, and you treat DiNozzo like shit. You let your probie act like she's in charge, you ignore all her flaws and mistakes, and yet you criticise Tony for the slightest infraction. I'd prefer to work on my own too if I was in his shoes."

He ignored the flush of anger, the faring nostrils and pupil dilation; all indications that a Gibbs was very pissed off with the dressing down.

"And as to the pathetic excuse of him being an undercover expert – he couldn't be undercover in this situation, because Major Sacco, who was your person of interest and Vanessa the bar maid, who turned out to be your serial killer, had both met him before. They KNEW he was an NCIS special agent, so how the hell was he supposed to be undercover?" he yelled in frustration at how incredibly stupid his senior supervisory agent was being.

He decided to be brutally honest, maybe Jethro would extract his damned head from his butt.

"The truth is that if you'd assigned a second agent to watch his back, he never would have been taken. Now we have a missing agent who was drugged and hallucinating, who may also have a serious brain injury, all because you failed to follow procedure and then didn't bother to have him properly evaluated."

"I don't have time for this, Tom. I have to find DiNozzo."

"Oh, so now you're concerned about him. I don't think so. You're the one he's running away from… because he thinks you're trying to kill him," He raised his voice to accentuate the point.

"And by the way, how stupid are you to tell a probie he couldn't have DiNozzo's desk because Tony wasn't dead? How would you feel if I did that to you?" Morrow demanded furiously before shaking his head in disgust.

"You know, on second thought, maybe I should offer McGee your desk – even a green as grass probie couldn't fuck up any worse than you have."

At that insult the former Marine uttered a curse under his breath and started to rise out of the chair. Morrow's glare suggested that was not a wise choice and for once Gibbs obeyed the unspoken command to stay where he was.

"This is my fault; I should have put my foot down way before this… with you and SecNav. You'd better hope the FBI can find DiNozzo and he's okay because IA will be interested in reviewing your actions, Gibbs, as well as the FBI, I suspect."

~o0o~

Tony had donned a ball cap and sunglasses to help disguise his appearance and was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt. The train was pulling in to Penn St. Station in New York City. He'd decided to catch the train up from DC rather than rent a car or take the bus, desperate to stay under the radar and opt for making himself as anonymous as possible.

As someone who was adept at undercover work, he was uniquely equipped to disappear, which was certainly an advantage when the bad guys wanted you dead. Although he never thought it would be his partner who wanted to kill him… well, not his current partner anyway. While at some point, Tony knew he'd need some wheels, it was too easily traced while he was in DC, unless he pinched one, and he wasn't prepared to do that. Similarly, he wasn't keen to get on a bus because once on he got on it, it was too easy for his enemies to trap him.

He was still shaken that Vivian had betrayed him. He'd told her that Fornell had probably been in on the plot to kill him – after all, the veteran federal agent had thrown him out on the Beltway inside a body bag, and Tony could hear traffic whizzing past him as he tried to free himself, not knowing if or when he might be struck by a vehicle. He never used to be claustrophobic but now, he couldn't even cope with having his blankets tucked too tight around him anymore. He often woke up in the middle of the night in the dark, his blanket having become wrapped around him and experiencing a panic attack as he tried to escape.

After fleeing the hospital, he'd headed for a movie theatre to try to get some breathing space and figure out where to go from here. He knew that there were probably people at NCIS who would have his back if he reached out to them. But it would be a crap shoot as to whether they believed him or turned him over to Gibbs, and he couldn't take the chance. Maybe Viv didn't mean to betray him, but when Fornell, who was Gibbs' frenemy, turned up at the ER, it made him realise just how vulnerable he was in reaching out for help.

By now Fornell would have informed Gibbs that he'd fled from the ER and they would be looking for him in all the obvious places, so he needed to think outside the box and he quickly discounted anyone at NCIS or the FBI. Metro PD was out too – they'd be expecting him to reach out there to people he'd worked with on cases and become pals with, such as Detective. Andy Kochifis. Now that Gibbs knew that he had put together the various attempts to kill him, he'd be wanting to make damned sure that he couldn't testify against him. And one thing he knew about Gibbs, once he was focused on something, he became as dangerous as nitroglycerine.

He could reach out to Danny Price – his corrupt former homicide partner, or Wendy Miller – his former fiancée who called off their wedding the night before. He very much doubted Gibbs would expect him to go to either of them, so that would most definitely be thinking outside the box, but Tony didn't think he could bring himself to approach either one of them. They'd both been the cause of so much pain; even thinking about them made him want to throw up.

Fighting down the nausea, he decided that they weren't an option he could stomach just before realising he was going to lose his stomach contents, not that there was a lot in there. Viv had pressed a granola bar on him some hours ago and a glass of orange juice, knowing he was prone to low blood sugar.

Jumping up from his seat, he raced out of the thinly populated theatre, barely making it to the toilet in time before puking his guts up. He was feeling incredibly weary, bone tired, his limbs felt heavy and his head ached, but he couldn't rest, not here. He needed to be someplace safe, somewhere he could trust someone to watch his back or else find someplace completely secluded when he could relax his guard.

Heading back into the movie theatre, which was just a temporary stop gap, but still an excellent place to hide, he tried to figure out his next move. It was dark and quiet so it was a first-rate spot for him to think about his options, and it was easy to remain anonymous since people were watching the movie, not checking out the audience. But he couldn't stay here indefinitely.

Tony generated half a dozen possibilities before discounting them all because of a variety of reasons, before finally hitting on what was probably the perfect person to help him.

Waiting until the movie finished so as not to draw any further attention to himself after the puking incident and his hurried exit, he sauntered out casually, trying to stay under the radar. It was possibly that Fornell and Gibbs had put out BOLOs on him already, but he hoped he still had some time left to manoeuvre.

Heading out to the movie foyer, he sunk into one of the sofas. He pulled one of his burner phones out of his backpack and called the Homicide Division at Baltimore PD from memory. Asking to speak to Detective Meldrick Lewis, hoping to catch him at his desk. Tony's luck was in, Lewis tying up a case and was happy to supply the info Tony needed. Meldrick's old partner had left Baltimore Homicide and was now working for the NYPD, specifically the 16th Precinct in Manhattan.

Which was why Tony headed up to New York City, in search of his former Homicide colleague – not that he'd had much to do with him, he was a young gun and John was already a veteran. Nevertheless, he was pretty sure that John would believe him because although he didn't know the senior detective all that well, in the squad room it was well known that he was cynical to the point of being what was commonly known as a conspiracy theorist (nut). He chuckled, remembering some of the other Dees joking that John could smell a conspiracy at a five-year old's lemonade stand. He was also a serial husband and divorcee – like his dad and Gibbs.

So, if Tony approached him for help and told him that feds from NCIS and FBI were trying to kill him, unlike Viv, who obviously didn't believe him, he hoped that John would be prepared to listen to his story, no matter how outlandish the scenario seemed.

Feeling increasingly crappy, he decided to take a cab straight to the 16th Precinct, hoping like hell that his wildcard detective was working today because he had no idea where John lived in NY. He could probably find out with a bit of effort, but it would be much easier all around if he was at the precinct.

Alighting from the cab, he entered the building looking for the Special Victims Unit, and ran straight into the guy he was looking for, Detective 1st Grade John Munch, wisecracking cynic with a squishy heart when it came victims. The cop he was with, no doubt his partner, grabbed him and helped him to a bench as he staggered almost collapsing, feeling dizzy.

"Detective DiNozzo… oops, my bad, you're a G-Man now. Agent DiNozzo, are you okay? Meet my partner, Detective Odafin Tutuola. Fin, this is Agent Anthony DiNozzo, formerly of Baltimore PD, Homicide Division. What are you doing in New York?

"Looking for you, I need your help." He stared pointedly at Munch's partner, who took the hint.

"Why don't I scrounge us up a cup of coffee? How do you take it?" he asked Tony.

"Thanks… Fin. White and one." Fin nodded and tactfully disappeared.

"Okay, DiNozzo. What's up?

"People are trying to kill me, but no one will believe me," he said.

"Why won't anyone believe you?" John demanded, smelling a conspiracy a mile away.

"Because my boss at NCIS and his buddy at the FBI want to get rid of me. No one can know that I've talked to you," he warned before promptly fainting and falling rather dramatically against the SVU detective.

Munch looked at the young former detective turned federal agent who'd impressed the other detectives in Baltimore with his flair and creativity and shook his head sadly. "Perhaps it's time you come back to the light side, DiNozzo.

~o0o~

Fornell had read through the reports from Gibbs, Todd, and McGee, plus the scientific reports from Sciuto and the ME. He'd also talked to a few of the other agents who had their work stations adjacent to the MCRT bullpen. Frankly, he couldn't understand why Gibbs wanted more on Sacco before he would bring him in for questioning. The guy was associated with three other missing Marines, presumed dead by that point in the investigation. Tobias felt that was ample reason to bring him in for questioning.

According to SSA Balboa, when Tony was tailing Sacco, Gibbs found out and then notified Tony that one of the missing Marines associated with Major Sacco had been found dead. Tony asked if he could pick him up and bring him in for questioning and Gibbs had told him no, to keep him under surveillance.

What a complete balls-up, or in Jethro's parlance – what a FUBAR! Apart from the fact that DiNotzo shouldn't have been tailing a suspected serial killer without any backup, if Gibbs had just let Tony pick him up and bring him in for questioning, Tony wouldn't have been drugged, kidnapped, and incarcerated in the sewer.

Tobias wasn't a hundred percent certain, but he was pretty sure that NCIS was able to bring in any Marine and Navy personnel for questioning without a reason. Investigating military cases wasn't like investigating civilians where you have to have means, motive, and opportunity before bringing in a suspect to question them, or having at least two out of those three. And even if he was incorrect, as the former CO of all the missing men, the major could have been re-interviewed as someone who was helping with their inquiries rather than as a suspect.

When all was said and done, Sacco may have not been the killer, but he was platoon commander to all the missing/dead Marines, and he'd known who the killer was. If Gibbs had let Tony pick him up, Sacco wouldn't have been murdered by Vanessa. Yet another death to lay at Gibbs' feet because of his poor judgement. From the scuttlebutt doing the rounds of the alphabets, this wasn't the only case where his decision making was off, either. It seemed that since the terrorist who infiltrated the agency and escaped, wounding Gibbs – a highly trained Marine sniper in the process, he had been obsessing over the one that got away instead of focusing on the cases at hand.

Fornell guessed in light of DiNotzo being drugged by the killer and his subsequent disappearance in a paranoid state, that Internal Affairs was going to be all over this, like fleas on a mangy dog. He recalled what Balboa had told him and Gibbs was going to be in deep shit; that was before any of the other allegations that DiNotzo had made about his team trying to kill him were investigated.

One extremely damning point that the veteran NCIS agent had revealed to the FBI agent was that during the investigation, Cate had mentioned that if Sacco wasn't the killer then he could be the next victim. As Balboa had observed grimly, that would have been a perfectly legitimate reason to bring him in too, i.e., to protect him.

As he closed the case file that was still sans the SFA's final report and therefore not complete, he thought about Agent Balboa's final remarks. "At any rate, I think Cate, Tony, and/or both asked Gibbs at least three times prior to Tony's abduction if they could go pick up Sacco and bring him in and Gibbs refused every time, saying stuff like 'Give me something to nail him with and I will.' They didn't need anything to 'nail him with' in order to question him or to put him in protective custody."

Oh yeah, Gibbs was in a lot of trouble and if DiNotzo didn't make it, it could be Gibbs' last case!

~o0o~

John Munch regarded the still unconscious federal agent gravely. He was exhausted, clearly had been running on empty and the doctor who'd attended him had clucked disapprovingly as he treated his myriad injuries. Even though John hadn't had all that much to do with the baby detective back in Baltimore Homicide, he did recall that he'd had a strong aversion to doctors and hospitals when he was hurt on the job, which had been far too frequently, in his humble opinion. Still, his physical collapse had made treating him mandatory, not to mention far less problematic than if he'd been conscious.

You see, I'm not always a glass half empty kinda guy,' he mentally chided his partner. 'I can see the positive side of life on occasion.'

Fin had wanted to call a bus when Tony had passed out at the precinct, especially after they'd discovered several lumps and lacerations to the back of the federal agent's skull. John was much less keen on the idea of taking him to hospital. If his CO and someone at the FBI were trying to kill him, then the last thing Munch wanted was to make DiNozzo an easy target for them. Staring at the physically exhausted young agent, he knew he would have been incredibly vulnerable in a hospital bed if there was a government conspiracy to kill him. Until he had more information to go on, he'd felt it was prudent to proceed with extreme caution.

So, John had called on one of his sundry contacts who owed his a favour or two and went by a number of names but his real one was Theodore Winters, aka Mozzie. Munch conceded that he was a strange little man, but more importantly in this situation, he was probably even more paranoid than Munch. So, he trusted him to help keep DiNozzo safe.

Mozzie was also a conman par excellence but that was a moot point. What was much more relevant was that the paranoiac had safe houses set up all around New York and they were not some flea-invested cesspits which John wouldn't leave a dog in. No, as an unabashed sybarite, Mozzie liked to live the good life, so this bolt hole of his was more than comfortable – it even had a Japanese garden. Perhaps more importantly, it had stupendously comfortable beds and it was highly unlikely that anyone would ever connect Mozzie to Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.

Importantly, as a white-collar conman, he also had scores of contacts that couldn't be matched, including the ER doctor who was one of his conspiracist cronies. They said that politics (or in this case conspiracy theory) made for strange bed-fellows and the two men sitting vigil over an unconscious federal agent was more than a little peculiar. Still, as Munch sipped on the exquisite cognac, courtesy of Mozzie listening to the pair postulating on increasingly bizarre explanations as to why Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo might be the subject of a contract on his life, courtesy of his immediate superior, he was nonetheless reassured to have the doc there. He wasn't an expert in head injuries, but he'd seen enough in his years on the job to know that they had to monitor him closely. Tony could easily have acquired a closed head injury that could cause him slip into a coma and never wake up.

As much as Munch wanted to keep him out of hospital, he also didn't want the young federal agent to die, obviously. Luckily, with the number of fake IDs that they'd discovered in DiNozzo's duffle bag, along with a large amount of cash, several knives and guns (with proper gun permits in his alias' names) which had earned even Mozzie's approval, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

If push came to shove, and with a friendly medico to facilitate the admission, they would take the risk if they had to. The staff would be told that he was a witness in protective custody who was testifying against an organized crime syndicate and there was a hit out on him, if it became necessary to hospitalize him.

While John was a pragmatic kind of guy, lies didn't usually sit right with him, but it wasn't exactly a lie. As far as he and his fellow conspiracists were concerned, the Alphabet Federal Agencies were akin to an organized crime syndicate with their lies and casual disregard for the rights of the individual. Besides, he knew Tony, not well, but well enough to know he was on the side of the angels despite the brash persona he'd worn around his fellow cops. But to the world weary veteran cop, DiNozzo's innate goodness and concern for others had shone through – even more so than his brilliance as a detective. As much as the world needed good investigators, they needed good people more.

Which is why John was prepared to lie if he had to in order to protect the G-Man. Who would have thunk it?

Meanwhile, according to Fin, the FBI and NCIS had already issued BOLOs for Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. The little that his partner could glean without stirring up the wrong sort of attention, DiNozzo had been tailing a suspected serial killer, or someone who knew the killer, when he'd been drugged, abducted, and imprisoned in sewer tunnels under DC with a barely alive victim (a Marine) and a rotting corpse (another Marine). The story was that he'd managed to escape al a Harry Houdini with nothing more than a concealed knife, taking along with him the barely alive victim who'd been kept without food and water for an extended period of time, thereby saving the Marine's life. The young agent had also managed, despite being drugged, to disarm the killer after she shot another Marine dead.

Although implausible, knowing DiNozzo, John thought it was probably fairly accurate. No - it was the rest of the story he had trouble believing, namely that Tony had been tailing a suspect solo. That was absolutely ludicrous – procedure was absolutely clear - when dealing with anyone suspected of being a serial killer, no one in their right mind would send a cop or agent out to tail a suspected killer with no one to watch their back.

The second thing that made Munch certain that the account doing the round was a cock and bull story to fool the sheeple was that according to rumours, DiNozzo was permitted to return to headquarters without a medical clearance despite having lost consciousness for an extended period of time AND being drugged. Now NCIS were 'supposedly' concerned that the drugs may have caused him to have a psychotic break and were anxious about his whereabouts.

Munch had snorted in derision when he heard that preposterous claim. Really, did they honestly expect LEOs to swallow such utter balderdash? No one was that stupid! It was SOP that any loss of consciousness AND/OR drugging of a cop or federal agent would require mandatory attendance at an ER for a full medical assessment. Especially when the killer was alive and would be charged with a raft of serious federal charges for assault and abduction of a federal agent.

Seriously, whoever the feds had employed to come up with this cock and bull story needed to be fired immediately and get someone in with a bit of sense who could come up with something halfway credible. Especially if they had any hope of getting the cooperation of LEOs, who didn't appreciate being taken for fools just because they were cops instead of Feds.

When he'd mentioned his disbelief to Fin, he'd smirked and said that some of the NYPD cops had already called out the NCIS agent issuing the BOLO – a female agent who had been plenty snarky. She'd declared that her boss followed his own rules and said that their Medical Examiner was going to examine DiNozzo, except he'd disappeared before that could happen.

Yeah right, that was real believable. Munch shuddered as if someone had walked over his grave. The idea of him going to Melinda Warner or one of the other MEs after he'd been drugged and unconscious was too creepy to contemplate, not to mention that a pathologist would be laughed out of court for examining a live patient. Instead of the victim presenting at an ER.

John looked over at the unconscious former cop. Tutuola had also reported that NCIS had started leaking like a sieve. One of his old contacts in Narcotics was the brother-in-law of an NCIS agent. He'd mentioned that in the last year, DiNozzo had been pushed out of a military plane at night with no jump training, left without backup more than once, and been a victim of two explosions, in part due to a rookie ex-Secret Service agent, appointed inexplicitly to work on the MCRT. Finally, there'd been the incident where DiNozzo had been thrown out of an ME's van, inside a body bag, at night, while it was still moving on the Beltway, by the FBI. Incredibly, he'd managed to survive every time.

As farfetched as that all sounded, if Fin's contact could be believed, it seemed that Tony's assertion that his boss (or perhaps his whole damned agency) was indeed trying to get rid of him, albeit in a way that would appear to be a tragic result of collateral damage. It made him even more determined to protect the kid from the G-men and he smiled as Mozzie fussed over the kid.

One thing he'd noticed about the baby detective, as brash and cocky as he might appear, anyone with an iota of empathy saw straight through his masks to his vulnerability and they all tried to mother-hen him – especially when he was sick or hurt. Much to his mortification and protestations of being fine. The veteran detective had gotten the distinct impression that the kid was used to taking care of himself, despite supposedly coming from money.

Although, since moving to NYC, John had learnt that Anthony DiNozzo Senior was nothing more than an oily, unscrupulous conman, ripping off rich folk and struggling workers alike without a modicum of compunction. Mozzie was scathing about the guy! So, perhaps he wasn't raised in the lap of luxury.

In fact, Mozzie had used his network of contacts to start a rumour which made its way to the FBI office in NYC that Anthony DiNozzo Senior had spirited his son away to the Seychelles because he wanted him to enter the family business. It was partly payback because Mozzie abhorred the man, but also was precautionary in case Tony had been spotted in NY on his way to SVU.

~o0o~

Tom Morrow sighed as he read the interim recommendations from Internal Affairs. They were demanding that Gibbs be placed on immediate administrative leave while they investigated the allegations raised by FBI Special Agent Blackadder. These included the numerous life-threatening situations that occurred when Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo was carrying out his duties as senior field agent of the MCRT, as well as the fact that Gibbs failed to ensure his agent received appropriate medical attention following his assault and abduction.

As he instructed his personal assistant to inform SSA Gibbs his presence was required ASAP, the director sighed. It was now going on 72 hours and they still had no clue what had happened to DiNozzo. The FBI had gone off chasing Tony's father, based on an anonymous tip off, corroborated by several witnesses claiming to see the federal agent in NYC the morning after he disappeared, but there had been nothing since then.

Gibbs had wanted to follow up with his old homicide partner and ex-fiancée in Baltimore, but had been ordered to butt out of the investigation and let the FBI handle it. Now that he was going to be placed on administrative leave, Tom wouldn't be able to keep him from running around acting like a loose cannon, which was why he'd considered the administrative leave option initially, but decided it was better to keep him where he could control him. Well, as much as anyone could control Jethro… the man honestly believed he was a law unto himself.

Still, if Gibbs was charged with impeding an FBI investigation, that was his own lookout. He was big enough and ugly enough to look out for himself as far as Morrow was concerned. It was DiNozzo that they had to focus on. Tom didn't know if he was even still alive, although he hoped that the famed DiNozzo cat-like resilience would prevail despite this last cockup.

End Notes:

Ishigooka J, Yoshida Y, Murasaki M. (1991) Abuse of "BRON": a Japanese OTC cough suppressant solution containing methylephedrine, codeine, caffeine and chlorpheniramine. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 1991;15(4):513-21.

Just to reply to a guest review from Earthdragon as I can't do so via PM. I'm afraid you and I will have to agree to disagree when it comes to Tony and Tim. Tony would not have been so disrespectful of a fellow agent killed in the line of fire, or use the situation to make jokes about kissing a transgender killer. His behavior at various times when agents were killed certainly doesn't support that view either, unlike Cate and McGee in Dead Man Talking. Pacci was a colleague Tony knew well and worked with for several years – there was no way he would have made a joke if McGee had been the one to kiss his killer. I would also point out that McGee also delighted in causing maximum embarrassment to Tony whenever Senior was around. Tony never retaliated by trying to rub salt into Tim's wounds when the Admiral dropped into NCIS – he was empathetic and supportive.

As to your assertion that DiNozzo was homophobic, I strongly disagree. When a therapist in Leap of Faith assumed that Tim and Tony were there for gay couple counselling, DiNozzo was totally unfazed by the assumption they were a couple while McGee practically had apoplexy at being thought to be gay. Cate AND McGee's narrow-minded behaviour was also displayed when they encountered the transvestite, PO Horlacher in An Eye for an Eye, plus they took the opportunity for more juvenile sneering re Amanda Voss.

You say in your review that McGee was an excellent agent but I disagree. His arrogant attitude, ambition, lack of empathy, his insubordination and inability to follow the chain of command, not to mention his illegal hacking, even when it has nothing to do with an investigation doesn't support your statement. Sure, the writers keep harping on about what a great agent he is, however I know quite a number of cops, ex-cops, plus serving and ex-military individuals and they're uniformly scathing about his so-called abilities. Their opinion is that in the real world, no one in their right mind would ever go out in the field with him – not unless they had a death wish. Does wearing squeaky shoes to a hostage siege ring any bells? And he's supposed to be the super smart one!