Gibbs' phone hadn't stopped buzzing since he'd gotten back to the van. He'd considered throwing it out the window, but contrary to popular belief, he had listened to McGee's latest grumbling about how hard it was to find this model, so he settled for turning it off.

Tony was in the passenger seat working his way through a Caff-POW! where Gibbs could see him. Palmer hung on in the back.

"What's the plan, Boss?"

"I'm going to try and go sort this mess out with Vance. You and Palmer are going to stay safely out of the way."

Tony hunched over in his seat. "Sorry, Gibbs."

Gibbs dismissed the apology as unnecessary with a shake of his head. Vance had been asking questions for a while. It was only a matter of time before something got out.

"Um, sir?" Palmer said hesitantly. "If something goes wrong, won't they think to look for us at your house?"

"Probably," Gibbs allowed. "Which is why we aren't going there." He pulled onto an exit.

"Where are we going then?" Palmer asked.

"I built a cabin in the woods a while back. I never got around to registering it. You should be fine there for a few days."

"And if something goes wrong?" Tony asked.

"Then make a call over whether to stay there or to risk heading for Mexico."

Tony set his chin stubbornly. "We're not leaving you behind."

Gibbs glanced back, hoping Palmer would be more easily cowed.

Unfortunately, Palmer seemed to have found some hidden steel. "I'm not leaving Dr. Mallard."

"This isn't a democracy," Gibbs snapped.

"Technically it's a republic," Tony said agreeably. "Our point still stands."

"It's not going to come to that."

No matter what, he was keeping his team safe.

Gibbs slammed open the door to the interrogation room. Vance paused mid-pace behind Tim. Tim kept looking down at the table dejectedly.

"Care to explain why all three interrogation rooms are filled with my team, Leon?"

Tim jumped, eyes widening. "Gibbs!"

Gibbs' glare sharpened. "You didn't tell him I was alive?" he demanded.

"I thought it might be best to wait. You're really not supposed to be out of the hospital yet, Gibbs."

"And my team isn't supposed to be treated like suspects!"

"They hid the existence - "

"And that's what you're going to charge them with?" Gibbs demanded. "That they successfully hid the presence of a ghost in NCIS headquarters for thirteen years, including your whole term as director? That'll get the reporters fired up. I'm sure it'll look good with SecNav, too."

Vance winced. Gibbs pushed on.

"You ready to lose the team with the best closure rate in NCIS history? You ready to lose Abby, Palmer, and Ducky?"

"Now's not really the best time for this discussion, Gibbs," Vance said, looking pointedly at the camera before doing a double take.

"I got the tech to turn it off before he went on lunch break."

"It's six o'clock, Gibbs."

Gibbs shrugged. "Dinner break, then."

Tim had leaned his head back so he could watch them like a tennis match.

Vance broke first. "Tell me you didn't know about this."

"Tony DiNozzo has the potential to be a better agent than I'll ever be. That's what I know, and as far as the job's concerned, that's all I care about."

"And outside the job?"

"Outside the job, this team's all I've got left," Gibbs said quietly. "He's a good kid."

Vance started pacing again. "I can't just let this go, Gibbs. Too many people know about it."

Tim piped up for the first time. "You could get him registered."

Gibbs and Vance both swung around to look at him. He shrugged uncomfortably. "If he was registered, it wouldn't matter, and no one would notice if the rest just went away." He looked at Gibbs anxiously. "You did get him back, right?"

"You resummoned a ghost?" Vance exploded.

Gibbs shrugged innocently. "If I did?"

Vance sighed. "All or nothing, huh?" He sat down and scrubbed a hand across his face. "I'll call in some favors to get them registered. Both of them."

"S-sir?" Tim stuttered.

Vance looked at him wryly. "You were flickering for about five minutes there."

Tim flushed red. Vance sighed. "You're free to go. I'll give the order for Miss Sciuto and Dr. Mallard to be released as well."

Gibbs hid his relief and simply nodded. "Thank you, Leon."

"Do not make me regret this," Vance warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Gibbs assured him.

After extricating himself from Abby's desperate hug and explaining the situation to Ducky, he went to find Bishop. She was slumped behind her desk in the bullpen. "Hey, Gibbs," she said quietly.

"You all right there, Bishop?"

"Yeah." She forced herself to sit up. "So what's the word on the others?"

"Vance has dropped all charges," Gibbs said, watching her face carefully.

She straightened immediately. "Really? That's great!"

"And he's going to get Tony registered." He'd save the news about Tim until he was sure how she would react.

"I thought - He's still here?"

Gibbs nodded. "That going to be a problem?"

She chewed on her lip. "He's not . . . dangerous?"

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

Bishop nodded slowly. "Is this why I couldn't have salt in the bullpen?"

Gibbs allowed himself a rare grin. "That, and because of McGee. See you Monday, Bishop." He headed for the elevator. Tim was already in the car.

"McGee's dead too?" she called after him.

"Welcome to the family, Bishop," he called back.

The files of investigations on behalf of his kids had mostly been closed. The contents of the files in his desk drawer had been replaced with carefully obtained registration documents and a renewed foreign allowance for Ziva.

Just in case.

Tony flicked rubber bands at Bishop, who tried to deflect with one of Abby's lab baked, salt free cookies. Tim was eyeing the plate of them on her desk speculatively.

The phone rang. Gibbs listened to the dispatch on the other hand, nodded, and hung up.

"Grab your gear," he told his team. He tossed the keys to a grinning DiNozzo.

"You can drive, right?" Bishop asked in a low undertone as they headed for the elevator.

"I have a license," Tony assured her. "Of course, Abby issued it, and Gibbs taught me, so . . . "

Bishop gulped.

Tim snatched two cookies off her desk on his way out.

A/N: For the record, I love Gibbs' innocent expression.

So here it is, the last chapter. It's been an incredible ride, and I've had an unbelievable amount of fun with this. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. Your encouragement has been amazing.

I know I left questions with this. What happens once Gibbs dies? What happens if something goes wrong and Vance does indeed regret it? From the beginning, though, I knew this was the kind of ending I wanted. The team's together, they're solving a case, and the potential for adventure and family is wide open before them.

I fully intend to finish out Tony, Tim, and Ziva's stories. Ziva's in particular should be noted by those hoping for more closure on her storyline; her's is the only one that will function as both prequel and sequel to this.

At least one person has requested Kate and Palmer's backstories. I'm not saying it won't happen, but I'm not making any promises either. We'll see what happens with those.

Once the spin-offs are wrapped up, my next major project is going to be finishing an original work before my betas for it kill me. I don't have any definite plans for what my next fanfiction will be, NCIS or otherwise. I do have ideas, but they're time consuming ones - as in, put this work to shame, time consuming - and I don't have time for that right now.

So once my immediate projects are finished, who knows when I'll be back. I do have every intention of coming back, though.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you once more!