~NCIS

McGee and Ziva were already at the sedan when Gibbs got there, but they weren't alone. Gibbs' jaw clenched at seeing Jenny there waiting with them. He was angry; almost too angry to be in the same car with her but if Jenny felt compelled to come to the scene of Tony's death, he wouldn't prevent her. She might as well have planted that car bomb herself, so she should see the result up close and personal.

He stepped up to them and McGee handed over the keys. He took them in one hand, and opened the back door on the drivers' side with the other. He turned a stony look on Jenny and gestured her in the back with a small jerk of his head. He could ensure he didn't have to look at her on the way, and be tempted to say something he'd regret. Right now was about Tony, not her.

There would be time for her later.

Once they were all inside, before they'd all even buckled in, Gibbs floored the gas pedal and they tore out of the NCIS lot, leaving heavy skid marks on the asphalt behind them. Buildings and cars flashed past in a blur and Gibbs knew he was driving too fast for the DC surface streets this time of day. He needed something to concentrate on and occupy his mind for a precious few more minutes. Something besides the knowledge of where they were going and the awkward silence in the car, broken only by the sound of sharp inhales coming from behind him as he skillfully weaved in and out of traffic.

He caught McGee in his peripheral vison, staring quietly out the window as scenery sped by. There was no Tony in the passenger seat to joke about the swerving and breakneck speed. His throat tightened and it was hard to breathe for a few seconds.

The fire was out by the time they arrived on the scene and there was no trace of the heavy black smoke they'd seen on the screen in MTAC. No one spoke as they gathered the gear needed to process the scene. McGee pulled the camera from his bag and stared at it before finally slipping the strap over his head as if wearing it, much less using it were the last things he wanted to do. They probably were.

They moved together, ducking under the police tape that cordoned off the scene and kept onlookers away. There were pieces of the car strewn everywhere, some 50 feet or more from the blackened hulk. Time slowed down; sound was muted and they moved sluggishly, as if under water. They could see the body now and McGee stopped, a white-knuckled grip on the camera and denial on his pale face. Ziva paused next to him in silent support, looking as anguished as the day she'd killed Ari in his basement.

Gibbs could understand. He felt as if they were living out some crazy, warped dream, but it wasn't a dream. It was an all too real nightmare, but they just had to get on with their jobs.

He took a deep breath and glanced over at the rest of his team.

"McGee."

The younger man stood there, lost in his own head and not reacting at first.

"McGee!"

His junior agent jumped and Gibbs glanced meaningfully at the camera. McGee hesitantly raised the camera and moved to the car. The others spread out and began working too. He stood back, taking in the scene and watching them work. Jenny pulled in a shaky breath at seeing the body up close, curled in the seat and burned beyond all recognition. This close, the smell of burnt rubber, plastic, and charred flesh filled the air. She stood next to Ducky, who reported his initial observations, telling her the shockwave would have caused instant death. Were they supposed to feel better because Tony didn't suffer?

She sounded as if she were talking about some random stranger when she queried Ducky on identification. As if she weren't the reason Tony was dead. Ducky offered a clinical assessment in return before breaking form. With notes of hope instead of the clinical detachment of moments before, he turned to her and asked, "Is there any chance that it's not Tony?"

"None that I can think of," she replied.

Jenny started to turn away and Gibbs stopped her, leaning in close and speaking in a low voice. "Are you picturing him against what you see here? You should be. I know I am. We will be talking about what happened today. And why." She blanched and moved away, putting distance between them.

Ducky took her place at Gibbs' side. "She blames herself," he began, perceptive as ever. "Should she?"

Gibbs didn't trust himself to speak at first, just met his old friend's eyes wordlessly for long seconds and gave a scant nod. Finally he found his voice, but didn't verbalize the answer he knew Ducky saw on his face anyway. "Let me know when you finish."

Ducky frowned and went back to his work without comment. Message received.

Gibbs turned his attention the McGee and Ziva. Ducky's plaintive question about the chances of it not being Tony in the car echoed in his head and felt like a knife in his chest. The knife twisted slowly as he watched Ziva pull Tony's blackened badge and creds from the destroyed car.

The images of the explosion played on repeat behind Gibbs' eyes and his mind went back to another case last year involving a bombing. He and Tony had a difficult but necessary talk the night they'd wrapped that case, and it was when he first realized something out of the ordinary was going on with his SFA. They talked, and suspicion became certainty when Tony as much as admitted he was working a case for Jenny, neither of them knowing at the time it would ultimately get him killed months later.

After that talk, he'd thought they were good, their partnership on solid footing again. He'd taken Tony at his word that he'd tell him what Jenny had him investigating eventually, and ask for help if he needed it. For reasons they could only guess at now, he never had.

If only Gibbs had known. No…he had known, or at least strongly suspected lately that Tony was getting in over his head. Known and done nothing about it. Instead, he'd assumed Tony didn't need or want help, and he'd been so very wrong.

As the team finished their work and prepared to bring Tony back to NCIS one last time, Jenny elected to avoid Gibbs and ride back with Ducky and Palmer. McGee and Ziva seemed relieved, having sensed his animosity toward her and only just beginning to suspect what he already knew. That she shared some culpability in Tony's death. Even without the unease her presence caused, the return ride to NCIS was no less grim and silent than the drive to the scene.

By the time they arrived, Jenny had already taken refuge in her office. If she thought that would stop him from confronting her, she was sorely mistaken. That could wait a little longer; he needed to check on Abby first. McGee and Ziva had each other, as did Ducky and Palmer. Abby was alone and seeing her would also take his mind off the fury burning inside him.

As he comforted a distraught and tearful Abby, he desperately wanted to ease her pain and tell her everything was okay. It wasn't okay and wouldn't be for some time, if ever. Once she accepted this was something even Gibbs couldn't fix, Abby pulled herself together and started to focus on the evidence and task at hand. It was then that he noticed the bottle of scotch on her workstation.

As Abby explained Jenny's secretive request and the results of her tests, her voice hardened and carried notes of suspicion. Gibbs realized just how deep Jenny's obsession with La Grenouille had gone. Her pursuit of revenge for her father's death had warped her reason so much, she sent Tony into the line of fire with no backup. He was incandescent with rage when he left Abby's lab for the Director's office. It was time for her to answer for Tony's death, and the shroud of secrecy and intrigue she'd placed over the agency in the name of a personal vendetta. He opted for the stairs instead of the elevator to give himself a few extra minutes to get his temper under control.

As he climbed, Gibbs wasn't sure who he hated more in this moment; Jenny or himself. He prided himself on his instinct and perception and looking back, there'd been more than ample indications of trouble. Even as Tony's disappearances and secretive phone calls continued for the better part of a year, he'd never confronted Jenny about using Tony for an undercover op he now knew was unsanctioned.

Tony had stopped coming around to the house and made himself scarce outside work, a tactic he'd seen before when Tony was in avoidance mode. He'd noticed the pallor; the small signs of mental and physical exhaustion, and worried that Tony was stretching himself too thin. He looked the other way because it hadn't affected Tony's work.

All the signs had been there and Gibbs turned away from them. He never followed up with Tony or confronted Jenny, not until this morning when they'd realized Tony disappeared and they all began trying to track him down. Jenny had recklessly used Tony, then left him swinging in the wind without backup. All she cared about was getting La Grenouille.

Gibbs once again thought back to that conversation with Tony more than half a year ago. In leaving and coming back from Mexico the way he had, he'd broken Tony's ability to trust him as implicitly as he once had. He'd been the one to fracture their partnership and though they'd worked to mend it, signs of the break had persisted beneath the surface.

Gibbs wasn't sure he'd ever forgive himself for making Tony feel like he couldn't confide in him; that he didn't care about what was happening in plain sight. As the grief and anger retreated for the moment, it made way for something new and unfamiliar.

Failure.

Failure such as he hadn't felt since Shannon and Kelly's deaths. Yes, Tony had left him in the dark but if only he'd handled things differently, Tony would still be alive. Instead, he'd left Tony out in the cold.

Jenny may have had a starring role in Tony's death, but she hadn't been the only one that failed him. They both had, and now they had to live with the consequences.

~ End

AN: No, Tony isn't dead. We all know how things turned out in canon and this story doesn't change that. It's meant to explore the situation before the team learned it hadn't been Tony in the car.

Still, with where this ended I feel like there needs to be a continuation, or at least an epilogue. I'm not sure how I would go forward from here yet, so it may be a bit. Feel free to follow if you're interested in knowing when I revisit this story.