The beginning of his final semester of graduate school started with another meeting with Tom Morrow and Gibbs coming back to the States. Tony was staying with Gibbs currently while they work out the best course of action. Tony was also working on completing his lesson plans for the class he was asked to teach at FLETC on using undercover skills in everyday life as an agent. He was being recognized for his skills by not only the university but the training officers for the federal agencies.

Gibbs decided to attend the lecture to watch Tony in action doing something that he knows Tony is incredibly proud of. He invited Ducky and Palmer without telling Tony for more support and because he knew Ducky would love this. They hid in the back to watch Tony truly in his element. After the class was over they got up and walked towards the front where Tony was talking with some of the students from the class. I even noticed G Callum in the background having come to watch apparently. Those two are super close ever since a few cases where crossover took them to LA or the LA team here to DC.

When Tony went into work he saw that he was once again the first one there. He knows Gibbs decided to hide in the shadows today and watch to he can see for himself what the team has been doing. Around an hour later Tim showed up and with the usual greeting he sat behind his computer to get to work. They did not have a case yet so they were on cold cases. Ziva didn't end up coming in until 10:330 claiming she had a hair appointment that was more important. Tony took the time to write up a formal reprimand and document her hours as he has been doing. Gibbs for his part was disappointed but not surprised. Ziva would always be about herself first.

His coworkers being late helped Tony to attach the devise that Homeland gave him to Ziva's computer so they can track everything she does on it. Tony had been worried about her security clearance because as a liaison she should not have that high of a security clearance into the American military and systems. He did not fully understand how the device works but he knows how to attach it and set it to run.

Throughout the week they had a new case come up where they needed to track a hacker who was using a video game to display government information such as safe houses, navy bases, and missions to the winners of the rounds. Tim made sure to take the time and remind Tony that he was the only one who could help and was even more annoying than usual. Meanwhile Tony had started his classes for the semester. He decided on:

SOC 6999: Thesis Research

SOC 6239: Sociological Theory

Elective (SOC 6266 Gender and Criminal Justice)

He was taking the class on gender and criminal justice so he can study the differences that agents face in the field and in undercover. He already knew that female agents and cops are asked to do more provocative tasks undercover as many of their perps are into things such as prositution and or are more trusting of attractive women. He has seen it with past partners. He is even looking at putting some of this class to use for his thesis.

This semester seemed to be flying by and he was really enjoying finishing his thesis. He was having some problems at work and reaching the end of his rope. He was talking more often with Tom Morrow and was even offered a spot on their counter terrorism team. They also offered a possible position in the cybersecurity but Tony would not be a good fit for that position. He was also receiving job offers from the FBI, NSA, a few local PD's and even other positions at NCIs.

He was sat down with SECNAV to discuss why he was looking at other options. Tony was completely honest that he was having problems with the Director of NCIS and he felt it was threatening his career. He said he would think about the positions he was offered which was the Assistant Director of the pacific coast which would be based in Hawaii. Tony felt that maybe it was time for a change right now. SECNAV also told Tony that he would be sad to see him to but there will always be an opportunity with NCIS for him available in the future if he chooses to come back.

Gibbs had decided that he was getting a bit too old for field work and accepted a position as a full time trainer at FLETC with the option to be a consultant for most of the alphabet agencies. He was much more relaxed and without having to deal with others taking over his crime scenes he was able to enjoy consulting much more. Tim found out about Gibbs being back in town around the time he started training the sniper class he was starting with. He would be teaching that, crime scene processing part time and a class about transitioning from active military to agency. This is actually a class he was creating after seeing so many as well as himself struggle with the transition.

Tony continued to work out the rest of the semester then make his decision. He knew what he wanted but needed to think about what is the best for his career. He was getting tired dealing with McGee and Ziva but he knew he only needed to for a couple more weeks.

Tony finished his semester with another 4.0 making his graduate degree completed with a overall GPA of 4.0. He presented his Thesis where he was recognized and commendation for his work. He was even awarded for his work with the mob. He was able to celebrate with Gibbs, Ducky, Palmer, Tom, and Fornell. He also announced his decision at the party. He was going to take the position in counterterrorism at Homeland and then in a few years he might go back to NCIS if the Director is taken care of and a new competent one is selected. He loves NCIS and has stayed there the longest but he needs space and time away from the agency that became toxic.

As for the toxic trio as he had taken to calling Tim, Ziva and Abby they were reassigned different teams and positions, or in Ziva's case she had the option of going back to Israel or prison. She has not done anything yet like sending information that they can find but she has been accessing files not related to cases more recently. She will continue being watched for a while to make sure that the Navy's secrets she had access to won't be revealed. They ended up moving some of them to be safe. She decided to try and argue with the homeland agents that she was told she could access anything by the Director which lead to her arrest and questioning.

Tim was moved back to cyber in the basement until he could be reevaluated as a field agent. He would need to go back to FLETC and reevaluated with a smaller team. Tony may have trained him well but Ziva took advantage of his insecurities and reversed that training. Last Tony knew he was happy in cyber and thinking about whether he wanted to continue being a field agent.

Abby was put on suspension when she threw a tantrum upon learning that not only was Tony transferring, but that Gibbs was not coming back to NCIS unless consulting and has been back in the states for months. She refused to do any work and argued with other team leads until SecNav had to step in and discipline her when it became clear Director Shepard would not. She came back with new rules and her lab was changed over the week back to regulation. She was told that if she did not like it she could accept one of the offers she regularly gets from private agencies.

With the help of Homeland, SecNav, the FBI, Vance and Tony's work and files, Director Shepard was found to be planning an unsanctioned op to go after Rene Benoit is revenge for his perceived wrongs. Gibbs was able to shed some light on the fact she things that Benoit is the reason for her fathers death rather than the suicide it was. After further research and testing they found the brain tumor which cleared up a lot about the decision making she has been doing. When they confronted her she blew them off and decided to take out Benoit herself. She lost her life in a hail of gunfire and revenge.