"I want to drop the charges."

"Good morning to you too, DiNozzo." Gibbs pulled a chair away from the kitchen table. "Sit down and I'll get you some coffee." He looked over the sleep-mussed man clad only in a wrinkled tee and boxers, Rufus unharnessed but still helpfully pressed against his side. "Then we'll talk."

Tony sank stiffly into the chair, burying a yawn that pulled his face painfully against the palm of his hand. "Nothing to talk about, boss."

Gibbs placed the steaming mug on the table and wrapped Tony's hand around it. "I'd say wanting to drop assault charges against the man who put you in the hospital is something I want to talk about."

"What if I deserved it?"

"How the hell could you have deserved that?"

Tony took a generous sip of the dark liquid. "'Slept with his wife."

Gibbs groaned. "Why'd he wait two years?"

"Don't know," shrugged Tony. "Maybe it just now got to him."

"Do you learn anything from this stuff, DiNozzo?"

Tony seemed to ponder this thoughtfully for a few seconds. "That when I answer your door I should duck?"

"Take him to Room Two." Gibbs fingered the file on his desk containing the police report on one Gregory Nathan Hale and didn't look up at the hulking cop he'd last seen spattered with Tony's blood. "I'll be there in a minute."

Although he let him chill at least twenty before he sauntered into the interrogation room.

The greeting he received was a terse "you can't keep me here."

Gibbs turned the available chair backwards and straddled it, putting the file down and leaning across the table. He could feel Kate's eyes watching from behind the one-way glass. "You've assaulted an agent of the Federal government, Officer Hale."

"I assaulted my bastard ex-partner who fucked my wife."

"Why now?"

"She wants a divorce."

"To be with ... Tony?" Oddly, Gibbs found his normally steady stomach twisting.

"Fuck, no. Gretchen doesn't want any more ... burdens." The big man picked at one of his short nails. "I wanted custody," he finally conceded softly.

"Custody."

"Of Sam. I wanted my son." The hands clenched into fists that rattled the table when they were pounded against it. "Who it turns out is not my son at all. He's Tony-friggin'-DiNozzo's."

Gibbs brought his own hands together, steepling them. "Have you considered it could be that she's just telling you that?"

"The DNA match was negative."

"Has DiNozzo been tested?"

"Nah. But it's him."

Gibbs looked toward the mirror lining one wall, knowing Kate was observing them ... both of them. "Has she contacted him?"

"How the fuck should I know?"

"You know he couldn't fight back."

"Yeah, man, I know that now. I ..." He looked up to meet Gibbs piercing eyes. "I'm not sorry, if that's what you're after. But I wouldn't have been so ... rough if I'd known."

"DiNozzo seems to bring that out in some people." Gibbs closed the file, suddenly weary. "This isn't my decision, but he wants to drop the charges."

Getting up, he stopped long enough to look down on the seated man. "There will be a restraining order. And as a personal note," he added softly, bending down to whisper into Hale's ear, "you get within spitting distance of Tony and I will kill you. Myself. Personally."