Gibbs took a deep breath to calm himself before he walked around the corner and into the bull pen. He was still quite angry about what his two agents had done to Tony, and, after speaking to Ducky, he was even angrier. McGee letting a dog out of a cage at a scene while Tony was still there was dangerous. Things could have gone horribly wrong, and he may have been sitting in a hospital waiting room the previous night waiting for news on his senior field agent instead of talking to Tony in his basement. Added to that, the rat incident on Wednesday, while highly doubtful that it would have made Tony ill, could have sent Tony back into Brad's care and could have been fatal. Of course, he supposed, Tony could have ended up in the hospital on Monday had he not hit the pole when he did.

"McGee, David, the two of you have a lot to answer for," grumbled Gibbs. Thankful that nobody was around to hear this, he continued. "Why am I hearing that the two of you have been extremely unprofessional and dangerous this past week?"

"What, did Tony make things up?" Ziva asked nonchalantly.

"What did you just say, David?"

"I asked if Tony told you lies."

"Who said that Tony was the one to tell me?"

"You did."

"No, I didn't. So, are you feeling guilty about something?" Gibbs was surprised by Ziva's attitude. Usually, she was good at hiding things when she was in the wrong.

"Of course not."

Gibbs turned to McGee. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Okay... We played pranks on Tony. They weren't dangerous," McGee spilled straight away.

"I'm not talking about pranks. I'm talking about deleting Tony's work when he's not looking. I'm talking about almost letting an angry dog maul him, and putting a potentially poisonous rat in his locker. I'm talking about almost causing a major accident and letting Tony take the fall!"

"What rat?" McGee asked, suddenly feeling a little confused.

"Right, Tony mentioned that he didn't think you were the culprit behind that." Gibbs turned back to Ziva. "You, on the other hand, I'm told definitely thinks Tony's very rational fear of rats is funny."

"Rats will not hurt you," said Ziva simply.

"Rats can hurt you, David. And, after what Tony's been through, rats will never be something he can stop fearing. You making that fear worse is just disgusting." Gibbs took another deep breath. "Why did you put a rat in his locker?" he asked, deciding to deal with one thing at a time.

"I wanted to see what would happen."

"What did you think was going to happen?"

"I knew he would get scared. It was so funny."

"Fear is not something to laugh at, David. What if Tony exploited your worst fear? How would you feel if you were embarrassed in front of everyone?"

"I do not get embarrassed."

Gibbs sighed. He was getting nowhere with Ziva right then. Taking another calming breath, Gibbs turned back to McGee. "What possessed you to set free the angry dog that Tony had locked in a cage?"

"I didn't know Tony had locked it up," McGee answered honestly. "If I had, I wouldn't have done that. As soon as I saw the dog barreling towards Tony, I chased it and grabbed it. Tony was already hurt, but I managed to lock it back up before it could really hurt Tony."

"Why didn't you tell me after it happened?"

"I was scared that you wouldn't believe me."

"I would have been more inclined to believe you yesterday than I am today."

"I'm sorry. I really didn't want to hurt Tony."

"Why did you think arguing between yourselves was more important than helping Tony find a way back to work on Monday? Why did it take him hitting a pole with the van for the two of you to pay attention?"

"We were stupid."

"I think you were more than stupid. You caused Tony to put all three of your lives in possible danger. It was sheer luck that nothing else happened with that. And, rather than taking a share of the blame, the both of you let Tony take the fall. Technically, none of that was even his fault." Gibbs rounded on Ziva again, having achieved a satisfying result with McGee going red and looking ashamed. "You, David, let Tony take the blame when it was you that threatened a witness on Thursday. He's on desk duty until Monday because of you. Do you have anything to say about that? Or about hitting him hard enough to leave a very deep bruise on his stomach?"

"I did no such thing." Ziva smiled innocently. "Tony tripped and bumped me."

"Right. And I'm Bugs Bunny," said Gibbs sarcastically. "Did you forget I was there? Did you forget that I saw what you were doing?"

"If you saw it, why are you asking me anything?" Ziva said, finally getting angry.

"I thought you might have a good explanation. I guess not. And, if you don't cut the attitude, you can stay home until next Friday. How does that sound?"

Abruptly, Ziva stood and stormed out, backpack on her shoulder. She was gone in just a minute, leaving McGee and Gibbs staring in shock at her brazen attitude.

"McGee, what do you have to say about your behaviour? What made you think it was okay to mess with NCIS work?" Gibbs asked.

"I only meant to prank him with that report. I thought he had saved it on a disk. I didn't mean to cause him to redo anything." McGee shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I'll apologise to Tony when he comes in."

"See that you do. And, you had better mean that apology, McGee, otherwise you will be in a lot of trouble." Gibbs sighed and softened his tone. "I'm going for coffee. Tell Tony I want to speak with him when I get back."