Tony pulled his backpack off the other seat and flung it over his shoulder haphazardly. He then untucked his shirt and ran his hands though his hair. He swaggered across the car park made his way into the NCIS building, almost two hours later than normal. Mike raised his eyebrows at Tony's tardiness.

"S'not like you Tony," The Mike spoke as he waved Tony through the metal detector.

Tony shrugged. "Overslept Mike, what are you gonna do?" He answered innocently.

Mike laughed a deep belly shaking laugh "Overslept my ass, what was her name?" Tony just smiled in response, earning another laugh from the security guard. Tony moved towards the elevator and pressed the button. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the elevator to arrive. He stepped in with ease once it arrived. He spun around and pressed the button to go down, slipping his sunglasses on as the doors closed.

McGee and Ziva's heads snapped up sharply as the elevator beeped. Tony knew they had been wondering where he was, he had even received several calls from both of them which he had ignored. The look of terror on McGee's face told Tony that Gibbs had already begun his part of the act.

"Where have you been?" Ziva hissed as Tony walked around towards his desk. He threw his backpack onto the desk, causing stationary to scatter.

"Oh here and there, you know, around," He answered ambiguously.

"Gibbs has gone ape! He's going to shoot you for being so late," Ziva told him.

Tony put on his most apathetic stare and shrugged "So?"

"So!" Ziva repeated "Are you nuts?" Tony opened his mouth to reply but was beaten to the punch by Gibbs.

"Yeah DiNozzo, are you nuts?" Gibbs snarled from behind him. Tony turned round and frowned. "Answer me DiNozzo, why the hell are you late? This is the second time in two weeks I've had to deal with your irresponsible attitude towards work!" Gibbs shouted. The whole squad room quietened immediately to listen in on the action taking place.

"What's your problem Gibbs? Is it that I have a life and you don't? I had important things to do this morning, what were you doing? Playing with that stupid boat again?" Tony countered. He could hear Ziva and Mcgee suck in breath at his words.

"You have a life? You're a male slut DiNozzo, you spend your time getting as many women as you can into you're bed, what an empty life you lead," Tony looked visibly hurt and Gibbs wondered whether he had gone too far. "If you spent half as much time working here as you do playing Hugh Heffner, I might actually remember why I hired you're lazy ass!"

"I don't need to stay here and hear this. I didn't come to NCIS to be abused. I have a constant headache from being hit on the head!"

"Go on then, run off like you left you're other jobs. Did you leave or did they realise what a waste of space you are and chucked you out?"

"I could ask you the same about your ex-wives!" Gibbs grabbed Tony's shirt tightly.

"You never did know when to keep your trap shut!" Gibbs growled. Tony pushed Gibbs' hand away and stepped back.

"Get you're hands off me you bastard!" Tony put on his most angry expression, the one he saved for undercover work. "I'm sick and tired of you treating me like you own me!"

"I'm sick and tired of having to put up with you everyday when I could get anyone to do your job, hell a dog would do your job better than you!"

"Well you won't have to put up with me any longer!"

"That's right, you're fired!"

"Too late," Tony pulled off his badge and threw it at Gibbs "Cos I quit," Tony grabbed his backpack and without a goodbye he pushed past Gibbs and headed back to the elevator. He could just imagine the shocked faces that he left behind. The phone calls to agents in other parts of the building who had missed the commotion. Even McGee would be phoning Abby right now to tell her the news. He knew it wouldn't be long before he received a call from her begging him to come back. He nearly laughed when Mike raised his eyebrows for the second time that morning.

"See you around Mike," Tony told him before exiting the building. He climbed into his Mustang and drove straight home to do the last of his packing. As he turned onto his street his cell phone began to beep. He flipped it open and answered with a gruff voice, expecting Abby or someone else from work who wanted confirmation that he'd quit. "What!"

"It's me DiNozzo" Gibbs replied with a softer voice than normal.

Tony took a breath before answering. "How's things back at work, didn't leave things too messy did I?" There were no apologies between the two but both knew the other was sorry. Tony and Gibbs never needed words to tell the other how they felt.

"Nah, just the right amount, McGee won't look me in the eye in case I fire him as well, Ziva hasn't said a word since and gossip has spread throughout the agency. Agent Cassidy even phoned me a couple of minutes ago,"

Tony perked up "Really? Did she sound worried about me or glad that I'd left?"

"Stay on track DiNozzo," Gibbs warned although slightly amused at Tony's interest in Paula Cassidy's call.

"Right Boss."

"Fornell is going to meet you at the airport for one last briefing. And I want you to keep you cell on at all times, any sign of trouble and I want you to phone me not Fornell, I'll let the team know what's happening when they need to know,"

"Ok."

Gibbs sighed "I can't believe I'm even letting you do this,"Tony smirked "Tony?"

"Yeah boss?"

"Watch your six."

"Always," Tony shut his phone and stuck it back in his pocket. He turned off the engine and stepped out of his car. It took him a couple of minutes to reach his apartment and only another couple of hours to finish packing and tidying. He had no idea when he would be back. It could be a couple of days or it could be months.