Okay so I lied, there are apparently two more chapters left, this one and an epilogue.

McGee looked out the passenger side window and as he watched the scenery pass him by he wondered for like the hundredth time what exactly made him want to accompany Tony to Philadelphia.

--

"—yeah, same to you, Chief," Tony said before replacing the phone to its cradle he then let his head fall into his hands. Tony was glad that the work day was over actually, seeing how it was almost midnight, the work had been officially over for hours, the twinges that had been bothering for the past hour had gone from being annoying to be being a full fledged headache, now he really wished that he had remembered to buy a bottle of aspirin for his desk drawer. He had run out two weeks ago.

"DiNozzo." Tony looked up to see Gibbs standing in front of his desk.

"Boss?"

"Check in before you leave, when you get there and when you find a room for the night," he said in a voice that said that it was an order, not a suggestion.

"Got it, Boss."

Gibbs nodded. "Go home, get some rest, you look like crap."

Tony just gave him a lopsided grin that didn't fool him one bit and a small shrug. "Night, Boss."

Gibbs watched as his senior field agent collected his things and walked towards the elevator. "If you're not at your desk on Monday at 0700 there had better be a damn good reason," he said right before the elevator doors closed and Tony just gave him a sloppy salute. The door had shut right after that and Gibbs wasn't sure if his agent saw the smile that appeared on his face, Gibbs may not admit it or even know it sometimes he too fell for the DiNozzo charm.

"Boss?" Gibbs looked up to see McGee standing by his desk so he waited for McGee to say something, anything but that something never came.

"What is it, McGee?" he snapped growing impatient with his junior agent. It was late and he was tired, all he wanted to do was go home, work on his boat and try not to spend the entire weekend worrying about whatever trouble DiNozzo could get into on his own back in Philadelphia; there was a reason why Philadelphia had been the shortest stint.

"I'll make sure Tony checks in."

Gibbs stared intently at McGee before nodding, he wasn't blind to how the younger man had been there for Tony through out the whole case, he was well aware and grateful for that fact. At first glance it would seem that DiNozzo and McGee didn't have a relationship beyond McGee having the self-control needed to not shoot the senior field agent, and if Gibbs was honest with himself it was kind of touch and go for awhile at the beginning, but over time his agents had grown close and they had developed a relationship that was sibling-like in nature, complete with the ribbing of each other because they could and the over protectiveness when one was threatened.

McGee visibly relaxed, he hadn't told Gibbs of his plan to accompany Tony to Philadelphia, he hasn't even told Tony yet, but knowing that their boss approved lifted a weight off his shoulders. Next to Abby, Gibbs was the person who knew and understood Tony the best, getting Gibbs' approval gave McGee the indication that Tony probably wouldn't shut the door on him the moment he told Tony that he'd like to go with him to Philadelphia.

"Go home, McGee, you've got an early start tomorrow."

McGee nodded and was halfway to the elevator before Gibbs' voice stopped him.

"McGee, if I get a call from the police commissioner for any reason other than the fact that you two were on your best behavior then so help me…" Gibbs said leaving the rest of his threat unsaid.

"Gotcha, Boss."

--

Thankfully Tony had not shut the door in his face but he hadn't been the greatest driving companion either so McGee was left to his own devices. As they drew closer to Philadelphia McGee couldn't help but get excited, Tony hardly talked about his time before NCIS, this was McGee's chance to learn something about Tony's past.

"Do you want to get find a motel first or go to the station?" asked McGee, breaking the silence that had permeated the car for almost an hour.

"Station," Tony replied curtly as he directed the car towards the station he hadn't stepped foot in for nearly a decade. Finally after a tense fifteen minutes Tony pulled into a parking lot and stopped the car. "We're here," he said needlessly.

Tony led the way through the station, only pausing shortly at the entrance to say announce himself and to say that he was here to see the chief, and despite having not been in the station for nearly a decade it still felt familiar. He chuckled quietly to himself, he wasn't sure why he had been expecting it to not feel so familiar but he had. Finally, they reached the chief's office and that's when Tony finally turned around to acknowledge McGee.

"Stay here, Tim," he said seriously.

"What? Come on, Tony!" protested McGee. He did not come all this way to just stand in the middle of the Philadelphia police station.

"Please, Tim," Tony said stopping just short of pleading.

McGee stared at his partner for a full five minutes before finally nodding slowly. He didn't like it and really didn't understand it but he just knew that this was something Tony had to do alone.

"I'll just wait here then."

Tony nodded and after hearing that he was allowed admittance Tony entered the office but before he closed the door he mouthed thanks to McGee. McGee sighed, if Tony's meeting with the police chief was anything like the meetings with metro back home then Tony would be a while. Checking his watch he was only slightly surprised to find that it was just past noon, he wondered where the vending machine was. Thinking that he saw one at the other end of the hallway that they had walked through McGee retraced his steps and out of habit discreetly observed the officers working in the squad room as he passed. He smiled slightly when he realized what he was doing; he has been working with Gibbs, Ziva and Tony for way too long. Once he got himself a snack he made his way back to the main area but stopped at the entrance to look at a plaque on the wall. It was a plaque acknowledging the heroic actions of police officers who went above and beyond the call of duty, they had something similar back at NCIS except theirs was much bigger since it wasn't just for those agents assigned to headquarters, it was for all of NCIS agents regardless of their location. McGee's eyebrows shot up when he came across Tony's name, the date indicated that he had been at the Philly PD for just over a year.

"Damn fool almost got himself killed that time," remarked a voice behind McGee. McGee spun around to find himself face to face with a police officer who looked be to about Gibbs' age, complete with graying hair. "You must be with NCIS," he continued at McGee's inquiring look, "they said at the front desk that two NCIS agents were here and I spied DiNozzo walking through, heard he ended up becoming a fed."

"You knew Tony?" asked McGee; with Tony preoccupied at the moment, this would be his chance to learn something about cop Tony.

"Detective Stevens, major crimes squad," the police detective replied sticking out his hand for McGee to shake, "and yeah, Tony was transferred from the organized crime unit to mine about seven months after he started working here."

"Special Agent Tim McGee," McGee replied. "Tony's never mentioned his time here, ever."

"Doesn't surprise me," replied Stevens with a wry smile as he led McGee to his desk, "when things went to hell they went to hell fast."

McGee felt that there was a story there but he was sure that Stevens wouldn't tell it to him. "You said that Tony almost got himself killed?" he asked inclining his head slightly in the direction of the plaque.

"It was an op gone bad, almost a month and a half of work that nearly went down the drain along. We almost lost the officers working it too if it wasn't for one of them, this young, crazy, bordering on reckless, kid who somehow orchestrated their escape on the fly."

"Tony."

"He was out for almost two months recovering from that," Stevens replied absently. "Pretty much as soon as he got back the Nead case popped up, missing persons was short officers so as one of the most junior officers in the unit he was assigned it."

"So that op wasn't the one that went to hell?" asked McGee curious to see what the elder detective would say about the extenuating circumstances that led to Tony leaving a short eighteen months after his arrival.

"Sure that op went bad fast but that was nothing compared that drug op," Detective Stevens said his eyes darkening and McGee knew that the detective wouldn't be sharing anything about that op. If McGee was honest with himself, he wasn't completely sure that he even wanted to know about that op after seeing how Stevens reacted to the mere mention of it. He's seen that darkness before in the eyes of his teammates when they were reminded of a specific case or op and knew that prodding never went anywhere good. "Well, it looks like Tony's done okay for himself," Stevens continued in an attempt to steer the conversation towards less depressing waters.

"I guess you could say that," McGee replied cautiously, unsure of exactly where this was all going.

Detective Stevens smiled at the agent to put him at ease. He didn't know much about Special Agent McGee but he knew enough to peg the younger man as part of the newer generation of cops that he saw come into the force, they were at ease with technology than those of his generation but unsure when faced with the people aspect of the job. It didn't make them bad officers but it usually meant that when faced with the darker side of the job they were green for a lot longer because machines and technology were overwhelmingly more logical than people ever were.

"When Tony arrived here at Philly he was young, just twenty-six, cocky, often overly reckless but also bright, intuitive and damn good at his job. That was the most maddening thing about DiNozzo, for all the excessively reckless stunts he might pull, he also showed so much promise and often found the key to help solve the most frustrating cases. Always thought that he could make detective before he hit thirty if he didn't manage to get himself killed first. I guess someone was able to curb his reckless tendencies, god knows I got enough gray hairs trying."

"Yeah, someone has," replied McGee.

--

"Timmy!" cried Abby engulfing him into a hug the minute he walked into her lab. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Still trying to process the series of events McGee let Abby lead him to her office and didn't even protest when she practically pushed him into her chair.

Abby dropped down to a crouch so that she was level with McGee and frowned when she noticed how much paler he was than usual. "McGee," she said softly getting his attention, "what happened?"

McGee proceeded to tell her about the lead that Tony had found and then how things had gone downhill almost immediately once they reached the Gilmore property just outside Blacksburg, Virginia.

"How could Tony do something so reckless? I mean, he could have been killed!"

Abby gave him a sympathetic smile before answering. "That, my dear Timmy, is nothing; you should have seen him when he first started working here."

"You can't be serious."

"But I am, McGee. Two months after Tony started working here there was a hostage situation and he managed to convince the Marine Sergeant that he would make for a better human shield than his wife and their six-year-old son."

"You're kidding me."

"Nope."

"How'd he get out of that one?"

"Gibbs took the shot," Abby replied with a smile.

--

"That's good," Stevens replied smiling and for the first time McGee got a glimpse of the man Detective Stevens must have been Tony first arrived at Philadelphia.

The door to the chief's office and the two looked over to see Tony shaking hands with an elderly man with dark hair peppered with grays. Tony let his gaze sweep over the room until it landed on the corner that held Detective Stevens' desk and then he smiled.

"DiNozzo, it's good to see you kid," the older detective said getting up and engulfing him in a hug.

"It's good to see you too, Stevens," Tony said smiling and returning the hug. "How's Vicky?"

"Still complaining that I work too much but otherwise good, how long will you be in town for?"

"Not long, just the weekend," he replied.

"It's about the Nead case, isn't it?"

The smile in Tony's eyes was immediately gone and in its place was the shuttered look that McGee was all too familiar with now.

"It's your bottom drawer case, we all have," Steven said sympathetically with a knowing look as he saw Tony's expression go from happy and open to closed and blank. "Just…just don't let another decade go by before you visit again, okay? There's no need to be a stranger," he said extending his hand.

"Got it," Tony replied warmly though the closed off look didn't completely leave his eyes.

McGee said his goodbyes to Detective Stevens and followed Tony out into the bright afternoon light. Tony didn't speak until he maneuvered the car out of the parking lot.

"We're making one more stop before finding a motel if that's okay with you."

"Sure, Tony," McGee replied quietly.