Four days earlier…
"Thank you for joining us Agent DiNozzo," Vance drawls as Tony slinks into the room, making sure to look suitably abashed for being late.
Getting a summons from the Director of NCIS is never a good thing in his book. Vance isn't exactly president of his fan club and all the way up the stairs he's been going over the things he's done recently that could have gotten him in trouble. It isn't a short list, and setting off confetti cannons in the squad room last week is probably the least harmless of them all. Just thinking about the prank has him smiling all over again. Jerry was a good guy - Tony can't believe everyone had a problem with him.
"Something amusing you?" Vance's abrupt displeased tone cuts through his day dreaming and brings him back to the current situation.
"Sorry," Tony blurts and drops the smile, replacing it with his professional mask within the blink of an eye. "You wanted to see me?"
Vance leans back in his chair and throws a tooth pick in his mouth, looking him up and down. His assessing gaze tells Tony whatever's coming next isn't going to bring his smile back.
"Yeah, we did." A voice from behind surprises him. "Thirty minutes ago."
"Boss?" Tony spins on the spot, schooling his features as soon as he faces Gibbs. "You see I would have been on time, but I had this-"
"Let's get to this shall we, I would like to be joining my family for Christmas sometime this week." Vance says on standing, eyebrows raised giving Gibbs a pointed look.
Tony mouths an apology at Gibbs, but one look tells him it's pointless. The boss has his 'I'll deal with you later' glare on, which usually means there are more pressing matters at hand. Vance ignores their silent conversation and instructs them to take a seat each at the conference table.
He just gets himself settled and prepared to listen to whatever's so important that Gibbs and Vance have to tell him together when McGee bursts through the door. Tony stares at him in surprise, not because he was there, but because Tim looks not to him but directly at Vance, and gives him an agreeing nod before standing confidently in front of them under the plasma.
"Okay, what is this, an intervention?" Tony jokes, sitting up straighter in the chair, observing the reaction of each of them.
"Not this time Tony," McGee says seriously, referring back to last week when he'd not exactly been acting himself after hearing about Brenda Bitner's accident and he and Ziva had seen fit to talk to him about it.
"Agent DiNozzo we have a situation." Vance announces.
Tony swings his glance from McGee to Vance and back to McGee again, both look equally disturbed, in their own way, but neither offer him anymore of an explanation. He finally locks his gaze onto Gibbs for answers, but as usual the boss gives nothing away.
"Okay," he smiles nervously, still unsure why everyone is staring at him like he's attending his own funeral.
"A whistle blower contacted our tip hotline two nights ago," Vance stares at him, "she has accused a military funded hospital of conducting experiments on personnel returning from Afghanistan. McGee-" Vance hands the narrative over with a nod.
"According to our source, who we still aren't sure who she is, a select group of patients on the secure ward are being treated for PTSD with Ecstasy." McGee clicks his clicker.
"Well it's experimental but not illegal, but don't they have a trial somewhere?" Tony asks vaguely, and receiving three prolonged glares in return adds, "What? I read."
"Yeah, Playboy-" McGee forgets himself and snaps.
"McGee." Gibbs utters and they all reset, getting back on track.
"It's being trialled, but not only does this hospital not have the paper to support one our tipper has suggested several of the patients being experimented on have gone missing."
"So we investigate, find out if she's telling the truth?" Tony asks, thinking everyone else in the room is far too on edge for it to be that simple.
"We've already established that she is." Vance tells him. "CID took control of the investigation after it was deemed to only involve army personnel."
"She agreed to a meeting with them last night, but never showed." McGee continued.
"And we think someone many have tried to shut her up." Tony asks, trying for the life of him to work out where this is going.
"Yes." Vance snaps, pinning him with a glare. "You know St Elizabeth's?"
"Should I?" Tony blinks innocently, sensing this was all leading somewhere he wouldn't like.
"I hope not," Vance says straight faced, "it's a psychiatric asylum."
And on cue with his best Nicholson impression, Tony quotes; "That's right, Mr. Martini. There is an Easter Bunny. " He immediately utters an apology to the room and forces a serious look of concentration on his face.
"St Elizabeth's shares ground with a private medical facility, its future as a functioning hospital is unsure, they need funding-"
"And discovering a treatment for PTSD will no doubt secure plenty." Tony catches on. "So, who's the whistle-blower?"
"After going through personnel records all night I've narrowed the possibilities down to five employees," McGee clicks his clicker again and five I.D's appear on the screen, "three are nurses, which we are thinking is more likely, but only one" the screen zeros in on one picture, a blond in her thirties, "was reported missing this morning by her roommate. Samantha Clark has been a nurse at St Elizabeth's two years since leaving the Navy with an honourable discharge after three tours, recently promoted to the secure ward in November."
"CID is going to continue with the investigation on the outside, but we have been asked to locate and bring in Ms Clark,"
"If she's still alive," Gibbs interrupts, leading Tony to believe the boss and Vance have already crossed horns over how this has been handled so far.
Tony clears his throat to break the building tension. "How?"
"Well she was last seen leaving for work early yesterday morning." McGee answers. "But since the local PD won't class her as officially missing for another forty-eight hours-"
"And any snooping around the hospital on our part may tip off the bad guys, got it, so undercover?" Tony keeps the plastic smile plastered to his face, finally putting two and two together and making four, he really shouldn't be surprised, "And of course I'm the natural choice for an undercover assignment in the loony bin…"
"Calm down DiNozzo," Gibbs stops him before he can truly get going.
Vance looks mildly amused by his indignation, which makes Tony more than a little suspicious, "We want you to go in as an orderly Agent DiNozzo."
"Oh," Tony smiles, this time embarrassed. "That's okay then."
"Depends…" Gibbs growls, confirming Tony's earlier suspicions that he isn't happy about this.
"Don't trust me boss?" Tony can't help but ask, thinking his mind has gone back to the whole La Grenouille affair from three years ago.
Vance simply chews his tooth pick and ignores them. "Agent McGee will ensure you take the place of a new employee who should be starting work tomorrow, but once you are in contact will be limited. We cannot risk having your cover blown is that understood?"
Tony frowns and leans back in his chair to look at Gibbs sitting next to him. "Why all the stealthiness for a bunch of ecstasy pushing doctors?"
"A government funded facility that's responsible for the mental health of service men and woman returning from the middle east has been accused of conducting illegal human test trials, the only witness willing to testify is missing, how many people do you think we should involve Agent DiNozzo?" Vance spits angrily.
"You're worried the story may get out." Tony guesses giving Vance his most cunning narrowed eyed expression.
Vance stares at him like he wants to be pissed off but can't bring himself to do it because he knows he's right. "SecNav would prefer we handled this… quietly." He says stepping back from the table.
Tony grins maddeningly, which by the look on his face simultaneously amuses and ticks him off.
"That's all well and good, but I've had undercover assignments before," Tony looks to Gibbs who seems to be very subtly smiling proudly back, "and I've learnt its best not to go this alone."
"He has a point Leon." Gibbs stretches out the name as he too looks to Vance.
"Well SecNav doesn't agree and it's his Navy." Vance tosses his chewed tooth pick into the waste basket only to immediately start in on a fresh one, "You're in tomorrow 8am, have your cover story rehearsed and solid by then, dismissed."
Looks exchange between the three of them, Gibbs nods for him and McGee to go. Tony feels a little unsure about leaving them alone to discuss him and his new assignment, but has learnt over the years that Gibbs only has his best interests at heart so trusts he won't undermine him by suggesting he can't do this. La Grenouille was one of the most blotched undercover assignments of his career, but he's learnt from his mistakes and isn't going to be making them again.
"You going to be okay, Tony?" McGee asks him as they walk down the stairs together, leaving Vance and Gibbs to fight over the finer points.
Tony considers his question. Does the Probie think the same as Gibbs? That he can't handle this? Sure he's been a little erratic recently, so much has happened this year even he's been driven to question his own place in the world and whether he really is the person he thinks he is. Hearing about Brenda Bitner last week had been the last straw. It was the final blow that sent him over the edge of the cliff he'd been teetering on since January, when his father showed up out of the blue and changed what he thought he knew about his life. But that doesn't mean he's finished, just a little battered and bruised is all.
His attempt at a blasé attitude to recent events isn't enough to convince himself everything is fine though. He remembers his father's first visit vividly, Gibbs was questioning his ability to do his job back then, the Probie is doing it now. Somewhere along the line they'd started to think less of him, started to believe he can't handle things as well as he could before Jeanne Benoit ripped his heart out immediately after he destroyed hers.
This was a long time coming then he realises in surprise and despite all that has happened in-between it's clear to him now what needs to be done. He needs to prove himself, prove he's capable and win back their respect, all in one move. Nothing less will be noticed.
With thoughts of redemption swimming through his head, before they reach the bottom few steps, Tony turns sideways to look at McGee and smiles, "Of course Probie, it's what I do."
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A/N: That's all for today, hope you enjoyed? Reviews, questions, suggestions all very welcome, chapter 3 will be along soon thanks for reading ;)