Disclaimer: still not mine. Did order by post, so maybe at the end of the week...

A/N: wow, another chapter :o I have to be honest, this one was part of chapter 8 but in my opinion it was a bit too long, so I cut it into 2 chapters. Tips/ideas/suggestions are always welcome, same goes for REVIEWS :P

Ziva had noticed the change in Tony's behavior too. But she refused to talk about it in any way. She still got mad when she remembered their fight in the hospital. But she couldn't not care. He was in her mind almost every minute when she was in the bullpen. Even when she was working on a report, it bothered her. Now she tried to read a cold case file, vaguely remembering it could have something to do with their latest case, the murder of a young woman, but after a few minutes she found herself looking over the report to the desk on the other side of the bullpen. Tony was typing fast and apparently concentrating.

'Something to tell me David?' Tony asked without looking up.

'That depends,' Ziva dropped the case file on her desk. Tony stopped typing and looked at her, waiting. 'If you've got an apology to give me,' Ziva was as blunt as Tony was. If he could play that game, he wasn't the only one. Tony stared at her a few minutes. His face was blank, emotionless. He always seemed to be without emotions these days. When he made a joke, he didn't mean it; he just did it because his teammates expected him to. When he smiled, the smile never went up to his eyes.

'I'm sorry,' he said. Without waiting for an answer, he started to type again. Ziva got her knife, and resisted the urge to throw it at him. It wouldn't change a thing. She had to try other ways to get to him. She didn't care if he got mad at her; actually she was really sorry about walking away from his room in the hospital. But it was either that or strangling him with her bare hands. She didn't understand why he did this to himself. If it was necessary to get him mad at her, so that he would show how he really felt, it would be a small price to pay. So if she got the chance, she would definitely grab it.

Jenny had made her decision: after the case that Gibbs and his team were handling now, a new field agent would join the team. She found an agent who she thought could handle the job. His name was John River, 31 years old, and he had been NCIS agent for almost five years in San Diego. He was good at his job, and his former team leader wasn't happy that he wanted to transfer, but let him go eventually. He would work with them until the case was solved, after that he would be a fully operational field agent. It was Friday afternoon when John walked into the bullpen, where only Ziva and McGee were seating.

He carried a box with his belongings, and placed it on Tony's desk. Ziva saw it and frowned. Her eyes went to McGee, who looked up at the visitor. He had missed the box at first, but saw the nod Ziva gave with her head in the direction of the desk. McGee looked at it and made a determined face.

'I'm guessing you're the new field agent,' he said, and stood up behind his desk. He walked over to John.

'If this is where Gibbs' is seated, I am,' John smiled and offered his hand at McGee. McGee ignored it, and looked at the box at Tony's desk.

'Those your things?'

'Yeah,' John hesitated for a moment, his hand still in the air. Finally he retracted it, and placed it a bit uncomfortably in his pocket. 'So I'm guessing that's my spot?' he indicated at the same desk. 'I heard that your last field agent ended up in a wheelchair or something?' Ziva watched the conversation but hadn't moved.

'No that is not your place,' McGee answered the question. He took the box, pushed it into John's arms and pointed at the desk at the other end of the bullpen, behind his own desk. It was separated from the rest with a partition. 'That is your desk,' and without a further look he walked back to his desk and sat back down. His eyes met Ziva's, and she gave him an encouraging smile.

Minutes later Gibbs walked in, a fresh cup of coffee in his hands, and he tossed his jacket behind his desk. John stood up hastily.

'Special Agent Gibbs?' he asked.

'You are?'

'Special Agent John River, the new field agent,' John answered quickly. Gibbs looked at him a moment, and looked around.

'Where's your stuff?'

'Over there Sir. I was wondering if I couldn't sit right he . . .' he started. McGee froze for a second and looked up. Had he done the right thing?

'Who placed you over there?' Gibbs asked. John pointed at McGee.

'He did, Sir, but I thought that . . .' Gibbs walked over to McGee's desk and placed the coffee in front of him.

'Good job McGee. So, how are you on the report?'

'Almost ready Boss,' McGee looked surprised from the coffee to Gibbs and back. 'I know it's later than you wanted but . . .'

'Don't worry about it, take your time,' Gibbs smiled and walked back to his own desk. John looked confused, and still stood in the middle of the bullpen.

'Can I help you?'

'Ehm . . . do you have any work for me Sir?'

'Don't call me sir. Go down with Ziva to meet Abby, our forensic scientist, and Ducky, our ME,' he looked at Ziva who made a face. 'Be nice Ziva! Tell Abby the same,' Gibbs sighed. So the new guy arrived. He had read the file, and he appeared to be a good agent. Gibbs wondered how long he would stay. Trying to take Tony's desk wasn't the smartest thing he could have done. McGee didn't seem to like him, Ziva wasn't happy with his arrival and Abby . . . But Abby wasn't the worst. Tony didn't know yet. How the hell was he going to tell Tony that he was replaced in the field? At least he wasn't around when River walked in. But he could be back any minute with the lunch.

Ziva stood in the elevator next to John, who seemed nervous. Which wasn't strange, he had expected his arrival in D.C. to be different. Friendlier.

'Can I ask you something?' he tried.

'Sure,' Ziva didn't look at him.

'Why are you so . . . offensive? I know it must be hard to get a new member in a team, but it's not my fault that I'm replacing Special Agent DiNozzo,' Ziva reached out her hand, and pushed the emergency stop. She turned at her new partner and invaded, without hesitation, his personal space. He was a few inches taller than she was, and she could almost look straight into his eyes.

'You are not replacing anyone. You are here temporarily because Tony will be back in the field. If you can't accept that, then I suggest you leave as soon as possible. Are we clear?'

'Very,' John murmured, and Ziva turned away to push the emergency stop. One thing was for sure. That DiNozzo guy really must be something special, if he wasn't even allowed to sit at his desk.

Minutes later when Tony arrived in the bullpen. He brought in the ordered lunch and placed the different orders on the desks. Gibbs took his, and looked at Tony, without saying anything.

'What's wrong?' Tony asked suspiciously.

'There is a new agent in the team,' Gibbs started. He watched Tony carefully. A hint of emotion came in his eyes, but then his expression became blank.

'Is he good?'

'Don't know yet,'

'Where is he?'

'Down to see Abby and Ducky with Ziva. I tried to convince her to play nice. I don't think it's necessary to get rid of him the messy way. Too much paperwork,' Gibbs' gave a hint of a smile. Tony forced a laugh.

'You sure that she didn't take her knife with her?'

'Nope. She's learned enough the last years. So did you,' he suddenly steered the conversation to a touchier subject. These days everything that was even remotely about Tony, was touchy. And yes, there it was again: it seemed as if he closed himself off from the topic, his eyes turned darker, a stubborn expression on his face.

'You're a good teacher Boss. Still wonder where you learned to teach like that,' Tony answered with a hint of a smile on his lips, and backed away to his own desk. He simply refused to talk about himself. When someone tried, he found within seconds a way to chance the discussion to another subject. He thanked his undercover experience for it. Gibbs knew exactly what he did and how he did it. Tony had been a very good undercover agent, and now he used every inch of experience to avoid being the subject of a conversation. Damn undercover ops.

Tony forced himself to keep working. He was done typing a report, and now he was going through some cold cases. He didn't want to stop working. Not working meant thinking. Thinking was bad. He didn't see that Gibbs was watching him, or that McGee was looking a little anxious.

Twenty minutes later Ziva and John returned from the lab. John saw Tony behind his desk, reading a report. He hesitated for a moment, after the very unfriendly ways he was treated downstairs, Abby had almost literally kicked him out of her lab, he didn't know how he needed to act. If he didn't introduced himself, things would be awkward later on. If he did introduce himself, things would be awkward immediately. Better get it over with then.

John walked over to Tony's desk, and smiled politely. 'Hi, you must be Anthony DiNozzo?'

Tony had stopped reading the report the moment his new colleague walked in. He hadn't looked up though: he hadn't decided how he would act. Being polite would probably make the transition easier for the team. Being a jerk would make feel him better. He finally looked up and smiled.

'Yes, I am. You are the new field agent I presume?' He offered a hand, which River shook with a hint of confusing in his eyes.

'That's right. I'm sorry that you ended up like this,'

'I'm getting used to it,' Tony lied without hesitation. John was surprised by the complete lack of hostility in Tony's voice and body language. It was a pleasant change though; probably the rest of his team had more trouble with adjusting to the new situation than the guy himself. He opened his mouth to say something when Gibbs' phone rang.

'Gibbs,'

'Yeah. Ok. Thanks for the heads up,' he hang up, grabbed his badge and gun. McGee and Ziva followed swiftly.

'You,' Gibbs nodded to River, 'Grab your gear, you're with me.' Seconds later the bullpen was almost empty. Tony sat at his desk, his eyes on the report in front of him. His mind however, was with the team that had just left the building. So this was how it's going to be. They would move out, he would stay behind. They would capture bad guys, he would type up reports. Because he was a field agent. He wondered why Gibbs even let him sit at his desk. Maybe because he wanted him to teach that River-guy all the tricks in his book? What else was he good for? They hadn't even looked at him. No words like 'see you soon' or something like that. No orders from Gibbs to look for something. They just left him. He started to wonder why Gibbs even let him stay on his desk.

The ring of his desk phone interrupted his dark train of thoughts.

'DiNozzo . . . Hey Abs how . . . sure, I'll be down in a minute,' He hung up the phone, and left his desk to join Abby in her lab. She never did that. Well, she probably got a call from Gibbs that the disabled one was lonely or something.

The week passed in a haze. It wasn't the kind of haze where things were happening so quickly that it was hard to keep track. It was the kind of haze that occurred when every day was the same as the previous and the next. Tony found it boring. He got sick and tired of people trying to cheer him up, or who came to him to talk to him, especially when they never had done it before. He felt immediately that they were searching for stuff to talk about. They tried too hard. So when they came along, he put on his everything-is-fine-smile combined with his I'm-so-sorry-but-I'm-kind-off-busy-attitude so that they would back off, feeling like they did him a favor. With a bit of luck they wouldn't come back. At a certain point he noticed that it worked with McGee and River pretty well to. But maybe that was because of the case that they were working on.

'Tony, what do you think?'

'About what McGee?'

'Our case,' he was nodding to the plasma screen. The last fifteen minutes he had been discussing with Ziva and River about who was most likely the serial killer they were after. They were standing in front of the screen, next to each other. Looking like a . . . team. Tony had been trying to work on another report. It turned out that most of the time he was staring in space, thinking about his old life. How he would stand there, discussing leads, suspects, tactics. God he missed it. Suddenly McGee had turned to him, as if he suddenly remembered that maybe Tony could help them out.

'Don't know Probie. You're kind of blocking the view,' Tony plastered a smile on his face. He wheeled around his desk, and looked at the plasma. Ziva stood left from him, McGee right, 'just like the old days' flashed through Tony's head. River stood behind them. He pushed the thought away, and inspected the pictures he saw.

'He has a thing for NCIS right?'

'Yeah, don't know really what's up with that yet. Every victim so far was somehow connected with us. Mary, 25 years, killed with a head shot. She was the girlfriend of an agent. Patrick, 45 years, head shot, intelligence department. Jocelyn, 31 years, head shot, lab tech. He has made three kills so far. First they thought it was 'just a serial killer,' only last week they discovered the connections with NCIS,' McGee made one last click with the remote and showed the three victims next to each other.

'Who are the suspects?'

'Actually, we are still trying to figure out how the victims are connected. You know, NCIS is pretty big, there must be something more right?'

'What are the connections so far?'

'You really want to know? Nothing, besides the way they are killed and the NCIS thing. Gibbs is on a warpath all day because we can't find more useful information,' McGee rolled his eyes. 'But they were all shot with a sniper rifle. A pretty familiar sniper rifle, I must say,' he looked at Tony intensively. Tony still looked at the pictures in front of him. All the three victims had a bullet hole between their eyes. Suddenly it clicked. He looked at McGee shell shocked.

'No . . .'

'Oh yes,' McGee nodded, his expressions somewhere between the pride of discovering and the shock of knowing.

'But come on! That's like three years ago!'

Ziva looked confused at first, but when she too looked at the pictures of the victims, it began to dawn on her. River had absolutely no clue what they were talking about.

'Do we know what the murder weapon was?' Ziva asked. She feared the answer.

'Abby discovered that the bullets where Lapau Brass. Shot with a sniper rifle. She wasn't one hundred percent sure, and she is still testing it, but the chances are that they were all killed with a - '

'Bravo 51,' Tony whispered. McGee nodded, Ziva turned a bit pale.

'But what does that mean?' John dared to ask.

'It means, that this killer is one sick bastard,' Gibbs answered his question. No one had heard him walking into the bullpen.

'Boss!'

'Got something?'

'Nothing more yet, sorry,'

'Just keep searching, okay? I've got a gut feeling that this isn't just a coincidence,' Gibbs tossed his coat behind his desk, and looked at his team.

'Well, what are you waiting for? I want to know everything about those people that there is to know. Every angle you can think of. Every minor connection possible. Go through cold case files, solved case files, every detail can be important. GO!' he walked out of the bullpen again, and took the stairs towards MTAC. Tony sat still shell shocked; McGee went back to his desk. Ziva kept looking at the pictures. River seemed a bit clueless.

'Can someone please inform me here?' he finally asked. They all were silent for a minute.

'About three years ago,' Tony started. 'We had Kate in our team,' he fell silent again, searching for words. McGee stepped in.

'Kate was killed by a Hamas terrorist. He had a thing against Gibbs, we still don't know what it was. He has tried to kill Abby too, he has held Kate, Ducky and his former assistant hostage in the morgue. After that he disappeared again, but when he returned he shot Kate through her forehead. The murder weapon was a . . .'

John understood. 'Bravo 51. Also known as 'Kate'. Well, that indeed is pretty sick,' he nodded.

Brings back memories, doesn't it? I hope you like still like it :) Thanx for reading!