Here's the next chapter to how McGee is coping, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I do hope to update again soon as I have already started chapter three but school keeps you very busy especially catching up on coursework as well as the usual homework. I am sorry for any mistakes, English isn't my strongest subject although I do proof read. Reviews are appreciated :)

After finding that the director had reinstated him McGee was thrilled, he sent Scarlet off to school and he was ready himself in under ten minutes. Five minutes later he found himself outside NCIS HQ, he almost ran to the elevator whilst lost in the excitement. He strolled into the bullpen grinning from ear to ear glad to see that nothing had changed however, Tony and Ziva not only looked shocked but also saddened by his return, maybe even disappointed. McGee's heart immediately sank at the realisation of what he had done. "Look I'm really sorry, nothing bad happened in the end anyway."

"Wow Probie back 30 seconds and you have already broken rule #6. Just one question, what made you think that you could walk in here and everything would go back to normal because an apology doesn't cut it?" said Tony.

"But -I I." McGee stuttered before bring interrupted by Ziva.

"No buts McGee you nearly shot someone which would have made you a murderer, jeopardised an investigation and worst of all made Gibbs consider shooting you which would have left your daughter without a mother and a father!" Ziva exclaimed. Everyone agreed to not talk about Scarlet's mum unless it was necessary but to Ziva it felt was necessary thinking she might get through to McGee.

"I can't change the past even if I want to but I can change the future if you give me half a chance" stated McGee.

"I think I'm able to forgive you McGee as the only person you hurt was yourself but trusting you will take time, especially with a gun"

"Same story here McProbie. I forgive easily but as you can tell from my extensive movie knowledge I don't forget a lot of things"

McGee got half way to his desk when Gibbs stepped into the bull pen and whispered "play nice with Tony I don't want my second dead NCIS agent of the day" then walked to his desk and shouted "gear up! Dead NCIS agent in the alley out back. McGee stay put I can't have you working a case first day back and figure out how to get this computer working then go and help Abby, she has some evidence mailed over from LA and I need it cleared before I get back with the new evidence.

"On it boss" replied McGee.

As the rest of his team left McGee switched the plug on for his bosses computer and left for Abby's lab.

Once he arrived he was greeted by some very loud music and a surprisingly short display of affection. Before McGee had the chance to think about speaking Abby interrupted saying "congrats McGee, I really thought you had lost you job forever but now you can work with me which you don't seem too happy about"

"It's not you Abby it's just that Gibbs won't let me work any cases for at least a week"

"Are you sure? It could be the director"

"I'm sure, it's Gibbs, I can tell"

"Maybe it's for the best McGee, it's only a week and you get to prove yourself to Gibbs this way"

"I suppose"

"Great now I need your help, you start looking for fingerprints; I'll run everything for DNA"

"Yes boss" chuckled McGee.

Meanwhile Gibbs was outside shouting orders to Ziva and Tony wondering what was taking so long.

"We can't work any quicker boss there's only two of us and you're busy with paperwork" stated DiNozzo

"Where you goin boss?"

"To fetch some more man power"

Gibbs left in quite a hurry wrecking his brains on who to call in. Then after five minutes he went and consulted with the director who approved Gibbs' decision. Gibbs then headed down to Abby's lab with Caf-Pow and spoke "McGee with me" as he handed Abby her favourite drink. On their way back to the crime scene Gibbs explained that he needed the extra pair of hands to speed up the investigation.

"I'm glad you picked me boss and by the way you just needed to switch your computer plug on"

"I knew that"

The pair then arrived at the crime scene where Tony almost dropped the camera in disbelief and by doing so he received the Gibbs glare and quietly went back to work. McGee then asked "what have I missed?"

"Not that. much Probie. I hear that Gibbs had to set you back a few years" replied DiNozzo.

"Yeah but it's worth it."

"But weren't you going to graduate with equivalent qualifications as Tony in six months?" questioned Ziva whilst interrupting the pair.

McGee simply replied "not quite but as I said, it's worth it" but Tony noticed the agitated look on his face as Ziva questioned him which as usual gave Tony an idea, he was going to see exactly how far he could push McGee.

"Just to think McGee you were only six months away from me no longer calling you Probie" said Tony with a smirk on his face.

"Oh ha ha funny, do you know what's funnier? It wasn't six months; it wasn't three months or two but one. One month Tony"

"I'm sorry McGee" replied Ziva

"Why are you apologising? It was his own fault, we didn't tell him to go to our prime suspects house and threaten to shoot him who later turned out to actually be guilty. In fact if it wasn't for us he would have pulled the trigger and would be in jail right now!" exclaimed Tony.

"Thanks for the reminder Tony, I was trying to turn over a new leaf but that is obviously not going to happen"

On that Gibbs arrived and could sense how high the tension was between his team so he decided to intervene. "Ziva ring Ducky and tell him and Palmer to hurry up whist I sort this out." Tony felt scared of Gibbs for the first time in months whereas McGee didn't flinch. "I don't care who has said what about who just finish the job in hand and I will speak to all of you before the day is up." This just angered McGee further and he stormed inside to get some peace which was short lived as Gibbs almost immediately followed him telling him to go back outside and finish the job he started, to Gibbs' surprise McGee obeyed.

Luckily it only took Ducky, once he arrived, fifteen minutes to examine the body and crime scene so as soon as the body was bagged McGee snuck inside hoping to avoid Gibbs and his 'talk' but, as usual Gibbs' famous gut sniffed him out only two minutes later. Gibbs then called Tony and Ziva to his desk where he had already made McGee sit; both agents pulled a chair with Ziva in between the two squabbling boys. Tony liked the idea of sitting together like this but his thought was interrupted by a sudden "So?"

"So what boss?" questioned Tony

"What happened in the alley?"

"Tony was pressing my buttons boss" replied McGee

"Liar!" Announced DiNozzo

"Well one of you is lying, so who is it? Ziva?"

"This had nothing to do with me apart from the video recording on my new camera phone which I put in my pocket so it's only audio. I was recording so in a few years McGee would remember his first case back fondly but obviously it never happened, it cuts off when I had to ring Ducky but you were there from that point onwards"

"Hand it over then Ziva"

"Don't you think you should trust your own team to tell you the truth first?"

"Well it's obvious neither of these two are going to tell me" Gibbs explained as Ziva handed over her phone with earphones. Gibbs then went to think in his office and called DiNozzo in after only two trips in the elevator. With them being the only two in there Gibbs flipped the power switch. "DiNozzo if you do anything like that again it will be you trying to get your badge back, it's hard enough for McGee to keep his temper without you sending him mental and personally one dead body is enough for me"

"He shouldn't be here if he is set off that easily besides the old McGee would nev-"

"He's still the same McGee DiNozzo" Gibbs stated whilst cutting off his senior agent mid-sentence and switching the power back on. "Now go out there and apologise to McGee"

"Yes boss" Tony was really surprised that he got off that lightly, he didn't even get a head slap. He walked up to McGee and said "sorry Probie I will try to be more sensitive from now on", he then proceeded to take a seat at his desk as he received a slap across the back of his head with a book along with the words "I'm warning you" from Gibbs.

The rest of the day went by without a hitch until McGee returned from his daily psych appointment with Ducky. Tony could see that McGee was at his weakest point and with Gibbs in a meeting with the director and Ziva was checking out Abby's latest finds in the lab he chose to strike starting off by unsuspectingly asking how Scarlet was and how school was for her but McGee was having none of it when he told Tony to "get lost."

After this response Tony realised he had to change his tactics and after a minute of deafening silence he had a brilliant idea. "Hey Probie, I think I might have a new nickname for you" McGee just blanked him further "can you guess what it is, it's from a movie?" McGee continued to ignore DiNozzo then he announced the nickname "well I'll just tell you then, it's the Hulk" Tony said grinning from ear to ear. McGee then looked up from his computer and saw what a kick Tony was getting from the display of anger on his face.

"You know Tony in all the years I have been here I've always found you annoying but now you're just pushing your luck"

On that Gibbs came out of the director's office to pick up something he left on his desk intentionally just to check up on McGee knowing he would have recently returned from Ducky's lab but got distracted by Tony's odd question "hey boss which is better Probie or Hulk?"

He received a simple response of "drop it DiNozzo" as he walked off failing to notice the angry expression on McGee's face.

"I think he prefers Hulk don't you?"

"I don't understand, why are you hell bent on setting me off, I can lose my job?"

"So what, we can't have someone on our team who can flip at any moment and ruin an investigation, it's too dangerous"

"So that's all I am to you now, a liability?"

"Yeah, just like to Hulk on a spaceship"

Then Tony finally got what he wanted which was both good and bad news. Good news because he could now prove McGee was too easily set off. The bad news was that it ended with Tony having a black eye, broken nose and the temporary loss of his legs due to where McGee kicked him, not to mention the fact that Tony was unconscious and McGee still continued punching giving him two cracked ribs. At this point three people were trying to stop McGee and failing. Gibbs could hear all of the noise from the director's office but had only just clocked that it was McGee, he then ran as fast as he possibly could to stop him but all it took to stop the young agent was "McGee snap out of it you're gonna kill him!" McGee then realised exactly he was doing and stopped. Gibbs then started barking orders "you, get Dr Mallard up here, you call 999 and get an ambulance here and let me put him in cuffs myself!"

All McGee was feeling was regret, he was so annoyed with himself. How could he get so out of control? This is exactly why he went home last time and now he had hurt one of his own team. The director was still in the meeting trying to sort out what Gibbs left her with but she knew exactly what had happened and had to call an early end to the meeting Ziva also had a gut feeling and returned to see Tony unconscious. Ducky immediately turned up at up at the scene and thankfully Tony was still alive, Ducky did what he could until the ambulance arrived and he was rushed to the nearest hospital with Ziva for company, at least then Gibbs knew Tony would be safe from now onwards.

Gibbs was once again left with a mess to sort out and the director to avoid with time running out as he could see the directors room emptying, Jenny must have known what had happened. Now it was Gibbs' turn to be annoyed and angry. He dragged McGee downstairs to autopsy and waited for Ducky to return which was just short of a minute later.

"How nice to see you both, so who am I talking to first?" questioned Ducky on his speedy return

"Why would you talk to Gibbs?" asked McGee

"Because it has been ten ye-, you haven't told him have you?"

"Nope but you just have. Thanks Duck" replied Gibbs

"Am I missing something here, are you saying you have anger issues too?"

"Not just any anger issues Timothy" replied Ducky.

"You are just like me aren't you; you are one of the ten people who have this?"

"Yes McGee, difference is I only flip once every ten years give or take a few weeks and the last time I flipped just happened to be ten years ago so right now you're in the firing line and considering you have just put my longest serving senior agent in hospital you would deserve it but I have a place to go and let my anger out and it's not on people"

"Just show him Jethro"

"You ever wondered why I don't have an office of my own McGee?"

"No boss"

"Well that is because I requested the room be turned into a room where you can take out your feelings, anger issues or not and it has helped a good couple hundred agents throughout its existence"

"Why didn't I know about this?"

"Because nobody ever saw this side to you, the room is upstairs near the director's office, if you need me I'll there for the next hour" Gibbs then left autopsy and walked straight into the waiting elevator.

"So Timothy are you going to tell me what happened?"

"After you answer me this, is that all the time he takes to calm down after a flip?"

"No, this is a usual nightly occurrence; he will be in there for exactly one hour then will leave, normally to go home but this time to see Tony. So what happened?"

"Tony happened; he just kept calling me Probie and Hulk then constantly reminding me that I can't be a senior agent for another three years"

"You do know that you could have appealed against this and could have still been six months away from technically classed as an equivalent senior field agent"

"Yeah but I wanna pass with no hitches unlike Tony"

"You know Jethro probably would have also let you graduate early if you asked nicely but you have no chance now"

"I was gonna ask for the three years to be reduced once the week was up but then I did something this stupid. I didn't even get a thrill or any sense of revenge out of it"

"See now we are getting somewhere. You display exactly the same pattern as Gibbs and I think you will have the same recovery period too"

"How long was his recovery period?"

"That I cannot share with you Timothy but it will pretty much the same if you follow in his footsteps and learn from your mistakes as well as his"

"Just fifty eight minutes until he goes to see Tony, do you think he will let me see him?"

"Well the fact that you're still in cuffs doesn't give me that good an impression"

"Thought not, wanna press the elevator button for me Ducky?"

"Of course Tim" chuckled Ducky "oh and one more thing, don't interrupt him unless you're feeling especially brave".

It took McGee longer than usual to get up the stairs to the director's office after taking a diversion out of the elevator to find something to pick the cuffs with but wisely deciding to leave it after swerving to avoid Abby and keeping his head down in the shame of what he had done. He checked the nearest clock "fifty five minutes" he whispered to himself. He thought really carefully about going in to see Gibbs and ten minutes later just as he was about to tap the door it flung open to the words of "I wondered what had taken you so long, let me guess Ducky warned you"

"Yeah"

"Last time he interrupted me I nearly mistook his face for a punch bag"

"Don't you think we should go and see Tony boss?"

"No, if you're like me you will stay in this room for the remainder of the hour and get rid of all the anger in your body which is why I'm wearing boxing gloves"

"I have a problem with the gloves because my hands are in cuffs behind my back boss"

"I guess you do" Gibbs said whilst spinning McGee around to unlock the cuffs "put these on, they're new so you will have to wear them in" Gibbs handed McGee a new a pair of boxing gloves.

"So there are mine?"

"Yes McGee, if you want them and don't let your feelings take over your mind it will control your speech, that's why you stutter, I figured that out a very long time ago."

"Thanks boss"

Exactly forty five minutes later McGee and Gibbs left the room with Gibbs saying "now, I'm going to see DiNozzo" a wall of guilt hit McGee at the mention of Tony's name "if you're coming you are wearing cuffs at his bedside"

"I don't think he will want to see me and I can't apologise it's against rule six"

"I think I can make an exception for the rule but it's your job to convince Tony"

"I'll do my best boss and thank you"

"Oh and I'm driving, the last time I seen your driving I nearly had a heart attack" Gibbs said smiling with McGee in tow.

Twenty minutes later they arrived at the hospital Tony was in and made their way to his room. Before they entered Gibbs put McGee in cuffs and told him to behave. They walked in and to their surprise Tony was still out cold. Guilt just poured into McGee's heart as the doctor read the long list of injuries, he couldn't look anyone in the eye knowing what he had done but there was some hope as the doctor said that he will pull through and that he would be back at work in a couple of months although it would be a good idea to stay out of the field for a while which Gibbs didn't like the idea of.

It was another three hours until Tony came around with a massive headache and was extremely confused as to what happened and how the last thing he was McGee's fist. Did McGee really do this to him? As he slowly woke up he recovered more and more memories and none of them good, he than recalled not being able to do anything when McGee was punching him and that all of his attempts to stop McGee failed.

As he looked up he saw Gibbs pacing outside with a coffee, Ziva asleep in the chair next to him and McGee in the chair furthest away from him. Nobody had noticed he was awake yet and he didn't want to move so he took longer to make sense of his surroundings and as he did so he noticed that McGee was in handcuffs which provided him with some comfort. Tony tried to move his arm and let out a near silent groan trying not to wake Ziva but it was enough to get McGee's attention, they both sat in silence neither knowing what to say then McGee spoke "Guess you were right, Hulk on a spaceship"

"You prefer Hulk then do ya?"

"Up to you, both are equally annoying"

"What happened McGee, the last thing I remember was hitting the deck from a punch in the face off you?"

"I'm so sorry Tony, I-I just lost it, I had only just come back from Ducky's as well which is the hardest point of the day for me"

"It's my fault too Probie, I wanted to see how far I could push you, I guess I pushed you too far. Did you get fired?"

"Well I have managed to avoid the director this far so I don't know. Should I get Gibbs?"

"Yeah, no hard feelings?" asked Tony

"Fine by me, you're the one in hospital. Hey boss, he's awake" he called to Gibbs also alerting Ziva's supposedly razor sharp hearing.

Gibbs then rushed in, as Gibbs questioned DiNozzo Ziva went to fetch a doctor. The doctor said that DiNozzo had to stay in for a couple of days and that he would need someone to care for him. Ziva explained that she didn't have the room which left McGee and Gibbs. McGee immediately volunteered but was interrupted by Gibbs saying "no chance, he'll stop with me. You two can't work under the same roof so what on earth makes you think you can live together"

"Nice to know you care so much boss" said DiNozzo.

Then the doctor left grinning at DiNozzo's words. Gibbs then slapped him over the head and said "don't ever scare me like that again"

"What? You actually thought that I wouldn't recover from Probie's weakling punches"

"McGee's punches had you out freezing for hours Tony and you're calling him a weakling? That morphine is definitely messing with your head"

"It's out cold Ziva and McProbie couldn't hurt me if he tried" replied DiNozzo as he saw McGee beginning to smile in the background "Boss don't you think you can let the Hulk lose now?"

"Not my decision DiNozzo" replied Gibbs

"I say let the Hulk roam free before he uses the stuff on the table behind him to unpick his own cuffs."

A/N: Don't forget to review, I hope to update soon. :)