By the time Tony came downstairs from his meeting with the director the rest of his team had already arrived. His former team, he quickly amended. The resignation letter burning a hole in his pocket was destined for the shredder and the paperwork for his promotion was already being processed. Jenny had told him he could end his long association with Team Gibbs today. OSP DC wouldn't be ready to be launched for at least a couple more weeks but he could spend his time building the unit's 'A Team' and seeking out projects for them to take on.

As he came downstairs Tony shot off a quick text to Michelle bearing the good news. She knew that the whole reason he'd gone into work early today was to talk to Jenny and she would only worry about him all day if she didn't hear from him. Tony hardly had time to put his phone away before Gibbs got right up in his face. "Where the hell have you been, DiNozzo?" he roared.

"With Jenny," Tony said calmly, carrying on over to his desk.

"And just what have you been doing with my agent?" Gibbs growled.

Tony was a bit startled. He hadn't realised Jenny had followed him downstairs but he was glad she was there to back him up. This had the potential to get ugly. Jenny frowned at Gibbs. "Actually Jethro he's my agent, not yours," she said. "Sometimes I think you forget I'm the director of this agency, not you. Anyway, would you like to tell them the good news, Agent DiNozzo, or shall I?"

"You can," Tony said, starting to pack up his belongings. Watching him Gibbs suddenly had a bad feeling about this. It was clear that DiNozzo was leaving. The question was for how long? The ex-marine turned to Jenny expectantly.

"A formal announcement will be made in the next few days but as of this moment Agent DiNozzo is not a part of this team," Jenny explained. "Effective immediately he is the Manager of the OSP unit which is opening here in Washington DC."

Gasps of shock echoed around the bullpen. It was obvious to Jenny that nobody thought Agent DiNozzo would ever qualify for such a great promotion and of course nobody focused on what a great opportunity this was for him. Gibbs stormed over to his now ex-SFA and got right back up in his face. Jenny moved closer to intervene if she had to. "You running away, DiNozzo?" the team leader growled.

Jenny was pleased to see that Tony handled himself well. The fact that Tony could handle Gibbs was another reason why she thought he would do well in the upper echelons of NCIS. He ceased packing up his belongings and gave Gibbs a glacial look. "I'm being promoted," he said coldly. "There's a difference. Find somebody else to be your whipping boy, Gibbs because I'm done!"

Downstairs in the lab Abby had tears running down her face. Timmy running into the lab, shaking and pale faced, had given her a flashback to the moment she'd found out Kate was dead. McGee's breathless comment of: "Tony's off the team!" had been almost as bad.

Gibbs had dragged Jenny back up to MTAC, probably to try and order her to reverse Tony's promotion, so McGee and Ziva had taken the opportunity to go downstairs and break the news to Abby, Ducky and Jimmy. "Tony can't leave!" Abby sobbed. "Do you think Gibbs will be able to get him back?"

"Probably not," Ziva said, stunned disbelief obvious in her tone. How could Tony, the bumbling clown who had made the last four months of all their lives a nightmare, letting his massive ego run their team, have been promoted? "Tony outranks Gibbs now."

"What will his new title be?" Jimmy asked. If anyone had been paying attention they'd have realised he was the only one who didn't seem surprised by news of Tony's promotion. After months of watching Tony take these people's abuse Jimmy had seen this coming.

"OSP Operations Manager Senior Supervisory Agent, I imagine," McGee said, after a moment of thought.

McGee was just as shocked as Ziva. McGee liked Tony well enough but he had always known that he was a better agent than the older man. His MIT education put him streets ahead of someone with only an Ohio State bachelor in physical education….didn't it? Even so, though McGee knew he wasn't ready for a position like Manager of OSP. That was the job Tony had now, though. McGee couldn't decide whether he had missed something about the former SFA or whether Tony had somehow conned Director Sheppard into making a massive mistake.

"But why would Tony not tell us he wanted to leave?" Abby cried. "We could have talked him out of it!"

Just like the rest of the team Abby didn't take any notice of what a huge opportunity this was for Tony. She couldn't believe that this was happening. They'd only just gotten Gibbs back and now they were loosing Tony. He couldn't leave the team, he just couldn't! Tony was just meant to be Gibbs' SFA and now that her silver fox was back from Mexico things were back to the way they were supposed to be.

A look of dawning comprehension and regret crossed Ducky's face. "Jethro's sudden departure threw us all of balance, I believe," he said sadly. "As Acting Team Leader Anthony had the responsibility of dealing with that placed on his shoulders. We were all so upset, though and didn't want things to change so we pushed him away and fought him every step of the way. I fear that my own anger at Jethro and my worry over Mother's worsening condition may have given Anthony the impression that I didn't believe him to be a good team leader when actually nothing could be further from the truth. We may see each other as family but after the way he was treated I wouldn't be surprised if Anthony doesn't feel that way anymore."

Jimmy was so relieved that his boss and mentor seemed to finally understand. Hopefully things in the morgue would be much more relaxed now and Tony would have another ally. Abby, though was horrified and refused to see the truth. "Ducky, how can you say that?" she shrieked. "Tony wants to leave the team! He can't do that! We only just got Gibbs back!"

Ducky looked at her sympathetically. "My dear girl it was only a mater of time until Anthony moved on once Jethro returned. The team does not need two Supervisory Agents and especially after doing such an exemplary job as Team Leader it wouldn't be right for Anthony to keep playing second fiddle to Jethro when he has the opportunity for career advancement. There's also no reason for him to stay after the way we all treated him. I regret that I couldn't see past my own anger to realise that Anthony was just as hurt by Jethro's departure as we were and even more so because we didn't realise that."

There was a noise behind them and they all turned around to see a slightly sheepish Tony standing in the doorway. After packing up his belongings he'd come downstairs to look for Jimmy. The morgue had been empty, though and he'd traced the younger man to Abby's lab. As he approached the open door he heard some of the conversation going on inside and realised that the reason McGee and David had raced off so quickly after Gibbs and Jenny left was so they could tell Jimmy, Ducky and Abby. Tony knew that eavesdropping wasn't the right thing to do but he was interested to know how the team was taking news of his promotion so he stayed in the shadows and stopped to listen.

Jimmy didn't seem to be bothered by it all. Tony realised that the younger man had become close to him in the past few months and had probably seen this coming. He was glad that at least somebody would still treat him normally.

Tony was so glad that Ducky had finally come around. He'd really missed the old Scot.

Abby, McGee and David's reactions hurt but they were hardly surprising. McGee and David had made it very clear on more than one occasion that they didn't think he was capable of having his own team so they definitely wouldn't think him good enough for his new job. Abby, Tony should have known, wouldn't take this well. Her world revolved around Gibbs and she had a horrible tendency to bulldoze over any truths that she didn't want to acknowledge so Tony should have realised that she would want to fight his promotion.

When the team finally realised he was there Tony stood in the doorway without saying anything. The tension in the air was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Good old Ducky was the first person to try and alleviate it. "Anthony, I am so…."

"It's okay, Ducky," Tony cut him off, not wanting to put either of them through what was bound to have been a really awkward apology. Besides, it wasn't Ducky that he wanted an apology from. The old ME hadn't been anywhere near as horrible to him as everyone else these past few months. "I should have known that you wouldn't have acted like that without a good reason."

Abby flung herself at Tony and hugged him tightly, desperate to talk him out of what she considered to be a huge mistake. "You can't leave, Tony! You just can't!" she pouted. "You need to go up and tell the director that you don't want to leave the team!"

"But I do want to leave, Abby," Tony said harshly, detaching himself from her chokehold. "It's done. Anyway, the reason I came down here Jim, was to see of you had time to go for a coffee. You can come to if you want, Ducky."

Abby, McGee and Ziva looked as though they had been slapped in the face at their non-invite. "Tony can we talk about this later?" McGee asked.

"You guys aren't going to talk me out of this," Tony said. "Oh, and Gibbs is probably looking for you three by now."

McGee and Ziva, especially, flinched. Even they had noticed that Gibbs had rarely been anything but angry since his return from Mexico and they knew that, following the news of Tony's departure, he was going to be in a horrible mood. "Yay!" McGee said sarcastically.

"Good luck," Tony smirked. "Believe me, you're going to need it."