"I DON'T GET IT, what does this mean?" Kate inquired, bouncing a grumpy Tony on her lap, despite his many protests.

"I haven't quite figured that out yet." Ducky regretted to inform the bunch, however relieved he was for the turn of events that had occurred that morning. "I've high hopes that perhaps this signifies his return to adult-hood."

McGee scoffed. "I didn't know he'd reached that stage even before this whole fiasco."

"Ha-ha." the three year-old deadpanned, not at all happy about his current situation. He couldn't recall a single thing, except that he'd been in massive amounts of pain in the van, back at the crime scene, several days ago, and then he'd woken up in his bosses' arms, which had freaked him out considerably, and now he was in the bullpen with his team. He turned to the good doctor and asked, "So, I'm turning back to normal?"

Ducky shrugged eloquently. "Frankly, dear, I'm not entirely certain of anything when it comes to your condition at the moment. You were about this age a few days ago, although you tell us you can't remember a single event from that time-but then, you had the mental capacity of a toddler, and now, you're clearly lucid. This could be seen as a sign towards progress. What that mad scientist did to you whilst you were in captivity must be working, surely." He explained roughly.

Gibbs swiftly grabbed the toddler from Kate and bounced him against his hip a little as he adjusted his grip. Tony found the gesture oddly comfortable and without thinking too much, his tiny hands went to grip at his boss's navy blue shirt. "So, he's getting better then." Gibbs simplified shortly.

Ducky sighed. "I have absolutely no idea; although I would like to look at this new development as a positive one."

Abby strolled in from Gibbs' kitchen, Ziva behind her, and put down a wide plate full of coffee, tea, and pastries. "Bon a petite." she motioned with a little curtsy.

Everyone immediately dug in, thanking Abby and Ziva for the food and drinks. "No coffee for you, kiddo." Gibbs snatched the too-big-cup from Tonys' hands and handed him an apple juice carton on the table.

"Boss!" Tony exclaimed indignantly. "I'm not really three, you know, I just look it." he sighed. He couldn't for the life of him remember anything from the past few days-everything seemed like a very far away dream now, and it would have been, if he weren't still stuck in this miniature body of his. He'd been smaller than other kids his age at three, and it was no different now-Abby had even pointed out that her two year old niece was a little bigger than him.

"Doesn't matter. Coffee's not good for ya'." He retorted quickly, shoving the apple juice back into his hands a second time.

Tony sipped through the straw, embarrassed. He picked at the cake which he and Gibbs were sharing since Gibbs wasn't too fond of sweets, and he was much too small to devour one all by himself.

After a while of talking, the gang departed Gibbs' home one by one, until only Gibbs and Tony remained. Their suspensions would only last another few days before they would be cleared to go back to work, and then, Tony thought, he'd be miserably lonely. He hoped that by then he was back to his adult self.

One Week Later...

"I'm going to kill him Abby."

"McGee! Don't kill Baby Tony!" Abby yelled at the MIT graduate via webcam.

"He's so annoying!" McGee complained.

The teams' suspension had ended rather abruptly three days earlier due to a triple homicide in Washington with NCIS written all over it. Jenny couldn't afford not to put her best team on the case. Ducky, Palmer, and Abby, who all would have been happy to stay home and watch over the fussy toddler had to go along to Washington with Gibbs and the team due to Gibbs lack of patience with the professionals at the Washington headquarters.

Gibbs would have loved to have taken Tony with them, but Jenny had explicitly told him that until Tony was "better" he was not to be seen anywhere near NCIS official business. So, after literally drawing the short straw, McGee was left the designated babysitter.

The first day had passed by pretty smoothly, all things considered. Tony had watched T.V most of the day, stuffed his little face, and tried to convince Tim to let him have some beer. However, two hours into the second day McGee noticed Tony was beginning to act more his physical age again. He wet himself (something he had only done in the short time that he couldn't remember anyway), much to both Tim and Tonys' embarrassment. He had trouble walking-he toddled instead of walking with his usual swagger (which was admittedly very funny to see in a toddler). And his hand eye coördination was a little off-during dinner he got most of the food on himself than in his actual stomach.

And today he was pretty much all over the place. He wet himself again that morning and shamelessly walked to Tims' room and asked him to change him, as if it weren't a big deal. Then at breakfast he ignored his utensils and dug into his Cheerios with his stubby little fingers instead. Tim couldn't tell whether he was reverting back into a child-like mind-state or not, only because every now and then Tony would make a smart alec remark no three year old could possibly come up with, much less utter.

He ran around the house. Broke a lamp-a nice lamp, too, the one his Grandma had given him when he'd first moved into his own place. He refused to eat lunch, on a count of it looked "yucky".

And every hour, on the dot, it was "McGoober! McGoober! McGeek! McNerd!"

"What Tony, what?!"

"I'm bored."

"He's driving me nuts Abby! I don't know how his parents handled him as a kid. I would've died if I had to deal with this every day-" He stopped abruptly, realizing that was a little harsh, and then he noticed the wide-eyed look on Abbys' face through the webcam on his laptop. "What?" Tim flinched, ready to hear an earful from the forensic Goth.

But instead, all that came out was a sad "Tim..." she gestured behind him, disappointment in her eyes.

Confused, McGee looked back, only to be met by the dulled eyes of a three year-old. McGee cringed again. Oh, now he was in for it. Tony was gonna' bug him all day for talking behind his back. Instead of sticking his tongue out at him or flipping him off and calling him "McQueen" or something along those lines, like McGee expected, Tonys' eyes welled up with tears. And after two ragged breaths, he was sobbing.

"I'm sorry Tim. I'm sorry. Don't do that. I'm so sorry!" he cried, his small frame shaking almost violently. Jethro the German Shepherd dog Abby had made McGee keep a while ago, came over immediately and tried to lick the tears away, to no avail. Tony was absolutely inconsolable.

Tim was more than startled. He was flabbergasted. "T-Tony. Don't cry. Look, it's not a big deal. It's ok." He quickly turned to the webcam, where Abbys' distraught face greeted him. "What the hell do I do?!" he half-whispered. "Isn't he over reacting a little?!"

Abby glared at Tim. "McIdiot!" she whispered back, tears in her own eyes now. "Don't you remember, Tonys' mom died when he was a kid!"

Tims' heart sunk. "Oh God." How could he have forgotten? He'd come across it one day when he was trying to pull a counter prank on Tony. He'd managed to hack into his personal files to get some dirt on him, and discovered the terrible tragedy of his mothers' suicide. Immediately Tim turned off the webcam, despite a protesting Abigail, and ran over to the toddler. He scooped him up in his arms and hushed him.

"Tony, Tony, please hush. It's ok. I'm sorry." He ranted.

But Tony continued to rack with sobs. "Don't..." he gasped. "Don't die." he cried. "I'll be good. I'm sorry Tim. I'm sorry!" Tony clung to Tim desperately, his little nails practically digging into his skin. "Please."

Tim wanted to kick himself. How could he have said something so idiotic and inconsiderate? He wouldn't have said something so mean to DiNozzo as an adult, much less in the form of a mere child! "Tony I didn't mean to say something so awful. I'm not going to die. I promise."

Tony, however, didn't stop crying. He continued well into the evening, and, eventually, fell asleep, exhausted, his small chest heaving.

McGee sighed profoundly as he tucked in the toddler. He hoped everything would be back to "normal" by tomorrow morning.

Three Days Later...

"Gosh that took forever!" Abby stretched. "I can't wait to see our little snuggle bunny." she hadn't told Gibbs or any of the team about the incident between McGee and Tony she'd seen three days ago via webcam, but only because she didn't want to get him into trouble. She hoped three days was enough for Tim to take back those awful words and make Tony feel better. She was surprised he had outright cried, and had the terrible feeling that Tonys' mind was reverting to that of a toddlers once again. She sighed, wishing he'd go back to normal again.

Gibbs half-smirked. "I'm sure he'd love that nickname Abbs." He'd wanted to check up on Tony and Tim the entire week they'd been away, but because the case had been so time-consuming and with so many dead end leads, he'd had to settle for Abbys' mini updates every now and then. He couldn't wait to see Tony.

"Do you think Tim is at his widths ends?" Ziva wondered aloud.

"Wits." Kate corrected. "Wits end, Ziva-and to answer your question, yes. I bet Tony's running circles around him as we speak." she laughed.

Tim had gone to Gibbs home as soon as he heard news that the team was on their way back. Tim hadn't said anything to Abby, partly due to the immense quilt he was feeling, about how Tony had fared. It wasn't that he was still hysterical anymore, but he certainly wasn't himself. Tony had anchored himself to Tim-he was stuck to him like glue! If he let him go for more than five minutes Tony would start sobbing! He refused to sleep in his crib, too; he slept with Tim, who worried constantly about accidentally rolling over on the petite toddler during the night and suffocating him-he'd heard a similar story on the Health Channel a while back.

He knew he was in for it with Gibbs, Abby, Ducky, and well...everyone, really, when they arrived and saw the state Tony was in, but he didn't really care anymore, he just wanted to fix Tony. He hoped that seeing Gibbs would make Tony revert back to himself-at least mentally, if not physically.

"Honey we're hooooome!" Abby shouted as she strutted into Gibbs' home, Ducky and the rest in tow.

McGee walked out of the kitchen to greet the NCIS team, toddler locked on his hip. "Welcome back." he muttered, knowing they'd notice soon that something was not right with Tony. Adult DiNozzo was completely gone. He could barely speak in legible sentences anymore. "Um, he uh, he's gone full-fledged toddler again." he explained, at their questioning stares.

Gibbs sighed. "Doesn't matter; we still have time to figure this thing out." he went to reach for the toddler sucking his little thumb, and was surprised when Tony let out an almost frantic wail.

"TIM!" he cried, refusing to let go of the MIT graduates' shirt. "Go'way." Tony yelled at Gibbs.

Gibbs thought the team could hear his heart crack a little inside his chest. He hadn't been gone that long, had he?

"What is wrong with Tony?" Ziva narrowed her eyes.

McGee stumbled over his words in an attempt to explain. "I um well, the thing is, I was kind of frustrated the other day, and I was ranting to Abby about how annoyed I was and I thought Tony's mind might have turned back to a toddlers' and I-I mean, I didn't mean to, but I uh, I didn't think he was in the room, and I ended up saying that I would rather d-die than be the one who had to raise him, and he was behind me when I said it, and uh, he f-freaked out and started crying and the next day, and the next, and today, he's been clinging to me like this. No matter how many times I say I'm sorry, he won't let go." McGee finally breathed.

There was a large pulsing vein on Gibbs forehead that was seconds away from popping, and everyone stepped back a little in anticipation. "You said what?" he tried to keep his voice calm, so as not to startle the already frightened toddler, but it was like trying to reign in a bull.

Kate furrowed her brows. Why was everyone making a big deal out of this? DiNozzo was a pain in the ass-toddler or not.

Ducky went over to McGee, who looked as if he would join Tony, who was still sniffling into his shirt, any minute, and rested his hand on his shoulder gently. "Now now, Jethro, it's not the time to be getting upset. What's done is done, and Timothy is quite obviously remorseful for having said it, isn't that right my boy?"

Tim nodded his head, unable to say much of anything under the heat of Gibbs' threatening glare.

Abby nodded vigorously. "That's right Bossman, he didn't mean to say that, and he's really sorry, so don't be mad, ok?" she pleaded.

Gibbs turned his withering stare towards the Goth. "You knew about this, didn't you? Why the hell wasn't I informed?"

Abby hid behind Ducky, barely. "You were focused on the case-we all were! And I thought if Tim could fix it, you wouldn't have to worry."

Gibbs just shook his head and sighed, and McGee and Abby both cringed outwardly and inwardly. That look was one of disappointment that neither enjoyed being on the receiving end of.

Tony felt horrible.

Inwardly, he was absolutely mortified, embarrassed!-but outwardly, all he could do was cling to Tim and sob if he let him go, or lash out at those who tried, in vain, to hold him. He couldn't do anything to control any of his reactions or the overwhelming feelings he had. Logically, he knew Tim would be alright if he let him out of his sight, even for a minute, but his brain was all mush at the moment, and all he could see when Tim walked away was his mothers' still corpse.

Not even the crestfallen look on Gibbs' face when he refused to go with him made much of an impression on the toddler. He just needed to know that Tim was safe. That he wouldn't be the cause of another death. His father had made if quite clear to him years ago that he was at fault for what his mother had done that day.

A.N. Sorry for the long wait. Life. Etc. I'll have the next chapter up sometime in the next two weeks.