A/N: This chapter is short, guys. As always, thanks for reading (and hopefully reviewing), and thanks to Meiveva for beta-reading
I'll post the next chapter tomorrow. F.
Gibbs walked into the strangely quiet lab to find his senior agent red-faced, being glared at by a clearly angry Abby. At his entrance, the forensic scientist greeted him.
"Gibbs. Right where you're supposed to be." The last few words were pointedly addressed to DiNozzo.
"Am I missing something here?" Gibbs asked. After a last glare in DiNozzo's direction, Abby switched the feed to the plasma.
"I finished the blast reconstruction, Gibbs. McGee was turning away from the door as the bomb detonated; that's why all of his injuries are to one side. I suppose he got lucky; if something hadn't made him turn, the shrapnel would have hit him right in the chest."
"So what made him turn away from the locker?"
Abby didn't reply; instead she activated the computer model. Gibbs watched in growing anger as the simulated shrapnel passed through the spot where Tony should have been.
"Run it again." His voice was cold. After the second run through, it was even clearer. If DiNozzo had been covering McGee, he should have received at least minor wounds. Keeping his voice icy calm, he addressed the shame-faced agent.
"DiNozzo. Conference room, now."
...
Tony sat at the conference room table, his head bowed while he waited for Gibbs. He'd known this was coming, but he really didn't have an explanation, and he knew Gibbs would be expecting a good one. Wanting to get the job done faster was never an excuse for breaking protocol. He knew that in this case his presence or absence wouldn't have affected the bomb being triggered, but what if it hadn't been a bomb? What if it he'd sent McGee alone into the presence of an armed Marine? They'd been sent to the storage yard in search of Marines dealing drugs; if McGee had stumbled across them, Tony's backup could have meant the difference between life and death. That was the whole point of them working in pairs: One could always cover the other.
He looked up in trepidation as the door opened. Gibbs was eerily calm as he leant over the conference table until his face was nearly level with Tony's.
"What in the hell happened out there yesterday?" Gibbs' voice was quiet, menacing.
"I-I screwed up, Boss" Tony admitted.
"Ya think, DiNozzo!" Tony did his best not to flinch away at the anger and scorn in those three words. "You sent a teammate—your partner— into a potentially dangerous situation without back up! What were you thinking?"
Tony searched frantically for a reasonable explanation other than his own impatience. Finding none, he settled for the simple.
"Won't happen again, Boss."
"You're damn right it won't! From now on you are banned from entering the field. Is that clear, DiNozzo?"
"Yes, Boss." Tony's reply was muted; he deserved this, he knew. As Gibbs went to leave the room, a question occurred to him.
"How long for, Boss?"
"Until I say so, DiNozzo" came the curt answer. Gibbs exited, closing the door behind him with a distinct snap.