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A/N: So I'm not gonna lie I was kinda disappointed that I only got eight reviews for the last chapter but I guess eight is better than none :)) So I'm gonna say thanks to all eight of you were very kind to leave me a review, and to those of you who hit those faves and follow buttons; thanks to you too. It really means a lot to me. So without further ado here is the next chapter it's kinda short but that's ok. Oh and Happy Thanksgiving.

Chapter 5

Between a Rock and Gibbs

Tim, Ziva, and Abby were all working in Abby's lab. Tim and Abby were currently at the counter in trying to crack the encryption code on the flash drives from Tony's old mission, but they weren't having much luck. And Ziva was standing in the back talking on the phone to one of her contacts. They all jumped when Vance and the Director walked into the room. The Director walked up behind Tim and Abby saying, "You know you're not going to crack it."

Abby turned back to look at him and asked, "Why's that?"

"Because the commander is the leading authority on encryptions and hacking, believe me when I say I have had the best of the worlds' best work on it and no one can get past his encryptions. He told me once that it has something to do with some safety sequence that is built into all of his codes. He said that when you start hacking, it automatically starts this scrambling program and every time you hit a wrong key it scrambles the code. He told me it has infinite possibilities of combinations to choose from and that there's a one in one billion chance of getting the code right."

"So how do you decrypt it then?" Asked Abby; looking very disheartened.

"That is beyond my level of understanding" Replied the Director with a shrug, "Only the Commander knew for sure which ones went were and he only confided in his wife so I'm sure she knew as well. But beyond that he would give us five possibilities and then we had to figure out which codes went with which flash drives and so on. And only he had the master combination to all of his codes."

Abby looked over to Tim who was sitting with his mouth hanging open. She gently closed it for him saying, "Well I guess we'll just have to wait for Tony to get back which should be just about any time any time now."

And sure enough a few minutes later the doors to her lab opened with a swoosh and in came the trio all looking a little worse for wear. A very unhappy Tony came through the doors first being pushed in a wheel chair by Gibbs while Ducky followed behind them. Tony was doing a pretty good imitation of a Gibbs death glare while Gibbs was glaring at the back of Tony's head looking as though he would happily strangle him at the provocation. And Ducky was looking decidedly worn out.

Abby rushed up to the trio exclaiming, "OMG! I missed you guys so much! I know it's only been like two days, but seriously two days is a long time in Abby land! And I was so worried and I couldn't stop thinking about every that has happened and everything that could happen and there're just so many scenarios, and you all know my imagination and how it can get away from me and . . ."

She stopped talking suddenly when she saw that Tony was starring darkly off into the distance she instantly felt bad and said, "and I'm rambling. I'm sorry."

Tony immediately felt bad for being in a foul mood; he realized that they all needed him to be his normal self just as much as he needed them to treat him normally. He decided that he was going to put all of his best effort into trying to act normally and quickly reassured her, "Hey, its ok you wouldn't be my Abby if you didn't ramble a little bit. In fact I'm not sure I would understand what you were saying if you didn't ramble. It's what makes you special and I love it . . ." They all watched while he swallowed hard and then said, "It's . . . it's something my wife used to do, so . . . so please don't feel bad about it."

Abby looked down sheepishly. She grabbed Tony's good hand and said, "I'm so glad your back. I wanted to come see you in the hospital but Gibbs said we needed to stay here and work on the case and all that but, other than figuring out who attacked you we haven't gotten very far, and" She suddenly stooped down and wrapped Tony in a bear hug saying, "And I really missed you and I just wanted you to know that." She backed up after she had hugged him to satisfy her standards and said, "We've been trying to break . . ."

Ducky who stepped forward cut her off, "That will have to wait Abigail. Anthony needs to rest for a bit and then he may assist you with your technical problems." Ducky's voice carried an edge to it that was not normally heard and so shocked the occupants of the room. And they all watched to see Tony's reaction.

No one missed the look of annoyance that flashed across Tony's face at Ducky's words. Tony looked levelly at Ducky saying, "I really don't think that's necessary Ducky. I told you before I'm really not tired after the nap I took in the hospital and all the sleeping I did in the car. I think I will be ok for an hour."

Ducky shook his head. He was determined to hold his ground no matter what, "We have already gone over this Anthony. You must follow my instructions if you do not wish to land your self back in the hospital. And besides I know how you operate, once you get going you will not stop until it is all done. A trait that I applaud you for, but right now it will cause more harm than helpfulness. You need rest and I intend to see that you get it, and if that means that I have to truss you up like a turkey and sedate you then I will."

No one missed how Gibbs was standing off to the side being moodily quiet and standoffish during the whole ordeal with Tony and Ducky. Normally he would have been in there right away ordering DiNozzo's cooperation. But now he was leaning against the wall steadfastly ignoring every thing around him except for Tony. He was starring intently at DiNozzo almost as if he could silently will him to cooperate. Abby alone noticed the twitch in his hands, almost as if he wanted to reach out and head slap Tony but was forcing himself to hold off.

In a very uncharacteristic out burst Tony threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed, "You know what I have had it! If you're all so keen on sedating me and force feeding me, and cracking my head open like a nut then here have at it." He temporarily forgot about his resolve to act normally and decided that he just couldn't take any more of this—what ever it was that they were doing and that he needed a break. But first he needed to help them out and since he wasn't going to be able to help directly, he figured that he could at least give them a little boost.

And with that Tony pushed himself up from the wheel chair and limped as quickly as he could into Abby's office where her futon was ready and waiting for him. He stopped at the desk for a minute and after quickly scribbling down some numbers and letters he limped back out and handing the paper to McGee said, "These are the master passwords for those flash drives. Guard them with your life and then after you've copied the files burn this and the flash drives. I'm trusting you Tim to not let any one," Tony discreetly nodded his head in the direction of the Director, "get ahold of this. It's got some of my best work on it."

With that he gave a curt nod to everyone in the room and limped back into the office, slamming the door behind him and locking it from the inside. Every one was quiet for a minute and then Abby turned to Gibbs and Ducky, and with her hands on her hips glared at them demanding, "What did you do to him?"

Gibbs looked at Ducky and said, "Do you want to tell them or should I?"

"We might as well do it together Jethro." Replied Ducky with a sigh. "You see due to a mixture of over medication and the wrong medicine Anthony experienced some hallucinations and the hospital decided that they couldn't release Anthony unless he had seen a therapist. Well you can all imagine how well that went over, it helped some that Dr. Cranston was there to perform the evaluation, after which she informed him that she wanted to meet twice weekly for the rest of the month. Well Anthony did not take that well at all. And then on top of that they would not release him until he had eaten what the hospital thought was a sufficient amount of food, and we all know that Anthony's appetite tends to disappear when he is injured. So it took quite a bit of nagging and cajoling to get that done, and then his doctors where insistent that he rest. They actually wrote an order for bed rest just before we left and since I agreed to oversee his medical care in turn for him being released early I have to at least try and get the lad to rest as much as I can."

Gibbs stepped in then saying, "And on top of all that Tony's not handling being under protection very well and feels bad for putting you guys in danger and he is having a hard time with all the other emotional stuff as well. I know what it's like to have to relive the most painful time of your life over again, to have it hashed out and broken down. So I think that Tony just needs some time to himself. To think and come to terms with everything that has happened in the last few days."

Abby looked sadly into her office and exclaimed, "Poor Tony! He's so sad! I whish there was something that we could do for him."

Ducky grinned saying, "Actually Abigail I think there is something that you could do for him that would help him tremendously."

Abby cocked an eyebrow at Ducky and tilted her head to the side saying, "Just what exactly are you think here Ducky?"

Ducky's grin turned into a smile as he said, "Well my dear with the permission of Director Vance I would like to plan a movie night for Tony."

Abby squealed and jumped up and down as she said, "Oh that is so perfect Duck-man! Tony will love it! What do you need me to do?"

"I'm glad you approve Abigail," replied Ducky with a nod of his head, "What I need you to do is take Ziva with you and go to Anthony's apartment; gather how ever many movies you think we will need to keep our young man entertained. Also I need you to gather clothes for him to wear, and make sure that you pay special attention to bringing his computer and his books. Gather all these up and come back here. I will send out Mr. Palmer and Timothy to get refreshments and of course the main food when it is closer to time. Now I would like to keep this as low key as we can, I would like for it to be a nice surprise for him."

Abby hugged Ducky as hard as she could before she took off dragging a slightly startled Ziva behind her; Gibbs stepped forward then shaking his head and saying, "You sure he will be up for this Duck?"

Ducky sighed saying, "I can only hope he will take it as the peace offering that it is Jethro."

Gibbs patted Ducky on the shoulder before he headed out of the lab. He had just turned the corner heading towards the elevator when he heard frantic whispering coming from over by the janitors' closet. He walked over careful to not make any noise. He stopped a few feet away when he saw that it was the Director and listened intently, "What do you mean? No! They can't do that! Listen; you tell her that she's the one who agreed to see this through for all of their safety. You tell her that unless she wants them coming after them again she had better stay put. Is that understood lieutenant? Good let me know what she has to say."

Gibbs quickly backed up and headed for the elevator. His mind was reeling with what he had just heard. He had no proof that it had anything to do with them and the case they were working on, except his gut was telling him that the two cases were connected and the connection was Tony. He acted naturally when the Director came up behind him and walked onto the elevator with him. Gibbs could feel the tension coming off the man in waves and had to bite back the urge to interrogate him. Gibbs finally pulled the emergency stop on the elevator and with out turning said, "I get the feeling that you aren't giving me all the information Director."

The Director calmly replied, "Believe me agent Gibbs I am not withholding any pertinent information. What I have told you is what you need to know."

Gibbs started the elevator again and just as the Director was walking off said, "You had better hope that, that's true Director; for your sake and for Tony's."

With that Gibbs let the elevator doors close, cutting off his view of the Director. He leaned back against the walls and hopped that there wouldn't be any more surprises. He didn't think they could handle any more surprises, especially not Tony.

Hey every one I sure would appreciate it if you could all leave me a nice review for Thanksgiving =D. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.