N/B Sorry this hasn't been beta'd, but there has been some unforeseen circumstances that have popped up. Instead of you waiting any longer I've gone through it again and posted it. Those who have offered to beta, I will get in touch with you. Just been a little busy lol. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

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"I'm sorry, I must have misheard you?"

"No, you didn't." Tony continued to walk towards his car, Fornell hot on his heels.

"DiNozzo, hold up." He grabbed hold of Tony's shoulder.

"Let go." He asked coolly, the FBI agent released him straight away. "At least you listened; maybe you can teach Gibbs how to do that?"

"I never thought his shadow would ever leave him?"

"Loyalty has its limits and when they get pushed past that it's time to go before the collateral damage becomes too much." DiNozzo looked back at the Navy Yard sadly. "It also helps to leave when you can't trust those who are supposedly watching your back."

Fornell frowned. "I thought…" There was something more going on, if the cool look Tony gave him was any indication. As much as he wanted to snap the younger agent up, it was clear that this would be the wrong time to do it. "Here, take my card."

"Why?" Tony wanted to know as he took the little piece of cardboard.

"Maybe you'll come and work for me. That is an offer by the way. I'm there if you need a friend as well. Just call about either." Fornell turned and headed back towards the building, leaving a bemused and confused DiNozzo behind him.

XXXXX

Gibbs walked back into the office crankier than usual. Everything had gone smoothly at the crime scene, it was an easy case. He was grateful for that, his two team members there would have struggled alone with anything more difficult. He definitely wasn't in the mood for hand holding. A couple of things had already put him on edge, no DiNozzo and Ducky giving them the cold shoulder or throwing dark looks their way. The ME would talk about the case, but anything else he would clam up. There were no stories of what something reminded him off, it was all wrong. As much as he stopped the stories, it was weirder not to hear any at all.

"Do you think he's getting too old to work here?" Ziva suddenly spoke up.

"What?" McGee face creased and his nose crinkled.

"Ducky, he's been acting odd. Do you think it's because of his age? Should he think about retiring?"

Gibbs snorted how his old friend acting was on purpose. He just didn't know what had brought it on. Well, he had an idea. DiNozzo. What the hell had they talked about? He also needed to find out why his SFA snapped and hit him.

"Gibbs."

"What the hell are you doing here Fornell?" That was when he noticed that the older man was sitting at Tony's desk. His very bare desk. "Where's DiNozzo?" He watched as Ziva and McGee smirked.

"Maybe he was fired?" Ziva added hopefully.

"I believe the Director wants to see you." Fornell nodded towards them mezzanine. If this was only just a glimpse of what Tony had to put up with no wonder he left. That young man definitely needed a break. He still wanted to lure him to the FBI, but his gut was right about this not being the correct time to push that. Agents like Sacks didn't help. Tony needed something different where there would be people who didn't dislike him before he even walked in the room, or had heard rumours about him. Most of which were exaggerated because of people like McGee and Ziva. Fornell was going to help in whatever way he could.

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The more that Vance thought about what Tony had said, the more he realised how true it was. The elements concerning him anyway. He still had no idea what to do with the information with Ziva and Eli. He did need to apologise to his agent, his ex-agent. The reason his tone had been harsh was that he'd been angry and took it out on Tony, just like Gibbs did. That was the last straw that finally drove him away from NCIS. Jackie would be so angry at him, if she were alive. His door flew open so hard it slammed against the wall.

"Where the hell is DiNozzo?" Gibbs yelled ready to battle his boss if he'd done anything to his SFA.

Vance eyed him coolly. "Sit down and I guess this is one of the personality traits of yours that helped to drive him away."

"What?"

"Tony quit, he explained why. He definitely had a list of valid reasons. Here." Vance handed over the resignation letter that explained everything in great detail.

Gibbs read it and then dropped heavily into a chair. "He never told me about the radio, Leon about the photo I –."

"We need to change things." He interrupted he couldn't discuss that, not now anyway. "We lost an excellent agent to our blindness. I am not going to sit around discussing things to death. We're going to do our best to make sure it doesn't happen again, which means…"

Gibbs looked down at the pieces of paper. "Rein myself and my team in. Make sure they understand the chain of command. I don't want to stop their interaction completely, but the nasty, snide little comments will stop. I need to talk to Tony; I have to tell him…" He shrugged his shoulders, words were not his thing, but Gibbs knew he had to try. "McGee and Ziva are just confirming alibi's at the moment. Balboa is down there if anything comes up, if you can get him to keep an eye on them?"

"Go Gibbs and really listen to him, no yelling it won't help. Can you tell him I need to talk to him, its fine by phone if that is the way he wants it. I need to talk to him personally; it's not something that can be passed via someone else."

"I'll pass the message on to him." Gibbs looked at the Director. "Thanks Leon."

"I'm going to have to let everyone know. A lot of people saw him leave. I wanted to talk to you privately. The email is ready to go."

"I'll let him know. Tony deserves better than he got here, from all of us." He knew that Tony wouldn't come back.

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Ducky read the email that told everyone the resignation of one Anthony DiNozzo Jr. He could read the regret from the director in the words and phrases used. It looked like Tony had told him everything, even though they had lost a dear friend and excellent agent, things could be learnt from this.

"I'm going to miss him, was he the one that called you earlier, at the scene?" Palmer asked.

"I'm going to miss him too. Yes, he was the one that called to say goodbye. I do plan to keep in touch with him. I've known him too many years to let him just vanish from my life." Ducky sighed sadly. "Let's get back to work; we need to find out what happened to our poor petty officer here."

"Yes, Dr Mallard." Palmer grabbed hold of the file and opened it.

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McGee and Ziva glanced at each other as soon as they received the email. They both laughed not noticing the other looks they received from fellow agents. Everyone had received the email at the same time and Tony's former team were the only ones that seemed happy about it.

"Get back to work and check those alibis." Balboa growled.

"Don't talk to me like that." Ziva snapped.

"I'm in charge of you until Gibbs gets back. If you don't like it, make a complaint." Balboa just stood there and waited.

"Ziva…" McGee shook his head and indicated for her not to push things. "We'll talk at lunch." He waited for her nod, and they both settled down to work.

XXXXX

"Ducky, I can't believe that Tony quit. Why would he do that? We're his family." Abby pouted.

"Are we?" Ducky held up his hand. "Tony spoke to me before he quit. No, I won't tell you what it was about. I will not betray his confidence. I will say he's been unhappy for a while and it's only become worse. He's not felt like part of this family for a long time."

"And that's our fault?" Abby snapped she hated change and Tony knew that, but he still did this.

"It's all of our faults, including Tony's and he recognises that. I've heard things today that proved his point to me. Go and sit with Timothy and Ziva. Just listen to them. I know you care about them, but pretend you don't know them. I hope you can be honest enough with yourself and see where I and Tony are coming from."

"I don't like this Ducky, but I'll try. I can't promise that I'll hear what you want me to, I do care about them."

"Do you care about them more than Tony? Don't you owe him the chance to see things his way? To understand why he had to go? At least when you see him I am hoping you will be open minded. He knows he made mistakes and that some of that attitude he brought onto himself, but it's not all on him. I think that he leaving was the healthiest thing for him to do. He can now move on and work somewhere he can be respected."

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Abby walked back into her lab, but her mind still on what Ducky had said. Then sitting there waiting for her was a very happy Timothy McGee.

"Did you get a break in the case?" She asked hopefully, the only other reason would be Tony and that would mean that Ducky was right about everything.

"Nope, just good news. Ziva and I are going to lunch to celebrate. Do you want to join us?"

Abby nodded she was going to keep her promise to Ducky, but any appetite she had vanished as soon as Tim had spoken. As she listened to him now, she knew how things could go. She could of course jump to a conclusion; maybe they had received another email. Abby knew that she was lying to herself.

XXXXX

The apartment door opened.

"Gibbs?" Tony queried suspiciously.

"Vance told me that you quit. I also read your resignation letter. He wants to talk to you." Gibbs handed a card with the Director's number on it.

"Thanks I'll call him later. What are you doing here Gibbs? You won't change my mind."

"I know, I…" The older man ran a hand through his hair. He was sure that it would all come to him as soon as he saw the younger man, but there was nothing. The only thing that ran through his mind was the mistakes that he had made over the years. All the chances he had missed to grow closer, to become more than team mates and friends. How did he apologise for everything, and make sure that Tony understood this time he meant it?

"Did you want to talk to me?" Tony was starting to get worried; there was obviously something on Gibbs' mind. He may not talk a lot, but he was never a loss for words.

"Yes, I wanted to talk, but now I am here I don't know what to say. I thought it would come to me, but it hasn't. I know this may come out wrong, and I'm not trying to put any blame on you, so please listen?" Gibbs waited until the other man nodded. "First of all, you should have told me about the radio incident. Whether it was a joke or not, a person's safety is not something that should be treated like one, especially not yours. I am so pissed at them, but I don't know what I can do about it now. I should have stopped those remarks as soon as they stopped being banter and becoming cruel. I never realised how it affected you, all their comments seem to slide off you. I should've treated you as more as an SFA. The crappier jobs like gassing the truck should've been passed to either McGee or Ziva. I never had a team that hung around long enough and I didn't trust Stan completely. I took advantage of you; I loved the attention I got." Gibbs sighed in disgust. "That's so pathetic."

"Thank you for coming Gibbs, and being honest with me…"

"You really not coming back are you?" Blue eyes wide with fear. It truly hit him that he was no longer going to see this gorgeous face, bright green eyes and incandescent smile. He was also losing his second in command and the best young agent he ever worked with. Another agency was going to end up with all his experience and talent.

"No I'm not, I can't. I need to take care of myself for a while."

"Could we up meet up, I wondered if you might go out with me sometime?" He stuttered like a teenager.

"God, if you said this to me a month ago I would have jumped at the chance. I need to be away from you for a while. How do I know you won't treat me the same in a more personal setting. We both need to change, and we need to see that has happened."

"I promise I'll change, I'll make sure McGee and Ziva are reigned in, that we all are." Gibbs walked towards the door followed by Tony. He turned quickly and gave him a peck on the lips. "I promise."

Tony watched him leave. "I hope you do." But deep down he was afraid that his heart was going to be broken.

TBC