Tony's shoulder hurt. He had a broken clavicle and cracked radius. He was going to be on desk duty for days if not a couple of weeks. He wasn't sure when all of this went sideways, but he was beginning to figure it all out. He also knew he was on his way to Israel and he wasn't happy about that. He had killed an officer of Mossad and was being hung out to dry by the director. Vance was sending him to Israel to face Director David for the shooting death of Michael Rivkin, Agent David's boyfriend. At least Gibbs was going with him. Tony was in pain, unhappy and not sure what was going to happen next. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and picture the scene again in his head. He had written his IA report and knew the shooting was righteous, he knew he had been fighting for his life, but it still hurt knowing that he had hurt Ziva. As he continued to rehash the shooting his phone rang. He looked at the readout and saw Alex's name.

"Hello beautiful. How are you?"

"I'm coming home Tony. We got a conviction today. I will be flying out tonight on a C-130. I should be home sometime tomorrow if there not to many stops."

Tony closed his eyes again thinking that she was coming home. He wasn't going to be here and how was he supposed to explain everything that happened in the last three days. "I won't be here when you get back. I am heading to Israel." Tony paused trying to figure out the best way to tell Alex what was going on. "I went up against a Kidon operative and I won, he lost, and now I have to go deal with Mossad."

Alex mind was racing. What the hell was going on at home. She knew that Tony was a good agent, very good agent in fact, but she also knew that he was not assassin material. He shouldn't have beaten a Kidon assassin. "What happen Tony? What has been going on? Do you need my help with anything? Do you have an attorney if you are being accused of anything?"

"Slow down Alex. Gibbs is going with me. What happened was a righteous shoot, so I won't be in any trouble." Tony crossed his fingers as he said this. He wasn't sure what he was walking into. He knew that he could be in a great deal of trouble with Mossad. Vance wasn't helping him, he was throwing him to the dogs to help keep the relationship between the US and Israel on course.

Tony started to tell Alex the story about how all of this started. It was complicated and took part in several areas of the country. Nothing was easy in this case. It had started when they found a dead marine tied up at a construction site. He had been tortured for information. While running background on the victim, McGee had found out that a BOLO had been issued for the dead marine out of the LA office of NCIS. The marine had been shot at in LA and was running home to his mother's in Virginia; he didn't make it and was now dead. Gibbs and McGee had been sent to LA to investigate the marine's death and found a terrorist cell was operating out of LA. They had shut down the cell with the LA's office participation, but had found out that a Mossad agent by the name of Michael Rivkin had been killing terrorists on US soil. Gibbs had ordered him to go home, but Rivkin had come back to DC before going to Israel to see Ziva and that was when everything had gone sideways.

Alex just listened as Tony talked about what had happen over the last few days. She knew that he would need help in Israel and hoped that Gibbs could help him. She didn't want to think about what would happen if he got caught in Mossad's act of vengeance because he had killed an officer of Mossad. She had been in the intelligence community long enough to know how they operated. She couldn't believe Vance would just hand him over like this. She didn't understand the end game. "There is more to this story than you are telling me, isn't there?"

"Yeah, we know that Rivkin killed an ICE agent at the SecNav's home. We have proof of that. Ziva knew that he was in the area when that went down. I don't know if she knew about the death of the agent. I don't know if he told her what he had done, but that is also being looked into. It's a real mess Alex, and I don't know what is going to happen next. I think Ziva might be in some trouble too."

All Alex could was think "Ya Think DiNozzo". One of Gibbs expressions he used when talking to Tony. She needed to talk to Gibbs about this and what help he was getting for Tony. She also wanted to talk to the Admiral. He would know what to do about this and what help they could give Tony. "Tony, I am going to call Admiral Rabb. He will know what to do about this. You are not going to Israel without legal counsel. Don't talk to anyone over there before you get a legal opinion."

Tony laughed a little at Alex's statement. He knew that she was trying to protect him, but he didn't think that would fly this time. "Alex, it won't matter. I am going to Israel and I am facing this head on. The Israelis won't care if I have legal counsel or not. They want revenge for the death of one of their agents, so unless I prove that it was righteous it won't matter."

"Tony." Alex started.

"No, Alex, it won't matter. We are leaving Andrews in little over four hours. I will be back in a couple of days. I will call you when I get there and keep you updated, I promise." Gibbs was coming off the elevator with his go-bag. "I have to go Alex, Gibbs just walked in and he wants to talk to me. I love you and I will talk to you later."

Alex knew that he wouldn't listen to her so she did the only thing she could do. "I love you too Tony. Be careful and I will talk to you later."

Gibbs looked at Tony as he hung up the phone. "Alex," he stated and continued to watch Tony. Tony nodded yes.

"She's worried." Gibbs let out a sarcastic chuckle.

"She has every reason to be. We landed in a pile of garbage and it stinks to high heaven and the director is not helping at all. I don't like this either. You did what I asked you to do and now Rivkin is dead, but not until after killing an ICE agent and two terrorists we could have gotten good intel from. He was an alcoholic who needed to be brought home and he refused to leave." Gibbs paused in his conversation with Tony when he noticed the Director coming down the stairs.

"DiNozzo," Vance started, "I need you to come into the conference room. We need to go over what has happened over the last few days. I need to know what part you played in all of this."

Tony looked at Vance and then at Gibbs, stood up and faced Vance. "Director Vance, it is in my report to IA. Everything that has happened since Gibbs left for LA. What more do you need?"

Vance sighed. "I know, I read your report, but I want to hear it first hand. Go into the conference room and you can give me a verbal report. Gibbs can come also. I need his input as well. We need to get the whole story out so that there won't be any surprises in Israel. You are facing Mossad and their brand of justice. You need to be prepared." Tony continued to look at Vance before walking away. Vance looked at Gibbs and asked, "Is you boy up to this? Can he handle Mossad and all that is going down?"

Gibbs just stared at Vance. "Director, you are throwing him to the dogs. Do you really care if he comes out the other side?"

Vance looked at Gibbs. He understood what it looked like, but Vance wasn't really sure DiNozzo could stand up to Mossad. Vance still looked at DiNozzo and saw frat boy, the image Tony projected, the mask he wore. Vance didn't understand Tony or what made him so good at his job. Vance still thought that if you couldn't run a computer like McGee you weren't a good agent.

Gibbs just shook his head at the director and walked away. He wasn't going to try and explain DiNozzo to him. Let him find out on his own. Maybe then Vance would give his best agent, the best agent he knew, the respect he deserved. Gibbs walked into the conference room and sat down next to DiNozzo. Vance closed the door after him and also took a seat. "So start at the beginning, how all of this started. I need every detail you can give me if we are going to face down Mossad."

Tony closed his eyes as he gathered his thoughts. He was still trying to work this out without implicating Ziva, but it was going to be difficult. She may not trust him, may hate him at the moment, but he was still watching her six. "Ok, it started when we found a dead marine."

A/N: First, thanks for hanging in there with me. I know I haven't updated like I should, but the new job had me working doubles so it was hard to think, let alone write. I won't make you wait that long. I also know that I didn't thank everyone for all of the reviews I received for the last two chapters. I thank all of you now and please know that I really appreciate all the kind words. I am glad you are enjoying the story. I will try to be better at thanking individual reviews.

As usual I don't own and all mistakes are mine.