Warnings: Spoilers for ending of Season 6, Abby is not particularly nice here, and I mention Ziva.

A/N: Here is some more! I'm glad that everyone is happy that Natalie is staying :). I think her addition to the team is going to change quite a few of the things we saw on the show. Mainly getting rid of the nasty comments that the writers like to dole out every now and then. I'm writing this much in the way that writers showed us in Season 11 and (hopefully) will continue in Season 12. Guess time will tell and I'm really itching for this hiatus to be over.

NCIS Fan- thanks for catching that mistake...that's what I get for having two different documents open at the same time on two different stories haha

Guest- yes, Natalie does need to learn how to read Tony as well as Gibbs, but she's a profiler so she has the training to learn, glad you are enjoying this! :)

Tony entered MTAC, carefully trying to be as quiet as possible. But, the slightest movement alerted Gibbs and he cut the transmission short, not before he told Agent Dunham that he was getting a bit scruffy and that he'd be in touch later that day. "Need me?" he asked, turning his attention to Tony.

"Petty Officer Wilson had high levels of LSD in his system. He hung himself probably blitzed out of his mind," Tony said handing the file to the team leader. "One of his bunkmates finally admitted, after spending the night in lock-up, to being the one to slip him the drug in his water to get him to lighten up."

"Same bunkmate that assaulted both you and Callahan yesterday?" Gibbs questioned, signing off on Tony's report. The SFA mutely nodded. Gibbs handed him the file. "Nice work, DiNozzo. You closed the case and nearly did it without anyone getting a head injury."

Tony frowned, still feeling guilty that Natalie had gotten hurt on the job. "Uh…thanks, boss. Anything I can help you with here?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Nope."

"Dunham is stationed out in the Middle East—this wouldn't have to do with Ziva or Mossad would it?" Tony asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

"DiNozzo…," Gibbs warned, his own eyes becoming a steel gaze.

Tony sighed and took his cue to leave. "Very well, boss. We're here if you need us."

Natalie glanced up from her work as Tony made his way back down towards the bullpen. Judging from the look on his face he hadn't learned anything new about Gibbs hiding away in MTAC the last couple of days with Vance. She had heard him murmuring with McGee about Mossad and Ziva, and she was pretty sure that he was unaware that she had been listening in. It flustered her a little that neither of them wanted her to be involved. Wasn't she apart of their team now? And teams were not supposed to keep secrets…right?

Tony eyed McGee and gave a small shake of his head before sitting down at his desk to get to work. Natalie also hated the way the other three agents could silently communicate with each other. Ducky told her that she was smart and would figure it out in no time, but three weeks of this…she was slowly starting to lose her patience.

"Hey, DiNozzo," a deep voice said, bringing the three agents attention around to a tall, slender men standing in their squad room. "Gibbs around?"

"Up in MTAC with the Director," Tony answered, forcing a smile, "while us peons work down here. What's up Balboa?"

Balboa's brow furrowed. "He let you work that drug case alone?"

Tony chuckled and tossed a completed form onto his "done" pile. He nodded, "Yes…and we almost got away without a scratch."

"Almost?"

"Newbie here banged her head."

Balboa smiled, softly at her before leaving. "Don't worry, Callahan—you've got a ways to go to break DiNozzo's record." He reached out and slapped his friend on the back as he left, dodging out of the way of a sprinting Abby.

"I need to see you boys, in my lab-NOW," Abby announced, standing in the middle of the bullpen.

"Why?" McGee asked. They weren't working any cases at the moment. Nothing she had to say couldn't wait until after lunch. He was starving. "It can't wait until after lunch?"

"Or," Tony offered, coldly, "Better yet, just said to us here."

Abby scowled at him, glanced over her shoulder at Natalie who was working on some paper work, rubbing the bump she had received on her head the other day. The forensic scientist looked back at the two men. "This is something rather...I would just rather tell it to you in my lab."

Tony stood, slamming his bottom drawer shut, which startled Natalie and McGee out of their stupors. "Does it have something to do with a case?" he asked, still with that cold tone of voice.

"Sort of...an older case," Abby confessed, with a slight wince.

"Well, then you can tell us right here."

"It's not really something that concerns Agent Callahan."

And there it was, McGee thought, slightly annoyed. For the last three weeks Abby had tolerated Natalie on the team as best she could, whining behind the young woman's back about how long it was taking Gibbs to get Ziva back from Israel and she never called Natalie by her first name. It was always Agent Callahan. Some might think that was out of respect but McGee and Tony knew otherwise. McGee was aware that her constant whining to Tony about Ziva and getting Natalie shipped back to Boston was starting to get on the SFA's nerves.

Tony, however, looked more than annoyed with Abby. In fact, he looked down right pissed off. "Agent Callahan is a member of our team now, Abs, and whatever you have to say—she's allowed to hear it."

"Fine," Abby snapped, somewhat surprised by his angry tone of voice, "I found something on Tabal's laptop."

"You did?" McGee questioned, shocked. "That thing was fried."

"It took a lot of work."

"What did you find?"

Abby shot another look at Natalie, who was listening intently. She turned her glare towards Tony, but the SFA didn't back down from his earlier stance. He returned the firm glare. "I think it's a code for Rivkin's mission. If I can crack it then I think I can locate Ziva."

McGee frowned. "Are we looking for her?"

"Why do you think Vance and Gibbs are upstairs in MTAC all day? Yes! NCIS is looking for her! She's gone off the grid! She could be in trouble! I know she would have contacted us by now if she wasn't! She didn't want to leave! She was forced!"

"She wasn't forced to do anything. She told Gibbs she couldn't work with me anymore. So, not our problem to worry about," Tony said with a wave of his hand. "She's Mossad again, Abby. She doesn't want our help."

Abby looked appalled at him. "TONY! How can you say that! She's your partner!"

Tony spun on his heel, storms raging in his eyes. "Was my partner, Abby. And she accused me of betraying her, of killing Rivkin because I was jealous. She held a gun to my chest and told me she wished I had died instead. Why in God's name would I want to go after her? Not like she would accept my help in the first place."

"She…she what?" Abby stuttered. "I…I don't believe you. She would never do that! You…you were her partner!"

"Well, she did. Ducky has the photographs of the bruises to prove it," Tony snapped, shoving his wallet into his pocket. "I'm going to pick up lunch. Be back shortly."

McGee saw the look of betrayal that went through Abby's eyes. He'd felt the same way when he'd learned what Ziva had done to Tony, but now that he had a lot more time to process what happened, he wasn't as angry. Mossad was who Ziva was and they more often than not resorted to violence out of necessity to survive. He wouldn't condone her actions, but given her background he was no longer surprised. "Abs…we didn't tell you because you were already upset that she had left."

Abby's lower lip trembled slightly. "But…I thought we were her friends? How could she possibly think what Tony did was out of jealousy! He was trying to protect her!"

"Beats me, Abs. Better off just…moving on."

"I'm…I'm going to go tell Gibbs what I found. I think…I think he is going to want to hear it."

McGee watched her go, letting out a heavy sigh. Apparently, even though they had found a new member for their team—there was still a ton of healing to do. And now that Abby knew the truth about what happened in Israel, well, maybe she'd start to treat Natalie better. McGee went back to his paperwork, his stomach growling he had focused on what Tony was going to bring them back for lunch.

Natalie suddenly reminded him that she was sitting there. "Um…can I be brought up to speed? Tabal? Rivkin? Those names mean nothing to me."

"Michael Rivkin was a Mossad operative that killed at least two terrorists here in the States and an ICE agent," McGee said with a shake of his head. "He...he might have been Ziva's lover...she never really told us anything about him or her personal life. We suspect that Rivkin was the one to make it look like Tabal had committed suicide and took his laptop. Unfortunately it was destroyed when Ziva's apartment blew up."

"Blew up?" Natalie repeated. "Why would someone want to blow up her apartment?"

McGee shrugged his shoulders. "To erase all evidence that Rivkin was involved in the murders, that he was drunk the night he attacked Tony and was killed. Who knows."

"So...Tony killed Rivkin."

"In self defense."

"And Ziva...blamed him."

"Yes. She said he was jealous."

"Was he?"

McGee's brow furrowed. "Do I think he had feelings for Ziva? I guess...it's possible. But there's no way he shot Rivkin because he was jealous. Tony isn't really the jealous type."

Natalie looked away for a moment, thinking about what she wanted to ask next. "So...what was all that about Ziva holding a gun to his chest?"

"Vance made Tony go to Israel, so Mossad could interview him. According to Tony she confronted him and took him down, kicked his legs out from underneath him and shoved her weapon into his chest," McGee replied, softly.

"That...that's..."

"Betrayal," Gibbs voice said, softly above her.

Natalie glanced up to see him standing there, his blue eyes studying her face. "McGee was just...um filling me on what I'd missed."

Gibbs nodded and turned towards McGee. "Need you to help Abby crack that code on the laptop."

"Sure thing, boss," McGee said getting up and leaving the bullpen, not before he made Natalie promise to call him when lunch arrived.

Natalie assured him that she would then got to her feet, which sent the blood rushing to her head and made the bruise throb. She closed her eyes for a moment to gain her balance and then stalked towards Gibbs desk. "So…Abby was right…you are looking for Officer David?" Gibbs' blue eyes stared at her long and hard, but he didn't say anything. Natalie bit down on her lower lip and continued, "Gibbs…I know you're a smart man…one doesn't make it in this line of work being a dummy, but even so, you have to admit…going to the Middle East to find someone that pretty much betrayed you…is stupid."

Gibbs quirked a grin when he saw her brace herself for what—a head slap? A tongue lashing? He sighed and took a sip of his coffee. "We aren't going after Ziva. Mossad has burned us too many times. Vance and I want to stay ahead of the game this time."

"You're spying on them," Natalie suggested.

"If it means keeping my people safe—then yes," Gibbs said, seriously, his eyes hardening on hers.

Natalie could sense the not so pleasant history with Mossad in his tone and from the look on his face he wanted her to back off the line of questioning. She went back to her desk, silently, and realized with a little bit of surprise that she had finally broken through and was starting to learn the art of silent communication around here.

Tony clutched tightly to the bag of sandwiches. He did feel somewhat badly for the way he'd treated Abby but she had to know. Gibbs couldn't possibly be thinking about going after Ziva—no, Tony knew exactly what he was doing, even if Abby did not. The former marine was keeping tabs on Ziva so she and her dear daddy wouldn't burn the team and NCIS again.

With an angry sigh he stepped off the elevator and headed towards the bullpen. Natalie was alone working at her desk. It had been a much easier transition getting used to that desk being Natalie's and not Ziva's than it had been when the desk no longer belonged to Kate. "Brought lunch," Tony said, cheerfully, masking all signs of his anger. He dropped a sandwich down onto her desk. "Steak and cheese for the lady," he grinned. "Not too concerned about keeping your girlish figure are you, Callahan?"

"There's a reason treadmills were invented, DiNozzo," Natalie teased, opening up her sandwich. "If I'm going to have to work out anyways I might as well eat what I want," she said with a mouthful.

"You know…there's something sexy about a woman stuffing her face like that…" Tony tossed out, grinning at her from ear to ear.

Natalie glared at him ever so slightly but kept on eating. Tony sat down at his own desk and started on his own lunch—pastarmi on rye—and enjoyed the relative peace. It had been so tense around NCIS since the beginning of May…he was glad for the reprieve. "Where'd McGee run off too? I bought him lunch…he'll be the first to tell you that never happens."

Her eyes went wide and she shoved the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth. Grabbing her phone she dialed a number. "McGee! Lunch is here…yes I did forget…sorry," she said with a slight wince. Tony chuckled when she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it, puzzled. "I think he just hung up on me."

"McGeek doesn't hold grudges. Don't worry about it."

"Oh. So can you hold a grudge?"

"Been known to happen," he answered as McGee appeared in the bullpen and got his lunch. He looked a little ragged. "You okay, Tim?"

McGee frowned and went to his desk. "Abby," was all he would offer up. And it was all Tony needed.

Tony winced and tossed his garbage in the trash bin. "Sorry. I…shouldn't have left you to deal with it. I'll talk to her later."

"Later is gonna have to wait!" Gibbs called down from above them. "You three are needed ASAP at Quantico."

McGee groaned as he wolfed down his sandwich and grabbed up his gear, following behind his fellow agents as they vaulted towards the elevator. Once inside and the cab was moving, he informed them, "Gibbs and Vance are keeping tabs on Ziva."

"I know," both Tony and Natalie said at the same time, surprising each other as well as McGee.

"Wait? You both know?" McGee asked, looking at them expectantly. "How?"

"Figured it out for myself."

"Me too…but Gibbs confirmed it."

"WHAT?" Tony and McGee exclaimed, shocked.

Natalie smiled, shyly at them. "Sometimes all you really have to do is ask."

Tony frowned at her. "I did ask. He didn't want to talk about it."

"Well…there's your problem," Natalie said as the elevator doors opened. "You just have to keep asking."

"Either you're brilliant, Callahan," Tony quipped as they filed out, "Or you have a very strong death wish."