Warnings: Spoilers for Season 7 and an angry Tony

A/N: Few guest reviews to get too first before plunging into another update :)

Guest- I'm glad that you are loving this and Natalie. She is a blast to write!

earthdragon- it comes down to that when you take out the mean, belittling, humiliating snark, this team can be pretty damn awesome. This is why I love Ellie Bishop. She isn't mean or rude to Tony or McGee, she wants to learn from them and she seems to truly like them. Abby...well is Abby. It bothered me how she reacted when Vance reassigned the team, how she blamed Gibbs and demanded he get them back. And she wasn't very friendly to the air force girl they hired in Truth or Consequences. And I think there are a few people in this very fandom that need to realize that people move on from jobs ALL THE TIME and the world doesn't come to an end like you pointed out :). It was also about time that Tony stood up to Abby.

NCIS Fan- I can see why she was angry when Ziva joined the team...Kate had just been brutally murdered and she was grieving her friend. None of them (except McGee and Ducky) were practically nice to Ziva when she joined. And, no. They are not going after Ziva and they are not going to change their minds. I can't see Gibbs risking Natalie's life when she is still a probie or wanting to put Tony and Tim in danger after learning about Ziva assaulting his senior field agent.

Guest- unfortunately, I think you are right that the writers for that season would have blamed Tony for Ziva's assault in Israel. It was the season that she hoisted up onto a pedestal. Don't get more wrong. I still like her character, but some of the things the writers did with her just made me cringe.

Blood was dripping from his nose, all over his nice, Ralph Lauren polo too. Damnit, Tony grumbled, glaring at the wide-eyed private that had struck him. "McGee..." he snarled with a half a mouthful of blood, "Cuff him."

McGee grimaced and slapped the handcuffs on the kid. It probably was a little extreme, after all Tony had been the one to get into the middle of the fight to break it up, but at the same time...it was assault of a federal agent and they were obligated to arrest the kid. Judging from the amount of blood pouring from Tony's nose, he knew that the SFA was going to be extra cranky. Tony was so sensitive when it came to his face and getting it messed up. McGee glanced down at his own attire and realized he didn't have a tie this time to help stop the blood flow.

Natalie stepped up, her grey eyes hardening on their senior field agent. They didn't need to arrest the kid. After all, it wasn't like he had intentionally punched Tony right between his eyes. She pulled her cotton button down shirt free from her slacks and began to undo it.

"Whoa, Callahan," Tony remarked with a grin underneath all the blood. "I don't want to have to arrest you for indecent exposure."

"You won't have too," Natalie said, calmly, pulling the blouse off to reveal a lacy thick shouldered tank underneath. It was tight fitting to her curves and covered up what needed to be, but it did nothing to hide the fact that she was, without a doubt, attractive. "Just so happens that I wore two shirts today incase you got your nose smashed in and was bleeding out all over the place."

Tony chuckled as Natalie used her hand to tilt his head back and apply pressure to his nose with her blouse. "You're not upset that I'm ruining your blouse."

Natalie clicked her tongue. "You'll just have to buy me a new one."

He agreed to that and kept his mouth shut. She was standing practically on top of him and he had a pretty decent shot down the lacy tank if he titled his eyes downward. He felt her hand grasp onto his hair and pulled his head back a little bit. Her way of telling him to keep his eyes off. It was probably a good idea. Breaking rule 12 wouldn't be good for any of them. Hell, he hadn't broken rule 12 in May and it had burned them all. Still...

"Agent DiNozzo," the Marine MP Captain interrupted. "What do you want me to do with the rest of these jokers?"

"Let the base commander know what happened and have him deal with it," Tony said with a sigh. "Tell him no one is pressing charges. Just a friendly basketball game that got a bit out of hand."

Natalie rolled her eyes. A bit out of hand? She repeated to herself. When they had been called it was to deal with a couple of marine privates that had gotten into a fight and MP's thought that assault charges should be brought up. By the time the team had arrived on base it was no longer a couple of privates, furious over any basketball game. It had turned into a group of them ganging up on one kid because he'd slept with another marine's girl. Which had then led to that marine's friends jumping in to start a brawl. Men.

Tony had immediately jumped into the fray that the MP's were trying to break up and was clocked by one of the combatants. Who was now sitting in the backseat of their car, waiting to go to NCIS for booking. She eyed the remaining seven privates, standing around, bloody and bruised. Natalie then looked back down at Tony and found his eyes wandering again. She yanked back on his hair, a bit harder this time and he yelped. "Don't you think we need to bring more than one of these guys in?"

"For a fight? No. No one was hurt beyond bruises, and bloody noses and some shiners later," Tony argued. "Base commander will hand out punishment. "

"What about the guy that McGee cuffed?"

"Just going to scare him for a bit then send him back. OUCH!"

Natalie frowned at him. "Sorry, did that hurt? It looked like your nose was starting to bleed again and you won't sit still!"

Tony yanked himself away from her and glared. "Son of a bitch, Callahan! Now I know why you didn't become a nurse!"

"You should go let the kid out of the car and have him face punishment with the rest of his friends."

"Hey...I'm in charge..."

"I know...but it's not fair to that kid. You were the idiot that got into the middle of that fight."

Tony saw a couple of the marines snicker. He shot them a glare to silence them. "You're not afraid of telling people how it is, huh?"

Natalie shook her head. "Nope. Boston girl remember?"

"We're bringing him back to NCIS," Tony snapped at her, wiping his nose with her blouse. "And not another word about it, Callahan!" His eyes never left her slender form as she made her way back towards the car.

"Spunky," one of the MP's said behind him to his partner. "In a totally hot way too."

Tony rolled his eyes and marched off. "Oh yeah...she's a real peach." As he got closer to the car he saw McGee shrink at the obvious rage in his eyes. Natalie didn't seem bothered by it. "You ever do that to me again, Callahan, I'll make sure your badge is mine."

Natalie crossed her arms over her chest. "I didn't mean to apply pressure so hard to your nose. Stop being a baby."

He got into her space so fast that she gasp, bumping into the car as she attempted to get away from him. "I'm not talking about the pressure you applied to my nose or the fact that it hurt like hell. I'm talking about the blatant disrespect you just showed. Gibbs isn't here. When he isn't here I'm in charge and I want to bring the kid back to NCIS to teach him a lesson. Don't ever question my authority in front others like that again. Are we clear?"

She bit down on her lip and for a moment McGee thought she might cry. "Yes," she whispered. "We're clear."

"Good," Tony snapped, leaving her space and tossing her blouse at her. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Tension was so thick in the squad room that Gibbs probably could have cut it with a knife. What the hell happened at Quantico? He stood there, studying each of his agents closely. Tony's face was a hardened mask and both Natalie and McGee were eyeing him cautiously. Not too mention Tony had changed shirts and Natalie's blouse was MIA. "Everything go okay at the base?"

"Fine boss," Tony said, coldly. "Got a bloody nose but Ducky looked at it when we got back. Not broken."

"Anything else I should know about?" the team leader asked. He noticed that Natalie held her breath, a panicked look in her eyes.

"No, boss, I took care of it," Tony said, finally looking at him.

Gibbs nodded and watched as the air came out of his probationary agent in a relieved breath. Even McGee's shoulders eased when Tony went back to work without revealing much. "Well...glad to hear it...you're going to be in charge for a few more days, DiNozzo."

Tony nodded. "Sure thing, boss. You know you can count on me to keep the ship running smoothly." He smiled at the former marine for good measure. "Do you need anything else while you're down here?"

"No," Gibbs said before disappearing up the stairs to go back to MTAC, "Just make sure next time none of you come with injuries."

"We'll try, boss," Tony called after him. Not making any promises since we seem to be prone to them.

For the most part the rest of the day went by without a hitch. Tony didn't converse much with Natalie or McGee, and the other two agents respected his wish to remain out of their conversations. They also didn't see or hear from Gibbs for the rest of the day. Tony knew that when Gibbs was ready to divulge what they had found out about Mossad he'd let the rest of the team know. But it was driving him slightly crazy that the boss was keeping them in the dark.

He decided to just focus on his case report from that afternoon. It was pretty straight forward, and Natalie was right-he had been an idiot for jumping in the middle of a fight with eight marines, but the punch in the face he'd gotten had been enough to stop the brawling men in their tracks. So...it did serve some ridiculous purpose. And really the pain wasn't so bad. He had worked through worse pain before without painkillers. He could work through this.

Every now and then he'd catch McGee or Natalie looking at him, but both would quickly look away when they were caught. They both looked slightly afraid he was going to go off on one of them. He really hadn't meant to be that harsh to Natalie at the base that day, but he had been angry, and hot, and his nose had been bleeding. It wasn't the first insubordinate offense that he'd faced before, but it was probably the first time that he'd reacted so hotly.

Before leaving, McGee and Natalie put their reports on the incident on his desk and were gone. Tony decided to stay behind late and get all his paperwork done, starting with signing off on his partners reports. He got up from his desk to go put the reports on Gibbs' and noticed that Natalie was standing right in front of him. "Hi," she whispered.

"Hi," he drawled slowly. "I thought I was the only one still here."

"Yeah, I forgot my cell phone," she admitted, holding it up. "I'm surprised you're still here."

Tony smiled, moved past her and put the stack of reports down onto Gibbs' desk. "According to everyone that knows me, I do my best work at night."

Natalie chuckled, softly. "Double entendre?"

"Sure. Take it as it you want it," he said with a flirty grin.

"Tony."

"Yeah?"

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry. You...you were right. I was out of line. You're the senior field agent and I should be respecting your position of authority. There is a time and place to question decisions or actions, but that was not one of them. You...you had every right to chew me out like you did. And you had every right to report me to Gibbs. So...why didn't you?"

He searched her eyes for a moment, saw the remorse in their grey depths. Ziva would never have apologized for something like what Natalie did today and he wasn't sure how to react to this. "You're a probie, Natalie. And probies make mistakes. And like I told Gibbs- I handled it. There's no need to drag him into the middle of something that was between you and me."

Natalie smiled softly. "So, we're good then?"

Tony laughed, gently and shook his head. "Yeah, we're good." He watched as her shoulders eased and started out of the bullpen. "Hey," he called after her. "Just so we're clear—you didn't forget your cell phone did you?"

"No. I...I know that apologizing is a sign of weakness, but I just...I couldn't go home knowing that it needed to be done," Natalie replied.

"Apologies aren't a sign of weakness when they're between friends," Tony informed her, watching as a smile lit up her face. He glanced at his watch. "It's late. Wanna grab some take out for dinner?"

Natalie quirked an eyebrow. "Are you inviting me back to your place? I heard that's sacred ground."

Tony grabbed his gear and slung the bag over his shoulder. "You know what—I think its time that I change a few things, so yeah. I'm inviting you back to my place."

"I accept. Can I pick your brain about all these rules and Gibbs?" she asked, her eyes filled with eagerness and earnest.

"Sure," he said, feeling a warm smile spread across his face. "Only if you pay for dinner."

Natalie smiled, slyly as they made their way towards the elevator. "You've got yourself a deal."