Warnings: Minor spoilers for "The Inside Man".

A/N: Ok, so I didn't forget about this story, just been busy writing other things, but decided to go back to this while I plan out my next story for the "Unconditionally" series. I hope you enjoy it! Please, let me know what you think :)

Rilain- Thanks! Glad you liked that chapter :)

Guest- Thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying it so far.

At some point, Gibbs reasoned, the shrinks we're going to have to let Natalie back on active field duty. The longer she was confined to a desk he worried it would wound her confidence... and anyone looking at her would know that she had come a long way since getting off that plane from Africa.

It had bothered her that she had been confined to desk while the others worked to clear NCIS' name in the death of Matt Burns. She might not have voiced it, but she was starting to get cabin fever.

Tony was doing his best to keep her spirits up... as was Tim... and Gibbs couldn't recall a time that they were both so concerned over a partner. He didn't think it was because they were afraid Natalie would leave, although that played into it, but she showed a more vulnerable side. She wasn't afraid to voice her fears or even cry. Kate and Ziva had been more guarded than Natalie.

So, with this in mind, Gibbs went to see the shrink. If Vance wasn't going to fight for Natalie's reinstatement he was.

"Agent Gibbs, I'm surprised to see you," Patricia greeted. "Can I help you with something?"

"Agent Callahan. Why hasn't she been cleared for active field duty? It's been three weeks since you approved her for desk duty," Gibbs responded, coldly.

Patricia looked perturbed, like a lot of people looked with him. "I already told Agents DiNozzo and McGee that I have my reasons and I do not think she's ready yet. She's very vulnerable right now, Agent Gibbs and there seem to be some unresolved... feelings between her and Agent DiNozzo."

Gibbs scowled. Surely a smart, educated woman such as Patricia didn't believe all the rumors flying around about Tony and Natalie."My agents share a professional relationship, friendship, nothing more. And you know I have rules..."

She looked at him incredulously. "You mean to tell me that if circumstances are just right... they won't act on those feelings?"

He scoffed. "DiNozzo knows better. Callahan will learn."

"You're asking for trouble, Agent Gibbs, later on down the road when they haven't resolved anything."

"I know my people. And I know it won't be a problem."

Patricia wondered if he really believed that or was just in denial. Either way... it could end up costly for his team. "You do realize that NCIS doesn't have a policy against agents in a relationship... some are married... Agents DiNozzo and Callahan hypothetically could enter a relationship and one of them could transfer to another team here in D.C."

Gibbs glared at her. "I know about the policy and I know that if agents enter a relationship who are on the same team... one is transferred. But I have different rules... rules that work for my team."

"Are you worried about loosing one of your agents because they might fall in love, Agent Gibbs?"

"They can fall in love..."

"Just not with each other..."

He stood, done with the conversation. "Listen... are you going to approve Agent Callahan for field duty or not?"

She sighed and looked at the unopened file on her desk. "If everything checks out at her next evaluation... then yes... I will."

Tony had decided that Natalie on desk duty was better than Fillmore on active field duty but he could see the despondent look in his partner's eyes as they days went by and she was still confined to the office. He did his best to cheer her up, keeping a professional distance of course because he realized he was dangerously close to crossing the Rule 12 line.

He knew that Natalie's speech to him had been ridiculous and a cover up to her feelings... but both of them being cops... they knew that the line couldn't be crossed. It was dangerous... to them... to their team. But it hasn't stopped how you feel about her. And there was a small part of him, well, perhaps a very large part of him, that wanted to see where those feelings took them.

Sometimes he thought rule 12 was the dumbest rule that Gibbs had come up with, and all because of things not working out with Jenny Shepard. The former marine could deny everything that happened between the pair all he wanted but Tony knew the truth. He'd known the truth the moment Jenny first appeared at NCIS as director.

"Well, that's odd," Tim said breaking the silence of the bullpen and into Tony's thoughts, "Susan Grady from polygraph wants to see me. I already took my polygraph."

"Isn't it obvious?" Natalie asked, glancing at the two men. When they glanced confused at each other, she chuckled, "Susan has a crush on you. She's using the polygraph as an excuse to see you again."

Tony's eyebrows shot up and he grinned brashly at Tim. "Sounds like Susan's caught the McFever. Not surprisingly... you are pretty dreamy."

Natalie giggled while Tim shot Tony a glare. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Maybe you should ask her out, Tim. She's really nice... even if she is bit.. quirky. And she's really good at her job. She did my polygraph when I got hired."

"Yeah!" Tony piped up, "You should ask her out, McGee! It's not like you have a lot of women knocking."

"You just said I was dreamy."

"Well... when you're competing with this..."

Natalie threw a bunched up ball of paper at Tony across the bullpen. Tony looked up, surprised and his mouth hung open a little. "You two like completely different women... so stop with this competition crap."

Tony pursed his lips together. "Come on, Natalie. You're a woman..."

"Keen observation, Tony. I'll make sure to mention that in my evaluation today."

"Fair enough, I deserved that... but you're a woman... which one of us would you date?"

Gibbs chose that moment to stride into the bullpen, coffee cup in hand. "Neither one of ya," he snapped as he went towards his desk. "If she knows what's good for her and wants to keep her job."

Tony quickly back-peddled. "Oh, boss, I was just... you know... asking a hypothetical question..." Gibbs threw him a glare. Tony smiled, nervously, "Asking a completely inappropriate question... that will never happen again, boss."

Tim looked, cheekily at Natalie across the bullpen and said underneath his breath, "Sure it won't." He cleared his throat when the team leader's glare shifted to him and quietly went back to work. It had been rather quiet around the office the last few days and he didn't want to test an already testy Gibbs. When the phone rang on the team leader's desk all the agents' heads popped up.

"Gear up, boys," Gibbs announced, after briefly speaking on the phone and hanging up. "Sailor nosed dived off a bridge last night."

"Ouch... what does the car look like," Tony quipped, grabbing his bag.

"Don't know... he wasn't in a car."

"Ah... so did Humpty Dumpty fall or was he pushed?"

"That's what we're going to find out, DiNozzo."

Natalie pressed her lips tightly together, trying to conceal her disappointment that she once again was being left behind. "What can I do from here?"

Gibbs gave her a soft look, understanding her inner struggle with still being on desk duty. "Do some background work on our victim," he said, jotting the name down and handing the paper to her. He reached out and tucked her under the chin, gently. "Hey. Keep this up. We don't want to give that shrink anymore reasons to keep you tied to that desk."

Tony reached over and ruffled her hair before leaving the bullpen and Natalie slumped back in her chair, looking at the name on the paper. If this young man had committed suicide she wondered what drove him to do it. Growing up Catholic she had been taught that suicide was a sin... she could never imagine things getting that low that she felt the need to end her life.

But that had been the fear... when she returned from Africa. Natalie wondered if Gibbs, Tony, and McGee still worried she might take her own life. She didn't know what she had done to deserve their protectiveness of her but she was happy she had them.

Shaking off the intense emotions, Natalie got to work on the background check. If she wanted to get back to field duty she needed to pass that evaluation and she needed to keep her heard clear.

"Agent Callahan," a mousey voice said behind her in the break room.

"Yeah," Natalie said, turning from fixing her coffee. She saw the small woman standing there. "Oh, hi, Susan."

Susan Grady smiled, broadly at her. "Hi. I was looking for Agent McGee."

Natalie stirred the sugar into her coffee and gestured towards the bullpen. "They're out on a call right now, should be back soon. Do you want me to tell Tim you were looking for him?"

"Could you? I think he's been avoiding me," Susan answered, sadly.

"No... he hasn't been avoiding you. They're just... they're busy without me," Natalie offered, softly. "Tim's had to pull his extra weight, ya know?"

"Oh. Well... can you send him down to me when he gets back?"

"Sure thing."

Natalie watched as she walked away and gave her head a little shake. Picking up her coffee sh headed back towards her desk. It had been an incredibly long couple of hours that the rest of the team had been out at the crime scene. She had gotten all the background information that Gibbs had wanted and deduced that their victim had mental health problems, thus he'd probably jumped. Afterwards she had gone in for her latest evaluation and now she was waiting around again for the results, hoping that she would reinstated for field duty.

Sipping her coffee, she sat back down at her desk and stared across the bullpen at Tony's. It suddenly hit her as rather ironic that earlier they had been encouraging Tim to take a chance with Susan when they were desperately trying to follow the rules. Of course, Susan and Tim were not partners... an entirely different situation than Tony and Natalie... still... if Susan and Tim were to go out on a date... technically it was still breaking Rule 12. And if Gibbs allows them... we could use that to convince him...

"Hey," Tony's voice interrupted her thoughts as he arrived back in the squad room. "Did you come up with anything?"

"Um, yeah," Natalie said, uncertainly, feeling like she'd had her hand caught in the cookie jar. She should even be thinking of ways to break that rule. "Looks like our petty officer had a history of mental illness. He probably jumped."

Tony frowned and nodded his head. "Yeah, Ducky seems to think he jumped... at least it looked that way at the crime scene. Which, by the way, you're lucky you missed out on... bloodiest scene I've been at in a while."

Natalie licked her lips, nervously and looked down. "Sorry I missed it."

He noticed the far away look in her eyes. Tossing his jacket on top of his desk he sauntered towards her desk and went to sit on the edge of it. "Nat? Something you want to talk about?"

She glanced up at the sound of his voice and found him incredibly close, and given her thoughts about finding loopholes in rule 12, it was dangerously close. "No, nothing to talk about."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Sure."

Tony knew that she was lying, but he didn't push her. Gently he leaned forward and placed a hand on her knee. "If you need to talk... I'm here."

Natalie smiled, trying to hide that her breath had quickened with his touch. "Yeah... I know."

"Okay, well, just checking," Tony replied, removing his hand from her leg and standing up.

"Hey, Tony," she whispered, grabbing his hand before he walked away. "Thanks."

"Anytime, Nat," he whispered back, smiling gently and squeezing her hand. "Anytime."

Gibbs stood, rigid above the bullpen, looking down at his agents. Was the blasted shrink right? Were Tony and Natalie falling for one another? His sensible side said of course it was possible... anything was possible. But that side of him that erred on the side of caution when it came to office romances was fuming. He had set clear rules and he expected them to be followed.

"You'll be pleased to know that Callahan passed her evaluation," Vance's voice cut into Gibbs' thoughts. "She can return to active field duty once she passes a fire arms proficiency test."

"I'll send her to the range immediately then," Gibbs said, sternly. "She needs a refresher course."

Vance wasn't entirely sure what that meant if he was honest with himself but he was certain they were not talking about Natalie's firearm skills. He decided to let it drop because he had learned over the years to let Gibbs deal with his teams' issues. "Where do we stand on the jumper this morning?"

Gibbs let out a slow breath. "Suicide. At least according to Ducky it appears that way. I'll know more by the end of the day. McGee was going over to the petty officer's apartment."

"Keep me updated."

"Will do."

Vance left him standing there, glaring down at his agents. Gibbs, fists clenched, wasn't sure exactly what was going on between Natalie and Tony, he just hoped they made the sensible decision and remained friends and nothing more.