Warnings: Spoilers for Season 7, not proof read so pardon any mistakes

A/N: Hey, here's a friendly reminder, if you do not like what I write or how I write or how I portray the characters then hit that wonderful thing called the back button and find something you do like instead of leaving insults.

NCIS Fan- Tony on painkillers is always fun!

Five hours—five—of grilling their would-be assassin, Natalie emerged from the interrogation room looking like she had gone about ten rounds with a prize fighter.

She was hoping to get some sleep in Abby's lab on the futon, but Gibbs had assigned her to relieve Tony's protection detail and to take the SFA back to his apartment where she was pretty much going to be baby-sitting him. There could be worse things than keeping an eye on Tony but the more they had learned from their suspect, the more terrified she was getting. This Paloma Reynosa had some kind of vendetta against Gibbs and she was going to take any measures that she could to get her revenge.

One question that still remained was why she was so vengeful. Gibbs had no idea who she was.

"Hey, Callahan," the agent in charge of Tony's detail greeted her when she arrived to pick him up. "Doctor's just discharged DiNozzo. Finishing up the paper work now."

"Great. Any word on McGee?" Natalie asked, her eyelids feeling heavy.

"Stable. Still being sedated," the agent replied. He frowned. "Don't take this the wrong way… but you look like hell."

Natalie threw him a glare and smiled, sarcastically. "Thanks. I appreciate the compliment."

Tony appeared in the door then, fixing a wrinkled dress shirt that had been brought to him from his desk. He shifted his gaze onto the agent and then back onto Natalie. "Any reason Gibbs sent me a baby-sitter last night? I wake up and you're gone replaced with Agent Sunshine here." And he would have to agree with that agent… she did look like hell. "Gibbs have you working all night?"

"Something came up that needed our attention," Natalie answered, honestly.

"And that something wouldn't happen to have anything to do with an agent involved shooting right outside my door last night, would it?" Tony asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Gibbs… you slept through the whole thing… we didn't think you needed to know."

"Well, lucky for me Agent Sunshine was willing to chat."

Natalie threw another glare at Agent Sunshine. The young agent was probably lucky that she wasn't Gibbs… "Are you ready to go?" she asked Tony, ignoring the obvious discussion they needed to have about the attempt on his life the night before.

Tony pulled on his jacket and simply nodded his head. "Doctor Pitt gave me the all clear and the neurologist says I need to take it easy for a few days. Good news is that my vision is almost back to one hundred percent. You don't look like a big blob anymore, Nat."

She scoffed as they proceeded towards the elevator, after she sent the other agent upstairs to join Tim's detail. "How wonderful."

He grabbed her by the arm and gently pulled her back. "Natalie. Talk."

"I'm fine."

"Really? Why do you look ready to burst into tears?"

Her lower lip quivered, slightly and she angrily stormed into the elevator. "I haven't slept that much in the last twenty-four hours, okay? That makes me a little bit more emotional than normal."

He got into the elevator with her, his brow furrowed in concern. "Gibbs is gonna get the guy. No one messes with his team and gets away with it. Come on, Nat, you know this."

"It's not that, Tony. It's just… someone with a vendetta like this… they won't stop."

"Good, let them come, Nat. Then I can show them what happens when they try to hurt my team."

Natalie let a few tears escape. Damn it, why did he have to be so strong? Why couldn't she be like him? Or Gibbs for that matter… "I can't… I can't lose any of you, Tony."

Tony wiped the tears away. "And you're not going to lose us, Nat, I promise."

He pulled her in for a kiss but the doors flew open and they were flying apart as Abby cried out, "Tony!"

"Abs," Tony ground out as he was engulfed in one of her crushing hugs. "I'm… I'm okay!"

"It's awful, Tony," Abby cried, "someone tried to kill you and Timmy… twice!"

"Well… still here," Tony quipped. "Thanks to Natalie."

Abby let go of Tony and peered at the other woman in the elevator with them. She hadn't been Natalie's biggest fan since her arrival, and even after Ziva had returned, she still was struggling to get to know the former detective. She knew that it was impossible for Ziva to come back to NCIS and the team, especially after what she had done to both Tony and Natalie… but… well… she was running out of reasons to hate Natalie. "Yeah… she's your partner Tony… she always has your back."

Natalie looked surprised that Abby had said something nice about her. It was entirely possible that they were never going to be friends but at least this seemed to be the first step in having a more healthy working relationship.

Tony had taken one of the coffees from Abby's tray and was sniffing it. "This for me?" he asked, sweetly and grinning at the forensic scientist.

"Absolutely not!" Abby snapped, taking it back and putting it in the tray. "It's for Jimmy. You should be home, resting with your feet up and a nice glass of water."

"Water?"

"Keeps you hydrated."

"Are you afraid I might dehydrate?"

"Yes! And you could fall and bang your head again and make your injury even more serious!"

Natalie laughed, silently at the look on Tony's face. "Don't worry, Abby, I'm taking him back to his apartment and staying with him."

Abby eyed her, cautiously. "Wait? You're going back to his apartment? Tony… you never let women in there."

"You've been there," Tony pointed out. "And actually… Natalie's been there too."

"What? When?"

"I don't know… few weeks after she started at NCIS."

"You let her in that soon?"

"Is there a reason for your line of questioning?"

Abby shook her head and gently pushed the pair of agents out of the elevator. "No. None. Just… surprising that's all."

Tony stood there long after the elevator doors had shut and Abby was gone. Natalie took him by the hand and smiled. "Come on," she said, softly, "I'll go buy you a coffee… we just won't tell Abby about it."

Tobias Fornell knew it was going to be rough Sunday when Jethro Gibbs showed up at his door. "Oh. This cannot be good."

Jethro was dressed in faded jeans and a rather old looking sweatshirt, and he had dark circles under his eyes that signaled he had been up all night doing God only knew what. He shrugged and handed Tobias a coffee. "A friend can't just stop by to visit on a Sunday morning?"

"Not you. Usually you want something."

"Hit man tried to take my team out yesterday. Tony and McGee are lucky to be alive."

Tobias took a sip of his coffee. "Ideas on who wants you all dead? Besides a long list of agents at the FBI and the CIA?"

Jethro chuckled. "Ever hear of Paloma Reynosa?"

"Reynosa? As in the Reynosa cartel?"

"One and the same. Did some research myself. I have Callahan running a deeper background check on her."

Tobias took another sip of his coffee, this time longer. He hadn't heard about NCIS getting involved with the Reynosa cartel, although it was entirely possible that Paloma had her fingers in dealing to sailors that were on liberty in Mexico. "What did you do to piss her off?"

Jethro shrugged again. "Here's the thing, Tobias… I haven't got a clue. NCIS has never investigated her, I've never investigated her. I even went back into Tony's files in Philly and Baltimore to see if he had investigated her… nothing. There has to be some other reason that she's targeting my team."

"And you want me to pull whatever I have on her, don't you?"

"Please?"

"Well," Tobias grunted, "since you asked so nicely…"

He smiled and turned to leave. Jethro knew that he could count on Tobias to help him. Suddenly, he turned back, "Damnit, I should have seen it sooner."

Tobias was confused. "Seen what?"

"Mike Franks."

"Huh?"

"Gotta go, Tobias! See you later with my information!"

Tobias watched him run back to his car and speed away. With a shake of his head he went back inside his house, slamming the door shut behind him. If it had been any other agent that had come knocking he would have sent them on their way… well… maybe with the exception of Tony DiNozzo… or Tim McGee… damnit, even the exception of Natalie Callahan. Why did that NCIS team invoke such a strong emotional reaction out of him? Regardless… he had information that he had promised to deliver to Jethro and he was not about to go back on that promise.

Natalie noticed that the apartment had gotten quiet. Pulling herself from the dining room table where she had been gathering intel on the Reynosa cartel, she softly made her way into the living room to find that Tony had passed out on the sofa while watching a movie.

He had been suffering from another headache after lunch and she had forced him to take some over the counter pain meds to counter it, but she wasn't expecting to find him sleeping.

Sighing, she went to pull a blanket around him, only to be startled when he grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto the sofa with him, wrapping her into his arms. "Tony. I have work to do."

Tony nuzzled her neck and murmured, "You need to rest. Work can wait."

Natalie struggled against him but found that she was just too tired to fight him. "It really can't. I promised Gibbs that I would put this file together and we really need it if we're going to find this woman before she kills us all."

"Just… take a nap with me, okay?" he whispered in her ear.

"I'm supposed to be taking care of you… not the other way around," she reminded him.

"Sometimes it's a two way street, beautiful."

"And it is today?"

Tony shifted her in his arms so he could kiss her. "Yes," he replied, pressing his lips to hers in another kiss. "It is. You're going to run yourself ragged and then who's going to take care of me?"

Natalie sighed and burrowed into his embrace. "Fine," she said, giving in, "I can take a nap, but just for a little while." She had just started to drift off when they heard the jingling of keys and the door to the apartment open. She rolled off the sofa and out of Tony's arms just as Gibbs entered the apartment. Jumping to her feet she smoothed her hair back and noticed that the team leader was looking at them, bemused. "Gibbs… I didn't know… I didn't know you were coming by."

Gibbs tossed his head towards Tony. "Just checking in to make sure he's behaving," he said, closing the apartment door. "Is he?"

"Ah, I always behave for pretty girls, boss."

"Did you manage to come up with anything for me?" Gibbs directed the question towards Natalie.

"Reynosa drug cartel is one of the strongest ones in Mexico… but I didn't come up with a reason why she' targeting NCIS or us," Natalie replied honestly.

Tony saw the former marine frown. He sat up on the sofa and rubbed the headache away from his temples. "Boss? Did you find out something?"

Gibbs' shoulders stiffened. "Yeah. But I might need to go to Mexico."

"What! No! You can't!"

"Boss! NO way you're going there without me!"

"You can't fly, DiNozzo, and yes, I can go, Callahan. I'm in charge, remember?"

Natalie looked at Tony, almost desperately. Tony got off the sofa and shook his head. "The leader of a deadly drug cartel has a hit out on all of us and you want to flaunt off to Mexico?" he asked, searching Gibbs' face. Suddenly he knew why. "Franks. You want to go talk to Franks."

Gibbs nodded as Natalie asked, "Who's Franks?"

Tony scowled. "Gibbs' former partner. I gotta tell you boss, I don't think it's a good idea to bring him in. Remember the last time?"

"I remember."

"And you're not the slightest bit worried that one of us is going to end up dead?"

"For crying out loud, DiNozzo! Yes! I'm terrified one of you is going to end up dead! One of you almost already did!"

"So, we're in agreement," Tony drawled, calmly. "You're not going to Mexico—alone—and you're not bringing Franks in?"

Gibbs glared at him. "You only challenging me because you know I can't slap you on the back of the head?"

Tony grinned. "Maybe, boss."

Natalie felt better that Tony had reigned Gibbs in, it seemed at times that the senior field agent was the only one that could do that. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out to see that it was a text message from Balboa. We have a giant, giant problem. Your hitman? He managed to escape.