Warnings: Spoilers for Season 7, not proof read twice like I usually do, so there might be some mistakes. PM if you catch one :)

A/N: Okay, folks. I have a bit of a plot twist for ya! Hope you enjoy!

amaia- Thank you :)

Paloma was mad. Although, to be fair, he wasn't sure if he ever saw her happy.

Escaping from the NCIS agents had been harder than he anticipated, but he figured out a way to slip out unnoticed after studying their patterns for several hours. He might be a poor assassin but he was a deft and limber thief.

Lighting up a cigarette he had pickpocketed from one of the agents guarding him, he watched as Paloma and her brother adamantly argued with one another in Spanish. From their body language he could conclude that they didn't agree on the next course of action. By NCIS was aware that he was out and he was certain that they had put a BOLO out for him, there would be no walking up to the hospital this to complete the job. "Can I make a suggestion?"

Paloma and her brother sent him a fierce glare. "You cannot even follow simple orders. What makes you think I want to listen to any suggestions you make?" the sister asked, hotly.

"Gibbs and NCIS are going to be on high alert now that your murder attempts have been stopped," he pointed out, taking a drag on his cigarette. "I'd lay low. Let them come to you… in Mexico. Or hit them when they are least expecting it."

"We have waited years to have our revenge," the brother near shouted. "I will not wait much longer!"

He took another drag from his cigarette. "Well, then either one of your or both of you are going to end up dead. From what I saw, being locked up for five hours in a small interrogation room with Agent Gibbs is that no one messes with him and gets away with it. He's going to be coming after you now and I can safely bet that he won't be so kind when it comes to firing his gun at you like Agent Callahan was when she put the round in my shoulder."

Paloma put her hand up to silence her brother when she noticed he was going to argue. "No. He's right. We have shown our hand and taken too much of a gamble."

Alejandro had never been the patient one. He was more hot-tempered and reactionary that Paloma. "We wouldn't be gambling if the idiot your hired had killed them!"

"I guess we won't talk about the patch work job done on the brakes that I believe you cut," he argued, tossing his cigarette to the ground and putting it out underneath his shoe. "I followed them for miles before those brakes gave out. And that still wasn't enough to kill them."

"You only had to overdose the heroin!" Alejandro shouted at him. .

He scoffed. It wasn't like they had given him an easy task. "Next time you try to murder two federal agents with another two lurking around the hospital armed, let me know how it goes. I'm done here." Spinning about on his heel, he turned his back on them for the last time.

"I'm really sorry, Gibbs. Balboa only ducked out for a second and the guy clubbed me on the head. Took my weapon and badge and probably just walked out," Agent Riley reported when Gibbs and his team arrived back at NCIS. "Put a BOLO out for him."

"Next time, cuff the guy, will ya?" Gibbs snapped. "I'm already down an agent I do not need this bastard putting me down another one."

Tony glanced at Natalie. He could almost sense the tear that the boss was about to go on. He didn't really blame him, after all, someone who had tried to kill them just the night before was back out on the streets and there was the matter of Paloma Reynosa…

Natalie looked at the stricken and slightly fearful agent. She had been on the receiving end of that look a few times now... and Tony, well... who knew how many times he had seen that look... "Tony and I can go back to the hospital to keep an eye on McGee…"

Gibbs shook his head fiercely. "You two aren't going anywhere until that hit man is back in custody."

"Boss… if Reynosa wants us all dead she's just going to hire another assassin," Tony pointed out. "If we stick in pairs we can take care of each other."

"I'm not arguing with you about this Tony," Gibbs shouted, storming out of the bullpen. "Until further notice you and Callahan are under house arrest."

Tony looked at Natalie and heaved a sigh. He knew that there was no arguing with Gibbs, especially when he was like this. So, the best that the two agents could do was to grin and bear it until all of this was over.

Ducky was not surprised when Gibbs showed up late to check on Tim. "Jethro, I thought you would have been pounding the pavement to find your escaped hit man."

Gibbs looked at Tim's ashen face. His agent was still heavily sedated so he wouldn't feel any pain. Doctors planned to slowly bring him out of his hibernation state next week. And there wasn't much Tim could do to help the team right now... "BOLO is out, the SUV that fled the accident was found torched... Tony and Natalie are locked up at NCIS right... not much else I can do, Duck."

"I've been given some thought about all of this, Jethro," Ducky said, softly. "I know you do not want the others to know... that the real cause of Shannon and Kelly's deaths was because of a drug dealer... but..."

"That happened years ago... why come after me now?" Gibbs asked, honestly.

Ducky shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps Ms. Reynosa feels you have wronged her somehow... whatever happened to the drug dealer anyways?"

Gibbs shifted, nervously on his feet. "Fled to Mexico before authorities could pick him up."

"Is he still in Mexico?"

"Far as know he is... six feet under the ground too."

Ducky's eyes became serious for a second and he searched Gibbs face. "Jethro... you didn't..."

Gibbs shook his head. "No. I did not kill him. Mike Franks... he gave me... he gave me the opportunity... left the information out in the open for me to read... but I knew... I knew that Shannon wouldn't want me to murder on her behalf."

The medical examiner looked at him thoughtfully. "Drug dealer... he had many enemies. Anyone of them could have murdered him. So, the question remains... what does Paloma Reynosa want with you?"

"Natalie is working on a profile."

"Profiling Ms. Reynosa could take a while. What's your gut say?"

Gibbs sighed. "My gut? It says this has something to do with Pedro Hernandez and my family all those years ago, I just don't know what yet."

Natalie was getting tired of showering in the woman's locker room. She had gone through her clothing stashed in her file cabinet like wildfire thanks to Gibbs insisting that until their hit man was found Tony and Natalie were not leaving the building. And she only had gel to tame her wild beach waves. But Tony likes your hair this way. He says you look beautiful…

She smiled and climbed into the elevator. It was the first time anyone had told her she looked beautiful with her natural waves. Her mother had spent her entire childhood taming them and when she had grown-up she had flat ironed the hell out of her hair, wanting to hide the fact that it was not perfectly smooth and straight. Boyfriends were no exception to the rule…

Tony didn't mind that she wasn't perfect… perhaps he was drawn to her because of her imperfections. Whatever the reasons, she knew that it didn't bother her as much to forgo the flat iron. Stepping off the elevator in the squad room she found that her breakfast had arrived and was waiting for her on her desk. Tony was seated at his, eating and looking sullen.

"Gibbs still won't let us leave?" Natalie guessed as she sat down at her own desk and opened her egg and cheese sandwich.

"Nope. I feel like Rapunzel," Tony snapped, "Locked in the tower with no way out."

"Aw, and you don't have very long hair to lower to the Prince for a romantic visit," Natalie teased him.

Tony tossed her a frustrated look. Being locked up in NCIS for almost four days now was having an impact on him. Gibbs had Ducky checking him out every day to make sure his injuries were healing and then he was forced to rest for three hours every afternoon… forced to take a nap like a three year old. Meanwhile, Gibbs got to come and go as he pleased…

Natalie smiled at him. "Don't worry, Tony. It can't last forever. Vance is eventually going to make him let us leave the building."

"Do you want to place bets on this?"

"Eat your breakfast without whining or I'm going to make you take a four hour nap today."

Tony grumbled but did as he was told. He didn't want to be confined to the lab for four hours when he could be helping Natalie and Gibbs. Although, it wasn't like Natalie was doing much. She had put together a pretty comprehensive file on the Reynosa drug cartel but she hadn't narrowed down why they were connected to Gibbs and NCIS. Tony was beginning to wonder if this had anything to do with NCIS at all or if the team was simply caught in the crosshairs.

Natalie was handling their house arrest—or in this case office arrest—better than he was. Perhaps she had been so busy working on her profile that she hadn't really noticed they had not left the building in four days. Or she was just better at covering up her frustrations.

Finishing his breakfast, Tony went back to work, which with no leads on the hit man or the Reynosa cartel… was filing paperwork.

"Hey, Abby just sent me a text," Natalie said between bites of her sandwich, "she thinks she has something."

"Great… maybe we'll finally have something to do," Tony muttered as he followed his partner into the elevator.

Natalie stepped into the elevator and turned about to hit the button for the lab. She was about to tease Tony when the doors closed, he flicked the emergency switch and pulled her in for a hungry kiss. "Tony… I thought we agreed that we were going to keep our relationship out of the office."

Tony buried his hands in damp hair and pulled her in again for another kiss. "That was before Gibbs locked as away at NCIS and I've had to keep my hands to myself."

"Abby's waiting for us you know?"

"She can wait a bit longer."

"Oh well… in that case…"

He silenced her when he captured her lips in his own, prodding her to deepen their embrace. He had been hoping to use the weekend to explore what was happening between them before they went back to work and had to figure some things out. But nothing went according to plan and instead of spending the weekend with her, he had been in the hospital and then forced to stay at NCIS. No one was stopping them from cashing in on their attraction… it just wasn't the brightest idea. Especially with how rumors flew around their building.

She pulled away from their intense kiss and took a steadying breath. "We really can not make her wait anymore."

Tony sighed, knowing that she was right, and moved away from her. He flicked the emergency switch and started the elevator up again. Shoving his hands in his pockets, to resist the temptation to touch her, Tony followed Natalie into the lab.

Abby immediately was suspicious. "What took you guys so long?"

"Finishing breakfast," Natalie countered.

"Must have been a tasty breakfast," Abby remarked, pulling something up on her computer.

"It was very tasty," Tony snarked, which earned him a soft punch to his shoulder from Natalie.

"Well since you're both fueled… here's what I found," Abby said, ignoring them. "I've been looking into the Reynosa cartels movements for the last several months. It looks like they want to expand their business up North. She's been pretty busy up here. Metro has four open homicide cases that they think are tied to the Reynosa cartel."

Natalie frowned at the computer screen. "I read up on those. None of them have ties to NCIS. Not even any drug busts NCIS has made in the last few months is tied to the Reynosa cartel. It feels like this targeting is out of the blue…"

Tony pursed his lips. "Nothing like this is ever out of the blue. There has to be some reason. Maybe Paloma Reynosa's family? She had to have inherited the business from someone."

"Her husband," Natalie and Abby stated at the same time.

"What happened to him?" Tony asked.

"Murdered by a rival cartel," Natalie answered. "Paloma took over for him after he died."

"Still it probably wouldn't hurt to double check with Metro…"

"No time, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, striding into the room. "Just got a call… the body of our hit man was found. You two need to gear up. We have a crime scene to get too."

So... if Gibbs didn't kill Hernandez who did? Do you like that little plot twist...