Warnings: Spoilers for "Short Fuse"

A/N: Music is a huge part of my writing process, and I have to say that Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" is totally Natalie's theme song. Every time I hear it I picture her lol. Anyways, I've decided that "Short Fuse" will be the last timeline for this story. Don't worry there will be a sequel devoted to Season 8 :) I'm probably the only one, but I thought the opening bullpen scene with Tony and the photographers was hilarious, so I kept it.

E- Abby will come around eventually. And yes, I do plan on adding lots more events from canon to this storyline.

amaia- I figured I'd hurt Tony enough in this story lol

McGee stepped off the elevator months after Rivera had been shot to death in the parking lot to find that the bullpen had been turned into some kind of photography studio. He noticed that Natalie was standing on the other side of the cubicle wall behind her desk, watching as a person applied make-up to her partner. She was smiling and silently laughing like she was enjoying this.

There was a tall man directing things in the middle of the bullpen. "You look great," he assured Tony, and then snapped off some instructions to the photographer that was standing by, who immediately began to snap pictures of Tony in rapid succession.

Stepping up to stand next to Natalie, McGee asked, "What's going on?"

Natalie looked at McGee. "Tony has been chosen to be on the new cover of the NCIS recruiting brochure."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," McGee mumbled to her, making her laugh lightly.

"Hey, check it out!" Tony yelled across the bullpen at them. "Who's the new face of NCIS? You're looking at it McEnvy! Get used to it!"

McGee glanced at Natalie and frowned. "There will no living with him now."

Natalie chuckled. "Now?" she repeated. Yes, she loved him, but even she had to admit at times he could be difficult to live with. The two continued to watch while the public affairs director encouraged Tony to look like he was working at his computer.

"Did Gibbs authorize this?" McGee questioned when he'd had about enough.

"Nope. Wasn't consulted," Gibbs said, pushing some equipment out of the way to get to his desk. "Gear up," he told his team, "Marine shot an intruder in her home in Arlington."

Quickly the team, including Tony, gathered up their gear while the public affairs guy, Ron Sands, introduced himself to Gibbs. "Special Agent DiNozzo can't leave," Sands said, which caused Gibbs to turn and glare at him. He smiled, uneasily, "We're not finished with him."

Tony, Natalie, and McGee all froze in their spots. No one told Gibbs no. Gibbs just stared down Sands and the photographer who was still taking photographs. Tony, eyes wide looked at Natalie across the desks. "I'll drive boss!" he offered, before quickly escaping the bullpen.

Gibbs smirked and turned to see the rest of his team filing out. Forget recruiting brochures—they had a job to do.

A little over half an hour later the team pulled up in front of a rather nice looking townhouse. They immediately got to work securing the crime scene and collecting evidence from the local authorities that had taken the call.

Tony had Natalie go speak to their victim, Heather Dempsey, although she wasn't acting like a victim. She was acting rather calm and collected. He supposed that being a marine meant that she wasn't afraid to be alone at night and certainly she was able to handle an intruder. He waited outside for the M.E van to arrive.

Natalie found Heather in her kitchen, drinking her morning coffee. She wasn't very big or menacing looking, not the type of person that Natalie had pictured shooting an intruder dead in her home without blinking an eye. Of course, not many pictured Natalie herself as a federal agent so... "Sergeant Dempsey?"

"Yes?" Dempsey said, glancing at the female NCIS agent.

"I'm Special Agent Natalie Callahan," Natalie replied, showing the woman her credentials. "Can I ask you a few questions about last night?"

"Of course," Dempsey replied putting her coffee mug down.

Natalie opened her notepad. "You were home alone last night when the intruder broke in?"

Dempsey nodded. "Yes. I heard the door open. I got my gun and went and confronted him. He fired at me, I fired back."

"Have you ever seen the intruder before?"

"Not until last night."

Natalie wrote down the information in her pad. She glanced at the refrigerator then, noticing a photograph there. "Is that in Afghanistan?"

Dempsey nodded. "Yes. Just recently."

"Did you take the picture?"

"No. I'm in it."

She looked at the photograph closer. Natalie saw someone dressed in protective gear between two marines... "You're a bomb techican," she stated.

Dempsey smiled at her as her cellphone rang. "My team leader. I need to take this, if you'll excuse me, Agent Callahan," she said, leaving the kitchen and going to find some place quieter to chat with her superior.

Natalie was only in the kitchen alone for a moment before Gibbs appeared, eyes looking at her and asking her silent questions. "She didn't know the intruder. It was a natural reaction to grab her gun and fire at him when he fired back. She diffuses bombs for a living, Gibbs."

Gibbs titled his head to one side in response, quickly. "Part of her training as a marine."

Tony appeared in the kitchen, grinning. "She wasn't here alone. I poked around upstairs like you asked me too, boss."

"How do you know she wasn't alone?" Natalie questioned.

"Queen sized bed, sheets were rumpled."

"That means nothing. I don't always make my bed."

"Yeah... but you know what it looks like after I've been over..." Tony started and saw the glare that Gibbs sent him. "Sorry boss. Toilet seat was also up. A man was here."

McGee came into the kitchen then. "Boss. We have a problem. The intruder's finger prints are gone... I can't scan them."

Natalie looked at Tony incredulously. "What's your theory about that one?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes. Some days he was more like a principle at a high school—or a parent dealing with quibbling siblings, not a federal agent. "We'll have to rely on facial recognition." He instructed the team to pack up and get moving.

Dempsey returned then. "I'm needed at the Navy Yard. Bomb threat on the carrier anchored there, the U.S.S Barry. Surprised you guys are here investigating this and not down there investigating that anti-war group that left it. Am I done here?"

"For now," Gibbs told her. "We have your phone number. We'll call if we need anything else."

"Very well, sir," Dempsey said before leaving.

After she was gone Gibbs turned towards Tony and Natalie. "See if you can track that other man down—and DiNozzo?"

Tony looked at the lead agent, innocently. "Yes, boss?"

Gibbs cracked a grin. "Go wash the makeup off your face before you start conducting interviews."

Thanks to Tony noticing a strange sound in the background of Dempsey's 911 call, Abby had been able to isolate the disturbance and they were able to show proof that a man was with the marine the night before.

McGee was doing his computer thing to track the cell phone that could have been used by the man so they could learn their identity.

Tony had just made the decision that he and Natalie were going to go over to the U.S.S Barry to talk to Dempsey when Sands arrived looking for him. "Oh, Ron, did you get the shot?" he asked, innocently, noticing that McGee rolled his eyes.

"Ah, not yet," Sands said, "We were looking through the shots from this morning and we feel like we just don't have it yet."

"I have an idea. How about this one? It's a great booking photo," McGee said, typing on his keyboard and bringing up Tony's Metro mug shot from the impound break-in early last year.

Natalie closed her eyes and shook her head, while Sands eyes looked confused at the mug shot. She heard Tony remark that he liked the green, that it did bring out the color of his eyes. She opened her eyes and stood up, grabbing her gear. "Tony. We have to get to the Barry."

Tony nodded and went to grab his gear, slinging his bag over his shoulder he started to follow Natalie out of the bullpen, when Ron asked, "What's going on?"

Both Natalie and McGee looked at Tony with looks on their faces as if to say, keep your mouth shut, but Tony, being Tony, replied, "Bomb scare on the U.S.S Barry. We, ah, need to go interview a witness to a crime..."

"Sounds like a great photo OP, mind if I tag along?" Sands asked.

"You really should check with Gibbs this time, Tony," McGee said when he noticed that Tony was hesitating.

"Grab your photographer, Ron," Tony said with a smile, before following Natalie to the elevator. What Gibbs didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Natalie didn't voice her displeasure with Tony until they were seated in the waiting room at the Infirmary, waiting for word on Sergeant Dempsey after the bomb had gone off on the Barry, injuring the bomb tech. "You know that bomb blast could have been a lot worse," she snapped, "You shouldn't have told Ron that he could tag along with us."

Tony licked his lips and glared at her. Was she going to get all up in his grill about the photos, about being chosen to be on the brochure? Sure, he could handle it from Tim, it was just some brotherly jealousy after all, but form his girlfriend? "How was I supposed to know that the bomb was going to go off? Besides, it was more flash than anything else, very little damage to the Barry. The group was just trying to send a message. Agent's Krone's problem, not ours."

"Why are you doing this? For Gibbs approval?" Natalie spat, angrily as she drew her knees up to her chest and hugged tightly. "He already likes you!"

"I'm not doing it for his approval. I'm doing it because Director Vance and the Pubic Affairs office asked me too," Tony growled underneath his breath.

Her look was heated. They had gotten into a few more arguments than usual since Rivera had been taken care of. She wasn't sure why and most of them had to do with his stupid behavior at work. "You can be a real ass—no wonder she left you at the altar."

His face clouded over with agony and fury. He had told her about Wendy in the strictest of confidence. Not even Tim or Jimmy knew about Wendy. As Tony clenched his jaw, he saw the immediate regret wash through her gray eyes, but it didn't take away the hurt, the sting of her using the failure of his first engagement against him.

"Agent DiNozzo?" a voice interrupted them. "Sergeant Dempsey said you might want to speak to me."

"Yeah," Tony said, standing up and glaring at his partner, "She's a witness in a home invasion shooting. Is she going to be okay?"

The Navy Medic nodded is head. "Yeah. She was lucky. Armor protected her. We're going to keep her overnight for observation—you know, standard procedure, sir."

Tony sighed and smiled, "Sure, sure. When can we speak to her again?"

"I'd wait until morning, sir."

"Okay, great, well... I guess Agent Callahan and myself will be going."

Natalie was summoned by his finger and Tony turned sharply on his heel, not bothering to wait for her. She felt like crap for that Wendy comment. He might have been acting like an ass all day but he did not deserve her hitting blow the belt like that. Wendy leaving had nothing to do with his attitude. He had loved Wendy. She had just left without any explanation. "Tony..."

Tony shook her off with a shake of his head. "Don't want to talk about." He slammed his finger down on the elevator button and waited for the cab to arrive. "Wouldn't want to give you more fodder to point out what an ass I am."

She rocked back on her heels, feeling about three inches tall. "I'm sorry... it was uncalled for..."

He turned on her, green eyes dark with anger. "Yeah! It was uncalled for! Remind me never to disclose personal, hurtful information about myself to you ever again!"

Silence stretched out between them, until the elevator dinging interrupted it along with Tony's cell phone ringing. He reached into his pocket and produced his shiny new smartphone and jabbed his finger at the screen to answer. "Yeah? DiNozzo."

"Hey, tracked that cell phone," McGee said, noticing the tight tone of his partner's voice, "It's a secured phone—registered to the FBI."