Warnings: Spoilers for "Dead Air"

A/N: I had mixed feelings over "Dead Air". But the more I wrote this past weekend, this case was a natural stopping point. So, yes, the story is finished (E that's why there have been quick updates :D) the "verse" is not. When tackling an AU like this, I like to break it up into parts just to make it easier on the reader so they do not have 1000 chapters to read through if they are new to the story. Hope you will all continue on with me :)

amaia- I think I remember him saying that. Not sure how Tony and Natalie will be in regards to arguments in the future, but I don't think Tony's reaction will be to end things, and I don't think Natalie's reaction will be to hide. They've made some steps to being more open with each other and that helps. Glad you slept well and had happy dreams :)

Guest- To answer your question, yes if Tony had said that to Natalie, I would fully expect her to take him back. It isn't BS, it's forgiveness. But I don't think her first response would be to break-up with him, like his first response was to break-up with her. The comment started the fight... Tony was the one to impose the break-up, so yes, they are both to blame. Natalie not showing up for work is not unprofessional. She told Gibbs that she wasn't right in the head and that she didn't think it was safe for her to be out in the field. Would it have been better if she was there, carrying a weapon ,scatterbrained? Natalie copes by removing herself from the situation, Tony copes by burying himself in his work. As for Gibbs and the rest of the "clowns"... well Gibbs was just trying to help and Ducky was checking in to see how his friends were doing. Should Gibbs mind his own business? Yeah, but the butting in, that makes him Gibbs.

Smells of coffee and Dove soap tickled Tony's senses and woke him the next morning. Immediately he took in his surroundings—that he was in Gibbs' living room—and the sun was beaming brightly on his face. Stretching the kinks out of his neck, Tony got up from the sofa and stumbled into the dining room, towards the wonderful smell of coffee and soap, the soap he knew that Natalie used...

Gibbs was sitting there at the table with the paper in his hand, drinking his first—or third, perhaps—cup of coffee. "Morning sunshine," he drawled when he saw Tony's tall frame blocking out the sunlight. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah... neck hurts," Tony admitted. He glanced around the house but didn't see any evidence of his partner. "Where's Natalie?"

"Took a shower and then went home to feed the cat," Gibbs said. "Did you think I used Dove soap? Little too feminine smelling for me, DiNozzo."

Tony chuckled and sat down, pouring himself a cup of coffee. Gibbs had put the milk and sugar out for him. He prepared the brew to his likening and took a careful first sip. "She didn't really go back to her place to feed the cat, did she?"

Gibbs looked up from his paper and sighed. "She thought it best if you two take it slow... that she builds your trust in her... she showered and said she had something to take care of. She'll be at NCIS later, you two can continue your talks later tonight."

"Our talks? Sounds like we're negotiating a treaty," Tony mused, sipping his coffee.

"Sometimes in relationships you have to negotiate treaties and truces," Gibbs pointed out.

"If you know so much about relationships, why did those three marriages fail?"

"Because, I didn't love those three women, Tony. The one that was worth it, she was taken from me much too soon."

Tony looked at his coffee mug. Gibbs very rarely spoke about Shannon and Kelly. He had never actually told Tony about them—the senior field agent had found that out when the team leader had been in a coma. "And the difference here is, that Natalie is worth it to me."

Gibbs smiled and went back to reading his paper. "Now you're getting it, Tony." He fell silent for a moment and then snapped, "Don't get too comfortable. We still have work to do today."

Nearly choking on his coffee, Tony jumped up from the table and headed up towards the shower and the stash of clothes he kept at Gibbs' house. "On it boss! Promise! I won't be late!"

Tim braced himself as he stepped off the elevator. The tension had been so thick in the squad room the last few days that even Fred from accounting had noticed it when he came up for expensive reports from Natalie and Tony's trip to Miami. Fred hardly spent anytime up in the bullpen, for him to feel it meant that it was bad... rumors were flying left and right about Tony and Natalie, and Tim did his best to politely decline divulging information whenever someone asked. That would be disrespectful to both Tony and Natalie... and they were his best friends.

Peeking into the familiar cluster of desks he saw that he was the first one to arrive. Tim put his bag down by his desk and went to leave Tony's coffee and pastry on the senior field agent's desk, and then turned towards Natalie's. He had brought her a Chai tea latte and a bagel, her favorite, in the hopes that she was going to show up today. If she didn't... he was pretty sure that Gibbs was going to go to her apartment at some point and drag her butt down to the Navy Yard and lock Tony and Natalie in the elevator until they talked about their fight.

"Hey Tim," Tony said, easily as he strode into the bullpen, wearing jeans and a green button down shirt underneath a black blazer. "Thanks for breakfast."

"No problem. It was my turn," Tim replied with a shrug. He nervously looked at Natalie's empty desk.

Tony didn't either notice or chose to ignore him. He sat down at his desk, sipped his hazelnut coffee and booted up his computer. Immediately his messenger went off and he saw it was from Abby. Come on Abs, I haven't even gotten my morning coffee yet and you want to start in on me? He clicked it, because apparently he liked the abuse, and was a bit surprised when it read: Natalie told me what happened. Can you come see me?

Tim was just sitting down at his own computer when Tony asked where Gibbs was. "Don't know, haven't seen him. I'm sure he's lurking around the building though."

"Lurking right behind you, Ma-Gee," Gibbs said, startling the young man. "You have those reports for me?"

"Y-yes, boss," Tim stammered, "I left them on your desk last night."

"I'm gonna go see, Abby," Tony announced, grabbing his coffee and stuffing some of his pastry into his mouth. "Be right back."

Gibbs grunted a response and sat down.

Tim looked at him, nervously. "Is that such a good idea? Abby probably is going to cream him again about Natalie."

"Don't think so, Tim," Gibbs said, softly.

"What? How can you be sure about that, boss?" Tim asked, exasperated.

"Because I just told her what happened," Natalie said, arriving in the bullpen. She put her bag down by her desk. "I told her it wasn't his fault."

Tim was happy to see her, relieved in fact. She looked all right. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing a simple beige sweater and jeans, but she looked like she had gotten a good night's sleep, so that was a good sign... right? "Brought you breakfast..."

Natalie smiled at him. "Thanks, Tim. You didn't have too."

"It wasn't a problem. It was my turn," Tim said, smiling back at her.

"Can you two stop yapping and start working?" Gibbs snapped. "Abby could have DiNozzo down in the lab for hours... and Callahan... you better finish that paperwork you're behind on!"

She smiled, softly, and got right to work on that.

Tony was not prepared for a full out Abigail Sciuto, bone crushing, bear hug. In fact, the suddenly body flying at him, nearly took him off his feet, and he somehow managed to hold onto his coffee. "Whoa, Abs," he said, regaining his balance, "What was that for?"

Abby crushed him between her arms, again. "I'm sorry I yelled at you about the break-up. She told me what happened, she told me what she said about you and Wendy, and... that was just rotten of her, Tony! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Didn't want you to hate her even more," Tony said, softly. "I was just trying to maintain some sort of balance on the team."

"She was terrible to you!" Abby yelled, stepping back. "Who says something like that? Who throws the worst break-up in your life back in your face?"

"Someone who was very, very tired and angry at me already," Tony supplied.

Abby glared at him. "Do not try to play down what she did! She deserved to have her ass dumped, Tony! I don't care how much groveling she's done! Tell me that it's over, tell me that you're going to find someone better than her!"

Tony chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Abby. Have you ever been in love? I mean, truly, deeply, not whatever it was you had with Tim... or any other number of boyfriends that you have stick around for a two month period... I mean true, unconditional love..."

She thought about it for a moment and then took a deep breath. "No. I thought maybe with Marty... but that doesn't change what she said to you!"

He sighed and frowned at her. "Come on, if Marty had emailed you back and wanted a second chance, after telling you that you were too tall for him... would you have taken him back?"

"Applies and oranges!"

"But what he said hurt! You were miserable to be around for days, Abs!"

She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Tony. Tell me that it's over."

He backed away a step and shook his head. "Abby, I can't, because it's not."

"Why? Why would take her back? She hurt you!"

"Because I love her, Abby!"

Abby glared and clenched her fists. She couldn't make him see that this was a horrible idea. Natalie would only hurt him again—she had told Abby she was afraid of doing it—and she wanted to protect Tony, Abby wanted to protect her friend from any more heartbreak.

Tony waited for her next assault on him but his cell ringing broke the tense silence. He glanced down and saw Natalie's photograph pop up on the screen—the Paris photo she had no idea he'd taken... "I have to take this."

"Why because it's her?" Abby snapped.

"It might be work related," Tony snapped back, reaching his breaking point. He hit the answer screen. "DiNozzo."

"Got a call out. Three dead at a local radio station," Natalie told him. "Shot on the air no less."

Tony ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "I'll meet you at the truck."

Natalie paused, like she was going to ask something but decided against it. "Okay. We'll be waiting," she said and then hung up.

He put his phone back into his pocket and looked at Abby, sadly. "I get this one, Abby. Somehow she understands my complexities and doesn't mind them."

She pouted, her lower lip trembling. "I just don't want to see you hurting like that, like when Wendy ditched you."

"You won't, Abs. Natalie isn't Wendy. She wasn't the one running after our fight. I was."

"But... I just think..."

"Abs... I know you're angry. Just put yourself in her shoes... if you said something that hurt me... or Tim... would you want us to just walk away?"

Abby blinked as his point was finally made. Natalie had made a terrible mistake in a moment of anger and she had felt horrible about it, making herself physically ill after Tony had broken up with her. She had come down here to come clean about the whole thing, even when she knew that it wasn't going to make their relationship any better... "No. I love you guys... you're... you're family."

Tony smiled at her sadly and nodded his head. "Exactly. She's family, Abs—my family. It may not make sense to you why I forgave her, but forgiveness is a lot better to live with then hurt. Promise... you'll go a bit easy on her..."

She sighed, angrily. "Fine. I'll try."

He grinned. "Don't make me have another bonding day, Abby." And with that he was gone. The team had work to do.

The tiny radio station reminded Tony of ones that he would pass on Midwestern roads while going to college in Ohio. Outside there were some parked cars on the dirt parking lot, a set of tire tracks leading away from the scene that Tim had already taken a cast of ... and local LEO's that Tony estimated had not been on the force that long. They all had fresh, wide eyed, baby faces. One of them lifted the crime scene tape for Natalie, smiling at her shyly and murmuring, "Good morning, ma'am."

Tony chuckled as he followed her. The cop lowered the tape, his eyes following Natalie into the radio station. Tony cleared his throat. The young cop looked back at him, sheepishly and lifted the tape up for him. "What? I don't get a good morning because I'm not as hot as her?"

"Good morning ma'am... sir! I mean good morning, sir!" the young cop nearly choked on his words.

"I'm just messing with ya," Tony said, laughing as he stepped inside the radio station.

Gibbs directed him into the control room, where the intern that had been working the controls and listening in on the interviews, had been shot to death. Single bullet through his heart, mostly likely delivered from a rifle judging from the brass that was still lying around. It was clear that the show's host, Adam Gator, was the real target since he had three bullets to his chest. Their dead Navy Commander and the intern were just unlucky to be present when the killer showed up. "See if you find anything on those tapes," he ordered his senior field agent before joining Tim and Ducky in the next room.

Tony grabbed some headphones and began to tinker with the controls while Natalie was behind him snapping pictures. "You know... I considered going into radio once."

Natalie was flipping through her photographs on the digital camera. "But interviewing people on the air didn't have the same appeal as interrogations?"

"Actually... I think I would have made a great sports commentator. Jack Buck... Harry Caray," he said, just before seamlessly transitioning into an impression of the famous Cubs announcer. "Baseball stuff," he said when he was done, and then quickly added, "You probably wouldn't understand."

"You know, Tony," Natalie said, still looking through photographs to see if she got all the shots that she needed. "I grew up in Boston... my dad made us take an annual pilgrimage to Fenway every summer..."

Tony hushed her when he heard something on the tape and called Gibbs into the room. "Boss, you might want to hear this." When Gibbs came into the room, Tony put what he wanted the boss to hear on the speaker. "I think our shooter was more than an angry listener... check it out."

Natalie and Gibbs stood behind him and watched as he pressed a button. Gator's voice filled the small room. "After the break I want to discuss a very real threat I received from a group of... ha! A group of my fans! Crackpots that don't know the difference between patriotism and terrorism! I will expose what might be the next great threat to national security... right after these words from our sponsors..."

One gunshot could be heard going off, Gator yelling for the guy to put the gun down... Tony stopped the feed, looking earnestly at Gibbs and Natalie. "Gator wasn't shot for something he had said... he was shot for something he was about to say."

Natalie clutched the box of tapes that Adam Gator's wife had given them and stood outside the lab, rigidly.

Abby had reacted rather icily to her telling the truth—that she was to blame for the break-up—however brief it turned out to be. Things were not really back to normal, but she knew that they would get there with a little bit more time and more talking about it with Tony. Natalie still felt some awkwardness around Tony, and Tony was obviously feeling the same. Today in the radio station's control room he'd been goofing off with her but immediately stopped, as if he was afraid of what she was thinking about him. There was still this wall between them that Natalie wasn't quite sure how to take down. She supposed that it would happen, eventually, once she built some trust back into their relationship again...

"Hey Abby," Natalie greeted, finally working up her courage and stepping into the lab. "Gibbs wanted me to bring these tapes down to you. Adam Gator recorded everything, even phone calls, just incase. His wife thought that they could help us find his killer."

"Why aren't you listening to them?" Abby asked, looking up from her work on the ballistics report she was preparing. "You are the criminal profiler on the team, right? Sounds like something you should be doing."

Natalie put the bag of tapes down onto the table. "Because I have a stack of hate mail upstairs that I need to go through. I could really use the help, Abby."

Abby sighed and thought about Tony's words earlier that morning. She slipped the ballistic report into a folder. "You can tell Gibbs that he's looking for a hunting rifle. Make and model are there in the report. Ducky also found traces of something on the bullets that I determined was deer urine, more specially from a doe. I'm running more tests to confirm that but it was probably on the killers hands when he loaded the rifle."

"Great. I'll let him know," Natalie said, turning to go.

"Natalie."

She turned on her heel and saw Abby looking at her, pensively. "Do you have more for me?"

Abby shut her music off and stood there, in awkward silence for a moment. "I wasn't fair to you this morning. Everyone says things that they don't really mean in the heat of the moment, in anger... I know that you really didn't mean to hurt Tony... that it just...came out."

Natalie was surprised. Abby had wanted her to back off from Tony that morning when they had talked. She wasn't sure what Tony had said to Abby, it wasn't her place to ask, but obviously it had resonated with her. "It's okay, Abby, really it is. You're Tony's friend and you just wanted to make sure he wasn't hurt any more. Guess today is all about forgiveness," she said with a smile as she turned on her heel and went back up to the bullpen.

If they didn't find the killer soon, then they were all going to be seeking forgiveness from Gibbs.