Disclaimer:

NCIS and all its characters belong to CBS and Donald Bellisario – I'm just playing in their sandbox. I promise to return all the toys when I'm finished. This is just for fun and no profit is being made. I wish it did belong to me, though – I would've played up that father/son bond between Gibbs and Tony a lot more.

Chapter One

Checkmate

"Gibbs, meet your new team."

Vance's frosty words still rang in his ears hours after they'd been spoken. The stony tone of finality grated on Gibbs' nerves. At first, he'd been too stunned to react, still reeling from Jenny's death and the way it all went down. He'd loved her once – as much as he was able to love anyone after the true love of his life – his girls – were lost. Still, the sudden, violent manner of her death, on top of learning she'd already been given a fatal diagnosis unsettled him. She'd never even hinted that she was sick and facing her own mortality.

It brought him back to Iraq, when he'd received the tragic news of Shannon and Kelly's deaths. There was nothing he could do then, either. The sudden violence and unexpected nature of their deaths eerily similar, leaving him rattled – as if he was walking in two separate timelines. After everything he'd done, striving to keep things in his control, once again life was making a mockery of his efforts.

He returned to his desk feeling shell-shocked, the files Vance thrust into his hands sitting unopened on his desk. His entire team barely uttered a word before packing up their desks and going home to process – three of them for the last time. He could see a similar, lost feeling reflected in all their eyes.

Now, here in his basement with a shot of Bourbon and the tension-relieving motion of sanding his current boat, his mind was clearer, if still desolate. With that focus came a familiar anger, pulsing in his veins. Vance was a pompous, conceited ass, far too sure that his underlings wouldn't dare defy him and would simply fall in line. Gibbs recognized the traits as part of his own personality, but at least Gibbs knew he was a bastard.

Vance was undoubtedly heady with the new power he'd been granted. Gibbs wasn't sure what he thought he'd achieve by breaking up the premiere MCRT so completely. It was clearly a punishment for the investigation into Jenny's death – and Vance's blatant exclusion from it.

The new director didn't like being kept out of the loop and pushed aside in his investigation. His investigation bullshit. He'd only known Jenny in a professional capacity. It was personal to the rest of them. A vague, foggy memory crystallized in Gibbs' mind. It was during an undercover op where Tony and Ziva took the roles of assassins to discover a murder plot at the annual Marine Birthday Ball.

While he and Jenny were monitoring the surveillance feed in MTAC, she'd mentioned how relieved she was that Gibbs had accepted Ziva so fully on his team. Jenny was the one who'd insisted that the Israeli should be placed there. She'd also mentioned that SecNav wouldn't have been happy if her first move upon taking control of NCIS was to damage its greatest asset.

Gibbs did accept Ziva, even if he hadn't chosen her like he'd done the others – but it was different. Ziva was one member added to an empty slot. This – this whatever Vance was doing – was changing the whole team. Replacing it with strangers. The dynamic would be off, and it would take time for a new team to learn to work together.

So… how would SecNav feel if Vance's first move upon taking control was damaging its greatest asset? It's effectively what he'd done.

Gibbs didn't want a new team. He liked the team he had. He'd spent years cultivating it and molding it into the finely-crafted unit it was. Much like he did with his boats, the team had been carefully constructed.

He really hated being backed into a corner.

Vance blamed DiNozzo and Ziva for blowing their undercover detail, and he blamed Gibbs for excluding him from the follow-up investigation – even though the case was wrapped up neatly, without any fallout or hint of the cover-up smearing Vance's new reign.

The man should've been ecstatic it turned out so well.

Vance didn't know – or perhaps didn't care – that there was no way for DiNozzo and Ziva to stick with Jenny if she was determined to exclude them. Although Gibbs cared about her and was immensely sorry for her death, he wasn't under any delusions that his former lover had been a good director. Quite honestly, she'd been deceitful and reckless. Gibbs was the one who'd arranged for Jenny to go out in a blaze of glory, something he was well-aware she didn't deserve. Still, it was something he was able to do for her, and it eased his grief. It didn't mean he was ignoring reality.

She'd used the agency as her own private kingdom to fight her private wars, stepping on all kinds of rules, regulations – and people – along the way.

DiNozzo, in particular, had been seriously burned once already. Gibbs couldn't blame him for steering clear of getting involved. Still, he knew how badly the younger man was blaming himself now. That situation needed some resolution, and sending him out to sea, where he'd be completely isolated, was not what DiNozzo needed. In fact, it would probably be detrimental to his health.

If Jenny knew SecNav wouldn't be happy with the destruction of the MCRT – Vance should be aware of it, too.

That meant he was up to something, and he was using Gibbs and his team to achieve whatever it was. Gibbs didn't like being used – and he knew DiNozzo didn't either. DiNozzo was someone he could do something for – and he was well-aware that he owed him. He hadn't been fair to his loyal second in quite a while. It was time for that to change.

Some of his memories were still clouded and distorted since the explosion two years ago. They'd been returning in slow, unorganized pieces. Watching Jenny's home burn, and the subsequent upheaval Vance caused, had brought more of those memories to the forefront – most of them about DiNozzo.

He and the younger man worked together for a long time before the rest of them joined the team. They'd been more like partners. He'd trusted DiNozzo's judgement and had often sought his opinion on various cases. He wasn't sure why things changed, but he was sure it had been his own fault. It was time to make that up to his SFA.

Maybe Vance needed a reality check… and Gibbs knew what it would take to give it to him. It would mean a major risk, and the potential loss of everything he'd worked for and believed in, but the risk was worth it. He wasn't about to let another power-hungry dictator take the reins, potentially risking the peace of mind he knew the team was able to give the families of their military victims.

This time, he could do something to protect those he cared about, and so help him, he was going to do it.

Tony sat at his kitchen counter, phone in hand, frantically making arrangements for his bills to be paid while he was banished at sea. He'd already consumed several shots of Scotch, trying to calm his reeling emotions. Fucking Vance hadn't even given him a full twenty-four hours to pack up his entire life – not that there was all that much to pack, anyway.

Tony tended to live loosely, never planting any real roots since he knew life – and the people in it – were unreliable. Still, he'd spent as much time here in DC as he had anywhere – and that included his childhood home in New York before his mother's death. That had been the catalyst for everything to irreparably change.

He felt numb. The guilt gnawing in his belly was the only real thing on which he could focus. Even from the beyond, Jennifer Shepherd was once again wreaking havoc upon his life, only this time, his screw-up cost her her life. No matter what she'd put him through, Tony didn't think he'd ever be able to forgive himself for that.

He should've taken her odd behavior more seriously. Ziva had, but she'd also never been caught-up in one of Jenny's webs. It was a no-win situation, and in the end, they'd all lost.

Tony had met a lot of Agents Afloat during his investigations, and it was never a role he'd wanted to play. Being the only cop in a floating city of thousands wasn't something that appealed to him. He was a people-person, and he thrived on human contact. He was about to be as isolated as he'd been when he was eleven and first sent away to school. He knew the misery that awaited him, and he dreaded it.

Even if he deserved it.

He'd haphazardly thrown some of his more casual clothing into a suitcase, but his heart wasn't in it. He hadn't been this depressed since the last time Jenny screwed with his life – and he'd lost Jeanne – the one person he'd ever truly allowed to see the real him. The pain of that mess still hadn't fully healed. He doubted it ever would.

And he wasn't even allowed to have alcohol at sea to numb the pain.

How was he going to get through this? Most cops used a vice to cope with the horror and depravity they witnessed over the course of their careers. For the majority it was alcohol, some gambling, others took to violence against their families. Then, there were those like him, who used sex as a means to escape.

That was another option unavailable at sea. Despite the fact there were some females now allowed on ships, fraternization was strictly forbidden… especially with the Agent Afloat.

Tony was well and truly screwed. He knew the guilt he felt about Jenny's death, and the inability to distract himself from what happened with Jeanne would eventually consume him. He really didn't want to do this, but he didn't see a way out. He couldn't refuse – he'd be fired – and he liked being an agent. For all his goofing off and playboy attitude, he was proud of what he did. His badge was the one thing in his life he'd earned, on his own, without help from – and despite of – anyone else. He'd proved to himself – if not his father – that he was worth something. He didn't end up in the gutter, and he did something that mattered. He didn't want to lose that and prove the old man right.

A pounding on the door to his apartment startled him out of his musings, curious who would call at this hour. He'd already heard from Abby, Jimmy, and Rick Balboa, never mind a number of his other contacts around the city. The rumor mill was in full swing, spreading as fast as a virus in an indoor playground.

Dragging himself off the bar stool, Tony trudged down the short hallway and peered through the peephole, stunned by what he saw. In a trance, he removed the chain and unlocked his door, opening it wide. Gibbs strode in without a word, making his way to Tony's kitchen. When Tony caught up with him, he found his boss staring with disapproval at the opened bottle of Scotch sitting on Tony's counter. At least it looked like disapproval to Tony.

"Hey! I'm going dry for who knows how long. I'm allowed," he said, with perhaps more bitterness than was typical.

It was rich for Gibbs to disapprove of anyone else drinking alone. He'd bet his shooting hand there'd been some amount of Bourbon consumed at his boss' house this night, too.

"You just planning on taking it, then?" Gibbs asked, a bite of disappointment in his tone.

"What choice do I have? Orders are orders for the rest of us," Tony snapped, the alcohol fueling his bitterness.

Usually, he showed Gibbs more respect – whether he deserved it or not. Gibbs regularly got away with going around orders and doing things his own way, but that approach didn't work for the rest of them.

Apparently, this time was no different. Gibbs took a single sheet of paper from the pocket of his jacket and slammed it on Tony's counter. Curious, Tony leaned over, unfolding it to read. His mouth dropped open in shock at the words on the page.

"Are you serious?" he asked, stunned.

"I wrote it, didn't I?" Gibbs snapped.

"Yeah, but… what are you going to do? Unless you won the lottery at some point and forgot to mention it," Tony said.

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "It's a gamble – but I don't think SecNav will be happy with the loss of the MCRT. He'll want to do something about it."

Tony's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "That's a big gamble. What if it fails?"

"A bluff is only good enough if you're prepared to follow through," Gibbs said.

"So… again, what would you do?" he asked.

"Thought maybe I'd try the private sector," Gibbs said blandly.

"The private… you mean as a detective or a carpenter?" Tony asked.

Gibbs reached over and smacked Tony on the back of the head. "Jeez, DiNozzo. I'm not sure I want a partner this slow on the uptake."

It took a moment for the words to catch up to Tony's overloaded brain. An awful lot happened that day, and it wasn't like he and Gibbs had been on the same page in quite some time.

"A partner… you mean me?" he asked, shocked.

Somehow, veins that had been frozen solid since Vance's decree were filling with warmth. It had been a long time since Gibbs included him – in anything other than the blame, that is.

"Anyone else here?" Gibbs asked.

He put the top back on the bottle of Scotch and put it away while Tony tried to control his spinning head. He was a cop – he'd always been a cop – and the idea of leaving that behind was terrifying. And what about Gibbs? He was a Marine through and through. His entire life purpose was getting justice and a sense of closure for military victims – a closure Gibbs himself had never been able to find.

Taking a closer look at his boss, he recognized the manic gleam in his eyes hiding a grief so deep it was fathomless. Jenny's death had to be bringing back a lot of emotions – and the boss never dealt with feelings very well. It wasn't that long ago that Gibbs lost his memories and went through his tragic loss all over again. Tony still wasn't sure all of his memories had returned. He could see that same, reckless gleam burning that was there when he'd walked away from NCIS once before.

But he'd come back.

At the time, Tony gave up an offer of his own team and a chance to stretch his wings. He'd done it because he knew Gibbs wasn't right, and he needed someone to watch his six.

It was Tony's job to watch Gibbs' six, and he'd always taken that job seriously – even if he could acknowledge that his boss didn't always deserve his loyalty. Still, he wasn't about to stop now. Gibbs would eventually get his head on right, and he'd have the option of returning to NCIS. Whatever Vance was up to, he wanted Gibbs. Tony would be out a job – and possibly a career. Still… having Gibbs' six was more palatable than being banished to sea.

"Have you given this to Vance?" Tony asked, his mind spinning.

"Not yet. Wanted to check with you first," Gibbs said, his eyes – usually so cold and decisive – looking startlingly vulnerable.

"I'm in. Where do I sign up?" Tony asked.

Gibbs smiled. "Hoped you'd see it that way.

"And we'll be true partners – back like it used to be?" Tony asked, a shiver of foreboding working its way down his spine.

If this bluff went south, and they ended up following through on their back-up plan, he wanted it to be clear. He missed the days when his job felt more like a partnership, a give and take… the way it was before Gibbs lost his memory – and with it his friendship with Tony. Even if it all fell apart, he'd like to at least have that connection restored.

Gibbs nodded solemnly. "Yeah… like it used to be."

Tony looked up, startled. Perhaps the friendship hadn't been lost forever, after all. He certainly hoped not – particularly if he was about to jump feet first into something he was fairly certain would never happen.

"So… we'll need to come up with a name for this proposed venture – to make it at least sound real," he said, his mind racing.

"First, you need to write a letter matching mine. I want Vance to find them both first thing in the morning," Gibbs said, a hint of vindictive pleasure shining in his eyes.

Tony grinned, grabbing a pen and paper and wording his own letter to say the same.

"The business should have both our names," Gibbs said, clearly thinking about Tony's former comment.

"Right – but it needs more of a flair to stick in people's minds," Tony said.

Gibbs glanced at him dubiously. He was a straight-shooter rather than flamboyant like Tony. Still, Tony thought of a name that could combine everything about the two of them – and the risk they were about to take.

"How about Dibbs?" he asked, grinning.

Note:

Hello again! This is a short one that wouldn't get out of my head after catching a re-run of the Judgement Day episodes. Vance really pissed me off in those early episodes, so this is the result. I hope you enjoy.