A/N: so yeah... I have no excuse of being absent for so long on the site. I kept reading stories but couldn;t seem to manage to continue my own. That has changed though! I slowly started to dip my toes back into the writing well, ready for you to tear me and my writing apart ;)

Hope you enjoy this a bit more serious chapter where Morrow confronts Tony...

As always hope you enjoy and dont forget to review

Love from a newly resurected CJB1990

Tony was sitting at his new desk, trying to ignore the awful color of orange that was painted on the walls. Seriously, he was surprised that no one had yet to have an epileptic attack or something because of its ghastly glare.

He didn't know where his new boss, the one and only Leroy Jethro Gibbs, was. The man had disappeared half an hour ago with no explanations. Not that Tony minded, he was still trying to get used to the ridiculous amount of paperwork that was required of a Federal Agent. Every sneeze, cough, tackle or gunshot seemed the cause of twenty extra forms for him. Tony was starting to suspect that Gibbs hired him so he wouldn't have to deal with it anymore than he could avoid.

His desk phone disrupted his concentration, with an exhausted sigh he picked it up.

"Special Agent DiNozzo," he spoke into the horn.

"Agent DiNozzo, the Director would like to see you in his office," the assistant spoke with a flat business like tone.

"Right now?" he replied surprised. Besides a very perfunctory welcome meeting, he hadn't heard from the Director since he started at NCIS three weeks ago.

At the confirmation, he quickly locked his computer and made his way up the stairs to the mezzanine where Morrow's office was.

With a quick knock, he made his way into the antechamber. He was quickly ushered through towards the Director's office by his secretary.

"Close the door please, Agent DiNozzo," the gravelly voice sounded from the grey and balding man that was looking out of the window.

Tony did as he was bid, feeling more and more apprehensive by the second. He hadn't broken a ny rules or protocols. At least, as far as he was aware. And he knew them by heart, having realized by his second day at NCIS that someone needed to remind Gibbs that court was picky and finical like that.

Tom Morrow turned around to face his newly hired agent, one who seemed even more capable than Stan when it came to wrangling Gibbs.

"Sit down, DiNozzo," he indicated the leather chairs in front of the desk.

Tony sat down, his face not betraying any of the anxiety he felt.

"Is there a problem, sir?" he broke the heavy silence that was cloaking the office.

Morrow didn't reply, but sat down in his own chair behind the desk.

"This morning, I had my scheduled meeting with Leo McGarry," he commented before he looked Tony straight in the eye. "Know who that is?"

"He's the White House Chief of Staff, sir," Tony replied with a relaxed voice, while his brain was working a hundred miles a minute. Why would Morrow bring up his meeting with Leo?

"Indeed," Morrow agreed. "Normally, we talk budget, terrorism and any and all scuttlebutt that we need to keep an eye on. So imagine my surprise, when Mr. McGarry asked me, off the record of course, what sort of man Agent Gibbs is."

Miraculously, Tony managed to subdue the curses to only mentally. Damn those well-intended nosy bastards to hell. The whole Wing full of them!

"Care to explain to me why even the President deemed it necessary to make me promise you'd be taken care of?"

Morrow gave Tony the chance to explain it all himself, something he was very grateful for. This meeting was to give him the chance to let Morrow know it all, and let himself know as well that Morrow knew of his connection to the Bartlett administration.

"I guess President Bartlett and Mr. McGarry explained a good deal already, sir," Tony hedged, the stiffness of his voice betraying his relaxed body.

"You're my Agent, DiNozzo," Morrow replied easily. "I'd like to hear about this from you."

Tony sighed, realizing he had to come clean to the Director.

"You know of the circumstances and why I had to leave Philly?" he gauged the Director, not interested to once again repeat the story.

Morrow nodded.

"I took a chance when the campaign was there," Tony remembered the hall once more. "I knew Leo McGarry from when I was young. His wife, or well now ex-wife, and my mother were good friends before she died. Gave my address to them. Leo showed up with Sam Seaborn. They, Leo.. made it happen. After all that, Sam and I kept in touch."

Tony smiled as he mentioned his friend.

"Sam even came when I was shot in the shoulder," he shrugged a bit. "He and I call each other pretty often. The rest of the senior staff has gotten into the habit of putting me on speaker whenever they catch him talking to me."

"What happened in Rosslyn?" Morrow asked, realizing that Leo had been right when he said the people in the West Wing became good friends with the young man in front of him.

"You remember what was dominating the news in the week before hand?" Tony asked.

Morrow furrowed his brows. He couldn't really recall, the happenings in Rosslyn dominating his memories of that time.

"The photo of Sam Seaborn hugging an escort?" Tony smiled in amusement when he saw the Director's eyes lit up in recognition, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Yeah," Tony agreed with the words left unspoken. "I was on forced leave after clearing my desk. So, I agreed to drive down there from Baltimore to hang out and grab a beer."

"You had your service weapon?" Tom asked trying to picture the moment in his head.

Tony nodded. "It wasn't that long after the Macaluso opeariton. Plus, I went there straight from the station, still carrying my identification and weapon on me. Because of that, I couldn't get into the town hall and was waiting outside."

"What clued you in what was happening?" Morrow demanded.

"The Secret Service Agent that was on Zoey Bartlett's detail, sir." Tony's face closed off completely, clearly seeing the situation once more. "She was seeing something that made her tense enough for me to notice. I followed her line of focus and found this dude removing his baseball cap. At the same time, the Agent called out a warning of a gun. I pulled out my gun at the ready and followed him when the shit hit fan, pardon me sir." He shrugged his shoulders self-deprecatingly.

Morrow looked at the man, deep in thought. Not a cowboy then, he decided. Reckless as hell; to be damn sure. To classify him as an American hero was more than deserverd. But not a cowboy in the way Gibbs was.

Morrow nodded and pulled a file towards him.

"I will need to add this to your file," Morrow spoke. " But it will only be in the hard copy of it, here in the Director's office. Got any awards out of it?"

Tony frowned at the question. "

"They finally managed to give me one, under heavy protest I may add."

Morrow chuckled at the sentiment, before his eye fell on the name of DiNozzo's emergency contact.

"If you want to keep this on the downlow son, like it seems you want…" he once more looked down to the file. "You might want to consider changing the name on your emergency contact list."

Tony blinked once before he nodded his acquiescence. "I'll speak to him and change it to one of his secretaries in the bull pen. They answer the phone anyway."

"Probably best," Morrow agreed. "Well, seems you're free to go."

Tony rose from the chair and made his way out of the office, glad to be sprung free from the cross-examination. Before he could open the door though, Morrow stopped him with a parting comment.

"Best keep this friendships to yourself. There are people, even here within NCIS, that would like to make use of such connections. No matter the cost to you."

Dazed, Tony exited the office and made his way back to his desk. What the hell just happened?

"Where the hell have you been, DiNozzo?" the growl sounded ominously.

Ah hell, couldn't he catch a break today?

He tried his best not to take a page out of Sam's book and slam his head into his desk out of exasperation.