"Was he shot?" asked Kate.

"I think he might have hit his head on that lump of concrete," said Vance pointing to a solid stanchion which had a smear of blood on it.

NCISNCIS

Sometime later, the MCRT were assembled outside the ER at Walter Reed Hospital awaiting an update on Tony. Faith had arrived an hour or so before and was waiting with them.

"I should have got off the roof when he told me," said Kate for the umpteenth time. "It's my fault."

"It's not your fault, Kate," said Gibbs managing to hold on to his patience, "And I ordered you up to the roof."

"But …" began Kate.

"It's the person who fired the shot who's to blame," said Tim in an irritated voice.

Everyone turned to look at him in astonishment: it was so unlike Tim both to sound angry and to speak so forcefully against the opinion of other people.

"Well said, Timothy," said Ducky approvingly, "We should always remember who the real villains are. Why, I remember when …"

He was interrupted by a nurse drawing near to where they were sitting,

"Is Mrs DiNozzo here?" he asked.

Faith's head shot up, "Yes," she said, "How is he?"

"Asking to see you," said the nurse with a smile. "He also wants to see an Agent Jethro Gibbs. Is he here with you?"

Gibbs had stood up before the words were out of his mouth. "I'm Gibbs," he announced.

"Come with me then, both of you."

"We will await your return," said Ducky. Gibbs nodded. As he followed the nurse out of the waiting area he could hear Ducky resume the interrupted anecdote.

"How is he?" asked Faith.

"The doctor is with him," said the nurse, "She will give you an update. Here we are." The nurse led Gibbs and Faith into the cubicle where Tony was being treated. "Dr Kaur, this is Mrs DiNozzo and Agent Gibbs."

Dr Kaur smiled. "Agent DiNozzo is a little disorientated at the moment. He gave himself a nasty concussion when he collided with that concrete structure. He is sensitive to noise and light so I would ask that you keep your voices down. He was most insistent that he speak to you both but I would ask you to bear in mind that he needs to keep calm until he feels better."

"But he will be all right?" asked Faith.

"Why don't you speak with your husband, Mrs DiNozzo and I will speak to you afterwards with a more detailed prognosis? I think he may fall asleep in the next couple of minutes so you should take this opportunity to speak with him now."

Faith looked worried at this non-answer but moved towards Tony's bed.

"Hey," he said, managing a smile. "I'm sorry. I know you had meetings all day. I messed it all up for you."

"Doesn't matter," said Faith gently, "It doesn't matter."

"Is Gibbs here?" asked Tony.

"Here, Tony," said Gibbs as he moved to stand next to Faith. "What were you thinking of? Diving into a solid wall like that?"

"Is Kate all right?" asked Tony.

"She's fine," said Gibbs.

"Where is she?" demanded Tony.

"In the waiting room," said Gibbs.

Tony seemed to relax a little. "You need to arrest Martin Carson," he said.

"What? Who?" asked Gibbs.

"Martin Carson. Marty – works in Dispatch."

"Why?" asked Gibbs.

"I think he might be responsible for the shootings of Moira and Sophia. And he tried to kill Kate today."

"What?" asked Gibbs.

"Kate was going to report Marty for sexual harassment," said Tony.

"So? She'd report half the male staff if she could but none of them have tried to shoot her," said Gibbs.

"The other two women had problems with men who work on the Navy Yard," said Tony.

"There's hundreds … thousands of men who work in the Yard," said Gibbs.

"I remembered," said Tony, "Marty wasn't in Dispatch when I dropped in. His workstation was shut down. But the call to go to Ivy City was from him. He's been working on remote answering of calls but the Director's refused permission for it to be used yet. He lured us to that site … he was after Kate."

Gibbs saw that Tony was fading fast so he simply said, "On it, Boss," before turning and leaving.

"Sorry," said Tony to Faith. "Think I need to sleep for a while." He closed his eyes tiredly. Faith took his hand and looked anxiously at Dr Kaur.

"As I said, your husband has a nasty concussion but I have every expectation that he will make a full recovery. He has a bad headache which is making him nauseous but we have given him some anti-emetics which are assisting. We have also given him some Tylenol. A CT scan is being arranged to check that nothing sinister is going on. I believe he will simply need rest and quiet for a few days. We will keep him in tonight but he should be able to go home tomorrow if nothing untoward occurs. Do you have any questions?"

Faith smiled, "No, that was excellent. You'd do well on the witness stand, you know."

Dr Kaur looked startled at this unlikely tribute but was too polite to query it. "Thank you," she said. "You may stay with your husband if you wish. We will be taking him for his scan very soon and then he will be moved to a room upstairs." She began to walk out of the room. Faith called her back,

"There was one thing," she said, "My husband may be needing to fly to San Diego in the next few days. Would flying be a problem?"

Dr Kaur frowned as she considered this, "I would not recommend any long haul flights," she said finally, "But a short flight should not pose any problems once Agent DiNozzo feels strong enough … after at least three or four days' rest."

"Thank you, Doctor," said Faith as she settled down by Tony's bed.

Meanwhile Gibbs had gathered Tim and Kate up and swept off to the Navy Yard to start the investigation into Carson.

NCISNCIS

McGee and Vance went into a techno huddle and discovered that Tony had been right to think that Marty had called them out using the remote access phone that the Director had placed an embargo on using. It seemed that he had been tracking all the calls and knew that the MCRT had been called out and that it had been a false alarm.

Gibbs and Kate took pleasure in intimidating Marty into a full confession. Ducky was of the opinion that Marty had suffered some sort of mental breakdown or personality disorder as a result of a breakup with a girlfriend. He had been desperately trying to establish a new relationship but his way of going about it had only succeeded in offending his targets who had recoiled in something like disgust. Fearful that he would lose his job if he got reported for sexual harassment he had lost all common sense and tried to dispose of them all.

Gibbs was less sure about the sudden mental illness. He couldn't help but notice that Marty had acted very coolly under pressure and had used technology very cleverly: it was just unfortunate for him, and fortunate for his intended victims, that he was a poor shot.

As Gibbs and Kate came out of interrogation, Tim was able to tell them that Moira Radetzky had finally woken up and had been able to confirm that Marty had been the person who paid the unwanted attentions.

"How did Tony know?" asked Kate as they all gathered in the squad room after getting the confession.

"That's what he does," said Gibbs with a shrug, "He puts things together. Sees the connections."

Kate shuddered, "Good thing he does. Being shot through the head on a roof top is not how I want to go."

"How do you want to go?" asked Abby.

"Aged 92, in bed and surrounded by my loved ones," said Kate. She saw the disappointment on Abby's face so added, "With my brow being mopped by my 22-year-old toy boy husband." Abby brightened.

"It's almost like Gibbs can predict the future," said McGee thoughtfully.

"What?" snapped Kate.

"You know. When we shot through our caps. He said at least we weren't wearing them at the time."

"Go home," said Gibbs. "It's been a long day."

NCISNCIS

Tony was sent home from the hospital the next day with orders to rest there for the rest of the week. The Director had a discussion with Gibbs in his office and then announced that Agent Vance had agreed to stay on while Tony was out and would take charge of the team.

Tim and Kate couldn't decide who to look at when the announcement was made although they realised that both Vance and Gibbs had excellent poker faces and they wouldn't be able to discern what they were thinking.

Tim didn't say anything. He knew he had a tendency to state the obvious but on this occasion he didn't know what the obvious was. Kate didn't say anything either. She couldn't decide if Leon staying on was a good thing or not.

"Saves on paperwork," was Gibbs' only comment, "Leon is already a lead agent."

Vance nodded in agreement. "And Jethro's always worried about the paperwork," he said.

"Keeps me awake nights," agreed Gibbs.

Vance nodded. The junior agents thought they could see a twinkle in his eye and they relaxed a little; it didn't look as if Vance and Gibbs were going to come to blows anytime soon. The news that Vance was temporarily going to fill in for Tony went round NCIS like wildfire and the odds on him taking the role permanently narrowed considerably.

NCISNCIS

Sunday lunch time, after Mass, Kate knocked at the DiNozzos' front door.

"Kate," said Faith, "This is a surprise."

"I've been baking," said Kate, "I thought you might like some cookies."

Faith gazed at Kate wondering if she should query Kate indulging in such a homely task but, remembering that Tony had once come home extolling the virtues of Kate's cookies, decided not to. "Sure," she said. "Do you want to come in? Tony's in the den."

"Thanks," said Kate as she handed Faith the tin of cookies.

"Go on through," said Faith, "I'll put these in the kitchen".

Kate found Tony lying on the sofa watching Tilly making towers with her bricks and then knocking them down with glee.

"Hey, Kate," he said, "Somehow I don't think my daughter's going to be an architect when she grows up."

"Perhaps she'll join EOD," suggested Kate. "They must like blowing things up, knocking things down."

Tony frowned at that thought, "Great. I thought I only had to worry about who she'd be dating. Now I can start worrying about her career choices. Not that you're not welcome, but what you doing here, Kate?"

"I brought cookies," said Kate.

This had the effect of removing the EOD induced frown from Tony's face and he beamed with pleasure. "Great, thank you."

"No problem," said Kate. She shuffled awkwardly. "I should go …"

"What you really here for?" asked Tony.

Kate thought about denying any other motive than cookie delivery but, under Tony's unblinking gaze, she gave way. "I want to apologise for what happened," she said.

"What are you apologising for?" asked Tony.

"For not getting off the roof quicker. For not doing what you told me," said Kate miserably.

Tony didn't answer immediately but finally he said, "You get a pass on this one, Kate."

"I do?"

"Perhaps I didn't make it clear enough. And I like that you were absorbed in what you were doing."

"You do?"

"Yes. But, Kate … you don't obey an order again – and you'll be off the team quicker than you can blink. Understand?"

"Yes," said Kate. "And thank you."

"For what?"

"For not kicking me off the team. And for saving my life."

"No problem," said Tony, "It's in the job description of team lead."

"It is?"

"It is. But I guess it was pretty heroic," said Tony with a smug expression on his face.

"Although," said Kate, "It might have been better if you'd avoided knocking yourself out on a lump of concrete."

"There is that," said Tony a little gloomily.

"But thank you, Tony. I mean that. Marty could have killed me," said Kate.

"Possibly," said Tony. "But given his record of shooting people, the chances are he'd have missed anyway."

"I'm glad I didn't have to find out," said Kate.

"You're welcome," said Tony. "It would have been a pain to recruit someone else for the team if you'd been killed."

Kate choked.

"What's going on?" asked Faith as she came into the room.

"Nothing, sweetheart," said Tony with an innocent look, "Just some team building going on."

"Hmm," said Faith, "Well, in the interest of team building, why don't you stay to lunch, Kate? We've got plenty."

"That's kind," said Kate, "But I don't want to impose …"

"You're not," said Tony. "Besides, Tilly likes to show off how messily she eats. She'd love a new audience."

Kate wasn't sure how much of an inducement watching Matilda eat was but she was too polite to refuse. As it turned out, Tilly had improved since the time when Kate had watched her eating pancakes at breakfast and she now seemed to resemble the neat and fastidious Faith rather than the more careless Tony.

After lunch, Faith scooped Tilly out of her high seat and gave her to Tony. "Time for her nap," she ordered.

Tony accepted his daughter and took her into the family room. Kate stood up to go but Faith waved her back to her seat. "Stay," she said, "You'll like this." She directed Kate to the door of the family room and pointed. Kate saw that Tony had sat down in front of a baby grand piano with Tilly on his lap. The little girl reached forward and slapped the keys, laughing at the discordant sound she made. Tony let her do this for a few minutes and then took her hands gently and guided them into playing 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star.'

After a few moments of doing this, Tilly leant back into her father's arms and relaxed. He began playing some gentle classical music and Kate saw Tilly's eyes beginning to droop until she fell fast asleep. Tony played on but, when he was sure she was asleep, picked her up gently and went across to the sofa and lay down with her. His eyes also soon closed and they were both asleep.

Kate found that her eyes were filled with tears. She sniffed and turned to Faith who also had suspiciously moist eyes. Faith gestured for them to return to the kitchen.

"Gets me every time," Faith admitted.

"I didn't know Tony played the piano," said Kate.

"He's played more since we found out that Tilly likes classical music."

"What was it he was playing?" asked Kate. "It sounded familiar."

"'Sheep may safely graze'," said Faith. "Bach."

"It was lovely," said Kate.

"Unfortunately it only seems to work for afternoon naps," said Faith. "We need to find another method for night times. Do you want a coffee, Kate?"

"Thank you," said Kate, guessing that Faith wanted to talk to her about something.

"How's your friend?" asked Faith when they were settled with their drinks.

"Friend?" asked Kate.

Faith's lips twitched as she suppressed a smile. "You know, the friend with the chauvinistic partner."

"Oh. Yes, of course. Um, nothing at the moment."

"Still trying to convince her?" said Faith sympathetically.

"Yes," said Kate, "Still working on it."

"I'm glad you told me about her," said Faith.

"You are?" said Kate hopefully.

"Yes, I am. Your point of view was interesting."

"It was?"

"Yes. It made me see something in a different light."

"It did?"

"Yes. It made me realise that I was expecting Tony to put his career on hold for my sake." Faith handed Kate a towel as she spat her coffee over the table.

"What?" gasped Kate when she stopped coughing. "Tony was putting his career on hold?"

"Yes. I'm surprised that there haven't been rumours about me leaving JAG."

"There might have been some," admitted Kate.

"Tony thought there would be," said Faith, "When he heard that Agent McGee's friend Donny was on the JAG course, Tony said McGee would work it out."

"Why are you leaving?" asked Kate. "You've got a great job there."

"All part of my plan," said Faith. "I always like to have a plan. I'd always intended to leave the Navy once my commitment was up. And it is at the end of next month."

"What are you going to do?" asked Kate.

"I'm going to join a private law firm, specialising in employment law. I'm looking forward to being able to choose my clients in future," said Faith.

"I don't understand," said Kate, "Where does Tony fit in?"

"He's my husband," said Faith a little frostily, "He's always going to fit in."

"No, I meant, why did you say you'd been expecting Tony to put his career on hold for you?"

"The law firm I want to join is based in DC. I expect you know that the Director wants Tony to consider a job in San Diego?"

"I might have heard something about that," admitted Kate.

"I won't go into details about that job. But I didn't want him to take it. I want to take the job in DC. But, thanks to you, I see that it's not fair that I should expect him to do what I want. I can get another job in San Diego, another good job but Tony might have to wait a long time for another opportunity to come up."

"So, Tony's going to take the new job?" asked Kate, glumly aware that her 'intervention' may have accidentally caused the very outcome she had been trying to avoid.

"I don't know," said Faith, "But it's his decision, not mine."

"I see," said Kate.

"So, I'm grateful that you told me about your friend," said Faith.

There was something about the gleam in Faith's eye and her tone of voice that alerted Kate. "You know that there was no friend, don't you?" she said.

"I guessed," admitted Faith.

"Poor Matilda," said Kate unexpectedly.

"Poor Matilda?" echoed Faith.

"She won't get away with anything, will she? You'll just stare at her and know if she's telling the truth. And Tony will examine the evidence and know if she's up to mischief!" explained Kate.

Faith laughed. "On the other hand, Tilly is a mixture of the two of us. That combination will probably make her a master criminal and her poor unsuspecting parents won't know what's hit them!"

Kate found herself oddly cheered by the idea of Faith and Tony being outmanoeuvred by their daughter.

NCISNCIS

Kate and Faith stayed chatting over their coffee until they were interrupted by a new arrival.

"Tim," said Faith when she opened the door.

"Commander Coleman," said Tim, "I brought this for Tilly." He held out a pink and yellow spotted soft toy dog.

"Floopy!" gasped Faith.

"Uh, no. Agent McGee," said Tim anxiously.

"No. Tilly's dog was called Floopy. And this is just like him," said Faith.

"Except he's cleaner," said Tony from the doorway. "Good work, Tim. Where did you find him?"

Tim flushed with pleasure. "There's a stall in a flea market near me that specialises in unusual toys. Um, I mentioned to the stall holder last week that Tilly had lost her … er … Floopy … and he found one. Gave it to me today."

"Thank you, Tim," said Faith, "It's possible that you've saved our lives."

"Yeah, thanks, Tim," said Tony coming forward and clapping him on the back. "She's asleep at the moment but you should stick around. Give it to her when she wakes up."

Tim almost wriggled with pleasure at the reaction to his gift and was easily persuaded to stay. Tony made coffee and they all tucked into Kate's cookies but it wasn't long before they heard a yawn from the den and then saw Tilly totter sleepily into the kitchen.

"Gee!" she said with delight and hurried over to her hero.

"Tilly," said Faith, "See what … Gee … brought?" She held out newFloopy.

Tony and Faith held their breath as they waited to see whether newFloopy would meet their daughter's exacting standards and then sighed in relief when she clutched it to her chest and closed her eyes in ecstasy.

"Tim," said Tony, "You're excused dumpster diving for the next month. Kate can do it instead."

"Hey," said Kate indignantly, "I brought cookies."

"True," said Tony, "Gibbs will do it."

Tim and Kate tried to picture this but their imaginations failed and somehow they thought they'd still be doing the dirty work.

Tilly soon dragged Tim off to play with newFloopy.

"What will happen if we find originalFloopy?" asked Faith.

Tony shrugged, "An early lesson about the birds and the bees?" he suggested. "Or we'll just keep him in reserve in case newFloopy goes missing."

"Perhaps we should always buy duplicates of her toys," said Faith thoughtfully.

"Only if we can afford to buy a house twice the size of this one," replied Tony.

"She does have a lot of toys," said Faith.

"And we can't really ask people to buy her two versions of presents," said Tony practically.

In the middle of this discussion the doorbell sounded again. Tony went to answer it this time.

"Gibbs!" he said.

"Heard that Kate had baked some of those cookies," said Gibbs by way of explanation. "And I wanted to check that the door I sanded down isn't sticking."

"Come in," said Tony, "See you managed to shake off Agent Vance."

"I was parking the car," said Vance as he suddenly appeared with Gibbslike stealth.

"Nice to see you, Agent Vance," said Tony without missing a beat. "Come in."

Kate noted that Faith was unsurprised to see Gibbs turning up uninvited and wondered if perhaps a Sunday afternoon visit was a common occurrence.

"Coffee, Gibbs?" she asked. "Agent Vance?"

"No, I won't, thank you," he replied. "I just called by to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?" asked Kate.

"Director Morrow informed me that you will be back to work tomorrow, Agent DiNozzo," said Vance.

"On desk duty," said Faith firmly, "For another day or two."

"Understood," said Leon, "But the Director agreed that the MCRT won't need me after tomorrow. So, I'm heading back to San Diego."

The others didn't quite know what to say: it would not be completely honest to say that they would miss him.

Leon seemed to understand the reason behind their silence. "I wanted to thank you. All of you," he said.

"Thank you for taking charge of the team while I was out," said Tony.

"And thank you for letting me observe the team. It was most instructive," said Vance.

"Instructive?" asked Gibbs.

"The Director is thinking of setting up a MCRT in San Diego," said Vance. "if he does, I'll be the lead. He thought it would be useful for me to see how a successful team operates and to see how Agent DiNozzo leads it."

"But as I said to you …" began Tony.

"I have to lead in my own way," said Vance. "Yes, I know. But it was interesting to see how someone with completely different methods does it." He turned to the other members of the MCRT, "I'm a little more by the book and formal," he explained, "So it was useful to see how a … freer method of leadership works."

"So you weren't here to evaluate us?" asked Kate.

"No," said Vance, "Just to get ideas."

"And not with a view to taking over the team?" she pressed.

Vance shuddered. "What, come to DC? Jackie – my wife – she wouldn't want to move to Washington."

"She's got her career in San Diego, I guess?" said Kate.

"Not really," said Vance, "She's more of a homemaker. She just loves San Diego. And the kids are settled there. Why move?"

Kate was silent, not sure what to think of a woman who stayed at home.

"Anyway," said Vance, "I must be going. I called a cab when we got here. I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye."

"Good to meet you, Leon," said Tony, "Let me know if I can help with the new team."

"And perhaps we'll be seeing you in San Diego yourself?" suggested Vance.

Tony shrugged but didn't say anything as he escorted Leon to the door.

He returned to see Faith standing by the door to the den and listening to what was going on between Tim and Tilly. She came back and joined the others and said in a quiet voice,

"Tim is telling Tilly a story."

"Aww," said Kate.

"I think it's about an agency called CNSI. With agents called Tommy, Laitcyn and Tibbs."

Tommy, Laitcyn and Tibbs smiled at this whimsicality.

"But," continued Faith, "I don't think the things they do would be legal."

"Faith?" asked Tony.

"They don't seem to be getting warrants or establishing probable cause," she explained. "None of their cases would stand up in court."

Tommy, Laitcyn and Tibbs managed to keep straight faces.

"Perhaps," said Kate, "We should get Tim to include a lawyer …"

"Named Verity …" suggested Gibbs.

"… to keep them in line," continued Kate.

Faith seemed to approve of this. "I just hope he doesn't ever go public with the stories," she said.

Tony laughed. "Tim has got the highest IQ of anyone in NCIS," he said confidently, "He wouldn't do anything that stupid!"

NCISNCIS

Later that day, with the MCRT departed and Tilly in bed, Tony and Faith finally had the house to themselves.

"Your team is insane," said Faith.

"Yes," said Tony proudly.

"What are you going to do about the job?" asked Faith as she lay back on the sofa and put Tony's arm around her.

"I thought we'd agreed?" said Tony.

"I just want to be sure," said Faith, "That you're not turning down being Assistant Director for me?"

"But you do want to stay in DC, don't you?"

"Yes. But it's a great chance for you. A big step up," said Faith. "I can get another job in San Diego. I'm starting from scratch anyway."

"What brought this on?" asked Tony.

"Kate," said Faith.

"Kate wants me to go to San Diego?" said Tony. "I thought she was beginning to approve of me."

"I think Kate was guilty of mixed motives," said Faith. "She thought you were dragging me to San Diego and she didn't think that was fair. But she also thought if I could be brought to see that I shouldn't play the dutiful wife, that would mean you would stay in DC."

"But you were always going to leave JAG," said Tony in a puzzled voice.

"Yes, but she didn't know that," said Faith.

"So, she thought I'd made you leave JAG …"

"Yes."

"So that you could follow me to San Diego?"

"Yes."

"I've got a headache," complained Tony.

"I thought they'd stopped?" said Faith anxiously.

"They have. This one feels familiar, it's Kate induced."

"Idiot," said Faith fondly.

"Darling," said Tony in an equally fond voice.

"So, what's the decision?" asked Faith.

"What am I making a decision about?" asked Tony.

Faith hit him on the arm. "About taking the job in San Diego?"

"Well," said Tony thoughtfully, "Assistant Director. It would be a step up. A big promotion."

"Yes."

"And opportunities like that don't come along too often."

"No."

"And Ducky thinks the climate in California would be good for my lungs."

"He does."

"Although Abby is worried about the ozone."

"Is she?"

"But Ducky's the doctor. So I think I should trust him more."

"Yes."

"And you could get an equally good job in San Diego."

"Yes."

"So it would be logical to take the job."

"Yes."

"And my team is insane."

"Undoubtedly."

"But Tilly loves Tim."

"She does."

"And Tim brought newFloopy."

"He did."

"And Kate baked cookies."

"She did."

"And gave you dubious advice."

"She did."

"And Gibbs does our household repairs."

"He does."

"And I really don't want to be Assistant Director."

"You don't?"

"I really, really don't."

"Then I don't think we should move," said Faith.

So they didn't.

Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in this final story in the Upside down MCRT universe. The characters are back in their boxes and in their accustomed roles.