A/N Although this story is NOT designated AU, there is a serious breach of canon that I hope you will forgive. . . Ready? I gave McGee a sofa.

All of the members of Team Gibbs were at their desks. Senior Field Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo seemed to be involved in a bit of housekeeping-organizing files, sorting through desk drawers, discarding unidentifiable things, tossing some bits of paper and saving others and sorting them into stacks on his desk. Special Agent Timothy "Tim" McGee, the resident computer expert on Team Gibbs, appeared to be deeply involved in some complex and mysterious activity on his computer. Actually, he was hacked into Tony's NCIS account per Tony's request and was removing evidence of things of a questionable nature. Occasionally, McGee would call across to his partner with a simple "Tony". In response, Tony would turn his attention to his own computer screen and give a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' on the page McGee displayed for him. Probationary Agent Ziva David was reading her own daily emails and occasionally glancing up at Tony and McGee. Tony was usually not so industrious this early in the workday.

"What are you two doing?" Ziva had tired of the open conspiracy going on before her and spoke up.

McGee looked over to Tony who gave no indication of answering Ziva so he responded.

"I am removing porn from Tony's computer" he said. Tony's head snapped up.

"Hey! There's no. . .that's not wha. . ." Tony was caught off guard by McGee for a moment, then recovered. He turned to Ziva. "For your information, Ziva, I. . ." Tony noticed his boss, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs descending the stairs from the Director's office and continued ". . .have no information I can give you right now but Gibbs will reveal all. . .right . . .about . . .now." As he spoke the last word, he pointed and Gibbs rounded the cubicle wall next to Tony's desk.

"Huddle up" Gibbs said as if on Tony's cue as he walked into the bullpen. McGee and Ziva stood and approached Gibbs who sat on the edge of his own desk. Tony swiveled in his desk chair, pushed off from the filing cabinet and gently glided backward in his desk chair to join the group, swiveling forward as he came to a stop. "We are splitting up the team. . ." Gibbs said without preamble and immediately held up one finger to quell the questions, complaints and arguments he knew were about to spew forth.

"Temporarily. First of all, DiNozzo's been requested to be part of a Joint Task Force operation-NCIS and Annapolis PD. Annapolis Bunco division has contacted NCIS because of a major confidence game being played and the predominant victims are Plebes, Firsties and other Naval Academy personnel. Special Agent Balboa and his team are leading the operation for NCIS and they've requested DiNozzo. They think it'll be a week to ten days. It is a pretty big operation and they are drawing from other teams to fill some spots to help gather some intel. DiNozzo's agreed to it but, we are a team. I want to hear your input." He paused and looked from Ziva to McGee.

"Will you be armed?" Ziva asked Tony.

"According to Balboa, it won't be necessary but I will be able to carry my back up piece. So yes, Ziva, I'll be carrying."

"What kind of backup are you going to have?" she asked.

"Again, it won't be necessary. Observe and report. I'm not making any contact with the players. I report everyday at three designated times. If any agent doesn't report in, that alerts the team to abort the mission and start a search if necessary. That's the absolute worse case scenario and there's no reason to think something like that should even come up. If something does comes up that we to need to know between the contact times, we'll get a coded text message to either call in or abort."

"So, no backup." McGee said, confirming to himself what he just heard.

"Not active, no." said Tony.

"Is that wise?" Ziva asked looking at Gibbs now.

"Every mission has risks, calculated risks." he said "Considering the players involved-con artists and grifters-the nature of the operation and the fact that no weapons have been observed so far, it's judged to be low risk. Ultimately, it's Tony's decision and he's OK with it."

"Whatever the assessment, watch your back." Ziva said staring directly into Tony's eyes.

"I trust Tony's judgment. If he's comfortable with the situation, I guess I can only support his decision." McGee said with a quick nod of agreement to Gibbs. Tony and Ziva were still sharing a moment, eyes locked on one another. Tony smiling slightly, Ziva concerned.

"Ziva, . . ." Gibbs said a little louder than necessary perhaps "you will be going to FLETC. . ." Before Gibbs say anything more Ziva tore her gaze from Tony and locked Gibbs with a glare equal in intensity to the concern she had just had for Tony.

"What do I need to go to school for? I was training to be a Mossad operative at an age when most of them were in primary school. I have more. . ." Now it was Gibbs' turn to interrupt.

"No one here doubts your skill, Ziva. All you have to do is go thru the qualifying and evaluation rounds to get a score for your NCIS application. You gotta have something in the file to show you know OUR procedures. It's only for a couple of days next week. McGee. . ." Gibbs turned to him "since you have gone through the training most recently, you should be able give Ziva a rundown on what to expect. . .before you go to Newport News."

"I'm going to Newport News? Uh, when. . . am I going to Newport News and why. . .and for how long?" McGee stuttered and sputtered questions as they came to him. He was still stumbling to get more questions out. He was concerned because Tony and Ziva both had expiration dates on their new assignments but he hadn't heard one on his. His mind was going so ballistic trying to determine a reason he was being banished that he wasn't aware that Gibbs was still speaking until he felt a familiar smack on the back of his head.

"McGoo, snap out of it!" Tony said. "I told ya, Boss, you lost him as soon as you said 'Newport News'"

"What? I'm going to Newport News?" McGee began again. Before McGee could get lost a second time, Tony issued another head slap.

"DiNozzo, cut it out!" Gibbs said, giving Tony a head slap. "McGee. . ." he said "Temporarily, you will be assigned to Newport News to inspect and debug a new computer system installed on one of the nukes down there. TDA, Okay? Now, except for Ziva, these assignments are actually voluntary so, any objections, now's the time." He looked at his team. McGee started to speak and Gibbs said "TDA, I swear. By the way, how long will it take to do that debugging goat rope?"

"Hard to say. Nuclear submarine is pretty sophisticated. Could take months."

"What? Hell, no. Do your inspection and get 'em lined out to do their own damned debugging. I need you back here being an investigator in a week. I don't know how the hell any of that project even became our headache to begin with." McGee nodded an OK. Gibbs turned to Ziva who looked back with some resentment.

"When do you want to run me down, McGee?" Ziva asked, her umbrage starting to abate.

"Today is Thursday. You two. . ." Gibbs said talking to McGee and Ziva ". . .need to report at your new. . ." he turned pointedly to McGee ". . .and temporary duty stations by 0600 Monday. Work it out between yourselves as to when you want McGee to . . .run you down." Gibbs said smiling. "DiNozzo. . ."

"Good to go, Boss." Tony flashed his patented smile.

" DiNozzo is playing for another team as of now."

"What are you gonna do while we're all gone, Boss?' McGee asked. Gibbs paused for a reflective moment.

"I'm gonna get that boat out of my basement, McGee" he said. All three agents stared at him for a single measured beat then all started offering assistance. Gibbs ignored them all and went back to his desk. They took the hint and went back to their desks.

"Alrighty, then" Tony said "No boat banishing assistance from me so I'm outta here." He cleared his desk and started to gather his things together to leave.

"Hey, hey, hey, Tony? What about our, uh, purging project we got going here?" McGee said casting a furtive glance at Gibbs.

"Uh, we're good. Thanks" Tony said.

"You know, if you want I can restore all of those 'deletes' I just did with a Contol Y keystroke. . .in case you want to double check everything. Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll just undo all the deletions so everything will just be sitting there on your computer waiting for you . . .or anyone else to see. . .until you get back and make a final decision. " McGee said and he was smiling. Tony froze for an instant, then dropped his gear and went to McGee's desk and handed him several bills, crumpling each one up into a tiny crumpled ball as he dropped them onto McGee's his desk. He snarled as he turned away and heard McGee say under his breath "You're such a child." Tony, once again gathered his gear and headed to the elevator. Ziva followed him. McGee looked up at the two agents, but only for a moment. Gibbs however watched the two agents' discussion with some interest. The conversation between Tony and Ziva, though public, had an air of intimacy about it. When Tony at last stepped into the elevator, his hand trailed slightly as they held each other's fingers for a brief moment.

"Ziva?" Gibbs said as she took her seat at her desk. McGee having not witnessed the exchange at the elevator looked up when Gibbs had called to Ziva. He cast a glance at Gibbs and thought he saw. . .what? What did he see? Was Gibbs sad? Disappointed? Hurt? McGee wasn't certain of what the fleeting emotion was he glimpsed in Gibbs expression but he felt certain that Gibbs wasn't pleased about something.

"Tony just had some pointers for me about FLETC" she answered.

"I suggest you not think about Tony or his pointers while you are at FLETC." he said. Ziva looked at Gibbs with a mildly stunned expression, then threw her pen to her desk and uttered a epithet in a foreign tongue. McGee was confused.

Gibbs had the bullpen to himself the next day. Tony had begun his undercover work for Balboa's team and McGee and Ziva were using the conference room to go over all of McGee's notes and other materials he had saved from his time at FLETC. Gibbs didn't even make it to lunch before getting fed up with the paper shuffle and decided to call it a day. He took the stairs up to the Director's office and shocked Cynthia when he actually asked her if the Director was in and then asked her to let the Director know he was waiting. His normal method of speaking to the Director was simply to walk into his office unannounced but he felt like messing with Cynthia this one time especially since it wasn't case related or even a matter of great importance. Cynthia dialed Vance's number and let him know Gibbs was waiting.

"Yes, Director" she said and hung up. She did not look at Gibbs but returned to the typing she was doing when Gibbs had stepped into her office. Gibbs stood at her desk for a moment, waiting.

"Well?" he said

"He said you could go right in." Cynthia replied. Gibbs smirked and shook his head, acknowledging that Cynthia could play the game, too.

"Agent Gibbs, to what do I owe this rare announced visit?" Vance asked.

"I got no team. I was thinking about callin' it a day. Wondering how that would sit with you, Director?" Gibbs said amiably.

"I don't have a problem with it. You've got more accrued leave time than anybody on the books. It's none of my business but why not extend the other side of the weekend as well?" Vance asked.

"You trying to get rid of me, Leon?" Gibbs smiled.

"Well, considering you're still not gonna have a team for the first part of next week either, it seems to make sense. I don't want to see you get burned out doing paperwork for three days straight."

"If the boat gets stuck halfway out of the basement this weekend, I might just take you up on that."

Gibbs called Vance first thing Monday morning and said he decided maybe it was a good idea to take two or three days but was still available should anything come up. After he hung up he went to the basement and continued to clean up in preparation for his next project. "Clearing the decks." as Abby would say. Gibbs had no worries about how McGee was handling things in Newport News. When it came to all things computer, as far as Gibbs was concerned, McGee had no equals. He also felt that McGee had come along way in his career as a field agent. However, he still needed some seasoning when it came to dealing with things on a street level. A bit more time around DiNozzo and McGee could easily stand among the ranks of the best Gibbs had worked with. The problem was, McGee was starting to resist Tony. He was no longer the green probie with the 'eager to please everyone all the time' attitude. The big brother/little brother relationship that had gone on between Tony and McGee had started to dissipate after the incident with Michelle Lee and even more so after they had returned from Somalia with Ziva. McGee had proven himself in the field on that assignment. And since then he had been holding his own against Tony in general. But McGee still lacked in the ability to pick up the more subtle nuances of investigation, whether is was seeing something at a crime scene no one else could see or detecting the subtle change of expression in a suspect's eyes during an interrogation. He could learn these things from Tony if he paid attention but he was at a phase in his career where he was feeling maybe a little too sure of himself. It was a dangerous phase. It's when people got hurt. The trip to Newport News came at a pretty good time. Getting McGee away from the field work for even a few days might give him a the opportunity for a new perspective when he came back, especially if they drew a big case right away. Of course it might not change a thing either.

That evening, Gibbs gave Ziva a call to see how things were going at FLETC. She grumbled about having to sit in a classroom like a school girl but said she passed the written part although she did have to argue over some of the questions with the proctor.

"I told them the English phrasing confused me." she said. Gibbs asked her about the practical tests she taken so far.

"I frightened the agent conducting the driving portion." she said.

"No kidding." Gibbs said, not surprised. "What happened?"

"I was doing the 'escape and evade' exercise and I misunderstood the instructions. Instead of backing up and making a high speed one eighty, I drove the entire course backwards." She could hear Gibbs laughing on the other end of the line.

"Exactly! Everyone else thought it was funny as well AND I had the fastest time on the course!" They chatted a few minutes more and Gibbs was about to hang up.

"Have you spoken to Tony?" Ziva asked .

"No, Ziva. I haven't and I don't expect to. He's undercover. He's not gonna call me or anybody else. Ziva? Keep your head in the game there. I need you officially qualified to keep you on my team."

"Yes, Coach." she said and she could hear his smile as she hung up.

His remaining team member was out of his reach, for now. But Tony was the least of Gibbs concern. McGee's attitude when he returned from Newport News might be an issue. How well would the young agent adjust to being removed from the field completely and then returning to it cold? And what about Ziva? If she was distracted by her concern for Tony, it could affect her performance in the remaining field tests. Gibbs laughed to himself as headed up from the basement. He just realized that he had taken the entire day off and couldn't recall a moment of the day when he wasn't thinking about work or more specifically, his team. He vowed that tomorrow would be different. He paused for a moment at the top of the stairs wondering if he had enough bourbon down there to make that happen.

Tuesday, Gibbs checked in again with Vance before heading into the basement to start making a materials and supplies list for his next boat building project. Around 10:30 he was about to head to the store when his phone rang.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

"Gibbs! Help me. . . (mfdmmefmm). . . kill" he heard Ziva's voice and then an apparent struggle ensued.

"ZIVA!"

"Agent Gibbs?" said a calm male voice "This is Sergeant Carter over here at Cheltenham. . ."

"FLETC?"

"Yessir, that's right. Now what we have here is a failure to communicate with your Miss David."

"What's the issue, Sergeant?"

"I was giving instructions on how we were to going to conduct the test for evaluating the candidates defensive techniques in hand to hand combat and before I could finish, your Miss David had taken down two of the proctors and injured the referee."

"Yeah, Sergeant. Ziva learned English by practicing American idioms. The best defense . . ."

". . .is a strong offense. Yeah, Ok, I get it. But Agent Gibbs, what do you suggest I do now? This afternoon we're doin' Close Order Combat Drills and some of those involve knives? And tomorrow, we're on the shootin' range."

"For today, Sergeant, I'd say forget any instructions and just throw your two best men at her but don't let her get near a knife. I think you'll be OK tomorrow because you're not really shooting at each other, are you? Put her on for me, will ya?"

"Gibbs." Ziva said

"Ziva." was his only quiet response. There was a long silence.

"Alright!" she said. His nonverbal reprimand came through loud and clear.

"Two to One." he advised her.

"Excellent, Gibbs. One more day-I think I will survive."

"Make sure they do, too, Ziva." He hung up and thought good thoughts about the two good men that were going to be humiliated later that day. The rest of Gibbs day was uneventful and he decided against calling Ziva that evening. Instead, he stayed down in the basement with his bourbon well into the night.

McGee spent just two days in Newport News instead of the scheduled week and those days had been a total cluster. Nobody down there had clue as to what was going on. The manufacturer had not even completed the installation and was nowhere near ready for inspection and as far as debugging, it was in their contract with the Navy that they would do the debugging. And like Gibbs, nobody down there knew why NCIS was involved in the project, either. So as not to make the trip a total waste of his time, McGee did two things. He spoke with the software engineers about the scope of the project and then he spoke with the person responsible for the contract on the Navy side. His approach had been quite innocent at first. He honestly just wanted some background information to give to Gibbs when he showed up back in the office after only two days. What happened though was that he realized there were incongruities in the things the two sides were telling him. While it wasn't actually within his purview, McGee took it upon himself to bring all parties together and point out the discrepancies. He started a minor war and being the only more or less neutral party there, he was stuck until he figured a way out. Late Tuesday a JAG lawyer showed up and McGee spent the rest of the night bringing her up to speed. McGee did not want to wait until morning to leave for fear they would drag him into the melee again. He gave the lawyer his number, packed his bags and hit the road a around 12:30 AM. A little over three hours later, dead tired, McGee stumbled into his apartment. He was about to throw his bags on to the sofa when he realized there was someone there.

McGee was now fully awake and drew his weapon.

"NCIS. Let me see your hands" McGee ordered. The person on his sofa was covered with the throw blanket McGee kept draped over the back. He couldn't see much of the person but could hear a low snoring. He approached cautiously and pulled back the throw. The man was sleeping on his side, his face to the back of the sofa. McGee placed his hand on the man's shoulder and shook him, trying to wake the intruder. The man did nothing except stopped snoring. McGee peered over, trying to get a better look at the man's face but could only see the side which was bloodied, battered and bruised. Finally, McGee grabbed the shoulder and pulled, rolling the man over to his back. McGee jumped back in alarm, shocked to discover it was Tony and horrified to see that Tony covered with blood! McGee recovered instantly and still staring at his partner, his friend as he grabbed his cell. He was beginning to call for an ambulance when something occurred to him. While reaching for his phone, he had also started searching for Tony's wound. McGee realized quite soon that, other than the facial injury he had first noticed, Tony appeared to have no other injuries. He set the phone down and did a more thorough exam. The blood was only on the outside of Tony's clothes and upon closer examination of the facial injury, it looked like nothing more than the kind of injury Tony came away with after Close Order Combat Drills with Gibbs. He tried again to wake Tony and still got no response. This didn't make sense. McGee picked up his phone again and hit his speed dial for Ducky. Ducky answered after quite a few rings. McGee apologized for the hour and then explained. He signed off assuring Ducky that his next call was going to be to Gibbs.

Twenty minutes later, Gibbs rushed into McGee's apartment without knocking.

"McGee. . .?" he called as he entered. He saw McGee kneeling next to Tony.

"Boss, I still can't wake him." McGee stood as he spoke to Gibbs.

"Where the hell is Ducky?" Gibbs said.

"Right here, Jethro." Ducky said from the apartment doorway.

"Ducky! Get over here. What the hell's wrong with him?" Gibbs said as he stepped out and practically dragged Ducky over to Tony.

"Patience, Jethro. Now, let's see what we've got. Timothy, could I get a basin of warm soapy water and some alcohol if you've any about?" McGee grabbed a small basin and handed it to Gibbs and pointed out the sink. He then disappeared down a small hallway. Gibbs filled the basin, adding soap and found clean small towel. He took the things to Ducky as McGee returned with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a handful of sterile gauze. "Excellent, Timothy." Ducky began his examination and ministrations of Tony. Gibbs pulled McGee back.

"Talk!" said Gibbs.

"It was a cluster in Newport so I left early. I got home, I don't know, 3:30, 3:45 this morning and Tony was lying on my sofa. I tried waking him and when I couldn't, then I saw all the blood and I started to call 911 then I noticed it wasn't his blood but . . .then I, I, I I just couldn't wake him so I called Ducky first, then I called you. "

"It's OK, McGee, take a breath." Gibbs said. "You did good, Tim." He assured the young agent. "Does Tony have a key?"

"No."

"How'd he get in?"

"Picked the lock, I suppose."

"He ever been here before?"

"A few times but not recently. We don't travel in the same circles outside of work."

"So what do you think is going on, McGee?"

"Whatever's going on, Boss, I gotta think it's got to do with his undercover assignment." McGee said

"Yeah, McGee, I do too. He's also running."

"Running?"

"Yeah, something's FUBAR. He didn't go home. He didn't go to the hospital. He came here. Why did he come here?" Gibbs asked more to himself. McGee thought about that for a moment.

"My place was closest to wherever he was working?" McGee suggested.

"Pity you weren't home earlier, Timothy. He could have . . ." Duck stopped and threw a knowing glance to Gibbs. McGee caught the exchange.

"Boss. . .?"

" 'You weren't home earlier, Timothy.' " Gibbs paraphrased Ducky's statement. "You weren't supposed to be here, McGee. He expected your place to be empty. So he's not running, he's hiding. He came here to take himself off the grid."

"Boss. . .you don't think Balboa has anything to do with this?"

"We'll make an agent out of you yet, McGee. Ducky, what do you know?

"He was held against his will. There are bruises and abrasions indicating he was bound at his wrists. From all other outward appearances he's in a very deep sleep but I can't give any kind of accurate diagnosis under these circumstances. His vital signs are all strong and normal. This injury" Ducky pointed to the abrasion on Tony's face. "appears to be several days old and not more than he would have sustained sparring with you or Ziva. That being said, he should still be in a hospital, have an IV going and be constantly monitored until these blood samples are analyzed or he wakes up." Ducky said.

"OK, Duck. I hear ya. But we have to do all we can here for now." Gibbs said.

"I can suggest two things. Get an IV going. He needs to have fluids." Ducky said.

"And?" Gibbs said.

"Well, we can be more aggressive in trying to wake him." Ducky said. "Timothy, I don't suppose you have smelling salts?" McGee shook his head. "Very well, let's do with what we have." With that Ducky scoured McGee's kitchen, bathroom and various other cabinets and cupboards seeking the proper household chemicals. After ten or fifteen minutes in the kitchen he returned with a small glass of a clear liquid. He dipped the corner of one of the gauze pads in it and waved it under Tony's nose. Tony made an angry face and turned away from the offending smell. Ducky tried again and Tony turned away again, this time rolling over and burying his face in the back cushions of the sofa.

"Roll him to his back again, please, Jethro, Timothy. And hold him down." Ducky said. Gibbs held Tony's arms by the biceps while McGee clamped his hands on Tony's ankles.

"Uh, Boss?" McGee said. Gibbs looked over to see McGee looking down at the empty ankle holster strapped to Tony. Ducky moved in with homemade salts again, this time able to keep them in better position to do the job they needed done. Tony turned his head away and tried to roll over. After a few unsuccessful attempts to avoid the smell, he started to fight more aggressively. Gibbs started calling to him.

"Come on, DiNozzo. Wake up!…..Tony! You hear me?. . .Talk to me, Tony!. . .Come on, wake up, damn it!" he said. Ducky pulled away the salts and Tony stopped fighting and slowly opened his eyes. Gibbs slipped his hands under Tony's shoulders and lifted while McGee attempt to swing his legs to the floor. Tony scowled but didn't fight other than to try and shrug way the hands that were maneuvering him. At last, sitting up, Tony stared at the floor and swayed slightly. His eyes were still heavy lidded and it seemed that any energy he had was directed at keeping his eyes open.

"Look for the weapon, McGee." Gibbs said quietly then turned to Tony. "DiNozzo?" he said. Tony turned his head slightly in Gibbs' direction.

"I'm not convinced he's awake yet, Jethro." Ducky said quietly, watching Tony carefully. Tony looked confused and tried to look up at Gibbs and Ducky but didn't quite make it. Ducky wafted the homemade smelling salts in front of Tony. He sat back quickly and began coughing.

"No." Tony said and waved away the salts and coughed. "No, 's not right."

"I'm sorry about this, Anthony, but we felt it was in your best interest." Ducky said.

"Tony, what's not right and where's your weapon?" Gibbs said, kneeling in front of Tony. Tony took a deep breath, stretched, yawned and leaned back against the sofa cushions. He scrubbed his face with his hands and stretching again said,

"I need to use the head." and tried to stand. He needed both Gibbs and McGee to steady him as he made his way to McGee's bathroom but refused help once at the door.

"I'm good." he said. Gibbs and McGee stood outside the door, waiting. Gibbs looked at McGee with a blank expression. McGee looked everywhere but at Gibbs, pretending not to listen to Tony's ablutions. After a few minutes, Tony emerged looking more stable and awake than when he'd gone in.

"I'm good." he repeated and followed Gibbs and McGee back to the living room. He started back towards the sofa but Gibbs tried to direct him to a kitchen chair instead. Tony shrugged him off and when Gibbs again tried to maneuver him to the chair, Tony dropped to his knees beside the sofa shoved his arm under the cushions and then withdrew his arm holding his backup gun in his hand. Gingerly, with two fingers on the butt of the gun he handed it to Gibbs, who handed it to McGee. Gibbs helped Tony up and finally got him to the chair.

"One round's been fired" McGee said

"What's not right, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked again.

"You. You n' Ducky n' McGee. . .here. That's bad." Tony said.

"Why is that bad, Tony?" Gibbs asked. Tony looked at him and cocked his head as he thought.

"I'm fuzzy on that part."

"Tony, your weapon's been fired Can you explain that?" Tony looked at Gibbs, confused. "What's the last thing that is clear to you?"

"Thinking this place would be safe because McGee was out of town."

"Safe for who? Safe from what?" Gibbs asked. Tony paused before answering.

"Fuzzy part. . .sorry, Boss."

"Alright, DiNozzo. Start from the top." Gibbs said settling himself down onto the coffee table in front of Tony. McGee came into the living room and handed Tony a glass of milk. Tony drank it down in one then began his tale.

Gibbs had given everyone their temporary assignments and Tony had set off almost right away on that Thursday afternoon. He had left the NCIS building to meet up with Balboa's team for a briefing on the operation they were setting up. The briefing went on until 2:30AM. Tony thought it ironic how something called a 'briefing' wasn't very brief at all. The team then went out and started setting up the surveillance posts. Tony finally got home a little after 4:00AM Friday only to have to report back on duty at 7:00AM to watch one of five suspects. He watched his guy all day then followed him to a restaurant where the guy stayed until after midnight. After following the guy home, Tony reported in for a debriefing and received his next day's assignment. The debriefing was almost as involved as the briefing and he was finally home by 3:30AM Saturday. He watched a different guy the next day starting around 8:00AM. This one had an office in a mall. At the end of the business day Tony followed the guy to a bar/restaurant and was able to watch him more closely than the previous night's suspect because he was able to nurse a beer at the bar all night and not draw suspicion. Again, he followed the guy home then reported in for a debriefing/briefing and assignment. Tony anticipated having Sunday and Monday off and planned to do nothing but sleep. He figured he had only had about 6 hours of sleep since Thursday. At this point, Tony paused in his story telling.

"So you slept your whole weekend, then what?" Gibbs asked looking up from his note pad. Tony was sitting back in the chair looking at nothing with a thousand yard stare.

"Tony?" Gibbs said, snapping his fingers in front of Tony. Tony barely flinched but Gibbs could see him easily refocus and a puzzled or even worried expression came to him.

"You slept . . " Gibbs prompted.

"No. . .I didn't." Tony said. He stood and started to pace but nearly fell when he made his first turn. "Whoa. . ." he said and reached out to steady himself. Gibbs was up in an instant, grabbed Tony's arm and led him back to the chair.

"Sorry, Boss." Tony said sheepishly.

"It's OK, DiNozzo. McGee!" Gibbs called over his shoulder. Ducky pulled him aside as McGee entered from the kitchen a with a mug of soup and handed it to Tony.

"Jethro, I can't let you go on with this. Tony's at the point of exhaustion, suffering from fatigue and sleep deprivation. It's possible that what he's just told you is a product of his imagination."

"I can hear you, you know." Tony said looking at them across his soup mug. "And you know, Dr. Mallard, I would never question your diagnosis. Exhaustion, fatigue, sleep deprivation. . .guilty as charged." Tony said holding up one hand. "However, as long as you and Gibbs and chef McGee with his really horrible tasting generic canned soup" he pushed the mug back into McGee's hands who pushed it right back into Tony's "are for real, then everything up to this point in my little narrative is gospel." He took another sip of the soup and grimaced. Gibbs looked at Ducky with a smile that said 'That's my boy!' Ducky sighed.

"Well, it is against my better judgment to let this continue." Ducky said sternly to Gibbs the turning to Tony he said "Finish your awful soup."

"Yeah, it's against my better judgment to finish the soup, too." Tony replied under his breath. Ducky continued to Gibbs.

"I'll give you twenty minutes to get what you can from him, then I insist you let him get some sleep." he said.

Gibbs took his place on the coffee table in front of Tony. Mildly fortified by the pseudo soup, Tony resumed his tale.

"Where was I?" Tony asked.

"I don't know, DiNozzo. That's what this little discussion is trying to determine." Gibbs said.

"Oh, yeah." Tony said, smiling a little. "Um. . .sleeping. . .no, driving. . .I. . . was too tired to drive home." Tony resumed his story. He had decided he was too tired to drive back to DC that early Sunday morning and instead went to the safe house that had been set up in Annapolis. Not having heard otherwise in the briefing, Tony believed it to be empty. However, when he got there, there were several people in the house in the middle of a heated discussion. Tony recognized one of them as Detective Morgan from the Annapolis PD Bunco department who was assisting NCIS on the operation. Morgan explained to Tony that the other men were from the Annapolis Vice Squad and there was a mix up at headquarters regarding this particular safe house. Tony made his apologies and left however, he was aware that whatever he had walked in on wasn't right but he thought he had covered his suspicions. He decided to head for home, a little more awake now because of what he saw and he was trying to make sense of it. Concentrating on driving, staying awake and figuring out what to do with what he saw, he was not aware of the car speeding up behind him. Tony had decided to run his suspicions by Gibbs to see if Gibbs could do some quiet questioning around while Tony caught up on his sleep and also kept his cover undercover. The car approaching from behind moved into the left lane and began passing Tony. Tony was just about to press the 'send' on his cell when the passing car suddenly swerved into Tony's car. Tony dropped the phone and grabbed the steering wheel tightly trying to stay on the roadway but the other car was much heavier than Tony's NCIS fleet vehicle. As Tony slammed on his brakes, the other car turned more into Tony's car and forced it off the road and down an embankment. The vehicle rolled once completely coming to rest on it's wheels. Tony didn't know for sure if he'd been unconscious at all but thought the injury to the side of his face was caused by the airbag. He became aware of several voices and someone trying to open his car door, then he heard the On-Star system in the car notify emergency services. Again, Tony paused his story.

"I'd like to think that this next part was my imagination but considering the situation, I don't think it was." Then he continued his story. He told how he heard the voices say something about taking care of him at the hospital then all the voices went away and he could only hear distant sound of sirens. Tony rallied himself and was able to get out of the car before the emergency services people arrive. Dazed , confused and exhausted, Tony kept playing the events of the last few days over in his head trying to make the connection between what he had scene and what had happened. He decided his best bet was to lay low, get off the grid. More or less on auto pilot, he found himself right outside his own apartment building. He checked the perimeter to see if he could detect any surveillance. When he thought it was all clear, he stealthily made his way in. He did plan to stay long.

"Home." Tony suddenly stopped his story. His eyes started darting around the room, searching frantically for something. He caught a movement to his side and turned. It was McGee who had stood when Tony had stopped talking. Tony looked up at McGee.

"Rollo Tomasei" Tony said then his eyes glazed over and his right arm and leg twitched. Ducky jumped up.

"That's enough!" Ducky said. Tony refocused at the sudden loud voice.

"What?" Tony said looking around, quizzically.

"No more, Jethro. He's beginning to hallucinate and starting to have seizures. He must get some sleep." Ducky said urging Tony up out of the chair and directing him to the sofa. At first Tony was puzzled, but as he approached the sofa he became like a thirsty horse to the watering trough. He fell onto the sofa, stretched luxuriously and nestled into a pillow. Gibbs picked up the throw blanket and covered Tony.

"All right, Duck." Gibbs heaved a sigh and massaged the back of his neck. "Take this stuff. Get it to Abby. Find out what you can and have her call me. And Duck, keep this in the immediate family for now." He looked down at Tony. "Is there anything I can do for him now."

"I'll be back as quick as I can with an IV. Other than that, let sleeping dogs lie, Jethro." Ducky admonished as he headed out the door.

"I'll go to Tony's and see if I can find anything at his place to help us pick up his story from where he left off." McGee said following Ducky.

"No, McGee. Hit the rack. I don't need two of you out of commission." Gibbs said.

"Yeah, I guess not. I am kinda tired. So are we just gonna leave him there or. . ." McGee asked indicating Tony.

"Well, yeah, McGee. This has just become our headquarters until we figure out what's going on."

"Right. Well, make yourself at home." McGee said and headed toward his bedroom. "Oh, Boss?"

"Yeah"

"Did you hear what Tony said just before Ducky made him stop?"

"Rollo Tomasei. Ducky said he was hallucinating. Why? Does that mean something to you?"

"It might. I just remembered where I heard it. Here, let me. . . " McGee moved to his computer and after a few minutes brought up a movie. "Here this will explain where the name came from but right now I can't figure out if it was just something that Tony said or if he was trying to give us a clue." With that McGee left Gibbs to watch LA Confidential while he went to try and catch some shut eye before he started to hallucinate, too.

******************

Ducky arrived back at McGee's after several hours having waited for Abby to arrive in order to give her the bloodied shirt for DNA analysis. He ran a preliminary tox screen on Tony's blood while waiting and had found nothing out of the ordinary. He reported his findings to Gibbs as he started an IV on Tony.

"Can you stay here, Duck? At least until McGee's recharged?"

"Certainly, Jethro. I imaging I should be able to find something, if not productive, at least interesting to read within Timothy's library. His collection seems to be quite ecletic and yet esoteric as well. It reminds me of a small book shop near. . ." Ducky's tale was interrupted by the sound of the apartment door closing. "Ah well, so many books, so little time."

******************

Gibbs exited the elevator and scanned the vacant area of the bullpen normally occupied by Balboa's team. He continued directly up to the Director's office. Cynthia was away from her desk or not in. Gibbs reached for the door just as it opened. He and Cynthia looked at one an other coolly.

"Agent Gibbs to see you, Director." Cynthia said, her eyes never wavering. Gibbs smiled and stepped passed her. He stepped up to Vance's desk.

"You got the boat out." Vance said. Gibbs nodded. "So. . .?" Vance prompted.

"How's the Annapolis thing going?"

"Fine"

"You get daily updates?"

"You know I do. What's this about?. . . as if I didn't DiKnow-Zo!"

"You heard from him?"

"No, he reports to Balboa's team,Balboa reports to me same as you do when you're in the field. I repeat-What's this about?" Vance was building a head of steam. Gibbs studied Vance for a moment, reading him. Was Vance involved in whatever was going on? Tony's cryptic clue could be pointing at Vance as the one behind whatever Tony had discovered but. . . Gibbs' gut told him 'no', whatever hidden agenda Vance may have going on, this operation was not part of it but he wasn't gonna break Rule 3. He was gonna double check. Gibbs relaxed his demeanor though and spoke casually but he could see Vance's defenses we still up.

"So Balboa's not actually getting reports directly from DiNozzo. There's a third party.""

"Yeah," Vance said. He typed a bit on his keyboard. "A detective from Annapolis PD."

"And DiNozzo hasn't missed a schedule check-in?"

"Your boy has a perfect attendance record. Third time and we're done if I don't get an answer. . .What's this about!" Vance had moved to the front of his desk and was now face to face with Gibbs. Gibbs cocked his head and eyed Vance, then he let loose.

"McGee gets assigned to a bogus mission in Newport at the only time Ziva can get to Cheltenham and those two things happen to coincide with a request for DiNozzo to pull surveillance. I don't have all the details and I haven't confirmed the information I do have, but I'm convinced DiNozzo's been compromised since sometime Sunday morning. His car has been wrecked, his apartment was under surveillance, possible broken into, his weapon has been fired recently and he passed out about three hours ago covered in somebody else's blood." Vance returned to his desk. Without breaking his eye contact, he pressed the intercom button.

"Have Agent Balboa come to my office, immediately."

"Yes, Director."

Ducky sat at McGee's kitchen table, enjoying tea, toast and Thomas Harding (Second Edition). His morning spent with Tony had been blessedly uneventful. Tony had not moved even when Ducky had inserted the needle for the IV. As a purely precautionary measure, Ducky paused in his reading occasionally to examine Tony, checking his vital signs of life each time. Late in the morning, Ducky heard McGee beginning to stir. He thought it would be wise if he and McGee were to wake Tony and assist him to the bathroom rather than risk some interesting dry cleaning bills. Before he could act on this thought, McGee shuffled in from the hallway and as if on autopilot, setup and started the coffee maker, then shuffled back to the hallway. Moments later, Ducky heard the shower water running. He surmised that McGee was not much of a morning person, as least prior to his morning coffee. Ducky put a few more slices of bread in the toaster.

Not long after McGee became human again, Gibbs returned.

"How's he doing, Duck?" Gibbs asked.

"Hardly any different than the last time you saw him, Jethro. It takes a lot longer to recover from sleep deprivation than it does to get that way. And as long as he's sleeping, he'll need to stay on fluids. I started him on a second bag after Timothy and I manage to wake him enough to allow us to assist him to the lavatory in order to release some pressure shall we say. The better alternative to that is to introduce a catheter. . ." Ducky and Gibbs looked at one another and both shooked their heads.

"How long until he recovers enough to be able to tell us anything more?"

"36 to 48 hours, most likely. We'll watch to see when his REM sleep cycles decrease significantly. That is possibly one indictor that he's made up his sleep deficit."

"What other indictors are there?"

"When he wakes up on his own is a pretty good one." Ducky said. "Jethro, I can't stay here much longer. Your team is not my only responsibility."

"McGEE!"

"Yeah, Boss."

"As far as anyone knows, you're still in Newport News. I want to keep it that way. Can you do your thing from here?" Gibbs asked as he surveyed McGee's computer set up.

"Uh, well, to do that, Boss, I'd have to breach all kinds of security protocols, breakdown firewalls, hack into federal servers and more or less commit a few felonies. . .

"MCGEE!?"

". . but I know how to avoid detection." McGee concluded quickly as he started spinning up the hard drives.

"Good. Confirm as much as you can of what Tony's told us so far including the On-Star report. Get into Balboa's records of this Op and get background checks on everybody involved starting with the Annapolis PD personnel. Get into their records if you have to." Gibbs said quickly. McGee nodded and starting to take his seat at his computers.

"Do all of that after Ducky shows you what to do for Tony." Gibbs said pulling McGee out of the chair and directing him to Ducky and Tony. "I'm going to Tony's to see if I can find out what happened once he got home."

*******************

Gibbs arrived at Tony's apartment casually yet cautiously. There was no sign that the door had been forced open or the lock picked. Once he tried the doorknob he realized there may have been no need for either of those methods of entry as the door was unlocked. He opened the door and let himself in. Tony's apartment, for the most part was neat and orderly, certainly a bachelors pad but not the Frat boys' place as some suspected which made the truly disheveled things stand out. Pizza boxes were haphazardly lying on the living room floor as were beer bottles and other fast food wrappers but the most damning evidence that something had happened was the over turned chair in the dining area, the blood stains on the floor. Based on the amount of food container debris and the other physical evidence, Gibbs' best guess scenario was that Tony had been met at his apartment by two people and held for three days tied to the chair. Tony had managed to get out of the bindings, struggled with his captors and then escaped to McGee's. Gibbs spent several hours processing Tony's apartment as a crime scene without the benefit of the resources on the MCRT truck or his team. He spoke to a few of the neighbors without letting on the nature of his questions, leading them to believe he was a friend of Tony's passing through and wanted to stop into say 'Hi'. None of the neighbors had anything of significance to add to the scenario Gibbs was formulating. No one had seen or heard anything from Tony's apartment for almost a week, all stating that that was not unusual for him.

"He's away a lot" or "He keeps weird hours but he's pretty quiet about it" or "He's got a new babe" was the gist of the comments the neighbors made. Leaving everything as he had found it except for some bits of trace evidence he took away with him, Gibbs left Tony's apartment.

McGee stared at Tony still sleeping, still unmoving, still on his sofa. McGee looked at the nearly empty IV bag still attached to Tony who was still sleeping, still unmoving and still on his new sofa. All that fluid had to work its way out eventually. McGee just hoped that when it did Tony would not still be sleeping, not still be unmoving and most of all not still be on his brand new sofa. His phone rang and McGee almost wet hims. . .

"McGee" he answered.

"McGee! How's Tony? Ducky just filled me in. Omigod!" Abby asked

"He's. . .fine, I guess" McGee said shrugging.

"You guess?! MCGEE! Aren't you with him? You're supposed to be watching him. Ducky said he's supposed to be monitored 24/7 until he wakes up. Who's taking care of him if you're not wa. . .?"

"ABBY, HE'S FINE!" McGee shouted at her. "I'm with Tony. He's still sleeping, still unmoving. . ." McGee stopped and stare at Tony again. It was quiet on the other end of the phone for a moment.

"McGee, is Tony on your brand-new-sofa?" Abby asked.

"yes" McGee said. It sounded painful to Abby. McGee was quite sure he heard the beginning of hysterical laughter on the other end before it went silent. He sighed then set about cleaning up his apartment. He had done all that Gibbs had asked and relayed what information he found to his boss including confirming that On-Star had been activated on the fleet car assigned to Tony. Other than confirming that part of Tony's story, none of the information McGee had found provided anything significant. None of the parties involved had anything that threw up a red flag. Movement outside his window caught McGee's attention and he saw the mailman walking away. McGee went out to get his mail, not bothering to lock the door. He didn't notice the man at the far end of the hallway as he headed out to the mailbox. After McGee disappeared from sight, the man waited a few moments then moved quickly and quietly down the hall and let himself in to McGee's apartment. The man moved straight for Tony, stood over him and reached into his own pocket. Before his could withdraw his hand, the man was slammed to the floor as McGee threw a flying tackle at him. The man turned out to be Detective Morgan and he was quick, though, and as they hit the floor he used momentum to keep them rolling and he broke free of McGee's hold. Both men scrambled to their feet. McGee moved toward Morgan as he rose. Morgan threw a punch, McGee deflected it as he barreled into Morgan again. Although he was able to block a fist, McGee was a better wrestler than boxer. His opponent however, also seemed to have some moves of his own. He twisted out of McGee's hold but McGee grabbed Morgan's forearm and was about to twist the arm when Morgan landed a fist to McGee's jaw. McGee staggered back, losing his hold on him. McGee regained his balance just as Morgan launched himself at McGee. This time it was McGee's turn to use the momentum. He absorbed the impact of Morgan's body block but spun on the spot pushing him down and away. Morgan man held on and together they crashed down onto the brand new sofa and Tony. More specifically, Tony's leg, breaking it just above the ankle. At that moment, McGee's door crashed open.

"FREEZE! NCIS!" Gibbs and Balboa burst into the apartment, weapons drawn. The two fighting men stopped, immediately releasing each other. Gibbs grabbed McGee and pulled him off Morgan who was assisted off the sofa by Balboa. Gibbs went to Tony who was still sleeping but was no longer unmoving. Now he was writhing and moaning pain, sweat glistening on his face.

"McGee, call an ambulance." Gibbs said pulling out his own phone.

"On it, Boss" he said and looked around for his phone. It had been knocked around somewhere during his fight and was no where to be seen. In the meantime, the man, who McGee thought was in Balboa's 'custody', had again reached into his pocket. This time the was able to pull his hand out of his pocket and he immediately rushed to McGee.

"Here. It's his. I got it out of his car." he said as he handed Tony's cell phone to McGee. McGee looked from the man to Balboa to Gibbs.

"McGee!" Gibbs barked and McGee called for the ambulance. Gibbs then spoke one word into his own phone. "Go." he said and closed the phone.

Ziva sat in the chair next to Tony who was still sleeping, unmoving but no longer on McGee's no longer brand new sofa. He was in a hospital bed attached to a proper IV, a proper catheter and with a cast from knee to toe. Abby sat next to her and was telling the story as she knew it as to how Tony came to be in the hospital. Gibbs stood leaning against the wall near them. Abby had read the transcripts from the final debriefing of Balboa's team including Detective Morgan's explanation of his actions. During the debriefings, Tony had described seeing two people interact several times with the grifters who were running the con. The descriptions Tony gave sounded like two cops from the Annapolis Vice squad but Morgan thought it was a coincidence until those two cops showed up at the safe house. Tony interrupted Morgan's first encounter with them since he had heard Tony's description and in fact, it actually was what Tony had described, the Vice guys did not know anything about Morgan's Op. Neither Tony or Morgan gave them any information as to their operation and not wanting to blow his cover Tony made his apologies and left. After Tony left, Morgan made a deal with the Vice guys hoping to gain their confidence so that he could double his bust by getting the bad vice cops as well as the grifters. They made a deal and the Vice cops left. Morgan only realized later that the Vice guys were suspicious of Tony and had followed him. He found the accident report but discovered that it had been misidentified so that NCIS was never notified that one of their vehicles had been in an accident. When Tony missed a check in, Morgan covered it and then began his hunt for Tony and eventually found him at his apartment late Tuesday night. Morgan helped Tony escape but was able to keep both of their covers intact by taking a really good punch from Tony. He told the Vice guys to go back to the safe house and that he would call them with instructions on how to get out clean.

"And that is when you called me." Ziva said, looking at Gibbs. Gibbs nodded. "I arrived long before they did." Gibbs smiled. Ziva continued. "So this op was not so simple after all. This Morgan person left Tony with no backup, no support and for more than a day didn't even know he was missing and then took another day after that to find him. Without telling anyone. That's unacceptable, Gibbs. Tony could have been. . ."

". . .killed?" a voice from the doorway finished her sentence. Detective Morgan entered the room. "You must be his other partner." he said nodding at Tony.

"Are you Morgan?" Ziva asked, standing.

"I am." he said. Gibbs have moved from his position and was ready to intervene should Ziva begin exacting retribution on behalf of Tony. Morgan continued ". . .and before you think too badly of me, your partner wasn't in no real danger. Those guys were greedy but not that greedy. There were both on their way out of the department and they knew it so they thought they'd try to get one good score before they were done in law enforcement. They were shaking down grifters. What were the grifters gonna do, call the cops? They all thought they had a good thing going. The grifters thought they were buying insurance against a real bust. Those two guys never bothered to even find out if the grift was being investigated. But, all that being said, I do feel bad about the broken leg. Poor guy. All he wanted was to get some sleep."

"I still do." said Tony.