First things first - I do not own any of the characters or trademarks used in the show NCIS. This is my first fanfic, so I hope you enjoy. Please R&R.

Strolling to his desk, Anthony DiNozzo threw his bag and jacket to their respective places like he had done on Wednesdays and every other day not starting with the letter 'S' for the past couple of weeks.

Despite the characteristic muggy and sweltering weather that comes with early summer in the Washington, D.C., area, he proceeded to stare into oblivion instead of rambling on about how the air conditioning in his car wasn't working or how it was too hot to go on a daily run. Well, maybe not stare into oblivion, but staring at three empty bullpen desks and the brisk movement of the other agents in their respective work areas kind of made him envious.

The whole part about being senior field agent is that when the team leader is gone, he's the one that assumes the role of team leader. That said, when two good friends – team leader Leroy Jethro Gibbs and the esteemed medical examiner, Dr. Donald Mallard – are in Europe for a well-deserved vacation, agent Timothy McGee is across the country in Los Angeles helping the Office of Special Projects with most of that team in Prague on some sort of mission that no one in the Navy Yard knows about and probationary agent Ziva David unexpectedly accepting an invitation from CIA boyfriend Ray Crews to go to Tel Aviv …

DiNozzo is left as a team leader of an empty bullpen and the sole caretaker of the Major Case Response Team.

He hadn't been enjoying the first two and a half weeks of it.

Nevertheless, director Leon Vance allowed other teams – mainly the ones in the Pentagon and in Norfolk – to handle those cases and allow DiNozzo the opportunity to catch up on cold cases and continue the assignment that was tasked to him by newly appointed Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis.

Talk about torture. DiNozzo was confined mainly to the office and didn't get the chance to get out in the field. He took the elevator almost every day on clockwork around 11 a.m. to see Abby Sciuto in her forensics lab and then go meet his confident, assistant medical examiner Jimmy Palmer. The team was shorthanded but Tony was able to find a way to get to everyone who mattered to him and that, at the end of the day, made him feel better.

He was trying not to get caught up in the assignment from Jarvis and in his conversations with SECNAV since the rest of the team scurried across the face of the globe, Tony was given a respite on additional findings in the handling of his assignment. Tony really wished he could focus all of his energy on that assignment and get it over with as quickly as possible, but the SECNAV understood the position that would leave Vance in.

DiNozzo finished up a few old reports that needed to be completed and even finished the ones for McGee and David. The thought of them returning to a fresh start – more or less a fresh start for the entire team when Gibbs got back as well – boded well with him.

It hadn't crossed his mind that dispatch hadn't called in that time span to inform him of a possible case until his cell phone starting ringing. He picked up without checking the caller ID and was kind of floored to hear the voice on the other end.

"DiNozzo, its Detective Nathan Andrews, Baltimore PD," the raspy voice from the other end said rather fast-paced and eccentric. "You got a moment?"

DiNozzo recognized the tone and immediately thought back to his days of when he had to make calls similar to the one he was receiving.

"Yeah, Andrews, I got a moment. Please tell me this isn't what I think it is?"

"No, it's bad. Really bad. We found a dead Navy officer here in the city and thought we'd give you a heads up."

"Oh, that's it? From the sound of it, I thought it was something worse."

Though not a word was said immediately, DiNozzo heard the chattering of Andrews' teeth in the background and his voice not being able to form the words.

Yeah, it was as bad as he thought it was as Andrews finally found his voice and the words to come along with it.

"The Navy officer was lying next to Detective Bradley."

The wave of emotions that flew threw Tony's body, which coworkers saw in the drop of his demeanor and facial expressions, told the story – it was the absolute worst.

DiNozzo's mind flashed back to when he and Gibbs went to arrest his former police major, Frank Raimey, for murder and money laundering in connection with Danny Price's death and the scheme he ran with Navy Lt. Ian Floyd. The first voice he heard in the squad room was from Bradley. The words stuck with him for quite awhile, especially since they were said in front of Gibbs before he had the opportunity to focus on getting Raimey to confess: "Ladies and gentlemen, the legend is back. Anthony DiNozzo Jr."

The two didn't get a chance to work much before DiNozzo bolted to NCIS, but the impression Tony left on him and the reputation he held at the precinct were undeniable. That, and the round of applause that followed when he arrived in the squad room, made him hate having to go back there under those circumstances. He had tried to get in touch with a few of them to let them know he didn't mean to harm the department, but he had been met with an icy cold shoulder.

"Damn Andrews. I'm sorry. Bradley was a great guy and a pretty good detective from what I remember. What can I do for you guys?"

"Since the Navy guy falls under your jurisdiction and we can't really get involved with investigating the death of one of our own, I thought that you could come up here, take lead, we'll help out. I got a feeling you wouldn't want to cheat Bradley out of justice."

"You called the right guy Andrews," DiNozzo said, knowing full well he was the only member of the team there. "I'll head up there as quickly as possible. Need me to bring the ME?"

"Bring him. We've already got the crime scene contained and our ME has started his preliminary reports. Just need you to get up here so we can find the killer."

"I'm on my way."

As he quickly disconnected the phone, shoved it in his pocket and grabbed the gun from his drawer to slide into his side holster, he was about to utter the famous words, "Gear up," when he realized no one else was there.

He didn't even want to inform the director at the moment because he knew he was going to be told to stand down and hand the case over. And there was no way in hell he was going to hand over the case when he owed it to the Baltimore PD to find the killer.

Thinking quickly, he took the elevator down to autopsy and found Palmer sliding a corpse into the freezer.

"Hey, Pimmy Jalmer, you done with the female over there? We've got a crime scene in Baltimore."

Tony never saw a glare come from Palmer before, but the attempt at a mean glare didn't really faze DiNozzo. Mainly because of the glasses, though the only person who wore glasses who could scare him with a stare was Ducky. But using the name from McGee's book, "Deep Six," Tony definitely got Palmer's attention and momentary hatred.

"First off, I wasn't doing anything like that to the corpse! How did you even remember that? Second, I thought you weren't on active cases while the rest of the team was gone?"

"I'll fill you in on the way. We need to go!"

Not second guessing his friend, Palmer grabbed the equipment he would need and the two hopped in the ME van and took off for Baltimore. Tony was relishing the chance of driving the van since it wouldn't initially look suspicious as if he took one of the motor pool sedans. Plus, he had been able to drive it around a mob of reporters at Quantico unnoticed during the investigation of a death at the shooting of "Bootcamp Babes" and not be seen, so he was fairly certain there wouldn't be a problem getting out of the Navy Yard and to Baltimore.