What a delightful way to retire Gibbs! I promise, I'm just reading this story for the first time today - did not pilfer your idea for my latest effort, even though there are some intriguing parallels.

I particularly loved Tim eating up all of Tony's food, and Tony letting him think he didn't know he was doing it. Always has his partner's six, does our Tony! 3

I wonder if Tony will return after his sabbatical to find that Tim IS the new Supervisory Field Agent? Wouldn't that be a crazy turn of events?

Poor Vance has his work cut out for him now, creating a new MCRT from scratch. Gibbs' inadvertent parting gift, perhaps?

Good story. loved that you made Tony an author. thanks for sharing. Also glad you did not make Tim the team leader, do not like him.

WOW...you wrote this before you knew that MW was leaving at the end of Ssn 13...I'm so sad after reading this, cuz it seems so real. The basement w Tibbs? Sob...sob...sob...

OMFG I am gobsmacked this is great you held out Tony's application till the end which was quite clever props to you

good

Great job; this seems so real. I'm glad you didn't give McGee Gibbs' job, cuz he's not right for it...he belongs in Cyber Crimes. I didn't expect that everyone would leave, & I definitely didn't expect Tony to be a writer. Maybe you'll write a "follow-up" story, set about a year later, where we find out what happened to everyone.

Well, this had quite a lot of unexpected twists that kept me grinning and entertained until the very end. Glad for the light tone and, as usual, very poignant observation of their lovable quirks (Ducky's metaphors, oh), so I wouldn’t feel too wistful at Team Gibbs dissolving. Thanks for sharing:-)

Great short story. And the disbanding of the whole team, not really that big of a shock. The new department in cyber crimes would have been right up Tim's field. With Abby I think it was also the more to the fact that not only was Gibbs leaving but so was Ducky, the two most important people in her little family. Granted she cared about Tim and Tony, but neither man really held that high of a spot in her affections as did Gibbs and Ducky.
Jimmy had never came across as someone that wanted to make being an ME his main career choice, but it was a good job to have while attending medical school.
As for Tony, having written several books of short stories, which the type of stories they are, should not come as a big surprise. His decision to take a year off and try and write a novel. Well, that seems to be based more on the fact that he knew Vance would never hand over MRCT to him after Gibbs left. I am surprised that Gibbs didn't pick up on what Tony said that after a year he would see what NCIS had to offer him. You were left with the impression that since Tim did not put in for team lead of MCRT that Tony realized that he would quickly be moved some other position with Vance telling him it was a promotion but was really anything but.
I think the reason Tony really sent Jackson a copy of his first book is because he realized that unlike his team members he would not laugh or make fun of him, but would give him an honest answer as to what he really thought of the book.

Awesome ending.

Quite sad on a happy way... Kind of your kids leaving the house...

Though this story was cute, I very much doubt Tony could become a writer. Not enough patience. Phys Ed degree and all.
Writing is McGee's thing clearly. Though I can understand that since Tony is just a pretty face, you wanted to add some substance to him. But he would never be anything but a NCIS agent.

Thanks for great story

I like the idea of everyone being enthralled by Gibbs, until his retiring shakes the enchantment loose!

And Tony an author! Who knew? But it actually seems logical, now that I think of it. We know he's creative and thinks outside the box. It's not that much of a stretch to writing.

As always, looking forward to your next story!

I feel kind of sad for Ellie - she joins them and then they all leave. Hopefully she sticks around for when Tony comes back after his sabbatical.

Poor McGee, I can see why his world would be rocked given that "Thom E Gemcity" lost his source material when they all confronted him about using their barely disguised persona's in his "Deep Six" books.

On a funny note, guess the french fries weren't really important - it was stealing Tony's food. Loved Tony getting veggie sticks.

Great job for Abby to go to.
Thanks for including "Doctor Palmer".

BuckeyeFan00000

Well this was full of surprises! I kind of thought that as each of the team made plans to leave, that Gibbs would unexpectedly change his mind and have no team to come back to. I like your take better. I like Tony being a secret author and McGee's sudden food thievery thingy, even healthy food. Another fun and excellent story! :)