Boring ziva the pathetic little bitch gets away with it AGAIN!

I appreciate your angle of Tony feeling down without being seen as "feeling sorry for himself" or acting all self righteous, or not making the team people that Tony had to fight against. it's very refreshing to see less hate in this community.

What Ziva and the others did to Tony was cruel. Tony may be a joker, but he was never deliberately cruel. This episode and "Dead Air" have always ticked me off. Ziva and McGee were lousy partners and Gibbs a bad team leader for not reining them in. Tony was the senior field agent and Gibbs never demanded that the other two treat Tony with the respect that his position demanded. Tony should have left that toxic team years before he actually left NCIS.

Thank you for exploring Tony's reactions to finding out he'd been deliberately excluded from Ziva's dinner party. You hit on many of the things that were either subsequently revealed or hinted at in canon...and also a lot of the things I personally believe about the character.

"Boxed In" remains one of my least favorite episodes in the entire series which, as I write this, recently concluded its 14th season. It has garnered that distinction due to the (imho) emotional bashing of Tony done for the sake of "humor." It's odd...I have watched and enjoyed countless episodes of the show in which Tony has been *physically* battered, and that doesn't really bother me. Tony is Tony and he seems to be a magnet for that type of thing. With this episode, however, I find myself hurting for him on a visceral level. As you very insightfully pointed out, Ziva was new...and the team was *Tony's* family. We were never given a reason for Ziva's actions in canon; your take that it was done as a joke makes sense. Even though Gibbs was in on it, I'm glad you had him grasp just how poor a joke it was...and that it certainly wasn't a joke to Tony. I also despised the way, in the episode, Ziva made light of Tony being shot and hence really appreciated the way you had Gibbs take McGee to task when he reiterated Ziva's observation.

This was a really thoughtful and sensitive piece, and it ticked all the boxes (hah...see what I did there?!) for me. Thanks for sharing...

Gibbs should of just taken him to his place for steak tyat always cheered tony up ziva doesn't give 2 fucks bout tony shes a bully to him and with how he grew up i have no idea what the show was thinking having her have tonys kid i still dont think its really his and i hope its not shes never been good enough for tony and like i said shes a bully a killer and he had an abusive passed hell she shoved him down after he killed her murdering boyfriend she abused tony and could of killed him the show fucked up with the whole tiva Crap tony was better off with any other woman his been with who really loved him and didn't treat him like shit or abuse him!

Gibbs should've quoted Liam Neeson in Taken.

Oooh - a very kind interpretation of their "prank." Very nice ending, too. Thanks!

I'll acknowledge that some of the pranks and practical jokes pulled by Tony are in poor taste but that doesn't change the fact that ALL of the ones pulled on him by Ziva & McGee are hurtful in nature, even when they don't realize it.

Great work. Love it. Catch ya on the flip side.

Great story ! That end ruined the ep for me

So once again little miss david gets off with nothing happening to her by another fanfiction writer who just has to rewrite that crappie episode to the tiva fans happy

no thanks it was shit episode then and still is years later

one of many reasons why to grew to hate the David character and the show

Good story!

So I'm bored today and found this story

Reading it reminds why I Dislike the David character so much. This episode gave us what the character David really like one word: HURTFUL!

Aw! Poor Tony! But everything worked out! :D

I really don't like Ziva, I beginning to watch NCIS. After watch Boxed In, I felt indignant for Tony who didn't get invited, reading this story make me felt hell lot better with big grin. Thank you for writing dedicating to Tony. No one should be left out!