"Ellie," Tony gasped as he woke up.

" 'Sup with you?" McGee asked as Tony bolted upright.

"Nothing, nothing at all," he said as McGee and Ziva glanced at each other suspiciously. "Where were we? This is the Nelson case, right?"

McGee and Ziva exchanged glances again.

"This is the Tessmer case," Ziva replied.

"Right. So, where were we?"

"Abby just called," Tim answered. "She found something."

As Tony and the team headed to the elevator, he asked, "Why do we have to work on cases overnight anyway? I mean, it's not like nobody falls asleep."

"Actually, me and McGee were awake. You were the one sleeping like a frog."

"Log, Ziva," Tony replied. "And it's McGee and I, not me and McGee."

"You and McGee did what?"

Tony sighed. "Never mind."

Ziva was about to open her mouth again as the elevator doors dinged and led them into the basement hallway.

"Oh my gosh you guys have got to see this this is so cool its like amazing and awesome and Gibbs already knows about it and-" "Abby. Breathe."

"Okey dokey, McArtichokey!" Abby said happily as she grabbed McGee's hand and pulled him down the hall. Tony and Ziva followed.

Once they got into the lab, McGee asked the all- important question.

"So what did you call us down here for?"

Abby looked eager to answer that. She quickly glanced at the team, and then at the noble leader, who was acting oddly patient, then opened her mouth.

"So… remember all the purple and black and blue and the fake scars and temporoary-ish tattoos and stuff running down the right side out Tessmer's torso? Well, I found a way to clear that all down to the original scar. NOBODY has seen it before. So, here we go!"

She clicked the photo onto the plasma screen behind her without turning around.

McGee and Ziva's expressions looked perfectly normal, like, "Yup, there's a scar on the dead body. Woo-hoo."

Then, she saw Tony. Eyes opened wide. There might have even been a tiny bit of water running down his face.

And Gibbs, sighing, that "Oh, great. Wonderful," look on his face. She figured it was time to turn around.

The X explained everything.

"Abs, what's wrong?" McGee asked.

Abby swallowed and replied, "Nothing, nothing at all. You and Ziva just, go do your special-agenty stuff. Tony and Gibbs will be up in a second.

After the two had left, Abby turned to the other two.

Tony's horrified look had faded a little, but she was sure she saw a few water streaks running down his cheeks.

"So," Abby said in a whisper, memories swallowing her in every which way. She looked over at Tony.

"You still have yours?"

"It's permanent," Tony choked back.

"Nine years is a long time," Gibbs mumbled.

Tony lifted up the bottom right hem of his shirt.

The white X was still marked there, clear as day.

A/N: Confused, aren't you? Well, my plan is to have some chapters be season negative 2 (Starting in 2000) and some be season 7.

Kinda a creepy ending though, right? Sorry I haven't updated ina while. I'm kinda grounded. I wont be updating again very soon most likely, either.

Thank you to all who reviewed, and remember, the more reviews, the better the story.

Disclaimer: I still don't own NCIS. It's not on eBay or amazon. And yes, I have tried.