Notes: I have never had to write such a note as this, and I am saddened that I've actually had to write it. This is a different kind of story that I've written, one that is obviously OOC for Tony and Tim, and possibly Gibbs. I have had a few PMs and reviews that were less than positive. Now, I do not mind constructive criticism, but these messages have been nothing but bashing. I do not tolerate this behavior.

It is immature and unnecessary. I reserve the right to my creativity, and the right to play around with the characters however I please. If you do not like the way I've portrayed a character in one of my fics, please move on. I do not tolerate bashing. Period.

This said, enjoy the final chapter of "Angry."

I'm not angry it's never been enough

It gets inside and it tears you up

I'm not angry but I've never been above it

You see through me don't you

~Matchbox 20, "Angry"~

The day was long and irritating for everyone in the squad room. Gibbs was getting antsy sitting behind his desk all day, and had resorted to hitting his computer when it didn't work like he wanted to. McGee was back, why couldn't they do field work yet? The question had been eating at Gibbs all day. They'd been working cold cases for days, and he was starting to get irritated. After his third attempt to check his e-mail failed, Gibbs got up and stormed upstairs to Jenny's office. He needed to have words with her.

Tim watched Gibbs go upstairs, and breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been tiptoeing around all day, but it didn't stop Gibbs from riding him hard about each cold case that came across his desk. He'd retreated to Abby's lab a few times, but GIbbs always managed to find him. He'd gone to his first therapy session that morning after his talk with Jenny, and he didn't find it remotely helpful. He wasn't an angry person, but the outburst he'd had toward Tony terrified him. He still couldn't figure out what had come over him that day.

When the day finally ended, Ziva approached his desk before she left.

"If you are available, I would like to invite you over for dinner, McGee," she said with a smile.

"Thanks Ziva, but not tonight. I'm not feeling very well."

"We can do a rain check, yes?"

"Right, rain check," he said, smiling. "See you tomorrow."

"Good night, McGee."

Tim stood up to gather his things as Ziva left him and got on the elevator. As he slung his bag over his shoulder, Gibbs strode into the bullpen.

"McGee,"

He had to stop. He couldn't walk away from Gibbs.

"Yes, Boss?"

"Sit down."

Tim did as instructed.

"I wasn't very fair to you last week, Tim," Gibbs said, taking Tim by surprise.

"You were more than fair, Boss," Tim said dejectedly.

"I've been going over yours and Tony's stories as to what happened out there. Tony said he was knocked down by the suspect before he ran. By the time he got to his feet you were halfway across the backyard."

"To be honest, Boss, I wasn't paying attention to anything but Hayes. I messed up out there too. I was... too angry at Tony to see that."

"Are you still angry with Tony?"

"I-I'm not sure. I feel bad for hitting him. I do feel a little angry that he called me out in the middle of the squad room like he did. My anger from having no backup out there was a stepping stone to the rest of it."

"I think both of you messed up out there, McGee. You didn't look behind you to see that Tony was on the ground, and thought that he'd purposely not gone in to help you. Tony hesitated when he finally got to the woods, and didn't go in to help you."

"He just gets to me sometimes, Boss. I know his jokes are all in good fun, but they really do get to me sometimes, you know?"

"Don't get blinded by rage, McGee. People do stupid things in a fit of rage, and I don't want to see that happen to you."

"Yes, Boss."

Gibbs turned and picked up his gear. "I'll see you in the morning, McGee."

Tim got up and grabbed his pack. "Night, Boss."

Instead of driving home, Tim found himself driving to Tony's apartment building across town. He sat in his car for a moment in front of the building, formulating what he wanted to say to his partner. Taking a deep breath, he got out of his car and headed into the building.

Tony didn't answer right away when he knocked. He was about to leave when he heard the door locks moving. Tony slowly opened the door. He was disheveled. He was wearing sweats, and his hair looked as if he'd been asleep.

"What do you want?" he said coldly.

"Can we talk for a minute, Tony?" Tim said sincerely. Tony stood there silently for a moment, and finally stepped aside, motioning for Tim to enter. The junior agent slowly moved into Tony's apartment.

"What do you want to talk about, McGee?"

"I wanted to apologize for hitting you, Tony. There was no excuse for being that angry."

"I'm over it."

"No you're not."

"I don't want to talk about last week. I just want to get the next two weeks over with, so I can get back on field duty and act like it all never happened."

"You can't erase it, Tony. We screwed up out there with Hayes, and a potentially dangerous criminal escaped."

"I didn't let him escape, Probie, that was all you."

"All right, I screwed up. I shouldn't have run into the woods without checking to see if you were still behind me. It was reckless and stupid."

"Damn straight."

"And you shouldn't have called me out in front of the entire squad room. I didn't appreciate that, and it set off the anger I was feeling from earlier, when you were poking fun at me."

Tony shut his mouth, for once, and gave the matter some thought. He sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands.

"I was an ass to you, and I'm sorry. I guess I was just frustrated that we lost Hayes, and I took it out on you, Probie."

Tim sat next to him on the couch.

"Does this make us even?"

Tony cracked a smile.

"Yeah, I think we're even."

Tim smiled and got up.

"I'm glad we could talk this out, Tony. I feel a lot better."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Well I'll leave you to get back to bed. Sorry for waking you up."

"I'm sure GIbbs would have called anyway and woke my ass up," Tony replied.

"True enough. Good night."

WIth that Tim left, and Tony went back to bed.

The next two weeks were especially hard for Ziva and Tim, without Tony there to act as their Gibbs buffer. He'd been on the warpath about every case they'd taken. He'd convinced Jenny to put them back in the field, so the team was relieved that he wasn't beating up his computer to vent his frustrations.

Tim went to all of his mandated anger managment sessions with the assigned therapist, and he actually felt like he did learn something from it. Tony came back to work after his FLETC course was over, and Gibbs brought them both into the conference wanted to make sure this conflict was settled for good.

"Now that both of you are back, I wanted to discuss this rivalry between you two," Gibbs started when they were all settled in the conference room. "I can never figure out what you two are fighting about, but it ends. Now. This team can't run successfully if my agents are always fighting. No more poking fun, nothing. The incident two weeks ago caused more trouble than it needed to, and I won't have that kind of crap going on between my team members any more. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Boss," both of them replied.

"Good. Now, let's get back to work. We've got a lot to catch up on." GIbbs turned and left.

Tim and Tony smiled at each other as they left the conference room. Neither of them wanted this to happen again, and they'd see to it that it didn't.

"And I'm not, angry, anymore..." ~"Angry," Matchbox 20