A/N: Thank you Bunny for the beta, and for the beta on 'Refuge' which I forgot to thank you for! Shame on me! This was written a bit before the one-shot 'Refuge'. No slash, F/S.

"DiNozzo, one more word outta you and my boot's gonna be comin' outta yer mouth I'm gonna kick ya so hard! Siddown and write yer damned report, then go down and see Ducky and have 'im check you out. And I meanDucky, not Abby!"

Tony sat himself down, not even trying to hide his sullen countenance. Gibbs had yelled at him all the way back to the Yard, barely taking a minute to breathe in between the verbal lashings. Tony had tried to make his case, give the reasons why he had made the decision that had led to him nearly getting run down by a fleeing suspect's box van, but Gibbs would have none of it. The younger man had never seen his boss so completely pissed, and finally found the sense to sit back and shut up for the remainder of the drive. Now at his desk, he was still shaking with righteous indignation, or maybe it was just a left-over muscle spasm from meeting up with that van.

He slammed out the words on his keyboard, not caring that he was making a thousand typos. If Gibbs told him to do it again, he'd tell the man to stick it.

Yeah, right, DiNozzo, right before he takes your head off at the shoulders and stuffs it up your ass along with his boot.

Kate was nowhere to be found. "Off getting coffee for her favorite teacher, probably, teacher's pet that she is," he grumbled under his breath.

Everything was out of control now, off-balance; why the hell had Gibbs hired her? They were doing just fine before she joined the team, just fine and dandy! Just because Morrow was pressuring Gibbs to add a team member and then, boom! out of left field he asks Kate to join their private club. Who cared if it was mostly Gibbs's fault she got fired from the Secret Service, the man had a reputation for leaving a swath of destruction when he was on a tear working a case.

Tony sighed with resignation and a tiny bit of exhaustion creeping into his bones. What was the point in griping about it, it wasn't going to change a thing. Kate was there to stay for as long as she wanted to. At least she wasn't another Vivian Blackadder, bent on revenge at all costs, including the health and lives of her teammates. And there was no sniping between Kate and Gibbs other than good-natured jabs or an occasional sharper barb from Gibbs when she'd crossed some line. Unfortunately, there was no line too far for her to cross in her treatment of Tony; Gibbs either didn't notice it, or flat-out ignored it.

And really, it wasn't anything truly worth Gibbs getting involved in. She was doing her job well, and impressing those who needed to be impressed. No faux pas involving other agencies or grieving families, and her driving skills were commendable, too, just short of Gibb's terrifying romps on the roadways that always left Tony shaken and stirred, no matter how many times he'd been subjected to them. Nope, Caitlyn Todd was an exemplary agent, and the fact that she teased DiNozzo to the point of screaming was totally irrelevant to anyone but him.

Today she had been in top form, and Tony figured it must have been the double latte Gibbs had brought her at breakfast, while bringing nothing for his SFA.

FLASHBACK

"Don't look at me like that, DiNozzo!" he had chastised. "You always stop and flirt with that blond girl at the diner and she gives you your coffee free 'cause you're a fed!"

It was true, but still, it would have been nice for Gibbs to think of him. Besides, he'd run late this morning due to heavy traffic and hadn't had time to stop and grab his usual. Kate's and Gibbs's brews smelled heavenly.

"That's not why he gets it free," Kate chimed in, coming through the bullpen. "He just gives the girls those Bambi eyes and they're giving away the entire store to them."

"I don't give them Bambi eyes, Kate, give me a freaking break already! I'm nice to them, I take the time to ask them about what's going on in their lives. You might wanna try it yourself sometime, you know,something other than the 'I haven't had my morning coffee yet' snarl that you give."

"I do no such thing, Tony. I'm no grumpier in the morning than you are."

"She's right, DiNozzo, can't get a civil word outta ya till you've had yer hazelnut sugar crap you call coffee."

Tony had wanted to argue, to stand up and yell that that was sure as heck the pot calling the kettle black when it came to being civil in the morning, or most of the rest of the day, either, and what the hell, just because he didn't drink the used engine oil from the motor pool he had bad taste in coffee? Nah, it was all harmless razzing, he decided, and he was King of the Razzers, so he let it go, and went and fixed himself a cup of the watered-down break room offerings.

But the harmless razzing had eventually turned into an all-out contest between Gibbs and Kate to see who could get in the most digs at him. Kate had won by a landslide, Gibbs seeming to have tired of the game and just handed the show over to her. And it had gone from her cutesy harmless pretty rich boy jibes to insinuating that that was all he was, coasting along as a federal agent on his looks and charm alone. It was if a button had been pushed with her, or she had learned the button to push on DiNozzo. Tony wasn't sure. But when she had started in about something she had no right to, something she knew absolutely nothing about regarding him, he had snapped, and yelled at her, backing her into the NCIS box truck before Gibbs could grab him roughly by the shoulder and drag him away to scream at him.

He hadn't screamed though. But Tony Knew it was only because they were in public and at a crime scene. Instead Gibbs hauled him behind the nearest tree and shoved him up against it.

"If I ever see you do that to her again, or any other woman, I will make sure you sing falsetto for the rest of your sorry life!"

Tony swallowed hard, for the first time showing any sort of fear of his boss. The man's eyes were blazing with anger, their color verging on cobalt. The younger agent ached to tell the man why he had crossed a line he rarely even contemplated. It was so out of character for him, but he held his tongue. Now wasn't the time, Gibbs was too angry, and wouldn't stand to be reasoned with. Tony let his eyes and face go blank, but if Gibbs admitted it, the green orbs went to flinty emeralds.

Fine, as long as the kid got the message. He let go of his SFA and stalked off without another word or look, and Tony watched as Kate met up with their boss, obvious from her look and body language that she was trying to calm him. Tony straightened his body and stuffed his feelings down for the time being, promising himself a movie marathon and a heaping helping of take-out when he got home that night - along with a little more booze than was usual for a school night.

Minutes later, he was back photographing evidence, as he had been ready to do when Kate had opened her mouth one too many times and pushed him past his considerable limits. He saw her approaching him out of the corner of his eye and groaned at the thought of what she had to say to him now. Well, he deserved it, he had done the unforgivable and frightened a woman, his partner, with his behavior.
No excuses allowed for that one, not in Tony's DiNozzo's Book of Ethics and Morals.

"Tony, I-"

"Yeah, Katie, I'm really sorry. If you want to report me for that I won't blame you."

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs's voice bellowed across the open crime scene. "Get to work or go get in the unemployment line!"

Kate shot Tony what could have been a smile of apology, or one of victory, he couldn't really tell. Didn't matter, he was wasting time talking to her, and burning up needed brain cells with emotion and turmoil. He needed to focus, think about the evidence trail and what it might mean. This wasn't about him or how he jived with his boss or co-workers, nor was any other facet of his job. It was about searching and matching and putting pieces of the crime puzzle together to bring some sort of closure to the victim and their family. He was good at it, he was where he was supposed to be, and...

Wandering to the road as he followed Kate's evidence markers, he heard a strange buzzing noise, which soon turned into a rumbling sound, and before he could register what it might be and where it was coming from and do engage his brain into doing something about it, the roar of a large engine took over his senses, and he thought to get out of the road and out of the path of a speeding red van, but not before he got a good look at the driver and passenger, and not before it 'bumped' his arm with its rear view mirror and sent him flying.

Ever the athlete, he tucked himself in a bit, but tried to stay relaxed as he tumbled nearly headfirst into the roadway's shallow ditch. Camera still in hand, strap around his neck, he raised it in the air and let his finger click away, hoping to get at least one good parting shot, then collapsed with a huff back onto the cold ground and closed his eyes while he gathered his wits and took stock of his body parts.

Opening his eyes moments later, he was enjoying the crisp blueness of the sky when the blue was blocked by Kate's head looming over him.

"Jesus, Tony, what the hell? Didn't you see them?"

"Saw them, heard them, felt them. Help me up, Katie," he requested, holding his left hand up for her to grab and pull him to his feet.

"Stay the hell down there, DiNozzo!" an all too familiar voice roared near him before she could oblige.

"This may be dumber than you buying a motorcycle, Tony," she warned him sotto voce, referring to a few weeks back when Gibbs had blown a gasket over his SFA's supposed interest in purchasing and riding one of the two-wheeled vehicles. She put her hand on his chest to stay him, and he gave in to the wave, flopping back down into the dirt.

"Get the camera off him, Kate. I'll get a blanket."

"Boss, I-"

"Shut the hell up, DiNozzo," Gibbs growled, making his way to the truck.

"Shutting up." Tony grumbled under his breath.

. . . . .

Gibbs had forced his SFA to continue lying flat on his back until the EMTs arrived and checked him over.

"His blood pressure's a little high, but that's normal for the circumstances. He has a few bruises and scratches, nothing major, mostly on his chest and arms. He's really lucky, not many people take on a speeding van and survive, much less stay conscious enough to give any details."

"Took pictures of it while I was doin' my header into the ditch. Pretty sure I got the plates."

If Tony thought this statement would bring his boss out of his angry bear mode, he was mistaken, as Gibbs ignored him and got to his feet.

"He need to be in the hospital?"

"Well, an overnight might not hurt just to be-"

"We've got a doc back at the Navy Yard, I'll have him keep an eye on him."

"Yeah, sure," sputtered the hapless EMT. "That'll probably be fine, there's no head trauma that-"

"Yeah, there's plenty of head trauma with him, just can't see it with the naked eye. Thanks for checkin' him over, don't forget to send 'im your bill. Kate, help 'im into the van, lock the doors if ya have to keep 'im in there. Then come help me finish this damned scene before some other half-assed catastrophe happens."

"Shouldn't we get the description of the van and the plates to Abby to run?"

"Already did. She's workin' on it," he told her, stomping away without turning his head back to her.

"Oh. Right. Should've known..." she grumbled the last two words to herself as she turned her attention back to her partner. "You heard the man, Tony, up and at 'em. Let's get you in the van before he runs you over with it himself."

She reached down a gloved hand and helped the EMTs gently pull him to his feet, where he teetered unsteadily for the briefest of moments, then got the blood back to his head and stood resolutely.

"Got it, guys, thanks. Just a little off-kilter from lying in the ditch." He swiped a now un-gloved and still a bit shaky hand through his hair and pulled out of his helper's grips. "Thanks." Stealing a quick look at Kate, he stated "He's really pissedat me, isn't he?"

"Well yeah, Tony, you just tried taking on a moving cargo van. I think you rattled him a little bit."

"Yeah, well, think I rattled myself. It wasn't intentional. I didn't see or hear it till it was almost on top of me, had just enough time to jump out of the way."

She opened the front door of the forensic van and waited for him to get inside, and when he balked, gave him a gentle shove.

"You want the man to put you in there himself? Get in before he comes over and gives you new bruises!"

Tony huffed, his hackles rising at being told what to do, but got into the van anyways and laid his back on the seat. Kate handed him her bottle of water and he took it gratefully, suddenly realizing how parched he was from the shock of his adventure.

When his boss and teammate joined him again in the front seat, he was wishing he'd stayed in the ditch, as Gibbs lit into him before they barely pulled away from the crime scene, and he fought to keep his lunch in his stomach as his boss navigated the bumpy roads with even less finesse than usual, yelling at him all the while.

END FLASHBACK

Tony hit the button to send his emailed report to Gibbs with a vengeance, then shut down the computer and headed to Ducky's lab. He wouldn't have to tell the M.E. exactly what happened, just that he needed a quick once-over to satisfy his boss and get back to work. And that would be that.

"Ahh, my dear boy, I was told you had a literal run-in with a cargo van, up on the table you go. What wereyou thinking, Anthony, do you realize Jethro is ready to find a desk job for you? Although I dare say you could even find some sort of trouble right at your desk if you sat there long enough! Off with your shirt, then."

"The EMT's already-"

"Your shirt, Anthony. Now."

Ducky had never used that tone of voice with him. The shirt came off with alacrity, all pretense of game-playing gone. The elderly M.E. made an odd noise at the sight of the bruise along Tony's chest and up his shoulder, and investigated every scratch and dent of Tony's up-close-and-personal meeting with the van, taking his time to apply a stinging antiseptic to some of the more nasty-looking scrapes.

Up in the MCRT bullpen, Gibbs was putting Kate through his own inspection. His first order of business was to find out what she had said to his SFA that made the young man become so uncharacteristically fierce with her. He knew that she had been yanking Tony's chain unchecked the past few days, but this particular reaction had come from more than mere teasing and taunting.

"What exactly did you say to DiNozzo to make him go after you like that this afternoon?"

"Well, I wouldn't say he came after me, Gibbs, he just sort of-"

"What. Did. You. Say. To. Him?"

"I was asking him if he was going to run home to his mother. He was whining about me teasing him."

Gibbs rounded on her himself, and she backed up a little.

"What else?"

"I - I called him a 'mama's boy'."

Gibbs sighed loudly, anger and disappointment sliding off him in equal measure.

"Have you ever even bothered to read his profile, Kate, or do you just think you can figure everything out about a person by reading their cover?"

"I - I haven't, I didn't think I-"

"No, no you didn't think. 'Cause if you had, you would have known that his mother died when he was eight years old, and he didn't get a helluva lot of support at the time."

"Gibbs, I would never hurt him on purpose!" Kate exclaimed, nearly in tears. "I would have never said that if I had known!"

"I'm sure you wouldn't, Kate, but ya did, and you've been on his case like white on rice the rest of the week, so maybe it's time you laid off for a while."

"I didn't mean anything by it, Gibbs."

"Really. Not trying to put him in his place and keep him there? 'Cause last time I checked, he was here before you, he earned his spot, and keeps earning it!" He saw her start to crumple a bit, and drove home his point. "I let it go cause I thought it was good to keep you guys competing against each other, bring out your best, but you take it too far, Kate. He's not as tough as you think he is. Believe it or not he adores you, but he's gonna end up hating you if you don't stop baiting him and being nasty. And he won't be the one leaving the team if you two can't get along."

Kate's eyes widened, but she understood exactly what her boss was saying, and didn't doubt one word of it.

"Okay, Gibbs, I've gotit. Now can I go down and see him and make sure he's really okay, 'cause no matter what you or Tony or the EMT's said, he was shaking like a leaf, and that's just not normal-"

Gibbs sighed, realizing that Kate was feeling regretful enough as it was without him harping at her, but he really needed to point out a few things, and to admit to her that he himself had been part of the problem by encouraging her behavior.

"Yeah, go ahead, let me know how he's doing. Abby's probably got him tucked in her futon with Bert by now, anyways, he should be fine. Tell Ducky to come see me when you get there."

"Will do, Boss." She gave him a small smile and disappeared into the elevator. Gibbs heaved a sigh and went to take a swig of coffee, and finding his cup empty, hurried after Kate.

"Wait up, Agent Todd, gotta go grab some of Ducky's coffee stash. It's pouring rain out there right now."

Down in Abby's lab, Tony was indeed getting the royal treatment, sitting up on her futon with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a cup of specialty hot cocoa from her private chocolate stash. He had long ago given up any protests against her ministrations and decided to just enjoy them, seeing as how he wasn't getting any love from anyone else that day.

His shaking seemed to have abated some now that the adrenaline was filtering out of his system, and the harsh stinging from Ducky's painful antiseptic had worn down to a mere tingle. There might have even been something slipped into his hot chocolate, but he couldn't be sure, and just didn't care now. Kate was being mean to him, Gibbs was mad at him, and damn it, Gibbs liked her better than him. He was going to jump off the train wreck and hide out in Abby-land for a little while.

By the time Gibbs got to him after swiping coffee from Ducky and getting a reliable account as to Tony's injuries, his second was sleeping soundly, Bert the Hippo kindly volunteering as pillow and one of Abby's vintage afghans wrapped snugly around him. Kate harrumphed unhappily, having wanted to apologize to her partner for taking her teasing too far.

"It was my fault he was in the way of that van," she announced quietly, and Abby punched her in the arm. She gasped in pain and shied away from the Goth, momentarily shocked by her actions.

"Abs, that's enough," Gibbs admonished sternly. "I think what Kate meant was that she tormented him to the point of losing his cool, then I lost my cool with him for losing it with her, and he got pissed at both of us, which got him distracted enough to just barely get out of the way of the van. By the way, Fornell called and said he nailed the van himself at a roadblock. He's getting ready to interrogate them now."

"You're letting Fornell question those scumbags?" Abby shrieked, making Tony stir and groggily rub his ear. "That's your job. Tony's-"

"Not our jurisdiction, Abs, had a boatload of counterfeit bills stowed in the spare tire well. Besides, you know Tobias has a soft spot for DiNozzo, he'll get what he needs out of the guys to arrest them. When the Fibbies are done with them, we get to charge them with assault of a federal officer - maybe even attempted murder."

"Soft spot, Boss?" Tony's half-asleep voice floated up to them. "Calls me DiNutso and yells at me."

"Yeah, and I slap ya on the back of the head and yell at ya, doesn't mean I don't like ya."

Kate crouched down next to the futon, trying to get in Tony's foggy line of sight.

"Tony, I'm sorry for picking on you. Gibbs is right, I went over the line. I never should have ganged up on you like that."

"I know Gibbs likes you better, don't have to rub it in."

Kate looked up at her boss, distress written in her eyes and face.

"Abs?"

"I might've put a little bit of medicine in his cocoa," she whispered to Gibbs. "I asked Ducky before I did it. He said it would just relax him, he was sure it wouldn't make him loopy!"

"Don't think it worked," Gibbs answered heatedly. "Tony, listen to me," he ordered, crouching down next to Kate. "I'm only gonna tell ya this once. I don't like Kate more than I like you, if I did, you wouldn't be my SFA. I'm just tryin' to make Kate feel welcome, she was a little nervous about joining the team with you to compete with."

"Guess she's not nervous anymore...treats me like a little kid."

"Hell, DiNozzo, you-" Gibbs was about to tell him it might be because he often acted like a little kid, but didn't have the heart to kick him when he was down by adding insult to injury. "She's just used to having little brothers to pick on, she didn't mean anything by it. Go back to sleep, I'll come get you in a little while, you can camp out on my couch for a couple of days."

"Yeah..." Tony yawned hard, and then grimaced when it pulled on some of the bandages Ducky had applied to his worst scrapes. "D'like that. Watch some game on the ole black 'n white Zenith. Eat some wings and drink a few beers. No girls allowed, boy's clubhouse only."

"Yeah, Tony, sounds good." Gibbs smiled in spite of himself. "We've got a couple days off comin' up till Fornell gets his end of the case sorted out. Go to sleep, I'll finish paperwork and report, then be down to get you. Abs will stay here with ya if you need anything, think she's got some tests to run, don't you, Abs?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, lots of tests, Gibbs, all that evidence you guys brought in has to be logged in and analyzed. I'll be here for a while yet. Hey, Kate, sorry I punched you, you wanna go to that new bar that just opened in Georgetown when we get done with work?"

Kate laughed at the Goth's stream of consciousness babble and stood up from her crouched position in front of Tony.

"Sure, Abby. Call me when you're done, we'll make plans."

"Great! Bye Gibbs, go finish your report. I can take care of him!"

Gibbs stood up now too, swearing guiltily to himself that he heard the silent part of the end of her sentence...'better than you two idiots seem to be able to.'

Well, she was probably right. He had broken one of his own rules yet again by assuming that all was well with his Senior Field Agent when it came to adjusting to and accepting a new and seemingly permanent, teammate. He assumed that because Tony had never said anything negative about her to him, or anyone else, that the younger man had no issues with her or her increasingly audacious behavior towards him. DiNozzo had always rolled with the punches, taken Gibbs's often bad attitude in stride, even seemed to enjoy baiting them both into elbowing him in the ribs or hitting him on the head. It would seem, though, that words did more damage to Tony than actual physical blows, something that was even more troubling to Gibbs when he really thought about it.

When the sharp-tongued Vivian Blackadder had been on the team, DiNozzo had seemed to hold his own against her. But when Gibbs thought back on it, it was probably because his second avoided her and her mouth as much as possible, pretty much ignoring her unless it was case or work-related. It was different with Kate, Gibbs was beginning to realize. She was getting to be more than just a co-worker to Tony, she was feeling like family to him, an older sister, and if Gibbs didn't know anything else about DiNozzo, he knew how the boy craved that ever-elusive family he'd never been fortunate to have. And Kate had fallen right into the role after growing up with her rambunctious brothers. Tony was just one more to her, albeit a perhaps more tender-hearted one than she was used to.

Now that she was aware of that fact, and the fact that DiNozzo had become motherless at a pretty young age, maybe she would learn to edit her teasing to something a little less hurtful.

Gibbs slurped out the last of the precious coffee from Ducky's private store and tossed the cup in the bin on the way out, deciding he was going to need his own stash of good beans if he was planning on keeping DiNozzo on the straight and narrow. He was beginning to realize that that assignment was probably going to turn out to be a full-time job.