A/N: Alright so I know there was no warning before now, but this is the last chapter. Not to worry, though! I intend on making this a series. There will be a lot of questions unanswered in this one, that will be answered in future installments. So follow me, if you don't already, and once I get around to getting the next one started, you'll know :) It'll be called Contingency: something. Lol.

Many thanks to everyone who read, and especially the ones that took a moment to review.

*~.~*

"It was hard," Gibbs spoke, finally, after a long period of silence between him and Tony as they'd been eating. He'd made them steak, cowboy style, after having left the office unusually early. Tony looked over at his boss as he took a swig from his bottle of beer. "Thinking you were gonna die, after all you'd already been through and came back from," he finished. Tony leaned back on the couch, sort of in awe at the fact that Gibbs was talking about his feelings. That was a rare thing, indeed, and Tony didn't want to say anything that might stop him from continuing. "I felt...guilty, having left you there alone. And I know you wanted it, but that doesn't change anything."

When Gibbs took a swig from his own beer, Tony took that as him being finished sharing. "You know I'd have been pissed," he told him. Gibbs looked at him with a raised, questioning brow. "If you'd blamed yourself for my death. And don't say you wouldn't have. I know you still feel that way about Kate. Even if you never said as much."

Gibbs raised both brows, tilting his head slightly, before taking another swig from the bottle. "You know, huh?"

"I'd like to think I know you enough to know, Boss..." he replied.

Gibbs thought for a moment, then nodded absentmindedly. "You took a lot of that on yourself, too." He watched as something flashed over Tony's face.

Tony thought back on that day...

Somehow Tony had been led to a bathroom inside the building, while Ducky was on the roof with Kate's body. Gibbs was there, wiping Tony's face with a wet paper towel as gently as possible. Up until that moment, Tony hadn't really been aware of what was going on. It was as if he'd been in some kind of trance.

Now the running water could be heard, and he met Gibbs' eyes, then went to the towel and realized what Gibbs had been cleaning off of his face. He instinctively turned toward the sink as he couldn't hold in the sudden urge to vomit. And afterward, he found it difficult to catch his breath.

He felt Gibbs' hand on his back.

"Why?" Tony croaked out. "Why her? Why not me?" his eyes squeezed closed as tears escaped and dropped into the sink where he still hovered his head.

"This isn't your fault," Gibbs told him. Tony shook his head. "Kate's...Kate's death isn't your fault," he said again, more sternly. "Get it through you head, DiNozzo, because I need you on this."

Tony swallowed, forced himself to reign his breathing under control at Gibbs' command, then stood back up and faced him. "Yes, Boss..."

"And I suppose I was supposed to blame you for your own death?" Gibbs pulled him out of his thoughts.

Tony met his eyes again. "If there was no one else left to blame, I suppose," he replied. "But it was Gideon. For more than the obvious reason of him pulling the trigger. He wanted me dead because...because he thinks I'm gonna end up like him," he told him. "He said I'd do bad things. That I'd forget what being a good person meant, and that there would be nothing to stop me." Gibbs kept quiet, waiting as Tony seemed to be thinking something through in his head. "When he said it, I knew he was wrong. I know myself, and I know I would never do the things he does. But I've been thinking a lot. Gideon doesn't remember his past. He doesn't remember who he was. His life has been an obsession to find answers; to fix himself, no matter the cost. And the more I think about that, the more I realize that he could be right. If I forgot myself, and I...I couldn't end myself, what else could I possibly do?"

"You'll have us, Tony," Gibbs assured him. "And we'll help you. We'll make sure you don't forget."

"But what if you can't help me, Boss? What if I end up like him? Boss...you've gotta promise me... If I start showing any kind of signs that I'm-"

"It's not gonna happen," he interrupted.

"But if I do...you gotta promise you'll lock me down. You've gotta make sure I don't become something I'm not. And if you can't kill me, you've gotten lock me down somewhere and let me die."

"Not gonna let you die, DiNozzo."

"You've gotta. You have to, Gibbs. This isn't just gonna be about me, anymore. I'm not gonna let myself be Gideon. And if you don't do this for me, then you're letting whatever this is that's a part of me now, kill who I am, anyway. Locked up, at least I can't hurt anyone. Promise me. Please..."

*~.~*

Abigail Scuito was starting to doze off at the computer in her office. The search program had been running for hours, through every database she could get access to, after uploading the image from McGee's scanning device into the system.

It was right as her brain was drifting into a deep sleep, that the system started going berserk. She jolted awake, almost falling out of her chair, and boxes were popping up all over the screens. From the corner of her eye she noticed the flashing from the lab computer screen shining from the adjacent wall, and went out to see what it had found.

Even more had popped up on that system. Tons and tons of results she hadn't ever expected to come across. She'd been giving up hope to find anything at all. So seeing this was a huge surprise. But as she started clicking through the different results, her eyes widened.

"Whoa..."

The end...for now.

A/N: Next installment will likely be called Contingency: Gideon Quest. Unless I decide that's a stupid title. HA! Also, please don't expect this any time soon. I have another story for a different fandom, that will be posted over the next couple of months. If I have the willpower to write it after that, it'd be awesome. But ANCON2013 will be in major planning by then. And I do hope to see some of you there! :D