BETRAYED

An NCIS fanfic

Disclaimer - In my dreams I own Tony but in reality I just own some DVDs.

A/N This is not a death fic; it contains no squickiness but it does require a warning for one rather important and probably very unpopular element so please read this WARNING: This fic is NOT McGee friendly. Also a minor WARNING: This will feature a disabled Tony and his road to rehabilitation (yes it's one of THOSE fics :)

Oops there go the readers… bye ya'll! Anybody left? Well if you are still there please let me explain. As a writer (I have written in other fandoms but this is my first NCIS) I like my tension to come from within the cast rather than by creating an OC if possible. Couple this fact with my liking McGee the least of the main characters and voila! Now don't get me wrong he's a very important part of the team in the series, but he's just never clicked with me which makes it easier for me to write him as far less than perfect. (I'm not demonizing him or making him evil in any way, I'm just enhancing his natural flaws as I see them, and all the characters have flaws - even Tony. A flawed character is a more interesting character) so please don't flame me over my treatment of Tim. The only thing that can put me off writing the story is cruelty. I'm fully prepared for a lack of reviews and never hold my fics ransom to them... but I'm only human and cruel comments hurt so please don't. Constructive criticism is welcomed however. There's room for all sorts of fics in fanfic world.

Also this fic isn't a casefic and it's not meant to adhere to canon although certain key elements will be there as will the odd spoiler. It's basically a hurt/ comfort, family, papa Gibbs, hurt Tony thing (no slash or shipping for this fic though). So if my thing is your thing then read on. I have researched the injuries I inflict on poor Tony as best I can but may have taken some liberties for the sake of the story and I keep medical details as general as possible mainly because of transatlantic differences (I'm a Brit). , especially anything that improves my Americanization (except for spelling because it screws up the spellchecker) but I never hold my fics ransom to reviews. So anyway on to the summary because there is a story down there somewhere.

Summary: McGee is frustrated. He has the support of Director Vance and his computer skills are without question the best but he can't seem to prove to Gibbs that he is as good an agent as Tony, a better agent even. A new kind of agent for a modern world. But when he screws up and it all goes horribly wrong he makes a decision that will affect all their lives…

.

"DiNozzo!"

"Yes Boss!" Tony's head shot up from his intense concentration on the computer screen in front of him just as he dropped the next block into place in his tetris wall.

"You're on surveillance detail; take McGee."

"Sure Boss" Tony grabbed his backpack and snuck out a finger to close down the game. He moved forward a few steps and then stopped dead. Gibbs waited with a patience developed over long association and an expectant raised eyebrow. He didn't have to wait long.

"Umm, who are we surveyi.. Surveil.. Er, watching?" Tony was pleased to see the corner of Gibbs mouth twitch upwards even though the former marine managed to hold back his smile.

"Robert Allington."

"The computer geek Ziva interviewed? The one who almost wet himself when she asked him to confirm his name and date of birth? So I was right, he WAS involved in Petty Officer Adams murder… although I can't see him pulling the trigger… what have we got on him? Do you think I should stop and pick up a thicker coat? The last pool car we drew had no heating and it's at least ten below out there… we could be heading for a monumental freeze like in 'The Day After Tomorrow' with Dennis Quaid, directed, written and produced by Roland Emmerich, the guy who directed Independence Day... "

"DiNozzo!"

"Yes Boss?"

Gibbs didn't throttle his lead agent even though it would have the desired result of shutting him up. That wasn't to say that he wasn't tempted but he could only kill his pain in the ass protege once and it wasn't worth the paperwork… that's what he told himself anyway. And he HAD been right; both he and Ziva had declared something hinky about the mild mannered computer programmer. Well if he remembered rightly Ziva had declared something dinky but she was soon corrected. Realising that his thoughts were running away with him as though DiNozzo's ramblings were contagious he merely sighed and nodded before adding, as he watched with bemusement a hurrying McGee pack just about every known gadget into his own pack,

"Abby tracked down the residue left on Adam's computer, it's a prescription only cream for acne which Allington suffers from and McGee uncovered three unexplainable cash deposits in his account. It doesn't connect him directly to the murder but it's all we've got. And we won't have that if you don't move your ass. If he's in regular contact with our killer we need to know"

"Got it Boss. C'mon McTardy what're you waiting for; we have bad guys to watch… for hours and hours… on a Friday night… in the freezing cold. They better have a decent car for us this time or we'll be taking refuge in the library and burning the books" he added another Day After movie reference ... and we'll be starting with a certain Thom E Gemcity…." He smirked as McGee winced at the reference to his pen name and his smile turned a little feral as he mused on what fun he could have if they ever turned the book he had written into a movie... except that to do that he would have to watch it. His smile faded and he shuddered at the thought... while he hadn't been bothered that McGee had written a novel, all power to him for having the guts, he had been a little hurt that his friend had used thinly disguised versions of him and the others as characters... friends didn't exploit each other like that. He shrugged the feeling off; it was all water under the bridge and Tony didn't hold grudges because friends didn't do that either and if there was one thing that he was not it was a hypocrite.

Tim McGee gulped in trepidation at the feral smile that flittered across the other agents face. It was going to be bad enough being cooped up in a car with the hyperactive overgrown schoolboy without him getting all creative.

Gibbs shook his head with fond exasperation as a moaning DiNozzo and a less than happy McGee headed toward the elevator. He frowned at McGee's hangdog expression; the man had been subdued for the last several days but he quickly dismissed his gut's uneasiness as his trilling phone captured his attention. He'd probably look a little sorry for himself if he had to sit in a car with DiNozzo for hours too.

N*C*I*S

"I'm going to get some coffee" McGee announced, "you want anything?" Tony nodded his assent without breaking his dashboard tapping accompaniment to the music on the radio.

"A coffee?" McGee enquired and received another affirmative nod.

McGee left the car, shutting the door with a not quite slam and pulling his overcoat tighter against the cold and driving rain. Normally Tim would have prepared a thermos and a sandwich but they had left in too much of a hurry. Besides, he was glad of an excuse to get away from his partner for five minutes even if it did mean getting wet. A confined Tony was not a happy Tony and a bored and confined Tony was a living nightmare. And after two full renditions of Frank Sinatra's My Way; a scene by scene comparative analysis of the original and remake versions of War of the Worlds and a blow by blow accounting of his last college football appearance... again, McGee was on the verge of insanity. He moved away from the car to the nearby Starbucks, ensuring that he kept out of sight of their target who was blissfully occupied in his office number crunching in peace and quiet... McGee mused that he had never envied a suspect before... Sometimes he was sure that Tony acted up just to annoy him, as though it were his mission in life to make his existence hell.

Tony stopped drumming the constant beat of the rock music station he had tuned to as McGee left the car on his coffee run.

Mission accomplished! And the probie had lasted... Tony checked the clock on the dashboard... nearly thirty minutes longer than last time. He wondered when the computer genius would realise that he was being tested. It was important to be able to maintain constant surveillance under distraction and the whizz kid was too easily distracted. One little beep from one of his gadgets and his eye left the ball. It was his responsibility as senior field agent to correct that sort of tendency. It could make the difference between catching and losing the suspect, between living and dying. And if he could have some fun while doing it then all the better.

He sighed and squirmed in the passenger seat in an attempt to make the cramped and over heated car more comfortable... having a car with no heating was bad enough but having one where you couldn't turn the heating down was even worse. But at no point did he take his gaze off of the office across the street. He hadn't since they had arrived, no matter how preoccupied he had seemed. He just wished that McGee wouldn't keep giving him those superior looks, looks that he didn't have to witness to know that they were there; looks that were more often than not accompanied by dismissive words and vicious little put downs these days. Oh he could take a ribbing with the best of them, after all if you dished it out you had to be prepared to take it, but his teasing was always balanced with a 'good job' or a 'well done McGee, or more often McGoo' or 'McProbie'.

It was tough being 'different' he knew that from his own past but he had learned to toughen up the hard way and he didn't want that for Tim. His own method of that process had enabled the computer genius to get through his probationary period without too much flak from his colleagues, some of whom were just plain jealous of his position on Gibb's team... the golden team. He wondered if McGee knew just how much resentment there had been when he had been plucked from the computer division straight onto major crimes. A resentment that the others, especially Gibbs, had protected him from. That combined with the younger agents own mild manner had avoided the sort of hazing he, himself, had been subjected to in his early cop days... although some might have called it bullying. But he didn't, after all he had been bullied by an expert; nobody could ever make him feel as bad as his father had. But still, that didn't mean that he was impervious to harsh words. Just because he didn't show it...

Tony recalled the snide remarks his partner had made yesterday about his lack of computer savvy - to Vance himself no less. Of course he had been preaching to the choir there; Vance held no love for old fashioned cops in general and agents named Tony DiNozzo in particular, hence the agent afloat position. But McGee's 'Tony's only idea of a data base is the collection of phone numbers in his little black book' had hurt him, which went to show that eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves he thought wryly. No, it was the confidence in the voice, his ease around his superior... that shared smugness that he had heard all his life from people like his father. McGee's ego was inflating by leaps and bounds and his only method of deflating it was blocked by the sure and certain knowledge that 'McTeacher's pet' would go running straight to Vance - and that would cause trouble between Tim and Gibbs which in turn would hurt the team.

Tony sighed once again as he realised that to protect the integrity of the team he would just have to suck it up; well there was nothing new there; since all the business with Jenny and his undercover assignment he had been, if not the black sheep of the 'family' then at least a rather off white one. But things were starting to even out, Gibbs was head slapping him again and Ziva was threatening to disembowel him with a paperclip on a regular basis. He wasn't going to risk all that normality to teach McGee what he already should have learned - where his loyalties lay... with Gibbs, not Vance.

Tony suddenly sat up straighter and pulled his long range camera to his eye as their target came out of his office, cell phone clamped to his ear, gesticulating wildly as he argued with the person on the other end. Tony reached forward with his free hand to phone Abby and see if she could get anything off of the suspect's cell but before he could complete the move Allington broke off and made a dash for his car. Tony reached for the door handle to move round to the driver's side in preparation to follow but didn't get to complete that move either. He was interrupted by the simultaneous screech of tires on roadway and the opening of the drivers side door.

McGee looked agitatedly at his watch once again. The queue had been longer than he had thought and while he was glad to be free of Tony's inane drivel for five minutes he didn't want to give the senior agent a reason to rebuke him. Not because he feared the discipline of Gibb's lead agent - that was laughable. It might have been true when he was a wet behind the ears rookie but HE was the better agent now. No, McGee admitted to himself as he placed his order, the real problem was that he didn't have any respect for that seniority any more. How could he? He had been given a taste of authority, of power, during his short stint in cyber crimes and he had handled it well and felt at ease with the responsibility.

Tony had seemed like a hero when he had first joined the team, but with experience and time had come the conviction that Tony, while good, brilliant even, in an old fashioned police officer sort of a way, was a joke in the modern world. An affable, luckier than a field full of leprechauns, joke. He knew it, Vance knew it and he was sure that Tony himself knew it too. The only one who didn't seem to have a clue was Gibbs... and possibly Ducky, but then the old M.E was exactly that, old, and his judgement probably wasn't what it once was... He had been discussing just that issue with Leon the other morning as it happened - McGee's chest puffed out a little with pride at the honour Vance had accorded him with his 'call me Leon', although not on duty of course! - and the Director had agreed with him that NCIS needed pulling into the twenty first century and had promised him in a rather exciting cryptic manner that things were a-changing in the world of NCIS.

McGee left the shop with his bag of muffins and his two coffees - one black and strong like Gibbs preferred and a taste that he was trying to get used to - didn't hurt to have things in common with your boss, the team leader might loathe in-house politics but he was just as susceptible to it in a subtle way. And if he wanted his boss to see him as more than just a probie it was that or take to building boats in his basement... and he didn't have a basement. The other beverage contained coffee laced with cream and hazelnut syrup... yuk! ... He then promptly dropped them on the sidewalk, not noticing the hot liquid splashing his expensive Italian leather gloves - a present from Tony last Christmas - as he spotted their suspect outside the building arguing on his phone. Why hadn't Tony called him?

"Damn!" he muttered as his actions drew the attention of Allington who looked him straight in the eye before paling and dashing toward his car. McGee hurried the few steps to their own vehicle and threw himself into the driver's seat ignoring Tony's queries as to what had happened and the order to let him drive. Was Tony crazy! They didn't have time to switch seats! the suspect was getting away!

Tony just had time to fasten his seat belt before McGee set off after Allington. He still didn't have a clue what had happened but Tim must have seen something that he hadn't and he trusted his partner so he shut up and let the man concentrate on his driving... until they neared the city limits and Allington put on a burst of speed.

"Okay probie time to back off... this isn't one of the FBI's most wanted and we're endangering the public here!" Tony winced as McGee swerved nearly sideswiping a parked car. The cold rain was pouring down in a torrent which obscured the view through the windscreen, even with the wipers working at full force. The tail lights of Allington's car, a car with tons more horsepower than their own offering, were fuzzy colored puddles in the deluge and they indicated that the suspect was pulling even further away.

"Slow down Tim! That's an order!"

Tony wasn't surprised that his partner ignored his order, he had been dong that quite often lately. But he was surprised when the normally cautious, if not timid, agent put on an extra spurt of speed instead.

Tony opened his mouth to reprimand his probie but all that escaped was a strangled gasped expletive as the vehicle suddenly skidded out of control. He saw the desperate attempt of gloved hands trying to bring the steering wheel back under control out of the corner of his eye and heard the whispered "Oh God!" as the spin intensified but his main focus was on the wooden barrier which should have been to the side of them but was now directly ahead. It was no barrier at all to the power of a speeding car and the drop beyond it while not of cliff face proportions was potentially just as lethal. He instinctively gripped onto the dashboard to brace himself for the collision that was imminent.

He saw the wood splinter and heard the screech of brakes and the whine of tractionless wheels... And then no more.

TBC

A/N Well what do you think? please let me know - unless you are thinking how dare that bitch be nasty to my precious McGee or my precious Vance (well that one is a little less likely LOL) Next chapter sees the rescue and the diagnosis. And the rest of the team make an appearance. Also please note that I'm not the quickest updater in the world and what with personal commitments and other fics to update you might want to put this on alert if you don't access the site frequently (that's if there's anyone there - of course if there isn't then it doesn't matter if I take my time... a win/win!