Still in shock, Ellie manages to quietly ask, "Who's Mawher?"

"Pull up the case file." Gibbs replies as his eyes lock onto his Senior Field Agent, wanting him to pick up by his look and his tone, that not only is he talking to him, but also that whatever Tim is this riled about isn't just going to be shrugged off like it doesn't matter, no matter how long ago it was because the fact that he's still bearing the scars from it, means as Team Leader, Gibbs overlooked something serious back then. It's important enough to investigate.

"Won't do you any good." The unexpected voice from the stair landing behind Tony's desk, has three pairs of eyes staring back in a heartbeat. With his own eyes locked onto the MCRT Leader, Leon Vance descends the stairs, rounds the corner at Tony's desk and stops next to Tony as he lends his voice to the discussion. "What he's talking about won't be in there, Gibbs. You know it, DiNozzo knows it; hell even I know it and I wasn't even here."

"Director?" Tony asks more out of surprise than need for the facts to be made more clear.

Ignoring Tony's obscure question, Vance pins Gibbs with his steady gaze that's not looking to back down. "I can't stop you from investigating this all over again –who knows maybe it'll be the first time – but I can and I do order you not to put any of your time into this on the clock. More importantly, there will be no making any part of this public - again.

"Leon…"

"No discussion or photo's rehashed."

Gibbs frowns. Vance is right. The guy wasn't here when this was an issue, so what's his problem with this? "There a problem here, Director?"

"Gibbs, you want to do damage control, that's fine. But not at the expense of this team's cohesiveness."

"Aren't they connected, Director?" Tony pipes in with a knowing tone.

"Maybe, regardless, there will be no using NCIS time or my squad room to re-open that door. It's been closed long enough, it won't make a difference now." Without another word, Leon turns on his heel, rounds the corner and walks back up the stairs to his office.

With an utterly baffled expression on her face, Ellie looks at Gibbs. "What is he saying?"

"He's saying we need to let it go like it didn't happen." Tony gripes in unmistakable irritation.

"That what you heard, DiNozzo? " Gibbs questions his senior field agent with the tone that clearly says in his book, Tony is completely off base.

Tony looks at the boss as the older man treks back to his own desk. He knows the Director said more than what was meant for him personally and most of it directed at Gibbs. The phrases damage control, and team cohesiveness hang in the air, but his brain is tired and he can't seem to make the pieces fit together.

"Go home." Gibbs orders as he settles in behind his desk, his focus immediately going to his computer screen. "After, you pull up the file, DiNozzo."

"On it, Boss." Tony replies tersely as he turns to his own computer and looks up the case in question. Types what he needs to find the file, brings it up on his computer and considers sending it to the big screen behind the boss but thinks better of that when he remembers Vance's warning. He sends it in an email to the boss, opening it up and printing it out for good measure before he's done with it.

Once he's done that, he quietly retrieves the printed copy, sets it on the boss' desk and returns to his own. Tony shuts down his computer station. Picking his gear bag up, he slings it up on his shoulder and offers a rather subdued "'Night" as he heads to the elevator with nothing more being said.

Surprisingly enough, in all of this, Ellie has remained relatively still behind her own desk, moving only enough to shut down her work station. Waiting until the elevator descends off the floor with Tony on it, before slowly getting to her feet, Ellie's movements spell out her sense of confusion and need for more answers. Watching her clasp the back of her chair with both hands, yet stand still as if getting lost in her thoughts, its obvious something is bothering her that she wants to discuss.

"Somethin' on your mind, Bishop?" The Team Leader asks as his eyes remain seemingly locked on his own monitor.

"No, ah….okay, yes. Gibbs, what's really going on here? Because I get the feeling I just fell headlong into something I shouldn't have been involved in and to tell you the truth I'm having trouble sorting it out."

Her boss looks at her in his tell-tale silent way that says he's scrutinizing her for what she's really after. Seeing and sensing that she genuinely needs answers, he closes down his work station and gets to his feet, gesturing with his head for her to walk with him. In silence, they take the elevator down, heading out for a coffee run. This conversation is going to require a caffeine boost.

Once they've cleared the throngs of people streaming out of the building with them and heading home, Gibbs pins Ellie's need to question something under the microscope. "I'm listenin'"

"Okay. Well, I think this is the first time I've seen this…fracture? On the team and the more I hear…well, the more it sounds like I was drafted into something I shouldn't have been."

"You were."

"But then you…"

"Nipped it."

"But not before …"

"They hashed it out among themselves?" Gibbs asks her, his eyebrows knit together in question.

"Is that what that was? " Ellie's challenge actually has a note of surprise in it.

"Was it?" He challenges her in return.

She thinks about it for a long silent minute as they stop walking near the employee's parking lot. "Okay. I can see that that could have been….but what I don't understand is why Abby…I mean, it seems like she used all of us to do for her what a simple discussion between her and McGee could have done. McGee was right, right?

"Heh. You don't know Abby."

"Not sure I want to." Ellie mutters half under her breath. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Look, I'm just gonna go now."

"Bishop."

"It's okay. I get it. McGee was right. I know he was angry that I got in the middle of it. He had a right to be because I shouldn't have fallen in with what Abby and Tony were doing."

Gibbs nods shortly in agreement.

Ellie frowns. "Night, Gibbs." Without waiting for a response she starts walking to her car. Just a few feet later, she stops and turns back. "I just…?"

Gibbs sighs. He hasn't moved, in anticipation of this; another round of questions. "Spit it out, Bishop, before it chokes you."

"There's just one thing I don't understand."

"Ok." The tone of the Team Leader's voice is the one that says he's waiting expectantly for the next question without having to ask it out loud.

"Whose side are you on? I mean….not that there should be any sides or anything, but…well, it just seems like you... I don't think you handing McGee the exact same criticism that that Tony had just thrown at him was just letting them hash it out….or fair."

Two heartbeats of silence tells Ellie that she's hit home enough that the boss is now unhappy. She's smart enough to know when to quit. "Never mind. Good night."

This time she keeps walking until she reaches her car and gets in. When she drives out of the lot a minute later, Gibbs is still standing there, caught completely off guard.

*********NIS*********

Ducky makes his way out to the parking lot, more than ready to call it a night. It's been a long day and a rather unpleasant two days in a row when he takes into consideration, the significantly less than positive events of the yesterday. He cares deeply for the youngsters on his long –time friend's team of agents and it troubles him greatly when they are at odds with each other. When things happen rather publically among the members of the MCRT, it's never long before Ducky gets wind of it and quite accurately at that.

This time, he's just as troubled about the instigation of the incident as he is about the outcome. Equally emotionally invested in Abigail as he is the MCRT, he's never happy to see her act this way or even hear about it. He is hoping, this time, however, that Gibbs is more objective than he usually is when it comes to their Forensic Scientist who can do no wrong in the eyes of the Team Leader. It does worry him, however, to hear that Timothy finally erupted about the situation before things were laid to rest. He knows that will make things much harder for Gibbs to put away now.

Speaking of the Team Leader, Ducky stops beside him as he nearly walks into him at the edge of the parking lot. "Jethro? Is everything all right?"

Gibbs blinks as if clearing his thoughts and looks over at the older man briefly. "Goin' home?"

"Yes. It has been a rather trying two days and I for one am more than ready to put my feet up for the evening."

"I hear ya, Duck. I hear ya." Gibbs offers congenially. "Night." The Team Leader begins to walk in the direction of his own car, coffee long forgotten.

"Jethro."

Gibbs turns back expectantly.

"You seem a bit troubled."

"Just thinkin', Doc." Gibbs replies nonchalantly, not wanting the older man to build up too much concern about him over this.

"Yesterday, as well as today, were both rather a step away from the norm in your squad room, weren't they?"

Breathing out a tired sigh, Gibbs agrees. "Yeah."

"I must say, Jethro, I was quite surprised to hear that you allowed Abigail and Anthony such rope with which to hang themselves. That is what they were doing, was it not? And yet, it was Timothy who earned your public censure, for all his efforts to remain fiercely protective of your favorite."

"There a point in there somewhere, Duck?"

"I realize that you are not at all pleased to hear the point I've just made. However, I am merely concerned about whatever it is that has you standing lost in thought in the parking lot after the day is done, my friend. I thought perhaps it had something to do with the last two days you've had.

Gibbs can do nothing but glare, knowing his friend is right, but still too angry at being so accurately assessed, to have a decent response.

"Come, Jethro. You look as though you could do with a nice dinner. It shall be my treat. Then, we'll talk."

"No thanks, Duck. Just gonna call it a night."

Wearily, the younger man gets in his car and drives away, leaving a pensive Medical Examiner behind, watching him drive away from behind the wheel of his own car.

******NCIS*****

0330 Washington, D.C.

Sighing tiredly, Tim signs off from his nightly conversation with Delilah. Local time where she is, half-way around the world in United Arab Emirates, Dubai, is 8 hours ahead of Washington DC. Like he's already explained to his team mates, it makes it really hard to keep the relationship going when you're up at 3 AM every morning just to stay in touch with your girlfriend. It may be 11:00 AM in Delilah's neck of the woods, but it's still shut-eye time in Tim's. Unfortunately, these calls always wind him up just enough that he's not able to get right back to sleep once they've signed off.

Just thinking about her all the way over there –clear around the northern tip of Africa: past, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, on through to the far side of Saudi Arabia at the top of the boot; makes him tired enough not to move right now, when he's still thinking of going back to sleep. It's a very, very long way away; Seven thousand and fifty-two miles to be exact

With a grimace, he wipes one hand tiredly down his face. Visiting that place is one hell of an adjustment on your physical being, Despite that, the vacation time he'd spent with her was great – awesome even. Seeing how well she's settled in over there and comfortable in her surroundings, with her new co-workers and friends who all respect her and like her, lifted his heart and eased his mind about her posting there.

But, there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't wish; at least for a minute or two, that she hadn't gone. He misses her and he misses what they had; what they'd been working on within their relationship. It's a tough balancing act between that and his firm desire to let her be her own person, wherever that may take her. But it's the day-to-day closeness that he misses and nothing had brought that home sharper than Abby's crap in the squad room earlier today; or yesterday.

Abby may never change but even that stunt she'd pulled in the squad room had been taking things too far. Getting to his feet, Tim heads for the kitchen and a glass of water. He's parched after talking for a while over the video chat. Then, he's going back to bed for a couple of hours. Balance between it all is the key and he's working hard to keep it right. No one is going to screw that up for him. Yesterday showed him that he's done with the side shows that go on at work with him as the punch line.

******NCIS*****

1130 Hours - United Arab Emirates, Dubai

Frowning, she disconnects the video chat, her mind turning over the little things that don't add up. Tim says he's fine, but he always says that. He doesn't really let her in unless it's too painful to handle himself. That's rare and she's sure it's because when he's with her or talking to her, he finds little to complain about in light of how her life's been flipped upside down and turned inside out over the last few years.

But, this time, whatever it is that's bothering him is keeping him off-balance just enough that she heard it in his voice just now and saw it in his eyes. He wants to be able to let it go without telling her anything about it. She knows he's done that a lot, especially since the bombing. Something has kept him from being able to do that this time.

Frankly, she wishes he would be a little more open but she knows it's part of the bullying and hard-knocks training Tony and Gibbs have thrown at him over the years, on top of the crap he's gone through with his father. She doesn't push when he says he's fine. That's not code for 'push me harder' with him and she knows that it irks him when Abby does it.

Sure, the Lab Rat gets him to get it off his chest, but he doesn't appreciate being badgered into it; especially since he knows she's just doing it to best him at something again. Tim and Delilah don't talk about her anymore, but when they first began to get serious about each other; they'd cleared the air about their past relationships so they have discussed his relationship Abby. Everything: past and present and everything in between has been aired between them because it's one area of who he is that Tim doesn't hide from her any more than he makes it a regular conversation.

Tim is long over Abby and despite the fact that it took him a very long time to get there; he's there with both feet firmly planted in looking ahead without a single look back. Delilah's proud of him for that. It's not been easy to admit to or has it been a piece of cake watching the two of them continue to have to work together.

From where she was standing at the time they'd openly talked it over, Delilah saw it as a confusing map of roads that didn't always make sense, when first plotted and laid out; friendship here; cold hearted, judgmental, antagonistic interaction there; demanding 'friend' vs subjective 'friend moment there; it all added up to utter chaos among the rubble of what should have and could have been a truly beautiful friendship. Frankly, as far as Delilah's concerned, the less time Tim has to spend around Abby, the better. Especially, if the spoiled, cantankerous woman is still Gibbs' favorite.

Oh she and Abby get along well enough; but deep down, Delilah's well aware of the older woman's initial hostility towards her and the hypercritical message she'd given Tim when he'd reluctantly let her in the last time she'd pushed him to talk about what was bothering him. She'll work with the woman and be friendly to her – but not more than that.

Wheeling herself into the kitchenette, Delilah gets herself a cup of coffee before wheeling herself over to the break table. She's alone and she's got a few minutes. What better time to get to the bottom of what's bothering Tim than now. Her inner voice is screaming at her that it has something – hell, maybe everything, to do with Abby. It's time to find out – well, maybe not right now. Lunch break. Yeah, that will work.

******NCIS*****

0645 Washington, D.C.

The unexpected, yet hoped for beeping coming from her computer across the room from where she's currently warming up her babies, has Abby literally racing for the connection in anticipation. Kyle! She's so excited, she's not even looking at who it's from. It's been a while since her and her brother been able to sit and talk and catch up. Abby has told him he's welcome to drop in like this and chat via video anytime and he's the only one that would, so it has to be him. Hurriedly, she wipes her hands across her face while the video channel is opening up.

When the face before her become clear, Abby's mouth hits the floor and her voice comes out in a squeak of surprise. "Delilah?"

"Hi, Abby. I hope you don't mind me bothering you before you start your day, just this once. It won't happen again, I promise. I just wanted to see how you're doing and this seems like the best time to reach you without interfering with either of our jobs."

"No, I don't mind. Are you okay?" Abby responds easily, a genuine smile on her face. She settles comfortably on her stool, ignoring all sounds coming from her surroundings now, her focus completely zeroed in on Tim's girlfriend.

"I'm fine. It's not me I want to talk about."

"McGee?"

"No, this isn't about Tim, at least not exclusively. I wanted to talk about you. See how you're doing? If you've found someone; maybe gone out on a date?

Abby is shocked that McGee's girlfriend has to ask, since she's long assumed that she – in the role of the former girlfriend – has long been the topic of a lot of conversations between them. And being that she and McGee still work together every day and with what went down in the squad room just yesterday…."Wait, so McGee didn't tell you that I met this really awesome guy a few weeks back? You know the one that helped us in that case we had back then? And that yesterday I totally got him to stop being all big-brother protective over me about Burton?"

Burton? Hmm. Definitely different for this day and age, wouldn't you say? I'd love to hear all about him."

Abby's shocked and admittedly crushed. She's long loved McGee like she loves puppies and like she's told him before, that should be enough; enough that he stay concerned enough about he to talk to his girlfriend about her when they have interactions like they did yesterday. How could McGee not talk about it? She'd made sure it became something bigger than a mere annoyance he could just shrug off – she'd had to in order to make her point with him. That can't be right. Delilah must just have forgotten.

****NCIS*******

Wearily, Tim heads into the squad room with ten minutes to spare before the start of the day. He's not entirely surprised to find Gibbs already sitting at his desk working. It comes as a complete surprise, however, when Tim reaches his own desk and lets his gear bag slide down off his shoulder enroute to the floor under his desk, when the boss immediately gets to his feet and walks around his desk, leaning back against it, hands in his front slacks pockets.

Blinking owlishly, Tim remains silent, waiting for the shoe to drop. Still, Gibbs says nothing. It's unnerving and even bordering on irritating to see the man standing there, silently scrutinizing him without a hint of discussion. Finally, Tim can't take it another minute.

"Boss? Is…something wrong?"

The chime of the arriving elevator beyond Ellie's desk barely registers in the midst of the uncomfortable feeling that's begun to settle in. The joint arrival of Tony and Ellie, change everything as Gibbs stands up straight. He's obviously been waiting for them.

"Mornin', Boss. Probie." Tony offers more quietly than usual.

"Good morning." Ellie adds

Waiting until all eyes were on him, Gibbs glances at each of his team members in turn, saving Tim for last. With his eyes glued to the Computer Whiz's, he finally speaks his peace. "Yesterday shouldn't have happened. The other day in here, either. And' I'm not talkin' about the way you handled it."

Looking his boss in the eye Tim swallows hard and offers a response, surprise stripping away the filter as he speaks. "Wow. I didn't… I mean, thank you."

A slight nod is all the response he receives from the Team Leader and actually, that's comfortingly normal.

Ellie is quick to join Gibbs in front of Tim's desk. 'I'm sorry for my part in it. You've been nothing but welcoming and helpful since I got here and you didn't deserve the day before yesterday or my part in it."

"Thank you, Bishop."

"You're welcome….Tim."

Her emphasis on his first name doesn't escape Tim's notice but he's too overwhelmed with the unexpected clearing of the air in his favor to find the words to address it. He's not even sure why she's making a note of it but he's feeling quite charitable towards her for the effort. She is, after all still trying to find her feet on the job and just as importantly, among the team on a personal level as well. A little slack never hurt anyone.

Gibbs motions for Tim to join him as he's heading out of the squad room to the back elevator. With no time to drop off his gear bag, Tim does as he's been requested and follows Gibbs. Tony is soon walking just behind Tim, a brotherly hand reaching out to clamp his shoulder in support.

"I've thought about it all night, myself and….well, let's just say I didn't like what I saw and I'm sorry, man."

"That means a lot coming from you, Tony. Thank you." Tim admits quietly as they reach the elevator and Tony and Ellie join them before the door's closed and as a team, they silently ride the boxcar to the destination of the boss' choosing. None of the younger agents are surprised to see that they're stopping on Abby's level. Surprisingly enough, there's no music coming from the lab; only the low hum of a voice as they find themselves walking into the middle of a conversation she's having – on a video chat.

"…you haven't heard any thing about him from McGee? Not even everything I set up yesterday to show him….?"

"I'm sorry, Abby, Tim and I don't talk about you – we haven't since we passed the 'tell me about your past relationships' phase quite a while back. Why, what did you set up for Tim?"

Tim closes his eyes in embarrassment for a moment. Opening them again, he finds himself meeting his girlfriend's eyes across the room.

With a look of apology in his direction, Delilah returns to her conversation with Abby, now fully aware that it's time to cut this short and that she has a much larger audience than she did a moment ago so she needs to choose her words carefully. Even with that being a factor, though, she needs to get to the whole point of why she's called Abby in the first place.

"Oh, I just had Tony and Bishop run the background check on my new boyfriend so everything would be focused up in the squad room where McGee would be sure and see it and comment on it and react to it and finally hear from someone besides me that he's going overboard – again on the whole protection thing, ya know?" Abby's so focused on her conversation, she's not yet aware of her new audience or at least hasn't acknowledged them yet.

"Why didn't you just pull him aside and talk to him, Abby? You really think publically embarrassing him was necessary? I mean, he looks out for you – something you should be thankful for, considering your history together." Delilah's getting angry now. She gets why Tim was upset earlier and she feels for him and the uncomfortable place he must be in with regard to his friendship/working relationship with Abby.

"Wow. I don't know, I guess, I figured that was the best way to…"

"Take him down a peg?" Tony throws into the mix, unexpectedly.

Completely shocked and embarrassed about being caught in the midst of this conversation, Abby whips around to look at him. "TONY!"

"Mornin' Abbs. Delilah."

"Good morning, Tony. Gibbs. Ellie." Delilah greets them all except Tim. She knows he's too embarrassed right now to want that extra attention. She can wait.

"Guys, I'm…" Abby tries to explain things away.

Tim cuts her off. "Can we put this away now? Please?" He's glancing in turn at Gibbs and Delilah before returning his gaze to Abby. "As in forever?" His less than happy expression moves over to and locks onto his girlfriend's on the computer screen, he waits for someone to give him an answer.

Between the tone of his agent's voice and the look of apology and sadness in Delilah's expression on the video link, there's no doubt that once again, a personal situation has been reluctantly dragged out into the open

"Won't happen again, Tim" Gibbs vows in a tone that lets everyone hear that he's not talking about Tim's actions now but his own and theirs as well. There's no doubt now that he's figured out

"Thanks, Boss."

"Abby, let's take a walk." Gibbs orders as he does what he can to give his agent time to properly say goodbye to the lady he loves living half-way around the world.

But, Gibbs!" Abby complains loudly as she follows him out of the room. "I wasn't d…." Tony and Ellie quickly following in their footsteps, a fleeting glance of apology mixed with goodbye sent Delilah's way from both of them along the way, means she's not able to turn back.

Left behind is a worn out looking Tim smiling almost shyly at his lady. Surprisingly, he's not really upset with her. He knows it's his own fault for not coming clean with her. If anything, he's appreciative of her extra efforts to dig into what was bothering him. Then again, this may not have been about him to begin with. The two of them are somewhat friends, after all.

"Tim?"

"Is everything okay?" He asks with clear concern "I mean it's not usual for you to be calling here at this time of the day in a video chat, right?"

"I know. But, I could sense that something was wrong and I figured Abby was the best person to ask."

"Oh."

"But, that's not how it should be."

"I know. The best person to ask should be me."

"Think maybe we can work on that?"

"Yeah. We can definitely work on that."

"Good. I love you"

"I love you too, Sweetie."

"Bye for now."

"Bye." Closing out the connection window on the computer, Tim locks Abby's computer for her and turns to go back to work.

Along the way, he can't help but find reason to smile at the improvement in the team's attitude that he hadn't expected but greatly appreciates. Somehow, he's confident that he'll be hearing at least an attempt at an apology from Abby soon. He can wait for it because he's finally got the sticky situation that his working relationship with her, under his control, thanks in large to Delilah. And along the way, he's gotten a surprise look into just how much Delilah does love him and expects him to open himself up to that.

Things are definitely going to get better from here, no doubt about it.

~FINIS~