It had come over him all of a sudden, some overwhelming wave triggered by a simple order from Gibbs. Only, it hadn't been that simple – that order was meant for him, yet Gibbs had given the task to McGee and Bishop. After chasing leads all afternoon on the phone, and wracking his brain for some sort of clue to the crazy embezzling/drug smuggling case, Tony had had an 'ah ha' moment, and it all fell into place for him.

He'd shouted out in triumph, startling his co-workers, and proudly announced his findings. Gibbs had merely grunted, looked up over his monitor, and directed his two junior team members to follow up on the lead and bring the person of interest in for questioning. Two surprised agents gave Tony apologetic looks, but kept their opinions of their boss's decision to themselves.

Tony, however, did not. As soon as his team mates were ensconced in the elevator, he'd called the man on it. And gotten a stony look, along with an equally flinty answer back. Tony could have followed along verbatim to the response if he'd been inclined for such antics anymore. Which he wasn't, especially now.

"My team. I give the orders, you follow them. Simple as that, unless you've got some other employment lined up."

Huh. Well now. Either Gibbs was baiting him, or he was completely self-assured (and completely mistaken) that Tony would take the high road once again and live with the oft-quoted edict. There was a time Tony did consider it taking the high road - being the grown up and letting Gibbs have his moment of power over him.

"Well, seeing as how you put it that way -" Tony gave back in a voice that masked his present fury.

To Gibbs, that was the appeasement he was looking for. It was all Tony needed for the moment, until the day was over and he could deal with the situation properly. He carried on quietly, letting his boss think he'd gotten yet one more carrot and stick trick out of his second. But in his head, Tony was composing a letter, and giving thought to where his new horizons lie.

Not long after, McGee and Bishop arrived with what they now considered a suspect; he had made a run for it, and McGee had had to give chase. In cuffs now, the man was taken to be questioned, and in a matter of twenty minutes of Gibbs interrogating him, had signed not only a full confession, but turned on his fellow sailors. It seemed that traveling port to port in exotic locales was just too much temptation not to dabble in some easy drug money, which soon turned into something bigger than any of the criminals had bargained for. He was glad to be done with it, and not have to be looking over his shoulder every minute of the day.

Something that Tony could totally relate to, though he had heard the story second-hand as he'd not been invited to watch the interrogation himself. Chalk another one up to the Mighty Gibbs and his OCD tendencies.

Though his teammates quietly tried to boost his spirits regarding the whole situation, Tony shrugged it off as casually as he could, appreciating their words, but wanting only to get home and get his life back in order. Orange walls were certainly no place to contemplate career moves, or if he even wanted to have a career at all. He'd been sitting on a trust fund since he was eighteen, chunking off some of the interest for splurges to reward himself for goals accomplished, or sometimes just to keep his sanity.

He had a decent retirement account set up besides, and contrary to what he made his team believe, he was pretty frugal with his paycheck, having set up a real budget when he'd landed a federal agent's salary, and pretty much sticking to it. Yes, if there was at least one definite thing to be said about Tony DiNozzo, it was his stick-to-it-tiveness. It's what had kept him at NCIS for over thirteen years, a good eight or nine years longer than he really should have hung around. Water over the dam now, but still, there were decisions to be made to remedy the present situation. His letter of resignation was succinct and polite, asking for nothing from the agency in the way of references or letters of recommendation. He highly doubted that Vance could bring himself to write anything that sounded enticing to a perspective employer, and as for Gibbs, well, he wasn't about to ask him for his next breath. Been there, done that. Had the scarred lungs to prove it.

He would stand on his own should he decide to pursue further employment. Or he would stand on his own on the beach in front of a cottage by the ocean. Either way, it was time, had been time for longer than Tony was willing to admit, and his supposed 'comfort zone' days on Gibbs' team were going to be over as soon as he could manage it. He sent the email to Vance, made two hard-copies of it, and sealed one in an envelope which he simply scribbled Gibbs on the front, then filed the other with his work documents. There was no 'resigner's' regret that followed, and no fear of repercussions for doing himself the favor of putting himself out of his numbed misery.

In fact, he poured himself a glass of his best booze and set about making a pan of home made lasagna, occupying his evening quite pleasantly. Ir felt good to be free. He should have done it years ago.

NCIS

The next morning, Gibbs was missing from his desk when Tony arrived. Not that unusual, except for the fact that McGee was giving him strange looks, bordering on poisonous, if Tony got right down to it. There was no way McGee would have known already; there was a policy against anyone, even the Director, discussing an employee's work status with anyone else, inside or outside the agency. The exception, of course, was in the line of investigation of a crime, which Tony was pretty sure he hadn't been personally involved in recently.

"What's the word, McGrumpy? Gibbs eat your sprinkle donut?"

"Gibbs is pissed, and I mean like, beyond furious pissed, and he said your name right before he took off to the Director's office! I swear, Tony, I'm gonna make you eat your Ferragamos if you've made him miserable to us the rest of the day!"

"Really! I'd like to see you try that, McGee!" Tony answered back, his voice light but lacking its usual teasing. As far as Tim had come in the art of self defense, he was no match for his senior partner in any given situation, much less one where Tony was itching to knock the angry, accusing look off McGee's face.

The lack of nickname and challenging tone got McGee's attention quick time. Looking over at Tony, the younger agent found himself eyeballing a face he rarely saw– Serious DiNozzo. A DiNozzo who wasn't in the mood, for whatever reason, for him to be making idle threats. He swallowed and turned back to his keyboard, unconsciously visualizing the pounding he would get from that version of Tony.

"Just telling you he's on the warpath, and it has your name on it."

"Usually does anymore." Tony muttered to himself, then even more quietly, added 'McGolden Boy' to it. He didn't care that Gibbs was furious with him, it was hardly anything new, and there was nothing the man could do to him now in the way of threats and ultimatums. Tony's mind was set, and he didn't even care if no one there asked him to change it. If they had, it would have been too little, too late.

The jangling phone brought Tony out of his thoughts, and he listened to the Director's assistant request his presence in the man's office. So it begins, Tony smiled sadly. A terse meeting with Vance who would no doubt toss out some obligatory 'we're going to miss you here' phrases then politely dismiss him with a huge sigh of relief as the door closed on the pain in the ass agent's ass. So be it. Get it over with, and get on with your life.

He headed upstairs, only to be passed by a cold-shouldered Gibbs on his way back down to the bullpen.

No surprise there. Much as Tony was certain that Gibbs wanted him gone, he was also certain that Gibbs would have wanted to be the one to give him the boot, not Tony up and quitting on him like a pansy. There was no drama in accepting a resignation letter, no control by fear and intimidation by firing the guy himself. He'd stolen Gibbs' thunder, which never went over well with the man.

Putting thoughts of his soon to be ex-boss out of his head for the time being, he slipped into the reception area, giving Cynthia a wink and a smile as she alerted Vance to Tony's presence. Vance directed her to have the agent take a seat, which Tony knew was Vance's idea of control, or one of them, anyways. No doubt the man was gazing out the window, toothpick rolling between his teeth, as he wasted government money making Tony cool his heels outside the 'big' office.

Tony knew the game and how to play it, and took the free time to contemplate some of the places he'd like to go when he was no longer riding a desk. And he could truly call it that, as Gibbs had all but verbally benched him so much of the time the past few years. He spent more time pushing paper now than he did out in the field. One more reason to move on. Let's see. St. Croix. He hadn't ever been there. Turks and Caicos. Hell, he'd settle for Key West right now. Nearly twenty minutes and several exotic locations later, he was torn from his thoughts by Vance's booming voice.

"DiNozzo! In my office! Now!"

Wowsers. Had he really been daydreaming on company time?

He jumped to attention and followed the man, waiting for the invitation to sit, which didn't come. So he stood, unsurprised at the attitude.

"Got your email last night. I have to admit it was a bit of a surprise. Figured you'd take the easy route and retire from here."

He couldn't help it, it came out of his mouth before he could stop his brain.

"Easy route, Director? I wasn't aware that working for Gibbs for fourteen years was taking the easy route, but I guess it's all in the interpretation."

Vance ignored his impertinence and continued on.

"Easy as in knowing your boss and what's expected of you on a daily basis. No surprises, just steady on with the gunny."

"Begging your pardon, Director, but there's not been a whole lot expected of me in quite a while. Been a bit of a fifth wheel, really. I think my job was done here about, oh five years ago, maybe more, I just didn't have the brains to know any better."

Vance twitched his toothpick with a grunt and sat down, still not inviting Tony to do the same.

"You got big plans after NCIS?"

"Uh..well, I've got some plans, don't know if they're big or not."

"Not young anymore, DiNozzo. Not a lot of tech skills, either, at least compared to the new kids coming up. Just don't want you to be surprised if you hit a lot of brick walls in your job search."

Ohhh so many responses to that loaded statement. But also none of his god damned business.

"Well, it is true that I'm not a spring chicken anymore, Director. But, youth isn't all it's cracked up to be, now is it? I've done my share of dumpster diving for evidence and fence jumping after suspects. Good thing to leave it to the probies now."

He left it at that and waited for Vance to either dismiss him or continue his backhanded lecturing. He could easily see that the man was disappointed that his sage words weren't having much affect on him, and pursed his lips to keep from forming a smile.

"Once you leave here there's no coming back, DiNozzo." And thank God for that, Tony told himself. "We've got stacks of resumes of qualified applicants waiting to get their foot in the door. Even willing to work for Gibbs if it means getting special agent status."

"I'm not surprised, Director, and that's a good thing. I wouldn't want any unqualified probies looking out for my former team."

Vance ground down on on the splinter in his mouth.

"Alright then. We appreciate the time and dedication you've given us, Agent DiNozzo. I wish you luck out there, if you need a reference from me, by all means feel free to use it."

Well, that's mighty kind of you, Vance, offering something that should be available without asking. Literal blood, sweat and tears shed for this agency, I shouldn't have to beg for a reference from you.

"Thank you, Director. I'll certainly keep that in mind."

"Good. Back to work then, and you probably already know that Gibbs is pissed as hell at you for leaving. Try to play nice until your paperwork goes through."

"Will do, Director." Tony nodded and waited for his signal to leave, and upon getting none, turned and fled the office for what he hoped was the last time. Vance went about his work, but in his head, he couldn't help but realize that DiNozzo had never once called him 'Sir', and had to satisfy himself with the logic that the special agent was out of the habit after so many years of not being allowed to use the moniker with the high and tight Gibbs. He certainly didn't want to entertain the thought that DiNozzo just plain didn't respect him enough to give him the title.