Maudlin

Tony had always expected Gibbs to return. He could handle being the butt of the jokes, the one that everyone took their anger and hurt out on because he knew it wouldn’t last. He allowed Jenny to distract him from Gibbs being gone by putting him on the undercover op with Jeanne Benoit and essentially working 80-100 hour weeks or more. That way he didn’t have time to sit at home and be maudlin over the fact that Gibbs left.

As months turned into years Tony began to wonder if Gibbs really would return. Tony wasn’t even sure he was in Mexico anymore. The Jeanne situation was dragging on and on with no end in sight. Jeanne didn’t have any information on her father’s dealings. It really was a huge joke of an op.

After his car blew up and Jenny didn’t do anything, he knew something suspicious was going on, but he was too busy trying to hold everyone together to do anything about it. He was sure the op had been going for at least 6 months if not a year longer than it would have if Gibbs had returned. The situation was becoming untenable.

McGee and Ziva still didn’t respect him and Abby still insisted he was in training. It made him wonder if there was even any point to staying with NCIS. Normally Ducky would be a reprieve, but as Gibbs still hadn’t returned Ducky was still buried in his hurt at Jethro leaving and couldn’t see anything else. Frankly, Tony was amazed that they were still managing to keep the same solve rate as every seam felt like it was stretched to the almost breaking point.

After 3 years Tony began to wonder if something was really wrong with Gibbs. However, after 3 years of silence, he didn’t feel it was his place to go chasing after Gibbs anymore. He almost took the posting in Rota that Jenny offered him just to get away from the Jeanne disaster and McGee and Ziva and Abby and everyone else, but he couldn’t quite let himself do that as he’d only be able to see it as running away and didn’t want to believe himself so cowardly.

When Jenny went to LA with Mike Franks, Tony knew something was up. He sent Ziva with her in an attempt to protect Jenny and while Ziva did stay with her, Jenny still died and still Gibbs did not return. Vance moved in and immediately sent Tony off as Agent Afloat so that he could bring in his own man to run the MCRT.

Even before Vance did that, Tony was ready to give up hope and move on. He knew he could find another job elsewhere. But after being told with no room for discussion to board the USS Seahawk on Monday at 4pm, there was no way that Tony could stay at NCIS. Heck maybe it was time for him to quit fighting crime entirely and try out a professorial job like Tony DiNardo supposedly had.