Chapter 7, or Eric and Tony bonding... sort of...

"Sorry, Beal. I don't think there's any chance in hell Gibbs is going to let you leave for L.A.," Tony said.

"I have to go. They're falling apart without me. They just- I need to go back there. I can't… I can't stay here and watch my team… fall apart. I need to go back," Eric countered.

"But I don't think that reasoning's going to help you. Gibbs is still going to be at your ass. He's not going to be able to let you just… go away, right after he got you. We can't lose you. We already lost McGee." Eric couldn't tell if this was spouting from Tony's side that would want him here as a person, or this side that wanted him here because he was an asset to the team.

"Are you saying you care that I'm here?" Eric asked hopefully.

"No. What I'm saying is, Gibbs cares that you're here. And if you want to even think about leaving, you need some serious proof from the case that you need to leave," Tony explained, then added bitterly, "because there's no way he's letting his techie-hacker out of his sight. You're far too precious for that." Eric could sense some snark in his last comment, but right now his L.A. team needed him.

"But Nate and Callen are beating each other up over KENSI! That's not something I can just ignore!"

"You're going to have to," Tony said.

"Are you saying I should just ignore want may be going on and not deal with it?" Eric was starting to hate Tony. He was so disconnected from people, especially in emotional stress. If he couldn't crack a joke about it, Tony closed himself off and showed no emotion. Eric almost wished he knew how Tony had gotten that way, but right now he was too pissed to contemplate.

"That's what you have to do."

"Have to do? What? Why?"

"It's what you have to do when you're in here," Tony replied, motioning at the NCIS headquarters' walls. "You have to put the case over anything else that may be going on."

"Seriously? I can't do… I just… I can't separate the two," Eric said, feeling on the edge of a breakdown. All of the Nate and Callen and Kensi stuff had just started to sink in. Before then it was almost nightmarish.

"Well, you're just going to have to try." A silence dropped.

"Is that what you did? You just… separate your life from everything else?" Tony didn't speak. "So I take that as a yes. You don't deal with your life. Hey, whatever I, well, I mean, whatever works for you. But does it work for me?" He didn't wait for an answer. "No. It doesn't. But, well, between Kensi, and Nate, and Callen, and Sam, and Hetty, and Abby-"

"And Abby?" Tony interrupted.

"Oh god. It's just-"

"What happened to Abby?" Tony was apparently choosing to ignore Eric's 'Don't go there' stare.

"Well, we sorta, maybe, kinda-" Eric was stalling. No way was he divulging his love life to Anthony DiNozzo.

"Look, I don't even want to know. All I'm saying is, you need to separate the two fast. Because Gibbs is going to come up here in sixteen seconds, and you're going to need a good reason as to why you weren't in autopsy five minutes ago, and why you ran up here like a sissy and talked to Sam on the phone. And why you suddenly want to go back to L.A. when you were assigned here. You were transferred here. You can't just give up a transfer."

Eric stopped. He needed to decide.

"But my team-" he started.

"Who the hell cares about your team?" Tony asked. I do. "We're your team now. And our team? Needs you. Our team needs you to hack into the Marine Ops system and get the name of the guy the gun was issued to. Because Abby sure as hell thinks it wasn't Keaton."

"What do you- wait. What?"

"I hate dealing with probies. They're like, the most obnoxious things I deal with in my life." Really?

"Okay, seriously? I don't really care about all this crap you're dealing with the Probie, or the Transfer, or a missing McGee, or whatever. All I know is, you need to fill me in. Yeah. I'm part of your team now. So treat me like it."

"Fine. Abby, and this site, and the-" Eric was tired of this.

"Spit it out."

"The gun that we found out at the site Abby found was issued to a Marine. She thinks that Marine isn't Keaton. So she was trying to figure out who this Marine was, but she got blocked by a super-security system even she can't crack. So she wants you to hack it. And Gibbs wants you to hack it. And they also want to know more about your symbol."

"How did you know about the symbol? I only told them about that ten minutes ago. Gibbs has been in autopsy with Ducky this entire time. So how do you know about it?" The look Tony gave him explained it all. "Seriously? Abby? I can't believe she tells you guys everything."

"It's part of who she is Eric. You just get used to it. Sage advice from a guy with more tension with a girl than a stretched rubber band. Tony brightened, like he always died when he knew something and was going to tease someone about it. "By the way- apparently you're a really good kisser."

"What?" He felt his head being smacked- most likely by Gibbs.

"Beal? Whatcha doing?" Eric drew a blank. What did Gibbs want me doing?

"I'm, uh… I'm…" He wracked his brains. "…Hacking something… yeah…" That sounded good. Tony elbowed him- because apparently, he wasn't able to make up good excuses.

Augh, Tony, just stop that. Why can't I just do what I think I can and come up with things my way?

"Beal, you were supposed to be in autopsy ten minutes ago," Gibbs growled. "Where were you?"

"I was… I went up here… because…" he trailed off.

"Beal." Gibbs' tone was not encouraging. "Where's Abby?"

No that question he had not been expecting. So he answered honestly. "I don't know, Boss."

"But I need Abby. She still has things to explain to me."

"I don't know where she is. She just, left."

"I'll get Ziva to check the bathrooms," Tony sighed, and left, leaving Eric alone with Gibbs.

"Okay, now tell me really why you're up here, Beal."

"It's my L.A. team." Eric paused. Might as well, he thought. "Nate and Callen were beating each other up over Kensi."

"What are you on?" He'd never heard Gibbs say that, and he had a safe bet that Tony had never heard him say that.

"I'm on the fact that my team is coming apart without me- Hetty's a fruitcake, and Sam's… hiding from people in bathrooms. He's a Navy SEAL! He doesn't 'hide' from anyone! He just stands there and sticks it out! So if Sam's in bathrooms and Hetty is singing sea chanteys? I worry! You think I'd worry. You'd worry too!"

"I don't get where this is going."

"And now my team needs me and I need to go to L.A."

"No. You're not going back to L.A. This is not happening. You're not going to deal with it. Just suck it up- we've got work to do. You need to hack into the marine system gun register-"

"I need- I mean- I just-" but the look Gibbs gave him told him to shut up, get to his computer, and hack it out. So he did. It's not like he had anything else better to do.

Tony doesn't understand him, Ziva can't say any type of euphemism ever used in the English language, Abby was pissed at him, sad about him, who knows what. She was in a bathroom, black makeup dripping, and Ducky? Well, he hadn't met Ducky, but he was sure he could find some way to piss the M.E. off. And Gibbs was also currently pissed at him because he wanted to go back to L.A, while he left his team in complete dysfunction.

Sounds like a wonderful day to me.

(A/N): So thanks to everyone for the reviews. Sorry about what's going on two consecutive chapters of angst and dramarama. One more of these puppies and we'll be back to our regular scheduled programing.

Note on the door of the NCIS/NCIS:LA door: Out for the day, seeing as it is 11:30 at night, and most of us like our beauty sleep. Therefore, there will be no playful banter or witty jokes or funny comments in this chapter currently, because school started, and though LinaBeal loves her some fanfic, she loves her some sleep more. Love, your NCIS/NCIS:LA charaters

I might add a conversation here later, but I wanted to get it up, and its late.