Good story, but 3 weeks is too short 3 monyhs is more like it. Keep in mind a bone breaks its 8 to 10 weeks to heal. Tony nearly died, so a lot of ligament damage would be caused to nick the artery, that takes time to heal and then you have physical therapy. He's going to need at least 6 weeks. I know writers think you can heal your characters in minimal time but it's not realistic. 4 to 5 months would be normal. It takes time to get over a major injury. Even a knee replacement is 3 months but to actually fully heal from it is 12 to 18 months depending on your rate of healing and what happened in the surgery.

This is a great story, very moving & well-written. I can understand Lucas' anger & grief driving him to blame Tony, but it's not fair that so many others do, too. It wasn't their case, Tony got them an in, Lucas screwed up by being too arrogant to listen (and he has to know it), & between them, Gibbs & Tony solved it. No guarantee that Lucas would have been able to do better, & some indications he would have done worse given his arrogance.

I hope after Tony leaves & the dust settles that eventually some of the other cops come to their senses & feel some guilt about how they treated him. You can't force somebody to be the face of the department via public relations & then blame them for being it. You can't deny someone who loves investigative work the chance to do it & then blame them when they eventually leave because of your treatment. Cops are an insular community, but they're supposed to understand loyalty. Where's theirs?

One thing I liked about this is the almost immediate understanding that Gibbs and Tony have of each other, past mannerisms or self-defenses. It's very realistic & it makes what happened in the canon later even more of a shame because of the carelessness the scriptwriters had in keeping characterizations true. Smart, capable Tony & bastard Gibbs who nevertheless has a heart.

Great story and can't wait to see a sequel for it!

You’ve managed to write about horrific crimes and pitiful deaths showing clearly the struggles Tony and Gibbs face because of those. Loved how they are and how they learn to know and trust each other. Great job, thank you!

Wow. Hope you are writing for real. Great way with the wordsnot too much and not too little. Compelling and believable despite the horror of the story line. One of the better NCIS fics for sure. Thank you

This was a great read,the plot was good and kept me guessing. Thanks!

Still love this story so much

This was well written. Painful, because of subject matter, but well written.

I hope you kept writing.

Awesome

Pete reminds me of Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis.

Haha, that was a great job offer...like how they both know what's going to happen.

Good fight scene, nice way to go into it too, with the slight blurriness and panic and the knowledge of what had to be done

Whoa, yet another twist though I agreed with Tony how the Lacher thing didn't really fit all that well.

I like how you built up all of the observations

Another nice bonding moment with Gibbs and Tony, I like how they can both see so much even without the details or history and understand, it's amazing.

Good for Tony to start the grieving process too

Glad he picked up on the job offer too

Whoa, epic Tony here.
I really enjoyed the repetition of the why use props line, really showed how Tony had things handled.

Nice development with the case too