Summary: Gibbs and DiNozzo have been a 2 man team for 2 years now. What happens when they add someone new to the mix? Story 6 in With Honors Series
Categories: Gen Characters: Abby Sciuto, Anthony DiNozzo, Donald Mallard, Gerald Jackson, Kate Todd, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Tom Morrow, T.C. Fornell
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Angst, Case, Drama, Episode Related, Hurt/Comfort, Series
Pairing: None
Warnings: Domestic abuse, Violence
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 6
Completed: Yes
Word count: 21315
Read: 46074
Published: 11/30/2011
Updated: 02/21/2012
Story Notes:
Some reference to physical and sexual child abuse.
1. Don't Leave Me Hanging by WCUGirl
2. Chapter 2 by WCUGirl
3. Chapter 3 by WCUGirl
4. Chapter 4 by WCUGirl
5. Chapter 5 by WCUGirl
6. Chapter 6--final by WCUGirl
Don't Leave Me Hanging by WCUGirl
Author's Notes:
Gibbs and DiNozzo have been a 2 man team for 2 years now. What happens when they add someone new to the mix?
Disclaimer: Not mine, wish they were. The idea is the only thing that belongs to me. This is not a slash story.
SPOILER WARNING: NCIS 1.01: Yankee White, 1.02: Hung Out To Dry
Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Chapter 1
by WCUGirl
September 2000
“Ok now ya wanna relax your shoulders…breathe…relax…hold ‘er steady…hold it…go now!”
Tony DiNozzo eyed his target through the scope of the sniper rifle. He could see the bullseye, but just barely. He let out a breath and just as his dad said “go now” his finger pulled the trigger and 1000 meters away, the target’s bullseye had a sudden hole in it, neatly positioned exactly in the center.
He sat back on his heels and looked up at his dad who was watching the target through binoculars. “Tony you missed your mark at 500 meters,” Jethro Gibbs commented.
Tony smiled. “I didn’t miss my mark at all, Dad,” he said. “I hit my mark at 1000 meters just exactly like I planned to.”
Gibbs raised his eyebrows and looked at the second bullseye, another 500 meters out passed the one he’d thought Tony aimed at. He saw the hole neatly in the center of the target and he looked down at his son, smiling and shaking his head.
“That’s good work, son,” he said, his eyes shining with pride.
“Go ahead, Dad. See if you can beat my score,” Tony encouraged.
The two played for a while longer on the sniper range before calling it a day. Workers on the sniper range just shook their heads. Never before had they seen two such scary talented marksmen, both firing from hundreds of meters away, both with perfect scoring records. They never missed"not once.
xxx
From across the walkway in the bullpen, Gibbs had watched his son grow into the investigator he was today. Tony had always been a good detective, but the frequent moving around he’d done, the special ops trainings he’d attended, as well as the leaves of absences he’d had due to injuries in the field, had left the Probie NCIS agent a bit green when it came to old fashioned investigations. Working at NCIS under the eagle eye of his father had taught him many things.
Tony’s people skills had improved"they had to"with all of the people Gibbs pissed off, it was important for Tony to play the “good cop” and smooth down ruffled feathers and comfort the hurt feelings that Gibbs left in his path. He’d learned how to look at evidence, how to see things at a crime scene to help them determine whether the crime scene was tainted, whether it was actually the crime scene, or whether it was a secondary scene. Tony had long since overcome his fear of dead bodies"that happened even before he worked the case with Metro PD on his dead mom and sister, years earlier.
Tony had come a long way in overcoming the past that at one point had threatened his sanity and his career. After much wheedling and convincing, Gibbs finally talked Tony into talking to someone about his troubled past. Tony had agreed to talk to someone, but it would be someone unrelated to the agency, and someone who was approved of both by Gibbs and by Dr. Mallard who had become Tony’s personal physician.
Dr. Mallard had offered his services in helping Tony to find someone to talk to. “Ducky” had spent hours interviewing psychologist after psychologist, listening to their views on child abuse, child sexual abuse and child neglect, and on the victim’s role in those events and eventually he suggested that Tony meet and talk with a Child Psychologist who specialized in the varying types of abuse. For nearly a year, Tony had spent an hour each week with this person, talking out memories, rehashing details, going over photographs and incident reports.
In that year, Tony had given up his apartment in favor of living with his dad. He needed his dad during that difficult time, needed someone around in the evenings when he couldn’t escape the images in his mind, and needed him around overnight when the nightmares became too much to handle alone. Gibbs was his rock"always there, never failing him, and Tony believed with every cell of his being that without Gibbs and Ducky, Tony wouldn’t be where he was today. It was because of the support he received, the counseling he worked so hard in, and his ability to overcome impossible odds that had finally encouraged Tony to move back into his own place"to get his own space back"and to give Gibbs free reign of his house again.
It would be an understatement to say that Gibbs was proud of his son. He knew that as Second In Command, it was only a matter of time before someone offered Tony his own team. Gibbs knew that Tony was ready for it, that he was skilled enough to take on the job. It made Gibbs’ heart ache to think that one day Tony wouldn’t have his six and that he wouldn’t be on Tony’s six. The two were so close anymore that often, words were not needed to communicate. They were the perfect two-man team.
Therein laid the problem. They were only a two-man team. When Morrow fired Blackadder, he told Gibbs and Tony that they’d be on their own, a two-man team, until Gibbs found someone to join them. The trouble was, Gibbs was content to work with Tony in their small team capacity, and now he was beginning to hear from the director that he needed to hire someone else for the team. Gibbs wasn’t sure why there was the big push for more people, after all he and Tony had the highest solve rate in the agency, but Gibbs knew that eventually there would come a point where he would either have to hire someone, or he would be assigned someone.
Gibbs hated assigned team members.
So he’d been looking, subtly, observing people on other teams, observing officers and agents from other departments, but no one seemed to be catching his eye. He assured Director Morrow that he was, in fact, looking for a new person to add to their little team, but he also assured Director Morrow that he was going to be selective as to who that person would be.
One Saturday evening, around 9pm, Gibbs and Tony were in the basement working on the boat. It was not uncommon to find the two of them working in this way; after all, Tony DiNozzo went on dates seven nights a week with seven different women, but Tony Gibbs rarely dated at all. He was content to spend time with his dad, work on the boat, eat steak or pizza or Chinese takeout, and avoid the drama that came with romantic relationships.
After three failed marriages and his newest one on the rocks, Gibbs didn’t blame him. It was three years after the annulment with Diane, that Gibbs met Stephanie. Like her predecessors she had beautiful auburn locks, the body of a goddess and wit to match Gibbs’ own. If Tony were honest, Stephanie was his favorite of “the exes”"even though technically she and Gibbs were still together. Their togetherness was a mere technicality though; they were due to sign the divorce papers the upcoming Tuesday afternoon. They were splitting as friends"they wanted to get out while they could still BE friends.
Stephanie and Tony had gotten off to a rocky start, Tony was mistrusting of any woman Gibbs brought home"and after what had happened with his previous step-mother, no one blamed him"including Stephanie. However, Stephanie, who had only heard stories of Diane but never met her, worked hard to gain Tony’s trust. She didn’t try to push him out of the family, she didn’t try to have sex with him or pit him and Gibbs against each other. She was just a nice lady who wanted her man and his son to both be happy. Eventually Tony caught on and the two were amicable, if not friends, much to Gibbs’ relief.
On this particular Saturday night, the two were bracing the boards to curve them into the ribs on the boat. Tony dropped his end of the board when his cell phone rang, and as a result, it caused Gibbs’ end of the board to snap right off the brace.
“DiNozzo,” Tony answered the phone, plugging a finger into his free ear as Gibbs grumped and fussed about Tony woodchipping his boats to bits.
“You have a dead Navy Commander on board the Air Force One? Is the President on board? Where are you now? Alright, get the President out of there and secure him in a safe location. Leave Air Force One where it is, and we will be there as soon as we can. I’m booking flights now,” Tony said as he flipped open his laptop on the workbench and began pulling up the military flight schedules. Frowning at the lack of available military flights, Tony then pulled up commercial airlines, settling for one that would land them at the same airport the Air Force One had landed at. He gave the flight details to the officer he spoke on the phone with, and hung up the phone.
“That the best you can do, DiNozzo,” Gibbs asked mildly. He’d watched Tony feverishly work to get good flights booked, had seen the lack of options he had available, and couldn’t resist teasing his son a bit.
“Come on Boss,” Tony replied, slipping easily into their work mode. “It’s Saturday, what do you expect? Miracles?”
“Perfection, DiNozzo,” Gibbs snarked, “I always demand perfection.” He laughed hard at the look on Tony’s face.
Together they cleaned up the basement and turned out the light. They left the door to the house unlocked. At least this time Gibbs remembered to turn off the coffee pot before he left.
xxx
Gibbs rolled his eyes good naturedly as they hurried through the airport and Tony grumbled a few steps behind him about NCIS not having their own plane. “C’mon Boss,” Tony whined, “The FBI, ATF, CIA, heck even the NYPD has their own aircraft!”
As they gave their boarding passes to the attendant, Gibbs turned to Tony. “So tell Director Morrow next time ya see him that you’ll be buying us a jet, DiNozzo,” he said, eyes twinkling. “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to take it out of your salary!”
“Not funny, Boss,” Tony snarked, “not even a little bit funny.”
Finally they landed in Wichita and they were escorted over to Air Force One. It was possible to hear the argument coming from the plane before they actually boarded it.
“I don’t care who you think you are, if you aren’t a medical examiner, you aren’t touching this body,” someone was saying.
Gibbs smiled at Ducky who straightened his fedora and stepped forward. “I am a medical examiner,” he stated. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Donald Mallard, Medical Examiner for NCIS.”
“NCI-Who?” A woman snarked from across the aisle. “How many more alphabet agencies we got here, Baer,” the woman asked.
“You must be Agent Todd,” Gibbs commented. He’d read up on the staff on board the Air Force One on their way to Kansas. He knew there was only one female secret service agent working on this flight. Caitlyn Todd.
“Who are you,” Todd asked.
He flipped out his ID badge, “Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS. Naval Criminal Investigative Service.” He nodded at Tony, “Special Agent Tony DiNozzo,” and nodded at Ducky, “and Donald Mallard, MD, Medical Examiner.”
“Well, well, well, look who showed up to steal the glory,” another voice commented.
Gibbs smirked. “Tobias. Long time no see. How’s the baby?”
Tobias Fornell narrowed his eyes. “Gibbs. It has been a while since our paths last crossed. Baby’s fine. How’s your baby,” he asked, eyeing DiNozzo standing behind Gibbs.
Gibbs shrugged good naturedly. “I don’t have any babies, Tobias,” he said, “You’re the one who got the late start,” he added.
And so went the case. The evidence and information volleyed back and forth between the three agencies. Hours passed without any leads…turning into days. The public eye was closely following this case, and it was becoming increasingly frustrating that no answers had been found.
It was late into the night when Tony arrived back at NCIS. He’d spent the day being bounced all over DC riding in a body bag, which the FBI thought contained Commander Trapp’s body. He was sore and exhausted and as he carried the box into Abby’s office, he thought he might fall asleep propped up against the wall of the elevator.
“Tony!” Abby smiled and greeted him as he stepped off of the elevator. “I don’t have anything yet,” she commented.
“Need ya to check out this food too Abs,” Tony commented, not quite suppressing a yawn. Abby turned and looked at her friend. He looked exhausted. It wasn’t uncommon for him and Gibbs to go for days at a time with little or no sleep during a case. She and Ducky had made it their personal goals to make sure that both men got food and rest and that they were at the top of their game.
“Why don’t you go take a nap, mister,” she said, pointing to the futon in the back of her office. “I’ll wake you when I find something or if Gibbs calls.”
Tony yawned again and nodded. “I should stay up and help you run your tests,” he mumbled half heartedly.
“No sir you most certainly will not stay up and help me run my samples,” Abby said. “I’m not letting you mess up my samples,” she continued. “Sleep. Now. Don’t make me knock you out,” she said giggling, but both knew the threat was real. If she thought he was too bad off, Abby would get Ducky to sedate him"and it would be in a very sneaky way"like in a jelly donut or something he wouldn’t expect. Rather than arguing, Tony merely nodded and moved back into her office where the futon was.
A few minutes later, Abby went into the office to find Tony sprawled out on his back sound asleep, one hand clutching his cell phone so he’d be sure to hear it ring. She turned off her music and the lights in her office. She closed the door softly behind her and returned to her work.
A little while later she ventured down to the Autopsy Lab to see if Ducky had anything to add to the information she had gathered. They worked together more often than not anymore, and Abby found Ducky’s wealth of knowledge to be invaluable when it came to solving cases. She giggled when the lab door slid open and revealed Gibbs on an autopsy table, sprawled similarly to the way Tony was, sound asleep, clutching his cell phone.
“The poor man was exhausted, Abigail,” Ducky commented from his desk. “I tried to convince him to go home, but you know how Jethro is during a case. He cannot walk away until he has sacked the criminal and uncovered all of the booty,” he chuckled.
“Tony’s asleep on my futon, Ducky,” Abby said softly. “These two are a pair, aren’t they?”
“Indeed,” Ducky said, “Why it’s almost as if the two are related.”
“Almost as if what two are related,” a voice spoke from the doorway. Gibbs was awake in an instant, on his feet, gun drawn, his body positioned between the door and Abby and Ducky. After a moment, he lowered his gun.
“Agent Todd,” he said, tucking his gun back into the holster. “Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the President?”
“Other agents have taken over the guard while we investigate the attack on the Commander, Agent Gibbs,” Todd responded. She didn’t like this guy much. There were too many unknowns about him. And had he seriously been asleep on the autopsy table? She fought down a shudder. Too creepy.
“I was coming by to see what progress has been made,” Kate Todd continued, “but it seems to me that everyone is lying down on the job sleeping while the perp who tried to kill the President is getting away.”
“Now there you are out of line my dear,” Ducky interjected. “We are at this very moment running a gamut of tests that will reveal more information than you can fathom. However, these tests do take time to complete, and since our agents have been on the job for near on thirty-six hours with no respite, I instructed Agent Gibbs that some rest would be appropriately obtained at this time of waiting. You, my dear, are part of a large team of agents and you’ve undoubtedly had no lost sleep, despite the danger to the president.”
“You’re right, Dr. Mallard. Where’s DiNozzo,” Kate asked, looking around. “He still riding around in the body bag?”
“No my dear, young Anthony has finished his stint, uh, playing dead, and is now resting as Jethro was, down in Abigail’s lab while we wait for the test results.”
Kate shook her head. “Unbelievable,” she snarked. She shook her head and started walking away, “and you people call yourselves an investigative agency.”
Gibbs grabbed her arm and turned her around before she could squeak in surprise. “We do call ourselves an investigative agency. Tell me, Agent Todd, since you are so on top of the case, what have you found that has us lagging behind so badly?”
Under the heavily scrutinizing blue gaze, Kate Todd folded. “I…that is…” she sighed, “we have nothing to report, Agent Gibbs,” she said grimly. Dammit, she added to herself.
Abby’s cell phone rang and she picked it up. “Talk to me!...Oh hi Tony!...Major Mass Spec beeped? Alright we’ll be right up, just sit tight and don’t touch anything.”
“Major Mass Spec?” Todd asked as she followed the others toward the forensics lab.
“The major mass spectrometer,” Abby said, “it’s one of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in the lab. The last time Tony touched it he nearly fried it and the sample was ruined. He isn’t allowed to touch my equipment anymore without express permission.”
“Wasn’t his fault Abs,” Gibbs commented. “The machine was on the blink anyway. It would have fried the sample even if you had touched it.”
“I know Gibbs…but doesn’t it make a better story to say that Tony touched it right as it died?”
She met his gaze and quickly lowered her own. “I guess not,” she muttered.
xxx
Tuesday afternoon rolled around and the terrorist made his move, and Gibbs stopped him and ended up having to kill him, and the President walked away unharmed. Kate Todd was on the scene, but when the moment arose"when it was time to actually protect the President, she hesitated making the shot, leaving it for Gibbs to have to do instead before the terrorist killed even more people.
Tony was on the ground and the only available contact they had with the plane Gibbs was on, was radio contact. He heard the muffled curse from the pilots, heard the sound of someone saying “Stay back you aren’t allowed back here,” and he heard the sounds of gunshots. After that…he heard nothing. He figured the plane didn’t crash"there was no abnormal flurry of activity from Air Traffic Control, but that didn’t mean everyone on board was unharmed either.
He waited at the airport terminal to see what had happened and if Gibbs needed backup. He paced, though he tried not to, and he ran his hands through his hair. Gibbs was still in the air, so making calls on the cell phone wouldn’t work"his would be turned off per airline regulations. Finally the plane was called into land, and Tony stood at the gate. He heard a car behind him and glanced at it. He tossed up his hand to wave at Stephanie as she pulled up. She and Gibbs were going to sign their divorce papers this evening.
She pulled the car up close to where Tony was waiting. “Where is he,” she asked.
“On the plane that just landed,” Tony responded.
“You weren’t with him?”
“I was told to stay down here and keep an eye on things from this end.”
“Bomb on the plane?”
“Terrorist.”
“He didn’t want to take a chance of you getting blown up.”
Tony looked at her. He’d been so pissed when Gibbs told him to stay on the ground"he just hadn’t understood why he couldn’t go be helpful"why Gibbs insisted on taking Agent Todd with him instead. What Stephanie said…he hated to admit it, but it made perfect sense.
He heard voice coming from behind him and turned around to see his dad and Agent Todd walking towards the gate. He motioned for the coroners to board the plane"that meant there was a dead body on board"and judging by the look on Gibbs’ face, and the lack of a terrorist in custody"that meant that the guy was dead. His dad looked pissed. As they drew close enough for Tony to make out the words being spoken, he began to understand why.
“You ever pull a stunt like that at NCIS and I won’t give you the opportunity to resign,” he snapped at Agent Todd.
Without another word, and without even acknowledging Tony, Gibbs climbed into the convertible with Stephanie, kissed her on the cheek and she sped them away. Tony blinked in the setting sunlight and watched the car leave.
Agent Kate Todd stepped up next to him. “Was that a job offer he just gave me,” she asked.
Tony looked at her. He thought back over his dad’s words. “If you ever pull a stunt like that at NCIS I won’t give you the opportunity to resign,” he said. He looked back up at the road where the car was just barely visible now.
“Yep,” he said, and walked away.
He walked back to the NCIS Dodge Intrepid and sank into the driver’s seat. He put the key in the ignition and his hands on the wheel. Then he leaned his head over onto the steering wheel.
What the hell had just happened here?
TBC…
End Notes:
Some reference to physical and sexual child abuse.
Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Chapter 2
Picking up shortly after we ended our last chapter…
Tony stomped moodily down the stairs to Gibbs’ basement. Not surprising, the older man wasn’t home yet. No doubt he and Stephanie had gone out for dinner or drinks. Now that they weren’t married anymore, they could quit pretending to hate each other and go back to being friends. Tony turned on the light and flung himself into the old recliner that sat next to the staircase.
He couldn’t believe it. Gibbs had offered Kate Todd a job. With them. On their team. Theirs. He hadn’t asked Tony what he thought of it. Merely made the decision. Gibbs always treated Tony as though they were equals. It was easy to forget that…that they weren’t actually equals.
Gibbs entered the house quietly. He saw Tony’s corvette parked at the street, so he knew his son was here. It surprised him a bit though; he’d figured Tony would go home to his apartment to sleep off the case instead of coming here. He didn’t mind"not in the least, but it did surprise him. It surprised him more to find the house dark. There weren’t any lights coming from the den where Tony’s television dominated nearly one full wall of space. He doubled checked the room to be sure, but the television was turned off and the overstuffed couch was empty.
He hadn’t seen any lights on upstairs when he’d pulled up. Gibbs took the stairs quietly, if Tony was up here he didn’t want to disturb him if he was sleeping. He knew walking softly like this would startle his son if he was awake, but he also knew that Tony was such a light sleeper that he’d likely hear Gibbs coming otherwise. But it was all in vain. Tony wasn’t upstairs either.
Gibbs headed for the basement. He figured that if Tony wasn’t anywhere else in the house, he’d be in the basement. He opened the door and saw the light was on and nodded his head to himself. He stepped quietly down the stairs, walking on cat-like feet, shivering in the cool dampness and took in the scene before him. There was Tony, sprawled in the recliner, sound asleep, head cocked to one side, mouth opened just enough for a string of drool to drip out of it. Turning around so he wouldn’t disturb his son, he quickly ascended the stairs and grabbed a blanket from the closet. Returning to the basement, he carefully spread the blanket over his son, before turning his attention to the boat.
He picked up the sanding block and suddenly it dawned on him. He shook his head, knowing exactly why Tony was here tonight. He’d offered Kate Todd a job without talking to Tony about it first. What the hell had he been thinking?
xxx
Awareness slowly returned to the younger Gibbs, and Tony finally blinked his eyes open. He didn’t know what time it was, but judging by the lack of light coming from the outside window it was very late. Tony sat up a bit in the chair and that was when he noticed the blanket covering him. So Gibbs was home. The blanket was a dead giveaway.
“Dad?”
Gibbs didn’t answer and Tony sat up a bit more, looking around. He saw two feet sticking out from under the boat and called again. “Dad.”
Still no answer. Tony grew a little bit concerned, not sure what his dad was doing, lying so still under the boat. He stood up and, noticing the chill, wrapped the blanket around himself. He took two steps over to his dad’s feet and kicked one foot. “Dad!”
Gibbs suddenly sprang to life, moving fast and cracking his head on the boat as he sat up too fast. He scrambled out from under the boat, eyes wide, rubbing his head ruefully.
“You okay,” Gibbs asked him, taking in his son’s half asleep, disheveled appearance.
“I’m ok, Dad,” Tony replied. “Were you sleeping under the boat?” His eyes were dancing, and he was trying his hardest not to laugh.
Gibbs shook his head. “I wasn’t sleeping. C’mon let’s go upstairs and call it a night.”
Tony followed his dad up the stairs, eyes wide with awe and dancing with laughter that was still threatening to erupt. “You were totally sleeping under the boat!”
“I was not sleeping. I was meditating,” Gibbs snarked. They were three steps from the top when Tony’s stomach growled loud enough to stop Gibbs in his tracks.
“On second thought, let’s stop by the kitchen on our way up and see what we can come up with to eat,” Gibbs commented, giving Tony’s stomach a pointed look.
“I can just make me a sandwich or something Dad,” Tony said, “I mean you’re obviously tired, you can go on to bed and as soon as I’m done eating I’ll go on home.”
Gibbs’ own gut growled at that moment and Tony looked in surprise from his dad’s stomach to his face, and back to his stomach.
“C’mon Tony,” he said, “let’s eat. I’ll fix us something. Then you’re spending the night here. You’re too tired to drive home.”
“I am not too"” a huge yawn cut him off, “"too tired to drive home,” he finished, grinning.
“Right. Ok Rip Van Winkle whatever you say. I still say you’re sleeping here tonight.”
“And I still say you were sleeping under the boat,” Tony said, laughing now"he just couldn’t hold it back anymore.
Gibbs fixed them scrambled eggs and jelly toast to eat. Tony devoured his first plate and then refilled it for seconds. The two didn’t speak much, but they didn’t need to. There was plenty being said without any words being exchanged.
xxx
The team had been given the next day off since they’d worked a period of over twenty-four hours without a break. Tony rolled over and looked at the alarm clock with one eye and saw that it was nearly 1pm. He yawned and stretched and pushed himself out of bed, scratching his ribs as he walked to the head.
After a quick shower, Tony headed down the stairs in search of his dad. The weather was still warm in late September in DC, and the leaves hadn’t quite begun to change color yet. The temperature was just warm enough to wear a long-sleeve t-shirt without a jacket, and the sun warmed his back as he stepped across the backyard. Of all the places he’d lived, he liked Washington DC the best.
His dad was in the backyard, hard at work on a flower bed similar to the one Shannon had built not long after they’d moved to DC from Rhode Island. Tulips were the only flower allowed in this bed, so each fall, Jethro dug up the old tulip bulbs and planted new ones. Tony dropped to his knees beside his dad to help him with his task. The flowers reminded them of Shannon"they were her favorite flower. Tony liked the little touches around the house that reminded them of their girls. The tulip bed in the backyard, the Christmas tree in the front yard that was planted by Gibbs and Tony, the year after Kelly was killed. She had always wanted to plant a Christmas tree. The pine tree planted in her honor was growing straight and tall now"it was quite large.
There were other things too"the color of the guest bedroom was painted the same color that Kelly’s bedroom had been painted at their old house. The dishes in the kitchen were the dishes that Shannon and Jethro had been given when they got married. And that didn’t even cover the pictures on the walls"everywhere there were pictures of their family. Once Diane and Jethro had gotten their marriage annulled, Tony noticed that photographs from his past began appearing on the walls"not the formal, stuffy type of family portraits that people have made every Christmas (though those were there too), but snapshots"pictures that someone holding a camera in a candid moment had snapped.
There was a picture of Tony’s graduation from Military Academy"shaking Gibbs’ hand while he received his pin and his diploma. There was a picture from Tony and Kelly’s first Christmas together. Birthdays, football games, graduations, anniversaries, random Tuesday evenings when a picture needed to be taken"the walls were full of pictures of the life they had. There were newer photos too. Stephanie, upon seeing the pictures on the walls, had insisted that the tradition be continued. There were pictures of Tony close down to the ground investigating evidence that was barely visible, Gibbs sipping from the ever present coffee cup, Ducky telling a story, Abby under the hood of a car…the pictures just went on and on and were seemingly never-ending. Tony’s favorite picture was the one of him and Gibbs taken at the sniper range. Both of them were crouched low, ball caps turned backwards, squinting into their scopes, side by side. Stephanie had been watching them that day, and had snapped the picture without them knowing.
But for now, it was time to work on the tulips. “Sleep well,” Gibbs asked as Tony eased himself down beside his dad, donning his own work gloves and picking up his own trowel.
“Yeah,” Tony replied.
Gibbs stopped digging and looked at Tony. “You know we need to talk,” he said.
Immediately Tony felt as though he’d been kicked in the gut. “You know those are the four scariest words to start a conversation off with, right, Dad,” he said, laughing nervously.
“We need to talk. About Kate Todd.”
Tony nodded. He continued digging, so he didn’t have to meet his dad’s gaze. There was a long period of silence and Tony wondered if he needed to be looking at Gibbs to pick up on a telepathic conversation. He laughed softly to himself and turned to look at his dad who was watching him very closely.
“What do we need to talk about Todd for, Dad?”
“We need to talk about how you feel about her joining the team.”
Tony blinked. That wasn’t what he was expecting. “I’m fine with it Dad. Just surprised me is all. I mean other than the fact that we know absolutely nothing about her"I mean, she could be completely loony for all we know"she could steal all of my stuff off my desk! We’ve been interviewing people for years and haven’t hired anyone. I just don’t get what it is about her that makes her special?”
Gibbs grinned at Tony in that teasing, half-grinning sort of way, and patted him on the shoulder. “That’s easy Tony. She reminds me of how you used to be.”
Now Tony’s gut did drop out. Was he doing something wrong? Was he behaving differently than he used to"causing Gibbs to miss that behavior, whatever it may be, and now was he looking for a replacement?
“Dad…I…”
Gibbs immediately picked up on his mistake and was already correcting himself. “You haven’t done anything wrong Tony. You hear me? Nothing at all. You are the best agent I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with"and I would tell anyone that. What I meant when I said Todd reminds me of how you used to be"she’s green Tony. She has good instincts, but she doesn’t know what to do with them yet. You, son, were green when I got you, but you’re an impressive investigator now"hell you see things and connect things that I only wish I could connect.”
Gibbs’ cell phone rang from his belt at that moment. He pulled it out and looked at it. He sighed and answered it. “Yeah, Gibbs.”
Agent Gibbs, it’s Tom.
“Hi Tom.”
I hear you’ve hired a new agent.
“That’s correct, sir.”
When will he start?
“SHE will start as soon as she completes FLETC.”
Excellent. I will take your team off of rotation until then.
“We can work cases while we wait for her sir,” Gibbs argued.
There is no sense in dropping a new agent into the middle of a new case. You will work cold cases until your new agent has completed FLETC. Consider it a break, Jethro, it’s only two weeks.
Gibbs’ eyes twinkled and he smirked at his son. “Have you ever tried to keep Tony entertained in the office for two weeks, Tom?”
Tony’s eyes grew wide and he dropped his jaw in shock. “Two weeks?!” he whispered. Gibbs nodded and rolled his eyes.
I didn’t put you on desk duty, Jethro. Merely cold cases. If you break one open, feel free to go after it.
“I thought that was understood, sir,” Gibbs asked. “If you crack open a cold case you go make the arrest if you can.”
Agreed. Alright. Well keep me informed.
“Yes sir.”
Two weeks, Jethro. Unless you’d like to take the time off for vacation?
“Doubtful sir.”
I thought as much. Goodbye.
Gibbs clicked the phone shut. Tony looked ready to erupt. “He’s taking us off of rotation?”
Gibbs nodded. “Until Todd finishes at FLETC, yes. We’re on cold cases.”
Tony groaned. Gibbs clapped him on the shoulder. “I know, son,” he said, turning back to his tulip bed. “I know.”
xxx
Two weeks later, Gibbs’ team was cleared for active duty with the addition of the agency’s newest agent, Caitlyn Todd, or Kate, as she preferred it joining their team.
Tony was sitting at his desk, it was late, he knew he should just go home, but his gut was niggling at him"something was going to go down, he knew it, he just couldn’t put his finger on what.
His cell phone rang. He answered it. It was Case Intake calling. Apparently a marine paratrooper hadn’t landed well. He thanked the man on the other end of the line, scribbled down the address, and called Gibbs.
No answer. His phone went straight to voicemail. That meant that he’d turned it off. Odd, but not completely unheard of. He dialed his dad’s home number. Busy signal. He waited a few minutes, then dialed again. Still busy. Ok so the phone had been taken off the hook, because his dad never spoke to anyone on the phone that long. Still odd, but not unheard of. Picking up his backpack and the slip of paper with the address on it, Tony headed for his dad’s house.
He found his dad, in the basement, hard at work on the boat. The landline was pulled out of the wall, and his cell phone was sitting at the bottom of a cup of paint thinner. Interesting. Gibbs looked up and smiled in greeting, before turning back to his work.
Tony picked up the glass of paint thinner and cell phone and winced at it. “You know I tried calling you,” he quipped, motioning at the phone in the jar.
“Don’t ask,” Jethro quipped back.
“Who…oh. Right,” Tony said, wincing again. Every year on this day, the same thing happened. Lauren, Gibbs’ first ex-wife, called him on their wedding anniversary"usually drunk"to tell him the same thing over and over again. What a useless bastard he is, how he broke her heart, how he is the sole reason for her continued unhappiness, etc. Gibbs had done everything he knew to do to make the woman happy"hell she got nearly a third of his paycheck every month"but it still seemed as though on this day, she had nothing better to do than to try making him as miserable as he’d so obviously made her.
“If you’d like a distraction, we got a case, Boss.”
Gibbs looked up at him from between the ribs of the boat where he sat underneath them. Tony detested that part of boat construction"it always kinked up his back muscles and made moving and breathing hard for a few days after he sat twisted up under the boat in that way. It didn’t seem to bother Gibbs to do it though. “What ya got, DiNozzo?”
“Marine Paratrooper was on a night training jump and apparently his parachute was faulty. He’s hanging in a tree waiting for us out at near the practice jump site.”
“Who called it in?”
Tony laughed. “See that’s the hilarious part of it. There were these two kids parked and making out. They were parked under the tree that our jumper landed in. Have you ever seen the movie ‘Urban Legends’ Boss?” Gibbs raised one eyebrow. “Right,” Tony continued, “of course you haven’t. Anyway in this movie there’s this guy and he’s killed and hanging from a tree and this couple is sitting in a car making out and they hear this scratching noise over the roof of the car. Turns out to be the hanging guy’s feet. Then a body falls through the convertible top and horror ensues.” At Gibbs’ continued raised eyebrow, Tony stops. “The guy got hung up in a tree right over the car where this couple was making out,” he explained, “he fell out of his ‘chute and went right through the convertible top on the car and landed in the kids’ laps basically. Just like in the movie,” Tony said, slightly pouting. It was a really good movie reference for a change.
“C’mon legend boy, let’s go talk to these kids and see who wet their pants first when the dead guy dropped in on them,” Gibbs chuckled at the image and started up the stairs.
“Boss don’t you need your cell phone?” Tony asked.
“Why? Isn’t working now and the only person besides you calling it is a crazy redhead with too much Jack in her system. Besides, if you stay with me I’ll have a phone, won’t I?”
“Right Boss,” Tony said, starting up the stairs behind Gibbs. “On your six, Boss.”
xxx
The scene was a gruesome one. Ducky had already arrived when Tony and Gibbs got there.
“DiNozzo, shoot and sketch,” Gibbs said, “I’ll interview the kids.”
“Got it boss,” Tony said, moving to the car whose only inhabitant now had made his entrance through the roof.
“Hey Ducky,” Tony called as he started taking photographs.
“Good evening Anthony,” Ducky called back. “I take it you heard the story on our unfortunate jumper,” he asked.
“Yeah Duck. It’s a terrible way to go, falling out of a plane and landing,” he winced, “like that.”
“Our friend here did not fall out of a plane Anthony, he strategically jumped from it. Having a faulty parachute was most unfortunate.” Ducky turned to the victim, “My dear boy, we will get you out of there and cleaned up just as soon as Anthony finished photographing you. Just sit tight, lad,” he said, patting the dead man on the shoulder and climbing back down the ladder.
“Anthony where is"”
“I’m sorry ma’am but you can’t cross the line. This is a crime scene.”
“I know that, but I work with NCIS.”
“Name and badge please,” the officer responded.
“I don’t have a badge yet,” Kate retorted, “and my name is Kate Todd.”
“It’s alright officer,” Gibbs called. “She’s new, she works with us; we just haven’t got her badge yet. It’ll be ready tomorrow,” Gibbs added.
The MP moved aside and let Todd onto the crime scene. As soon as she saw the body hanging out of the roof of the car, she recoiled.
“My God, is this for real?”
“You think we decided to scare the piss out of these kids and hang a fake dead body out of a car just to get you out of bed so you could walk out into the mud in those pretty shoes, Agent Todd,” Tony asked snarkily, grinning like crazy.
“My dear, those are lovely shoes,” Ducky said. “But highly unfit for a crime scene such as this one.”
Tony noticed Gibbs had gone to the car and was coming back with a box. He watched questioningly as Gibbs held out the box to Kate.
“Here you go, Agent Todd,” Gibbs said with a smirk. “Welcome to NCIS.”
Kate’s eyes widened a bit and she opened the box. “Combat boots?”
“Yep,” Gibbs called as he returned to his work on the scene. “Wouldn’t do for you to break an ankle walking around in the dark in those shoes,” he said.
Kate turned to Tony. “He got me boots,” she said.
“You like repeating everything people say, don’t you,” Tony laughed.
Kate pulled the boots out of the box and inspected them. Standard issue, black leather steel toed boots. How boring, they would totally clash with her outfit. Then she noticed something else and laughed.
“How’d you know my size?”
TBC…
Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Chapter 3
by WCUGirl
“Oh. My. God. Abs, what IS that?” Tony felt his stomach turn as he looked at the terribly gory picture in front of him on Abby’s wall.
“That is a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Abby pronounced with a proud grin. “I call it ‘Blast From The Future’.”
Tony shivered and shook his head. “You got some weird tastes, Abs,” he commented, drawing her into a hug, “but I like it.”
Abby smiled. “Of course you guys like it"I mean you deal in dead bodies, come on! The stuff you see is way worse.”
“True, but the stuff we see is not normally named ‘art’ either,” Tony teased. Abby shrugged.
“Oh and by the way, mister. You owe me twenty buck, Tony.”
“What do I owe you twenty bucks for,” Tony sputtered.
The doors slid open and Gibbs walked in at that moment. “Nice picture Abs,” he commented. Abby shot a triumphant smile at Tony who blinked in surprise. “You get those tox screens back yet,” Gibbs asked.
Abby nodded. “It’s in line with what the guy at the hanger told you and with the autopsy Ducky did. Fuentes had Vicodin and Percocet in his system when he was killed.”
“Boss isn’t that strange, to have two different kinds of narcotic painkillers in your system at once,” Tony asked.
“Can be, but with this type of injury, and with it being so new, he was probably given a hefty dose of something at the hospital, and a prescription for the other…?”
Abby nodded again. “That’s what I’m thinking Boss. There was definitely more Percocet in his system than Vicodin. Ducky said he found a site on the guy’s arm where an injection could have been made. It lines up. What I don’t understand is why they’d let a guy on that much painkillers do a jump?”
Tony nodded. “That’s what I’ve been wondering too.”
“He was supposed to be with his stick when he jumped. They look out for each other. The fact that one member of the stick died, makes me think that there is something about that particular group of men that we need to learn more about. Why didn’t they take care of Fuentes when his chute didn’t open?”
“His chute did open,” Tony said. “It didn’t open properly, but it did open. It tootsie rolled,” Tony paused, “at least I think that’s what Ducky called it.”
Gibbs nodded. “That’s correct. The chute takes on the shape of a tootsie roll when it doesn’t open properly. So Abs tell me…what does DiNozzo owe you twenty bucks for?”
Abby laughed and clapped her hands. “He owes me twenty bucks because he bet me that Agent Todd would quit as soon as she saw her first dead body.”
Everyone laughed at that, and Tony reluctantly forked over the twenty bucks. Gibbs’ new cell phone rang. “Yeah, Gibbs…you mean no one has…” he sighed, “Yeah, we’ll get right on that. We’ll take care of it.”
He hung up the phone and looked at Tony. “DiNozzo, with me,” he said. “Abs, keep working on the chute"I want to find out what made it faulty.”
“You got it Bossman,” Abby called as the doors to the lab slid shut.
Tony got on the elevator with Gibbs and halfway to the next floor, Gibbs reached out and hit the button, stopping the elevator. In the four years he’d been working there, Tony had finally learned that this was a normal occurrence for Gibbs, and that most people in the office simply took the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator, as a result.
“What is it, Dad? Where we goin,” Tony asked.
“Sgt. Fuentes’ home. In all the confusion surrounding his death, no one remembered to tell his wife,” Gibbs said softly, eyes on his shoes. He remembered when Shannon and Kelly died, he’d been undercover and until it was safe to pull him out of play, no one had told him the news. Tony had been working with the Metro Police Department as a visiting officer from Peoria for a week when Gibbs finally made it home. He knew what this felt like. He knew what it was like to feel like something was wrong, but not know what and not know how to call and find out.
“But it’s been a day and a half,” Tony said, “They aren’t away on deployment, there’s no reason why no one told"” Tony stopped. “Does he have kids,” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” Gibbs said quietly. “A son, seven.”
Tony closed his eyes. “We’re going to go tell the family?”
Gibbs nodded. “Yes. They need to know.”
As the car pulled up to the house, Tony saw a tree house under construction in one of the large oak trees surrounding the house. He silently wondered what the boy’s relationship had been with his father, and whether he’d been helping his son build that tree house. He wondered if he had been, who would help him finish it now?
“I’ll do most of the talking, you be there for moral support,” Gibbs said, bracing himself for the sadness that was about to bestow itself on this family. He raised a hand and knocked sharply on the door.
A lovely woman answered the door. She looked like she was not quite as old as Tony was.
“Mrs. Fuentes?” Gibbs’ voice had taken on an almost eerie calm. There was also gentleness in his voice that Tony didn’t normally hear. People wanted to give Gibbs grief for his people skills…they’d never seen him use those skills though. The man was damn good at what he did.
“Yes?” The woman answered, a bewildered look on her face, eyes leaking the truth that she realized something was wrong, but not sure what just yet.
“My name is Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I am a Special Agent for NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service,” he stated quietly. “This is my partner, Tony DiNozzo. May we come inside?”
She put a hand to her throat and backed away, granting them access to the doorway. “By all means,” she said softly. “Please come in and sit down.”
Gibbs shot a quick look at Tony and the two men made their way into the house. The place was bright and sunny and the furniture was used but comfortable looking. Gibbs settled himself on the couch at one end, while Tony sat in an armchair at the empty end of the couch. “Please sit down with us,” Gibbs asked softly.
“What’s going on? Does this have something to do with my husband? He was supposed to be back yesterday morning, but he never showed up. I figured he was working late, but then I never heard from him…He’s told me not to call in situations like that; phone calls can only prolong things even more.”
Gibbs took a deep breath. He nodded. “Mrs. Fuentes, we came to let you know…there’s been an accident.”
“What sort of accident? Is my husband alright? Is he okay?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Fuentes. Your husband’s parachute didn’t open properly last night during his training jump. I’m afraid he’s"”
“NO! No you don’t get to tell me that he’s dead! You don’t get to tell me that! He promised me that as soon as he finished this four year sign on that he wouldn’t go back in! He was leaving the Marines! He can’t be…no, no he can’t be…”
Tears filled her eyes and Tony was surprised to see tears filling Gibbs eyes as well. The woman buried her face against Gibbs’ chest pouring out her grief. Gibbs took it all"he ran a soothing hand over her back and didn’t flinch when she pounded on his chest, demanding God to know why her husband had been taken from her. He did not try to hide his own tears running down his face, and Tony found himself becoming choked up as well.
They stayed with her while she told her son the news.
“You mean Daddy’s gone to heaven now? He isn’t coming back?”
The innocence in this child’s eyes nearly broke Gibbs. This little boy was older than Kelly had been when she’d…Gibbs slid off the couch and got down on one knee in front of the little boy.
“No son, I’m sorry. You daddy isn’t…he isn’t going to be able to come home.”
“Did the bad guys kill him? He told me sometimes he had to fight the bad guys.”
“Well we,” he motioned at himself and Tony, “are like police officers and we are trying to figure out exactly what happened to your daddy. If a bad guy hurt him, we will find them and make sure they are punished,” Gibbs promised the little boy.
The little boy nodded. He looked at Tony who offered him a sad smile, and then moved to the window. He stared outside at the tree house. Gibbs moved over behind him and saw what he was looking at.
“That’s a pretty nice tree house you got there, soldier,” he commented.
“Me and my dad were building it. We were gonna make it so you had to have a password to get inside.”
Gibbs raised one eyebrow and looked at the little boy. “Sounds like it was going to be a secret club house.”
The little boy nodded eagerly, a smile finally breaking through. Then he stopped and stared forlornly back out the window.
“Don’t matter now,” he said softly, “my dad isn’t going to come home and I don’t know how to finish it on my own. Guess I won’t.”
Gibbs took a deep breath, feeling the emotion rising in his chest. Tony spoke up then. “Well hey you know what? As soon as we figure out what happened to your dad, I bet me and Agent Gibbs could come and help you finish your tree house. What do you say, Agent Gibbs?”
The little boy spun around on Gibbs, eyes wide and hopeful. “Really you mean it? You could come help me fix it?”
Gibbs smiled and nodded and ruffled the little boy’s hair. “Well we will have to ask your mother first. But I do know a few things about building stuff, and Agent DiNozzo here is pretty good with a hammer. I bet we could help you finish it,” he said.
The little boy turned and ran to his mom who was still sitting on the couch sniffling into a tissue. “MOM! Did you hear that?! Once Agent Gibbs and Agent what-was-your-name-again,” the little boy asked spinning around to face Tony.
“Agent Tony,” Tony said with a smile.
The little boy spun back to his mother, “once Agent Gibbs and Agent Tony are finished finding the bad guys and beating them up they said they would come help me finish my tree house! Is that okay with you mom?”
Mrs. Fuentes smiled and nodded. “That’s fine with me if you’re sure they don’t mind?”
The little Fuentes turned back to the two agents by the window. “You don’t mind right?”
The two men chuckled. “Nope, we don’t mind.”
Mrs. Fuentes smiled at Gibbs and Tony"the first time she’d smiled since she’d answered the door. “Thank you,” she said softly, “for everything.”
xxx
Gibbs had pretty much narrowed their suspect list down to the jumpers on the same stick as Fuentes. He knew there was another training jump taking place that night, and he knew that they needed to be on that plane when it happened.
There was some odd activity going on surrounding this particular team of paratroopers"there was some drug activity that Gibbs wanted to get to the bottom of. He thought that one of the guys on the stick with Fuentes might be the ring leader, and he thought that Fuentes hadn’t been involved, but had somehow gotten too close. Gibbs thought that one of the guys on Fuentes’ stick had rigged his jump chute, and he figured that whoever had done it was the ring leader for whatever it was he needed to learn more about.
Gibbs and Kate entered the hanger and looked around. It was late, getting close to time to go up with the jump team and Jethro couldn’t find Tony. They still needed to execute the search warrant before the flight. “Have you seen DiNozzo,” he asked the jump team leader.
“Yeah, he’s out back with some of the guys,” the leader said, nodding with his head. Gibbs nodded his thanks and he and Kate ventured out the back. They saw a large sand pit with a platform raising out of it. Tony was standing on top of the platform"a good bit off the ground.
“What are ya doin’ DiNozzo,” Gibbs called out to him, just as Tony jumped off the platform. He was wearing a pack on his back and landed in a graceful crouch on the ground. He removed his pack and came over to join his teammates at the edge of the sandpit.
“I’m doing research for Abby,” Tony commented. “You ever jumped off a plane before, Boss? It’s kind of a rush, so they tell me. Jumping off of that thing,” he pointed at the platform, “is a rush, I can only imagine what jumping out of a plane would be like. I think tonight when we jump that"” he was cut off by the headslap. “Right Boss. Sorry Boss.”
“C’mon we have to get this search executed before the flight leaves. These guys need to practice jumping.”
“That much is obvious,” Kate snarked. “Otherwise this guy wouldn’t have died doing it.”
Gibbs was in her face in an instant. “This man died because his chute didn’t open properly. There was no mistake on his part. You have to have a heart for the victims, Agent Todd, or you will never make it working on my team. I will not tolerate such blatantly ignorant statements such as that.”
“Jesus sorry,” Kate said, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Don’t apologize Kate,” DiNozzo quipped. “Sign of weakness.”
As they were going through the riggers’ lockers, Kate noticed Gibbs was searching each pack very carefully. She motioned to Tony who noticed what Gibbs was doing. Kate sent him a questioning look and Tony shrugged.
“What are ya lookin for, Boss,” Tony asked.
Gibbs fixed him with an unreadable look. “A screwed pooch, DiNozzo,” he said.
Tony nodded, understanding, and turned back to his work. Kate though, didn’t understand. “Um Gibbs I don’t mean to sound stupid or anything, but why would you be looking for a dog whose recently"” she was cut off by a burst of laughter from Tony.
“Ohmygod that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard you say yet,” he gasped in between guffaws of laughter. Gibbs even cracked a smile. “Gibbs she’s looking for a dog whose had sex,” Tony nearly dropped onto the floor he was laughing so hard. He just couldn’t seem to stop.
Gibbs rolled his eyes to the ceiling and prayed for patience. Working with these two he would need it. “Kate a screwed pooch is the military term for a mistake. I’m looking for a mistake in one of these chutes.”
Tony, who had recovered by this point, held up a reserve. “Like this one, Boss? I mean I’m no expert on this kinda thing, but the other reserves have all been clean and this one is dirty.”
Gibbs came over and inspected it, noticing that the cone was soldered in place"the reserve chute would not work. “That’s good work Tony. I’m going to call up Captain Faul and tell him that the jump is on, but I’m not going to identify the killer.”
“Wait,” Todd said, “You know who the killer is?”
“Of course I do, Agent Todd,” Gibbs replied. “Don’t you? DiNozzo,” he said, switching gears.
“Yes Boss,” Tony said.
“Tonight we’re jumping. I want the killer to confess. We’re going to make sure he gets parachute number 13 here.”
“Wait, we’re jumping?”
“Only if we have to Tony, but our chutes will work, don’t worry.”
“Bet that’s what they told Fuentes too,” Tony grumbled.
xxx
They waited until dark to take off. One by one each stick was being called to jump. It came closer to time for Fuentes’ stick to jump. Tony swallowed thickly"he was wearing the faulty chute, and he knew it.
“Man…it’d suck to be the unlucky shmuck to screw up while checking these chutes,” Tony commented, adjusting his pack.
Dafelmair shrugged. “I checked your pack. You’re good to go.”
Tony narrowed his eyes a bit. Then he took off his pack. Theirs was the next stick to jump. “Then you won’t mind swapping me,” he said. “I mean after all, you checked all the packs, so you know they’re all safe"you won’t mind humoring a rookie jumper such as myself and swapping.”
Dafelmair swapped packs with DiNozzo. Their stick was called just then. Gibbs stepped in front of the boys before they could jump off the plane. “I know about your drug deals, Dafelmair,” he said calmly. He shot a hand out and cut the shroud lines on Dafelmair’s chute, leaving only the reserve chute"the one that was faulty.
“You don’t know nothing, cop,” Dafelmair snapped. He sounded more sure of himself than he felt though"he knew he couldn’t jump because he had a faulty chute"he’d die if he jumped, and he knew it.
“I know that if you give me the name of your supplier and confess to dealing that we can cut you a deal,” Gibbs said reasonably.
Dafelmair hesitated for a moment. Before he could speak one of the other men jumped on Dafelmair.
“He doesn’t deserve a deal,” Brinkman yelled, tackling Dafelmair to the ground. “He killed Fuentes!” Dafelmair struggled against Brinkman who slammed into Gibbs. Gibbs, knocked off balance both by the turbulence from the plane’s door being open, as well as the hit itself, stumbled backwards"right into Tony.
Tony had only managed to get his pack halfway secured before the scuffle started. Seeing that he was the closest body to the door, he worked feverishly to get his pack fastened securely, ignoring the fighting going on around him. He never saw the hit that knocked Gibbs backwards"and he didn’t see Gibbs’ arm coming up trying to find something to brace his fall on until it was much too late.
Tony stumbled backwards, nearly falling off the plane. Then he overcompensated by leaning too far forward and ended up face down on the floor of the plane. The plane bumped one time and a foot slammed into his shoulder and he went sliding out of the plane.
“BOSS!!!” Tony yelled at the top of his lungs.
Gibbs turned around, feeling his gut in his chest. Last he’d seen, Tony was still struggling to get his pack on.
“TONY!”
He heard the panicked scream from the falling man, thought he heard his name being shouted again (but Tony wouldn’t shout ‘Dad’ in the middle of a mission, no matter how bad it was, would he?), and then he breathed a quick sigh of relief when he saw the chute open and inflate as it was supposed to.
“So long, DiNozzo,” Gibbs called, feeling his gut settle.
He turned back to the men still standing on the plane, looking shocked at what had just taken place. If they weren’t in trouble before, then surely helping to accidentally toss a federal agent off a plane would get them there in a hurry.
“You gentlemen,” Gibbs said, pulling out his handcuffs, “are under arrest.”
TBC…
Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Chapter 4
by WCUGirl
The pilot radioed the hangar to alert them that MPs were needed at the plane as soon as it landed. It was another hour before the plane landed. Once on the ground, Gibbs turned Dafelmair and his other stick buddies over to the MPs and went to the man stationed at the radar desk. Each person on a plane was fitted with a locator"in case a jump went bad, they’d be able to find their boys quicker.
“Get a reading on Agent DiNozzo,” Gibbs said, “he was knocked off the plane during the scuffle.”
The man looked up at Gibbs, shock and wonder in his eyes. “Jesus man what the hell happened up there?”
“I just told you, there was a scuffle. Do you have a reading for me or not?”
“It’s scanning hold on…there…there I have him. He’s…oh that isn’t good.”
“WHAT?!” Gibbs yelled, “where the hell is my so"agent?”
“He fell into a ravine…about six miles from here…I’m alerting a helo that they need to get a team out there and get him. Looking at the history of his movement…he hasn’t moved since he landed. I hope he’s okay.”
Gibbs’ gut screamed ‘get to your boy’ but he knew he’d have to wait and do it right"if Tony needed help…well they were with the Marines"help is what they do best. He just hoped that help would arrive in time.
xxx
Tony had never felt so free"well that’s once he escaped the all encompassing fear of being knocked out of a perfectly good plane. He knew once he was on the ground, there’d be some consideration given to the fact that his dad had been the one who’d actually knocked him out of the plane"by accident of course. Once the parachute had opened (and no one told him about all the muscles THAT pulled) Tony breathed a sigh of relief and just let himself relax and enjoy the drop. He knew the landing would be tricky"he’d learned that while jumping off the platform"the only time he’d successfully landed on his feet had been the time (thank God) that Gibbs was watching him.
He saw the trees rushing up suddenly and braced himself. He missed most of them, striking one with his leg, but he didn’t think a lot of damage had been done. The parachute kept him steadily descending and his eyes widened as he saw the ravine. The same leg caught on another tree, harder this time, wedging his ankle and sending him sling-shotting forward. His leg held firm, but he wasn’t prepared for his back to be slapped up against the trunk of the tree, his head connecting solidly with it.
Tony blinked, his vision graying for a moment and he groaned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, which had miraculously remained in his pocket throughout his descent. He couldn’t get it to turn on because his hands were shaking so badly and he groaned in frustration. He was trying not to move too much because every time he moved, he could feel the tree shifting. The cell phone suddenly dropped out of his hand and without thinking, he reflexively scrambled to catch it. The sudden movement snapped the tree branch and before Tony could react any further, the branch holding his ankle snapped and he dropped like a rock"right onto the rocks below him.
Tony cried out in fear for the few seconds it took him to fall from the middle of the tree where he’d gotten stuck, through the branches to the rocky ground below him. He saw the rocks rushing up"smooth looking boulders at least"and then he hit the ground. He screamed in pain, his shoulder had wrenched terribly somewhere during the drop and now it was hurting…he felt like he’d caved in his chest and the headache he had magnified tenfold. The worst was his leg…he wasn’t sure if he’d broken it or not, but he couldn’t remember it hurting this badly since Pitt had tackled him in that doomed football game nearly ten years before. He was covered in cuts and scrapes and the only thing he could think of was how pissed off his dad was going to be at him for not mastering the landing.
It was starting to rain. Perfect. Cold rain at that. He shivered in the cool autumn evening and tried to push himself up, but moving just hurt too much. He moved enough to check that he still had the tracker they’d strapped to him, and satisfied that he had it and that it didn’t look like it was damaged, Tony did the only thing he could do. He closed his eyes and let the stress of the day and the cold of the night wash over him. It wasn’t long until he fell asleep.
xxx
It took another hour to get a helo up in the air, and Gibbs insisted that he was flying out with them. The pilots nodded"they’d heard of this legendary NCIS officer and they were not about to cross him. Not when it was his agent they were going to search for. They flew out to the coordinates that Tony’s tracker gave them, and large lights under the helo lit up the area where they believed Tony had fallen.
The chopper bobbed and rocked with the turbulence in the air from the storm"the trees rocked and swayed under the wind from the copter blades. The added wind only stirred up the rain more, causing it to blow sideways, pelting the men standing inside the copter looking out. Gibbs peered out of the open side door on the helo. Even with the light to help them see down into the ravine, it was still bathed in darkness. You really couldn’t see anything from their position. Gibbs picked up a repel line. “I’m going down there. That’s where Tony’s supposed to be. I have to get to him.”
“Agent Gibbs…do you even know what you’re doing,” one of the younger marines asked him.
Gibbs turned to him with a smirk. “I was a marine before you were even born,” he said, “I know how to slide down a damn rope,” Gibbs retorted, securing the hooks to his belt and picking up the slack. “That’s my agent down there. If I know him like I think I do, he won’t let any of you see if he’s really hurt or not. Now, I have a radio. If I need help, I’ll radio up.”
The others nodded and Gibbs slowly descended out of the helo. It didn’t take him long to get on the slippery, unlevel ground and immediately he noticed several things. He noticed that there were uncharacteristic leaves on the ground"the leaves hadn’t really started falling yet, and these leaves were still green. He saw the parachute"ripped to shreds, parts of it still hanging in the tree. Moving over to the chute, Gibbs then noticed the tree branch. Underneath the tree branch, Gibbs saw"his breath caught in his throat"there was the hunched up figure of his son.
Immediately kneeling at his son’s side, Gibbs checked him over carefully. Supporting his head and neck carefully, Gibbs turned Tony over on his back. He could feel a knot forming on the back of Tony’s head, right at the base of his skull where head and neck met. Tony’s eyes were closed and he was shivering in the chilly night air, but he didn’t appear to be unconscious, instead looking to be asleep.
“Tony, can you hear me,” Gibbs yelled over the sound of the helo, some fifty feet up.
Tony’s eyelids fluttered a bit. “That’s it Tony, c’mon, wake up. You can do it son, snap out of it. Wake up DiNozzo,” Gibbs tried again. This time he shook his shoulder a bit. He was rewarded with a groan. Gibbs couldn’t tell if it was a groan of protest or one of pain. The rain fell harder, pelting Gibbs on the back of his head and neck, pelting Tony in the face.
“Tony wake up. Wake up son, come on.” Gibbs was getting desperate and trying not to show it.
Tony groaned again and this time his eyes flickered open. Gibbs couldn’t immediately see his eyes open, nor could he see if his pupils were sluggish or uneven in the partial darkness. Gibbs did see Tony’s eyes start to slide shut again.
“No, no, no you stay awake,” Gibbs barked. He picked up his radio. “I need a basket down here,” he called to the helo, “he’s not going to be able to hold onto the rope to get into the helo.” Immediately the cord he’d descended on began to recede into the helo. Gibbs turned back to Tony.
“Can you hear me Tony? Come on son you need to wake up. You’re on the ground now; your jump is over, snap out of it. C’mon wake up.”
“D…Dad…” Tony stuttered. He let out a deep yawn. Gibbs’ eyes narrowed a bit. He was concerned that Tony had been sleeping on the ground here after obviously taking a knock to the head. Gibbs couldn’t tell if he was in shock…he couldn’t tell how badly Tony was hurt and that really bothered him. He needed to get them out of there, and he needed to do it quickly. Tony needed medical attention.
“Right here Tony. Wake up, c’mon I don’t pay you to sleep on the job, stay with me.”
Tony’s eyes blinked slowly and he tried to focus them on his dad. “Dad,” he said again softly. He moved like he was going to sit up, then collapsed back onto the ground with a groan.
“Yeah. Hey Tony, come on, we gotta get you out of that chute. Are you dizzy? Can you sit up?”
With some help, Tony finally raised himself into a seated position. Gibbs inserted himself behind Tony so that his son could prop against him if he needed to. He set to work on unfastening the chute pack from Tony’s shoulders. Tony whimpered in pain.
“I know, I know it hurts, but you’re ok, yeah? Gonna be alright. We’re gonna get you out of here, just hang on.”
“Dad…There was a ravine…tried to keep out of it…tree wedged my ankle…got my cell phone out to call you…think it’s busted,” Tony murmured. He looked around, trying to find his phone, but in the darkness he couldn’t see it. “Lost my phone,” he continued, “I need to find my phone, Dad,” he sounded so scared and desperate and, Gibbs swallowed, young.
Gibbs heard a noise above them and looked up. There was a basket descending for them, just like he’d requested. “Will we both fit in that,” he called into his radio.
10-4 Agent Gibbs. You are a go for loading both of you into the basket.
“Alright Tony, it’s alright now, don’t worry about your phone. Right now we gotta get in the basket,” he said.
“My phone,” Tony said, looking around more frantically now. He needed to find it, he couldn’t be without a phone!
Gibbs sighed. “Just leave it Tony. We’ll get you a new one. It’s okay. For now we have to go"the storm is getting worse.” Gibbs scooped his son up from behind, under his arms. Tony cried out in pain when he was jostled but Gibbs didn’t stop. It was time to move. “I know,” he chanted, “I know it hurts, I know and I’m sorry…just a little bit more…a little bit more and you can rest…c’mon Tony,” he said softly, right into Tony’s ear.
With Gibbs’ help, Tony managed to seat himself successfully inside the basket. Gibbs climbed in behind him and inserted himself behind his son as he’d been on the ground. Tony leaned weakly on him. Gibbs wrapped his arms around his shivering boy, holding him close and trying to keep him warm, and called out the ready signal into the radio. The helo began to ascend, as the basket was drawn back up into the bay area. Tony whimpered in fear and pressed back more against Gibbs as the basket was drawn farther up.
“I don’t wanna…I don’t wanna fly anymore…don’t wanna hang anymore…please don’t leave me hanging like this,” Tony whispered. “Please…no more please…”
Gibbs held his son as tightly as he dared, trusting the marines to draw them up safely. He knew there was a medic on board to help them as soon as they made it into the helo. “It’s alright now Tony…you’re safe…gonna be alright now.”
“Can’t believe…you knocked me…out of the plane,” Tony said softly, yawning again and fighting sleep. Gibbs froze. He didn’t remember it at first, but as soon as Tony said the words, he most certainly remembered that Brinkman and Dafelmair had slammed into him, and in the ensuing stumble, he’d slammed into Tony, apparently knocking him out of the plane.
Before Gibbs could respond, they were back up inside the helicopter. A cot had been laid out for Tony and Gibbs helped him to stretch out slowly onto it. They covered him with a thermal blanket and Gibbs sat by Tony’s head. He watched as they checked him for severe injuries. Tony eventually closed his eyes and appeared to fall asleep. Gibbs kept a close watch on him, making sure he was just sleeping. He recalled the night Tony had been attacked by the drug dealers"they thought Tony was only sleeping on the ambulance, but he’d gone into cardiac arrest. It didn’t take them long before they were landing back at the base.
The medic from the helo stayed by Tony’s side as crew members slowly lowered Tony down onto firm land again. Gibbs heard Tony murmur a quiet “thank God,” as he was escorted away to the infirmary. Gibbs took a moment to thank the pilot and crew for their help, before heading down after Tony.
On his way to see about Tony, Gibbs ran into Kate. She was looking decidedly anxious and Gibbs assured her that they’d found Tony and that he would be alright. “You’ve had a big day, Kate,” he added softly, “why don’t you head on back to the office. Finish your report and I will see you in after lunch tomorrow. We’re all taking the morning off,” Gibbs said. “You did good, kid,” he added.
Kate nodded her thanks and then began making her way out. “Agent Gibbs,” she called back to him, just before he stepped through the doors to the infirmary.
“Yeah Kate?”
“Don’t…uh that is…would you mind not making a big deal of it to Tony that I was um…that I was concerned? I mean I just met you guys; I’d hate for him to think I’m some kind of a sap or something.”
Gibbs chuckled. “Oh he already does, Agent Todd,” he said. He laughed out loud when he saw the look on Kate’s face. She turned without another word and left.
Gibbs entered the infirmary and glanced around until he saw Tony. Tony was laid back on a gurney, head resting on an ice pack, while they tended to his ankle. He frowned a bit when he saw the condition his boy was in.
“Is he okay,” Gibbs asked as he drew up next to the gurney beside his son.
“He’s doing just fine Agent Gibbs. He’s conscious, coherent, with no double vision or nausea. He bruised some ribs, strained his shoulder a bit and he fractured his ankle, but other than that, he seems to be no worse for wear. He’ll be on a crutch for a bit, but other than that he should be fit for full duty again in no time.”
Gibbs took in the look on Tony’s face. Tony’s eyes were at half mast and he appeared to be focusing very hard on some faraway point on the wall.
“DiNozzo, you with me?”
“BOSS!” Tony’s smile nearly split his face in two as his gaze slid over to his dad. It seemed Tony was just noticing Gibbs’ presence for the first time since his arrival. “Heeeeeeeeey Boss! I’m so glad you’re here! Can we go home yet?”
Gibbs took a deep breath and turned back to the medic who was now finished patching Tony up and washing his hands. “You didn’t give him any painkillers, did you?”
“Gave him a pretty good shot of them, why,” the medic asked.
“Oh no reason,” Gibbs said smiling. “He’s just kind of a handful when you give him painkillers.”
“He’d be in a lot of pain, otherwise,” the medic stated.
“Yeah Boss I’d be in a lot of pain otherwise,” Tony snarked. “As it is, right now I’m not feeling a thing!”
Gibbs smiled. God help him. “That’s good Tony,” he said softly, “I’m glad you’re not hurting.”
There was a few moments of silence while the medic was finishing up and Tony was resting on the gurney with Gibbs close by his side. The medic backed up from the table and gave Tony a firm pat on his good leg. “Can we go home now, Dad,” Tony asked.
The medic raised an eyebrow. Gibbs shook his head. “Do you feel like going by the office first Tony?”
Tony nodded and sat up too fast and swooned on the table. “Thought you said he didn’t have a concussion,” Gibbs growled at the medic.
The medic checked again, just to be sure. “Nope, he’s fine, just sat up too fast I’d imagine,” he said.
“Alright Jumper,” Gibbs said, wrapping Tony’s good arm around his shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”
xxx
Tony fell asleep again in the car, which made Gibbs breathe a sigh of relief because it gave him a break from the earful of near constant chattering about absolutely nothing that his son was giving him. Gibbs thought back over the case, the events of it, how he’d nearly lost Tony"by his own fault"and how relieved he’d felt when he found him mostly alright at the bottom of the ravine. He slowed down a bit as he drove"driving the speed limit for a change. He decided it would be best for Tony if he had a chance to get some rest without being slung all over the passenger seat of the car. Despite the painkillers and the wraps and bandages, Tony’s face still held lines of pain that weren’t going away. Gibbs didn’t want to do anything to make them worse.
It was nearly ten in the evening when Gibbs pulled into the parking lot at the Navy Yard. He glanced over at Tony, slumped heavily forward in his seat, head resting on the seatbelt, and he was reminded of the birthday when he’d gone to visit Tony who had been undercover the weekend before, who had been too tired to do anything other than ride back to his dad’s house and sleep for three days. Gibbs called his son’s name softly and reached out a hand to touch his shoulder.
Tony immediately shot awake and jerked back from the touch, resulting in his face contorting in pain and the lines around his eyes getting even deeper, a soft moan escaping his lips before he could stop it.
“Hey, you okay,” Gibbs asked softly.
Tony blinked blearily at his surroundings, trying to place where he was. “Time is it,” he asked, rubbing his good hand into his eyes like a sleepy toddler.
“Nearly eleven. You sure you’re up to this? Won’t take long, just a few minutes. Then we’ll head home and get you to bed.”
Tony nodded. “It’s fine Dad. Slowly he opened the car door and moved even slower getting to his feet. He had a crutch to use under his good arm to help support the walking boot he had on his fractured ankle.
“Damn crutch,” Tony grumbled. He hated being on painkillers. They made him feel weird, act weird, and they really screwed with his perception. He stumbled over the curb stepping up onto the sidewalk and would have fallen if Gibbs hadn’t been there to catch him.
“Hope Kate’s gone,” Tony commented as they finally made their way into the elevator. The elevator lurched to life and Tony pressed his good hand to his stomach and groaned softly.
“I’m going to give Ducky a call and see if he’s still here,” Gibbs commented. “I’d like him to take a look at you and reaffirm what the medic at the hangar already told me. Are you sure you’re alright?”
Tony spoke softly in the dimly lit elevator. “I kinda feel like crap to be honest.”
Gibbs knew it had to be true if Tony was actually admitting it out loud. He never complained or commented at all about how he was feeling unless he really felt terrible. Gibbs had to watch his boy constantly or he’d really just let himself go. Arriving at his desk, Gibbs picked up the phone and called Ducky. Ducky had already gone home for the evening, but he assured Gibbs that if Tony needed him during the night all he needed to do was call.
Tony settled down at his desk and started to write his report but nodded off in the middle of it. Gibbs watched with a smile as Tony’s head bobbed forward"he’d catch himself then sit back up, only to nod off again. Finally his head dipped, and Tony nodded off and stayed asleep. Gibbs continued working, more determined than ever to get his paperwork finished so he could get Tony home quickly. The sound of the late news starting pulled Tony from his slumber, and he keyed the news up on the big screen to watch the report of their big drug bust. He frowned at the end of the report, pissed that NCIS hadn’t even been mentioned"“apprehended by the authorities,” Tony snorted, shaking his head.
He stood up and clicked the television off and limped over to Gibbs’ desk. Every inch of him was screaming in pain and he knew the best thing for him to do was to just go lie down somewhere soft for a night or three.
“Gibbs?”
“Yeah Tony?”
“How come we never make the late news?”
Gibbs smirked. “We might have tonight if you had broken your neck when you fell.”
Tony chuckled and shook his head. “You ready to go home, son,” Gibbs asked him.
Tony nodded. “Yeah. I’m thinking sleeping for a year sounds like an awesome plan right now, Boss.”
“Alright, let’s call it a night then,” Gibbs said. He stood up from his desk and grabbed his keys and his cell phone. Just as he picked up the phone it began to ring.
“Seriously,” Tony whined. “Can’t we please have one night off?”
Gibbs looked at the caller ID. Lauren. He almost answered it"considered answering it. This woman felt it necessary to vent to him, the least he could do was listen right? Gibbs thought back over the events of the evening. He’d put Lauren before Tony when Shannon had been killed and had nearly lost his son in the process as a result. He wouldn’t put the woman before Tony again. He silenced the phone and put it in his pocket and followed Tony to the elevator.
He had better things to worry about tonight.
TBC…
Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Chapter 5
by WCUGirl
Gibbs kept a steadying hand under Tony’s good elbow while leading him slowly into the house. After falling asleep in the car again, it seemed Tony was down for the count and was barely awake at all as Gibbs led him up the stairs into the house. He paused inside the door long enough to lock it (something he very rarely did) and then considered how he was going to get Tony up the stairs and into his bed.
He gently pulled Tony’s good arm around his shoulders and Tony’s head lolled forward, resting on Gibbs’ shoulder, face tucked in close to Gibbs’ neck. His boy let out a tired moan, and his breathing was even. Tony was very nearly asleep.
“Okay, alright, I gotcha, sok now, c’mon here we go,” Gibbs muttered to himself as he lugged the heavy man toward the stairs. He stopped at the bottom of them and stared at the top. No way. There was no way he’d be able to get Tony up the stairs without hurting him. He turned instead and headed back to the living room. He eased Tony down onto the couch and then headed for the den. He knew the overstuffed couch in the den would pull out into the most comfortable couch-bed he’d ever experienced. Plus the den was also where Tony’s television was located. Since Tony wasn’t able to get up the stairs, the den would be the perfect solution. Tony could rest downstairs here until he felt like moving upstairs later.
Gibbs quickly set up the queen-size couch-bed, ran upstairs and got Tony’s pillows and blankets off of his bed upstairs, grabbed a handful of his movies off the shelf and returned to the den. On the way, he stopped in the living room long enough to sneak a peek at his son. Tony was slumped sideways on the couch"lying down with his feet still on the floor. He looked like he was sleeping soundly. Gibbs knew he needed to get his boy settled in a hurry. He quickly made Tony’s bed in the den and ran back upstairs to get some sweats to help his son change into. Once everything was ready, Gibbs returned to the living room to collect his poor injured boy and put him to bed.
“Tony,” Gibbs said softly. “Tony come on, let’s get you up, we’ve got to walk just a tiny way into the den.”
Tony let out a long mournful groan as his body was moved yet again. Moving around seemed to be what caused him the most pain, and Gibbs gritted his teeth against the pained whimper that escaped his son’s lips, seemingly without his permission, as Gibbs levered him up off the couch. Tony was nearly unable to support his own weight at all by this point and when Gibbs finally got him standing, he leaned forward, resting his weight heavily on Gibbs who accepted the burden without complaint.
“Come on son,” Gibbs said softly. “Let’s get you to bed.” He carefully led his exhausted, injured boy out of the living room and down the short hallway to the den. He helped Tony change and it wasn’t until he eased him back against his pillows, that Tony’s eyes fluttered open, really seeing Gibbs for the first time since they’d been home.
“Dad,” Tony slurred.
“Right here son, take it easy now. Gonna get some sleep, and tomorrow you’ll feel better.”
“Did you really come save me,” Tony whispered softly.
“Of course I did. I knocked you off the plane,” Gibbs said with a weak smile, “least I could do is come fetch you out of the ravine you landed in.”
Tony’s good hand snaked out from under the blanket and grabbed hold of Jethro’s hand. “Thanks,” he whispered, giving the hand a gentle squeeze, before dropping off to sleep, holding onto his dad’s hand.
Jethro carefully raised his boy’s hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to it. “My boy,” he whispered. “I am so sorry you got hurt again.”
“Don’ ‘pol…gize…” Tony slurred softly, almost whispering. “Signa weakn’s…”
“Go to sleep Tony,” Gibbs said softly, brushing his fingers soothingly through Tony’s hair.
Gibbs sat next to Tony for a long time after he fell asleep, simply watching him and reassuring himself that he was, in fact, mostly ok. Once he was sure Tony was resting and safe, Gibbs eased himself up off of the edge of the couch-bed and headed to the basement.
He’d been hard at work, sanding out his demons for a couple of hours when he heard the strangled moan come from upstairs. He put the sanding block down and moved quickly to the den to check on Tony.
Tony was twisted up in his blankets. He’d managed to turn himself so he was lying on his bad shoulder, face dug deeply into the mattress, and Gibbs wondered at the fact that he’d been able to hear Tony make any noise at all. Tony was fighting something in his sleep, trying to get himself free and he groaned and shifted as his movements brought him pain. Gibbs eased himself down on the edge of the bed where he’d been perched earlier and began the process of waking Tony up.
“Tony,” he called softly, reaching out a hand and placing it gently on Tony’s shoulder blade.
“Nooo,” Tony moaned.
“Tony wake up, it’s a bad dream kiddo, c’mon son wake up,” Gibbs tried again. He was used to Tony’s nightmares"he knew the drill. He rubbed his hand gently up and down Tony’s back, being mindful of the bruised ribs, but wanting to offer any comfort he could to his son, letting him know he was there.
Gibbs watched Tony’s movements carefully. He was kicking his legs (that had to hurt with a fractured ankle) and he was tugging at something invisible at his shoulders. It only took Gibbs a moment to figure out the nightmare"Tony was dreaming about falling out of the plane. He decided it was time to take more drastic measures.
“Wake up Tony,” Gibbs called, a bit louder this time. He rolled Tony over in bed and patted him on the face a couple of times. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a concussion check while he was here.
Tony suddenly shot straight up in bed, but immediately curled over on himself. “Owwww,” he whimpered, wrapping his good arm around his ribs as he leaned forward. He took several deep breaths and blinked his eyes open.
What had happened? He didn’t understand it, but one minute he was hanging in the tree where he’d been trapped after being knocked off the plane, the next minute he was in a bed, somewhere, and every inch of his body hurt. He could hear someone speaking through the fog of pain he was in…was it…Gibbs?
“D-dad,” he whispered, barely able to form words"he was in so much pain, he just wanted to die.
“Right here Tony. C’mon lay back. You’re all twisted up, it’s no wonder you’re hurting. Lay back c’mon.”
“Hurtssssssss,” Tony hissed softly.
“The medic at the hangar told me the shot he gave you would last twelve hours,” Gibbs recalled, almost to himself.
“Didn’t,” Tony ground out, fingers clutching the blankets, back almost arching in pain. Gibbs pressed a gentle hand to his son’s forehead. He felt a bit warm, but that could be from the pain, and from being out in the rain for so long. He wouldn’t get sick from this, too, would he?
“Want me to call Ducky?”
“Don’t care…want it to stop hurting,” Tony whispered, rolling his head back and forth on the pillow trying to stay awake. “Don’ leave me,” he added desperately, but it was so quiet Gibbs nearly didn’t hear it.
Gibbs pulled out his cell phone. “Not goin’ anywhere Tony. I’m right here…Duck,” he clipped out, all business in his tone. “Sorry to wake you but it’s Tony. The painkillers the medic gave him wore off too early. He’s in a lot of pain…”
~I’ll be right over Jethro~ came Ducky’s Scottish drawl over the line. For once, Ducky hung up before Gibbs did.
Gibbs turned back to Tony, who was still clutching tightly at the blankets with his good hand. He remembered when Tony’d had his wrist operated on"he hadn’t been able to have any painkillers for a while because there had been the threat on his life…this was too much like that…he needed to do SOMETHING to help his son. Gibbs picked up Tony’s good hand.
“Squeeze it Tony,” he said softly, “Tight as you need to. Ducky’s coming. Just hang on a few more minutes, alright?”
Tony squeezed his dad’s hand tight, and nodded, his eyes closed. If the pattern was any indication, Tony would squeeze and relax on Jethro’s hand as the pain waves rolled over him"it would get very bad, and then would back off a bit. That was how Ducky found them a few minutes later when he used his key to unlock the door. It concerned him that the door was locked in the first place, but it was not uncommon"whenever someone (Tony) was injured, Gibbs had a habit of circling the wagons to protect whoever it was (Tony) until they felt better. That the door was locked indicated to Ducky just how severe the situation was. No one was getting into this house tonight who could hurt Tony Gibbs-DiNozzo.
“My dear boy, what seems to be the trouble,” Ducky asked quietly, setting his medical bag on the bed and opening it. He eyed Tony carefully in the dim light of the den. Tony was pale and sweating; there were deep lines of pain around his eyes and his mouth was twisted into a grimace.
“Everything hurts Ducky,” Tony whispered.
“Alright lad, let me just take a look.”
Ducky was taken aback at the bruises on Tony’s chest and back. His ankle was quite swollen still, despite the walking boot, the pillows piled underneath and the ice pack Gibbs had put on his ankle just before Ducky arrived. Tony’s breathing sounded a bit labored, but Ducky reasoned that could be a combination of both pain from his ribs as well as his earlier exposure to the elements.
Ducky carefully examined his patient without commenting. He knew Gibbs was watching his every move, but he also knew that Gibbs trusted him completely. The fact that he trusted him with his son was very humbling to Ducky. After a gentle, but through examination, Ducky looked up at Gibbs.
“He’s quite alright Jethro, but I’m afraid the painkillers have indeed worn off. I’m going to write him a prescription and give him a shot tonight to get him through until you can get to the pharmacy in the morning.”
Ducky drew the shot without another word and instead of wincing and complaining like Tony would normally do, he breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the cool painkiller enter his bloodstream. In a matter of minutes his breathing had calmed down and his eyes were sliding shut.
“Get some sleep Tones,” Gibbs said quietly, leaning over to press a kiss to Tony’s forehead.
“Hey Dad,” Tony said sleepily, fighting the drugs to stay awake long enough to talk to his dad.
“Yeah son,” Gibbs said, looking at his boy with concern.
“’m sorry,” Tony mumbled, starting to lose the battle to stay awake. That statement though, got Gibbs’ attention.
“Sorry for what, Tony?”
“Sorry for thinking you wouldn’t come save me now that you have Kate…know you like her Boss,” Tony whispered.
Ducky drew a sharp breath, but refrained from comment under Gibbs’ stare.
“I will always come for you, Tony, you hear me,” Gibbs said firmly, tapping his son on the top of the head. “You are my son and my agent, and both of those guarantees you will never be left behind. Clear?”
Tony’s eyes rolled back in his head but he managed a slow nod as sleep pulled him under. “Cryst’l B’sss,” he slurred softly, falling asleep instantly.
Gibbs sat with his gaze fixed on Tony for another long moment before finally tearing it away and looking at Ducky.
“I nearly lost him tonight, Ducky,” he said quietly.
“My dear boy, tell me what happened. I know you said Tony was knocked off the plane, but I feel like there is more to the story than you are telling me. What happened up there?”
Gibbs stalked off to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. He also put on a kettle of water to boil and got out the tea canister for Ducky. Jethro sat down at one of the stools at the bar and ran a hand over his forehead.
“We were going to force Dafelmair into confessing,” he started quietly, “which we did, and it went off without a hitch…until I said Dafelmair would be able to get a deal from us.”
“What happened Jethro? You appear to be in quite a state over the events of this evening.”
“There was a scuffle once I said that we’d make him a deal. His cronies apparently had decided that Dafelmair didn’t deserve a deal. The perps got into a scuffle and slammed into me. I lost my balance because of the turbulence from the storm and slammed backwards into Tony. Tony…I knocked him out of the plane. He didn’t even have his chute on fully, Ducky,” Gibbs whispered. “Oh God,” he whispered shakily, “Ducky I almost killed my son,” he whispered, a couple of tears escaping to his horror. “If he hadn’t spent all that time this afternoon practicing what to do when you jump out of a plane and when you land…Duck he wouldn’t have known what to do…and I…I fussed at him for screwing around! He was wasting time we could have been using to investigate the perps! I…I just…”
“Hush now Jethro,” Ducky said gently, “pull yourself together man. Anthony is going to be just fine. He’s a little banged up"which for Anthony is nothing new or unusual. He will make a full recovery. I know tonight must have been terrifying, my friend, but you have to keep your head. Tony is alive and he is fine.”
“He blames me,” Gibbs said matter-of-factly, taking a sip from his coffee cup and staring at the counter.
“He’s out of his head in pain right now, Jethro. You can’t really take much of what he says to heart right now. Give him some time to get himself together a bit more and the I suggest that you and he discuss the events together.”
“We’ve worked so hard for so long Duck…we’ve worked so hard to get him to a point where he feels like he can trust me and come to me with anything and then something like this…I don’t blame him if he hates me,” Gibbs said quietly, head bowed low, eyes on his lap.
The two chatted for a while longer, before Ducky went home, satisfied that Jethro had worked through his demons and that Tony would be fine. He had no doubts that as soon as the sun rose Jethro would go to the pharmacy to get the medications that Tony needed. It wouldn’t take long for the boy to make a full recovery.
Before turning in, Gibbs went back to check on Tony one last time. Tony was lying very much in the same position Gibbs and Ducky had left him in an hour before"on his back, injured shoulder/arm resting on a pillow, good arm curled up near his face, injured ankle on several pillows to keep it elevated and a soft duvet covering the whole package. Ducky had confirmed that Tony did not have a concussion, and advised Jethro that in the morning a hot bath with Epsom salts may do his aches and pains a world of good.
Gibbs couldn’t resist sitting down on the bed again, this time near Tony’s foot and just watching his son. That fact still amazed him"after all of this time, all of the times he’d screwed up, this boy, no, this man still called him “dad” and still came to him for advice as well as comfort, reassurance or the occasional headslap. Gibbs watched as Tony stirred, determined not to make any sounds to encourage his boy to wake up when he so desperately needed the rest. Gibbs prided himself that he did not groan when Tony opened his eyes.
Tony did groan.
Gibbs moved up a little closer to keep Tony from moving around too much and stirring his injuries.
“You okay,” he asked quietly, fingers brushing through his boy’s hair.
“Mmh,” Tony grunted softly, eyes sliding shut, still heavily medicated.
“Just sleep Tony. You need the rest; it’ll help you feel better.”
Tony blinked his eyes open. Gibbs raised one eyebrow as Tony looked around the room before finally settling his gaze on the clock on the cable hookup box.
“Time is it?”
“Just after four in the morning. You need sleep.”
“So do you.”
“I don’t need sleep. You know me.”
“I know you say you don’t need sleep…but if you stay up too long then I’ll find you asleep under your boat,” Tony snickered, then broke off when the laughter caused his ribs to catch.
“Easy there, funny man,” Gibbs said softly.
“Dad?”
“Yeah Tony? You need something?”
Tony reached down and grabbed Gibbs’ hand. He squeezed it. “I’m sorry about what I said.”
“It’s forgotten, Tony.”
“No Dad…I mean it…I don’t blame you for knocking me out of the plane…hell if I hadn’t been standing there they would have knocked you out of the plane.”
“You think I wouldn’t give anything to switch places with you right now? To be able to take those hurts and pains away from you? I’d gladly be lying there drugged up right now to have spared you this, Tony. I was so scared…and then I saw your chute open and…God help me I relaxed"I knew you were fine then! And the landing…aww son I’m so sorry you got hurt! I’m sorry it took us so long to get to you and I’m sorry you were alone"”
“Dad?”
Gibbs cut himself off when Tony spoke. His son’s voice was tired and waning quickly. Gibbs knew there was more to this conversation, but he knew they’d settled the hard part.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t think…I’ve ever heard you say you’re sorry…that many times,” Tony said slowly, getting sleepy again.
Gibbs raised one eyebrow. “You want me to take it back,” he quipped.
Tony shook his head slightly. “Wish I could have got it on tape though,” he whispered.
“Alright smartass…” Gibbs said jovially, “you just wait til you’re back on your feet and we’ll see what’s what.”
“C’n take you…any day…”
“You haven’t done it yet! Not in fourteen years,” Gibbs snarked.
“Holding…back…old man,” Tony whispered.
“Old?! I’ll show you old, Pipsqueak!”
This time there was no answer. Gibbs glanced down at his son whose eyes had slid fully shut and who was finally resting peacefully on the bed. He slowly raised himself off the couch-bed and turned the lamp down a click to make it even more dim in the room but still give a bit of light.
“Goodnight,” he whispered.
Gibbs marched himself straight up the stairs and put himself to bed. He wouldn’t be caught sleeping under that boat again. He knew he’d never hear the end of it. Besides…he had a feeling that Tony was going to give him a run for his money over the next few days.
It might pay to be well rested.
TBC…
Chapter 6--final by WCUGirl
Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Chapter 6
by WCUGirl
There was much arguing, sputtering, cursing and gnashing of teeth, but eventually Gibbs won. Tony took the rest of the week off, much to his dismay, and Ducky backed Gibbs on the decision. Once his broken body had a week off to mend, they’d consider letting him come back for desk duty only.
Tony whined and huffed and griped and complained about being bored, being lonely, being out of the loop, and being replaced while Gibbs simply smiled and took the abuse gratefully. He was still so thankful that Tony was even here to argue with him; he’d take whatever he could get from his son.
Gibbs was hard at work at his desk, two weeks after Dafelmair’s arrest and Tony’s first week back on light active duty. He was still wearing the walking boot, so he couldn’t chase down any suspects, but he could visit crime scenes, shoot and sketch and examine evidence. There hadn’t been many cases, for which Tony and Gibbs were both grateful"Gibbs knew Tony would probably break protocol and run after a perp with a fractured ankle, and Tony knew Gibbs would have his ass if he chased after a perp with a fractured ankle, but didn’t want to leave his dad with no one on his six either.
So for a change Gibbs and Tony were both glad to be stuck in the bullpen.
Kate, on the other hand, was going to go completely crazy if DiNozzo didn’t stop shooting spit wads at her.
“GIBBS!” Kate had finally had enough, it was Friday, after lunch, and Tony had been on her mercilessly since Monday morning at 0900.
“Agent Todd is there a problem,” Gibbs asked calmly, fully engrossed in the cold case he was studying.
“Can you PLEASE tell your SENIOR FIELD AGENT to act like a Senior Field Agent and not a senior in High School?”
“DiNozzo,” Gibbs barked, again without looking up.
“Yeah Boss?”
“How’s that Bolick case coming?”
“I’m waiting on a call back from the star witness who has yet to prove their presence at the crime scene, Boss,” Tony replied.
“Think you can find something productive to do while you wait so Kate will relax,” Gibbs snarked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Boss,” Tony said sweetly, winking at Kate.
“I mean quit shooting spit wads at Kate, DiNozzo! Find something else to do!”
“On it Boss,” Tony replied.
The bullpen was quiet for a few moments until Kate squealed in pain. “TONY!”
Gibbs looked up this time, his expression one that had struck fear into the hearts of many. But never Tony.
“DINOZZO! Did I or did I not tell you to quit shooting spit wads at Kate?!”
“You did Boss. I didn’t shoot a spit wad at Kate.”
“Then why did she scream like she’d been shot?”
“Because he shot me with a rubber band Gibbs,” Kate whined.
Gibbs rose from his desk to confiscate the projectile objects from his son and deliver a headslap when his desk phone rang. He sighed. DiNozzo’s headslap would have to wait. He snatched the phone up.
“Yeah, Gibbs,” he said tiredly.
Agent Gibbs?
“Yeah?”
This is Billy Fuentes sir.
“Hi Billy,” Gibbs said in a more friendly tone. At that, Gibbs noted that Tony stopped harassing Kate and seemed to be listening in on half of the conversation.
I was just wondering, Mr. Gibbs, sir, since you caught the bad guys who killed my daddy…if you and Agent Tony are still going to come over and help me with my tree house, the little boy asked hopefully.
Gibbs smiled. Perfect distraction. “I tell you what, Billy. Agent Tony and I will be there tomorrow morning at 0700 to help you. We had to wait a little while before doing it because Agent Tony got hurt.”
He saw Tony blink in horror at the early hour Gibbs named on a Saturday. He smiled snarkily.
Thank you Agent Gibbs. My momma said I maybe shouldn’t call you because you’re so busy, but I was just wondering.
“It’s no bother at all Billy,” Gibbs replied. “We’re glad to help. We’ll see you in the morning, alright?”
Momma said she will make cim-a-none buns for breakfast.
Gibbs smiled. “Tell your momma that Agent Tony and I LOVE cinnamon buns.”
The little boy giggled. He and Gibbs chatted for a few more minutes, before Billy put his mother on the phone so she could finalize details with the special agent. Smiling, Gibbs hung up the phone at the end of the conversation and turned to Tony.
“DiNozzo we’re meeting at Fuentes’ house in the morning at 0700 to help Billy finish his tree house,” Gibbs said.
“But Boss how am I going to be able to help,” Tony implored, indicating the walking boot still on his foot.
“There is plenty of work to be done on the ground DiNozzo,” Gibbs replied, “unless you’re in the habit of disappointing little boys whose daddies have just died,” he asked innocently. “You did suggest we help, after all,” Gibbs reasoned.
Tony narrowed his eyes, but knew he’d lost. “You’re right Boss. I’m sure we’ll find something for me to do to be helpful.”
“If all else fails, you could always throw spit wads at Billy’s mom,” Gibbs snarked.
“No way Gibbs! I mean I wouldn’t"she’s a lady boss"I couldn’t possibly"”
“WAIT! STOP! Hold it right there mister,” Kate cut in. “You can’t shoot spit wads at a lady, but you can shoot them at me? Am I not a lady, DiNozzo?”
Gibbs raised one eyebrow to see what Tony would say in response to Kate’s accusation. He was amused when Tony didn’t even blink.
“Agent Todd I have a hard time thinking of anyone who carries a gun as a lady,” Tony said, “There is something about that to me that just doesn’t seem to add up,” he added, his tone indicating that he was only joking.
“I think you’re just worried that I can out shoot you, Tony,” Kate snarked. Indeed Kate had no idea about Tony’s sniper training"she had no idea the skill that he possessed when it came to nailing targets.
“I doubt that very seriously,” Tony responded. He wasn’t in any hurry to show off his skill, but he wasn’t going to mislead Kate either.
“Twenty bucks says I can shoot a target 10 times, and hit the same spot every time from 25 meters,” Kate suggested.
“Twenty bucks says I can shoot a target 15 times, and hit the same spot every time from 100 meters,” Tony retorted, “with my LEFT hand.”
Gibbs smirked at the two. It seemed to him that there would always be a competition between the two of them. They were starting to hit it off rather well; they worked well together, even if they annoyed the piss out of everyone around them.
“Enough,” Gibbs stated. “Sunday morning, 0700, NCIS firing range. We’ll see who wins that bet,” he said. He smirked when Tony’s face showed even more horror than it had when Gibbs ordered him to give up his Saturday.
This time Kate hesitated. “I um. I have mass on Sunday morning, Gibbs,” she stated. “That’s if we don’t have a case.”
“Agent Todd I expect we’ll be done long before time for mass,” Gibbs replied. “But in the interest of making sure you get to the church on time, 0600 works better for me. Gives me less time to kill between waking up and meeting up with you two.”
“0600? Sunday? Seriously?! Boss…it’s the weekend,” Tony was seriously whining now. This was not okay with him at all.
“Keep talking DiNozzo. Wanna make it 0500?”
“No Boss. 0600 works just fine for me. I’ll be here.”
“Kate?”
“I’ll be here Gibbs,” she said grimly, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut.
“Good,” Gibbs said. “Oh and by the way, Agent Todd?”
“Yes?”
Gibbs held up his own twenty dollar bill. “Twenty dollars says you miss your target on your eighth round.” He held up another twenty. “Twenty more dollars says I can shoot each of your targets twelve times, alternating between the two without ever moving my body and hitting the same spot each time on each target"”
“Oh please,” Kate said, “That’s too easy"”
“From a thousand meters,” Gibbs finished. Kate paled.
“Don’t take the bet Kate,” DiNozzo warned. “He was a sniper in the marines. You won’t win!”
Kate squared her shoulders. “You’re on.” She would just make sure she stopped by the bank on Saturday. Easy. Piece of cake.
xxx
Saturday morning found the Gibbses arriving at the Fuentes home just about the time the sun came up. The cold morning air was doing nothing for Tony’s ankle and he was walking with a bad limp, but he’d been up on time and was in the kitchen munching on a bowl of fruit loops when Gibbs arrived to pick him up at his apartment.
It seemed there was much to do on the ground, and Tony quickly busied himself with staining the boards with a water sealer to keep moisture from the weather from rotting the boards. Sgt. Fuentes had built the frame of the house before his fatal leap, so Gibbs picked up where he’d left off and was currently putting the newly dried boards that Tony had finished along the bottom to make a floor for the tree house.
When they’d arrived, Billy’s mom came outside and told them that Billy was still sleeping"apparently the kid had a rough night and there had been several nightmares about his father’s death. Gibbs and Tony nodded understandingly and told her to let the boy sleep and they would make sure there was still plenty for him to do when he got up. Mrs. Fuentes brought them each a cup of coffee and watched from the kitchen window as the two special agents worked on her son’s tree house.
Around 9am Billy Fuentes woke up and went outside, still in his pajamas. He stopped and stared in awe at the tree house being constructed by the two special agents. He watched them for a long moment before Tony looked up and noticed they had company.
“Hey Boss…we have a visitor,” Tony called up to the tree house where Gibbs was nearly finished with the floor.
Billy ran across the front yard in his bare feet and stopped when he saw Tony’s walking boot. “Agent Tony? How did you hurt your foot?”
Tony glanced at his walking boot then looked at his son. “I uh…I fell.”
Billy smiled sympathetically. “I fall down sometimes too. I thought grown ups didn’t fall down?”
Tony ran a hand through his hair while he tried to think of an answer. “Well you see Billy we were flying on a plane with the guys your daddy worked with. There was a bad storm, we were all being kind of tossed around and"”
“Did the bad guys push you out of the plane?” Gosh but this kid was insightful.
Tony smirked up at Gibbs. “They didn’t mean to. They were falling and hit Agent Gibbs and he got knocked back into me and I fell off the plane.”
“YOU FELL OFF THE PLANE?!” That came from Billy’s mother.
“Uh, yes ma’am,” Tony said, his ears turning pink around the edges.
Billy’s eyes were huge. “Agent Tony you fell off the plane and you guys still managed to catch the bad guys?! Wow…I wanna be a special agent when I grow up! You guys’re better than Superman!”
He heard Gibbs laugh from up above and Billy looked up and saw Gibbs in his tree house. “I’m gonna go put on clothes ok,” Billy called, suddenly turning tail and running back in the house, “Momma won’t let me play outside in my PJs.”
Gibbs looked at Tony. “You didn’t tell him the truth, Tony,” Gibbs said softly.
“Sure I did,” Tony replied. “You got knocked into me and it knocked me out of the plane. It was the bad guys’ fault, even if they didn’t mean for it to happen. You’d never hurt me on purpose; I know that,” Tony said softly.
Gibbs smiled. “Good boy.”
Tony grinned and saw that Billy was returning. He stopped at the bottom of the ladder.
“Can I come up, Sir,” Billy called to Gibbs.
“Depends…do you have a password?”
Billy thought for only a short moment before replying, “Yes I do. Semper Fi, Sir.”
Gibbs’ chest filled with pride at this little boy who’d lost so much, but who would overcome it. “It’s a good password Billy,” he said, “Come on up.”
Tony continued working on the ground and passing boards up to Gibbs and Billy throughout the morning and into the afternoon. When Gibbs and Billy finally climbed back down, they gazed proudly up at their very special, newly constructed tree house.
“It’ll be my secret hideout,” Billy stated matter-of-factly, “Thank you for helping me.”
Gibbs and Tony each gave Billy a big hug before leaving. They told Mrs. Fuentes that if she needed anything all she had to do was call NCIS and ask for one of them. They were filled with pride as they walked to the car"this was way more fun than catching the bad guys.
xxx
On Sunday morning at 0600, Kate arrived at the firing range to find Gibbs and Tony already there. She stopped and watched them for a moment before alerting them to her presence.
They were standing side by side, ear protection and safety glasses on, holding their sigs identically, gazing out at targets that Kate could barely see. She could see the 1000 meter mark, but the target was even out past that. The two men started firing their guns, in perfect sync with each other. Kate smirked, stepping closer, figuring that with the target that far away, Tony wouldn’t make even one shot on the target, let alone hit the center.
They emptied full magazines and the targets receded back to them. Tony smiled plucking his off of the holder. Their targets were outlines of a body. Kate paled when she saw the baseball size hole in the chest of the target Tony held with one single hole in the spot that would be right between the eyes on its head. She saw Gibbs pull his down, identical markings on his own target. She’d made a shot bet with two snipers?
Tony turned and his eyes widened when he saw Kate standing there. “Uh…Hi Kate,” he called cheerfully, trying to bite back the grimace that threatened to take over his whole face.
“You’re a sniper, DiNozzo,” Kate asked incredulously.
“Um…yeah, yeah I am,” Tony replied.
“Own it Tony, be proud of it,” Gibbs said whacking him on the back of the head. “You worked hard to get that good.”
Kate checked in and got her ear and eye protection and joined them on the shooting range. She took a deep breath and loaded the magazine into her gun.
“Now remember Agent Todd,” Tony called, “We have a bet.”
“You were serious when you challenged us, weren’t you, Agent Todd,” Gibbs asked.
“Uh, of course I was serious,” Kate responded.
“Line it up,” Gibbs called, “25 meters.”
Kate took a steadying breath and took her stance.
“Ten shots, Kate. You got to hit the same spot every shot in order to keep your bet,” Tony said.
“I still say you’ll miss shot number eight,” Gibbs snarked.
Kate smirked at the two of them and raised her duty weapon. She quickly fired off the first six shots, hesitated a moment, fired off four more and stopped, staring in horror at her target. Her eighth shot, while it was on the target, was slightly to the right of all the others, which were neatly tucked into the same spot. She looked at Gibbs, horrified.
“That’s twenty you owe me, and twenty you owe DiNozzo,” Gibbs commented mildly.
“My turn,” Tony called. “Line it up. 100 meters. 12 shots Kate. Same spot each time.”
Tony held up his sig in his left hand. “I told you I’d do it left handed,” he told Kate, who smirked at him. “Please you have handwriting like Chinese symbols mixed with hieroglyphics,” Kate snarked. “You honestly expect me to believe that you will hit the same spot on the target 12 times with your bad hand? Come on DiNozzo. You made those pretty shots a moment ago, but that was with your right hand. Just give it up.”
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
Tony lowered his gun. His target came back and he smiled at Agent Todd. “Twenty dollars please,” he said happily, showing her the target with only one hole in it. It was almost scalloped around the edges though, so it was easy to see that the spot on his target had been shot out 15 times. Dammit.
Tony hung his target back up and Kate hung hers up reluctantly.
“Line it up,” Gibbs called, “Both at 1000 meters.”
The targets began sliding out to their meter point and Tony winked at Kate. “You’re gonna love this,” he said, his eyes shining a bit wildly. “Gibbs is the best sniper I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah but he isn’t using a sniper rifle,” Kate reasoned, “He doesn’t have a scope, he doesn’t have anything to steady his hand on, there’s no way he’ll"” She broke off at Gibbs began firing. He quickly unloaded his first magazine into the two targets"creating a new hold in each one so they’d know where he hit. Without missing a beat he dropped his empty magazine and quickly popped the next one into place before resuming firing, less than 10 seconds later, and unloaded the second magazine into the targets.
The targets came back and Gibbs smirked at it. “I believe you owe me twenty dollars, Agent Todd,” Gibbs commented.
Kate looked at the targets in disbelief. Then she looked at Gibbs and at Tony who was smiling proudly at his boss. She rolled her eyes and pulled out her purse. She opened her wallet and withdrew the cash"eighty dollars"and handed forty of it to Gibbs and forty of it to Tony.
“Guess I learned my lesson,” she quipped.
“Oh no, you haven’t even begun studying the lesson yet Kate. We’ll be spending much more time on the shooting range.”
“Aiming at a target over and over again doesn’t do anything for my skill,” Kate lamented. “I’ve been practicing for years.”
“You just haven’t had the right motivation,” Gibbs commented. He pulled her PDA out of her purse. “Maybe if you were shooting and trying to avoid something you’d do better,” he said looking at her PDA.
Kate’s eyes widened. “Boss you wouldn’t dare.”
Gibbs raised one eyebrow at her. Kate sighed. “Ok so you would dare. But I am not shooting at my PDA. Not today. I have to go home and scrub the shooting range off of me so I can be at mass on time.”
Gibbs nodded and handed her the palm pilot back. She quickly packed up her stuff, bid them a good day and left.
Tony looked at Gibbs. “You wouldn’t really make her shoot at her palm pilot, would you, Dad?”
“Not without some healthy competition,” Gibbs commented plucking the hat off of Tony’s head and holding it up menacingly.
“Oh come on Boss, that’s my favorite hat! You wouldn’t…”
“Oh yes,” Gibbs said, smirking and nearly laughing out loud at the look of horror on his boy’s face, “I would.”
End.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.