Part 4
Gibbs' harsh glare did not seem to affect the director as Vance returned his steady gaze. Determined to get the answers that he desperately sought, Gibbs silently vowed that he would not leave this office until Vance had revealed the veil of secrecy surrounding the relationship that had formed between him and DiNozzo. Jenny had used Tony for her personal vendetta and he wasn’t about to let Vance do the same thing to his agent.
“I want some answers,” Gibbs demanded.
Vance sighed. “I’ve already told you, Agent Gibbs, this doesn’t concern you.”
“And I told you, Leon. If it concerns DiNozzo, it concerns me.”
“I am not at liberty to…”
Gibbs cut the director off. “Don’t give me the old ‘I’m not at liberty to discuss it’ speech. It’s not going to fly.”
“That’s the only response you’re going to get, Agent Gibbs.”
The sound of his phone ringing prevented Gibb’s sharp reply to the director. Glancing at the caller ID, he was surprised to see his father’s number appear. It was odd for his dad to call him during the day, so Gibbs knew something must be wrong.
He flipped open his phone. “Gibbs!”
There was slight pause and the sound of a man clearing his throat.
“Hello?” Gibbs tersely repeated.
“Boss? It’s me.”
It was DiNozzo. As much as Gibbs didn’t want to let Vance out of his sight, the team leader didn’t want the director to figure out that he was talking to Tony. “Just a minute,” he mumbled into the phone. Without a backwards glance, he left the director’s office in search of a private place to talk to his agent. He entered the elevator and pushed the button to shut the door.
Hitting the emergency stop button, Gibbs released a pent up breath and took a few seconds to collect his thoughts. “Are you all right?” he finally asked.
“I’m fine, Boss.”
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
For a second he thought that Tony had hung up. “Tony, are you still there?”
“Yeah, Boss. I’m still here. I…uh…I just wanted to let you know that I’m all right.”
“You’ve already said that, DiNozzo. I want to know what the hell is going on with you!”
Another pause. “I wish I knew, Boss. I just…I just need a few days to get my head on straight.”
Gibbs could hear the exhaustion in DiNozzo’s voice and he had to admit that it bothered him. He had seen Tony physically and mentally tired before, but the weariness now present in his senior agent’s tone was something that Gibbs had never heard before.
“Tony, talk to me,” Gibbs quietly pleaded.
“I can’t. Not yet.”
“Then when?”
“I don’t know. Please Boss; please don’t push me on this. I can’t deal with…I just can’t deal with seeing anyone right now.”
“Tony, I can’t leave this alone. I need to know what’s going on. I’ve never known you to run away from anything.”
“This is just too big for me to handle, Boss.”
“Then let me help you.”
“I can’t.”
Gibbs ran a hand through his hair. “Tony, I’m coming up there.”
“Leroy?”
The team leader cursed himself for pushing too hard. Sometimes, he really didn’t know when to quit. That was probably the reason that he was now talking to his dad instead of Tony.
“Dad? Where’s Tony?” Gibbs wanted to know.
“He’s sitting right beside me.”
“Put him back on.”
“Leroy, I want you to listen to me. Tony is safe and he’s here with me. The boy asked you for a few days to get his head on straight and that is what you’re going to give him.”
“I think that I…”
“I wasn’t finished yet,” Jack snapped. “I knew that you’d be worried, so I convinced him to call you. If you come up here before he’s ready to talk, he’ll high tail it out of here so fast, that you’ll lose him forever. Are you willing to take that chance?”
He wasn’t. Gibbs couldn’t imagine his life without Anthony DiNozzo. Over the years, he had come to consider Tony to being the closest thing to a son that he would ever have, but of course, he had never told that to DiNozzo. It had taken him over seven years to tell the younger man that he was actually proud of him.
“No, I’m not willing to take that chance. Tell Tony to call me if he needs anything.
“I will and I’ll call you later on tonight.”
“Okay.” Gibbs snapped his phone shut and flipped the switch to start the elevator again. His mind was reeling with questions that had no answers. When did everything start becoming too much for DiNozzo? What did Vance have to do with Tony’s hasty departure? Why did Tony go to Stillwater? The senior agent didn’t particularly care for the small town scene, but yet, DiNozzo had gone to Gibbs’ hometown and was staying with his dad.
Gibbs forced these questions to the back of his mind as the elevator doors opened. He headed back towards the director’s office but was stopped by his secretary.
“He’s not in there, Agent Gibbs,” she nervously informed him.
“Where is he?”
“He had another meeting.”
“With who?” Gibbs pressed.
“It’s his weekly director’s meeting. I’m not sure when he’ll be back.”
Gibbs heard the young woman sigh in relief as he turned and left. She was undoubtedly glad to see him leave. He didn’t have time to worry about hurting the woman’s feelings; he had other things on his mind.
Taking out his cell phone, he called Ziva and told her that he knew where Tony was. Gibbs still wanted her and McGee to find out why Tony’s car was in Norfolk, but at least they didn’t have to worry about trying to find DiNozzo.
“He says he’s fine,” Gibbs repeated, his patience wearing thin with the Mossad agent.
“When is he coming home?”
“I don’t know, Ziva. When he’s ready.”
“But he didn’t tell you when that would be?”
“Officer David, I know that you have something better to do than to ask me questions that I don’t know the answer to!” He hung up on Ziva, knowing that at that moment, she was probably cursing him in several different languages.
The next item on his agenda was to go and talk to Abby. He had to tell her about Tony and convince her not to go after him. His dad had been right. If Tony knew that Gibbs was on his way to Stillwater, the younger man would simply disappear again.
Gibbs headed for the elevator, his phone in hand. It had occurred to him that if Vance was in a directors meeting, then he would be meeting with the director of the FBI. Gibbs smiled as he dialed the number he had committed to memory a long time ago.
“Hello, Fornell…”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Is he coming?”
Tony closed his eyes against the dizziness that continued to plague him. He knew that physically he was reaching his limit and that he was going to have to rest before he ended up back in a hospital.
“No, not until your ready,” Jack answered.
“I give him two days, three days at the most,” Tony sleepily replied.
“I think Leroy knows that whatever is bothering you is not something that is going to be easily fixed with a head-slap.”
Tony grinned. “So, you know about those, huh?”
“Yeah. He told me that’s how he keeps you in line. A bit extreme if you ask me,” Jack said.
“It usually works,” DiNozzo admitted. “Of course, it’s been a while.”
“Do you miss them?”
“I guess I do. In a weird kind of way.”
“From the looks of you, it looks like someone else got a good lick in.”
“You should see the other guy,” Tony quipped.
“I hope he looks a lot a worse than you.”
“I hope so, too.”
“Want to tell me what happened?” Jack asked.
“No. I think I just want to sleep.”
Jack nodded. “All right. You can go and lay down on the couch over here. It’s actually pretty comfortable. I’m going to call the doctor so she can take a look at you.”
Tony willingly took Jack’s hand that he offered and slowly stood up. He let Jack hold onto his elbow as he carefully made his way to the couch. “Doctor’s still make house calls around here?” Tony asked.
“Sometimes she does.”
He clumsily fell onto the couch and lay down, situating his aching head on the throw pillow. Tony looked up at Jackson, “Wait a minute. Did you say ‘she’?”
“Yes I did. Twice.”
“Stillwater has a female doctor?” Tony smiled. Maybe coming to Stillwater was a good idea after all. Of course, considering his past history, he should probably just stay away from female doctors. She was probably too old for him anyway.
“She just took over old Doc Miller’s practice a couple months ago. Everybody seems to like her all right. Now, you rest and I’ll wake you up when the doc gets here.”
Tony barely heard the last part of Jack’s instructions. He wanted to sleep and part of him didn’t care if he ever woke up again. He mentally head slapped himself for thinking that way. Of course, he cared if he woke up. Didn’t he? Maybe he was worse off than he thought.
He couldn’t remember the last time that he had been the recipient of a good night’s sleep. That fact alone had worn his body down to the point that he was simply going through the motions of putting one foot in front of the other. His exhaustion had made his sloppy and because of that…
Tony didn’t allow himself to think about the previous night. Too much was still at stake and he knew that sometime soon, he would have to call Vance and let him know what happened. Not now. He couldn’t do it now. He clenched his eyes and prayed for sleep to hurry up and come. After a few minutes, Tony willingly gave into slumber’s sweet embrace.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Have you heard from your man?”
Vance chewed on his toothpick, contemplating how to answer the question proposed to him by his FBI counterpart. No, he had not heard from DiNozzo, but he had a feeling that Gibbs had, probably more than once. Gibbs had immediately fled his office when he received that last phone call and Vance had a feeling that the team leader had been talking to DiNozzo.
“No. But I assure you that he will call me when he can,” Vance replied, hoping that his answer satisfied the others curiosity.
“When was the last time you heard from him?”
“Last night. As far as I know, he was on his way to meet Tompkins and Currin. I assume that everything went smoothly. Agent DiNozzo is an extremely gifted undercover operative. He would have let me know if something was amiss.”
“You better hope so, Leon, or this whole operation will blow up in our faces.”
Vance hoped that the others in the room believed he trusted DiNozzo completely. You didn’t get to be director of NCIS by trusting just anyone and truthfully, he didn’t trust Gibbs’ right hand man at all. He just knew that DiNozzo was the best man for this job.
***flashback***
“I can’t keep doing this, Director Vance,” Tony argued.
“You have no choice, Agent DiNozzo,” the director pointed out.
“Ever since I’ve been back from the Seahawk, I’ve kept up my end of the bargain. I expect you do to the same. I can’t do another undercover op so soon after the last one. Gibbs is going to know something is going on.”
“You can and you will, Agent DiNozzo. We have a chance to bring down one of the biggest drug running syndicates on the east coast and we need you to infiltrate the ring.”
“I can’t,” DiNozzo protested once again. “I’m not the only agent that can do this. Surely your buddies at the FBI have someone who can infiltrate a drug ring.”
“I’m sure they do, but they don’t have your background and they aren’t expendable.”
Vance smiled at the shocked expression on DiNozzo’s face. “I have prepared a dossier for you to memorize. I expect you ready to go in at a moment’s notice. As always, I will make sure that Gibbs is kept out of the loop and out of your hair.”
“I’m not doing it,” Tony growled.
“Then perhaps you better pack your bags. I hear the Seahawk really misses you.”
The director held out the file to the agent and Tony grabbed it out of his hand. “I thought you’d see it my way.”
“This is the last time,” DiNozzo vowed as he stormed out of the director’s office.
“We’ll see about that.”
***end flashback***
Vance smiled as he faced his colleagues. He folded his hands on the table and glanced around the room, making sure that everyone was listening to what he was about to say. “I assure you that everything will go according to plan. If it doesn’t, the only one to suffer the consequences will be Agent DiNozzo.”
Chapter End Notes:
Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response to this story. I hope you enjoy this next chapter...some revelations are coming up!