MONDAY Part II
Gibbs recognized the rate and speed of the footfalls. He didn't even look up until his visitor had deposited himself on Gibbs' steps and had sat his 6 pack of beer down beside him.
Tony popped the top and offered Gibbs a bottle. "A change from the kerosene you usually drink."
Gibbs nodded took the bottle and then took a swig. "What is going on with you, Tony?" Gibbs asked. "I have never heard you talk to Tim or Ziva that way before."
"You gotta hear me out on this." Tony said, taking a long swallow from the bottle he had opened for himself. He sighed. "You have got to promise me you'll listen to me. Hear me out."
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs said, he sat the beer on his workbench and gave Tony his full attention. He nodded.
"It was last Tuesday." Tony sighed again and paused. "When...when Tim, Ziva and I visited the suspects neighborhood. I went around the neighborhood talking to the neighbors. I was wired up so that Tim and Ziva could hear me."
Gibbs nodded, knowing that is was procedure to wire an agent up when he went out alone like that.
"I walked the entire neighborhood. I talked to all the people I could, knocked on every door in the place...."
"Yeah." Gibbs nodded. "...nothing came of it at the time."
"Well, when I got back in the car, I mentioned something about something I had said. Something they should have heard."
Again Gibbs nodded.
Tony took another swig of beer. "They didn't hear it. They had turned the radio off. Ziva told me that they had gotten tired of hearing my voice."
Gibbs stared at Tony for a moment, trying to process what he had just heard. "What!?"
"They had turned the radio off because they had gotten tired of hearing my voice." Tony repeated, in a slightly condensed version. He took a big swallow of beer and waited for Gibbs to explode.
Gibbs ran his fingers through his hair. He swore under his breath looking at Tony "Damnet, DiNozzo. I should have heard about this Tuesday."
"I just..I kept thinking that, that they didn't do it on purpose. They weren't thinking when they turned off the radio. They didn't realize what could have happen to me."
"Tony?" Gibbs said, trying to calm down. He was seeing red, though he wasn't angry at Tony.
"But...they laughed about it, Boss. They thought it was funny." Tony said shaking his head.
Gibbs' temper flared again.
"I could have...anything could have happened to me and they wouldn't have know about it. I...."
Gibbs was pacing by this time. He picked up one of his hand tools and flung it as hard as he could against a far wall. It sounded as if it broke into a million pieces and fell to the basement floor. He balled up his fist and slammed it down onto one of the ribs of his boat. He hit the frame so hard the whole thing shook.
By the time Gibbs calmed down, Tony had fallen silent. He had his head resting in his hands. Gibbs went over to the stairway and sat down beside Tony on the steps.
"I'm...." Tony started, his voice shaking.
"Don't you DARE say I'm sorry." Gibbs said patting Tony on the back. Gibbs stood up again. He wanted to run up those stairs, get in his car and pay Ziva and Tim each a personal visit. He knew now why Tony had not told him at work. Tony had figured Gibbs would need time to calm down and think about his next move. But that still didn't mean Gibbs didn't want to make those visits. And it was really no guarantee that Gibbs' mood would improve by morning. As a matter of fact, Gibbs was absolutely positive it wouldn't.
"I will nail their asses to the wall." Gibb said pacing again. "I don't' give damn about McGee's directorial ambitions or who Ziva's father is."
"Gibbs, I...."
Gibbs stopped pacing and looked at Tony.
"I don't trust them. I can't trust them and it scares the hell out of me."
Gibbs sat back down beside Tony. He put his arm around Tony's shoulders. "We were a two-man team before. We can be a two-man team again."
Tony looked Gibbs in the eye. "I don't think Vance...."
"I'm not really caring a whole lot about Vance at this point, Tony." Gibbs admitted.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Gibbs finds out what happened.