~
11:30, Saturday
“Mmmm! It’s better than Tony’s lasagna!” Ziva pronounced after sampling MCGee’s pastitsio.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“I do. I’m sure your date will be very impressed. Have you cooked for her before?” Ziva asked, fishing for information.
“Oh, sure. But I’ve never made this dish before.” McGee explained distractedly from his computer. “You know, we should probably tell Tony and Gibbs about what Jardine found.”
“So the same person hacked Connors and DiNozzo. We don’t have anything else, Tim.”
“Maybe not, but we have another piece to the puzzle and I think Tony needs to get checked out so we can be sure there’s nothing wrong with him, don’t you?”
“He has been acting strange lately,” Ziva hedged, wondering how they would tell Tony they’ve been snooping around behind his back.
“Let’s go,” Tim said, grabbing his jacket and heading towards the door. Ziva followed without argument. In the car silence reigned until McGee took the interstate.
“We’re going to Gibbs’s house? Don’t you think we should tell Tony first?”
“Ideally, Ziva. But early Saturday follows late Friday which means Tony’s either not at home or dead to the world. We can call him once we get to Gibbs’s.” They pulled up to the handsome house with the perfectly cut grass and trimmed hedges and pulled into the empty driveway. “What do you think, basement or backyard?”
“It is a beautiful day and…I smell a grill,” Ziva said leaving her path to the front door and going around the back. Tim knocked on the door then opened it slowly. “Gibbs? It’s McGee. You in the basement?” He shouted, walking towards the kitchen door to the basement.
“No, Tim,” he said, walking out of the kitchen to open the French doors leading to the deck. “Ziva,” he greeted the smiling woman standing next to his grill.
“Hello, Gibbs,” she said, stepping aside so he could put the foil wrapped foods he carried on the grill. “It smells wonderful Gibbs, are you expecting company?”
“Well, you’re here,” he said, paying them little attention as he turned his meat.
“Yeah. We didn’t mean to crash your party but we wanted to run something by you…”
“Does it look like a party, McGee?” Gibbs growled a bit impatiently. “What do you got?”
“We had Agent Jardine do some searching when Tony started acting strange some weeks ago and she didn’t find much, but when she went back this week his files had been hacked and redacted just like Connors’.” Tim waited for the information to sink in. “Boss, this is a one of a kind hack. I’m sure it’s got to be the same program being used in both cases and I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Tim explained.
“Also,” Ziva stepped in, “Apparently Tony has some genetic abnormality that someone is trying to hide which may be related to this strange panda death. We won’t know anything until we find out what’s wrong with Tony.”
“What makes you think something’s wrong with Tony?” Gibbs asked, but when he looked at Tim and Ziva, they just looked confused, unable to believe he hadn’t noticed his agent’s strange behavior. Gibbs smiled a shrug and turned back to his grill.
“I’ll call Tony,” Ziva said, dialing his home number which clicked over to an answering service. She hung up and tried his cell.
“Not at home?” McGee asked knowingly. He turned from where he stood in the doorway and followed the ring with Ziva tailing him. “Boss, was Tony here last night,” he asked, grabbing Tony’s phone from Gibbs end table.
“He’s here now,” Gibbs said, picking up his own phone and dialing a number. “Hey. You know that problem Tony was worried about a couple of months ago? We need to have him checked out. I know. I know. Good, c’mon over then,” Gibbs said, hanging up the phone and going back to his grill. “There’s beer in the fridge, help yourself.” Ziva and McGee exchanged curious looks behind Gibbs’s back. In the end, McGee just smiled, refusing to ask questions for which he’d soon have answers. He considered telling Ziva to not interrogate their boss, but was too entertained by the prospect. He schooled his face when she began to speak.
“Where is Tony? We didn’t notice his car. Did he sleep here? ” Ziva asked, putting a halt to all questions when those icy blue eyes caught her own.
“His car is in the garage. He’ll be down,” was all Gibbs would say as he met her curious stare. She smiled and dropped her line of questioning.
“Beer?” she asked McGee, following him into the kitchen. Gibbs hurried up the stairs to check on his guest.
~
Tony woke to a slap on his ass, itchy sheets and sweaty air. He wondered where he was, but then remembered a dream of rough sex with his favorite Gunny Sergeant. He ran through his favorite memory of Gibbs pushing him onto the bed and kissing him senseless until all Tony could do was open for Gibbs to explore the way he wanted. All the while, Gibbs’s hands confidently mastered Tony’s body, both restraining and liberating it to focus on the pleasure Gibbs forced on him. He recalled waking in the early morning darkness to Gibbs kneeling over him, refusing to let Tony turn his body but forcing him to contort his head with a commanding kiss and an intoxicating glare. Tony stared at him with each hitching breath and every broken moan of satisfaction until Gibbs’s every stroke made Tony shudder and Gibbs’s demand to, “Come. Now,” could not be denied.
It was a rough session that left Tony aching from positions he’d never been in and aggravated his already hoarse voice. Waking to memories of the night before would’ve been more pleasurable if Gibbs had the decency to buy better sheets, Tony thought, cursing the low thread count as he tossed restlessly. He didn’t even mind the slap on the ass and the gruff warning, “We have visitors so make yourself presentable; none of that running around in your birthday suit,” which was exactly what Tony would’ve done had Gibbs not warned him. Just as fast as he came, Gibbs was gone and Tony lay half awake, lost in his memories. He didn’t really want to get up, but the sun was shining so high in the sky that he knew it had to be close to noon. Besides, he wondered what Gibbs got up to on a Saturday morning. He rolled out of bed and padded into the bathroom to make himself presentable. He tried his favorite pair of worn jeans that hugged his ass just so, but had trouble buttoning them. Tony threw them to the floor in disgust, opting for a pair of Gibbs’s slightly larger jeans which sagged a bit but didn’t look ridiculous. “Wranglers,” Tony huffed in dismay as he pulled a plain white t-shirt over his head and made his way downstairs.
“All I’m saying is that he hasn’t been looking so good lately and yesterday was no exception, Gibbs. Now we have these cryptic reports-“
“Cryptic. Excellent description, Ziva,” McGee chimed in.
“If something is wrong with Tony, you ought to tell us, Gibbs.”
“Are you telling me what I ought to do, Ziva?” Gibbs used the Hebrew pronunciation, making her name sound like ‘Ziver’ as he stared into her eyes.
“I am his partner. And his friend,” she said, refusing to back down and Gibbs just smiled. He took a swig of beer and turned back to his grill. Gibbs liked Ziva’s possessiveness because he knew she had Tony’s best interests in mind. But he also knew what he was doing and it wasn’t telling Tony’s secrets.
“You’d think my friend would be able to ask me what’s wrong,” Tony teased, swiping Ziva’s beer on his way to check out the grill. “Nice, boss!” Gibbs turned to Tony and disarmed the Italian with a charming smile as he took the bottle out of his hand, placing it on the other side of the grill, out of Tony’s reach.
“I have asked you, Tony. You always say nothing is wrong or you’re just hung over, o-or-“
“Or you’re trying to lose a few pounds,” McGee added as Tony paced.
“Which you actually have, Tony. Kudos. Though I’ve been meaning to ask about your particular regimen… perhaps I could make some suggestions to optimize your results,” Ziva suggested, gently tapping her tummy and giving Tony a knowing smile.
“Are you calling me fat, Ziva?” Tony bristled, actually offended by her suggestion. It didn’t hurt that he couldn’t comfortable squeeze into his favorite jeans anymore. Ziva opened her mouth to answer just as everyone heard a commotion at the door. Abby stomped through the house in green Doc Marten’s that matched her green skull and crossbones t shirt she wore under overalls. She threw herself into Tony’s arms, flattening herself against his front until she pulled back in surprise, rubbing his belly.
“Gee, Tony. I never noticed your pooch underneath all those thousand dollar suits. This is more serious than I thought!”
“Oh! Abby implies he is fat and it doesn’t bother him at all!” Ziva railed at the unfairness.
“Hush your mouth! I’d never call Tony fat! I’d never even imply such a silly thing,” she said, taking the bottle that found its way back into Tony’s hands and giving him a ‘you know better’ look.
“I’ll take that,” Ziva said, reclaiming her beer and drinking it in Tony’s face. “Nice boots, Abby.”
“Thanks,” she beamed. “It’s my habitat for humanity day. Luckily I was able to get sister Rosita to do the electrical work for me while I came to check on Tony. Tony, my friend has a facility that we can use and it’s closed today because she’s out of town visiting family. We can go as soon as you’re ready,” Abby said, making it obvious she thought he should be ready immediately.
“You’re not leaving until you get something in your stomach, DiNozzo,” Gibbs said, sliding back into his strictly business mode, but Tony didn’t mind. Tony knew it was mostly a show for the others. Tony would’ve pointed out the obvious- that something was already in his stomach, but he was still in denial. He wondered if the fact that he could admit he was in denial meant he wasn’t actually in denial, but thinking about it hurt his head. He decided to focus on eating and getting to this “facility” to find out the truth. Abby turned out to be a godsend because she kept the conversation lively when it became obvious that Tony wasn’t going to say much. Gibbs, on a good day, hardly uttered a syllable, so Abby, Tim, and Ziva made small talk until everyone finished eating.
“Ziva and I have to get out of here-“
“We do no-“ McGee cut her off before she could harass Gibbs or Tony further.
“We do not want to miss the farmer’s market which closes in an hour,” he said, pulling her arm and escorting her toward the door. Ziva was more than peeved at not finding out what was going on with Tony, but McGee assured her that they’d know soon enough. Pulling away from Gibbs’s house, he explained, “I’ll get it out of Abby later on.”
“You’d better, McGee. I can’t believe we came out here and found out nothing!”
“Not nothing. We know that Tony, Gibbs, and Ziva all think something needs to be ‘checked’. We just don’t know what. Yet.”
~
Abby had Gibbs and Tony out of the house and following her as soon as Ziva and Tim left. They pulled up to a business park in a swanky part of Maryland before parking and following Abby to the gated entrance. She put in a code then stepped into the foyer before unlocking a French doors that lead to a stately appointed waiting room with a sign that read ‘Precious Pictures’ on the wall in a tasteful if playful font.
“Normally they’d be crowded on a Saturday, but Louise had to go to San Antonio for her grandmother’s 89th birthday. She kinda owes me for fixing an electrical problem last month when she would’ve had to have her insurance cover the horrible rate some crook was trying to make her pay. Anyway, we get free ultrasounds, so that’s cool, right?”
“You know how to do an ultra sound, Abby?” Tony asked warily.
“Well, it’s not rocket science and I figure I’ve seen plenty of them before,” she said, dropping her lunchbox on a chair in the waiting room and going down the hall to the first ‘studio’. “Hop up here, Tony. Open your pants and pull your shirt up,” she smiled, patting the elevated check up table. She expected some lewd joke, but Tony was too occupied with the procedure.
“Do I have to use the… thingies?” Tony asked, pointing at the stirrups which Abby quickly folded back into the table with an understanding smile.
“Just relax,” she said, pulling the gel from under her thigh when Tony looked comfortable, hoping it wasn’t cold. “This may be a bit cool,” she warned, squirting Tony’s abdomen and rolling the wand to spread the gel. Tony rested his head against the comfortably reclined table and squeezed his eyes shut. Gibbs had been silent since they arrived and he said nothing as they stared at the screen until it was obvious what they were all looking at. Tony however, kept his eyes shut and Gibbs tried to stop himself from smiling at his senior agent and suddenly realized he was already grinning. Grinning. He’d never had the chance to take Shannon to the doctor and he stared at the monitor in shock as the images became startlingly clear.
“Is that…?” Gibbs asked.
“It is.” Abby answered slowly.
“What is it? Is it deformed? What’s wrong?” Tony babbled, his voice filled with dread.
“It’s twins, Tony,” Abby beamed contagiously, hoping Tony wouldn’t freak out.
“What? It can’t be! Are you sure, cause I’ve been thinking that these butterflies I’ve been feeling are really just a bit of food poisoning from those clams I had last week,-“ Tony babbled. His eyes were still tightly shut and Gibbs recognized Tony’s fidgeting as a harbinger of impending flight.
“Look, Tony,” Gibbs ordered in his gentlest tone. He held Tony’s hand and looked into his eyes until the younger man calmed down. It helped that Gibbs was blocking the “It’s alright. You’re gonna be alright. Check out your kids,” he said, demanding Tony look at him with a nudge to his chin. When Gibbs was sure Tony was calm he smiled, turning and pointing to the image on the screen mounted to the wall.
Tony just stared at the screen as Abby moved the angle of their view slowly. It was a couple of minutes before he said anything. “I thought it was supposed to be a black and white blob that didn’t look like anything. I can see their faces. He’s sucking his thumb,” Tony was awestruck.
“This ain’t your mama’s ultrasound. This is a 4D image, Tony!”
“I get 3D, but what’s 4D?” Gibbs murmured, a bit stunned as well.
“It’s really not 4D, but this image adds color… and sound, I think, if I knew how to work this machine,” Abby said, fiddling with buttons. “Disco!” She chirped and a swishing sound accompanied by quick little pats could be heard in surround sound. “Okay, the placenta looks good and vital signs for both babies are perfect. I can tell you that at about twelve weeks, we can hear the heart, and the baby should be about two to three inches long. Of course, your kids might be shorter since multiple births usually are…” Abby trailed off, staring at the screen then looking at Tony.
“What’s wrong, Abby?” Tony whispered.
“Nothing. I-It’s just that I’m probably reading the equipment wrong since it looks like this kid is about 5 inches long. That sounds more like 20 weeks than 12, Tony.”
“It hasn’t even been three months, Abby. I’m still not even sure how this all happened,” Tony whined, as if that mattered now.
“Didn’t you say you had butterflies, Tony. That sounds like the babies moving. How long has that been going on?” Gibbs asked.
“Excellent question Gibbs!” Abby chimed while Tony was thinking about his answer.
“A little less than two weeks now,” Tony said, almost relieved to be able to talk about it now that his worse fears were realized. “Sometimes after I eat I get the worst rumblings. I thought it was just really bad indigestion. Then in the early morning, I wake up to that sick, fluttering feeling. It’s been driving me crazy,” Tony admitted.
“I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure babies start to move around the 20th week and if you’re babies have been moving for a while, you’re probably in your second trimester, Tony. Are you sure you couldn’t have gotten pregnant earlier?”
“Positive. It had to be during my last cycle.”
“Then maybe male pregnancies progress quicker than female pregnancies?” Abby asked, making her best guess. “We need an expert, Gibbs,” she said, turning off the machine and wiping everything down.
“Yeah. And I know just who to call. She owes me one,” Gibbs said, squeezing Tony’s hand and stepping outside the room to make his call.
~
Gibbs listened to Abby chatter excitedly only occasionally disrupted by Tony’s horrified gasp. “No, no, no! No way I’m shopping in the maternity section of Target!” But then Abby just laughed and started talking about names and soon Tony was saying, “Skylar? That’s a dog’s name!” Gibbs smiled as he listened to the phone annoyingly drone on.
“Dr. Jones’s phone! How can we help you?” he finally heard from a chipper voice flirting shamelessly. “This wouldn’t happen to be the ‘ruggedly handsome, no-nonsense marine, would i-‘“
“Give it here- Agent Gibbs? Do you have something for me?” Martha asked.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re the one whole stole my crime scene,” Gibbs reminded her, but he was in such a good mood that his smiled infected his words with sweetness so he sounded like he was making a joke.
“Touche, Gibbs and I’m sorry for dodging your call, but I don’t have anything to give you.”
“I’m not calling for that either. Actually, I guess I am.”
“Now I’m confused,” Martha laughed and waited for the man to speak.
“Agent DiNozzo could use an expert opinion about his condition, and if all the things you’ve told me today are true, you’re probably the most expert opinion we’re going to find.” He was cryptic, he knew, but Gibbs didn’t want to tell her something so serious over the phone. He was prepared to charm and cajole her if necessary, but she swung into action. Martha’s voice became focused and commanding.
“Your location?” She demanded.
“Where in Arlington but we’re headed back to D.C.-“
“DO NOT move the patient, Agent Gibbs. Tell me where you are and we’ll be there shortly,” Martha ordered, hoping Tony wasn’t somehow infested with the Mayfly.
“Just you. This is a delicate situation- especially for agent DiNozzo.”
“No worries, mate; I’m bring the real expert,” she said, ringing off when her phone picked up their location. “Take us here, Jack. Now,” Martha demanded as she pointed at dot on her phone.
“What’s wrong? Another Mayfly casualty?”
“Sounds like. One of the NCIS agents.” Martha didn’t bother mentioning he was the cute one, the funny one, the one she knew Jack would’ve liked. But he could read the remorse on her face. He tapped in coordinates on his wristband then gently took her by the arm and winked as he lied.
“Let’s go save him then.”
“Brilliant!” Martha gasped, looking around the sparse lot of the business park they suddenly found themselves in. “You ought to use that thing more often, Jack!”
“Yes,ma’am! Really, Martha, I had no idea you’d get such a kick out of my thing,” Jack leered, marching them towards the glass double doors. Jack tried the door to the suite and found it locked. They heard muffled conversation in the back and a giggling voice shout out.
“Sorry. We’re closed.”
“But we’ve an appointment, actually,” Martha pointed out. Seconds later, Gibbs appeared at the door, ushering them into the waiting room. “Special Agent Gibbs, this is Captain Jack Harkness,” Martha said, looking past Gibbs so she didn’t notice the assessing look the agent gave her old friend. She wondered at Gibbs’s relaxed demeanor, trying not to storm into the back in search of Agent DiNozzo. Gibbs just paused and took in Jack’s dimpled chin, suspenders and floor sweeping coat.
“A little hot for that coat. Captain,” Gibbs said, not trusting the man for a minute.
“But it looks good. And you wouldn’t believe the compliments,” he grinned, acknowledging the fleeting look of interest on Gibbs’s face. If he’s a captain, Gibbs thought, I’m a fool in love. He didn’t think too hard about the image of Tony laughing that suddenly sprang to mind; Gibbs had a valid point.
“Captain of what?”
“You couldn’t ask for a better person for our little consultation so let us see the patient,” Martha insisted, tugging Gibbs until he turned towards the back. But Gibbs refused to move. He looked at Martha’s hand where it rested on his arm then looked back at Martha.
“That’s just it; I don’t know him but I do know he’s not who he claims to be and I’m not trusting Tony’s condition to just anybody-“
“If it helps, I have no other name,” Jack added carelessly.
“It’s imperative that I see the patient now, Agent Gibbs!”
“Why? Tony’s not going anywhere.”
“So he’s not in pain yet? What are his symptoms, Agent Gibbs?”
“Surprisingly enough, the average: morning sickness, cravings, irritability, … and he’s kind of weepy,” Gibbs explained watching the confusion on their faces. “He’s pregnant, doctor. With your expertise in the weird and supposedly alien, I figured you’d be the best person to ask.
“So there’s no insect in his bloodstream and he’s not about to go boom like the panda?” Jack clarified.
“God, no!”
“Oi! You had me worried for a minute there, Jethro.” Martha complained with a stiff punch to Gibbs’s arm then smiled at her companion. “It seems Captain Jack is more suited to your purpose than ever,” she beamed and headed to the back rooms. Gibbs and Jack followed and soon they all joined Abby and Tony who were still watching the babies on the monitor. “Agent DiNozzo. Nice to see you again. I’ve brought someone for you to speak with. This is Captain Jack Harkness.”
Old Friends by joblo