Chapter 14:
At the check-in counter they were given a key to their cabin, and told that they were to meet with their tour guides and the rest of the group later that evening. Gibbs had been surprised that they had still managed to arrive early, given that it felt to him as thought they were moving at a snails pace on the road.
The cabin was small, but it would serve its purpose. They were only going to be staying for one night. It was one medium-sized room, with bunk beds up against one wall, with a small couch and a recliner on the other side. Towards the back was a small closet, right across from the bathroom.
"You aren't gonna want to fight for the top-bunk are you?" Tony asked with a laugh.
Tossing his bag on the bottom bunk, Gibbs just rolled his eyes. "Is there something wrong with being on the bottom bunk?"
Tony stared at him. "Obviously you never went to camp as a kid then, or you wouldn't be asking that question."
"I went camping as a kid, in a tent. Sort of pointless in fighting about where to sleep in a tent," argued Gibbs.
Shaking his head, Tony replied, "Fighting for the top bunk sort of establishes your place in camp. Kids on the bottom bunk end up being the primary target for practical jokes. You know, putting whip cream on their hands and then tickling their face with a feather…"
"I get the idea," Gibbs interrupted before Tony went any further. Last thing he wanted to hear about was silly pranks. "So, which were you?"
"Ah, both actually, just depends on which camp your talking about," answered Tony.
It was hard for Gibbs to see Tony on the receiving end of jokes like that, but then again, Tony had been surprising him a lot today.
Just then Gibbs' cell phone rang. Checking the caller id, "Fornell," he answered.
"Glad to see you finally got there. Certainly took your time," Fornell said mockingly, knowing full well of the traffic that they had to endure.
"Tell me again why we're doing this again? Ah, I think it was because you didn't have any new leads and needed some help, right?" retorted Gibbs.
"Officer David is all set with surveillance, she'll be there with two of my men until you set off tomorrow," said Fornell, changing the topic of conversation quickly. "Agent McGee just finished setting things up here. Everything is good to go."
"Good. If anything comes up give me a call. I'll do the same. Meanwhile, enjoy watching the dots on the computer screen," Gibbs said and snapped his cell shut. "Everyone's set up and in place."
"Cool. So what are we supposed to do until our little gathering later?" asked Tony.
Gibbs shrugged. "Well I sure as hell am not hanging around here for next few hours. Let's go."
Gibbs didn't give Tony any other indication of where they were headed, other than out of the cabin. Locking the door behind him, Tony moved to keep pace at Gibbs' side. Tony quickly noticed that they were headed towards one of the hiking trails in the parks. He mentally shook his head for not figuring it out sooner. Of course, they were in a park, what else would they do?
After a few minutes they were well into the trail, far enough away from other that they could talk freely without worrying about blowing their cover. Tony wondered what the other man was thinking. Then his mind wandered over their conversation in the truck earlier. Gibbs seemed to genuinely enjoy hearing about Tony's previous job experiences and didn't appear to be bored or annoyed at all.
That surprised him. He couldn't recall the last time anyone had actually taken that kind of interest in his past, if ever. Tony was figuring it would be ok to tell Gibbs more about the security guard job at the mall. He did ask for him to elaborate, after all.
As he was trying to figure out a way to bring the subject up, Gibbs seemed to of read his mind. "So any more random jobs you aren't telling me about?"
Leave it to Gibbs to know what to say. "Oh yea, there's plenty more. But most of them I had while I was in high school," Tony replied.
'Why would Tony have needed to work during high school?' wondered Gibbs to himself. He was hoping to bring up the subject of what got him interested in being a cop, but he didn't want to make Tony feel uncomfortable.
"Most? So there's some left from college?" he asked. College seemed to be a pretty safe area of conversation.
"Just two more. I sort of alternated between some of my old jobs every now and then, too," replied Tony. "I was also a bike messenger and a piano player in a few fancy restaurants. Made pretty good tips with both of them."
Gibbs glanced at Tony out of the corner of his eye. He didn't seem tense, so it was a good bet that it was safe to inquirer more about these two jobs. "How did you get into those?"
"Well, my basketball coach actually suggested the bike messenger one. He was friends with the owner of the company and he usually took on a few of the players on the team each summer. Being a college athlete meant you were in pretty good shape, so you were expected to be able to do more runs than anyone else," Tony said.
"A job like that would keep you in pretty good shape too. Bet it did wonders for your reflexes, dodging cars in traffic," Gibbs said lightly.
Laughing, Tony said, "Yea. Good thing there weren't any drivers around like you, otherwise I doubt anyone would have been brave enough to make a run."
Gibbs gave him a half-hearted glare in response to the teasing. "Bike messengers can be just as bad as drivers, don't you dare tell me you never cut anyone off before when making your runs."
"I have the right to remain silent," Tony said with a grin. "Anyway, the piano gig, well that was through my music teacher, Mrs. Addison."
"Oh? You must be pretty good then," said Gibbs.
"She seemed to think so. I only took the class because part of general graduation requirements state that you needed two classes of the arts of some kind. I just figured I would stick with what I know. Besides, it was kinda fun," Tony continued. "She was always keeping an ear out for different auditions and such, and she knew that I needed the money. Went to this audition for a company of musicians that supply various types of entertainment for country clubs, resorts, restaurants and such. They liked what they heard and couple nights a week for about four hours I sat and played the piano while people ate their dinner."
Gibbs was impressed to say the least. He knew that it had to take a lot of skill to be able to play for the public in such a setting for so long. "Do you still play?" Gibbs asked curiously.
Tony nodded. "I even give lessons every now and then to the kids that live in my building."
Gibbs had to smile at that. "Does that tie in with babysitting?"
"Yea," Tony laughed in return. "Some of the kids, they have single parents, so I make sure they stay out of trouble when I can. Piano lessons are a good way to keep them occupied. It's funny though…"
"What is?" asked Gibbs.
"Well, I can play the piano, but I couldn't type to save my life," said Tony with an enormous grin on his face.
"Yea," agreed Gibbs with a laugh. "That is funny. But then again, you never do things the normal way."
"Like you do. Besides, where's the fun in normal?" replied Tony.
"Fair enough. So were there ever any jobs that you didn't have but would have liked to?" questioned Gibbs.
Tony took a moment to think about that. Once he had gotten into police work, there had never been anything else. 'Might as well bring it up, now's a good a time as any,' thought Tony.
"No, not really," started Tony. "Being a cop sort of put a stop to my never-ending resume."
Gibbs instantly knew that he was on shaky ground. Tony had brought the subject up, but only lightly. "You get something new everyday you go into work," he observed carefully.
"Yea," Tony agreed. He was quiet for a few minutes before he started up again. "His name was Al, he was in charge of mall security. Retired cop. Wasn't good for chasing suspects anymore, but he was able to watch cameras and direct us whenever something came up. I swear sometimes he had to be psychic or something, he seemed to know when someone was going to shoplift even before they got near a product. I think the only reason he hired me was because he knew I played football so I didn't really have a problem tackling anybody."
"Still don't," said Gibbs.
Tony smirked. "Anyway, got to talking to him some during lunch breaks. He was always telling me about some of his old cases. Everyone else sort of tuned him out, but I listened. The first time I started guessing how the case would play out, well he was surprised. I don't think he figured anyone was listening to him ramble."
"That explains why you've always been able to tolerate Ducky when he goes off on his story-telling," noted Gibbs.
"Ducky reminds me of him in that way," agreed Tony. "Eventually we started to make a game out of it. I guess you could say he was the grandfather I never had. He would tell the case to me the way he got it, and see if I could make the connections. Even when school started back up and I had to quit, we still met up for lunch couple of times a week to talk."
"So Al honed your investigative skills. Sounds like he gave you a few pointers too," said Gibbs.
"Oh yea. In the beginning I felt like I was just making random guesses," said Tony. "After a while I was able to back up my thoughts with facts. May not have always been right, but I wasn't exactly looking directly at evidence or anything either. Al suggested that I take a winter course at a community college, a criminal justice case. It sounded interesting, and the classes were at night so I was able to work during the day at the mall again and do the classes at night. With Al being the boss it made scheduling pretty easy. I got hooked and I signed up for another class in the spring. By the time graduation came around I was applying for the police academy."
"He certainly had a big influence on your life," observed Gibbs.
"Yea, he did. He was the first person that actually made me feel like I was smart enough to actually do something like solving crimes for a living," Tony said quietly.
Gibbs got the feeling that they had reached the most difficult part of the conversation. He felt it best to wait for Tony to continue.
"Al, he wasn't doing too good, heart problems. Never even knew it. Guess he didn't want me to worry. He died shortly after I graduated from the police academy. After his funeral, his lawyer found me and told me I was left in his will," Tony said, taking another pause.
"He had kids of his own, so I was really surprised. He left me a letter, his old badge and his back-up gun. In the letter he told me that his kids wouldn't have appreciated like I would, they were scientists or something at some sort of medical lab. Said he was real proud of me, for the way I made my life my own. As long as I kept doing that, I was never a disappointment to him," Tony sighed. "He got me going, pushed me in the right direction. Guess he saw something worth while."
"I see it too. Wouldn't of let you work that first case back in Baltimore with me if I hadn't," Gibbs told Tony.
"You're the first person since Al to see it then," said Tony.
"But not the last," Gibbs said with conviction.
"When you say it like that, its hard not to believe you," Tony replied.
"Good," Gibbs nodded, then looking at his watch, he sighed. If they were going to make their meeting on time they were going to have to head back now. He hadn't realized how long they had been talking or how far they had walked.
"Guess its time to get the show back on the road," Tony said, taking note of the time as well.
"Let's just hope the group we're with is the outdoor type. I am not in the mood to listen to people complain about getting wet and bugs," Gibbs said in attempt to lighten the mood.
It worked well enough. "Why do you think everyone insisted on you leaving your gun behind?" Tony told him with a smirk.
"Who says I didn't bring one?" Gibbs said with a knowing look.
Tony gave him a look, then shook his head. "I don't want to know. If I don't know, I can't be held accountable for your actions."
"What are you, my babysitter?" joked Gibbs.
Tony laughed. "Well I've certainly got the experience."
Chapter End Notes:
Author's Note: Sorry I didn't post sooner, had some computer trouble. Darn dial-up connection wouldn't let me connect. Got a bit carried away with this maybe I think, not sure. Ok, so it seems that OOC means "out of character". Sorry if I am doing that. (Got some emails from ppl from another site I post on saying I was). Like I have said before, first attempt at this so bear with me please! Thanks! Please review! If I am doing OOC or whatever, point it out to me then, cuz you will see things differently than I will and be able to pick up on things that I won't. Thanks in advance! Enjoy!