A/N: Please see the bottom of the chapter for warnings.

The lights from the brightly colored lanterns along the hotel garden's path were annoyingly cheerful, especially when they bounced off the crime scene tape. Gibbs had hated them from the first. They reminded him of his second wife's idea of decorating.

Of course, of everything he hated about this garden, the lights weren't exactly the most important thing.

Tony fidgeted anxiously behind him. "You know, I really think this is a waste of time. If there was anything here, I would have found it by now. Trust me, I know this hotel like I know Magnum episodes. And I know Magnum episodes. I've been here for a long time."

Gibbs leaned against the shovel and glanced down at the shallow hole he'd started to dig. "How long?" he asked. Not accusingly like he would have been if this were any other situation, but gently, because he was just a kid.

Had been, the director would say. Still was, as far as Gibbs saw it.

Tony bit his lip. "A while."

Gibbs started digging again. "A while like twenty years, Tony?"

Tony laughed nervously. "Hey, I'm only ten and a half! Well, ten years, five months, and two weeks, and that's close enough, don't you think? I couldn't possibly - "

Gibbs gave him a look. Tony's mouth snapped shut.

He'd been rambling again. He only rambled when he got nervous.

He'd rambled every time they came into this garden while Gibbs investigated the navy officer's death. He'd been practically tripping over his words every time Gibbs came near this bench.

Gibbs wished he didn't have a pretty good idea why.

The shovel hit something. Gibbs dropped it to the side and got out the smaller tools he'd need to brush the remaining dirt off.

It wasn't very far down. Wasn't very big across either, but then, it wouldn't need to be. Tony was pretty small, even for his age.

He was impossibly gentle as he dropped to his knees and brushed the dirt away from the first bone.

It was the skull.

A very small one.

Tony let out a small, strangled noise.

"Gibbs?"

Gibbs had never heard Tony sound so lost and pleading.

He looked up to see Tony's eyes were locked on what was inside the hole.

"Talk to me, Tony."

"I . . . " Tony swallowed and looked away. "That's not me."

"No," Gibbs agreed. "Not anymore. This is you, now." He nodded to where Tony still stood, shaking.

Flickering, more accurately. Not quite as solid as he had been a few moments ago, now that he was scared.

Tony sat beside him. Not quite asking for comfort, but every line in his hunched in shoulders pleading for it.

He was still just solid enough for Gibbs to put an arm around. Tony sniffled a bit, but he scrubbed his eyes quickly.

"It's okay, kid."

"DiNozzo's don't cry," Tony said. Probably trying to sound strong and mature but mostly just sounding like he hurt.

Gibbs felt a stirring of the protective anger that this kid had a habit of provoking in him without even meaning to. He hadn't felt so protective of a kid since -

He slammed the lid on that memory down quickly. This was about Tony, not him.

"What happened?"

Tony shook his head.

"Tony. I can help you."

Tony kept shaking his head, face pale and strained. "He didn't mean to," he finally said quietly. "He just forgot is all. He came back. It would have been fine if I hadn't been so stupid."

Gibbs very much doubted that. "Oh, yeah?"

"I had a fever." Tony's face screwed up in disgust at himself. "I should have gone and told somebody instead of just getting room service. But no, I just went to sleep, like an idiot."

Gibbs squeezed his shoulders and hated the way his arm passed through, just a little. "Did you wake up?"

Tony snorted. "Yep. Lot of good it did me. I was too weak to even call for help. How pathetic is that?"

"Pathetic's not exactly the word I'd use for it," Gibbs said in a deceptively mild voice. "What made you stick around afterward?"

Tony shrugged, looking smaller than ever. "I knew my dad would come back eventually. I wanted to see how he'd react. Guess that was pretty petty of me, huh?"

"Did you want to see him hurt or want to see that he cared?"

"Doesn't matter," Tony muttered. "He came back, and he just panicked. It would have looked pretty bad, I guess, even though it wasn't really his fault."

Gibbs could feel that slow rage building again. "So he left you out here."

"I tried to talk to him," Tony said. His voice was barely audible. "He couldn't even see me." He looked up quickly. "I know that doesn't mean anything. Some people just can't, no matter how bad they want to."

"Yeah," Gibbs said quietly. "Yeah, that's true. What were you waiting for after that?"

Tony swallowed. "I just wondered how long it would take until somebody would notice. And I knew he would come back eventually."

Twenty years until somebody cared enough about the reports of a minor haunting to check on it, and even then, it had been the murder that had prompted it. "Did he come back?"

"Not yet, but he will," Tony said determinedly. "I know he will."

"You trying to convince me or yourself?"

Tony wouldn't look at him. "I have a lot to do while I wait," he said instead. "Do you have any idea how many pranks you can pull when only about a tenth of the people can see you? And I figured out how to move things around and be solid and stuff, so I can watch all the TV I want."

"That all you watch?" Gibbs asked, hating himself for having to ask.

Tony shot a glance at him. "I people watch a little," he said warily. "I like playing with the other kids."

"You play with Jason?"

Tony shot to his feet. "I didn't kill Jason!"

Gibbs stayed sitting. "I know you didn't," he said calmly. "Our medical examiner said his father did that."

Tony bit his lip.

"You liked him, right? Came back to his room so he could show you something. Only his father couldn't see you, could he? Just saw his son talking to himself. Jason wasn't like his dad. He was a disappointment. I bet his father told him that, didn't he? Didn't want a weirdo for a son." The words fell in an easy rhythm that felt far too familiar to an interrogation technique.

"Jason wasn't weird!"

"No. Just liked books a little too much for his father's taste, yeah? And then he saw him talking to thin air, and he got mad. It wasn't the first time. Our ME's found plenty of evidence to confirm that. Only this time he went too far, and you tried to stop him. You grabbed the lamp from the table - "

"I didn't know it would kill him!" Tony's eyes were red. "I didn't mean to!"

"Bet you got a lot stronger after that," Gibbs pointed out, hating himself as he said the words. "Anybody can see you now if you want them to. You could have gotten Jason some help."

"I didn't know," Tony pleaded with him. "I didn't know!" He was crying now full out despite what his father would have thought of it. He wiped his nose on his shirt. "You've gotta believe me!"

Gibbs broke. "I know," he told him. "I believe you. Come 'ere." He pulled him back down beside him. "There was nothing you could have done. By the time help got there, he would have been gone. At least this way he didn't go alone."

"Really?" Tony whispered.

"I look like the comforting lies type to you, DiNozzo?"

"No, sir."

"Gibbs," he corrected. "You're gonna be OK, kid."

Tony nodded jerkily. "Why didn't Jason want to stay?" he finally asked. "He could have stayed."

"Don't know. Maybe there was someone he wanted to go see. Maybe he was just afraid of being hurt again."

Tony sniffed. "Would have been nice to have some company while I wait."

Gibbs resisted the urge to wince. Now for the hard part. "Tony, your dad's not coming," he told him gently.

"You don't know that," he insisted stubbornly.

"He's never gonna be what you want him to be even if he does. We're going to find him, Tony. And I promise I'm going to make him pay for what he did to you, and you're going to get something a lot better than a little hole in a garden. But after that, you're going to have to pass on."

"No."

"Tony."

"I'm not hurting anyone!"

Gibbs looked meaningfully up at a certain hotel room window.

"Not on purpose! And I was really helpful with your case, wasn't I? I showed you around everywhere, and I told you about Jason and how his dad was mean to him. Can't I stay with you? I could be really helpful. I could go through walls and find stuff and tell you if there were any other ghosts around, and, and - "

"It's against the rules. We're supposed to lay you to rest, Tony. If I can't find a way to do it peacefully, they'll make me fill the grave with salt and iron."

Tony's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't do that," he said, voice shaky. "You don't hurt kids. You're not like that."

Gibbs sighed. No, he wouldn't do that, but the director would send someone who would. "So tell me what it's going to take, kid. I can't take you with me. If nothing else, you're ten years old."

"Ten and a half," he muttered mutinously.

"And you've killed once," he said gently. "I know you didn't mean to, but they'll think that it makes you dangerous. They'll think it makes you more likely to do it again."

"So they don't have to know! I can be solid now, look!"

"Tony - "

"I can do this, too!" There was a sudden blur and then Tony was standing before him, now thirty years old, like he should have been but had never gotten a chance to be. He was in a suit like the one the patrons of the hotel favored. "Special Agent DiNozzo. What do you think?"

Gibbs lips twitched against his will.

He was a shapeshifter. He was even more powerful than Gibbs had thought. He should be calling in reinforcements with iron, not actually considering this, but . . .

"If someone finds out . . . "

"They won't! I'll be super careful. Uber careful. There will never be anyone in the history of the world that will be as careful as I'll be."

He'd always given in when Kelly had looked at him like that, too. "Do not make me regret this," he warned.

Tony's face split into a brilliant smile. "I won't. I'll make you proud, Boss. Promise."

He raised an eyebrow as he pushed himself to his feet. "Boss?"

"I work for you now, right? I'm a special agent."

"Abby'll have to work her magic to get you hired first," he said. He couldn't believe he was actually doing this. A ten-year-old in the field, really?

Well, a thirty-year-old, sort of. And it wasn't as if he could actually get hurt, surely.

"This is a terrible idea," he grumbled as he led the way back to his hotel room.

"This is a fantastic idea," Tony corrected. "Hey, can I pick what they put on my tombstone? I want it to be something good. A movie quote, maybe."

Gibbs gave him a sidelong glance.

"Too expensive?" Tony asked meekly.

Gibbs just reached over and tousled his hair.

Whatever you want, kid. Whatever you want.

Warning: Contains death of a major character and death of a child. Although, to be fair, the death of the major character does not prevent said character from continuing to interact in the story . . .

Notes: Okay, so I know it's kind of a weird AU, but I just fell in love with the idea. Gibbs saved each of the agents under him, but what if he never got the chance? None of them had exactly stellar childhoods. What if something went even more wrong than it already did?

Thus, this. More chapters, both introducing the other teammates and dealing with a few select episodes will be forthcoming. Requests are welcome, but I make no guarantees.