"Very Special Agent DiNozzo speaking, how can I help you?" Tony answered his work phone cheerily.
How many times had he wished he'd never even answered that phone, much less spoken those words? And why did the switchboard keeping sending the man' calls through, did not the written request of an employee, a Special Teams agent, hold just a bit more weight than troublesome, fair-weather family members?
Senior was in town,without warning of his arrival, and at the worst possible time for Tony. Christmas.
Since the years of living away from his father, he had managed to salvage something of what, for a few short years, had been his favorite holiday. He'd been determined to recapture the warm and magical feelings he'd had for the season, in spite of the bitter memories of past years spent with Senior engraved in his mind, and he'd managed quite well, rarely having to think about the man at holiday time for the past several years.
Hanging up the phone after a clipped, sotto-voce conversation,Tony found a suspicious Gibbs staring over at him, wordlessly demanding to know who and what was taking up his SFA's work-time.
"Wrong number, Boss. Some confused old man wanting to know what my home address was, think he thought I was his kid or something. Hope he gets the right number and isn't wandering around D.C. hopelessly lost till New Year's. Cause that would really suck for him. Maybe not his kid, but..."
Gibbs continued to stare at the younger man, knowing exactly who had been on the phone and what they had wanted. His gut churned at the unanswered 'why', and he was already dreaded the coming few days. Tony's father would show up at the Navy Yard whether his son wanted him there or not, which he most certainly didn't, cause some sort of inevitable uproar involving Tony, Gibbs, the team, and perhaps the whole of NCIS AND the FBI, as he had the other times he was in town. If Tony's face had paled a couple shades from its healthy glow a few minutes ago, he could hardly blame the guy.
"DiNozzo, need some coffee." Gibbs announced out of nowhere. "Pick up a few of those donuts you guys like so well, too." He tossed a twenty out of his wallet onto his desk, and Tony scooped it up wordlessly, practically running to the elevator to get out of the building and breathe some fresh air. What the hell was his father thinking, how many times had he told the man NOT to call him at work, NOT to show up without any warning and NOT to expect him to drop everything on a moment's notice to play chauffeur or go-between or doormat – or more than likely, all three? No one else's parents on the team called them at work, and they had a helluva lot more reason to than Senior did.
Gibbs shifted papers and keyboard around while he waited for his second to get his head back together on his unplanned coffee run, betting that McGee and Ziva were still fairly unaware that anything was amiss with Tony. Although Gibbs was as cordial as he could stand to be to his SFA's father, he was deferential to the man only for Tony's sake. Anyone else would have had a boot up their ass had they behaved that way to him.
The worst part of it was that while the other team members seemed entranced by the suave and charming man, Anthony Jr. turned into a discombobulated mess the entire time his father was in town, and stayed that way for a few days afterwards. Tony had confided once to Gibbs that he thought the other team members fawned over his father just to wind up their SFA, figuring it was an excellent way to get back at him for his ribbing and torment of them, and Gibbs thought he probably wasn't too far off the mark. If Senior showed up in the bullpen, which both Gibbs and Tony were quite sure he would, the team lead was going to have a little talk with his junior team members and Abby. In fact, he was going to have one anyways, just for future reference, whether Senior showed up or not. That decided, he spent the rest of the time Tony was gone trying to figure out what the unpredictable man wanted and how to get them out of their hair as quickly as possible.
His thoughts were unpleasantly interrupted by an all too familiar voice coming from the elevator, and he groaned at the realization that DiNozzo Senior had once again gotten the drop on both Tony and him. The man was undercover agent material if there ever was any.
"Jeze-us.." Gibbs muttered under his breath, rubbing his face hard with both hands.
"I'm telling ya, Junior, they didn't give me any trouble at all, why should they, I'm a Special Agent's dad for crying out loud!"
Gibbs cringed at the emphasis the man put on the word 'dad'. He hadn't been any sort of 'dad' to his SFA as far as Gibbs could discern from what he'd heard, and lately seen from the snake charmer.
He thought about how excited Tony had been lately, knowing he was finally starting to enjoy the holidays, and that it was more than likely going to end badly for him, and consequently, Gibbs. He looked up to see his green-around-the-gills second wordlessly passing out coffee and pastries to McGee and Ziva, in spite of their obvious mirth at Tony's discomfort, and decided he'd had enough of it all already.
"Agents McGee, David, I need you in Abby's lab, now."
The two agents exchanged puzzled looks, then unmistakable disappointed ones at being cast out of the loop of the dueling DiNozzos.
"Gibbs, I just got here!" the Senior DiNozzo all but whined, certain that he could cajole even Gibbs into seeing things his way.
"Yeah, ya did, and unless you're on my team and getting a paycheck, ya say whatcha need to say to the one that is and get out of his work space."
"Whoa, got a hot case goin', Jethro? Cause I can come back..."
Gibbs wanted to tell the man the only case he had was that of a bad case of Senioritus, and yeah, come back in about twenty years, but he couldn't waste the energy on the thick-skulled man, so he grunted something that sounded like a 'yes' and nudged his second.
"Need you down there ASAP, DiNozzo," Gibbs snarled, his face implacable. "And don't make me wait for ya or I'll have ya on coffee runs and cold cases till Easter, and ya know I will."
Tony glared back at him, joining in the ruse, and mumbled a 'Yes, Boss.' as the man strode to the elevators.
"You heard the man, Dad, tell me what you need so we can yell about it and get it over with so I can get back to work before the dragon fires my ass."
"Well, frankly, Junior, I'd rather talk to you about it in a more private place, if you don't mind. Thought maybe we could have dinner at yer place tonight after you get done work."
Tony froze in his shoes. What the hell? His father had never been to his place, and Tony had very intention of keeping it that way. It was the one place in his life he had some control of who he let into his life, and up until now, only a few of his friends, whom he considered family way more than Senior, had been invited to visit him there, and then were sworn to secrecy about the address. Call him paranoid, he didn't give a damn. Between his father and his hinkey business dealings and all of the enemies he'd made in his years in law enforcement, Tony wanted as few people as possible to be able to
tromp around his only personal domain.
"Dad, no, how about we meet at the - "
"Junior, what is it with you that you won't let your own father into your home, you got some sort of goings on there that you don't want anyone to know about? Got a cute little gal keeping house for you that -"
Tony rounded on his father, clenching his hands into fists and then gluing them to his sides to keep from decking the man. His face burned red, and for a moment Senior thought it was embarrassment, but took a step back when he realized it was consuming anger.
"Did it ever occur to you that I would like just one thing in my life untainted by my work or my father's undisguised contempt for my taste in furniture and art and dishes and liquor? If I gave you my address, could you guarantee that I won't wake up some morning with a horses's head in my bed, or a gas line leaking from some business 'partner' or scorned woman you screwed somewhere along the way? There's a reason I try to keep my private life private from people! I am vulnerable to the entire world at this job close to fifty, sixty hours a week, sometimes, and days and weeks at a time when I'm undercover. I. Need. A. Place. Where. I. Can. Be. Me! Not Agent DiNozzo, not Tony the Entertainer, me, Anthony the human being!"
Senior stood immobile, shocked by his son's outburst, and even more by his honesty. He would never for the life of him have thought his son so private, so clandestine. He himself was an open book, had always enjoyed company and crowds and the way they made time pass so one didn't have to think too deeply about anything, including their own behavior. It made life real, exciting...but his son wanted to squirrel himself away and contemplate his cosmic navel...his mother had been the same way, grudgingly going to or giving dinner parties where she ended up drinking too much and embarrassing the both of them with her blunt observations of the guests.
"I..I'm sorry, Junior, I never realized..." the Senior DiNozzo stammered.
"That's cause you never took the time to understand it, or anything else about me!" Tony ground out quietly between his teeth. "If you had you wouldn't be standing here in my workplace arguing with me about it! I have to go now, I will call you in an hour and give you my address and the time to be there, and so help me God if you're not there when I tell you to be, I will personally track you down and drag you through the streets of D.C to my doorstep."
Anthony DiNozzo Senior watched open-mouthed as his son fled the bullpen, and took more than a minute collecting himself enough to leave the building in a dignified manner. Some of his son's boss's distasteful manners had obviously rubbed off on the boy; Tony had never lost his temper like that with his father in the past. Maybe he should see about finding a place for Tony in one of his pal's tech companies.
When Tony stormed into Abby's lab, he wasn't at all surprised to find that they had been talking about him. What in God's name else was there to talk about on days like this? He had attempted to calm himself on the way there, taking the stairs instead of the elevator as a means to give blow off some of the steam that was probably starting to vent out of his ears. It wasn't their fault that his father was an ass any more than it was his, so he wasn't going to take it out on them and give the man even more power.
He schooled his features to what he hoped was at least a little less murderous, even trying a chagrined smile for the crowd.
"This a private party or can I join the fun?" he sighed.
"Just tellin' the team how it's gonna be from now on, DiNozzo. If we can't keep your father from his unscheduled visits, we can at least learn how to handle him once he's here."
"Tony, Gibbs told us how you feel about the way we treat your dad when he comes here." Abby placated as she hurried to hug her friend. "I never meant it to hurt you, I just wanted to make him feel welcome, and... and, well, I thought if he felt comfortable with all of us, he wouldn't be underfoot all the the time."
"Hmmff, well, he's underfoot no matter where he is when he's in town, Abs."
Gibbs studied his second hard as the man hugged their lab tech and didn't at all like what he saw.
"Where's yer father, Tony?"
DiNozzo gave him a small, genuine grin, knowing exactly what the man was thinking.
"He's gone, I think anyways, and no, I didn't end him and leave him lying in the bullpen. He's coming to my place later to tell me what he's doing here."
Abby gasped audibly and Gibbs' eyebrows raised nearly to his scalp, while the other two agents looked on in puzzlement.
"You sure ya wanna do that, DiNozzo?"
"Already done, Boss. Besides, it's Christmas, right? Peace on earth, good will towards men, even obnoxious fathers!"
"I do not understand." Ziva added. "Why would Tony not want his own father to visit his place of residence? There is nothing offensive about it, unless you have recently fired your house-keeper."
"Nope, still got Mrs. Snell coming in for me, Zee-vah, no moldy take-out in the fridge or pizza boxes under the couch. Look, can we not define our day around this, I'd really like to do something productive and not have to think about it for a while."
"We're done here, people, back to work. And no more chit chat about Senior, got things to talk about other than him." Gibbs ordered, pushing past Tony and catching the 'thanks, Boss' as he went by him.
Whatever had gone on in the bullpen between Tony and his father, he would find out eventually, but for now, he would give the younger man his space. The team was actually off rotation for Christmas this year, and he'd get the low-down on everything before the week was through.