-1The Day
This day had started like any other day for Special Agent Gibbs. He was up at 5am and at work by 6:30am. He walked out of the elevator with coffee cup in hand and entered the still silent bullpen. He always got to work early and on most days, like today, was the first one there. Gibbs walked over and sat at his desk, drinking his coffee, and enjoying the quite while it lasted.
At fifteen passed seven, McGee and Ziva got in. Those two were always on time to work, if not there early. In fact he couldn't think of day when Ziva had been late in the whole two years she's worked here. Tony on the other hand was often late but only by a few minutes, however most days he got here before those two.
When 7:30am rolled around, Gibbs got up to go get another coffee. Of course he did this everyday, so it was nothing new to his agents. They knew that by 8am he would be back at his desk to get a little work done before his meeting with the director at 8:30am. Then thirty to forty-five minutes later he would be back in the bullpen working on some paperwork unless they got a case.
"McGee," Ziva said from her desk. He stops what he's doing and looks at her. "So how long do you think the meeting will be today?"
"I don't know," he replies, then glances at the empty desk to his left. Ziva notices where he's looking. Tony's desk.
"Tony's gonna be in big trouble when he gets here."
"Probably so," he says back just as he sees Tony exiting the elevator.
Tony walks straight to his desk and puts his stuff down. He sits and boots up his computer so he can get to work. McGee and Ziva look from Tony then to each other. Neither one of them can really believe he would be this late to work.
"Tony, you know Gibbs is going to box you," Ziva told him.
"Bust," Tony replied not looking up from the file he was looking at.
"The only thing I'm gonna bust is you two, if you don't get back to work," Gibbs says looking at Ziva and McGee as he's coming down the stairs. He glances at Tony's desk and makes eye contact with him. It was brief, but long enough for Gibbs to know that his Senior Field Agent was okay.
Gibbs walks over to his desk and gets back to work. He sees the confused look Ziva exchanges with McGee. Well, he couldn't blame them really. Normally, he would bust DiNozzo for being two minutes late. So, not getting on to him for being an hour and half late must really confuse them.
But today was different. Sure, it had started the same, until now. This was the only day that Tony was this late, but it was also the only day he wouldn't have to constantly tell him to quit goofing off and get back to work. Gibbs knew where Tony was this morning, and he allowed him this leeway. To Tony, this was the day he lost his friend, his partner, maybe even the woman he loved. Two years ago today was when they had all lost Kate.
Tony did the same thing today that he did last year. He took flowers to her grave and spent some time there catching her up on everything. It was also the only day he would go to her grave. Gibbs knew there had been something special between them, even though they wouldn't have dared break rule number twelve. He found himself sometimes wishing they had, because even though Tony was himself, he was still different. Never having a relationship that lasted more than a couple of days with anyone, but also not even dating quite as much as he used to. Although, no one could tell because he still carried on as usual. Gibbs figured he was the only one who knew that Tony was merely making most of it up. In fact, if he had to bet money on it, he figured that Tony had loved Kate and probably still does. This is why he lets him get away with coming in late, but only today.
Just then his phone started to ring. As he reached to answer it, he hoped this would be the last time Tony would have to be this late to work.
"Gibbs," he said into the phone.