Title: Table Talk
Summary: A possible visual aid to interrogation causes Gibbs to reflect on DiNozzo's abilities.
Disclaimer: NCIS is not mine. I'm just borrowing the concepts and characters for a little while.
Spoilers: 8.18 Out of the Frying Pan
A/N: I've had this written and typed for over a week now, but real life kept getting in the way.
GibbsRules read this for me, but all remaining mistakes are the fault of a very tired brain.
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"Really? That's great!"
Gibbs looks up at DiNozzo's exclamation and focuses on his senior field agent's side of the phone conversation.
"Ouch! That had to hurt… Alright, thanks for the warning…" Tony trails off then his voice turns serious. "Don't worry, we'll break him. See you guys soon," his agent assures and hangs up his phone.
He looks up to see Gibbs' arching eyebrow. "Boss," he begins and smiles. "You'll never guess who that was." He pauses then swallows uncomfortably at his boss' ensuing glare. "Right. You don't have to guess because I'm going to tell you right now."
Tony gets up from his chair and grabs a notebook off his desk before striding the few feet over to Gibbs' desk. "That was Anacostia PD. They picked up Corporal Parker due to a routine traffic stop. While checking the plates, our BOLO popped. Parker tried to escape but didn't know there was another patrol car just around the corner from his location. The two cars boxed him in and Parker was apprehended. He's being escorted here by some of Anacostia's finest as we speak and should be here in less than an hour."
Gibbs nods then his eyebrows furrow in confusion. "What was the bit about a warning about?"
DiNozzo smirks, "Seems Parker is a dirty fighter. The LEO I spoke to said to wear a cup."
The team lead shakes his head in amusement at the phrase letting the faintest hint of a smile break through. Tony grins broadly and looks around to see if anyone is listening. Seeing no one, he puts his hands on Gibbs' desk and leans in closer to his boss.
In sotto voce, DiNozzo asks, "Did Vance get rid of or fix that table he went all 'So I Married an Ax Murderer' on?"
Gibbs just looks at his senior field agent blankly. Sometimes the movie references are a little too obscure for my taste, he thinks to himself.
DiNozzo sees the impatient, exasperated look on Gibbs' face and retorts, "I admit that that wasn't the best movie reference I ever ma—. Uh, never mind. So," he leans in again and drops his voice, "is that table still there in interrogation room one?"
"No idea," Gibbs replies.
"Damn. I guess I'll have to go check it out," he says half to himself. "I hope so because it would be so perfect, not to mention fun to go all good cop, bad cop on Parker with that visu—Hey! Ow!" Tony rubs the back of his head, "What was that for?"
Gibbs tilts his head and puts an expression on his face that says something like, 'You should know better.' And the Marine is sure DiNozzo does know better – it's just that sometimes his mind goes so fast that he often skips steps, like telling his boss what the hell he's talking about.
The ex-cop noticeably sobers and gives his new 'sore' spot one final comforting rub. "Given the way Parker had to be taken down, you know he's not going to be exactly cooperative when we interrogate him. So I figure we put the fear of God in him using the interrogation table cum chopping block as a visual aid for why he should be a good little future felon and tell us everything we want to know."
Dipping his head, Gibbs allows himself to smile a bit before forcing it from his face. "You want to do good cop, bad cop," he confirms what he heard earlier.
"Exactly, Boss." He leans back in and whispers with a mischievous grin, "We can scare the guy into submission and have fun doing it at the same time!" Tony then straightens and says, "I'm going to go to Interrogation and see if that table's been fixed."
As DiNozzo walks away, Gibbs can hear him talking to himself, "Can't wait to see Boss in action. Something to tell the—"
Gibbs lets his smile loose. He loves Tony's enthusiasm for using the table from Interrogation as an aid in getting their perp to talk.
But, DiNozzo was wrong in one thing. If the table was there and they went with the idea, then it would be Tony as the 'bad cop' once again. His agent had been scarily good in that position only the other week, when the director had insisted Gibbs break Nick Peyton and get the kid to confess to murder.
Gibbs wished that McGee and Ziva and especially Vance could've seen Tony in the interrogation room. They think DiNozzo skates by on charm, film trivia, and the occasional piece of information that breaks a case wide open. The man wouldn't be his senior field agent, or heck, even on his team, if he didn't bring so much more to the proverbial table.
But, his partner was content it seemed to let others think he was a goof and not a capable investigator. And, with a chuckle at the thought, he really hoped that the table in interrogation hadn't been fixed or replaced.
He'd really love to see Tony in action – playing up, without any effort at all, the story of how the table their bad guy was sitting looking at got damaged. Gibbs was reasonably certain that whoever was on the other side of the table from DiNozzo, including Corporal Parker; that they'd spill their guts by the time the man had finished his tale, and he was looking forward to sitting back and watching the show.
Leon had said that NCIS had a couple of top notch interrogators and had grudgingly admitted that Gibbs was one of them. When asked who the other was, he'd gotten the impression that the Director had meant himself to be the other.
But, in Gibbs' mind, Tony DiNozzo was a top notch interrogator, a top notch all around agent as well.
If only the others could see—
Out of the corner of his eye, he spies Tony coming back into their bullpen. With two thumbs up and a giant grin, it's clear the ax-damaged table has not been replaced yet.
As his agent sits with a content look on his face, Gibbs thinks, this is going to be fun, and leans back in his chair confident that their case will soon be closed.
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The end.
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Thanks for reading!