A/N: Spoilers for episode 11:4, 'Anonymous Was A Woman'. Just a (very) short shot on an observation I made. Not sure if anyone else saw it the same way I did, those final moments of the episode of Tony watching Gibbs.
It was another one of those chapters in his life that he had chosen to forget about, one of those impossible choices that he had made where there was really no choice, no right answer. At the time what he had chosen seemed right. Later, when it came back to haunt him in the form of a new homicide case, he knew that right or wrong, the book on it had never really shut for him. Those women had haunted him in a way none of his ex's ever had. He'd gone over it it in his head a thousand times since, but even so, he had based his final actions on hours of agonizing deliberation.
When Franks had stormed his basement ready to truly pound him into the concrete, telling him that those women had all died after the Afghan women's shelter had been bombed, he certainly had to rethink his decision. Maybe he should have thought of it as saving one girl, one woman, at a time, instead of trying to predict the future with absolutely no solid evidence to base his prophecy on.
The evidence trail had led them back to Afghanistan, back to another woman's shelter, and he had stood firm against Tony's barely disguised plea to not go there, that he had almost lost his boss, mentor and surrogate father to militant snipers in the Middle East last month and really wasn't willing to go through that sort of anxiety again and so soon – hell, not ever again. Those worried green eyes had waylaid him for a few moments, but not stopped him in the long run. He was on a mission to rectify a wrong, whether the one made by him in a moment of 'damned if you do and damned if you don't, or the one leaking the smuggled womens' names, he didn't honestly know, but he wasn't going to let his Senior Field Agent call the shots for where he went on or off a case.
Though he knew the situation could very likely get extremely dicey, he had never foreseen himself orchestrating a showdown between a gang of armed militants while his team watched helplessly through a boarded-up window and a satellite through MTAC. He didn't have a clue how soon the 'cavalry' was going to show up, and wondered if this was possibly karma for turning his back on those women years ago, no matter how righteous he had felt about it at the time. He felt badly for putting his boys through seeing him shot or hacked to pieces, possibly set on fire, even, but it was the only thing he could think of to buy them time.
In the end, it had worked, but he had heard the exchange between McGee and Tony as to what was happening, and knew it would haunt them both for months, or more, to come. And in the end, he had found a way to bring them all to the States with him, reuniting a mother and daughter, and probably igniting a fire under his butt by the State Department. Well, he wasn't going to try to predict the future this time, if they fired his ass for bringing those women home with him , then so be it, he could retire with a clear conscience.
Out of his peripheral vision, he could see DiNozzo talking with the seemingly mild Agent Grady, lie detector administrator turned field agent, and by the look on Tony's face, she was telling him what an awesome boss and team the younger man had. Tony hadn't taken his eyes off the man, and Gibbs could read a wealth of emotion in the green orbs – gratitude at seeing his team mates back home and safe, joy at seeing those women get new leases on their lives, and more importantly, a glowing pride for his mentor. So when Catherine Tavier had told him how proud Mike Franks would have been of him at this moment, it had only settled on him lightly. Chances were, Franks would have been just as mean and angry at him, yelling that if he could have done this now, why not those years ago when he'd been asked to?
No, it didn't really matter what Mike Franks thought of him anymore. Franks wasn't here, and had his own brand of playing sides and knowing exactly how to manipulate people to get what he wanted out of them.
This was now, and this was Tony. This was his eldest son, his favorite, and what Tony thought of him meant the world to Gibbs, though he probably wouldn't admit it even on his deathbed. And for the first time in a long time, Gibbs saw what he didn't even know he'd been looking for in his senior agent's eyes, and it grounded him and warmed him more than he could have ever thought. Maybe he had a chance to make some things up to his boy after all. This was sure a hell of a good start.