A/N: I've personally never really liked the episode Flesh & Blood, except for the great scene at the end with Gibbs and Tony and cowboy steaks. There was just way too much for me that went unsaid and undone when it came to figuring out Senior's real motives. Thank you, Bunny for the beta, and Velveteen Habit for cracking the whip to get me out of my writing funk!
The moment Gibbs met Anthony DiNozzo Senior, his skin crawled up his spine. Abby would call it voodoo, Shannon called it a sixth sense. Gibbs just called it his gut screaming at him, and adjusted his thinking accordingly. Senior certainly wasn't the first person to ever cause that reaction in him, but it was the first time he had to really clamp down and keep his opinions to himself. Gibbs knew enough about his senior agent's childhood to understand that Tony endured enough trauma and embarrassment at the man's hands that he didn't need to add to it by telling Senior just what he thought of him, at least not in public.
Besides, it wasn't any one thing that Gibbs could put his finger on that bugged him. Not at first, anyways. But as the day wore on, Gibbs could have pinned down any number of adjectives his gut was supplying to his head…arrogant, self-centered, opinionated, and—worst of all of them—sleazy. The lead agent couldn't deny that Anthony Junior had been accused of most of the same traits numerous times himself. But anyone who really knew his SFA knew that they were mostly put on, and when they weren't, they were fleeting. Somehow Gibb didn't believe the same went for DiNozzo Senior. It all came too natural to him, too easily to be faked.
Yes, Leroy Jethro Gibbs decided from the moment he'd shaken hands with the man that he was a wolf in sheep's clothing, and that Tony had spent most of his life trying to outrun him. Something told Gibbs that his young friend was about to be chased right off a cliff, and soon.
As it turned out, no matter how many different ways he was asked, Anthony Senior could not give a straight enough answer as to why he was in town, other than to a friendly reunion with his son.
Tony wanted badly to believe that was the reason.
Gibbs knew better.
And when Tony announced to him in MTAC that he'd discovered Senior was broke and probably had been for years, Gibb's gut dropped down into his sensible Sears boots. But he kept his sentiments to himself. Did Tony really believe that a man as proud and conceited as his father would fess up to anyone, least of all his son, that he couldn't hold his money? Gibbs thought it highly unlikely, but there was no way in hell he could look across that isle at his second, his surrogate son, and put that question to him; especially not now when Tony was flailing and at times, drowning, in the sea of toxic parenting and puzzle that was his father.
Tony had said he'd had McGee hack into his father's financial information. But Gibbs could do even better than McGee. He hadn't spent his years in Black Ops not to make some friends in low places. He would find a way to get to the bottom of DiNozzo Senior's real motives. What he would actually do with the information he got, he wasn't sure of at the moment. Gibbs decided he'd slip back into MTAC first chance he got and have one of the techs make the call.
. . . . .
He was in the men's room of all places when the return call came in on his cell. Barely finished drying his hands, he flipped open the phone.
"Gibbs!"
"Jethro, it's Fornell."
"Uh, yeah, Tobias, saw your number."
"Got the info you wanted."
"You? How'd you get in on this?" Gibbs asked, tossing his paper towel into the trash on his way out.
"Sherwin called Laird, Laird called Franks, Franks called me."
"Why did Franks—never mind, just give me the info."
"Yer not gonna like it."
"Didn't figure I would, Tobias. Just tell me."
"Junior has a trust fund his mother set up for him. Senior found out about it and is trying to legally embezzle it out of the kid without him knowing about it."
"Legally embezzle it? How the hell do you do that?"
"You siphon it off into another account under Tony's name and get your name put on it as a joint holder. He almost did it till an astute bank clerk brought caught wind of it and brought it to a screeching halt and froze all the funds. Seems he's got some hair-brained idea to open a string of resorts with one of his cronies. Takes a boatload of dough to open one, much less a bunch. He's been going to everyone he can think of to mooch off. He's a real piece of work, whataya gonna do to him?"
"Nothing, Tobias. I can't get in the middle of this right now, it's -"
"Are you kidding? The man's a shit-sucking bottom feeder-"
"Gotta go, Tobias, thanks for the info." He snapped the phone shut before Fornell could get in another word. Tony was headed straight for him.
"Boss, Ducky needs to see you, he could get-"
"On my way, DiNozzo." Gibbs blew past him right on to autopsy.
"-hold of you." Tony finished talking to the man's retreating back.
"Whataya need, Duck?" Gibbs demanded as he strode into the M.E.'s workspace.
"I need you to tell me if you have Anthony's father under control yet."
"That's why you called me down here, to see if I plan on beating up DiNozzo Senior?"
"I am expecting no such thing!" Ducky huffed indignantly, "I'm merely asking you if you are aware of how off-kilter our dear boy is and what you intend to do about it!"
"Oh, I'm all too aware how off-kilter he is, Duck, don't expect him to be on-kilter till his father leaves town."
"Why is the man really here, Jethro? Surely you don't believe he's visiting his son out of the goodness of his heart, the man doesn't have one, at least not that I have been able to examine in the light of day. How our Anthony could possibly share that man's DNA..."
"You too, Duck?"
"The man has an ulterior motive, I'm sure of it, and surely Anthony must suspect the same..."
"He thinks he's here to confess that he's broke. He probably is, but that's not why he's here."
Ducky paled a bit as he processed the information and came to his own conclusion.
"He's here to swindle money out of Anthony!" Ducky's face contorted in righteous rage. "Of all the - I have a mind to find that man and make him my next temporary resident! Ohhh, don't you allow him anywhere near me, Jethro, I'll practice my Y-incision skills on him, without benefit of anesthetic!"
Gibbs had to laugh at his friend despite the seriousness of the situation. He put a calming hand on the doctor's shoulder.
"Easy, Duck, he has a new mark - Prince Omar. We can't seem to keep him away from the guy, it seems they're friends from way back. Once this case is over, Senior can milk the guy for all he's worth for all I care, and Tony can go back to being Tony."
"You're not going to tell him about his father's hidden agenda."
"You think I should?"
"Good Lord no, the boy has enough wounds, no need to inflict more on him. Let him think what he will and pray that he never finds out the truth about the bastard. It would serve no purpose other than to hurt the boy terribly."
"He won't hear it from me, Duck. I've already told Senior what I think of him, I'm done dealing with him on anything other than the case itself, and I'm trying to leave that to Ziva and McGee as much as possible. He should be out of our hair by this afternoon. I'll make sure Tony comes home for dinner tonight and let 'im talk it out if he wants."
"That's an excellent idea. I think it's wonderful that he feels comfortable enough now to stay with you on occasion, it does him a world of good knowing he has someone who will listen to him should he decide to work things out instead of keeping them all suppressed."
"Yeah, well, don't know how much I actually help him, I'm no shrink..."
"No, you're much better than a shrink to Anthony. You're what that good-for-nothing blowhard has never been to him. Don't sell yourself short, Jethro. He needs you. Even if you don't have all the answers for him. He knows that you at least care enough to try."
Gibbs glanced impatiently at his watch and the older man smiled at him and squeezed his forearm.
"I apologize for making you think I had something relative to the case. I couldn't work thinking about that dreadful man and needed to know Anthony was being cared for in all of the tumult. Go on, I'm able to concentrate now knowing that my intuition was correct. How I wish it wasn't this time."
"Yeah, me too, Duck. Me too. "
. . . . .
Gibbs flipped the thick sirloin over to finish cooking just the way Tony liked it, and mulled over what he thought might be the right answers to his young agent's questions and comments. That was, if his SFA was in the mood to talk. This was dangerous ground for Gibbs...much as he despised the elder DiNozzo right now, it wasn't his place to divulge that to Tony.
He knew the young man still wanted to, needed to think the best of his father. There was no room for Gibb's opinion of the man in the mix. He was Switzerland, neutral territory. He knew he would need to be sympathetic without coming down too hard on Senior. But it was next to impossible for Gibbs to be impartial about the man.
He'd already had a low opinion of the man before he'd even met him and now…well, now that he knew what he did of Tony's father, he wanted to alter the man's face with his fists. A small part of him believed that his young friend should know the real reason behind the man's visit. Hell, Tony wasn't a little kid anymore, he was a seasoned agent who'd seen and experienced the worst that the world could throw at him, and he should know the truth.
But to be told there was solid proof that, not only had your own father tracked you down after how many years absent for the sole purpose of squeezing money out of you, but had also tried to suck it out of your trust fund illegally? Some truths were just too hurtful, no matter how thick-skinned Tony had seemed to make himself.
Nope, Gibbs decided. That information was need to know, and Tony didn't need to. Later, when they'd divvied up the steak and Tony announced that it was better to keep some things you know to yourself, Gibbs couldn't look his kid in the face as he agreed with a resounding Amen.