Written for the 2017 NCIS Holiday Holidays Advent Challenge over at ncis-discuss
Tony DiNozzo was the most unlikely person to be named Grinch of the season that honour normally went to either Gibbs or Vance, more often than not Gibbs was bestowed the title. This year was shaping up to be Tony's year though, the man had been storming around in a mood since the Christmas season had began, and for no apparent reason.
Abby, McGee and Bishop had all cornered him on separate occasions trying to pry out of him what was wrong, but he would just mutter about everything being fine and go back to whatever he was doing, ignoring the conversation if possible. They had a brainstorming session trying to work out what was wrong with him to no avail; Secret Santa hadn't been drawn yet so he didn't have an impossible gift to find yet, the team was off rotation for Christmas so he didn't have to work the holiday, he didn't have any upcoming court appearances and his apartment was in full working order. On the run up to the holidays there was nothing that they could find that would have put Tony in such a Grinch-like mood for so long.
As they were packing up to leave on Christmas Eve, Secret Santa gifts having been exchanged, Tony had drawn Abby and had gotten her a fantastic collar despite still being in a complete funk, the team were discussing their plans. Abby and McGee were both visiting their respective families, and Bishop was meeting up with friends. Gibbs just grunted, not bothering with an answer, they all knew that he would no doubt be spending Christmas in his basement.
"How about you, Tony?" McGee asked, "The usual plans?"
"Nope." Tony replied, not elaborating any, he didn't want to get into a discussion of his plans. His plans for Christmas had been derailed by the HR Department who had refused to allow him to work the holiday. Tony's usual Christmas when the team weren't on rotation was swapping with someone who had a family and had been rostered on, not that he ever let on to his teammates. Apparently it looked bad from a HR perspective that he had worked so many Christmases in a row, even though some of them were voluntary, so he was being forced to take the time.
It was why Tony had been dreading Christmas so much, everyone had plans that he didn't want to impose himself on, so he had resigned himself to spending Christmas alone, a prospect that didn't exactly fill him with joy or the Christmas spirit. He started to walk towards the elevator, hoping to end the conversation. He called back to the team to enjoy their time off and was almost at the elevator when he heard his name.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs called out across the bullpen, "Cowboy steaks 1900 hours."
Tony just nodded back to him, his reply of 'thanks Boss' feeling inadequate for the other man spending his holiday time with him. He wasn't going to be completely alone for Christmas, Tony let a small smile cross his lips as he reached his car. He didn't even let the Grinch Christmas card that had been placed under his windscreen wiper faze him.