Slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy, just set yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
Drop of the key, Lee, and get yourself free.
The chorus played on the radio. Tony's knuckles turned white as things clicked. McGee didn't notice, Ziva wouldn't get a chance to notice bouncing around in the back of the van. But Gibbs, well that's a different story. He would notice everything about Tony.
Slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy, just set yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
Drop of the key, Lee, and get yourself free.
Tony was a player but no one knew that he was ambidextrous, as the analogy went. Tony had been left by five men over the years.
The first was Jack in college. They had been in the same fraternity, ended up in the sharing the same room and most nights after the first semester, the same bed. Then Tony found Jack cheating on him with a girl. He slipped out the back and requested a new roommate. No one asked why, and no one argued, not even Jack.
The second guy was just after he graduated the academy. Stan had an apartment that he crashed in while he searched for a job. They were going to work their way up the ranks together and make detective. They looked over the papers together and looked over each other's body's. Then just when Tony found his first precinct, Stan got a new plan and moved to Seattle to write video games.
Roy was Tony's last try, or so he told himself. Roy, was just before he left Peoria. Roy was the reason he left Peoria, actually. Roy was soft and shy, just like in the song, Roy was coy, except the day he told Tony, he was leaving him, that he wanted to be free. Roy was on the next flight to Tibet.
Gus, well Gus was a chance taken on a drunken night in Philly. Tony was lonely and walked into a bar he should have never walked in to. He walked out hours later with Gus. Gus had pinned him to the wall with a kiss so hot Tony had almost come in his pants. Gus ended the kiss by dropping to his knees and making sure Tony did come. Days later, Gus was gone on a bus with Tony's record collection at a local pawn shop.
Lee was the one that hurt Tony the most. Though Lee didn't drop off the key, he dropped off the map. Lee was the one who still years later made Tony's heart flutter at the thought of him, just a flicker of memory of their sex could make Tony hard, and did right then. Years and the man still had Tony over a barrel, kitchen table, couch, bottom of the stairs...boat.
Gibbs stopped short propelling Ziva into Tony's shoulder, pulling him from his stroll on memory lane.
Everyone got to work quickly and efficiently. Tony took the pictures but when it was time to sketch his lead kept breaking. He walked the short distance to the van to get a new pencil and squeaked when he was pushed to the far side of it instead.
"You never told me."
"Told you what Gibbs?" Tony asked confused, the song fresh in his mind but not really able to put two and two together.
"You never told me you liked Paul Simon."
Tony tried to turn away from the gaze in front of him. He couldn't do it. "It never came up, Gibbs," was the best response he could come up with.
"Why Tony?"
"We didn't talk about music?" Tony asked, his sarcasm and temper flaring in equal parts.
Gibbs growled low and pushed away from Tony. He didn't know what to expect from the man, but when he made no other moves Tony pushed away from the van wall and moved to get the new pencil. Before he made it one step Gibbs had him by the collar kissing him for everything he was worth. When the kiss finally stopped, both men's breaths heaving, Tony looked at the man before him and saw what he had been missing for years. "Lee."
The one word was whispered so softly Tony wasn't even sure he had actually said it aloud.
Lee stepped into Tony's personal space, "There won't be any more lined added to that song, our house, as soon as the case is over." Lee kissed the corner of his mouth and pushed a new pencil into his hand. Tony reached up and touched the still warm spot from Lee's kiss. It was something they had done before, a quick kiss to the side, something that connected them but wasn't really a kiss. Looking at the pencil in his hand he smiled. He felt the marks on the side that was to his palm. If he rolled it and looked he knew it would be the intertwined monogram they had playfully doodled out on each other's body one night when Tony had gotten Lee to play with chocolate syrup.
Tony whistled as he walked back to the scene, Tim looked up, "Song got stuck in your head?"
"You could say that McObvious."
McGee shook his head and kept tagging the dead petty officer's spilled bag. He had gotten better and noticing things. He saw Tony's hand clench at the song and the mention of names, he knew that Tony had been with a guy named Jack in college. Tony talks in his sleep when he's drunk. He also knew that for a long time before Tony took over the MCRT, Tony didn't live in his apartment. McGee would bet all of his past, present and future book sales that the Lee in the song was standing to his left, humming the same exact song.