An Unspoken Promise
A/N: Set very early in season one. It probably drifts from canon slightly, but I haven't watched much NCIS. Only a one-shot.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
You either had to be incredibly thick, or frustratingly unobservant to believe that Leroy Jethro Gibbs cared for nothing but the job.
As an NCIS – and former Secret Service agent – Kate was sure that she fell under neither category and yet, she had been fooled by Gibbs' bastard exterior.
She believed the head-slaps to be an indication of annoyance, exasperation.
She accepted the sarcastic comments as intentionally hurtful ones.
She thought the eye-rolls were subtle expressions of his intolerance towards his team members.
Kate Todd, for a little while, honestly believed that Gibbs was a Grade A bastard and that Tony was a beaten, trodden agent who accepted the abuse because he craved attention – any kind of attention, that is.
But on a Friday night, at the end of a tiring case, all three were in the elevator heading towards the parking garage.
It was two minutes to midnight and Kate believed that 'exhaustion' wasn't an adequate word when describing the ache in her bones, the weariness in her muscles, the dull pain behind her eyes.
Even Gibbs looked somewhat tired.
DiNozzo looked half-dead, slumped against the elevator wall.
He soon jumped up, jerked, when the elevator groaned and shuddered, its mechanisms appeared to wail in pain before the lights flickered and went out.
The elevator stopped and the small, infuriatingly dark space fell silent.
"Typical. Absolutely typical."
Tony obviously thought it was necessary to break the tense atmosphere and Kate slammed her palms against her head.
This was not how she planned on spending her night – no, wait, make that morning.
With an indistinct growl and a curse, Gibbs had pulled out his cell phone and was shining the light on the control panel, pressing, hammering on every button.
The emergency button – big, red and temping – did nothing.
Gibbs threw his cell and it bounced, like a rubber ball, before splitting into a few pieces.
That was Gibbs' third cell this month.
"Boss…." DiNozzo spoke quietly, hesitantly and Kate felt him move towards her and out of Gibbs' space. She certainly noticed the minute tremor in his voice, "what do we do now?"
"There's nothing we can do, DiNozzo." The former marine hissed.
Tony was wise enough not to answer, but he couldn't stop the moan of pure relief when the emergency lights switched themselves on. It was still dim in the elevator, but Kate could easily make out the restless forms of her co-workers. Gibbs was in the corner opposite Kate, with DiNozzo in the corner between them.
Gibbs had already slid down the wall, his legs out in front on him.
"You're not claustrophobic are you, Kate?" Tony asked, with a tight, fragile smile.
"No, DiNozzo, are you?" Kate dropped her back in frustration and fell to the floor as Gibbs had done.
She was in no mood for conversation.
"I was looked in a freezer once for a day or so – it wasn't switched on – when I was ten…"
DiNozzo trailed off, his cheeks flushing a pale red, his hands twisting unconsciously in his sweater.
"Uh, no, not really. Not much."
Kate frowned deeply and exchanged a concerned glance with the older man across from her. Powerfully, frighteningly blue eyes glared back at her, encouraging the only female in the elevator to let the subject drop.
"Sit down, DiNozzo." Gibbs sighed, "you're making me dizzy."
Tony sat down.
No one spoke for at least an hour, all content (not that content) to just sit and wait until either the elevator re-started (that was unlikely) or someone came to help (again, an unlikely scenario.)
Tony was rather restless, Kate noted. His feet jigged up and down, he drummed his fingers against his thigh in some kind of random rhythm and – for no apparent reason – would empty his backpack all over the floor now and then, before putting every item back in.
Gibbs didn't even acknowledge the obviously nervous behaviour.
At first, Kate thought that he didn't care.
If DiNozzo had a problem with small spaces, that was his problem, so long as the Italian didn't have a panic attack and cause too much disturbance.
"It's 3:30, Gibbs." Kate said, glancing at her wrist watch with strained eyes.
"That's nice, Agent Todd." The former marine replied in a monotone, not even looking at her.
It was then, in that awkward moment, that both Kate and Gibbs noticed Tony had pulled out a biro from his bag and was drawing all over his hands.
Kate raised an eyebrow and Gibbs watched on knowingly.
"Whatcha doing, DiNozzo?" The boss asked, without a hint of mockery.
Tony paused for a moment and swallowed, before capping the lip on the pen with shaking hands.
"Just trying to pass the time, Boss."
"Carry on with that and you'll look like Abby."
"I've always wanted a tattoo."
"You're not getting a tattoo, DiNozzo." Gibbs said curtly, the first hints of a smile of his lips.
Tony sighed dramatically and Kate recognised Gibbs' tactic – he was distracting the Italian from the fear that curled around his spine, clutched at his heart.
Kate hoped to God that DiNozzo had been locked in that freezer accidentally when he was a kid, but, being the profiler that she was, she doubted it.
"How come Abby gets to have one? No, make that about fifty."
"Because she's Abby."
"That's not fair, Boss."
Gibbs could have replied with 'Life's not fair' – Kate expected him to – but she guessed that they both were aware that Tony already knew that.
Knew that too well.
"Just go to sleep, DiNozzo and give me some peace." Gibbs turned his gaze on his young friend, intending to stare the Italian into submission.
"Sleep? On what? No duvet, no mattress, no pillow – "
But the silver-hair man simply rolled his eyes and reached out, his hand clamping on Tony's collar, before dragging the squirming younger agent down onto his lap.
With DiNozzo's head resting on Gibbs' legs, the former marine patted him quickly on the hair.
"There, a pillow. Happy now, DiNozzo?" Gibbs smirked at Kate's openly shocked expression and the way Tony held his head up to prevent any weight resting on his boss' legs.
"Uh, boss, you – "
"I said shut up and go to sleep, Tony."
The use of the DiNozzo's first name eliminated all traces of annoyance from Gibbs' tone.
"Yes, boss." Tony nodded and hesitantly let himself relax against the older man, blinking slowly and sluggishly.
"Good boy."
Kate caught the gleeful smile Tony tried to hide, and the gentle smirk that touched upon Gibbs' lips.
Within minutes, DiNozzo was fast asleep, his face buried in the boss' pant leg.
About forty five minutes later, it became clear to Kate that Tony was dead to the world, so she deemed it safe to ask the question which had been lingering on her mind for the last few hours.
"Who locked him in that freezer, Gibbs?"
The former marine glanced at her, a cold anger in his icy eyes.
But it wasn't directed at her.
"It's not my place to say, Kate."
Agent Todd obviously failed to hide her disappointment at that answer.
Then Gibbs continued, in a whisper.
"But, I promise that if I ever meet his father, I'll rip the man's heart out and serve it to him on a plate."
The sheer loyalty, the fierce sense of paternal protectiveness in that one sentence confirmed for Kate the idea she had been pondering she Tony laid his head down on Gibbs' lap and let his fears drift away.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs did care about his job.
He cared about Abby.
And, without a doubt, he cared a helluva lot about one Anthony DiNozzo, Junior.
But he didn't need to say it aloud because it was clear that Tony knew already.
He knew, deep down, that he was loved.
Kate smiled.
Maybe she could find a place in this team. She hoped so.