My thirteenth story – unlucky for someone. I don't own the characters and one of them will be very glad I don't.
Big spoilers for the episode "Sins of the Father" ... this is how things could have turned out slightly differently.
Thanksgiving was always a slightly tense time for the members of the Major Crimes Response Team. Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, Dr Donald Mallard and Forensic Scientist Abby Scuito wistfully remembered happy family times which could not be repeated. Special Agents Tony DiNozzo and Tim McGee lacked those happy memories and knew they had missed out on something precious. Only Special Agent Ziva David and Autopsy Assistant Jimmy Palmer were mostly unaffected: Ziva because as a new American citizen, she was only just beginning to build memories and Jimmy because he had been happy as a child and was still happy now.
This year, however, mused Special Agent Gibbs as he made his way into the office clutching his first coffee of the day, had been worse than usual for DiNozzo. Anthony DiNozzo Senior had told his long suffering son that he was coming to town with big news to share. That had been two days ago and Tony was still waiting to see his father. The charming DiNozzo smile (Junior version) had become a bit more fixed and brittle as the days passed. Gibbs hoped that the planned big dinner meeting had happened the previous night and that his Senior Field Agent's nerves had been 'unjangled' a little. At that moment his thoughts were interrupted by a message from Dispatch to say that a Navy Officer had been found dead on the river front. Gibbs could never quite work out afterwards what his gut was telling him when he took the call ...
NCISNCISNCIS
The younger members of the MCRT team had indulged in their usual low-level bickering on their way to the crime scene and Gibbs had tuned it all out with his usual stoicism. All normality, however, was blown away when the murder suspect was revealed to be one bewildered and dishevelled Anthony DiNozzo Sr.
If it had been any other suspect the team would have been pleased, and surprised, to have such an easy case. Suspect found with the body of navy lieutenant Dean Massey in the trunk of his rental car. A rental car he could not afford and, oh yes, the navy reservist who he admitted he had threatened to kill the day before after he had been squeezed out of a multi-million dollar pay off.
Things had only got worse for DiNozzo Sr when he admitted he couldn't remember the events of the night before and when, on a visit to Massey's office, Ziva and McGee had been shown security footage of Senior trying to strangle his former business partner.
Gibbs' gut was churning but not in a way he recognized when he met with his team, sans Tony, in Abby's lab. Abby was twisting her hands in a tormented way.
"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, what are we going to do? We can't let Mr D go to jail! What would Tony do? It would kill him!"
"At least Tony would always know where he was," said McGee with a nervous chuckle. Ziva looked at him thoughtfully.
"Speaking, hysterically of course, what sentence do you think Mr DiNozzo would receive?"
"Hypothetically, Ziva, not hysterically," put in Ducky helpfully.
"Yes, hypothetically, of course, thank you Ducky. Gibbs, what do you think?"
"Depends. At his age, the provocation, no previous record of violence ... a guilty plea ... a sympathetic judge. I'd guess perhaps five to ten years," replied Gibbs.
"TEN years!", wailed Abby, "ten years locked up with hardened criminals, no Macallan 18 whiskey, no rib eye steaks, no ..."
"That's sort of the point of prison, Abby," interrupted Tim. Abby turned anguished eyes on Tim but Ducky intervened before she could chastise him for heartlessness.
"It's very likely that Mr DiNozzo would be sent to a low security facility. It might lack some of the home comforts he is used to but I don't think he would find it as dire as you imagine, Abby. Indeed, in the UK, some politicians who have fallen foul of the legal process have likened time spent in Her Majesty's Prisons as not unlike the time they spent in boarding school."
"Mr D sent Tony to boarding school." Said Abby thoughtfully.
"It might almost be considered karma," said Ziva in an equally pensive voice.
"And he wouldn't be able to run up any debts that Tony had to pay," supplied Tim.
"No more schemes or 'imaginative financing'", contributed Ducky.
It was at that moment that Gibbs' gut finally calmed and settled.
"Abby, did anything unusual show up on the tox screen?"
Abby shook her head, "No, just a really high level of alcohol."
"McGee, Ziva, any reason to think the security video had been tampered with?"
"No, Boss," said McGee.
"And anyway, Mr DiNozzo agrees that he attacked Lieutenant Massey," added Ziva.
"Ducky, anything odd on the autopsy?"
"No. As you surmised at the crime scene, the lieutenant died of blunt force trauma."
"OK, I'll inform the Director that it looks as if we'll hand Mr DiNozzo over to the FBI tomorrow to be charged. Go home. We'll start again tomorrow."
An outsider might have been surprised to see looks of relief and even satisfaction on the faces of a group of people about to send the father of a team member to prison. An outsider might have thought that this meant that the team didn't like their Senior Field Agent very much and were glad to cause him pain. Would the outsider have been right to think so?
Gibbs almost regretted having agreed to let DiNozzo Sr stay with him that night but he had been unable to resist the imploring look Tony had sent him when it looked as if his father would have to go to the Federal Detention Centre for the night. Gibbs managed to avoid any long conversations with Mr DiNozzo by the simple expedient of going straight to bed when they got home. Mr DiNozzo knew that he was almost the complete opposite of Gibbs and that he irritated the former marine intensely so he wasn't surprised by the monosyllabic conversations and cold shoulder. He wasn't to know that Gibbs was giving him a silent treatment extreme even by his standards because he didn't want to risk his investigative instinct being awakened.
NCISNCISNCIS
The whole team's investigative instincts were destined to remain dormant. The next day saw the place of Massey's murder located and, with it, the murder weapon - a vintage bottle of wine admitted to belong to Mr DiNozzo and which had his finger prints on it. Mr DiNozzo crumpled when he heard the news and shook his head in bewilderment.
Gibbs realised it was time to speak to Tony. Unusually for one of their conversations, Gibbs decided not to use the elevator and took Tony to the nearest coffee shop. They would both need caffeine for this.
Gibbs settled Tony with a hazel nut latte, took a sip of his industrial strength brew and began,
"It doesn't look good, Tony. We have opportunity, motive and his finger prints on the murder weapon,"
"I know, Boss, but ... but it's hard to believe, you know?" Gibbs nodded sympathetically.
"I feel there should be something I could do. There must be a film that this is like," he laughed humorlessly. "Perhaps I could go round to his favorite drinking places to see if anyone remembers seeing him that night. Give him an alibi?"
Gibbs froze momentarily. Why hadn't he thought of that?
"Or perhaps Abby could run another blood test? Dad can usually hold his liquor – he might have been drugged."
"Tony, don't you think Abby would have noticed?" said Gibbs.
Tony sighed, "You're right. I guess Senior's just getting old and gets wasted more easily. But I don't really like the sound of Massey's lawyer Morgan Hunt – he'll make a fortune out of administering Massey's will."
When Gibbs failed to answer, Tony sighed, "No, you're right, Boss, I'm clutching at straws. Senior finally did something he can't get out of." He paused, took a mouthful of his coffee and braced himself, "OK, what do I do next?"
NCISNCISNCIS
In the end it had all been quite simple and much as Gibbs and Ducky had predicted. A shaken DiNozzo Sr had pleaded guilty in exchange for a ten year sentence in a low security facility just outside New York. With good behavior he might be released on parole after five years. What little money he had was placed in the control of his son who turned it over to a scrupulously honest but very successful accountant who soon began to weave some magic with the funds. If Mr DiNozzo lived long enough to be released he would probably find himself much wealthier than when he went to prison.
Tony's friends and colleagues were unusually gentle with him and refrained from mentioning that some of his anxieties about his father had been laid to rest now that he was safely locked up and under constant observation. It might well be that they didn't want to talk about the case too much and draw attention to their speedy closure of it.
EPILOGUE
Gibbs was peacefully sanding the handles on a new dresser when he heard footsteps coming down the basement stairs. He recognized the steps – they belonged to Tony who had been away for a couple of days visiting his father in prison. He braced himself.
"Hey, Boss, " said Tony cheerfully. He helped himself to a jelly jar of bourbon.
"How was your trip?" asked Gibbs neutrally.
"Good," said Tony, "really good."
Gibbs looked up from his sanding and looked at Tony closely. He looked relaxed and genuinely happy, a small smile curving his lips. Tony laughed,
"Apart from when I was a child ... before my Mom died, I don't think I've ever seen my father so cheerful. Only Senior! I guess he's always been a 'glass half full' sort of guy." Tony saw Gibb's quizzical look and continued, "He's running personal finance classes, learning to play bridge, working in the prison garden and generally charming the socks off everyone he meets. He's like the prison mascot or lucky charm. Do you know what he said to me?"
Gibbs shook his head.
"'Junior, I haven't had this much fun in years. No responsibility, no worries, always somewhere to sleep, food on the table. The clothes are a bit scratchy and the bed's a bit hard – you know, it's a bit like boarding school!' I didn't like to tell him that I don't remember boarding school being fun but, hey, he's happy."
"And you, how do you feel, DiNozzo?" asked Gibbs.
Tony paused, looked around almost to see if anyone else could hear him and then said,
"I know this sounds bad, but it's sort of a relief that he's in prison, I don't have to worry that he's going to run up any more debts, get into trouble with mad schemes, turn up at NCIS and embarrass me ... well, apart from embarrassing me by murdering someone, I mean!"
Gibbs' gut, which had begun to twitch a bit, gave something like a contented sigh and curled up and went to sleep again. He raised his glass and clinked it against Tony's.
"Funny thing," said Tony, "I went to Halligan's pub a couple of nights ago. The owner said he saw my father in there last year, really drunk, with an attractive woman. Would have been around the time of the, well, you know, the murder."
Gibbs held his breath for a moment. Tony looked him in the eye – was there a suspicion of a wink there ?
"Probably nothing," he said.
Gibbs' gut slept on.