Suspense
When the phone on his NCIS office desk rang Special Agent Jethro Gibbs snatched it up in annoyance. On the last page of an extremely laborious report, he wanted to finish the tedious account while he had some momentum. Once he put it down it would take all of his willpower to confront it again.
When the caller identified herself as the assistant principal of Tony's high school, however, Gibbs yanked off his glasses and listened attentively, giving the woman his undivided attention.
He winced as she explained the reason for the communication. His son had been a high school freshman a few days shy of a month, yet had managed to come to the attention of the administration, and not in a pleasant, positive encounter.
Gibbs sighed and rubbed his forehead in defeat. Until this school year Maria, Tony's abuela, had shouldered many of the school issues. In fact, she worked as a room mother in every one of his grades, which definitely kept Tony's school behaviour in check. In fact, getting into trouble at school occurred so rarely for the child that neither Jethro nor Maria worried about its likelihood too much.
However, a new year loomed, Tony's first year of high school. Not only did he and his friends consider themselves grown and running with the big boys, but Maria had moved permanently to Mexico. She had come back to Washington to see him off for his first two weeks as a high schooler, but after that, he had been expected to handle his conduct without his father or grandmother having to supervise or intervene.
Obviously, that approach had not done the trick, because the vice principal now called to inform Gibbs that she had given Tony afternoon detention for the next three days. This, she elaborated, resulted from the fact that when she had reproached Tony for sharing a kiss with his current girlfriend outside of their History classroom, he had back talked her and argued about the correction.
Jethro pinched the bridge of his nose, thanked the woman, and assured her that she would not witness a repeat of that conduct from his son. He would deal with him, and also appreciated the heads up on Tony's conduct.
Half an hour later he strode into the high school's main office and told the receptionist he needed to check out Tony, but that Tony would return before the school day ended.
While he waited for his son to arrive from his current classroom he heard an excited voice approach him. "Tony's daddy, Tony's daddy, did you come to see Tony?"
Turning towards the greeting, Gibbs grinned broadly and held out his arms. Daisy Sandler, a higher functioning child with Down's syndrome who lived near them, raced into his embrace. She began chattering away gleefully, excited to see Jethro in a setting other than their neighborhood. He stopped her gently after a couple of minutes, and reminded her that she needed to return to class.
She obeyed, giggling, and blew a kiss as she left, just missing Tony jogging towards the office. He grinned at her.
Gibbs pointed him to their car but didn't answer any of his questions except to tell Tony that he could leave his books because he'd be returning to classes.
Tony shrugged his shoulders in confusion, but quickly strapped himself into the seat. He was an extremely good looking boy, with expressive green eyes, long eyelashes, and brown hair flecked generously with blond streaks. He still had not encountered a good growth spurt and remained smaller than other boys his age. Nevertheless, he managed to excel in sports, establishing himself as a talented team member, and was considered a heartthrob by the girls. He never lacked for companionship.
As Jethro pulled into traffic and Tony recognized the route home his wariness surfaced. "Dad, why are we going home? I thought you said that I would be returning to school this afternoon." He shifted in his seat to address Jethro.
Jethro glanced at him, then back at the road.
"Right, Son, I am taking you back to school in a little while, but first we're going to swing by the house."
"What for?" Tony searched his father's face and began to get a bad feeling in his stomach. This entire incident seemed suspicious. "Why home, Dad?" He persisted.
Jethro glanced at his son again, and took in his uncertainty. "Well, I left NCIS because I got a call from the assistant principal of your school. I know that you already realize the gist of what she told me without having me repeat it to you."
Tony paled, and his gaze shot quickly to his father to see if he looked serious. He did.
Gibbs continued, "So, not only did she alert me that she had assigned you detention, but she told me that you had been very disrespectful when she corrected you. Of course she also pointed out the obvious, that you got into trouble for breaking the physical contact rule."
Jumping on the offense, Tony sputtered, trying to lessen the seriousness of the trouble. "Really, she just went haywire on me, Dad, and….."
His father didn't let him finish but held up his hand. "Don't bother, Son, with trying to absolve yourself with any excuses." He turned into their street and slowed down as they approached the house.
Realization dawned with a crash onto the ninth grader, and he groaned loudly. "Dad, no, please don't- I'm too old to get spanked now, really because I'm a freshman…"
Gibbs didn't let him finish as he pulled into the driveway and parked. He pointed to the front door and ordered, "Inside, Anthony."
Tony threw himself against his seat and puffed out his lip in a pout instead.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow and ordered sharply, "Now!"
That galvanized the teen, who held no illusions about that tone of voice, and he unbuckled his seatbelt and made his way into the house, trying to formulate a plan to save himself as he walked.
Gibbs lagged behind, having stopped to gather the mail, but once he entered the foyer he raised his eyebrows and pointed, "Living room-"
Tony flung himself down on the couch dramatically and his father left him to sulk while he got the coffee pot started and skimmed the mail.
A few minutes later he joined his son and ordered him firmly, "Look right at me and pay attention, Anthony."
Tony did, and Gibbs perched on the sofa arm. He couldn't help thinking to himself again that Tony was a handsome young man. He remembered a teacher asking him when the child was in middle school if he ever had a problem reprimanding Tony, because the boy's features made him so cute and angelic looking. Jethro had assured her that he did not.
Tony's looks still caused heads to turn, and Jethro still subscribed to the belief that parenting included expectations of behavior and consequences if those expectations fell short.
He tapped Tony under the chin and spoke softly. "I didn't expect for you to get into trouble at school before you'd even made it through the first six weeks, but you have managed to do so. Today your actions were wrong and inappropriate, then you managed to exacerbate them by responding disrespectfully to…."
Squirming on the cushion, Tony tried to save himself, "Dad, wait though and let me tell you my side! Don't you want to hear the rest, and that I really wasn't all that wrong?"
His father leveled his gaze upon him and his voice changed to a commanding tone. "Do not interrupt me again while I am speaking to you, Anthony. Do you understand me?"
Tony nodded, shifting in his seat. He wanted the chance to say something to save himself, but knew better than to disobey after that order.
"You chose to conduct yourself disrespectfully. That absolutely confounds me, since every single time you have acted disrespectfully you have gotten punished. I have shown you zero tolerance for any disrespect from the time you were a baby. So somewhere in the back of your head you must have realized you could get into some trouble, but decided to chance it, anyway."