Sequel to "Next Time"
WARNING: Contains non-consensual spanking of an adult.
Tony had been on his best behavior for a month, a week and three days – an unprecedented streak. It had been so long since he'd even earned so much as a head-slap that Gibbs was starting to allow himself to believe that his senior agent was finally beginning to live up to his title. But, as Gibbs reflected, all good things must come to an end. And boy, had Tony managed to end it in spectacular fashion!
* * * * *
"Tony! Stop touching things!" Abby yelled as one of her machines began to beep incessantly. She'd turned around to see Tony suddenly very interested in the contents of her refrigerator. She rushed over, pushed a few buttons and the beeping stopped. When she turned back to her computer, Tony was standing in front of it typing as fast as he could. Suddenly, her screen turned bright blue and white text started scrolling up from the bottom. "What did you do?" she shouted at him and pushed him violently aside. She rebooted her computer as Tony started juggling evidence jars. But Tony wasn't the world's best juggler and in no time, a dozen jars were scattered around the floor. "What is wrong with you?" Abby demanded.
"I'm bored," he whined.
"Well go be bored somewhere else before you tear my lab apart!"
Tony started bouncing on his toes. "I hate this!" he said, still pretty much whining.
"Tony, this happens every year. Get used to it," Abby answered as she turned back to her now-rebooted computer.
"But it's dumb," he said as he walked over and stood next to her. As he reached out to pick up a vial from her desk, Abby slapped his hand – and not gently. "Yeoww!" he yelled, rubbing the back of his hand.
"Stop touching things!" Their conversation had come full circle. "How do you not have anything to do?"
"We don't have a case, and Gibbs is busy with this Open House nonsense." Tony suddenly giggled. "Can you imagine ending up in his tour group? He's probably down in Autopsy right now pulling bodies out of drawers to show people what a dead body looks like."
Abby jumped right in and took the bait. "And this is the elevator," she mocked. "It stops between floors so I can yell at my staff and well, pretty much anyone else who pisses me off." She and Tony dissolved into giggles and didn't hear the elevator open. The next thing they knew, their boss was herding a small group of civilians with visitor badges and souvenir bags into the lab.
"And this is our forensics lab and our forensic scientist, Abby Sciuto." Abby immediately stepped up in her normal, bubbly fashion and began giving a tour of the lab. Gibbs slid over to Tony. "DiNozzo, I'm not going to tell you again. Go find something to do," he said in a fierce whisper. Tony opened his mouth to protest that he didn't have anything to do, but before he could get a word out, he felt a hard hand slap his butt. "Now."
Tony shut his mouth and sulked out of the lab, grateful that the tour group was so engrossed in Abby's explanation of, well, something Tony didn't understand, that no one saw his uncomfortable interaction with Gibbs. He headed up to the squad room, completely aware of the fact that he'd just been given a warning.
* * * * *
An hour later, Tony was back in Abby's lab. "Come on, please?"
"Ok, fine. Take a couple. But you'd better replace them when you get back."
"Thanks, Abbs. This is going to be great!" Tony said excitedly. He made a beeline for one of the many cabinets in the lab with Abby following close behind.
"Don't take them all. You can have five, but that's it. I have a party this weekend and I want to bring the rest. We're doing it in this warehouse down at the docks? It's gonna ROCK!" Abby said, now just as excited as Tony.
"Thanks. I have to 'go find something to do'," Tony said sarcastically when he was finished rummaging through her cabinet. "See you later!"
* * * * *
"McGee."
"Yeah Boss?"
"Where is DiNozzo?"
"Uh, I haven't seen him for about an hour."
"Call his cell," Gibbs ordered.
McGee dialed and waited. "He's not answering."
Gibbs picked up his own phone and dialed. "Abs, is Tony with you?...Ok." The brief conversation was repeated with Ducky. He turned around as the elevator dinged its arrival, but it was Kate who appeared. "Kate, have you seen DiNozzo?"
"No. I haven't seen him since before lunch."
Suddenly, three streaks of smoke flew up past the huge picture window in the squad room followed a second later by three loud pops. And then an explosion. Gibbs flew to the window in a panic. Black smoke was quickly filling the air and he saw that two cars were on fire in the motor pool parking lot below. A small figure stood frozen looking at the flaming shells. He'd found Tony.
Gibbs had never made it down four flights of stairs faster in his life. Even so, by the time he slammed open the door that lead outside, the base fire trucks were arriving and Army MPs were already cordoning off the area. He saw Tony engaged in a heated argument with one of the MPs. Next to him on the ground were three shells and one unexploded rocket. He ran over, grabbed Tony's arm and spun him around to face him. He looked him up and down frantically. "Are you ok? Are you hurt at all?"
"No, I'm fine. Boss, stop that," Tony protested as Gibbs started feeling for broken bones and checking him for shrapnel wounds. "I'm fine."
"What the hell were you doing?!?!?" Gibbs demanded, obviously convinced that Tony was, in fact, just fine.
"Boss, I…" Tony stammered. But the arrival of Director Morrow cut his stammering short.
"What happened?" he demanded, taking in the scene in front of him. Gibbs still had a death grip on Tony's arm, the fire fighters were spraying foam on the two burning cars and a young MP was staring at Gibbs and Tony, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.
Without taking his eyes off Tony, Gibbs pointed at the firework lying on the ground. The director looked from Gibbs to the firework and back to Gibbs. "Is he ok?" he asked.
"At the moment," Gibbs growled.
"My office," Director Morrow ordered before he strode off to talk to the CO on site.
Tony's shoulder just about ripped out of its socket as Gibbs yanked him toward the building. He was pushed into the elevator, but when it didn't come to a clanking halt, he turned to his furious boss – who was still holding his arm as if one of their lives depended on it. "Boss…"
"Don't say a word," Gibbs growled, staring straight ahead at the shiny doors.
They arrived at the director's office and Tony found himself planted in front of the desk. Then, and only then, did Gibbs release his arm. He reached over to rub some of the pain out of it. "Arms at your sides," Gibbs ordered from the chair he had dropped himself into at the table.
Tony stared out the window, for the first time finally able to think. "What went wrong?" he wondered. He tired to replay the events of the last few minutes in the tense silence, but the arrival of the director curtailed his wonderings.
Director Morrow stood behind his desk and glared at Tony for a moment. For his part, Tony stood at stiff attention, refusing to return the gaze. "I'm not even sure where to start, Agent DiNozzo. I don't need to ask what happened. That much is clear. So I suppose, we should start with what the hell were you thinking?"
Tony had never seen Morrow angry before. It was not a good contrast to the director's normally cool and casual attitude. "I…well…I…" The director offered no help at all, simply allowing Tony to stammer along. Finally he took a deep breath to steady himself. "I was bored," he said matter-of-factly.
Morrow's eyebrow shot up. "Bored?" he spat out. "You were bored so you decided to set off fireworks in the motor pool parking lot?"
"Yes Sir," Tony answered quietly.
"How did two cars end up on fire?" Morrow demanded.
"I guess one of them was bad," Tony explained. "I had no way of knowing that," he added, hoping to diffuse some of the director's – and Gibbs' – anger.
"I would ask why you didn't check them before you set them off, but that really couldn't matter less."
"No Sir," Tony admitted.
After another tense moment, the director pulled open a drawer and started routing around. Tony's heart stopped, sure the director was about to produce a paddle. But instead, he pulled out a folder, flipped it open roughly and grabbed a pen. He sat down and started scribbling something. He signed his name to the bottom of the form and then looked up at Tony. "Agent DiNozzo, you are suspended for the next two weeks. You will surrender your weapon and your badge to Agent Gibbs. You will be contacted next week regarding the date and time of your return interview, and upon your return, you will be on desk duty for the following two weeks. Until then, you are not to step foot in the building. Understood?"
"Yes Sir," Tony answered miserably.
"That will be all," the director said pointedly.
Head hung, Tony turned toward the door, not daring to look in Gibbs' direction. "Wait for me in the conference room," he heard Gibbs order as he reached for the door handle. Without looking back, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
When the door was closed, Gibbs finally stood up, walked across the room and stood where Tony had stood just moments earlier. Morrow handed him the suspension order and a pen. "You need to sign that too," he said.
Gibbs took the paper and pen, but made no move to sign anything. After a thoughtful moment, he looked down at the director. "Sir, I don't think this is the best way to handle this."
"You don't?" Morrow asked, not even a little bit surprised.
"No Sir. If you suspend him for that long, he won't learn anything. He'll sit at home watching movies and playing video games. And putting him on desk duty will just give him more time to dream up more of his outrageous stunts."
"He has to be punished for this," Morrow stated obviously. "What would you suggest instead?" Gibbs shifted his weight, but didn't answer right away. Morrow nodded. "I don't think I have to worry about you going too easy on him. If anything, I think I need to warn you to show some restraint. We do need him to be able to walk when he comes back to work." He gave Gibbs a significant look before he sighed, nodded and held out his hand for the paper and pen. "He can't come in tomorrow," he said as he fed the paper into the shredder. "I have people I need to answer to too, and I need to tell them that he's been suspended."
"That's fine. But he'll be back on Monday."
"Will he be able to sit at his desk?" Morrow asked knowingly.
"I can't make any promises," Gibbs said through a clenched jaw. "Thank you Sir." He left without waiting to be dismissed and walked quickly toward the conference room.
"I told you to wait for me in the conference room, not outside it, DiNozzo," he whispered harshly as a tour group walked past.
"It's occupied," Tony said, still looking very miserable.
"Put your weapon and your badge in my drawer," Gibbs ordered as the door opened and another tour group poured out into the hallway. "Go get your stuff and go home." Tony's head fell. "My home."
His head snapped back up. "Wha.." but the look on Gibbs' face stopped him short. He nodded, turned and walked slowly down the steps.
"Tony, are you ok?" Kate asked in a panic when she saw him walking toward his desk. He ignored her, pulled his gun and badge out of his desk, walked to Gibbs' desk and deposited them in his boss' drawer. "Tony," she said again.
"I have to go," he answered as he grabbed his bag and headed for the elevator.
She was about to call after him again when Gibbs arrived. "Gibbs, what happened?"
"What do you think happened Kate? DiNozzo just got himself suspended," he answered angrily as he pushed past her to the elevator. Kate and McGee exchanged shocked glances as their boss disappeared.