Before Gibbs could say anything, Tony abruptly fell back to sleep. Gibbs breathed a sigh of relief; he had been surprised that Tony had woken just an hour after drinking the coffee into which he had slipped a couple of sleeping pills.
Gibbs had returned to Pinnington in a cruiser yacht he had borrowed from a marine buddy in the next town along the coast. Frank was fixing up the boat in readiness to charter it out but had agreed to let Gibbs do the 'sea trials'. When Gibbs tied up the Henrietta Sue he had spotted Tony leaning on the harbour wall again. It had only taken him a few moments to doctor a cup of coffee with the sleeping pills prescribed for Tony by Ducky the last time he had injured himself and been staying with the Boss.
He had then watched closely and when he saw Tony beginning to succumb to the effects of the pills, he had returned to his side and gently steered him into the boat. Gibbs had derived some comfort from the trusting way in which Tony had allowed him to lead him away and then put him on the bunk. Gibbs had then cast off and motored out into the Sound.
Gibbs checked on Tony periodically but, after the initial wakening, he slumbered on peacefully through the night. As darkness fell, Gibbs moored off Fishers Island and kept watch; something in his gut seemed to settle now he had Tony close by but he wondered what would happen when Tony awoke properly.
Gibbs had always known that Tony wasn't naturally an early morning person but when he hadn't stirred by 0700 Gibbs began to wonder if two tablets had been too strong a dose. He waited another half hour and then went to wake Tony up.
"Come on, DiNozzo, rise and shine," he said, shaking Tony's shoulder. It took a couple of attempts but finally Tony managed to prise his eyes open,
"Ugh," he said, "what happened?"
Gibbs didn't say anything but just handed him a cup of coffee. Tony reached out a hand, took the mug and took a sip of the contents. The action of drinking seemed to trigger a memory,
"Did you spike my coffee?"
Gibbs shrugged, "Needed to talk to you, DiNozzo. You weren't making it easy."
"Is this drugged too?" asked Tony dozily.
"Nope, need you awake now," said Gibbs.
Tony looked distrustfully at the drink but seemed to decide that he would risk continuing to drink it.
"Where are we?" asked Tony after a few moments.
"On a boat," replied Gibbs.
"Well, I guessed that. Where's the boat?"
"We're moored off an island in the Sound," said Gibbs.
Tony took a little while to process this information.
"We on a fishing trip or something?" he asked eventually.
Gibbs was surprised at this question but didn't show it, "Didn't think you liked fishing, Tony."
"Senior and I went on a fishing trip once," said Tony dreamily, "it was great. Real father/son time. Boat was a bit bigger though."
He handed the mug back to Gibbs and made to burrow down under the covers again.
"Hey, DiNozzo, don't go back to sleep," ordered Gibbs.
"You're right, Boss," said Tony, "I need to get up. I need the head. Where is it?"
Gibbs directed him to the shower room. "I'll make some breakfast while you're in there," he said.
It was a few minutes before Tony emerged and found Gibbs in the small galley. He still looked a bit uncoordinated and sleepy. Gibbs was reminded of a friend of Kelly's whose father had bought the family a lively young Labrador. In the beginning the only time the girl had really liked the dog was after it had had an anaesthetic for a minor operation so that it was gentle and docile. Tony, in his drugged up state, reminded Gibbs of that sleepy dog all those years ago.
Gibbs put a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs in front of Tony and was rewarded with a dazzling smile.
"Hey, Boss, you remembered! You remembered I hate fried eggs."
"Not your boss now, Tony," reminded Gibbs.
Tony thought about this, "No, that's right. I forgot." He shook his head and looked puzzled for a moment or two and then seemed to put aside any other questions in favour of eating breakfast. Gibbs braced himself for the questions which would come but was again taken by surprise,
"Where's Genevieve?"
"Who's Genevieve?" asked Gibbs, wondering if Tony had a girlfriend somewhere who would be raising the alarm.
"Not who, what," came the reply.
"What then?" asked Gibbs.
"Genevieve is my motorhome," said Tony. "Ducky made me watch it."
"Ducky made you watch your motorhome?"
Tony considered this, "No. Genevieve is a 1953 British film about the Brighton to London car event. Genevieve was one of the cars. I named Genevieve after her. It was sort of in Ducky's honour."
"Oh," said Gibbs.
"So, where is Genevieve?" persisted Tony.
"Where you left her, I expect," said Gibbs.
This non answer seemed to satisfy Tony for the moment and he continued to eat his breakfast. When he had finished eating, Gibbs suggested they go up on deck, he thought the fresh air might wake Tony up a bit. Tony seemed surprised that they were at sea and looked round in bewilderment but he was still smiling at Gibbs.
"I missed you, Boss," he said.
The resemblance to the drugged up Labrador was still there but Gibbs couldn't help but be warmed by this friendly version of Tony.
"I missed you too, DiNozzo. We all did," said Gibbs. "What have you been doing?"
"I went to England. Always meant to go back and look round properly and it seemed a good time to go. Didn't get far, went to Cornwall and fell in love with it."
"You said you went to art school," prompted Gibbs.
"Sort of," said Tony, "university was running a summer school so I signed up. Haven't done art since boarding school but I decided to give it a go. I think I needed to do something completely different," he paused with that slightly puzzled look on his face again as if there was something that he should know but couldn't quite remember. "I turned out to be quite good at it."
"I saw some of your paintings," said Gibbs.
Tony squinted at him as if this brought another memory within reach. He shook his head. "When did you see them, Gibbs?"
"In Pinnington," Tony looked at Gibbs blankly so he continued, "when did you come back to the US?"
"Couple months ago," said Tony.
"You didn't come and see us," observed Gibbs.
"No," agreed Tony.
"Why not?"
Tony shrugged his shoulders as if this was too difficult a question to answer.
"Why use the name Daniel Paddington?" asked Gibbs.
"Sounds more like a painter's name," said Tony.
"What does Tony DiNozzo sound like?" asked Gibbs curiously.
This seemed another puzzling question, "Like Senior? Not like someone I wanted to be? I don't know. You don't usually ask this many questions, Gibbs."
"We were worried, Tony," said Gibbs.
"I wasn't really hiding, Gibbs."
"You were using a different name, Tony," said Gibbs in a slightly impatient tone.
Tony cocked his head at that, perhaps the cross voice registered more than Gibbs' uncharacteristically patient one.
"What was going on in Pinnington, Tony?" asked Gibbs, "something seemed hinky."
Tony put his head in his hands, "I think I need to go back to bed, Boss. I'm still really sleepy, my brain doesn't seem to be in gear. Sorry."
"That's OK, Tony," said Gibbs, "but why not stay up here for a while. Get some fresh air, it might blow the cobwebs away."
Tony nodded docilely. He stretched sleepily and then rubbed his shoulder; as he did so he suddenly froze. Gibbs was in the act of going back to the galley but he stopped as he saw Tony's expression change.
"You kidnapped me!" Tony shouted, "what the hell did you think you were doing?"
Gibbs reflected that the bumbling Labrador version of DiNozzo had vanished; he wondered what breed he had turned into.
"You wouldn't talk to me, DiNozzo. One minute you were being more or less reasonable and the next you were trying to take a swing at me."
"So how does abducting me help?"
"I thought we might be able to talk better with nobody around," said Gibbs, aware that this sounded a bit lame.
To his surprise, Tony laughed again. It was a bit shaky but at least it didn't sound drugged up this time. "You know, Gibbs, if we ever make it back to DC, I'm going to retune your TV so it's not stuck on the Western Channel anymore."
"What?"
"You need to stop behaving like John Wayne. There are other ways of solving problems you know."
"What do you mean, 'if we ever make it back to DC'?" asked Gibbs, deciding to disregard being compared to John Wayne.
"What did you put in my coffee?" asked Tony, shaking his head again.
"Two of those pills Ducky prescribed for you when you twisted your knee."
"Two! Ducky said half a pill would be enough seeing as I overreacted to them," gasped Tony, "no wonder my brain's like spaghetti."
"What was going on in Pinnington, DiNozzo?" persisted Gibbs, deciding he didn't want to talk any more about sleeping pills.
"Well, you didn't think I was going to welcome you with open arms, did you?"
"No," admitted Gibbs, "but something seemed off."
"I didn't say anything I didn't mean, Gibbs," said Tony.
"Tony, I …" began Gibbs.
"This isn't the time, Gibbs," said Tony briskly, "we've got other things to worry about."
A strange sense of calm settled on Gibbs as he realised he'd been right to think something was off.
"What?" he asked.
"Did you recognise my two friends at the shop yesterday?"
"One looked familiar," admitted Gibbs. "I got McGee to search for CCTV footage, try to identify people going in and out."
"Bet he didn't find anything," said Tony, "that reminds me, you said McGee's your Senior Field Agent. I guess he didn't get the other job then?"
"The new team never got off the ground," Gibbs told him, "after the security problems at Rota, Vance and SecNav decided to use the money to reinstate the team there."
Tony chuckled, "So no new team after all."
"No, you didn't need to have left," said Gibbs.
"Yes, I did, Gibbs," said Tony coldly, "but we're getting off the point."
"Which is?"
"One of those guys is Lucas Wright."
"So?"
"Brother of Glenn Wright."
"Damn," said Gibbs.
"Glenn Wright, who you and I put away for a series of rather nasty violent robberies. Well, actually, you put away, as it was your testimony that swung it. I've got no memory of what went down when we arrested him as Wright had knocked me out."
"What's Lucas' involvement?" asked Gibbs.
"He's cooked up this plan that if you're out of the way, Wright can launch an appeal. If the original verdict depended on your testimony he reasons the appeal will succeed if you can't repeat your evidence."
"That's insane," said Gibbs.
"Since when did criminals become renowned for their common sense and reasonableness?" asked Tony.
"So how did you get tangled up in this?"
"The usual DiNozzo luck," said Tony bitterly, "and using the name Paddington doesn't seem to have changed anything. I bumped into Lucas and his buddy in the town I was in before Pinnington. I didn't recognise him, if I had, I'd have hightailed out of town. Unfortunately I was more memorable than he was and let's just say that he 'introduced' himself shortly afterwards."
"What happened?"
"They knew I'd booked a shop front in Pinnington and they decided to come with me. They arranged to get that article put in the paper."
"Why?"
"I told them that I wasn't in contact with anyone at NCIS and that you wouldn't want to hear from me; that I'd left under a cloud. But they didn't believe me."
"Why not?"
Tony laughed bitterly, "Lucas said it was obvious that you weren't the sort of person to let go of anyone. That if you knew where I was, you'd come looking for me. Said it was a marine thing."
"It is," confirmed Gibbs.
"Yeah, well, turned out they were right. Up you popped."
"Why didn't you say anything?" asked Gibbs, "or phone me, or something?"
"They bugged the shop," said Tony, "turns out that while Glenn Wright is just a nasty thug, his brother is an educated, clever thug. Bit like McGee but with the benevolence chip removed."
"So?" said Gibbs.
"So, I tried to get you to go by telling you what I thought of you. Which was all true, by the way. And then, when you didn't go of your own accord, I tried to push you out."
"So when Wright and his chum arrived, you pretended to lose your temper so I'd go?"
"Yeah, I figured that they wouldn't try anything in broad daylight but that it would be better if you didn't stay close to them. They weren't pleased, I had to say I'd just lost it when I saw you."
"And later? When you tried to punch me?"
"I saw the cop coming. I sort of hoped we might have got arrested for brawling."
"But Wright stopped you from landing the punch."
"And you refused to press charges. Gibbs, next time, have me arrested. It would have solved everything. But no, you had to take the high road."
"But they weren't with you all the time, Tony," pointed out Gibbs, "You were on your own outside. Why didn't you do anything then?"
"They were always nearby," said Tony, "and they made sure I didn't have a cell or any way to leave a message. They're pretty scary guys, Gibbs, it wasn't pleasant."
"Well," said Gibbs, "looks as if the John Wayne approach worked after all. We got away clean."
"Yeah, about that," said Tony with a grimace, rubbing his shoulder in what had become a familiar gesture.
"What?" demanded Gibbs with a sinking feeling.
"Have you got your knife with you?"
"That's a stupid question. Of course I have," said Gibbs.
"You might have to use it," said Tony.
"I've got my Sig with me," said Gibbs, "I won't need my knife."
"Don't think shooting will work this time, Gibbs."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want you to shoot me."
"Why would I shoot you? You're not making sense, DiNozzo."
"Well, you drugged me, Gibbs, what do you expect?"
"Tony!" shouted Gibbs, "what's going on?"
For answer, Tony pulled his sweater off and turned his back to Gibbs. Gibbs saw a red puncture wound where Tony had been rubbing his shoulder.
"You know how Abby always threatened to plant a tracker chip in me? Well, Wright actually did it. That's how they knew they could leave me sometimes – they always knew where I was. That means they know where I am now. Gibbs, you're going to have to cut it out of me."
