When his brain finally caught up with his ears, it took all of Gibbs' self restraint to refrain from categorically losing his mind. Instead, he stared silently at his mutinous second in command and thought rapidly. Snapping to a decision, he knew it would be a longer than anticipated lesson, but it sure beat descending into a battle of wills with someone he knew was just as stubborn as him. "Ok," he said casually, "If that's how you feel, that's fine." He threw a hand to the upstairs level. "You want some dinner? I tried to make that egg thing you like. Don't know how good it'll be though, looks a little on the runny side." The look of complete and intense befuddlement that stared back at him was nearly worth the mounting frustration hidden behind the careful veneer of experience. But not quite, and he had to work hard to swallow down his boiling anger and disappointment.

"Boss?"

Gibbs cocked his head, reading the unasked question easily. "You don't think you deserve to be punished and you're refusing to do as I tell you. So what can I do? If you don't agree that you did something wrong and if you don't think you could learn something from the lesson I'm trying to teach you, my tanning your butt would be pointless. If you don't think you deserve to be punished then I wouldn't actually be teaching you, I'd just be hitting you and I tell you now, Tony, I'm not prepared to do that. So we're at an impasse. I think one thing and you think another. Let's just let it go and eat. You can go home after or you can rack here, it's up to you." He smiled gently then, setting Tony's teeth on edge and turned on his heel, climbed the stairs and disappeared into the upper level of the creaking house. The younger Agent's voice whispered through the dusty basement, spoken to no one in particular in his wake.

What the hell….

Gibbs was whistling cheerfully when he managed to drag himself, still in a state of shock, to the dinner table. Glancing down at the brave attempt at an omelette in front of him, the confusion he was battling threatened to engulf him. Gibbs glanced at him as he took his own seat and arched a brow. "What? You want sauce or something?" Looking between the runny eggs and the boss whom he was quite sure had been possessed by overly kind spirits, Tony let his mouth fall open. "Is this some sort of psychological torture?" he blurted out, "You learn this crap in the Marines or something?" Gibbs tilted his head. "Don't use the word crap in the same sentence as Marines," he reprimanded with a terrifying gentleness, "All I asked was if you wanted something else with your dinner. Is that so bad?"

Tony was beginning to feel mildly sick.

"An hour ago you were forcing me to hand craft you a plank of wood to blister my butt with and now you're concerned that my dinner is lacking in essential condiments? What the hell am I supposed to do with that? You're freaking me out, Boss, and it's not funny." He glared over his untouched meal. "What are you doing? There's no way you're just letting this go. You're up to something. I know you are." Gibbs looked mildly offended as he picked up his own fork and began eating. "Have I ever once forced you, I mean physically forced you, to accept a punishment from me?" He swallowed. "Because I sure don't remember doing anything like that. You don't agree that you've done anything wrong and what you did isn't something I have the right to deal with officially. So, yeah, I'm letting it go." He looked over at Tony's still untouched plate. "You want something else? I have steak."

Tony mouthed wordlessly at the man, shock gripping him in her icy hands.

Gibbs shrugged then, turning towards his own dinner and eating silently. Confusion gurgled furiously inside Tony as a terrifyingly new experience unfolded around him. This had never happened before. He had never obstinately refused to concede his deservedness of correction and Gibbs had certainly never been slow to enforce his own personal brand of justice on his incorrigible second in command. But now, all of a sudden, he was all about warm and fuzzy democracy? It made no sense. He glanced over at the older man surreptitiously every couple of seconds; but he seemed supremely at ease and not at all in the midst of the mental breakdown Tony was beginning to suspect.

Gibbs had scraped his plate clean and his protégé had still not eaten a bite.

Clearing the table and quietly telling the younger man there was left over takeout in the fridge if he got hungry later, Gibbs readied himself to work down in the basement for a while. Just as he was about to disappear down the steps once more, Tony's confused voice stopped him in his tracks. "Boss. You've had your laugh, ok? Stop it. Stop being so…weird. You don't let things go. That's not you." He stood from the table and crossed the room to land in front of his calmly quiet boss. "C'mon man, stop freaking me out. What are you planning? What are you really going to do?" He baulked. "Are you planning on shaving my head when I'm asleep? Boss, if you shave my head when I'm asleep I swear to God I will never speak to you again. I've just gotten it to flop to the side the way I like and it took two years to make that flop happen."

The gentle smile that crossed the elder Agent's face was a terrifying sight.

The warm hand that rested softly on his right shoulder was no less disconcerting. "Tony. Let it go, ok? I told you, you think one thing and I think another. You believe you did the right thing and I believe you did the wrong thing. But you didn't break any Agency rules. You broke my rules and my rules aren't actionable when broken unless you agree that you are in the wrong. You don't think you're in the wrong, you don't think you deserve to face the consequences I was setting for you and you don't think that I'm being reasonable in how I view it all. So, what am I to do with that but let it go? You are a grown man; I can't and won't force my will on you. You are quite capable of looking at yourself and I mean really looking at yourself and knowing in your gut whether you're right or you're wrong. You've looked at yourself and decided that you were right and I have to respect that." He squeezed the shoulder under his hand and the final words he spoke before bouncing down to the basement had Tony's heart suddenly sinking low into his intestines.

"But I sure would take you being alive and wrong over you being dead and right any day."

…..

A/N: As usual, I have no control over myself and this is going to be longer than I had intended.

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