Beta's Note: Sorry about the length of time it took to update this story. Real life slammed me with one thing after the other and Irony did not want to post before I had a chance to look it over. Due to these issues I have convinced her to split this chapter so you all can read what we have so far. Enjoy and thank you all for your patience.

Chapter 3

The security lines at Dulles International Airport were bustling with the evening rush. As he had waited in line to be ushered through security it reminded him of the time he, Ducky, and Gibbs were trying to rush to Air Force One. No more weapons, no more covert operations as an NCIS agent. Once he stepped through the security check point he was Sean Pierce. He made sure to stick to the crowds and go the same speed as everybody around him. Tony ensured that he always had someone between him and any camera. He waited, fingers tapping on the window, for the boarding call. He practically jumped into the line when they called his gate over the intercom.

Tony collapsed into the cramped coach seat. After spending a long agonizing day at the office and then with the headlong rush home to pack up as much as life as he could he was burnt out. He looked around him, no screaming babies in sight, for which he was thankful. He settled back into the seat and tried to look forward to his new life, trying to be excited, as he could no longer look back. For this moment he was safe from his father and all the pain that accompanied Dinozzo senior's presence in Tony's life.

The first time he could remember the abuse was when he was seven years old. His parents were planning on throwing a lavish party that, as a child, he was not allowed to attend. His nanny was supposed to be keeping him quiet and settled, she did for the night before but in the morning young Dinozzo had run outside to play in the rain and subsequently the muddy ground. It had been a good idea until he came running into the foyer leaving muddy shoe prints all over the marble floor as he ran through to the family living quarters tracking mud behind him. His mother had been furious with him, along with his father when they woke up to see a trail of mud leading from the downstairs up. That afternoon little Dinozzo showed up at the hospital with a cracked rib and a sprained ankle, that supposedly happened because he had been running in the mud and slipped onto hard rocks near a creek bed according to his parents. His father had threatened harsher punishment if he spoke a word during the visit.

That became the norm for him growing up, with each incident the hospital received a generous donation which eventually lead to a new wing and quite a bit new equipment, and any doctor or nurse was hushed in anyway necessary.

Tony's morose train of thought was interrupted by the speakers crackling on.

"This is your pilot speaking; we will be taking off in just a moment for London's Heathrow Airport, it will take approximately 7 hours, arriving at about 11am. Please enjoy the late night flight." The overhead speaker was set on a low volume, a hushed murmur in the cabin of the red eye flight to London.

Tony had booked one of the last seats on the plane, leaving him in a middle seat between a middle aged man in a business suit and a blonde woman who had been glancing hungrily at him from the moment she had sat down. The business man however was asleep; his graying hair obviously dyed a dark brown in an attempt to mask his aging. He had a book in hand, finger in place marking his page. His head rested against the window. The buxom woman on Tony's left grazed his arm with her hand in a her fire engine red nails lightly scratching him as she pretended to be reaching for her seatbelt between them. The move offered a generous view down her billowy blouse.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, with feigned surprise as the plane took off. She presumptuously grabbed his lower arm, a transparently innocent wide eyed look on her 40 year old face. "The take-off always worries me."

Tony was too exhausted to deal with this woman's bored and transparent flirtations. He peeled her hand off of his arm.

"My name's Christina, what's yours?" Christina held out a hand for him, a claw ready to snatch away her next victim.

"Sean," Tony said abruptly, ignoring the proffered hand to reach for his iPod and his very old and well-read Casino Royale, he was rereading it for what seemed to be the hundredth time. He had already checked the in-movie flight list and had no desire to torture himself watching 'He's just not that into you' or 'The International'.

"So… Are you visiting family? Going to see a girlfriend?" Christina coyly asked, ignoring the fact that he was in the process of putting on his head phones.

"No." Tony flipped the book open.

"So no girlfriend in London then?"

Two girls across the aisle started giggling, one was almost cackling in a grating high voice and the other quitter girl was shushing the loud one.

Tony, sensing he wouldn't be able to read his book in peace if he didn't respond to the invasive and unwelcome question, shut his book but left his finger marking the page. "No, I don't have a girlfriend," Christina moved to speak; he lifted a finger to stop her and firmly added. "And I don't want to cheat on my boyfriend."

Revised 10/5/15