The first time he had met Gibbs he was coming up on being with the Baltimore PD for nearly two years, and he'd been thinking that it was time to move on again. He'd enjoyed the challenges that being a homicide cop had given him, but his superiors had started hinting about promotions and giving him more responsibilities, which never sat well with him. His father had long ago drummed into him that he was useless, that he shouldn't be trusted with any responsibility, that he'd in fact end up in the gutter one day. So when his supervisors starting making noises he started packing, he'd rather leave than disappoint them, or prove his father right.
He'd learned the hard way that when some people learned that he came from money their attitudes towards him changed, some would give him a hard time, others would think that he'd simply bought his way into the job and his position. Others still just saw him as a spoiled rich kid who shouldn't be there, and was wasting their time by turning up to work each day, what could he possibly know about being a victim, or what motivated people to commit crimes. For those who didn't know him already when they found out about the money or heard some of the stories that were floating around the PD about him they often chose to simply believe what they saw on the surface without looking at what lay beneath. Sometimes it made his job harder other times it made it easier when getting the information that he needed to solve the case.
But from the moment that Gibbs had first laid eyes on him he knew that Gibbs had seen straight through the mask that he'd been wearing. The fact that Gibbs had then gone on to insist that he deal with Tony had shocked him. He was used to being overlooked or even dismissed by most people.
The case had been a triple homicide that had involved drugs and weapons that had been stolen from the navy, hence NCIS' involvement, that and the dead marine that is. Before they'd known about the weapons link to the navy he and his partner had been working with another team, he'd been glad when Gibbs had told his captain exactly what he thought of the other team, as difficult as his own partner could be at times at least he knew that Anderson would back him up when he needed it, Warren and Sinclair he had no illusions about. Warren had a chip on his shoulder, he'd taken an instant dislike to Tony and when he'd found out about Tony he'd done everything he could to make it as difficult for him as he could. In truth Warren reminded him a little of his father, he hated to be ignored or pushed aside, which is exactly what Gibbs had done, until just before they finished the case when Gibbs had reportedly ripped Warren and his partner a new one in the middle of the bullpen and had then proceeded to get them both suspended for a week.
Ok, so the undercover operation hadn't gone exactly to plan, and it had been largely because of Warren, but they had closed the case, arrested the bad buys and given the families some closure. That was all that really mattered in his books. And yeah he'd had to spend four days in hospital and another week at home, but it wasn't like it was the first time he'd spent time in hospitals, god he hated hospitals, and at least that time it had been for a good cause. He could live with that.
He had enjoyed working with Gibbs and his team for that week and had been a little disappointed that they had closed the case. He hadn't expected to see him again unless the case went to court. But he'd woken up some time during his second night in the hospital to find the older man quietly sitting in a chair by his bed, reading by the dull night light that was on in the room. To say that he was surprised would have been an understatement, to find out that Gibbs was actually there to offer him a job had been totally mind blowing.