Thanks for all the reviews ^^ Here's... *Drumroll*... chapter 4 :D
"That's not nice Gibbs, you shouldn't shut off my caffeine provider. You wouldn't like it if Starbucks shut down." Abby said, correctly but unwisely. Gibbs growled, even though he was usually incredibly nice to the lab tech, he wasn't in the mood, and said as much,
"Abby, I'm in no mood, you got me? I just want to know what the hell is with DiNozzo. You know, so spill." Abby gave a small pout, like a child ordered to say where their fantastic hiding place in 'Hide-and-seek' was.
"Gibbs, have you never heard of 'Patient-Doctor Confidentiality'?" Abby tried in vain, before getting a small tap on her chin and a quiet voice sighing,
"You aren't a doctor Abbs." Abby looked up, scared by the defeat in Gibbs's voice. He was obviously desperate to know why his Senior Field Agent was acting like he was, and Abby could tell how concerned he was. One more glance from the ice blue eyes made her fold,
"Okay fine, but you're the one to tell him I told you." Gibbs merely raised an eyebrow, allowing Abby to smile slightly and proclaim,
"He has an invisible friend."
"Abbs..." Gibbs growled, "I'm losing my patience..." She widened her eyes at him and gave him a puppy dog expression that softened him - it worked every time,
"I'm serious Gibbs," She continued, "He came and told me he wanted his urine checked out..."
"He's been drugged?" Gibbs all but yelped out, causing Abby to grin at the protectiveness,
"He thinks. I don't think he really knows. He said he's having a hallucination, but from what he's told me, it's almost too consistent to be one solid hallucination."
"So from that you think he has an imaginary friend." Gibbs summised, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Abby shook her head, her pig-tails bobbing at each movement,
"He said that what he was seeing was his old imaginary friend, from when he was a kid." Gibbs smiled fondly. The thought of DiNozzo running around the place talking to himself just seemed right to him. Out of all of his agents he would have picked Tony (And maybe Abby) to have had an imaginary friend when they were younger.
"But I'm worried about him Gibbs," Abby continued, "If he hasn't been drugged, I think it's stemming from the fact that his child-hood nanny died - he only found out yesterday," She paused, seeing Gibbs's expression, "He didn't tell you?" She asked, wondering why. Gibb simply shook his head, and motioned for her to carry on,
"So, I thought it could be from that, but he sounded almost scared Gibbs. He said it was telling him that it was only here because Tony was searching for a parental figure in his life," She wondered whether Gibbs would say anything at this, but he either wouldn't or didn't know what she was hinting at heavily, "And he's also confused, he said that Fred said..."
"Fred?" Gibbs questioned, interrupting,
"That's what he calls it - him. Apparently his name is 'Drop Dead Fred'." Gibbs furrowed his eyebrows. He remembered that Kelly had once told him she had an imaginary friend, a girl in her wardrobe with a pet fairy. The girl was supposedly called Jemima, whilst the fairy was called Holly. The name 'Drop Dead Fred' seemed strange. He knew if Kelly had said that was her imaginary friend's name he'd have considered going to see a psychiatrist.
"Pretty cool huh?" Abby grinned, before saying, "That's as far as we got, before he heard you coming and ran off, shouting for Fred to hurry up," She bit her lip, wondering what Gibbs would make of it all, "I know it's strange," She added, in a bid to help her friend, "But the tests haven't come back yet. He could have actually been drugged." Gibbs gave her a hard stare,
"And if he hasn't?" He asked her. She shrugged but said,
"We could publish it in some kind of psychology magazine. We'd get quite a lot of money." Gibbs rolled his eyes and said,
"Before you told me what 'Fred's' name was," Gibbs used his fingers to make small air quotes, "You said that Tony said he'd said something..." He tailed off, confused by his own sentance. Abby had no trouble understanding, an expert at gossiping,
"That's right! Apparently he'd been trying to convince Tony that you're like his Father."
"Why did I come up in the conversation?" Gibbs asked, confused. Abby twirled one of her pig-tails with her finger before answering, rather softly,
"You must know by now that he sees you as a kind of father figure, right Gibbs?" He didn't answer, instead opting to ask a question of his own,
"How am I like his Father?" Abby's eyes widened, knowing how bad DiNozzo Sr had been
"Not all Gibbs! You care about Tony, you don't beat him or belittle him, you don't..."
"I give him head slaps," Gibbs said to her softly, "That's a form of beating."
"That is to reign him back in and you know it," Abby said firmly, before shooing him away, saying ,"When I know about the tests, you'll know about the tests." Gibbs just nodded, lost in his thoughts as he walked out the lab, pausing for a second when he heard Abby shout,
"Don't tell Tony I told you!"
--
"Tony, what are you looking at?" Ziva demanded, glancing over her shoulder every now and then, furrowing her eyebrows as she couldn't find what Tony thought was so enthralling. He had been staring at the same spot for about three minutes now, a shocked yet amused look on his face. Unbeknownst to her, he was staring at his imaginary friend; who was sat right next to the Mossad Agent, stroking her hair and wondering out loud how it would look in plaits.
In an attempt to to get Fred away before Ziva killed him (It hadn't quite sunk in yet that he wasn't real) Tony whispered,
"Girl." It worked an in an instant Fred was sat cross-legged next to Tony's desk,
"For your information, I was wondering if we could somehow take her head off by putting it in plaits." Fred said, in a voice that clearly showed he thought he was smart.
"You are a bit of a girl." Tony muttered, staring at his computer screen as Fred was about to say something, before,
"What did you say?" Tony glanced up to see Ziva glaring at him, thinking he'd called her a 'Girl'.
"Er... Ziva, I didn't... er..." She'd stood up by this point, and wandered round to his desk, causing Fred to do a forwards roll so he wasn't trampled. She started to take his tie in her hands and twist it round slowly, in an almost seductive fashion,
"You know Tony," She begun, continuing to twirl the tie around her slender fingers, "In my country, it is a great insult if you call a woman a girl. It's almost like saying she is incompetent, and that she is clearly not ready to start her career..." She was talking quietly enough, but Fred heard, making Tony groan out loud as he yelled,
"She's a bit full of herself isn't she? How about we put her down a peg or two..." His eyes glittered with malice, and reached toward her hair, just as Tony yelled,
"Fred, stop it!" The imaginary friend yanked at the hair. Hard. Ziva immediately grabbed Tony's wrist and pulled him into a head lock, before getting him on the floor in a single, fluid motion. Resting her arm against his throat, she whispered, strands of her hair tickling his face,
"Next time you do that, I won't hold back. Just be lucky I didn't have my weapon on me." Tony nodded hurriedly, his eyes bulging as he realised he couldn't breathe. Trying to tell her what happened, he managed to croak out,
"It... me... Fred... I..." She just rolled her eyes but slowly stood up, letting the arm over his neck be the last limb to move.
"Nice technique Ziva but next time you'd better have a good reason." Both agents looked up (Well Tony looked up, Ziva looked over) to see Gibbs stood there, a hint of anger in his voice as he said it.
"He pulled my hair." Ziva told him, cringing as she knew she sounded like a little girl in the playground telling a teacher what had happened. Gibbs raised an eyebrow and retorted,
"I know it seems like DiNozzo has a death wish Ziva, but I doubt he'd do that." Tony grinned victoriously up at Ziva, until he got a kick in his side from her. Looking to Gibbs for assistance, the older man said,
"You deserved that. Stand up Tony, we've got a..." He paused, the phone on his desk starting to ring. Tony pushed himself up from where he'd been lying on the floor, rubbing at his neck and trying to regulate his breathing. He scowled at Ziva, who gave him a filthy look back. Why did she blame him for what Fred did? Okay, he knew she couldn't see Fred and Tony had reached for her hair the same time Fred had, but still, he couldn't help feeling quite betrayed...
"Okay Abbs, thanks..." Gibbs put the phone down, glancing at Tony with a slightly odd look on his face. He'd just been told by Abby that the results came back negative. Tony hadn't been drugged at all, so now Abby was spouting out all these different types of weird 'facts', such as the part of the brain that comes up with imaginary friends and so on.
"Gibbs?" He glanced over to Ziva, who said,
"The Director wanted to see you in MTAC." He nodded but left his gaze on Tony for a moment longer, who by this point was stood up but was now... Hell was the kid talking to himself? Gibbs just shook his head, and walked off, hearing as he swept past Tony,
"...Fred, if you think I'm going to pour water on Ziva you've got another thing coming. That's like spilling Gibbs's coffee." Damn straight, Gibbs thought. He shook his head as he thought that. Why the hell was acting as though this was normal?
--
Ziva had left the bullpen, in need of fresh air, and Tony guessed McGee was down with Abby. He wasn't lonely however, as Fred wouldn't stop annoying him. The ginger man had danced up and down the office, getting frustrated when Tony didn't rise to any of the goading comments he used.
"Fred, tell you what," Tony said, finally looking him in the eyes, "If you can somehow completely wreck the office - I'll consider the fact that you might be real." Fred grinned,
"Now we're talking!" He yelled enthusiastically, before immediately pushing McGee's monitor to the floor. Tony gave a small squeak as the crash brought every other agent's gaze over to their office. He hadn't thought it would actually happen. And he had no idea what to do. He could just sit there and go mad, tell everyone it wasn't him, like he had all those years ago, and no one had believed him then either. All he got for his trouble was a beating...
"ANTHONY DINOZZO!" Tony jumped and looked around to see Gibbs staring wide eyed around the room. Tony himself glanced around and his mouth fell open. Fred had really gone to town on this. Paper strewn everywhere, computers broken, the plasma had a huge crack down it... The coffee Gibbs had left on the desk was tipped onto the floor. Thousands of dollars worth of equipment was on the floor and broken, and the obvious culprit was sat there.
"What - the -hell..." Was all Gibbs could get out. Just at that moment, Abby bounded out of the lift,
"Hi guys!" She said happily, "What's happened?" She asked, surveying the damage. Tony was the only one still able to say something, which wasn't too different from normal anyway. He managed to croak,
"It was... him Abbs. I told him I'd only believe he's here if he... smashed everything." Abby gazed around. Ok, she believed in quite a few things, and her belief could stretch to imaginary friends, even adult's imaginary friends, but this?
"Tony, I don't... there's no one here..." She said it gently, trying not to make him angry, and was shocked to see his eyes were filled with tears. Abby looked over at Gibbs, who was breathing in and out deeply. He had heard their small conversation and wanted to hit his head several times off walls. His agent clearly needed help. Not only did he think he had an invisible friend, but he had suddenly smashed an entire office, as if recreating the havoc he pinned on 'Fred'.
"DiNozzo," He said, finally finding his voice, "Home. With me. Now."
Hopefully quite a bit of caring Gibbs in the next chapter :) Review? xx