A/N : Sorry for the delay, Since the last chapter I have gotten some reviews which have made me seriously consider taking down this story all together but thanks to meagene1976's review it has made me want to finish this and complete it the way I feel it should be done. So If anyone feels like 'This story is a waste of my time.' Please stop reading and don't post a review about it because even though you may feel like your giving constructive critism, words can hurt.
-MissMushyy :)
Ducky returned to him a few hours later with a solemn look on his face. The look that normally the ME would save only for grieving families coming to identify a john doe as the son or daughter.
"It's matched with the autopsy of Charlie?" Gibbs' question came out as more of a statement, from knowing the look. McGee and Kate stopped tapping away at their keyboards and looked at Ducky just in time to see the older man nod slightly.
"Perfectly. There's no doubt with Tony's confession and the autopsy report matching that anyone else other than Tony murdered her.
Gibbs sighed softly and ran a hand through his grey hair; he had hoped that he could find something within the two that would prove that Tony didn't kill her, after all he loved her more than Wendy and that relationship only broke off because of Wendy cheating on him. "Okay. Thanks for looking anyway Duck."
"I wish I could bring better news Jethro." Ducky replied before slowly walking back to autopsy.
"Knew he was a bomb about to go off and kill people." Kate spoke snidely underneath her breath and returned back to the case file that she had been working on.
It was another five minutes before Gibbs got restless from the lack of new cases that he quickly barked out that he was going out for coffee and almost ran out of the bullpen.
A couple of days later Gibbs was enjoying a well earned day off by sanding his boat and musing on the past. He hadn't heard from Tony since their argument in the holding cells downtown and that was what had worried him.
Tony almost always tried to keep in contact with him; it didn't matter if he was out of the country or on communications silence.
When Sheppard had heard about DiNozzo, she stood the team down from active duty and that annoyed the senior agent because the new cases that came in was the only thing that stopped him from thinking about DiNozzo every second of every day, wondering, worrying if the younger man was okay. If he was getting treated right in those god awful holding cells, if he was thinking better that he could rely on his co-workers to get through this time of need rather than going through it as a lone stallion and suffer set backs from the lack of support.
He dropped his sander and reached for his coffee. Taking a long drawl he looked at his watch and saw it was fifteen hundred, he had been sanding since ten.
Suddenly his phone rang, without looking at the caller I.D. he picked up. "Yeah, Gibbs." He sighed.
"You're right, I wasn't thinking right when I talked to you." Tony replied.
"What's prompted the call Tony?" Gibbs asked immediately, knowing that DiNozzo wouldn't just call to apologize.
"I had my pre-trial hearing this morning." Tony gulped. "Judge Oakley agreed to let me out on bail on a few conditions."
"Yeah and what are they?"
"I hand in my passport, live with someone before my trial and that I wear a GPS tracker with a curfew of 7pm till 9am." Tony blurted out.
Gibbs ran his free hand through his hair. "That's pretty harsh."
"Yeah, I guess it is, but he's just covering his ass. The passport so I can't run out of the country, living accommodations so I have someone to stop me doing something stupid I guess and the tracker to make sure I don't fall off the grid or go outside D.C. It's better than being granted no bail because I am – was a fed."
"And you're calling for what DiNozzo?"
"Can you put up with me for a month or two?" Tony asked hesitantly. When he received no reply he carried on. "What am I thinking? Its okay if you don't I'll just find someone else in the area or just stay here. I'm sorry for everything. It's not like I'm getting treated differently than the other murderer's in here."
Tony was just about to hang up when he heard a faint, "Tony, wait."
"Yeah?"
"I'll talk to Oakley about getting you released on bail but I expect you to pull your weight around here."
"Thanks boss, I won't let you down I promise."
Half an hour later the pair was just pulling into Gibbs' driveway. The whole car journey was spent in silence, neither daring to utter a word to the other.
"Tony." Gibbs said softly just as he shut off the ignition.
"Yeah?" Tony replied in the same scared almost lost puppy like tone that he had grown since everything started.
"Everything will work out fine. I know that you aren't a murderer; the team knows that you aren't a murderer that's all that matters, knowing that your friends, co-workers know the true you and they aren't going to let you go this alone. They are never going to abandon you even if it ends up that we die trying to fight for your freedom."
"I know that the team doesn't think I could have done this but nothing will be okay Gibbs. I hate myself for what I've done, for ruining a family, taking away their daughter, sister, niece, auntie. It can never be okay." Tony stated somberly then picked up his overnight bag from the foot-well and exited the car.
He marched angrily up to the house and threw the front door open, slinging the overnight bag on the floor. He locked himself within the downstairs bathroom and stared at himself through the mirror. He couldn't see himself within the body that was in front of him, he looked as though he aged ten years within the last two weeks. The lines around his eyes had become more prominent and the bags underneath his eyes were darker than they ever were before, even after the plague. The care-free frat boy personality was gone and replaced by a dark, somber personality that even his body hated.
"Why do I have to always hurt those around me the most?" He asked to his reflection but knew that he would never receive an answer back.
A soft rap against the door reminded that he had just walked away from Gibbs when he was talking and that he wouldn't be alone for a while to come. "I'm making dinner, Steaks with potatoes. I'll stick yours on the side for you to heat up when you come out. Then I'll be working on the boat okay?" Gibbs spoke softly through the door.
"Okay." Tony replied hesitantly and ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to try to elevate some of the stress he was feeling. Some irrational side of his brain kept trying to override the rational side by whispering statements and sayings from his dark past along with new statements that he had never even heard of before.
He lost himself in imagining that every first day of the trial that loomed ahead of him. People shouting and screaming at him that he should be sentenced to death, the cameras and microphones that was shoved in his face as he tried to enter the building, the adjourning reporters barking, sometimes shouting questions like 'What did Miss Venanzoni, ever do to deserve to murdering her?' 'Do you remember the full details of when you attacked Miss Venanzoni yet?' 'We know that your father had violent tendencies, did you ever think of going to anger management to stop that being passed on to you?'
He then imagined stepping through the door into the courtroom that was filled to the brim. Cameras and reporters packed into the back of the room allowing only a few spaces for his team near the back. Near the front sat Mr. and Mrs. Venanzoni, the grieving parents of Charlie Venanzoni, they refused to look at him in the eye but Tony could easily tell that tears and anger quickly threatened to over spill and make themselves known. He looked over to the other side of the room and was shocked when he could distinctively make out the form of his father who he had not seen since he was twelve; the old man hadn't changed a single bit from what he remembered. 'You're a murderer! You should rot in hell!' He could almost imagine the words spewing out of his father's lips, laced with as much anger and venom as they could, when he recognized that Tony was looking at him.
Tony was brought out of his imagination by the front door opening and closing then heavy booted footfalls heading straight to the basement. Just from the pace of the unknown person he knew that it was Abby who had come. He didn't want to see her, he just couldn't bear the thought that she would still hug him and not pay a single thought that he was a murderer. He waited until the heavy footfalls disappeared down the creaky basement steps before he walked out of the bathroom and quickly into the kitchen. He heated up his steak in the microwave before moving into the dining room to eat it.
Before he could finish eating he heard a loud excited squeal coming from the basement suddenly followed by the girls boots clomping on the wooden stairs, within seconds he was engulfed from behind in a bone crushing hug that threatened to cut off his air supply.
"Abby…Abby…" Tony choked out as he grasped for the slender arms around his neck in an attempt to free himself. He could swear that the woman was trying to kill him, it was getting harder to breathe and his vision started to dim.
"Abs let him go."
Tony could faintly hear Gibbs' bark from the door of the dining room, but almost immediately the arms around him disappeared and he could get the much needed air into his taxed lungs.
He coughed lightly and winced at the burn within his throat. "Thanks."
"Tony, Tony, Tony. I'm so glad you're here, I've missed you. It isn't the same when you're not in the bullpen to laugh and joke about what McGee has done or what Kate did the night before! It's like everyone just suddenly becomes morbid and doesn't talk unless it's about a case. When are you coming back to work?" Abby spoke excitedly as fast as she could, she paced around the room and made wild arm gestures as if they proved a point.
"I'm not coming back, Abby." Tony replied and looked down at the last of his steak; he suddenly lost all of his appetite for it.
"What? Why? No, no, you have to come back. NCIS isn't the same without you there." Abby pouted.
"In case you've forgotten, I've killed my fiancé Abby. I'm about to stand trial for murder! What good is an agent who is just as bad as the guys he is trying to catch? It'd be a nightmare; people will get off because of me if I work whilst facing all this!" Tony's voice rose a little each time he finished a sentence. He pushed back his chair, stood up and turned around to Abby.
"You can still work there! You can work with me running tests for the teams." Abby insisted and came up close to Tony so they were almost nose to nose with each other.
"No." Tony replied defiantly and crossed his arms over one another.
"Why not?"
"The media has already gotten wind of what I've done, when they hear that I've been granted bail they will be trying their best at getting information on me, if they find out that I'm working active cases they will cause a uproar. Making it difficult for teams to get convictions, making them go over cases, potentially allowing people who are guilty go free. They're also going to be hounding me, making it hard for me to even leave here, they're going to be camped right outside that front door and might I add the back as well." Tony replied hastily.
"The media hasn't found out yet!" Abby exclaimed.
"Did you not read the paper today Abby?" He asked rhetorically. "Its front page news, 'Fed kills Fiancé.' Just leave me alone, tell everyone to not come see me. I don't need or want their support; I just want to get through this and live the rest of my life paying the consequences." He stormed past Abby and quickly escaped upstairs.
Abby stood dejectedly, saddened at the thought of Tony making himself go through this alone. She sighed and looked over to Gibbs hopefully, silently wishing that the older man would race up the stairs and force Tony to allow the team in to support him.
As if Gibbs could read her mind, he quickly pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning on and shook his head. "I'm not going to go up there and make Tony change his mind about how he's going about this. He's old enough to make his own decisions, and if that's the way he wants that's the way he's going to get. When, no if he changes his mind then we'll be waiting to support him. That's all we can do."
"But Gibbs…"
"No Abs. I told you downstairs that he isn't ready to have visitors that are going to force him to allow them in. He doesn't even want to be in my home at the moment, he's only here because it's part of his bail conditions." Gibbs replied softly. "Go enjoy the rest of the day, I've got to make a phone call to the Director."
"Call me if he changes his mind." Abby spoke before turning on her heel and walked dejectedly back to her car.
Gibbs smiled sadly at the mess the team was in and he hoped that he could get Tony to accept the support that he has and lean on it for help.
He fished out his cell out of his pants pocket and dialed for the Director. On the third ring it was picked up.
"Director Sheppard's office."
"Cynthia, I need to speak to Jen." He asked as politely as he possibly could.
"One moment Gibbs," There was a pause on the line for a few seconds before Cynthia was back. "I'll patch you through now."
There was another pause on the line before Gibbs could distinctively tell the Director's voice. "Jethro, what do you want?"
"I need to take time off until DiNozzo's trial, he's been granted bail on a few conditions; one particular one is that he has to stay with someone. I want to be with him or at least at home in case anything happens to him."
"How long is it till the trial?"
"Two or three months. Look, I know that we're short enough on agents at the moment and with me taking leave, it would mean that my team would be put on cold cases but could you try? Or just let me work half days." Gibbs reasoned.
"At the moment we're not that busy because I just found a new leader for Balboa's team seen as though he's on medical leave. So I can let you take some leave but I may need you to come in half days if our cases rise."
"Okay, Thanks Jen." Gibbs replied before snapping his cell shut and returning it to its customary place.