Disclaimer: This story is not beta read, so any mistakes remaining are mine.
A/N: Here is the rest of the Gibbs/Leah introduction. Also, you might luck out and get another update before the weekend. It looks like I will be working from home on Thursday thanks to another snowstorm hitting the Northeast. For now, enjoy!
And thank you to everyone that has taken the time to leave reviews! I wish I could take the time to individually respond to them but I want you to know that I do read them :)
Tony cracked a smile as he pulled into Gibbs' driveway. Shutting the car down he took a deep breath while looking at the house. This was more nerve wracking then he'd thought it was going to be. He didn't want Leah to be introduced to his father right away because, well, his father needed some form of explanation but he didn't care what Senior thought of Leah. Gibbs, on the other hand, while needing a form of explanation himself, Tony valued his opinion. And he really wanted the boss to like her.
"Are we going to sit in the car and stare at the house?" she asked.
"No," Tony grumbled as he opened his door and got out. Leah got out with him and slammed her door shut so Tony could lock the car up.
Grabbing a hold of her hand, he made his way to the front door. When he opened it without knocking, she held back slightly. "He keeps his door unlocked?"
"Uh-huh. Door is always open."
"We don't have to knock?"
"Nope."
"He's not worried that someone will, you know walk in and kill him?"
"Guy was a marine sniper. So…no."
Leah stepped tentatively into the house and looked around. Gibbs house wasn't as fashionable decorated as her apartment and Tony believed that to be because Gibbs was a practical man—and Shannon was no longer around to make sure the house looked modern. But it had always been warm and inviting to the senior field agent, a safe place for him to come to when his own apartment seemed cold and lonely.
Tony led her through the kitchen and opened the basement door. "Boss?"
"Yeah, DiNozzo, down here," Gibbs voice called up the stairs. "Hope that's pizza I smell."
"Of course it is," Tony whispered with a wink at Leah. They made their way down the stairs into the basement. In the last few years Tony had noticed that Gibbs had not built another boat. A few Christmas' ago Jackson had made some toys for the kids at the children's hospital, and then worked on birdhouses and other such projects when he was here hiding out from Paloma Reynosa. Gibbs himself had worked on Mike Franks' casket. As he hit the last step he could see that the former marine was now working on making a table and some chairs. "Hey boss, hope you don't mind that we stopped by."
Gibbs looked up and paused for a moment. He put his tools down and pushed his goggles up. "Are you going to stand there, DiNozzo? Or are you going to introduce me?"
Tony blinked back to life. "Oh right." He led Leah into the basement and put the pizza box down onto the worktable. "Um…Leah…this is…this is my boss, Jethro Gibbs. Boss, this is…well, I guess I can call her my girlfriend…Leah Dawson."
"Just call me Gibbs," the former marine said with a smile as he shook her hand. "It's about time Tony brought you around."
"He only has nice things to say about you," Leah informed him with a smile.
Gibbs chuckled and could instantly see why Tony had been attracted to her. She was beautiful, a smile that reached her eyes and while she might be small in stature, Gibbs could tell that she probably could hold her own when the time presented itself. It made him angry to think that Tony had almost missed this chance because he was struggling with his feelings for Ziva. He knew it wasn't his place, but there were times that he wanted to scream at the SFA that Ziva had left him and that no one was expecting him to pine away over her forever. It wasn't healthy. It wasn't natural. But Tony, being Tony, had to come to that conclusion on his own. "He's incredibly stubborn, you know?" the former marine cracked, glancing briefly at his second. "Actually, besides myself, he's the most stubborn person I know."
"Yes, I'm aware of how stubborn he is. Took him almost three months to call me," she laughed. And they fell into easy conversation from that point onward. They talked about her job, where she was from, where she went to school.
Tony's shoulders eased the more Leah got Gibbs to smile at her. It took a lot for people to warm up to his boss and for his boss to warm up to people. He had always trusted the former marine's judgment of character—most of the time. He had insisted that Gibbs was wrong about EJ. In the end the lead agent had been right. But he had not rubbed that information in Tony's face. So, he felt comfortable leaving Leah alone for a few moments with his boss while he went upstairs to hit the head.
Gibbs waited until Tony was gone before turning towards Leah. "Tony maybe stubborn and thickheaded at times, but he's got a good heart."
"Is this my 'don't you dare break his heart' lecture?"
"No. Hardly. Tony is an incredibly private person. I'm sure he hasn't told you half of what he's been through in the last few years."
"I haven't told him everything about myself yet, either, Agent Gibbs."
He sighed a little frustrated. It was hard for him to express his feelings in words. He had always been more of an action guy. And she was missing the point. "Rule 5."
She was now thoroughly confused. "Rule 5?" she repeated.
"Rule 5, you don't waste good. You're good, Leah. You're good for Tony."
"And you don't want me to screw it up?"
"I don't want to see his heart broken again. He's been through plenty. Some of it at my own hands," Gibbs confessed.
Leah nodded her head slowly. She pushed her now empty beer bottle away from her and studied him for a moment. "He looks up to you—a lot. Almost like the father he never had. I don't know a lot about his childhood but I do know enough that his relationship with his dad is a fragile one."
Gibbs couldn't argue with her on that. Even though it appeared that Senior was trying to reconcile with his son the man still did not understand the gift he had. It was possible that Senior never would understand. "He's like a son to me," the marine said, softly. "And because of that I just want to see him happy."
Tony could be heard making his way down the stairs. He glanced at his watch. "It's getting late," he announced. "Sorry we took up your whole evening, boss." He helped Leah into her jacket. "See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, let's hope the rest of the week is quiet," Gibbs cracked.
"Like that's going to happen," Tony shot back with a smile. "Thanks boss, for just letting us drop in."
"It was nice to meet you Agent Gibbs," Leah added.
Gibbs just offered her a polite smile as the two made their way back upstairs to Tony's car. The senior field agent felt a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It appeared that Gibbs liked Leah and vice versa. That's all he really wanted, was the two people that he cared for the most in the world to like each other. Sure, he cared about his team, but he didn't value their opinion as much as he valued Gibbs' opinion. And he was sure the team was going to love her once they got to know her—McGee seemed to like her.
Tony opened the passenger door for Leah and as she climbed in she kissed him tenderly. "Your boss isn't a man of very many words but I can tell he cares about you," she said, softly.
"Yeah. Sometimes he has a funny way of showing it," he said with a grin. "But he's the first person to really give a damn about me since my mom, so that means something."
Before he could close the car door, her timid voice stopped him, "Tony, he isn't the only one who gives a damn about you—I do too."
Jimmy Palmer took advantage of the MCRT being sidelined from active cases while McGee was on leave and ventured upstairs early that Thursday morning to see Tony.
The senior field agent was seated at his desk, eyes cast downward while he worked on some paperwork. Jimmy paused for a moment and studied him. It was easy to see, at least to him, that Tony had changed considerably since returning from Israel. His shoulders were more relaxed, he was genuinely trying to change his outlook on life. And Abby's news just last week that Tony was actually dating someone had been gossip fodder at the water cooler for days. When he'd brought that information home to Breena she had insisted that Jimmy set up a double-date.
He wasn't sure if Tony would go for that, but at least he could home that night and let her know he'd at least asked.
"Oh, hey, Tony," Jimmy greeted, clearing his throat as he stepped into the bullpen. "Still doing paperwork, huh?"
"Yeah. At least until Tim comes back next week," Tony replied, looking up at Jimmy. "Need something Palmer?"
Jimmy moved across the bullpen and grabbed McGee's chair. He pulled it towards Tony's desk. "Actually there is a question that I've been meaning to ask you since last week, I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet."
Tony nodded and continued to work on his paperwork. "Sure go ahead."
"So, um, I was talking to Breena…about…things...and with all this stuff going on with the adoption we really haven't you know, had a lot of time to go out," Jimmy started, nervously, noticing that Tony threw him a bewildered look. "And…well there's this great little Mexican restaurant that we absolutely love going to and we haven't been there in a really long time."
"Palmer? Was there a thinly veiled question in all that?" Tony squawked, eyes wide with confusion.
"He wants you to go out on a double date with him and Breena," Bishop said across the bullpen.
Tony and Jimmy looked up. Neither one of them had been aware that she had been listening since she had her earbuds in while going over the latest on the Parsa case. She noticed them both looking at her and she took the earbuds out.
Bishop's eyes shifted back and forth between the men, trying to figure out what social situation she had breeched. "It…it wasn't that obvious to you?"
"Palmer, why didn't you just come out and ask?" Tony snapped at the medical assistant.
"I didn't want to seem too pushy," Jimmy said with a shrug.
Tony scribbled something down onto a post-it note and handed it to Jimmy. "Here's Leah's cell number. Have Breena call her and they can set it up. Women are better at those things anyways."
Jimmy took the small piece of paper and stuffed it into his pocket. "So, um, that was a yes?"
"Uh-huh."
"Whoa. This is much more serious than Abby thought."
"How serious did she have it at?" Tony asked, curiously.
Jimmy smiled, anxiously. "Well, she had it maybe lasting a few dates but that was it. But…but obviously you have…other ideas I guess."
Tony shrugged. "I took her to meet Gibbs last night."
"What? You did?"
"I'm guessing this whole you dating thing is kind of a rarity?" Bishop asked, quirking an eyebrow in an innocent gesture.
Jimmy laughed. "Tony? Dating a rarity? Hardly."
Tony glared at him and the younger man sputtered a cough to cover up his laugh. "Doesn't Ducky need you?"
"Not really. No active cases at the moment."
Gibbs blew into the bullpen then, coffee in hand and went to his desk.
Tony looked at him hopefully. "Gear up, boss?"
"Nope," Gibbs said with a shake of his head. "We're still off active rotation until McGee's back. Speaking of McGee…heard about your performance in the coffee shop yesterday with the lawyer."
"Sorry, boss," Tony said with a wince. "I…I lost my temper."
Gibbs waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Made me proud that you pissed him off that much."
Tony grinned. "Thanks, boss, although I doubt I've heard the last of him."
"Yeah. You probably haven't, DiNozzo."
Tim watched as the nurse helped Delilah sit up in bed and then slid her tray over so she could eat her dinner. He'd choked down his own meal about thirty minutes ago while she had been taking a nap. Right now he had the news on and he'd be leaving for the night soon.
Delilah was in better spirits since coming to the rehab center but she still had her moments. Tim reasoned that she was going to have them throughout the duration of her recovery and her adjustment to being paralyzed. Her parents had already gone over to her apartment and taken note on things that needed to be changed, and one of her superiors at the D.O.D had come to talk to her about her job still being in tact when she was ready to return. These things seemed to set her mind at ease and Tim knew that it was time to go back to NCIS.
He was starting to get a little bored and Delilah was getting stronger every day.
"This stuff is disgusting," she grumbled, choking down her own dinner. "I'll be happy to eat real food again."
"Tony's offered to smuggle in a pizza," Tim said with a smile.
"I might take him up on the offer."
"You realize that Tony and pizza comes with a movie, right?"
Delilah smiled and nodded her head. "Yes. I do. And I'm okay with that. Besides, I really want to meet this new woman in his life. She sounds interesting from what you've told me."
Tim had to agree. She wasn't like any woman that Tony had dated before, at least to the young agent's knowledge. Tim had never really met Tony's girlfriends in the past. "You want to know something funny? I never, ever thought I'd see Tony try at a real relationship. I just...always assumed that he was going to be a bachelor for the rest of his life. It...it was a life style I thought he was happy with. Now, I'm not sure he was happy at all."
"Lots of people are good at hiding things, Tim," Delilah said pushing her plate away and giving up on her dinner.
"Yeah," Tim said with a sigh and smile, "And Tony's perfected the craft."
He grabbed her hand and gave it kiss. She smiled at him. Tim had been doing a lot of hiding as well since the drone attack, and thanks to Tony's encouragement he'd learned that it was alright to lean on other people. For the first time Tim realized that he was changing along with Tony-and was okay with that.