*It's been awhile but finally here's the next chapter.
Sorry but I'm finally back to my FF. I hope you're still
following this story. Thanks for your reviews BTW!* - TGE

HINKY

Three years later...

It was early when Tony came walking up to the door and for a moment he stopped hearing Jacky laughing and screaming. With a smile on his face he entered the house even though he didn't want to interrupt whatever was happening in the living room.

"Knock – Knock" He said as he shut the door behind him.

"Uncle Tony!" Jack screamed as he came running over with a Superman cape on and jumped into his arms with a bright grin on his face.

Tony chuckled and looked at the little boy he held in his arms. "Wow, Jacky I think you nearly flew there."

"Yeah, cus' my daddy's Superman." He happily told his uncle.

Abby came out of the kitchen. "Who told you that?" She asked.

"Uncle T-"

"McGee did." Tony blurted out.

Placing her hands on her hips she glared at her friend. "Tony"

"Probie didn't tell me you did, Tony." Jack said to Tony who was trying his best to smile at Abby.

Tony nervously chuckled as he looked at Abby. "He's lying."

Abby shook her head as she returned to the kitchen. "He's like his mother Tony, he doesn't lie."

"Traitor" Tony whispered to Jack who only smiled back at him while they followed his mom into the kitchen.

"His bag is packed and his puffs are in there just in case." Abby said pulling a juice box out from the fridge.

Jack watched his mother put his juice into his bag. "Mom, can I have one more?" He asked.

Abby looked at him. "Jacky, you had one a while ago and…" She trailed off as she looked at Tony. "Ok, I'm going to put two more in there only because I'm scared of what Tony might you give you." She said walking back to the fridge.

Tony chuckled. "Come on' I know what I'm doing."

Abby huffed. "Like last week when you lost him at the Navy Yard?"

Laughing Tony replied. "First of all, he wasn't lost he was with the Director."

"Leon was with him because he found him playing near the elevator." Abby shot back at him.

"Uncle Tony was talking to a girl mommy." Jack said not knowing he was made it worse.

Abby raised her eyebrow. "Now I'm worried. What if you get distracted by another woman? I mean I was gone for only half an hour when Leon ended up watching him while you were trying to get your game on."

Tony shook his head and smiled. "Abby don't worry I'm gonna be with McGee plus Jimmy, Ducky and Vance are coming over too." He assured her.

"Yeah, mommy probie will look out for me." Jack told his mother.

Giggling Abby shook her head. "Great now you have him calling McGee probie."

Tony walked over and picked up Jacks bag. "Abby enjoy your day with Carol. This Gibblet will be just fine with me and if I need help or if anything comes up I'll call you know I will. Plus, I'll keep ya posted on everything that we're doing okay?"

Walking over to Tony and her son Abby took a deep breath. "Okay, I just hate being apart from him."

"Mama, don't worry." Jack assured his mom who smiled back at him and kissed him goodbye.

Looking at Tony she narrowed her eyes. "If anything should happen to him…"

"You won't leave a trace of evidence, I know." Tony smiled as he turned at left with Jack back his place.

"TONY!" Abby called out.

"Car seat, I know!" He yelled back.

Hearing the door shut Abby took a deep breath knowing that she did promise a day out with Carol but being without her son for a few hours or more was still hard to do even though she had him for just a little over three years now. Taking a deep breath she headed upstairs to get ready before Carol came over and picked her up.

Later that afternoon...

Tony sat to his table while McGee and Jimmy were playing a video game in his living room with Jack happily watching. He smiled at the sight of the little boy smiling because there was something about that smile that reminded him of someone… someone he still missed.

"You okay?" Leon asked taking a seat across him.

Taking a breath he turned his attention to his boss. "Yeah, just thinking." He replied.

"I do that a lot when I see that little guy." Leon said looking at his drink in his hand.

"I still can't believe it's been almost four years now. It still doesn't feel real… you know?" Tony said quietly.

"Yeah" Leon breathed.

Ducky approached the table hearing the topic of their conversation.

Tony slightly shook his head. "For the past 2 years I've found myself looking at that report when it comes close to that… to that day." He admitted to his friends.

Ducky looked at the young agent. "Anthony it's okay to feel the way you do." He assured his friend.

"I don't think Abby could have survived if it wasn't for Jack. I don't think I could have gone on if it wasn't for him too." He said quietly as he looked at the little boy having fun with Jimmy and McGee.

"I don't think Jack knows just how much he has helped all of us." Ducky replied.

Leon chuckled. "He's so much like his father sometimes and for me that's enough."

Tony smiled. "On our way here I looked at the clouds and I said 'looks like it's gonna rain' and he says 'ya think Tony'." Shaking his head Antony laughed. "If he said 'DiNozzo' I probably would have started to cry or something."

"When he kisses his mother on the cheek I see his father." Ducky said quietly.

Taking a deep breath Tony looked at Vance. "I can't help but think that what we know isn't the whole story."

Leon narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I think what's in the report you gave me isn't everything. Since I read it things just didn't feel right to me. I'm not saying you're the one keeping things from us but did you ever read that report?" He asked his friends.

"Of course." Vance replied.

Ducky nodded.

"I don't know how many times I've read it." Tony said getting up.

Leon and Donald watched him open a drawer and pull out a folder and returned to the table.

"Did you really read it?" He asked again.

"Anthony, we read it years ago and if there was something that wasn't right I'm sure we all could've seen it." Dr. Mallard told the young man.

Shaking his head Tony pointed at the folder. "I thought the same thing at that time. I was in shock from losing my best friend and maybe that prevented me from really reading it. About a year later I read it again that's when I saw something maybe it's nothing but something isn't right." He said opening the folder and sliding it across to Director Vance.

"Tony, I've read this too. There's nothing-"

"Read this." Tony said flipping the pages and pointing at a sentence that was circled.

Taking breath Leon read it out loud. "… after securing the location CIA operatives confirmed that the…" Vance trailed off.

Tony looked at Ducky. "I would like to know what the CIA was doing there."

Vance shook his head. "This means nothing. The CIA is always apart of something whether we know it or not. They were probably just in the area."

Shaking his head Tony flipped the pages. "Okay, putting my CIA theory aside what about this?"

Leon looked at the time Tony was pointing at.

Tony saw the puzzled looked on Leon's face. "Given the time difference if this time was the correct one that means you knew about Gibbs being gone way before they did. If this is the correct time you should have found out… that night or early the next morning our time." Tony pointed out.

Ducky leaned in reading the time on the file. "Anthony it's probably a typo." He suggested.

Chuckling Tony shook his head. "I can't believe you guys." He replied annoyed.

McGee walked in and noticed how the mood was different. "Everything okay?"

Ignoring McGee Ducky looked at Tony. "Tony, I know that you don't want to believe what happen really happened but I don't think you should dig into this. It will only hurt you more if you find out it means nothing or if it was a typo."

"But what if it's not?" Tony asked.

Leon looked at the time again. "It's a typo, it has to be. There's no way-"

"What's going on?" McGee asked approaching the table and interrupting their discussion.

Ducky sighed as he looked at McGee. "Anthony thinks that the report surrounding Jethro isn't entirely forth coming."

"That's putting it mildly." Tony replied to Ducky.

"Are you still on that?" Tim asked looking at Tony.

"You knew about this?" Vance asked Timothy.

"Yeah, I even got him another copy of the report." He informed his boss.

"And?" Donald asked.

"And it didn't match the ones we got." Tony said getting up and pulling another file from the drawer.

Vance watched his agent place another folder on the table. "Tony this is-"

"Crazy?" Tony chuckled. "Maybe but if you look at this you might not think that I am."

"What do you mean?" Ducky asked.

Tim looked the ME. "He means this report doesn't match the ones we have. I told him it was nothing but he won't let up."

"You never thought that maybe the Corps or who ever gave us the information could be lying?" Tony said looking at the men gathered around the table.

Taking a deep breath Dr. Mallard shook his head. "Tony, I understand that what happened still bothers you. It bothers me every time I see that little guy in there; it bothers me when I see Abby but what happened cannot be undone by prying into something that should just be left alone."

"Do you know what this could do to Abby if she found out what you're suggesting?" Leon asked.

"I told him that." McGee told him.

"Tony this would open up wounds that nearly killed that poor girl." Donald replied.

"I'm not trying to bring up something painful for her… she doesn't need to know. All I'm saying is why do you think these files don't match?" Tony pressed.

"Okay, I'll bite… what's the difference between this report and the one I gave you." Vance said.

Tony smiled. "The difference is in this file that McGee got me has all those 'typos' fixed and the mention of the CIA is gone. According to my sources the CIA was never there, the only time they are mentioned is in the first report we all got. It was like they rushed it and forgot to cover their tracks."

"It could mean nothing at all Tony." Vance said hoping that Tony would just stop pressing the issue.

"I never wanted to ask this but I'm curious, did you see him… did any of you see him?" Tony asked his friends.

For a moment they all didn't say a word.

"Ducky you have top clearance and you're a ME isn't it weird that you never over saw anything? You were there with Kate, Jenny even with Mike Franks but not this why?" Tony asked.

The ME shook his head. "This was different." He replied quietly.

"Maybe someone was counting on that… counting on the fact that any of us couldn't allow our selves to see him." DiNozzo suggested.

"What are you suggesting?" Leon asked.

"At the moment I'm suggesting that there's something going on and maybe it's far to late now but I mean Jack is turning four in a few months… what are we going to wait until he's in high school to finally try and figure out why things don't match here." Tony asked pointed at the folders on the table.

Vance looked at the boy seated on Palmer's lap. Deep down there was still that guilt that told him it was because of him that that little boy had to grow up without a father. He still blamed himself for the incident that took his best friend away but even now he knew there was nothing he couldn't do about it. These files could be nothing but Tony was a good investigator and maybe this was one way of redeeming himself from the decision that he made years ago.

"I'll do it." He said quietly.

"Director?" Ducky said half shocked.

Taking a breath he looked back at Tony. "If it's nothing we leave it alone and move on."

Tony nodded in agreement.

"You can't be serious, Leon. It's been years what could we possibly do now that we couldn't then?" Ducky asked Vance.

"Well doctor, I think it's time we question everything and keep rule 18 in mind." He replied.

Tony smiled. "It's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission."

McGee smiled while Ducky took a breath and looked at Jack laughing with Jimmy. "Oh hell, I think it's a bad idea but okay I'm in."

"… and you probie?" Tony asked.

Tim looked at the folders on the table. "I always cared about Abby and I'll always care about Jack… I am willing to do anything for them. Gibbs meant a lot to us but he meant the world to her so count me in. Whether it's nothing I'm in, but we can't let them know what we're up to." McGee said looking at Tony.

"We're gonna need a code word." Tony thought out loud.

"A what?" Leon asked.

McGee smiled. "Ooh, Operation Sawdust."

"That's good McGee but Abby will figure that out." Tony said.

Ducky shook his head. "I can't believe we're doing this."

Tony shut his eyes. "Operation… operation Sawdust …"

"Operation Sierra 3." Vance told them.

Opening his eyes he looked at his Leon. "Sierra 3?" Tony asked.

Leon smiled. "Sierra for Sawdust and 3 for rule 3."

"Don't believe what you're told. Double check." Tony chuckled. "I love it."

McGee smiled. "Sierra 3 it is now what do we do now?"

"First we have to figure why things are so… so." Tony tried to think about the word.

"Hinky" Leon filled in.

Tony nodded. "Yes, first we figure out why things are so hinky."

In the silence that followed their conversation they all couldn't believe that they were actually questioning official reports that they were given. Whatever the reasons were that they didn't add up they weren't sure of just yet, but how much they all cared about Abby and her son they weren't going to give up until they double checked everything. Perhaps this was nothing like Dr, Mallard and Director Vance suggested but maybe there was something hidden behind the little information that Anthony had questioned for years. It might have been to late to change what happened but if this was a lie they were now more that ever determined to find the truth all for that girl and the little boy the marine had left behind.

TBC...

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Next Chapter: "Letting Go"

"I know it's been over a month since my last chapter but I hope you like this."

The Gabby Effect