You guys get two chapters because it took me so long to update :)
Gibbs was still thinking over everything that had just happened when he heard his front door open. Quickly drawing his weapon, he turned the corner and pointed the gun straight at the intruder's forehead.
"Jesus Jethro, you trying to give me a heart attack?!" Fornell demanded, pushing the gun away from himself.
"Sorry Tobias, didn't know what to expect." Gibbs said shrugging as he re-holstered his weapon.
"Didn't know what to expect, did that just come out of the great Jethro Gibbs' mouth? I want that in writing." Tobias joked grabbing two beers out of the fridge and sitting at Gibbs' table.
"Not gonna happen Tobias." Gibbs replied grabbing one of the beers.
"So what do you want?"
"Well I heard you picked up a few strays, and I decided to poke around a little. Gather some intel, whatever you'd like to call it." Fornell said as if that explained everything.
"Really? So what's so important that you had to come here in the middle of the night?"
"You're going to want to take a look at this." Fornell said giving him two files, one considerably larger than the other.
"And this would be…?"
"That would be the lives of Jessie Alexander Rayner and Anthony D. DiNozzo Junior."
Gibbs remained silent and continued skimming through the files. He had no idea that the kid he had managed to pick up off the street was a DiNozzo. The kid's dad was one of the largest businessmen in New York, he practically had money falling out of his pockets. Why would his son be out living on the streets of DC?
But what neither man was aware of was that Tony was sitting on the other side of the kitchen wall, listening to the entire conversation. And he knew what was going to happen next. This Tobias person was going to drag him back to the Military Academy –or worse– his dad. He couldn't go back to that place or that man. He had traded one hell hole for another and he had finally managed to claw his way out of it.
Now was living on the streets easy, no. Absolutely not. It was difficult in every sense of the word. You never knew where you were going to sleep, when your next meal would come or what it would be, or if you would even be alive the next day. But Tony got to make his own decisions. He chose where he would sleep, what he would do and when he would do it. He had tasted freedom, and he never wanted to let it go.
Pulling himself out of his own thoughts, he turned his attention back towards the conversation that was just on the other side of the wall.
"While all of this is quite fascinating, I still don't know what you're doing here." Gibbs said finally, setting the folders aside.
"Well as you read, the girl is just some random street kid. The only thing we can do with her is hand her back over to child services, but she's already ran away from them before. Chances are that'll happen again. But the boy, he's a different case all together." Fornell said leaning slightly closer.
"Oh really, and how's that?" Gibbs asked propping his feet on the table casually.
"Well to start off, he attends a military school in Rhode Island and has officially gone AWOL. Second, he's a DiNozzo. His dad has half the state of New York searching for him."
"Do you know why he wants him back so badly?" Gibbs asked, now slightly curious.
"That's not my problem. But what is my problem, is getting him home. The Director has been giving me flak about finding this kid for a while now, and I can finally get him off my back."
"So you're just here to drag some kid back to his rich daddy?" Gibbs asked incredulously.
"Well it sounds pretty harsh when you put it that way." Fornell said with a shrug. Completely oblivious to the turmoil going on inside the very person he was talking about.
Tony sat shell shocked as he listened to Gibbs and Fornell talk. He couldn't go back to his dad. He couldn't let this guy take him back to his dad, and he was using that term loosely. But worst of all he couldn't put Jessie back in the system. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her because he let him get sent back. Lord knows she had already been through enough. Making up his mind, Tony silently ran up the stairs and woke Jessie up.
"Tony, what is it?" Jessie asked, completely awake and alert. A skill that you quickly learned when living on the streets.
"Some guy is here to take you back into the system and to drag me home. Come on, we need to get out of here." Tony said urgently packing up their small amount of belongings. The adrenaline that was running through his body was completely blocking out whatever pain he might have felt, so he was moving fairly quickly.
"Oh shit, let's bail." Jessie agreed throwing her clothes on and making her way soundlessly down the stairs with Tony and Tipsy right behind her.
"It's locked!" Jessie whispered urgently. She tried pulling on the backdoor again but it didn't even budge.
"Let me try." Tony said pulling two bobby pins out of his hair and kneeling down to try and pick the lock.
"You have bobby pins in your hair?" She laughed quietly.
"I would keep sandwiches in my hair if it would help me get out of locked rooms." Tony replied, completely focused on the task at hand.
"Hey Jethro, you hear that?" Fornell asked. He could have sworn he had just heard voices in the other room. Standing from the table, both men pulled their guns and made their way to the back of the house.
"They're coming." Jessie whispered urgently.
"I know, come on." Tony said grabbing their stuff and her hand before moving them into a closet. They watched silently as Gibbs and Fornell crept by with their guns drawn. "I'm going to draw them away, while you get out the backdoor with Tipsy."
"But Tony…"
"Jessie just do it, I'll be right behind you. Once you get outside, run down to the end of the block and I'll be there in a few minutes. Stay out of direct light, stay off the main street, and if something goes wrong then just run and don't stop. You've got an Aunt in Virginia right?"
"Yeah Auntie Vicky, so?"
"So take this and use it to get away." Tony whispered pressing a bus pass and two hundred dollars in cash into her hand. "She's your real family, so we might be able to stay with her. If she doesn't want us, then we'll just have to find our own way again."
"Be careful Tony, and see you soon." Jessie whispered back giving Tony a tight hug before he slipped out of the closet. Tony headed silently towards the stair case and then ran up them, making as much noise as possible. He smiled slightly as he heard thundering feet start coming after him. The commotion was just loud enough to draw Gibbs and Fornell's attention and for them to not hear Jessie and Tipsy escape out the backdoor. It was too dangerous for her to use the front entrance anyway.
Tony shook his head out of his thoughts and ran into the room Gibbs had been letting them use. He quickly slammed the door closed and put a chair under the nob to make sure it couldn't be opened. He ran to the window and opened it.
~NCIS~
Gibbs and Fornell walked quietly to the back of their house with their weapons drawn. He thought he heard whispering, but it quickly stopped with no other sound following.
"You hear something?" Fornell asked quietly. Just then, they heard someone go running up the stairs and they both followed without a word.
Just as they reached the upper level, the guest door slammed closed and locked.
"Tony?" Gibbs asked trying to open the door. "Jessie, Tony, answer the door!" Gibbs yelled trying to push his way in.
Tony looked quickly over his shoulder and frowned as he looked out the window again. Usually he could climb any tree at any time, but then again he had never tried to climb down a tree with a bullet wound. just all other kinds of injuries. He knew that it wouldn't end well so he looked around trying to find another way of escape.
Just then Gibbs and Fornell burst through the door and pointed their guns at Tony. After a quick scan of the room, Gibbs holstered his weapon. "What are you doing Tony?"
"I won't go back." Tony frowned, as he crossed his arms as much as he could.
"What do you mean?" Gibbs asked slightly confused.
Tony just nodded at the man standing behind him and his frown deepened.
Finally everything clicked and understanding washed over Gibbs. "You heard everything didn't you?" Tony simply nodded. "And that was you and Jessie trying to sneak out the back door." Another nod. "So you pounded your way up the stairs to draw us away so she could get out the back." Still, all he received was a nod.
"That's pretty smart kid. And while I should return her to Child Services, I need to take you home first." Fornell said stepping forward to grab Tony's arm, but he jerked away.
"I said I'm not going with you." Tony said taking a defensive crouch. Just then two more people entered the house and ran up the stairs and into the guest room that was becoming increasingly smaller by the second.
"Sorry boss, we tried to chase after the girl but some dog attacked us and they both got away." One of the agents reported.
Tony smirked at their words and glanced at the window again. Maybe he could just jump and hope that parts of the tree broke his fall. Yeah, like that would go over well.
"Come on kid, it's time you went home." Fornell said stepping forward and trying to grab Tony's arm. Tony jerked back again and one of the agents stepped forward and yanked on Tony's injured arm.
"Damn you!" Tony yelled as he felt his stitches pull. But the man kept pulling on his arm so Tony turned and kneed him in the groin.
The guy groaned and released his arm as he fell to the floor.
"That's what you get for trying to tear my stitches out, you bastard." Tony growled stepping away from him.
Fornell turned and glared at Gibbs and went over to help his agent stand. "You okay Sacks?"
"Slacks? Your name is Slacks? Wow that sucks for you. How did you get through high school?" Tony asked incredulously.
"It's Sacks, not Slacks." Sacks gasped out in between breaths.
Gibbs smirk widened into a full blown smile and he felt pride surge through him. Not only had this kid listened in on their conversation without them knowing, but he had risked getting caught and sent home –somewhere he clearly didn't want to go– just to protect his friend. And he still stood up for himself, even when he was in pain. This kid was something else.
But his smile disappeared when Fornell and the other agent grabbed Tony from both sides. Tony gasped slightly from the pain, but other than that he was silent and kept his face impassive. "What do you think you're doing Fornell?" Gibbs growled.
"I told you Gibbs, he's a runaway and we need to get him home. I know you feel like you owe him because he saved you, but the truth is there's nothing you can do to help him. He needs to go home, and we're going to be the ones to take him there." Fornell said solemnly as he started dragging Tony towards the door.
"You can't take me back there!" Tony ground out as he started thrashing around, trying to get out of their grasp.
"Sorry kid, but we have to. Now come on, don't start struggling. We'll use force if we have to." The other agent said seriously as he tightened his grip.
"You think I ran away because I didn't have it good enough?" Tony demanded, still struggling as Fornell tried to bring him down the stairs. "What do you think was happening that could possibly make someone who was living the high life run away to live off the streets of DC?" That made Fornell pause, but he just shook his head and kept walking.
"Gibbs, help me. Please." Tony begged as he stuck his foot out and made Sacks trip down the stairs and he ran back up them. "You can't let them take me back." Tony insisted, staring into his eyes.
"I'm sorry kid, there's nothing I can do." Gibbs said sadly as they pulled Tony back downstairs.
"You would just turn your back on me? After you tried to convince me to trust you, this is what I get?" Tony demanded, instantly getting angry. "You bastard, I trusted you!" Tony screamed throwing himself at Gibbs, his fist flying.
Before anyone could stop him, Tony punched Gibbs square in the jaw and then gasped as he felt some of his stitches tear out. But neither things dissipated his anger. He went to go after Gibbs again, but Fornell and Sacks grabbed him and cuffed him.
"I thought you said I could trust you!" Tony screamed, thrashing and still trying to lunge at Gibbs. "I trusted you!"
Gibbs was stunned at the force behind the punch and was momentarily stunned. But he snapped out of it as Tony started to scream again. He felt his heart being ripped out of his chest as he saw Tony cuffed and dragged kicking and screaming out of his house. "I'm sorry." Gibbs whispered, completely ignoring his own rule.
"I hate you! I! Hate! YOU!" Tony screamed as he was dragged to the car. "I wish I had let that guy kill you so at least I wouldn't have to go back to my father!"
"Tony I'm sorry." Gibbs said louder, following after him numbly. "I'm sorry, you can trust me." Gibbs insisted.
"I hate you!" Tony seethed before he was thrown in the back seat of the car.
Gibbs came up to the window and frowned when Tony wouldn't meet his eyes. Just then, something glistened on his cheek and Gibbs' breath hitched in his throat. It was a tear. Tony, was crying. Crying because of him. Gibbs banged on the window to get Tony's attention.
Tony's head snapped up and Gibbs almost started crying at the look in his eyes. They were filled with pain, anger and disappointment. That emotion was there because of him. "You. Can. Trust. Me." Gibbs insisted.
Tony just glared at Gibbs as more tears slipped through his eyes. "Just stay away from me." Tony said before his face shut down and all emotion left. He turned away from the window and he stared straight ahead.
Gibbs just stood on the sidewalk and watched Tony be driven away. He couldn't believe that he had just let Tony be taken away without even much of a fight. He would get him back, no matter what it took.