Author's Note: So I don't play basketball. This is either info from Wikipedia or from my basic knowledge of it. Now again this is unbeta'd so if you see and mistakes than let me know and I'll get right on it.

Ps: If you hadn't already noticed it, odd chapters are Tony and even chapters are Gibbs and the rest of the gang. I did have someone comment last chapter wanting to get to the action but I didn't wanna break up the pattern going on. So last chapter was more or less optional. Nothing really big but it does show the team missing him. And there will be a chapter of flashbacks for Tony to. I think that's Chapter 13 if I remember correctly.

Pss: OMG two updates in the same week?

Enjoy!

Chapter 9

Tony could not suppress his inner investigator who insisted on inserting himself into Tony's subconcious. He knew it was his gut feeling, his inner Gibbs, however his gut was not as accurate as the other's infamous gut. So he ignored it and pushed it aside while living in Los Angeles. It didn't matter that whenever he saw the same man at the basketball games taking pictures, his gut forced him to do a double take which he did but squashed any and all feelings of discomfort and discontent.

The team was practicing before their game against another high school, Tony stood to the side, instructing the team, or the one man machine Michael Jenkins, who was one of the better forwards on the high school basketball team he coached. A veritable Kobe Bryant in the making. Tony clapped the grinning boy on the shoulders, telling him about the possibilities of passing the ball to another player, and pointing out to the other players their best options for stopping someone before the player could score.

He stepped off the court, rolling his shoulders back, rubbing at a crick in his neck. The crick had been there since leaving London and becoming the assistant coach at the Los Angeles High School, a simple job, and an enjoyable one, teaching young men how to play sports together as a team.

He had arrived in Los Angeles in early June, immediately starting a search for an apartment while trying to work off the extra weight from Mrs. Maggie's cooking. He briefly stayed in a motel that needed more than a little elbow grease. A few days into the search he came across an apartment complex close to the school, a running track circling the complex, along with a swimming pool, a fitness room, and reasonably priced for an apartment in Los Angeles, one bedroom apartment with a similar layout to the one he had rented while he lived in DC for seven years. He had to buy a few basic necessities for his new apartment, including some simple furniture from a clearance outlet and a coffee maker. For transportation he purchased a new motorcycle, a car would have to wait until he knew his father was finished searching for him at the moment. A gun range outside the city kept him occupied on the days when he found himself longing for the dangers and head slaps of NCIS. It became his favorite hobby, though he dropped it in London, the weight of the gun in his hand felt familiar to handle and soon he was marking the targets keenly.

Tony kept up the boyfriend act, although he could've dropped it the moment he saw who one of his neighbors was. Veronica, a bombshell brunette with the attitude of a late night diner waitress, and with the smarts to sharpen it. His other neighbor though, Paul Gianni, a middle aged man with a strange penchant for privacy and who had greeted him oddly, by immediately asking if he had 'special someone', was the reason his secret boyfriend act was continued.

On one occasion, while getting to know the rest of the athletic faculty, his new team, and man it felt going to be on a team again, knowing someone out there had his six even though it wasn't with a gun. The head coach, Dylan Watters, had invited him over to his house for a backyard barbecue. Some coaches from other schools were in attendance, in particular one female, Marilyn, who Dylan's wife, Amanda, had introduced to him, nearly shoving the two together in an obvious matchmaking attempt. The other coach was pleasant enough to talk with, long cascading blonde hair pulled back into a low pony tail, and a low cut v-neck shirt that would've had NCIS Tony stuck next to her side with a date and phone number in five minutes. He didn't know why exactly but he didn't want her. It just felt wrong trying to go after another person when he felt like he really had someone special on the East Coast, someone who would slap him upside the head for a stupid remark and never really voiced his approval, but Tony could feel it every time Gibbs gazed in his direction longer than necessary, his head nodding in Gibbs own display of approval. Man he missed his NCIS family. What harm could him flirting with her do, nothing would come of it; but no matter what his Tony charm would not turn on. He sputtered and muttered, trying in vain to diminish the feeling of awkwardness that he felt started when he opened his mouth. He really was out of the game, he was becoming a McGee. He politely excused himself from her side for a moment, catching Amanda, discreetly in the kitchen.

"So what do you think of Marilyn?"

"I'm already with someone Amanda, and I don't think he would appreciate me flirting with someone else while we can't be together." He emphasized the He. The wife blushed, apologizing, saying she didn't know and that she had been trying to set Marilyn up with someone for three years now.

So when a few weeks before Christmas the coach asked about his plans for the holidays he told him of his lack of plans. Amanda demanded that he join them on Christmas, and when he arrived she told him that no one should spend Christmas alone.

Tony scratched mindfully at his facial hair, an old fashioned mustache, same style as the one Gibbs had worn when he was recovering from his amnesia a few years back.

"Coaches we're going to start the game soon." The referee called out.

"Bower" Tony called out to him, hands out waiting for the ball. Simon Bower, the son of a navy rear admiral, passed the ball to the coach. Most of the students attending the high school were navy brats. Somehow leaving NCIS, going to London, and then coming to Los Angeles Tony found himself amidst the military again.

The two teams walked to their respective benches on the sidelines after warming up before the game, each person grabbing their water bottle for a quick gulp before the game actually started. The head coaches huddled up their boy, their pep talks prepared.

Parents filled the gymnasium at the high school; bleachers had been pulled out from against the walls to accommodate the small crowd of spectators. The games were usually attended by the parents, the girlfriends and friends of the players. Some other students would join them although the JV team did not have the impact on the school as the varsity team did. A few of the parents, mainly fathers would nod towards Tony, and the assistant coach would nod back to them in greeting. Several of them had sons that had played on the football team Tony had also coached.

The teams separated from the huddle and pep talk, five players from each high school walking onto the court, the rest of them sitting down on the bench. Their shoes squeaking on the polished floor, a player from each side coming forward to the center where a referee stood with a ball in his hand, whistle in his mouth. He glanced at both sides, nods from the players. The whistle was blown, ball thrown in the air, the game began, the player from the other high school striking the ball down, swiftly gaining the advantage.

Tony cheered the boys on, shouting and encouraging them from the sidelines. His attention was on the uneven game, the school they were playing against is the state champion for three years in a row. The boys from LAHS put up a good fight, intercepting throws, and keeping up a good defense. Their scores steadily climbed on the board, but the difference in skill was highlighted there, especially at half time. The school twenty-four points behind the reigning state champion, Coach Watters cheered the boys up, pointing out areas that could be better defended and players that needed to be blocked more.

Tony took a moment to gaze around the gym, waving at some of the parents and a few of the girls who he noticed had developed a teenage crush on him. He kept his distance from his students, waving to them all indiscriminately. The whistle blew signaling half time ended and he had to focus his attention back on the game. However something tugged at the back of his mind, his gut forcing his to pay attention to it for once. He glanced around the room again, his inner investigator on high alert. He noticed a man in the back of the gym holding a camera with an extended lens tapping his finger on the button, triggering what Tony knew to be several action sequence shots. He was standing next to a few students, some of whom he knew to be on the news committee at the high school. Tony had never seen him before and the people from the school ignored him, walking around him and never spoke a word to him. It wasn't like he was a ghost but Tony's inner investigator was telling him that man was not a parent. He was not connected to the school, so why was he here? Tony kept an eye on the suspicious character in the back for the remainder of the game. His students under his care and protection, a trained NCIS agent would be hard to fool.

At the end of the game, the score was substantially closer, thanks to several three point shots from Michael Jenkins, who still needed to learn to pass the ball to his teammates, they missed several opportunities to score because of him; the other team knew he was the Kobe Bryant of the team. Even with the loss at 97-89, the Los Angeles Vikings hung their heads in defeat. They were the closest to defeating the other high school.

Tony slapped his team on the back, noting to himself that he would speak with Jenkins later. A parent came to talk with him, looking beyond the parent to the gym doors where the man with the camera had been standing for last half of the game. However he wasn't there, the departing flood of people could have blocked his view of him but he had a sinking feeling in his less than accurate gut that this guy was not safe, something was off about his and would do what it took to protect his students. He squashed his feelings again, he wasn't an investigator. He didn't have the resources to even try and find the guy. His abandoned his thoughts trailing on after the guy and focused on the parents who demanded to know why their son could not play in the game.

If only he could deal with some of these demanding parents with a trip to the interrogation room with Gibbs.

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and a special cookie to MarieKiki19 because she asked XD