Tony's Salvation-- Chapter 11
Mentally, Tony wakes up a mere half hour after he falls asleep. He's never been one to sleep for long periods of time, but he can sometimes force his body to rest when it's absolutely necessary. He looks at the blonde sleeping beside him and silently curses.
He knows that he's had a nightmare; he can feel the lethargy sapping his strength. He also knows what usually happens when he has one. There have been many nights where he's woken up with bruised and battered knuckles; too many nights, ever since that day in Maui when he'd woken up alone and known that Richie, like his mother, was gone forever.
The nightmares had helped him in a way. They had led to his finding methods of self-healing while he was in college. The same self-healing that had let him recover from a medieval disease. He just didn't know how to use it to help others.
He gently turns Laurie's mental figure so that she's facing him. He picks up her left hand, wincing at the bruises he knows he inflicted. As he watches, the bruises slowly start fading. He curses in Italian, filled with loathing at the harm he's caused her.
A slightly callused hand comes up and covers his lips. Dark green eyes look down into lavender ones.
*Stop the berating yourself. I know what I was doing when I stayed with you. I've seen it before.*
*You didn't have to put up with it! You could have defended yourself!*
*I needed to see what was going on, defending myself would have defeated my entire reason for being here.*
*Yeah, to study me, like a freak in a circus.*
*No, to find out why the Tony DiNozzo that your friends know and love has been slowly disappearing.*
*Well, I guess we figured that out pretty quickly didn't we? So you can just leave the pathetic agent to his devices and go about your merry way.*
*I don't work that way Tony. I told you earlier, I'm here to help you. You let me in, and now I'm here to stay.*
*Great, it's worse than invasion of the body snatchers, you can take my mind too.*
*Only if the rest of you comes with it.* her mutter is almost unheard, yet Tony's sharp hearing picks it up.
*Why doctor, I do believe--," He's cut off as she reaches up and pulls his head down to hers. Several minutes pass and he sits up slightly stunned when she finally breaks off the kiss. She sits up and waits for him to say something. When he doesn't she sighs and starts to apologize. He wraps a hand around the back of her neck, pulling her into his kiss. When they finally break it off he says, *Never apologize it's a sign of weakness. Unless of course it's between friends.*
She stares at him, not quite sure what to say, finally she says, *Does that mean we're friends now, because you've had me under interrogation ever since I got here.*
*Deny if you can that you're here to evaluate me and my effectiveness for the team, in and out of the field.*
She sighs and drops her gaze. * You have several friends who are worried about you. Your team performance isn't being questioned, your friends are more concerned about the mental shutdown you've been going through these past five months. You do realize that in the past few minutes you finally made a movie reference? According to Gibbs and Abby that hasn't happened since you were agent afloat.*
Tony sighs as he nods in agreement. Between the affair with Jeanne and the whole fiasco with Jenny Shepherd, he's not been himself.
*Can you tell me about Richie? I ...we never saw each other after Maui. I couldn't find him either. I tried to, but it's like he disappeared. I went through every database I could get my hands on when I was with the police department; there was just no trace.*
Laurie notes their entwined hands, sees the slight green tint sliding over her fingers and knows that his healing powers are kicking in. He's not aware of anything else; lost in his memories of his twin brother.
*You have to understand something: I only knew him for a few months. He was a Marine when we met at my restaurant in Aspen. He brought his martial arts instructor in with him and after eating their meals, he asked to meet me. We went on our first date that same week.*
*Why didn't he contact me? I can understand that he might not have known where I was after Dad kicked me out, but we always had…a bond for lack of a better word.*
*Can you tell me when you first noticed the bond not working right?*
*Yeah, right around the time Dad forgot about me in Maui.*
Laurie rolls to her mental feet and walks over to where a slim mental bond is wavering. Tony stands beside her not really sure what she's looking at.
*This is the bond between you and your brother.* she runs a gentle hand over the bond and Tony can feel a slight tingle where she's touching.
*When you two were separated, it weakened the bond. Over the passage of time and distance, not to mention the way they separated you, without warning, it made the bond crack.*
*So, some of the images I thought were dreams were of Richie? Our bond trying to keep us together?*
She nods and pulls a photo out of her mental pocket. *They changed his name to Richard Thorpe. They basically beat the name DiNozzo out of him, but he still remembered you.*
*How did he die?*
*He was in a frontline unit and was killed saving three other Marines.*
*He saved Gibbs, didn't he?*
*Yes and I think that's part of the bond I sense between you and Gibbs. Why Gibbs knows almost instinctively when something isn't right in your world; Rick passed what little bond he still had with you on to Gibbs.*
Tony looks at her a question forming in his eyes. *Are you here with me now, because of my ties to Richie?*
*I ought to deck you for even asking that. Tony, until tonight I had no clue that you and Rick were related. I kissed you because I wanted to kiss Tony, because I want Tony, not Rick.*
She steps closer to the bond and Tony can see traces of blue amongst the green. He puts a hand out towards the bond and can immediately tell that the boss man is upset about something.
*They heard you call out Richie's name. Gibbs and Tim are more than likely running searches now so that they'll know more in the morning.*
She's rubbing her shoulders, and he steps closer to her, *Will you trust me in this regard at least?*
She sighs when his hands take over on her shoulders, gently massaging the soreness away. *Make sure you do that physically too, once we're both awake and I can appreciate it.*
He turns her to face him and he can see the contented smile on her face.
*Only if you reciprocate in kind.* He startles himself when he says it, he hasn't wanted touched, held, or any kind of affection since Jeanne. Her hand reaches up to cup his cheek and instead of swatting it away, like he has been to Abby for the past month, he leans into the slight embrace, closing his eyes as he does so. His eyes pop back open as he thinks about something.
*Why did you never hook up with someone from your teams?*
She shrugs and he turns her to face away from him, knowing that sometimes it's easier to talk when not facing your inquisitor. He keeps his hands running up and down her shoulders and back, lightly touching the tightly bunched muscles as he finds where exactly she needs massage relief.
*Most of my SEAL team were older than I was. I became their kid sister or beloved daughter. Two of them actually are my brothers, a fact we discovered during the war. Those two are the only surviving members of our team aside from me.*
*What about Dawes Guys?*
He can feel the tension in her shoulders rise again and wonders just what can of worms he's opening.
*You know the cold shoulder you gave me upon our first meeting? Try getting that multiplied by nine over the course of two years. The entire team, aside from the advisors board, was predisposed towards hating women.*
*Which one hurt you?* Tony silently curses himself for asking the question, but she doesn't back away from him; instead she turns to face him, tears glistening in her eyes.
*My best friend…we had talked about marriage after Rick died. Once the war was over so too was my military career according to him. I said I wasn't leaving the SEALs and he said sayonara.*
Tony grimaces at the similarity between her story and what happened between him and Jeanne. He pulls back a bit, making sure that she understands what he's about to say.
*I'm not that man, but I'm not going to give up NCIS; I wouldn't mind if you wanted to join our team though.*
She smiles at him and gives him a hug which he slowly returns.
*Thank you for the offer, but I'd like to try opening a new restaurant here, if you're still willing to be my guide.*
He smiles back at her, realizing that he likes this woman. She makes him feel wanted as well as needed.
*Just out of idle curiosity, are you looking for new housing here too?*
