Title: Veritatem Dies Aperit (Time Discovers Truth)
Summary, Disclaimer & Spoilers: See Chapter One
A/N: Due to some comments made in multiple reviews, I just wanted to take the time to point out that Team Gibbs not being supportive of Tony is my fault. I'm not being very fair to their characters as a result of my decision to focus the story primarily on Tony and Gibbs and their situation. So I hope you'll cut them all a little slack since not every detail of what's going on outside of either Tony or Gibbs' POVs is being related.
Only Tony's POV in this chapter…
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Chapter Eleven: And You Shall Know the Truth
Two days later…
When Tony had awakened, he had momentarily forgotten where he was until the pale lavender walls and the feminine, but not overly feminine, décor reminded him he was in the guest room of Fornell's townhouse. It was obvious from the items in the room and its furniture that the guest bedroom he was staying in doubled as the bedroom of Fornell's daughter Emily when she visited her father overnight.
Back when the FBI agent had proposed this arrangement, he'd been extremely reluctant to accept at first thinking that it was some sort of an attempt to get him and his former friend together again. Gibbs was Fornell's friend no matter how much they pretended otherwise, so the Marine could theoretically visit the guy any time he wanted and Tony would have no say in the matter because he was a guest. Having foreseen his reluctance, his ex-handler gave his word that the proposal was no trick and promised that there would be no surprise visits from anyone of their acquaintance. With that assurance, he had relented, and now he was here.
Besides, it wasn't as if he had all that many alternative places to go. It was either Fornell's place or be stuck wherever NCIS decided to house him until his finances were cleared and put back under his control. Briefly he'd considered asking to stay with one of his ex-teammates, but given how they'd parted ways and the fact that none of them had bothered to stay in touch, he had quickly dismissed the idea.
The rational side of his mind kept telling him that there was a perfectly logical reason that the people he thought were more than just simple co-workers had seemingly so easily forgotten about him. On the other hand, the emotional side – the side that was hurt and disappointed – was still having a difficult time getting passed how his 'friends' had treated him before he'd been fired from NCIS on those trumped up theft charges. With everything else that had been going wrong for him and around him at that time; they'd so easily believed that he would steal that money.
The snide remarks when things had begun going wrong hadn't been much of a surprise – they teased each other all the time – but the eventual lack of support that he had received from Ziva and McGee had been a surprise. It had been as if they were trying to stay out of the line of fire of Gibbs' wrath towards him; each of them giving in to their own instincts for self-preservation. He could tell they were sympathetic towards his troubles and concerned about his well-being, but any outright support on the job had barely existed. Abby and Ducky had tried to help him, had been there for him more so than his other teammates and helped to overcome his mistakes and misfortunes on cases, but even they had, despite their protests to the contrary, believed he'd been the author of his troubles. Eventually it became easier to just push everyone away than deal with his admittedly mixed but hurt feelings.
He realized he didn't know the whole story; knew that they didn't know the whole story, but even still, hadn't he deserved better from them? Hadn't he deserved at the very least a healthy amount of the benefit of doubt from them? Until he knew more, he was going to try to not let his bitter feelings completely get the better of him.
His interactions with his teammates had always included a liberal amount of sarcasm and teasing so he could understand the reactions to his misfortunes on those cases he'd supposedly 'messed' up on. Tony could appreciate them not wanting to be tainted by rumor and the charges against him, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to have some negative feelings towards them. He sighed both mentally and out loud. For now, he would focus on the present and let the past rest.
Tony looked at his watch and cursed. His 'guest' was going to be arriving in about ten minutes. He'd let his inner thoughts and musings take over for too long and now, given his gimpy leg and the fact he still had to use the bathroom – always an adventure with crutches – he might miss the arrival of his unwanted yet obligatory visitor.
He'd just been released from the hospital this morning, but he was definitely still on the disabled list. He still got tired easily as the result of his injuries, his leg brace was irritating him, and several times he'd been 'fortunate' to have headaches that tended to sideline him for a couple of hours until his meds kicked in.
The drama, including knowing Gibbs was lurking around but not seeing him and the trip to Fornell's place, when he'd left the hospital earlier had been enough to wear him out and Fornell had pointedly suggested several times that he lie down until it was easier just to give in. Just before he'd surrendered to his body's demands for rest, his host had left him a bottle of water on the bedside table and had brought in his duffle bag. It had felt pretty strange to give the man the keys to his apartment, pretty strange to trust someone again with elements of his personal life, but his ex-handler had insisted that he pick up Tony's things so that the younger man would be more comfortable during his stay.
The way Toby was treating him… Who would have guessed the guy was such a mother hen? Besides the place to stay, Tony was extremely grateful his friend – and yes, he considered Fornell a friend – for having acted as a buffer between him and Gibbs while he was in the hospital. Since he'd kicked Gibbs out of his room and the man had taken up a position as sentry outside it, they'd not spoken to each other. Sometimes just thinking about the man he once trusted standing outside his room made his blood boil, while at other times he just wanted to give in and let Gibbs explain everything.
When Tony wasn't sleeping, he had spent a lot of time rehashing the events of the last eight months and thinking about how things could have gone differently had he known from the start about the undercover mission. He realized that there were definitely some pretty huge gaps of information that he still needed to have filled in.
That was why he'd set up this meeting despite the fact that he would rather swallow glass than talk to this person. He sat up, grabbed his crutches, and carefully lowered his injured leg down to the ground. The pain meds he was on didn't make him loopy, but they did leave him prone to wool-gathering. He'd need to hurry if he wanted to already be in the living room when his guest arrived.
He was just making his way to Fornell's leather recliner, when the doorbell rang. Instead of sitting, he turned to answer the door, but then Toby came out of the kitchen. His ex-handler and now friend, pointed at him and then at the recliner before heading towards the door. Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes at the treatment before he felt a small pang in his heart at the sudden memory of Gibbs treating him in a similar fashion when he was injured in times past.
In the hall behind him, he heard Fornell greet his visitor before the two of them headed into the living room. As he pulled the lever so the chair was in a semi-reclined position which allowed him to elevate his leg, one of the two men he didn't want to speak to but knew he must regardless, stepped into his line of sight.
"Director Vance," he greeted without any indication in his voice that he despised the man for his part in screwing up his life.
"Agent DiNozzo," Vance returned as he took a seat on the room's small couch.
"Don't you mean, Mister DiNozzo?" Tony pointedly asked.
"No. I mean Special Agent DiNozzo," Vance replied adding extra emphasis to his old title. "Even though it looked to everyone that you were let go from NCIS, no paper work to that effect was ever processed."
The director gave him a look that said he would brook no further argument on the subject and continued, "You still work for me."
"Oh goody," Tony mumbled with a heavily sarcastic tone.
Vance was about to respond to the sarcasm when Fornell came into the room with a plate bearing a sandwich, some baby carrots, and some pills in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. Tony was given a 'do as I say or else' look and before Fornell said, "Don't forget to eat before you take your pills. I'll be back in a couple of hours."
The FBI agent then placed the items on the side table and headed out of the room. Over his shoulder he said, "Director Vance, help yourself to anything in the kitchen. Tony, I put a movie in the DVD player if you feel up to watching anything later."
Before either he or Vance could respond, the older man was gone.
His visitor nodded towards the direction of the front door with a smile and asked, "Who's worse? Fornell or Gibbs?"
Tony replied, "Neither. Both," then shrugged and said, "They're just different."
He rolled to his left side and reached into his pocket to pull out a USB drive which he tossed to Vance.
"That's not why I asked you here. That drive," he pointed at the object Vance was still loosely holding in his hand, "I just tossed to you contains my full report of everything that happened while I was working undercover. Given my injuries, it took me longer than usual to compile it. If you have any questions or need any further information, you know how to reach me. Though now that Erik Hawthorne and several of his cronies have confessed, I doubt my intel will really be all that necessary. Sooo glad I was able to do my part, Sir!"
He stopped and tried to pull in a calming breath. It didn't work but at least it prevented him from exploding in anger even though the man before him definitely, in his opinion, at least deserved a portion of the beat down he wished he could give to those who had it coming.
"And while you're here Director, I would like to take this opportunity to tender my verbal resignation from NCIS. I will have a formal letter out to you in the next day or two."
A brief look of displeasure flashed over Vance's face before he said, "I'm sorry, Agent DiNozzo, but I can't accept your resignation until such time as the current investigation is over."
"Fine, then I quit. I will make myself available to NCIS and the prosecuting attorneys, but I do not intend on returning to work for your agency."
His former director's face had transformed to one of obvious irritation. "It took me a while to see it, Agent DiNozzo, but you are an excellent, if sometimes unorthodox, investigator, but in this instance you are making a huge mistake. You are making assumptions and deciding who the guilty parties are without all the information. I thought you knew better than that. I thought he taught you better than that."
"I didn't 'need to know' back when you decided to ruin my life and put me undercover without my prior knowledge or consent, so why do I need to know now? Why should I even care? I'm just choosing to remove my piece from the game board. I'm tired of being everyone's pawn."
He lifted his hand to rub his face and noticed that the slight throb that had been developing since Vance had arrived was escalating into a higher level of discomfort in his head. He thought of his pain meds, but there was no way he'd take them while his guest was still here. When he opened his eyes again, he could swear he saw a flicker of concern on Vance's face.
"Agent DiNo—Tony, I would hope that you would at least do me the courtesy of letting me fully debrief you before you make any permanent decisions."
Tony sighed. It wasn't that he didn't want to know the whole story; it was just that he wasn't sure it would make any difference at this point. The higher-ups had carried out their goal seemingly without one ounce of concern for the fact that his life had been turned upside down and put in constant danger. It didn't change the fact that Gibbs had gone along with their plan, had betrayed his trust in more ways than one, and had left him feeling adrift again in the world – something he hadn't felt since not long after joining forces with the older man. Would letting Vance fill him in on more of the missing pieces of this damned mission really change his mind about leaving NCIS or his angry and hurt feelings towards Gibbs?
After a few moments of thought though, Tony's inquisitive nature won out over his disenchantment with anything or anyone having to do with his former job.
"I'm not sure if it'll help, but—." He paused then decided to ask a question that had been weighing on his mind for a long time now. "Uh, but first, I need to ask you a question."
"Go ahead," Vance replied with a nod.
"Did anyone ever realize what would've happened to me if this operation had gone to plan? I was undercover using my own identity; you know what that would've meant to my life, right?"
"Yes," the director replied in a voice dripping with regret. "I realized the situation not too long after we read Gibbs in. I confronted the SecNav about it, but he—"
Tony decided to fill in the obvious. "He didn't give a damn."
The man across from him grimaced and admitted, "Close enough. As you probably have already guessed, the witness protection program would have been the only way to keep you safe until the trial and in the future."
DiNozzo looked down at his hands to hide his face from the director for a moment. He then nodded, "I figured. My life was never going to be my own again, was it? I was never going to get the chance to…." He sighed and decided he didn't want to finish that thought.
"Chance to?"
"It doesn't matter, Sir. I got lucky. Now, you asked for some time to debrief me. Can we get going with that now?"
"If you'd like." Vance said then pointed towards the still full plate of food. "Why don't you eat that sandwich and at least take your antibiotic while I tell you everything you weren't previously privy to regarding this investigation. I don't want to get into trouble with Fornell for keeping you from eating or taking your pills."
Tony snorted a laugh and picked up the plate that had been left for him. Toby probably would give both of them a piece of his mind if at least half of the sandwich and some of the carrots weren't gone before he got back. He took his first bite as Vance settled back into the couch and began to speak.
"You're probably going to have questions, Tony, but I would ask that you hold them until I'm finished if possible. Some of the answers might come as I go along, okay?"
With a full mouth, Tony nodded and gestured for Vance to continue.
"I know Agent Fornell has informed you of the how and why the interagency taskforce was set up, but what you don't know is…"
Director Vance proceeded to inform him of everything he hadn't known and hadn't been told before now: the threats Jarvis made to him and the team if Gibbs didn't cooperate and choose one of the two options he'd been 'given'; Vance's own culpability and lack of support towards Team Gibbs at that meeting; the threats against his team if they contacted Tony while the investigation was ongoing regarding the theft of the money and what had actually happened with it; and the seeming never ending stream of probies that Gibbs kept driving away. The Director's debrief ended with his own observations about how the team hadn't performed as efficiently without Tony and how much more of a miserable bastard Gibbs had become over the last six months or so.
The most revelatory piece of information though had been the motivation for Gibbs' utterly believable and extremely cruel rejection of him in both their professional and personal lives. Apparently when Hawthorne Security was vetting potential new employees, the firm set up surveillance of some kind around every aspect of those people's lives – their homes, their jobs, their closest friends. That was why his ex-team leader had been so vocal and demonstrative of his displeasure towards Tony. That was why his ex-friend had crossed too many lines when they'd talked that last time in the basement.
But what no one had known at first was just how important it had been for everyone to believe in Gibbs' rejection of Tony, to believe that Tony was losing it and had been corrupted. Sometime just after Gibbs had begun to systematically destroy DiNozzo's career, the three analysts that had started it all had found another disturbing trend related to Hawthorne's hiring practices. They found that some prospective hires as well as some employees of the firm had ended up dying – the mortality rate for a corporation of that size had been way above average. The reason no one had suspected anything prior to that point was that the CODs of the various individuals had varied greatly – suicide, accident, random killings, etc. They had varied too greatly to be linked together until the three analysts had joined forces and had dug deeper.
Apparently when Gibbs had found out about the increased danger Tony would be in, he'd gone ballistic. His former team leader had wanted to back out and not put his senior field agent in that kind of danger, but it had been too late. Too much work had already gone into the operation; too much had been put into motion. Things had to play out or they'd lose their best chance to take the Hawthornes down. At least Tony now knew why Gibbs, looking extremely pissed off yet at the same time somewhat devastated, had stormed out of the office without an explanation that one day after a meeting with Vance and had not been seen or heard from again until the next morning.
Director Vance told him everything he would ever need to know about the mission and more. At times, he was so engrossed in the tale that he forgot to keep eating until the agency head re-directed his attention back to his meal. A myriad of conflicting emotions flooded him and eventually even Vance's gentle prodding wasn't enough to keep him from losing his appetite and setting the plate aside. He had received a frown because of the action, but wisely his guest did not remark on it. Tony took the antibiotic, which seemed to mostly remove the frown from Vance's face, but left the pain pill despite his increasing headache and leg pain.
When NCIS' director had finished speaking, Tony was speechless and his mind was a jumble of thoughts and emotions. He had absolutely no idea how he should feel or what he should think about everything that he'd just heard. As it was he hadn't even noticed when Vance had gotten up from the couch until the older man had returned with a cup of coffee.
"I know I've given you a lot of information in a very short amount of time, but I would hope you'd take a few days to digest it before you decide anything about your future. I also can tell that the headache you've been trying to hide from me has escalated to the point where you really need to take that pain pill."
Tony tried to glare at Vance, tried to think of some witty retort, but both were beyond him at the moment.
"If you have any questions, call me, but at this point I think the remainder of the answers you're seeking lie with Gibbs. He was given an impossible choice, and he chose the option he thought you would most likely choose for yourself had that been a possibility. Was he wrong?"
Despite the jackhammer going off near the healing graze on the side of his head, he answered, "No," without hesitation. "He was right about that. I would've given him a head slap so hard that his head would have come clean off his shoulders had he chosen me over the team."
Tony chuckled and concluded, "How very Wrath of Kahn of us."
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few – or the one," Vance quoted.
With a smirk on his face and amusement in his voice, Tony said, "I didn't take you to be a closet Trek fan, Director."
"That will remain our secret, DiNozzo, if you don't mind," was the almost embarrassed-sounding response.
"No problem, Leon," was the over-enunciated reply which earned Tony a glare that almost rivaled some of Gibbs' best efforts. He held up his hands in surrender.
"I'm going to head out and let you get some rest. Technically you're on medical leave right now, so I hope you'll use that time to carefully consider your options. Plus, I would hope that you'll give Gibbs a chance to at least mend your personal relationship if not your professional one as well. I'd hate to lose a great partnership. I know you have no reason to ever want to work for me again, but I'd hope you would consider staying with NCIS."
Tony stretched out a hand to Vance who grasped it. They shook hands once and let go.
"You've definitely given me a lot to consider, and I will consider it. That's all I can promise at this point."
"I can accept that DiNozzo. Before I go, there's one more thing that needs to be said. Despite what you may think, Tony, you did an amazing job on this operation under extreme circumstances. You went above and beyond regardless of what the outcome would mean to your personal life, and though things went a little pear-shaped at the end, I guarantee your intel will be useful in aiding in the capture and conviction of criminals and terrorists. It's something to be proud of despite everything else that happened."
Vance turned to leave and at first Tony thought he wasn't going to say anything, but then the words "thank you" escaped from his mouth before he could stop them.
As soon as he heard the door close, Tony grabbed for his pain pill and swallowed it down with the remainder of his milk. He laid his head back, closed his eyes and thought about all he'd heard while wishing for the pill to work faster. It wasn't long before his thoughts began to drift though it was a while longer before the pain began to subside.
His last thought, before Morpheus sent him to sleep, was that he needed to speak to one more person before he could even entertain the concept of talking to Gibbs.
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To be continued…next Thursday.
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A/N: Kudos to BuckeyeGirl00000 who correctly guessed what Fornell's proposal was.
Thanks to ncismom for all her help! Any remaining mistakes are mine.
Thanks for reading!
