AN:
Hello folks, here's chapter 11 for you! It's the biggest yet at an epic 6,659 words! Whoo, go me! Anyhoo, there's two flashbacks in this chap, both are writen in ITALICS. Both of the flash backs pick up after the Tony-shooting-Hannah incident!
Don't forget you can now find me on facebook on my author's page! There you get sneek peeks of upcoming chapters, be able to see pictures related to the story and be able to give me your say on some aspects of the story! .com/#!/pages/CalinaAnneHart/184860388226318
Enjoy Chapter 11!
Chapter 11
Previously:
They rode in silence for a few minutes. "You still mad at me?" Tony asked referencing his outburst witnessed by Gibbs and Ziva.
"What do you think?" she asked, firmly and deliberately keeping her gaze fixed out of the passenger window.
"I'm sorry." He said after a short pause.
"You should be." She snapped at him as she turned to face him. "You had no right bringing that up. What does it matter how many agents I've made out with? They were all undercover!"
"Even me?" He asked quietly. Before she could answer he turned his eyes back to the road.
"Even me?" He asked quietly. Hannah stared at him; she could see the hurt hidden in his eyes. She opened her mouth to answer him but closed it again quickly, unsure of what to say. Tony turned his eyes back to the road, his face set. Hannah resumed her silent stare out of the passenger window as Tony merged onto the highway with the rest of the late night traffic.
They both held the silence until Tony pulled off the highway at their exit. "Kendry was right." Tony said looking in his rear view mirror. Hannah turned slightly in her seat and peered around the headrest to look out of the rear window. "Black sedan, two cars back." Hannah counted back until she found the vehicle. "It's been tailing us for the last fifteen minutes." Hannah reached under her seat and pulled out a camera. Turning in on and lifting it to her eye she zoomed in on the car's license plate.
"BX0514." She read aloud. "Yup, that's one of Greaves'." She snapped a few pictures before turning back to face front and turned off the camera, placing it back under her seat.
"Looks like we're having a sleep over, then." He said with his trademark smirk. "I hope you packed your jammies!" He nodded his head at her small handbag. Hannah ignored his attempt to rile her as he made the last turn and pulled the car against the curb outside his building. Glancing in his rear view mirror again he watched as their tail pulled over a few spaces back. "Let's show 'um what they want to see." He threw open his door and climbed out slamming it closed behind him. Hannah watched him as he strode around the hood of the car, he had slipped easily back into his undercover persona, his face stormy he opened the passenger side door and reached in, taking a firm hold of her upper arm he pulled her out of the car.
One of Hannah's heels caught the strap of her handbag and she stumbled into Tony. He closed the car door then pushed her against it forcefully. He back hit the metal with a thud and she felt her neck snap back. Tony pressed himself close against her, his face inches from hers.
"You ok?" He murmured as he brought his hand up to her face and cupped her cheek softly.
"Yeah." She whispered breathlessly. She felt slightly in awe of how he could switch his emotions and personality at the drop of a pin. The forcefulness he had used to throw her against the side of the car teamed with the gentleness of which he was using to caress her cheek both scarred and amazed her. Hannah had a hunch that he was channeling all his anger at her through his actions. She shivered in the brisk night air as he slid his hand from her cheek down to her neck, pressing his fingers into the skin slightly.
"I think they've seen enough." He mouthed pushing himself off her body and readjusting his tight grip on her upper arm. He gave a tug on Hannah's arm and pulled her away from the car and towards the door to his building.
"Ow." Hannah moaned, she could feel his nail digging into her skin even through the sleeve of her coat. Tony pushed her in through the door to the lobby ahead of him. Her hand went to her arm, massaging the sore flesh as Tony called the elevator. They stepped in when the car arrived and Tony pushed at the button for his floor with more force than was necessary.
As soon as the doors slid closed Tony's shoulders slumped. He pulled his keys from his pocket with one hand as he ran the other over his face. Hannah, still rubbing her sore arm, saw the tired sigh that he let out as the elevator doors opened onto the fourth floor. She stepped out into the familiar hallway and headed for the door to Tony's apartment. She was a few feet from it when she realized Tony had not followed. She turned to see him standing in front of the closed elevator doors, his arms folded across his chest, and wearing an amused smile.
"What?" Hannah asked, puzzled by his expression.
"You remember the way."
Hannah's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. "Yeah, well…you know…" She gave an awkward smile.
Tony gave a small chuckle as he headed past her to the door and inserted his key into the lock. "Welcome back." He said with a wink as he pushed the door open. She rolled her eyes at him as she crossed the threshold. She slipped off her heels and dropped them next to coat stand just inside the door before heading into the front room.
Looking around she noticed that nothing had changed. The couch was the same, the lamps were the same, the rug, the pictures on the walls, everything was exactly the same as it had been the last time she had set foot in Tony's apartment, eight years ago.
Tony passed her and walked to the window. He hooked a finger around the drapes, making a small opening, and looked down onto the street. Their tail was still there. He could see two men in the front seats. "They'll probably be there through the night." He said, letting the curtain fall back into place. "Might as well make ourselves comfortable." He slipped off his coat and slung it on the coat stand before making his way to the kitchen. "You want a beer?" He called to her.
"Yeah, sure." She perched on the arm of the couch. Tony walked back into the room and handed her the opened bottle. "This place hasn't changed." She said taking a swig. Tony took a drink on his own beer, observing her closely.
"This is new." He said walking over to a tall cabinet. It stood tall at six foot and was a full arms breadth wide.
"What's in there?" Hannah asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Tony set down his beer on the coffee table then took hold of the handles and pulled the doors opened. Hannah's jaw dropped. "Holy crap!" She exclaimed. Every inch of every shelf was packed with DVD's.
"Quite impressive, huh?" Tony said stepping back to admire his collection.
"How many are there?" She asked scanning her eyes along the rows looking at the various titles. She recognized a few of them as one's she had seen with Tony.
"You know, I'm not really sure. I never really counted." He laughed.
"How do you even have time to watch them all?" She asked. "I can't remember the last time I had a free night to sit down to watch a movie." Tony nudged the doors closed with his feet and flopped down onto the couch taking another swig of his beer. Hannah slipped off her coat and draped it over the back of the couch before taking a seat at the opposite end. She started slightly when Tony suddenly sat upright and lent towards her, a frown on his face and his brow furrowed. Hannah followed his gave to her right upper arm. A fine red handprint was visible, strikingly contrasted against her pale skin.
Tony reached over, his fingers outstretched. "Was that me?" He whispered, his hand hovering over the skin as if afraid to touch her. He lifted his eyes to meet hers and Hannah nodded silently. He brushed the back of his fingers over the damaged flesh. "I hurt you."
"Okay, last few steps." Tony held tight around Hannah's waist as they climbed the last section of stairs to Hannah's apartment. As they approached her front door he noticed her breathing had become more labored and she was leaning heavily on him. "Here, rest here a sec." He slipped his arm from her waist and helped her to lean against the wall whilst he fumbled with her keys. Finally finding the right one he slipped it into the lock and pushed the door open. Taking hold of Hannah's waist once more he maneuvered them sideways through door and into the living room.
Hannah winced as Tony lowered her onto the couch. "I'm okay." She said breathing heavily when she saw the concerned look on his face. "Just pulled the stitches a bit." She lent her head back against the couch and closed her eyes, trying to regain her breath. Tony went back and closed the front door before heading into the bedroom to unpack Hannah's hospital bag.
"Okay, I turned down the bed and put your clothes in the laundry basket, it's pretty full, want me to put a wash on?" He asked as walked back into the living room.
"Nah, it's ok, I'll sort it tomorrow." She yawned as she rearranged the sling the strapped her right arm close to her body. "Thanks for bringing me back from the hospital."
"It's the least I could do," He took one of the cushions from the couch and placed it on the coffee table in front of her. "It was me who put you in there." He placed his hands gently around the back on her calves and lifted her legs, resting her heels on the cushion. "Okay, can I get you anything? Something to eat? Drink?"
"I'm fine."
"You sure? You want your medication?"
"Tony, I'm fine." She said as another yawn escaped her.
"You want the TV on?"
"Sure." Hannah sighed. She knew Tony was trying to make up for shooting her but his tireless attention to her was starting to grate. He picked up the remote control and switched on the set.
"What do you wanna watch?" He asked as he flicked through the channels. "The news? Jerry Springer? America's Funniest Home Videos?" He roared with laughter as overweight man jumping on a trampoline went straight through the elastic.
"I don't mind." Hannah said as he resumed surfing through the channels.
"Oh, here we go." He grinned at the old movie playing before them. "Chinatown, Roman Polanski and Jack Nicholson. What a film." He turned up the volume. "Best movie line ever, "Forget it Jake, its Chinatown"."
"What does that even mean?" Hannah asked him, confused.
"Just watch it." Tony told her gesturing to the TV with the remote. He settled himself on the couch, his eyes fixed on the screen. Hannah watched him for a few minutes. In the relatively short time she had known him she had heard more movie quotes and references than she could have imagined. She saw the way Tony's eyes had widened slightly as the fixed on the screen, he seemed drawn in. 'Maybe this is his form of escape' she thought to herself. She recalled her conversation with Gibbs in the car on the way to the navy ball.
"How much do you know about DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked her quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"How much do you know about him?"
"Um, he's bounced around from department to department, Peoria, Philadelphia, Baltimore. He's got several commendations-"
"No, how much do you know about him?" Gibbs interrupted.
"What, his personal life?" Gibbs nodded. "Not much. I haven't really asked him about it. I know he's an only child, but that's about it. Why?"
"Just something he said earlier, made me wonder."
"You want me to fish for some info." She asked looking at him curiously.
Gibbs murmured in assent. "Just don't make it too obvious you're fishing."
"You know what I realized when I was lying in hospital…recovering." She teased. "You've been at NCIS nearly five months…I don't know anything about you."
"Like what?" He asked uncertainly, tearing his attention away from the screen. He had never been one to talk about himself…no, he had never been one to talk about his true self. Tony had long ago mastered the skill of hiding his true self from the world around him. Hi hid behind the frat boy attitude he had created in college.
"Your childhood, where you grew up, parents, college life, why you became a cop, things like that." She suggested. "Just tell me about you."
Tony looked away from her and down at his hands for a moment before he stood and moved away into the kitchen out of sight. Hannah refrained from calling after him and simply waited for him to return. A few minutes later he walked back into the living room with two bottles of water. As he sat back down on the couch he held out one of the bottles. She took it with her good arm giving a smile of thanks.
"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." He said simply.
"What do you mean?" She asked tentatively although she had a feeling she knew what he meant.
"At the hospital, Gibbs was filling in all your medical forms. I asked him why your family wasn't there doing it…he said I should ask you."
It was Hannah's turn to fall silent. Gibbs knew of her past well. The first time she had been injured during a case with NCIS Gibbs had looked in her file for a contact number for a family member. None had been listed. Every field asking for a relative or next of kin had been left blank. He had asked her about it when she returned to work a few days later. She had brushed it off as having made a mistake when filling out the forms. Three weeks later when his gut told him to check her file again he saw that there were still no names listed. He had summoned her to his 'office' and asked her outright.
"I don't have any family!" She snapped at him. "No one cares if I get hurt."
"I care." Gibbs whispered.
There were several occasions over her time at NCIS when a case reminded her of her past. Each time she had turned to Gibbs. They sat in his basement, a bottle of something open on the work bench, she would talk and he would listen whilst working on his latest project.
Her reverie was broken by the shill ring of her cell phone. She pulled it from her pocket and looked at the caller ID before tossing it onto the coffee table in front of her.
"Simmonds." She explained at the puzzled look on Tony's face.
"Chris Simmonds? From personal? Bad breath, no sense of personal space?"
"He's kind of got a bit of a crush on me." Hannah shrugged. "He called me a couple of times while I was in hospital, came to visit me once…I pretended I was asleep."
A silence fell over them again for a few moments, each contemplating whether or not to tell the other the horrors of their pasts. "You really wanna know?" She asked.
"Like I said, I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."
Hannah took a deep breath. "Okay." She nodded. "I was born in a trailer park in Utah, my dad was an abusive drunk and my mom was a smackhead. They're both dead now." She let out the breath. She felt a little bit of her tension melt away slightly. "They were high school sweethearts, he was a jock and she was a cheerleader. After they left school he fell in with the wrong crowd, dragged my mom down with him." Her voice was calm and steady. "I was born eight weeks early and addicted to heroin. At three days old I went through withdrawal." She registered the shock on Tony's face, his eyes were wide like saucers and his mouth hung open slightly.
"For the first nine years on my life my dad was in and out of prison for something or other," She continued. "Drug possession, theft…domestic abuse…" She trailed off.
"Did he ever hit you?" Tony asked quietly. Hannah nodded minutely her gaze now fixed on a button of his shirt.
"When I was seven, I was outside playing soccer with the kid from the trailer next door." She recalled, her voice scarcely more than a whisper. "I didn't have very good aim." She gave a small laugh that lacked all humor. "I broke a window. My dad had been drinking for hours, he dragged me inside by my hair, screaming at me calling me pathetic, worthless, a waste of space."
She fell silent again for a few moments. Tony didn't say anything; he knew there was more she wanted to say, needed to say. He knew well the feeling when the floodgates opened.
"I can remember the sound of his belt hitting my back as clearly as if it were yesterday." A single tear fell from her eye and trickled down her cheek. "He locked me in the trunk of his car overnight, my mom let me out the next morning when she woke up from one of her drug induced comas."
Tony reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand, wiping away the tear with his thumb. Hannah leaned into his touch relishing its gentleness, her lips grazing the palm of his hand. His hand lingered for a few moments before pulling away. Hannah gave herself a little shake and pushed herself a little straighter on the couch, her injured shoulder screaming in protest.
"A couple of years later my mom disappeared for a few months." Hannah said her voice a little stronger. "We all just assumed that she'd overdosed somewhere. Then one day this taxi pulls up, and outsteps this woman. She walks over to me and says "God, I missed you Hannah", I had no clue who she was. I remember thinking there was something familiar about her, like I'd met her before but I could remember where. I didn't even recognize my own mother!" She said with reverence.
"Turns out she'd finally come to her senses, checked herself into rehab. She was clean." Tony noticed how her face had lightened. "For the first time in my life she was clean. She was a different woman, the way she walked, the way she held herself, her eyes were focused and her words weren't slurred. She'd got herself a job, an apartment, she was starting a new life and she was taking me with her." She grinned at the memory. "But my dad…he wasn't gonna let her go that easily. They argued for hours and then he lost it." She took a few breaths. "He beat her to within an inch of her life."
She grabbed her bottle of water and attempted to open it one handed. After watching her struggle for a few seconds Tony reached out to help. Took the bottle from her and unscrewed the cap. "Thanks." She smiled taking it with her free arm. She took a few sips before starting again. "My dad was sent down for a couple of years and I was put with a foster family for a couple of months 'til my mom was well enough to take care of me." She lifted the bottle to her lips again. Tony opened his own bottle and drank. "Those few years I had with her were…amazing!" She said happily. "It was a whole new life. We did all those mom and daughter things that I always wanted to do, we baked cakes, went shopping, got our hair done together…" Tony returned her happy smile. "I was so happy."
"When did they die?" Tony asked.
"My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was twelve. She died ten months later…a week after my thirteenth birthday."
"I'm sorry." He whispered softly, placing his hand over hers still holding the bottle of water. He gave it a gentle squeeze. She gave him a thankful smile.
"I bounced around the foster system after that. As soon as I turned seventeen I enlisted in the marines, I wasn't going to go down the same path as my mom. I wanted to do something valuable with my life, make a difference." Tony pulled his hand back when she lifted her bottle again to take a drink. "I loved marine life. There was order and structure, something I never really had growing up. I decided against the buzz cut though." She grinned.
"I'm sure you could have pulled it off." He chuckled. "What made you leave the marines?"
"I didn't have a choice. I was only three years in, a silly mistake while running the assault course and I was disqualified on medical grounds." Tony furrowed his brow in question. "Repetitive shoulder dislocation. In the last two years it's dislocated maybe…eight times. I could no longer be an active marine." She drained the last of her water bottle and replaced the cap.
"When did you dad die?"
"He didn't, he's still alive."
"I thought you said he was dead." Tony recalled.
"He is dead…to me." She said simply. "When he got out of jail he went back to the same trailer park, he's been there ever since, drinking away the days. I haven't spoken to him since the day I left that trailer park. I told you mine, now you tell me yours." She deflected.
"Wait, you didn't tell me how you met Gibbs."
"That wasn't part of the deal." She laughed. "I'll tell you someday." She assured him.
"My father, Anthony DiNozzo Senior made his first million by the time he was twenty-five." Tony started. "His second two years later. He's a civil war fanatic, love to take part in reenactments. As a child I was always made to carry the poop bucket." Hannah sniggered at the disgruntled look on his face. "My mother, Katherine Paddington, was extremely over protective. She dressed me in a sailor suit until I was ten. Imagine the comments on the playground." He lent forward and placed his water bottle on the coffee table. "Oh, and she liked Louis XV, yeah she made me this canopy over my bed when I was five, I had nightmares of vampires for years-"
"Tony?" Hannah interrupted. "As entertaining as this is to listen to, you don't have to sugar coat it." She dropped her voice to a low whisper. "Talk to me."
"You have to understand, I'm not used to talking about myself." He admitted his tone serious, the frat boy attitude no longer in place. "I make a point of avoiding it."
"I'm the same." She told him; taking his hand in hers she gave it a comforting squeeze. "We're in the same boat."
"From the age of three my father installed an important lesson in me." Tony said after taking a deep breath. "DiNozzo men don't cry. Not when they fall over and scrape their knee at five, not when their six and the break their arm because they knocked over their fathers scotch and he shut their arm in the door, not at eight when they find their mom dead from an overdose…"
"God, I'm sorry." Hannah whispered.
"I think your father and mine would get along, their very similar. My father's not an alcoholic, he doesn't drink to excess, but he's defiantly a drunk. He can't control himself after a few to many Macallans. It's a drink I learned to make very early in life, three fingers," He held them up in demonstration. "One ice cube." He picked at a loose thread on the seam of his jeans. "He had a very short temper, especially with me. I think I was always a disappointment to him; 'you're not man enough' was one of his favourite lines. Whenever he hit me he always told me it was to make me stronger, make me more of a man, more of a DiNozzo.
"When I was twelve he shipped me off to boarding school. Even during the holidays he'd send me to summer camps. The only time I went home was Christmas, he was never there, he'd be off on his yacht somewhere." He realised that Hannah still had hold of his hand. He turned his hand in hers and laced their fingers together. "I remember one vacation, just before he sent me away to school; we went to Maui…he left me in the hotel room all on my own…for two days." Hannah brushed over the back of his hand. He found the movement extremely comforting. "I had no idea where he was or what he was doing. "When I left home at sixteen my father disinherited me, he cut me off from the family fortune. I wasn't enough of a DiNozzo."
"Where's your dad now?" Hannah asked.
"Not a clue, haven't spoken to him in three years." Tony shrugged. "Last I heard he was on his third wife…and she was young enough to be my sister." He looked up from their entwined hands to meet her eyes. "Look at us, a couple of sorry souls." He smiled sadly. "I, uh…I think you win though."
"I wasn't a competition, Tony." She chided. "We both had shitty childhoods, in pretty similar ways, but we're still here, right?"
"Yeah."
"Now," She said, turning her attention back to the screen. "Is this movie going to cheer me up?"
"Probably not," Tony admitted. "But Jack Nicholson is pretty good." Hannah sank back into the padding of the couch, Tony followed suit, resting his feet on the coffee table next to hers. As the movie played their hands remained where they were, fingers laced together.
"Have you seen The Shining?" Tony asked a little while later, turning his head towards her. Her eyes were closed, her head leaning slightly to one side. He gently extracted his hand from hers and reached for the control. He switched off the set and placed the remote on the table. Carefully, so as not to catch the stitched on the back of her right shoulder, he slipped one arm behind her back and the other under her knees. He lifted her with ease, her head lolling to rest in the crook of his neck. Slowly he weaved his way through the furniture towards the bedroom.
Toeing the door open he turned sideways and manoeuvred them both through. Thankful he had thought to turn down the covers earlier he softly lowered Hannah's small form onto the waiting mattress. She woke slightly and shifted onto her good side and drew up her knees. Tony reached down and pulled the sheets up to her shoulders. She called out to him as he made his way back to the bedroom door.
"You're not gonna drive home now, are you?" She asked him, her voice groggy with sleep. "It's 0200!"
"Does that mean I can crash on the couch?" He asked from the doorway.
"Stay in here." She said simply. "Keep me company." The hand not strapped tightly to her chest patted the mattress next to her.
In the darkness of the room she couldn't read his expression, the light from the living room behind him meant all she could see was his silhouette. "No funny business." She could tell by the tone of his voice that there was, no doubt, his trademark winning smile on his face.
"I promise." She said through a yawn.
"I'll just go lock up." She closed her eyes and dug her head a little deeper into the pillow as he retreated into the living room and set about locking the front door and turning off the lights. By the time he returned she was on the verge of sleep again. She felt the bed dip as Tony sat down and heard the muffled thud as he kicked off his shoes.
He laid down, settling his head on the pillow and pulling the sheets over himself. He turned onto his side to face her, his eyes becoming accustomed to the dark. He smiled to himself at the utterly relaxed look on her face. He reached over and brushed a stray curl from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Her hand snaked out from under the covers and sort out his. She threaded her fingers back through his and held on tight. He returned the firm grip as he lowered their hands and slipped them into the gap between their pillows.
After a few minutes he felt her grip relax and her fingers slacken as she finally succumbed to sleep, a sleep into which he followed not long after.
"I hurt you." He whispered brushing the back of his fingers over the damaged flesh.
"No more than I've hurt you." She brought her hand up and laced her fingers through his. "This feels familiar." She laughed softly. "The movie, the couch…" Her eyes dropped to their hands. "This." She gave his hand a little squeeze in indication. Tony's eyes also dropped to their hands.
"We…uh…" He pulled his hand out of her grasp and stood. "We should get some sleep, we've got a long day tomorrow." He took a few steps back. "You can…you can take my room, I'll crash on the couch." Hannah opened her mouth to argue. "Please." Tony cut her short. "Don't." He said shaking his head.
Resigned, she stood and headed towards the bedroom, her head hanging. She stopped in the doorway, and looked back at him over her shoulder. He avoided her gaze.
"You were more than undercover, Tony." She said softly. "You've always known that." She slipped in through the door and closed it behind her. She leaned back against the wood and closed her eyes, swiping away the wetness she could feel on her cheeks. Lifting her hand she swatted the back of her head giving herself a Gibbs worthy slap. She walked over to the dresser and pulled open the top draw and then the bottom. He still stored his clothes in the same place. A creature of habit. She took the top most items from each draw before nudging them closed with her leg.
She dropped the t-shirt and boxer shorts on the bed as she removed her earrings and placed them on the nightstand. She quickly slipped out of her costume and pulled on the borrow garments, slipping between the cool sheets of Tony's bed. She buried her face in the pillow breathing in his familiar scent, the fabric underneath her cheek becoming damp from the silent tears that fell.
His thumb absentmindedly played with the rim of his coffee cup as his gaze slipped out of focus. He had had a restless night. The problem had not been his couch; he had dozed off on there many a time. The problem was the person occupying his bed. He had laid there on the couch for well over an hour before he was finally able to drift off to a fitful sleep.
The sound of a door opening snapped him back to reality. He pushed himself up from the table and busied himself at the kitchen sink, rinsing out his cereal bowl.
"Morning." Said a quiet voice behind him. Tony turned off the water and grabbed the dish towel to dry his hands, he turned towards the door way and lent back against the counter behind him. Hannah stood in the door way leaning on the work of the frame. He took in the borrowed clothing hanging on her thin frame. "I hope you don't mind." She fingered the hem of the too big t-shirt.
Tony shook his head as he tossed the dish towel onto the counter next to him. "Did you find everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's still in the same place." Her small laugh faltered when he didn't return it. "Uh…they still here?" She asked pointing her thumb over her shoulder to the living room window behind her.
"No. They left sometime in the early hours of this morning." He looked at his watch. "It's almost 0700; we should get to the office. You need to borrow some clothes?"
"Um…yeah, thanks." She said realizing all she had to wear was her costume from the night before. He walked over to the dryer in the corner of the kitchen. Reaching in he pulled out a pair of black sweatpants and a grey NCIS hoodie.
"Here." He held them out as he walked over to her. "Their clean." She reached out for them gratefully and he moved to slide past her through the door way. He froze when her hand touched his as she accepted the clothing. She looked up into his eyes fixing his gaze. The narrow space of the doorway forced them closer to each other than they would have chosen at that moment in time.
"I missed you." Hannah whispered. She placed her hand on his stomach, her fingers playing over the defined muscles of his abdomen.
"You left me, Hannah, remember? You took the easy way out, you ran away instead of facing up to your mistakes. If you'd stayed maybe…maybe we could have worked things out, who knows." He took hold of her wrist and removed her hand from his stomach. "We have to get to the office."
He slid past her and moved away heading for the bathroom. He closed the door behind him a little harder than he intended. He placed his hands on the counter either side of the sink and leant forward letting his head hang down.
"I missed you." Her words rang in his ears. He turned on the faucet and cupped his hands under the running water collecting a small pool which he splashed over his face.
"I missed you too, Hannah." He whispered to the empty room. He dried his face and straightened his tie before heading back out of the bathroom.
He retrieved his jacket from the closet in the hallway and picked up his backpack; slinging it over his shoulder he turned to call out to Hannah that they were going to be late. At that moment she emerged from the bedroom, her strappy shoes, skimpy costume and handbag from the night before tucked under her arm.
"Ready?" He asked as he opened the front door. She nodded silently, avoiding his eyes as she passed him and exited the apartment. He followed suit, locking the door behind him then heading down the hallway after her. They each kept their silence as they walked out of the building into the brisk morning air and climbed into Tony's car. The silence continued for the entire journey to the navy yard. Hannah leant her head against the window and closed her eyes willing herself not to release the tears that were threatening to fall.
"Gibbs!" She yelled as she opened the front door. She bent down and picked up the bag she had had to set down in order to open the door with her only available arm. "I got dinner!"
"I'll be right up." His voice sounded through the open door to the basement. She carried the take-out bag through to the kitchen and set it on the table. She had removed all of the containers from the bag and set out plates and cutlery by the time Gibbs rounded the corner into the room.
"Hey." He said placing a hand on the small of her back affectionately as he passed her. "What ya get?"
"Chinese." She said attempting to price the lid from the nearest container. Gibbs opened the fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer.
"You okay to have one?" He asked holding up the bottle.
"Uh, yeah, should be okay, haven't taken my pain killers today. SHIT!" She successfully managed to remove the lid from the container however the floor was now covered with rice. "Sorry."
"You didn't drive did you?" Gibbs asked through an amused smile. He grabbed a dustpan and brush from under the sink and quickly swept up the fallen rice depositing it in the bin.
"No, I got a cab." She allowed him to open the rest of the take-out boxes.
"I would have come and got you." He said as he spooned a healthy portion of chicken and noodles onto his plate.
"How many bourbons you had tonight?" She asked with a smirk. Gibbs rolled his eyes as speared a piece of chicken with his fork. "I thought so." She awkwardly helped herself to food. "Ya know, it's times like this I really wish I went both ways." Gibbs froze mid chew looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She didn't see his reaction until she reached for the container closest to him. "What?" She asked as she placed a few spring rolls on her plate. "Oh!" She spluttered when she realized what she had said. "I meant as ambidextrous! I'm right handed," She pointed to her right arm encased in the sling and strapped tightly to her chest. "And not being able to you my dominant arm is killing me." Gibbs noticed the slight flush to her cheeks. "I didn't mean…"
Embarrassed she turned her attention to her food. They ate in silence for a few minutes. "I talked to Tony last night." She said eventually. "I got all the info you wanted, the whole backstory. It's not pretty." She told him shaking her head.
"He opened up to you?" Gibbs asked surprised. He hadn't known DiNozzo that long but he seemed extremely guarded, he was sure that he was hiding his true self behind the clown.
"Not right away." She held out her beer to him. He reached over and twisted off the cap and she took a long sip. "Had to do a bit of tit for tat." She sighed.
Gibbs nodded in understanding. "How much did you tell him?"
"I wanted to tell him as little as possible but…I ended up telling him everything." She set down the bottle and lent back in the chair. "Once you get past the immaturity he's actually quite grown up." She laughed. "I found it pretty easy to talk to him."
Gibbs finished his beer and stood to retrieve another from the fridge. He held a second out to Hannah in question and she nodded. He set it down next to her current beverage. "How much did he tell you?" He asked picking up his fork again.
"Quite a lot but I don't think it was everything." She said thoughtfully. "How much do you wanna know?" She asked as she sat forward and picked up her drink.
"Just give me the bottom line; I want him to trust me enough to tell me himself."
"Well, let's just say our dads were pretty similar." She told him quietly. She watched as Gibbs closed his eyes for a brief second, shaking his head.
'Okay." He nodded. "What time did he leave last night?" Gibbs asked changing direction slightly.
"He didn't." Hannah revealed as she took another bite of food. For a second time Gibbs froze mid mouthful. Hannah saw the eyebrow raised in anticipation of being disappointed. "It wasn't like that, dad." She joked. "Rule twelve."
"Good girl." He smiled. Hannah laughed hard, the motion sending a jolt of pain to her shoulder. She winced and reached for her beer, draining the bottle, hoping it would dull the pain.
"After we talked we sat on the couch and watched a movie. I dozed off about 0200 and he carried me to bed." She smiled fondly. "I wasn't going to let him drive home at that hour so I told him to stay."
"On the couch?" Gibbs probed.
"No." Hannah revealed after a short pause. "He slept with me. Not with me, next to me." She corrected. "It was kind of nice to have the company without any expectation." She admitted as she took a swig of her next drink. "We fell asleep holding hands how pathetic is that?" She laughed shaking her head.
"Kindred spirits?" Asked Gibbs with a slight smirk.
"Hardly, we just had similar childhoods is all."
"Maybe you two will start to get along better now." Gibbs posed.
"Maybe…"
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