Tony's eyes were saucer like. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. He saw Gibbs crane his neck from him, to his unmarked hands and to Stan's pulsating head and felt panic grip him in a gut wrenching knot. He backed away as Gibbs started moving, his face pleading with him to see deeper than what the surface mirrored. Begging him silently to see that he wouldn't do something like he was seeing. But an odd sort of mask was contorting the older man's face. He'd seen Gibbs angry on many, many occasions and he'd seen him vibrate with unbridled rage more times than he cared to remember, but never like this. The blue eyes were stalactites and the lips that housed the rare crooked smile that had the possibility to appear at the most unexpected time, were set in a straight line of pursed rage. Tony's heart sank as fear began to replace his panic. Gibbs was storming towards him, sending anything in his way flying without care or knowledge. Backing up until he could back up no further, Tony braced himself for carnage to descend, closing his eyes with a terminal acceptance as he saw Gibbs' right hand snake out.

Before they flew open as it came to rest gently and warmly on his right shoulder.

"Tony, are you ok?"

The voice seemed incapable of coming from the man. It was a gentle voice, infused with concern. The kind of one more commonly directed at Abby and sometimes the rest of them. Shock joined the emotion party as Tony nodded his head in a daze. "Good," Gibbs said quietly, raking his eyes over his second in command in search of any subtle injury. When he found none, he squeezed the shoulder under his hand gently. Before he turned to face an ashen looking Stan and advanced towards him like a slithering rattlesnake. "Get up, Burley," he said in a voice so cold Tony half expected icicles to drop from his mouth. "Stand up properly and be a man, for once in your damned life." When Stan didn't move, still slumped in his dramatic poise of the wounded man, the first snarl ripped from Gibbs' throat. Reaching down, he grabbed Stan by the scruff of his neck and wrenched him to his feet, ignoring the wounded scream of pain it elicited. Pinning him to the wall with one hand and gesturing for Tony to come closer with the other, Gibbs made nothing of the fact that Stan's blood was dripping sluggishly onto his own hand. Feeling Tony melt nervously to his side, he looked to him as did a shocked Burley.

"You think I believe anything you just said, Stan? You think that I think Tony would do any of that?"

Stan opened his mouth, but Gibbs wasn't done. He continued in a voice so dangerous, it seemed to flow like silk. "Because, here's the problem. If Tony had broken that clock, he would have just told me about it. Because he is no coward and because he knows how much it meant to me. He would have told me about it the second I walked in the door. If he had broken the clock, there is no way on God's green earth that he would ask or attempt to force you or anyone else to take the blame. Because he is no coward and he knows how much it meant to me. So that means that your story doesn't hold up, Stan. That means you're lying. And the only possible reason you'd have to lie is to try and get Tony into trouble. And that brings me back to the USB that somehow made its way into his pocket earlier on today. See, he told me that he thought you planted it on him and I wouldn't listen. Because I'm a stupid old fool for still trying to see the best in you. But there is no best, is there? You came back here with the sole intent and purpose to try and discredit my second in command and worm your way back into the post. Isn't that right?"

Stan gasped in Oscar award winning shock and shook his head, wincing at the pain.

"No?" Gibbs practically purred, tightening the hold on Burley's neckline and pushing him flatter against the wall. "I've got it wrong, do I? Explain then. I'm a fair man. You go on and explain to me how this story holds up, this fantasy you have about broken clocks and my right hand man, because I gotta tell you Burley, I'm struggling here. Because, you see, if this story were the other way around. If Tony were telling me, say, that you broke the clock and tried to pin it on him and when he refused, you threw your thick head against my fireplace to make it seem like he attacked you…well, I could believe that." He scratched his chin thoughtfully as his eyes grew glassier with rage. "In fact, you know what Stan? I think I just do believe that. You're a coward and you always have been. Even as a Probie you could never take responsibility for your actions. Always blaming others, when you weren't tattling on them to me like a fourth grader. Tony, on the other hand, doesn't have that issue. If he screws up, he owns it. Like a damned man. So do you see now how this little scene you've set wasn't researched correctly, Stan? Do you see how I'm having trouble buying it?"

In that moment, it was impossible to tell who was more shocked. Stan or Tony.

Gibbs leaned in closer and whispered a terrifying whisper.

"I think you've been playing me for a fool, Burley. It's all coming together now. I think you were playing the recovering alcoholic role just like that, a role. I think you came here with a plan. A strategic plan to discredit Tony to the point where in your warped little head, I'd fire him and with you here, hey, what the hell. Come back on board. We'd be together again, you and I. That's what you thought, isn't it? Here's a little spoiler for you. If Tony was knocked down by a bus tomorrow-" He glanced over at Tony and arched a brow. "Stay clear of busses tomorrow," before turning back to Stan, "I still wouldn't hire you back as my second in command. Because you were a lousy goddamned second in command. Always whining, always clinging to me like some sort of leech. We had nothing in common and you'd try everything to change that, it was embarrassing. Truth be told, I wanted to can you for a long time, but the Director wouldn't let me. And, sure, after a few years went by you were became bearable, and I could work with you."

His eyes frosted over even more as he took a deep breath.

"But I never cared about you, Stan. Not the way I care about Tony, or Tim, or my girls. Sure, if you were shot, I would have cared but only because of the badge you wore. Not because of any personal feelings towards you. I put up with you out of a sense of obligation and that sense of obligation is the same reason I let you in, let you back here. That's the one downside of the Marines. Obligation. Because sometimes, obligation is the wrong way to go and I was wrong this time. I should have directed you to the nearest AA meeting for your little act and shut my door in your face. But I didn't and as a result, you had the opportunity to try and damage one of my people. That's on me. That's my bad. But I will make that right, Stan. I will. And you'll be all alone, back wherever the hell it is you came from. Because you are done here. You're done."

Tony's jaw was in danger of finding the carpet as Stan suddenly wrenched himself free. Wiping blood from his eyes, he shook his head in disbelief as his mask continued to unravel. "You don't know what you're saying. There's no way in hell you could prefer that joker over me. You're talking shit, Boss. I was your best second in command, I was like a son to you, I-"

He was suddenly slammed with brute force back into the wall.

"You were never like a son to me!" Gibbs bellowed, flecks of spit flying into Stan's face. He jerked his head towards a stunned Tony by his side. "He is like a son to me. Tim is like a son to me. You were a damned employee, and a bad one at that. You were nothing to me, I took you in out of misplaced commitment and pity, not because I care or cared about you. You are nothing compared to him, or the rest of my team." He breathed heavily for a moment, rage coursing through him. "You remember Glenn, Burley? The junior agent on our team at the time? You remember that time you both got into it and I wrote you up, but not him? You remember coming to me and whining about it, asking why but you never got an answer. Here's the answer. I dealt with Glenn off the record. I punished him in a personal way because I didn't want to see his career hurt over an altercation with a creature like you. I cared about Glenn, not the way I do my team now, but I cared about him enough. I cared about him enough to put my own neck on the line and my own reputation, to save his. I never cared about you like that, I wrote you up more times than I have ever done an agent under my command my entire career and I did it without a second's thought."

He suddenly moved away, as if stricken with repulsion about being so close to Stan.

"You were always too desperate to be on my six. It made me uncomfortable. You were a boy then and you're a boy now. A sick, self centred, scheming boy. I have no time or energy to waste on you. You come in here, into my home and try to hurt my family? You've not changed and you never will. So like I said, you're done here. Get your shit out of my spare room and get your spineless ass out of my ass. I never want to see you again and if I find you anywhere near my house, the Navy Yard or my people…I will not hesitate to snap your damned neck." He pointed to the stairs. "Now go. Get your stuff and get the hell out. I don't care where you go just as long as you don't ever come back." He took a step out of the way, moving closer to Tony and waited pointedly for Stan to do just that. Silence pressed upon the room as Burley wiped another congealing mass of blood from his forehead and stepped forwards. Gibbs moved instinctively in front of Tony and arched a challenging brow.

Stan sniggered then, his mask all but gone and shrugged his shoulders.

"He really is your prize poodle, isn't he Boss? You're right….you were never like that with me."

Gibbs' fist twitched.

"Don't call me Boss. I'm not your boss…thank Christ."

Stan grinned a demonic grin and both Tony and Gibbs stared as he devolved right in front of their eyes. He moved closer to them as they stood side by side and his lopsided, cold grin grew even wider. "I studied him, you know. Your pet here. I tried to understand what made him so damned special. And I still don't know the answer. He's a screw up. He doesn't have two brain cells to rub together and frankly he's an embarrassment to the-"

Fresh blood spurted everywhere as Gibbs' fist finally flew free and connected with a very available nose. "Keep talking, and I'll break your neck," the shaking agent growled. "Get out of my house. Get out of my house and my life now. I won't ask again." Staggering back from the force of the blow and the surprise that went with it, Stan looked down at the fresh pooling of blood dripping onto his hand and stared at in a daze. A cruel look of rage suddenly gleaned in his eyes as he looked up at a united front staring back at him. This time, when he spoke, it was to Tony. "You really think you're better than me, DiNozzo? You really think he's going to keep you around? What do you think he's been saying about you behind your back, to me? You think he's this loyal to you when you're not around?" He laughed coolly, the mirth nowhere near his dead eyes. "Think again, DiNozzo. You're dispensable to him, just like me."

Tony, out of sheer instinct, raised his head high and kept his voice calm.

"I am nothing like you, Stan. In life or to Gibbs. Now, you've been asked to leave. So leave."

In that moment, something triggered. Maybe it was the truth of the matter, or maybe it was because Tony was the one to speak the words. Whatever it was, it was the undoing of the tenuous grip Stan had on reality. The noises that the nosy neighbours down the street were craning to hear, weren't as simple as they sounded. There was more to them, much more to those noises. Something far more sinister than fisticuffs and raised voices. Standing there and realising that the bond between the two men was as unbreakable as it got, Stan broke. His plan was foiled, his future was bleak and all he had ever wanted was disintegrating before his very eyes. All it took was one look at Gibbs' face to know there was no coming back. The protective stance he had taken in front of Tony told him everything he needed to know.

And he couldn't take it.

His mind snapped harder and faster than any mind ought to snap.

The roars of pain and scuffling were immediate and they were intense, as three men dove into action. Gibbs, reacting quicker than he had ever done in his life, shoved Tony with all his strength and sent him spiralling into a nearby corner. He and Stan scuffled ferociously, Burley having the advantage of youth and Gibbs the benefit of experience. Both however, knew each other's next move, and the battle was intense. Grunts and yelps of pain were elicited on both sides as Tony dazedly got to his feet, unsure as to what the hell had just happened. When he saw the intertwined bodies tussling violently on the floor, he raced to Gibbs' six. Entering the foray, the vicious fight became even more deadly as Masie down the street put a pudgy hand over her mouth in shock, signalling violently for her husband to come out and have a gander. The yells continued for another moment until a sharp, breaking sound pierced the night and with it, ceased all noise. The breeze blew away the remnants of the disturbance and the neighbourhood was once against blanketed in a pleasant, balmy silence, pierced only by the frantic movements of more and more neighbours giving way to their curiosity.

In amongst the detritus of Gibbs' usually pristine living room however, it was a different story.

Save for the slow gate of a fired weapon as it sluggishly spinned to a halt, nothing was moving.

More worryingly, no one was moving.

No one at all.

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One more chapter and done! I have to say this one was a super fun story to write so I really hope you've all enjoyed it too!

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