"Tony! What are you doing, darling?" asked Mrs DiNozzo as her five-year-old son suddenly hid behind her legs.
For answer Tony pointed to the display of bears and then ducked back behind her. His mother sighed, not for the first time, at the eccentricities of a young child and wondered what had happened this time. She had expected that a visit to the largest toy shop in New York would produce wild excitement – and she had braced herself for that – but she hadn't expected timidity from her brave boy.
"Tony," she asked gently as she turned around and bent down to speak to him, "What's the matter, sweetheart?"
Tony put his arm around her neck, and with the other hand once again pointed to the bears.
"What about them, darling?"
"T-t-that one. He's scary," said Tony.
"Oh. What, that one on his own down there?"
Tony nodded. He took his hand from her neck and clasped her hand firmly instead.
"Scary?" she asked.
Tony nodded again but Mrs DiNozzo noted that he didn't seem to want to move on to get away from the scary bear. She looked more closely.
"Why do you think he's scary?" she asked.
Tony tilted his head as he considered the question, "He looks cross," he decided.
"Oh," said his mother, "I think he looks determined."
"What's that?" asked Tony.
"It means … it means that he knows what he wants and will try very hard to get it." She saw that Tony still looked blank. "You remember when you were learning to ride your bike?" Tony's face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. "You really wanted to learn, didn't you?" Tony nodded again. "And you didn't want to keep the training wheels on, did you?"
Tony shook his head, "No, they're for babies!"
"Well, not always," said his mother, "But you didn't want them on your bike. And when you were learning, you were determined."
"Oh. Did I look like that?" Tony asked.
Mrs DiNozzo looked at the bear that had caught her son's attention and decided there was a likeness in the way that the bear was standing so upright with arms crossed to signal that it was not to be trifled with. "Perhaps, a little bit," she said.
Tony moved a little closer to the display although he still held his mother's hand tight. "What's he wearing, Mommy?"
Mrs DiNozzo read the notice, "They're bears dressed as soldiers," she explained, "That one's a Navy captain bear, that one is an Air Force pilot bear …"
"And what's he?" asked Tony pointing once more at the grumpy … determined bear.
"He's a Gunnery Sergeant bear," said his mother, reading the notice.
"Oh. Do you think he's on his own because he's a cross bear?"
"I don't know, darling. Come on, let's go and look at the train sets," she pulled on Tony's arm, but he resisted her.
"Ah," came the voice of a sales assistant, "It seems as if the little boy likes our soldier bears. They've been very popular, you know."
"Thank you," said Mrs DiNozzo, "Come along, darling."
Tony was wearing his determined face, "Why's he on his own?" he asked. "Don't the other bears like him?"
The sales assistant chuckled and thought about patting the child's head before faltering before the determined look. "No, little boy, of course not …" actually, Gerald the sales assistant wasn't sure that was true. Melissa had arranged the bears and she was a little sensitive to atmosphere and she might have isolated the Gunnery Sergeant bear because he looked grumpier than the others and might want to be on his own. "No, no … soldier bears know they have to like one another and get on well," he said.
"Oh," said Tony.
"Come along, Tony," his mother tried again, "You said you wanted a train set … and you know that Daddy is looking forward to playing with it as well."
Tony was clearly reluctant to move on.
Gerald spotted a sales opportunity, "It seems that your son has taken a liking to our Gunny Bear," he said.
"Gummy Bear!" said Tony excitedly.
Gerald and Mrs DiNozzo laughed. "No, darling … gunny bear, it's short for Gunnery Sergeant."
Tony continued to stare at the bear and then said, "Could I have Gummy Bear? Please, please, please."
"But why? I thought you were scared of him?"
"I am … kinda. But if I'm scared of him then perhaps the …"
"The what?"
"The vampire on the top of my bed will be too," whispered Tony.
Gerald looked askance at the mother and son.
"Tony," said Mrs DiNozzo hastily as she bent down once more, "I didn't think you were frightened of that any more. You remember that we all looked in the canopy and there was nothing there?"
Tony fidgeted uneasily, "I know … but it might come back."
"Oh, sweetheart," said Mrs DiNozzo as she swept the hair out of his eyes, "You don't need to be afraid of that …"
"I know," said Tony unconvincingly. His mother noticed that he hadn't taken his eyes off the bear.
"All right," she said, "We'll take Gunnery Sergeant bear home with us," and perhaps, she thought, it was time to redecorate her son's bedroom.
Tony held the bear carefully as they walked to the checkout. Mrs DiNozzo noticed that he didn't hug him – it was clearly not going to be a cuddly bear.
"Well, young man," said the motherly woman sitting behind the till, "And what are you going to call this … fine … bear?"
Tony hadn't thought of a name, "What's his name, Mommy?" he asked.
Tony and his mother always enjoyed picking out names although some of them weren't used much as, when in a rush, Tony tended to revert to Teddy, Action Man or Gorilla.
"Well," she said, finding inspiration lacking for a stern bear. Tony hadn't got any determined toys before. "Well," she said, "Perhaps we can use his initials."
"What are they? Is it those coloured things on his jacket?"
The motherly sales assistant laughed, "No, young man. Those coloured things are where his medals would hang."
"Medals?"
Mrs DiNozzo wished that five-year olds didn't always want so much information, "They're rewards for when people do brave things … or good things," she explained. "They're made of metal and they each have a special ribbon."
"Oh, so Gummy Bear is a brave bear?"
"I expect so."
"So, what's initials?"
"What are initials?" corrected his mother.
"Don't you know?" asked Tony disappointedly.
The sales assistant laughed again, "They're the first letter of each of your names. What's your name, dear?"
Tony looked at his mother to check it was OK to share this information with a stranger. She nodded permission and he said, "Anthony D DiNozzo."
"Then your initials are ADD," said the assistant. "Oh," she said. "Oh."
Tony didn't pick up on the assistant's unease and instead asked his mother, "So what are Gummy Bear's init … ini … initials?"
"Well," Tony's mother decided to make the most of an educational opportunity. "What does Gunny … I mean, Gummy, start with?"
Tony thought for a while, "G?"
"That's right. And what about Bear – what does that start with?"
"B!" said Tony triumphantly.
"That's right. His initials are GB."
"GB? I don't want him to be GB."
"No," agreed his mother. "But we could add some letters to make a name."
"Huh?" asked Tony who was beginning to suspect that the shopping trip had changed into a school lesson.
"We could add an A. What do you think G-A-B would spell?"
Tony thought hard, "Gab?"
"Well done, darling. What about Gab for a name … or Gabby?"
"No," said Tony, "Could we add an O?" O was for some reason Tony's favourite letter.
"That would be G-O-B," said Mrs DiNozzo.
"Gob!" shouted Tony, "Or Gobby!"
His mother shuddered, "No, sweetheart. We're not calling him Gobby!"
Tony nodded discontentedly but it was agreed that each had a veto on the names they chose together.
"How about adding an I?" suggested the sales assistant who suspected this could go on all day and she had a queue building up. She speeded things up still further by adding, "That would be G-I-B … you could call him Gibbs."
Tony and his mother looked at each other in mutual accord and nodded happily. Mrs DiNozzo smiled a grateful smile at the sales assistant and hoped that her husband wouldn't be disappointed that he wasn't going to be playing with a train set that evening.
XXXXXX
So, Gibbs the Gummy Bear went home with the DiNozzos. He was placed as sentry on Tony's night stand and the vampire never reappeared.
As Mrs DiNozzo had noted, Gibbs was never the toy that Tony took to bed for comfort, but he loved the bear in a different way. Gibbs guarded the boy from his fears or helped him to deal with them. Gibbs turned out to be a good listener and it was to him that Tony confided his sorrows when his mother died.
Gibbs travelled with Tony to the many boarding schools he attended. It turned out that a grumpy bear was more acceptable to the other boys who somehow found that Gibbs' stern stare stopped them from teasing Tony about bringing a cuddly toy to school. At the military academy, Gibbs fitted right in and nobody ever queried why Tony had brought him.
Truth to tell, Tony wasn't sure why he took Gibbs with him everywhere. He knew it was stupid, but the determined presence reassured him … and part of him remembered that Gibbs had seen off the vampire in his canopy. And another part, the biggest part, remembered the day he and his Mom had bought Gibbs …
Gibbs even went to OSU with Tony where he became the mascot of the Alpha Chi Delta fraternity house. He was kidnapped once by a rival fraternity but was returned almost immediately: Tony always claimed it was because the other students had been freaked out by that martial stare.
Tony continued to take Gibbs wherever he moved but, gradually, he tended to remain packed away in boxes or tucked away in closets. A more confident Tony no longer needed something to frighten away the vampires – if one attacked him now, he'd simply shoot it!
And so, to NCIS where Tony teamed up with Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs who he had first met when he tackled the NCIS agent to the ground in Baltimore. Gibbs the bear did not get unpacked.
And then, one day, the Major Case Response Team was called to investigate the killing of a Marine recruiting officer and it was decided that Gibbs should go undercover as a Marine Gunnery Sergeant. When Tony walked into the squad room and saw Gibbs dressed in his uniform, standing erect and with his arms crossed, he blurted out,
"Gummy Bear!"
The head slap was swift and, Tony acknowledged, not unjustified. He didn't explain – how could he? But that night, Tony went home and extracted Gibbs Gummy Bear from a packing case and placed him once more on his night stand.
