As the paddle had reigned down hard on to the upturned backside in front of it, it had not taken long for it to gets its painful message through. Truth be told Gibbs wasn't too far away from learning to come to terms with it himself but as a man of consequence he had not been able to fully put it to rest until he felt as if he had atoned.
The rhythmic beating of the old wood against the jean clad backside mixed with the gasps of pain and muffled sobs hidden the approach of the tiny little feet who had arrived home excited and wanted to show Gibbs all of the things they had bought. Not finding him inside the house he had raced out into the back garden and to the shed.
Shannon, having realized where her husband and father in law probably were having noted they weren't in the house and realizing Jackson had wanted them out of there for a reason went to try to stop Tony racing outside. She was too late. She went to go out after him only to be stopped by her mom.
"Shannon, let the boy go," she spoke softly.
"But mom Gibbs will be mortified if Tony walks in on him and his father," replied Shannon.
"I am sure he will feel all manner of things and whilst he may be embarrassed think about Tony for a minute."
"About Tony?" questioned Shannon.
"Yes, he will see the real consequences of bad decisions and more importantly he will see how a loving family deal with these things and that he has nothing to be frightened of here with all of us," stated Joanne, "he has never experienced a proper spanking, only beatings which he didn't deserve, better he see how it is supposed to work with Leroy than have to fear it himself not knowing what is to come until that inevitable day when he might earn himself a spanking."
Outside, Tony had run up to the shed, but finding the door shut, his progress was halted. From inside the shed he could hear the sound of something hard hitting a body. At first he froze, was there a beating going on inside?
He slowly crept around to the one small cobweb clad window and pulling up an up-turned terracotta flower planter he climbed up to peek inside. He arrived at the scene just as Jackson was starting the final round of smacks. He saw Gibbs lose the fight with stoicism and collapse over his father's leg. He heard the final cries and sobs and promises that he would never do anything this stupid again. He watched as Jackson rubbed his sons back and shoulders and then stood him up to hug him to him.
Inside the shed Jackson whispered into his sobbing Sons ear, "Come on now Leroy, its over, you can forgive yourself and everyone else will. I'm sorry you hurt Son but better your butt then your heart."
"I am sorry Dad," cried Gibbs still holding onto his father like Tony would cling to Cottontail when he needed comfort.
"I thought you told me that saying sorry was a sign of weakness?" laughed Jackson.
"Nah, I just heard that on one of the Dukes films and thought it sounded a pretty cool rule, I guess its dumb really," spoke Gibbs.
"Well perhaps you just need to adapt it a little Son, perhaps it will always be ok for family to say sorry to one another," replied Jackson, now taking a clean handkerchief from his pocket and wiping his sons final tears away.
"Dad," complained Gibbs taking the handkerchief from the older man.
"What Leroy," smiled Jackson, "you never complained about me wiping your tears away when you were a kid."
Gibbs didn't have a chance to answer that, as they suddenly heard a crash from outside of the window area as Tony, who had been straining to see inside and hear what was being said, toppled off of his perch on the flower planter and landed in a heap on the floor below.
As the two older men made their way out of the shed, Tony was just getting back to his feet and brushing the dirt from his clothes.
"You ok Tony?" asked Jackson.
"Yes Sir," nodded Tony keeping his eye on the paddle that was still in Jacksons hand.
Noticing that the kid was fixated on the paddle Gibbs tried to draw his attention away from it, "come here son and let me have a look at you, are you sure nowhere hurts?"
"No I'm fine Gibbs," he stated wiping the final bits of dirt from his hands, "but I think we might have had a small earthquake!"
"Earthquake?" questioned Gibbs, "what makes you think that?"
"Well it would explain why I fell over," said Tony.
"Are you sure that it wasn't just you tipping to far forward to see what was happening in the shed?" asked Jackson.
"Well…. You could have a good point there," agreed Tony, the two adults smiling.
"What did you see Tony?" asked Gibbs.
"Er, well you got hit with that," said Tony pointing to the paddle. "Did Jack hurt you?"
"Why don't we go inside and talk about this Tony?" suggested Gibbs.
"Ok," said Tony racing off into the house ahead of them.
When Gibbs joined him in the living room a few seconds later, walking painfully and with the jeans rubbing against his tender skin, he entered a room into which Tony had put every soft pillow and cushion in the house.
"You need to sit there," directed Tony to the pile of cushions.
Amused but somewhat relieved by the seating arrangements Gibbs slowly lowered himself onto the soft pile, grimacing slightly as he did.
"So did Jack hurt you?" asked Tony again.
"Not like you have ever been hurt, no," replied Gibbs, "but my backside is going to be sore for a while and I am going to learn from my mistakes."
"Why did he give you a cuddle after he spanked you?" asked Tony.
"He was showing me he still loved me and that all was forgiven, he was making sure I was alright," stated Gibbs.
"Are you alright?" asked Tony getting a little worried, "are you bleeding, did he cut you?"
Gibbs felt nauseas at the idea that a spanking to Tony usually meant he would be injured to the point where his skin was torn and broken.
"No son, he would never do that to me or anyone else, that's not what a proper spanking is for. That would be a beating and would be wrong," explained Gibbs, "this did hurt me enough to make me think before I run off and lose my temper ever again, and I cried because I was sorry I had hurt everyone and worried they would not forgive me."
Gibbs noticed Shannon standing at the door silently watching the interaction between the two. She smiled at him and then turned to leave him and Tony to talk.
"Well I forgive you Gibbs," replied Tony thoughtfully, "but you had better not do it again or you will be in really big trouble young man!"
Gibbs could not help but laugh at Tony's attempt to be stern with him. "yes Sir," he responded, " I won't do it again I promise."
"That's good cos I'm gonna need you around and I still haven't taught you all about my superheroes," declared Tony, "now can I show you what Joanne and Shannon bought for me?"
"Sure Tony, why don't you go and fetch all of the bags and show me and then I can stay here on all of the pillows if that's alright with you?"
"Yep good idea," said Tony nodding his little head emphatically and then rushing off to gather all of the shopping.
As Tony bolted past Shannon once again positioned in the doorway, both she and Gibbs called after him to slow down and watch where he was going. He shouted his apologies from the other room.
Shannon crossed to the chair where Gibbs was propped up, "so does it hurt?" she asked.
"Like hell Shan, but not as much as if I had lost you and Tony," he said his eyes begging her forgiveness.
"Well you had better not pull a stunt like that again Marine or it will be me taking that old paddle to your butt," she laughed, "or I could call my mom or your dad, they've all been queuing up to sort you out since the other night when you walked into that hotel."
As she kissed him on the lips and held him to her Tony burst into the room with all the bags of goodies.
"Look," he said showing Gibbs two different types of material bearing superhero characters on them, "which one do you think Joanne and I should make first?"
Gibbs was forgiven, his guilt was subsiding and he was now involved in a deep discussion with his wife and Tony about bedding and curtains. His family was around him. He would be alright.