Rising To The Bait

Chapter 55

As Brad and Siobhan made their way towards the dining room of the rehabilitation hospital where they'd promised to meet Tia and her mom for lunch, Dr Pitt glanced casually at the inner courtyard garden. It was where patients and visitors could sit to get some fresh air or some of the more introverted patients would go to get away from the noise and bustle of the rehab hospital. Brad did a double-take as he noticed the disconsolate figure of Tia's father, seemingly oblivious to the world around him.

He was seated on a wooden garden bench – stained a rich red jarrah colour. Tony's head was downcast, apparently examining the ground at his feet and his shoulders slumped in what looked an awful lot like defeat. A posture which given his normal never say die, competitive attitude, Brad found very alarming.

Plus, his lack of awareness of his surroundings was just WRONG! His buddy normally had exceptionally good situational awareness. And that was before he'd assumed guardianship of his daughter and become responsible for Tia's safety, Brad figured that something was very amiss with his friend.

Siobhan noticed the familiar figure of her patient's father and although she didn't know him as well as Brad or for as long, even she could tell there was something that had upset him. She propped, causing Brad to stop too. She looked at him and gestured at Tony with her head.

"Looks like he could use a friend, Brad. I'll go and introduce myself to Mrs Cooper. You can join us later," She glanced back at the distraught figure and shrugged. "Or not. We'll have a girls' lunch with Tia and Megan. You and I can catch up later."

When Brad didn't move, she gave him a gentle push. "Go. Be a friend." Reaching up, she kissed him on the cheek after a furtive look to see if they were unobserved.

After so many years serving in the Navy, Brad could follow orders when required, so with a grateful look at Siobhan, he marched over to the glass door and entered the courtyard area. He was disturbed by the fact that Tony didn't seem to notice his approach, although Tony was an enigma so best not to underestimate him. Seating himself beside his friend, but far enough away so that he wouldn't threaten him if he wasn't aware of his presence, he spoke softly to the clearly upset federal agent, "A penny for them, Buckeye."

Tony snorted but didn't seem startled, so perhaps he wasn't so lost inside his head as he appeared to be. That or he was just good at putting on a front – and Brad knew that he was damned good at hiding his feelings. It was what made him so good at working undercover but it also made it hard for his friends to know how to help him.

"Not worth that much, ask my old team. They'll tell you that thinking isn't my strong suit, Wolverine." He said, evidently hoping to deflect Brad from whatever was bothering him.

Brad chuckled. "That lot!" He said with scorn. "Doubt they could find their way out of the forest for all the trees if they were lost, Tony. Honestly, I don't set much store by what they think – and you forget I know YOU. So, what has you so worked up?"

Seeing the faux air-headed jock expression replacing his worn down one, Brad held up a finger and shook it at his buddy. "Ah uh, Tony. No deflection or subterfuge. Spit. It. Out. What has you in such a funk?"

Scowling at Brad he grumped, "Not in a funk. Just thinking!"

"About what? Looks pretty deep."

Sighing intensely which Brad took as a sign that Tony was going to yield and understanding that the token fight had been more habit than a true wish to obfuscate, he looked into Brads grey eyes and asked. "Do you think I should have asked Tia's auntie to care for her back in Tucson. She expected to take custody of her."

Of all the conversational gambits Brad had been anticipating, that had not been one of them. Caught off guard, he temporised, "Why? At that time, you thought that someone from the Macaluso family might have been responsible for the car crash. It wouldn't have made sense to ask Dennis' sister to take custody of her. She's not a cop, she'd an ad executive, isn't she?"

Tony nodded but looked far from convinced. "But it wasn't the Macaluso's. And bringing her back to DC put her right in the firing line. She ended up being kidnapped, traumatised and saw people get gunned down and killed...Because of me."

"Not because of you! Because of your prick of a sperm donor, Tony. You weren't to blame; you were doing everything you possibly could to protect her. Plus, you had no idea that she was being targeted by him. No one would ever anticipate that your own father would try to steal their granddaughter and commit sex trafficking!"

Tony looked unconvinced by Brad's words, making him wonder what the hell was going on with him. "What's prompted this line of thinking, Buckeye?"

"Mel," he said with obvious reluctance. "She said it's my fault that Tia is so messed up that she's seeing a psychiatrist, that she's in danger and has to have people guarding her. She thinks I should have left her with Dennis' sister." He looked at Brad and he could see his friend's mental torture. "She's right."

Cursing inwardly, Brad knew that Melissa aka Rebecca Cooper was not thinking clearly due to her brain injury plus her grief and fear, and it wasn't uncommon for people in her situation to lash at the most convenient target. Often it was rehab staff but frequently it was friends or family who were in the firing line. Still, as common as this situation was, he also knew that Tony would take what she'd said and internalised it for sure. It was what he did as an adult child of alcoholic parents (ACOA) who, as a little kid had felt like he had to be the parent since neither his mother nor his father were capable of acting in a responsible manner.

Little Tony had learnt to feel responsible for everything that occurred, setting himself up to shoulder the blame regardless of his ability to control the environment. Which given that Tony's mother died when he was eight, would have been negligible. Still kids of alcoholic parents

"Tony, Mel is angry, and she's hurt. She's grieving, not just the death of Dennis but her old way of life and everything that her accident has stolen from her – her independence, her ability to communicate and function autonomously. Mel knows that she probably won't be capable of caring for Tia – at least for the next few years even if she continues to make progress, which isn't a given as you know. "

He saw Tony's raised eyebrows. "Yes, the rehab doctor has been honest with her about the incredible amount of rehabilitation she is facing and how many obstacles she will likely need to overcome. So of course, she is grieving for Dennis, but she is also grieving for the loss of her own former identity and the life that she'd created."

"And that's my fault that she needed to create that identity – because of my work. I should never have been in a relationship with her and putting her life in jeopardy." Tony looked tortured.

Brad felt exasperated, "I wasn't talking about her identity in that sense, Buckeye, I was referring to the identity that we create when we are in a relationship with someone – when we merge our identity with another individual and become a couple or a family. She's lost so much in the accident and she is lashing out at you because you're convenient and familiar, she also knows you'll take it because you love and care about her."

Seeing Tony looked unconvinced, he said. "Ya know she's lashed out at Jess too? And, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Tia might also be a target at some point. Although, she may be able to restrain herself towards her and only hit out at you guys," he warned his friend gently but firmly. " Remember, she's feeling incredibly frustrated. Take everything she says to you about Tia with a grain of salt, yeah?"

Tony looked surprised. "What did she say to Jess?"

Looking supremely uncomfortable he revealed, "She heard that you and Jess and Tia were sleeping in your bed and got a bee in her bonnet about it. Told Jess that she had always been jealous of you and Mel and decided to steal her child and her man."

Tony looked flabbergasted. But we aren't doing anything, and Jess and I aren't like that," he protested. "We're best friends. Good lord, even if we were together, what sort of sicko would have sex with someone while their ten-year-old daughter with PTSD was in the bed asleep? What the hell was she thinking? It's disgusting!"

"Exactly my point, Buckeye. Mel isn't thinking straight. With the brain impairment which has impacted her memory and thinking, plus all the emotional wounds she's trying to deal with, she isn't being rational. Don't forget, she appointed you and Jess as her guardians if anything should happen to her and Dennis, not her sister-in-law. She made that decision when she was entirely rational and competent, Tony."

Brad wasn't sure if Tony he'd helped at all, his friend looked disbelieving but then the Buckeye had always been far too ready to lay the blame for everything on himself. So, it would probably take a few such talks before Brad could convince him that Mel was being irrational, and her grief was making her look for convenient targets for her anger.

Well, luckily Brad was up for the job. He wasn't about to let his buddy take on a bunch of crippling guilt for things which he had no control over. Even if he had to drag Tony kicking and screaming to see a psychologist and help him get his head on straight.

~oO0Oo~

Tony looked unhappy and unconvinced as he made his excuses to Brad but he needed to return to NCIS. A part of him knew that his friend had a point, but he'd been caught completely off-guard by Mel's anger. Maybe if Jess had given him a heads-up, he would have been able to see this coming, but he could understand why she hadn't told him. It would have felt like a knife to the heart when Mel had accused Jess of betrayal. Sighing he shook hands with his friend, grateful that he decided to stop and talk to him – he was a good friend.

As he left the rehab facility Tony thought about the meeting this afternoon with various powers that be, including SecNav Davenport. Its sole agenda was to determine what to do regarding the MCRT now they had medical reports from Jethro's orthopaedist that his knee following the GSW from Franks had made it impossible for him to return to active field duties and he would eventually be cleared for desk duty only.

Gibbs was still in denial. He was absolutely devastated that his status as a field agent was going to be revoked. In typical Gibbs' mode, he'd come out fighting, defiant and demanding that he be given more time to prove himself. He genuinely seemed to believe that if he refused to accept reality, he could simply force it to bend to his will. Tony thought about his assertions over the years – that he never caught a cold, that he never suffered from nightmares because as he'd told an impressionable young witness once, he ordered himself not to have bad dreams.

Which when you think about it, sharing his technique with that traumatised kid had been pretty high-handed and irresponsible. The subtext of what he'd told the victim ho as a traumatised kid was that if he was mentally strong enough (like Gibbs) he'd avoid having nightmares, but it wasn't that simple. Tony knew that from personal experience with Tia. And that was why he'd specifically ordered Gibbs not to share his homespun wisdom about nightmares with his daughter. The last thing he needed was to set her up for failure when Jethro's hackneyed advice proved insufficient to deal with her considerable demons.

While it may work for Gibbs and Tony figured that it probably involved some element of self-hypnosis, it was hardly that simple to cur nightmares and night terrors. If it was that simple it would have been investigated and recommended for victims of PTSD long ago. Tony had pondered it over the months when he'd watched on helplessly as Tia battled her memories and woke up screaming night after night.

He figured that the hypnotic suggestion of itself as insufficient to stop nightmares, that there had to be other factors at play too. As he made his way back to work, he compared the differences and similarities between the two individuals which might explain why self-hypnosis may work for Gibbs, but hypnosis had so far failed to work on Tia. Both were incredibly stubborn people but where his NCIS mentor had always been a linear concrete thinker, despite his gut, Tony recognised that Tia was far more creative, more of a lateral thinker, like he was. Tony always saw things in glorious technicolour, and he suspected that Tia shared this trait with him too, while Gibbs saw the world in grayscale.

Then there was Tia's extreme sensitivity to other people's feelings, she was a very empathetic child, and seemed to be able to feel other people's emotions viscerally, while Gibbs did not. In fact, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that the former gunny appeared to have an extremely limited emotional IQ, not being aware (or just not caring) of other people's feelings. Tony recalled any number of examples when his humour had felt like a knife int the ribs, and yet Jethro seemed totally clueless that his joke had fallen flat. Several people had wondered if Gibbs might have Asperger's Syndrome, Jess amongst them when she'd first met him.

~oO0Oo~

Deciding he might just have time to say hi to Mel before heading back to Bethesda for the bi-weekly M & M conference, Brad thought about Jess and Tony. In a lot of ways, he thought they would have made an awesome couple despite the difference in their ages. Although, he guessed that a seven-year difference wasn't that much. They had done a magnificent job of looking after Tia for two people who weren't accustomed to being responsible for kids and worked well as a team. Although, they had been partner's in Philadelphia so that explained a lot.

Still, for all, they were good when they were together, and Brad thought Jess complemented his emotionally flawed friend, he recognised how complicated it would be if they ever got together. Tony had a child with Mel, and they had separated not because they didn't get along but because Tony had pissed off some pretty murderous mafia guys during his stint undercover. Mel had gone into Witness Protection, given birth to Tia and married and that had seemed to have closed the book on Tony and Mel's relationship. Both had moved on, although Mel seemed to have been more successful than Tony had.

By all accounts, she'd fallen in love and had a happy marriage but now she was widowed, and Brad figured that Tia would probably try to push them into getting back together again. Not unreasonable – most kids wanted their parents to live together unless they were at war and wanting to kill each other. That was obviously not the case here and it seemed that Mel still had feelings for Tony if she was jumping down Jess' throat about them sleeping together.

He wondered if Tony or Mel had similar fantasies about a fairy tale ending where they got back together, and everyone lived happily ever after. Brad kind of hoped not. He was dubious that with all that had transpired since they had split up, that reconciliation would work. They both had been with other partners, had grown older and their lives had moved in different directions. He suspected that remaining friends and working together to co-parent their daughter was going to be something they could achieve – marrying and living happily ever after – not so sure.

Oh, he had no doubt that Tony still loved Mel and would take a bullet for her, but she wasn't the same person he'd fallen in love with. Not before she had the accident and most definitely not after the coma.

Head injuries could often change people's personalities and he suspected that it might be the case in this instance too. Mel might prefer to start an intimate relationship with someone who didn't know her before her injury and could accept her the way she was. He'd seen it happen a lot, even with couples who were in a relationship. It frequently didn't survive all the stress that such a long and stressful recovery from a traumatic injury. That was why patients commonly ended up with new relationships.

However, even if Mel decided she didn't want to resume a relationship with Tony, that didn't necessarily mean that she would be happy to see her two best friends get together, either. It was an awkward situation and a sad one. That's IF Brad was reading the situation right and his friend and the stunning lieutenant did indeed have feelings for each other, other than simply friendship. If you also factored in Mel and Tony's daughter and how she affected their dynamics, well it was an emotional landmine. Personally, if he was Tony and Jess, he wouldn't touch it with a forty-foot barge pole.

Sad for his friends, he entered the dining hall and made a beeline for Mel's table where Siobhan, Tia, Mel and Megan were having an animated conversation over lunch. He probably hadn't been missed at all, he decided aggrievedly.

~oO0Oo~

Tobias proceeded up the halls of the rehab hospital, several magazines and books under his arms, knowing that the patient was not exactly in a social frame of mind. A magazine on woodturning and cabinetry and one on firearms, plus a military biography on a WWII Marine and a historical whodunnit would hopefully make him a little more pleasant to be around. Gibbs was not exactly the most personable of characters, even on a good day. Bastard, megalomaniac, truculent, aggressive, obstreperous and surly had all been used to describe his demeanour on more than one occasion by a plethora of individuals. So had a number of other descriptors including insolent, hostile, sullen, belligerent, chronically angry and just plain pissed off at the world; portrayals that Fornell was willing to admit which were essentially correct if a little uncharitable. Gibbs was a miserable bastard on a good day, but he had lost his wife and daughter and having a daughter himself, he was willing to cut the guy some slack...sometimes.

He knew that Gibbs method of dealing with his overwhelming grief was to distract himself with work – but that wasn't an option at the moment. Not since his former mentor, Mike Franks had shot the shit out of his knee (the same one he'd injured as a Marine back in Desert Storm) knowing full well that it was his bum knee. Of course, what he'd no way of knowing was that the Israeli, Michael Rivkin had also targeted his knee literally weeks before Franks had and had damaged it enough that he was looking at a potential mandatory retirement from fieldwork. The Mossad asset had also deliberately targeted it as Gibbs weak spot, no doubt clued in by Ziva David.

It occurred to the veteran FBI agent that should Jethro ever meet anther Michael, that he should turn around and run in the opposite direction. Particularly if they were a former or current agent because he didn't think that Gibbs' knee could deal with another attack. More than likely, he would lose his leg.

It had been hit and miss this time around. The orthopaedic surgeons had laboured for hours, picking out the slithers of bone which had exploded when Franks shot him practically point-blank in the kneecap. Gibbs was lucky he still had his leg from what Fornell understood. As it was, it was likely he would always have a significant limp and virtually no hope of requalifying as a field agent.

So, knowing all that, Tobias was expecting him to be in a foul frame of mind, but he'd promised to drop in and share details about what had transpired in Dorset. Thus, he'd armed himself with appropriate reading material and had slipped a hip flask full of Gibbs poison of choice into his pocket hoping the bourbon would soothe the savage beast. Pausing outside room 027, the Fibbie took a deep breath and knocked firmly before pushing open the door.

He was not expecting to see Gibbs, who was reclining on the hospital bed with his bad knee resting on several pillows, watching that documentary show (on a portable DVD player) which Emily was now addicted to. Some documentary about those ferret-like creatures in The Kalahari Desert. Nor was he expecting Tia Cooper to be sitting in a chair beside Jethro's bed, giving a running commentary about the show. (The apple hadn't fallen too far from the tree with that one.)

Although Jethro had his usual grumpy expression on his face, he was being surprisingly cordial to his small visitor. Tobias happened to know, via a combination of mad investigative skills, inside info from his daughter and his ability (honed over several decades of observing people and reading tells) that Tony's daughter made Jethro extremely uncomfortable in a way that most children did not. She was a tough nut for the former Marine to crack for some reason, and that had gotten his back up from the get-go. Hence his surprise at finding her here.

Fornell belatedly noted the presence of Tia's nanny and smiled a greeting at the gorgeous young woman who was devoted to her young charge. Megan acknowledged him gravely before turning her attention back to keeping a lookout for Tia's safety, even though they hoped that they had eliminated all known threats. Although with Senior, there was no way to know what other resources the douche bag possessed, so it was better to be safe than sorry, Fornell conceded approvingly. They did not want any more attacks on Tia – she was already dealing with too many traumatic incidents as it was.

Tobias figured that Jethro's dramas probably weren't helping her any, either. Whenever anyone in her 'family' was in danger she regressed – nightmares, insecurity and wanting to check on the whereabouts and status of them all. It was pitiful for the caring father and FBI agent to see her in that state and he was sure that Tony and Jess were equally distraught too. Which was of course, another nail in the coffin of their turbulent relationship with Gibbs.

The former Metro PD cop had brought Tony's daughter to visit, not Jess or DiNozzo – which made sense. Lawless was extremely pissed at Jethro for throwing Tony under the bus with Mike Franks and she'd declared him persona non grata, while DiNozzo was merely disappointed in him. Megan, although not his staunchest ally by any means had expressed empathy that his injury would see him, like herself, unable to requalify for fieldwork. And Tia – she seemed to have developed a slightly patronising yet maternal air when it came to Leroy Jethro Gibbs which he didn't get, but it was nice that the tension between them had lessened somewhat. Too bad the same couldn't be said about the relationship between the former Marine, Jess and Tony. Still, he couldn't blame them.

Which was why he'd offered to visit Jethro and give him a sitrep about the Dorset operation which had been resolved yesterday. Gibbs knew they'd been successful, but no details had been forthcoming from the pair. He'd questioned Ducky during his visit, but the ME hadn't been apprised of the details at that point either. Hence Tobias' jaunt to the rehab facility today.

Anyway, he had not anticipated finding Tia there due to the deterioration of Tony's relationship with Gibbs, although he knew that he would put the needs of his daughter before his own feelings. If she needed the reassurance, he wouldn't stop her visiting the taciturn man. Fornell wondering how he could get Gibbs alone, so he could discuss the mission with him without offending or upsetting his daughter's best friend, he recognised the familiar music indicating that the episode had ended. Tia reached over and paused the machine before gathering up her things rapidly.

She smiled at Fornell and then gravely informed Jethro that she would leave him to have a nice chat with Emily's dad and come and visit again sometime soon. Her manner was almost avuncular when she was talking to Gibbs and Fornell almost expected her to pat him on the head. When she failed to do so, he couldn't help feeling a little bit disappointed.

Instead of a pat to the head, she bade him farewell with the admonishment, "Gibbs, don't forget to be nice to the nurses," before heading to the door.

As Megan and Tia exited the private room, Fornell nearly choked as she informed her nanny/bodyguard in what she probably considered to be a discreet whisper but was clearly discernible to both men, "Emmy and I think Gibbs and Agent Fornell should move in together and become friends with benefits."

As the door swung shut, they could hear her chattering grow ever softer as she disappeared down the corridor. Tobias decided he was going to have to have a long talk with his daughter, making a mental note to mention to Tony that he or Jess might wanna have a talk to Tia as well. He finally managed to get his game face on and looked over at Gibbs. The man wore an almost identical look of amazement on his face before also pulling himself together.

Fornell needed to fill the awkward silence and asked, "Friends with benefits, where do ya think they heard that? From school friends?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Doubt it. Abs or Diane!"

Nodding, Fornell agreed that they were probably the most likely suspects.

Both men studiously avoid the honking big elephant in the room.

~oO0Oo~

Megan's jaw dropped, it was in imminent in danger of colliding with the ground when Tia announced on the way out of Agent Gibbs room, "Emmy and I think Gibbs and Agent Fornell should move in together and be friends with benefits."

Robbed of the power of speech, even though she was fairly accustomed to Tia and her evil twin's matchmaking efforts, her mind boggled at the thought of the two veteran agents as friends with benefits. Emily Fornell and Tia Cooper were a pair of scamps. Megan had no doubt whatsoever that the men had heard Tia's less than discreet aside as they were leaving. Much as she quailed at the thought of that pair in a relationship, she really, really wished she was a fly on the wall or that character in Harry Potter that Tia was telling her about who could turn into a ladybeetle and listen in on their conversation.

When she'd finally been capable of speech, Megan interrupted the stream of chatter about how lonely they both were and had big houses with no one to live with them, she objected. "Emily stays with her dad, Tia."

Tia paused, "But only eight days every month at the very most, Meggy. And that is..." she paused to concentrate, "Ninety-six days a year. And there are three hundred and sixty-four days in every year unless it is a leap year. Sooo Emmy's dad spends almost three quarters of a year living on his own. And Agent Gibbs lives on his own every day."

She stopped and frowned. "Well not at the moment of course, cuz he's in the rehab place with lots of other people. And..." she conceded, striving for accuracy, before that he was staying with us when he got his knee hurt the first time. Although he was in the cabin and not in the house so does that count as living on his lonesome, Megan?"

Megan thought about it carefully. "I don't think it counts, because he was eating at your house, Tia. But just because Gibbs and Emmy's dad lives alone, doesn't mean that they want to live together."

"Yeah, but if they live together, they could be friends with benefits," Tia proclaimed seriously. "Emmy's dad has a great package."

Megan choked, wondering what the hell these two got up this stuff. "Tia, how do you know about friends with benefits?"

Tia looked at her guilelessly. "From Abby. She was talking about her new friend, Elliot that she met when she was at a concert. She said he has a big package. Course, Agent Fornell has a really huge package and I know that Gibbs would really love to share his package. It's awesome," she giggled.

Megan was horrified. She was gonna kill Fornell, the sicko pervert.

Steeling herself to remain calm, she asked her charge carefully, "Did he show you his package."

She looked at Megan like she was crazy and giggled again. "Of course, he did."

Sicken, her nanny asked," When did he show it to you, Tia?"

Sensing it was an important question, Tia thought for several moments and said, "Not when we came back from Tucson but the next day. He brought Emmy around for lunch so we could be friends."

"Agent Fornell showed you his penis when Emmy, your dad and Jess were there in Tony's apartment?" Megan asked, shocked at his brazenness.

"Eeewww, no! Why would he do that? Gross!" Cue much rolling of eyes and miming of fingers stuck down throats to vomit, leaving Megan confident that she was not covering up for her friend's father.

"Then what package are YOU talking about," Megan asked the girl, feeling utterly confused but also extremely relieved.

"Well EMMY of course. Agent Fornell says they're a package deal, so anyone he is dating gets both him and Emily, too. If he and Gibbs are friends with benefits, then he also gets to be Emmy's other daddy. He loves Emmy already, so he'd love that," Tia declared earnestly.

Megan was still trying to understand Tia's rationale. "Okay, so does Abby's friend have a kid too?"

Tia shook her head. "Abby's friend with benefits," she corrected. "No, I don't think Elliot has a kid, but he has a pet snake. Abby says it isn't really big, but she says that size isn't everything. She reckons it's how you use it that counts. What do you think she means, Megan?"

Megan decided that she was going to have a serious talk to Abby about running her mouth off about adult topics in front of Emily and Tia. She seriously doubted that Agent Fornell or Tony would appreciate her talking about sexual matters in front of their daughters.

Realising that Tia was waiting for an answer, she thought quickly on her feet. "I'm not sure, Sweetie but maybe she meant like a smaller pony can do some things better sometimes than a large horse."

Tia nodded wisely. "Oh yeah, Meg, that makes sense. Like ponies are much better at bending races and playing polo. "Giving her nanny a hug as they walked out the front door of the rehab facility, she said, "Thanks for explaining that to me. I'm going to tell Emmy what you said when she comes over to ride Clover tomorrow."

Megan was congratulating herself for getting out of that awkward situation adroitly when Tia dropped another proclamation that left Megan stunned and suggested that someone needed to talk to her about the birds and the bees.

After Tia climbed into Megan's turquoise Mazda and buckled up her seatbelt, she announced that maybe if Gibbs and Emmy's dad moved in together, they could have a baby, because Emmy really wanted a sibling.

~oO0Oo~

After identifying the most likely suspect to have inadvertently or intentionally educated Tia re friends with benefits, there was an awkward silence as both men avoided acknowledging the massive elephant in the room. While neither one would describe themselves as homophobic, they were of their generation – one which was more comfortable with the credo of DADT but definitely not bigots or homophobes. And there was a good reason for the 'don't ask don't tell' because there were definitely a significant group of people in the military and quasi-military organisations such as law enforcement, who were extremely homophobic.

Which was why 'asking someone or them telling' could be dangerous to one's health – even life-threatening. Now both males were eyeballing each other and trying not to be obvious about it but wondering if Tony's daughter might have overheard or witnessed something that made her think that the other man might have been hiding their true sexual orientation.

To say the silence was awkward was perhaps an understatement and it stretched on and on, in what Fornell felt was an interminable duration until Gibbs growled in his usual churlish fashion, "Thought ya were here to deliver a sitrep into what happened in Dorset, Fornell. Ducky didn't know any details."

The FBI agent felt so relieved for the awkwardness to have been broken that he had a momentary urge to kiss the grumpy bastard before realising considering the previous awkwardness that might have been misinterpreted.

Focusing on the job at hand, he stated. "We got the prick. It was a complete shit storm, Jethro. Some community-minded individual, bless their little cotton socks, called the sheriff's department and reported seeing a prowler and they turned up, lights and sirens blazing, just as he was trying to enter Stevenson's house."

Both men exchanged an enigmatic look that spoke volumes. Community-minded citizens, aka busybodies and neighbourhood nosy-parkers were both a bane and a blessing for law enforcement'.

Continuing on, he relayed, " And when he realised it was a trap, he committed death by cops, but he managed to shoot up a whole lot of property and wounded two deputies and one of my team who tried to give the deputies backup before he went down."

Gibbs' face was stony but Fornell detected a momentary look of surprise before it vanished, leaving anyone who didn't know him well to assume it had been a trick of the light. Tobias had heard people describing Tony as being all smoke and mirrors – using distraction and deflection to divert and misdirect but frankly, Gibbs had his own methods of misdirection too.

His techniques were simply less flashy than the senior field agent's and his objective was slightly different – to create a persona of being all-seeing and all-knowing – basically to be regarded as omnipotent. His habit of sneaking around listening to conversations, arriving amidst his team unexpectedly, commandeering the elevator to conduct private meetings instead of an office and thereby inconveniencing everyone in the building who wanted to access it were calculated devices. As was the idiotic practice of keeping his team in the dark and feeding them manure, their aim, to create a legendary mystique that Jethro had uncanny abilities as an investigator and team lead.

To be honest, Fornell thought Tony's brand of smoke and mirrors was far less dangerous – at least to those people around him. Tobias wasn't sure that it was the healthiest way for him to deal with shit, though. However, now that he thought about it, there had been a helluva lot less of it since Tia and Jess' arrival. He wondered how much of it was Tony responding to Gibbs questionable style of leadership which included his fucked-up chain-of-command that saw DiNozzo relegated to being on par with the junior agents.

Of course, knowing what he now did about Tony's less than stellar childhood, Fornell was pretty sure that it wasn't a tactic that he'd simply pulled out of his butt when he began working for Gibbs. Likely the tendency had already been there – a way to cope when people asked inconvenient questions of him growing up in an abusive family. But damn it, since working with Gibbs, the former cop sure had honed it into an extremely effective act that had people underestimating him.

It left him free to make complete asses out of those people who took him at face value. Fornell to his own chagrin had been one of Tony's victims, falling for it when he'd first met the brash youngster on a case that they'd worked on together. It had taken him a couple of years to see past it and realise he'd been played.

Hopefully, with Jethro's forced retirement his smoke and mirrors persona would be relegated to being used on perps when necessary and he'd feel more confident to show his true colours on the job. The FBI agent reckoned a lot of people would be in for a huge shock if he did. He'd bring the popcorn.

Seeing Gibbs looking at him strangely he guessed he'd asked a question and he'd missed it with his wool-gathering. "Sorry, did you say something?"

Detecting impatience Gibbs said. "Did you ID him yet?"

Tobias grimaced. "Well yeah, for what it's worth. Hansie Rensburg according to the ID he was carrying. Has a driver's license in Maryland but the address is fake. No record of anyone of that name either."

"So, it's a fake, or he isn't American. What kind of name is Hansie, anyway?" Gibbs demanded brusquely.

Shrugging dispassionately, Tobias replied, "According to our inquiries, it's a German/Dutch/South African derivation of the name, John."

"And Rensberg?"

"And that is also a common enough Dutch or South African last name."

Gibbs frowned. "Didn't Tia say that the man in charge of their abduction had a funny accent?"

Fornell nodded. "Yep. Fits in."

"Get any hits on NCIC?" Gibbs asked, referring to the national database used to identify perps.

"Nada. If the deputies hadn't come screaming up to the scene like a bunch of rookies, we could have taken him alive and been able to question him. As it is, we know nothing about who he really was."

"No way to link him to Senior?"

Fornell scowled. "Other than the highly coincidental fact that he turned up to silence the pond-scum-sucking Dr Jonathan Stevenson after Tony told Senior he was going to testify against him – unfortunately, no."

Seeing Gibbs looking askance at his vitriolic answer, he realised he needed to be more discreet since Gibbs hadn't been told about the doctor covering up for the abusive acts carried out by Senior on his child. Fornell thought quickly on his feet though. "I just hate that we can't directly link him back to Tony's sperm donor. Wanted to be able to flip the bastard and get him to testify against Senior."

"What about Stevenson? Did he recognise Rensberg?"

Fornell was frustrated. "He said he thought it was the same guy, but he claims that he only saw him three or four times back in the early to mid-eighties. Said the guy was pretty unremarkable."

He produced a photo obviously taken from a DMV license and Gibbs agreed - the guy was pretty average. Average height and build, brown hair, brown eyes and features that were pretty damned generic.

"What about his accent? Can he confirm that Rensberg had one and what it was?" Gibbs suggested.

Fornell refrained from rolling his eyes or telling Gibbs he should stop telling his grandmother how to suck eggs. After all, Jethro had never tried to hide the fact that he thought the FBI was incompetent so he shouldn't take it personly.

"Stevenson claims that he never actually heard the guy speak. Thought he might have been mute."

Gibbs snorted! "Or he was very paranoid!"

"Or the good doctor is lying!"

Gibbs side-eyed him and said. "Ya don't like the Doc?"

"I don't trust him, Jethro and no he rubs me up the wrong way. Looks like the archetypal TV doctor but lacks the caring bedside manner. He's smarmy, comes across like a huckster. Guess he is far better suited to politics rather than healing."

Gibbs frowned. "Yet he helped to get Prince Omar Ibn Alwaan off Tia's back. If he's all you say, why would he help us?"

Knowing Gibbs would worry at the puzzle, if he didn't give him a reasonable answer, he explained. "Self-interest. Apparently, he had a skeleton or two in his closet from being associated with Senior and Tony threatened him with exposure if he didn't cooperate. Seems he likes his new gig in Dorset too much to jeopardise that."

He could see Gibbs putting pieces together. "And then Tony told Senior that Stevenson was going to flip on him? Maybe he covered up a DUI accident?" He knew from what Tony had said over the years that his old man was a drunk – maybe he had a drug problem too.

Fornell shrugged. "Possibly. Or he took care of any indiscretions with Senior's lady friends. Given his affairs and numerous marriages, you'd think that there'd be a whole lot of little DiNozzo's running around."

Okay so that wasn't the right reason, but it was still was a credible explanation and it could even be true. He wouldn't put it past Stevenson to arrange to have any unwelcome pregnancies which occurred as a result of Senior's dalliances with his mistresses 'taken care of', by paying off women organising a to a clinic and a payoff, even if he hadn't personally gotten his hands dirty.

DiNozzo was an alcoholic, it was feasible that he wouldn't be practising safe sex with his partners, who from all accounts were usually much younger than him. Given the fact that Senior portrayed a persona of a rich successful businessman. It made sense that he might be targeted by gold digger thinking that if they had his baby they could claim child support. Although, if that had occurred then the joke was on them, since their rich baby-daddy as a broke con artist.