Chapter Seven

The mysterious sailor's briefcase turned out to contain nothing more than some very suspect porn, much to the disappointment of the team and Mrs Reilly. But the team did count it as a win when, a month later, the body of Vinnie Tremaine was found floating face down in the marina. Gibbs and Tony went together to inform Private Koch's parents and, to Tony's surprise and Gibbs' satisfaction, they learned Simon Koch was still in rehab and showed every sign of making it through this time.

In the week following Vinnie Tremaine's watery demise, it seemed nothing could dent Tony's good humour and Gibbs couldn't help but enjoy seeing it.

While he had been genuinely worried about how Tony would cope if the transplant failed, it struck Gibbs that his good work had not been wasted. Tony was more relaxed, more at ease with himself and his teammates and less desperately seeking attention than Gibbs had seen him for a long time. And he was at the top of his game as an investigator – intuitive, thorough, energetic, comnfortably taking the lead with Ziva and McGee.

Gibbs realised that even before the transplant Tony had been off. He'd been unsettled and trying too hard to get attention in all the wrong ways. Looking back, Gibbs dated it to Tony's return from his time as agent afloat. Tony had come back into a team which to his eyes had moved on without him, to a more confident McGee and a distracted Ziva. He had been scrambling to get his place back when the debacle with Lee unfolded. But it was the events surrounding Rivkin's death that had done the most damage. While in Gibbs' eyes Tony had distinguished himself in his handling of that episode and shown real courage during the mission to Somalia, he had clearly been shaken by the events. And it wasn't until Gibbs had given him the reassurance he needed that Tony returned to being the confident, capable, committed agent that Gibbs had always known he was.

But about three months later it was brought home to Gibbs that there was still some work to be done.

The large buff envelope was addressed to Tony, but like all mail since they had received the letter containing modified pneumonic plague, it was delivered to Gibbs' desk. Alone in the bullpen before the other team members arrived, Gibbs turned the envelope over in his hands. The logo in the top corner identified it as coming from the hospital, and when he held it up to the light he could see it contained another smaller envelope.

Gibbs tapped it against his hand a few time before leaving it on Tony's desk.

He hardly looked up as Tony, McGee and Ziva burst noisily out of the elevator and he gave only a short grunt in answer to their greetings. His head did not move but his eyes flicked up as saw Tony pick up the envelope and, like him, turn it over in his hands.

Tony sliced open the seal and pulled out the smaller envelope inside. He looked at it briefly, and then quickly slid it back inside the larger envelope and slipped the package into his desk drawer.

"A love letter, Tony?" Ziva asked sharply, as she took her seat at her desk.

"God, I hope not," McGee commented dryly. "Last time he got one we all ended up in HazMat suits."

Before Tony could bite back Gibbs interjected. "Hey! How about less interest in DiNozzo's mail and more in your reports?"

Gibbs watched Tony carefully throughout the day. Finally he was rewarded when he saw his Senior Agent slip the envelope into a file and rise from his desk, announcing he was heading to records to check on the progress of a request he had made earlier in the week.

Gibbs gave him a few minutes head start and then followed him into the stairwell.

Tony did not look up as Gibbs took a seat beside him on the step, instead continuing to read the page held in his hands.

Gibbs waited.

Finally Tony raised his head. He met Gibbs' eyes and gave a wry smile. From behind the page he pulled out a photo. It showed a family of four, all casually dressed in shorts and t-shirts. A dark haired woman held a chubby, fair little boy of about 2. A man wearing a broad grin held a girl of about 6, and it was the girl who drew Gibbs' attention. Here face was too small for her enormous brown eyes, and skinny legs poked out from beneath a pink and yellow sundress. A matching pink bandanna covered short curly brown hair. They were on a beach, with the sun setting behind them. All beamed at the camera.

"How did they get in touch with you?" Gibbs asked quietly.

Tony huffed. "Ducky," he said. "They'd given me the pre-op meds before he told me about the Notification Form. I told him to tick 'No' to everything, but I was too loopy to see what he wrote. When I told him the transplant had worked he confessed. He'd ticked 'Yes' to the question about whether I'd receive mail from them via the transplant program if the transplant worked. He ticked 'No' to everything else, like I asked, so I don't know their surname and they don't know anything about me."

Gibb hesitated, absorbing Tony's comments but keeping his face blank. He focused on the photo.

"What's her name?" Gibbs asked quietly.

"Alice," Tony replied, turning to look at Gibbs a slight smile tugging at his lips. "Her name is Alice."

Gibbs silently shook his head, his eyes fixed on the photo.

"That's Sam," Tony continued, pointing the father, "the mother is Lucy, and the younger brother is Josh. And that's Alice." His touched the child's face softly with his finger. "They want to meet me."

Gibbs began to smile, but there was something in Tony's expression that held him back.

Tony handed Gibbs the letter. Gibbs scanned it. It was handwritten, signed by "Sam, Lucy, Alice and Josh." They were effusive in their thanks and Gibbs saw references to "our last hope" and "saved all of us, not just Alice", and words like "miracle" and "hero". The letter ended by expressing a devout wish to meet him; "We'll fly anywhere in the country to thank you in person, or we'd be happy to send you an airline ticket so you can fly out to visit us".

Gibbs scanned the letter again, committing as much of it to memory as possible.

Then Tony handed him another sheet, which he opened carefully. It was a childish drawing of five figures, two small, two medium sized, and one so big it barely fitted on the page. The small and medium figures were labelled in childish handwriting with Alice, Josh, Mom and Dad. The biggest figure was named as "My Donor". It was a pale green colour, of no particular gender, with wild blue hair and massive hands.

"Send 'em a photo of yourself, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked deadpan, and Tony snorted with laughter. Then Gibbs looked back at the drawing. "You know," he said quietly, "they say that in kid's drawings, the size of the figures shows how important that subject is to the child." He paused, and glanced at Tony. "You're pretty big in her life right now."

Tony didn't respond, so Gibbs pressed. "You gonna write back?" he asked quietly, turning to look Tony in the eye.

Tony shrugged.

Gibbs deepened his stare.

Tony sighed. "Look, Boss, they seem like a nice family. Their little girl is getting better, everything's looking good for them. I don't want to mess that up."

Gibbs sighed in exasperation. "God almighty, DiNozzo! You saved this child's life. There's nothing you could do that would "mess that up"." He cuffed his agent firmly on the back of the head. Then he couldn't resist the temptation and ruffled the hair over the spot he had just cuffed. "Let them say thank you."

Tony tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "That's pretty rich coming for someone who never turns up to collect his medals."

"I don't want to be thanked for doing my job, Tony," GIbbs protested. "But what you did," he shook his head, "it wasn't your job. It was beyond that."

Tony stared at the photo, a slight frown furrowing his brow.

"It's up to you what you do, Tony," Gibbs conceded. "But if it was me," he tapped the father's face in the photo, "I couldn't rest until I had shaken the hand of the man who saved my child's life."

He left Tony sitting on the stairs.