Bit of a side to the chapter 'Good Idea After All'


Tony sighed as he sank down on his bed, grateful to be home again.

Even if tomorrow he had to go back to work, back to his regular job in the precinct, and endure the teasing and the hazing. He felt like hunting down and shooting whoever it was that decided it would be a good idea to violate his privacy and look up his father.

All of a sudden, he went from being the well-liked, funny new guy who was looking to go far with his career, to being the rich kid playing cop. All this happened a week after he told his partner about putting himself through college with scholarships and part-time jobs.

Oh well, it would die down eventually... it always did. They would have their fun, get it out of their systems, move on to the next rookie to haze... he'd been telling himself that for the last almost two years.

When his phone started ringing, he cursed and debated if it would be worth it to just let it ring. With a groan, he figured he might as well just get it. Depending on who it was that was calling, they'd either try again later, come bursting into his apartment worried because he wasn't answering his phone, or they would simply keep calling until he got annoyed enough to answer.

"DiNozzo." He muttered, fighting back a yawn.

"Tony! Hey partner, I figured you'd be home by now. How was vacation? You have fun with all your frat buddies?" His partner, Danny Price asked, sounding annoyingly chipper.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, it was a good break." Tony said, doing his best to sound upbeat and rested, like he'd just come from a vacation, instead of what he was really doing.

"That's good, listen. I hope you're ready to get back to work, because we caught a case earlier today." Danny warned him. "I'll fill you in on the particulars when you come in tomorrow, so get some sleep tonight, yeah? And it's good to hear from you again!" His partner said good-bye and hung up the phone, leaving Tony to stare at it for a moment before dropping it on the table.

Well, there went his plans of relaxing to a game or something and a beer, not if he had to hit the ground running.

If he didn't get an actual vacation soon, he was liable to really shoot somebody, preferably his handlers.

He didn't expect to meet Leroy Jethro Gibbs two weeks later, and find out his partner was dirty almost at the same time.


"Hey, have you ever thought about a family?" He heard in his ear.

He barely controlled his facial expression at the random question, continuing his conversation with the man in front of him. He was currently in Germany, getting in with an arms dealer before he brought the mans entire operation crashing down around him.

His handler was quiet after a moment of his long spiel about families and how he would someday like to have one... at least two kids, a dog, the whole white picket fence dream. Personally, Tony thought he was a little too wishful there, but he couldn't exactly call him on it right now.

"Hey, you want to hear something interesting?" He heard after a moment, making Tony want to groan. Luckily, there was a nice spot in his current conversation where he could stop his handler from actually telling him.

"No." He said, and could practically hear his handler pout as he (correctly) interpreted that to be directed at him as well. "Product now, no promises." He glared at the man in front of him, who had been trying to tell him for the last ten minutes that they could have the product in his hands within the week, as soon as they verified the money was real. Did they think he was stupid? Not only would they take his money and their product and leave, they would probably turn around and sell it to somebody else for even more money then he was offering!

At any rate, he just wanted to get this deal done, arrest them, and go home. Preferably without a million bruises (or any holes that shouldn't be there) that would make Ducky ask questions or Gibbs demand answers he couldn't give. Not because he didn't want to... he honestly couldn't give him the answers he would want.

But he'd been setting up this meeting for weeks, and he did not want his handler distracting him, or for the perps to rabbit before he could call the cavalry.

As soon as the weapons were in his hand and he was walking away, he sighed. "Send them in."

"Already sent the signal, perimeter is surrounded, coming in now." His handler informed him, suddenly all business.

He was relieved, the last time he worked with a foreign police force, they jumped the gun and came in shooting before the deal was made. It was another two months before they could nail the organization he infiltrated. He'd also had to scramble to cover himself, because one of the rookies on the police force almost gave him away as an undercover agent.

Why they had included a rookie in the first place...? He had no clue.

He shook it off and focused on writing his report, making sure he was covered so that none of the organization could link their arrests to him, and hurried to catch his flight. If there weren't any delays, he might be able to catch a few hours sleep in his own bed before he had to be in at NCIS.

His part in this op was done, his job was to get the arms dealer and go home. The local authorities and Interpol could handle it from here. Besides, he technically wasn't even here, so why should he stick around?


Tony almost jumped out of his seat when a file was tossed on his desk.

"Woah, Boss! I was..." He trailed off at the look on Gibbs' face and glanced down at the file, which was opened to an interesting picture. Dread pooled in his gut and his blood ran cold. When he slowly looked up, he winced at the expression on Gibbs' face, which had darkened since he looked down.

"And where did you say you spent your weekend?" Gibbs hissed, and Tony winced again before he looked around. Gibbs' actions had caused some whispers and glances.

"Not here." He muttered, and got up, trying to look casual, taking the folder with the incriminating pictures in it with him. Once they were in a conference room, he turned around slowly. Gibbs was still fuming. "Ah, ok... so I wasn't with some frat brothers this weekend." He admitted, mind racing. Gibbs was one of the few to see past his masks, one of the few to call him out, one of the few to have proven themselves to care. He could see that whatever Gibbs thought of that picture, it didn't paint him in a good light. Especially with how Gibbs had to fight to get him on his team, straight out of being hired. Gibbs had staked his reputation on him, that he would be a good agent, that he was clean despite his partner being dirty.

"It's not what you think." He finally settled on. Mentally he winced. That was probably the worst thing he could have settled on right now.

"Oh? And what is it that I think?" Gibbs leaned over the back of a chair, glaring. Gibbs honestly didn't know what to think. All he knew for sure right now, was that Tony had lied to him about where he was going to be that weekend. And then he gets sent pictures like this from an old Marine buddy stationed in Germany doing some joint training exercise...? Pictures that clearly show Tony doing a deal with a known arms dealer that supplied weapons to terrorists overseas. He didn't want to believe it, but he didn't know what else it could be.

"That I'm dirty. I'm not." He dropped the picture onto the table like it was hot metal. "Those men are currently sitting in a German prison awaiting trial or extradition, while I'm not."

Gibbs stilled, still glaring, but Tony could see the thoughts racing through his head. "It was an op?" He questioned, almost pleading, demanding to know that the agent he stuck his neck out to hire, his protégé, wasn't a dirty cop.

"Yes, one I've been working on for a while." Tony admitted, almost relieved he could finally come clean to his boss. The higher-ups couldn't yell at him for it, either, because Gibbs found out on his own.

"How? You've been with me working cases." Gibbs asked, confused.

Tony grumbled. "All those visits to frat brothers, and all those phone calls you think are from girls? Those are actually me working." He shrugged. "I wanted to tell you months ago, they wouldn't let me." He told Gibbs, not wanting the man to think Tony didn't trust him or anything.

"Who?" Gibbs demanded. Who else was his agent working for?

"CIA, Interpol... Whoever needs me, really. I have two handlers, one takes care of dealing with higher-ups, the other as my back-up or main contact while working. Most of the higher-ups don't even know who I am, which is how I set it up, and all my files are highly classified." Tony revealed.

"You that good?" Gibbs asked, a hint of a proud smile showing through. For Tony's identity to be so secretive that not even all of his superiors knew who he was... He mentally snorted. Tony was the ultimate spook, if that was the case.

"Yup." Was all Tony said, his own grin showing. His grin disappeared then. "I have contacts in the criminal underworld all over America, it's only since coming to work for you that I started traveling overseas for my jobs."

"If the higher-ups don't even know who you are, who do they put down as the agent?" Gibbs asked. Case files usually had the undercover agent listed for when everything went to court, of course the name was usually classified, depending on who the mark was.

"One of my handlers called me a chameleon once, the name kind of stuck." Tony confessed, rolling his eyes.

"Hmm... so if I went through files and found the code-name 'Chameleon', I will see what you've been up to?" Gibbs wondered out loud, surprising Tony.

"The cases I've been working lately were all high-profile, and highly classified, so you probably can't even access them." Tony shrugged. "Gibbs... where did this come from?" He asked urgently, pointing at the incriminating picture.

"Old marine buddy of mine."

"Tell him to destroy any copies he still has, or delete it. This cannot get out. If other marks were to see this... if NCIS agents were to see this without being aware..." Tony breathed out shakily. To say that would not be good was a bit of an understatement.

"I'll talk to him." Gibbs promised, and took the pictures to the shredder in the corner. "Does the Director know about any of this?" He asked, curious.

"No. Only you do... I'm going to talk to Jason again about being able to tell Ducky, he should know in case I need medical attention again."

Gibbs' expression darkened at the reminder of the times Tony had come into the office covered in cuts or bruises. There were a few times Gibbs was sure he was even nursing bruised or cracked ribs, because he was moving too gingerly not to be. He narrowed his eyes in thought. "The director, at least, should know, too. He needs to know what is going on so he can protect you from backlash should something like this happen again, and I don't intercept them." He held up the last picture before he shredded it, too. Everything in the shredder would be taken out tonight, and burned.

Tony sighed. "Yeah... I know. I'll talk to Jason about him, too." Tony muttered.

"And I want to meet these handlers of yours." Gibbs instructed. He had to make sure they were treating his agent right.

"Aw, Gibbs!" Tony whined immediately, embarrassed but also pleased. He was glad that his boss was taking this so well, Gibbs did not like his people keeping secrets from him. Now, not sharing details about your private life was one thing, he didn't need to know every little thing about you. But keeping something secret? Especially something like this? Oh, boy. But no, he was taking this all rather well.

Gibbs only raised an eyebrow at him. After a few moments, he glanced at his watch. "Go home for the day, make the calls you need to. We'll talk to the director and Ducky in the morning." He instructed, and walked out to call his buddy, and get him to destroy any other pictures he might have.

Tony sighed and sagged against the table behind him, relieved. He waited a few more minutes before leaving, pulling out his phone as he went.

"Hey, so I was thinking. Why don't you come down to NCIS tomorrow? You can meet my boss." He said without even waiting for a 'hello'.

"Umm. Ok... What did you tell him?" Jason asked slowly.

"Not much. A Marine buddy of his sent him some pictures. So, up for coming by tomorrow?" He asked while he collected his things, waved to Gibbs, and walked to the elevator. He could feel everybodies eyes on him, could hear the whispers as everybody wondered about the confrontation they'd witnessed, and what happened in the conference room.

Jason sighed. "I suppose you will tell the other two whether I'm there or not? Or whether you have permission or not?" He asked, exasperated.

Tony grinned. "I have been wanting to for a while." He reminded his handler. He hadn't liked keeping the Director, Ducky, or Gibbs in the dark. For Ducky, it was because the M.E was his listed physician and the one who took care of most of the team's first aid needs. For the director, it was for the reasons Gibbs listed, that just became a real situation. And he just didn't like not telling his main boss something this important.

"I'll be there first thing." Jason promised before hanging up.

Tony hummed all the way home, pleased that he wouldn't have to sneak around behind Gibbs back anymore. Especially since he was currently setting up for one of the biggest ops he'd had since coming to work at NCIS.