Gibbs walked into the office early one morining, it had been like him to come early since the loss of one of the few younger men he cared about. Sighing to himself he sat at his desk adjacent to the ever empty desk of Anthony Dinozzo, since his death had occured so fast the agents had decided to leave the desk empty in his honor, for a year that desk had haunted Gibbs breaking his spirit with each moment but today of all days he didn't need to see it empty...didn't want to. It was the one year anniversary of his death. He moved his hand to his phone and called Kate he knew she was still on leave and probably would be for at least a few more months but he had to talk to her...needed to talk to her.
"Todd residence."
"Hey Kate it's Gibbs..."
"Hey Gibbs. Something wrong at the office?"
"No I was just...I don't know...missing him I guess..."
"Gibbs its alright...you aren't the only one missing him today. If you want you can come over after work and we can talk."
"That would be great...so how's the lil one?"
"He is just fine...looks like his dad every day," a laugh can be heard, "acting like him too. Just the other day he started kissing the tv when a girl came on."
"Sounds like his dad." another laugh.
A few more things were said before he hung up and began to work on the recent case files. Though Tony had killed his own murderer the agency had yet to capture the master mind behind the murders. The man Tony had killed was a hired assassin and soon after Tony's death the case went cold...dead cold nothing more had come of it and it had finally been ruled as an unsolvable case. Though noone was happy with it they decided that for now it was the best thing to do so they all could just let go of the man they had all loved. The case before him was that of Tony's the last one he had worked on and convicted, since being unnerved by his death Gibbs had delved himself into more work making sure he had nothing but work. Hiding his own pain and his own emotions, the rules he had made up were the only things keeping him the way he was keeping him alive infact.
McGee headed into the office from the direction of the elevators he yawned before sitting in his desk next to Gibbs', swiveling around in his chair he stared at him asking quietly with his eyes if he was okay. His were met by the icy blue coldness of Gibbs' emotionless eyes and he sighed turning to his computer and begining to work right away figuring that his questions would be coming back to bite him in the ass.
"McGee, who's on shift for Kate today?"
"....Cassidy sir."
"Cassidy, damn I was hoping for experiance..."
"Sir I can call Akira if you would like?"
"No, I can take Cassidy for today."
"Okay sir."
Gibbs head fell into the paper work again as he kept his emotions hidden...a year ago Cassidy had helped to find and track down Tony's family to say that their only son had died. Gibbs did not know that his family hated the young man for petty reasons. Saying that he had disgraced his family when he went into cival service, Gibbs had gone himself to see them and upon hearing that he slapped the father. A TRO was later put out on him but he cared not he had accomplished something by his love of the man now gone. The family actually attended the funeral in hopes of getting Gibbs arrested for violating the restraining order but Gibbs had set it up that the family would be subjected to staying in one place and seeing their son buried. He prided himself that Tony had his family around him once again no matter the circumstances for he remembered the one time Tony had stayed at his apartment, and the conversation they had over coffee.
"Gibbs, thanks for taking me in really you don't know what this means to me..."
"Dinozzo its alright, I just wonder why you couldn't go to your family?"
"I have no family any more sir...they hate me..." he trailed off as his head fell.
"Why do they hate their own son?"
"Because I am not the child they raised...I turned my back on them and took life by the horns going my own way..."
"And there is something wrong with that?"
"Yes...for it killed my father..."
That very conversation had led him to wonder about the young man's life and exactly what he meant by it had killed his father...what he found he feared of for the longest time till he came to realize that Tony wasn't as bad as he originally thought him to be. When he had found out the way his family had treated Tony it caused great pain in the seemingly emotionless man but he cared not for Tony had grown over it and hidden his passed he knew that it would surface one day but didnt know when.