Tony stared at himself in the mirror as he struggled to tie his bow tie with only one good hand. He hated black tie. The whole James Bond thing was just another act. Something to camouflage the memories of too many evenings as a child stuffed into a suit he was too young to carry off with anything but embarrassment.
"You need to come downstairs. The guests will be arriving soon." His father stood in the doorway.
"I'll be right there."
The frown was enough. DiNozzo gritted his teeth.
"Yessir."
"Special Agent Gibbs didn't waste much time mourning your departure, " His father paused to see if that would get a reaction. "He was seen boarding a flight for Washington an hour ago."
"He has a job to do." Tony decided simply to tuck the ends of the bow tie together, tying it off awkwardly with his good hand and his teeth. His father watched but didn't offer his assistance.
"Apparently he has gone scuttling back to save what's left of his career. Seems he's managed to ruffle some important feathers."
Tony closed his eyes briefly but didn't answer.
"Not the man you thought he was, is he?"
"At least Gibbs, never had to threaten my friends to ensure my loyalty," Tony's voice was low and quiet. "Do you know how many lives Abby's research could have saved? Or that Mrs Mallard won the George Cross for her bravery in World War II? Do you even care that Gibbs has probably done more to safeguard the security of this country than any man alive?"
"You never did understand how business works." His father's voice was cold. "At least, you came to your senses before I had to involve Agent Todd."
"This isn't business. This is destroying people's lives."
"Anthony, those people aren't important. What is important is that you are back where you belong."
"That's what all this is about, isn't it?" He turned towards his father. "You've never wanted me. But you saw Gibb's face on the newscast when I got shot and you couldn't bear that someone else did?"
He saw the punch coming and did nothing to avoid it, letting his head roll with the impact and hissing with enough pain to convince his father he was truly cowed.
"You will never mention that man's name again. You belong to me."
Tony swallowed hard as his father strode away. He was very much afraid he was no longer entirely sane. A final glance in the mirror showed an eye already beginning to swell and a bow tie that was decidedly lop-sided.
"Gibbs is right," He muttered. "Gotta learn to duck."
With a sigh he picked up his sunglasses and slipped them on his nose, before heading downstairs to the party.
Tony scanned the room, automatically checking exits and for possible dangers. Without a gun and an ear-wick he felt almost naked. Some of the guests he recognised from his childhood, other faces were new to him. Absently, he picked a canapé off a passing waiter's silver tray and bit into the salty cracker.
"Anthony! It is you, isn't it? I'd know you anywhere. You look so much like your father!"
He listened with half an ear to the thirty-something woman who had latched on to the prodigal son, her eyes glittering with too much gin and thoughts of the DiNozzo fortune. After a decent interval, he flashed her an insincere grin, invented an excuse, and ducked behind one of the waiters into the small service elevator. With a glare the man hit the red button and brought the car to a shuddering halt.
"That's a good look on you, Boss."
"Not a word, DiNozzo. Unless, you want Agent Todd to see the pictures of that time you went undercover as a barman."
The brown hair was a nice touch, as were the thick spectacles and the coloured contact lenses. Tony wasn't sure where Gibbs had got the prosthetic skin on such short notice, but his own mother probably wouldn't have recognised him.
"Kate knows all about the earring," Tony's grin was smug. "She noticed the hole."
"How about the nipple ring?"
Tony blinked.
"You knew about that?" He swallowed hard. "Um, what about ..?"
"That too, DiNozzo," Gibbs grinned at him. Then he was all business. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine."
Gibbs snorted lightly at the obvious lie. He reached out and plucked the sunglasses from his nose, tilting his cheek into the light to get a good look at the bruised, puffy, eye as Tony continued to hold his gaze without blinking.
"That's two I owe him." Gibbs vowed softly.
"So, what's the weather like in Washington?" DiNozzo changed the subject, taking his sunglasses back.
"Stormy," Gibbs grimaced. "Unofficially, Morrow's approved the sting. Officially, you're on medical leave and I'm on suspension. And don't give me that look, DiNozzo. You even think about doing this alone and I'll shoot you myself."
"Just so long as he goes down, Boss."
During his first year at NCIS Gibbs had struggled to break him of an almost suicidal recklessness. When a particularly serious incident had very nearly cost him his life, Gibbs had waited in silence while the EMTs had checked him over. Tony had been sure he was about to get fired. Instead, his Boss had taken him back to his place, sat him on the sofa and cracked open a bottle of Jack until they had finally got to the bottom of things.
He'd know from a young age that his father had the power to hurt people, staff in tears after being dismissed for a trivial mistake. Business meetings that ended in raised voices and men with ghost white faces as their futures crumbled around him. One of the reasons he had become a cop was to help people like that, who couldn't help themselves, as if he could somehow make up for the damage his father had done.
"Tony," Gibbs frowned, obviously remembering the self same conversation. "You're not responsible for what your father does."
"Tell that to the people whose lives he's destroyed. To them the DiNozzo name is scum."
"You lose your objectively over this and I'm going to pull you." Gibbs warned.
"I know. I'll be good, Boss."
"Alright, see if you can get anywhere near those files. The sooner we have the evidence, the sooner we can get you out of here." He hit the button, to get the elevator started again.
"Thanks, Boss. I owe you."
The elevator shuddered to a halt and the doors opened. Gibbs started to exit, only to pause and frown.
"I swear, DiNozzo. You can't tie a bow tie worth a damn."
Deft fingers tugged at the black silk, re-tying it in clean, economic movements into a crisp, tight, even, bow. A firm tap on his cheek, left him with the lingering warmth of Gibb's fingers on his face as his Boss flashed him a smile, all white teeth in the dim light and disappeared into the night.
DiNozzo put his good hand in his pocket and rocked back slightly on his heels, as he grinned.
He could do this.
Back in the hire car Gibbs didn't bother to strip off his disguise before he picked the laptop up from the passenger seat and turned it on, unscrewing the top of his thermos and taking a gulp of his coffee as he waited for the connection to fire up.
"Abs, you got a signal?" He asked without preamble.
"I just need a minute, Boss."
"You have thirty seconds."
"Nice hair, Boss," Kate smirked. "Is that the Autumn Glow or the new Mahogany Moments?"
"Keep it up,Kate and the next time we need someone to go undercover as a transvestite it won't be DiNozzo."
"Alright, I have him!" Abby cut in. "He's on the move, Boss."
"Let's hope he doesn't lose the tracker this time," Kate mused.
"He can't," Abby grinned. "It's surgically implanted."
"Gibbs, you didn't!" Kate was shocked.
"Of course not. I had Ducky do it."
"Ducky?" Kate's mind whirled with the possibilities. "Um, where exactly?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Agent Todd," Gibbs said blandly. "Its in his arm."
"Unfortunately, young Anthony doesn't always take the appropriate care of his injuries," Abby mimicked the Englishman. "The recklessness of youth I suppose. It was quite easy really to slip it in under his skin as I repaired a few of his stitches. Properly sterilised, of course."
"Gibbs, that can't be ethical." Kate protested.
"Abby, where is he?" Gibbs ignored her.
"Um, north by north west," Abby peered at the screen and double checked with the plan Tony had faxed her. "Office. He's going after the computer."
"I didn't know Tony was any good at hacking." Kate commented.
"He isn't. We're not going with finesse here. He's just going to take the laptop."
"I hate to mention this Gibbs, but don't you need some kind of warrant before you can start impounding personal belongings?" Kate worried. "It won't be admissible."
"You think I haven't thought of that, Agent Todd?"
"Tony had been trying to bring down his old man since he joined the force," Abby commented cheerfully. "Of course, it doesn't help that he's as rich as Midas and about as hinky as they come.Last year Bossman started helping him. They have a whole filing cabinet in my lab full of his dirty deals. Gibbs has impounded people's entire apartments on less."
"You've been planning this for a year?" Kate looked at Gibbs.
"Just waiting for the right opportunity."
"And Tony's resignation?" Her voice went up a notch.
"Was entirely his own idea." Gibbs growled.
"Uh oh." Abby murmured.
"What?" Kate and Gibbs asked in unison.
"Looks like Daddy Warbucks is on the move too."
"You put a tracker on his father?" Kate looked at Gibbs.
"No, I didn't." Gibbs said shortly.
"Looks like Tony was expecting trouble." Kate bit worriedly at her lip.
Gibbs was already pulling off his jacket and white shirt, snatching a plain black t-shirt from an open holdall, and pulling a small, metal, tin out of a storage compartment, smearing his face with black, before reaching over into the back seat and retrieving his gun, before closing the laptop with a decisive snap.
"Looks like Gibbs was too." Abby commented.
Gibbs moved slightly through the night, checking the perimeter before he effortlessly scaled the trellis on the outside of the building. He dropped silently on the balcony, quietly picked the lock and slipped inside. With a quick dash across the hall he moved into position.
"I'm disappointed in you Anthony," DiNozzo Snr's tone was expressionless. "I thought you cared more for your friends, than to put them in danger like this."
"Yeah, well. You were the one who pushed me into sports. Coach Wilkinson always said he best defence is a good offence. You won't be able to hurt my friends when you are cooling your heels in the slammer."
"You can't betray me. Your whole life all you have ever wanted was my approval."
"That's true," Tony agreed. "But I want Gibbs' approval more."
"You cannot seriously believe that man feels anything more for you than supervisor and employee."
"I know Gibbs has shown me more support and encouragement in the last two years than you've managed my whole lifetime."
"And the first time your performance slips below par, or you put his team in danger, he will fire you without a second thought."
"Never gonna happen."
"That man is not your father."
"Well, he's the closet thing I've ever had." Tony's taut was a clear challenge.
In the silence that stretched between them, Gibbs could almost feel DiNozzo Snr's anger building. He forced himself to hold position. Tony needed to see this thing through for himself.
"You are even more of a fool than I took you for," DiNozzo Snr seethed. "If you think that man sees you as a son."
The hesitant was so slight, anyone who didn't know Tony really well would have missed it. When his voice came it was soft and low.
"You don't know anything about Gibbs."
"And you think you do?"
This time, Tony's hesitation was obvious and when he spoke again there was wariness in his tone. "Gibbs doesn't have to tell me anything he doesn't want to."
"Not even about his own daughter? You really think you can take the place of his own flesh and blood?"
Outside Gibbs held his breath as he waited for Tony's response. "C'mon, DiNozzo," He murmured. "Don't let him psyche you out."
"Why not?" Tony's voice was soft challenge. "Gibbs, Ducky, Abby, Kate, McGee, all of them. They're the only family I have."
"Go get 'im, Tony." Gibbs approved.
"You'd chose them over me?"
"Well, maybe not McGee," Tony reflected. "He's kinda a geek. He actually thinks computers are exciting. I think the kid would rather play with his motherboard than go on an actual date. Still, you gotta give him credit. He'll have your files unencrypted in a hot second and you won't have any place left to hide."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
"D Dad?"
The plaintive note in Tony's voice made all the hairs on the back of Gibbs neck stand up. The unmistakable soft phut phut of bullets leaving a silencer turned his unease into a burning fury. Damn. He moved fast enough to see Tony's body jerk backwards under the impact of the two bullets hitting his chest, his head slamming against the wall with a painful crack, only to slide to the floor in an unconscious heap. Above him, his father advanced, pistol in hand, ready to deliver the killing shot.
"Freeze," Gibbs ordered, levelling his gun. "Or, I'll drop you where you stand."
AN - Alright, I am not deliberately trying to mess with people's heads here. Its just the way the chapter wrote itself out and I really don't want to rush the important stuff. I promise well get to Gibbs/DiNozzo Snr next time!