Just like you

"Tim?"

"What do you want Tony?"

"To talk."

"There is nothing to talk about." Tim responded stubbornly.

"Don't make me give you the Dad look, kid."

"Fine." Tim groaned. "What do you want to talk about?!"

"Us."

"That sounds like a terrible line from one of those gross movies you love."

"I'm sorry for what I said."

"And I already told you I make my own decisions Tony!"

"I'm sorry I implied that you didn't. I'm your big brother though Tim, there is nothing I wouldn't do to protect you."

"I know Tony, and I'm sorry, my outburst probably didn't help earlier."

"It didn't sink the ship either."

"What did Dad say?"

"Enough."

"I'm never doing it again."

"I sure hope so, cause the next time it will be me kicking your ass."

"You have…"

"Every right I need little brother. Anyways it's late and Dad won't be happy if he comes up and sees you awake past your bedtime." Drawing his brother into a quick hug Tony shouted over his shoulder as he left the room: "Timmy-the kid."

"You sure know how to fix things Anthony." Uncle Steve commented, leaning against the wall outside Tim's bedroom.

"I've been here before."

"Don't tell me you are still beating yourself up."

"Do you want me to lie?" Tony asked pointedly.

"No, but I do want you to move on. Nobody is angry with you Tony-Buddy."

"I know, it's just hard to mess up all the time."

"All the time?" Uncle Steve asked softly. "Was that one of your mess ups just there? You and Tim working it out?"

"No, but…"

"No buts. It wasn't, was it?"

"No." Tony sighed. "Can I go now?"

"And spend the rest of the night miserable in your room?! You could. Or you could show me the tree house you and your Dad are working on repairing."

"I doubt it ever will be finished but…okay." Tony gave in, grabbing a pair of shoes and leading he way to the old treehouse in the backyard that he and his Dad had built when he turned five. Tony hadn't been able to do much then, but he had had a great time with his Dad. Jethro had taught him a lot and even let him use a few tools under his watchful eye and guiding hands. It was one of Tony's favourite pictures, the one of him trying to saw something, kneeling on the floor of the half-finished treehouse, his Dad's hand around his, guiding him. The look of pride on both their faces always made Tony smile. He wished it'd be as easy to make his Dad proud nowadays.

"It's looking great, buddy. It must have taken a lot of time."

"Yeah, kind of, but it was our alone time with Dad so it was worth it."

"He's right here buddy, you don't have to miss him anymore, besides, I'm going to stick around, so if he doesn't have time, maybe your old and grey Uncle could work as a stand in every now and then."

"Sure, Uncle Steve" Tony smiled.

"You got the old and grey part right." Gibbs joked as he poked his head up and into the tree house."Are you admiring our work Steven?"

"I believe your son did 90 percent of this."

"Yeah well, he's starting to beat his old man in carpentry." Gibbs answered, settling down next to Tony and drawing his son's head close, bent down and kissed the top of it. "How about we work some more on this tomorrow?"

"Sounds great." Tony answered, nestling against his Dad's side.

"Hey Leroy, have you ever told Tony about the time when you were angry at Mike for putting you on desk duty, so you started playing pranks in the office?!"

"Steven, I don't know what Mike told you, but I was young and green."

"And highly entertaining." Steve chipped in with a wink towards Tony.

"You messed with grandpa Mike?!"

"More than once buddy." Seeing Tony's hopeful eyes Gibbs gave in and started on the story:

"I had done some reckless stunts the past few days and I knew it, but still wasn't too happy when Mike decided to put me on desk duty since he couldn't 'babysit' me in the field. To get back at him I started playing pranks in the office, making sure to not only target Mike and play a few of them on myself as well…

-Flashback-

Mike's face had been priceless when the water balloons started falling out from the car when he opened the door. Mike had been wet and grumpy the whole day after that, but to Leroy it had been worth it. Mike hadn't even known that he had seen it, since Leroy was supposed to stay glued to his desk but had snuck down once the team had gotten the call to head out to the crime scene. Just days later Leroy put a paper on Mike's computer, telling him about the imaginary upgrade the office had done to their printers, knowing full well that the only techy guy on their team wouldn't show up until hours too late. Just as Leroy had thought, the plan worked perfectly. Just after lunch Mike needed something copied and read the instructions left on his computer screen, telling him to loudly tell the printer what he wanted it to do. Leroy had a hard time not laughing when Mike time after time, in the middle of the bullpen, getting angrier for every time, told the printer he wanted "Four copies.". Looking around Leroy could see that the whole office had stopped and stared at Mike, a few of his co-workers gaped and others had as hard a time as Leroy not laughing. Mike suddenly snapped out of his trance at everybody staring and Leroy could almost see the lightbulb going off inside his head.

"What are you staring at?!" Mike growled and everybody, including Leroy, quickly ducked for cover. After giving everybody a death glare, Mike sat back down at his desk and the day followed almost normally, Mike though, seemed preoccupied and didn't question the team's theories like usually. It was almost 9 pm and the team was ready to wrap up, when Mike finally seems to snap out of his earlier trance: "Probie, with me."

"What?! Mike!"

"Now." The voice was deadly and Leroy found himself scurrying to his feet to head after the highly irritated team-leader. Leroy gulped audibly once he realized where Mike was going, there was only one reason and one reason only they'd be heading for the conference rooms; he was toast.

-Flashback ending-

"What are you guys doing?" Tim wondered climbing up the ladder to the tree house. He had wandered downstairs to check when the house had seemed way to quiet. After a little searching Tim had found the backdoor open and was lead to the tree house by their voices.

"Uncle Steve is telling a story about Dad's days with Mike at NCIS" Tony explained, smiling at the excited glint that came to his brother's eyes at that.

"May I hear it too?"

"Of course, kiddo." Uncle Steve answered and patted the spot next to him. "Your Dad was no angel, to put it lightly."

"Come on Uncle Steve, I want to hear the rest of the story" Tony sighed impatiently.

"Steven, this better be the only story you plan on telling them or I'll have my forensics analyst destroy your car and you'll have no way of proving who did it." Leroy warned.

"I'll tell Mike."

"Just like when we were younger."

"What can I say, it proved to be an effective way to control you" Uncle Steve smirked.

"Did you really snitch on Dad?" Tim asked wide-eyed.

"Yeah Tim, a few times, mostly to keep your Dad out of harm's way. There were a few times though when I did it for the fun of it and there were other times when I took the blame for something he had done, so I guess we are pretty even by now." Tony and Tim shared a gaze at that, both having done the same more than one time. Tony though only snitched on Tim when he truly was irritated with his younger brother while Tim had done it quite a lot when they were younger and his- a bit rebellious- brother didn't follow every rule perfectly. In the end they both had taken the blame for each other's actions more than once, and even if both of the brothers were pretty sure their Dad knew, he'd always let them get away with it.

"What are you two planning?" Steve asked jokingly, careful to keep the word; troublemaker, out of his sentence, knowing Tony still was a bit sensitive to it.

"Nothing, just remembering."

"That's what we used to tell Mike." Steve laughed.

"Wrong, you used to answer: "girls" and get a headslap." Gibbs corrected.

"That was your answer."

"Your own you mean." Gibbs answered with a raised eyebrow. "Mine was the remembering part to assure him we'd learned our lesson."

"I think we'll have to ask Grandpa Mike ourselves" Tony commented smiling towards his brother.

"Don't listen too much to him." Gibbs cautioned.

"Just enough." Tony promised. Realising just how serious his son was, Gibbs brought him close again and kissed his head.

"Good boy."

-Just like you-

"Tony, come in." Mr. Jamison greeted.

"I'm sorry to disturb you before class." Tony apologized and sat down at his regular desk.

"No problem, the door is always open, Tony."

"I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"Everything lately. It was stupid."

"I don't doubt you felt like it was the only way." Mr. Jamison said softly, knowing full well that Tony wouldn't normally do the things he had done lately and that he himself had written it off as teenage rebellion.

"Still, I shouldn't have led you to believe that Dad signed my note."

"No you shouldn't have" Mr. Jamison paused there for a moment. "But I'm pretty sure it won't happen again, am I right?!"

"Yes sir. Never again."

"Then we are fine Tony, so no need to be so skittish around me."

"You noticed?" Tony asked sheepishly.

"Yeah son, if you'd kept up with it today I'd have a word with you tomorrow at the latest. But I'm proud of you Anthony, even if I'd had a talk with you I wouldn't have forced you to apologize. What you did now took guts and that shows me just how good of a man you'll become one day, you just need to grow a little bit more."

"Thankyou."

"You'll be fine Tony, just give that growing a little more time and enjoy being a kid as long as it lasts."

"I have something for you" Tony suddenly remembered and searched through his bag for the green folder he had put in there this morning under his Dad's watchful eyes. Having his Dad around constantly was going to take some time to get used to, that was for sure, but Tony promised himself to try to enjoy it as much as he could. Because no matter how proud he was of his Dad and loved the fact that he was a special agent for NCIS, he loved it even more when his Dad spent time with them. Their relationship may have been a bit strained lately, but Tony knew that the hard work it would take to fix it would be worth it.

"What is it?"

"Every note I got sent home, Dad got copies and signed them to be replaced by the ones I turned in."

"So he's up to speed on everything?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Remember Tony, when it comes to you and your brother he truly does his best, so don't fight him on things like these. It's a hard lesson to learn, but it's important."

"I won't and I know."

"Why don't you go tell Luke that everything's just fine? And Tony, no more lies. I can't help you if you aren't honest with me."

"No more lies, I promise."

-Just like you-

Tony was in the hallway outside his third period classroom when his phone suddenly rang. Blushing slightly when everybody turned towards him to see what was happening, Tony gave them a charming smile and with one look at the receiver, excused himself. The class had been waiting for the teacher for 15 minutes anyhow, which made Tony pretty sure that the lesson was going to turn into a study hall. He wasn't going to miss anything, so he decided that he might as well answer. If a problem arose he could always tell them he had to take the call. Out of earshot from his classmates Tony took a deep breath and answered:

"Hi Gramps."

"Hi Tony." The silence stretched out after that until Tony decided he had had enough of it.

"You do know I'm in school?"

"Yeah, are you doing well?"

"Now yeah, but I guess Dad told you."

"Uh-hm."

"I was way out of my league, but right then it seemed like the only solution."

"And now?"

"I should have told somebody. I know that Gramps."

"Did you know it then?"

"Yes sir."

"See that is where the problem is Anthony Leroy, if you knew then, but still didn't tell me, how can I trust that you the next time will?"

"I've learned my lesson."

"I hope so, son. I truly hope so. I can't fly down to you right now, it sounds selfish, but the business is after all what pays for those flights so to keep it open is crucial, especially with Thanksgiving soon approaching."

"I know Gramps, you don't have to fly down. Grandpa Mike, Dad and even Uncle Steve are all keeping hawk eyes on me. Besides, right now I follow each of their orders to the letter and I doubt that will change."

"The only thing I can't do by the phone Tony, is check that you truly are okay."

"I'm fine, Gramps." Tony answered around the lump in his throat. His Grandpa's biggest concern hadn't been to make sure Tony would listen to him in the future, it had been to make sure that Tony was okay. That thought along with the guilt of not telling the man a thing was slightly constricting his airways. "I'm sorry Grandpa. I truly am."

"I know my boy, dry those tears. I'm coming to DC for Thanksgiving and I'm sure that anything we need to say can be said then."

"Okay Gramps. I need to go now, but I love you. Stay safe, okay?"

"I promise Tony and I love you too." Turning around when a movement behind him caught his eye, Tony came face to face with Luke.

"Grandpa Jack?"

"Yeah."

"What did he say to shake you up so?"

"He was concerned Luke, he didn't call to rant, he called to make sure I was okay until he could see it with his own eyes."

"Sounds like the Grandpa Jack I've heard stories of."

"We have Thanksgiving at our house this year Luke, why don't you check in while Gramps still is in town? I know you've always wanted to meet him and it's kind of weird you actually never have."

"Bad timing, I guess." Luke shrugged his shoulders. "I'll try though, if all the craziness around my house ever dies down."

"With you in the house?! No way."

"Hey! Jamie is just as bad as me."

"Your poor parents…" Tony said shaking his head. "Who are you guys having over this year?"

"Nobody, I think. Dad is still angry with me about the beer, and no it's not your fault Tony. I confessed to bringing alcohol into arms reach of my little brother and that sealed my fate. You'd think with him being 14 and all they wouldn't have flipped so much…who am I kidding?! the thought even scares me. Jamie within arms reach of alcohol, even if it only was beer. No, he is way too young for it. I think Dad realized I hadn't thought about it because he suddenly just said that hopefully the lesson would stick and muttered something about family-Thanksgiving."

"I know the feeling Luke, when I saw Timmy with alcohol on the party my heart almost stopped."

"I can guess…If I ever find out Jamie's been drinking alcohol he'll have to deal with me on top of Mom and Dad."

"Luke, do you even really like beer?"

"Not enough to even remotely risk my brother, no. I'm not saying I'll never touch a beer again, but I don't want Jamie to follow in my shoes on that particular matter. Sure, we've done stupid stuff but drinking?! That makes everything else seem so small and unimportant. Pranks won't harm him and he'll never get my bad grades. Not even the attitude I give some teachers is anything in comparison to Jamie getting into the drinking habit. Any beer I want will have to be saved for college."

"I'm not saying you can protect him from everything Luke, but that sounds like a pretty good idea. Have you told your parents? If I know Matthew and Kirsten correctly that would have lessened the heat a lot."

"No…Dad's too pissed. It will only make him think I'm saying what he wants to hear."

"I think you are underestimating him Luke."

"Not this time Tony. Whenever I'm near he radiates of controlled anger."

"Are you sure?" Tony had a hard time picturing Matthew like the kind of father that could hold onto his anger instead of talking it out with his child and then forgiving him or her. "Maybe you just have to show him how seriously you are taking this."

"I've tried Tony, I even spent the whole day yesterday doing homework and then helping Jamie with the little he needed help with. Too bad, or maybe luckily, neither Mom nor Dad noticed."

"You always tell me to talk with Dad, for once I'm giving you your own advice back."

"He is working late."

"You've always been close Luke, give it a chance."

"Okay." Luke sighed defeated. "If I see him and he seems to be in a good mood I'll talk to him. If not…no promises."

"Luke…"

"Tony, really, I think it's best to just let Dad get over it."

"I could ask Dad to talk to him and try to calm him down."

"No offence Tony, but the last time your Dad talked to mine lead me to this situation."

"Just think about it Luke and talk to me. I'm your best friend, I deserve to know what's going on."

"I'll think about it." Luke promised reluctantly. "Let's get back in case somebody has decided to run to the office and tell somebody our teacher is missing. In that case we're probably missing a study hall right now."

"Doesn't matter as much as you and your Dad working it out Luke."

"No, but it takes time Tony, he's not only pissed, he's also disappointed."

"It will pass."

"I've done stupid stuff before Tony, but this just seemed to take the price for him. I get why, but I thought I'd seen him angry, clearly not."

"What's Jamie saying? He has to notice something is up."

"Dad's normal around him from what I can see. Jamie was asking about it though yesterday, but I refused to answer. Of course he painted it in the -why are you so weird towards Dad-way- "

"Maybe Jamie could help…"

"No, I don't want him involved, I'll just ride out the storm. It has to pass sooner or later."

"Just promise to tell me if it doesn't."

"I will Tony"

A/N:

I want to start with thanking you for all your reviews even though I pretty seldom answer them, mostly because many for you are guests and because I can't reply to them with the app so even though I see and read all reviews and they give me great ideas, I always forget to check the review page once I do log in on a computer and have the opportunity to reply to you guys ( mostly because I have a tendency of finishing my work in the middle of the night.)

I just now realized I haven't updated this story in FIVE MONTHS, that's crazy! I am so sorry, time has flown by and this rollercoaster called life just kept going while clearly this story didn't. I honestly though thought that I updated it sometime in June but, no, my mind is playing tricks on me.

Any ideas of where I should take this, please tell me, I'm running out of ideas and thinking that if nothing special happens next chapter or the one after would make a good ending to this story so it doesn't just keep going in 150 different directions…