Chapter 5
Gibbs sent Tony straight down to autopsy so Ducky could get a look at him and he went straight up to Morrow's office to report.
"Where's DiNozzo?" Morrow asked as he entered, and Gibbs noticed with a slight increase of irritation that Commander Stevens was already there.
"I sent him to Ducky," Gibbs said. "Once Ducky's had a look, I told him to come up here."
"He hurt?"
"Well, they didn't go too easy on him," Gibbs said. "He looks like he's been in a fight and like he's been dragged around by the upper arms, and when they cut his shirt and jacket off, they went a little deeper than they should have on his right side. I don't think it will need stitches, but it's about eight inches long."
"He sounded fairly calm in there," Morrow said. "How was he?"
"Fine. Did you hear everything?"
"I did." Morrow looked pensive.
"You can't even consider putting him back in that situation," Commander Stevens said earnestly. "Certainly not till we know everything that happened to him tonight."
There came a knocking at the director's door and Gibbs glanced at Morrow. "Get it, Gibbs," he said, but the door opened a second before Gibbs reached it. When DiNozzo entered, Gibbs was more than a little startled.
"DiNozzo, I told you to go down to see Ducky," Gibbs said in an undertone.
"I did, Boss, but when he mentioned that Lily was here, I couldn't wait to say hi." Gibbs started to order him back to autopsy, but Morrow shook his head, and Gibbs faded back to let DiNozzo take center stage. "Commander Stevens," Tony said in his smarmiest yet least friendly voice. "What a pleasure to see you."
"Tony, I told you to call me Lily, or at the very least, Dr. Stevens. You're not in the Navy, so my rank is largely irrelevant."
"That's a big part of the problem, isn't it?" Tony asked, eyes narrowing. "I'm not a soldier or a sailor, so I must somehow be lacking in . . . what, endurance?"
The woman tilted her head, eyes set in a worried expression. "Agent DiNozzo, this paranoia you're exhibiting is disturbing."
Gibbs was watching DiNozzo and saw his eyes widen. "Paranoia, now? I'm just a bundle of neuroses, aren't I?" he asked. He glanced at Gibbs. "I'm passive-aggressive, too," he added brightly. "And narcissistic."
"There's no need for this anger, Tony," she said. "I'm just trying to do my job."
"Is that what you're trying to do?"
"Do you think she has another agenda, Agent DiNozzo?" Morrow asked.
"I think she's a –"
"DiNozzo," Gibbs said sharply, and Tony cut off.
"I asked him a question, Agent Gibbs," Morrow pointed out mildly.
Tony cleared his throat and drew himself up straight. "I think she misrepresented everything that went on in our meeting," Tony said in a more moderate voice. "I don't know how she got 'he shouldn't be involved in any way' out of anything I said – or didn't say."
"DiNozzo, you're bleeding," Gibbs said, suddenly noticing the red stain on Tony's shirt.
Tony looked down. "Oh, Ducky got part of the liquid bandage off before he mentioned her, and I just sort of patted it back on and came up here."
"You see, this is exactly the sort of behavior I'm talking about," Commander Stevens said. "He must be involved whether he's necessary or not, and he's ignoring his own health and safety."
Gibbs blinked, wondering what on earth she got that from. DiNozzo just rolled his eyes. "Wait, don't tell me, this is that 'neurotic and grandiose idea of my importance to the mission' thing that you told the director about?"
"DiNozzo, you weren't in here when she said that," Morrow said.
"I was waiting outside," DiNozzo said. "Maybe you should get the doors a little better soundproofed. Her voice carries."
"You kept reiterating that you had to go, Agent DiNozzo," Commander Stevens said. You tell me what that was about."
"I expressed concern that it would be a problem if I didn't go, and gee whiz . . . I was right."
"I don't understand."
"She didn't hear?" Tony asked and Morrow shook his head. "Well, then let me sum up my evening for you all. I went to dinner, then I figured that since everyone would be involved in a meeting with Sullivan, I would go pack my stuff up and get Tony Vellucci out of dodge, since he was supposedly leaving for Houston tonight. It would have been hard to explain why all his stuff was still there if they thought to check, after all."
Morrow nodded. "I understand, Agent DiNozzo. I could wish you'd mentioned your intentions to me, but I understand your reasoning." Gibbs nodded his agreement, but he noticed that Commander Stevens was shaking her head. "Do go on."
"Well, I guess they did think to check, because just as I left the room, there were Marino and two of the bullies from the club. They wanted to know why Vellucci hadn't shown up with his boss like a good little submissive. So, instead of going in with back up and surveillance and protection, I wound up getting abducted, roughed up and groped. All good fun, but my favorite part was getting stripped half naked by a man with a knife while I was blindfolded. Now that was entertaining. Riveting even. Especially when they did this." He pointed at the blood on his shirt.
"It can't be too bad," Gibbs said quietly to Morrow. "Or Ducky would have followed him." Morrow snorted.
"And now we either drop the op completely, or I get to be in even more danger than I would have been before. So thank you, Lily, for making my evening a very special episode of The Tony DiNozzo Show."
Stevens turned towards Morrow. "You see? He has this distorted view of his own importance to the case. To every case."
Gibbs felt his eyebrows going up, but neither he nor Morrow got a chance to answer. "My God, woman," Tony exclaimed. "Don't you understand sarcasm?"
"This is hardly the time for levity."
"It's either laughter or tears," Tony snapped.
"Maybe you should give in to tears a little more often," she suggested. Tony gaped at her, apparently stunned into silence. Gibbs personally thought she was nuts.
"Commander Stevens, I think that will be all," Morrow said.
"No, no, you haven't even gotten to the good part," Tony said, and Gibbs stared at him. "Ask her about my 'daddy issues.'"
"This is no laughing matter, Agent DiNozzo," she said in a repressive voice.
"Do you have daddy issues, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.
"Apparently. She's convinced that my father, who never stood up past four o'clock in the afternoon unless it was to get another drink, abused me, and that I'm seeking a replacement." Gibbs raised his eyebrows at him. "Yes, Boss, that would be you."
"Look at the evidence," Commander Stevens said.
"What evidence?" Tony demanded. "What was it you said? I try to please him. He's my boss. I think I'm supposed to keep him happy, or they stop paying me."
"I said you try too hard to please him."
"Whatever. What was the other thing? I act out to get more attention from him, even if the attention is negative. I don't even know what that means. I'm an exuberant, talkative guy working with a taciturn former marine. Sometimes – rarely – there's friction."
"We can talk about it during your next session," Commander Stevens said.
"What next session?" Tony asked incredulously. "There's not going to be a next session."
"After today's assault, you'll need to be evaluated again."
DiNozzo turned to Morrow. "Sir, I will not submit to that. I'll quit first."
Morrow considered him for a moment, then turned to Stevens. "Commander Stevens, your services will no longer be required."
"But, sir, I must protest. Agent DiNozzo needs –"
"Thank you, Commander Stevens."
She stopped abruptly and Gibbs watched her compose herself in an appropriately military manner. "Yes sir," she said, and she left.
Morrow turned to DiNozzo. "I'm sorry, Agent DiNozzo. I didn't realize she was so completely out of touch."
"She's looking way too hard for a trauma she can treat, heal and write about," DiNozzo said. "And she's perfectly willing to invent one. She won't stop with me, she's going to find someone who's more vulnerable and have him convinced he was molested and has three different personalities and the whole nine yards."
"I'll look into it, Agent DiNozzo," Morrow said, and DiNozzo's shoulders relaxed slightly. "So, you really want to go back in on this op?" Morrow asked.
DiNozzo's eyebrows went up. "No," he said, and Gibbs snorted. He knew what that meant, but Morrow didn't.
The director's brows knit. "So you want to drop it?"
"No," Tony said.
Morrow was briefly silent, then he nodded. "That seems healthy enough to me. You're back in if Agent Gibbs agrees."
Instantly DiNozzo turned pleading eyes on him, and Gibbs gave Morrow a dirty look. Then he shrugged. "I think it's our best chance of getting Sullivan. If we back out now, he'll be leery of letting anyone else close for a long while. And I never thought DiNozzo wasn't up to it, I just didn't want to put him in unnecessary danger."
"Well, since we obviously blundered by not sending DiNozzo with you tonight –"
"You think?" DiNozzo burst out.
Both Gibbs and Morrow spoke together. "DiNozzo!"
Tony deflated out of manic mode and said, "Sorry sir, sorry Boss."
"As I was saying, perhaps we should consult an expert."
"An expert in . . ." Gibbs asked, not certain.
"The domination subculture," Morrow said. "Clearly Sullivan is involved in that, which is more information than we had before. We'd guessed that Marino participated to one degree or another, and since he was a minor part of the operation, I thought would could get by with general knowledge. If Sullivan is a serious player in that game, however, we need an expert that can clue both of you in on the rules."
"Oh!" DiNozzo exclaimed, and they both turned to him. "I'll dig one up, if I may?" Morrow nodded, and Tony was halfway back to manic again. He dug his phone out and dialed. "Abby? What? Oh, I'm fine. It's only a flesh wound. Don't you have a friend who's big on the Dom/sub scene?" Her answer must have been in the affirmative, because he went on, "Do you think he's trustworthy enough to be brought in as a consultant?"
"DiNozzo?" Morrow said.
"Just a minute, Abby." DiNozzo looked up. "Yes sir?"
"Why don't you meet Abby in autopsy so you can get your wound looked to." DiNozzo nodded. "And before you contact him or her, get the expert's information so we can do at least a cursory background check."
"Of course, sir," DiNozzo said. He opened the door and headed out of the office. "Abby, meet me in autopsy. I have to have my booboo looked at."
"Young man, that is hardly a 'booboo,'" Ducky exclaimed from the outer office.
"How serious is it, Duck?" Gibbs called.
Ducky took a step into the office. "Not very, but it's still not a booboo."
"It's not very impressive, Ducky," Tony said, his tone deprecatory. "I've seen cat scratches that were worse."
"That would be a pretty big cat scratch."
"It was a pretty big cat," Tony said. "One time, he fell out of the window over the tub straight down onto me while I was taking a bath."
"Oh dear!" Ducky exclaimed, growing fainter as the two men moved away.
"It was a good six feet, and he kind of had a thing about water. You should have seen the . . ."
Both Morrow and Gibbs were silent for a moment. "Someone else is telling Ducky an irrelevant story," Gibbs said finally.
"It does seem remarkable," Morrow observed. Both men sighed. It was late, there were bad guys to catch, and sleep looked a long way off. "Is he always like that?"
"Manic?" Gibbs asked. "No. That was anger combined with how DiNozzo handles stress."
"He wasn't very explicit about what happened."
"I think he told us the high points. Honestly, I don't think he's holding back."
"Let me know if he drops any more details."
Note:
The incident mentioned in Tony's irrelevant story is really and for true and happened about . . . twenty years ago. (God, I'm old.) The cat's name was Underfoot and he was a Maine coon cat. Weighed close to 20 lbs. with not an ounce of fat on him. A giant of a beast. He actually did have an epic fail as Tony describes. He attempted to jump from the side of the tub to a window that was seven feet up and, he apparently failed to notice, not big enough to hold him. Not that it mattered, because he face-planted against the wall about a foot below the window and fell straight down like a stone into the water . . . in which I was bathing. I still have the scar I gained while boosting him out, and it's a good seven inches long, almost the length of my forearm. Underfoot has long since gone on to chase the laser pointer in the sky, but he was a great cat.
