The only person he told about his fear of thunderstorms was Kate and that was while they were in quarantine when he had the Plague. He thought Kate would laugh at him but she only moved closer towards him, regardless of his sickness and held his hand and looked at him and gave him her 'Katie smile' as he liked to call it and told him that there was nothing wrong with being afraid of thunderstorms, that she was deathly scared of spiders, that she'd take his secret with her to her grave which none of them would be just a few weeks later.
Asleep in his Dad's house, Tony DiNozzo is trapped in the terrifying grips of a nightmare, crying out for help from his dad, Special Agent, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, as a thunderstorm dives down on the city.
Nightmare:
He was back in the childhood house that held his worst memories: memories of being beaten by his father, memories of not knowing what mood his drunken, drugged addict mother would be in when she finally woke up with a hangover.
"Junior, come here now!" The loud and angry voice of his father came from his study. Tony sighed as he heard the distant sound of thunder and walked to his fathers study, AKA his personal hell. As he got closer to the study, his stomach started to knot. He felt it tighten with each step he took.
As always, he knocked on the door to the study, preparing himself for the beating his father would be laying upon him.
"Come in." His father told him from inside the room. Tony swallowed as he opened the door.
The inside of his fathers study was decorated the sand it had been when he was a child: an oak desk on the back wall, opposite the massive windows, two three seater couches in the middle of the study, two chairs in front of the desk and, lastly, a large wardrobe in the far corner of the study, almost fully concealed in the shadows, Tony shivered as long days and nights of being trapped inside that wardrobe assaulted his mind.
He stood in the middle of the room, staring at the man he called a father.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" Tony asked his father who nodded, rose from the desk and smirked as he motioned to a servant who Tony hadn't had seen in his way in here. The door opened again and the servant came back in with a very familiar person with a familiar smile on their face.
Tony felt his breath leave him as he stared. "Kate?" He gasped, looking at her: there was a 'Katie smile' on her face, there was no bullet in the middle of her forehead, her beautiful eyes hadn't rolled to the back of her skull and she hadn't crumpled to the rooftop concrete, laying in a pool of her own blood that was coming out of her head.
She was alive!
"Hey, DiNozzo." Kate said, tears rolled down his face as Tony ran to his partner and crushed her into a hug, breathing in her scent of strawberries, cherries and….blood? His hands felt slick and wet on her back. He pulled away from her and his green eyes widened as he saw and heard the sounds of a whip crashing down on skin over and over again. Instinctively he winced as he braced for another whip, to feel as his back was torn open by his father when he saw as the whip came down on Kate.
"NO!" Tony roared as he saw his fathers whip come down in Kate's naked back, he could faintly see all the scars, old and new that blemished Kate's creamy skin, blood running down the lashes.
"Father, stop!" He roared again but his roars were drowned out by Kate's agonizing screams, his father's maniacally laughter, thunder and lightning that lit up the New York sky and the rain that accompanied the thunder and lightning.
"Kate, father, please no!" Tony tried again but once again his cries were drowned out, ignored and lost in the sounds of screams, laughter and the weather.
End of Nightmare
Tony wakes up to the sounds of his dad shaking him awake, thunder rumbling, flashes of lightning that lights up the black sky and the rain as it bounces off the roof and onto his window panes, the smell of coffee and sawdust also accompany the sounds.
"Tony, it's okay, it's just a nightmare, son, you're safe." Like usual, his dad's gruff and calming voice calms him. Tony looks at his dad with tears trailing down his face.
"I was back in the house, he called me to his study, when I got there, he didn't punish me, he motioned to the servant and the servant returned with," Tony pauses to sneak a look at his dad who knows everything Senior did to him. His dad rubs his thumb on his cheek soothingly, giving Tony the ability to continue his recollection of his nightmare. "he returned with Kate. Kate was alive, Dad. She smiled her 'Katie smile' at me! Then he whipped her and it looked like he had been whipping her for a long time, I started telling him no but it was drowned out by Kate's screaming, his laughter, the thunder and lightning and rain, I tried to stop him, dad, I tried!" Tony sobs into his dad's shoulder as he cradles his son's head in his hands. One of his dad's calloused hands rubs soothing circles on his back, causing his eyes to get droopy.
"Not fair." Tony mumbles as his eyes close, his head on his dad's shoulder, his dad's warm chuckles in his ear.
"Always works, goodnight son." Is the last thing Tony DiNozzo hears before he's in a dreamless sleep.
Tony knows even though he hates thunderstorms, he'll always have his dad there watching his Six.
Tony knows even though he'll have nightmares, he'll always have his dad there watching his Six.
Tony knows that even though he misses Kate, he'll always have his dad there watching his Six.
Because that's what fathers do: biological or not, they watch their childrens Six whether they're aware that they do or not.
Because that's what fathers are: protectors.
A/N: Two stories done in 1 day! Enjoy Angels.