Tony DiNozzo groans as he opens his eyes, the incoming sunlight streaming into through the windows of the bedroom he's residing in, sending sharp pains through his head, making his headache even worse. He groggily sits up and studies his surroundings: a blue comforter over him, a wooden wardrobe in the corner of the room, a chest of drawers underneath the window.
Gibbs's spare bedroom.
"Shit!" The hungover agent swears. He can't believe Rick called his boss last night. Again. Tony throws the warm comforter off himself and shakily gets to his feet, stumbling to the door, thankfully his boss, and the man he considers a father, didn't undress him last night.
Tony walks downstairs to the front door, he opens the door only to find it locked. His eyebrows furrow in confusion as he tries to open it again: his boss never locks his front door, telling him and the team "door's always open", so why the hell has Gibbs locked it today, on the day he doesn't want to be here?
"What the hell?" Tony mutters to himself. He spins around when he hears a familiar gruff voice.
"It's pointless trying to open it, I've locked it and you're not leaving this house until we've spoken, so get your ass in the kitchen and eat your breakfast." Gibbs orders him, Tony scoffs and rolls his eyes at his boss who's drinking his ever-present cup of coffee.
"I don't answer to you when I'm off duty." Tony retorts, ignoring the pounding in his head.
"When the bartender calls me and Jen at 0330 in the morning to come get you because you're drunk, again I might add, you do answer to me!" His boss snaps at Tony, glaring at him. "You know if you didn't have a hangover, I'd be head slapping you so hard right about now, now breakfast before I do head slap you regardless of your hangover." Tony sighs, begrudgingly walking into the kitchen where Gibbs has laid out his favorite breakfast meal: strawberry waffles drizzled in strawberry syrup, with a hazelnut coffee and two aspirin pills. Sending a mental smile to his boss, Tony throws back the aspirin with a gulp of his hazelnut coffee and digs into his strawberry waffles, unaware of the impending conversation with Gibbs that is coming his way after he's finished his breakfast.
The Team Leader watches as his son eats his breakfast. Gibbs sighs as he sits on his couch.
Today is the day he makes his son grieve for her, whether he wants to or not. For the past month, his son has been drowning his sorrows in a bottle and he can't allow that to happen, he actually preferred it when his son refused to get out of bed for a month, at least he knew that his son was safe in his apartment.
"Tony, in the living room, now!" Gibbs calls to his son who tries to go back upstairs. He hears tony groan and slinks into the living room, a glare of his own on his face.
"Have a seat, DiNozzo." Gibbs tells his SFA. Once Tony is seated and sipping his extremely sugary coffee, Gibbs starts talking.
"I know how hard these past two months have been for you, but this has got to stop, DiNozzo." Gibbs tells DiNozzo, who snorts.
"What exactly 'has got to stop', Boss?" Tony asks sarcastically, Gibbs narrows his blue eyes.
"The drinking at bars until you get so drunk that the bartender has to call one of us to come get you: this past month, every night one of us has had to come get you: Tim, Abby, Ziva, Ducky, Palmer, Kate, me, even Jenny, the Director, have all had to come get you." Gibbs say sternly, knowing that this route of conversation is having no effect on his son, Gibbs holds back a sigh as he takes the route he and Jen discussed last night, a route they both know will cause Tony to break, to finally release two months of drowned emotions.
"Jen has given you a week off to pull yourself together but if any of us get another call from Rick asking us to get you again, you're done as my Senior Field Agent, you're done in law enforcement, you're done at NCIS." Gibbs knows Tony's job at NCIS is the most important thing in Tony's life so if anything can get through to him, it's threatening his job.
Gibbs watches as his sons carefully placed mask starts to crack.