Not bothering to knock Gibbs let himself into DiNozzo's apartment with the key he always kept on his key chain. Stepping straight into the lounge room, he immediately noticed some very obviously gaps. DiNozzo's beloved 52 inch TV was missing, as was the home cinema system, the leather couch and the recliner, the built in bookshelves which were usually crammed to overflowing with reading matter and DVDs were half empty. Looking around he saw that even the antique lamps, the fancy dresser and the rug were gone. All that remained was a couple of mismatched dining chairs and the hand carved end table Gibbs remembered making for Tony as a birthday present a few years back. As he completed his 360 degree appraisal he caught sight of DiNozzo, in jeans and his old Ohio State sweatshirt standing barefoot in the kitchen doorway.

"You get divorced and not tell me?" Gibbs raised a brow.

"Funny, Boss," Tony said dryly. "No, this is all cousin Crispin's doing. I figured you were going to find out sooner or later."

"This is about that IOU you made in College?" Gibbs blinked. "I thought you were going to seek legal advice over that?"

"I did," Tony admitted. "Turns out the "IOU" I signed was a bona fide legal document drawn up by Uncle Clive's top drawer London solicitors. Apparently just giving $10, 000, tax free to your favourite nephew is the kind of thing the Inland Revenue frowns upon."

"Aw hell, DiNozzo," Gibbs sympathised. $10, 000 dollars plus over twenty years of compound interest could mean the younger man owed anything up to $450, 000. Tony didn't have that kind of money. "Can't you and your cousin work out some kind of payment plan?"

"You'd think, wouldn't you? The guy just inherited 24 million pounds," Tony made a face. "But the longer I take to pay it off the more interest he's going to charge me. He never liked the fact that I was taller and better looking than him."

Gibbs pressed his lips together as he handed off the breakfast bag to DiNozzo to take care of and wandered into the bedroom, noticing that DiNozzo's much loved and talked about bed and chest of drawers that normally lived in there were gone. No wonder the younger man had been desperate to borrow some camping equipment. Leaving the sleeping bag and hat on the floor for the time being Gibbs opened the closet and saw with some surprise that even the selection of designer suits, hand made shoes and shirts had been pared down to basic necessities. Glancing around the bathroom Gibbs closed his eyes briefly, as he imagined the younger man getting ready for work each morning, carefully eking out his expensive grooming products, repeatedly laundering the handful of shirts he had left and carefully polishing his shoes, so that no-one would realise that he was basically living in an empty shell.

"Why did you tell McGee that story about your Fraternity brother going camping?" Gibbs asked quietly, as he heard Tony come up behind him.

"Because he is," Tony assured him. "That's why I can't borrow his stuff. So, then I had to ask McScouter. And I'd really rather that this didn't become the latest office scuttlebutt. It's bad enough that I'm being screwed over. Having a blood relative do it is beyond embarrassing."

Gibbs looked at the barren bedroom and tried to imagine DiNozzo spending his nights for weeks on end tossing and turning on the polished hardwood floors, the fur lined hat pulled down low over his ears as he tried to block out the chill. All to pay back a man who already had more money than either of them would make in their lifetimes. He was at once intensely proud of the honourable young man for striving to meet his obligations and absolutely furious that he was too damned pig headed to ask for help.

"You could have come to me."

"Boss, you have alimony, not income," Tony reminded him. "Besides, I have it covered."

"You call this covered?" Gibbs challenged, sweeping an arm around to indicate the almost empty apartment. "Diane left me with more than this and she damned near cleaned me out."

"That is because you are not open to the wonders of technology," Tony flashed him a smile as he turned on his heel and led the way into the kitchen, where he had pulled out plates and napkins and set out the breakfast burritos Gibbs had brought. "In the last two weeks I've made almost half the money I need selling my worldly goods on E-bay."

"You've kept the coffee maker." Gibbs observed, feeling oddly pleased as he caught sight of the top of the range shiny chrome Gaggia.

"It was a present from a friend," Tony allowed, the ghost of a genuine smile on his lips as he reached up for a bag of coffee. "Not to mention, a question of self perseveration. You and instant coffee is never pretty."

Without asking permission Gibbs started opening cupboards. DiNozzo had never been much of a cook, much preferring to select his dining options from the range of take out menus on top of the refrigerator. The stocks of cheap canned goods contained bland and boring foods, but he supposed at least the younger man wouldn't actually starve.

"What about your rent and utilities?"

"I'm managing, I still have my salary and some income from a couple of trust funds, plus you remember those shares in a company my grandfather left me? Turns out they're doing pretty well these days. The dividend pays out twice a year. That should speed things along a bit," Tony smiled bleakly as he passed Gibbs a coffee and picked up one of the breakfast burritos, taking a bite, before he continued around a mouthful. "If I stick to the budget I've worked out, turn down the heat a little, take showers instead of baths, give up alcohol, vacations, eating out, dating and basically having a life I should be able pay the rest off by Christmas."

"That's why you wouldn't eat with Abby," Gibbs realised. "Because you couldn't afford to pick up the tab."

"And why I've stopped eating take out," Tony cast a longing look at his collection of menus. "Don't tell Ducky. He thinks his lectures on nutrition have finally sunk in."

"You really think you can live like this for six months?" Gibbs asked, impressed at the younger man's determination to see this through.

"Well, you managed to live on the front line in Iraq and Kuwait for six months at a time," Tony pointed out. "In comparism to that I think this will be a piece of cake."

Gibbs smiled, one of those, rare, genuine smiles, that lit up his whole face. Even if he hadn't already been determined on his course of action, the dignity and respect in that sentiment would have been enough to convince him. Just when he thought DiNozzo couldn't impress him anymore than he already had the young man just kept on taking their relationship to a whole new level. And if DiNozzo could keep building those bonds Gibbs was damned sure he wasn't about to be outdone.

"What if you cut out the rent and utilities?"

"Boss," Tony almost choked on his burrito, but he didn't pretend to misunderstand what he was being offered. "This isn't like when I first moved from Baltimore, or when my boiler went out, or any one of those times when I've been sick or injured. I wouldn't just be taking up your guest room for a few weeks. This would be more like moving in. I can't ask you to do that."

"Don't recall you asking," Gibbs pointed out. "But I'm offering. Guest room's empty most of the time anyway. Might as well get some use out of it."

Tony opened his mouth to voice his objections and found he couldn't actually think of any. He had stayed over at Gibbs' place enough times over the years that they had pretty much got all the ground rules worked out. Secretly, he always looked forward to those occasions when he got to stay with Gibbs. He remembered all the times Gibbs had let him work on the boat, his voice low and patient as he taught him the skills he needed. Or the evenings when he had been able to talk Gibbs into watching some classic movie or other, feeling absurdly proud when he picked something that the former Marine obvious enjoyed.

"What about the utilities?"

He knew that Gibbs had finally paid his home loan last year. At least, in part thanks to some investment advice Tony had given him when he first started working at NCIS, which meant any offer to pay rent would be a non starter. But it didn't sit right with him to stick the other man with all the bills as well.

"The decking and weatherboarding needs repairing," Gibbs considered. He had already made a start but the long hours they had been working lately had meant he would be unlikely to finish before the really cold weather set in. "It would go quicker with two of us."

"Yeah?" Tony felt proud that Gibbs had enough faith in his fledging woodworking abilities to ask him to help. He knew how much his Boss had invested in that house and why. And he trusted Gibbs enough to know that the other man wouldn't let him screw this up. "I'd be honoured to help, Boss."

"Alright," Gibbs drained his coffee cup and rinsed it out, leaving it in the sink. "Go pack what you need. Then we'll box the rest of this stuff up. My neighbour'll lend me for truck for an hour or two to bring it over to my place. Anything you don't need can go in the basement."

"Now?" Tony blinked.

"You got something better to do this weekend?" Gibbs asked.

"No, but don't we need to talk about how we're going to handle this?" Tony worried. Staying with Gibbs was one thing but this was practically moving in. Abby would be thrilled to have her two favourite men under one roof but Ziva and McGee would have a field day. And whilst Vance had warmed up to him some since Somalia he still wasn't about to win that man's award for MVP anytime soon. Not to mention, he had something of a reputation to maintain. "People are going to talk."

"You want to change your mind?" Gibbs challenged.

His voice was neutral but Tony thought he detected a hint of disappointment, hurt even, beneath the calm expression. In response, he straightened his own shoulders and met his mentor's gze squarely as he spoke with quiet certainty.

"No, Boss."

"Good," Gibbs nodded sharply, a hint of a pleased smile hovering around his lips as he tapped Tony lightly on the cheek. "Because I don't give a damn what people are gonna say. Are we clear?"

"Crystal, Boss," Tony agreed with a bright grin.

It only took him a few minutes to throw what he needed into a holdall. It wasn't as if he had much left to choose from after all. Smiling happily at his good fortune at having a man like Leroy Jethro Gibbs in his life he made his way back into the kitchen, only to feel his face fall as he saw Gibbs carefully packing up all the canned goods out of his cupboards.

"Boss?"

"No sense in letting 'em go to waste." Gibbs didn't look up from his task .

"No," Tony nodded. "Right."

He looked away, bitterly disappointed but also ashamed of himself that he had been entertaining happy thoughts of companionable evenings of beer and take out or one of Gibbs home cooked steaks, all whilst being bankrolled by the former marine. Of course, it made sense that he should eat the food he had already paid for, even if it was boring as hell. But he couldn't ask that of Gibbs.

"Look, Boss, I'm not expecting you to eat any of that stuff .."

"Not expecting you to eat it either," Gibbs finally looked up and paused at the bleak expression he saw on Tony's face and felt himself brought up short the same way he alway felt every time DiNozzo demonstrated just how little experience he had of the selfless kind of love a parent should have for a child. As if Gibbs could sit and choke down a home cooked meal when across the table his boy picked unhappily at some thin soup or cheap sausage. He knew that DiNozzo had spent a whole lot of his childhood in boarding schools and summer camps. Not for the first time Gibbs wondered if he had actually spent any quality time with his own father at all. "While you're under my roof you'll eat real food."

"If you say so," Tony's tone was distracted as he tipped his head on one side. "Homeless shelter?"

"Knew I didn't just keep you around for your sparkling personality," Gibbs acknowledged. "No sense in letting it go to waste."

"Uh huh," Tony paused. "Are there going to be a lot of those "under my roof" kind of rules?"

That brought Gibbs head around sharply, but try as he might he couldn't find a single clue in DiNozzo's expression or body language as to the right way to answer that. DiNozzo was no kid. He was a highly trained Federal Agent who made life and death decisions every working day. But everything Gibbs knew about the younger man said he craved rules and boundaries to feel that someone cared about him. Praying to God that he wasn't about to screw this up royally, he took a deep breath and went with his gut.

"You have a problem with that?"

He waited for one agonising moment for Tony to process that and it was only when he saw the soft, almost shy, smile spread across the younger man's face and shine from his eyes could he release the breath he was holding and know that he had made the right choice.

"No Boss," Tony responded, still smiling. "No problem at all."