Compromise
Once he woke from his nap Tony played quietly the rest of the afternoon, but refused to elaborate upon his disappointing morning. He still insisted that he would not return to kindergarten.
Having taken the day off from NCIS, Gibbs puttered outdoors and in the basement for the remainder of the day. Tony helped him sweep in the basement, delighting in the pile of lumber shavings he gathered into a pile.
Maria sorted through some of the linens and made an inventory of what they had and what they needed. Tony burrowed underneath a stack of blankets she planned to give to the Salvation Army, and then giggled when she pulled him out by his foot, kissing him over and over as he came into view.
Ducky and Mrs. Mallard arrived at four with a yellow Tonka dumptruck Tony had long coveted. He displayed his first excitement since returning home, and ripped the cardboard off as quickly as he could. Once he had the truck released from the packaging he steered it in laps around the room as the adults chatted, sipping hot tea and coffee and watching Tony's imagination at work.
Half an hour later the doorbell rang, interrupting the chatter and truck noises. Doctor Mallard, on his way back from the kitchen, answered it and ushered in the visitor.
Surprised, Gibbs and Maria greeted Vanessa Hargrove, director of Tony's pre school, and introduced her to the Mallards.
Maria invited her to sit and hurried to get her a cup of coffee.
Crawling out from under the sofa's side table with his truck, the little boy identified the visitor and scowled, then hurried to the kitchen after Maria.
When his abuela returned to the living room, she had the cup of coffee in one hand, while Tony walked beside her, his arm wrapped around her leg for protection.
She extended the drink, then sat down herself, wiping her hands down her apron. She motioned the little boy towards his father, then crossed to the sofa and sat down herself.
Tony rearranged his position on the couch and climbed up to stand between where his daddy and his abuela sat.
The director seated herself gently on the edge of the recliner and balanced her cup and saucer on her knees.
"I am Vanessa Hargrove, director of Tony-" she paused, brushing a brunette curl behind one ear and smiled in his direction.
Tony slid down the sofa back to sit between Gibbs and Maria, carefully placing one arm and leg onto his father and the other arm and leg onto his abuela. Once satisfied that they protected him, he peeped up to watch, little lip quivering.
"I am director of Tony's school," she finished. "I needed to come by this afternoon because I know that Tony left Moppet today a very unhappy young man. I wanted the chance to talk to him, to see if we could make things a bit better."
She smiled sweetly at Tony.
He did not respond in kind, but slid further back on the sofa and reached up to put Maria's arm around him, then his dad's before announcing, "I will not go to your school."
An awkward silence followed with the adults looking quizzically at each other.
Mrs. Mallard appeared to have some inkling of the problem. She nodded at Tony and gestured, "Speak to her, Anthony."
Tony remained silent.
Victoria Mallard ordered more firmly, "Lad, speak to Ms. Hargrove at once."
Tony puffed his lip into a pout and mumbled obediently. "I will not go back to your kindergarten."
He leaned down and scratched a mosquito bite on his leg. Maria gently pulled his hand away.
Vanessa Hargrove nodded thoughtfully at Tony's response, then smiled sweetly at the child.
"I want you to reconsider, though, because we all want you to come back, Tony. You are a very smart boy, and your teachers and I would love to have you at the school with us."
Tony watched her from the safety of his seat between Jethro and Maria.
She considered Tony speculatively and continued. "Honey, I know you got very upset when Miss Melanie sent you to time out."
Gibbs and Maria turned to each other questioningly, then looked down at the child.
Vanessa continued. "You had been told, though, to climb down from the fence and you did not do what she said. Boys and girls always have to obey their teacher. That is why she gave you time out."
Ducky spoke then, "Anthony, why did you climb the fence at the school?"
"I wanted to run away and come home," Tony immediately admitted.
With that pronouncement, the adults seemed at a loss for words, but finally Ducky ordered gently, "Tell all of us why you did not want to stay at the school today, lad."
"Never," Tony responded. "I never will go there any more."
"Bambino, your friends go to the school, and they like it," Maria offered.
"You begged us to get to go there," Jethro added, trying to make sense of the child's words.
Tony began to tear, and irritably wiped at his eyes.
"Stop," Victoria Mallard ordered the adults, and a silence followed. "Let him explain what upset him to the point that he attempted to leave the school. He needs the chance to tell us personally, right, Ms. Hargrove?"
Vanessa nodded in agreement, wanting clarification as well. She smiled at Tony and spoke softly, "Please tell me, Tony."
Tony sat up straighter.
"Ok, then," Ducky repeated as he pulled off his glasses and wiped them on his shirt sleeve, "tell us what made you not want to go back, young Anthony."
Once Tony began to answer, the words came out in a fast, hurt tone, and he spoke and rubbed back tears as his explanation continued. When he finally stopped talking a couple of minutes later, he quickly stood up on the sofa and leaned his head onto his daddy's shoulder, then took his hand and gently rubbed his abuela's hair. He left little doubt that he felt hurt and badly treated.
The grown ups absorbed the intensity of the upset, and Ms. Hargrove scooted to the edge of her seat once again. She set her coffee cup on the side table and appealed to the little boy. "Tony, will you let me address some of what you just said? Will you let me kind of tell you where the misunderstandings came into play this morning?"
He did not respond at once, but looked for reassurance from Mrs. Mallard.
Victoria Mallard raised her eyebrows at him and prodded, "Anthony, answer her now. She deserves to understand the problem and what went badly today."
He nodded shyly to the director, and she smiled sympathetically. "The reason that the teacher stopped you from counting was because you were counting in both Spanish and English."
Tony raised his head, "She said I didn't count right," he corroborated, "but I said una, dos, three, four, five, six, siete, ocho, nueve, and ten. That is, too, correct."
Maria's eyebrows went up at once and she shifted so that she could face him, "Ah, Bambino, here I think that what the teacher wanted for you to do was speak just in English, to count only in English with the numbers."
"Why?" Tony scowled.
His abuela patted his leg. "Some of the boys and girls don't know Spanish."
"Why didn't she say to me to only speak English?"
Maria explained, "She did not know that you could speak Spanish also."
Vanessa elaborated, "I think she had not realized how smart you were, or that you spoke two languages. You are correct, though, that you thought you did what she said, so I guess from now on she can be more specific about what she would like you to say. Once we explain this to her, she might want you to teach the other children some Spanish."
Tony absorbed that, then frowned again at another point of contention. "I did not hurt the doll, either."
The director sighed heavily. "Honey, you know that you pulled off the dolly's head, and that it was Laura's toy."
The little boy looked at Ducky for support. His lip trembled in indignation. "Ducky, she said the baby was sick and would not wake up. I helped her and told her I would do the autopsy and say what killed it." He grinned.
Dr. Mallard smiled in return, "Very good, Tony-"
"I examined the heart, then that lady said I tore up Laura's toy, but I did not. I just did the autopsy." Sudden tears beaded his lashes at the injustice of the accusation.
Ducky scratched his chin and tried to explain. "Ah, Ms. Hargrove, that incident is my fault entirely, I assure you. The lad has often been subject to my lessons and lectures over anatomy. He has quite a grasp on the organs of the body and how they inter-relate, or should inter-relate. I am a medical examiner, you see."
Vanessa Hargrove opened her mouth in surprise, then closed it, the doll incident making sense to her finally. "It was an autopsy?"
"Yes, young Anthony wanted to find the cause of the doll's demise."
"Then," Tony continued in his wounded tone of voice, "Laura kept kissing me and I said to stop but she didn't. She said I was her boyfriend, but I am not. When we went outside to play she followed me when Dylan and I said no girls could come."
Jethro addressed that. "Son, it would be all right to be her boyfriend."
"No, Daddy," the little boy contradicted, "she got girl germs all on me and I told the teacher that she was a perp. The teacher said I called her names and I said I didn't call her a name I called her a perp." Tony's wounded pride drove his explanation.
Jethro cleared his throat at that, then took the blame. He regarded the director sheepishly. "I'm afraid he has picked up some of my work vocabulary. Around here we don't consider that a label as much as it's a description. The word perp, I mean-"
Maria interrupted in an attempt to clarify, "So you climbed the fence so that you could leave the school and come home?"
Tony nodded vigorously, relieved that his audience understood. "I wanted to run far away and come home."
Vanessa Hargrove stood up slowly and walked closer to the little boy. She knelt in front of him. "Now I am understanding where all the confusion came and how you would not want to go back to Moppet Academy after feeling that everything you did was wrong. I am just so sorry about that, Tony. All of this just should not have happened. Please, though, give us another chance. We would love to have you return to school the day after tomorrow, and I promise you I will speak to your teachers before then, and explain things. I know that Dylan and Daisy and the rest of your friends want you to return, as well."
Tony did not answer, but nodded in acknowledgement that he had heard her.
Vanessa continued, her voice suddenly firm, "I will say, though, that you are not allowed to climb the fence or to go out the school's door without permission- ever. That is a really big rule at Moppet, and breaking it will get you into a bunch of trouble, like it did today."
Tony nodded again, squirming a bit as he accepted the reprimand.
She concluded the visit then by bidding everyone good bye. Tony waved to her as Jethro got up and walked her to the door.
When he returned he focused on his little boy. "How do you feel now, Son? Did that make it better?"
"Yes," Mrs. Mallard spoke, "it was very generous of Ms. Hargrove to visit. She obviously cares about you, and it worried her that you had not enjoyed the day."
"There were many misunderstandings about the morning, lad," Ducky added.
Mrs. Mallard leaned towards him, "Anthony, sometimes grown ups make mistakes, too. She wanted to let you understand that."
Maria pulled him up on her lap and brushed back his bangs, then kissed the tip of his nose. "Today you were a clever boy at the school when you counted and tried to help Laura. The only thing wrong that you did today was trying to leave without permission. This will get you into big trouble. Leaving like that is a no no, and had better never happen again- no de Nuevo."
Jethro sat down beside them, and lifted Tony's chin to get his undivided attention. He spoke in the voice he used when Tony misbehaved. "Absolutely! When Abuela or I leave you with someone we expect you to stay there until we come get you, or until they bring you to us. That keeps you safe. At not time, and for no reason, should you try to leave by yourself. Do you understand what we are saying?"
Tony nodded and his eyes filled.
Jethro remained firm though, and elaborated. "If you ever try to leave on your own like you did at the school today I will put you across my lap and spank your bottom."
Tony responded quickly then, not wanting his father to contemplate his transgression of today, or a spanking, any longer. "I understand you, Daddy. I will not leave any more without permission. I do not want you to spank me."
Maria added, "Si, and Bambino, there will be no warning count of one, then two and three with this. We want you safe always."
Jethro kissed the top of his son's head and smelled the scent of the shampoo Maria had used on him the night before.
He pulled him off Maria's lap and swung him into the air, making Tony giggle. "Do you feel happier now, about kindergarten?"
"Yes, will you go back and give it another try?" Ducky prodded.
Jethro set Tony on the floor and the child regarded his audience with a huge smile. He spun himself in a circle, then stopped to regard the adults with some seriousness.
"Okay, I will go back, and then you can bring me more presents because I go to kindergarten."
Everyone laughed.
Tony gave them a beaming smile. "Now do you want me to tell you what I learned in school today?"