Again non bold indicates "flashbacks" all reviews welcome plz r and r
Chapter 10
As Gibbs drove home, secretly glancing at his passenger, he knew from past experience that the only thing that would cause Tony to admit to pain would be a migraine. He knew this case was putting pressure on him, but he didn't think this much, coupled with the flu, Tony was a walking disaster area. "You hungry?" he asked casually, Tony didn't even bother opening his eyes, the effort would be too much. He thought for a moment, "yeah, but don't think it'll stay down for long" he mumbled as a reply. Gibbs looked at him, his forehead was creased in pain, he seemed to relish the protective cover of his sunglasses even though the sun was nowhere to be seen. "How long you had that headache?" he asked concerned, "a couple of days, this is the worst it's been!" he stated.
As they pulled into the drive, Tony was out cold, Gibbs gently shook him awake, "come on let's get you inside before you decide to sleep in the car all night" joked Gibbs, Tony scowled at him "funny boss!" Gibbs chuckled, once inside he lead Tony to the sofa, and headed for the kitchen returning with a glass of water and two of Ducky's painkillers, Tony took them and sighed, 'can this case get any worse' he thought, as he headed upstairs to bed with the reassurance that when the pizza arrived Gibbs would wake him.
Tony didn't bother to undress, he toed his shoes off and flopped out on the bed, thinking about the two case files he lifted before anyone else saw them. His thoughts lingered on the first of the two as he fell into a troubled sleep. "Elizabeth Taylor was the most terrific woman he had ever met, she was funny, cute as hell, loved teaching and still had time to be with the luckiest cop this side of the ocean. This was the woman Tony Dinozzo wanted to spend the rest of his life with, as valentine's day was coming up, what better way to show a person how much you love them, that treat them to a romantic dinner, a walk along a sun kissed beach and the opera, maybe a movie. This night was planned with every aspect of Elizabeth in mind, they had hardly seen each other since Tony was given this case, and Valentine 's Day was the perfect day to spend together. No matter what the captain said, Tony Dinozzo was taking a break.
Tony had decided instead of going out for dinner he would make his special recipe, "Honey I'm home" came Elizabeth's, soft gentle voice "in the kitchen" replied Tony. "Wow!" exclaimed Elizabeth, "this looks amazing, and so does the cook" she mocked. Tony turned to her, even after a long day teaching she still looked radiant, her long curly brunette hair flowing freely over her shoulders and her soft, warm gentle smile that she had even when she was sad, "well thank you kindly Madame" joked Tony as he bowed removing a pretend hat, "ten minutes until dinners ready", he warned as Elizabeth stopped, "I'm gonna take a shower" and headed upstairs, she heard Tony calling out to her "dress up, were going out after", she chuckled as she neared the bedroom. When she was finished her shower, she was surprised to see a box on the bed, the label reading 'Liz I love you more than life itself', as she opened the box she found a large teddy bear holding a heart with the words 'Elizabeth, all my love, Tony'. Around the teddy's neck was an expensive diamond necklace with a matching bracelet, she just stood rooted to the spot.
Tony was in the doorframe, "I really do love you Elisabeth Ann Taylor", she spun on the spot and lunged across the room in to Tony's open arms, "I love you too", they kissed for an eternity, soft and gentle, not willing to let go of each other. When they came up for breath, Tony informed her that dinner would be ready when she was, he ambled off back to the kitchen with the thought 'what a woman' coursing its way around his head. A few minutes later Elizabeth appeared wearing his favourite dress, a knee length red dress, with a sequence bow at the side, he noticed that she was wearing the jewellery 'perfect' he thought "WOW! You look amazing" he stated as he lead her to her seat. Dinner was flirtatious on both sides, both never talking about work, when dinner was over, dishes piled in the sink they headed out, Tony putting his hand in his pocket, with a deep breath he told himself that he could do it. That night was the happiest they had been in a long time, hand in hand walking along a sun kissed beach watching the sun set, and suddenly Tony spun Elizabeth around and hugged her tightly.
Tony pretended to stumble and fell onto one knee, "you okay" asked Liz concerned, Tony looked at her 'now or never' he mused, "yeah" he reached into his pocket and removed a satin pouch, "Elizabeth Ann Taylor, I love you so much, I want to spend the rest of my life and eternity with you, will you marry me?" he said as he handed her a diamond ring, matching the necklace and bracelet she was wearing. Liz gapped at him, tears silently rolling down her checks, her voice just above a whisper, "Tony, I love you too, of course I'll marry you!" she sobbed as he slipped the ring onto her finger.
"I'll always love you Liz" Tony mumbled as Gibbs entered the room, Gibbs stopped dead, as he listened for more, but none came, he looked at his agent, a happy and contented look upon his face 'Who's Liz' he wondered as he gently shook him awake, "come on Dinozzo, pizzas here" he prompted as Tony focused on the face in front of him, the face was grinning from ear to ear "wh..what ya grinning at boss?" he asked uncertainly, Gibbs looked at him then repeated what he had heard, Tony gapped at him, his face going redder by the second, yet Gibbs noted that his eyes were sad, 'at least he's got a bit of colour' he chuckled as he lead them to the sofa, handing Tony a glass of orange juice and a slice of pizza, "feeling better Tony?" he quipped as Tony ate most of the pizza, he hadn't realised how hungry he was, "Yeah, guess that nap helped" he retorted.
When both men had had their fill of pizza, they both sprawled out on the sofa, Gibbs making sure Tony took the pain killers. They let the silence surround them, each man deep in thought when Gibbs phone rang "Gibbs" his usual curt reply "hey boss man, how is he?"Came Abby's upbeat and cheerful voice, Tony looked at Gibbs as he chuckled, "he's fine Abs, he's right here". "Good, coz I called Ducky, and he said that Tony had flu, and was really sick, you'd better not be lying to me Gibbs!" demanded Abby, "Abs, you can ask him himself!", as Gibbs mouthed 'Abby worried' and passed the phone over, Tony nodded "Hey Abs" "Tony!, juz wanted to call and see how you were, and to make sure boss man was treating you okay!" Tony smirked "Abs I'm fine and yes Gibbs is treating me fine, although I think I'll have him mental before the end of this case!" Abby burst out laughing.
That was Tony, concerned about everyone else except himself. Tony was still laughing when he and Abby hung up. Gibbs looked at him "I'll probably be mental by the time this case is over huh!"quipped Gibbs as Tony still laughed, "sorry hate hearing my fav lab rat sad and concerned". Gibbs understood what he meant; Abby was like a daughter as were Kate and even McGee like a son to him.
Tony stifled a yawn,' guess it's time to continue' thought Tony as Gibbs handed him a cup of coffee, "thanks boss for everything" Tony blurted out, Gibbs smiled "no problem Tony, I take care of my own and I'll always have your six!" replied Gibbs. Tony was about to reach for his coffee cup when a sudden wave of dizziness and nausea hit him, he closed his eye waiting for it to pass, this didn't go unnoticed by Gibbs who had grabbed Tony's shoulder to steady him before he slumped on top of the coffee table, "you okay Dinozzo?" he asked after a few minutes. Tony held his hand up, the dizziness had subsided but the nausea wouldn't leave him, his headache was back to and he groaned "yeah boss, just got a little bit dizzy" he stated as Gibbs kept watching him "nausea, headache?" quizzed Gibbs, Tony knew better than to argue "headaches not as bad, have a constant feeling of nausea" Tony replied, he really didn't want to admit that he didn't take the painkillers earlier. Gibbs read his mind, he got up and headed for the kitchen and gave them to Tony with a glass of water "Drink!" he ordered him, so Tony drank and took the pills, placing his head on the back of the sofa.
Gibbs was the first to speak, "Tony, what is it about this case that had the captain in your face and why the hell are you hording two files!" his voice concerned, but with enough authority to cause Tony to start talking and not stop."The captain feels responsible for the deaths of all those victims, if he had off listened to me then maybe some of them might be alive. The one thing about the case that I'll never forget until the day I die, is the senseless way the victims died, the only connection between them was the fact they looked the same, and were all in relationships, except for the first bodies, no connection was ever found for them. This case took three years to solve, the serial killers had had a seven year head start, it's possible that there are more bodies out there that we don't know about, all I'm certain about is that there are nine more bodies to find as well as the mastermind behind this whole thing.
It took Gibbs a few seconds to realise that Tony had said nine bodies not twelve, if his maths were correct, which he knew it was, if Tony had found sixty bodies, then BPD had found petty officer Wilson, that still left eleven to find. He fixed Tony with his look that said to any criminal don't even think of lying to me or I will kill you myself, Tony knew what was coming and lifted the two files and handed one of them to Gibbs, he read the file name "Elizabeth Ann Taylor", looked at Tony, Tony nodded his head and indicated that he should read the file before asking question he knew that the relationship they had together was not mentioned in either of these two files, and that would be one of the questions Gibbs would ask.
Gibbs read and re-read the file, the victim was branded 60, matched the physical characteristics, and died the same way as the others, Gibbs looked at Tony, his eyes were sad and filled with unshed tears, he was also pacing the living room, aimlessly looking out of the window.
"Okay Tony, what about this victim, she matches the description." It was then he remember what Tony had said, earlier that night "I'll always love you Liz!", it all started to make sense, but he had to ask Tony to tell it, so he could move on, "Tony what was Liz like" he asked, Tony turned to face him those unshed tears silently rolling down his cheek, "She was perfect boss, she was smart, funny, cute, loved teaching, she was always full of life and cared greatly for those she loved. She was the most amazing creature on this planet, and I loved spending every single minute I could with her, hell we'd been going out for four years, half the guys on the force, adopted her as their sister, she's a lot like Abby, cares about everyone and everything, even the kids at her school started calling her Mary Poppins.
She was the best thing that ever happened to me, one night valentines night I made dinner, we went for a romantic walk along a sun kissed beach, it was perfect, I loved her so much Gibbs, I asked her to marry me, telling her that I wanted to spend the rest of my life and eternity with her, you know what she said" he flopped down on the sofa "she said yes, that she wanted to spend eternity together" he stopped talking and stared at the floor. Gibbs was gobsmacked, not only had Tony stayed in a long term relationship, but he has said those three little words that mean so much and proposed, Gibbs was still staring at Tony when Tony looked at him and handed him the other file, he didn't read the file at first instead asked the question that he needed to know an answer to, he needed to make sure "Tony was Liz, Elizabeth" Tony lost for words nodded his head, Gibbs blood was boiling, how could anyone do something like this for ten years and get away with it. Gibbs then looked at the other file Tony had handed him, there was no name on the file, no pictures, nothing just a report sheet, listing numerous injuries, same physical characteristics as the male victims, but with brand 61, that meant that there were another nine bodies left to find, an impossible task, unless they caught the mastermind behind the whole thing.
Gibbs instincts kicked in, if all of the bodies were couples, then a horrific feeling landed in the pit of Gibbs stomach like ice, "Tony, this file is yours?" he demanded to know, Tony looked at him " We had been missing for three weeks. They found us two days after Liz died, we were still holding on to each other, I wouldn't, couldn't let go, I kept praying she was alive even though I knew she was dead, it was then that I realised that everything that had happened in my life was leading to this point, my parents, my change of jobs every two years, it all meant nothing if my fiancé was dead, the woman who I wanted to spend the rest of my life was dead, lifeless in my arms and there was nothing I could do to save her!" he completely broke down sobbing, as Gibbs held him in a tight embrace, he had questions to ask but now was not the time, he just held his agent and prayed he found the bastard behind this. This case had haunted Tony for years; it had shaped his future, and made him into one of the best agents he had worked with. Now it was Gibbs turn to get revenge for the victims, for Elizabeth and for Tony, he deserved that much.
Once Tony had stopped sobbing, Gibbs looked at him, "Tony we'll get this guy, I promise you that, it was not your fault!" he stated Tony was about to dispute that fact when Gibbs spoke again "Tony you did everything you could do to save her, it says so right here" he held his file up "she would be proud of that, I know it hurts and it will hurt, but you're not alone in this, there are people who care about you! And remember that I will always have your six no matter what!" Tony looked at him "I know, thanks boss, but how am I going to tell the others?" this caught Gibbs of guard, he looked at Tony "they need to know boss, they need to know what this animal can do"
Gibbs looked at him, "then we will tell them tomorrow, but now I suggest you get some sleep or Ducky will be using me as his next cadaver" he joked, Tony smiled and headed for bed, "thanks again boss" and slipped up the stairs. Gibbs looked at the files before him, Tony has been carrying this burden around alone for a long time, now it was payback time, he read and re-read every file from the office, something strangely familiar about them. He needed to make sure, but it could wait until the morning, as he too headed upstairs to bed, checking on his agent as he went, Tony was sound asleep lying on top of the covers, Gibbs took a spare blanket and draped it over him "'night Tony".