STORY TITLE: To the Last Round
CHAPTER TITLE: Together again
WORD COUNT: 2,691
DISCLAIMER: I do not own NCIS I only own my made up agents, and the made up murders within this story. Everything else belongs to the ever-lovely NCIS universe.
RATING: M = MATURE CONTENT EVENTUALLY (A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GIBBS AND TONY—DON'T LIKE THEN DON'T READ)
CHAPTER THREE:
Gibbs wakes naturally; his alarm clock telling him that it is still an hour from when he has to wake Tony. His morning routine starts, a quick shower followed by a shave and then he brushes his teeth. He treads nude into his bedroom to don his clothes for work. They include a light blue button down tucked into black dress pants with black socks and his beaten up slip on leather boots.
Tiptoeing downstairs, he walks calmly into the kitchen and starts cooking breakfast. His first order of business is to start the coffee pot, pleased when he smells the first signs of coffee, he moves to making bacon, toast, eggs, and waffles. Since Gibbs rarely ever has a hearty breakfast anymore, it almost surprises him how he falls back into the routine of caring for someone other than himself.
At a prompt seven-thirty, a bed-raggled Tony embarks down the stairs complaining about having an awful headache. Gibbs forces himself to continue focusing on breakfast, even though his eyes would like to wander over the half-naked form of the boy currently sitting down at the kitchen table. He throws himself into the task of setting the table, serving Tony generous amounts of food and some Advil, and pouring himself copious amounts of coffee. They make small talk, Tony filling all the silences with meaningless chatter about his friends at school, girls that had hit on him, and equally laid out reasons for why he had rejected them. Soon Gibbs was urging the boy up stairs to take a shower and get ready for school.
Jethro waited on the couch, carefully checking the time to make sure the fifteen-minute drive (by way of Gibbs-esk driving) would still be possible. He sipped coffee from an already filled travel mug, and read the newspaper.
Tony pounds down the stairs with about a minute before eight, his hair still dripping wet from the shower, but he looks handsome by all means. Even the slight wrinkle in his clothes don't off put the pure manly desire emanating off him. "Ready to go?" Tony asks, toeing on his shoes.
Jethro nods, picking himself up off the couch and treading out the door. He had left his gear at the office, and so all he had getting into the car was his gun and his badge.
Fifteen minutes later, complete with reckless driving now that Gibbs isn't completely exhausted; they arrive at Tony's school, much to the boy's disappointment.
Gibbs searches for something comforting to say, something to end their special night together. He knows this will probably be the last time, but he's okay with parting amicably.
"Why'd you get that shiner?" Gibbs doesn't have to ask who, he knows, but he wonders what Tony did this time. Knowing DiNozzo Senior, it was probably something meaningless like not putting the dishes away.
Tony turns shy suddenly, having forgotten for a moment that he had a black circle ringing his eye, "I said something I shouldn't have."
Gibbs notes the hesitation and doesn't proceed to pry, he knows that whatever Tony said to his father is personal.
"Remember, if he ever touches you again…you have my number." Jethro murmurs, watching Tony's sad smile flit across that young face.
"Thanks again."
"Go learn something birthday boy," Jethro orders, dismissing the youth from his car. He watches Tony get out of the car and walk up the stairs to the front door of his private school. Someone calls to Tony, and the boy's attention turns toward a group of what looks like football jocks. He easily falls into line with them; their talk is loud, drifting through the morning air and through the cracked window of Gibbs' car.
Jethro offers a half smile, rejoicing in the small look Tony throws over his shoulder at him.
And for Jethro, a man already through two divorces and in the process of his third, that small look will keep him going for quite a while.
/
[ eight years later ]
"Bring me up to speed Kate," Gibbs barks, depositing the large Caf-Pow directly in front of Abby. Causing the boisterous goth girl to twirl around and drop a thank you kiss on Gibbs' cheek. Kate rolls her eyes, leave it to Abby to be the only person able to get within Gibbs' personal space without getting shot.
"Todd!" Jethro nearly growls, not in the best mood since the director had just told him that his team would be covering a case in Baltimore. The hour and a half drive would be the beginning of the powder keg of his emotions.
"Sergeant Frank Grump was reported missing three months ago by his wife. Last night he was found face down in a bank of snow by a passing drunk teenager. At first, Baltimore PD treated it as a regular homicide based on the center stab mark to his back. However, they are thinking possibly a serial killer or someone who had a religious sort of grudge against him because of the cross-shaped mark carved into his back. Baltimore PD processed the scene and found his wallet three feet away from him buried in the snow. This correctly identified him as a Gunnery Sergeant. So they called us, an unofficial liaison should be waiting for us at the crime scene to pass it off to us—"
"Kate gear up, I'll grab Ducky and Gerald. Abby set up a secure video feed with Baltimore PD, and wait for our arrival there." Gibbs barks the orders, his mood varying because of the lack of coffee he had been able to down during the morning. Suddenly, when he really needed coffee, even the shitty stuff they made in the office was out and he hadn't had the time to go get some.
Jethro stalks down into autopsy, his hand still clenching the travel mug with at least two sips of lukewarm coffee left. "Ducky, Gerald, gear up, we're heading to Baltimore."
It had to be pure fate they would land a case at least two hours away in this weather. The roads had started to ice over, preparing for the snow that had started to fall about ten minutes ago.
"Oh, my dear boy, I guess even evil does not rest for bad weather." Ducky murmurs, preparing their gear for a quick departure.
Within the next fifteen minutes, all four of them were on the road. Kate, gripping the dashboard with white knuckles as Gibbs swerves dangerously around turns while Ducky and Gerald are in their NCIS coroners van.
The weather hampers their travel time, a trip that would usually take at maximum, an hour, and forty minutes in traffic, is now taking upwards of two hours and thirty minutes in the mass amounts of traffic, crashes, and dangerous weather conditions. This does little for Gibbs' mood, further increasing the tension inside the tiny car. Kate tries to distract herself by looking over the gunny's file, checking for anything that might illicit someone wanting to kill him. I.E. reports or claims filed against him.
Two hours and twenty-five minutes later, Jethro finds himself pulling up to a crime scene, taped off by the typical yellow tape. The street is closed because of the crime, but he doesn't find that many people will miss it, all things considered you could call the street an alley of sorts.
Gibbs parks the car haphazardly, aware that one of the front tires has sunk into a pit of slush, but he ignores that fact for a moment. Kate and him get out just as Ducky and Gerald arrive; however, Gibbs is too busy looking for their liaison.
"You must be NCIS," A low voice growls from against a lamppost right next to the crime scene. "The van gave you away." It's a weak attempt at a joke, but considering this guy had to stand out in the cold for the past few hours, Gibbs can cut him a little slack.
"What do you have?" Jethro beckons, holding out his hand for even the least bit of evidence collected so far.
The man draws himself out of the shadows, for once displaying his glimmering green irises, and once styled hair that had since fallen damp and flat with the snow coming down. His breath catches in his throat, words failing him as he quietly takes the notepad and camera from the man's hands.
From all his years and carefully coaching himself to not let anything through the mask on his face, the only sign that he is rattled is the slight shake of his hands as he pushes the notepad into his jacket pocket and starts going through the pictures on the camera.
"Anthony DiNozzo, unofficial liaison for you between NCIS and Baltimore PD," his smirk is cheeky, overconfident, but in a subdued way, a way that only Gibbs would recognize from the naivety of youth. However, Gibbs couldn't recall a time when he hadn't been that. Gibbs swallows thickly, already counting the changes in demeanor from when he had last seen Tony.
The lanky, tan kid from eight years ago had changed into a confident, self-sufficient man who knew he could take care of himself and get the job done. As Gibbs focuses on the photos and mulls through the crime scene sketches and documented notes, he briefly introduces everyone.
"Special Agent Gibbs," he holds out his own hand, firmly grasping the soft palmed, slightly calloused fingers of Anthony DiNozzo. "There's Agent Todd, Ducky our coroner, and Gerald, our coroner's assistant." He points to each of them in turn, none of them able to guess the history between the two of them. They both mutually decide without even so much as a glance, to keep their past secret. Jethro moves around Tony like a dance, skirting the wild looks the youth sends him, and ignoring the quiet comments and jokes.
"I'm here to tell you that Baltimore PD is more than willing to help you with anything you should need, autopsy or desk space. As well, I am at your full disposal, it would be my pleasure to help you," Jethro sighs inaudibly, wishing Tony wouldn't remind him of the past. Doing that weird husky whisper he had used all through the night of his birthday. "Welcome to Baltimore!" Tony greets as a joke, sweeping his hands around in emphasis of the lack of good weather and unsuitable conditions for 'travel'.
"DiNozzo…good work." Jethro raises the notepad, silently impressed by the cop's detail of sketching the scene, collecting evidence, and noting almost everything done at the beginning of the investigation.
Tony flushes with happiness, the rouge across his cheeks gaining in tint for a moment.
"Duck, what do yah got?" Gibbs calls, pulling himself away from the bright gleam in Tony's eyes.
"Jethro, this poor boy had his family jewels chopped clean off, it looks like some surgical tool, probably a scalpel." Ducky pushes up the man's shirt slightly, assessing the entry point of the knife wound. "From just initially looking at it, it seems he bled out due to the singular stab wound in his back and having his bullocks cut off. Also the cross drawn into his back is pre mortem, but does not show signs of healing, meaning it was done very close to death. Whoever did this to the poor marine, wanted him to suffer."
"Thanks Duck, pack him up and take him back to Baltimore PD for the autopsy, we'll get what we need to, to Abby and start our investigation back at the PD. Doesn't look like we're going to be going much of anywhere in this weather." Gibbs states, feeling the slush of snow slide down his cheeks.
/
Tony led them back in his car, the police department bursting with activity because of all the crashes and crime opportunity brought by the snowstorm. Gibbs nearly made a few of the cops piss their pants when they accidentally ran into him as he entered the small building. However, Kate apologized for him and ushered her short-tempered boss into an interrogation room Baltimore PD had changed into a base room for them.
DiNozzo wanders off to go find his boss, obviously displeased with the task. The curiosity to search and discover in Gibbs is almost overwhelming, it had been years since he felt the desire to willingly ask personal questions of someone else.
Thankfully, Kate distracts him. Her voice pulls him out of the muck of complex emotions he didn't even want to begin to unravel. "Ducky just called to say he got set up in the autopsy down stairs with Gerald, should take him a little bit to do the actual cutting. He said something about Baltimore PD being just adequately stocked."
"Get me everything you know about Gunny sergeant Frank Grump, I want to know everything about him. Take this stuff back to Abby and get her to check his phone records. I'm going to dump his apartment and see if I can get a computer for Abby too crack."
"Boss, are you sure you want to handle this end alone?" Kate questions warily, already grabbing her bag and the evidence box.
"Not doing it alone Todd." Gibbs grumbles, his eyes already connecting with the head of brunette hair currently bobbing back towards their makeshift bullpen, a hefty boss in tow.
"Got it, Gibbs on my way." She moves to head out the door, Gibbs grabbing her arm before she can leave. "Yeah boss?"
"You be careful." He warns, thinking over the three accidents they had passed and the five cars that had gotten themselves stuck in the snow.
"I will."
"And stay there, help Abby, we'll work this end."
"See yah Gibbs," Kate murmurs, exiting the room before DiNozzo leads his hefty boss in.
"Special Agent Gibbs, this is Police Chief Larry Watson. Chief, Special Agent Gibbs." Tony introduces, gesturing between them and then backing up to let them speak. Gibbs is slightly disgusted with the sweat collecting on the man's brow. However, he controls the cringe itching to happen and nods lightly.
Neither of them makes the move to shake hands, and Gibbs is perfectly okay with that.
"As DiNozzo has probably told you, we're here to help, whatever you need," Larry ends the sentence with a sharp, loud cough that wracks his stout form.
"He did," Gibbs keeps it short.
"Also, DiNozzo hasn't told you, but if you need him, he's completely in your hands. Whatever you need." Larry places a hand on the younger officer's shoulder, and Gibbs transfers his gaze to Tony.
"Good. DiNozzo, you're with me, we're going to Grump's apartment." This ends their short conversation, and Gibbs doesn't bother offering any passing pleasantries as he walks out of the room. Tony stumbling after him as he tries to hold in laughter at the look on his boss' face.
Correctly thinking that Gibbs would not know where Grump's place is, Tony had been over the file while he was waiting for them to show up at the crime scene. He had gotten a pretty police officer at back at the station to send him the digital version of the file onto his phone so he could do something in his spare time, and thankfully, he had seen the address. It took a few seconds in the elevator to pull up the file again and double check the address, but it helped in the long run. Gibbs got in the passenger seat of Tony's car without saying anything, the boy smirking as he pulls out of the parking lot carefully and starts heading for Grump's apartment.
Their ride starts silently, the travel time being longer with the snow, but Tony feels comfortable with the silence between them. Even though eight years had passed he can still remember the small smile Gibbs gave him just as he was walking into school, almost as if it had happened just yesterday.
"How have you been?" Gibbs murmurs despondently.
"Good, finally got out from under my dad." Tony replies happily, turning onto the street for Gunny Sergeant Grump. "We're here."
Thanks for all the FABULOUS comments.
Like seriously, they make me smile and feel better with EVERY single one!
I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS A FEW THINGS: :)
At the time when Tony is a teenager, and Gibbs is a quite bit younger (in chapters 1 and 2), Thomas Morrow is Director. Now in this chapter Jenny is just learning the ropes and settling into being the new director. In one of the next few chapters there might be more hops, but I'll explain the director situation inside the story if there should be any more drastic time hops.
Oh, I know that the time line is a little screwed up because Kate and Tony were working with Gibbs from the begging of season one, but it works better this way for the story.
I apologize if everyone is a little upset with the time hops. First of all, this is a crack fic, purely written by me to satisfy my need to write it. Second, I'm trying to get this story to a certain point, I don't really know where, and I don't really know how to explain it, but I want to show the bond between Tony and Gibbs. So stick around!
ALSO GO CHECK OUT MY OTHER Gibbs/Tony STORY JUST STARTED CALLED Broken Patriot and American Playboy!
See yah in the next chapter!