My Kingdom - chapter 5
by rose_malmaison
Rating: FRAO
Genre: Slash, DiNozzo/Gibbs
Warnings: M/M, slash, sexual situations, language
A/N: Comments and feedback are appreciated. Thanks to everyone for your comments and for flagging my story for alerts.
*** Chapter 5 ***
As he promised, Tony returned to the hospital the next morning but when he saw Jethro was out of bed, standing unsteadily with his hands on the shoulders of a gray-haired man, he stopped in his tracks. Tony didn't need to be told that the man supporting Jethro was Mike Franks. Tony had never met him, but he'd checked Franks' background a few months back, after Jethro had first mentioned his former boss. Tony already knew a lot about the ex-NIS Major Response Team leader, and now, even from twenty feet away, through the glass wall that partitioned Gibbs' room from the hallway, Tony could see the two men shared a rare affection and respect. He could also see the way Gibbs was reacting to Franks with a smile. But best - and worst - of all, it was painfully obvious to Tony that Gibbs remembered his old partner.
Not wanting to intrude, and suddenly feeling very out of place, Tony backed away and quickly left the hospital.
The remainder of the day Tony was kept busy, following leads, keeping a leash on Ziva while she interrogated Captain Mahir of the Bakir Kamir. He dealt with intel coming in from various agencies and coordinated the inter-departmental investigation, and reported their findings to Director Shepard.
Ducky's final forensic report, and the Turkish captain's confession, led them to know for a fact that Pinpin Pula had taken over Agent Galib's identity, had then set off the bomb on the Bakir Kamir, and was now on the loose. It turned out that the man Gibbs had chased into the laundry room on the Bakir Kamir, the man who had set off the bomb that had narrowly missed killing Gibbs,had duped them all into believing he was a government agent. Tony now believed that the terrorist had realized that Gibbs had caught on to his true identity and purpose, and was closing in on him - and so Pula had set the bomb to eradicate the NCIS agent.
Director Shepard called in other agencies to work with NCIS and they hurriedly inspected the rosters of the ships' crewmen obtained from SeaLift, working as a team to locate the missing terrorist. They narrowed it down - Pula was either on the Cape Fear or the Cape Horn.
Tony's new level of responsibility weighed heavily on his shoulders and he occasionally wondered 'what would Gibbs do?' until he came to understand that he could not afford to second-guess his choices. Despite the Director's supervision from her office above, it was up to him, and him alone, to make the final decision on important matters, based upon his experience as an investigator and a field agent. Lives were riding on his judgment. He had to accept that this was what Gibbs had trained him to do over the past few years, and if he couldn't do the right thing then he shouldn't even be at the helm.
Tony was dozing at his desk when he got the phone call. It was Ziva on the other end of the line, which was disconcerting because when he had shut his eyes only a short time ago, she had been sleeping soundly at her desk, opposite his. Tony glanced at his watch. Shit, that was an hour ago. It was now almost five AM.
Ziva was shouting something into her end of the receiver. Tony ordered, "Slow down, Ziva! You what?"
McGee, who had also been asleep at his desk, jumped to his feet, saying loudly, "On it, Boss," even though his eyes were only half open. He looked around, befuddled, and quickly caught onto what was going on. He stayed on his feet and asked worriedly, "Is it Gibbs?"
"I got Gibbs to remember," Ziva said slowly and clearly. Tony heard her swear at something in Hebrew and he realized she was driving. There was a muffled voice and he knew it was Gibbs. He was there, with her, in Ziva's car.
Tony sat up straight, wide awake now. "Where are you?"
"I'm coming in. I'm bringing Gibbs in, Tony. He remembers!"
"He remembers? Everything?"
From the passenger seat Gibbs was saying something to Ziva, and although the words were inaudible to Tony, it was a relief to hear his distinctive speech. Ziva then said clearly into the phone, "He remembers enough."
Tony was more than relieved to see Jethro walk across the squad room under his own power, with little indication in his gait that he'd been blown up a few days earlier and had just risen from a hospital bed. His face was ruddy and still raw in places, but his eyes blazed blue, lit with motivation to put a permanent stop to Pinpin Pula's acts of terrorism. There was more in those eyes; there was some apparent recognition of the people he encountered, even if he called Tony 'McGee'.
Gibbs stopped partway up the stairs on his way to MTAC, but only long enough to take a look at the side-by-side images of Galib and Pinpin Pula displayed on the plasma. "I should have known it wasn't Galib," he said with frustration rendering his voice sharp.
The team members gave him a little slack due to his injuries and they all assured Gibbs that he couldn't have known that Pula had killed Galib, stole that agent's identity, and duped Gibbs when they met face-to-face. Tony said, "I'd have made the same mistake."
Gibbs sent him a look that told Tony a lot about what the man was going through. Gibbs was happy to be back in the swing of things, and felt the kind of relief that comes from being given a second chance. "Well yeah, DiNozzo. I know. That's why I'm so pissed!" Gibbs slapped Tony's head as a way of punctuating his words, and gave him a crooked smile, then was on his way up the next tier of steps.
"You didn't forget me!" Tony cried, finding some of the weight he'd been carrying around lifting.
Despite the Director's best efforts to keep a lid on the situation, word trickled down fast that Deputy Director Welsh had sacrificed the people on the Navy frigate Victorious, as well as those on the Cape Fear, to Pinpin Pula's final, deadly act of terrorism. Gibbs' strong reaction to Welsh's treachery and stupidity spread quickly throughout the squad room, and it was no surprise to Tony that their colleagues agreed with and supported Gibbs to the end.
McGee, Ziva and Tony never said a word about what they had witnessed in MTAC, but their feelings were expressed in their eyes whenever they looked at each other. None of them had never seen Gibbs so livid. Tony felt the same deep anger that Gibbs did, only he was able to keep a lid on his feelings better than his boss did. A sense of failure washed over Tony even though the entire agency had worked every angle and they had done everything in their power to locate the terrorist. The bottom line was that they hadn't been able to neutralize Pinpin Pula in time and people - good people - had died.
They waited for what felt like hours. When Gibbs finally emerged from Director Shepard's office the sun was coming up. The sky was colored with shades of pink and orange, bringing the promise of a fine day. The rain of the past few days had finally stopped.
Gibbs headed for his desk and opened his drawer, seeking his firearm.
Tony jumped up and went to Gibbs' side. "Oh, I got them, Boss. I got them from the medics when they took you." It wasn't until Tony handed his boss his gun and badge that he saw the look in Gibbs' eyes. It was right then, in that heart-stopping moment, that Tony knew, just knew, that Gibbs had been defeated by the deaths he'd been unable to prevent aboard the Cape Fear. Never in all his days could Tony have imagined he'd see Gibbs like that, with bitterness and disappointment and barely-disguised contempt for everything he'd believed in, so close to the surface. It was as strong as a physical blow, and it left Tony unable to respond when his boss clamped a strong hand on his shoulder and said, "You'll do. It's your team now."
Tony sat in his car outside Gibbs' house, waiting for Ducky to emerge. Dusk fell rapidly and the streetlights turned on, then one by one the neighbors turned their porch lights on to welcome their owners home. For the longest time Gibbs' house remained dark and then, when a light went on in the living room, it startled Tony.
He was still in shock over Gibbs leaving with barely a word of goodbye to anyone in the squad room, and no word of explanation as to what he was planning or where he was going. There was so much tension in the air nobody came out and asked if his leave was going to be as permanent as it appeared to be.
To be fair, Gibbs should have still been in the hospital, considering everything he'd been through, and he was due time off to recoup both his strength and his mental resources. But Gibbs' expression when he'd left the squad room, stepping into the elevator with Ducky with a defiant, "Semper fi," had seemed so final. Tony was scared shitless that his boss was going to take a hike and keep on walking.
Ducky was still inside Gibbs' home.
From where he sat in his parked car, Tony caught an occasional glimpse of a shadow flitting across the partially drawn blinds of the large window at the front of the house. The car was getting cold, but Tony was patient. In fact, he felt surprisingly calm considering he didn't have a clue what he was going to do or say once he faced Gibbs. Tony was definitely going to confront him, to ask the questions he hadn't been able to, back at NCIS when they were awkwardly saying good-bye in front of the other agents' curious eyes. And to find out how much Gibbs really remembered.
Gibbs had handed out sparse good-byes and told Tony, "You'll do," as if that was sufficient. Then he'd walked out. Just walked out on them! No word about where he was going or for how long.
Jethro Gibbs was the kind of man who would assume it was better for him to deal with things in his own solitary fashion. Tony would bet that Gibbs would move ahead without too much introspection, licking his wounds in private, keeping busy, never considering for one moment that people were worrying about him, or that they wanted to stand by him and ease his way. Gibbs had just cast his team aside as if they were of no use to him wherever he was going. Tony, who would do anything for Gibbs, would not just let his boss - the man he cared about more than anyone else in the world - walk out like that, with so little regard for what they'd had, for what they'd meant to each other on a personal level, for what their future might hold.
Tony was damned if he was just going to watch Gibbs walk out of his life. He usually gave in to Gibbs, and often stepped aside out of deference for the older man, but this time he was going to fight for what he wanted and for what he believed in with his entire heart.
*** end chapter 5 ***