Gibbs' eyes narrowed as the impatient order rained down from above. Glancing up with his characteristic indifference to Vance's authority, he arched an eyebrow impassively. When the Director shot him a deathly stare, he prevented himself from rolling his eyes and slowly heaved himself up to obey the "get your ass up here now" order.
He took his time sauntering up the stairs, barking instructions at his team as he went.
Vance made his way to his office at a brisk gate, with a completely unperturbed Gibbs meandering in tow. Anyone else would have begun to break out in a sweat at the obvious irate nature of the NCIS director, but LJ Gibbs didn't care for cold sweats. Certainly not ones brought about through the maddening whims of the higher ups.
He rolled his eyes as Vance snapped at him to shut the door as he strode around his desk and threw himself into his chair.
Placing himself in front of the expensive desk, Gibbs remained silent and waited with mounting impatience for the Director to spit out whatever the hell it was that was wrong with him this time.
"Why is it, Special Agent Gibbs, that it is always your team that causes me nothing but grief?"
The field agent stood impassively, but inside he sighed whilst his mind set into overdrive.
Which one was it this time…DiNozzo? He hadn't been acting strangely though…Ziva? No….
"Agents DiNozzo and McGee" carried on Vance, effectively ruining Gibbs' thought process, "have brought this agency, my, agency into disrepute."
Gibbs arched his infamous brow in a silent request that the director get to the damned point.
Intertwining his fingers, and resting his head upon them Vance shot him a murderous look.
"Were you aware Agent Gibbs that a complaint has been filed by the office of professional responsibility, courtesy of the FBI no less, regarding two persons fitting the description of your agents to a T?"
Gibbs refrained from rolling his eyes. Just.
"Fitting their descriptions Leon? The feds incapable of a positive ID nowadays?"
Bristling, the Director took a deep breath.
"They didn't get a chance to get their names Gibbs, not when Agent Sacks was grabbed from behind by one as he made his way into the feds hangout bar, whilst the other dumped an entire bucket full of, what has been identified as a mixture of flour, eggs, cooking oil and sour milk, over his head."
A cloaking silence descended in the room as the field agent forced these words to penetrate his brain.
Agent Sacks…that was bad. There was a known feud between DiNozzo and Sacks, everyone knew it.
Gibbs gritted his teeth as he remembered the cause of the feud.
Shaking these thoughts away vigorously, he pulled himself together.
Surely his two wouldn't do something so stupid. They knew how much both agencies frowned upon outright discourse between agents.
"Any proof of this Leon?" he growled across the table, "because, I sure as hell ain't going to accept that my two had anything to do with this without any."
Vance held his tongue at this, and began tapping away at his keyboard with an irritating urgency, before swivelling his monitor around to face Gibbs.
As the grainy figure of Agent Sacks walked towards the bar on the CCTV footage, Gibbs sighed. He was getting way too old for this.
He watched silently as two young men, approached the FBI agent stealthily from behind. Eyes narrowing he growled to himself when the sandy brown hair of the taller man fell out from his hooded jumper. As far as CCTV footage went, the guy sure looked a dead ringer for Tony.
Sighing, he watched on as the smaller of the two leapt on the unsuspecting back of the federal agent, and held him tightly whilst the taller one upended a vast quantity of what was clearly gunk over the thrashing man's head.
Gibbs closed his eyes briefly in wearied despair, but forced himself to act like a trained agent and analyse the footage.
The taller one, as much as it made his stomach churn to admit it, was definitely Tony.
The smaller one though…he wasn't so sure. It might, but it mightn't be McGee. It was hard to say.
This guy was a tad smaller and stockier than his junior agent.
Plus, the prank was much more Tony-ish than Tim-ish.
"Well?" snapped Vance abruptly, pulling Gibbs unwillingly out of his reverie, "what do you intend to do about this?"
Pulling himself together, the field agent realised that with his boy's skin on the line, now was not the time to get clever.
"I will get to the bottom of it Director. Rest assured, it will be handled."
Studying the tight expression on his MCRT chiefs face, Vance nodded curtly.
"Good. Now get out, I have waves to smooth over with the FBI director. This happens again Gibbs, and I'm going to start thinking we have a management problem. You understand?"
"Yes Director" Gibbs sighed, biting back a smart ass comment and quickly vacating the office with as much speed as he could muster with dignity.
Checking his watch as he bounded angrily down the stairs, he saw with relief that it was close to knocking off time.
Careering into the bull pen, he shot a murderous look at the bent over and seemingly angelic heads of his two boys.
"Ziva, you can finish up for the day. McGee, DiNozzo, with me. Now."
With that, he turned on his heel and swept from the office area, and made his way to the much used conference room.
Much used by him, that was.
It had thick walls, and he had wilful agents.
Tony and Tim got to their feet slowly, exchanging anxious looks. Ziva, for her part spared them a sympathetic glance before scampering out of the building with haste.
"What did you do now McGormless?" Tony hissed as they trailed in the wake of an obviously angry Gibbs.
Tim shot him a wounded look in response.
"Me?" he scoffed, "whatever this is, it has you written all over it."
Their bickering was cut short when the elder of the three came to an abrupt halt outside the conference room door, and swung it open.
"In" he ordered curtly.
The two nonplussed agents skirted in, each racking their brains frantically for the cause of their boss' obvious ire.
Shutting the door with a snap, Gibbs rounded on his two boys with a sterner than stern expression.
"Did you two organise a prank on Agent Sacks of the FBI, by grabbing him outside a goddamned bar and pouring a bucket of…of stuff over his head last night?" he growled, as usual, getting straight to the point.
A brief and shocked silence took place, before Tony broke it.
By bursting into snorting laughter.
Gibbs' eyes narrowed dangerously as he watched his senior agent rack with laughter, and sighed.
Turning his gaze to the younger agent, he studied him closely.
The kid looked completely bewildered.
"Did you have anything to do with this Tim?" he asked, moderating his voice into a more gentle tone.
"No boss, I swear" he blurted out immediately, his eyes widening with sincere innocence.
Gibbs racked an appraising gaze over his junior agent, and his gut feeling was reaffirmed.
Add his gut to the dissimilarities he spotted in the CCTV footage, he was convinced.
"Alright Tim, off you go then" he ordered, striding over and opening the conference room door.
McGee stood uncertainly, his eyes flickering between the now silent and alarmed looking Tony and the resolved looking Gibbs.
"Boss, what about Tony?" he stuttered, torn between self preservation and loyalty.
"Off you go Tim" Gibbs merely repeated, allowing a stern note to creep into his voice.
Knowing when a situation was hopeless, McGee shot Tony a sincere look of sympathy before obediently striding out of the room.
Snapping the door shut once more, Gibbs once again rounded into the room.
"What the hell were you thinking Tony?" he growled, "you know that goddamned Agent has it in for you. Why give him this?"
DiNozzo merely gaped in the elder man's direction for a few moments, struggling valiantly to find his voice.
Gibbs waited with more patience than he knew he possessed.
"Boss, I didn't" Tony eventually spat out in shock, not having believing for a second that Gibbs had actually believed he would do something so moronic.
The senior agent drew a deep, calming breath.
"Don't give me that Tony. You're on CCTV, you hate that guy and your response when confronted about it was to burst out laughing for god's sake!"
"I'm what? I'm on what CCTV?"
Gibbs closed his eyes wearily for a moment and forced himself to remain relatively sane.
"Vance just showed me footage of you, and presumably one of your bone headed friends grabbing Sacks outside a bar last night. Which now that I think about it, actually makes sense, seeing as I called you twice last night on a lead and you didn't pick up. Too busy dragging the name of this agency through the mud were you?"
Tony felt the room start to spin slightly, as his brain struggled to keep up with his ears.
He gulped down a large helping of air, and tried to get a hold of himself.
"Boss, you don't think…c'mon you can't think that I did this?" he squeaked.
So much for getting a hold of himself.
Sighing, Gibbs leant against the large oak table and shook his head sadly.
"Don't make this worse on yourself Tony. You know how I feel about lying. Come clean, now."
Squawking, DiNozzo took three steps back.
"But I didn't do it. Boss c'mon man… I swear, I had nothing to do with it. I'm being framed! Again."
"Tony…"
Gibbs sighed once more, and stood up.
"Come on. Let's get this over with" he instructed firmly, reaching for his belt buckle.
Tony squeaked and took another three steps back, shaking his head wildly.
"Boss please" he babbled "you've got to believe me! I swear, I had nothing to do with it. You believed McGee, why not me?"
Gibbs pulled his belt through his pant loops in one go, and doubled it over in his hands before answering.
"Because McGee doesn't have a history of these frat boy pranks. Because McGee isn't on that footage and because McGee knows better than to pull an inter agency disaster like this! Now, get over here."
Gibbs turned towards the conference room table as he spoke.
It was because of this, he just didn't see.
He didn't see the cloud that came down over Tony's eyes.
He didn't see the change in the way that Tony held himself.
He didn't see the way Tony's jaw tightened.
Even if he had been looking at him, there was no way he could have seen the pain that was spreading throughout his eldest boy. Pain that had nothing to do with the sting of a belt.
In four strides, the senior field agent had crossed the room and placed himself in the very familiar position over the conference room table.
Except, this time. For the very first time, he didn't deserve what was about to happen.
He closed his eyes tightly as he felt Gibbs' hand come down on his back. It took all his strength and character not to throw it off. The hand that usually gave him so much reassurance and comfort, was loathsome to him now. He barely recognised it as Gibbs' hand. It felt so much more like…like before.
The first lash landed with its usual expediency, but he did not cry out.
He would not cry out.
He had learned, a long…long time ago that that would only make things worse.
He closed his eyes tighter still as the second lick fell, and recalled all his coping mechanisms of years gone by with gusto.
He could do this, he knew, because he had done this before.
So many times before.
He laid his head down on the cool table and blocked out the pain. Blocked out the hurt.
This was just another beating, like so many before.
He cried out if he was being spanked. But, never a beating.
Same drill, different person.
Gibbs for his part, was rapidly becoming disconcerted.
Tony had eventually come to his senses and basically admitted what he had done by accepting his punishment, but…something was off about the kid.
His back remained completely tense and taught, and he had not uttered a syllable as each lick of the belt fell.
Whilst the kid generally did put up a stoic front, that usually dropped after four or five swats.
This time, he seemed determined to get through without any of that.
Sighing, Gibbs forced himself to carry on doing the thing he hated more than anything when it came to his four.
He decided against making Tony drop his slacks, deciding that this needed to be an effective, but quick lesson.
He laid down a few more licks on the soft sit spots of his eldest boy, before landing another few on the centre of his butt. With one particularly searing swat, he stood back and quickly threaded his belt back through his pants.
He immediately went to crouch down beside his senior agent, but it was a mooted gesture.
Tony was already on his feet, swiping his hand across his wet eyes.
Slightly wrong footed, Gibbs quickly recovered and instead, moved to pull the boy into his arms.
To his dismay, Tony quickly side stepped the intended embrace and stared through watery eyes over his boss' shoulder.
Drawing in a ragged breath, he found his voice.
"If it's ok, I'd like to get off now. I have a date tonight."
His words were hitched, but non-wavering.
Gibbs stared wordlessly at his detached and frankly…odd, senior agent.
"Tony…what's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's just been a bit of a day, and I need to pick up a few things. Can I go?"
All of this was said to a spot somewhere in the far corner of the room.
Gibbs reached out and placed a hand on the kid's shoulder, and to his further dismay, Tony grimaced at the gesture.
Pulling himself together, the team leader tried to ignore the fact that usually he would have his arms full of DiNozzo at this stage in proceedings, and tried to remain rational.
"You sure you're ok son?" he asked gently.
Nodding brusquely, Tony arched an eyebrow in the unspoken and repeated request for a dismissal.
"Ok then I guess… off you go" Gibbs somewhat croaked out, feeling completely helpless against the tidal wave of his gut feeling.
Without a further word, Tony spun on his heel and strode from the conference room, snapping the door shut behind him.
It was only when he made it to the safety of his car, did he allow the tears he was holding in to fall.
Had anyone been in the car with him, they would have been confused and alarmed by the hurt filled words that he choked out.
"I'm not your son."
A/N: So, way back in the earlier chapters I said I had a storyline for Tony and Tim that I wanted to try out, and this is it. I wanted to try my hand at a "not always right/perfect Gibbs" and see what happens!
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for bearing with me with no postings over the last month. I have one exam left, but needed a study break and this chapter is the result! Thanks so much to all those who sent me lovely messages of good luck! They've gone well so far!
I will be updating the rest of my stories soon as well, the first one being The Trust Equation for those of you who are following that one as well.
As always, please let me know what you think and thanks for reading guys!