Response

Fear crept into her consciousness, and Abby tried to break away from his iron hold. Unable to make any progress getting away from him, she ground out, "Get your hands off of me! I said I'm leaving, Winston, and that's what I am going to do."

"We'll see about that, Miss High and Mighty! You have obviously forgotten who I am," he responded, then slapped her in the face. "You had better figure out that you don't tell me what to do! I run this show!"

Stunned, her cheek throbbing, Abby tried to wrench away, but was hindered with another hard slap. She became frantic to get away, struggling wildly against him. Losing her balance, she fell to the pavement. Winston, still gripping her arm, started dragging her across the gravel. Abby began screaming then, and her adrenaline took over. Suddenly, Winston let go of her so unexpectedly that she skidded on the pavement. Shocked, she scrambled for footing to take stock of the change in circumstance.

Tony had Winston on the ground, and he was levelling one hard punch after the other on him. His expression reflected the fury that was driving his fists. Winston was doing his best to try to escape the blows, but Tony kept pounding him, one fist after another. Blood flew, and Abby knew it wasn't Tony's. McGee and Jimmy raced up, and witnessing Tony's rage, pulled him off by force, afraid that Tony would do some irreparable damage. When they finally had him standing upright and off of Winston Tony spat out, "You lay a hand on her again, Winston, and this beating will look like the appetizer! You'll pray for someone to pull me off of you!" Tim and Jimmy pushed him further away as Ziva and Tony's date, Eve, grabbed a sobbing Abby and escorted her back to the club's interior.

Gibbs was just making his way out of the basement and upstairs when the phone rang. Frowning, he barked a hello, expecting to hear either Tony or Abby begging to stay out longer and later. He steeled himself for the plea and his responding refusal. Instead it was McGee's voice which spoke. He listened attentively a second, closed the phone, then jogged out the front door and to his car.

When he arrived at the club the police were already there, and the captain recognized Gibbs. He greeted him, "Hey Jethro, sorry to drag you out. Your boy's gotten himself into some trouble, though. He beat the hell out of a guy in this parking lot, and the guy wants vengeance. He's pressing charges big time."

Gibbs grunted but didn't speak, making his way to where two other policemen were talking to Tony, Tim, and Jimmy. Tony's eyes fell when he saw his boss, and he braced himself for the reprimand that was going to come his way. Gibbs would be furious that Tony had been in a nightclub fight, and especially angered that police had been called because of it. Jimmy and Tim looked up warily and Tim shook his head slowly at his boss, hoping Gibbs would save the reprimand for a not so public place. Gibbs looked over at the victim, assessing the obvious signs of the beatdown, and decided the man had definitely seen the worst of Tony's fists. Winston was shouting angrily, gesturing in Tony's general direction and threatening that he would sue his attacker and take him to court. The captain caught up with Gibbs. "I think this Winston guy has a couple of broken ribs. His nose is definitely broken, and both eyes are going to be black. I know there will be other bruises, and I'm pretty sure some sprains, maybe even a fracture of the arm. The problem is that he is insistent about pressing charges against Dinozzo."

Jethro nodded, his mind analyzing what he knew so far, and then he turned to the captain. "What happened to create all of this?"

"According to the witnesses, this piece of dung was manhandling a lady, and your boy called him on it. He gave him a dose of his own medicine, plus some!"

Gibbs felt his gut tighten, and in a second, he had the events established in his mind, and the earlier events of the evening fell into place. He knew instantly that Abby was the lady in question, and his mind flashed back to Tony and Abby's earlier fuss. Tony had tried to reason with her. Gibbs clenched his jaw. "Is she ok? Is she hurt?"

The captain nodded. "She's going to be fine. The creep slapped her and she's got some cuts and bruises from being dragged, but nothing worse. Her friends are taking her home now."

Gibbs turned back and met Tony's eyes. He nodded his head, and motioned tapping his senior field agent under the chin. Tony smiled warily in response, relieved that his boss had come to make it right, and was letting him know that he was reserving his response until the two men had privacy. He hated letting his Boss down. Whatever reprimand his boss planned was going to take place at home, not in front of this audience, though.

Winston was leaning against a car trunk, trying to move his lower jaw with one hand while the other was used to emphasize his diatribe against Tony. Gibbs made his way to Winston, planted himself in front of him, and spoke with force. "My name is Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. I work for NCIS and the two you confronted this evening belong to me. I'm going to give you a minute to contemplate whether you really want to press any charges over tonight's events. While you're thinking through your decision, I want to make sure you know and understand that I have sworn testimony in my possession attesting to some really unsavoury, illegal activities on your part. I plan to use that testimony when this case hits the courtroom, if this incident actually does go before a judge. When it does, you will be through in Washington, or anywhere else in the East, for that matter. Think that over. Do you want a future life in DC, or don't you?"

Winston's face changed from aggression to fear and he wiped his bloody mouth with his shirt sleeve. He mulled over the information he'd heard. Gibbs had scared him, and he turned to the captain. "Forget the charges, man, I just want to get out of here!" The captain nodded, and Winston gathered himself and headed for his car. Jethro watched him cross to his vehicle, then called out as he opened the car door, "And Winston, you ever put your hands on a woman again, and we will know about it. When we do, you are going to pray that castration is all that's going to be done to you." Winston shook his head in response, gingerly got into his car, and drove off, gravel flying from underneath his tires.