"Prequel," filler, and tag for "Forced Entry."
Just to clarify the timeline, this is picking up right after the tag for Chapter 6 "Special Order" – which jumped ahead two weeks. That means that the last two chapters' events occurred in the interim during that two-week period and we are back to the Monday morning that Tony finds his brand new sunglasses from "Santa" in his desk drawer…
Rebounding
Monday, December 6, 2004, morning
With a satisfied grin, Tony carefully placed his brand new Oakleys back in their home inside his desk drawer. Maybe this won't be such a bad Monday after all.
He noticed that his computer was finally finished booting up for the day and he began to follow the daily ritual of checking his work emails. Deciding there was nothing urgent to be found there, he switched over to his personal email account. He'd checked it one last time the night before to see if Paula had by chance returned his messages since she obviously hadn't felt inclined to return his phone calls. His heart skipped a beat when he noticed a brand-new message from Paula's personal email address from earlier that morning. Looking around cautiously to make sure there were no nosy coworkers too close to his personal space, he double-clicked to open the message.
Tony,
I thought I'd made myself clear last week, but apparently not clear enough since I've listened to about a thousand voice mails from you since then. We are coworkers and nothing more. You were fun to hang out with, but that's all it was for me. Just fun. I wish you the best, Tony, but I've moved on and you need to do the same.
Please do not call me anymore.
Paula
Tony read and then reread the message in disbelief, his brief earlier optimism now vanished, replaced by the sharp sting of rejection. Fun? That's all I was to her? How could my instincts have been so wrong? The words of his teammates began to play over and over in Tony's head. First, Kate's taunting voice saying sarcastically that Paula must've really been "something special," huh? Then Gibbs was telling him what an idiot he was for letting a woman get to him like this. Finally, there was McGee. You gotta know when to let go, Tony. Now excuse me, please. I have a date. He could practically see the Probie laughing at him, enjoying his rare moment of victory. When Gibbs' real life voice informed him that he was needed for a meeting in MTAC, Tony didn't even hear him, instead staring at, but right through, his computer screen, the email from Paula still open.
A concerned Gibbs was now standing in front of his desk. "DiNozzo!"
The sharp bark from his boss finally got the agent's attention. He quickly shut down the email from Paula. "Boss?" he said, with not a little confusion as to why Gibbs was suddenly standing there practically biting his head off.
"Didn't you hear me? I said we have a meeting in MTAC."
"Oh. Right, Boss. Sorry," he answered distractedly.
Gibbs studied Tony's face with alarm. McGee and Kate were now also staring with fascination in Tony's direction. Their teammate always made a show of jumping at Gibbs' orders, so his failure to immediately comply was highly unusual. Still seeming confused, Tony began to look around for a notepad to take to his meeting when Gibbs abruptly handed said notepad to him. It had been in the corner of his desk the whole time.
"Thanks," he mumbled as he stood up to follow Gibbs, who was still staring at him intently. His boss simply nodded and quietly turned towards the stairs with the younger agent following somewhat lethargically behind.
When they were out of hearing range, Kate and McGee turned to look at each other.
McGee was the first to speak. "Any idea what that was about?"
"No. Maybe he's just tired. Probably nothing to worry about." Nevertheless, Kate was worried anyway. Her instincts were telling her there was a lot more going on with her partner than a post-weekend hangover.
Monday, December 6, 2004, afternoon
Tony had barely spoken all day. Kate sat across from him trying to watch him discreetly, looking for any clues as to his depressed mood. He looks exhausted. Maybe that really is the problem. Too much partying. Still, had that been the case, it would have been far more likely that her partner would have been jabbering all day about his fabulous weekend until she was ready to slap him. This Tony was disconcerting.
"You're quiet today, DiNozzo."
"I'm surprised to hear you complaining about it," he replied without emotion.
"Who's complaining?" she asked lightly, hoping to get a joking response. When she got no reaction, she continued. "It's just unusual." Still nothing. She put down the folder she had been holding and now looked directly across the room at her partner. "Seriously, Tony, are you ok?"
The uncharacteristically expressed concern from Kate worked to get his attention, but didn't get her an honest answer. "Fine, Kate. Thanks for asking."
She was about to press for more when Gibbs and McGee walked back into the room. Gibbs, she noticed, glanced over in Tony's direction when he walked past, his gaze lingering just a bit too long to be considered a passing glance, but unsurprisingly their superior said nothing.
The Probie was a bit less subtle in his scrutiny of his teammate, so much so that Tony, who hadn't even looked at McGee but had sensed his gaze, testily said, "There a problem, Agent McGee?"
Flustered at having been caught, the younger agent struggled to come up with something. "Uh, no, no problem, Tony. Actually, I was just wondering if you ever heard back from Agent Cassidy." In an innocent but nervous effort to make conversation to diffuse the tension in the atmosphere, the junior agent had inadvertently lit the fuse.
DiNozzo fixed a glare on the younger man that made his eyes go wide and his hands begin to sweat. When he wanted to, Tony could scare him worse than Gibbs. The Lead Agent, in fact, was preparing himself to get in the middle of his two male agents if necessary.
But instead Tony stood up, slammed his desk drawer shut with a loud bang, causing Kate to jump and McGee to wince. And then he left, not even remembering to take his brand new sunglasses with him.
The two remaining younger agents stared at each other in shock, mouths agape. Gibbs simply clenched his jaw and breathed deeply. All three of them had the same thought.
Guess now we know what's gotten into him.
Tuesday, December 7, 2004, morning
Get it together, DiNozzo, Tony had said to himself on his drive to work. He'd been filled with self-recriminations since the day before. Letting a woman affect him this much was ridiculous. Letting other people see how affected he was by it was simply unacceptable. Today will be different. In an effort to make it so, he'd worn his most expensive suit.
Pasting on his 1,000-watt smile and even forcing a bounce into his step, he strode into the bullpen. "Good morning, Kate!"
Oh, how he would have loved a picture of Kate's face, startled and confounded. "Good morning, Tony," she said very cautiously.
He turned to look at McGee. Poor kid looks absolutely terrified. "Pro-o-o-o-bie!" he said with a chuckle. I'm gonna have so much fun playing with McGee today. Walking over and putting his hands on either side of the younger man's face and squeezing, he said as if he was talking to a small child, "What's the matter? Turn that frown upside down, Agent McGee!" He then patted each side of the Probie's face with just slightly more force than necessary.
Turning towards his desk, he caught Gibbs watching him again. This time it was the look that said you don't fool me, DiNozzo. But it didn't matter, because even though the other man saw right through his act, Tony finally knew him well enough to realize that Gibbs wouldn't blow his cover in front of the other agents.
This was going to be a day to remember. He'd already come up with at least five separate pranks he could play on Agent McGee. He recalled one in particular with a devious smile, causing him to immediately turn his face to hide from his coworkers. It involved super glue…
Tuesday, December 7, 2004, evening
Tony closed the door to his apartment behind him in relief. These had to have been the two most boring days in NCIS history. He was practically begging for a case to keep his thoughts occupied, but naturally since he wanted one so badly, none came. At least he had the memory of Agent McGee and his little Probie fingers inextricably attached to his computer keyboard to entertain him.
Still chuckling to himself, Tony removed his jacket and threw it over a chair. Then his shoes. Aww, heck, it's a sweatpants and t-shirt kind of night. His work clothes strewn all over his apartment with glee, the very special agent quickly threw on his favorite Ohio State t-shirt and sweatpants. He'd had to keep up a front all day, but now he was finally home. His kingdom. He could do whatever he wanted for the rest of the evening. Which is what, exactly?
He decided to toss a frozen pizza in the oven, then picked up the television listings looking for a game. Football, basketball, hockey, anything really. But absolutely nothing intrigued him. Ok, I'll check movies. He was again disappointed to find several of what he would consider "chick flicks" on the schedule for the evening. Ooey gooey love stories were the last things he wanted to be watching.
As the timer went off signaling that his dinner was ready, he had another thought. Shopping. Buying something nice always works. Then he guiltily remembered that Christmas was coming, and that he should probably be thinking of buying gifts for others instead of indulging himself. He only had a few people to shop for, but they were all difficult. Gibbs he could get a bottle of Jack. But the rest of his coworkers - he had no idea. And he was almost equally clueless regarding his father, though it didn't matter much in his case. Since the man never gave him anything remotely relevant or useful.
He grabbed a paper plate and a can of soda and then took his meal to the bedroom and sat down at his desk, switching on his computer. After surfing several websites and making no more progress than when he had first sat down, he was back to being bored again. So he started surfing the web for other possible sites of interest.
He laughed out loud at the name of one website he came across: Hot Hookups. This I gotta see. Who comes up with this stuff? Browsing the home page, he saw that there was a chatroom. What the heck? It's free entertainment. He came up with a screen name he could easily remember. I'll be Buckeyefan007.
A few minutes after entering the chat room, he saw a pop-up window. You are receiving a private message from Hotjugs24. Would you like to accept? That one almost made him choke on his pizza. Hotjugs24? Oh, how could I say no? Clicking "accept," he quickly read the message:
Hotjugs24: Hi. I hope you don't mind the private message. I really liked your screen name.
Buckeyefan007: Well, hello, "Hotjugs." I am intrigued by yours as well. Is 24 your age?
Hotjugs24: How did you know?
Buckeyefan007: Guess I'm just a smart guy. What's a nice girl like you doing in an internet chat room?
Hotjugs24: It's just really hard for me to meet nice guys so I decided to try something different. You?
Buckeyefan007: Honestly? I was bored.
Hotjugs24: So what do you do, Buckeyefan?
Buckeyefan007: I work for the government . What about you?
Hotjugs24: I'm a cheerleader for the Baltimore Ravens.
Yeah, sure you are, "hotjugs."
Hotjugs24: Are you interested in meeting me? We could have a really good time together.
Ok, now this is beyond entertainment and venturing into creepy.
Buckeyefan007: I don't think so. Sorry. But good luck.
Tony signed off quickly. He couldn't even imagine meeting a stranger he'd found in an internet chat room. He knew it worked out for some people, but years in law enforcement had made him a skeptic. Too many crazies in the world. And Hotjugs24 was definitely not likely to be some hot, blonde, young NFL cheerleader. The thought of what the person he'd just been talking to actually looked like made him shudder.
Maybe one of those chick flicks isn't such a bad idea after all.
Wednesday, December 8, 2004, lunchtime
"Don't you think maybe you're pushing it a little bit with the pranks on McGee?" Kate asked him as they stood in line at the sub shop.
"Look at you, little-miss-innocence. Don't think I didn't catch you laughing at them yourself."
She couldn't really argue with that. Some of it had been pretty funny. Bordering on hysterical, even. But the junior agent on their team was becoming less and less amused by the day. "Some of it's funny, Tony, but you need to know when to quit. I think McGee's starting to get really angry with you."
"It'll be good for him, Kate. Probie needs to develop a thicker skin anyway. You see the way he stutters around Gibbs," he said with emphasis.
With more seriousness, Kate countered with, "I know what you're doing. You're trying to distract us because you're really upset about Paula Cassidy."
Tony's face hardened momentarily until he pasted on an innocent expression and inquired, "I'm sorry, Paula who?"
"Pretend all you want. You were really upset the other day. We all saw it."
"Drop it, Kate," he said just a little bit dangerously.
"You'll meet someone else, Tony. You just need to start looking in the right places." The familiar anger and jealousy towards his coworkers was beginning to return. He knew Kate had a new man friend. Harrison. Gibbs had his mystery redhead. McGee and Abby had each other. That left himself and Ducky, and as much as he adored the older man, he really didn't want to be lumped together with him in the category of the lovelorn. And that Jimmy Palmer guy was just too strange to even be considered.
"Maybe I already have," he said, doing his best to sound mysterious.
With a high level of skepticism, his partner responded, "You've met someone else already. In like three days."
"What can I say? Women are just drawn to me."
"Uh-huh. And what's her name? Or do you even know?"
Tony just smiled in response.
"You don't know, do you? Aw, Tony. Where did you meet this one? The 7-11?"
"On the internet." What Kate doesn't know won't hurt either one of us.
"The internet, Tony? You can't be serious."
"What?" he asked, feigning hurt. "Lots of people meet on the internet."
"Lots of perverts meet people on the internet. You know, come to think of it, maybe you fit right in. Just make sure you take your Sig if you ever decide to meet her."
"Kate! I'm beginning to think you don't trust my judgment."
"You're just figuring that out now, DiNozzo?"
She pranced off to find them a table and Tony allowed himself a moment of silent laughter before choosing to follow.
Yanking Kate's chain is almost as fun as playing pranks on McGee. Almost.
Friday, December 10, 2004, afternoon
Finally admitting to himself, however reluctantly, that Kate was right about McGee, Tony brought back a Nutter Butter from the break room and tossed it casually onto the younger man's desk.
"Is this another joke?" McGee asked him somewhat petulantly.
"No, Probie, this is a truce. I may have taken things a little too far this week and I hope there are no hard feelings." He meant it, of course. But he also wanted to ask the other man a favor, and clearly some buttering up was in order before he could even consider it.
Still a bit suspicious, McGee examined the packaging. Deciding everything was in order he gave a hesitant, "Thanks," and opened the package.
"You got plans tomorrow afternoon?"
Now the junior agent looked confused. "Are you talking to me?"
Laughing just a tad more forcefully than necessary, Tony said, "Probie, of course I'm talking to you. Besides, there's no one else here."
With a frown, McGee reminded him, "We're supposed to be on duty tomorrow."
"Yeah, but just tomorrow morning. If we don't get a case, we'll be out of here at least by noon. And since this has been the most dull week ever…" Opening his desk drawer, he pulled out a section of the newspaper and, looking around to make sure his boss was nowhere in sight, he walked it over to his young partner's desk. "Take a look, McGee." He pointed to a large ad.
"Playboy centerfolds hosting a fundraiser at a soup kitchen?"
"Yeah, McGee," he said excitedly. "Hot babes and good deeds. Can you get any better than that?"
"And you want me to go to this. With you."
"C'mon, it'll be fun! I promise not to tell Abby."
McGee felt slightly flattered that his partner and tormentor, who he'd always assumed couldn't stand him, was inviting him to hang out with him. And he was probably right about the hot babes. "Sure, Tony. I mean, if we don't have to work."
"That's the spirit, McGee!"
He could feel it in the air. This was definitely going to be a better weekend than the last.
Saturday, December 11, 2004, late afternoon
So close. They'd come so close to getting through the morning without a case. Then, at 10:50am, Gibbs had strolled into the bullpen announcing that a Marine's wife had shot an intruder at Quantico, and just like that, Tony's weekend plans had been destroyed. This, after wishing and hoping for a case all week. I didn't mean on Saturday, he'd thought with dismay.
Of course, it had been McGee who had inadvertently set him off all over again. "Well, Tony, looks like we aren't going to make it to that fundraiser today after all."
Well, no kidding, McGee. Thank you so much for stating the obvious and then rubbing my nose in it.
The idea of setting up the younger man to drink Gibbs' coffee had just fallen into his lap, really. Like a gift. Even Kate, who had scolded him for his pranks a few days earlier, had been amused. He thought it was brilliant. Even if the Probie had yet to find the humor in the situation.
And that little confrontation they'd had in the bullpen, that really hadn't been his fault. Clearly the Probie had provoked him. He was simply pointing out the obvious, that rapists are known liars and it wouldn't be right to put Laura Rowens through any more trauma based on nothing but the word of the suspect. McGee was the the one who had suggested they consider the possibility that Davison could be telling the truth.
If he'd overreacted and almost been pushed to come to blows with the Probie, it could be blamed on the younger man pushing his buttons. Telling him he was the master at handing out crap. But you are. Most of the time, you're full of crap, DiNozzo. And you dish plenty of it out to the Probie. More than he deserves.
And now, he was being punished by being relegated to his desk to go through Davison's phone records while Gibbs had taken Kate to search his apartment. It simply wasn't fair.
Looking up, Tony noticed that Gibbs had returned to the bullpen alone.
"Where's Kate, Boss?"
Impatiently, Gibbs replied, "I think she went to the head, DiNozzo. Do you have to know where everyone is every minute of the day?"
Now, it seemed, the boss was ticked at him, too, and he wasn't sure why. "No, of course not, Boss. Forget I asked."
"Need you to help Kate and me take the evidence from Davison's apartment down to Abby's lab."
Getting up, he responded with a falsely enthusiastic, "On it, Boss."
"And DiNozzo…Bring your gym clothes tomorrow. If we wrap this case, you and I are gonna do some training."
"Tomorrow's Sunday, Boss." Gibbs' face left no room for argument. "Right. Never mind. I'll be ready."
Sunday, December 12, 2004, evening
Tony really wasn't in the mood to do combat training this evening. His weekend had already been ruined by the case, topping off one truly lousy week. And Gibbs was about the last person he needed to be spending time with right now. His nerves were shot, he was tired, cranky, and honestly feeling guilty for getting so nasty with McGee yesterday. In this state, it wouldn't take much for him to either hurt someone or start crying, and neither option was especially palatable.
When Gibbs walked in, he noticed the other man hadn't changed into his gym clothes and thought, briefly, that he was getting a reprieve. "You change your mind, Boss?"
"No. I didn't say you and I were sparring tonight. We're gonna do something a little different."
Tony's heart sank. He had a feeling "different" would be something he wasn't going to like very much.
Gibbs nodded for Tony to follow him and they moved over to the 100lb punching bag and Gibbs handed him a pair of gloves.
Confused, the younger man queried, "Why the punching bag? I thought you weren't concerned about me learning to box."
"I'm not. It's not about boxing. It's about you needing a target."
Tony stiffened and replied defensively, "This really isn't necessary. I'm fine."
Gibbs angrily got into the younger man's face. "You're fine? You wanna explain to me then why Kate and I almost had to get between you and Agent McGee yesterday? You think acting like a five-year-old on the playground is gonna convince me to recognize you as the Senior Field Agent?"
Knowing he had no ground to stand on in the argument, Tony took the gloves and put them on. "What do you want me to do?"
"Whatever you want. Just do it to the bag and stop taking it out on your teammates."
Feeling slightly foolish, Tony started landing halfhearted blows on the bag. Gibbs could clearly see it wasn't accomplishing the goal. "That all you got, DiNozzo? You hit like a girl. Agent McGee could do better than that." Then he pushed the button he knew would get a response, and hoped Tony would eventually understand his intent. "No wonder Cassidy wasn't impressed."
Tony drew in a sharp breath, white-hot anger burning his eyes. Gibbs used his own eyes to issue the challenge by glancing towards the bag. Get it out, Tony.
Energized by his rage, DiNozzo landed blow after stinging blow as the minutes passed. At one point, he began alternating the punches with kicks. Stupid, DiNozzo. She was just playing a game with you and you let her. It's the same game you play and you didn't even know it. Couldn't even have the decency to do it in person. Email. Who does that? Humiliating me. And the whole team knows . And they're all attached to someone. Even the Probie has somebody. I'm the only loser. I don't want their pity…
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he failed to notice the fatigue that was slowly overtaking his muscles. Pushing past the pain, the blows continued to rain down even harder on the helpless bag until Gibbs decided it was time to step in. "Ok, that's enough, DiNozzo."
The younger man didn't even hear him. Cautiously stepping closer, he tried his agent's first name. "Tony." No reaction. "Tony! I said that's enough. Stand down!" Suddenly questioning whether or not this had been the best of ideas, Gibbs realized he may have to physically step in.
Coming up behind Tony and ensuring that he could physically restrain his agent without being struck himself, he quickly and somewhat roughly wrapped both his arms around the other man and pulled him away from the bag. Not letting up on the firm grip he had on the other man, Gibbs once again said, this time in the younger man's ear, "That's enough, Tony."
This time he heard and stopped struggling. Dismayed that his boss had been forced to physically restrain him, suddenly panting for air, and feeling his overspent muscles give out on him, he relaxed and sank to the floor in a sitting position.
Gibbs finally felt comfortable with letting go this time, and decided to take up a seat on the floor next to Tony. "Told you you were angry, DiNozzo," he said with a satisfied grin.
Seeing that the other man hadn't yet looked at him, but was instead focused intently on the ground in front of him, Gibbs added, "Nothing wrong with being angry. Just have to know what to do with it."
"I screwed up," Tony mumbled.
"You took a chance. Sometimes you have to. Sometimes it bites you in the butt. Learn from it and move on."
"I'm trying."
"By meeting big middle-aged guys with tattoos on the internet? Hotjugs24?"
Tony sighed. Kate had brought that up yesterday and Gibbs had practically interrogated him about it. And of course McGee, in a somewhat brilliant act of retribution, had tracked down his internet friend and found that heavily tattooed, thuggish-looking man behind the moniker. "Boss, I wasn't really trying to meet a woman. I was bored, I wandered into an internet chat room for entertainment and started talking to this…person….and when she….he…said he wanted to meet me I got out real quick. Believe me, I do know better. I was just kidding around with Kate about it. I didn't think she'd tell everybody."
Gibbs worked hard to hide it, but was greatly relieved. At least Tony hadn't gone completely off the deep end. "I believe you, DiNozzo." He stood up and offered his hand. "C'mon. Time to go home. Eat something. Get some rest."
Tony was too exhausted not to take the helping hand. Gibbs hovered for just a minute to make sure his agent was steady on his feet, then wordlessly clapped him on the back. As the younger man headed towards the showers, feeling his boss' eyes following carefully, he assured, "I'm fine, Boss. Go home."
At least DiNozzo's mind reading skills are still intact. "See you bright and early in the morning, DiNozzo. Hope you got a new alarm clock."
Realizing tomorrow was Monday all over again, Tony groaned.
On the way to his car, his cell phone rang. He had a brief thought that maybe Paula had changed her mind. No, Tony, Gibbs is right. Have to let it go.
Of course, that would be easier to do if he had another beautiful woman around to help him forget. As luck would have it, the name on his caller ID was that of a beautiful woman.
Lt. Pam Kim.