Drowning

Chapter 22

Gibbs settled down in one of the comfortable chairs in Tony's living room and allowed himself to relax. It seemed an eternity since he had left the hospital that morning. Despite the fact that he had only been overlooking the investigation from his desk, he was physically tired. It had been frustrating to hear McGee and Ziva check in with the uninspiring news that there had been no further movement from or to the Partington house, but Gibbs had been impressed by Tony's encouraging and upbeat manner. Spending the day largely as an observer had confirmed Gibbs' view that his number one field agent 's leadership skills had developed a great deal. It was also obvious to Gibbs that Tony managed to still be affable even though he was in charge. Gibbs' leadership style was pretty much based on the premise that his underlings worked their backsides off out of fear that they might incur the wrath of the boss. Tony's style was more collaborative and friendly. Gibbs hoped that when Tony eventually led his own team, that team would appreciate and respect Tony's approach.

Gibbs shut his eyes and listened to the sounds coming from the kitchen. Who would have thought Dinozzo was so domesticated? It was true that they'd had pizza for dinner, but Tony had put together fruit salad and ice-cream for dessert and was now doing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. But then, mused Gibbs, this was a man who had looked after himself practically his whole life. Tony liked to project the image of the frat boy, but he was always immaculately dressed, well-groomed and fit. Gibbs opened his eyes and let his eyes sweep the living room. It was organized and warm. The enormous collection of DVDs and videos was no surprise, but the book collection was. Gibbs had never figured Dinozzo as an avid reader. There were no photographs but for one notable exception. Gibbs smiled when he recognized the framed photograph Abby had given Tony of herself in her famous Marilyn Monroe Halloween costume. Dinozzo had tormented McGee with it for several weeks until Gibbs had ordered him to 'put it the hell away'. But there were no photographs of Dinozzo's family anywhere in the room, and that had Gibbs' insides twisting slightly with concern for not the first time.

Gibbs was suddenly aware that Tony was standing in the doorway, tea-towel draped over one shoulder. Feeling like he'd been caught out, Gibbs gestured towards the photograph.

'McGee know you've got that hanging on your wall?' he asked.

'I might have mentioned it,' admitted Tony with a smile. 'But he's pretty cool about it now. He and Abs are just friends.'

'What do you mean by that?' Gibbs demanded, frowning deeply.

'They're..they're friends,' stammered Tony, reminding himself of the Probie. 'They've always been friends and they're still just friends. Just friends, Boss.'

Gibbs frowned for a little while longer before he nodded and appeared satisfied with Dinozzo's response. It really amused him when the team thought he'd missed something. Of course he'd known about the short fling between Abby and McGee. He just enjoyed seeing Tony trying to backpedal.

'I don't know if Abby's still friends with you after today, though,' said Tony, changing the subject slightly. 'She freaked out majorly when she found out you got early release.'

'She'll get over it,' said Gibbs.

'And Ducky was pretty pissed off as well,' added Tony, mischievously. 'Don't you hate it when people keep telling you that you should be in hospital when you feel fine?'

Gibbs tried to glare at Tony but couldn't quite achieve his goal.

'Alright, you've made your point,' he told Tony. 'Have you made the coffee?'

'About to bring it in now,' said Tony as he turned back to get it from the kitchen. 'You were pretty quiet. I was just checking that you hadn't gone to sleep.'

Tony gave his boss a black, deadly looking coffee (just how he knew Gibbs liked it) and then sat in the other chair with a tall glass of juice.

'McGee sent a text,' Tony told Gibbs. 'Still no movement at the Partington house, Vay's or Brogan's. He and Ziva have knocked off for the night. A back-up team's in place.'

Gibbs sipped his coffee. It was better than any coffee his last three wives had been able to make for him.

'You're convinced it's a ransom situation,' Gibbs stated rather than asked.

'Oh, yeah,' replied Tony. 'There's no way the Partingtons would practically beg us to get off the case unless they thought that it would be their ticket to getting their daughter back. The minute we walked into their house I knew, Boss. Dianne's academic qualifications were framed and on the walls. There were photographs of her on the sideboard. Her mother hadn't been sleeping. Her Dad put up a good front, but he was barely keeping it together. Dianne's their life.'

Gibbs sipped at his coffee again and marvelled at Tony's powers of observation. But he was also struck by the sad irony of Tony detecting things in the Partington house that had apparently been non-existent in his own.

'You think it's Brogan?' asked Gibbs.

'Probably,' said Tony. 'Fits his M.O. And he's out of jail. Too much of a co-incidence otherwise.'

Tony drained his glass and stood up.

'Just gonna put linen and blankets on the spare bed,' he told Gibbs. 'Want me to turn on the plasma?'

'I'm fine sleeping here,' Gibbs told him, patting the arm of the chair.

'Yeah, right,' snorted Tony as he took the glass to the kitchen. 'If Abby ever found out that I let Leroy Jethro Gibbs sleep upright in my armchair while still recovering from a serious wound, she'd kill me and write it up in one of those forensic journals she contributes to. Here's the remote if you wanna watch something.'

Tony put the remote on the arm of the chair before leaving Gibbs alone. Gibbs sat quietly but his mind was busy. He found himself profoundly bothered by the comment Tony had made earlier about kidnappers knowing they would never get a cent from his parents. Did Tony really mean that, or was he just yanking McGee's chain? Gibbs wished it was the latter, but his gut told him otherwise. What kind of people allowed their child to think like that; to believe that they were worthless? Gibbs knew that there was no limit to the ransom he would be prepared to pay to get Kelly back. And Kelly would have known that when she was still alive.

Gibbs heard Tony coughing from the spare room – probably a response to the colder air in the bedrooms. The weather had turned bitter outside. Gibbs wondered whether Tony was suffiently well to be back at work but decided against sounding like a hypocrite by questioning Tony about his health and fitness.

'Done,' announced Tony as he returned and dropped down into the chair again. Gibbs noted he sounded a little breathless from the exertion. Not a good sign.

'Looking forward to sleeping in a normal bed,' muttered Gibbs, giving away a rare, personal insight. 'Can't stand knowing the damn nurses are popping in every five minutes.'

'It's okay if they're hot,' said Tony.

'Not if you're incapacitated,' countered Gibbs.

'As long as you're not blind,' persisted Tony.

The two men grinned at each other, and even though he hated risking ruining Tony's good humour, Gibbs HAD to raise the issue that was bothering him.

'Tony,' he began, his voice uncharacteristically tentative. 'What the hell makes you think that your folks wouldn't have paid a cent in ransom for you?'

Tony ran his hand across his chin and smiled the smile that Gibbs hated the most: the fake one that didn't reach his eyes. For a few moments, Gibbs thought that Tony wasn't going to answer him at all.

'I don't THINK they wouldn't have paid a cent,' said Tony, finally. 'I KNOW they wouldn't have. But that's okay. That's the past.'

'That's a pretty tough thing,' said Gibbs, hoping that Tony might open up a bit. Being a sympathetic listener wasn't an attribute listed in Gibbs' resume, and it hadn't featured in his last three marriages either, but he was prepared to make an exception for Dinozzo.

Tony exhaled a whole lot of breath he had been holding and stood up.

I don't wanna go there, Boss,' he told Gibbs. 'Trust me, neither do you. I'm gonna turn in. Do you need any help before I go?'

Gibbs recognized the finality in Tony's voice and put the topic on the backburner for another day.

'Just help me out of this chair,' said Gibbs as he put his empty cup on the side table.

Tony gently gripped Gibbs' upper arm with one hand and placed his other arm across the older man's shoulders. On Tony's count of three, Gibbs stood up, allowing Tony to support him.

'You okay?' asked Tony.

'I'm good,' said Gibbs. 'I can take it from here.'

Tony let go of Gibbs, but not before briefly tightening his grip around the older man's shoulders.

'Glad you're okay Boss,' Tony said softly before disappearing down the hallway to his bedroom, leaving Gibbs a little stunned and oddly affected by the gesture.

……………………………………………

Dianne Partington heard the voices again. It was her captor and the woman she had heard him talk to before. Usually their voices were hushed, but this time they were raised and she could hear most of what they were saying. She concentrated hard so that she would be able to recall the details later.

'…been there long enough,' the woman was saying.

'Had to wait……stop asking questions,' said the man.

'Made it worse………nearly killed him,' said the woman.

'….have to worry anymore. Ends tomorrow,' said the man.

And then there was a heavy slam of a door and Dianne was left in silence once again.