Eeep, sorry for the delay :S Thanks for all the reviews, and I just want to add...
A certain reviewer gave a very strong review concerning child abuse. I know everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and am in no way angry or anything about it, but I just want to say, that in my defense, this is a work of fiction, I had a warning at the start of the chapter, there are plenty of other stories that feature much worse abuse than spanking as a punishment and none of them get any complaints, and in context, Gibbs still sometimes sees him as his agent, so don't judge him too harshly ;)
Anyway, after that incredibly long A/N, here ya go :)
Abby heard her music turned off even before she heard the doors open. Gibbs strode in with Tony in his arms, and smiled quite tiredly at her,
"Hey Gibbs!" She chirped happily, "I heard about what happened in that office building. Got the evidence too." She showed him a bag with a damp knife in it, traces of blood still evident on it,
"I think I can still pull fingerprints off it," She continued, "And I'm running the blood to see if we get any matches. So no harm done." Gibbs glanced down at Tony, who by this time had started to suck his thumb in an adorable manner, and felt horribly guilty. He'd spanked the child and made him cry, because he'd disobeyed him, and all really for nothing. Though he had to learn, Gibbs argued with himself, and then realised it all didn't matter. He'd soon be back to his normal self, and wouldn't need any lessons, he'd know them already.
Then, a disgusting thought hit Gibbs. Was he no worse than Tony's father?
"Gibbs?" He looked up to see Abby looking at him, her head cocked slightly in a curious puppy-type way. He breathed out, before quickly handing Tony over to her and, ignoring her questioning look, walked out swiftly.
"Huh," Was all she said, looking down at Tony and smiling rather happily, "Looks like it's just you and me squirt." Tony mumbled something but didn't open his eyes, and Abby grinned before realising she had loads of work to do, and was stuck holding a baby.
"I'm sorry Tony," She said, meaning every word, "But the amount of work I have to do, you're not gonna be able to stay here. Ducky on the other hand, he'd love to have you visit him. You wanna go see uncle Ducky baby?" She loved speaking to him like that, but knew it was only when he was asleep she'd get away with it. Though she knew Kate had already had a go at it, she'd given the lab tech a detailed account of what happened back at the crime scene. At that moment, Tony chose to wake up, looking up at her blearily,
"Abbs?"
"Yeah baby?" He tried to scowl at her, but was still sleepy, and couldn't, not when she'd sounded so sincere,
"I'm hungry." She grinned happily, and answered,
"Gibbs'll have something for you, I'm sure, he came in with a bag this morning, it must have something in it." Tony just shrugged, choosing to go back to sleep as Abby started towards the elevator, and onto their office floor,
"Gibbs!" He looked up from where McGee had been talking to him, while sat at his desk, and looked rather confused,
"What've you got Abbs?"
"A hungry baby Gibbs. He told me, and I said you'd probably have something for him." He furrowed his eyebrows, and said,
"Abbs the kid's asleep." She stuck her tongue out and said,
"He woke up for about a minute, then fell asleep again. Do you not let him sleep at night Gibbs?" Gibbs hesitated, sure Tony didn't want everyone to know about his nightmares. So instead, he just said,
"I'm trying to get him into a normal sleep pattern, so when he's back to normal, he won't be interrupted." She stared at him for a bit, and he could practically hear the cogs in her head turning,
"Ok," She said after a while, and handed the still sleeping baby over, "But you'd better feed him right now, or I'm taking him back with me to see Ducky." Gibbs wasn't entirely sure what kind of threat that was, but took Tony anyway. He fished about in the bag he had, well aware that his agents and Abby were all staring in interest. Honestly, what was so interesting about watching a baby get fed?
"McGee, track Petty Officer Lacey's phone records, see if..."
"Arthur Lacey contacted him before this." McGee finished for him, and started to type furiously at his computer,
"Kate, go interview Lacey's boss at the office, see what..."
"He has to say about him. On it." She finished as well, and went towards the elevator. Gibbs rummaged for a bit, before saying,
"I've only got a bottle. Think he'll be alright with milk until I can get some real food?"
"Milk'd be nice." Tony mumbled, opening his eyes again, blinking and yawning, "What've we got on the case so far Boss?" He asked, while Gibbs instructed Abby to go heat some milk up.
"I don't see why you have to know right now Tony." He answered, and, seeing the kid was going to argue, he decided to distract him,
"See what I brought from home Tony?" He asked in a soothing voice, trying to work out how exactly he could click the kid's mind again so he wouldn't ask about the case again. Gibbs wasn't sure why he didn't want him to know at the moment, but something was telling him he shouldn't have to deal with it right now. Thankfully, he saw a small flash in Tony's eyes, and instinctively knew he was gone. But he'd be fighting back, so Gibbs rocked him slightly and murmured,
"Just relax kiddo, you're fine, I got you, nothing's going to happen." There was no sign as to whether or not Tony was still fighting, but he smiled happily and lifted his arms when Gibbs pulled George the teddy bear out of his bag,
"Thought that might keep you occupied for a while." He muttered, and started to slowly tap at the keys on his keyboard one-handed, as he was holding Tony tightly with his other arm. Soon, Abby was back, and cooing at Tony's cuteness, who had been burbling quite happily to himself and bouncing George up and down on his lap. She looked over to Gibbs as she passed him the bottle and asked,
"I'm guessing he's not in his right mind now is he?" Gibbs shook his head and she declared, "I'm going to give it a name... how about Tony Junior? Then, instead of saying 'Oh, Tony's in his baby mind', we can just say, 'Aw, it's Tony junior!'." She looked pleased with herself, and Gibbs granted her a smile, before saying,
"Yeah, I think I found a way to kind of... bring out 'Tony Junior'," Abby looked intrigued, and he explained, "If you speak to him with a certain tone in your voice, and in a certain way, he gets a kind of, spark in his eyes, and 'Tony Junior' comes out." Abby looked excited and bent down so she was sat in front of Tony Junior, and said,
"Hey baby! Who's that? Is that George? Oh, he looks happy doesn't he? Hey, I know a rhyme about bears! Ready?" She gently took his palm and start to tiptoe her fingers around his palm, making him giggle happily,
"Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear... one step, two step, and a tickly under there!" With that she tickled under his chin, where her hand had progressed through the many 'steps'. Gibbs smiled at her ways with children. And Tony was indeed enjoying it. Maybe Abby would teach him that rhyme, though it wasn't exactly that hard to remember,
"Hey Abbs, the kid said he was hungry right?" She smiled at him and stood up, trying not to get right back down at the puppy dog look she was getting,
"How do you get him back to normal Tony?" She asked,
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked, causing the baby to give a small start and shake his head,
"Sorry Boss! I swear I do try and stay in control, but..."
"Hey Tony, don't worry, whenever you go into Tony Junior mode it's so sweet! Are you aware of everything when it happens to you?" She asked interestedly, despite Gibbs' hints to leave so Tony could actually eat,
"Yeah," He said, in answer to Abby's question, "You're tickles are really too tickly Abbs, you might want to tone them down." She seemed to be remembering this for future reference and finally said,
"Well, I'm sure my babies are calling me right now, so I'd better scoot." With that, she gave Tony a huge hug and a kiss on the head, got one for herself off Gibbs and darted off. Tony looked up at his boss in the quiet office, and said,
"Hey Boss? Did Abbs bring any food? It should be my lunch hour in about..." He paused, not being able to tell the time as he gazed at the clock above McGee's desk,
"Ten minutes Tony, but you should drink this, you've not had that much today." Tony nodded, feeling slightly at ease being fed by Gibbs, which made up for the nervousness that was racking his body as he realised he was drinking milk out of a bottle in the office. Still, he enjoyed it, everything seemed to taste way better this way, and he got filled up faster for some odd reason. So, he leaned back, sucking slowly as Gibbs patiently fed him, trying not to let the content grin show on his face that would come later, when he was at home and when Tony was sleeping.
Still, the baby was much more restless now, even after the comforting feed, and started to wriggle all over the place, desperate for the chance to go for a walk about,
"C'mon Gibbs, just round the office? I swear I won't talk to anyone, and it's no as if I'd run off." Gibbs considered his proposition, and tried a compromise,
"How about, in ten minutes, when it's our lunch break,we go to the park?" Tony cocked his head, considering this,
"Never took you to be a 'picnic in the park' kind of guy Boss." Gibbs grimaced at him and shrugged, saying,
"Don't get your hopes up, we're not having a picnic."
"Awww..."
--
Precisely ten minutes after that, Gibbs made his way towards the park not too far away from NCIS. He held onto Tony pretty tightly as they walked past a small water fountain that foolish parents were letting their kids run into in their bathing suits. Not that Gibbs had anything against it, he remembered letting Kelly do exactly the same thing, but it was only the beginning of Spring, and Gibbs wouldn't want Tony wandering around out without a jacket on, even in normal circumstances.
He found a patch of grass that had been somewhat warmed by the sun, and sat down, putting Tony next to him, as he felt it would be pretentious to assume Tony would want to sit on his lap. They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Tony perked up, seeing a kid near them with an ice cream,
"Hey Boss..."
"I see it Tony," Gibbs replied, having noticed the ice cream truck as soon as they sat down, "Don't you think it's a bit too cold to have an ice cream now?" He added, rubbing Tony's small hands with his own warm ones, feeling how cold they were. Tony shook his head determinedly, and Gibbs relented, almost,
"How about, if you get so warm you need to take this jacket off, I'll buy one, but otherwise..." Tony tried his best to whine in an influencing way, but all he got was a small tap on the back of his head and a,
"DiNozzo, I was suggesting you go and play ball or something." Tony blushed, but did this mean...? Was Gibbs offering to...?
"Er, Boss? Are you going to play as well?"
"Wouldn't manage with one person kid." Tony smiled brightly, seeming to light up the whole park. He was undoubtedly this cute and sunny when he was really this age, but from some hints he'd dropped, coupled with the nightmares, it seemed his family hadn't cared about that. This got Gibbs back to thinking about what he'd thought back in Abby's lab,
"Tony..." He started, and Tony looked up, hearing a slight change in the older man's tone, "Did your father ever used to... hit you, if you'd done something wrong?" Tony stopped fidgeting and the smile started to drop off his face. The change in the mood was obvious, and Tony knew what Gibbs was getting at, he was a damned good investigator,
"Boss, you did that 'cause you had to, and I don't think anyone's ever disobeyed you before. I know you feel bad, but honestly, no big deal." His mood was too good to be true, and Gibbs replied,
"I've never hit a child Tony. Never. I don't know what came over me, I just, sometimes see you as..."
"Tony. Not Tony Junior. I did hear what you and Abby were talking about earlier you know," He added, seeing Gibbs' face, "And don't worry, you're not like him."
"Like who?"
"My daddy... I mean... my father, oh god, my head blanked for a moment, that was weird. Boss I think this thing's just getting worse." Gibbs stroked his head absent-mindedly, thinking, and replied,
"Don't worry Tony, we'll get you back to normal soon." Tony nodded, and leaned back onto Gibbs, enjoying the rough, marine hand running through his hair. Then, he sat back up, feeling all that pent-up energy running through him again,
"I thought we were gonna play ball Da... Gibbs?" Gibbs' heart missed a beat, but the kid looked too embarrassed to be approached about it, so he just pulled a cricket ball out of his pocket, stolen from Ducky, who told him that 'When I was younger, I was the most marvelous cricket player, you know, back in Scotland, we called those...' but never heard the end of that story, having walked out when he'd started, the first sentence just reaching his ears.
Tony's eyes widened and shone brightly,
"We're going to play catch?"
"The great father/son American pastime." Gibbs only half joked and stood up, plonking Tony down on the floor, and backing away slightly, throwing the ball from hand to hand until he was a short way away from Tony,
"Go long." He said sarcastically and threw the ball incredibly gently towards the toddler, who not surprisingly missed it, and blushed slightly, stumbling over to where it was and threw it very weakly back. Gibbs quickly grew tired of this, and he was sure Tony did as well, and said,
"I think we'll save this until you're normal again." Tony looked up at him and said,
"Promise?" Gibbs nodded and sighed as he looked down at his watch and realised they had somehow nearly reached the end of their lunch hour,
"Come on," He said, letting Tony toddle next to him, clutching at his trousers to keep him upright, "I suppose you can have an ice cream now." Tony beamed and clamoured to be carried, whining his legs hurt too much. Gibbs had rolled his eyes but hadn't hesitated, rather having to carry Tony than have him in any discomfort.
Soon, he was walking back to NCIS with a toddler he was trying to hold at arms length who was licking an ice cream, ultimately having it go all over him, all down his clothes and face.
"Isn't it a bit too cold out there for ice creams today Special Agent Gibbs?" The agent at the desk near the metal detector asked, eyes twinkling as he was amused by Tony's attempts to stop the ice cream falling out of the cone. Gibbs grinned and answered,
"We were coming back here into the warm anyway."
"Cleaners won't appreciate you dripping that everywhere young man." He said in a mock serious tone to Tony, who didn't really pay much attention and continued licking the ice cream. Gibbs snorted and said,
"I don't think he cares."
"Bit like his Uncle then, 'aint he?" He asked, looking over to Gibbs, as the word had spread he had his little nephew staying with him. Gibbs nodded and, saying goodbye, headed back to their floor. He found both McGee and Kate sat at the latter's desk, eating chinese. McGee's mouth fell open slightly at the sight of Gibbs holding a sticky toddler with ice cream everywhere, whereas Kate had a much more smooth,
"Hey Gibbs, Tony." Gibbs nodded, and without warning dumped Tony in McGee's arms and said,
"I've got to go see the Director. Kate, brief me about Lacey when I get back, McGee!"
"Yes Boss?" He answered, glancing nervously at the small boy sat on his lap,
"Clean DiNozzo up." He ordered with a slight grin, and made his way to MTAC.
Oh McGee's going to have fun 0.o And don't worry, one idea I have in mind for the next chapter involving those two is quite good. By that I mean Tony getting well and truly lost in the office only half way through being cleaned up ;P Review? Thanks for reading btw ^^ xx