Disclaimer: Nothings mine, except the bad jokes maybe.

A/N: As promised; Chapter 03 fast and long!!! Enjoy!

This chapter was beta'd by Ktwesterna! Thanks for your great work!


Their Day in Baltimore


Chapter 03

In Tony's opinion there was only one word in the English language capable of describing the long drive to Mrs. Speers house:

Awkward.

While Tony still remembered Gibbs' more than adventurous driving, the silence between the two men was something entirely new. It was downright uncomfortable and not to mention stifling. He wondered if Gibbs felt the same way and chanced a glance to his right.

Well, judging from his tight grip on the wheel and his stony expression, the Agent certainly did.

Tony shifted in his seat and debated whether he should try to attempt some kind of conversation with the man. He was used to bridging uncomfortable situations with mindless banter and if this, right now, didn't call for desperate measures, he didn't know what did. But then he remembered the way Gibbs had treated him back at the police station and clamped his mouth shut.

If Gibbs wanted to act like an ass, Tony was perfectly content to let him.

But just because he had decided to give the Agent the silent treatment didn't mean that he could stop thinking about him. And Tony slowly realized that there was a lot to think about.

There was something different about Gibbs.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something about Gibbs face that didn't fit his memories. At the police station he'd been too hurt and confused to notice it, but now, in the confined space of the car, he was surprised that he hadn't seen it sooner.

The Agents face - while pretty much the same except for some additional wrinkles - looked harder. More drawn. It didn't exactly make him look older, but it gave him an air of weariness. Tony felt himself reminded of the pictures he'd seen of his grandfather. A man broken by war and illness. No one had ever really told him that, but little Tony had seen it clearly on the face of the old Italian and right now he was getting the same vibe from the man besides him.

It was kind of disturbing.

But while the face was bad as it was, Gibbs eyes were even worse.

'They don't only look harder,' Tony thought after another quick peek at the old mans face. 'They look colder too.'

The thought troubled him immensely, although he really couldn't fathom why since he'd just declared that this man was none of his business anymore. He shouldn't worry about someone who apparently didn't give a damn about him. Hadn't he learned that lesson with his father already?

The last glance must have been too much, because Gibbs suddenly accelerated even more and growled, "Is there something on my face?"

Tony was badly startled and deeply embarrassed that he'd been caught staring but his expression betrayed nothing.

"You mean apart from that lovely scowl?" he drawled back, putting as much indifference into the words as he could. "No, not at all." The detective could practically feel Gibbs' grinding his teeth. He prepared himself for a shouting match, or maybe even a head slap.

And wasn't it just creepy that he had to keep himself from bouncing in his seat at the thought of that?

But when Gibbs looked at him for a few seconds (and Tony stared back, because anything is better than having to look at the street in front of you when the driver isn't) his face gradually softened a little bit. Tony suspected that his face must have shown some of the things he was feeling after all. It irked him. He was known for his flawless undercover work, and yet he couldn't seem to be able to deceive this one particular man.

It suddenly occurred to him that the only time he had been able to lie to Gibbs' face had been in that hospital all those years ago.

There had to be some kind of irony in there, but Tony didn't look too hard for it.

When Gibbs opened his mouth, the young man just knew that they were going to 'talk'. Not bicker and snap at each other, but a serious heart-to-heart.

Gibbs (finally) looked back at the street. "Listen, I..." he stopped, lost for words and ran a tired hand through his hair.

And Tony panicked.

While he'd wanted to talk to the man since the day they had parted ways, their recent first encounter had left a pretty deep dent in his self-confidence. Suddenly he didn't want to have to talk to the man in a moving car where he had no chance to just smile and go away if he should hear something he didn't want to. Where he had no chance to escape those intense eyes should the conversation get too heavy.

He felt trapped and claustrophobic. He hadn't felt like that since he'd had to spent a night in a cupboard because he'd forgotten to clean his room and his father deemed him ungrateful.

Gibbs was still searching for the right words when they rounded another corner. Tony breathed a sigh of relieve when he recognized the street.

"Stop the car!" he all but screamed into the tense silence. It probably hadn't been one of his better ideas, since Gibbs immediately slammed on the brakes.

In the middle of the street.

There were sounds of screeching tires and hoots and lots of screaming and cursing - mainly from the man beside him - but Tony blocked everything out. As fast as lightning he loosened the seatbelt, opened the car door and presented Gibbs with one of his most dazzling smiles before he jumped out of the car.

"We're here." He pointed to a neat, little green house with a white door and white fence at the end of the street. It looked strangely out of place between the other buildings which were either abandoned or in the middle of renovations. Tony had heard about this part of town during another investigation. Apparently some famous construction firm tried to buy the whole block but there were a few owners that weren't willing to give up their homes. Although they had enough money to move wherever they wanted they stayed stubborn, and at least once a week the police had to come in because arguments between the parties had become a little bit too physical. It seemed like Mr. and Mrs. Speer had belonged to those who'd decided to fight for their home. "I'll wait there while you park the car."

He slammed the door shut, effectively cutting off the colorful obscenities that were following him from the inside. While he walked down the street and left the chaos he created behind, he congratulatedhimself for dodging that bullet.

And ignored the small voice in his head that wondered if he hadn't just forfeited an exceptional chance.


Ducky watched the two men go with a heavy weight on his heart.

On the one hand he was really pleased to see the dear boy again. He had thought about him from time to time but his job and the deteriorating health of his mother had never allowed him to do more than that.

On the other hand though, he was deeply troubled by the little interaction he'd seen between him and Gibbs.

He knew that Anthony had been something special to Gibbs. No kid they'd encountered during an investigation had received quite the same attention and individual care as Tony had back then. The ME had always suspected that it'd had something to do with Shannon's pregnancy and Gibbs' imminent fatherhood and Tony's odd relationship with his own father that the two of them had bonded as quickly and as tightly as they had.

But sometimes he also thought that it had been more of an instant sympathy. An instant familiarity with each other that couldn't be described with words.

Even back then, Ducky had known that they would see the boy again. When he'd imagined that reunion, it had either been a joyful occurrence or a moment of deep regret and shame because they would suddenly realize that they'd made a mistake in leaving the boy behind with his father.

But not even in his wildest dreams would he have imagined something this tense and almost aggressive.

"Ah, excuse me?" he asked the other man in the room. "Do you by any chance know what happened here?"

The other man, a detective if Ducky wasn't mistaken, shrugged and turned to glare at the closed door. "Nothing happened. DiNozzo introduced himself and your friend got all stiff and unfriendly."

Ducky sighed wearily. "I was afraid of that."

The older detective glared at Ducky now, but the doctor knew that it wasn't really directed at him. "Do that Agent and Tony have some kind of animosity towards each other?"

"It pains me, but I've got to admit that it's probably solely Jethro's doing."

And as hard as it was to think something like that about a friend, Ducky knew that it was true. Ever since Shannon and Kelly died, the older man had become even more of a gruff and distant man. Sometimes not even Ducky, his best and oldest friend, was able to get near him these days.

To loose your family was always hard, Ducky knew that, but for the first time in three years he couldn't bring himself to defend Gibbs actions. Maybe pushing that boy away had been an entirely reasonable solution in Gibbs head, but Ducky had seen the hurt in Anthony's eyes and he couldn't believe that Jethro hadn't as well.

Hurting yourself by shutting everyone else out was one thing - but hurting others was something else entirely.

And the old Detective seemed to agree with him.

"Well that friend of yours better learns to keep himself in check around my partner. Tony's got it hard enough as it is."

The phrasing of the words confused Ducky. "What do you mean?"

Anthony's partner eyed him suspiciously for a few moments before he apparently came to a decision. He walked back to the table and gestured Ducky to take a seat. An offer the doctor gladly accepted.

"Tony seemed to like you well enough, so I guess it's okay to tell you. Do you mind?" He pulled out a cigarette and Ducky shook his head no to indicate that he was okay with the other man smoking. The cigarette was quickly lit. "Thanks. You see, DiNozzo's a great cop but his methods are quite... unorthodox. He doesn't always play by the rules, you know?!"

Ducky nodded, remembering a little boy that talked ruthless criminals into kidnapping him.

"I have never seen anyone with as many reprimands in his file as DiNozzo." The man continued, amusement evident in his voice. "The other cops don't like that all too much. They play strictly by the rules and yet it's the boy that solves all the cases. And it's the boy that got promoted to detective despite his many run-ins with the bosses. It doesn't make him popular with our fellow officers"

The ME had no problem believing that and although it was hard, he willed himself to stay silent and waited while the detective in front of him took a long drag from his cigarette.

"Many just ignore him or give him the evil eye. Tony doesn't care about them too much. But others outright put obstacles in the boy's way. Sending him to the wrong interrogation room, convincing the lab rats to work on his evidence last. Little things like that."

Ducky could only shake his head bemusedly. Weren't policemen supposed to be the good guys and help each other?

"Why doesn't he report them?" he asked although he could already imagine the answer.

"No evidence. The others all stick together." The man took another drag of his cigarette. He stared at the wall, seemingly deep in thought. "But I doubt the kid would do it, even if he could."

Ducky wondered whether the detective knew more about Tony's reasoning for keeping quiet about the poor treatment he received than he let on, but before he could ask, the other man was already speaking again.

"This is his third department in six years and I know that he's ready to move on again. I guess this will be the last big case we'll work on together."

The man tried to sound nonchalant about the whole thing, but Ducky could sense a deep sadness behind the words and suddenly wished that he could do something to stop this injustice.

"Oh dear. Jealousy truly is a wretched thing, isn't it?"

His companion only nodded. They latched into a comfortable silence, each man dwelling on their own thoughts, which were - unbeknownst to the two of them - quite similar.

The detective suddenly stubbed out his cigarette and strode towards the door. Before he left the room, he briefly turned around to fix Ducky with a hard glare.

"Listen. There's something wrong going on between the kid and that Agent and I won't have it. Either your Agent Gibbs pulls his head out of his ass, or I'll do it for him, okay?"

The ME merely nodded but the other man was already gone and didn't see it. Only when the door closed behind him, leaving Ducky alone in a room with gruesome pictures pinned to a flip chart, did he utter a tired sigh and let his face show some of the misery and helplessness he felt inside.

"I truly hope it won't come to that, my new friend. I truly do."


Gibbs was still fuming when he reached the front door approximately ten minutes after their 'almost collision'.

DiNozzo, true to his word, had waited in front of the house and greeted him with the kind of smirk that made Gibbs blood boil.

The kid hadn't been that obnoxious back then, had he?

In a way, Gibbs was almost grateful for the distraction Tony's stunt had provided. Although he had been the one to initiate the conversation, he'd had absolutely no idea what he was going to say next. To be at a loss for words was a new experience for him and he couldn't say that he liked it.

"There you are Agent Gibbs. Took you long enough."

Gibbs eyebrow twitched in irritation but before he could even entertain the thought of strangling the young man, Tony had already turned away from him and rung the doorbell.

Another thing that bothered Gibbs to no end was Tony's new habit of addressing him solely as 'Agent Gibbs'. The kid managed to make it sound respectful and mocking at the same time. A skill Gibbs hadn't thought possible until now.

After only a few moments they heard footsteps from the other side of the door. When it opened, they came face to face with a woman that could only be described as strict.

The first thing Gibbs noticed was her age. She must have been at least ten years older than Corporal Speer. She wore thin glasses and her hair in a bun and her clothes looked like she had found them in a box in the attic that had been stored there since the seventies.

Gibbs was uncomfortably reminded of his teacher in second grade.

"Can I help you?" she asked. Her voice was melodic and husky and Gibbs wondered if it had been her voice that had attracted the much younger Lance Speer and not her money. Caroline Speer was the daughter of a successful business man and practically breathed money.

Since he'd laid eyes on her, Gibbs had wondered about Speer's reasons for marrying this woman. He wasn't that cynical that he couldn't believe in true love (he'd experienced it himself, after all) but he didn't believe in it blindly either.

He also wondered why Mrs. Speer had agreed to marry the Corporal. She didn't look like someone that was desperate to be loved.

Her eyes wandered from Gibbs to DiNozzo and remained there for a few seconds, no doubt seeing the similarities between him and her husband, before they went back to Gibbs.

"I'm Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS," he explained and showed her his ID, "and this is Detective DiNozzo."

Tony flashed her his ID and a quick smile but stayed silent. Gibbs knew from the earlier debriefing that Tony had already talked to the other wife and decided to give the kid a break. Corporal Speer was his responsibility after all.

If Mrs. Speer suspected what was to come, she didn't show it. She merely invited them in and asked them if they wanted something to drink. Tony declined while Gibbs jumped at the chance to get a coffee.

While they sat in the living room and waited for Maria, the young servant, to bring the coffee, Mrs. Speer stared at the two men with a calmness that Gibbs found eerie.

"It's about Lance, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid so, Mrs. Speer. Your husband is dead. His body was found early this morning. I'm truly sorry."

Hadn't he watched the widow, Gibbs would have seen how Maria almost dropped the tray with his coffee at his words and how her face became deadly pale. Tony noticed her reaction but was too distracted by Mrs. Lowes complete lack of a reaction to give it more than a fleeting thought. The young servant put the coffee down and fled the room with tears in her eyes.

Mrs. Lowe didn't do any of that. A shadow of surprise flitted across her face before it became as impassive as it'd been since she'd opened the door.

She nodded her head as if she'd just solved a difficult equation. "Oh. I see."

Gibbs looked towards Tony and knew that they both thought the same thing. This was certainly not the kind of reaction they'd anticipated.

"Ma'am, can you tell me about the last time you saw your husband alive. Something about his plans for yesterday night?"

"The last time I saw him was yesterday afternoon. He wanted to meet with one of his friends. Something about a party."

Tony leaned forward and positioned his pen on his notepad. "What's the name of that friend?"

Gibbs noticed that Mrs. Speer seemed to have trouble looking Tony in the face since she'd learned of her husbands demise. Maybe his death affected her more than she let on.

"I didn't ask and he didn't tell. I don't like his friends very much and they don't like me. Lance knows..." she faltered, took a deep breath and started again, her voice still emotionless and controlled. "Lance knew that and didn't pester me with redundant information about them."

"Did you notice anything different about him these past few days?"

"No. He was like always."

They continued with the questions for an hour before they came to the conclusion that Mrs. Speer apparently didn't know her husband very well. She knew none of his friends, had no idea where he liked to go and what he liked to do and couldn't even tell them much about his past, except that he'd been born in Idaho.

But although they learned nothing new about their second victim, Gibbs couldn't exactly say that it'd been a total waste of time.

It came with quite a shock when he realized that he and Tony were a pretty good team when it came to interrogating a witness. Their teamwork was short of flawless. Every time one of them picked up on some inconsistency, the other seemed to sense the same thing and posed the next question in a way that played straight into the others hand. Sometimes Mrs. Speer didn't even realize that she'd revealed more than she probably wanted to, just because Tony or Gibbs steered her into a certain direction.

Gibbs knew that he wasn't the only one who'd noticed the chemistry between the two of them when they left the house and Tony wore an almost unnoticeable smile on his lips. A smile that was rather out of place after the more than disappointing interview they'd just had.

"Well, that was odd." Even his voice sounded a bit cheery.

Gibbs didn't bother answering. He just grunted in a noncommittal way and tried to forget that the past hour had been almost fun if you forgot about the fact that they'd just spoken to a fresh widow. Tony had a way of speaking to other people that made you enjoy watching him.

Gibbs remembered that the kid back then had had the same effect on people and was suddenly disturbingly pleased that Tony had maintained that trait even now.

They walked down the driveway when the glint of metal in the corner of his eye caught Gibbs attention. He suppressed the urge to turn around to get a better look and merely slowed his steps.

Tony copied his movement almost immediately.

"We got company, huh?"

Tony's voice was just loud enough for Gibbs to hear while he looked down and picked at his fingernails. The perfect image of bored and oblivious.

"Seems like we do."

Gibbs bent down and pretended to tie his shoes and chanced his first quick glance to his right. Before he looked back to his shoes he saw a man that was hidden partway behind a tree, watching them, with something shiny in his hands. The peek wasn't long enough to see whether it was a gun or some other kind of weapon but Gibbs didn't dare look longer.

Tony meanwhile, pretended to be annoyed with the older mans slow pace and strode towards the sidewalk. He was now a lot closer to the hidden man but the stranger seemed to be comforted by Tony's complete lack of attention to anything other than the kneeling Agent.

"Can't you hurry it up?" Tony asked and sounded so much like a pubescent teen that Gibbs had to suppress a smirk. "I want to get out of here today, if you don't mind?!"

Tony had taken another few steps towards their observer. All of a sudden there was the sound of rustling leaves and quick footsteps. Gibbs' head shot up just in time to see the stranger run down the street and Tony, cursing and yelling, go after him.

Gibbs muffled a grunt when he leapt to his feet and his kneecaps cracked ominously.

He took off and despite his age and stiff knees managed to keep up with the two young men. He had a brief moment to admire Tony's speed before their suspect, obviously scared out of his mind, jumped to the left, right onto the street.

And apparently failed to see the red sports-car heading right for him.

In the time that it took the average man to blink, Gibbs realized several things.

He realized that the car was driving too fast to be able to stop in time, their suspect would be road kill in less than a second and he would have to spend the rest of his afternoon filling out the dreaded paperwork.

Somewhat belatedly he also realized that Tony had by no means stopped chasing the man.

Even years later, Gibbs would still remember that the thoughts "No he wouldn't...', closely followed by 'Of course he would!' whirled through his head as he watched how Tony made a wild dash after the man, who was frozen in place like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.

An eternity seemed to pass while Gibbs could see nothing more than a red blur and hear nothing more than a car horn and squeaking tires. It took even longer before Gibbs discovered Tony and the stranger on the other side of the street - the young detective kneeling over the lying man, reading him his rights and cuffing him - with all important body parts still intact.

And then it took only a second before Gibbs could breath again.

That was close. That was too damn close! A millisecond later and Tony would have been hit by that car and seriously hurt. Or even worse.

The sports-car hadn't even stopped to see whether someone needed help but Gibbs couldn't care right now. He walked over to the others and saw that DiNozzo's suit was short of ruined. The trousers had big holes in them where the young man had slithered over the pavement. The sight reminded him so much of their first encounter so many years ago, that he had to close his eyes for a second to banish the deep regret that suddenly welled up inside of him.

Regret for leaving the kid behind. Regret for not seeing him grow into the courageous man he'd become. Regret for not being able to revive the familiarity the two of them had shared once upon a time.

The seasoned Agent tried to concentrate on something else. He didn't need anymore regrets. He had enough of them already.

"Are you okay?"

He probably sounded more gruff than he'd wanted to but Tony didn't seem to mind. The detective merely shrugged and shot him a quick grin.

"Yep. Nothing better than a near death experience to lift the spirits."

Gibbs didn't quite feel the humor Tony apparently did. His heart was still racing and he thought he could still hear the car horn as the car missed the young man by a hair's breadth. No, he couldn't grin and shrug it off like Tony did. He could have died. It had been dangerous. It had been reckless. It...

The first genuine smile for what felt like years crossed his lips.

"You haven't changed one bit."

Only when Tony stared up at him with surprise and wonder in his eyes, did Gibbs notice that he'd spoken aloud and that he was still smiling. Tony's lack of self-preservation was just as disturbing as it'd been back then, but at the same time it made Gibbs feel tremendously relieved.

The stranger that was still trapped under Tony's knee began to struggle and complain. Tony looked back at him as if he'd forgotten that he'd been there.

"Come on." Gibbs said. "Let's get him to the station."

DiNozzo nodded and got to his feet, dragging their suspect up with him. Gibbs was already halfway turned away when a hiss of pain caused him to turn back.

Tony's face was scrunched up in pain and he balanced on one foot. He mainly braced himself against the suspect but the cuffed man was too defeated to even consider escape. Gibbs didn't want to take any chances however, and took hold of his other elbow.

"Your ankle?" He tried to sound unconcerned but suspected that he didn't make a very good job of it.

"Just a little sprain. I'm fine."

Gibbs had to bite his tongue. It probably wouldn't have been a good idea to remind the kid about the last time he said he'd just 'sprained' something.

Instead he lead the suspect towards the car and left Tony to trail behind. "Well come on then. I want to get out of here today, if you don't mind."

Tony actually snorted at Gibbs attempt of a joke and hobbled after them. "On it, Agent Gibbs."

Gibbs glared over his shoulder, while Tony just smiled. The Agent really didn't know why he still endured the cheeky man and didn't just leave him behind.

He didn't even notice how he slowed his steps so the 'cheeky man' could keep up with him.

TBC


"Who's that suspicious man? How will Tony get home with a sprained ankle? Watch out for chapter 04 if you want to know the answers!

Wow, I think that's the longest chapter I've ever written. That deserves some reviews, doesn't it? :) Oh come on, you know I'm addicted to them! I'll do anything to get them. *does the addicted review dance*