AN: Always, thanks so much for all you comments and reviews. Over 1000 now which totally blows my mind. You guys are amazing!

For those of you who were wondering, I finally had the first eye injection procedure which was nowhere nearly as bad as it was in my imagination. Still no change in my vision but I guess these things take time and I need to be patient.

Warning: Description of child abuse in this chapter which some may find disturbing.

xxxxx

"My father?" The smile abruptly disappeared from Tony's face and his stomach flip-flopped. He felt a sudden chill run down his spine and he pulled the covers up more tightly around him.

"You okay?" Gibbs asked. The sudden change in Tony's demeanor was making him wish he had just kept his mouth shut.

Tony nodded. "Yeah...I'm okay boss." The haunted look in Tony's eyes told a different story though.

"Hey...You don't have to do this, Tony," Gibbs began as he gently placed his hand on Tony's shoulder. "There's plenty of time for you to see him...or not. Hell, I don't care if you ever go see the bastard. I just thought you ought to know. I didn't want to keep this from you."

"I appreciate you telling me." Tony was aware that probably wasn't an easy choice for Gibbs to make and he would have been angry to find out Gibbs had deliberately withheld the information from him. Now that he knew though, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. Was he mentally strong enough to go up against his father right now? He honestly didn't know. "What time are they releasing him?"

Gibbs shrugged. "I don't know. I would guess sometime late morning, but that's just a guess."

"Yeah, that sounds about right..." Not a whole lot of time to decide. "I...I think I'm going to try to get some sleep."

"Okay...if you want to talk..."

"Thanks boss..." Tony played around with his pillows and huddled down in the bed with the covers pulled almost over his head. He then clasped Bert against his chest. 'Hugging stuffed animals, Anthony. You really are losing it.' Not in the least bit tired, his mind started working overtime and long forgotten memories began filtering in...

"Your house is awesome, Tony," Billy Franklin said as he and Tony ran down the stairs, giggling. They had just finished a rousing game of hide and seek and now were heading outside to play some ball.

"No running in the house, Master Anthony." The voice of Mrs. Peterson, the housekeeper shouted, which only caused the two boys to giggle more.

"Master Anthony," Billy mimicked. "Why does she call you that?"

"I don't know," Tony shrugged. "One of my father's stupid rules, I guess."

"I'm glad we don't have a housekeeper," Billy said. "Its just like having another nagging mother."

Tony gave Billy a hurt look at the insensitive remark. His own mother had only been gone for a couple of months. Billy was totally oblivious to what he had said though. "Hey, Tony...catch." With a mischievous grin, Billy threw the baseball towards Tony, but his aim was way off the mark. Tony made a frantic grab towards the ball, but had no chance and the ball crashed into a piece of porcelain artwork, sending it loudly crashing to the floor.

"ANTHONY DINOZZZO! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

Tony and Billy exchanged terrified looks. "I...I'm sorry, Tony...I've gotta go home." Billy then fled from the house as fast as his legs could carry him.

"WHERE ARE YOU, ANTHONY? YOU ANSWER ME, NOW!"

Scared to death, Tony ran up to his bedroom and crawled under his bed, his whole body shaking with fear. He knew that his father would never believe that it was just an accident. He was in really big trouble.

"THE LONGER YOU STAY HIDDEN, THE WORSE IT IS GOING TO BE ON YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE DEFIANCE, ANTHONY."

The door to his bedroom opened and Tony held his breath as he watched his father's large feet moving around the room. 'Go away, go away, please go away,' the small boy silently pleaded. He yelped in terror as he was suddenly grabbed by the ankle and harshly pulled from his hiding place.

"Daddy, no! I'm sorry. It was an accident!"

"You need to learn, Anthony," Senior said as he began to unbuckle his belt.

"We...we didn't mean to..."

"That's no excuse...no excuse at all...Now take your clothes off."

Tony had just mutely stared up at the imposing figure, paralyzed with fear.

"Do...It...NOW!"

The beating had been particularly vicious and had gone on for a seemingly endless amount of time with brutal lashes across the child's bare back and buttocks. Mercifully, the assault had finally ended with Tony collapsing, semi-conscious onto his bedroom floor. He had been nursed back to health by his father's household staff and then sent away to camp for the remainder of the summer. His father had never checked on him even once...had never even said goodbye...

Tony felt sick to his stomach as he recalled this particular memory. He was beginning to realize his childhood was much worse than he had realized. He wondered how many other long forgotten memories were buried and waiting to come to the surface. He hugged Bert tightly and shed silent tears for that terrified little boy who had been utterly helpless against the cruel and heartless monster who was his father. He needed to face that bastard. He needed to tell him what he thought of him and then let him go, once and for all. His decision made, Tony finally fell into an exhausted sleep.

xxxxx

"Jethro?" Dr. Kennedy spoke quietly as he came into the room.

"Hi, Adam. Its nice to see you. Are you here to examine Tony?" Gibbs whispered

"Not if he's asleep," Adam said, shaking his head. "This is more of an informal visit, just wanted to check up on you guys. I spoke with Dr. Williams and she told me he's doing quite well."

"Yeah, he seems to be," Gibbs agreed.

"That's good. I'm planning on sending him for a chest x-ray tomorrow, see about maybe getting that chest tube out."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to hear that." Gibbs hesitated for a moment then continued, glancing at Tony who appeared to be sleeping soundly. "Can I talk to you out in the hall?" he asked quietly.

Adam nodded and the two men walked out into the hallway. "What's on your mind, Jethro?"

"Same thing as always, I guess...Tony," Gibbs admitted with a faint smile.

"What about him?" Adam asked. "Don't you think he's coming along?"

"Physically, he definitely is...its the emotionally that I'm worried about." Gibbs leaned back against the wall with a troubled sigh. "His father is being released tomorrow. I maybe shouldn't have told him...but I didn't want to keep it from him. Anyway, I'm pretty sure he's going to want to see him."

"And you think it will do more harm than good," Adam stated.

"I just don't know," Gibbs said, shaking his head. "Maybe it will help him. There's just a lot of emotional baggage there..." He didn't want to say too much. If Tony wanted to share details of his past with the doctor, he could do that himself. Gibbs wanted to respect Tony and didn't feel it was his place to do so.

"Are you going to be with him?" Adam asked.

"In a heartbeat...if he'll let me, that is," Gibbs said. "I just don't know that he will. He may want to do this himself. I can't force him."

"No...no, you can't," Adam replied thoughtfully. "What about therapy? It could help him deal with all that's happened. Do you think he's open to it?"

Gibbs shrugged. "I definitely think it could do him some good...Just not sure if he'd go for it."

"Might not be a bad idea for you, either..." Adam said tentatively.

"Me?" Gibbs laughed. "I definitely don't need it."

Adam couldn't help smiling. "Might help him if you were a little bit more receptive to it."

"But I don't need it," Gibbs repeated, shaking his head. "He's the one with the fucked up father, not me."

"But you're the one carrying around all the guilt about not being able to protect him..."

"Where did you get that from?" Gibbs asked, though he didn't deny it.

"Just little things I've heard...powers of observation. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"Yeah, well...I'm not much into talking about my feelings...it just isn't my thing. Tony though, he'll talk a blue streak once you get him going. It could do him some good."

"It could do you both some good, Jethro," Adam said seriously. "You've both been through a hell of an ordeal. Maybe working through it together could help both you and Tony..."

"I'll think about it," Gibbs said gruffly, growing uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

"Okay, okay...I'm not going to push you," Adam said. "I've got to go check up on a few other patients. Get some rest, Jethro. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, thanks, Adam." The two men shook hands, then Adam headed off and Gibbs went back into Tony's room. Somehow, he didn't think he would be getting a whole lot of sleep tonight.

xxxxx

"Today's the day, Bert," Tony whispered, not wanting to awaken Gibbs. He was surprised that he had actually managed to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. He was nervous and had no idea what he was going to say, but he needed to do this. It was the only way he could finally defend the small boy from years ago who had had nobody in his corner to protect him. 'You can do this, Anthony,' he told himself. 'You've got to do this.'

"Tony?" Gibbs painstakingly got up from the cot and slowly stretched his sore muscles, grimacing slightly as he did so.

"You really need to go home and get a good night's sleep, boss," Tony stated.

"How are you feeling?" Gibbs asked, choosing not to acknowledge what Tony had said.

"I'm good. Feeling better every day."

"That's good." Tony really was starting to look better. He was nowhere near as pale as he had been and the dark circles under his eyes were beginning to diminish. "Ha...have you decided what you're going to do?" He was pretty sure he knew, just hoped his gut was wrong this time.

Tony nodded. "I'm going to go see him, boss. I have to do it."

"Are you sure, Tony? Really sure?"

Gibbs knew in his heart that he couldn't protect him forever. Didn't mean he couldn't try though. He'd just been through so much. Gibbs didn't want to see him hurt anymore.

"I'm sure. I hope you can understand." Tony didn't want to disappoint Gibbs. The man had done so much for him. He just really needed to do this.

"Its okay, Tony...I do understand." Gibbs gave Tony's shoulder a gentle pat.

"Thanks, boss."

"But, Tony? There is one thing you can do for me..."

"Yeah?" Tony gave Gibbs a questioning look.

"I'd like to be with you when you talk to your father."

Tony stared down at the bed as he pondered Gibbs' request. "Why? You think I'm, going to lose it? You think I can't handle it?" he accused, shooting Gibbs a hurt look.

"That's not it...I just think you could use the support...if you don't want me there...that's fine."

"It's not that I don't want you there..."

"But?"

"But...I don't know..." Tony shrugged. "I..I don't want him to think I'm weak..."

"You're not weak, Dinozzo. Lots of people would have given up if they had to go through everything you've been through. You haven't though. You've kept on fighting...no matter what. Besides...it doesn't really matter what he thinks, does it?"

Tony hesitated. Truth was, he really did want Gibbs to be there with him. "You won't say anything?" he asked. "Not unless I want you to?"

Gibbs shook his head. "I won't. I'll just be there if you need me."

Tony thought about it for a few more minutes then slowly nodded his head. "Okay, boss...you can come with me if you really want to."

"I really want to," Gibbs said softly, breathing a soft sigh of relief that Tony wasn't going to face the monster alone.