A/N: Thanks a bunch to all who have reviewed, favorited, followed this little bunny. It's sort of canon, as it's based on the last episode of last season, but sort of AU, because as one reviewer rightly pointed out, we will probably never see the show writers allowing Tony and Gibbs to come to verbal or physical blows, save for the couple of token times Tony has stood up to him. Short chapter, but more to come.
Also thanks so much for the concern regarding my 'incident'. I have a history of smashed up vehicles as numerous as Tony's fanfic concussions. All while perfectly sober. As my brother says, "She do ding 'em up!" $4000 worth of ding, this time, but repairable, and I wasn't hurt, just shaken up.
Over four months had passed since Vance had tendered his premier MCR team's resignations, and he had been obliged to cobble together a new team to take their place. Abby was still doing her magic in the lab, though at a bit of more somber pace, and Ducky and Jimmy still kept Autopsy in top form and credibility. Vance had been in touch with McGee a few times, making sure he was adjusting to the ever-demanding needs of the cyber unit at Homeland, and even Ziva had touched base with a time or two to check on him and the others.
He had heard that Gibbs was in the Balkans somewhere, but had absolutely no intel on DiNozzo, which was surprisingly worrisome to him. Though he would never call the outside of the box Senior Field Agent a close friend, he had come to have a better understanding of the younger man, and even a grudging respect for what he had accomplished in the years he had worked as Gibbs' second. The fact that he seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth, even after Vance had enlisted both Fornell's and Ziva's help, ate at him. He had heard about the dust up between Tony and Gibbs, and how furious DiNozzo had been the last time he had been in the bullpen.
Still, the world didn't stop turning nor crime stop happening because an ex-agent couldn't be located, and Vance had bigger things to worry about than where DiNozzo had gone to ground. His kids were just only now starting to come back to their old selves, and he was still deflecting fallout from the Bodnar fiasco. His rage and disappointment at allegedly having hunted and killed the wrong man had known no bounds, especially after it cost him his best team, and probably Jethro Gibbs' life in the former Marine's attempt to mollify the powers that be and set things right for Jackie Vance and Ziva's father.
Gibbs had never had much feeling for Ziva's father, in fact probably hated him more than he dislike Anthony DiNozzo Senior, but he admired and cared a great deal for Jackie, and felt compelled to find her murderer no matter what mistakes had been made in their original search. If Vance had ever owed anyone anything, nothing compared to what he owed Gibbs for what he was trying to do. He just wished it hadn't cost the team leader his friendship with DiNozzo.
In an office in Milan, Tony chatted with the receptionist as he waited for a meeting with the man behind the door. He was nervous, and cursed himself for being so – this wasn't a job interview, it was an invitation to lunch and to throw around some ideas for security issues facing the new business owner. His nervousness actually stemmed from the fact that he wasn't at all sure about the underpinnings or veracity of this man's latest venture. Things could go south in a big hurry and Tony didn't want to be stuck in the middle of a strange city, regardless of being able to speak the language. If this didn't work out, his life would be a living hell. He would be forced to go back to the states and cozy up to Fornell, whom he'd turned down a job offer from in a heated exchange. Fornell saw no reason for 'DiNutso' to have to even move out of his apartment, much less move out of D.C. Tony saw it differently. Although he respected the Fibbie and enjoyed the mutual razzing relationship between them, he had no desire to fall back into the same rut he had gotten into with Gibbs, even though Fornell swore things would be different for Tony under his leadership. Perhaps so, but Agent Sacks was not about to move over for his sworn enemy, and Tony refused to come on as a probie after all his years Gibbs' SFA. It was a no-win situation for the ex-cop and now ex-Federal agent, and Tony would rather have transferred to another MCR team than lie down in the nest of vipers that awaited him at the Hoover Building. So here he sat, waiting, flirting, and wondering if he wasn't totally asking for another ass-kicking, when the door to the inner office opened and the man Tony had traveled so miles to meet with came out to greet him.
"Junior, good to see you! Sorry I took so long, I was on the phone with Al of people, you remember him, you investigated his son's chauffeur's murder. Nasty ending, that, but Al knew you guys were just doing your jobs, he doesn't hold anything against you!"
"Well, that's nice, Dad, cause his other son turned out to be a murderer who was trying to kill his own brother, so we didn't feel too guilty about it all."
Anthony DiNozzo Senior gave his son a blank sort of look, then ushered them over to the wet bar.
"You must be bone dry after that long flight, siddown, let your old man fix you a wet one!"
Tony sat, his mind beginning to whirl with the possible consequences of what he had just done. Gibbs would be livid...he started, then stopped the thought train before it could derail. Gibbs wasn't here, and he wouldn't be anywhere near enough to yell at him or head slap the hell out of him now. The thought was both liberating and terrifying. He had relied on the man for so many years to have his six that he suddenly felt vulnerable, even dealing with his own father. Maybe especially dealing with his own father. Hell on it, there was relying on someone to have your six, and then there was giving your power over to them and letting them use it against you. He was a grown man, forty something years old and trained in all sorts of physical and psychological combat, not a defenseless child. In giving Jethro Gibbs all he had and more for the last twelve years, he had lost a part of himself, that part that used to be able to make decisions and live his own life without first wondering if Gibbs would approve. How bizarre was that? Well, Jethro would very decidedly disapprove of Tony's meeting with his father in a posh rented office space in Italy's second largest city. Something about that fact gave Tony a rush of adrenaline big enough to make him smile for his father.
In a much smaller city than Milan, in fact, in what could barely be called a village, Jethro Gibbs sat on watch in an abandoned hotel's only livable room. He had tracked his person of interest to a remote corner of Croatia, and was waiting for him to come out of the tiny eatery across the street. Something twinged in his gut, something that felt like a Tony In Trouble cramp, but maybe it was that sarma he had eaten for dinner last night. Eating on missions like this was a bit hazardous, even his iron gut couldn't prepare him for some of the unrefrigerated meals he was forced to eat in places no one had ever heard of, much less visited. He was sure it would have affected him by now if it had been the cabbage covered meat and rice concoction. Nope, it was definitely DiNozzo, and he had no way of getting to him, if he had even the slightest idea where in the world the guy was.