A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I hope you'll like the next chapter, too. :)

Fake Impressions

The next couple of days brought a case so gruesome that even Ducky didn't have a story to compare it to. The wife of a petty officer had been found dead in her house and the two kids, a twelve year old boy and his baby sister, were found stabbed only two days later. Gibbs and his team hadn't been able to come up with a lead and there had been no ransom demand for them to go on either. When they found them lying in an empty train wagon, Gibbs couldn't avert his eyes from them for a few long moments. Stabbing a person to death wasn't ever a great thing to look at but having to see these two kids nearly brought him to his knees. This wasn't supposed to happen – ever.
Kate had finally bumped into him, Gibbs didn't know if it was on purpose or not, but it got him moving again. The sheer emotional strain of finding the two kids like this took all Gibbs had to give, but after another five days they found the killer – their own father. He had played the devastated husband and father so convincingly that at first Gibbs couldn't believe it when they had finally unearthed a video that showed him dump his own kids.

Gibbs had toyed with the idea to send Kate in to interrogate him but then realized that Kate wasn't looking much better than he felt. He couldn't do it to her. He'd have to bite the bullet on this one.
When he opened the door to the interrogation room, he had to take a deep breath in order not to snap the guy in front of him in two.

"Why am I here?" the petty officer asked when Gibbs sat down opposite of him. He still looked grief-stricken and yet there was some sort of tension in his shoulders that hadn't been there before.

"You're here because we've found the killer of your wife and kids."

"You did?" he asked, his eyes lighting up. "Who?"

"You."

"Me?" the murderer checked back, his eyes growing bigger. "You've checked my alibi before. I could never kill my own kids."

"You could and you did."

Gibbs picked up the remote for the small TV set in the corner of the room and showed him the video. It was clear that it was him who was all but throwing his children onto the train. With grim devastation Gibbs realized, and how he hadn't noticed it earlier was beyond him, that the guy was actually smiling as he left. It was as if he had been enjoying killing his kids.

"You want to rethink what you've just said?" he then asked, his voice sounding cold even to himself. "Or do you just want to prepare yourself for rotting in prison for the rest of your sorry life?"

The killer stared at him unblinkingly; his steely grey eyes all but piercing Gibbs. He remained silent though and Gibbs had a hunch that he wouldn't speak to him again. It didn't stop him talking though.

"Fine," he finally said as he laid out the pictures of the dead family. "Then just look at what you've done to your family. I don't know what made you do what you did. Maybe you've had a fight so bad with your wife that you felt the need to kill her. Fine. But what in the world has Jonah, your son, your twelve year old son ever done to you? Or forget about him… what about Rose? She was two, Petty Officer Parks, two. Take a close look at her picture."
He shoved the photograph towards the man who was still looking right back at him with such a lack of emotion in his face that Gibbs just wanted to punch him. "Take a look at your daughter and I hope her photo will haunt you for the rest of your life."

With that Gibbs stood up and then left the room, throwing the door closed behind him. Once outside he leaned against one of the orange walls and breathed out. That son of a bitch. Gibbs hated being so emotionally involved in this but he didn't think that he could not be. Everyone would understand without asking probing questions about the why. For a moment Kelly's laughing face showed up in front of his inner eye and he nearly walked back into the interrogation room to have another round with the perp. But it wouldn't make it better. It would make it so much worse. So he finally got moving again, slowly walking back into the bullpen. When he spotted Kate standing by McGee's desk, talking to him in hushed voices, quite obviously trying to cheer him up, Gibbs couldn't help but feel a bit better. At least his team had started to become just that – a team.

"Go home," he said, his voice sounding tired all of a sudden. "You can type up your reports tomorrow."

Kate nodded and was already halfway towards her desk as McGee piped up.

"I think I'll stay here, Boss," he said. "I want this to be done today."

Gibbs just nodded and for a moment thought that maybe this would be the right way to do it. Close it today and keep it locked for all times to come, but he was sure that he wouldn't be able to do it. Not today. He needed to vent first, some way or another. So he grabbed his things and headed out.

Arriving in the garage, he felt his phone vibrate in the pocket of his slacks. He pulled it out and realized it was a text from Tony. They had been texting on and off for the last couple of days and while Gibbs had always prided himself that nothing ever distracted him from his work, he had come to realize that the guy's texts had always managed to bring him out of his gruesome headspace even if only for a few seconds. This one was no different.

I hope you finally got the bastard. was all the message read.

Gibbs subtly shook his head as he got into his truck and texted back. He had gotten a bit faster over the week, but he still felt ridiculously slow.

Yes. It was the father.

For a moment he thought about just starting the car and go home to his boat and bourbon but then he decided to wait for Tony to answer. And sure enough, only seconds later there was another message waiting for him.

Fuck. You okay?

No.

You want to hang out today? I'll be done here in a few minutes. I can do some Jim Carrey impressions that'll cheer you up.

Got a better idea. Can you meet me at the Downtown Boxing Club?

I can be there in 30 minutes.

Gibbs shook his head, wondering why the mere thought of seeing Tony again managed to make him feel better in an instant.

#

Half an hour later, Gibbs found himself engaged in an intense boxing fight against the punching bag. He was sweating by now, his knuckles were already starting to hurt, but he didn't care. He needed to get the image of the little girl out of his head and needed to do the same with the picture of his own little girl after her death.

"Easy, tiger," a man's rough voice reached his ears and he stopped punching as he turned around to see Tony stand there in his workout clothes. His expression was full of compassion and Gibbs felt a little bit of tension leave his body.

"That bad, huh?" Tony asked now, cocking his head a bit to the left.

Gibbs said nothing just tilted his head towards the empty boxing ring. There were only two other people in the gym and they didn't pay any attention to the two of them. DiNozzo seemed to have realized that, too, because he had only eyes for Gibbs and wasn't casting fleeting looks around the way he usually did.

They started boxing against each other easily, nobody really pushing to hit the other, instead just trying to get into the groove of things. After a while, though, Gibbs felt Tony's hits getting a bit harder and he followed suit. It didn't take long for them to have an earnest match, neither one giving even an inch. The motions of hitting and fending soon made Gibbs lose himself in the fight, all other thoughts disappearing from his mind. He was glad that Tony seemed like he enjoyed it, too, and not grudgingly did Gibbs notice that the younger man was actually better at this than he was. He had been a Phys. Ed. major in college after all and Gibbs guessed it came in handy now. It didn't deter him though, if anything it made him push even harder. All that counted were the hits, the way his glove-covered fists would touch the other man's shoulders, stomach, face and the way his anger seemed to resolve itself with every hit he took and with every hit he served.

Almost an hour after they had started, Gibbs finally let up, stepping away from the other man who was intently staring at him. Gibbs quirked a grin that felt fake even to him and then wiped an arm over his wet face. He wasn't entirely sure whether it was all from sweat, but he didn't care to investigate any further. Thankfully, Tony didn't seem to have noticed.

"You okay now?" Tony finally spoke again, worry almost tangible in his voice.

"Better," Gibbs nodded. "Thank you."

Tony only nodded and then extracted himself from the head protection. It was only then that Gibbs realized that he was bleeding. Blood was running down his cheek from his left eyebrow. He approached the other man, pulling off the gloves and then reached out a hand towards the wound, just to have Tony flinch away from him.

"You're bleeding," Gibbs said roughly. "Let me see."

This time, Tony let him and Gibbs scrutinized the gash. It wasn't big and Gibbs was sure that it didn't need stitches but that didn't stop him from pressing a fresh towel to it. Tony flinched again and brought his hand towards Gibbs arms, keeping them in place. For a second or two, Gibbs was able to look into the other man's eyes. Had they always been this green?
Shaking his head, he looked away.

"It's alright," Gibbs said as he stepped away. "Just a cut."

"Okay," Tony smiled at him.

They went towards the locker room in silence where Tony took a look at his face, but didn't find anything wrong with it apparently as he just shrugged and then moved to take a shower. For a moment, Gibbs trailed back, taking a few deep breaths. For all his bravado in front of Kate and McGee, he had to admit that this had been exactly what he had needed to forget... and this had actually been nice despite it all. He let out a sigh and then went to take a shower, too.

#

Half an hour later Tony finally reemerged from the showers.

"You done now?" Gibbs asked as he grinned at him. "You're worse than my second ex-wife."

"Do you think my looks come from two-minute-showers?"

"Guess not," Gibbs laughed as he grabbed for his bag, but was stopped by Tony's hand on his arm.

"Hey," he said, his voice having lost the playfulness from only seconds before. "You sure you're okay?"

"I will be," Gibbs let out a sigh. "It's just… whenever a case gets like this, it's hard to get yourself out of it. It always takes a couple of hours. But I'm better now. And I'm sorry about your eyebrow."

"It's nothing," Tony waved it off. "I'd suggest we grab dinner and watch a movie now, but I can see you're not up for company tonight."

Gibbs tilted his head, looking the other man into the face and then realized that the guy was right. He really wanted to be alone. He could almost hear his boat call out to him. He wouldn't need the bourbon tonight, though. Tony had already brought him out of the headspace. But how had he known? How had he sensed that Gibbs wasn't up for anything tonight? Gibbs subtly shook his head before he cleared his throat.

"You sure you don't mind?"

"Of course not," Tony gave him a tentative smile. "I do, however, want to do something with you tomorrow evening. You free?"

"Yeah. We've got the weekend off. So as long as we don't catch a case 'till five, we're good to go. What do you want to do?"

"It's going to be a surprise."

"I hate surprises," Gibbs mumbled and then winced when Tony's fist connected with his already sore shoulder.

"I don't care," the younger man laughed and then let Gibbs standing there in the locker room, staring after him.

The guy really was something else.

#

The next day Gibbs walked into Abby's lab, a Caf-Pow! in hand. He wanted to make it up to Abby that he had been grumpy all week, even though he knew that she understood. The case had been gruesome after all. He was just walking through the doors when he could hear Abby and Kate talk in the other room. As they hadn't noticed him enter, he crept further towards them, wondering what they were talking about so excitedly. Even Kate was talking with her hands.

"… and he's been texting all week. Texting, Abby. Can you believe it?"

"That doesn't mean anything. You know him, he just hates being behind on anything."

Gibbs stopped short as he realized that they were probably talking about him. It didn't stop him from keep listening in, though.

"Are you kidding me? He hates everything that has to do with computers. He still refuses to use the PDA McGee has given him. He's taking notes by hand. So don't tell me texting isn't weird for him."

"Okay," Abby relented. "It is kind of weird. But it doesn't have to mean anything."

Just when Gibbs thought about what the hell they were talking about, Kate gave him the answer.

"And he smiles whenever he does it. Like really smiles. Even this week with everything that was going on. I'm telling you, there's someone who makes him smile. Don't tell me, that isn't big."

"Like… really smiling?" Abby checked back, her voice all but croaking.

"Yup."

"Wow, can't believe I missed it."

Gibbs let out a sigh as he ran a hand over his face. Those women. He then noisily walked into the room causing Kate and Abby to jump. He bit back a grin as he handed Abby the drink and kissed her cheek.

"I, uhm, I'll be going then," Kate all but stuttered as he stared at her own hands. "Thanks for the input, Abby."

"No problem," the Goth replied as she busied herself with sucking from the straw.

Gibbs just shook his head as he left the lab with Kate. He let her take the elevator, mumbling something about getting some coffee. Instead of getting on, he slowly walked up the stairs, replaying Abby and Kate's conversation in his mind. Had he really smiled whenever Tony had texted him? He couldn't tell. But still, Kate had seemed to be under the impression that he was dating someone and he clearly wasn't.
He stopped walking for a moment and thought about the couple of times he had spent with Tony. While he hadn't thought about it that way before, he couldn't help but realize that from an outsider's point of view their meetings could look like dates. He almost laughed out loud at the thought. He shook his head and then started walking again. His mind really was running amok with him lately.