After leaving Tony to sleep it off in the spare bedroom, Gibbs went down to his basement to work on his boat. He had stopped to refill his coffee and grab his phone on the way down. Once he got down there, he called Abby as promised.
“So, how is he?” she asked.
“Asleep, right now.” He replied.
“C’mon Gibbs, you know what I mean.” Abby said.
“What do you want me to say Abs,” Gibbs sighed, “He’s doing as well as could be expected.”
“Did you guys talk?”
“Well HE talked, I just listened” Gibbs continued in a steely tone “and I TRIED not to let my feelings about his Father show.”
“Uh oh, that bad huh?” Abby asked.
“Lets just say it’s a good thing Mr. DiNozzo is already dead.” He said heatedly.
“Aw Gibbs, I love it when you get all protective of Tony.” She said.
Gibbs could hear the smile in her voice. It calmed him down a bit; he couldn’t help but smile himself.
Abby kept talking “ I WAS going to come over but I can see that Tony will be ok now.”
“Don’t worry Abby, I’ll watch his six.” Gibbs said and then hung up the phone before she could respond.
Abby wasn’t as irritated by his hang up this time because she knew that Tony was safe, and that was what was most important to her right now.
Gibbs worked late into the night on his boat, checking up on Tony once or twice. When he finally decided to call it a night he made one last stop at the spare bedroom before going on to his own.
As he stood in the doorway, he could see Tony thrashing about, mumbling in his sleep. It looked as if he was having some kind of a nightmare. Tony’s mumbling was getting louder now and Gibbs could make out some of what he was saying.
“No, please don’t.” he mumbled. “Not my fault.”
Gibbs, not wanting to leave him alone, took a couple of steps into the room.
“Won’t happen again” Tony muttered “Promise”
Tony started to flay about even more. He was getting even more agitated.
Gibbs was torn as to what to do. He knew that you weren’t supposed to wake someone during a nightmare; that it could cause more harm than good. But he didn’t like to see Tony like this either.
“Not that, please” Tony was practically frantic.
He suddenly shot up in bed, yelling “NO!”
Gibbs was there in a flash. Sitting on the bed in front of Tony, he grabbed him by the shoulders.
“It’s ok Tony, it’s only a nightmare,” he said soothingly.
Breathing heavy, practically gasping for air Tony leaned towards Gibbs, resting his forehead on his shoulder. The parent instinct in Gibbs kicked in, rubbing his hands up and down Tony’s arms to calm him.
After awhile, Tony’s breathing evened out. When Gibbs felt him begin to pull away, he let go. Tony lay back on the pillows, rubbing his hands over his face. Feeling embarrassed and vulnerable, he couldn’t bring himself to look at Gibbs.
“You going to be ok?” Gibbs asked softly as he put his hand on Tony’s arm.
Not used to Gibbs openly showing how much he cared, Tony avoided the question saying, “ Sorry for waking you up, won’t happen again Boss.”
Sensing that Tony didn’t want to talk about it he said, “Wasn’t asleep yet.”
As Gibbs got up from the edge of the bed, he then said, “It’s late, go back to sleep”
“Yea, like THAT’S going to happen.” Tony just mumbled.
Before he exited the room, Gibbs threw over his shoulder, “That’s an order DiNozzo.”
Gibbs, having already decided that he probably wouldn’t be getting much sleep himself tonight, headed back downstairs for one more cup of coffee. He cursed the senior DiNozzo, knowing he was the cause of Tony’s nightmare, wishing he were still alive so he could have a go at him.
As he headed back upstairs to go to bed, he made a stop to check on Tony one last time. Seeing that he had, indeed, fallen back to sleep. Gibbs just smiled, thinking to himself, “ I knew that he would follow orders.”
Morning came too soon for Tony, the smell of coffee waking him up. He was confused as to where he was for a moment then he realized he was in Gibbs spare bedroom. As the memories from the night before came flooding back, Tony was a little embarrassed. He got up and had a quick shower before he got dressed into one of the spare jeans and shirts that he had left at Gibbs place.
As he went down the stairs, Tony hoped that if he acted as if nothing had happened, maybe Gibbs would too. At the bottom, he paused and put on his ‘I don’t have care in the world’ face.
Entering the kitchen, Tony said breezily “Morning Boss.”
“DiNozzo” Gibbs replied stoically, as he sat at the table drinking his coffee.
As Tony went over and got himself some coffee, he could feel Gibbs watching him. He turned and leaned against the counter, drinking his own coffee. He stared back at Gibbs with an innocent look.
After the revelations last night, Gibbs now had a better understanding as to how and why Tony had become so good at hiding his true feelings. He decided it would be best to just let it go for now.
Getting up from the table, Gibbs said, “About time you got up. We’ve got to leave now if we’re going to stop and get your car on the way into work.”
Tony glanced at his watch, it was barely 7 a.m. He just rolled his eyes as he followed his Boss out to his car. He had forgot about that getting up before the sun thing that Gibbs had.
The car ride was silent except for the directions that Tony gave as to where he had left his car the night before. When he got alone in his own car, Tony tried not to let his mask slip. He knew he was going to have to keep it up all day and if he let it slip, even just a little, it might be too hard to put the mask back in place.
They both arrived at work at the same time, Gibbs having stopped for coffee along the way. As they got on the elevator, Gibbs handed Tony a cup.
“Thanks Boss” Tony said taken aback.
The elevator ride was just as silent as the car ride. When they exited, they both went straight to their desk. McGee and Ziva arrived a few minutes later. They all exchanged greetings and as McGee and Ziva sat down, they looked at each other and shrugged. Both were glad that Tony, although a little quieter, seemed to be his old self again.
They had only been working for a short time when Tony got up and approached Gibbs desk.
“Boss, I’ve been thinking.” He began “I’m not sure how much more I’m going to learn from these files.”
Gibbs looked up at Tony, “Go on.”
“I just thought that maybe” he hesitated for a second. “I’d like to make a trip back home, I mean back to my Father’s place. I thought that if I went thru some of his things back there, I might find something.”
Tony went on “He’s always had a home office, he could have some things in it that the FBI doesn’t have yet, you never know.”
Gibbs knew that there was more to this trip than just looking for information. He thought about it for a minute then made a decision.
“All right” he nodded “On two conditions”
“Ok, what?” Tony asked.
“Number one, you go see Abby first.” He said.
Tony grinned, that one would be easy.
Gibbs continued “And number two, I’m going with you.”
Tony’s grin faded a little “Gotcha Boss.”
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