Notes: Sorry this has taken so long to post, the bunny couldn’t decide where he wanted this to go.
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Kate wasn’t sure who was more stunned by Tony’s sudden attack; herself or Gibbs. She couldn’t believe that Tony had actually struck Gibbs. In the two years she’d worked for NCIS, she’d never seen Tony punch someone other than the occasional suspect while he was trying to take them down.
“What the hell, Tony?!” Gibbs growled from his position on the floor, Kate could see the beginnings of a heck of a shiner forming under his right eye, at least nothing looked broken.
“You arrogant son-of-a-bitch! Did you think that I’d just roll over for you? ‘Poor Tony, got his cover blown, lost his car and his girlfriend all in one day. It shouldn’t be too hard to get him to spread his legs for me as long as I talk a good line. Act like I care.’” Tony’s fists were clenched, he was shaking like a leaf and Kate could see what looked like tears in Tony’s green eyes.
“Jesus, Tony! Is that what you think I’m here for?” Gibbs sounded appalled and hurt, and Kate couldn’t blame him, Tony of all people should know that Gibbs wasn’t like that. But Kate could also see Tony’s side. Gibbs had basically cut off all ties to Tony except for work since his return from Mexico, and after the day Tony’d had, she couldn’t blame him for thinking the worst.
“Aren’t you? C’mon Gibbs, you never wanted anyone to know that we were lovers and after you came back from Mexico, you made it pretty clear that you wanted nothing to do with me unless it was work-related. Then you just show up out of the blue like nothing happened. What the hell am I supposed to think?!”
Gibbs slowly got to his feet. While he could understand Tony’s reasoning, it still hurt to think that Tony thought he was capable of being that callous.
He approached Tony the way he would a frightened animal. He could see from Tony’s face that the younger man was dangerously close to breaking apart at the seams. “Tony-“
“No,” Tony yelled, backing away. “Don’t touch me! You don’t have the right to touch me! You quit remember? You didn’t want to remember what happened between us! And you didn’t care when you came back. You didn’t love me anymore, you wanted to be with that Colonel Mann.”
Kate stared at the scene wide-eyed, not sure what to do; she’d never seen Tony like this. For the first time, she really thought Tony was having a nervous breakdown and it was a scary thought.
Gibbs didn’t have a better idea of what to do than Kate did, but that wouldn’t stop him from acting, if only to keep Tony from taking another shot at him. Moving with the quickness that only a Marine could have, he surged forward and grabbed Tony by the wrists. Unfortunately, that just served to agitate Tony even more and he began fight.
“Let me go!” Tony squirmed and struggled to get away but Gibbs had a grip of iron and he wasn’t letting go anytime soon. “Dammit, Gibbs, let me go!”
“No,” Gibbs growled, forcing Tony back, “not until you calm down.” When Tony kept struggling, Gibbs used his Marine training to bring Tony to his knees, “Come on, Tony. I know you’re upset but-“
“Upset?! Upset isn’t fucking word for it, you asshole!” Tony yelled, renewing his struggle to get away, “Everyone I love leaves me! My mom, Kate, Paula, you, Jeanne; everyone!” Whatever else he was going to say was choked off as he began to sob like his heart was broken beyond repair.
Immediately, Gibbs carefully wrapped his arms around Tony’s shaking body, stroking a hand over Tony’s dark hair, trying to soothe his former lover.
Kate sat down on the sofa, almost in tears herself. God, how could she have missed how hard the past few years had been on Tony mentally and emotionally? She was supposed to be his guardian angel, the one person who was supposed to know this stuff.
After a few moments, Tony had calmed down somewhat but Gibbs didn’t let go, if anything, he just held him tighter. After a few more minutes, Gibbs gently pulled Tony to his feet, “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Surprisingly, Tony didn’t resist and let Gibbs lead him down the hallway to the bedroom and closed the door, leaving Kate in the living room.
Kate sighed as she sat on the sofa; God, she’d really screwed up. She’d underestimated how emotionally frail Tony was after everything he’d been through and then she’d sent Gibbs, one of the big reasons for Tony’s frail state, to talk to him. God, what a mess.
“Now, Caitlyn, don’t be too hard on yourself. Of all the scenarios of how this could’ve gone, that was the best.”
Kate turned to look at Uriel sitting on the sofa next to her. “THAT was the best?! I hate to think what the worst could be.”
Uriel shrugged, “Tony could’ve seriously harmed Gibbs or himself. Or he could’ve not let Gibbs into the apartment. But he did and now their relationship is on the road to recovery.” At Kate’s confused look, he smiled, “You’ll notice that Gibbs hasn’t left yet.”
Kate looked around and saw that the door to Tony’s bedroom was still closed and there was no sign of Gibbs having left. Now very curious, Kate crept down the hall to the door and peeked inside.
Gibbs and Tony were laying on the bed, Tony curled into Gibbs’ body, sound asleep. Gibbs was stroking a hand down Tony’s back, his face showing the guilt he felt at hurting Tony as badly as he had and then leaving the wounds to fester for so long.
“Of course, their relationship will never be the same and it’ll take work, but they are on their way,” Uriel commented, as Kate took in the scene. “The fact that Tony allowed Gibbs to take him to bed and let him stay says that he has forgiven him, just like you said he would.”
Kate nodded with a sigh and turned to leave. Even though the end of the mission hadn’t gone as smoothly as she would’ve liked, but she had accomplished her goal; get Gibbs and Tony back together. The rest was up to them.
The End.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Gibbs and Tony deal with the fallout from Tony punching Gibbs.