Chapter Eleven
Tony blinked a couple of times when the kindly doctor with a Sean Connery accent said that Gibbs had been waiting for him. Not sure how to answer, Tony just nodded, looking down at the man’s hand clasping his arm before breaking away with a nod and what had to be a strained smile.
“With me, DiNozzo,” Gibbs said, exaggerated patience in his voice.
“Yeah, I..I’m coming. On it! Bye!”
“Until next time, dear boy,” the doctor said with a smile. “I have a feeling it will be very soon.”
“Enough, Duck.”
Tony followed Gibbs into the conference room, watching him. Even though Gibbs was maybe an inch shorter, Tony had the sense of looking up to the man. “What have we got?” Gibbs asked, sitting down and gesturing Tony to join him. Gibbs listened intently as Tony gave him the rundown of what he’d learned, sharing his frustration that things weren’t going smoothly with the older man, knowing that Gibbs would understand.
Tony was furious that Jarvis had been attacked and the fact that the cops he worked with were in dick wars with Gibbs angered him even further. Jarvis wasn’t some part of a battle plan, collateral damage. He pounded his fist on the table, growling.
“Settle down, DiNozzo.” Gibbs stood and crossed the room, moving a table against the door to block anyone from coming in easily. That done, he sat on the conference table in front of Tony. “Channel the anger into finding answers. They giving ya a hard time?” His hand came out and Tony watched it come closer until it smoothed through his hair.
Tony sighed, leaning into the touch, feeling quite a bit like a cat who was being stroked by his owner.
“Settle down, DiNozzo,” Gibbs repeated, his voice hypnotic and as silky smooth as honey dust.
“I’m okay, Gibbs,” he said after several minutes.
“Better than okay. Damned good. Too good for these morons. Your chief on your case yet?”
Tony nodded, glancing off to the far corner of the room.
“What’d he say?”
Tony sighed heavily, knowing how little Gibbs was going to like this. “He told me to watch my back and to stop playing so nice with the feds, to remember I owe the department my loyalty.”
“Watch your back?” Gibbs repeated, his jaw tightening.
“Yeah.”
“That’s a damned threat, DiNozzo. Don’t know if they’re trying to shut ya up or what, but you be careful. Don’t let ‘em get the jump on ya.” Gibbs squeezed the back of Tony’s neck gently. “They give ya any crap and you come to me, understand?”
“Deal,” Tony replied, unsettled by the anger blazing in Gibbs’ eyes. He knew they had a connection but this was an intensity that Tony hadn’t seen before, a different kind of emotion and one that made Gibbs completely dangerous. And Tony completely turned on.
“Don’t do that,” he said in a low voice.
“What?” Gibbs replied.
“Don’t look at me like that. It’s a different kind of dangerous than the way you were looking at me last night. And I loved that look…but this one?”
“Bothers you?” Gibbs asked, mouth twitching as if he wanted to offer a smile.
“No. Turns me on even more, and we have a case to solve.”
Gibbs chuckled, releasing Tony’s neck and slipping into the chair beside him.
“You have a theory, DiNozzo?”
Tony shook his head. “Not a theory exactly, but the more I think about this case, the more it starts to bother me.”
“Rapes usually do.”
“That isn’t it. It’s not just the rape, Gibbs. There is something…strange. Something is setting off alarm bells in my head and if I could only…”
Gibbs eyes took on that sharp focus all of a sudden. “More specific, DiNozzo. The way she was raped? Left for dead? The location? The time of day? What?”
“Slow down…” Tony tried sifting through his memories and impressions and it was right there on the surface, but before he could reach for it, the thing he needed to remember was gone.
“Dammit, Gibbs! It’s right there! Just below the surface.” This had never happened to Tony before and it was making him just as angry as the attack on Jarvis.
“Settle down, DiNozzo. The more frustrated you get, the less you’re gonna remember. Put it aside right now and concentrate. Breathe easy, Son.” His hands came up, working Tony’s neck again.
“Don’t call me that!” Tony shot back, standing in a defensive motion, hands out in front of himself.
Gibbs blinked a couple of times, trying to cover his shock at DiNozzo’s reaction. Okay, he didn’t have time to run a background check on the agent before he rushed up to Baltimore, but what he’d seen was just about what he’d expected to. Much better looking and much sharper, but pretty much what Gibbs had expected. He hadn’t realized an innocent comment to make DiNozzo’s frustration explode like this.
“Okay, Tony,” Gibbs said, feeling almost as if he was taming a scared animal. “Whatever I said, I don’t want you to get upset. How about forgetting whatever I did and sitting down with me so we can figure this out?”
Tony shook his head rapidly and Gibbs took a long look at the younger man. Rapid pulse, eyes darting around, hands fisting and releasing. Tony was really shaken up and Gibbs had the feeling that he could help the other man, that he could be the one to calm him down.
“Okay,” he repeated, acting like he didn’t have a care in the world. “You and me, we’re gonna get out of this hospital for a few minutes. Coffee helps me think and you need to settle down. That okay with you?”
Tony gulped, nodding, and Gibbs called Pacci and told him they’d be back to the room in a few minutes. Nothing new was happening with Jarvis, everything was quiet in the room.
When Gibbs hung up, Tony was edging closer to him. “Ya okay?” Gibbs asked, deliberately keeping his voice low and gentle.
“Yeah, just don’t do the ‘son’ thing anymore, okay? I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but…”
The younger man’s eyes were haunted now and Gibbs knew he had to find out what had him spooked. DiNozzo was showing classic signs of needing male attention and attention from a superior in his life. It was probably one of the reasons why he was so angry about this thing with his chief. Gibbs bet it went back to a father or a grandfather. These things always did.
“Come on, Tony. Coffee, my treat. You fed me and gave me a place to sleep last night.”
“Neither of us were complaining.” The sparkle was starting to come back into DiNozzo’s eyes, his posture relaxing.
“We weren’t,” Gibbs agreed. “Coffee then we put our heads together and figure out who this dirtbag is.”
“Deal!”
As Tony led Gibbs to a diner near the hospital, Gibbs’ gut started doing a damned dance. He reached for his weapon, scanning the groups of morning commuters for anything that looked off kilter. “Be alert, DiNozzo!” he called, out, putting his back toward the man for a second, eyes darting all around.
“Gibbs? What is it?”
“Something isn’t right. Get inside!” The urgency was growing even though Gibbs couldn’t figure out why or where it was coming from. He never doubted his gut though.
“Okay, the place is just up here. Walk faster,” DiNozzo sounded as confused as Gibbs felt.
Then something whizzed past Gibbs, searing his arm with its heat. “Down, DINOZZO!” he yelled, just as Tony was thrown to the pavement, a fountain of red bursting from his chest.
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