He was surprised that he’d made it to Gibbs’s house with enough time to put the journal back and get the heck out of there before the speed demon got home from the airport. He was even more surprised that he’d been able to just leave after ditching the journal rather than snooping more. Instead, he got into his car and drove back to his apartment without a backwards glance. He was done thinking about the journal and Gibbs’s past.
Or so he thought. The next morning at work, like Abby’d told him the night before, Gibbs was sitting at his desk. He was reading through the reports they’d done on the case that’d just been closed and looked up at him through his glasses.
“Hey,Boss,” Tony said, surprising himself with how calm he was. “Welcome back.”
The older man nodded and went back to reading. Knowing that was about as much of a greeting he was going to get, Tony sat down at his desk, started up his computer and wished with all of his might that Tim or Ziva would walk in so he’d have someone else in the room to focus on.
That didn’t happen until almost twenty minutes later because Tim had gotten caught in traffic and Ziva had decided to be generous and make a coffee stop. Thankfully the day went by quickly after that.
The case was pretty open and shut so by midnight, they were doing their reports. Gibbs would sign off on them and let them go home to catch a few hours of sleep before work the next morning. And, of course, he left Tony’s report for last.
That left the senior field agent alone in the bullpen with the man he loved. He tried to busy himself with mindless computer games while his boss analyzed his report but he couldn’t get his mind to focus on anything other than the silver-haired man sitting just a few feet away.
“ DiNozzo,” Gibbs said, breaking the silence and startling Tony a little, “come here for a second. I need you to see something.”
Tony got up slowly and willed his knees to stop shaking. He stood in front of Gibbs’s desk until he started to speak again.
“I need you to read something.”
His hand went into a drawer and pulled out a small leather book. He held it out for Tony to take. But, Tony just eyed it warily. Gibbs couldn’t be serious.
“Uh…Boss…what is that?” he asked, deciding to play stupid for as long as he could. “I don’t understand.”
Gibbs sighed. “DiNozzo, next time you try snooping around my house, make sure to put whatever you take back in the right spot.”
“What are you talking about? I…uh…I didn’t snoop around your house. Boss, are you sure it wasn’t Abby?”
“Yeah, DiNozzo,” he smirked, “’cause Abby really lock my door after snooping around. Especially when I know I left it unlocked.”
Oh crap, Tony thought. I’m dead.
Gibbs’s smirk turned into a full-blown smile as he watched Tony shift his weight awkwardly between his feet. He chuckled lightly as the younger man tried several times to form a response. He could see the wheels turning in Tony’s head as he struggled to find a way to get him off the hook.
“Am I fired?”
He laughed again. “Now why’d you think that?”
“Uh.” Tony ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. It’s just that -”
“Tony, I’m kidding. You didn’t leave the door locked. But, you folded down the top corner of the page.”
He grimaced. “I did?”
Gibbs nodded and shrugged. “Thought you might as well read the rest of it. You’ve already read too much for you to just forget and I know you won’t be able to focus on your job until you get to the end.” He started to hand the journal over but pulled back for a second. “Just make sure to keep whatever you find out of the office. Got it?”
He tried to find a hint of joking in Gibbs’s face but didn’t find any. So, he just nodded solemnly. The journal was put into his hand and he was allowed to leave.
As he walked to the elevator, Tony couldn’t believe his luck. He hadn’t been killed or fired for snooping around Gibbs’s house and he got to read the rest.
Now I can figure out why in the hell Gibbs left in the first place.
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