"You love her." It was a statement, not a question.
He couldn't hold Tony's gaze and dropped his eyes to the desk. In confirmation as far as Tony was concerned.
DiNozzo exploded then; in movement, in anger and in words. Pushing back from the desk, he spun in restrained fury back towards the man sitting behind it. "Then why the hell are you doing this to her? How could you treat her like this if you can claim to love her?"
"I do love her."
"Then what's going on? If this is about rule twelve, I swear to God, I'll…"
He got up right into Tony's face, menace written in every action. "You'll what DiNozzo? What are you going to do about me enforcing a perfectly reasonable rule, a personal standard, a professional safeguard. One you have already broken."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I saw you."
"What?"
"I saw you with her. I saw you holding her in her bed. I saw you touching her as she slept in your arms"
And the other shoe dropped. So that was it. Well good!
"Yeah? I held her last night, too. She was pliant, so soft against me as she slept. She was warm and clinging. So desperate for physical contact, for touch… for love."
That was it, the catalyst. Tony was only surprised it had taken so long. He was pushed up against the wall, the other man's restraining arm at his throat. This was him at his most dangerous. He was quiet when he spoke, and there was murder in his eyes. "What did you do, DiNozzo, wait ‘til I was out of the country? Wait until I wasn't around to get to the one woman I would never allow you to treat like a plaything. Even if I didn't know, as I do now, that I love her, I still would never have allowed you anywhere near her."
Tony gazed back at him frankly for a moment, sure his life was in danger but this had to be said. "She cried in my arms last night, for the first time. Have you ever seen her cry, Boss?" The sarcastic tone was meant to hit home but it was the implication that made him flinch.
"No? Well I'll tell you, its heart breaking. The happiest, kindest, most loving person in the world, sobbing her heart out, stripped bare by the one man she thought she could rely on. Sure, I've been in her bed before; she needed me to hold her when she didn't want to be alone. Others have left her all too easily before. But last night…last night she wept until she fell asleep, and it was because you were back."
His arm lowered but still the men stood toe to toe. Tony darted a quick look over the shoulder in front of him, seeing movement there. "You ever seen her cry, Boss?" he questioned as he moved away and left the room.
He turned around and there she stood, silent tears running down her face. Mascara lines of misery that were once again his fault.
For once I want to be the car crash
Not always just the traffic jam
Hit me hard enough to wake me
And lead me wild to your dark roads
Headlights show it all before me
So beautiful so clear
I will reach out and take it
Cos I'm so tired of all this fear
My tongue is lost so I can't tell you
Please just see it in my eyes
I'll pull the thorns from our ripped bodies
And let the blood fall in my mouth //
She turned and fled.
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