"Hey, Steve, I was thinking."
"Shocking."
The huge man rolled his eyes but turned to his ex still tied to the chair. Tony had been talking all the time since he had woken up. He had been tempted to knock him out but he need him to be fine.
"Haven't you noticed that you have a tiny problem in your plan?"
"Why did I want to marry you?"
"No idea, but that's not the point."
"And what would be the point?"
Tony tilted his head to one side, then to the other and then took a deep breath, annoyingly slowly.
"Did you ever think about it that as long as you're hiding here doing nothing they couldn't contact you even if they did found Gibbs?"
Steve stopped in his pacing and turned to Tony. He knelt down in front of him.
"That's a trick, isn't it?"
"You know, I think that's why you wanted to marry me. Because we already talked as if we were married for ages. I mean, I say something and you ain't listen."
Steve shook his head and continued pacing.
"You know, it's not as if I could do you any harm. Couldn't defend myself the last time, and by now I don't have a snowball's chance in hell against you."
"You stay tied the chair."
"Kinky."
Steve closed his eyes in despair and just kept going.
"This is going to be very difficult."
He sighed annoyed when he got no answer.
"You're not talking to me, or what?"
"Wouldn't know about what. You're here to help us with Tony. Then you can go where ever you want."
Gibbs licked his lips at the harsh words of the young man. Apparently being protective about their people wasn't just in his personality.
"You teached them to be like that. Can't hold it against them now."
Ducky said as if he'd been reading Gibbs' mind. Some answers came to the ex-Marine's mind but he decided against it. If the whole team was pissed with him it would be easier to make a fast exit later. The elevator came to a halt and he heard the ping of the doors. He grapped the handle of his cain a bit tighter and then walked into the office. It was strange. While he knew the way to his former desk he felt strangely unsteady and he knew Ducky was right next to him to guide him if necessary. He couldn't explain it. It was as if he could feel the elder man's aura, almost like a colour, green, the only thing in the darkness. Slightly in front of him there was dark blue dust and as he came closer to the workstation of Ziva he saw a light yellow glim...no, he didn't see that. His other senses noticed something there and his brain tried to make up for the lack of vision. Yeah, that it had to be.
"Oh...my..god..."
Low whisperes ran around the room and he felt all eyes on him. Did they had to bring him here? Where everybody knew him as the unvurnable bastard he once once?
"Gibbs...what..."
"I'm blind, Ziva. Could we move on?"
"PA!"
"Ducky!"
Before he could do anything he had something heavy hanging on him. He knelt down, finding the way by taking the boy by the shoulders.
"Hey, Dom."
"Pa...where have you been? Are you back now? Why...why are you wearing these glasses? And the...cain?"
"Champ, I'm blind. I need the cain to know where I'm walking."
"Blind? When did that happen?"
"A few months ago. I'm really sorry that I wasn't there, Dom. Really sorry."
"But now you're back."
He searched the boy's head with his hand, noting that he had grown a few inches and kissed his head.
"Dom, what are you doing up here? Aren't you supposed to be with Abby?"
"He is with me."
Gibbs winced at the pissed of tone above of him. "Looking" up from the turqouise light in front of him to the dark purple he forced himself a smile on his face. Even without vision he knew that he didn't receive one in return.
"Ducky, take Dom down with you, ok?"
"But I want to stay with Pa, Timmy! I haven't seen him in so long!"
The small boy hugged Gibbs hard enough to nearly knock him over. His father couldn't help but laugh.
"No, champ. Go with Ducky. We have some work to do."
He was hugged again and then he saw the green and smaller turqouise forms leave. He stood wincing as his knees protested.
"Abby, if you want to go all over me, could we do that in your lab? There's no need for the whole office to hear it."
"C'mon. Got to show you something anyway. McGee!"
He waited until Agent Lee was next to him.
"Could you lend me your elbow?"
"Sure, sir."
He took it thankfully. No way in hell he would have asked one of his old team. He found himself at the back of the elevator and then in the lab and according to the silence he knew everybody was staring at him.
"Why don't you just go over me so we're done?"
"That'd take hours."
Abby answered dryly.
"Yeah, so then let's get..."
"What the hell were you thinking, Gibbs? Letting Tony and Dom down! Leaving him while he's pregnant! God damnit! Leaving them at all! I've known you're a bastard, I've known you're egoistic and stubborn! But what the hell made you do that?"
Gibbs waited a few seconds to make sure she would listen.
"Abby, nothing I might say can change your oppinion. Because you will never understand what I feel. Not because you don't want to, but because you didn't have to go through what I had to go through. My childhood was far from perfect. I lost the family I never dreamt of. I wasn't here to protect my family because I had to fight the battle for someone else. Eight months ago I got the diagnosis that I was going to be blind within the next six months. The chances of healing were small. Back then I knew I would never see my son at his graduation. I wouldn't see Tony dance with our daughter-in-law, or son-in-law. And I knew I would never be able to protect them. To help them if anything happens. If Dom falls down I wouldn't be able to put a band-aid on the wound. I wouldn't be able to bring him to the hospital if he had to go there. I knew I would need help to make myself something to eat, at least in the beginning. I wouldn't be able to go anywhere further than I could walk by myself. I wouldn't be able to work anymore, neither I'd be a big help at home. All I would have been for Tony and Dom was a burden. Emotionally aswell as physically. I never needed help. I never asked for help. I don't want to put my weight on others. I had to go."
His statement was followed by a thick silence. He sighed deeply and ran his hand through his hair.
"Listen, just...let's get Tony back save, ok?"
"So you do still care about him?"
Gibbs sighed.
"Of course I still care about him, Abby. All I was thinking about in the last months was Tony and Dom...I miss them...like hell."
Author's Chapter Notes:
Talks...
Chapter End Notes:
The sequence with Tony and Steve turned out more funny than angsty but somehow I think it was closer to Tony's character than anything else.