Tony had been gone entirely too long to only be taking a shower. The younger agent had not given his personal report to Gibbs yet, and the NCIS team leader was certain more was going on around here than met the eye. Not all necessarily related to the case however.
He remembered the skinny kid that Tony introduced as Ryan along with another scruffier looking kid from their visit to Tony, and NCIS, over the summer. Tony appeared to be close to them, but Gibbs had not spent a lot of time with the three men, Abby had, making Gibbs think that she was glued to the trio, and so he wasn’t certain exactly what type of relationship the two men shared. He also was at a loss as to how they knew Tony. He had thought they were friends but something about the way Tony and Ryan’s body language spoke of a closer relationship.
A few months later, Tony came to him personally to ask for a day off. He had never seen the younger agent as upset. Gibbs didn’t refuse him, but he did take him into his private “office” to find out what the problem was.
Of course, he had heard the news, a cop killing usually made the national news even if it was just a blurb; everyone in law enforcement paid attention to those blurbs. Gibbs had heard about it a day or two ago on his way home from work, listening to the radio. He was surprised to learn that the victim was one of the young men that had visited Tony only a few months earlier. Generally, Gibbs was a hard ass, especially to Tony, but all his younger lover was asking for was the time to go to the funeral and burial. They had no active cases, so Gibbs gave his consent. NCIS was a federal agency, but he knew that DiNozzo had worked local law enforcement long enough for a police funeral to be important to the younger man. Gibbs had found out that the former cop had attended several of the 9/11 police funerals in NYC, while doing the extensive background check on the younger agent.
He arranged for DiNozzo to fly in and out on a military transport. Not the most comfortable of flights, but it would save the price of a commercial flight.
That night, when Gibbs came over to Tony’s apartment, he found the younger man getting his suit ready for the following day.
As soon as Tony opened the door, Gibbs pushed him to the opposite wall and pinned Tony against it, shutting the door behind him as he moved.
Gibbs could tell how upset Tony had been earlier when he asked for the time off -- hell, Tony even asking for the time was a clear indication of how upset he was. Gibbs knew just how to make him forget all about what was bothering him.
Gibbs started kissing the younger man passionately, running his hands through the soft hair. Initially, Tony had his arms outstretched in shock. He wasn’t expecting Gibbs tonight. He slowly moved his arms to embrace his lover; the kisses became more and more intense. Tongues dueled, one another mapping out the edges of teeth, the curves of gums the unique flavors of each other. Tony’s hand moved restlessly over his lover’s back, finding the collar to the jacket and pulling it off then going to the waistband of the pants and pulling out the shirt, moving his hand beneath the shirt to find the warm skin underneath, affirming life. Gibbs skillfully started moving them out of the foyer and towards the bedroom.
That night was the first time that he had spent the entire night at Tony’s rather than leaving soon after their encounter. He felt the younger man needed the reassurance of the embrace of another person. It was not the last time they spent the night together, that first time together opening up their relationship, allowing them to spend nights together.
Gibbs took the younger man to the military airfield in the morning before heading to NCIS. He never asked Tony about the funeral or about his relationship with the other man though he probably should have. He just wasn’t sure how to ask.
Now it seemed like he really could use the information that he had neglected to ask his lover months ago. He hated when there were nuances in a situation that he could sense but had no idea what they meant.
Gibbs stopped someone who had been walking in the hallway, asking for directions to the locker room. He slipped silently into the room, intending to sneak up on his lover, and if he was alone to possibly, join him if he had not yet taken his shower.
Gibbs stopped just inside the door. He heard voices so he knew that Tony was not alone. His libido wilted. He was about to break up whatever love fest DiNozzo had gotten himself involved in this time; it amazed Gibbs at the situations Tony found himself in.
In general, Tony was a good agent and a fine investigator, but he still got distracted far too easily, at least, as far as Gibbs was concerned. This was Gibbs cue to break up whatever had kept Tony occupied in the lockers after his shower.
That was until he heard Tony say with a certain amount of menace in his voice, “Come and sit down, Dr Woods. I think we need to talk.”
The last time he had heard Tony use that tone of voice had been when the younger agent had still been with the Baltimore PD. Gibbs had never seen him use that tone again so he had thought it an aberration. Apparently not.
Gibbs listened as Tony spoke of his close association with Ryan and the dead CSI who apparently went by the nick name of Speed. Gibbs heard Tony basically out Ryan and Speed to this woman, who only seemed upset that they didn’t trust her enough to tell her themselves. He was sure there was more to the relationship between Tony and Ryan, but he just wasn’t sure exactly what that something “more” was. There had to be if they had known one another as children.
He vaguely wondered why Tony had not let him know that the two men were a couple when they visited NCIS, but thinking back to that time, he realized that while He and Tony had been sleeping together in the “having sex” sense, they didn’t have a relationship. These days, they were more of a couple, and it was sad to say that the death of Tony’s friend was the impetus to cause Gibbs to change the relationship.
Gibbs smiled to himself as Tony used his charm to ease the ME’s feeling of guilt. As Gibbs continued to listen, he learned more about his own lover’s insecurities and some of the reasons that Tony hid his own sexual orientation. As bad as his ex-wives could be, none of them had ever done anything close to what that one ex girlfriend did to Tony. A lot of the short term relationships the younger man had been involved in began to make a whole lot more sense now. Some of the women he had been interested in had been down right dangerous. Couple this with the few things the younger agent has let slip about his childhood, and Tony’s reckless behavior at times when undercover was beginning to make sense to Gibbs.
The thought of how badly injured that Tony must have been angered and upset Gibbs, but he refused to dwell on it. He couldn’t let Tony know he was aware of the severity of the injury or the reason for it, not unless the younger man confided in him. He really didn’t want Tony to be aware that Gibbs had spied on him.
The hospitalization was part of his file so Gibbs knew about it, but the file contained a clinical detached recounting of the injuries and did not convey how badly hurt Tony apparently had been.
The conversation seemed to be winding down. Gibbs had noticed Tony checking his watch several times. His senior agent was well aware that he had spent entirely too much time on tasks not related to the current investigation.
The next thing he heard had Gibbs grinning. Ducky had apparently sent this ME running for a bolt hole. It was funny, but if it took Ducky so little time to cause the Miami ME to look for respite from his stories, Gibbs knew he had better ask to elderly ME to try and curtail his story telling at least around the Miami people. Fornell’s agents were still fair game. Gibbs moved deeper into the shadows of the locker room. He had been undetected thus far, no need to reveal himself now.
The last thing he heard before the duo left the lockers was Tony telling the ME about Gibbs and his ability to sneak up on his subordinates. Tony was getting much better at catching him at it, but as the current situation attested, the younger agent still had a lot to learn.
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