Leroy Jethro Gibbs wasn't an angry man. No. Angry was the understatement of the year. It's just that being angry came easier than giving in to the terror, which he kept pushing away. He was a man of action and all this inactivity, unable to actually do something, was driving him mad.
Two weeks. Two weeks since his baby girl had been kidnapped by a man wanting revenge. Two weeks of living hell. They had tracked down the bastard, and it had taken his agents to stop him from putting a bullet right between the man's eyes. They had found the man, but his daughter had seemingly vanished from the earth. He could hardly focus at work and was prepared to march into Director's office, to give his ultimatum to either let him keep looking for Kelly or he'd quit. To think the bastard dared to stop him from working on the case and then giving it to someone who was hardly as focused as he would've been.
Gibbs stood up, startling his agents, who were already treating him like something explosive. Ignoring the ringing phone on his desk, Gibbs stomped away.
"Boss..."
"You answer it if you care!"
The Agent swallowed and stood up, answering the phone with a calmness he barely could keep. When Gibbs was halfway on the stairs to the Director's office, the Agent called after him again, "Boss!"
"I don't want to hear it!"
"It's... Boss. Your daughter." The Agent swallowed again when Gibbs turned sharply around, murder in his eyes.
"Kelly? Is she..? Did they..?"
"She's alive I think," the Agent said and then paused with a wince, while his partner facepalmed at the poor choice of words.
"Give that!" Gibbs barked, more afraid than angry. Taking the phone, he said with a harsh voice, "This is Gibbs."
"Leroy Jethro Gibbs?" the voice drawled; a young male.
"Just Gibbs. Speak."
A huff of breath and then amused, "Wow. She wasn't kidding. You really are a grumpy old bear."
"What's this, a prank call? I swear, I will hunt down your ass, and then I'll—!"
"Look, Gibbs, I don't have time for this. I have your daughter."
Gibbs' eyes widened. "What?"
"I have your daughter. Kelly, right?"
"I swear, if you've hurt her, I'll kill you!"
"Uh... I think there's been a misunderstanding. I'm not... Never mind, I've really got to go now. We can clear it up later. It's going to take some time for us to get there, but I'll bring her home. We're already on our way."
"Let me—" Gibbs started, only to realize he'd been cut off. No one did that to him. "I'll kill him!" he hissed and threw the phone down. "Find out where it came from," he ordered. Director completely forgotten, he stormed to the elevator. He hoped the call was the real deal and not someone playing a cruel joke.
...
...
Curled up on the couch, Shannon hugged a huge pink teddy bear to her chest, watching as her husband kept pacing around the living room. "Jethro... What's wrong?"
Gibbs shook his head and kept glancing toward the clock on the wall. He couldn't possibly say anything to Shannon, when this could be another false hope. It was enough that he was ready to lose his mind. He glanced at the clock again. It had been hours since the phone call. He was so deep in his thoughts that he barely heard a car driving and then stopping in front of their house. It was only after Shannon looked toward the front door, that he snapped out of his murderous thoughts.
"Wait here," he ordered, and walking silently to the door, he opened it. There was some fancy looking car and while he was staring, the doors opened.
"Daddy!" Kelly cried out when she saw her father. Feeling weak, Gibbs fell on his knees, holding out his arms where his little girl ran into.
"Kelly!" he rasped. It didn't take long after that for Shannon to come out, scream, and join the family in a group hug.
"Mom... Dad... I was so scared..." Kelly sobbed.
Gibbs was first to finally look at the young man standing next to the car, looking awkward, as he tried not to look at the loving family moment. Only, Gibbs didn't really see him; he saw a young male, and then he saw red. Standing up, he marched to him and punched him in the face. There was the sickening sound of a nose breaking, and then the man fell down.
"Daddy, no!" Kelly screamed and ran to the man. "Tony! Tony, are you dead?! Daddy, you killed my friend!" she wailed.
Gibbs stood there in shock. It was only then that he really saw the man, who couldn't even be called that. He had hit some kid with his full Marine strength, fueled by rage. He felt sick to his stomach.
"I'm fine, Kells," Tony said. Looking around dazedly, he tried to sit up, but fell down again with a hand to his forehead, as though he was dizzy.
"You sound funny..."
"Kelly, honey, who is this?" Shannon finally asked. Pulling her bathrobe tighter around herself, she walked closer.
"This is Tony. He saved me," Kelly said, looking horrified at the blood that kept coming from Tony's nose.
"Thank you, Tony," Shannon whispered, but Tony only kept looking around himself with that same dazed look in his eyes. "Oh, Jethro... We need to get him to a hospital. I think you broke the poor boy's nose. He might've even hit his head."
Gibbs swallowed, feeling like some kind of bogeyman who had attacked an innocent and defenseless kid. "Right. I'll... I'll take him. You stay home with Kelly."
"No! I will come too!" Kelly protested and wrapped her arms tightly around Tony's arm.
"Jethro. We do need to get her checked as well... We will all go."
Gibbs nodded then. Helping Tony up on his feet, he started taking the teen toward his own car.
"'m fine," Tony muttered and tried to pull away, but fighting back was futile when the man was a former Marine.
...
...
"...and, and, and then we went to see a movie. Then Tony and I took pictures of each other, and he even let me take his, and he didn't mind that I wasn't very good at it and, and, and then we went shopping for some clothes. He bought me this dress, and it's the prettiest dress I've ever had, and I did like the other clothes, but they were his old clothes, but he's a boy, and I'm a girl, so it was weird wearing boy clothes. And then..."
Shannon listened to Kelly's rambling with a smile. Her doctor was also smiling at the chatty girl as she was being checked for injuries and any signs of possible other... issues. So far, so good. The girl was doing pretty well, considering all she went through. Her husband stood by the windows and stared outside with a deep frown on his face. It aged him considerably, painting deep lines on his face.
"Jethro?" Shannon said softly as she walked next to him.
He shook his head. "I hurt him. That kid found our girl, saved her when no one else cared. It could've been anyone. What if someone else had found her, someone who would've hurt her? He's just a kid himself, but he went through the trouble of not only finding us, but also brought her back home. Unharmed. And the way Kelly talks about him and his— that man, I possibly hurt someone who's been abused by his own father."
Shannon wrapped her arms around him from behind and hugged. "Go find him then."
"You heard him. Said he didn't want any company."
Shannon chuckled. "Since when do you care what others say or think?"
He was silent for a while. "I do care what people say."
"Really."
"Sometimes."
...
...
Looking around to see if anyone saw him, Gibbs opened the door and entered the room quietly. He was alarmed by the ugly colors on the teen's face, feeling even more guilty than he already had.
"I said I don't want any company," Tony mumbled from the bed where he sat and slowly opened his eyes. There was hurt in them, hurt that went so much deeper than physical pain.
"Well, I've been told that I can be a real bastard."
"No kidding."
Gibbs sighed, and ignoring the sarcastic remark, he took the chair and sat next to the bed. "Thank you," he finally said. To his surprise, Tony looked away.
"Don't have to thank me. Couldn't just leave her there."
Gibbs frowned. Thinking that the kid was hiding tears, he leaned closer. Instead of tears, he saw a red face. Embarrassment. "Thank you," he said again. "If it hadn't been you, my little girl could be..."
"I don't need—"
"Thank you."
"Stop that." Tony lay down and pulled the blanket over his face.
Gibbs couldn't help himself. "Thank you." As amusing as it was, it also irritated him that, for whatever reason, the kid couldn't handle being thanked. Gibbs almost never thanked anyone, and although the kid didn't know it, this was a rare moment.
Tony pushed the blanket away and sat up. "Nurse!"
By the time a nurse peeked inside the room, Gibbs was chuckling. "What's wrong?"
"Get him out of here! He's annoying me!"
The nurse studied the situation, and seeing no real threat toward the patient, she shook her head. "Keep the voice down and get some rest. You look like you could use it." And then she left.
"Hey! You're not supposed to let strangers into my room!"
Gibbs smirked. "Guess you're stuck with me now, kid."
Tony mumbled something but didn't resist when he was pushed back into bed. "Go home. Kelly really missed you."
For a moment, Gibbs stared at the kid in the bed, now pretending to be asleep. He felt the strange urge to brush away the too long hair from the kid's face, but he held back. "Sleep well, Tony..." he murmured, feeling oddly reluctant to leave the room, but not finding any good excuse to stay, he finally left.
...
...
Tony looked to his left, then right. Seeing no one, he skipped through the hall. It was early in the morning and still quite dark. He had to act fast if he wanted to get back to his—Senior's—car and back home. Not to mention the call from the hospital... The longer he stayed here, the bigger the trouble that was waiting for him. Since he had no idea where his clothes were or any of his things like keys and money, he walked through the cold city, freezing in his paper thin hospital outfit.
By the time he made it to the Gibbs house, he could swear that the tips of his fingers and toes had a slight blue coloring.
He couldn't believe his luck when he tried the front door of the house and found it open. Just how stupid were these people? Especially after their daughter had been kidnapped because the door hadn't been locked... Stepping inside quietly, he said a quiet thank you when he saw his clothes and all the things not far from the door.
"Finally something goes right," Tony whispered to himself and picked them up. As he turned around to leave, a strong hand suddenly landed on his shoulder, and he could barely hold back a scream of terror. Twisting around, he tried to get free. In a complete panic, he didn't even see who it was.
"Calm down," the voice hissed next to his ear, and he didn't know why, but he stopped struggling. He then saw it was Gibbs standing there. "We don't want to wake up the girls."
Tony furrowed his brows at the calm way the man regarded him. "You're not angry?"
"Angry, for what? The door wasn't locked, and you only came to take back what's yours."
Tony stared and then suddenly it hit him. "You knew I would come?"
Gibbs shrugged. "Gut feeling."
"Gut... I see where Kelly gets it."
Making sure to lock the door, Gibbs let go of his shoulder. Then he was touching Tony's hands and face, swearing softly. "You're freezing cold... Did you really walk through the city, dressed like that?"
Tony shrugged, unsure of what he was supposed to say. For some reason, he felt like admitting it would have been a wrong move and denying it even worse. So he opted to not say anything.
"Come. You need a hot shower."
Tony hesitated, but then followed slowly. He watched quietly as the man prepared everything for him in there and then left him alone, as if sensing the rising panic. Once he had made sure to lock the door, and made sure it stayed that way, Tony disappeared under the hot shower, almost letting out a loud yelp at how painful it felt against his ice-cold skin.
Closing his eyes with a sigh, Tony finally relaxed. He had become stupidly comfortable having Kelly around. He would go back home and never see her again. He was already walking down that dangerous road with his father's worsening moods. He shivered at the very thought of returning home with Senior's beloved car...
...
...
They sat behind the kitchen table, Gibbs with his coffee and Tony staring at his steaming hot tea, both secretly glancing at the other.
Gibbs stared at the kid, who after the shower looked so much younger than his actual age. Tony's skin had a healthy tone again, and his hair was sticking at every odd angle. Despite the figure that had to belong to someone who was playing football or some other sport, the blanket wrapped around Tony made the tall teen look small, especially with the hunched posture.
"When's your birthday?" Gibbs suddenly asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to let Tony say it himself. He had found out the kid's real age from the files he'd made his disgruntled agents dig out for him. What little he discovered from those papers, Gibbs didn't like. The boy's mother had died years ago, and it had been only Tony and his father; a man who had written his only son out of his will several years ago, yet he seemed to be in control of almost every aspect of Tony's life. Then there were all those countless injuries and hospital visits, with no real explanation. Gibbs was no fool; he could read between the lines there, not to mention there had to be things that never made it to any files, which filled his head with all the worst-case scenarios.
Tony looked up. "Next year," he answered vaguely.
"You'll be eighteen then, right?"
"I guess."
"You need a place to stay?"
Tony frowned. "I don't need one."
Gibbs was silent for a while, thinking back to the conversation he'd had with Shannon, and then Kelly. There was no way to ever show just how grateful he was for getting his girl back. Sure, a little malnourished, but still as healthy as she can be, considering where she'd been. "Kelly really likes you, and you should hear the way Shannon, my wife, talks about you. Pretty sure she thinks you're some kind of saint."
"I'm lost."
"We have a room nobody is using, and it's yours if you want it. We want you to come live with us." Or rather, Kelly and Shannon wanted it and Gibbs pretended to be reluctant about it. However, it took a call to someone in NY—some cop apparently knew Tony and had nothing but good to say about him—that he knew they were doing the right thing.
Tony stared at him, and then suddenly his eyes went cold. "No."
Gibbs was startled. He had expected things to not be that easy, but a simple and so final 'no' was not what he'd been expecting either. "Tony..."
"I don't need your pity."
"Pity?"
"I'm not stupid. I saw those files of me you tried to hide when I came from the bathroom. I know what Kelly must have told you. I don't need your charity. I helped your daughter because it was the right thing to do, not to get something in return." He stood up and let the blanket fall on the floor. "I'm going home. Thanks for the shower and tea."
"It's not charity! Sit down," Gibbs ordered, now also standing.
"Then what else do you call it?"
"It's because we want to do it."
Tony looked tired. "Thank you, but you don't know me. I could be anyone. Doesn't matter what files you've read about me. They're just pieces of paper that mean nothing. Anyone could've written them, for better or worse."
"My gut—"
"I know all about your gut. Kelly told me. That reminds me, gut feeling or not, tell her not to trust strangers so easily. Thank God I wasn't someone dangerous, or you and I wouldn't be having this conversation."
Gibbs was suddenly afraid. He realized that nothing was going to stop Tony from leaving. He knew in his gut that if he'd let the kid go, he'd let him walk into something bad. Surprising himself, he found himself pleading, "Tony..."
Tony smiled sadly. "I'm grateful, really, but I have to go home. It's good to know that somewhere out there, someone cares. It's more than I could have ever hoped for. Thank you. Take care of Kelly."
Gibbs stood there helplessly and watched as the young man walked out of their lives. It would be much later that he wondered how did Tony manage to open the door that was locked. Hearing the car drive away, Gibbs sighed and brushed a hand over his head. He should have let Shannon do the talking; she was so much better than he at that... How was he supposed to explain this to Kelly, who had undying trust that her daddy could make anything happen?
