Work Text:
Disclaimer: The characters from the show aren't mine, they belong to
others. No copyright infringement intended. Any characters you don't
recognise are mine. Feedback would be nice, positive feedback would
be nicer. Enjoy!
Category: NCIS fic. Hurt/Comfort. Angst.
Rating: FRT/13 at most for content
Characters: Gibbs/Dinozzo
Series: No
Spoilers: None intended - not canon
Summary: If you want to know something, you have to those the right moment to ask.
Archive: Just tell me where it's going
Additional `stuff': The word 'Sir' seems to bother Gibbs. But it seems to reassure Tony. Set in my Moving Day universe so assume co-habitation.
Title: To Sir or not to Sir
10 am - the office
Gibbs heard it yet again. Tony reminding McGee to address him as 'Sir'. McGee seemed not to mind too much but that wasn't the point. Gibbs didn't want or need to hear it. He *knew* his team respected him. He would trust any of them with his life. All of them. Even Ducky. Gibbs pictured the ME boring an armed assailant into submission with one of his tales more often than he pictured the older man actually firing a weapon with any accuracy. But he would give his life for Gibbs, as Gibbs would for any of his team. That was what mattered, not how they addressed him.
10 pm - Gibbs/Dinozzo residence
Tony lay with his head on Gibbs lap. 'What did I do?' It was a rule, more-or-less always kept to, that they didn't discuss work outside the office. But Tony knew something was bothering Gibbs.
'Maybe McGee's had his hazing now? It's been a while.' Gibbs suggested carefully.
'He complain to you?' Tony frowned.
'No. But I'm not deaf. Or blind. And McGee's on *my* team. As are you. He doesn't 'Sir' me, neither do you.'
Tony huffed. 'I'll be nicer.'
Gibbs smiled, the hand that had been resting on Tony's chest insinuating itself inside his shirt, stroking gently, fingertips feeling the heartbeat under them. 'Why?'
Tony sighed. 'I had to stick my hand up a horse's ass.'
Gibbs made sure he didn't smile. Tony's voice suggested he wasn't amused at the memory. 'You're taking it out on McGee. It's not his fault.'
Tony closed his eyes for a long moment. 'She was...maybe sixty. She bred horses. And had a nice sideline in smuggling heroin inside the horses. She traveled all over the country with the horses loaded up. No-one ever suspected until one of the horses collapsed at her stables and her vet tipped us off. Not many horses die of heroin overdoses.'
Gibbs listened silently, hand still, resting, reassuring, not distracting or arousing.
'It was great for a newbie...we went in, armed, body armor, everything. What a rush...adrenaline and testosterone. She watched us search the stables, the garden, the house, everywhere. She knew without the evidence, she could claim she didn't know how the horse got sick. We looked *everywhere*. Hours and hours. Nothing. Then one of the detectives worked it out. He told me to search the horses. I didn't get what he meant straightaway, but they all watched me, laughing, pointing, and of course one of them had a video camera. It didn't even matter I found the drugs. They were talking about it for weeks after.'
Gibbs sighed. 'I didn't do anything like that. Not to you and not to anyone else on my team.'
Tony thought back. There had to be *something*. All the newbies went through it didn't they? Tony had taken care of McGee himself. But Tony couldn't remember a single incident where he had felt humiliated or demeaned by something Gibbs asked him to do. He looked up at Gibbs and frowned. 'McGee's a good kid isn't he?'
Gibbs smiled. 'Yeah. So?'
'No more 'Sir'.' Dinozzo promised.
Gibbs' hand moved gently across Tony's chest. 'Make sure or you'll have Abby to answer to.'
'She really likes him. I don't get it. I mean...they're so...'
'Different? Opposites attract Tony. I mean...look at us.'
Tony grinned. 'Yeah.' He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. 'Does McGee know what he's letting himself in for?'
Gibbs chuckled. 'Nah. And we're not gonna tip him off, okay?'
Tony nodded, smiling at the idea of letting McGee find out for himself what life with Abby was like. 'Whatever you say boss.'
End