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2020-11-05
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The Trusted Ones

Summary:

A few thoughts that developed after the discussions about Gerald on the list. I've used quite a bit of artistic license on this as I really can't remember much about Gerald - but that's why it's called fiction!

Work Text:

The Trusted Ones
by Starbucks Sue

"You two clean this up, bag him and meet us up there." Gibbs turned and walked off without waiting for an answer.

"Gives you a warm feeling doesn't it, knowing that Gibbs trusts us with a contaminated crime scene." Tony commented and grinned across at the ME's assistant as Gerald burst into laughter. Not that anything about the dead naval commander in front of them was funny, in fact it crossed Tony's mind that to any onlooker it might seem a little disrespectful, even the fact that the man had got them out of a sexual harassment lecture wasn't anything to be amused about. But here they were, on a Virginia beach in the warm sunshine on a beautiful spring day and Tony couldn't help but feel content. To Tony's relief, Gibbs had sent Kate off on her own little errand which he guessed would keep her occupied and out of his way for a few hours, he'd really had enough of her sniping lately. He was also pleased that he had made the man next to him laugh as, in Tony's opinion, the serious ME's assistant beside him didn't laugh enough.

Tony had always been a gregarious person, always made it his business to know who all his colleagues were, whether they worked in the director's office or the mailroom. A lot of people had immediately fixated on the way he flirted with the female staff and labeled him for the ladies man that he often liked to portray. Only those looking closer, who apart from Tony's immediate boss Leroy Jethro Gibbs were very few and far between, actually noticed that Tony was equally as friendly with the male members of staff, he just didn't flirt with them so his interaction was less obvious.

As Gibbs had quickly come to realize, Tony cared about people. He took the time to find out about his fellow workers and their families. Although NCIS was a civilian agency a number of the people working there had family in the military and Tony always knew whose husband, wife, son, daughter, etc, was being shipped out to foreign soil or waters. It was what made him so popular among his colleagues.

One of the people Tony had taken a special interest in was the ME's assistant. Gerald had always been quiet and shy, often seeming overanxious and he rarely smiled. Tony had been surprised to discover that Gerald had started out in the mailroom as a junior clerk straight from high school but in the ten years he had been at NCIS had worked his way up to be Ducky's assistant about three weeks before Tony joined the agency. It had seemed a surprising move from senior mailroom clerk to ME's assistant and Tony  had taken it upon himself to find out the full story.

Gerald's father had been military, a marine who had been killed in action when Gerald was sixteen. With four younger brothers and sisters Gerald's dream of going to college quickly evaporated when he realized that he would have to leave high school and find a job to help support his mother and siblings. The job at NCIS came up by chance as an old CO of his fathers' worked there at the time and mentioned that it would give him a good solid start to his working life, a reasonable salary and the potential to move up.

Gerald enjoyed his job from the start. NCIS was a busy and exciting place to work, even if his work in the mailroom wasn't quite so thrilling, and he quickly got to know all the people on his stops around the office delivering the mail. One place he loved to linger was Autopsy; Gerald was very fond of the elderly ME and loved listening to Ducky's stories, which led to him developing an interest in the ME's work.

Ducky in turn was delighted in the younger man's interest and one day, always one to encourage and support his younger colleagues, suggested that Gerald might be interested in an evening class run by a local medical school. One thing led to another and when the ME's old assistant moved on to a new job Gerald was thrilled to be asked if he would like the position, along with the offer of a two year distance learning course to further his training. To Gerald's delight, the lectures came in CD format which he could load onto his i-pod and he was often seen wandering around the building with his earplugs in listening to the latest lecture.

Although he came from what would be seen by others as a totally opposite background, Tony understood Gerald's situation far better than most people would have believed. The young agent knew the pain of losing a parent and of having to struggle to get where he wanted to be after being cut off by his father at the age of twelve. Their friendship was also cemented further by the fact that their respective superiors had known each other for many years and were the best of friends. The older men were strict but caring, both had paternal feelings towards their young charges and set very clear boundaries, all of which the younger men responded to well being something they had missed during their teenage years. Most importantly, the young men were also trusted implicitly by their superiors when it came to their work, which had helped to increase their self-confidence during the two years they had been in their respective jobs.

Which was why Tony and Gerald were currently sitting on a North Virginia beach in the spring sunshine with a dead body, laughing over Tony's observation about being left in charge of a contaminated crime scene.

"Come on man; let's get him out of here." Gerald got reluctantly to his feet with an easy grin.

"Yeah, I guess we'd better get him bagged and tagged." Tony sighed at last, not making any move from where he'd slumped onto the warm, golden sand.

"Well, if we don't get to Fort Story soon they're gonna send a search party back for us and that won't be pretty."

They looked at each other, both laughing again. Despite the two older men being hard taskmasters neither of their subordinates were actually afraid of them, which was probably why they often ended up being taken to task at times like this when they did slack a little.

With a final sigh, Tony got to his feet and followed his friend back to the ME's van. Just because he wasn't afraid of Gibbs didn't mean he wanted to get into his team leaders' bad books this early in the day.

 

end