Chapter Text
Tony was eleven, he had grown a lot since my father died. He was a good boy and he was going to be a good man. One day I got a call from Tony’s principal, I wondered what he had done, he usually didn’t cause trouble for the teachers. He was sneaky but from what I had learnt, he could charm himself out of it, most of the time. I got there and Tony was sitting outside, with a shiner. I raised an eyebrow, wondering who had slugged him. Before I could talk to him, the teacher came and got me and told Tony to stay where he was. I went in and sat down. The principal looked at me and nodded.
“Mr. Gibbs, I guess you saw the black eye that Tony has?” I looked at her, like well, duh.
“Yes, I did. What did he do to get it?” The teacher sat down and sighed.
“Well, from what I understand, Emily Johnson asked him to kiss her. He said no and she slugged him. Then Tony pushed her down in the dirt. He told me that you told him never to hit a girl, but you’d never said anything against pushing them.” I groaned and ran my hands through my hair and sighed.
“Yes, I told that hitting girls wasn’t a good idea.” The principal nodded some.
“Well, we have to suspend him for a week. We have suspended the girl as well, for a week. So he can come back to school next Monday.” I really wasn’t going to respond to that, so I stood up. I headed out and started walking towards the exit.
“Anthony, get your gear and let’s go.” I saw him grab his back pack and he started to walk behind me, sulking. I could tell he was. I got him in the car and took him to the NCIS office. I made him sit at the desk that was empty next to me and told him to do his homework. When Jenny called me to my office, asking me what Tony was doing at the office.
“He got suspended from school for a week. I’ll figure out what to do, most likely all have him sit at that desk doing homework. But I’ll see if the lady across the street can watch him while I am at work.” She nodded, I didn’t let her speak. I left because the work day was over and I barked. “Tony, get your things and let’s get home, you and me need to talk.” We drove home in silence and when we got there, I sat him at the kitchen table and looked at him.
“When I said that you don’t hit girls, pushing is part of that rule, along with kicking, Son. I know she punched you, but come on, Tony. You are smarter than that, couldn’t you have just walked away?” I didn’t believe in spanking my kids but I would have to come up with some kind of punishment. He wasn’t talking to me. I knew he was pissed because he probably didn’t think he did anything wrong. “The whole week, no TV, no games and no playing outside. I am going to make you do some book reports on some books. You don’t have to be in your room all the time, you can do your reports in the kitchen or the living room. You will be going into the office with me, and when I am out on a case you will set at that desk and do what I have you do. Am I clear, Anthony Gibbs?”
I knew this was a bit hard, but he had to learn that there was a time and place to protect himself. This was not one of them, he should have just walked away, but I am sure that I would have done the same thing at his age.
“Crystal Clear.” I sighed, yeah, he wasn’t liking this and neither was I! I never thought that I would hate punishing a child. Tony did like to read, so I was hoping it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be.
“Let’s go to the library.” We headed out and I looked over some that I thought sounded good in the fiction section. Some books I had read as a kid I’d hated reading but I remembered some good books. I grabbed Tom Sawyer and about six others. If he got these done, then we’d get more. We headed home and I started to make dinner. When I was done, I went upstairs and found him reading a book already. I knew he would get bored and reading would keep him entertained.
“Dinner is ready son.” He looked up from the book, put a book mark in the book and then just walked passed me and went downstairs. He was pissed at me and that would last a while. Tony wasn’t one to act out often, but every now and then, he would. I set his plate down in front of him. He started to slowly eat and play with his food.
“Tony stop messing around and eat, you got dishes for the rest of the week.” He did as he was told but because he wasn’t talking to me, things were quiet. For the rest of the night he went to his room, when I came to check on him, he was on his bed reading.
“Tony, next weekend I want you to prepare an apology to your teacher for pushing that girl.” He sighed and I just left him, after telling him to have the lights out. The week passed, Tony wasn’t talking to me, still. Only when he really needed to, it seemed. I looked over the letter of apology, it wasn’t too bad. He had done enough, I put all his book reports into a folder so he could give them to his teacher, to prove that he had done something productive and there was the apology. We didn’t talk about it again, but things went slowly back to normal.
We went threw middle school like a breeze. He was never a rebellious child, which I was glad for. We played sports together, he played on the basketball team in middle school, he was in track and he played baseball. He wasn’t into the contact sports and neither was I. He was a good kid, he spent time with me unlike some kids that just ignored their parents because they thought they were boring. Well, lucky me, I had a job he loved to hear about. We spent a lot of our time working on the boat and talking. He had his friends but his weekends, he was usually doing things with me. He was fourteen and he was 6’, he was the tallest of most of his class. He was a Junior and the amazing thing was, he had been Caption of the basket ball team since his second year in high school. I tried to make most of his games but I only made about half of them, but he knew my job was important and I knew he understood that. Unlike most of the kids in his school, Tony knew how to shoot a rifle and a 9mm. He was a good shot too. He knew how to fight almost as well as a Marine.
Tony wasn’t one to go to the parties, kind of surprised me because he was a jock. He had got himself a job when it wasn’t basketball season. He had a nice, two person truck and he was proud of it. It was originally his grandfather’s old truck. It had had some work done on it, before my dad died so it had some new parts in it so it would run for another eight or so years. It was something he’d left Tony when he died and Tony was proud to have his grandfather’s truck. I moved to check Tony’s room, at least it was mildly clean, that was good, for now. I would tell him to clean it tonight, before bed. Tony came in and he smiled, no wonder the girls and teachers all loved him. He had a bag with him.
“Hey Dad. I’m going to cook dinner, I spent some of my pay check to get what I want to cook. Can I, please?.” I smiled and ruffled his hair. My son still acted like he did when he was a child. But that was because he was my little boy. I smiled.
“Want some help, Son?” The thing about Tony was he was a damn good cook, but sometimes he got side tracked. He stopped to think about it.
“Yeah, if you want to help.” I never told him when he would over cook something, he was always so proud that he made us dinner. I’m not sure if he noticed if he over cooked something. I could see he was wanting to ask me something, he was acting a little antsy.
“Tony, got something on your mind?” He nodded and he started to cook the ground meet. He cleared his throat, yeah he had something to say.
“Dad, I was on my date last night. You told me that I could, um… hell, Dad, this is hard to say.” I smirked, he wasn’t looking at me.
“First time, Son?” He nodded and looked at me, worried.
“Dad, I think I sucked. I mean I hurt her and it was her first time too.” Okay, so maybe we should have had the full talk about sex.
“Aww, hell, Tony. When a girl is a virgin, it hurts them the first time, there’s no avoiding it. No man starts out perfect, at making love to a girl, Tony. It takes practice.” He nodded some and he looked at me. He took a deep breath.
“I didn’t mean to make her cry, Dad.” I nodded, he had been dating one girl for the past four months. She came over for dinner a few times, helped Tony with his home work. She was eighteen and had just started going to college.
“Son, it only hurts them for a few seconds, then it’s over. Don’t worry. I am sure if you’d kept hurting her she would have shoved you off, Son.”
He nodded and started to get the rest of dinner ready. I was making the salad. I was actually damn proud of him, that he was worried about hurting her. All the boys I’d been around were just happy to lose their virginity, or to even get laid, that they never seemed to worry about the girl. I stroked the back of my son’s neck and smirked at him.
“Tony, don’t ever stop worrying about the other person that you’re making love to. ‘Cause some boys your age just think about themselves. Always remember that there’s two of you, okay?”
He nodded as he put the pan in the oven with the sauce in it. He read through a recipe and set the timer while I set the salad in the fridge. Then we went and sat down and turned the game on. I smirked, Tony was a good kid and I was proud he’d turned out the way he did. He had asked about his parents when he was about fourteen, well more asked, if he had a mother. I let him know that his father and I had fought together in Desert Storm and his mother was sick so she left him with me when he was a baby. I raised him on my own and he never hated me for not telling him, which I was glad about. I had pictures and some history on his parents.
“I was thinking, tomorrow we can go and put some flowers on your mom and biological dad’s graves, what you think, Son?” He nodded and he looked at me.
“Wish I could have met them, Dad. I mean, you’ve been the best dad a kid can ask for, but you know?” I nodded and stroked his neck, smiling at my son. I did, he did deserve to know them but I am being a little selfish, I was glad that I got to raise Tony.
“Yeah, I do, Son. Your father was a brave man and you mom was the sweetest.” He smirked at me as he went to stand to get the food.
“Yeah, I got my looks from her and I got his eyes. Mom was a beauty, no wonder I came out so handsome.” I rolled my eyes, laughing, as I stood up to go and get the salad. I turned the TV off. He put the food on the plates as I set down some milk, milk was always good with enchiladas. We sat down and started to eat, he wasn’t that bad of a cook. He cleared his throat. “Dad, after I graduate next year, I want to join the police academy, maybe become a cop here in D.C.” I kind of froze, I took a bite. I loved my job and knew Tony would be good at being a NCIS agent. But it was dangerous and that’s the only part that worried me about him being a cop. I know he worried about me all the time because I had been shot a few times while he grew up or hurt.
“How long you been thinking about this, Tony?” He looked at me and blushed slightly.
“Since I was about fourteen and probably here and there while I grew up. I mean, Dad, I’ve always been proud of you, protecting your country by being a Marine and then going in as a NCIS Agent. I want to do my part. I mean, I don’t see myself joining the Military but I would like to be a cop.” I was glad he didn’t want to go into the military, that took some weight of my chest. I smiled some when he said he was proud of me and I slide my hands through my hair.
“Tony, you do what you think you need to do, Son. You always remember what I taught you. You let your instincts guide you and if you think you’re in danger, you shoot. If you don’t have a gun, you play it smart; if you’ve got to run, you run. If you’ve got to fight, you fight. Being a hero is one thing, Tony, but no need for you to be dead, that just means they’re a cop down to protect.”
Tony was stubborn. I could tell he was asking too, but I knew that even if I had said no, he would still do it. But I would support my son, he was strong and I had trained him myself, with a gun. I’d also trained him to fight like a Marine. He was well trained in all, he was going to fly through the police academy but I still would worry.
“Yeah, Dad, I will do my best and I will always keep my instincts on top. It’s cool if I still live at home for a while after school. That way I can save up to get something real good, ya know, if I have a family and all.” I nodded and took the dishes as we had finished our food. I ruffled his hair and looked at him.
“This is your home, Son, and it always will be and you’re welcome here for as long as you want.”
He helped me do the dishes and we went for our usual run before playing an hour of basketball in the back yard. Then we showered and headed down to work on the boat until it was time for us to crash out.