Work Text:
Lean on me
by Belladonna
Gibbs was, quite frankly, depressed. They'd lost two small girls to their crazed father, a sailor from the U.S.S. Monahan. When he'd looked down on those two broken little bodies, all he could ask was 'why?' He'd wanted ~his~ daughter, had loved her with everything in him, and she'd been taken away. This man had everything and he'd broken it, killed those precious babies with his own hands so his wife couldn't have them.
Tony came up to his boss, paperwork in his hands, when he heard the hushed sob, saw the barely shaking shoulders. Oh shit. He tossed the pile onto Ziva's desk and wrapped an arm around Gibbs's shoulders. "C'mon boss, lean on me."
The arm around his shoulder comforted him as much as it had startled him. He must have been really out of it not to hear Tony come in. "I'm okay," he said, his breath hitching embarrassingly.
"Oh boss, you are so far from okay as to be in another zip code," Tony murmured, helping Gibbs sit down in the darkened hallway. It was far enough from everyone, and relatively private, and Gibbs felt himself relax into Tony's strength, his eyes burning with repressed tears.
"Lean on me," Tony crooned, rocking them as Gibbs finally lost it. The older man cried softly for those two precious little girls who'd never grow up, never giggle together over boys, never go to prom, never call their parents with the news that they'd met the love of their life, never would walk down the aisle on the arm of the father who'd ripped their lives from them, to punish the woman who'd given them to him.
"Ohgod, why?" he gasped around his tears.
Tony stared into the darkness, tightening his arm around his boss. "I don't know, boss. I can't understand it either," he whispered into the shaking man's ear. "Just lean on me, I'm here."
After awhile the storm abated, Gibbs straightened up and accepted Tony's handkerchief and wiped his eyes and blew his nose. They never spoke of these times, the times when Tony needed to be the strong one, and the times that Gibbs, strong ex-Marine he was, needed to lean.
Tony's phone rang. "DiNozzo." He listened and murmured, then shut his phone. "Petty Officer Reynolds is here, boss."
Gibbs took a bracing breath, his eyes hard as he got to his feet. "Good, I feel like living up to the second 'B' in my name today, DiNozzo."
"I'm right behind you, boss," Tony said, a grim smile on his face. Petty Officer Reynolds wasn't going to know what hit him.
Gibbs started to walk away, then stopped. "Thank you, Tony."
Tony smiled at Gibbs's back. "Anytime, boss. Anytime."
end