Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationship:
Language:
English
Collections:
Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
Stats:
Published:
2020-11-05
Words:
2,909
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
6
Kudos:
25
Bookmarks:
10
Hits:
4,160

Tough Calls

Summary:

Tony gets a request from his father.

Work Text:

 Tough Calls

 

Gibbs refused to look up when he heard the polite cough. He usually had minions for this but McGee and DiNozzo were out talking to the wife and number one suspect in their latest murder. David called in sick; Gibbs figured she was spying for daddy instead of doing her real job. That girl was going to have to figure out on whose side she was on and soon.

 

So that left him having to play office tour guide.

 

“Excuse me,” a cultured male voice said, “I was told I could-“

 

“I’ll be with you as soon as I’m done,” Gibbs said, typing up the last of his report.

 

He hated paperwork more than toothaches and ex-wives combined but it played an important role in keeping criminals behind bars and that was more important than being polite.

 

He thought computers were out to get him but they did make it easier to fix typos.

 

“I’m looking for Anthony DiNozzo. I was told I could find him here.”

 

Gibbs looked up; there weren’t many things that could get him away from work but someone looking for his lover was one of them. He let his gaze fall over the man; black hair greying at the temple, sporting a hundred dollar hair cut. The suit he was wearing cost over a grand. You didn’t spend as much time as he did with Tony and not learn a thing or two about high fashion. He had no idea about the shoes but the shine would have impressed most of his Drill Instructors. His gut started to churn when he noticed the insincere smile on those thin lips.

 

“Most days you could find Special Agent DiNozzo here, but right now he’s out working, not sure if you’re familiar with the concept, Mr-?”

 

“Lake, Jerome Kelvin Lake. I’m a lawyer.”

 

“Never would have guess in a million years.” Gibbs stood up, tossing his long empty coffee cup in the garbage. “DiNozzo is out; he’s interviewing suspects in a murder.”

 

“You must be Special Agent Gibbs.” Lake stepped forward his hand extended but one cool look from Gibbs and he stopped in his tracks.

 

“I am.”

 

“Your reputation I see was not embellished; you really are a bastard, aren’t you?”

 

“Never claimed to be anything less than that.”

 

The hair on the back of his neck stood up. This guy wasn’t looking out for Tony’s best interests, of that he was sure of, which was okay; that was his job and it was one he took seriously.

 

“If you leave me your name and number, I’ll be sure to see that Agent DiNozzo gets it.”

 

Lake crossed his arms. “I’ll wait.”

 

Gibbs shrugged, settling behind his desk. He could out wait this creep. “Suit yourself.” He’d been trained as a US Marine sniper, most of the time all you did was wait for your prey to make a mistake so you could take your shot.

 

~~\\~~

Gibbs looked over his reading glasses at Lake. He was still standing tall against the window. Gibbs had refused to let the man sit in any of his people’s chairs. He knew it was petty and childish but if he wasn’t going to tell him why he wanted to talk to Tony then he was going to play hard ball.

 

Gibbs checked his watch. That was over an hour ago, and he hadn’t heard a thing from Tony or McGee since they had headed out to talk to Sergeant Willington’s widow. He wanted to call but he was sure Lake would try to make it his business. If the last two phone calls were anything to go by. The man had asked if he had been talking to DiNozzo in the middle of both of them.

 

Someone must be paying Lake a lot of money for just standing around.

 

“Whatever brought you here must be damn important?” Gibbs asked.  

 

Lake nodded. “Life or death, actually.”

 

Great, now his gut was going into overdrive. Where the hell was Tony? He was trying to believe in the old adage no news is good news when he saw the elevators open and heard Tony complaining to McGee.

 

“Look, Probie, all I’m saying is that she was confused. She wasn’t going to hurt me.”

 

“And you knew that how? For God’s sakes, Tony, she had a gun pointed at you from the minute you walked in.”

 

“Gun? What gun are you talking about McGee?” Gibbs was on his feet checking Tony out.

 

“Shit, Probie, you were supposed to be quiet,” Tony groaned, coming around the corner of the bull pen, heading for his desk.

 

McGee smiled. “Oops, I forgot. Besides, I didn’t mention it, the boss overheard. There’s a difference.”

 

Tony laughed. “You’re getting better, Timmy.” DiNozzo bumped against Lake. “Sorry there, man, but standing in the middle of the walkway is a good way to break your neck or someone else’s.”

 

DiNozzo dropped his rucksack behind his desk. He came over to Gibbs’ desk and did a pirouette. “As you can see, I am in one piece, and will remain so. Willington’s widow shot her husband because apparently he was an unfeeling bastard who gave her a gym membership on her thirty-fifth birthday but gave his mistress a pair of diamond earrings.”

 

 “Ouch,” Gibbs said.

 

“So that wasn’t one of your unpardonable sins in your many marriages?” Tony asked, winking.

 

“Hell, no, I give great presents; it was just that they were usually a couple of weeks late.”

 

“Well, you know mine’s coming up in a month, right, boss?” Tony asked, heading back to his desk where he almost tripped over Lake again. “Can I help you?”

 

“Agent DiNozzo, Anthony DiNozzo?”

 

“Maybe. Am I about to get served?”

 

“My name is Jerome Lake, I work-”

 

“I know who you work for. I thought I had another two weeks to decide.”

 

Lake nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry about that but things have changed. Your fa-”

 

“Let’s just call him your client, shall we?” Tony looked around the bullpen. “We don’t need any more people to know about this than have to.”

 

Gibbs’ gut was now screaming; something was going on and he needed to know now. “Tony, why don’t you take Mr. Lake to the canteen? He’s been waiting around for you for the past hour; he could do with a break.”

 

“That’s not necessary, Boss. Lake, give me the message and we can both get back to work.”

 

Lake nodded; he looked back at Gibbs, who was doing nothing to hide his feeling of malice for the lawyer.

 

“The latest offer is five million, but the surgery would have to take place within the next two weeks. I think you should consider taking a leave until then so you would be alive.”

 

Tony crossed his arms. “I don’t think so.”

 

“Your f-”

 

“Fine, you’ve delivered the offer. I’ll get back to you by the weekend.”

 

Weekend? Gibbs looked at the calendar; it was already Thursday. He and Tony were going to have a lot to talk about when they got home. Why hadn’t he mentioned this mysterious offer before?

 

Lake gave a quick nod to them all and left. Tony sat behind his desk. “As I was saying, Mrs. Willington-”

 

“McGee, go see if Abby has anything new.”

 

“I’ll check with Ducky too,” he said, getting to his feet.

 

Tony slamming his fist on his desk brought both men up short. “Both of you sit down. I might as well tell you what this is all about before it gets all around the building and I end up giving birth to twin aliens girls.”

 

Gibbs watched Tony take a few deep breaths. “That gentleman works for a very prestigious law firm in Boston, and Giuseppe DiNozzo is one of their clients. Yes, that’s right, my dad,” Tony said starting to pace. “Seems that after fifty or more years of drinking. I’m not sure if he started before he was out the womb or the minute after, his liver is finally giving up.  But modern medicine has this great thing now; apparently, you don’t need to be dead anymore to donate organs. All they need is a small part of mine, and it’ll grow back in me, and let dear old dad have another twenty or more years at the bottom of the wine barrel.”

 

Gibbs put a hand on Tony’s shoulder but the young man moved away. “Please don’t. The worst part of all this isn’t that he’s asking after having ignored me for the last twenty or so years, it’s that he thinks money can buy me. It didn’t when I was twelve, why should it now when I’m thirty eight? He started off with two, then four and now five million. Maybe I should hold out for ten, or twenty?”

 

“DiNozzo,” Gibbs said, trying to bring the younger man back to earth, much like he did in that jail cell when Tony was under suspicion of murder.

 

Tony rubbed his forehead like he was developing a headache. “Sorry, Boss, I...”

 

Gibbs pulled Tony over so that he could hold him.

 

“I’m not crying,” Tony mumbled.

 

Gibbs knew he should be worried about what the rest of the office thought but he didn’t give a damn. He would have walked out of here a year ago if that was what Tony wanted but Tony loved his job.

 

“I know, and you have nothing to apologize for. Grab your stuff; I’m taking you home.”

 

Tony shook his head. “What about the case?”

 

“She confessed?”

 

“Yeah, in front of McGee, me and most of Metro SWAT.”

 

“I think we can trust Tim to finish writing the report and making sure all the evidence is in the right place. Mrs. Willington is in custody, so, I can talk to her tomorrow. I suspect her lawyers are busy working on a mental defect defence right now. “

 

“Boss, I’m fine.”

 

McGee came over to DiNozzo. “Go home, give me a chance to be the big guy on campus for a while, would you, Tony?”

 

“Fine, but don’t think you’re ready to walk in these Gucci shoes, Probie.”

 

Tim chuckled. “I would never think that. Besides, those heels are too high for me.”

 

“Good one,” Tony said, grabbing his bag. “See you tomorrow. I should be over my hissy fit by then.”

 

~~\\~~

 

There really wasn’t a question of where to head. Most of Tony’s stuff had found its way over to Gibbs’ place in the last year, including his stereo, plasma TV and DVD player. “All the important things,” according to Tony.

 

“Are you going to ask, Jethro?”

 

Gibbs waved at the guard as they pulled out of the Navy Yard. “Ask what?”

 

“If I’m going to do it?”

 

“I think I already know the answer. You aren’t the type to turn your back on someone in need, Tony.”

 

He’d seen Tony give a stranger the coat off his back, a homeless guy his last twenty bucks, and give an old man’s feet a massage. Tony appeared like a spoiled frat boy, but underneath he cared, maybe too much.

 

But this was family; no matter what water had passed under the bridge you still helped family.

 

“You do? I’m still trying to make up my mind.” Tony slapped at the car door. “Why the hell did he have to bring the damn money into it? Why couldn’t he have just called and said ‘son, I need your help,’ instead of trying to bribe me? When I was a kid, he used to buy me all sorts of things, especially after we had a fight, or he missed something at school because he was too drunk to remember or was passed out on the floor of his study. Everyone thinks I got disinherited because I asked for too much, or because I was spoiled rotten and he got tired of me asking for more and more, but the truth was and is, I’d have given it all up to have a dad who cared more about me than where his next drink was coming from. He wasn’t a mean guy when he drank or anything. He was always the life of the party. When I was twelve, I had enough. I came home from a scout meeting and found him lying in a pile of his own vomit. I called 911, and then I called my Aunt Sheeree. I went to stay with her while we found a school for me to go to that was way out of state. That was the last time I saw him. I got a note a few weeks later telling me that he would pay for the school but I would receive nothing more until I came home and acted like a true son. A true son? What the hell does that mean, eh?”

 

Gibbs pulled into his driveway. He let Tony go on ranting, hoping that by exercising some of his pain he would finally be able to heal and let go of the poison that came from his relationship with his father.

 

Gibbs’ relationship with his own dad, Jack, had only begun to heal but it was still taking a lot of work, on both their parts. He tried to call once a month but for some reason this month he hadn’t done it. Things were still so strained between them it was almost painful to talk. They seemed to have little in common. Tony and Jack would often talk longer.

 

Tony shook his head. “Guess I’ll never know, since I have no intention of talking to him.”

 

“So, you’re not going to do the transplant?” Gibbs asked, getting out of the car.

 

“I didn’t say that. My father isn’t exactly the ideal candidate for this surgery so it’s being done on the down low, so to speak. The surgery is to be done at Bethesda, then the liver will be transported to Boston where it goes into the old man, and the money gets sent to a numbered account in Zurich and I get to live happily ever after. Of course there is a chance of complications.”

 

“How big a chance?”

 

“Thirty percent, that’s why the money. Compensation, if I should have to give up my crime fighting life. I guess five million would pay for a nice get away.”

 

Gibbs sat down hard on the steps. “What? You’d be leaving NCIS.”

 

“Well, I don’t think I’d make the physical, at least not for a couple of months, and you know my feelings about riding a desk. I’d rather eat rat droppings. So, maybe it’s time to take a long vacation?”

 

“Not without me, you won’t. God knows I’ve got more vacation on the books than anyone.”

 

Tony’s lip twitched. “All the research I was sent to read mentioned it would take approximately two months before I could be considered back to normal, and that’s without any complications. I used up a lot of sick time when I was out with the plague.”

 

Gibbs reached out for Tony’s hand, he needed to feel him. “But it’s a small chance. I know you’ll be fine, and everything will be the same as it was.”

 

Tony sat down in front of Gibbs. “I asked Ducky just as a question in passing. I doubt I convinced him it was about my own curiosity. He told me that most people who do this type of surgery recover and go on to return to their old lives. I’d lose my gallbladder. I didn’t even know I had one.”

 

Gibbs leaned forward, placing a kiss on the top of Tony’s head. “I’d be happy to play nurse.”

 

“You going to wear a white dress?”

 

Gibbs slapped the back of Tony’s head, not as hard as he would when they were at work; just enough to let his lover know that he understood that joking was hiding how scared he really was.

 

“I’ll do whatever it is that you need me to do, but no dresses. Just lots of TLC.”

 

He watched Tony rise to his feet.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“To call the lawyers. To tell them I’ll do it but I have a few of my own demands.”

 

“What are they?” Gibbs asked, squeezing his lover’s hand.

 

“I get to talk to my father before the surgery, and the money goes to a charity or back to his pocket but I don’t want it.”

 

Tony headed into the house. Gibbs sat watching the clouds go by, heard a dog bark. He wanted to give Tony the privacy he needed but he was chomping at the bit. He pulled out his cell phone instead. It was time to be as strong as his lover.

 

He pushed number seven. “Hi Dad. How are you doing?”

 

The end.