Fox's Den

The Cascade Effect

AN: Yes, I am once again writing another fic. Blame/Thank the Gundam Sized blockade that is keeping me from L’amour. I will finish L’amour but it will be slow going until I get past the blockade on it.

 

Chapter Four

Tony walked into the bullpen and he immediately noticed the difference. It seems the AC still wasn’t fixed. God it was too damn hot to be without Air Conditioning. He pulled his jacked off before opening his shirt. If it got too hot then he could always pull that off too. It’s not like he didn’t have another top underneath. He also rolled his shirt sleeves up. About an hour later he was pulling his shirt off as Kate was walking off the elevator.

 

Kate went to sit down while they were bantering but found McGee under her desk

 

“Ah, morning, Agent Todd.” McGee stuttered out.

 

“McGee!”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“You have two seconds to tell me what you're doing down there.”

 

“I'm, ah, upgrading the computer network and, ah...” he trailed off as he realized just HOW she was standing over him and that he’d caught site of her underwear. His brain began to short circuit.

 

“Time's up!” Kate called out as she realized just where McGee’s eyes had strayed and she began pulling him up by his ears.

 

“Ah, ah, I wasn't looking, I swear, ow, ow, I wasn't looking, ow...” he complained as she pulled him out from under the desk by his ears.

 

Gibbs walked in at that moment and stopped in his tracks. He’d known Tony was good-looking but with him wearing only a gray tank top he would be distracted by Tony’s skin. He also noticed Kate had McGee by the ears. “Tony.” He said as his brain caught up with him.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Did I just see what I thought I saw?” Gibbs asked, knowing he would probably be better off making a joke and being his normal bastard self than letting his Senior Field Agent run around half-naked,

 

“Out of respect for my co-workers, boss, I'd have to say yes you did, and it's very disturbing.” Tony said, making light of the situation between Kate and McGee.

 

“Thought so, DiNozzo put your damn shirt on we’re not at the gym. McGee what are you still doing here?”

 

McGee began to stutter and stumble over his words as he explained and Tony’s two-cents wasn’t helping so he decided to see what McGee and Tony would do if he suggested Tony help McGee out with whatever he was doing while he went and sat at his desk.

 

“We’ve got a problem Gibbs.” Kate says as Gibbs begins to smash his cell phone on his desk when he realized it wasn’t working right, again.

 

“Damnit I hate this thing! It’s crap!” he growled as he continued banging the phone against his desk.

 

“There's a secretary from the Pentagon downstairs and she claims her boss is being held hostage…by his computer.” Kate told him as she stood back from Gibbs’ desk.

 

“See,” Gibbs says holding up his smashed phone, “there's a reason I didn't trust these things.” He tosses it to McGee “Here, reboot that or something.”  He tells him before looking at Kate and saying “Send her up.” And walking away.

 

“Reboot it?” he asked, puzzled on how he was supposed to reboot a smashed cell phone.

 

“Or you can do what we always do.” Kate told him as Tony pulls a box out of a filing cabinet drawer filled with new, unopened phones and hands it to McGee.

 

“It's his third one this month.” He says, holding his ribs from the elbow jab Kate had given him. He hated it when she did that. Unknown to him, Gibbs had seen it too and knew that Tony had recently cracked that rib in a brawl protecting someone, something Kate didn’t know, that and he was getting tired of her jabbing her elbow into Tony’s ribs. Yeah, he could be slightly perverted but, Tony never crossed the line like she did. He would need to have a few words with Agent Todd before Tony decided to press assault charges, not that Tony ever would.

 

He had Tony go get the secretary while him and Kate waited for the secretary.

 

“Kate, you need to quit assaulting DiNozzo, even if he deserves it. One day he will get sick of it and have you up on charges of assault. I do NOT want to deal with the problems that would cause.” He told her, the anger in his voice obvious.

 

“Understood Gibbs.” She said, slightly perturbed at Gibbs’ unusual concern over DiNozzo, even if he did make a valid point.

 

Once they had gotten all of the information they could from the secretary Gibbs sent McGee and Kate to the Captain’s home to see what they could find.

 

“Well no signs of anyone observing the place.” McGee said, pulling his binoculars from his face.

 

“Let’s roll.” Kate said, getting out of the car and heading towards the house.

 

“She either left in a hurry or was forced to.” Kate said, kneeling to pick up the jacket on the sidewalk.

 

“What makes you think she didn’t just leave it there?” McGee questioned thinking of his sister.

 

“Because she’s a little girl, McGee. They’re not typically slobs.” Kate told him.

 

“Remind me to introduce you to my little sister.” McGee mumbled, thinking that Kate obviously had never met a female like Sara.

 

“What was that?!”

 

“Nothing, Agent Todd.” McGee said, not wanting to get on Kate’s bad side.

 

They went back after getting into the house and finding nothing to report their findings to Gibbs. After they managed to get Sandy released they had her injuries treated before continuing to find the area where their captain’s wife was being held. Once they had they rescued her and McGee and Abby traced the money around the world and right back to DC. When they realized that the captain had set this all up Gibbs and Tony were pissed. Tony sort of knew why because of Kelly. After the case Tony went to Gibbs’ house to make sure he wasn’t going to keep running the case in his head over and over again.

 

“Hey, Kelly, your dad in the basement?” Tony asked as he walked into the house that, like always when both Gibbs’ were awake, was unlocked.

 

“Yeah. Bad case?” she asked.

 

“Yeah. In a way. Kids were involved. No deaths though. Still not a good case.” Tony told her.

 

“Ah, that explains the bourbon already in the mug.” Kelly told him. Nodding he headed down to the basement to talk the case over with Gibbs.

 

“Hey, boss.” Tony said as he walked down the last few steps.

 

“DiNozzo” Gibbs said before taking a swig of bourbon then holding up the bottle towards Tony to ask if he wanted any.

 

Tony shook his head and began talking, hoping to get Gibbs to forget how much of a bastard the captain had to have been to risk his family like that. They talked about the case and Tony learned the reason Gibbs was so protective of children was because he had almost lost Kelly to a car crash. He’d also lost her mother to that same car crash. Tony understood now why Gibbs could be such a bastard and Kelly’s over-protectiveness of Gibbs. Tony looked at his watch, realizing he should head home and get some sleep since they still had to work tomorrow.

 

“I better head out, boss. Still gotta go to work tomorrow.” Tony said, standing up and swaying slightly.

Apparently he should have stopped drinking bourbon a while ago.

 

“You can crash on the couch, DiNozzo.” Gibbs said, not wanting Tony to get into an accident.

 

“Nah, I’ll be fine boss. Just been sitting still too long.” Tony told him, walking towards the stairs and eventually the closet where he’d hung his coat up.

 

“And where do you think you’re going, mister?” Kelly asked pushing the closet door shut.

 

“Home.” Tony said, trying to open the closet so he could get his cat and his keys.

 

“I don’t think so. Go upstairs and get ready for bed, both of you.” Kelly told them before pushing them towards the stairs and partially up them. She then turned around once they had disappeared from her view and grabbed the keys from Tony’s coat pocket, heading out to his car and grabbing his bag that she knew he kept there.

 

Entering the house she headed for the stairs, knowing Tony still had a pair of sweats there from the last time he’d stayed over that he could change into. She set his bag by the bathroom door before knocking.

 

“Tony, your bag’s by the door.” She said walking back to her room and hiding the keys to Tony’s car in her pillow on the bottom so that she’d notice if anyone tried to take them. She had no intentions of letting him out of the house while drunk.

 

%Next Morning%

Tony awoke to someone gently shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes a crack to see Kelly. She shover her hand in his face so he could see the two tiny white pills she held. He grabbed them and swallowed them dry, taking the glass of water once he felt he could move without pain.

 

“You’d think I’d be used to waking up with a hangover” he told her, it gained him a small chuckle from her and Gibbs, who had just walked into the room.

 

“Get ready to go, Dinozzo, your bag’s by the bathroom.” Gibbs said, walking out the door with coffee in hand.

 

Tony shook his head and turned to Kelly, “Does he ever sleep?” he asked, considering Gibbs didn’t seem to be dealing with the hangover from hell.

 

“Yes, he just gets up earlier so the aspirin’s already kicked in.” she told him, laughing as he stuck his toungue out before levering himself off the couch and heading upstairs for the bathroom.

 

The rest of the day was relatively calm, finishing reports mostly.

 

As the next few months passed they had some regular run of the mill cases and some not so normal ones. There was the priest who abducted young women from Navy bases and made them into perfect fifties housewives, or tried to. Tony could still feel the occasional beatnik playing the bongo’s in his head when he thought about that one. Then there had been the mafia graveyard that was on a bomb range, with plenty of unexploded ordinance. That one the FBI had gotten involved and they found out that one of Fornell’s men was framing him. They’d had to fake Fornell’s death, something that wasn’t easy to do. Thankfully they were able to put that case behind them for now.

 

Of course there had been other memorable cases as well. Ernie Yost, who believed he’d killed his best friend on Iwo Jima when, he had in fact, not done so. At least, not in the way that he would be punished for it. Tony had really liked Ernie. He’d even managed to keep in contact with the older man, he was much like the grandfather Tony hadn’t known. He’d felt an instant connection to Ernie, knowing he was a medal of honor recipient just made Tony respect him even more than he had when he’d first met him. The JAG officer was hell bent on charging Ernie with Murder, thankfully Gibbs had managed to get the truth of what happened. Corporal Wade Kean had died as a casualty of War and not because Corporal Ernie Yost had killed him. When Yost had asked him how long he’d been in the corp Tony had said the only thing that came to his mind; since he’d met Gibbs, which had been four years ago. Tony knew that Gibbs had taken Ernie out for a drink afterwards and that the man he’d claimed was from Iwo-Jima was actually a soldier at Guadalcanal. Gibbs had taken him to the restaurant the man worked at a few times before. If only it had been in a more familiar capacity, like a date. Tony could pretend at least. He was just glad that Ernie had been cleared.

Tony remembered the sandwich Ernie had made him; it was good, a unique mixture of flavors.*

 

Before Tony knew it his normal spring break vacation with his Frat Buddies was upon him. This year though, he was going along to keep a certain auburn haired teenager out of trouble. That and she’d asked him to go with her. She knew that her dad wouldn’t let her go otherwise. That and her ex-boyfriend would be goin and she didn’t want him trying to keep getting back with her. Tony didn’t mind. He figured he was way past his spring break days anyway. He had no intentions of telling Kate that though. She would just make cracks about it.

 

TBC…

 

*The sandwich, Ernie starts to say he uses a mixture of Mayo and Mustard instead of just plain Mayo. This is actually really good and I would suggest trying it. It gives an extra Zing to a normal sandwich.

 

AN: As always, comments constructive criticism, reviews and all forms of feedback welcome. Flames will be fed to the dragons and Flamers sent to Briarcliff Manor. Oh and the song from a few chapters ago is Crimson and Clover by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.