See It Too
See It Too
He didn’t say anything, hadn’t in the past thirty minutes as the other man sat there, staring at his hands. Gibbs continued moving the sandpaper over the Alaskan cedar, stopping to run his palms over it every so often to test the feel of it.
“So, two Winchesters.” DiNozzo finally broke the silence.
Gibbs nodded but didn’t look over to his senior field agent. “Looks like. Dean thinks highly of his brother.”
“Abby likes Sam too. Once she got past the fact that he hit Dean. Nice move actually. Wonder where he learned to throw a punch?”
“Dean.” Gibbs said softly. He’d seen the way Dean watched his brother, the way he nodded to himself every so often at Sam’s choices. He didn’t forget the comment Dean made either during the investigation, that Sam had better know how to work a crime scene. He had no doubt that it was mostly Dean’s training in him.
Tony nodded as he stood up, but he just leaned against the wall. Something else was bothering him and Gibbs knew he just had to wait DiNozzo out and he’d get there. He could remember every time he’d turned around to find the other man sitting on his steps, absorbed in his thoughts, and trying to find the words to voice what he needed to. It was fascinating to watch, the way DiNozzo’s mind worked. In the office, DiNozzo’s tongue worked a mile a minute, as if he needed to distract people from realizing what was really happening in his head, trivia and minutia falling from his lips as his mind worked even faster. Here though, in the silence of Gibbs’ basement, Tony was another man. He was quiet and contemplative. He thought before speaking, never trying to hide his intelligence behind a veneer of triviality.
Gibbs was just lucky this Tony only showed up every so often though. As much as he appreciated his senior field agent and needed the levity he often brought to the bull pen, it was this Anthony DiNozzo that got under Gibbs’ skin.
“There’s something not quite right about those two.”
“You got an issue with Dean?” Gibbs asked, curious about Tony’s thoughts. He had his own, the way Dean looked out for his brother, the absolute trust Sam showed in him, the anger that had shown so briefly in Sam’s eyes before he’d hit his brother, coming only slightly on the heels of pain so deep Gibbs recognized it immediately.
“I don’t have any problems with Dean, not with Sam either if he’s as competent in the lab as he was in the field today. I just…”
“Spill it, DiNozzo,” he ordered when Tony hesitated.
“My gut tells me there’s something else going on between them. I’m not even sure it’s bad, but it’s got the potential to blow up in their faces.”
Gibbs nodded.
“I better keep an eye on Dean, just make sure he’s okay now that his little brother is part of the team.”
Gibbs nodded again.
“Abbs would probably keep an eye on Sam too if I let it slip that I was worried.”
“Tony?”
“Yeah, Boss?”
“You really think you need to ask anyone to keep an eye on them right now?”
Tony’s face was almost comical. “Um, no, but it would make me feel better?”
Gibbs let out a small smile. “Alright, Tony, do what you’ve got to do.”
“You see it though, right Gibbs?”
“Yeah,” he said with a tired sigh. “I see it too.” It was just a niggling worry in the back of his head, but decay started out small too and it could take a good boat down. He was just lucky he had DiNozzo to keep track of those things so he could worry about other things. Like what to do about his slowly growing dependence on his senior agent and how to keep Tony from seeing that.
On to Downtime