NCIS BIGBANG Brats, Badges and Hoses: Chapter 2 - Waiting for Spanky
Brats, Badges and Hoses: Chapter 2 - Waiting for Spanky
See Warnings and other info on Chapter 1
Chapter 2 - Waiting for Spanky
As usual, Pete was waiting for him impatiently.
“It’s about time you got here! Angie’s been holding dinner for an hour.”
“Sorry, Pete. There was an accident on the 95 that I got hung up in.” Tony began unloading his bags and Pete grabbed one. He also grabbed an outfit that was encased in a dry cleaners bag that was hanging in the back seat.
“Fancy,” Pete observed. “Well, let’s get you inside. Angie will want to inspect this to make sure it meets her approval.”
“If we need her approval on my attire, I’ll be wearing leather chaps and a chainmail shirt.”
“Or nothing but a smile,” Angie said, standing at the front door, grinning at Tony as he walked up to the front stoop. She was a tiny woman with a large personality. Her green eyes sparkled with mischievousness.
“Honey, I thought we agreed we were saving that for the calendar,” Pete teased as he handed her the dry cleaner bag and walked into the small ranch.
“It would sell a lot of calendars, I think,” she agreed, cheekily.
“I’m not going Full Monty for any reason,” Tony said and kissed her cheek. “Hello, PervyGirl,” he greeted her affectionately.
“Hello, Stud Muffin.”
“Is that really the best you can come up with, dear?” Pete asked.
“Well, I used to call him Spanky but then I married you,” she replied to Pete. Tony barely flinched when she smacked him lightly on the ass as he went in. He shook his head and hoped Angie and Pete never changed. They probably were his best friends outside of NCIS and his frat brothers. Pete had been his first partner in Baltimore until he was injured in the line of duty. It had taken five months to recover and by then, Tony had been reassigned to Danny. Angie was a dispatcher. She and Pete had met on the job and never doubted each other.
“Something smells good,” Tony said, looking around. The house was small but cozy. It reminded him a little Gibbs place but had more creature comforts. Sometimes Tony wondered if Gibbs lived in the basement except for eating and showering. The man’s couch was lumpy and the tv was almost painful to watch, although he did enjoy the fireplace when steaks were on.
“Lasagna. Figured it would hold until you got here. Go put your things in the guest room.”
“Lasagna? And you expect a calendar shoot tomorrow?” Tony grinned at her.
“I thought you weren’t doing the calendar this year?” Pete asked as he walked back out from the guest room where he had left the bag he carried. In a 1,300 hundred square foot home, there wasn’t much hallway to traverse.
“I’m not. I’ll leave it to the actual policeman again this year.” He took the dry cleaner bag from Angie and headed to his room.
“One of these days Tony, I’m getting you back into that calendar.” Angie yelled down the hall after him.
“Yeah, yeah…you’ve said that since I left the BPD.” Tony knew that his teammates would be surprised at his reluctance to be featured in the popular calendar, but since he joined NCIS, he realized his undercover operations could be seriously impacted if by some random chance someone had one of those calendars so he had only appeared in the two that were published while he was still in the force.
After quickly washing up, Tony returned to the dining room where Pete and Angie were setting dinner out. As usual, everything was served casually and family-style but there were only three place settings.
“Where’s Magpie?” Tony asked. That was his nickname for Angie and Pete’s daughter.
“She’ll be home later. She has to work on a school project at a friend’s house.”
Tony was disappointed. He loved seeing her. He was obviously frowning as Angie patted him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. She said to make sure you stayed up to see her. I expect she’ll be here about 9:30 so you don’t have to wait too long.”
“9:30? Isn’t that a bit late for a ten-year old?”
“Eleven - in two weeks or so she keeps reminding me!” Pete laughed. “I keep telling her that’s not possible otherwise her mom would have been a child bride.”
Angie looked at Pete and laughed as she started serving dinner. “You think you’re getting lucky tonight, don’t you?”
Tony dug in and enjoyed the home cooking enormously. It wasn’t anything fancy but it was filling and being with Pete and Angie always relaxed him even if it also made him wistful for a relationship of his own like theirs. They lingered over the table and chit-chatted about everything going in their respective lives. Pete and Angie discussed Maggie’s current love for the Magnum PI DVDs Tony had sent to her and her less than scholarly efforts in math class that had Angie concerned.
For his part, Tony joked about his teammates and avoided the discussions about Dearing and the explosion at NCIS that had happened all too recently. Tony had needed to put them out of his mind for awhile to remind himself why he risked his life on a regular basis. Pete and Angie had known about it but Tony appreciated that they gave him the space to avoid the subject. Tony had been sure to call them as soon as he could when it had hit the news so none of them would worry.
During dessert they finally started talking about the rest of the weekend. Pete outlined the activities which were mostly the usual except for two major changes. Pete didn’t deliver those until they had moved back out into the living room and collapsed, bellies stuffed and the small amount of beer loosening them up.
First…
Angie had been teasing about the calendar although she admitted they had decided this year they would have a photographer shoot during the entire weekend and create a calendar from that. The photographer that usually did the calendar had closed up shop due to the economy but volunteered his services for the weekend out of habit.
“Angie, he knows not to photograph me, right? Just in case?” Tony asked. He hadn’t had an undercover assignment in a while, but it was just too risky.
She looked at him as if he were being ridiculous. If he didn’t know better, he would have expected a headslap from her. “He has a list of those who have already signed off on approvals so he’ll focus on those, but I also asked him to take a few general shots of the events for us. I promise, I will make sure you are not in the calendar.”
Second…
“An auction? You’re auctioning us off? What if I end up with some snobby lady who wears way too much Chanel and hates movies?” Tony groaned. No wonder Angie had insisted on the suit.
“It’s just for the day and I doubt smelly snobbish women would be bidding on a work buddy. The suit is for the auction. The person that wins you gets your company for dinner in a giant room full of other people and at a table for ten. There won’t be much opportunity for groping. You will be at their beck and call the next day as you work through your duties - but I promise it’s all in public and g-rated.”
“Count me out, then,” Pete said with a grin. “I was hoping to become some hot babe’s love machine for the day.”
“You’ll have to settle for me,” she replied with a smirk. “But I promise to spank you if you don’t listen.”
“The sacrifices I make for the Baltimore police department,” Pete whined and got up. He waggled his empty bottle at Tony. Tony nodded that he wanted another.
Angie waved him off and turned back to Tony. “I thought Love Machine here explained this to you?”
Pete ducked his head and slunk out to the kitchen with a high-pitched, “Whoopsie!”
Tony threw a pillow towards Pete and congratulated himself on his arm when he’d actually managed to hit his head.
“Hey! It was an honest mistake.”
“Honest, my ass,” Tony yelled.
Just then the door flung open and a small bundle of arms and legs came tearing into the room, dumping everything on the floor along the way.
“Toooonnyyyy!”
“Magpie!” Tony turned in time to feel all 70 pounds of the girl land on him in a huff and a hug. Her dirty blond hair was flying around her and tickling his face.
“I’m so glad you’re here!”
“Maggie, were you raised in a barn?” Angie said, starting to pick her things up off the floor.
At the same time, Tony, Maggie and Pete all started making animals noises. Tony began braying like a donkey, Maggie snorted like a pig and Pete jumped and clucked like a chicken and marched around the room flapping his ‘chicken arms’, one bottle of beer in each hand. It was an old joke.
Angie sat Maggie’s things on the table by the door and then started stalking Pete doing a bad impersonation of Foghorn Leghorn. “I say, sonny, I say that is the worst...I say the worst chicken impersonation I ever saw.”
Maggie and Tony held each other on the couch and laughed at her parents.
“They’re pretty silly, Magpie,” Tony observed. He never wondered why he never had the same problems getting along with Magpie like he did other kids. He had known her since she was born. She was just his little Magpie.
“Yeah, but that’s okay. I’m cool enough for all of us.” She grinned at him, clearly happy at his presence.
“Yeah…yeah you are.”
Pete sat on the chair, breathless, handing a bottle to Tony and starting to open his own.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Tony said. Pete stopped and looked at the beer. Tony sat his on the end table and decided to let it rest after Pete had been waving it all over the place.
“I don’t know. It could be refreshing,” Pete said with a laugh, obviously realizing the issue.
“Angie will kill you if you spray it all over the living room.”
They both turned and looked at her as she flopped back down in her chair.
“Good point,” Pete said and sat his bottle down.
Clearly, clueless as to why Tony, Maggie and Pete were all smiling at her, she asked, “Now what? Any requests?”
“No more impersonations, Mom. Tony does ‘em better!”
“He does?” Pete asked, sounding insulted.
“I do? Well I say little lady…that’s the nicest thing a young chickadee has ever said to me,” he said in his own Foghorn Leghorn voice.
“Yup! Let’s play Pictionary! Me and Tony against you and Dad!” Tony liked that Maggie enjoyed board games. They might be a tad old fashioned, but he enjoyed them, too. He also enjoyed when he and McGee got together to kill a ton of video monsters, but it wasn’t quite as social and he really was here to spend time with these people. Tony hoped she’d never become a surly teenager but knew she probably would sooner rather than later so he wanted to enjoy this while he could.
“One game. We have an early day tomorrow,” Angie said. Maggie leapt out of her chair to go to their “Game” cupboard and pulled out the game.
The round went predictably bad and off-track as suspected and Tony couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so much. He needed to see these people more. He loved his DC friends but they expected him to make them laugh. Pete and Angie didn’t expect - they just laughed and made him laugh equally hard.
They were cleaning up when Angie told Maggie it was time to turn in. “I’m going to play tomorrow, right?”
“You’re not 12 yet so yes, you’ll get to play tomorrow,” Pete reassured her. She smiled and then turned to look at Tony with a slightly wicked grin.
“You’d better win Tony because I am so going to kick your butt!” She swung her hair and strode of with an overconfident swagger to her bedroom.
“Language, young lady!” Angie yelled up the hall.
“Speaking of kicking butt tomorrow, I should turn in,” Tony said. He reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet. “I forgot - I need to give you my buy-in.” He pulled out a hundred dollars to hand to Pete.
“You already sent it, Tony,” Pete said.
“No, I didn’t. I was going to but then the whole mess at the Navy Yard happened and it just sort of slipped my mind.”
“Your mind must be slipping. I have the envelope here.” Pete reached towards a desk. It was addressed to Pete and had a DC postmark. Inside was three hundred dollars and a note that simply said, “Buy-In & Get Out of Jail Card - Tony DiNozzo.” The writing looked vaguely familiar but Tony didn’t have a clue who it could be. He knew he hadn’t sent it and no one in DC was aware of this event.
“Maybe it’s your mysterious benefactor again?” Angie teased.
“My mysterious…what?” Tony had no idea what she was talking about.
“Pete, haven’t you ever asked him?
“Asked me what?”
Pete scratched his head. “Ah…Angie, I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
“Oh you’re going to say something, Pete. Now.” Tony’s curiosity was piqued.
“Well - okay - I don’t know much but you know the jail jars we have where we collect money and you have to raise so much money until you’re released?”
“Yeah. I’ve never had to do the jail bit. I just thought it was because I wasn’t an active cop anymore.”
“Uh no…someone has always bought you a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. This year they also sent in your buy-in.”
“I thought those were a joke! The cards are like $200 right, just like the game?”
“It was started as a joke since most people usually collected, at most $20 for an individual and some people wanted an option to not have to worry about being arrested during the day. One year Angie created some goofy “Get Out of Jail Free’ cards and added the $200 fee as a joke and had them sitting at the refreshment table. I guess this person thought it was a real option and actually bought one that year. Darren was manning the table at the time didn’t realize it was a joke either and took the money. He said the card was bought for Tony but the person wanted to remain anonymous. We had to honor it of course. After that, it was always mailed in directly to me.”
“Who was it? Why didn’t you ever tell them not to do that!” Tony yelled. He felt slightly off that someone was doing this. Someone he didn’t know spending $200 each year to keep him out of the corny jail cell they used during the volunteer “service” day to raise additional funds and have a bit of fun along the way, and this year, they added enough for his buy-in? That made Tony uncomfortable.
Tony had always thought it odd that no one had ever arrested him but then again he never knew there had been a card bought for him.
“I don’t know. It’s always been anonymous and Darren hadn’t recognized the man that bought the first one.”
Angie stepped up beside him and placed her arm on his shoulder. “We always sort of figured you did it as a way to give additional money without making a big deal about it so we kept it quiet. We know you always find ways to help us out.” Tony knew she wasn’t just referring to the fund when she smiled at him.
There was silence. “So, wasn’t you, huh?” Pete finally asked.
“No.” Tony scratched his chin, deep in thought. “How long?”
“I think it started just before you left Baltimore.”
That left Tony perplexed. Someone had been sponsoring him for - whew that’s a lot of years. Why wouldn’t the person admit it? Why wouldn’t they tell Tony?
“Maybe they’ll be there tomorrow,” Pete suggested.
“That’s all I need. Looking over my shoulder while trying to play.”
“Tony, relax. I doubt anything bad would happen. I mean, maybe this person just wants to support the cause and does it in your name because of something you did. It doesn’t have to mean anything nefarious.”
“Right, because people always spend wads of cash on me without expecting something,” Tony sounded more sarcastic and bitter than he meant to.
“That’s it. You’ve been hanging around the bad guys too long. You’re suspicious of everything. Just let it go and have fun tomorrow like you have for over a decade. I doubt that if this person hasn’t done something in this long, they’ll choose this year to start. They haven’t done anything yet so don’t worry about it.”
“‘Yet’ is the word that concerns me.” Tony did realize he was over thinking this but after everything they had just been through with Harper Dearing, he was paranoid with good reason.
“We have your back. Let it go. Just enjoy the weekend.”
He also realized he was worrying his friends so he plastered a smile on his face and said, “Yeah, I know. It’s fine. I’m going up to bed.”
---
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See Warnings and other info on Chapter 1
Chapter 2 - Waiting for Spanky
As usual, Pete was waiting for him impatiently.
“It’s about time you got here! Angie’s been holding dinner for an hour.”
“Sorry, Pete. There was an accident on the 95 that I got hung up in.” Tony began unloading his bags and Pete grabbed one. He also grabbed an outfit that was encased in a dry cleaners bag that was hanging in the back seat.
“Fancy,” Pete observed. “Well, let’s get you inside. Angie will want to inspect this to make sure it meets her approval.”
“If we need her approval on my attire, I’ll be wearing leather chaps and a chainmail shirt.”
“Or nothing but a smile,” Angie said, standing at the front door, grinning at Tony as he walked up to the front stoop. She was a tiny woman with a large personality. Her green eyes sparkled with mischievousness.
“Honey, I thought we agreed we were saving that for the calendar,” Pete teased as he handed her the dry cleaner bag and walked into the small ranch.
“It would sell a lot of calendars, I think,” she agreed, cheekily.
“I’m not going Full Monty for any reason,” Tony said and kissed her cheek. “Hello, PervyGirl,” he greeted her affectionately.
“Hello, Stud Muffin.”
“Is that really the best you can come up with, dear?” Pete asked.
“Well, I used to call him Spanky but then I married you,” she replied to Pete. Tony barely flinched when she smacked him lightly on the ass as he went in. He shook his head and hoped Angie and Pete never changed. They probably were his best friends outside of NCIS and his frat brothers. Pete had been his first partner in Baltimore until he was injured in the line of duty. It had taken five months to recover and by then, Tony had been reassigned to Danny. Angie was a dispatcher. She and Pete had met on the job and never doubted each other.
“Something smells good,” Tony said, looking around. The house was small but cozy. It reminded him a little Gibbs place but had more creature comforts. Sometimes Tony wondered if Gibbs lived in the basement except for eating and showering. The man’s couch was lumpy and the tv was almost painful to watch, although he did enjoy the fireplace when steaks were on.
“Lasagna. Figured it would hold until you got here. Go put your things in the guest room.”
“Lasagna? And you expect a calendar shoot tomorrow?” Tony grinned at her.
“I thought you weren’t doing the calendar this year?” Pete asked as he walked back out from the guest room where he had left the bag he carried. In a 1,300 hundred square foot home, there wasn’t much hallway to traverse.
“I’m not. I’ll leave it to the actual policeman again this year.” He took the dry cleaner bag from Angie and headed to his room.
“One of these days Tony, I’m getting you back into that calendar.” Angie yelled down the hall after him.
“Yeah, yeah…you’ve said that since I left the BPD.” Tony knew that his teammates would be surprised at his reluctance to be featured in the popular calendar, but since he joined NCIS, he realized his undercover operations could be seriously impacted if by some random chance someone had one of those calendars so he had only appeared in the two that were published while he was still in the force.
After quickly washing up, Tony returned to the dining room where Pete and Angie were setting dinner out. As usual, everything was served casually and family-style but there were only three place settings.
“Where’s Magpie?” Tony asked. That was his nickname for Angie and Pete’s daughter.
“She’ll be home later. She has to work on a school project at a friend’s house.”
Tony was disappointed. He loved seeing her. He was obviously frowning as Angie patted him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. She said to make sure you stayed up to see her. I expect she’ll be here about 9:30 so you don’t have to wait too long.”
“9:30? Isn’t that a bit late for a ten-year old?”
“Eleven - in two weeks or so she keeps reminding me!” Pete laughed. “I keep telling her that’s not possible otherwise her mom would have been a child bride.”
Angie looked at Pete and laughed as she started serving dinner. “You think you’re getting lucky tonight, don’t you?”
Tony dug in and enjoyed the home cooking enormously. It wasn’t anything fancy but it was filling and being with Pete and Angie always relaxed him even if it also made him wistful for a relationship of his own like theirs. They lingered over the table and chit-chatted about everything going in their respective lives. Pete and Angie discussed Maggie’s current love for the Magnum PI DVDs Tony had sent to her and her less than scholarly efforts in math class that had Angie concerned.
For his part, Tony joked about his teammates and avoided the discussions about Dearing and the explosion at NCIS that had happened all too recently. Tony had needed to put them out of his mind for awhile to remind himself why he risked his life on a regular basis. Pete and Angie had known about it but Tony appreciated that they gave him the space to avoid the subject. Tony had been sure to call them as soon as he could when it had hit the news so none of them would worry.
During dessert they finally started talking about the rest of the weekend. Pete outlined the activities which were mostly the usual except for two major changes. Pete didn’t deliver those until they had moved back out into the living room and collapsed, bellies stuffed and the small amount of beer loosening them up.
First…
Angie had been teasing about the calendar although she admitted they had decided this year they would have a photographer shoot during the entire weekend and create a calendar from that. The photographer that usually did the calendar had closed up shop due to the economy but volunteered his services for the weekend out of habit.
“Angie, he knows not to photograph me, right? Just in case?” Tony asked. He hadn’t had an undercover assignment in a while, but it was just too risky.
She looked at him as if he were being ridiculous. If he didn’t know better, he would have expected a headslap from her. “He has a list of those who have already signed off on approvals so he’ll focus on those, but I also asked him to take a few general shots of the events for us. I promise, I will make sure you are not in the calendar.”
Second…
“An auction? You’re auctioning us off? What if I end up with some snobby lady who wears way too much Chanel and hates movies?” Tony groaned. No wonder Angie had insisted on the suit.
“It’s just for the day and I doubt smelly snobbish women would be bidding on a work buddy. The suit is for the auction. The person that wins you gets your company for dinner in a giant room full of other people and at a table for ten. There won’t be much opportunity for groping. You will be at their beck and call the next day as you work through your duties - but I promise it’s all in public and g-rated.”
“Count me out, then,” Pete said with a grin. “I was hoping to become some hot babe’s love machine for the day.”
“You’ll have to settle for me,” she replied with a smirk. “But I promise to spank you if you don’t listen.”
“The sacrifices I make for the Baltimore police department,” Pete whined and got up. He waggled his empty bottle at Tony. Tony nodded that he wanted another.
Angie waved him off and turned back to Tony. “I thought Love Machine here explained this to you?”
Pete ducked his head and slunk out to the kitchen with a high-pitched, “Whoopsie!”
Tony threw a pillow towards Pete and congratulated himself on his arm when he’d actually managed to hit his head.
“Hey! It was an honest mistake.”
“Honest, my ass,” Tony yelled.
Just then the door flung open and a small bundle of arms and legs came tearing into the room, dumping everything on the floor along the way.
“Toooonnyyyy!”
“Magpie!” Tony turned in time to feel all 70 pounds of the girl land on him in a huff and a hug. Her dirty blond hair was flying around her and tickling his face.
“I’m so glad you’re here!”
“Maggie, were you raised in a barn?” Angie said, starting to pick her things up off the floor.
At the same time, Tony, Maggie and Pete all started making animals noises. Tony began braying like a donkey, Maggie snorted like a pig and Pete jumped and clucked like a chicken and marched around the room flapping his ‘chicken arms’, one bottle of beer in each hand. It was an old joke.
Angie sat Maggie’s things on the table by the door and then started stalking Pete doing a bad impersonation of Foghorn Leghorn. “I say, sonny, I say that is the worst...I say the worst chicken impersonation I ever saw.”
Maggie and Tony held each other on the couch and laughed at her parents.
“They’re pretty silly, Magpie,” Tony observed. He never wondered why he never had the same problems getting along with Magpie like he did other kids. He had known her since she was born. She was just his little Magpie.
“Yeah, but that’s okay. I’m cool enough for all of us.” She grinned at him, clearly happy at his presence.
“Yeah…yeah you are.”
Pete sat on the chair, breathless, handing a bottle to Tony and starting to open his own.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Tony said. Pete stopped and looked at the beer. Tony sat his on the end table and decided to let it rest after Pete had been waving it all over the place.
“I don’t know. It could be refreshing,” Pete said with a laugh, obviously realizing the issue.
“Angie will kill you if you spray it all over the living room.”
They both turned and looked at her as she flopped back down in her chair.
“Good point,” Pete said and sat his bottle down.
Clearly, clueless as to why Tony, Maggie and Pete were all smiling at her, she asked, “Now what? Any requests?”
“No more impersonations, Mom. Tony does ‘em better!”
“He does?” Pete asked, sounding insulted.
“I do? Well I say little lady…that’s the nicest thing a young chickadee has ever said to me,” he said in his own Foghorn Leghorn voice.
“Yup! Let’s play Pictionary! Me and Tony against you and Dad!” Tony liked that Maggie enjoyed board games. They might be a tad old fashioned, but he enjoyed them, too. He also enjoyed when he and McGee got together to kill a ton of video monsters, but it wasn’t quite as social and he really was here to spend time with these people. Tony hoped she’d never become a surly teenager but knew she probably would sooner rather than later so he wanted to enjoy this while he could.
“One game. We have an early day tomorrow,” Angie said. Maggie leapt out of her chair to go to their “Game” cupboard and pulled out the game.
The round went predictably bad and off-track as suspected and Tony couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so much. He needed to see these people more. He loved his DC friends but they expected him to make them laugh. Pete and Angie didn’t expect - they just laughed and made him laugh equally hard.
They were cleaning up when Angie told Maggie it was time to turn in. “I’m going to play tomorrow, right?”
“You’re not 12 yet so yes, you’ll get to play tomorrow,” Pete reassured her. She smiled and then turned to look at Tony with a slightly wicked grin.
“You’d better win Tony because I am so going to kick your butt!” She swung her hair and strode of with an overconfident swagger to her bedroom.
“Language, young lady!” Angie yelled up the hall.
“Speaking of kicking butt tomorrow, I should turn in,” Tony said. He reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet. “I forgot - I need to give you my buy-in.” He pulled out a hundred dollars to hand to Pete.
“You already sent it, Tony,” Pete said.
“No, I didn’t. I was going to but then the whole mess at the Navy Yard happened and it just sort of slipped my mind.”
“Your mind must be slipping. I have the envelope here.” Pete reached towards a desk. It was addressed to Pete and had a DC postmark. Inside was three hundred dollars and a note that simply said, “Buy-In & Get Out of Jail Card - Tony DiNozzo.” The writing looked vaguely familiar but Tony didn’t have a clue who it could be. He knew he hadn’t sent it and no one in DC was aware of this event.
“Maybe it’s your mysterious benefactor again?” Angie teased.
“My mysterious…what?” Tony had no idea what she was talking about.
“Pete, haven’t you ever asked him?
“Asked me what?”
Pete scratched his head. “Ah…Angie, I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
“Oh you’re going to say something, Pete. Now.” Tony’s curiosity was piqued.
“Well - okay - I don’t know much but you know the jail jars we have where we collect money and you have to raise so much money until you’re released?”
“Yeah. I’ve never had to do the jail bit. I just thought it was because I wasn’t an active cop anymore.”
“Uh no…someone has always bought you a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. This year they also sent in your buy-in.”
“I thought those were a joke! The cards are like $200 right, just like the game?”
“It was started as a joke since most people usually collected, at most $20 for an individual and some people wanted an option to not have to worry about being arrested during the day. One year Angie created some goofy “Get Out of Jail Free’ cards and added the $200 fee as a joke and had them sitting at the refreshment table. I guess this person thought it was a real option and actually bought one that year. Darren was manning the table at the time didn’t realize it was a joke either and took the money. He said the card was bought for Tony but the person wanted to remain anonymous. We had to honor it of course. After that, it was always mailed in directly to me.”
“Who was it? Why didn’t you ever tell them not to do that!” Tony yelled. He felt slightly off that someone was doing this. Someone he didn’t know spending $200 each year to keep him out of the corny jail cell they used during the volunteer “service” day to raise additional funds and have a bit of fun along the way, and this year, they added enough for his buy-in? That made Tony uncomfortable.
Tony had always thought it odd that no one had ever arrested him but then again he never knew there had been a card bought for him.
“I don’t know. It’s always been anonymous and Darren hadn’t recognized the man that bought the first one.”
Angie stepped up beside him and placed her arm on his shoulder. “We always sort of figured you did it as a way to give additional money without making a big deal about it so we kept it quiet. We know you always find ways to help us out.” Tony knew she wasn’t just referring to the fund when she smiled at him.
There was silence. “So, wasn’t you, huh?” Pete finally asked.
“No.” Tony scratched his chin, deep in thought. “How long?”
“I think it started just before you left Baltimore.”
That left Tony perplexed. Someone had been sponsoring him for - whew that’s a lot of years. Why wouldn’t the person admit it? Why wouldn’t they tell Tony?
“Maybe they’ll be there tomorrow,” Pete suggested.
“That’s all I need. Looking over my shoulder while trying to play.”
“Tony, relax. I doubt anything bad would happen. I mean, maybe this person just wants to support the cause and does it in your name because of something you did. It doesn’t have to mean anything nefarious.”
“Right, because people always spend wads of cash on me without expecting something,” Tony sounded more sarcastic and bitter than he meant to.
“That’s it. You’ve been hanging around the bad guys too long. You’re suspicious of everything. Just let it go and have fun tomorrow like you have for over a decade. I doubt that if this person hasn’t done something in this long, they’ll choose this year to start. They haven’t done anything yet so don’t worry about it.”
“‘Yet’ is the word that concerns me.” Tony did realize he was over thinking this but after everything they had just been through with Harper Dearing, he was paranoid with good reason.
“We have your back. Let it go. Just enjoy the weekend.”
He also realized he was worrying his friends so he plastered a smile on his face and said, “Yeah, I know. It’s fine. I’m going up to bed.”
---
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