Double Bluff: Chapter 5
In celebration of a surgery well done (or at least so far as I can tell for the moment) and in defiance of my keepers (who totally didn't keep me away from the internet effectively, since they all went home thinking I'd actually sleep... like that ever happens :-D) have some more fic! I figure it will be like the night before Christmas... I'll post fic, then I'll HAVE to go to sleep, because when I wake up, I'll get to read all the comments you wonderful people have made and that's a good reason for going to sleep like I should, right? (I think it's probably good I didn't try to write this chapter post-surgery, just post it :-D) Also, apologies for how prolific a poster of things I've been the past week or so. I don't usually post so many journal entries, I ascribe it to the fact that I was nervous about surgery, and now that I have nothing else to distract me from the lingering ow. So, I figured I'd make up for spamming your flists with random bits of my life, by making sure to mix more story in there too.
Something I've been meaning to note, just in case it's not been evident- I have attempted to correctly seat this story in its time, so all these things would be happening in about the early 90's. So when you see the lack of burn phones, references to slow moving computers, and Tony seeming, well, rather young and untempered, that's because it's about 20 years ago. While I have played with canon timing and ages to some degree to make this story match up at all, I've done so a little as possible. Additionally, my characterization of DiNozzo Senior comes from before watching him appear on the show, and is thus completely AU as well.
A HUGE thank you to Monica, who beta'd this and several other chapters at practically the speed of light.
<---- Chapter 4
Chapter 5: It’s Dark and We’re Wearing Sunglasses
Tony glanced back again at Kelly’s sleeping form draped across the back seat. She’d slept soundly for the past several hours that he’d spent driving, winding his way slowly out of the DC metro area, up past Baltimore, and then west. West, back to the father who he really hoped would actually speak to him for Kelly’s sake.
Well, at the very least, Kelly was something in his favor. He might not actually be her father, but the fact that he was managing to act like one should impress his own father. Tony tried out stories in his head as he drove, wondering if the truth would actually work or if he should just tell his dad a convenient lie as to who Kelly was. Would he actually be more or less likely to help if Tony claimed Kelly was his? Would his dad even believe that it was possible she was his?
Tony was fairly certain the dad he remembered from back when they actually spoke to each other frequently would help them either way just because Kelly was a kid in trouble. Hopefully the fact that he was mad at Tony still, would have no impact. Hopefully. They’d been talking a little more in the past year he thought. Maybe he was almost forgiven?
The road was endless in front of him, the sky long since dark. If he drove all night, they’d probably get to his dad’s by early morning though. Right in time for brunch perhaps. He was tired, but the coffee he’d had at Abby’s, followed by the coffee she’d packed for him, which could be followed by the caffeine pills she’d also packed for him if needed would keep him awake enough for them to get there in one piece.
He wasn’t actually too worried about being caught now, they were surprisingly far from the radius that might have been set up to catch them. So long as he didn’t stop and have Kelly seen, any alert that might have been put out since they left Abby’s would probably miss them. He hoped. He held on to the hope that his boss hadn’t managed to mobilize department force in time to do much good either, considering they hadn’t been hindered by a roadblock. Maybe he’d been overreacting by skipping town? Maybe an investigation was already underway? Maybe someone had already taken this out of his hands? Wouldn’t that be great?
He briefly pondered the fantasy of someone fixing everything, a wonderland of quick investigation, arrests, the whole department being cleaned out in one swoop. Why he could be back at work by Monday! Yeah right. Government agencies didn’t work that way. There was no way he’d be safe for months. And no way to hand over his responsibility for Kelly until he knew of someone safe to hand her over to. Which considering there were at least two more agents working with the bad guys than he’d already spotted before picking up Kelly, wasn’t a chance he was going to take.
When he’d signed up for working in law enforcement, he hadn’t expected to have to rescue small children in quite this manner. And even though he’d always been good at undercover work, he’d never gone undercover as a dad before. Tony sighed, shook his head abruptly, and tried to focus on the road again. A good portion of the trip was behind him... just eight or so hours to go and one innocent princess to rescue.
****************************************
Tony took another slug of the now cold, gritty coffee and glanced behind him to check on Kelly. She’d been making small noises the past few miles. They were much closer to their destination, but there were still a few hours left and Tony had hoped Kelly would sleep right through them. It didn’t look like his luck was holding though, as her small noises were starting to become louder and contain almost words. Suddenly the noise went from almost to actual words, a panicked shriek cutting through the quiet air and echoing within the small space of the car.
“Mommy! MOMMY!” Kelly sat bolt upright, having shocked herself awake, and shocked Tony silent. Her panicked voice changed to a low whimper.
“Mommy...,” she choked out, her arms coming around to hug herself tightly. Tony suddenly realized he hadn’t been paying much attention to the road the past few moments and tore his eyes away to focus in front of the car just in time to pull them back into the proper lane. Looking ahead, he spotted a small pull off area and decided maybe a short stop was in order.
“Princess, we’re going to stop right up here and have a snack and maybe walk around for a minute, sound good?”
“Okay.” Her tear streaked face rose and she looked him straight in the eyes through the mirror’s reflection. Wow, Tony thought to himself, this little girl was just amazing. From nightmare to functional in less than the time it took Tony to wake up with coffee in the morning. At least with all the kids he could have been stuck in this situation with, he got the one who seemed to deal just fine with his inexperience at child management.
Tony pulled the car off the road and to the very back of the pull off area, shutting off the engine and turning around to look at Kelly. She looked right back at him, lost but more aware looking than she had seemed back at Abby’s house.
“Princess, do you want to go for a walk or have a snack?”
“Marshal Tony, my name is not ‘Princess,’” a weary, but tart, voice informed him seriously.
“Ah no... actually right now, it’s ‘Aurora’... which, in my defense, is a princess’ name.” Tony informed her seriously right back, trying to put a slight tease in his tone.
“What?” She looked at him, flabbergasted. Tony reached down onto the seat in front of him and picked up the ID and passed it between the seats to her. She reached out a hand and took it, staring down at it with consternation. Tony couldn’t help but smile, she was so very adult in her confusion.
“I thought I got to pick my name...,” she looked back up at him, tears welling up in her eyes. Damn, how did things keep going from okay to threats of tears so fast?
“Hey, hey, Princess, it’s okay, you’ll get to pick your name once we’re more settled, this was just to get us where we’re going. Abby picked it for you, she thought you’d like it because it’s Sleeping Beauty’s name...,” Tony trailed off as he saw none of this was helping at all.
“But, muh-mommy, suh-said, I’d get to pick,” she sobbed out, tears back again full force. Tony looked wildly around for options that would defuse the situation and came up with nothing. Reaching over the console between the seats, he unbuckled the crying girl and pulled her up into the front seat. Hugging her to his chest, he decided to take Abby’s advice, it couldn’t screw things up anymore than he already had.
“Princess- Kelly, I’m going to keep you safe. If your mommy could be here to keep you safe, you know she would be. Since she can’t be here, I’m going to do it for her. I’m going to be your daddy for right now and I promise to keep you safe from the bad men.”
“I HAVE a daddy!” Kelly growled.
“I don’t know where his is, sweetie. I didn’t get to get the case file on your mommy and you before I came to try and rescue you. I just knew there were bad men, and I heard one of them talking about something bad they were going to do. I came to get you before they could. I didn’t even know about your mom before I heard about it from the Marshal that was with you. As soon as we’re safe, I promise I’ll figure out where your daddy is. I promise.” Tony took a moment to pick his words.
“Kelly, right now, we have to get as far away from the bad guys as we can, and get somewhere safe. And the only safe place I could think of is at my dad’s, we’re almost there already, only a few more hours... so how about you can borrow him as your granddad for a while too? We’ll keep you safe, we’ll figure out a way to get the bad guys, and we’ll find your dad. For now though, you and I have to pretend you’re my daughter, and we’re on a trip to visit your granddad, so if we have to stop and anyone talks to us, try to remember to call me dad or papa or something like that, whichever one you want. Can you do that? Pretend for now to keep us safe?” Tony looked down at the face peering up at him.
“Yes. You can be Dad, because I already have a Daddy,” she matter-of-factly told him.
“No problem, Princess.” Tony was really glad this whole telling the truth thing was working so far. Thank goodness for Abby.
“Okay, so right now, we can have a snack or take a quick walk, or both, but we have to get back on the road soon so that we can make it my Dad’s place and start the wheels in motion to find your dad and arrest the bad men.” Strangely, Tony hadn’t even considered that she might have a father somewhere to take her off his hands. Though now he wondered if her father was in danger too... surely he would have been with her mother if they’d been testifying to the same incident? A quick communication with Abby once they got in might answer a lot of his questions. Right, okay, modified plan of action was still a go. Now to get Kelly resettled and start driving again.
“Well, Princess, what’s it going to be, door number one or door number two, or possibly door number three? Snack, walk, or keep driving?”
Chapter 6---->
Something I've been meaning to note, just in case it's not been evident- I have attempted to correctly seat this story in its time, so all these things would be happening in about the early 90's. So when you see the lack of burn phones, references to slow moving computers, and Tony seeming, well, rather young and untempered, that's because it's about 20 years ago. While I have played with canon timing and ages to some degree to make this story match up at all, I've done so a little as possible. Additionally, my characterization of DiNozzo Senior comes from before watching him appear on the show, and is thus completely AU as well.
A HUGE thank you to Monica, who beta'd this and several other chapters at practically the speed of light.
<---- Chapter 4
Chapter 5: It’s Dark and We’re Wearing Sunglasses
Tony glanced back again at Kelly’s sleeping form draped across the back seat. She’d slept soundly for the past several hours that he’d spent driving, winding his way slowly out of the DC metro area, up past Baltimore, and then west. West, back to the father who he really hoped would actually speak to him for Kelly’s sake.
Well, at the very least, Kelly was something in his favor. He might not actually be her father, but the fact that he was managing to act like one should impress his own father. Tony tried out stories in his head as he drove, wondering if the truth would actually work or if he should just tell his dad a convenient lie as to who Kelly was. Would he actually be more or less likely to help if Tony claimed Kelly was his? Would his dad even believe that it was possible she was his?
Tony was fairly certain the dad he remembered from back when they actually spoke to each other frequently would help them either way just because Kelly was a kid in trouble. Hopefully the fact that he was mad at Tony still, would have no impact. Hopefully. They’d been talking a little more in the past year he thought. Maybe he was almost forgiven?
The road was endless in front of him, the sky long since dark. If he drove all night, they’d probably get to his dad’s by early morning though. Right in time for brunch perhaps. He was tired, but the coffee he’d had at Abby’s, followed by the coffee she’d packed for him, which could be followed by the caffeine pills she’d also packed for him if needed would keep him awake enough for them to get there in one piece.
He wasn’t actually too worried about being caught now, they were surprisingly far from the radius that might have been set up to catch them. So long as he didn’t stop and have Kelly seen, any alert that might have been put out since they left Abby’s would probably miss them. He hoped. He held on to the hope that his boss hadn’t managed to mobilize department force in time to do much good either, considering they hadn’t been hindered by a roadblock. Maybe he’d been overreacting by skipping town? Maybe an investigation was already underway? Maybe someone had already taken this out of his hands? Wouldn’t that be great?
He briefly pondered the fantasy of someone fixing everything, a wonderland of quick investigation, arrests, the whole department being cleaned out in one swoop. Why he could be back at work by Monday! Yeah right. Government agencies didn’t work that way. There was no way he’d be safe for months. And no way to hand over his responsibility for Kelly until he knew of someone safe to hand her over to. Which considering there were at least two more agents working with the bad guys than he’d already spotted before picking up Kelly, wasn’t a chance he was going to take.
When he’d signed up for working in law enforcement, he hadn’t expected to have to rescue small children in quite this manner. And even though he’d always been good at undercover work, he’d never gone undercover as a dad before. Tony sighed, shook his head abruptly, and tried to focus on the road again. A good portion of the trip was behind him... just eight or so hours to go and one innocent princess to rescue.
****************************************
Tony took another slug of the now cold, gritty coffee and glanced behind him to check on Kelly. She’d been making small noises the past few miles. They were much closer to their destination, but there were still a few hours left and Tony had hoped Kelly would sleep right through them. It didn’t look like his luck was holding though, as her small noises were starting to become louder and contain almost words. Suddenly the noise went from almost to actual words, a panicked shriek cutting through the quiet air and echoing within the small space of the car.
“Mommy! MOMMY!” Kelly sat bolt upright, having shocked herself awake, and shocked Tony silent. Her panicked voice changed to a low whimper.
“Mommy...,” she choked out, her arms coming around to hug herself tightly. Tony suddenly realized he hadn’t been paying much attention to the road the past few moments and tore his eyes away to focus in front of the car just in time to pull them back into the proper lane. Looking ahead, he spotted a small pull off area and decided maybe a short stop was in order.
“Princess, we’re going to stop right up here and have a snack and maybe walk around for a minute, sound good?”
“Okay.” Her tear streaked face rose and she looked him straight in the eyes through the mirror’s reflection. Wow, Tony thought to himself, this little girl was just amazing. From nightmare to functional in less than the time it took Tony to wake up with coffee in the morning. At least with all the kids he could have been stuck in this situation with, he got the one who seemed to deal just fine with his inexperience at child management.
Tony pulled the car off the road and to the very back of the pull off area, shutting off the engine and turning around to look at Kelly. She looked right back at him, lost but more aware looking than she had seemed back at Abby’s house.
“Princess, do you want to go for a walk or have a snack?”
“Marshal Tony, my name is not ‘Princess,’” a weary, but tart, voice informed him seriously.
“Ah no... actually right now, it’s ‘Aurora’... which, in my defense, is a princess’ name.” Tony informed her seriously right back, trying to put a slight tease in his tone.
“What?” She looked at him, flabbergasted. Tony reached down onto the seat in front of him and picked up the ID and passed it between the seats to her. She reached out a hand and took it, staring down at it with consternation. Tony couldn’t help but smile, she was so very adult in her confusion.
“I thought I got to pick my name...,” she looked back up at him, tears welling up in her eyes. Damn, how did things keep going from okay to threats of tears so fast?
“Hey, hey, Princess, it’s okay, you’ll get to pick your name once we’re more settled, this was just to get us where we’re going. Abby picked it for you, she thought you’d like it because it’s Sleeping Beauty’s name...,” Tony trailed off as he saw none of this was helping at all.
“But, muh-mommy, suh-said, I’d get to pick,” she sobbed out, tears back again full force. Tony looked wildly around for options that would defuse the situation and came up with nothing. Reaching over the console between the seats, he unbuckled the crying girl and pulled her up into the front seat. Hugging her to his chest, he decided to take Abby’s advice, it couldn’t screw things up anymore than he already had.
“Princess- Kelly, I’m going to keep you safe. If your mommy could be here to keep you safe, you know she would be. Since she can’t be here, I’m going to do it for her. I’m going to be your daddy for right now and I promise to keep you safe from the bad men.”
“I HAVE a daddy!” Kelly growled.
“I don’t know where his is, sweetie. I didn’t get to get the case file on your mommy and you before I came to try and rescue you. I just knew there were bad men, and I heard one of them talking about something bad they were going to do. I came to get you before they could. I didn’t even know about your mom before I heard about it from the Marshal that was with you. As soon as we’re safe, I promise I’ll figure out where your daddy is. I promise.” Tony took a moment to pick his words.
“Kelly, right now, we have to get as far away from the bad guys as we can, and get somewhere safe. And the only safe place I could think of is at my dad’s, we’re almost there already, only a few more hours... so how about you can borrow him as your granddad for a while too? We’ll keep you safe, we’ll figure out a way to get the bad guys, and we’ll find your dad. For now though, you and I have to pretend you’re my daughter, and we’re on a trip to visit your granddad, so if we have to stop and anyone talks to us, try to remember to call me dad or papa or something like that, whichever one you want. Can you do that? Pretend for now to keep us safe?” Tony looked down at the face peering up at him.
“Yes. You can be Dad, because I already have a Daddy,” she matter-of-factly told him.
“No problem, Princess.” Tony was really glad this whole telling the truth thing was working so far. Thank goodness for Abby.
“Okay, so right now, we can have a snack or take a quick walk, or both, but we have to get back on the road soon so that we can make it my Dad’s place and start the wheels in motion to find your dad and arrest the bad men.” Strangely, Tony hadn’t even considered that she might have a father somewhere to take her off his hands. Though now he wondered if her father was in danger too... surely he would have been with her mother if they’d been testifying to the same incident? A quick communication with Abby once they got in might answer a lot of his questions. Right, okay, modified plan of action was still a go. Now to get Kelly resettled and start driving again.
“Well, Princess, what’s it going to be, door number one or door number two, or possibly door number three? Snack, walk, or keep driving?”
Chapter 6---->