My Bell Chapter 6
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Tony wasn’t sure what exactly he was reading to Michelle but he knew she was getting a lot more from it than he was. Apparently some girl had a lose tooth and wasn’t too pleased; Tony briefly wondered just what the other two adults were discussing, but tried to tell himself it wasn’t any of his business. Not that it made him any less curious but still. He’d almost lost track of what he was reading, when Michelle giggled. Tony paused and caught Pandora in the middle of making a face in his direction. “And you called me a child?” Both of them tried to keep a straight face, but neither of them lasted long before bursting into laughter. But Tony quickly sobered up when he saw Gibbs standing in the doorway looking decidedly Gibbishly blank, he knew his boss probably wouldn’t appreciate Tony acting twelve.
He noticed the worried look Pandora sent him as he cleared his throat and attempted to look at least halfway professional, but he ignored it. She’d have her say, even if he didn’t want her to, later; until then she could get over it. Gibbs seemed slightly at a loss, but Pandora was already kneeling in front on Michelle, “Well then, why don’t you show me your room now.”
There was a very significant pause before Michelle sighed and glared at the woman slightly before looking down, “I don’t think I have a room here Dora. You know that.”
There was another significant pause as everyone seemed to avoid looking at Gibbs’ face, but Tony’d enough practice sneaking glances at his boss that he was able to get a fairly good look at his boss’ face. And he wished Pandora had found some other way of broaching the subject, because Tony knew that face. The corresponding look on Michelle’s face didn’t make Tony feel anything but more helpless and while he (sort of) understood why Pandora had brought it up he wished she hadn’t.
Finally Gibbs broke the silence, “Well, you certainly live up to our name. When a Gibbs gets something wrong, they get it wrong. Now let’s show her your room.”
Tony gave an almost inaudible sigh of relief as the tension slowly drained out of the room. Michelle’s shocked “o-okay!” made Tony smile as he followed Michelle, who was dragging a bemused Pandora up the stairs. The hand on his elbow made Tony pause and turn to face Gibbs, and again he was faced with the one expression that made Tony want to something, anything, to make it go away. It was the expression Tony had taken bullets to prevent; pain didn’t suit Gibbs any more than being worried suited Tony. But he’d never been faced with Gibbs’ pain like this before, and he had no idea what to do. “Boss?”
“She…really thought that I was going to send her away. Even after I said I wasn’t going to, just how wrong did I get this DiNiozzo?”
Tony stared at his boss for another few moments before shaking his head, “Look boss, I’m not going to lie and say a bunch of platitudes you won’t believe anyway. What I will say is that the important thing is you won’t send her away, because that is the worst thing you could do for her.” Tony stopped not sure how to say what he needed to, “Just…remember that. No matter how hard this is for you ok? Because that’d do more damage than anything you’ve done wrong.” Tony managed to smile, “Besides boss, that girl would forgive you for just about anything. Now come on, before Pandora get’s the idea that it’s time for more shopping.” Tony gave a fake shiver and turned from his boss, the curious look that had replaced the painful one wasn’t any better. Tony hated it when Gibbs was curious; it was never a good thing.
Sure enough Pandora was already in the midst of helping Michelle plan just how she wanted her “new” room to look. The two men stood in the doorway for a while but it didn’t take long for Michelle to notice them and come bounding over “Tony! Uncle Jethro! Guess what!”
Tony nudged his boss without thinking, and he could feel the incredulous look the older man sent him, and he swallowed. He’d pay for that nudge later, unless he was lucky and Gibbs forgot. But Tony wasn’t going to hold out hope for that, Gibbs was worse than an elephant that way. But Tony was still gratified to hear Gibbs finally respond to Michelle, “What then?”
The girl had been on the verge of pouting at them but as soon as she was acknowledged she smiled again, “Pandora is going to take me to get a new bedspread, ‘cause she says the blue one is boring, And maybe a few posters and a bookshelf for my room.” There was obvious delight in the words “my room” and it made Tony smile, a glance at Gibbs proved that he was smiling too.
Gibbs did what Tony had hoped he would and bent down so that he was on level with Michelle and quirked an eyebrow, “How about we build your own bookshelf? Then you could stain or paint it any color you want.” The excited “REALLY? Could you do a dresser too?” and the quick thumbs up Pandora gave only made Tony a bit smug that he’d never doubted his boss’ innate ability with kids. They might have a long way to go but Gibbs hadn’t given up.
It wasn’t long before Tony knew that it was time to leave the two alone to get to know each other. Pandora seemed to come to the same conclusion; she said her goodbyes and promised to call before leaving. Tony himself couldn’t quite stomach leaving yet, so he lingered. But eventually he knew it was time to leave, so he sighed and forced himself to say goodbye to the people that were rapidly becoming the center of his already focused world.
“Hey DiNozzo,” Tony paused halfway out the door before shooting his boss a curious look, “I’m gonna hate that I asked, but what happened to your hand?” Tony glanced down at his hands only to be greeted by the small burn on the back of his right hand.
He blinked at it for a moment, slightly confused before Michelle piped up. “Tony’s really jumpy in the morning.” Gibbs looked down at her with raised eyebrows and a soft “oh?” Tony wished he could stop the small girl from talking, but alas he couldn’t “Yeah, he banged his hand against the stove this morning while he was cooking. He said he’d forgotten I was there.” Both Gibbs, both young and old, turned to look at him with the same quizzical expression.
Tony did what any sane man would do, he bolted; effectively escaping the laughter that followed him. Of course that meant he missed the small “Tony’s really silly, but he’s awesome Uncle Jethro.” And the even softer, “I know.”
~~’’~~
Gibbs watched Tony go and wasn’t quite sure why but watching the younger man jog away made a part of Gibbs that had been relaxed all day tense again. He made a half hearted attempt at convincing himself that it was because he was nervous about spending time alone with Michelle, but he knew he wasn’t succeeding. His ran a hand through his hair as he watched Tony’s car drive away unsure what to do about these feelings that he hadn’t felt in a very long time, and never about someone under his command. He shook his head and promised himself a long think on it, but for now he had a hyper 7 year old to take care of.
The planned trip to Target turned out to be one of the oddest experiences of Gibbs’ life; he’d never known how much effort went into a kid buying a blanket. He was also surprised that Tony had been correct in the fact that she hated pink, but in the end the bed set she’d chosen wasn’t a choice he could fault. The soft blue with the “White, Green, Red, Striped, Circle Pattern” (as the package proudly proclaimed) would offset the forest green walls in a way that Michelle informed him would cause a brightening affect. Briefly Gibbs had debated the idea of posters, but he finally relented and bought her two posters. One depicted a horse, and the other was of all things a wolf howling at the moon; Gibbs took a moment to wryly wonder why on earth is seemed at every little girl he’d known had a thing for those two particular animals.
The trip to Home Depot was much more Gibbs’ speed, he knew the place well enough to find what he needed and get out. Sadly not without a hair raising moment of panic when he thought for sure he’d lost Michelle only to find her clear across the store, still in the Garden center smelling flowers. He’d only scrubbed his face with his hand before calling out and telling her it was time to go. Their trip to the storage unit would have to wait, Gibbs wasn’t sure if he could face going through his sister’s things yet but he would soon. Dinner wasn’t as quiet as Gibbs was used to, but he didn’t mind; for her age Michelle was surprisingly well spoken and intelligent.
He put her to bed, and made his way to the basement. Not sure what to do with himself, it’d been a long day and he was tired but he knew if he went to bed now it’d be hell to quiet his mind. So he took the sander and began sanding his boat and let his mind wander.
As usual, he ended up thinking about Tony. It wasn’t something he wanted to admit but Gibbs had never been one to dance around things. Even the things that made him nervous, scared the crap out of him, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. So he’d have to face the face the fact that he had feelings for Antony Michael DiNozzo, what kind of feelings he’d have to face later. But that admission was enough, at least for that night, so he allowed himself a sigh and put the sander down before heading to bed.
Chapter 7