Sunder - Drag Queen Version

Tony had a secret. He loved his boss. Not like platonic love, but full on romantic love.

He’d intended to follow Gibbs’ rule number 4 and keep his secret to himself and tell no one else. Unfortunately, he’d fallen for Abby’s divide and conquer technique and while he hadn’t spilled to Abby, he’d accidentally told Kate. He’d sworn Kate to secrecy and made her promise not to ever tell Abby or anyone else.

He hoped that he wouldn’t regret taking the second best version of rule number 4 and that he hadn’t just made a huge mistake. While Kate and he teased each other like siblings, they did truly care for each other or at least that’s what he thought. Still it had led to an increase in the amount of ribbing Kate gave him.

Or at least it had until Gibbs’ mysterious redhead in the silver car had shown up again. Both Kate and he had been sundered from Gibbs as Gibbs joined the redhead in her car and she drove off. They exchanged glances before climbing into the company vehicle and driving back to headquarters.

Kate wouldn't let the redhead go, though. “So what do you know about her?”

“Same as you.” Tony shrugged. He wasn’t about to tell Kate what he really knew about the redhead.

“Really? You don't know anything? Haven't you tried to dig up information on her? She could be competition for Gibbs’ affection.”

“Hush. Keep it down.” Tony shushed Kate.

Even though they were, in theory, alone in the car, he didn't want to take any chances that someone might overhear them. Gibbs would have his head if Gibbs found out that Kate knew about his little crush on Gibbs.

“Come on, I can enlist Abby to help. I’m sure we can find out something about the redhead. At least, then you’ll know if you have a chance, right?”

Tony glared at Kate and hissed, “We can’t involve Abby. She’ll start asking questions and then she’ll figure out my secret.”

“What’s the big deal if Abby knows?”

“If Abby knows, we won’t be able to keep it out of the workplace and Gibbs will figure it out. Gibbs always knows what’s happening in the workplace. Gibbs will kill me if he finds out about my crush.” Tony whispered the last sentence fearfully. Truthfully, Gibbs already basically knew this secret, but Tony wasn’t about to tell Kate that. It was sweet that she wanted to find out about Gibbs’ redhead for him, but he knew that if she found out the truth about the redhead not only would his secrets explode out into the open, but so would a few others and he couldn’t have that.

He should have known that Kate wouldn’t give up and drop it, though. Secretly, at first, Kate searched for Gibbs’ redhead on her own. Abby though started to get suspicious about what Kate was spending so much time searching for and then Kate told Abby about Tony’s crush and swore her to secrecy and they both started looking.

Tony first realized he had a problem in the middle of his act. He’d seen Kate and Abby both enter the club due to his vantage point from the stage as he sang along to “Red Headed Woman” by Bruce Springsteen with his higher than normal pitch voice. He hoped that he wouldn’t immediately be recognized dressed in his red headed drag queen outfit as he belted out the words.

He hid his cringe in a hair twirl as he saw the girls spot Gibbs and make a beeline for Gibbs. They really were terrible at the whole secrecy thing. Still Tony had an act to finish and he couldn’t afford to be too distracted.

He couldn’t help watching the girls and Gibbs interact out of the corner of his eyes. Heading off stage to be replaced by a spitfire blond, Jojo, Tony debated joining Gibbs in the crowd. It would really throw the girls off he showed up as Tony. At the same time, Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to get involved in whatever conversation the girls were trying to start with Gibbs, who would probably glare at him and blame him for the girls showing up.

Tony had at least one more set to “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele and possibly an encore set depending on how the night went and how the audience responded to the other drag queens. Only the top 2 or 3 drag queens were brought back out for encores. Usually Tony joined Gibbs between sets, but with the girls there he couldn’t help feeling that it would be better if he stayed backstage.

Tony texted Gibbs. Given they were dating now, he couldn’t just ignore Gibbs. He had never thought of Gibbs as needy, but Gibbs would get all sorts of pissy if you didn’t show up for something or showed up late. The only exception was if Gibbs was working on his boat, he would hardly notice if Tony didn’t show up or was late and Gibbs was a lot more forgiving when he worked on his boat.

Tony chuckled at the response he got back from Gibbs. Apparently Kate and Abby were coming up with all sorts of interesting reasons as to why Gibbs would be in the club. Gibbs, of course, wasn’t outwardly reacting, but if you knew where to look Tony was sure his eyes would be twinkling.

Tony breathed a sigh of relief that Gibbs wasn’t too mad about the girls showing up. He wondered how long it would take the girls to figure out that the redhead that sometimes took Gibbs home was Tony and sometimes was another one of Tony’s drag queen friends doing him a favor when he got caught up in something else or wanted to throw suspicion away from him. The friend he most often utilized was up on stage next and he kind of wanted to see Kate’s reaction to his friend.

He texted Gibbs, “Do you think Kate will recognize the next performer?”

“Nah. She’s far too interested in determining if I have a fetish for drag queens now.”

In the end, Tony did get called back for an encore and finished up the night with “Red Head Walking” by Beat Happening just to play with fire. He stayed in his redheaded drag queen costume after the show, instead of changing like he normally would, just in case Gibbs hadn’t managed to escape the girls. He’d rather the girls meet Aurora than wonder why Tony was here.

Wrapping his arm around Gibbs waist Tony smiled at Kate and Abby and held out his hand for a shake, “Aurora. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Really?” Kate blinked in surprise, automatically shaking Tony's hand, “We haven’t heard anything about you.”

“Well you know, Gibbs. He’s not really the talkative type, especially about his personal life.”

Gibbs glared at Tony for that statement. He was pretty sure that Kate hadn’t figured that out about him, yet. Tony shrugged in reply and started slowly leading Gibbs away from the girls, hoping they would remain distracted.

It took Kate and Abby a good 5 minutes to realize that the two of them were almost to the door. “Hey!” Abby protested. She’d wanted to interrogate the redhead some more.

Tony turned his head enough to wink and called out, “Sorry, girls!”

Kate and Abby rushed to the door, but arrived outside just in time to see Gibbs and Aurora drive off in the silver car. Tony and Gibbs waved to the girls as they left. Abby pouted, stomping her feet angrily.

“Can you do anything with the name Aurora?”

“I don’t know. I’ll try.”

Kate nodded to Abby and they separated to head back to their separate apartments. They did have work the next day, after all.

At home, Gibbs glared at Tony. “What the hell, Tony?”

“Sorry, Gibbs. I accidentally spilled about my crush to Kate and now she’s been all about the redhead since Ben picked you up that one time.”

Gibbs shook his head fondly. “You told her you had a crush on me and that she had to keep it a secret because I couldn’t find out. Didn’t you?”

Tony shrugged sheepishly. “You know me, Jet.”

“Are you ever going to get tired of yanking people’s chains?”

“Nope.” Tony popped the p, leaning back against Gibbs on the couch as they watched a movie together before going to bed.