Subterfuge - Bishop Entanglement Version

“Gibbs, wait!” Tony called out as he rushed out the front door after Gibbs.

Gibbs turned around to face Tony. “What now?”

Glancing around furtively to make sure that no one was around who could hear what he said and alert the lawyers to their subterfuge, Tony leaned closer to Gibbs and whispered, “So now that you know, you're welcome to date Bishop if you want, so long as you're careful to keep it from the lawyers.”

Gibbs grunted, not bothering to answer Tony more than that and climbed into his car. He had a lot of thinking to do. Tony waved goodbye to Gibbs as Gibbs drove off.

Gibbs headed for his basement immediately after arriving home. Even though it was late, Gibbs knew there was no way he'd be able to sleep. He hoped that working on the boat would allow him to get his thoughts in order.

He'd probably end up falling asleep under the boat tonight. He couldn't believe that Bishop and Tony had gotten married just to secure Tony's inheritance. Well actually he could, Bishop had no attachments and her family had been really pushing her to start dating again after Jake.

It had probably seemed like the perfect solution to both of them at the time. In fact, there was only one issue with it as far as Gibbs was concerned. He wanted to marry Tony for real.

Why hadn't Tony asked him? He would have happily been Tony's spouse. Well actually, Tony clearly didn't know what he felt.

Gibbs wasn't sure what to do about that either. His feelings for Tony had clearly been on display enough that Bishop had figured them out, but Tony appeared completely clueless and thought his feelings were for Bishop. Either that or Tony didn't return his feelings and was politely pushing him towards Bishop instead.

But no that didn't make sense. Bishop wouldn't have tried to push him towards Tony if Tony had no feelings for him. Would she?

Maybe he had this all wrong and that wasn't what they were trying to tell him. The conversation had been completely confusing. While he understood every word they said, strung together they hadn't really made sense.

It's possible he had misunderstood. The letter from the lawyer had been rather clear for lawyer speak, but that didn't mean that he'd reached the right conclusion. Tony's suggestion that it was ok for him to date Bishop confused him.

He hoped that meant that this really was a marriage of convenience only. That would mean that he still had a chance with Tony. Tony wasn't gone forever.

They just had to be careful not to mess things up so that the lawyers caught on to the sham marriage Tony and Bishop had. However, once the 2 years they had to stay married was up, Gibbs was sure Tony and Bishop would divorce. Then Gibbs and Tony would be able to marry for real if that was something Tony wanted too.

Gibbs shook his head and returned to working on the boat. This was too fanciful to be real. He just needed to accept that Tony and Bishop were married and stop worrying about losing Tony.

His feelings weren't important here. Regardless of whether he had feelings for Tony, the fact was Tony was married to Bishop. Gibbs wasn't going to try and break that up regardless of whether Tony and Bishop had a marriage of convenience or not.

Gibbs tried to put the whole day out of his mind. It had been one crazy thing after another. He couldn't help worrying that he was making the worst decision of his life, however.

He had never admitted it aloud, but the feelings he had for Tony rivaled those he had for Shannon. Actually, the truth was his feelings for Tony were greater than his feelings for Shannon had ever been. He'd been gay since he was a little kid, but it definitely was not accepted at the time.

He'd admitted it to Shannon and she had been understanding and willing to be his wife. They even had Kelly together. Kelly had been a real blessing.

Gibbs missed his little girl more fiercely than he had ever missed Shannon. His relationship with Shannon had been more of friends than lovers. He just had never developed the deep feelings for her.

His little girl, though, he couldn't stop developing feelings for her. So many firsts he missed due to Operation Desert Storm. Yet, his little girl was always so excited to see him whenever he came home.

She never made him feel like a bad father for being away most of the time. In fact, she had seemed to understand until the last time. Right before the deploy during which Shannon and Kelly had been murdered, Kelly had begged him not to leave.

It had broken his heart, but he'd had to leave. He had a job to do. Of course, after finding out that his wife had been murdered, it was rather difficult for him to focus on his job anymore.

He'd gotten out soon after and had worked with Franks to get revenge for the death of his wife and child. He'd also switched to a career with NIS instead of the Marines, so that he could help other Marines and Navy sailors who lost their wife or children or their own lives get justice. It didn't really ease his guilt for living when Kelly was dead, but it kept him occupied at least.

He wished Kelly were still alive. He was sure that Tony would have adored her. He fell asleep under his boat imagining Tony and Kelly and him together as a family.