Regale

Gibbs blinked. Closing his eyes, he waited 10 minutes before opening them. Nope the apparition was still there. 2 tickets to Kingsman: The Secret Service or so they proclaimed were still just inside his door. Admittedly they came with a fairly incongruous and vague note that simply said, “I repay my debts.”

Now there were a lot of people that Jethro could think of who owed him something and most of them knew his open door policy, so the fact that the tickets were inside didn’t really rule anyone out, but it left a huge question mark for him as to who was attempting to repay their debt in this manner. Since almost all of his debts were of a life saving help a buddy out of an almost impossible situation type debts, 2 tickets to the movie didn’t really seem a fair exchange to him.

Gingerly picking up the tickets, he set them on his kitchen counter, practically dropping them as if they might explode. He then returned to the note and picked it up, inspecting it in much greater detail to see if there were any further clues. He noticed a scratch on the back of the note, but wasn’t sure that really told him anything. The paper seemed normal and the handwriting generic enough that he couldn’t place it. Maybe he could have Abby work her forensic magic on it to figure it out. He’d try that tomorrow if he couldn’t figure it out by himself this evening.

He carried the note down to his workbench in the basement. Setting it next to his bourbon/coffee mug, he started sanding while he pondered the note. He always thought better while he worked on the boat.

Deciding to look at the note from another angle, he realized there were 2 tickets and that the person who had given them to him obviously hadn’t intended for him to take them since they didn’t specify a place to meet in the note. That begged the question, who did they expect him to take instead?

The only one he could imagine taking is DiNozzo or possibly Ducky, but Ducky was stretching it. Assuming he’s right and that they wanted him to take DiNozzo, who would be most likely to encourage this? He would think Ducky who was prone to poke holes at his defenses and frequently encouraged him to make a move, but Ducky and him had known each other too long to still have debts between them. They were family.

That left Fornell or maybe Kort. He couldn’t think of anyone else who would claim a debt and also know about DiNozzo in some fashion. He was leaning towards Fornell as Fornell was the most supportive of him, but the note seemed more Kort. Since both were federal agents, he’d have Abby see if there were any prints besides his on the note tomorrow.

Not wanting Abby to prejudice the results, Gibbs handed her the note. “Do me a favor, Abbs? Find out who the fingerprints on this belong to besides me. It's personal, so keep it as quiet as you can, OK?”

“Will do, boss man.”

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, they didn't catch a case that day leaving plenty of time for Gibbs to contemplate what he wanted to do regarding the note.

By the end of the day he had come to a firm decision, if he was going to do this he was going to regale the heck out of DiNozzo. With that in mind, he called up one of those online florist places and placed an order of flowers to be delivered to Tony’s address along with a note detailing time and date to meet at an Italian restaurant that he thought Tony would like.

He knew Tony would show up out of curiosity since he didn't sign the note and normally he would head slap him for that behavior, but as it worked to his advantage this time, he supposed he could let it slip for once.

It was Wednesday now, so he only had 3 full days and one partial one to finish his plans for regaling Tony. The flowers and note and movie and restaurant would only be the beginning. Granted he didn't plan to plan all their dates now, but he wanted the first one to be so amazing that Tony couldn't help but want to continue dating him.