Avarice

DiNozzo Senior’s avarice was quite well known. At least among those that watched him go after more and more money making schemes to the detriment of his son. In fact the only good point to his avarice in Gibbs opinion is that it kept him away from his agent and thus from messing with his head when he needed him on his game.

If he had the money, he’d pay him off to stay away from Tony. It always irked Gibbs the way Senior would swing in, use Tony and leave. Even before they got together, Gibbs wanted to make Senior go away to protect Tony.

Now that they’d been together for a few years, he looked back on Senior and Tony’s interactions and didn’t know what to think. It was obvious Tony loved his dad and equally obvious that Tony knew about his dad’s avarice. As a partner, as much as Gibbs wanted to protect Tony, he knew he had to support Tony’s decisions.

Tony himself seemed happiest when Senior was far away on business or near on business and staying out of Tony’s life. But Gibbs knew if he directly asked him that Tony would say Senior’s his dad and he still loved him.

And now this. Senior showed up on their doorstep demanding money from them and glaring daggers at Gibbs like Gibbs was the one who hurt Tony. Gibbs really just wanted to reach out and strangle Senior, but he wouldn’t. Instead he stood menacingly behind Tony ready to defend or protect or support Tony in whatever method he wanted to use to handle Senior.

Tony looked between Gibbs and Senior before turning to face Senior fully leaving Gibbs to protect his back. “What do you want, dad? Did you lose all your money again?”

“How could you think that, Junior? I’m plenty rich.” Senior protested.

“Then why are you here begging me for money for your next venture.” Tony arched a questioning eyebrow.

“Junior, how could you? I was just worried about you. I haven’t asked for any money.” Senior pretended to be affronted.

“Then what do you want?” Tony asked in a no-nonsense tone.

“Do you want me to leave, Junior?” Senior asked hurt. “I thought perhaps we could work through some of our issues.”

“By all means, dad.” Tony waved his hand to the couch. “Let’s work through our differences. Where do you want to start? With how it’s my fault mom died? With how I’ve always been a disappointment to you for going for a phys ed degree? With how I’ve always disappointed you by being a cop?” Tony could have gone on, but he figured these questions were bitter enough as it was.

“Is that what you think of me, Junior?” Senior’s eyes reflected true shock.

“It’s what I know about you. You flat out told me mom’s death was my fault.” Tony stated not budging an inch. He was an adult and he wasn’t going to continue to play the victimized little kid who would take anything if it meant his father’s attention.

“I’m sorry, Junior. I couldn’t cope with the loss of your mother and I’m afraid I took it out on you when I shouldn’t have.” Senior apologized though whether genuine or fake was hard to tell.

Tony stared at Senior shocked. He turned to look at Gibbs wondering if he was hearing things. The idea of his father apologizing was right up there with Gibbs apologizing. Gibbs look said all it needed to and more. “I appreciate the apology, dad.” He replied too stunned to say anything else and frankly not sure what else to say.

“Was he supposed to be happy by this or was this a trick?” Tony thought to himself. Leaning back against Jethro, he almost wished that Gibbs would take the decision away from him. It would be so much easier if someone else would make the decision for him, but he knew Gibbs wouldn’t and frankly he wouldn’t be in a relationship with Gibbs if he was the kind of man who would make that decision for him.

After the day they’d had, Tony just wasn’t up to dealing with Senior and knowing it was a cop out, but unable to do anything else Tony continued aloud. “Tell you what, dad? How about you come back tomorrow and we hash this out then. Gibbs and I are beat. We just finished a really tough case and we're practically asleep on our feet.”