Work Text:
Holding
He had been Gibbs’ second even if the team didn’t put much stock into it. He did. So, when Gibbs left after his coma, Tony knew it was his job to keep the team together. Keep everyone safe. Until Gibbs’ return later.
He tried so hard with everyone against him. His family team taking their anger at their father-figure leaving out on him. Noticing that no other agent spoke out against it, nor did, call me Jen, do anything beyond lip service about it.
Instead, call me Jen, ordered him to prey on a friend so she could get near his friend, Jeanne’s father.
Jeanne, his only relief from the constant anger and hatred set against him.
If it wasn’t Gibbs’ team that was against him, then it was call me Jen that was calling him at all hours to get information on her father and how close he was getting to his daughter.
Constant pressure and stress lead Jeanne to force her best friend and lover to see another doctor she knew at the hospital for his incoming ulcer. Yet he still had black bile as the stress and hate piled on. Even after Gibbs returned to help Dav’id, and then Gibbs’ friend Fornell.
Coming in after Tony had gone down to the gym to shower and change clothes after a night of paperwork.
Gibbs tossing Tony’s things back onto his old desk, and McGee’s back on his old desk. Leaving Lee with nothing.
When Tony returned to see that Gibbs was taking back the family and team, he just grabbed his jacket and personal phone and walked off the floor and down the stairs to his car. His phone to his ear and telling HR that one way or another he was taking time off immediately.
The next call was to Jeanne to tell her that he was heading to his uncle’s cabin.
Switching his car for a friend’s SUV after removing the battery from his phone.
As far as the agency was concerned, he had just dropped off the face of the earth, as the team fell apart due to no one being able to do the paperwork.
Add to that, Jen was getting her bosses crawling down her throat about the trouble all three members of the team kept getting into. Including the increasing list of lawsuits against the agency for their actions against them. Threatening Jen’s time as the Director, as more threats were being bandied about an audit of the agency under her control.
Jen’s time as the director ended when the team ended up killing a civilian in public and got the press against them and the agency in general. Tony showing up soon after in London as a member of Interpol with his new wife, Jeanne, who was a surgeon at the London hospital.
That spelled the end of Jen’s and the team’s time in power as the Whisperer was no longer available, so the team was no longer able to be controlled enough to be useful by those in control.
Fin
9/2/2026