Gigi Sinclair

Bonded

Title: Bonded

Author: Gigi Sinclair

E-mail: gigitrek@gmail.com

Web site: https://www.angelfire.com/trek/gigislash

Archive: Ask first.

Fandom: Navy NCIS

Pairing: Gibbs/Todd, DiNozzo/Jeffrey White

Rating: PG-13

Warning: AU

Setting/Spoilers: Chained (AU)

Summary: Gibbs and Todd go to Mexico on the trail of a couple of criminals.

The most beautiful thing in the world is the sight of a sunrise over the ocean. Well, that and the sight of a suspect squirming in his seat under interrogation. And, luckily for me, I thought as I stared out the streaky window of the rural Mexican police station, I was going to get both today.

"He says they've been in custody for twenty-four hours," Kate translated for the Spanish-speaking officer in front of us. It was a long time since I'd been in the field with her, and even longer since we'd been to Mexico together, but she hadn't changed. She was still on top of everything, just like she had been on our previous assignments. And our honeymoon. "They haven't seen each other since they were brought in."

"Good." It would make our job easier.

Kate, though, didn't look overly happy. It was an expression which, after three years of marriage, one of divorce and seven of on-and-off working together, I'd learned not to ignore. "What's wrong?"

"We need to be careful. They haven't seen a lawyer and I don't want either of them walking on a technicality when we get back to the States."

"Don't worry." I ignored the curious gaze of the local detective. "We're professionals."

"So are they. And you know DiNozzo's family's loaded. If my..." She glanced at me and grudgingly corrected: "If our case ends up getting picked apart by some Johnny Cochran over a glove that doesn't fit..."

"No glove," I smiled at her. "Just evidence." A lot of it, and all of it said Anthony DiNozzo and Jeffrey White had stolen and sold millions in Iraqi antiquities before coming here. "Do you want to be the bad cop or the good cop?"

Kate shook her head, but I heard indulgence in her voice when she said: "You're never the good cop, Gibbs."

Not true. I'm a very good cop, and my colleagues at NCIS and Kate's at the FBI are equally good. It was how we'd tracked DiNozzo and White to this little town on the sea of Cortez, and it was how I decided, after glancing into each interrogation room, that they would start with White. In my experience, it's much easier to turn an accomplice against a mastermind in these situations than the other way around.

Jeffrey White just about jumped out of his seat when we came into the dingy, grey little room. He looked just like the mugshot Sciuto had dug up from White's last arrest, for shoplifting: weedy, scared, and like he was about to throw up. I expected the first words out of White's mouth to be some protestation of innocence. Instead, they were:

"Where's Tony?"

I could feel Kate's profiler's ears prick up, but I didn't let it distract me from the game plan. "He's fine. I'm Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS, and this is Special Agent Todd, FBI."

White chewed his lip. "I want a lawyer. Or someone from the Embassy. Shouldn't we get someone from the Embassy? "

Todd shot me the "I told you so" look, but I just smiled and put on his calmest, most reassuring voice. "We'll get to that in just a moment, Mr. White."

"DiNozzo," White said.

I restrained my natural urge to snap and said, as gently as if I was talking to my girls instead of some two-bit antiques thief: "Yes, we'd like to talk about him."

White looked at him, eyes harder than I would have expected behind his ridiculous Coke bottle glasses. "My name is Jeffrey DiNozzo."

I'm not speechless very often, least of all when faced with a suspect. I heard Todd rifling through her papers beside me, and I knew what she was looking for. The Wanted picture that had hung in both our offices for months, with the name Jeffrey White attached. "I don't think it is," I said, to say something. We don't make mistakes, not like that. Sciuto certainly doesn't make mistakes like that, which meant only one thing: White was out of his mind.

"We're married," White continued, pretty much confirming that hypothesis.

I blinked. "Who..."

"To Tony's sister, of course," Todd put in, with the typical "outside the box" thinking that had led me to marry her. And had led her to divorce me.

White looked at her like she was the one with a few ingredients short of a chocolate cake. "Tony doesn't have a sister. I'm married to him."

Kate and I looked at each other, and all I could think was that none of my wives, least of all Kate, had ever changed their names when they married me. Which was fine. At least it saved them the trouble of changing it back again a few years, or months, later.

"Where did this marriage take place?" Kate recovered before I did, even opening her notebook like she was going to write it down.

"Here. But just because it's not legal doesn't mean it's not real."

"Of course not," she reassured him, actually taking notes. I decided I had to get back in the game, so I did in the way I knew best. Directly.

"All right, Mr. DiNozzo. Did your..." I tried not to choke. "Partner convince you to steal the Iraqi antiquities you were meant to be preparing for transport?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, but it wasn't convincing. His eyes were glued on the floor. I crossed the room and stood beside him, close enough to smell that there probably wasn't a shower in this dump. And that Jeffrey was really nervous.

"Come on, Jeffrey." I put a reassuring hand on his damp shoulder. He jerked away. "We've all been there. You love someone, they ask you to do something that you know is wrong, what can you do?" I could picture the scenario very easily. DiNozzo, the drug-smuggling ex-con in need of money, and White, the weak-willed, lovesick shoplifter with access to it. A match made in heaven.

Jeffrey scowled, then rubbed at his eyebrow. "It wasn't Tony's fault. It was Lane."

"Lane?" That wasn't a name any of us had turned up, even Sciuto.

Jeffrey nodded. "If it hadn't been for him, none of this would have happened."

"Is Lane a first name or a last name, Jeffrey?" Kate asked, her hand already on her cellphone.

"First name. Lane Danielson. He used to live with us in Virginia. He's the one that got us into this." Jeffrey blinked, and looked so sad that, for a second, I almost felt sorry for the guy. Then I came to my senses. "I'd really like to see Tony now. Can I see him?"

I ignored him. "What do you mean, he got you into this?"

Jeffrey shook his head. "I'm not saying anything else until I see Tony."

"We'll do our best, Jeffrey." Kate jerked her head at me and I followed her out into the narrow hallway.

"He's lying," I said, as soon as the door shut behind us.

"About what? His illegal gay marriage?" She was already dialling.

"Lane. Why haven't we ever heard of him?" The FBI and NCIS had both been working on this case for a long time, and I had great faith in both of our abilities. Well, more faith in NCIS than in the FBI, but they had Kate.

"That's what I'm going to get Abby to find out. Talk to DiNozzo. I'll join you in a second."

"Whose investigation is this, Kate?"

She smiled. "Ours, Gibbs." She pointed to the second of the station's two interrogation rooms. I opened the door.

While White was skinny and geeky-looking with those big glasses, DiNozzo was good-looking and knew it. He was lying back in his rickety metal chair, feet propped on the table in front of him, when I came into the room.

"Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS."

"Oh, thank God." He sat up, planting his feet on the floor. "It's about time we got someone from Immigration in here. This is ridiculous. We were taken out of our home, no one's given me any indication what we're being charged with, and, quite frankly, I have half a mind to complain to the UN."

I could barely keep myself from smiling. This was my kind of suspect. "I'm very sorry you've been inconvenienced, Mr. DiNozzo." Sarcasm was clearly lost on him.

"So we can get out of here?"

"Not just yet." I paced a little, standard interrogation procedure, then came up behind him. Unlike his boyfriend, DiNozzo wasn't nervous, or if he was, he had a handle on it. "What are you and Mr...DiNozzo doing here?"

DiNozzo's shoulders tensed, then relaxed almost immediately. "His name is Jeffrey White."

"That's not what he told us. He told us, in fact, that the two of you are married."

DiNozzo laughed and turned to look at me, a big smile on his face. "Does this look like Canada to you, boss? Or Hawaii?" I ignored him. "We had a little ceremony on the beach, but come on. It doesn't mean anything."

"It seems to mean a lot to Mr. White."

"You ever had a girl really crazy for you?" Yes, but it usually only lasted until we got home from the honeymoon. "Or a guy?" I kept my gaze even. If he thought he was going to rattle me, he'd soon find out differently.

"No, but then," I leaned in closer. "I've heard a criminal past can be quite a turn on."

He laughed again, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Oh, no. You're not dragging me through this again. I did my time, Special Agent Gibbs. I'm as free a man as you are."

"Maybe," I conceded, straightening up and heading around to the other side of the table. I wondered where Kate was, and if Sciuto had already picked up something on Lane Danielson. "But I can't imagine your parents were very pleased that you used their private jet for your smuggling operation. Probably cut the old purse strings when you came out." About twenty years early, because he'd done a deal with the DA to rat out the people who'd hired him to transport the drugs. "And of course, a guy like you needs money. You meet an easy mark like Jeffrey White, with access to potential millions..." I stared at him. DiNozzo didn't look away, but he said:

"I don't know what you're talking about, but if you're going to make accusations, then Jeff and I want a lawyer. An American lawyer."

"And I'd be happy to help you. Thing is, though, 'Jeff's' already copped. He's blaming it on some guy called Lane, but I've got an agent working on that one already."

"Lane?" Real surprise crossed DiNozzo's face, then disappeared, but it was too late.

"Do you disagree with Mr. White?"

DiNozzo held up his hands. "Hey, I don't know what Lane gets up to. I barely know the guy."

"Mr. White said he used to live with you in Virginia."

"Yeah, but he's Jeff's friend. I can't stand him. He's an ass." Years of listening to liars made it easier to recognize when people were telling the truth, and this, unless DiNozzo was a master, was the truth.

"When did you last see him?"

DiNozzo shrugged. "Seven, eight months ago. He moved out and we didn't see him again." DiNozzo hadn't seen him again, I thought. But White had. "Look, boss," I tried not to wince, "What's going on here?"

"When we find out, Mr. DiNozzo," I said, standing and heading for the door, "You'll be the first to know."

I found Kate sitting at a desk in the small-town Mexico version of a police bullpen, talking on her cellphone while the two cops in the station, an old, fat one and a younger, thinner one, stared at her. I couldn't blame them. She was as hot as ever, slim legs crossed, shiny dark hair bouncing as she talked, but she was my ex-wife, dammit. I fixed the perverts with a glare as I crossed the room. The older one went back to his paperwork, looking a little embarrassed, but the younger one actually winked at me.

"What's up?" I asked, as I sat on the corner of the desk, using my body to block the perverts' view.

"I had Abby run Lane Danielson. She came up with a couple of impaired driving convictions, nothing else."

"Great." So that was a waste of time.

"And," Kate continued, "a missing person's report."

She always did this. I rubbed my eyes. "What?"

"She's faxing a copy over. Danielson's aunt in Florida filed a missing person's report five months ago, claiming she hadn't heard from him in three months, which was unusual for him."

"Anything done about it?"

Kate shrugged. "He was an adult. They didn't have any reason to suspect foul play, so the Virginia state police just put it aside." I understood that from my days on the Baltimore police department. When you had serious crimes piling up on your desk, a grown man who decided to stop calling his family didn't rate. "Did you get anything from DiNozzo?"

"Claims he hasn't seen Lane in seven or eight months. And that Jeffrey's last name is White."

Kate smiled. "Guess the honeymoon's over. I know that feeling." She glanced at me, briefly, then got right back to business. "We have the evidence to charge them for the theft, Gibbs. We've got a guy who's ready to swear it was White who sold him the artifacts in exchange for not going to jail himself."

"But now I want to know where Lane fits into this." I stood up. "I'm going back to talk to White."

She shook her head. "Talk to them together."

"Kate..."

"Trust me, Gibbs." I always did. That wasn't the issue.

"Procedure is..."

"Procedure is to get them a lawyer and get them back to the States as soon as possible."

She was right. I turned around, ignoring the leer on the face of the young cop, and went back to the interrogation room.

I'm not a homophobic guy. Still, there was something just a little bit creepy about the look in White's eyes when we let DiNozzo into his room. It was like a dog being reunited with his master more than a grown man being reunited his boyfriend. I looked away, keeping my hand on my weapon, as he threw his arms around DiNozzo. DiNozzo hugged him back, briefly, then pushed him away. "You OK?"

"I'm fine." White's eyes raked up and down DiNozzo's slender body. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"Come on, Jeff. I've beat tougher guys than these." DiNozzo jerked his head in our direction, which isn't quite what you want to say in front of a couple of federal agents. White smiled, closed his eyes and leaned forward, like he wanted a kiss right there in front of us. DiNozzo, thank God, dodged him and sat in the chair.

"We're interested in hearing about Lane Danielson," Kate said, when the love-fest had subsided to White staring at DiNozzo and DiNozzo examining his nails.

"Yeah, what's that about, Jeff?" DiNozzo put in, sounding completely unconcerned. In other circumstances, I thought, I might have admired his coolness. "You seen him lately?"

"No."

"But earlier," Kate continued, "You said it was his fault you came here."

White's eyes shifted from DiNozzo to her, then back again. "No, I didn't."

Perfect. "Look, Mr. White..."

"Hey!" DiNozzo snapped suddenly, glaring at me. "Don't take that tone with him." White's look got even more admiring. I wondered if the vein in my forehead really was standing out, or if it just felt that way. DiNozzo turned back to him and said: "Jeff, buddy, if you know something about Lane, you'd better spill. You know he wouldn't do you any favours."

White's hands clenched into fists in his lap, then he unclenched them and rubbed the palms against the thighs of his jeans. The whole time, his eyes didn't leave DiNozzo. The only sound was the rattling ceiling fan in the hall, and the whole place smelled like sweat and desperation. I was about ready to pack it in and haul them out to the crappy little local airport where the Gulf Stream was waiting, when White said: "He was always after you, Tony."

I was about to break in, but Kate caught my eye and shook her head. I kept my mouth shut, something I'd never done when we were married. "He kept telling me that you didn't love me and as soon as you got some more drug contacts, you'd be gone. He said," White gulped. "That you'd fuck anything that moved, and the next time I went out to work, he'd go into our room and show you what a real man was like." There were tears in his eyes. DiNozzo shifted in the chair, then reached out and took one of White's hands, winding their fingers together. "So I killed him."

DiNozzo's face went white. I had to admit, I was a little surprised myself, more at White's matter-of-fact tone than the words. Kate spoke calmly, like she'd been expecting this all along. "How did you do it, Jeffrey?"

He didn't take his eyes off DiNozzo. "I slit his throat. I couldn't let him do anything to Tony. I dumped his body in the woods behind our place. Then I had to come up with that plan about stealing those artifacts so we had the money to get out of there before his stupid aunt came looking. I had to do it for you, Tony, I love you so much." I shifted uncomfortably, but DiNozzo seemed unconcerned. All of his bravado gone, he looked like White had just admitted to something amazingly romantic.

"I love you, man," DiNozzo said. White looked ridiculously grateful and actually wiped a tear from his eye.

Well, I thought, that was clearly why all my marriages failed. I'd always stuck to roses and chocolates as expressions of my affection.

***

DiNozzo was going back to jail for theft, and White was going to a different jail for murder. The artifacts were returned to the Iraqi people and, for us, that was a great success. Three weeks later, though, as I sat in the bullpen across from agents Sciuto and Burley, I couldn't get my mind off that case and onto the latest one.

"Something wrong, Gibbs?" Sciuto asked. She'd toned down the Goth thing since she'd become a field agent, but she still had her pigtails.

"I'm fine, Abby." I glanced at my watch. "Why don't you take lunch?"

Sciuto glanced at Burley, then back at me. "You sure?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Go buy Tim a sandwich or something." I'd never understood the attraction between Sciuto and the straight-laced lab tech Tim McGee. An attractive straight-laced lab tech, according to my teenage daughter Laura, so maybe it was just as well Abby had him in her clutches. Tim was good at his job, and I didn't want to have to shoot him.

"You want anything from the deli, boss?" Stan Burley asked, as he pulled on his jacket.

"Not today, Burley."

"You sure? They have some great pastrami. Not to mention the salmon lox..."

"Burley."

"Right, boss." He left, pocketing that antacid medication of his as he went, and I leaned back in my chair, lacing my hands behind my head and closing my eyes.

"Our tax dollars at work," a familiar voice said, and I opened my eyes to see Kate standing in front of me.

"What are you doing here?" It came out a little snappier than I intended, but Kate didn't blink.

"Well, I was going to ask Burley if he wanted some lunch, but I guess I'm too late."

I smiled. "If you hurry, you can meet him at the deli."

"I got tired of that salmon lox when I worked here." She sat on my desk, realigning a photo of Laura and my younger daughter Carolyn with my lamp and out-tray. "How are the girls?"

"Fine." Then, because that didn't seem enough, I added, "They miss you." They did. Kate was their favourite stepmother, they'd told me that in no uncertain terms. They'd told their mother that, too, apparently. I could just imagine Ellen's comeback, which most likely had something to do with Kate being close to their age.

"I miss them. They actually made shopping bearable."

"You know you can see them any time. They'd be thrilled."

She nodded, then said: "DiNozzo wants to serve his sentence in the same jail as White."

I snorted. "Never happen."

"I know. But he's got a lawyer who's ready to yell homophobic discrimination."

"That'll make their jail time pass easier."

"DiNozzo's a cocky bastard." Clearly. It was probably why White loved him so much. "Made me think, though." She reached out and absently rearranged my hair. Evidently, it wasn't to her liking, because she actually licked her hand and flicked my hair again.

"Kate!"

"Sorry." She wiped her hands and rested them on her lap. "You know, I thought we were the most screwed up couple on the planet." So did I, for a while. A three-times-a-loser father of two and his brilliant, beautiful professional subordinate. Not exactly fairytale material. TV talk show material, maybe. "It's almost disappointing to know that we're not. Weren't," she corrected herself quickly, but not quickly enough.

"Oh, I still think we're pretty high up there. Remember the time we tried to have a romantic picnic at the Washington Monument?" And had ended up holding a couple of fellow picnickers for indecent exposure, who turned out to be Kate's sister's brother-in-law and his daughter's kindergarten teacher.

"Or the time we waited up all night for Laura until we remembered she was staying with Ellen, ten minutes after we put out the APB?"

I laughed and, suddenly, I remembered the look on DiNozzo's face when White told him about the murder. Well, I thought, she hadn't murdered anyone for me, but Kate had helped me collar any number of murderers, first here at NCIS and later, after we were married, with the FBI. I took one of her hands, and felt ridiculously pleased, like a teenager on a first date, when she didn't pull it away. So what if I knew how it was going to end? For now, it felt great.

"I'm not Burley, Kate, but I am free for lunch."

She smiled and stood up. As we headed for the elevator, I felt compelled to add: "And you know, if anyone was ever threatening you like that..."

"I know," she interrupted. "Same here." She hesitated. "Why do you think you haven't had a date since we split up?"

"A lack of sexual magnetism?"

"Not quite," she replied and, as we got into the elevator, I re-evaluated my priorities. The most beautiful sight in the world is Kate's brilliant smile, followed by the sunrise over the ocean and a suspect squirming in his seat. And, I thought, if I was really lucky, I'd get a combination of smiling, squirming and sunrise with Kate.

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