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taylorgibbs) wrote2009-02-09 05:30 pm
taylorgibbs) wrote2009-02-09 05:30 pm
FIC NCIS Boss, I don't think we're in Kansas Anymore (TaylorGibbs & Max) (4/?)FRAO
Headers in earlier chapters.
*NOTE1* This story is being co-written in roleplay back and forth format, not written for regular fan fic format, so if it reads a little odd in places, the authors really don't mind and hope any readers they may have don't much either. Thanks!
*NOTE2* Just to give something to visualize, the character of Thomas Hilton resembles actor Jeremy Piven.
*NOTE1* This story is being co-written in roleplay back and forth format, not written for regular fan fic format, so if it reads a little odd in places, the authors really don't mind and hope any readers they may have don't much either. Thanks!
*NOTE2* Just to give something to visualize, the character of Thomas Hilton resembles actor Jeremy Piven.
Ten coffees a day didn't have his hands shaking, but hanging onto Tony's naked body had caused them to tremble slightly. He released the other man with a gentle pat to the abdomen then put deodorant on and then pulled on knit boxers, that NIS T, a pair of well worn jeans, comfortable socks and sneakers. He hoped Tony'd take his lead and wear shoes he could run in, if they had to.
Leopard print bikini bottoms went on Tony, but he did it in the bathroom, slamming the door between him and all the other men, even locking it. Cold water was splashed over his heated face, and then he did something no one but his parents had ever seen him do, something he hadn't done in over thirty years. Tony DiNozzo slid down onto the floor against a wall and banged his head into it several times in rapid succession, something he'd done to combat high stress as a child that was coming back to haunt him now. If this kept up, the poor guy would be sucking his thumb before long.
When he came out, dressed in beige khakis, a jersey from his Ohio State college days, and expensive running sneakers, he was ready to go.
"I promise you," Thomas said as he brought them to his limo, having changed his own pants too from the extra he always carried in the trunk, "all your questions will be answered after this trip. You'll understand better."
"Going to see the Great and Powerful Oz, huh? Why not just give us the ruby slippers now so we can go home?"
Thomas ignored him. Of the two men, Gibbs was his favorite. He'd only had Tony made because it was obvious, at least to him, that they belonged together in a way they'd never be allowed to on their show.
Gibbs inwardly winced as he, too, was closed off from Tony. He folded his arms over his chest, glowering at the other men. When Tony came out, he could read the tension in the other man's eyes. It simultaneously made DiNozzo look almost little boy and much older. "You okay?" Gibbs asked him in an undertone as he allowed them to be led to the limo.
He scooted in first, pulling Tony by the wrist. He wanted the other man as close as possible, not only for tactical reasons, but to support him emotionally. Gibbs rubbed his thumb in circles over Tony's wrist, hoping he wasn't antagonizing the other man. He could tell that Pee Wee knew that his Achilles heel was DiNozzo and would exploit that to get what he wanted.
"Where you taking us?" he asked, hostility in his tone.
"Place where wayward clones end up, those who don't obey their masters," he said cryptically as he sat across from them in the long limo, his mountainous bodyguards silently by his side. Gibbs and DiNozzo had been relieved of all weapons, of course.
Tony wasn't quite sitting in Gibbs' lap this time, but he was as close to the man as he could be, not in the least bit trying to pull away from that comfort touching on his wrist. He was breathing shallow but at least breathing, and not banging his head on anything.
"Oh excuse me," Thomas said as his cell phone rang and he answered it. "It's my brother calling." The following one-sided conversation did nothing to make Tony feel better.
"Yes, they're right here." "Oh yes, beautiful, absolutely beautiful specimens." A laugh. "No I haven't fucked them yet." Another laugh. "No, you can't fuck them yet either." "Of course I remember our bet. The chalet in Switzerland is yours if they stay straight, the villa in Peru is mine if they turn gay on each other." "That's right." "Yes I set them up naked in bed to push them towards it." "Of course it's fair. They're MY clones and I play to win, Travis." A third laugh. "You should see them now. They're practically making out in front of me. It's adorable."
Tony made a sick sounding noise and suddenly scooted over to the opposite side of the limo as Thomas laughed a last time and hung up his phone to smirk at them again. "Travis says hi. He can't wait to meet you."
"DiNozzo," Gibbs said softly, fury clouding his words. "Remember what I said. He doesn't control us. He can't." Gibbs turned to look at the other man. "Count your minutes. I will kill you. When you least expect it, I will kill you." He'd rarely been this angry, was growling every word. If they didn't still need answers...
He regarded Tony for a moment and knew what he had to do, even though he knew he was lying to them both. "Tony..." he said in a low voice. "Never. That's never gonna happen between us. Don't think of you that way. Promise...and you know what a Marine's promise means. Listen to me, DiNozzo. You know me. He's just a manipulative little shit living on borrowed time."
Soon as they could, Gibbs was getting them the hell out of here and if he left a trail of bodies behind, so be it.
He wasn't Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS Special Agent any more.
"You listen to me!" Thomas barked, his lip curling in his own fury now. "I paid a fortune for you two, I put a fortune into that home for you. FOR YOU. ..... If anything happens to me you'll be picked up so fast as rogue clones and sold to someone else your pretty little heads will spin. Believe me," he snarled, "the devil you know is far better than the devil you don't. I'm not hurting you. I'm even willing to allow Tony to live elsewhere if he keeps resisting what's in his nature. But if you push me, I swear you'll regret it. Do NOT push me. In this world, gentlemen, you're no longer in charge. The sooner you accept it, the sooner we can all live our pleasant little lives, I'll leave you two alone for the most part .... and I can win that bet."
Tony didn't say anything for the rest of the ride to the pound. He stared wide-eyed at the plexi-glass window separating the front from the back ..... and started knocking his head into the window at his side.
Gibbs let his hate-filled gaze say volumes. He was not going to be controlled. He was nobody's puppet.
Then Tony started banging his head against the window and Gibbs lunged over, cupping Tony's head. "He's falling apart and I hold you responsible," he said in a quiet voice.
"Tony...Tony, you need to settle down. Look at me. Look into my eyes here. Not gonna let you fall apart." He sighed, firming his voice. "Ya wanna give that psychopath the satisfaction of breaking you so easily. Come on, Tony....come on." He leaned in close, almost nose to nose. "I need you, DiNozzo. I know you don't want to disappoint me, right?"
"It's his ego," Thomas sneered. "The bigger the ego, the harder they fall when they're born as clones. I've seen it a million times. You, on the other hand, are an arrogant bastard, but unlike him you usually keep your ego in check. It grounds you, matures you, so you're not falling apart like he is .... or should I say, you're holding it inside much better than him."
The car pulled into the parking lot of the pound and the doors were opened. "I don't want his head cracking open, Gibbs. Take care of him, make him accept what he is now, or I'll have to have the vet give him sedatives that will ultimately destroy his personality even more, I'm sorry to say." He didn't bother to clarify what he meant by 'accepting what he is now'. He could have meant clone or gay ... or both.
"Never wanna disappoint you, Boss," Tony whispered, gazing into the eyes of the only person in the world he trusted now. "I need you too ..... but .. but not like that," he tried to deny, a weak denial but still a denial.
"Cut the shrinking," Gibbs muttered, wishing like hell that Pee Wee would stop provoking DiNozzo, who was breaking apart as it was.
Gibbs held Tony's head tighter in his hands, forcing DiNozzo to look at him. "You hear that. You gotta hold it together for me right now. Or he'll hurt us. I don't wanna lose you, Tony." He spoke with as much stark honesty as he could, giving Tony more emotion from him than most had ever seen. "Don't leave me alone here. Don't need you like that, Tony. Need you on my six. Need someone who remembers and lives what I did. Don't hurt yourself...okay? For me." He paused for one long moment, nodding very briefly before he whispered the last words. "For me...son."
It didn't matter that he wasn't thinking of Tony as a son...it was what Tony needed to hear and he'd thought it many a time. So what if right now he couldn't get the memory of Tony watching him as he climaxed, the way Tony was riding the counter, out of his head?
It was exactly what Tony needed to hear. Right or wrong, most everything Tony had done up until then had been to gain some form of paternal attention ..... from Gibbs. That it was now all mixed up with newly woken desires and confusions didn't matter. He still wanted to be the son of the man's heart; his body was just catching up with it.
Slowly a grin spread upon his face, his eyes began to light back up with that familiar DiNozzo mischief. "Do I get to call ya Dad? Or how about my old man? I think that fits even better."
Gibbs grinned with relief, seeing that spark in Tony's eyes again. "You call me Pa and I'll kick your ass, Tony." In a rare unguarded moment, he pulled Tony's head close and kissed his forehead, something he'd never even contemplated doing before, but something that felt completely right. And he basked in that smile, with it came familiarity and with the familiarity came hope.
"With me, Tony," he said as he stepped out of the limo, falling into common word patterns.
"On your six, Boss," he automatically returned, falling into line behind the man.
"Good work, Gibbs," Thomas said as he opened the door of the pound for the two men. "He's much better now. I'm sure we'll get along just fine."
Janine looked up from her receptionist desk, gum snapping tiredly as she had a mountain of paperwork to do. "Oh no, please don't tell me ya got drop offs. Didn't he just make them for ya, Mr. Hilton?" Drop offs meant more paperwork.
"Indeed he did, this morning. It went splendidly .... at first." He rubbed his neck where Gibbs had knocked him out. "We're just out on a little excursion now before lunch. I'd like to show them how things are on the other side of the fence, so to speak."
"Ohhhhh ..." She looked Gibbs and Tony up and down with a nod of understanding. "Well boys, listen and learn," she said as if she sincerely cared, which she didn't, she was just trying to schmooze the client. "You got yourselves a good owner, a rich one who won't mistreat ya. Don't end up back here where God knows who'll adopt ya next." She motioned to the wall and Thomas knew what she meant.
He took down two choke collars and two leashes, basic silver chains because these ones were loaners to clients, not for sale. "Hold still," he told his clones as he held them up. "We're going out back for a little tour, and one of the rules at this place is that all clones have to be on these. Don't worry," he quickly added, just in case Gibbs was going to attack again, "I don't do this at home, but when I'm here, I follow the rules just like everyone."
His bodyguards and chauffeur stood by silently, bored expressions on their faces. This was nothing unusual to them.
"Did it for him, not you," Gibbs shot back as he walked into the building. He was starting to get really unsettled, hinky, as Abby would say. Abbs...God he was gonna miss her.
Gibbs looked at the collars and leashes in surprise for a brief second and then shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. You are not chaining us like we're dogs. Not happening." DiNozzo, ya still with me?" he asked, hoping this newest info hadn't shaken Tony up, and when he didn't get an immediate answer, he moved closer, muscles coiling and ready to strike if he could determine a weakness. They were outmanned and he didn't know what kind of weapons they carried.
They showed their weapons then at a signal from Thomas, and sensing a problem, Janine buzzed in five more pound guards with their own weapons to make sure the clones complied.
"It's happening." There was an honest note of sympathy in Thomas' voice. Just because he spoke of them as his didn't mean he got off in chaining them. This was simply a rule that had to be followed and nothing more.
"Yeah .. still here, Boss." Tony tried to smile, choosing to see it as almost a joke. "Too bad Abby isn't here. I'd collar up for her any day." He looked around at all those guns and then back at Gibbs. "I ain't dying over this shit. I .... I can do it."
Gibbs could have taken the two, at least disarmed one before he went down. But seven against one, those were odds he couldn't win against. Not without his own weapon. "You bastard," Gibbs whispered, wincing when Tony mentioned Abbs. Did Tony have any idea what he was saying?
"You belong to nobody, DiNozzo. Not Abbs, not Pee Wee, not me, nobody. Keep telling yourself that." When Tony said he'd do it, Gibbs gave a short jerky nod of compliance, still holding onto his commanding air even though he knew he was out manned, out gunned, and at every disadvantage. "You belong to no one," Gibbs repeated as the man came closer, standing tall and staring at the ceiling, hands clenched into fists at his side.
A touch of renewed panic flashed in those hazel-green eyes as Thomas slipped the collar around his neck and attached the leash to it, but Tony controlled it much better this time. He kept looking off into the distance, playing back an old fantasy in his head about Abby in tight leather dominatrix gear, marching him naked around her lab, showing him off as a prized stud for sale ..... to Gibbs?
He blinked, quickly shaking his head to dislodge that part of the fantasy. Oh no, no, no! Gibbs had no place in that kinky fantasy and Tony was determined to get him out of it before it was too late.
"Not so bad, now was it?" Thomas said kindly and patted Tony's cheek before moving over to Gibbs with the other collar and leash. "I know this is difficult, Jethro, but I assure you it's only temporary. We'll take a tour of the place, you'll have a better understanding of your situation, and then I can take you both out for lunch or bring you back to your home, whichever you choose." He leaned up on his tiptoes and whispered by the Harmon's ear. "I may have his papers, but there's no doubt in my mind he belongs to you."
He was whispering because he didn't want to set Tony off again, not at the pound. Teasing the clone was far more amusing when they were in private and he didn't have to worry about people who didn't work for him becoming involved.
"He belongs to nobody," Gibbs whispered back, not reacting other than clenching his fists even tighter. He stood absolutely still as the man secured him like a goddamn dog, but when he was chained and leashed, Gibbs gave PeeWee a brittle 'Woof' before he moved closer to Tony.
"You okay, son?" he whispered, standing close enough so that their arms brushed. If he focused his attention on Tony, he might just hold on to his fury.
"Just peachy, Pops," Tony said through clenched teeth. "Just think of the Christmas card for the team this would make. McGeek would be begging for his own collar, I bet with big shiny rhinestones to show off to all his friends."
"Alright hushup," Thomas ordered. "See that doorway over there. When clones walk through it unannounced, alarms go off. Ms. Baxter will set it to accept you both so we won't hear it, but I thought you should know, there's something in your DNA that isn't exactly the same as in ours. There's technology that can prove it and detect it. You look human, you talk, act and smell human, but you're not. Not quite."
He pulled them through the doorway by their leashes into the long corridor that would eventually take them into the pen area out back. First they'd stop and meet the CEO, who Janine had buzzed to let her boss know that guests were on the way. "Jemaine Davies, CEO of this company, worldwide, keeps his main office here. He's a very powerful man, and from what I understand more clone tolerant than he used to be."
True, because his Vice President, who unfortunately wasn't at work today, was Carl Bruce, and Carl was VERY clone tolerant, doing everything he could in his own position of power at the pound to help clones whenever possible because he saw them as equals, not as less, though in this world it sometimes made Carl the minority.
"If there was still a team," Gibbs reminded quietly, sadly. Gibbs didn't care what Pee Wee said, he was completely human. As was Tony. They had memories, relationships...they'd loved, lost...
Gibbs angled his head slightly, staying silent as Pee Wee spoke. Was he supposed to care about this? His hand found Tony's wrist again and he rubbed it in circles with his thumb, trying to make sure Tony was calm and centered. All the while he tried to telegraph to Tony that he was okay, that he wasn't alone.
Seeing that Pee Wee expected a response, Gibbs smirked and "woofed".
Thomas rolled his eyes. "Any time you want me to stop the explanation, that YOU demanded from me, just say so. Far as I'm concerned, I don't have to explain a damn thing."
Davies met them at the door, scowling as he overheard it. "Stubborn clones?" he asked the client. "Well don't you worry, a tour of this place will put them in their place. Have a seat, Mr. Hilton. Not you two."
Thomas sank down into a comfortable leather chair across from the big desk of the CEO, keeping his hands tight on those leashes. "I'm truly sorry to bother you with this. I know how busy you are."
The Frenchman waved his hand dismissively. "Pah, not a problem. We appreciate our clients, and this is just part of customer service for them. Shall we start with the book?"
The book.
He opened the large album and placed it on the edge of the desk for all three men to see. It was filled with different services that the pound offered. It wasn't just a place to drop off or adopt clones. Their vet provided a variety of services from simple grooming to neutering and spaying. The pictures next to the prices for those services showed clones, some with very recognizable Hollywood faces, in positions of before and after shots.
Teeth could be removed too, various markings of ownership such as tattooing, piercing, cutting and brandings placed on their bodies at their owner's will, and if Gibbs hadn't been holding onto his wrist so tightly, Tony would have bolted for the door and taken his chance with all those armed guards behind them.
They couldn't do this. They were in America, dammit. He'd served his country, slavery had been abolished.... All of those things ran through his head, but he kept coming back to those damn DVDs broadcasting their lives.
He glared at the other man, glancing around the richly appointed office and assessing that there were no good exit routes. Then the man opened a book and Gibbs felt Tony's panic as if it was a living thing. He shifted position slightly, angling his body toward Tony's, releasing the wrist only to clamp onto it with his other hand, bringing his free hand up to hold Tony's neck just above the collar. The thumb that had been soothing DiNozzo's wrist started circles just behind Tony's ear.
"Easy, son. Easy. You're not alone. I'm here." He leaned his chest lightly against Tony's arm, lips close to Tony's ear.
Once he was confident that Tony wasn't going to run, Gibbs looked over at the book, appearing nonchalant even though his stomach clenched and icy dread ran through him.
A whine started in Tony's chest, and when he couldn't take it anymore, his face fell into Gibbs' neck, arms still at his sides but his body relaxing into the other man's, under the other man's perfectly soothing fingers in just the right places.
"Don't let it rattle you," Thomas said as he tugged on their leashes to leave the office after a few more moments of discussion with Davies. "Just keep it in mind. I'm not interested in any of those options for my property, but if anything happens to me, or you piss me off too much, who knows what your next owner will fancy."
The next room was the office and exam room of the vet, Doctor Franke. Along one wall were large dog cages, and nude men and women filled some of them, resting on their hands and knees or sides in waiting for their turn out of that cramped confinement. Some were crying softly, some just looked shell-shocked. None of them were swearing loudly or screaming. Doctor Franke had a reputation for splitting and even removing tongues altogether if clones got on his nerves.
Armed guards were everywhere, and center stage in that room was the chair. Reclining like a dentist's seat but with legs spread high and wide, the doctor had a naked clone strapped into it and was in the process of following a modification order from its owner. The clone was already neutered from a previous visit, and this time he was being pierced. His chest was speckled red from the trauma of nipple rings having just been inserted, and his cockhead was suddenly sporting a large barbell piercing through it the doctor had just placed as company arrived.
Muffled screaming could be heard under the thick muzzle around the clone's face, and he'd pissed himself in terror and pain. Doctor Franke was notorious for not using anesthesia unless the clone's owner was in the room overseeing the procedure and wanted it done. This owner was no where around, the clone a drop-off for modifications, and would spend the night in one of those dog cages to await pickup in the morning.
Tony hissed so sharply at what they were seeing that it whistled through his teeth and he felt his own bladder become dangerously loose, close to letting go too. But it wasn't his bladder that he had to worry about, it turned out to be Tony's stomach. Though he hadn't eaten since the night before on his date, and though that hadn't TRULY happened after all, still his stomach revolted, bile spewed from his lips as he fell to his knees, his head falling forward on his chest as he heaved and heaved what little would come up onto the floor next to Gibbs' legs.
The extreme reaction wasn't so much because the clone was being so hideously pierced, or that the clone was even ball-less with just a long flaccid cock hanging between his legs. The extreme reaction was because he recognized the face in that chair. It was his own face staring back at him, one from about fifteen years ago. It was a younger Michael Weatherly clone, and that just completely did Tony DiNozzo in.
This next room was much worse. Gibbs' initial reaction was to release these poor people but he knew he couldn't. He instead moved closer, vowing silently to protect DiNozzo whatever the cost. He was tougher, he could do whatever he had to as long as Tony was okay.
Gibbs was trying not to focus on anyone or anything in the room. The stench of human misery hung heavy in the air. But then something about the person in the chair's screaming started his scalp prickling, just as Tony jackknifed to the ground.
Gibbs never froze in shock but this...this was...It was TONY. A younger Tony, early mid twenties, flopping hair a couple of shades lighter, glasses. No testicles...pierced. Terrified. He took one step forward, torn between helping the two Tony's. "It's okay.." he said in a shaking voice, trying to see the eyes of the young man. It was just too damn much. Much as Gibbs wanted to go to the boy, Tony needed him. HIS Tony. He crouched down behind Tony, stroking his hair slowly before pulling him firmly against his own chest.
"Don't look, Tony. Don't look."
As much as Gibbs hated it, he looked up at Pee Wee, making a silent request to leave. Vowing to himself that he'd eat his gun before he allowed this to happen to them. Knowing...knowing it already had to that other Tony. Or Michael, or whatever his name was.
No name. His role in The Cosby Show as Theo's college roommate had been uncredited, but his owner had certainly come up with a name for him upon his birth as a clone. Princess.
Princess continued to scream behind the muzzle as Tony began to gulp air frantically, once again clinging fully to Gibbs. He wasn't heaving anymore, but he was shaking like a leaf and making that odd whining noise into the man's neck his mouth and nose pressed deeply into.
The silent request was heard and Thomas nodded in agreement. "Get'm up. We'll check out the pen area and head home." As he tugged on the leashes, he added softly to Gibbs, "I'm sorry."
Thomas was an annoying and creepy PeeWee in many ways, but he'd so far been honest with them about everything. They were his property, licensed and papered like dogs, but they were property with some freedoms that animals would never have, and that included the freedom to love each other in a home together without horrifying body modifications at the whim of their owner.
Gibbs nodded at the quiet apology. That hadn't been staged or planned and he knew it. "I think he's had enough," he agreed, completely embracing Tony now, completely paternal. He drew Tony to his feet, tucking him under his arm despite the height differences in them.
"Come on, son. We're leaving soon. I know....I know. Just hang on to me until we're out of here, okay? You know me, you trust me. Keep on doing that, okay? Just for me. For your old man...remember how many time we've been there for each other? You hang onto that."
Gibbs wanted to help the boy with every fiber of his being. "Can you help him?" he asked PeeWee in a low voice.
"Yeah, hold him tight, Gibbs. Just one sedative, it won't hurt him. He needs it just to take the edge off and then hopefully he won't start that head banging thing again today." Thomas' voice was low too as he glanced over at Davies. "How much?"
"Freebie on the house," Davies said after a moment and found what was needed. Dr. Franke was too busy with the boy in the chair, but giving a clone a sedative was a simple matter, assuming the clone didn't struggle. "Lift his shirtsleeve so I can swab his arm with alcohol first."
Tony's whine deepened in that neck. He wasn't struggling yet but he was obviously terrified of having anyone but Gibbs touch him.
He hated the thought but he couldn't support Tony and hold it together himself. He stared at the boy, swallowing hard, wondering how he could get him free. "I want him," he said to Pee Wee, motioning to the younger man. "How does that work?"
Gibbs put out his hand. "I know how to do it. Give it to me....please. I can do it and he'll be much calmer with me giving him the injection.No games, no rebellion." Even if he wanted to run, Tony was in no shape to come with him and he'd die before abandoning Tony.
Davies didn't turn over the needle until Thomas nodded in agreement. He tended to respect an owner's rights to his or her clones, and so long as Gibbs and Tony weren't doing anything to disrupt his pound, he would abide by the owner's wishes.
"Just make it quick before he wets himself," Davies grunted and gave everything to Gibbs. "If he does, I WILL charge for a jumpsuit to get him home clothed," he added to Thomas. "As for ...... " Davies had to look at the chart on a table. "Princess, he belongs to someone. The ones who don't are out back you can see in a minute." He shrugged with another look at Thomas. "Not that you can adopt anyone until next month. You know the rules, Mr. Hilton. Two clones per month is the limit, unless you wish to leave either of these two here and take out new ones."
Thomas watched Gibbs deal with Tony, almost envious of their love for each other but shook his head. "I'm keeping them ... for now."
"Okay, Tony. You trust me, right?" He didn't wait for an answer, just shifted, swabbed Tony's bicep with alcohol, pricked his arm with the needle, and depressed the plunger. When all the medication had been delivered, Gibbs pulled the needle out and handed it over. He'd be lying if he hadn't thought of jamming the needle into someone's eye, but that would leave Tony at their mercy and that wasn't happening.
But he couldn't stop himself from calling encouragement to the boy...the Tony. "It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. if I can help you, I promise I will."
He looked up at the ceiling, pulling in a couple of deep breaths before he rested his hand against Tony's neck. "We'll be back at my place soon. King sized bed. You can nap as long as you need to. I won't leave."
"If it means that much to you," Thomas said as he tugged on their leashes to get them moving again, "I'll CONSIDER buying him off his owner later if the person is willing to sell .... but you have to understand, Gibbs, he probably doesn't know you from adam."
"True," Davies agreed as he followed them. "Different fandom. Doesn't have a clue who you are .... though I'm sure he recognizes his own face on DiNozzo .... an older face."
Princess, as he'd been named so cruelly, watched them go. He was no longer screaming beneath the gag, but he was crying silent tears now at having heard the first compassionate thing said to him from someone in his new cloned life, and now it was gone.
Tony couldn't even look at the boy again. He walked with Gibbs' help down the corridor, his eyes glassy, almost vacant, only the man's hand on his neck, and that fast acting sedative now, keeping him from going absolutely berserk.
"Please," Gibbs sad quietly, all pride gone for the moment. "Doesn't matter if he knows me or not. He will...he will." As he was led out, he looked back one last time. "I'll do what I can, son....I promise." Those green eyes locked on his, tears pouring down his face and Gibbs felt a chunk of his soul fall away. He'd always been a leader, a fixer. And so damn much was out of his control. He nodded and then reluctantly turned away.
Gibbs arranged himself so he was bearing some of Tony's weight, one arm around DiNozzo's waist, the other securing his arm around Gibbs' shoulders. "You can do this. One foot after the other. One step at a time. Just move with me." He tightened his arm around Tony's waist.
"I'm your son," Tony mumbled under his breath, an instinctive flare-up of jealousy emerging despite the horror of the situation. "I'm your son."
The pen area was sadly full this time of year. People who'd purchased clones from oven-birth or from the pound for the holiday season often brought some of them back a few weeks later when unforseen issues came up with them. Not everyone was suited to be a clone owner. For one thing, it took money. You had to feed them and clothe them and take care of their medical needs. Well, not necessarily, you could starve them and abuse them, but why throw money away on valuable property?
Most clone owners took care of their clones' basic needs. Most clone owners were mostly benevolent in nature like Thomas, some were like Carl, people only doing it in order to rescue them, and some were like Princess' owner, true bastards and bitches who only liked to cause pain and suffering for a being they could completely control.
It was part luck and part skill for a clone at the pound to get a good owner. Mainly luck, but there was a touch of skill involved too.
Those clones who knew the ropes, who had been adopted previously, smiled and postured for Thomas as they passed by the pen area, assuming he was there to adopt. Women exposed their breasts and children put out their little hands between the bars and made big soulful eyes at him.
Tony didn't really see any of it. He didn't see that everyone was dressed the same in plain olive green jumpsuits, that the men were segregated from the women in six-person cells across from cells, and that those cells only held one cot per person with one blanket and one pillow and a communal bucket in the corner for waste.
He saw only one thing that stopped him in his tracks and made a long low moan of despair cross his lips. There was a Harmon at the bars of one of the cells. A young Harmon with a wary smile on his face. He didn't look abused at all, at least not physically. He motioned to Davies, making sure to lower his eyes respectfully when he spoke in a quiet voice to the CEO. "Mr. Skywalker has severe stomach pains. I believe it's his appendix."
"I'll tell Doctor Franke," Davies grunted.
"No! Please, let me do the surgery." The Harmon clone had visions of Franke removing that appendix without any kind of pain killers given. "Please sir. I'm a doctor ..... and it would be good if I could brush up on my skills while I'm waiting to be adopted."
"Hmmmm ..... we'll see."
"Thank you, sir." He looked over at Tony and Gibbs but made no motion of plea to Thomas like others had. His concern was only on one of the other clones in his cell. He wasn't at all shocked to see his own, much more matured, face on Gibbs.
'Yes, you're my son," Gibbs agreed. He should have anticipated that Tony would get jealous. "But he could use some help, DiNozzo. That's all...that's all." He soothed Tony quietly, even as he ached to help the kid in there, the man. He looked like a kid but Gibbs knew that he was probably mid twenties.
He stood silent, letting Tony hang on to him, while they walked into an area where there was hope and despair swirling in the air, his eyes locking on blue eyes that looked so damn familiar because they were HIS eyes, mussed dark hair, arrogant smirk, HIS eyes. Without thought for consequence, Gibbs strode forward as much as the chain would let him. He'd never had hair that long when he was that age--probably mid thirties. And the lines of his body, were less controlled than Gibbs'. It was surreal and that cold dread lodged in his stomach again.
He wanted to ask if the man was okay, but by a glance he could see that he was primarily okay. Not like young Tony.
He tightened his arm around Tony, turning his attention back to the shattered younger man. "Not me, Tony. Just someone who kind of looks like me."
"Kind of?" Tony squeaked, pointing to another cell where another clone, recognizing Gibbs' voice, was moving up to the bars to peer curiously at them. This one looked exactly like Gibbs in the face, even stood ramrod straight like him. Shocked more than ever, Tony started to stumble to him, hand reaching, but between the leash and Gibbs' restraining arm he didn't get far. "Boss?" He looked back and forth between the two identical faces, his lips trembling in confusion.
"No," the man immediately said, shaking his head. "I don't know you, son." The son was automatic, not meaning anything special by it, but it freaked Tony out even more at hearing that coveted word coming from another and he started to hyperventilate despite the narcotic in his system.
"His name's Simon," Thomas said, trying to be helpful as he glanced at the paperwork hanging on the outside of the pen. "He's not a Gibbs." With a look at Davies, he motioned to the opposite end of the corridor. "Show them The Room, then I'm taking my boys home before DiNozzo completely loses it."
Okay, now this one...this one was much harder because he visually looked the same. And Gibbs felt his back go up when the man called Tony 'son'. "Not me, Tony. He's not me." Their voices were different, the other guy not having the tone of command Gibbs did. "Tony...Tony...look into my eyes." Gibbs forced Tony to look at him. "We need to get him out of here," Gibbs said, his voice tense. He met his...well almost twin's...eyes for a moment, giving him a very slight nod of acknowledgment and a soft. "good luck."
Gibbs kept his arm clamped tight around Tony's waist, forcing him to take each step. "Breathe....breathe even, Tony. Do it for me. I'm the only Gibbs who matters." IT wasn't lost on him that there were probably other Gibbses and Tonys out there.
Most definitely. And it would be a miracle if they never ran into them in a city teeming of clones like Havensport.
"You too," Simon said and went back to sit on his cot. He'd been curious but now he was quiet and pensive again. Life even for non-abused clones could be pretty shitty too.
"Boss, my Boss, the only Boss," Tony chanted between breaths as they were led into one last area.
"Now this is where, after three months, if a clone isn't adopted we ... well we have to euthanize them," Davies said with a shrug. At one time it had been only a one month period before the gas chamber, but Carl had finally gotten Davies to agree to extend it to three. Since then not a single clone had been gassed. Carl worked his ass off in making sure they all got adopted just in time. "I can assure you that it's as painless as can be. We simply strap them into that chair and pump in a poisonous gas. It works on all human-based clones. For vampires we use sunlight or beheading, with wereanimals we use silver ..... whatever's necessary in their fandom to get the job done."
"I wanted you to see this," Thomas said, "because if you two ever end up here, this could be the last thing you ever see. Now let's hope you don't end up here, right?"
Tony didn't answer him. He was still quietly chanting to himself. "Boss, my Boss, the only Boss."
Gibbs nodded, not trusting himself to say much of anything. Between Tony's mental collapse, seeing himself--or versions of him--twice now. And thinking they or young Tony could die like this... He had so many questions but he didn't dare ask them. Not now. Not in front of Tony.
DiNozzo falling apart was almost too much for even him, and he was pretty damn strong...or he'd thought so, anyway. But this had stripped away everything that made him who he was and he was in a mental tailspin, one he couldn't even begin focusing on with Tony in pieces.
"I need you, DiNozzo," he whispered in an emotion-choked voice, letting down all his natural guards. "You gotta hang on for me, Tony. I can't do this completely alone."
"Never," Tony whimpered, nodding obediently to his superior. "Never alone. Can we go home now, Boss? I really wanna go home."
"That's the first sane thing he's said in hours," Thomas sighed and pulled them away from the chair of death. Back down the hall of pens, past all those clones on death-row, he took them back out to his limo and shook his head sadly at Gibbs. "Like I said, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. At least the sedative seems to be taking affect now."
"Yeah?" Gibbs replied, challenging slightly. "How come I'm holding it together." Sort of. "I'm not an egomaniac but I have a healthy enough ego. I have three ex wives. And I've lost....more." A wife, a daughter.
Gibbs settled in with his back against the door, pulling Tony close, cradling his head against Gibbs' chest and stroking his hair. "What's your theory?" He didn't want to be starting a rapport with Pee Wee but he knew he needed intel and it was the best place to start.
"These guys that look like me. Who is the guy who...started it all I guess. What does he look like? Me? a lot older? Younger? what's he like?"
"I think that's the difference right there, you're not a narcissistic egomaniac with a deep seated insecurity streak a mile wide like him." Thomas shrugged. "At least that's how I see him, and my brother and friends do too ... not to mention a lot of fans from the show who chat about it online. You're the rock, Gibbs. If you didn't crack completely over the shit those writers put you through with your family, you're not likely to crack now .... especially when you have someone to take care of. Take away Tony, your right hand man and surrogate son, and I bet you'd crack then." He paused, pulling out his phone as a thought occurred to him. "Hmmmm maybe a new bet for Travis ... see how long the Great Gibbs lasts without DiNozzo by his side." But he smiled with a snort of amusement and didn't dial. "Maybe later. You want to know about the actor? He's old like you." Thomas said it that way on purpose, interested in seeing if Gibbs, as a clone, was at all vain about aging. "He's been in a lot of shows, movies, not one of the bigwig Hollywood schmucks but is very well known and respected. The show NCIS is still running at six seasons and enjoying more popularity now than ever. My theory is because it's drawing in new fans ... to see the much hyped about chemistry between you and DiNozzo."
Some of it was sure showing now. Tony was once again in Gibbs' lap, clutching to the man as if he were a huge teddy bear, and sleeping.
"Cut it out," he said, coming automatically to Tony's defense, even though Duck had said much the same things, almost as a joke. He couldn't imagine people were discussing him and Tony, their personalities.Then pee Wee said that manipulative shit and he almost growled.
"You rip us apart and you destroy him. Ya wanna do that?" Wary of offending the guy with all the power, the memory of young Tony in the forefront of his mind, Gibbs didn't say more. Gibbs remembered Pee Wee discussing how they expected him and Tony to have sex and couldn't avoid saying something else. "Perverted way of looking at it, trying to force two hetero men into bed with each other when you admit he's a surrogate son to me. You have unresolved issues with your daddy, Thomas?" he drew the man's name out almost in a sneer.
He paused for a few moments. "Old like me, huh? Better than dead." He was a little touchy about his age and eyesight but he wasn't about to give Pee Wee the satisfaction. He did, however, run his hand over his abs over his T-shirt, checking, he supposed, that he was still in fighting shape.
"In better shape than you," he remarked with the slightest of smirks.
"I'll give you that," Thomas laughed lightly, "definitely in better shape than me." He reached over and patted Tony on the back, noting that the man jumped slightly in his sleep with a murmured whimper of fear before settling down again into Gibbs. "No, I don't want to destroy him. He's just too damn cute to destroy, massive ego and all." His brow arched at Gibbs and he sat back again. "Leave my father out of it. The man with daddy issues is crawling all over you. My father was a good father. I wish to hell the show would tell us what kind of father he had. Maybe you could get him to say? I'll make it worth your while," he said in trying to bribe the Harmon. "And if you get him to willingly sleep with you so I can win that bet I'll do something extra special for you. I know you two are hetero .... in CANON," he said with a smirk. "But you're not canon anymore. The instant you're born as clones, anything and everything can change. Doesn't mean it will change, just means it can. It's like you're writing your own actions and thoughts now, no longer their puppets, and I was quite willing to bet my chalet to Travis that what I saw in your eyes on that show was real. You two aren't just hot for each other under that fake hetero skin those bastards gave you, you're soulmates."
Tony, in his subconscious shuffling to get away from being touched by anyone but Gibbs, had resettled his face into Gibbs neck, and there he started sleep-suckling on a little bit of skin his needy mouth had found.
Gibbs reached over and moved Tony's mouth, unwilling to admit that his cock was stirring. "He's a hell of a man. It isn't about his looks, it is about his soul and his spirit, it is about his heart."
He paused, assimilating this information. "What is canon, what does that mean? and how does this all work. You say we're on the TV show. The show continues now Do those memories come in our heads? IF one of us dies, then what? Do we die here? and what about our...memories. My wife and daughter...and Abby, Duck..." But especially Shannon and Kelly....more than anyone else he needed them. "And the memories of his father. Where do those come from? Our imaginations? If we aren't real..."
He wouldn't discuss his feelings, his emotions, the fact that his cock was growing under Tony's body.
It was bound to get worse, because before Gibbs could pull his hand away from Tony's mouth in moving him off his neck, the suckling lips caught Gibbs' thumb and pulled it right in over his tongue with the suction of a desperate man in tormented sleep.
Thomas paused to pour himself a glass of champagne from the small refrigerator in the back of that limo. He tossed Gibbs a can of beer that could be opened one-handed if Gibbs decided to remove his thumb from Tony's mouth. "Canon is .... Hmmmm..... I guess the easiest way to explain it is that it's anything that happened before you were reborn as clones. It's anything seen or heard on your show ... and it's also the memories you have of things on your show that we, the viewers, didn't get to see. Like Tony's father. If you can get info from him, that would be canon info even though the writers never had him reveal it on the show. Now don't worry about dying on the show. What they do can't affect you one bit. But as for those memories that the canon men are making on the show .... that's where it gets tricky. It depends on how a clone is made. You can choose many variations when it comes to ordering a clone just the way you want him or her to be. I ordered the option, a very expensive option, I might add, of having your brains able to pick up those memories so that you two will always know everything the two men do on the show when it comes to memories, a sort of current time download of information through the airwaves, but don't ask me how it works, I haven't a clue. Now about your family .... " Thomas' face went very serious then. "I'm sincerely sorry about what you FEEL happened to them, Gibbs, but keep in mind ... you felt it, but it never really happened. They never existed. It's ALL in your heads and only as clones do you truly exist now."
Gibbs had known this was going to happen and let Tony suck on his thumb. Better than the sensitive spot on his neck. Gibbs caught the beer and tucked it in against his waist, opening it and downing it in gulps. "Coffee. Needed. Soon." He said between gulps. The beer wouldn't even begin to anesthetize his pain and worry but it tasted good enough and he shifted, driving his hips against Tony and enjoying the small bit of friction. His thumb moved in and out of Tony's mouth and Tony's head followed it.
An overwhelming urge to possess Tony rose up inside him and he tried to crush it for now.
Gibbs had known what Pee Wee was going to say. He'd been grappling with it essentially since learning the beginning of the stories. "Never married, never a father..." Those things had defined him in his eyes and mind for so long. " Want to see the people who...were them." He had to come to terms with this. "Why would someone want to put me through that if it wasn't real?"
"They're just doing their job," Thomas assured him. "They don't know you're alive." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees and smiled. "Gibbs, you and Tony can have a wonderful life together now. Please don't let your pasts get in the way. Look at him ...... don't do anything that could fuck up his safety, that's what I'm saying. Take it as a threat or a friendly warning, I don't care. I don't have to be your enemy unless you make me one."
The car pulled into the driveway at Gibbs' home and Thomas leaned back in his seat. "I'll help you get him upstairs to bed so he can finish sleeping, then we'll have coffee in the kitchen and talk some more?"
"I'm not going to hurt him. My pain is mine. You can't just expect me to forget...thirty years of knowing someone is in my psyche. Of being a father...a husband. Of mourning people that are real to me. I can't just brush it off because you demand it." He didn't know how wonderful a life they could have without their freedom. "We can have a great life...as long as we don't displease you. Big adjustment."
He spoke with honesty rather than anger or sarcasm. "Last night I was a federal agent, today I belong to someone who threw me together with someone else to win a bet. Yesterday I was a person and today you tell me I'm not human. Yesterday, Tony held his head up high and today you have him broken. I'm aware...oh, I'm aware..."
Gibbs shook his head. "I'll get him upstairs. He doesn't want anyone else touching him. You see how he flinches. And yeah, coffee, but I'm keeping an eye on him as much as I can."
"Coffee it is." Thomas exited the limo, leaving his bodyguards behind to trail Gibbs and DiNozzo until they were in the home too. Obviously he and the Marine had a few more things to discuss in private, but otherwise Thomas felt it was going along just swimmingly. DiNozzo would take his little nap until the sedative wore off and everything would be fine as fine could be.
Sure.
(TBC)
*NOTE1* This story is being co-written in roleplay back and forth format, not written for regular fan fic format, so if it reads a little odd in places, the authors really don't mind and hope any readers they may have don't much either. Thanks!
*NOTE2* Just to give something to visualize, the character of Thomas Hilton resembles actor Jeremy Piven.
*NOTE1* This story is being co-written in roleplay back and forth format, not written for regular fan fic format, so if it reads a little odd in places, the authors really don't mind and hope any readers they may have don't much either. Thanks!
*NOTE2* Just to give something to visualize, the character of Thomas Hilton resembles actor Jeremy Piven.
Ten coffees a day didn't have his hands shaking, but hanging onto Tony's naked body had caused them to tremble slightly. He released the other man with a gentle pat to the abdomen then put deodorant on and then pulled on knit boxers, that NIS T, a pair of well worn jeans, comfortable socks and sneakers. He hoped Tony'd take his lead and wear shoes he could run in, if they had to.
Leopard print bikini bottoms went on Tony, but he did it in the bathroom, slamming the door between him and all the other men, even locking it. Cold water was splashed over his heated face, and then he did something no one but his parents had ever seen him do, something he hadn't done in over thirty years. Tony DiNozzo slid down onto the floor against a wall and banged his head into it several times in rapid succession, something he'd done to combat high stress as a child that was coming back to haunt him now. If this kept up, the poor guy would be sucking his thumb before long.
When he came out, dressed in beige khakis, a jersey from his Ohio State college days, and expensive running sneakers, he was ready to go.
"I promise you," Thomas said as he brought them to his limo, having changed his own pants too from the extra he always carried in the trunk, "all your questions will be answered after this trip. You'll understand better."
"Going to see the Great and Powerful Oz, huh? Why not just give us the ruby slippers now so we can go home?"
Thomas ignored him. Of the two men, Gibbs was his favorite. He'd only had Tony made because it was obvious, at least to him, that they belonged together in a way they'd never be allowed to on their show.
Gibbs inwardly winced as he, too, was closed off from Tony. He folded his arms over his chest, glowering at the other men. When Tony came out, he could read the tension in the other man's eyes. It simultaneously made DiNozzo look almost little boy and much older. "You okay?" Gibbs asked him in an undertone as he allowed them to be led to the limo.
He scooted in first, pulling Tony by the wrist. He wanted the other man as close as possible, not only for tactical reasons, but to support him emotionally. Gibbs rubbed his thumb in circles over Tony's wrist, hoping he wasn't antagonizing the other man. He could tell that Pee Wee knew that his Achilles heel was DiNozzo and would exploit that to get what he wanted.
"Where you taking us?" he asked, hostility in his tone.
"Place where wayward clones end up, those who don't obey their masters," he said cryptically as he sat across from them in the long limo, his mountainous bodyguards silently by his side. Gibbs and DiNozzo had been relieved of all weapons, of course.
Tony wasn't quite sitting in Gibbs' lap this time, but he was as close to the man as he could be, not in the least bit trying to pull away from that comfort touching on his wrist. He was breathing shallow but at least breathing, and not banging his head on anything.
"Oh excuse me," Thomas said as his cell phone rang and he answered it. "It's my brother calling." The following one-sided conversation did nothing to make Tony feel better.
"Yes, they're right here." "Oh yes, beautiful, absolutely beautiful specimens." A laugh. "No I haven't fucked them yet." Another laugh. "No, you can't fuck them yet either." "Of course I remember our bet. The chalet in Switzerland is yours if they stay straight, the villa in Peru is mine if they turn gay on each other." "That's right." "Yes I set them up naked in bed to push them towards it." "Of course it's fair. They're MY clones and I play to win, Travis." A third laugh. "You should see them now. They're practically making out in front of me. It's adorable."
Tony made a sick sounding noise and suddenly scooted over to the opposite side of the limo as Thomas laughed a last time and hung up his phone to smirk at them again. "Travis says hi. He can't wait to meet you."
"DiNozzo," Gibbs said softly, fury clouding his words. "Remember what I said. He doesn't control us. He can't." Gibbs turned to look at the other man. "Count your minutes. I will kill you. When you least expect it, I will kill you." He'd rarely been this angry, was growling every word. If they didn't still need answers...
He regarded Tony for a moment and knew what he had to do, even though he knew he was lying to them both. "Tony..." he said in a low voice. "Never. That's never gonna happen between us. Don't think of you that way. Promise...and you know what a Marine's promise means. Listen to me, DiNozzo. You know me. He's just a manipulative little shit living on borrowed time."
Soon as they could, Gibbs was getting them the hell out of here and if he left a trail of bodies behind, so be it.
He wasn't Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS Special Agent any more.
"You listen to me!" Thomas barked, his lip curling in his own fury now. "I paid a fortune for you two, I put a fortune into that home for you. FOR YOU. ..... If anything happens to me you'll be picked up so fast as rogue clones and sold to someone else your pretty little heads will spin. Believe me," he snarled, "the devil you know is far better than the devil you don't. I'm not hurting you. I'm even willing to allow Tony to live elsewhere if he keeps resisting what's in his nature. But if you push me, I swear you'll regret it. Do NOT push me. In this world, gentlemen, you're no longer in charge. The sooner you accept it, the sooner we can all live our pleasant little lives, I'll leave you two alone for the most part .... and I can win that bet."
Tony didn't say anything for the rest of the ride to the pound. He stared wide-eyed at the plexi-glass window separating the front from the back ..... and started knocking his head into the window at his side.
Gibbs let his hate-filled gaze say volumes. He was not going to be controlled. He was nobody's puppet.
Then Tony started banging his head against the window and Gibbs lunged over, cupping Tony's head. "He's falling apart and I hold you responsible," he said in a quiet voice.
"Tony...Tony, you need to settle down. Look at me. Look into my eyes here. Not gonna let you fall apart." He sighed, firming his voice. "Ya wanna give that psychopath the satisfaction of breaking you so easily. Come on, Tony....come on." He leaned in close, almost nose to nose. "I need you, DiNozzo. I know you don't want to disappoint me, right?"
"It's his ego," Thomas sneered. "The bigger the ego, the harder they fall when they're born as clones. I've seen it a million times. You, on the other hand, are an arrogant bastard, but unlike him you usually keep your ego in check. It grounds you, matures you, so you're not falling apart like he is .... or should I say, you're holding it inside much better than him."
The car pulled into the parking lot of the pound and the doors were opened. "I don't want his head cracking open, Gibbs. Take care of him, make him accept what he is now, or I'll have to have the vet give him sedatives that will ultimately destroy his personality even more, I'm sorry to say." He didn't bother to clarify what he meant by 'accepting what he is now'. He could have meant clone or gay ... or both.
"Never wanna disappoint you, Boss," Tony whispered, gazing into the eyes of the only person in the world he trusted now. "I need you too ..... but .. but not like that," he tried to deny, a weak denial but still a denial.
"Cut the shrinking," Gibbs muttered, wishing like hell that Pee Wee would stop provoking DiNozzo, who was breaking apart as it was.
Gibbs held Tony's head tighter in his hands, forcing DiNozzo to look at him. "You hear that. You gotta hold it together for me right now. Or he'll hurt us. I don't wanna lose you, Tony." He spoke with as much stark honesty as he could, giving Tony more emotion from him than most had ever seen. "Don't leave me alone here. Don't need you like that, Tony. Need you on my six. Need someone who remembers and lives what I did. Don't hurt yourself...okay? For me." He paused for one long moment, nodding very briefly before he whispered the last words. "For me...son."
It didn't matter that he wasn't thinking of Tony as a son...it was what Tony needed to hear and he'd thought it many a time. So what if right now he couldn't get the memory of Tony watching him as he climaxed, the way Tony was riding the counter, out of his head?
It was exactly what Tony needed to hear. Right or wrong, most everything Tony had done up until then had been to gain some form of paternal attention ..... from Gibbs. That it was now all mixed up with newly woken desires and confusions didn't matter. He still wanted to be the son of the man's heart; his body was just catching up with it.
Slowly a grin spread upon his face, his eyes began to light back up with that familiar DiNozzo mischief. "Do I get to call ya Dad? Or how about my old man? I think that fits even better."
Gibbs grinned with relief, seeing that spark in Tony's eyes again. "You call me Pa and I'll kick your ass, Tony." In a rare unguarded moment, he pulled Tony's head close and kissed his forehead, something he'd never even contemplated doing before, but something that felt completely right. And he basked in that smile, with it came familiarity and with the familiarity came hope.
"With me, Tony," he said as he stepped out of the limo, falling into common word patterns.
"On your six, Boss," he automatically returned, falling into line behind the man.
"Good work, Gibbs," Thomas said as he opened the door of the pound for the two men. "He's much better now. I'm sure we'll get along just fine."
Janine looked up from her receptionist desk, gum snapping tiredly as she had a mountain of paperwork to do. "Oh no, please don't tell me ya got drop offs. Didn't he just make them for ya, Mr. Hilton?" Drop offs meant more paperwork.
"Indeed he did, this morning. It went splendidly .... at first." He rubbed his neck where Gibbs had knocked him out. "We're just out on a little excursion now before lunch. I'd like to show them how things are on the other side of the fence, so to speak."
"Ohhhhh ..." She looked Gibbs and Tony up and down with a nod of understanding. "Well boys, listen and learn," she said as if she sincerely cared, which she didn't, she was just trying to schmooze the client. "You got yourselves a good owner, a rich one who won't mistreat ya. Don't end up back here where God knows who'll adopt ya next." She motioned to the wall and Thomas knew what she meant.
He took down two choke collars and two leashes, basic silver chains because these ones were loaners to clients, not for sale. "Hold still," he told his clones as he held them up. "We're going out back for a little tour, and one of the rules at this place is that all clones have to be on these. Don't worry," he quickly added, just in case Gibbs was going to attack again, "I don't do this at home, but when I'm here, I follow the rules just like everyone."
His bodyguards and chauffeur stood by silently, bored expressions on their faces. This was nothing unusual to them.
"Did it for him, not you," Gibbs shot back as he walked into the building. He was starting to get really unsettled, hinky, as Abby would say. Abbs...God he was gonna miss her.
Gibbs looked at the collars and leashes in surprise for a brief second and then shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. You are not chaining us like we're dogs. Not happening." DiNozzo, ya still with me?" he asked, hoping this newest info hadn't shaken Tony up, and when he didn't get an immediate answer, he moved closer, muscles coiling and ready to strike if he could determine a weakness. They were outmanned and he didn't know what kind of weapons they carried.
They showed their weapons then at a signal from Thomas, and sensing a problem, Janine buzzed in five more pound guards with their own weapons to make sure the clones complied.
"It's happening." There was an honest note of sympathy in Thomas' voice. Just because he spoke of them as his didn't mean he got off in chaining them. This was simply a rule that had to be followed and nothing more.
"Yeah .. still here, Boss." Tony tried to smile, choosing to see it as almost a joke. "Too bad Abby isn't here. I'd collar up for her any day." He looked around at all those guns and then back at Gibbs. "I ain't dying over this shit. I .... I can do it."
Gibbs could have taken the two, at least disarmed one before he went down. But seven against one, those were odds he couldn't win against. Not without his own weapon. "You bastard," Gibbs whispered, wincing when Tony mentioned Abbs. Did Tony have any idea what he was saying?
"You belong to nobody, DiNozzo. Not Abbs, not Pee Wee, not me, nobody. Keep telling yourself that." When Tony said he'd do it, Gibbs gave a short jerky nod of compliance, still holding onto his commanding air even though he knew he was out manned, out gunned, and at every disadvantage. "You belong to no one," Gibbs repeated as the man came closer, standing tall and staring at the ceiling, hands clenched into fists at his side.
A touch of renewed panic flashed in those hazel-green eyes as Thomas slipped the collar around his neck and attached the leash to it, but Tony controlled it much better this time. He kept looking off into the distance, playing back an old fantasy in his head about Abby in tight leather dominatrix gear, marching him naked around her lab, showing him off as a prized stud for sale ..... to Gibbs?
He blinked, quickly shaking his head to dislodge that part of the fantasy. Oh no, no, no! Gibbs had no place in that kinky fantasy and Tony was determined to get him out of it before it was too late.
"Not so bad, now was it?" Thomas said kindly and patted Tony's cheek before moving over to Gibbs with the other collar and leash. "I know this is difficult, Jethro, but I assure you it's only temporary. We'll take a tour of the place, you'll have a better understanding of your situation, and then I can take you both out for lunch or bring you back to your home, whichever you choose." He leaned up on his tiptoes and whispered by the Harmon's ear. "I may have his papers, but there's no doubt in my mind he belongs to you."
He was whispering because he didn't want to set Tony off again, not at the pound. Teasing the clone was far more amusing when they were in private and he didn't have to worry about people who didn't work for him becoming involved.
"He belongs to nobody," Gibbs whispered back, not reacting other than clenching his fists even tighter. He stood absolutely still as the man secured him like a goddamn dog, but when he was chained and leashed, Gibbs gave PeeWee a brittle 'Woof' before he moved closer to Tony.
"You okay, son?" he whispered, standing close enough so that their arms brushed. If he focused his attention on Tony, he might just hold on to his fury.
"Just peachy, Pops," Tony said through clenched teeth. "Just think of the Christmas card for the team this would make. McGeek would be begging for his own collar, I bet with big shiny rhinestones to show off to all his friends."
"Alright hushup," Thomas ordered. "See that doorway over there. When clones walk through it unannounced, alarms go off. Ms. Baxter will set it to accept you both so we won't hear it, but I thought you should know, there's something in your DNA that isn't exactly the same as in ours. There's technology that can prove it and detect it. You look human, you talk, act and smell human, but you're not. Not quite."
He pulled them through the doorway by their leashes into the long corridor that would eventually take them into the pen area out back. First they'd stop and meet the CEO, who Janine had buzzed to let her boss know that guests were on the way. "Jemaine Davies, CEO of this company, worldwide, keeps his main office here. He's a very powerful man, and from what I understand more clone tolerant than he used to be."
True, because his Vice President, who unfortunately wasn't at work today, was Carl Bruce, and Carl was VERY clone tolerant, doing everything he could in his own position of power at the pound to help clones whenever possible because he saw them as equals, not as less, though in this world it sometimes made Carl the minority.
"If there was still a team," Gibbs reminded quietly, sadly. Gibbs didn't care what Pee Wee said, he was completely human. As was Tony. They had memories, relationships...they'd loved, lost...
Gibbs angled his head slightly, staying silent as Pee Wee spoke. Was he supposed to care about this? His hand found Tony's wrist again and he rubbed it in circles with his thumb, trying to make sure Tony was calm and centered. All the while he tried to telegraph to Tony that he was okay, that he wasn't alone.
Seeing that Pee Wee expected a response, Gibbs smirked and "woofed".
Thomas rolled his eyes. "Any time you want me to stop the explanation, that YOU demanded from me, just say so. Far as I'm concerned, I don't have to explain a damn thing."
Davies met them at the door, scowling as he overheard it. "Stubborn clones?" he asked the client. "Well don't you worry, a tour of this place will put them in their place. Have a seat, Mr. Hilton. Not you two."
Thomas sank down into a comfortable leather chair across from the big desk of the CEO, keeping his hands tight on those leashes. "I'm truly sorry to bother you with this. I know how busy you are."
The Frenchman waved his hand dismissively. "Pah, not a problem. We appreciate our clients, and this is just part of customer service for them. Shall we start with the book?"
The book.
He opened the large album and placed it on the edge of the desk for all three men to see. It was filled with different services that the pound offered. It wasn't just a place to drop off or adopt clones. Their vet provided a variety of services from simple grooming to neutering and spaying. The pictures next to the prices for those services showed clones, some with very recognizable Hollywood faces, in positions of before and after shots.
Teeth could be removed too, various markings of ownership such as tattooing, piercing, cutting and brandings placed on their bodies at their owner's will, and if Gibbs hadn't been holding onto his wrist so tightly, Tony would have bolted for the door and taken his chance with all those armed guards behind them.
They couldn't do this. They were in America, dammit. He'd served his country, slavery had been abolished.... All of those things ran through his head, but he kept coming back to those damn DVDs broadcasting their lives.
He glared at the other man, glancing around the richly appointed office and assessing that there were no good exit routes. Then the man opened a book and Gibbs felt Tony's panic as if it was a living thing. He shifted position slightly, angling his body toward Tony's, releasing the wrist only to clamp onto it with his other hand, bringing his free hand up to hold Tony's neck just above the collar. The thumb that had been soothing DiNozzo's wrist started circles just behind Tony's ear.
"Easy, son. Easy. You're not alone. I'm here." He leaned his chest lightly against Tony's arm, lips close to Tony's ear.
Once he was confident that Tony wasn't going to run, Gibbs looked over at the book, appearing nonchalant even though his stomach clenched and icy dread ran through him.
A whine started in Tony's chest, and when he couldn't take it anymore, his face fell into Gibbs' neck, arms still at his sides but his body relaxing into the other man's, under the other man's perfectly soothing fingers in just the right places.
"Don't let it rattle you," Thomas said as he tugged on their leashes to leave the office after a few more moments of discussion with Davies. "Just keep it in mind. I'm not interested in any of those options for my property, but if anything happens to me, or you piss me off too much, who knows what your next owner will fancy."
The next room was the office and exam room of the vet, Doctor Franke. Along one wall were large dog cages, and nude men and women filled some of them, resting on their hands and knees or sides in waiting for their turn out of that cramped confinement. Some were crying softly, some just looked shell-shocked. None of them were swearing loudly or screaming. Doctor Franke had a reputation for splitting and even removing tongues altogether if clones got on his nerves.
Armed guards were everywhere, and center stage in that room was the chair. Reclining like a dentist's seat but with legs spread high and wide, the doctor had a naked clone strapped into it and was in the process of following a modification order from its owner. The clone was already neutered from a previous visit, and this time he was being pierced. His chest was speckled red from the trauma of nipple rings having just been inserted, and his cockhead was suddenly sporting a large barbell piercing through it the doctor had just placed as company arrived.
Muffled screaming could be heard under the thick muzzle around the clone's face, and he'd pissed himself in terror and pain. Doctor Franke was notorious for not using anesthesia unless the clone's owner was in the room overseeing the procedure and wanted it done. This owner was no where around, the clone a drop-off for modifications, and would spend the night in one of those dog cages to await pickup in the morning.
Tony hissed so sharply at what they were seeing that it whistled through his teeth and he felt his own bladder become dangerously loose, close to letting go too. But it wasn't his bladder that he had to worry about, it turned out to be Tony's stomach. Though he hadn't eaten since the night before on his date, and though that hadn't TRULY happened after all, still his stomach revolted, bile spewed from his lips as he fell to his knees, his head falling forward on his chest as he heaved and heaved what little would come up onto the floor next to Gibbs' legs.
The extreme reaction wasn't so much because the clone was being so hideously pierced, or that the clone was even ball-less with just a long flaccid cock hanging between his legs. The extreme reaction was because he recognized the face in that chair. It was his own face staring back at him, one from about fifteen years ago. It was a younger Michael Weatherly clone, and that just completely did Tony DiNozzo in.
This next room was much worse. Gibbs' initial reaction was to release these poor people but he knew he couldn't. He instead moved closer, vowing silently to protect DiNozzo whatever the cost. He was tougher, he could do whatever he had to as long as Tony was okay.
Gibbs was trying not to focus on anyone or anything in the room. The stench of human misery hung heavy in the air. But then something about the person in the chair's screaming started his scalp prickling, just as Tony jackknifed to the ground.
Gibbs never froze in shock but this...this was...It was TONY. A younger Tony, early mid twenties, flopping hair a couple of shades lighter, glasses. No testicles...pierced. Terrified. He took one step forward, torn between helping the two Tony's. "It's okay.." he said in a shaking voice, trying to see the eyes of the young man. It was just too damn much. Much as Gibbs wanted to go to the boy, Tony needed him. HIS Tony. He crouched down behind Tony, stroking his hair slowly before pulling him firmly against his own chest.
"Don't look, Tony. Don't look."
As much as Gibbs hated it, he looked up at Pee Wee, making a silent request to leave. Vowing to himself that he'd eat his gun before he allowed this to happen to them. Knowing...knowing it already had to that other Tony. Or Michael, or whatever his name was.
No name. His role in The Cosby Show as Theo's college roommate had been uncredited, but his owner had certainly come up with a name for him upon his birth as a clone. Princess.
Princess continued to scream behind the muzzle as Tony began to gulp air frantically, once again clinging fully to Gibbs. He wasn't heaving anymore, but he was shaking like a leaf and making that odd whining noise into the man's neck his mouth and nose pressed deeply into.
The silent request was heard and Thomas nodded in agreement. "Get'm up. We'll check out the pen area and head home." As he tugged on the leashes, he added softly to Gibbs, "I'm sorry."
Thomas was an annoying and creepy PeeWee in many ways, but he'd so far been honest with them about everything. They were his property, licensed and papered like dogs, but they were property with some freedoms that animals would never have, and that included the freedom to love each other in a home together without horrifying body modifications at the whim of their owner.
Gibbs nodded at the quiet apology. That hadn't been staged or planned and he knew it. "I think he's had enough," he agreed, completely embracing Tony now, completely paternal. He drew Tony to his feet, tucking him under his arm despite the height differences in them.
"Come on, son. We're leaving soon. I know....I know. Just hang on to me until we're out of here, okay? You know me, you trust me. Keep on doing that, okay? Just for me. For your old man...remember how many time we've been there for each other? You hang onto that."
Gibbs wanted to help the boy with every fiber of his being. "Can you help him?" he asked PeeWee in a low voice.
"Yeah, hold him tight, Gibbs. Just one sedative, it won't hurt him. He needs it just to take the edge off and then hopefully he won't start that head banging thing again today." Thomas' voice was low too as he glanced over at Davies. "How much?"
"Freebie on the house," Davies said after a moment and found what was needed. Dr. Franke was too busy with the boy in the chair, but giving a clone a sedative was a simple matter, assuming the clone didn't struggle. "Lift his shirtsleeve so I can swab his arm with alcohol first."
Tony's whine deepened in that neck. He wasn't struggling yet but he was obviously terrified of having anyone but Gibbs touch him.
He hated the thought but he couldn't support Tony and hold it together himself. He stared at the boy, swallowing hard, wondering how he could get him free. "I want him," he said to Pee Wee, motioning to the younger man. "How does that work?"
Gibbs put out his hand. "I know how to do it. Give it to me....please. I can do it and he'll be much calmer with me giving him the injection.No games, no rebellion." Even if he wanted to run, Tony was in no shape to come with him and he'd die before abandoning Tony.
Davies didn't turn over the needle until Thomas nodded in agreement. He tended to respect an owner's rights to his or her clones, and so long as Gibbs and Tony weren't doing anything to disrupt his pound, he would abide by the owner's wishes.
"Just make it quick before he wets himself," Davies grunted and gave everything to Gibbs. "If he does, I WILL charge for a jumpsuit to get him home clothed," he added to Thomas. "As for ...... " Davies had to look at the chart on a table. "Princess, he belongs to someone. The ones who don't are out back you can see in a minute." He shrugged with another look at Thomas. "Not that you can adopt anyone until next month. You know the rules, Mr. Hilton. Two clones per month is the limit, unless you wish to leave either of these two here and take out new ones."
Thomas watched Gibbs deal with Tony, almost envious of their love for each other but shook his head. "I'm keeping them ... for now."
"Okay, Tony. You trust me, right?" He didn't wait for an answer, just shifted, swabbed Tony's bicep with alcohol, pricked his arm with the needle, and depressed the plunger. When all the medication had been delivered, Gibbs pulled the needle out and handed it over. He'd be lying if he hadn't thought of jamming the needle into someone's eye, but that would leave Tony at their mercy and that wasn't happening.
But he couldn't stop himself from calling encouragement to the boy...the Tony. "It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. if I can help you, I promise I will."
He looked up at the ceiling, pulling in a couple of deep breaths before he rested his hand against Tony's neck. "We'll be back at my place soon. King sized bed. You can nap as long as you need to. I won't leave."
"If it means that much to you," Thomas said as he tugged on their leashes to get them moving again, "I'll CONSIDER buying him off his owner later if the person is willing to sell .... but you have to understand, Gibbs, he probably doesn't know you from adam."
"True," Davies agreed as he followed them. "Different fandom. Doesn't have a clue who you are .... though I'm sure he recognizes his own face on DiNozzo .... an older face."
Princess, as he'd been named so cruelly, watched them go. He was no longer screaming beneath the gag, but he was crying silent tears now at having heard the first compassionate thing said to him from someone in his new cloned life, and now it was gone.
Tony couldn't even look at the boy again. He walked with Gibbs' help down the corridor, his eyes glassy, almost vacant, only the man's hand on his neck, and that fast acting sedative now, keeping him from going absolutely berserk.
"Please," Gibbs sad quietly, all pride gone for the moment. "Doesn't matter if he knows me or not. He will...he will." As he was led out, he looked back one last time. "I'll do what I can, son....I promise." Those green eyes locked on his, tears pouring down his face and Gibbs felt a chunk of his soul fall away. He'd always been a leader, a fixer. And so damn much was out of his control. He nodded and then reluctantly turned away.
Gibbs arranged himself so he was bearing some of Tony's weight, one arm around DiNozzo's waist, the other securing his arm around Gibbs' shoulders. "You can do this. One foot after the other. One step at a time. Just move with me." He tightened his arm around Tony's waist.
"I'm your son," Tony mumbled under his breath, an instinctive flare-up of jealousy emerging despite the horror of the situation. "I'm your son."
The pen area was sadly full this time of year. People who'd purchased clones from oven-birth or from the pound for the holiday season often brought some of them back a few weeks later when unforseen issues came up with them. Not everyone was suited to be a clone owner. For one thing, it took money. You had to feed them and clothe them and take care of their medical needs. Well, not necessarily, you could starve them and abuse them, but why throw money away on valuable property?
Most clone owners took care of their clones' basic needs. Most clone owners were mostly benevolent in nature like Thomas, some were like Carl, people only doing it in order to rescue them, and some were like Princess' owner, true bastards and bitches who only liked to cause pain and suffering for a being they could completely control.
It was part luck and part skill for a clone at the pound to get a good owner. Mainly luck, but there was a touch of skill involved too.
Those clones who knew the ropes, who had been adopted previously, smiled and postured for Thomas as they passed by the pen area, assuming he was there to adopt. Women exposed their breasts and children put out their little hands between the bars and made big soulful eyes at him.
Tony didn't really see any of it. He didn't see that everyone was dressed the same in plain olive green jumpsuits, that the men were segregated from the women in six-person cells across from cells, and that those cells only held one cot per person with one blanket and one pillow and a communal bucket in the corner for waste.
He saw only one thing that stopped him in his tracks and made a long low moan of despair cross his lips. There was a Harmon at the bars of one of the cells. A young Harmon with a wary smile on his face. He didn't look abused at all, at least not physically. He motioned to Davies, making sure to lower his eyes respectfully when he spoke in a quiet voice to the CEO. "Mr. Skywalker has severe stomach pains. I believe it's his appendix."
"I'll tell Doctor Franke," Davies grunted.
"No! Please, let me do the surgery." The Harmon clone had visions of Franke removing that appendix without any kind of pain killers given. "Please sir. I'm a doctor ..... and it would be good if I could brush up on my skills while I'm waiting to be adopted."
"Hmmmm ..... we'll see."
"Thank you, sir." He looked over at Tony and Gibbs but made no motion of plea to Thomas like others had. His concern was only on one of the other clones in his cell. He wasn't at all shocked to see his own, much more matured, face on Gibbs.
'Yes, you're my son," Gibbs agreed. He should have anticipated that Tony would get jealous. "But he could use some help, DiNozzo. That's all...that's all." He soothed Tony quietly, even as he ached to help the kid in there, the man. He looked like a kid but Gibbs knew that he was probably mid twenties.
He stood silent, letting Tony hang on to him, while they walked into an area where there was hope and despair swirling in the air, his eyes locking on blue eyes that looked so damn familiar because they were HIS eyes, mussed dark hair, arrogant smirk, HIS eyes. Without thought for consequence, Gibbs strode forward as much as the chain would let him. He'd never had hair that long when he was that age--probably mid thirties. And the lines of his body, were less controlled than Gibbs'. It was surreal and that cold dread lodged in his stomach again.
He wanted to ask if the man was okay, but by a glance he could see that he was primarily okay. Not like young Tony.
He tightened his arm around Tony, turning his attention back to the shattered younger man. "Not me, Tony. Just someone who kind of looks like me."
"Kind of?" Tony squeaked, pointing to another cell where another clone, recognizing Gibbs' voice, was moving up to the bars to peer curiously at them. This one looked exactly like Gibbs in the face, even stood ramrod straight like him. Shocked more than ever, Tony started to stumble to him, hand reaching, but between the leash and Gibbs' restraining arm he didn't get far. "Boss?" He looked back and forth between the two identical faces, his lips trembling in confusion.
"No," the man immediately said, shaking his head. "I don't know you, son." The son was automatic, not meaning anything special by it, but it freaked Tony out even more at hearing that coveted word coming from another and he started to hyperventilate despite the narcotic in his system.
"His name's Simon," Thomas said, trying to be helpful as he glanced at the paperwork hanging on the outside of the pen. "He's not a Gibbs." With a look at Davies, he motioned to the opposite end of the corridor. "Show them The Room, then I'm taking my boys home before DiNozzo completely loses it."
Okay, now this one...this one was much harder because he visually looked the same. And Gibbs felt his back go up when the man called Tony 'son'. "Not me, Tony. He's not me." Their voices were different, the other guy not having the tone of command Gibbs did. "Tony...Tony...look into my eyes." Gibbs forced Tony to look at him. "We need to get him out of here," Gibbs said, his voice tense. He met his...well almost twin's...eyes for a moment, giving him a very slight nod of acknowledgment and a soft. "good luck."
Gibbs kept his arm clamped tight around Tony's waist, forcing him to take each step. "Breathe....breathe even, Tony. Do it for me. I'm the only Gibbs who matters." IT wasn't lost on him that there were probably other Gibbses and Tonys out there.
Most definitely. And it would be a miracle if they never ran into them in a city teeming of clones like Havensport.
"You too," Simon said and went back to sit on his cot. He'd been curious but now he was quiet and pensive again. Life even for non-abused clones could be pretty shitty too.
"Boss, my Boss, the only Boss," Tony chanted between breaths as they were led into one last area.
"Now this is where, after three months, if a clone isn't adopted we ... well we have to euthanize them," Davies said with a shrug. At one time it had been only a one month period before the gas chamber, but Carl had finally gotten Davies to agree to extend it to three. Since then not a single clone had been gassed. Carl worked his ass off in making sure they all got adopted just in time. "I can assure you that it's as painless as can be. We simply strap them into that chair and pump in a poisonous gas. It works on all human-based clones. For vampires we use sunlight or beheading, with wereanimals we use silver ..... whatever's necessary in their fandom to get the job done."
"I wanted you to see this," Thomas said, "because if you two ever end up here, this could be the last thing you ever see. Now let's hope you don't end up here, right?"
Tony didn't answer him. He was still quietly chanting to himself. "Boss, my Boss, the only Boss."
Gibbs nodded, not trusting himself to say much of anything. Between Tony's mental collapse, seeing himself--or versions of him--twice now. And thinking they or young Tony could die like this... He had so many questions but he didn't dare ask them. Not now. Not in front of Tony.
DiNozzo falling apart was almost too much for even him, and he was pretty damn strong...or he'd thought so, anyway. But this had stripped away everything that made him who he was and he was in a mental tailspin, one he couldn't even begin focusing on with Tony in pieces.
"I need you, DiNozzo," he whispered in an emotion-choked voice, letting down all his natural guards. "You gotta hang on for me, Tony. I can't do this completely alone."
"Never," Tony whimpered, nodding obediently to his superior. "Never alone. Can we go home now, Boss? I really wanna go home."
"That's the first sane thing he's said in hours," Thomas sighed and pulled them away from the chair of death. Back down the hall of pens, past all those clones on death-row, he took them back out to his limo and shook his head sadly at Gibbs. "Like I said, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. At least the sedative seems to be taking affect now."
"Yeah?" Gibbs replied, challenging slightly. "How come I'm holding it together." Sort of. "I'm not an egomaniac but I have a healthy enough ego. I have three ex wives. And I've lost....more." A wife, a daughter.
Gibbs settled in with his back against the door, pulling Tony close, cradling his head against Gibbs' chest and stroking his hair. "What's your theory?" He didn't want to be starting a rapport with Pee Wee but he knew he needed intel and it was the best place to start.
"These guys that look like me. Who is the guy who...started it all I guess. What does he look like? Me? a lot older? Younger? what's he like?"
"I think that's the difference right there, you're not a narcissistic egomaniac with a deep seated insecurity streak a mile wide like him." Thomas shrugged. "At least that's how I see him, and my brother and friends do too ... not to mention a lot of fans from the show who chat about it online. You're the rock, Gibbs. If you didn't crack completely over the shit those writers put you through with your family, you're not likely to crack now .... especially when you have someone to take care of. Take away Tony, your right hand man and surrogate son, and I bet you'd crack then." He paused, pulling out his phone as a thought occurred to him. "Hmmmm maybe a new bet for Travis ... see how long the Great Gibbs lasts without DiNozzo by his side." But he smiled with a snort of amusement and didn't dial. "Maybe later. You want to know about the actor? He's old like you." Thomas said it that way on purpose, interested in seeing if Gibbs, as a clone, was at all vain about aging. "He's been in a lot of shows, movies, not one of the bigwig Hollywood schmucks but is very well known and respected. The show NCIS is still running at six seasons and enjoying more popularity now than ever. My theory is because it's drawing in new fans ... to see the much hyped about chemistry between you and DiNozzo."
Some of it was sure showing now. Tony was once again in Gibbs' lap, clutching to the man as if he were a huge teddy bear, and sleeping.
"Cut it out," he said, coming automatically to Tony's defense, even though Duck had said much the same things, almost as a joke. He couldn't imagine people were discussing him and Tony, their personalities.Then pee Wee said that manipulative shit and he almost growled.
"You rip us apart and you destroy him. Ya wanna do that?" Wary of offending the guy with all the power, the memory of young Tony in the forefront of his mind, Gibbs didn't say more. Gibbs remembered Pee Wee discussing how they expected him and Tony to have sex and couldn't avoid saying something else. "Perverted way of looking at it, trying to force two hetero men into bed with each other when you admit he's a surrogate son to me. You have unresolved issues with your daddy, Thomas?" he drew the man's name out almost in a sneer.
He paused for a few moments. "Old like me, huh? Better than dead." He was a little touchy about his age and eyesight but he wasn't about to give Pee Wee the satisfaction. He did, however, run his hand over his abs over his T-shirt, checking, he supposed, that he was still in fighting shape.
"In better shape than you," he remarked with the slightest of smirks.
"I'll give you that," Thomas laughed lightly, "definitely in better shape than me." He reached over and patted Tony on the back, noting that the man jumped slightly in his sleep with a murmured whimper of fear before settling down again into Gibbs. "No, I don't want to destroy him. He's just too damn cute to destroy, massive ego and all." His brow arched at Gibbs and he sat back again. "Leave my father out of it. The man with daddy issues is crawling all over you. My father was a good father. I wish to hell the show would tell us what kind of father he had. Maybe you could get him to say? I'll make it worth your while," he said in trying to bribe the Harmon. "And if you get him to willingly sleep with you so I can win that bet I'll do something extra special for you. I know you two are hetero .... in CANON," he said with a smirk. "But you're not canon anymore. The instant you're born as clones, anything and everything can change. Doesn't mean it will change, just means it can. It's like you're writing your own actions and thoughts now, no longer their puppets, and I was quite willing to bet my chalet to Travis that what I saw in your eyes on that show was real. You two aren't just hot for each other under that fake hetero skin those bastards gave you, you're soulmates."
Tony, in his subconscious shuffling to get away from being touched by anyone but Gibbs, had resettled his face into Gibbs neck, and there he started sleep-suckling on a little bit of skin his needy mouth had found.
Gibbs reached over and moved Tony's mouth, unwilling to admit that his cock was stirring. "He's a hell of a man. It isn't about his looks, it is about his soul and his spirit, it is about his heart."
He paused, assimilating this information. "What is canon, what does that mean? and how does this all work. You say we're on the TV show. The show continues now Do those memories come in our heads? IF one of us dies, then what? Do we die here? and what about our...memories. My wife and daughter...and Abby, Duck..." But especially Shannon and Kelly....more than anyone else he needed them. "And the memories of his father. Where do those come from? Our imaginations? If we aren't real..."
He wouldn't discuss his feelings, his emotions, the fact that his cock was growing under Tony's body.
It was bound to get worse, because before Gibbs could pull his hand away from Tony's mouth in moving him off his neck, the suckling lips caught Gibbs' thumb and pulled it right in over his tongue with the suction of a desperate man in tormented sleep.
Thomas paused to pour himself a glass of champagne from the small refrigerator in the back of that limo. He tossed Gibbs a can of beer that could be opened one-handed if Gibbs decided to remove his thumb from Tony's mouth. "Canon is .... Hmmmm..... I guess the easiest way to explain it is that it's anything that happened before you were reborn as clones. It's anything seen or heard on your show ... and it's also the memories you have of things on your show that we, the viewers, didn't get to see. Like Tony's father. If you can get info from him, that would be canon info even though the writers never had him reveal it on the show. Now don't worry about dying on the show. What they do can't affect you one bit. But as for those memories that the canon men are making on the show .... that's where it gets tricky. It depends on how a clone is made. You can choose many variations when it comes to ordering a clone just the way you want him or her to be. I ordered the option, a very expensive option, I might add, of having your brains able to pick up those memories so that you two will always know everything the two men do on the show when it comes to memories, a sort of current time download of information through the airwaves, but don't ask me how it works, I haven't a clue. Now about your family .... " Thomas' face went very serious then. "I'm sincerely sorry about what you FEEL happened to them, Gibbs, but keep in mind ... you felt it, but it never really happened. They never existed. It's ALL in your heads and only as clones do you truly exist now."
Gibbs had known this was going to happen and let Tony suck on his thumb. Better than the sensitive spot on his neck. Gibbs caught the beer and tucked it in against his waist, opening it and downing it in gulps. "Coffee. Needed. Soon." He said between gulps. The beer wouldn't even begin to anesthetize his pain and worry but it tasted good enough and he shifted, driving his hips against Tony and enjoying the small bit of friction. His thumb moved in and out of Tony's mouth and Tony's head followed it.
An overwhelming urge to possess Tony rose up inside him and he tried to crush it for now.
Gibbs had known what Pee Wee was going to say. He'd been grappling with it essentially since learning the beginning of the stories. "Never married, never a father..." Those things had defined him in his eyes and mind for so long. " Want to see the people who...were them." He had to come to terms with this. "Why would someone want to put me through that if it wasn't real?"
"They're just doing their job," Thomas assured him. "They don't know you're alive." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees and smiled. "Gibbs, you and Tony can have a wonderful life together now. Please don't let your pasts get in the way. Look at him ...... don't do anything that could fuck up his safety, that's what I'm saying. Take it as a threat or a friendly warning, I don't care. I don't have to be your enemy unless you make me one."
The car pulled into the driveway at Gibbs' home and Thomas leaned back in his seat. "I'll help you get him upstairs to bed so he can finish sleeping, then we'll have coffee in the kitchen and talk some more?"
"I'm not going to hurt him. My pain is mine. You can't just expect me to forget...thirty years of knowing someone is in my psyche. Of being a father...a husband. Of mourning people that are real to me. I can't just brush it off because you demand it." He didn't know how wonderful a life they could have without their freedom. "We can have a great life...as long as we don't displease you. Big adjustment."
He spoke with honesty rather than anger or sarcasm. "Last night I was a federal agent, today I belong to someone who threw me together with someone else to win a bet. Yesterday I was a person and today you tell me I'm not human. Yesterday, Tony held his head up high and today you have him broken. I'm aware...oh, I'm aware..."
Gibbs shook his head. "I'll get him upstairs. He doesn't want anyone else touching him. You see how he flinches. And yeah, coffee, but I'm keeping an eye on him as much as I can."
"Coffee it is." Thomas exited the limo, leaving his bodyguards behind to trail Gibbs and DiNozzo until they were in the home too. Obviously he and the Marine had a few more things to discuss in private, but otherwise Thomas felt it was going along just swimmingly. DiNozzo would take his little nap until the sedative wore off and everything would be fine as fine could be.
Sure.
(TBC)