Hiding in Plain Sight: 20/21

[xanthefic]

Title: Hiding in Plain Sight: Part Twenty
Author: Xanthe
Fandom: SGA/NCIS crossover
Pairings: Gibbs/DiNozzo, John/Rodney, Carson/Caldwell, Teyla/Ronon, Ziva/McGee, and some other pairings that would spoil the story if I revealed them. Gibbs/Ducky friendship.
Rating: NC17 for explicit BDSM sex (m/m slash, femslash and het) and spanking.
Part Twenty: “I don’t know what you want from me,” Tony told Gibbs wearily. “I didn’t back then and I don’t now. I just want to belong to you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted from the day I met you.”


Hiding in Plain Sight
By Xanthe
Part Twenty

Tony tried to concentrate on relaxing, surrendering, allowing his body to accommodate the demands Gibbs was placing on it.

“That’s good,” Gibbs told him, but all that loosening up did was give Gibbs a chance to sink even more deeply into him. Tony knew he’d never been fucked so deep before.

“Please,” he whispered again, desperately, gazing up at Gibbs. His top pressed a gentle kiss to his lips and he opened up blindly, needing the reassurance.

“You’re safe. I’ve got you,” Gibbs said, when he finished kissing him. “Now give it up. Give it all up.”

“I have,” Tony said frantically. Gibbs gave a wry smile and moved his hips, just a little, making Tony gasp.

“No. You’re nowhere near,” Gibbs told him.

“I can’t…it’s too deep…you’re everywhere,” Tony panted, trying to struggle, desperate now to push Gibbs off him. Gibbs grabbed his hands and pushed them up so that they were on either side of Tony’s head, using his weight to keep Tony in place, body pressed firmly on top of him.

“It’s easier if you give in to it,” Gibbs advised him.

Tony tried to remember to breathe, taking several big, gasping lungfuls of air.

“Who are you, Tony?” Gibbs asked him. His forearms covered Tony’s forearms, and his fingers were curled around Tony’s fingers, holding his hands in his own, keeping them pressed against the mattress.

“I’m Tony DiNozzo. I’m your agent, your sub…hell I’m whoever you damn well want me to be!” Tony screamed.

Gibbs smiled at him and kissed him again. “Calm down,” he whispered.

He shifted his hips again; it was just a tiny movement but it sent shockwaves through Tony’s body. How long had Gibbs been buried inside him like this, so deep? How long had he been lying on top of him, holding him here, claiming him like this? It felt like forever.

Gibbs kissed him again and again, and the sweetness of those tender kisses made Tony relax. The ache in his ass wasn’t so bad now – his body was staring to relax around Gibbs’s cock, learning to accommodate its presence, even as deep as it was.

“Who are you, Tony?” he heard Gibbs ask again, and his voice seemed to come from far away.

Tony closed his eyes, and saw Randolph Jordan looming over him, his belt in his hand. He flinched.

“Who are you, Tony?” Gibbs asked.

“I’m yours…honestly,” Tony said.

Gibbs shook his head. “Not yet you’re not,” he told him.

“Then what can I say to prove it?” Tony shouted. He wasn’t sure he could take much more of this, lying here, completely and utterly powerless in this man’s grasp.

“Just tell me who you are,” Gibbs whispered in his ear. “Not the fake you, not the mask you’ve hidden behind all these years. Who are you really?”

It was a year ago, and he was lying in a hospital bed, close to death, his lungs aching, his skin covered in sweat. He could hear Kate crying, and the low murmur of Ducky’s voice as he comforted her.

“He’s dying,” she was saying, and he wondered who she was talking about.

“The hell he is,” a familiar voice said, and then he saw Gibbs, standing by his bed. “Tony – you will not die. Understand?” Gibbs said. He wanted to. He felt so ill and it would be so easy just to slip away, and give into it. He felt a sharp tap on his head and opened his eyes, startled. “You will not die,” Gibbs commanded. "You do not have my permission to die, boy."

“No, boss,” he replied, and he took a deep, ragged breath. Following that easy path to death was no longer an option – Gibbs had taken it away from him. He had no choice now - he had to live.

“Who are you, Tony?” Gibbs asked. He moved his hips again and Tony gasped and convulsed, whimpering beneath him.

It was five years ago, and he was sitting behind a table in an interview room at NCIS. A tall man with steel grey hair, piercing blue eyes, and an aura of total control strode into the room. Tony sat back in his chair lazily; no top with a power complex was going to scare him. He flashed the man his best subby smile – it never failed to work. If he threw in a blowjob as well then he'd as good as have the job. Gibbs raised an eyebrow at him, as if he'd read his mind, and Tony flushed, feeling suddenly small and stupid.

“So, you’ve been fired from or had to leave five different jobs in the past eight years,” Gibbs said. “Tell me why I should take a chance on you, DiNozzo.”

Blue eyes seemed to scour his soul and he shifted, uneasily, in his chair. He knew of Special Agent Gibbs by reputation but he hadn’t thought he’d ever meet a top who could actually make him feel anything other than contempt.

“Well, I don’t know, Agent Gibbs,” he drawled. “But I hear your last agent just shipped out, so maybe you should hire me because you’re as desperate as I am.”

“Oh son.” Gibbs shook his head, laughing. “Trust me, nobody is as desperate as you are right now.”

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Tony told Gibbs wearily. “I didn’t back then and I don’t now. I just want to belong to you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted from the day I met you.”

“I know,” Gibbs told him, and his body felt warm and comforting pressed against him. “There’s more. Keep going.”

It was a little over five years ago, and he was standing in a room in Baltimore PD, with his boss, and his partner.

“Sorry, Tony,” his boss told him, shaking her head. “You’re going to have to take one for the team.”

“But you said…” he began, and then he figured it out. She smiled, and glanced at his partner and Tony knew he was right. “Okay. I get it. You used me. Thanks, Dana – and thanks to you too, buddy," he said bitterly to his partner, a man he'd trusted with his life out there on the streets.

“That’s the way it goes, Tony," Dana told him. "View it as a learning experience.”

“What was I supposed to learn? Not to trust the tops I sleep with? I don’t, Dana. I never have. Which is why I taped you and why you’re going to let me resign, instead of being fired,” Tony snapped, watching the smile fade from her face to be replaced by something a good deal less pleasant.

“Fuck you, Tony,” she hissed.

“Oh you already did – royally,” he replied.

He gazed up, blankly, to find Gibbs staring down at him. “Don’t ever betray me, Jethro,” he whispered.

“I won’t, Tony,” Gibbs replied, and he kissed him again, very gently. “Keep going,” he said. “Give it all up to me. Where are you now?”

“I’m getting married again,” his father told him. Tony laughed out loud, and then his smile faded.

“Seriously?” he asked. “You? You think you can stay faithful to any sub for more than five minutes?”

His father’s expression darkened. “Your mom was the one who cheated on me, remember,” he snapped. “And as for promiscuous – you take after your mother there too, just like in everything else. Sneaking out, whoring around”

“If you weren’t always drunk and didn’t abandon me in hotel suites all the time then maybe I wouldn’t need to go out and find my own entertainment!”

“Damn it, Tony, I can’t control you any more. You always do what the hell you like, no matter what I say. Frankly, you’re an embarrassment, and I think you and I just need to accept that we’re never going to get along.”

Tony felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. “If that’s what you think,” he said quietly.

“It is. And I don’t want you hanging around here screwing up my new marriage. I’m sending you away to boarding school.”

“Fine by me. Last thing I want is to have to stay here and watch you play happy families anyway.”

His view of Gibbs seemed suddenly hazy, and he felt his top’s thumbs sweep over his eyes, gently wiping away the tears.

“Yeah…like I said, daddy issues,” Tony whispered.

“Uh-huh,” Gibbs murmured, his thumbs sweeping broad strokes across his face, taking the moisture away. “What’s left, Tony?”

Gibbs’s body didn’t feel suffocating any more, and his cock didn’t feel intrusive either, lodged deep inside him. It felt good, and he thought that maybe he could stay in this position forever. He wanted Gibbs here, inside him, on top of him, everywhere around him, for as long as he lived.

He was ten, standing by his mother’s grave, watching his father take a gulp from the flask of whisky he carried in the pocket of his big, black coat. He had a sudden dawning realisation that things would never be the same again. His mother, his beautiful, exotic, playful, teasing, enchanting mother had gone, and his father had changed overnight from a handsome, vigorous young man, into this bitter, angry person.

“Come on, time to go, Tony,” his father said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Time to go,” Tony whispered. Gibbs kissed him again, and Tony gazed up at him blearily.

“Time to let it go,” Gibbs told him firmly. “Who are you, Tony?”

He was nine years old, before his mom had died and his dad had changed before his eyes. He remembered watching her work a room full of tops at a party. She was so beautiful, so well dressed and elegant, so fantastically good at flirting. No wonder none of the tops in the room could take their eyes off her.

“Watch and learn, Tony,” she told him, with a wink. “Tops are easy but they can be dangerous. You need to learn how to use them before they use you. Always stay one step ahead and then they can’t hurt you. And never surrender – just let them think you have. If you give them everything they’ll lose interest and move on to the next sub.”

He convulsed up under Gibbs, trying to throw him off one last time but Gibbs held steady, and kept him pinned down beneath him.

“If I tell you, then you’ll leave,” Tony hissed. “I can’t do it.”

“Yes you can, Tony. Who are you?” Gibbs said, insistently.

Tony felt lost, all his certainties gone. Who was he? Who was he really? He’d been hiding for so long that he’d almost forgotten.

“I’m a sub,” he said. “I’ve known that since the day I was old enough to know anything, and all I ever wanted was to find a top to trust in. I want to be that sub I always felt I was, in my bones. I want to be him but everything else got in the way. Can I be him again, Jethro?”

“You already are, Tony,” Gibbs told him. “You always were. Other people just screwed you up along the way.”

Gibbs’s body seemed so comforting now. Tony didn’t know why he’d found it so hard to accept his weight before. Now it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. His whole body felt loose and relaxed, open and content. Their bodies were meant to be together like this, joined as one – it felt so right.

“I can’t feel where I end and you begin now,” he murmured.

“Good,” Gibbs said, and then he kissed him again, and as he did so he moved his hips back a little, and then thrust forward - just a tiny movement. Tony gasped as his body protested the change. Gibbs thrust again, harder this time, and he hit Tony’s sweet spot, making fireworks spark. “That feel good?” Gibbs asked.

“Oh yeah,” he sighed, gazing up at Gibbs with shining eyes. “So good.”

Gibbs smiled and moved his hips again, getting into a rhythmic motion of long, slow strokes that hit Tony’s prostate with each inward thrust. Tony arched up like a cat, abandoning himself totally to Gibbs, submitting completely to whatever his top wanted to do to him.

“That’s good, Tony…that’s beautiful…” Gibbs murmured. He moved his body like a precision weapon, expertly ramming home with every thrust. Tony was lost in the sensation, lost in the moment, and lost in Gibbs as his top claimed him completely. He offered himself up without reservation, letting Gibbs take whatever he wanted from him. Their bodies were moving together in perfect synchronised time and he knew that he'd follow this man to the end of the universe and do whatever he asked of him.

“Now come for me…come with me,” Gibbs ordered, and Tony felt a hand wrap around his cock, and rub with firm, hard strokes.

The combination of Gibbs’s cock hitting his prostate, and Gibbs’s hand on his own cock sent him over the edge and within seconds he was coming, white lights exploding in his head. He couldn’t see or hear anything, but he could feel Gibbs still inside him, and that was all that was connecting him to the world right now.

Time passed. He wasn’t sure how long but now he was on his side and there was a blanket over him, and Gibbs wasn’t inside him any more. His hole felt stretched and sore and his body ached all over but he felt utterly content, in a way he’d never felt before.

Gibbs was lying beside him, facing him, one hand resting on Tony’s hip, possessive and reassuring at the same time. Tony moved forward, and buried his face in the crook of Gibbs’s neck, then wrapped his arm around Gibbs’s back, needing to feel that solid weight of comfort again.

“I’ve got you, Tony. Now and always,” Gibbs told him, kissing his hair and stroking his hip gently. “You belong to me now, Tony. You're all mine.”

~*~

Gibbs was too exhilarated to sleep. His arms were full of his newly collared sub and he couldn't remember when he'd last felt this content. Tony was exhausted, slumbering peacefully, body nestled against Gibbs as if he wanted to burrow into him.

Gibbs wasn't surprised Tony was so tired – he was straight out of the infirmary after all, and he'd just surrendered his whole being up to Gibbs – no wonder he was shattered. They had shared something intense today; Gibbs had never taken a sub down further, or had one offer themself up to him so completely.

It had been such a moving experience, and he felt an old, familiar sense of his own dominance coursing through his veins, in a warm, surging flow. Tony was his now, in every single way. He would protect the sub in his bed with his life if need be, and fight any top who went near him. It had been years since he had felt this way but in taking Tony for the first time he'd somehow reconnected with a part of himself that he'd buried a long time ago.

He had been so in tune with his sub, had felt Tony's struggle and stayed with him as he went down into himself. Then he had been there for him, firm, dependable and unyielding, when Tony reached the core of himself and found who he really was, deep inside.

Gibbs allowed his fingers to drift, lazily, over the golden skin of Tony's shoulder; his sub was so beautiful. He kissed Tony's neck, and nuzzled at his hair, and Tony moved even closer, muttering in his sleep.

Gibbs almost felt like laughing – this sub, this amazingly responsive boy, had been under his nose for years and he hadn't taken him seriously. He hadn't lifted his head out of his own ass for long enough to see the soul-mate sitting just across the room from him at work. Now he had this boy here, naked and well fucked in his bed, Gibbs couldn't believe he'd been such a blind idiot.

All those years of watching Tony prance and perform for him and he'd never seen the perfect sub beneath the entertaining act.

He allowed Tony to sleep for a couple of hours, and then kissed him awake.

"Wha…?" Tony sat up, his hair sticking up, dishevelled. He was disoriented for a moment, and blinked, blearily, and then he remembered where he was and his eyes lit up as he responded eagerly to Gibbs's passionate kisses.

Gibbs moved the sheets aside, revealing his sub's naked body; Tony whimpered and tried to pull them back and snuggle under them again, still half asleep. Gibbs stopped his hand with his own.

"You won't sleep tonight if you don't get up now," he said. "Besides…I want to examine you."

"Hmmm. Sounds promising," Tony murmured with a wide yawn, before closing his eyes again.

Gibbs smacked him – hard – on the ass, and Tony yelped, and sat up, fully awake now.

"When I tell you I want to examine you, you'll get into position to be examined," Gibbs told him. Tony gazed at him, green eyes wide. "Hands and knees," Gibbs ordered. Tony scrambled quickly into position and Gibbs had to smother a grin – this boy was eating out of his hand right now.

He ran his fingers over Tony's back, checking that their vigorous activity earlier hadn't caused any damage to his healing scars but they were fine. Then he moved lower, and pulled Tony's ass cheeks apart with his hands to check he hadn't torn him earlier. He'd been careful, and prepped Tony thoroughly, but even so, he'd stretched him wide open for a long period of time and he wanted to be sure there wasn't any damage. Tony's hole was a little pink around the edges but it looked fine. Gibbs grabbed the lube and slid his finger into Tony's ass. He was looser now than he had been a few hours ago and his finger slipped in easily. Tony bit on his lip.

"Hurt?" Gibbs asked.

"A bit sore, yeah," Tony told him. Gibbs slapped his ass again with his free hand, making Tony jump.

"Then you tell me without waiting to be asked – you're mine now, and if anything's hurting I need to know about it."

"Yes, Jethro." Tony grinned at him over his shoulder. "It's kind of a good hurt," he said, with a wink.

Gibbs ran his hands over the rest of Tony's body, checking him all over, and then, satisfied his sub was fine, he drew back.

"Hungry?"

"Starving." Tony nodded.

"Then let's eat."

Gibbs got out of bed and pulled on some sweatpants and a tee shirt. Tony followed him, naked save for his collar.

"Where are you going?" Gibbs asked, as Tony headed for his old bedroom.

"Bathrobe." Tony pointed. "All my stuff's still in there."

"You look fine just the way you are," Gibbs said, beckoning him over. He didn't want Tony covered up right now; he wanted to look at his newly collared sub and drink in the sight of him. Tony looked a little startled by that but he came towards him. Gibbs grabbed him, enjoying the sensation of having a sub to fondle again after so long. He kissed Tony again, moving his hands possessively over Tony's back and buttocks as he did so, and then released him and went into the kitchen. Tony followed him, stark naked.

Gibbs filled the kettle with water and placed it on the hob and then leaned against the wall and watched Tony get some cups out of the cupboard. He liked how big Tony's body was – solid and well muscled - and he liked the way Tony's cock swung as he moved. Tony turned, giving Gibbs a good view of his firm round ass. Unable to resist he went over and ran a hand over the tight globes of flesh.

"Made for fucking and spanking," he said. He took another look. "And biting," he added. He'd been spanking Tony on his bare ass for years and he couldn't believe he'd been able to resist it for all this time. If he'd been alone he'd have slapped the back of his own head for being so blind for so long.

"Well it's yours, so any time, Jethro," Tony told him.

"Too right it's mine." Gibbs took a handful of firm, plump flesh and squeezed, and Tony leaned back against him. Gibbs pressed a kiss to the back of his sub's neck, just above his collar. Then he slapped Tony's ass and shoved him out of the kitchen so he could make them some toast.

Tony didn't go far – he just hovered in the doorway, hair still sticking up on end. After a couple of minutes he sidled back in, and then he followed Gibbs around the kitchen.

Gibbs knew what was going on here – he'd taken Tony right down, and that left a sub feeling vulnerable. He had expected Tony might need some physical reassurance after an experience that intense.

It was strange seeing Tony like this, without his usual teasing mask. He wasn't saying much – in fact he seemed uncharacteristically subdued and Gibbs would have been worried about him if it wasn't for the way those green eyes were glowing.

Gibbs made a pile of toast and put it on a plate, then added it to the tray with their coffee. They went and sat down at the table and Gibbs took a bite of his toast and then held it out to Tony, without a second thought. Tony gazed at him for a second, a tiny hint of a question in his eyes. Gibbs waved the toast at him impatiently and Tony grinned, and took a bite, and then they ate it companionably.

Gibbs didn't give a damn about any sharing-a-plate rituals – all that crap about getting down on one knee and asking a sub to share your plate, or buying some fancypants big plate and presenting it to the object of your affection in a romantic setting. Tony shared his bed so of course he'd share his plate as well. No need to dress it up and have everyone send them those dumbass Hallmark cards about it. Tony was his, so he'd feed him; simple as that.

"We don't have to go anywhere today, do we?" Tony asked as they ate.

"Thought you were eager to do some sightseeing?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow. It was late afternoon – still time to do something if they wanted.

"Not today. I can't talk to anyone today, if that's okay. I just want to be here, alone, with you," Tony said.

Gibbs nodded. Tony looked as if he'd undergone some kind of transformation. His eyes were still glowing, and there was a stillness to him that Gibbs had never seen before. He knew Tony was still deep in his sub-space and taking him anywhere today would be an act of cruelty.

"Sure," Gibbs said. "Rodney said something about some movies he's uploaded onto the Atlantis mainframe. Haven't a clue how to work that but I could call him and find out."

"Okay." Tony didn't look remotely interested in the prospect of watching a movie, which really wasn't like him. He took another bite of the toast Gibbs was holding out.

"I'll go down to the cafeteria later and bring back some proper food," Gibbs said. Tony's eyes flashed with anxiety and Gibbs could have kicked himself – it'd been so long since he'd taken a sub this far down that he'd forgotten how it could be. Tony wouldn't want him to be out of his sight for awhile yet. "Correction – I'll call someone and ask them to deliver room service," he said.

"They do that?" Tony frowned. "It's not a hotel."

"They'll do it if I ask," Gibbs replied firmly.

"So…what happens when we go home?" Tony asked, that spike of anxiety still there, in his eyes.

"You move into my place. Consider yourself chained to my bed from now on – figuratively speaking," Gibbs said, with a little grin. "After I've claimed a sub, I don't like sleeping in an empty bed - ever. Besides, I want you naked and available whenever I'm in the mood to take you."

Tonys moved his head down at that, and rubbed it against Gibbs's free hand, looking for a stroke. Gibbs felt winded – this boy was so beautifully submissive he'd be the death of him. He ran his hand obligingly through Tony's short hair, smoothing out all the bedhead spikes. Tony leaned into his hand like a cat, and Gibbs thought he could never get enough of stroking him.

He got up and Tony followed him immediately, as he'd known he would. Gibbs cleared the table and then ordered Tony to kneel beside him in the kitchen to keep him in one place and avoid tripping over him while he did the dishes. Tony was so zoned out that he leaned his head against Gibbs's thigh while he worked, and Gibbs couldn't resist reaching down and stroking his soft hair every so often. He could imagine that when Tony wasn't this far down he would protest at being ordered to kneel in one place for any length of time but right now Tony was eating out of his hand.

He clicked his fingers and Tony got up and followed hard on his heels out into the living area. Gibbs sat down on the couch and pulled Tony down beside him. Tony saw the laptop on the coffee table, the data-stick still sticking out of it, and frowned.

"Evidence?" he asked.

"Yeah. I was checking up on something yesterday," Gibbs replied.

"What kind of something?" Tony asked.

"Just some footage Jordan took that I wanted to check."

Tony stiffened. "Footage from in the room?" he asked. Gibbs could have kicked himself for laying himself wide open to that one.

"No," he said carefully. "Footage from when he shot Tim."

"Right." Tony nodded. "You have footage from inside the room though, don't you?"

Gibbs sighed. "Yes, we do," he said. "It was all captured on the Atlantis servers and transferred to data sticks for us to take home and file as evidence on this case."

"Who did the transfer? McGee?" Tony's shoulders were tight and tense. Gibbs put a hand on them and felt them relax, immediately, beneath his caress.

"No – Rodney Sheppard did it. The only people who have seen that evidence are the people who were there, or the people who already saw it as it was happening. Nobody else," Gibbs reassured him. "Tony – it might help if you told them about it - Ziva and Tim? They're on the team after all."

"Not yet." Tony shook his head. "Have you watched it?"

"No." Gibbs felt his gut tighten. "I already saw it once – that was enough."

"I haven't seen it," Tony said.

"No, and I don't think it's a good idea you do see it, either," Gibbs told him.

"Okay," Tony said, and Gibbs wondered if he’d said that too fast and too easily.

Gibbs called Rodney, and between them he and Tony figured out how to pull up a list of movies from the Atlantis mainframe movie library on the laptop.

"I always knew I'd miss the McGeek one of these fine days," Tony said, after Rodney talked them through it the third time, in tones of growing impatience. "Where is he anyhow? And, more importantly, who is he with?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I guess you'll find out – in time," Gibbs told him, with a grin. He put his feet up on the couch and pulled Tony between his open legs. Tony's large frame settled effortlessly against Gibbs's body. Gibbs loved the lack of awkwardness, and the way Tony responded so readily to his non-verbal commands. Their bodies were in tune with each other, fitting seamlessly together. Tony's naked back rested against his chest, and Tony's head fitted easily in the space between his shoulder and his neck. He put an arm around Tony's body and stroked his bare chest idly with his fingers.

"Better than working on the boat?" Tony asked, glancing up at him.

"Oh yeah. Working on you is definitely better than working on the boat!" Gibbs chuckled.

He clicked the mouse and pulled up the list of available movies, then scrolled down.

"Oh, I think it has to be that one, don't you?" he said, pointing.

"The Wrath of Khan?" Tony wriggled happily between his legs. "You sure, Jethro? Doesn't sound like your kind of thing."

"You kidding? I have to check out the competition," Gibbs snorted. "Ricardo Montalban?" he whispered in Tony's ear. His fingers found Tony's nipple and he squeezed, a bit too hard. Tony convulsed against him, laughing.

"Oh he's nowhere near as hot as you, Jethro," Tony said. "Trust me."

"That's what I like to hear, boy," he said, with another squeeze.

Gibbs wasn't all that interested in the movie, although he could see why a teenage Tony had had the hots for the eponymous Khan, all blazing muscles and dark, toppy looks, with a kind of cultured arrogance that a young sub might find attractive.

Gibbs had never been all that into movies, although he guessed he was going to have to start sitting through a damn sight more of them now he had taken this particular sub into his bed. The movie wasn't important though – what made the experience so pleasurable was lying on the couch with a naked, compliant, utterly submissive Tony DiNozzo in his arms.

They watched the movie, ate the dinner Gibbs managed to talk one of the kitchen staff into delivering, and then watched another movie. Tony followed him around whenever he moved – even into the bathroom.

Gibbs loved these first few hours after taking a sub deep into their own sub-space. There was so much gentle bonding – it was like taming a wild animal, making them yours forever, and he realised his touch was as sure with Tony as it had been when he'd first collared Shannon. The subsequent three spouses, when he'd got it spectacularly wrong because he didn't really love them, were now just bad memories.

He made sure to kiss Tony deeply and often, and touched him intimately, without asking, just as frequently. He stroked Tony's ass, pinched his nipples, fingered his cock, cupped his balls, ran his hands over Tony's bare skin, and touched his lips to his body incessantly for the rest of the day. Submission wasn't always easy, and Tony needed to know that his body was no longer his own – it belonged to Gibbs now, to touch as often as he liked, in any way he liked. Tony didn't seem to struggle with that concept at all. Gibbs had known subs who found the transition from autonomous, private person, to collared submissive pretty damn hard; it wasn't easy to suddenly belong to another person, and to surrender your body to them. Accepting that your own body was now the sexual plaything of another person and out of your control was a hard mental shift to make, even for a born submissive. That was why Gibbs liked to take his subs right down the first time he bedded them, and give them a taste of how good it could be if they surrendered, unconditionally, from the outset. He knew some tops liked to go slow and sometimes that was appropriate, depending on the sub, but he'd always thought that it often wasn't the kindness it was intended to be. Far better to overwhelm a sub in the first few hours, and then bring them slowly up to the surface, supporting them all the way, than prolong the taking down over several weeks, giving them a false expectation of what life as his collared sub was going to be like.

By the time they went to bed a few hours later, Tony was so relaxed, and so sensitised to his touch, that it was an easy matter for Gibbs to pull him close, slide his hard cock into Tony's open, willing body, and make love to him sweetly and tenderly before they both fell fast asleep.

~*~

Tony woke with a start. He was lying on his side, his head resting on Gibbs’s shoulder, his arm slung across Gibbs’s stomach. Both Gibbs’s arms were loosely cradled around him, and it felt good. He moved his head and glanced at Gibbs’s watch. The illuminated dial told him it was twelve minutes past three. He lay there for a moment, contemplating what he intended to do.

Something in his gut told him that Gibbs was right, and he shouldn’t do this, but something else was insistent. He *had* to do this. He wished he was back in that place he’d been in a few short hours ago, when the only thing he *had* to do was stay in constant physical contact with his top. He had never experienced his own sub-space so deeply before and he wished it was a place he could stay in permanently. Things had been much simpler when all that mattered was being as close to Gibbs as possible, leaning into each caress, and wanting only to be petted and held.

It was a wrench to leave the circle of Gibbs’s arms, and slide out from under the sheets. Gibbs shifted, and moaned.

“Tony?” he muttered, half-asleep.

“Just going to the bathroom, Jethro,” Tony lied.

He got up, and tiptoed towards the door. He passed the armchair on the way and snagged his jeans, soundlessly. He was good at sneaking around – he’d been doing it his whole life and knew how to move almost as soundlessly as Gibbs when he really put his mind to it.

He went into the living room and shut the door quietly behind him. Then he pulled on his jeans and glanced around. Gibbs had to be storing the evidence from the case somewhere – question was, where? He could have stowed it in one of the now empty bedrooms that the other team members had occupied but Tony suspected the most obvious place was the little sitting room off to one side that Ducky had made his own when they first arrived.

He moved quietly over to the room, and silently opened the door and then closed it behind him. He turned the dimmer on the light down low before switching it on, and then glanced around. He’d been right; the room was full of boxes, all neatly labelled, just the way Gibbs liked them. He found some of their gear over to one side and located a flashlight, and then turned off the main light – it was a risk to have turned it on in the first place. Then he used the flashlight to go through the boxes. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. There was a box full of neatly labelled data sticks. He found the one he was looking for and then left the room, as silently as he had entered it.

He went over to the coffee table and placed the data stick in the laptop, then sat down on the couch in front of it. He turned the sound down low, paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and then pointed the mouse at the screen.

“Okay, let’s do this, Tony,” he whispered.

~*~

Gibbs rolled over and reached for his sub, only to find the bed empty. Judging by how cold that side of the bed was it had been empty for some time. Gibbs glanced at the bathroom door but there was no light shining beneath it. His gut tightened and he knew, immediately, that something was wrong.

He got up, pulled on his sweatpants and tee shirt, reached for his gun, and then edged cautiously over to the door. He could hear faint noises in the lounge – noises he didn’t like the sound of. Gibbs raised his gun, opened the door silently, looked outside, and then sighed, and lowered his gun again.

Tony was sitting on the couch, bare feet resting on the coffee table, knees bent, his arms around his legs, staring at the laptop in front of him. He was wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. It was just starting to get light outside, and Gibbs could see that Tony was no longer in that sweet headspace he’d been in the previous evening. Now his face was drawn and pale, his eyes transfixed by what he was viewing – and Gibbs had no doubt at all what that was.

“Oh Tony,” Gibbs said, shaking his head.

Tony glanced up. “Sorry,” he said quietly. “But I had to see it for myself. Memory of that day is kind of hazy…and I wanted to see what everyone else saw – know how bad it was.”

Gibbs walked over to the couch and dropped down on it beside his sub. He removed the cartridge from his gun and placed them both on the table.

“Scared I’ll do something stupid?” Tony asked.

“No.” Gibbs shook his head. “You don’t have my permission to do anything *that* stupid,” he growled. “Ever. Got me?”

“Yeah. Not my style anyway. I fast-forwarded through some of it but I’m just getting to the good bit,” Tony said, nodding at the laptop. “Jordan just came into the room.”

Gibbs glanced at the screen – it was as he remembered it, the stuff of nightmares, and he’d give good money not to have to watch it again but he damn well wasn’t going to let Tony watch it alone. Tony paused the picture and turned to glance at him.

“You going to make me turn it off?” he asked.

“No.” Gibbs shook his head.

“You angry I snuck out here to watch it?”

“No. You and I are going to have a little chat about you lying to me though,” Gibbs said. Tony looked confused. “You said you were going to the head,” Gibbs reminded him.

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. You gonna spank me for that?” he asked.

‘Never lie to the boss’ was rule number one in Gibbs’s long list of rules for his subs and he’d been drumming it into Tony for five years – but in fact it was the rule Tony had the least problem with. Gibbs didn’t think his sub had lied to him very often in all that time – not to get out of trouble anyway. Tony didn’t have a problem with taking the consequences of his actions – he might be disobedient on occasion but he usually owned up to it and took what was coming without complaint.

“No, I’m not going to spank you for that,” Gibbs told him, wondering if he was going soft in his old age. But he’d had to terminate the sessions with Dr Heightmeyer out of respect for the poor woman’s sanity, and Tony clearly had unfinished business here. He trusted Tony’s instincts – if he thought he needed to see this then he did, and maybe it would help both of them finally put this behind them. “I might spank you for doing this alone though. You should have woken me up, Tony.”

“Sorry. Thought you might not let me watch it if I asked.” Tony shrugged.

“For the record – that’s never a good reason for not keeping me in the loop,” Gibbs told him tersely. “But this is your call.” Gibbs gazed at Tony thoughtfully. “If you need to do it then we’ll do it. Together.”

“I get these flashes,” Tony explained. “And sometimes I’m not sure what’s real and what I’m hallucinating. I thought the room was under water at one point but it looks like that bit wasn’t real.” He gave a haunted little grin.

“It wasn’t,” Gibbs confirmed.

“And you heard all this stuff? Me raving on about my childhood and how I felt about you and all that shit to Rodney?”

“Yeah.”

“I called you a cold-hearted bastard,” Tony said.

“I know. I deserved it,” Gibbs replied.

Tony gazed at him thoughtfully, and then nodded. He glanced back at the screen, and pointed the mouse at it again.

Gibbs hoped he’d be able to handle this, but at the same time he knew he didn’t have any choice. Tony needed to do this and Gibbs wasn’t going to let him do it alone. What had he once said to Ziva? That a good top put the needs of their sub before their own? He had always tried to live by that rule and he wasn’t going to stop now. This was a sub worth going through hell for – and besides, he owed Tony.

Jordan was pacing the room, talking at the camera. Gibbs could hear his own replies, out of shot. Tony watched, his half naked body stiff and still. Gibbs put a hand on his sub’s neck, and gently stroked the soft, bare skin as they watched.

“You like keeping him on edge, you like making him work hard for your approval,” Jordan was saying. "When you give it to him it’s in these grudging little morsels that always leave him wanting more because it’s never quite enough, is it?”

“It helps him stay good at his job,” he heard himself reply. “I get the best out of him that way.”

Gibbs felt his hand tighten, involuntarily, on Tony’s neck.

“You’ve been playing me a long time, Jethro,” Tony said quietly.

“Yeah, I know,” Gibbs replied. He deserved that.

“And is it always about the job? Or is it sometimes more personal?”

There was an agonisingly long pause, and then, without warning, Jordan reached out and landed a smacking backhand on Tony’s jaw.

Beside him Tony jumped, startled. “Should have answered up sooner there, Jethro,” he muttered.

“I was thinking about it,” Gibbs growled. He could feel the stiffness in Tony’s bare shoulders, beneath his hand. He wondered if either of them would be able to survive watching this through to the end but he also knew they had to get it out of the way, or it would stay with them forever.

“He’s besotted with you and you’ve been cruel to this boy, Gibbs, keeping him on edge when you could have taken him to your bed and given him what he wants. Instead you made him work for it, didn’t you? You made him work for everything - every word of praise, every fond look, and every smile. I almost feel sorry for him.”

Gibbs felt as if he’d been hit in the face with his own shortcomings, and it hurt. It especially hurt now, after having taken Tony to his bed and making him surrender to him so completely and so sweetly. He felt like a total bastard.

Tony was chewing on his lip, thoughtfully, not saying a word. Gibbs winced, and wondered what was going on in his sub’s mind. Maybe this would be the shortest-lived collaring in his life, and Tony would fling that brand new collar back in his face by the time they’d finished watching.

On the screen, Jordan delivered another backhander to Tony in retaliation for Gibbs looking away.

“In my defence, that was damn hard to watch,” Gibbs muttered.

Tony didn’t say a word. They watched as Jordan untied Tony and Tony made a clumsy pass at him, stealing the keys to Rodney’s chains in the process.

“There – see,” Tony pointed. “I did good there, boss.”

“Tony, you’re the best agent I have,” Gibbs told him. “I knew you’d pull something out of that situation, however bad it looked.” He got the feeling this point was important. Jordan had stolen something from Tony that day, and Tony hadn’t yet been able to get it back, whatever it was. That was what this was about.

Jordan was throwing Tony down now, and licking the back of his neck.

“Eew.” Tony wriggled his shoulders, dislodging Gibbs’s hand in the process.

They watched as Rodney tried to knock Jordan out with the chain, and Jordan slammed it into the scientist’s forehead. Now it was Tony’s turn to wince.

“Poor Rodney. He should’ve just run,” he said.

“I knew he wouldn’t.” Gibbs shook his head.

“Wish I’d been nicer to him, you know, back when we first got here. Accusing him of murdering Keller was a really dumb move on my part,” Tony sighed.

“We all have our blind spots,” Gibbs replied. Then he tensed. “I really don’t like this next bit,” he said.

Tony scrunched up his shoulders and gripped his knees more tightly as onscreen Jordan undid his belt and drew it out of his pants. The blow landed, and the sound of Tony’s scream sliced through the air. Tony jumped, visibly, re-living the moment when that first blow had hit his shoulders. Gibbs wanted to slam his hand down on the laptop and put an end to this, and it took every ounce of his self-control to stop himself doing just that.

“Please, Jordan. I’m begging you. You want me to say I’m sorry about Ducky – I will. Anything you want, I’ll say it. You’re the big dom here, Jordan, not me. You’ve won. I’m sorry. Just don’t hurt him again. Please.”

Tony glanced at Gibbs. “You apologised?” he said, one eyebrow raised. “Sign of weakness you know,” he added, and Gibbs was relieved to hear the hint of mischief in his voice.

“I’d have done anything at that point to make it stop. I’d do anything, right now, to make it stop as well,” Gibbs growled.

“Not yet.” Tony turned back to the screen.

Gibbs didn’t remember the beating going on this long before but now it seemed to stretch on for hours. Tony looked like something that had been chewed up and spat out; naked, half-dead, his shoulders covered in welts as Jordan whipped him mercilessly with the buckle end of his belt.

Gibbs felt his hands tightening into fists. He wanted to go out there, find Jordan, and slam his knife into him all over again.

“Easy,” Tony murmured, glancing at him again. They stared at each other for a moment, and Gibbs knew, with a sudden flash of insight, that he’d met his match in this sub. Tony was making him take something, the way he’d made Tony take something yesterday – and he was getting a glimpse of that inner steel that Tony usually kept so well hidden.

“Back then – I thought he’d broken you at this point,” Gibbs said, pointing at the screen, where Jordan had dispensed with his belt and was now groping Tony’s ass. He felt like he was going to be physically sick at the sight of it.

“Only person who could ever break me would be you, Jethro,” Tony told him, and they stared at each other again. Gibbs exhaled slowly, and nodded.

“I know,” he said softly. “Won’t ever happen,” he added.

Tony nodded back at him. “I believe you,” he said.

Tony’s face now filled the screen as he gazed desperately into the camera and he seemed to be talking straight at them.

“I don’t know why you came for me in person and not the others, but I’m guessing it was a bluff to throw him off the scent. So tell him the truth. Tell him it doesn’t matter to you, tell him *I* don’t matter to you.”

“Can’t do that, Tony,” came back Gibbs’s reply. “He already knows it’s not true.”

“But it is…”

“No. No, it isn’t. I love you, Tony. I’ve loved you since the minute you walked into that interview room in that crumpled shirt, and shot me that stupid DiNozzo smile - the one you think charms all the tops. Didn’t work on me, but the eyes did. That expression in your eyes – the one you can’t fake, the one that made me want to slam you down on the table and make you understand who you belong to. You’ve been pushing me for a long time, Tony, but you didn’t need to. You had me all along.”

“Then why…?”

“I wasn’t ready. Sorry, Tony.”

“Never say you’re sorry – sign of weakness.”

“Not with you.”

Tony turned to face him.

“That was the bit I wanted to see,” he said. “I couldn’t remember it properly and I wanted to make sure I had it right.”

“You had it right, Tony,” Gibbs said softly, looking down at his hands. He understood now why they were doing this, and why it was necessary that they did this. Tony reached out, put a finger under his chin, and raised his face so that he was looking at him.

“You said sorry,” Tony said. “And you said it to me.”

Gibbs managed a faint grin. “First time for everything,” he muttered.

“We could have done this five years’ ago, you know,” Tony said, fingering his collar. “You made me wait a long time, Jethro.”

“You already know what a stubborn bastard I am,” Gibbs reminded him. “Besides – you hid the truth from me all that time, Tony. I was just thinking about how little you’ve lied to me but all the time you were hiding one great big lie.”

“And did you believe that lie?” Tony asked.

Gibbs hesitated, and then shook his head. “No,” he replied.

“You’re right about one thing – you are a bastard,” Tony told him.

“I never said I wasn’t,” Gibbs sighed. “Got three ex-spouses say the exact same thing. You gonna make it four?”

“We’re not married and you don’t get rid of me that easily,” Tony told him tersely.

Gibbs felt out of his depth. He never had been good at dealing with these kind of complicated emotions and Tony…Tony was surprisingly adept at it; more adept than Gibbs would have suspected.

Tony turned back to the screen, where Jordan had his pants open and his hands were pulling at Tony’s ass, seeking entry. It was too much for him. Gibbs fought down a wave of nausea and shot up, strode over to the wall, and slammed his hand against it, unable to watch.

Tony watched though. Gibbs could hear the sounds playing out behind him, could hear Tony’s rasping breathing and Jordan’s sickening panting as he tried to rape him.

“This is the bit I don’t remember,” Tony said. “Wow – you guys just appeared from nowhere…and...oh. Right.” He fell silent. Gibbs heard his own voice, low and chilling.

“Nobody hurts what’s mine and lives. And Tony DiNozzo is mine.”

He heard the knife go in, and Jordan’s agonised scream as he twisted it, slowly, once, then twice. Then a crack and a thud as Sheppard broke the man’s neck and dumped him on the floor like the trash he was. Then silence.

He heard Tony get up, and come over to him, and then he was being turned around and a pair of green eyes was too close.

“So, you say you’ve been in love with me since you first met me?” Tony said.

“Yeah.” Gibbs gazed at his bare feet, knowing exactly what was coming next.

“And how long have you known I was in love with you?” Tony asked quietly. Gibbs didn’t reply. “How long, Jethro?” Tony insisted, banging the wall beside Gibbs’s head with a hard slap of his hand, an interrogation technique he’d learned from his top – all too well it seemed.

“About the same amount of time,” Gibbs admitted. He raised his chin, offering it up, waiting for Tony to hit him. He deserved it, and he’d take it if Tony wanted to dish it out. Tony just gazed at him, and Gibbs realised he'd never seen Tony lose his temper. He wasn't seeing it now, either. Tony didn't let off steam the same way Gibbs did – he just went quiet and intense when he was feeling angry.

“Maybe not consciously,” Gibbs continued, in a hoarse tone. “But I knew in my gut. I made excuses the whole time, but I knew, and yes, Tony, I used it to motivate you, and get the best out of you on the job, and I knew I was doing that, even if I never admitted it to myself.”

Tony stood back, but that intense gaze didn’t let up. “So why didn’t you say anything before now, Jethro?”

“Because I didn’t want to hurt you,” Gibbs admitted, the honesty searing his voice. “And because I didn’t want to get hurt by you. Losing Shannon damn near killed me, Tony. I didn’t think I was ever going to be ready to risk feeling that way again.”

“And what changed your mind?”

“That.” Gibbs pointed at the screen. “When I realised it didn’t make any difference whether I slept with you or not – losing you hurt just as much all the same. Even then…” He hesitated, and then ploughed on. "Even then…afterwards, I thought it might be kinder to let you go. You didn't need my collar any more, and I thought about setting you free so you could find someone else."

"That's why you didn't collar me again immediately afterwards?" Tony asked.

"Partly – I wouldn't have done it until you were well in any case, but yeah. I didn't know if I *should* collar you again." Gibbs rubbed his jaw. "Like you so accurately pointed out, Tony – I can be a stubborn bastard. I wanted you so bad it hurt, and the more time we spent together while you were getting well again, and the more times we went out on that damn pier and talked – well, I was just falling in even deeper."

Tony gazed at him speculatively, as if figuring something out in his head. “You know, ever since I’ve known you you’ve been the big, bad top, Jethro. Right from the beginning, you’ve held all the cards. I was just the little puppy yapping at your heels, desperate for attention, and that’s how you played me, for a long time.”

“I know.” Gibbs wrapped his arms around his body – this was hard to take, but he deserved it – all of it.

“I need to see the man beneath the top,” Tony said, in a low, determined voice.

Gibbs looked down again, his own eyes glassy. Tony took hold of his head, and forced him to look up.

“That’s what I saw in that video,” Tony whispered. “The real man. The real Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and that’s who I’m seeing right now. It’s nice to know that you fuck up just like the rest of us – and god knows I fuck up often enough. I need to know you *feel* something in here,” he said, moving one hand and placing it over Gibbs’s heart. “I wasn’t sure. Even after yesterday, which was fantastic on so many levels, I still wasn’t sure. It still seemed like I was the one doing all the giving, and you were like you always are – in charge and in control, just taking everything out of me and never letting me know what’s going on inside you. I wasn’t sure if you weren’t just playing me still, because you’re so damn good at what you do. I had to see that footage for myself, see how you really feel – those feelings you keep locked away and out of sight.”

“Well, you sure as hell saw,” Gibbs growled. “You’re seeing now, Tony.”

“I need to know,” Tony said insistently, his voice breaking slightly. “I need to *know* that you came to get me because you really do love me, and not because I was the only one nobody else wanted to rescue.”

That was when Gibbs saw it – the vulnerability that Tony kept so well hidden, and which he'd only seen in glimpses these past five years, before yesterday, when Tony had finally opened up to him and shown him who he really was, deep inside. This was a sub who hated being vulnerable around tops – who had spent his entire life avoiding being vulnerable around tops. Then Jordan had come along and made him weak, causing Tony to confess emotions he'd kept to himself for so long, making him feel exposed.

What Jordan had started, Gibbs had finished. Gibbs had taken Tony right down into his sub-space and forced him to give it all up to him, and now Tony had just seen on that tape that Gibbs had been playing him for years. No wonder he was scared right now, and more vulnerable than ever. If there was ever a time for honesty, it was now. He had to *make* Tony understand, somehow, that whatever Jordan had stolen from him, Gibbs would give back – all of it, and more. He'd give this sub standing in front of him everything he had.

“I couldn’t have stood losing any of you,” Gibbs said, and his voice sounded rough and husky to his own ears. “Not Tim and not Abby…but you least of all, Tony. If I’d lost you, I knew I couldn’t come back from that. I didn’t intend to. I already told Ducky that if you died, I wasn’t coming back.”

Tony's eyes were intense as they gazed at him, and even then Gibbs wasn't sure he'd done enough to convince him. Tony put his hands on Gibbs's shoulders and pushed him back against the wall, and Gibbs allowed him to do it, his heart pounding almost painfully in his chest.

"Who are you, Jethro?" Tony asked, his fingers digging into Gibbs's arms. "Who are *you* really? If we're going to have a future together, I need to know the answer to that question."

"I'm yours, Tony. I'll live for you, I'll kill for you and I'll die for you. That's who I am," Gibbs said hoarsely.

Tony gazed at him for a long time, trying to read the truth of that in Gibbs's eyes. Then, he pulled back. Abruptly. Gibbs felt as if he’d been torn apart, and he wasn’t sure what it would take to put him back together again.

“You leaving, Tony?” he asked. Plenty of subs had walked out on him before – one of his three ex-spouses had taken a baseball bat to him on her way out. He wasn’t sure what he did to them to piss them off so much but he did know they had all found him utterly exasperating.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Tony replied. “But here’s the thing – I won’t be one of those subs who rolls over whenever you bark. I’ll get in your face, Jethro, just like this, whenever I think you need it. I told you yesterday that I can handle you, and I can, but you might not like it. You’re my top, yes, but if this is going to work between us then we have to be equals. And just because you’ve got a few years on me and you’re my boss – don’t make the mistake of thinking I’ll let you get away with any of that with-holding crap you do so well.”

Gibbs wrapped his arms even tighter around his body. He remembered having a stand-up, blazing row with Shannon because she got in his face and called him on something, and she’d won that row, hands down. Now Tony was winning this one, and somewhere, deep inside, Gibbs was glad he’d found a sub who’d fight him for possession of his own soul. Nobody had done that since Shannon.

“You’ve been locked up inside yourself for years,” Tony said. “Now you have to learn to share, Jethro. Think you can do that?”

Gibbs gazed at him. “Don’t think you’ll give me a choice,” he muttered, with a tired smile.

Tony smiled back at him, and then came over, unwrapped Gibbs’s arms from around his body, and replaced them with his own. His sub’s body felt hard and warm and so damn comforting. Gibbs buried his face in Tony’s neck and inhaled his scent like a drowning man breathing in oxygen.

“That bit where you told Jordan I was yours?” Tony whispered in Gibbs’s ear.” That was totally hot. And the bit where you slid your knife into that bastard’s gut? Thank you for that, Jethro.”

Gibbs held on tight, relishing the feel of his sub’s naked back beneath his fingers. “I love you, Tony,” he whispered. “Not as a pet, or a plaything, or a pretty trophy sub. I love *you*.”

“I know,” Tony said. “And I love you too, Jethro. Not as a fantasy top, or a daddy substitute, or someone to take me into sub-space and make me fly. I love *you*.”

Tony pulled back, took hold of his hand, and led him towards the bedroom. Gibbs felt like he was in some kind of weird movie, and he shook his head, laughing softly.

“What?” Tony asked.

“Just thinking – Ducky said I needed saving and I thought I’d be the one doing that,” Gibbs told him. “Never thought it would be you.”

“You just don’t like having the tables turned on you,” Tony grinned, pushing him down on the bed. Gibbs grabbed his wrist, and gently kissed the deep scars still on it from Jordan’s cuffs.

“Careful, boy - I’m still your top,” he said, and then he pulled, hard, and Tony fell down on top of him, with a startled squawk. Gibbs stole the sound from his mouth with a deep, lingering kiss.

Tony pushed him back onto the bed, and Gibbs looked up into those teasing green eyes.

“You ever think of marrying again?” Tony asked, almost conversationally.

“Why? You asking?” Gibbs moved his shoulder, knocking Tony’s arm out from under him. Gibbs flipped himself out and was on top of Tony in an instant. “You can get in my face all you like, but never try and out-top me, boy,” he said, grinning down on his sub.

“Oh come on! Nobody’s ever out-topped you, Jethro and nobody ever could,” Tony replied, rolling his eyes. “And no, I’m not asking. I’ve got your collar and that’s enough for me. I was never a great fan of marriage. My dad married four times and it never worked out for him.”

Gibbs gazed at him steadily, and Tony gave a little grimace. “So, his first spouse died, and his three subsequent marriages ended in divorce…but he’s really, *really* nothing like you, Jethro.”

“I know.” Gibbs lowered his head and bit Tony’s ear, gently, just the way his sub liked. “He didn’t have the good sense to keep you around – I did,” he said.

He liked the way Tony’s eyes glowed at that.

“No need to make it official unless you want to,” Gibbs whispered, his mouth roving over Tony’s naked chest, licking, sucking and nibbling as he went. “We can keep it just between ourselves.”

He worked his way upwards, and traced a line of kisses along Tony’s jaw, remembering where every single bruise had been, and kissing each spot.

“I, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, take you, Anthony Daniel DiNozzo to be my wedded husband,” he said, never taking his eyes off Tony’s face. Tony went very still beneath him, gazing up at him, transfixed.

“To protect and to cherish,” Gibbs whispered, knowing the traditional vows backwards. He propped himself up on one elbow, and stroked his fingers through Tony’s dark hair.

“To respect and to discipline…” Gibbs moved his fingers over Tony’s naked chest, spidering over his nipples, gently caressing them.

“To love and to care for…” He kissed Tony’s collarbone, and Tony moaned and arched up into him.

“For better for worse…” He kissed Tony’s throat, and then sucked on his neck.

“For richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part,” he whispered, finishing up at Tony’s mouth, and kissing his sub deeply and tenderly. Tony was like a cat beneath him, his body relaxed and compliant.

He kissed him for a long time, savouring the delicious taste of his sub’s mouth, and the eagerness with which Tony welcomed him in. Then, without warning, Tony moved and suddenly Gibbs found himself on his back, and Tony was now on top of him.

Tony pinned his hands to the bed, above his head, just as Gibbs had pinned him the previous day, and straddled him, knees on either side of his body. Gibbs grinned up at him. Tony was big and heavy but even so he knew he could easily flip him off if he wanted. He also knew that Tony knew that but they were both enjoying the moment so Gibbs stayed where he was.

“I, Anthony Daniel DiNozzo, take you, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, to be my wedded husband,” Tony told him, holding him there, never taking his eyes off him. Those green eyes, usually so teasing, were now deadly serious, and it was clear he really wanted Gibbs to hear this. “To trust and submit, to respect and to serve, to love and to obey, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, til death do us part.”

Gibbs moved his hands and grabbed Tony, wrapped his arms around his sub’s body and pulled him down on top of him for another deep kiss. Tony came, as willing and compliant as any top could wish for, submissive to his bones as he’d always said.

Gibbs ripped at his jeans, needing to get them off him.

“Hey, favourite jeans,” Tony protested feebly.

“Don’t care,” Gibbs said, pulling the button free and releasing the zip. He managed to tear the jeans bodily from Tony’s legs and then Tony launched himself at him and made short work of his own tee shirt and sweatpants.

The lube appeared in Tony’s hands, and Gibbs just as quickly managed to slick it into Tony’s hole.

They were both too impatient to go slow; Gibbs flipped Tony onto his front, rammed a pillow beneath him, grabbed his hips, and entered him in one smooth, quick motion. Tony gasped, and Gibbs moved his hips back and slammed into him again, loving the little animal noises Tony was making as he thrust into him. He got into a rhythm, and Tony moved his hips back in time to Gibbs’s inward thrusts, joyfully meeting each stroke of his hard cock.

Then they were moving as one, bodies synchronised in perfect time as they made love. Gibbs loved looking down on Tony’s smooth, golden skin, loved running his hands along Tony’s haunches as he rode him, loved the way Tony was panting, his head half-turned to look at Gibbs over his shoulder, his dark hair spiky and wayward, his eyes heavy-lidded and full of pleasure, his wide, mobile mouth half-open, his tongue wetting the lips.

It was a beautiful sight, and Gibbs savoured it as he thrust into Tony’s warm, willing body. He kept going for as long as possible, holding on until the last moment so he could enjoy this. He had never thought he would find a sub to merge with, so perfectly, the way he was merging with Tony right now, bodies rising and falling in perfect harmony. He reached down under Tony’s body and found his hard cock, took it in his hand, and stroked in time to his inward thrusts. Tony was out of it now, and Gibbs knew it was only his hands on Tony’s body and his hard cock inside him that was keeping Tony upright. He gave one last, hard thrust, and then he was coming, shooting deep inside his sub’s body. He was blinded by white light, and was aware, hazily, of moisture on his hand and knew Tony had come too, and then he wasn’t sure of anything for several minutes.

When he came to, he found he was lying on Tony, still lodged deep inside him. He pulled out, ignoring Tony’s moan of protest, and took hold of his sub in his arms. Then he pulled the sheets up around them.

“Did we just get married?” Tony asked him, a bemused expression on his face.

“Yeah. We kind of did,” Gibbs replied. Not for real, because there had been no witnesses, but it had been real enough for the two of them. Gibbs had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long before he made those vows in front of a whole roomful of people, and made it official.

“Cool.” Tony kissed him lazily on the mouth, and then fell fast asleep in his arms.
~*~

End of Part Twenty
Friendly feedback adored!
Hiding in Plain Sight: Part Twenty-One