Recap from the previous chapter:

"Why would you father send men to hurt you?"

"Well, he's never been my biggest fan," Tony replied sarcastically.

"Why wouldn't they just kill you?"

"The woman who lives across the hall heard something and called the police. I think it was a way to prove

they'll make good on their threat."

Gibbs shook his head. "That won't happen, Tony."

Tony laughed at that. "It's too late."

"What do you mean 'it's too late,' Tony? What aren't you telling me?" Gibbs questioned rather harshly, the impatience and frustration in his voice palpable.

"Just that, Boss. They know where I live. They already got to me."

"This time. Just this time. We can stop them, Tony."

Tony became obviously irritated then. "No! No, we can't! There's nothing that can be done!"

Trying to diffuse his senior agent's anger, Gibbs lowered his voice. "Tony. We can do something, okay? I can do something."

"No! No one can do anything! Not even you."

"Why won't you trust me, Tony?"

"This isn't about trusting you!"

"Yeah? Then what is it about? Tell me what this is all about, Tony!"

Tony didn't respond at first, only giving a slight shake of his head.

"Tony."

"I - you-" Tony paused. "You can't fix this, Gibbs. Not this time."

"I can try."

Tony shook his head again. "What's the point?"

"What's the point? You're my senior field agent, DiNozzo!" Gibbs rubbed a rough, calloused hand down his face. "I care, Tony. I care."

Tony was silent for a long while before lifting his head to make eye contact with Gibbs. "Do you?" Tony's voice was soft and small, much like that of a scared child.

Gibbs was not a man who typically took the time to reassure others of things he thought to be self-evident, but this was different. Things with Tony were always different after all. "Yes. Do you think I'd be here if I didn't give a damn, DiNozzo?" The question may have sounded rough, but Gibbs knew more than anyone that sometimes you had to be rough with Tony. He just responded to it - years of programming from his father, no doubt.

Despite the angry façade Tony was actively trying to maintain, he couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped his lips at Gibbs's question. "No. No, I suppose not, Boss. You aren't exactly one to waste precious time that could be spent drinking bourbon from mason jars in a dimly lit basement while working on a boat."

Gibbs took no offense to the statement, knowing Tony defaulted to wit and humor when trying to handle a particularly difficult situation. "You're damn straight, DiNozzo."

"I'm sorry, Boss."

"Why?"

Tony was surprised at Gibbs's question. When Tony apologized to Gibbs it was always followed by a "never say you're sorry, DiNozzo" or a "don't you ever do that again" or very rarely a "it's okay, Tony" - but never a why. Gibbs had never cared why, why would he care now? Or perhaps it's not that he hadn't cared before, just that he had always known the reason for Tony's apologies.

"I - I just shouldn't have dragged you into this. It's not your problem. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."

"Dragged me into what exactly?"

Tony looked down at his blanket and began to fidget with its edge. "I don't know. This. All of this. You shouldn't even be here."

"Neither should you, Tony."

"It's - it's my fault, though."

"What exactly is your fault, Tony? That your father's a bastard? That he sent a couple of his goons out to harm his own son? That they hurt and scared you so badly that you wont let anyone help you? Which part of that is your fault, Tony?" By the end of his tirade, Gibbs's voice had raised significantly, causing Tony to flinch at the harshness of it.

" You're mad at me."

"I'm frustrated." Gibbs noticed Tony's frown deepen and his eyes screw tight for a few moments. "I'm not frustrated with you, Tony. I'm just concerned. Let me help you."

"I can't."

"Why not? And you better give me a damn good reason this time."

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me, DiNozzo."

"They said they'd kill me."

"I can stop that from happening, Tony. I can protect you. But this is only going to work if you tell me what I need to know."

"I just - I can't, Gibbs. I can't."

"Yes, yes, you can. Tony, you've gotta trust me. Let me help you. Please."

Gibbs never said please. It wasn't a rule of his, no, but it was a sort of unsaid guideline that he never drifted from. So when Gibbs said please, you did what he asked.

"What do you need to know?"

"Who were they?"

"I don't know."

"Tony."

"I swear, Gibbs. I didn't know those guys."

"How do you know you're father sent them?"

"They told me. They knew my name and everything. Told me my father sent them to 'chat.'"

"Walk me through what happened, Tony."

Tony exhaled heavily. I was sitting on my couch watching a rerun of Happy Days. Not my taste, but it's a Wednesday night, nothing's on. I was waiting for the pizza I delivered. There was a knock at my door and expecting the pizza guy, I thought nothing of it. I opened the door and one of the guys punched me in the face. I fell backwards. Not that it was that hard of a hit, but I was expecting a pizza, not a right hook. Before I could get up one of the other guys put a gun to my forehead, so I just stayed there, laying on my floor. At first they were just saying stuff."

"Saying what?"

"Um, just how my father sent them and how they were going to 'teach me a lesson' for being such a crappy son."

"Teach you a lesson by beating the crap out of you?"

"My father's always been quite inventive with his punishments. He certainly didn't lack creativity."

"Keep going, Tony."

"Right. So they were saying some stuff and then, I don't know. They just started kicking me and hitting me. I couldn't get up, not with the gun and there were too many hands."

"How many men were there?"

"Four at first. I heard a fifth one come in, I'm sure of it. Didn't see him, though. I had my eyes arms over my face."

"So after they beat you, what happened? They left?"

"No, one of them heard my neighbor calling the police. They knew they were running out of time, so they -" Tony broke off abruptly. "Yeah, they just left."

"You sure they 'just left,' Tony?"

Tony knew outright lying to Gibbs would not work in this situation, so he tried for a variant of the truth. "Well, there were some more punches thrown."

Gibbs didn't believe Tony - not at all - but he decided not to push him. Tony would come around in time. Gibbs just hoped it was before Tony fell apart.