This is the final chapter - thanks everyone for your comments. It's great to know when people enjoy a story! This story is also available at AO3. Also, I need to thank Combatcrazy for being my sounding board and coming up with bright ideas.

CHAPTER 5

All it would say is welcome home.

2 DAYS

Tony came in from work aching and exhausted. He'd chased a suspect several blocks before taking a header off a ten-foot retaining wall when he made a last-ditch effort to catch the guy. Jethro kissed all his bruises and gave Tony a massage that left him relaxed and moaning, and after they'd spent a while kissing, Tony asked, "Make love to me?"

Jethro prepared the room with his usual efficiency. Lights low, condoms and lube at the ready, towels and washcloths to one side. He even stripped with steady, measured movements, and helped Tony remove his clothes in the same manner. But when he joined Tony on the bed and laid his body against his, all heat and muscle, and he kissed Tony with so much love and passion, Tony trembled and whispered against his lips, "Love me."

When they came together, united in body, it wasn't all symphonic music and big romantic hearts, but the way Jethro treated him, with love and reverence, meant more to Tony than anything. When Jethro entered him it hurt like crazy even though Jethro was slow and careful and used plenty of lube. Tony made sure to encourage him and let him know, "This is good, so good," and soon he was stretched and full of Jethro's cock and being pounded like there was no tomorrow. Jethro's arms were tight around him, his chin digging sharply into Tony's chest every time he thrust hard, his bristles scraping his tender skin raw. Jethro fucked him, and licked and sucked and encompassed Tony completely, body and soul, until Tony shook and gasped and came so hard he thought he was going to die.

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1 DAY

How he dragged himself to the shower and shaved and got ready for work, Tony would never know. He hated getting called in on a case before dawn, but it was part of the life. He brushed the hair off his still-sleeping lover's forehead and kissed him tenderly. "I love you, Jethro," he said and then left.

The case dragged on all day and into the night, and the team got called out of town. Tony called Jethro's phone several times but he got no answer. After a few tries he figured that he hadn't remembered to recharge his cell. By the time Tony got back home, the sun had already risen over the city. Dead on his feet, Tony let himself in through the kitchen door, trying to be quiet, expecting that Jethro was still asleep. There were voices behind him and he turned to find his neighbors, Tim McGee and Abby approaching. "We have something to tell you," said Tim. "We'd better go inside."

‹•›‹•›‹•›

0 DAYS

"What do you mean he left?" Tony stood in the middle of his kitchen with his neighbors looking at him with blatant pity. Suddenly it sunk in and Tony's legs grew weak. "I have to sit down."

Abby was braver than her husband, apparently, because she stepped forward and laid a consoling hand on Tony's shoulder. "Yesterday morning, around midday, I saw Jethro going out to his truck. I just went over to say hello but as soon as I saw his face I knew something was wrong." She glanced at Tim and he encouraged her to continue. "I asked him where he was going and he looked so sad, you know? And he said he had to leave, that he had no choice."

Tony whispered, "That's all? Where was he going?" The question he really wanted to ask was why?

Neither Abby nor Tim had anything else to add so Tim made them a pot of coffee and he and Abby sat at the kitchen table with Tony. Every now and then Tony would ask them another question, but neither of them could help him, not when he had a broken heart. "He left me," he said to himself, wondering if he could get sick leave for a broken heart.

Abby asked, "What did he say in the note?"

Tony stared at her. "What note?"

"Doesn't everyone leave a note?" she asked.

Tim pointed out, "I think that only applies to suicides and even then they don't all leave notes."

"Timmy!"

"Well I wasn't inferring that Jethro was going to kill himself, Abby."

Abby turned her eyes to Tony. "So? Go look upstairs! See if he left you a note."

Tony was running upstairs before she finished talking. He looked everywhere, in the bed, under the pillow, in the bathroom, in all of the rooms and even in the kitchen cabinets and inside the can of coffee beans. Nothing. He dropped onto the couch in the living room, head in his hands, and tried not to cry. Damn it, and fuck you, Jethro, for giving me hope. You bastard you… Tony sniffed and reached for a tissue from the box sitting on the coffee table when he noticed the Magnum lunch box perched on the mantelpiece.

He was drawn to it and opened it with fumbling fingers. There, on top of the scraps of paper with their scribbled rules, and the old family photos, was a folded piece of paper. Tony could feel Tim and Abby's eyes upon him from where they stood in the doorway. He opened the paper and sure enough, it was a note from Jethro.

Tony,

I can't stick around. I'm sorry for that. And I never say I'm sorry but I think this is one rule I'll have to break.

Jethro

Tony had to go into the bathroom for some privacy and when he emerged he was surprised to see his neighbors still there.

Abby came forward and gave Tony a big hug and it helped a bit. She said, "Tony, we've been talking and Tim has some ideas how to track him down."

Tony looked from one sincere face to the other and said, "Hey, folks, that's really nice of you but–"

Tim cut him off. "If you don't go after that bastard and make him come back, then you deserve to wallow in self-pity, Tony."

"Hey!"

"No, I mean it. The same thing happened with me. When I met Abby I thought she's the one for me but I was too scared to do anything about it so I moped around and locked myself in my apartment and wrote Death by Pity."

"One of your best works," Abby said sincerely.

"Thanks, honey. But if you hadn't bullied your way into my house and slapped the back of my head..."

"Made you a ton of money, too," she pointed out.

"True…But Tony, don't you want to get him back?"

"Well, yeah. But how? I mean…" He hated to admit this but he had to 'fess up. "I don't know Jethro's last name."

Abby crossed her arms and said, "I thought you were a detective. Didn't he say anything about his background? Where he came from in all the hours you two spent together?"

"Not really," said Tony.

Tim questioned, "You didn't ask?"

Tony shrugged. "I didn't want to pry. Look, I got the impression he didn't want to talk about some things and when we were together we didn't talk about personal stuff. I don't talk about work if I can avoid it, and he didn't tell me about his past."

Abby smirked. "Besides, you were too busy handing him the right screwdriver, I'll bet."

"Abby!" Tim admonished.

"Oh, come on, Timmy, it was obvious they were having a hot time together and–"

"Okay!" Tony said quickly. "Let's concentrate on the problem, team, like how do we find out where my handyman has gone?"

Tim looked at Tony like he was an idiot. "I though you worked for NCIS? Can't you look the guy up on your computer or something? It's obvious he's military so he's probably in some handy database. You have that old photo, how about aging the features and facial recognition like IDENTICON? I mean, how many Jethros can there be?"

Abby squeezed Tim's arm. "I love it when you talk all geeky, Timmy."

Tony shook his head and said, "Sorry, folks but I can't access that software from here." Besides, it would raise all sorts of red flags. As Tony searched, the McGees gave him helpful suggestions, and some not so helpful, like checking out every coffee shop and diner within the metro area.

Tony said, "Wait a minute…he said his grandfather, the one who owned this house, owned a local store. He sold furniture."

Abby said excitedly, "So this was in the 1930s?"

"He ran it until he retired and moved to Pennsylvania. It was on King Street," Tony confirmed. He pulled his laptop out of his bag and sat on the couch, Abby on one side, Tim on the other. It didn't take long to find out through the local historical society archive that Gibbs' Home Furnishings had been located on King Street until it was sold in the 1980s. There was even a photo taken of all of the employees lined up out front of the store. In the center of about a dozen people was a gray-haired man who looked familiar. Tony said, "Look, this man looks just like Jethro!"

Abby read the caption. "Owner of Gibbs' Home Furnishings, Jebediah Roscoe Gibbs…" She looked at Tony, and asked, "J. R. Gibbs?"

"So Gramps' was J. R. Gibbs, and that makes my handyman Jethro Gibbs," Tony said. "Okay, this is a good start." Tony was able to access military service records and there he discovered Jethro Gibbs. "So Jethro is Gunnery Sergeant Leroy Jethro Gibbs. No wonder he never told me his full name," Tony muttered under his breath. Some more digging and he discovered more about his handyman lover, and it wasn't good. "Oh no," Tony exclaimed. "He's been on a 21-day leave because of a knee injury and he's shipping out…"

"Today," Abby and Tim said in unison.

They shoved Tony out the door with a travel mug of black coffee in hand, wished him luck and warned him not to come back without Jethro. He jumped in his car and gunned the engine, heading for the base airport.

It turned out to be difficult, even for an NCIS special agent in charge, to locate one man among thousands of troops ready to be deployed at any moment. He was directed to Hangar A and then re-directed to Building C and then Waiting Area F in Hangar 5B, so when Tony finally found Jethro, he ran right past him.

"Tony!"

Tony turned on his heel and found himself face to face with Jethro. His hair had been cut short, shorn at the sides, he was dressed up in full gear, and he looked a little bit scared. Tony realized that Jethro was afraid of what Tony might say, that he might make a scene, and to tell the truth, Tony was pretty close to saying a few choice words in front of a few hundred Marines. But he didn't. Instead, he whipped out his handcuffs and snapped them on Jethro. "Don't cause any trouble, Marine," he said gruffly and marched him over to the nearest place that looked like it might be secure, an office to one side of the hangar. The whole way, Tony could feel everyone's eyes on him and he knew his face was getting red. Hopefully they thought it was anger.

A security officer checked Tony's credentials and accepted some story Tony concocted about Jethro being of vital importance in an investigation involving national security. He slammed the door closed behind them and finally they were alone.

Tony undid the cuffs and stood facing Jethro.

Jethro rubbed his wrists and looked pissed.

He didn't offer any explanation about why he had taken off without a word, and Tony didn't really want to hear one. Now that he had his man right in front of him, he was furious, so it was with a dangerous edge to his voice that he ground out, "If there is one rule that takes precedence at this time, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, it's that you don't waste good. You put your heart and soul into fixing up my house, into fixing up someone else's house, for crap's sake. This is the end. You need to think of yourself for a change. You need to settle down, to commit yourself to someone, to me. And you know why you need to do this?" Jethro stared at him and slowly shook his head. Tony said, "Because I'm the best man you'll ever have. I'll never cheat on you, or give up on you, and I will always, always love you. I know that with my track record you might be a bit leery of this, but I assure you that all those other marriages were just practice. This is the real thing. I mean it. I swear it. As soon as you get back, you come home, Jethro, to our home, you hear me?"

"I might not make it home," Jethro said, as if the words pained him.

Tony moved in on Jethro, until they were only inches apart. He said, his voice low and husky, "You will make it home, Marine. You will, because I'm going to be waiting for you."

Jethro closed his eyes for a moment, and then he looked up to meet Tony's eyes. He searched them, and Tony could tell that, of all things, Jethro needed this, something to hang on to, some hope and the promise of love and a future with someone who loved him. He swallowed hard and nodded.

Tony brushed off Jethro's shoulders, just as an excuse to touch him, and then he stepped back. "Think you can write? Or call, maybe?"

"Yeah. I can do that."

Tony nodded and cleared his throat. "Good. Good. Guess you'd better go now, before they send in the troops to rescue you."

Jethro walked past Tony but stopped with his hand on the doorknob. He looked back at him and said, "I did love you, you know. I do. Only…ever since I got to know you, I knew it was going to be tough to leave. I didn't mean to get so involved, only… I fell for you, real hard. I should have said something." He quickly strode over to Tony and hugged him hard, and their lips met, briefly but full of promise.

Tony smiled. "I love you. Remember that."

Jethro returned the smile, though it was tinged with sadness. "How could I ever forget, Tony?" It was with obvious reluctance that he released Tony. As soon as he did, he opened the door and walked out without looking back, and joined his fellow servicemen.

Tony went up to the waiting area where he could watch the plane take off. It gave him the opportunity to get his emotions under control. He was glad he'd been able to say goodbye to Jethro, but he'd be lying if he didn't say that it tore his heart out to let him go. It wasn't forever, he told himself. Jethro would do his tour and he'd come back. He had to, Tony thought, trying to stem the conflicting emotions and outright fear that all families have to deal with when their loved ones head off to war.

"He'll be fine," Tony said to himself. "He'd damned well better be." He watched the Marines board the transport plane and didn't take his eyes off it until it accelerated down the runway and lifted off. Tony said a silent prayer and then he walked to his car and drove home, secure in the knowledge that he and Leroy Jethro Gibbs now had a good foundation on which to build their lives together.

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