What a great, unique story! Great job portraying Tony!

I didn't realize I hadn't reviewed this yet- I read it years ago and loved it! I'm sure I've read it a couple of times since then. Anyway, I love the whole thing: getting the perspective of Tony's coach was wonderful, especially as the story came out. I was wondering if you'd ever consider following this up? Like with the next final four games and interactions with Tony's teammates during/after the tournament, or even with some sort of story where Tony could encounter his coach again as the very capable and awesome federal agent we all know he is? If you ever consider doing anything that, I'd be first in line to read it. As it is, thanks for a great story.

Good story. I liked the way the doc calmed down the coach (I think he was acting s bit like Gibbs might have, with his bursting in and demanding answeres) and the way the coach tried to get through to Tony. I can imagine a young tony reacting and feeling the way he did in your story. I wish you were up to a sequel to this...?

I don't care about the details - it's just a good story. :)

I am just utterly blown away by this story. What a terrific filling out of the story... just wonderful.

Oh Tony.

What a great follow up to the episode. Who cares if the dates and facts are off...Tony wasn't a player anyway. The show and story is fiction! ;) I loved the character interpretation and insight on what might have happened following the fire. Great job!

I don't care about dates and logistics. There are very few stories that I read that move me to tears. This one does.

This was very entertaining. I loved Rekindled, and have to admit that I wondered how Tony coped with and processed the events of that rescue . His coach had a touch of Gibbs in him, and the way he squeezed the back of Tony's neck made me channel Tony's future boss and mentor.

Well done, thank you.

I think this is a lovely story and entirely how I'd expect a younger version of Tony to behave. I liked this episode because I think it gave more credence to what we've seen in Tony from the very beginning, to the doubters of his abilities. Nice touch to bring in the younger version of the boy that night and how he fought for his sister, such a tragic story. You wrote it very nicely and I'll be adding this one to my favourite pile. Many thanks

Great story!

I love background stories like this, but what I love most about this is that I wasn't even aware of the background before reading this. Yes, they mention Tony playing for something and being in Baltimore for a game, but that didn't mean anything to me. I still don't understand what's going on and who's for whom and why, but I got a good idea of what it meant for Tony to be in the middle of it, the pressure and media attention. (That in itself would be another reason for developing his shallow sunny boy persona and keeping his thoughts and emotions to himself)

"And as if that weren't bad enough," the doctor went on, "the boy fought him, tooth and nail, to try to keep Tony from taking him out without getting to her. Tony has bruises and scratches where that kid did all he could to run right back into the fire for her – and Tony had to be the bad guy."

For all the personas that Tony developed over the years, being hated as the bad guy isn't something he'd anticipate. He didn't know how to deal with it some 20 years later, much less so as the insecure young man he's here...

"Coach, look – Tony didn't know we called you. He thinks we're just calling him a cab." At the drawn brow, Matt went on, "he doesn't know that we know he's not just some OSU fan who came out for the game. He gave his name as Anthony Paddington."

So where did the Paddington come from? Miss Marple or Paddington Bear (oh, please:-) or some movie character I don't know of? And yeah, can just see Tony doing this, keep the attention low and pretending to be someone else / nothing happened.

"Okay, if you want it that way, sure. Probably a good idea." Akers considered his guard. "Hey, we could tell people it is the flu or something – since it's you, maybe food poisoning, huh?" He was glad to see the tiniest smile from the younger man. "This is your call, Tony. You decide what you want to tell everyone, okay? You've earned at least that."

Poor Tony – I think what strikes me most is that he expect – out of habit, I could imagine with his family background - to be forced to act in ways he's not comfortable with. Glad there's another father figure around pre-Gibbs (and very differently so, much more hyper-active less gruff:D )

"The social worker reached his mom, and she's expected anytime..." The woman looked at him kindly and asked, "do you want to go back and see him, before you leave?" At Tony's silent nod, she led the men back."

Glad Tony got a least another look at Jason and even more so, there's a mother to take care of him. Sigh, now I'm totally into this pre-Universe and little Jason and his mother and Tony and coach...

I love when the fiction overlaps with reality. Knowing you're a Hoosier now, it makes it all a little more exciting, too. I love that the med student knew exactly who the coach was. That's often the case! My attendings last month were very involved in following the tournament - one even made the trip to NOLA to watch UK and U of L.

And as always, it's nice to see anything new that you're writing/posting.

bp

Thanks for the great tag to the story! Great as always! T

This might come as a surprise but no self-respecting BIG TEN fan would ever root for the Duke Blue Devils (even in the days of Christain Laitner) - even over the Wolverines.

It's a love/hate thing for most of us. We love hating them. They love hating us. But for the most part it's really just a few days out of the entire year.

If they make it into the playoffs/championship game over us then I root for them in both football and basketball. An old friend of mine who was born and raised in Michigan felt the same way.

I thought the episode was set in 1991 - isn't that what the caption on the screen said?

I know they said 20 years ago but the caption said otherwise, didn't it?

Ooohhh:-) You know I love backstories like this:-)