Hey guys!

Thanks for your reviews and for the followers i appreciate them. Glad you liked the first part and I promised you the second part soon and yeah... here it is :)

Enjoy your reading!

Gibbs stepped out of his car as his eyes kept focused on the building. He had been at Tony's apartment one time before. However that was almost a year ago, when Tony had been shot in the shoulder for the first time since he had been an NCIS agent. And this building was not the same one, Tony lived in a year ago.

He looked around the parking lot and saw Tony's car parked meters ahead of his. He shook his head. If he had known... well remembered that Tony had moved then he would been here before the younger man. Now he had been standing in front of the wrong people when he went to the apartment Tony lived in.

Gibbs did have had an address change from the Director. Just a couple of weeks after Tony returned to work full duty, it had been changed. He didn't think much about it. Now as he looked at the building he was thinking that maybe he should have asked for a reason.

Not that the building was worse. Just the opposite actually. This building was new and modern, while the other one was old and Gibbs doubted that the heating worked in the winter of the airco in the summer. He looked down at the sheet of paper in his hand. The apartment number was written on it.

He went for the building and was lucky that people came out of the building and held the door open for him, without question. He nodded a thank you and stepped inside.

He was met with a warm red carpet over the dark wooden floor, leading to a big elevator. He clicked the button and waited several seconds before the doors opened for him. He was alone. Again Gibbs looked at the sheet of paper. Number 125... He looked over the panel in front of him and saw that No. 125 was the top floor. The loft to be exact. He raised a eyebrow but tapped the button.

The annoying elevator music ringed in Gibbs ear. Even when then doors opened again and he stepped out. It was a small hall with only one door. He didn't know what to expect, so he just knocked and waited.

A buzzer sounded and the door unlocked by itself. Gibbs frowned but opened the door further. Looking around he closed the door silent behind him.

''Beer or coffee, Gibbs?'' Tony called out from behind a wall, the place sounded hollow.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow in surprise. ''Uh coffee. Have to drive home later tonight'' He called out.

''Okay. Make yourself comfortable, I'll be right out''

Gibbs nodded, not realizing that Tony couldn't see it. He pulled off his jacket and found a coat rack on his right.

Once his coat hung, he looked around himself and his jaw all but dropped as he finally took it in.

The place was very open and modern styled . The place had a dark wooden floor and gray to silver walls, with here and there big pictures of sea side or a big city. On his left it had a black L-shaped fabric couch with a dark wooden rectangular table and a flat screen TV on the wall of the door. A thick gray woolen carpet underneath and around the coffee table. Underneath the TV was a big TV cabinet, filled with DVD's. neatly placed.

Between the wall of the door and the wall that he supposed separated the living room with the kitchen, were only big windows that were one storey high and it looked out over the city. It had light apparent curtains, that you could look throught from the inside, but from the outside you wouldn't see anything.

On his right was a oval dining table in the same style of the coffee table. With four fabric chairs in the same style as the couch, but in the color of the carpet.

A little further the floor went up three steps. On the side of the living room was a big wall and Gibbs guessed that the kitchen was behind it and on the side of the dining room a black grand piano was placed transversal, looking into the dining and living room. Also that wall had one storey high windows, the same curtains.

In the middle of the room, a stairs came from the second floor and melted into the little steps. The space above the kitchen and the piano was open and you could see it was used as a sleeping space. The roof itself was a gabled roof, but above the bed it was a big window looking out in the air.

Gibbs never had seen such a place. It was— ''Wow'' He breathed in amazement.

Tony came around the wall and down the few steps with two mugs. He had already changed in a OSU t-shirt and sweatpants and white socks.

''Nice isn't it?'' He asked. He handed a mug to Gibbs.

''How did you know it was me?'' Gibbs asked instead, accepting the mug.

''I expected you to be here, before I got home'' Tony reasoned. He walked to the living room, while taking a gulp of his coffee and sat down on the couch in the corner with footstool on it. Gibbs followed him and sat down on the other side.

''Drove the wrong way'' Gibbs told him the half truth. Tony smirked and nodded in understanding that Gibbs drove to his old address.

''What I don't know is, why you are here'' Tony said, tilting his head in question.

''I just'' Gibbs frowned. Why was he here? Why did he have to 'talk' to Tony for discovering that he played in a bar? It wasn't like it was against any rules or something.

''Wow... Leroy Jethro Gibbs loss of words'' Tony chuckled. ''That's new''

''Tony—''

''Why were you in the bar tonight?'' Tony asked

''I just went there to have a beer with a friend''

''So you didn't spy on my?''

''What?! No'' Gibbs defended. ''Did you thought I was?'' Tony shrugged, taking another gulp of his coffee. ''You play beautiful''

Tony's smile was small and hidden behind his mug. ''Thanks''

''Why didn't you—''

''Why didn't I tell you?'' Tony asked for him. All that Gibbs do was nod, shocked by the annoyed tone in Tony's voice. ''Because I don't want others to know''

''Why not?'' Gibbs frowned again.

''Because... because It's not their business'' Tony told him truthfully.

''You can say that again'' Gibbs mumbled as he took a gulp of his own coffee, ignoring the fact that Tony had made his coffee like he loved it.

''I knew you were coming here, because you are too stubborn to just let it rest'' Tony said. ''Why do you want to know everything about your coworkers?''

''I have to know the person who I'm working with''

''And you don't know me?''

''No!'' Gibbs snapped frustrated. ''The man I work with is not the same person I saw tonight, DiNozzo''

''You're right, Special Agent Tony DiNozzo is not the same as Anthony or the Guitar magician'' Tony retorted. ''But they're both me, Gibbs and what I do in my time after work is none of your God damn business!''

''Why are you mad because I saw you?'' Gibbs asked, narrowing his eyes.

''Because you weren't supposed to'' Tony exclaimed. He placed the mug on the coffee table and began to pace along side the windows in the living room. ''It's personal, nobody's supposed to see or hear it''

''Why not?'' Gibbs asked. ''I didn't figure you for a uncertain little boy on stage. You were nervous and scared up there. Yet you still do it? For how long now? Why don't you want friends to see it, while you perform to people you don't know?''

''That's just it. I don't know them. They don't know me. I rather share my feelings with people who don't know me, who have nothing to do with my work, then with my friends or coworkers'' Tony explained.

''Why?'' Gibbs asked yet again.

''Because people who don't know me, can't hurt me!'' Tony raised his voice. Then fell silent. He stopped pacing and rubbed his forehead. Why the hell had he just said that?

Gibbs opened his mouth and closed it again. ''You think...'' He paused, then began again. ''You think I would use it and hurt you with the information that you have an amazing voice and can write a great song?''

''Yes! no...'' Tony stammered ''Those songs are personal. Without lyrics but especially with lyrics. If people know what I sing about... they have stuff to hurt me with. The risk that people there are going to use it against me is much less, than when people I know, know what I sing about''

''But me?'' Gibbs pointed at himself skeptically.

''I shouldn't have said that'' Tony sighed. ''I freaked out earlier, because I saw someone who knows me. Hell you know me the best as far as I know. And that song...'' He trailed off.

''Recent events...'' Gibbs whispered, as he got the clues together. ''The case'' He looked at Tony who nodded affirmative.

The latest case had effected Tony hard. Gibbs knew that, but he didn't know why. He had seen Tony struggle through it. Almost lost his temper more than a couple of times. He was almost forced to pull the younger man from the case, but he didn't. And the days after that, Tony seemed to get better again. As if nothing had happened.

The case, was about a teenage daughter of a Corporal that had been killed due of alcohol intoxication. It was on a party and friends brought her home that night, thought she just had passed out. Later it revealed that she had more than just passed out, but her friends were to drunk themselves to realize that. Her parents had found her in her bed the next morning. Already dead for several hours.

Although the reasons were different, Tony had related that towards a certain period in his life.

''Why did the case effect you so much? It was accidental'' Gibbs said.

This time Tony rubbed the back of his neck and went to sit down on the couch again. ''We didn't know that at first, when we came into the room. We didn't know that until her so called friends decided to come clean five days later''

''How do the song and case relate to each other?'' Gibbs asked. ''You just finished the song now didn't you?'' He remembered from earlier.

Tony nodded. He puffed out some air. ''Dammit Gibbs. This is why I write songs. So I don't have to talk''

''Sometimes it's nice to have someone to say something back'' Gibbs told him.

It was silent for a couple of minutes as Tony drank his coffee. Gibbs did too, waiting, knowing that Tony would talk.

''The song was just finished a couple of days ago, but I started writing it when I was sixteen years old'' Tony began. ''I went to school in New York. A Military boarding school. Our classes were mixed and that year we had a new girl in my class. We became friends. But she was closed and didn't talk much about herself''

Gibbs waited patiently. He knew about the school and it had surprised him, but didn't say anything about it.

''It wasn't long after we became friends that I noticed... that things seemed off'' Tony continued. ''Once in a while she went home in the weekends... but it wasn't until a year after we met, that I couldn't let my gut feeling go anymore. She went home for a few weeks that summer and came back with huge bruises. She couldn't hit it because we had a heat wave that summer. And it would be weird to wear long sleeve shirts''

''I seemed to be the only who talked to her about it and at first she told it was because she played sports with her older brother... I found out she didn't have one, so I kept pressing until she told me the truth about her father would become... a little rough when he had too much to drink. Which was more often then not. She told me everything and I couldn't do anything about it. I had to get it out somehow so I started writing the song...''

Gibbs had listened closely to Tony's story. Trying to keep his face from showing the emotions were reeling in his mind.

Tony took a deep breath. ''Two months later, she went home unexpectedly for the weekend again, but never came back. During first period the principal came into the classroom. She had killed herself, by downing three whole bottlesof her fathers collection, don't know which alcohol, I didn't care and it didn't matter. She was gone and I felt like I was too late. So I stopped writing'' He stopped.

''Until, the case came up'' Gibbs finished. ''And you finished it for her, after all those years''

''Yeah'' Tony nodded.

''That's why you never touched alcohol'' Gibbs realized. In the two years he had known his agent, he had never seen Tony with alcohol. He had talked about girls and parties, but he had never come in with a hang over or talked about the drinks on the party.

''Yeah'' Tony nodded again. ''Those songs are really personal and I can't normally talk like I did just now. I never do. And the performing is to get away from all the stress of being who I am, well who I show who I am. I don't want people to know what effect me, what makes me weak or where you can hrt me with. With playing music or singing I can let things out without telling people. Then you showed up... and I just freaked''

Gibbs nodded now too. ''I understand that. Maybe that's where I use the boat for now'' He thought about it. ''I am alone so I talk to myself''

''But the songs are not only about her. The job comes with a lot of stress and stressful knowledge. I write music about that, but when something really effects me, I sing... And this one effected me more than any case had in years'' Tony explained.

''I am known for my bad timing, out of work'' Gibbs shrugged.

It made Tony smile a little. ''So it's not that the person you saw there isn't me. It's just a part of me that I don't want much people to see. Those are my weaknesses and my vulnerability. I hope you can understand that'' He looked hopefully at Gibbs.

Gibbs grunted. ''Does that mean that I have to pretend I don't know this about you? Does it bother you that I know?''

Tony was silent for a moment. ''The more people who know, the bigger the chance it that people who can use it against me know. Just don't tell anyone please?''

''I won't tell'' Gibbs vowed. He knew better then anyone how it felt like, knowing that people know something about you that makes you feel weak and vulnerable.

Next to that, he wanted to ask Tony, how the hell he got a place like this, or how he had learned to play the guitar and maybe that piano so brilliantly, but knew that the younger man was talked out for the night, so he kept in on the one subject.

''Were you and she...?'' Gibbs trailed off.

Tony smiled shyly, but it faded. ''No'' He said sadly. ''She never knew how I felt about her'' He suddenly stood up and jogged upstairs.

Gibbs stayed on his place on the couch. He heard Tony move upstairs, little doors or drawers opening and closing, as if Tony was looking for something.

A moment later Tony came back with a big book. Looking closer he saw it was a year book. Tony sat back down and flipped through pages. Then stopped on his class.

Tony pointed at one of the pictures and Gibbs' heart almost stopped, when he saw what she looked like. A beautiful young teenage girl, with red wavy hair and green eyes. For a moment he flashed back to his own girls. But he wasn't ready to share that fact. Maybe someday.

''What was her name?''

''Scarlett Miller'' Tony smiled. ''She was sixteen. Passed away a month before she turned seventeen''

''She was beautiful'' Gibbs commented.

Tony sighed. ''Yeah, she was'' He agreed. ''The most beautiful girl I had ever seen''

Gibbs made a note to himself that maybe Tony was someone he could share things with too. The younger agent had gotten under his skin in the two years time, any of his former agents could. Even Burely.

Gibbs had convinced Tony to open up to him a little and he hoped that someday he could return the favour.

''Like an angel'' Gibbs said softly, remembering he called Kelly that sometimes.

''Yeah, a angel'' Tony just as quietly, as he kept staring at the picture. ''But a broken angel''

THE END!

Thinking about some other stories that Abby finds out and later McGee and Kate and Ziva and Ducky. Not sure yet.

What did you think of this short story? I know its sad. but somehow i always write something sad. not that I like people suffering or being in pain or to die. but yeah... it's drama for a drama serie ;)

Tell me your thoughts! And thank you for reading :)

-X- Leonie