Lion Rampart – Chapter Nine

 

Title: Lion Rampart

Author: Ladyholder

Fandom: NCIS, The Sentinel, Barney Miller, Criminal Minds

Relationships: Tony/Gibbs, Blair/Jim, Wojo/Barney

Genre: Oh, So AU and a Mystery

Warnings: Mention of murder, possible torture and I’ll add more as it comes. Expect sex, some rock and roll, the drugs are iffy and you can be certain that there will be low humor.

Notes: Yes, I am aware of what happened in the show BM. Tough. I wanted a good set of really tough characters to be decent role models for a young Tony DiNozzo and they fit. If this wigs you out, try the ‘back’ button. Both you and I will be happier.

Beta: No Beta

Chapter Eight

 

 

Chapter Nine

Tony walked off the elevator into the NCIS bullpen with a bag full of sandwiches and a drink caddy full of coffee cups. A quick glance showed that his Sentinel wasn’t at his desk, but he wasn’t worried. The older man knew that he was in the building, the same way he knew that his partner was concentrating on something, but didn’t need him there to help. Jethro would have known the moment he had entered the building, and it wasn’t like the scent of their coffees or lunch was subtle.

The Guide set the food down on his desk and unloaded the drink caddy on his partner’s. Two half-caf super sized cups for Jethro, and a Dirty Chai late for himself. One sub with all the requested fixings got pulled out of the bag and placed on the blotter on his partners desk and he was done. Jethro could ask him, nicely, for the half sour pickles and chips.

Unwrapping his own sub, Tony moved around his desk to lean against it, staring hard at the murder wall. It looked as if they had gotten some more clues while he had been out meeting with the Guides of his Pride. There was a line of pictures taped to one side of the board with string tying them to the murder scene. Tony looked at them as he chewed on his latest bite and put the sub down to pull his file on the investigation out as the sight of them brought something into focus.

The interview he had conducted over the phone was right where he had left it in the case file. The owner of the property had stated that they had done extensive remodeling of the house before letting it back onto the market, which was why it had been vacant for three months. The pictures of the new home ‘owner’ YN2, clearly showed signs of someone having lived there for a while. Tony moved forward, checking the status of the carpet against the carpet at their scene.

It was the same stuff. Interesting.

 

He went back to staring at the board, following the links, both large and small, trying to figure out where the Lt. Commander had been killed as he ate his lunch. Ducky’s report said that the man had been dead for less than four hours when he had been found by the homeowner. Rigor mortis hadn’t had time to fully set in and the scent of the blood had hung heavy in the air. Tony sat up at that memory. The scent of the blood had been heavy. Very heavy for the amount that had passed between the body being dumped and them being arriving on scene

Reaching for his phone, Tony swallowed carefully before calling Abby. “Hey Abs, it’s Tony. I have a question for you… When we were at the Stuart crime scene, there was a very deep blood scent and that is making me twitch. Do you know of anyone who is making something that can mimic the smell of blood?”

The Guide listened to the excited Goth babble about possibilities as she searched the internet for anything that might give the effect he had mentioned. Jethro had smelled *plastic* in the blood. The bags blood banks used didn’t do that to the material they contained, and neither would a new tarp like they had originally thought. Something was fishy and he wanted to go back to the scene to check the vents. When Abby started to babble about in technogeek on how to make her own blood scented somethings, Tony quietly said goodbye and hung up the phone. She didn’t need his help to figure that angle out right then.

Tony let the whole blood problem go to the back of his mind and turned back to their renter. It was looking like she was a nonentity to the investigation… Well, other than having good taste and brains to take pictures of the house *before* she had rented it, YN2 was off the hook. Both the interviews they had had with her had been much the same. No changes in her emotional state, Jethro had said her heartbeat had stayed steady through the each conversation and she hadn’t freaked out on them. Instead, it looked as if it was the house that was the motive behind the killing, because fuck all if he could find anything else for it to be.

He popped the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth and turned around to get into his computer. There was a tall sandy haired man standing by his Sentinel’s desk and Tony raised one eyebrow at how he was looking around, obviously trying to find someone. “Can I help you?”

Starting slightly, the man turned to look at him and smiled. “Oh, hey. Uhm… I’m looking for Special Agent Jethro Gibbs? Is he here?”

Tony nodded. “Yes, he’s somewhere in the building. My name is Tony DiNozzo, his partner. How can I help you?”

“Partner?” the other man asked the air around them. “When did he get a partner?”

“When I Bonded with my Guide, Burley,” Jethro said shortly as he walked up behind their visitor and tapped him on the back of the head. Tony had broken his Sentinel of that habit with him the first week. As much as he enjoyed the feel of Jethro’s fingers in his hair, he wasn’t going to get his head smacked or even tapped when he had broken whatever arbitrary rulebook the other man had set up. Even if he did agree with some of them. That and Jethro wasn’t keen on living with his Guide giving him a 24/7 cold shoulder.

“Oh, shit. Hi, Boss!” Burley ducked his head and turned to look at Gibbs as he sat down at his desk. “So, I got your message to come talk to you about the in depth history I did on Lt. Commander Stuart off the Leyte Gulf? Since I was the Agent Afloat for his battle group?”

Tony waved at the murder board and watched as the other NCIS agent followed his hand and saw the autopsy photos of the Commander. From the flash of green that flew across his face, the Guide was betting the he was one of many agents who had problems at bloody and violent scenes. “Lt. Commander Stuart seems to have died under mysterious circumstances. We’ve already talked to his CO about him, but what can you tell us about the scuttlebutt surrounding him?”

Burley turned towards Gibbs and looked at him for direction. Jethro just looked back at him blandly and took a bite of his meal. As soon as Burley had turned his back, the Sentinel had opened his sandwich and started eating. From the way he was wolfing down the sandwich, Tony knew that he would probably want the side dishes he had bought to go with them. When Burley shrugged and looked back at him, the Guide let the mental observations on his partner’s appetite go.

“So the scuttlebutt is that the dead Lt. Commander was a decent guy, always available to both the officers under him and the enlisted crew as well. From what I got talking to some of the main members of the gossip lines, Stuart wasn’t one of the officers who used his rank to get some ass, but he did occasionally date. Mostly when he was in port and never from his own crew. He was the second in command of the Leyte’s medical bay as the ships only dentist. Needless to say, he got a lot of business. The corpsmen all say that he had a good hand at his specialty and was always willing to slip people some more Novocain if they were twitchy while he was working.”

Burley paused and pulled a notebook out of his back pocket and Tony nodded. He had the same habit and it was a damn useful one. Even if his notes were normally a bunch of keywords that made sense only to him. “So, I checked to see if there were any problems with any missing drugs or if there had been an upswing in sexual harassment reported on the ship and I can say that there hasn’t been. And that is from both the official sources and the gossip chains.”

Gibbs nodded at that and Tony knew why. Talking the people in charge normally led to one view that while it might have a lot of the correct elements, didn’t cover everything. Talking to those who where normally overlooked, be they the help or the lowest levels of the enlisted members of a ship’s crew tended to show another view of the party being investigated. Sometimes a radically different view. There was always someone who was plugged into the gossip strings that lubed the closed communities inhabiting a seagoing ship and was willing to talk. That Burley was trusted by those people spoke well of his standing in the fleet he had served.

“So, basically, when the CO of the Leyte said that Stuart was a stand-up guy and he wanted more like him, he wasn’t trying to blow smoke up our asses or hide anything. Nice. Did anything stand out as to why this guy would get killed in this manner?” Jethro demanded as he balled up the paper that had been wrapped around his, now finished, sandwich.

“No,” Burley shook his head. “Nothing. And I checked with the Personnel department for his file to see if there was anything there. It is clean. The guy was just a normal guy who looks like he was just there.”

Gibbs nodded and Tony sighed softly. He couldn’t fault his Sentinel for trying to get firsthand(ish) information on their victim. The man was a total wash for a motive. Which brought his mental musings back to the potential clue hidden in the pictures someone had liberated from YN2. The pictures had very few signs that any type of reno had taken place and his conversation with the owner had said that they had been working on it for months. The signs of previous renovations were few and far between and Tony figured that the only way that Grisel had bought the story was because it was the first house she had ever had off base. He had a feeling that the young lady was going to be living on base for the rest of Navy career after this was over.

Tony mostly ignored the small talk between his Sentinel and the Agent Afloat, listening just long enough to determine that Burley (‘Call me Stan, Boss!’), had been a probie that Gibbs had trained for six months before releasing to another Senior Agent’s team. Gibbs had apparently made a big impression on him, and when the call had gone out for news on Stuart, Stan had jumped at the chance to come back and report. Tony looked up from his review of the provenance of the house to find at that. He let one of his shields thin and grimaced slightly. Joy. Stan Burley had the hots for his Sentinel.

If he wasn’t completely certain that Gibbs had no interest in the other man, he would be upset at that, but Tony knew better. And Burley was working on pulling the whole… Attracted thing in and mentally stomping on it from what he gathered of his emotions. Not that he was doing it well, but he was trying.

Tony wasn’t in the mood to smite someone. Well… Not an NCIS agent, so he left him to it

Turning back to his search, he got sucked back into the tedious give and take portion of investigation as Gibbs suggested that Burley go talk to Abby. He would pump her for details later. After all, she was his link into the gossip chain here at NCIS.

 

 

Jethro watched as Burley headed down to talk to Abby and then dismissed him from his mind. The younger Agent hadn’t really gotten them any new information, but he had managed to confirm what they had. Stuart was truly the victim of the mess that they were unraveling. Looking over at his Guide, he watched as Tony read something, eyes moving over his computer screen quickly before jotting down notes on the legal pad by his elbow. From the hum at the back of his mind, where the Bond was located, Jethro knew that the other man was concentrating on whatever it was he was doing to the exclusion of all else.

It was a very attractive trait that he also saw when they were chasing down criminals, figuring out how to trip up the perps that they caught or well, any time that Tony devoted his full attention to something. His favorite subject for Tony to get that look was when he was making love to him, but that was going to have to wait for home. The Sentinel shifted slightly and sighed.

He wasn’t going to be able to concentrate for a while and he knew why. He had sent Burley over to SA Burks team months ahead of where he normally would, all due to how overt the mundane had been in his pursuit of him. He had just been more subtle than the substitute PA had been. But he was much more grating on his nerves and Jethro loathed how much being around him shook him up.

Rubbing his hands across his face, he looked up to see Tony staring at him, eyes challenging him to tell the truth.

“I need to Bond. And I need Burley out of the building before we do that,” he admitted softly.

The challenge in his Guides eyes changed and hardened. Tony nodded and pulled his phone to him to call Abby. Jethro didn’t even bother to listen in, he just got up, grabbed his coffee and headed to the room NCIS had converted to a Bonding Suite when he had started work for the Washington DC branch.

 

 

Tony almost cursed out loud and how edgy his Sentinel had become when Burley had left. It seemed that there had been more to the whole thing than he knew and the Guide was determined to get to the bottom of whatever had freaked his partner out.

When Gibbs asked for a Bonding session during working hours, he had been floored. Calling Abby to get Burley out of the building as requested, Tony turned the problem over and prodded it. All he could think of was that Burley had on strong and pushed the issue far longer than had been wise. Without a Guide, Gibbs would have been more open to the approach, even one as ham-handed as Tony was certain that Burley had been.

“Abby, I need you to get Burley out of the building for at least the next two hours, if not forever. Can you do that?” Tony asked as soon as she picked up.

There was a beat of silence before the Goth sighed and Tony made a note to talk to her about his suspicions. “I can. Not a problem, Tony. Thanks for letting me know.”

Dropping the handset back onto its cradle, Tony fired off a quick email to the Director letting him know that there was going to be a disruption happening over the next couple of hours and the office was going to get very mellow due to the emotions that would be coming off their Bond. Once that chore was out of the way, he locked everything up and headed after his Sentinel.

The Bonding Suite that NCIS had made had started life as an executive office, most likely for the second in command for the agency, but since the person who had that position didn’t work out of it, it was easily sacrificed for a new life as a lifeline to sanity for the new Sentinel assigned to the DC area. The materials used in the renovation had been totally Sentinel friendly and when Tony entered the foyer leading into the inner recesses, he found his Sentinel’s clothes neatly folded on a shelf. Tony nodded to himself and stepped out of the suite to flip the sign out there from green to red.

The Guide closed and locked the outer door and stripped down as well before entering the inner rooms and locking that door as well. Inside, the sounds and smells of the outer world were totally muffled and all they had to concentrate on was each other. Cocking his head to the side, Tony listened carefully and heard the shower going. Sniffing his hands, he nodded. A shower was a damn good idea since his hands smelled like mustard and pastrami.

Standing under the shower when he got in the bathroom was his Sentinel and Tony stood back, looking at the other man critically. There were lines of stress that hadn’t been when they had left the house that morning and he cursed Stan Burley to the lowest depths of hell for bringing them up. Tony stepped under the water and picked up the soap that they had stocked for occasions just like this and started soaping his Sentinel from the heels on up.

Each inch of skin was examined and the Guide noted that there were several areas showing signs of pending rashes. Sighing at the discovery, Tony carefully marked each area for further help. Jethro let him manhandle him and the Guide tried not to worry about the passivity that his Sentinel was displaying. They hadn’t had a major incident since they had Bonded and the fact that they were having one in the middle of a case was not encouraging. He was going to have to talk to Morrow and ‘request’ that Burley never, ever be allowed back into the DC offices and if he had a case, that they weren’t assigned to it. Because if this was what less than ten minutes of conversation with the man did to his Sentinel, Tony would kill him and dump the body where it couldn’t be found.

Despite how bloodthirsty his thoughts were, Tony made certain that his hands were gentle as he got Jethro clean of all outside influences. Pulling him out of the shower, the younger man carefully blotted him dry with a pure, unbleached cotton towel. “Go lay down, Sentinel.”

As soon as Jethro was out of the bathroom, Tony hosed down the shower to get any last bits of the outside world gone and then made sure that he was fully dry before grabbing the lightest oil they had stored there. A careful sniff showed that it was almond and fresh at that. Two linen clothes for later clean up and he was ready to go in and get his Sentinel settled enough that he could function again.

Jethro was sprawled out on the bed, hugging a pillow and laying on his belly. Tony took a deep breath and crossed the room on sure feet before crawling into the space between his Sentinels knees. Kissing the spot behind each joint, the Guide sat back on his heels and opened the bottle of oil to carefully coat his hands before capping it again. Starting at his feet, Tony made sure to rub the thin oil into each bit of skin, paying careful attention to the areas that had shown eminent rashes.

Tony kept a close eye on each bit of skin as it passed under his hands and smiled as he got to Jethro’s hips. The flushed spots that could have been rashes were fading and the Sentinel was relaxed around the pillow he was hugging, almost purring from the attention. Tony paused to add some more oil to his hands and then added some down the length of Jethro’s spine. Pulling out his best massage tricks, he kneaded each muscle group as he got to it. The purring under his hands sped up and got deeper and the Guide stretched out his mind to brush against his Sentinels.

The shields that protected the both of them from the outside world were gossamer threads that sparked and flaired as they slipped into each other’s minds. Tony nodded at how strained some parts of his Sentinel were from the inside and settled in to soothe and shore up the areas that needed his attention. A Guide-directed bonding was different from what a Sentinel experienced. The physical was there, for sure and certain, but the mental connection between them was the more important in this case.

When his hands had reached Jethro’s neck, the Guide made certain that the cords of tension were worked out carefully. Sitting back on his heels, Tony reached over and pulled one of the two clean cloths he had stashed with the oil and wiped his partner down, checking the areas that had been red for any new irritation. The Sentinel’s skin was clear and glowing under the light coating of oil that hadn’t been absorbed. The cloth took care of the rest and Tony carefully nudged the older man to turn over while keeping a close eye on how he moved and how his mental landscape felt.

Both areas felt supple and moved freely. Satisfied that his charge was recovering, Tony moved down to the Sentinel’s feet again to start on his front. It was soothing and calming to perform this task for his partner and he could well understand why Jethro liked getting his hands all over him. The oil was just warm enough from his body temperature, slick in all the good ways and absorbed quickly. Tony made a mental note to arrange for more Guide directed bondings. It was something that they both needed.

Each glide of his hands over his Sentinel’s skin was a joy and he shared that feeling with his partner, getting the feeling back in return. The Guide carefully hyped the feedback loop of joy, contentment and relaxation that was building between them and settled deeper within Jethro’s mind. Slowly, carefully, Tony spun out the shields that he had expanded on their Bonding to cover his Sentinel. They were stressed around the edges and he nodded. The murder scene they had dealt with the previous day had pushed the older man slightly and Burley hadn’t helped.

Moving to each area that needed reinforcment, Tony formed the mental shields that protected his Sentinel within himself and then allowed them to slip out to settle into the web that he already wore. It was at times like this that he felt less like a Lion and more like a Spider. Snorting lightly at the thought, the Guide allowed another layer to come out and reinforce another weak spot. By the time he was finished, Tony felt tired, but his charge was sleeping soundly. He gave the shields he had spun a critical onceover after pushing his sight into the spirit realm and nodded in satisfaction. Jethro was as well protected as he could make him.

Grabbing the second linen cloth, Tony wiped down the older man’s front and dropped both cloths and the oil bottle over the side of the bed before snuggling in. With the last chore done, the Guide let himself fall into the Bond between them. Togetherness, oneness and the feeling of being whole, it was all there for him to share and experience. The feedback loop that he had set up settled in deeper, showing the darker emotions of want and lust.

Tony opened his eyes to see Jethro looking down at him, eyes dark with the need that moved between then in waves that fed and fed on itself until all he wanted to do was roll over and spread his legs. Raising one eyebrow in challenge, the Guide bucked up with his hips and managed to flip them over so he was on top again. Grinning slightly at the change of view, he leaned down to kiss Jethro thoroughly. The room still moved as he closed his lips on those of his Sentinel and Tony sighed and gave in. He wanted too much to do more than put up a token effort at a challenge.

From the satisfied look Jethro shot him, he fully understood.

“Lubes in the bed stand drawer as always,” Tony murmured.

“Duh. We never move it and we are the only ones who come in here to clean it anyway,” Jethro agreed softly.

Shrugging his shoulders at that, Tony rolled over and gave in to his own wants. The spread of his legs felt good and he propped one knee on the pillow Jethro had been hugging. The feel of long fingers gliding down the crack of his ass was delicious and he arched into the sensation, already moaning at how it made him feel.

“So responsive,” the Sentinel rumbled into his ear.

“You like me that way,” the Guide gasped as the long fingers that had been teasing him slipped into his ass and pressed firmly against his prostate.

 

 

 

“Oh, I do. I really, really do. But I like it better when all you can do is moan and scream my name because the pleasure I give you has no other way out,” Jethro said as he pulled his fingers out of the hole he had so carefully prepared and the slicked up his cock..

Hissing slightly at the sensation, the Sentinel placed the head against the furled entrance to his Guide’s body and pushed inside. Slowly, carefully, allowing his partner to get used to the stretch and burn that came with anal sex. He held still, breathing in time with the body below him and only when Tony pushed back into the cradle of his hips did he start to move.

No matter how many times they had done this same act over the two months of their Bonding, it was always new, always wanted. The boredom he had felt when he had bonded with his Conservators was gone, eclipsed with deep love and devotion he felt for the man in his arms. Jethro settled down onto his forearms and covered Tony with his own body, the only thing moving was his hips and they were pushing his cock deep within his Guide’s body, tagging his prostate every time. The waves of enjoyment and contentment that he was releasing were settling the last flutters of need within him and the Sentinel turned his head so his nose was snug against his partners neck.

Orgasm was coming quickly and Jethro could feel, both through the Bond and through the muscle spasms that hinted at what was to come, that Tony was going to come and come soon. The time they spent making love was never long enough. Never enough sensation or time within the warmth of his Guide as they made love to satisfy him.

When that final peak was reached and he went over, Jethro grabbed the mental connection between them and pushed what he was feeling at his Guide. From the startled shout below and the burst of emotion across the Bond, Tony hadn’t been expecting him to do that. He didn’t care because it had done what he wanted it to. It had sparked the orgasm he had felt building in his Guide to come and he shook with the feel of his partner’s pleasure deep within his mind.

The spasms of their pleasure lasted for what felt like ages, bouncing back and forth between them and Jethro could feel how his Guide reveled in the connection. He did as well. It was never quite as good when they were separate beings, but they couldn’t stay this creature that was one feeling, thinking heart and mind in two bodies. Reluctantly Jethro let himself be pulled back, pulled away from the intimate joining of his mind to that of his Guide. He could feel how much Tony wanted to stay nestled within him, and as much as he wanted him to stay, it wasn’t going to happen.

The last intimate, sex and bonding driven connection faded back into the background of his mind and Jethro sighed as he was separate again.

Pressing a kiss against the pulse beating wildly under his lips, Gibbs smiled and relaxed into the warmth of his Guide’s embrace. This was his home, his place and there was no one who could knock him out of his certainty of welcome.

“Thank you for everything,” he murmured.

Long limbs wrapped around him and held tight. “No, thank you.”

 

 

Chapter Ten