AN1: Some people asked for both a prequel and a sequel to 'Boys and Their Toys' so I decided to do a series of one shots that includes both a prequel and then whatever plot bunnies run in front of my path. Don't know how many there will be - could be a few, could be thousands, cause they multiply, well, like rabbits.

His family was arguing and he didn't know why. His dad, Aunt Kate, Uncle Tim, Abby, even Grandpa Ducky joined in the fray. It bothered him to hear his family argue amongst themselves, they weren't supposed to do that, and it made his tummy feel jumpy and tight. Tony remembered another tense moment that his dad, and many others since, still teased him about - that time at his dad's work a few years ago when everyone had been yelling, including his dad, and Tony had let loose with a liver-jarring wail.

But he couldn't do that now, he was too old, too mature. He was almost five, for crying out loud. So he wracked his over-active brain for a quick solution. Anything to make them all shut up and be civil. Oh, yeah, he thought, his mind suddenly grasping on to an idea, which had seemed to take forever to him, but had really only been about twenty seconds.

She was an acrobat's daughter...he crooned as loud as he could out of nowhere.

She swung by her teeth from a noose.

Some of them quieted, so he went for the big finale.

Till one matinee, her bridgework gave way and she flew through the air like a goose!

There was total silence from everyone as the group stared at him, most of them gaping like fish on a hook. Tony froze. Maybe that wasn't as good of an idea as he had thought. He may be facing some serious chair time for this one. He looked up at his dad. Waaayy up. The man was a force to be reckoned with when someone was on the wrong side of him, even Tony himself. Tony's bottom lip started to quiver. He HATED it when it did that.

His dad leaned down to him, the huge hands looming towards Tony's little body. Gibbs scooped the boy up into his arms and plastered him to his chest, and Tony thought he could hear his dad laughing, but he wasn't sure it was him, because someone else was laughing too. Several someones.

"Bubba, where'd you learn that?" his dad asked him while tousling his hair.

Okay. He'd called Tony by his nickname sooo...maybe his dad WAS laughing. "Daffy Duck. Last week. On the video Abby bought me."

"Uh huh." his dad replied. "Any other goofy songs you have memorized?"

"Yeah, lots. I just figure you really don't wanna hear them."

"Don't be so sure, little man." Gibbs squeezed him tightly, making him squeak. "We just might need another wake-up call somewhere down the road!"

He kissed Tony's cheek and noticed tears in the boy's eyes. And he knew why they were there. "I'm sorry, Bubba." he said softly. "We shouldn't have been doing that in front of you."

"Noo-oo, you SHOULDN'T have!" Tony answered back in a shaky, tear-filled voice. "You're not supposed to be mad at each other and yelling, it -" Tony choked off and clammed up.

"It what, Bubba?" his father jostled him, trying to get him to answer. "Tell me."

"It - reminds me of - something I don't -" he heaved a jittery sigh. "I don't remember, but - something bad."

The adults exchanged guilty looks. Gibbs heart and guts twisted together a bit. He, all of them, knew what Tony was talking about even if Tony didn't.

"Okay, Bub, we promise not to do that anymore." He crooked his index finger and nudged errant tears off Tony's little cheeks, then looked around at his crew. They all looked about ready to cry themselves. So did Gibbs. His boy hardly ever cried, was a glass half-full kinda kid, and the fact that they had not only caused it, but dredged up long sunken memories, made him feel queasy.

"Hey." he jostled Tony again, trying to snap him out of his funk. "How about we all go out for pizza and you can sing us some more songs on the way?"

Tony swiped his sleeve across his eyes. They shown like emeralds amongst the tears and the depth of old soul that Gibbs could never quite look at for very long without a shiver going through him. "Aw-awright." he sniffed. "Just don't ever DO that again. It made me hurt-" he pointed to his heart. "Here."

Gibbs hugged the boy close to him and rubbed the back of his head, pressing it to his shoulder. They all heard him clear his throat, saw his bottom jaw working back and forth as he struggled to keep from losing it.

'Come on, Hubba Bubba!" Abby suddenly roared back to life in an effort to break the awful spell. "Let's go get you in your car seat so we can go play that basketball game you like so well!" She pried Tony out of Gibb's arms before either could protest and made off with him, still talking a mile a minute. "You know I bet when you get older you're gonna be a REAL basketball player, all tall and with big muscles."

"Ree -ly? Ya really THINK so, Abs?"

"Oh, I KNOW so, Bubba, so you need to keep practicing and eating your cauliflower."

"But I HATE cauliflower, Abs!"

"I know ya do, Tonester, I was just yankin' yer chain!"

She looked up from buckling Tony into his car seat to see Gibbs across from her on the other side of the car. "Thank you." he signed to her and she signed a "You're welcome" quickly back, a sad smile on her face.

Tony looked over at his dad and gave him a radiant smile. All seemed to be forgiven and Gibb's gut clenched again at the thought that he and his team, Tony's family, had been the cause of Tony unconsciously remembering a painful and dangerous past. Who knew what was really roiling around that action-packed brain of his? Gibbs had been all too happy to go his merry little way ignoring the torment Tony had endured as a baby. What had he been thinking, that if he ignored it, it would just disappear? Human psyches didn't work that way and he knew that all too well himself from experiences in his own past. He would have to be more vigilant about how they behaved around his boy. And troubled past or not, it wasn't right to air their occasional differences of opinions in front of him.

Yeah, Gibbs thought, as he got behind the wheel of the Challenger. Abs was right again. He remembered three years back, sitting in Ducky's office with an eighteen month old Tony on his lap and Abby sitting next to him.

"He's just a little dense" she told his boy, "but he's a fast learner. You'll be teaching him all sorts of stuff, won't you, Bub?" Her words echoed in his head. Gibbs had always been determined it was going to be himdoing the teaching, dispensing his rules, handing down the sage advice given to him by his own elders. Imparting the wit and wisdom of one Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Now he heard Shannon's voice and words coming back to taunt him.

"You're a pompous ass sometimes, Leroy."

She only called him Leroy when she was pissed at him. She knew he hated it.

Well, she was right again, too. And he realized once again, that, like all the other important relationships he'd had throughout his life, he wasn't always going to be the one doing the teaching.

AN2: The ditty Tony sings did come from my favorite Looney Tunes character, Daffy: I heard it a few weeks ago and have been just dying to use it in a fic. This seemed like a good one!