A Four Letter Word

[tingreca]

Title: A Four Letter Word
Author: Sarah B. Leonard
Fandom: NCIS 
Characters: DiNozzo and DiNardo 
Rating: gen
Wordcount: still the traditional 100
Spoilers: that arc with the French father and daughter 
Warning:  none
Summary:  Challenge #197:  Work (for ncisdrabble100 )
Disclaimer: These characters belong to DPB, CBS, Paramount, et al. No copyright infringement is intended.
Authors notes:  This bunny hit me while I was at work.  And you get to decide what the four letter word is.

 

A Four Letter Word

By Sarah B. Leonard

 

Sometimes work wasn’t really work. It was waving guns and chasing suspects. It was taking pictures and tag and bags. It was getting the answers, in Interrogation or elsewhere. It was researching whos and whys, whens and wheres. It was fun.

Sometimes work was scary. It was undercover, or undercovers. It was thriving on who you were. It was sometimes being someone who you weren’t.

Sometimes work was hard. Sometimes work was pretending. And sometimes work hurt.

As he raised his hand to knock on her apartment door, he became a different Tony.

And work became a four letter word.

 

Comments

[cnine.livejournal.com]

Interesting :) I like the insights you find into Tony in this :)

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

It was an angsty bunny. (I'm thinking the word is 'crap' or 'shit' - hope no one thinks it's 'love' but I suppose that would work, too. At least until the arc ends.... and then my choices take over.)

[cnine.livejournal.com]

I was actually thinking the four letter work was gone. As if he threw work away completely in order to be his other persona. But love crossed my mind to, remembering the episode with the race to the top of the climbing wall were winner got to say "I love you"

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

Wow - I never thought of that one! All along I was thinking of 'nasty' four letter words. And, of course, WORK is a four letter word ...

[cnine.livejournal.com]

Why should it be nasty words? It's been a while since I last saw that season, but as I remember it Tony doesn't seem to be suffering all that much all the time. It's mostly when they get close and the love-thing comes into play that it seems to be troubling him...

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

Well, I saw quite a bit of Tony being forced by Jenny to do something he didn't want to do - to mislead a woman (who he later on began to care for) by pretending that he loved her, in order to find info about her father and her father's "business". He would rather have been himself, not Tony DiNardo, professor, with her but he had to be under cover and keep his true self secret from her. I see Tony as many things, but not as a liar. (Oh - another 4 letter word!) He can be a clown, he can mislead people away from the truth and he can be an actor ... but with Jeanne, he began to care about her and wished he hadn't been forced to lie to her. That's the part I was drabbling about.
(Another point: here in the US many 'swear words' happen to be 4 letters: shit, damn, f*ck, crap ... so swearing is often referred to as "using four letter words". I forget LJ is going around the world and that people might not get my colloquialisms.... bad me!)

[cnine.livejournal.com]

Funny point about four letter swear words. I didn't know that, so I've learned something new today :) After a day spent watching Tour de France that's not a half bad way to end the day (I've been telling my self I should go to bed for the last hour or so ;))

I think you have a point, but I also think that partly Tony sees it as a game of sorts to begin with, before he starts to really care about her. I think even though he is not a liar, he like to work undercover because he is good at it and he likes to show of his skills to Gibbs and the rest of the world, but specially Gibbs.
I think the closer they get the more he wishes to be able to show her who he really is, and I think part of him is hopping that he will be able to tell her in the end and that she will still love him afterwards. But I think you are right that after he starts to care for her swear words would fit in very well.

(Sorry if not all of this makes sense, but it's after midnight here now and I really should be going to bed)

[starbuckssue.livejournal.com]

This says so much in so few words! Very well expressed, it examines so well how Tony shut away his day at work before turning into his undercover persona at night.

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

I find the 100 word challenge a lot of fun ... and work! Thank you.

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

really liked that

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And thanks for the comment. (Will Drabble For Comments...)

[kew121]

Wow! I'm really impressed with the character insight in this drabble.

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And thank you for your comment.

[xanthelj.livejournal.com]

That's beautifully done! Poor Tony - I think he started out thinking it'd be fun, but in the end got trapped in something that wasn't fun at all. So I can totally see him feeling this way after awhile.

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think Tony did get twisted around on this one. Thank you.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

Poignant.

A really great look into Tony at that time.

[tingreca.livejournal.com]

Thank you. (And thanks for commenting.)