A/N: Oh, I finally did it. I wrote a romance...sort of...and I did it at my own instigation. It's a fluffy little meaningless story that allowed me to incorporate my own experience working on my family farm.

Disclaimer: I own the OCs...but NCIS, specifically Tim McGee, is not mine. I do wish he was though. :) I am not making any money off this.

The Family That Works Together...
by Enthusiastic Fish

Holly noticed her companion's nervous expression. "I promise, Tim. You'll love it."

"Will I?" Tim asked, skeptical.

To his surprise, Holly laughed. "No, actually, you probably won't. I hated it all my life growing up. I couldn't wait to get away from it. I loathed every minute I was there. ...but now, I can't wait to go back."

"You're not exactly giving me a ringing endorsement for this experience."

"I know. Well, no one ever said it was easy."

"That's one thing I think I can agree with. It's never looked easy to me."

"A lot of experience?"

"No. This is all on television."

"It really has its own charm, Tim. My dad has loved it his entire life, but I think even he didn't enjoy it when he was really young."

"How much further is it? I thought people lived there. I didn't realize they commuted."

Holly laughed again. "We're not exactly typical...nor stereotypical. It's only about ten minutes more. My dad will be surprised to see you. He thinks you're just a city boy."

"I am."

"He likes you, Tim. I promise."

"Just like I'm going to love this new experience?"

Holly bit her lip...but Tim suspected it was more to hold back another laugh than out of any real worry. "No, he really does. He told me that he wouldn't hold your background against you."

"My background?"

"Yeah. You're not from the West. You don't work with your hands. You're well-educated but well..."

"And he's magnanimously overlooking all that? How nice of him. Maybe this isn't the best way to get to know him better, Holly."

"This is the best way."

Tim tried to quash his nerves. He'd met Holly's parents a couple of times, but this was the first time since proposing that he had spent any real time with them. ...and he wasn't ashamed to say that her dad was intimidating (well, not too ashamed).

"Oh, here, turn right here."

As they neared their destination, Tim privately changed some of his opinions about the dreariness of Idaho. This area was pretty...in a rural sort of way.

Then, suddenly, the asphalt ran out and Tim was driving on rutted gravel. He looked at Holly who didn't appear bothered by that. Of course, she had grown up out here; so he supposed that she would know.

"Ah, here we are!"

"We are?"

"Yep! Turn off there, but make sure you miss the borrow pits." She gave him a glance. "Or as you ed-you-kated fellers say the ditches."

Tim laughed and turned off.

"Go slow in the yard. You're going to hit some..."

The car bumped, jolting them into the air just a bit.

"...some holes. Stop here. Dad's around somewhere."

Tim turned off the car and got out. He looked around.

"What do you think, Tim? It's a genuine Idaho farm!" Holly spread her arms out wide. "Nothing like it in the whole world!"

"I thought there would be potatoes."

"We don't grow spuds out here, but I'll bet you'll be glad of that by the end of the day."

"You're really not filling me with confidence, Holly."

"Dad!" Holly shouted suddenly.

Tim stiffened as the man himself came out from behind the shed. He walked with a prominent limp and was about Tim's height...but Tim had no doubt that Holly's father could snap him like a twig should he wish to.

"Made it? Good. I need to get out to Hanamie's and put in the boards. We're getting flooded in the pasture. There's been too much water this year."

"You always complain about not having enough, Dad."

"Well, just wait until you get into the pasture. You'll see what I mean." He shifted his attention onto Tim. "You ready to work, Tim?"

"Yes, sir."

To his relief, Holly's father smiled. "You're not in the Navy out here. No need to salute or anything. You can call me by my name: Stephen. Why don't you come out to Hanamie's? We'll get the boards in and then we can get to work. We'll be under water no matter what but we can at least stem the tide a bit."

Tim nodded, not understanding at all what he was agreeing to.

"I'll come, too, Dad. It's easier with two and I don't think you'll be climbing the fence."

He didn't answer but got in the pickup. Holly just hopped in the bed; so Tim followed her. They bumped and jolted through the yard and onto the slightly smoother gravel road.

"What exactly are we doing?" he shouted over the wind.

"We're putting boards in the headgate at Hanamie's! We get all our water through that ditch, but with the wet spring, we're getting more than we need and we need to get the water to slow down some! I hope you're ready to get soaked, Tim! You're going to regardless!"

"Did I really agree to this?"

"Yes!"

When they pulled up to Haname's, Tim immediately understood what they were going to do and he understood why he was going to get wet...and very muddy as well. He had always known that Holly was a farmer's daughter, but it was different seeing her in this environment. She acted a bit differently, less tense, more carefree. ...where he was, so far, feeling just the opposite. Gingerly, he climbed the barbed wire fence and splashed through the water to the headgate. There were quite a few cows in the field.

"Don't worry about the cows. They're too stupid to do anything but stare at you," Holly said. "Hand me that board, will you?"

Tim saw the planks and knelt down beside the headgate. Together, they shoved them down. Tim got wet. There was a lot of water. After they'd put in all the boards, Holly jumped up and smiled mischievously at him.

"Race you back to the pickup!" Then, she took off, splashing herself with water and mud...and not caring at all.

"I'm marrying a crazy woman," Tim muttered to himself and ran after her...but he smiled as well. This was a kind of crazy he could deal with.

"Come on, slow poke!"

Tim climbed the barbed wire and dashed to the pickup.

"We'll be riding in the bed the rest of the day. Dad doesn't like the inside to get muddy."

"But he works on a farm!"

"That doesn't mean he wants a pig sty in his truck."

Tim rolled his eyes...and then hung on tight as Stephen started driving again. Instead of heading straight back to the farm, he began to take them on a tour of the valley, it seemed. Every so often, he'd stop and lean out the window, staring at the ditches before moving on again.

"What's going on, Holly?"

"He's just checking the ditches. Wants to see how full they are before we go to work."

"Why? He knows there's a lot of water in the ditch just above."

"Habit, I guess." Holly shrugged. "It means time we're not working, Tim. Don't complain!"

"You're the one who wanted to come up here in the first place."

"Of course, but farming here is all about how much time you have in between jobs. You work until lunch, but you find every chance there is to stop."

The pickup slowed to another stop.

"You're weird, Holly, but I think I like you."

Holly made a face at him and then leaned against him. "I think I like you, too. I'd never bring someone I hated up here."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely," Holly said, her voice suddenly serious. "This is home to me, Tim. No matter how long I'm gone, it's always home coming back here. I wouldn't bring someone with me unless I wanted to share it with them."

Tim was a little surprised by her feelings but also touched. He put his arms around her and was going to say something when Stephen apparently decided he'd seen enough and started driving again, much faster than he had been before.

"Back to work!" Holly shouted, grabbing onto her ball cap. "We'll be fixing fence today!"

"What does that involve?" Tim shouted back.

"Dad's been moving the fence line! We'll be helping him put up the wires and stapling the wire to the posts!"

"I'm guessing that stapling doesn't refer to office supplies!"

"More like a hammer and a nail with points on both ends!" She leaned forward and fished through the large metal tool box. "Like this!"

"I'm suddenly seeing my life flashing before my eyes!"

"Be glad we're not moving pipe!"

Tim didn't even want to parse that. He figured he knew what she meant and he wasn't going to waste any more time thinking about it.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The pickup rolled to a stop and Tim looked at the field. There was standing water all over it. Holly laughed at the look on his face.

"Don't worry, Tim. It'll be cold at first, but you won't even notice it after a little while."

"Yeah, that's all I was worried about," Tim muttered to himself.

Still, he wasn't going to impress his future father-in-law if he refused to get out of the pickup because of a little water. ...a little gross disgusting water that had who knew how many types of bacteria floating in it. His distaste must have shown.

"I'm not asking you to drink the water, Tim. This is all headed for the swamp ditch. We won't be using it at all since we don't have any water rights from there."

"I didn't understand a word you just said."

Stephen got out of the pickup and lumbered over.

"You see that over there?"

"That stream?"

"Yeah. That's the swamp ditch. It runs through our property but our water rights only come from up at Hanamie's, not that he's ever really used much of his water. We share the rights to it. Matters more most years, but a year like this where it's so wet, there's nowhere else for the water to go. It runs down through our fields and into the ditch. Now, you know how to stretch wire?"

Tim shook his head mutely.

"Okay, grab the wire stretchers."

"What are they?"

"Holly! Grab the wire stretchers!" Stephen ordered.

Holly reached down and picked up an incomprehensible piece of metal. She handed it to Tim with an encouraging look. He had never felt more stupid in his life. He'd always been good at figuring things out, but he'd never been on a farm before and these implements were completely foreign to him.

"Okay, what do I do?" Tim asked.

"Come on. I'll show you. You'll have to go down the fence a ways and do it again; so you might as well learn it right the first time. You'll need gloves."

Holly tossed him a pair of leather gloves that looked as though they had been used for years by who knew how many different people...and never been cleaned once. They smelled rather strange but even Holly was wearing a pair herself; so Tim pulled them on.

"Good." Stephen directed Tim away from dry ground and into the water. The first step was frigid and he felt the water soaking his shoes, his socks and about four inches of his pants. Now, he finally understood why Holly had been so insistent that he only wear clothes and shoes he didn't care about.

"You need to lean on me, Dad?" Holly called from the pickup.

"I'll lean on Tim!" he called back, and just when Tim was sure he'd made a joke, one of the big beefy arms took up residence on his shoulder and Tim found himself essentially leading Stephen to the fence, wearing dirty gloves, carrying the heavy wire stretchers and wondering more than ever why Holly had thought this was a good idea.

Once they reached the fence, Stephen let go and picked up a piece of barbed wire. There were two wires already strung up on the fence, but a large gap remained.

"Holly!"

"Coming, Dad!" Holly hopped out of the pickup and walked over. She was lugging a huge bucket that looked very heavy. Tim dithered about whether or not he should offer to carry it...but he didn't decide in time and Holly set it down by one of the posts.

"All right. You go on down and make sure the wire isn't getting caught. We'll start stretching it."

"You want me to get the other two ready, too?"

"Yeah, do that on your way back."

"Okay, will do." She headed down the field and Tim watched her go, wanting to run after her. As they waited, Tim was ready for the hard Dad questions to start. He'd been thinking about how he'd answer them and had figured out what he'd say. ...but Stephen never said a word. He just started whistling snatches of a tune.

When Holly waved from halfway down the field, he turned to the fence.

"Okay, Tim. Here's what we need to do. We have to get the wire as tight as we can without making it snap...and without breaking the brace posts. Watch." He took the wire and attached it to one end of the stretchers and then on a moving part, attached another section of wire. As Tim watched, he began to understand what was going to happen.

"Wow, that's so cool," he said without thinking.

Stephen began levering the wire more and more taut. He paused for a moment and smiled. "You're about the only person who thinks so. My kids groan when it's time to fix the fence."

"Well, if I had to do it all the time, I probably would, too," Tim said, "but that's an ingenious thing...the lever and fulcrum and stuff. Right out of high school physics class."

"You want to try it? Go ahead." He stepped back and let Tim approach.

"Am I going to break anything?"

"Probably not."

"Probably?"

"Well, weird things happen on farms. You should have Holly tell you about when she knocked herself out with a post pounder."

Tim laughed and began stretching the wire. He stretched it as far as it could go.

"Now what?"

"Now, we tie it off and do it again. This is a long enough fence that we can't stretch it all at once."

"You ready for me to start putting on the staples, Dad?" Holly asked.

Tim turned, surprised that he hadn't noticed her arrival.

"Not just yet."

Tim watched, amazed, as Stephen pounded a few staples on the barbed wire and then let the tension off the stretchers. Then, he handed it off to Tim to try by himself. Tim did it, but he was a bit nervous about messing up. To his relief, he managed to stretch the wire without breaking anything. Stephen even gave an approving nod.

"I'll get started on the next two wires. You two make sure you stay out of the way. I don't want to pin you to the fence."

"We'll clip from the other side," Holly promised. "Okay, Tim. Let me show you how to put the staples and clips on."

"I know how to use a hammer, Holly."

"It's not that hammer that's tricky, although it does take practice to pound in the staples. It's the nail." She handed him a monstrous nail and a bag of what looked like bits of twisted wire. "These are the clips. They're for the metal posts. Here's how you do it. It's easy once you know how." She hung one of the clips on either side of the post and then bent it using the nail. "See?"

"I think I got it."

"Good. Let's get going. I don't notice the water when I'm working." She grinned.

Tim shook his head and then got to work. As the day wore on, he got a little tired, a little bored, but all in all, it wasn't too bad...and even though Holly was off out of earshot quite often, the conversation he'd been dreading never happened. In fact, Stephen simply treated him as a fellow laborer. When they stopped to eat, Tim found himself relaxing. It seemed as though this was just another part of the day...and the work he was doing was a little less confusing.

Lunch was definitely not fancy, but he enjoyed the easy camaraderie, even when Stephen called them both back to work.

They finished the fence a couple of hours after lunch, but there was always more to do, and Tim discovered that farming was quite a bit like working at NCIS. The job never ended, but they worked for the time necessary and then came back the next day.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"All right. That's enough. You two can head back."

Tim was taken by surprise.

"What?"

"That's all for today, Tim," Holly said.

"But...we're not done!"

"We're never done. That's why I'm not a farmer."

"I thought it was because you knocked yourself out with the post pounder," Tim retorted.

"Dad! You told him about that?"

"I had to explain what happened to you," Stephen said. "There had to be some explanation for why you don't play basketball."

"Tim doesn't play basketball either!"

"Then, I guess you two can get along. Do you want to get a couple of towels?"

"Towels? For what?"

"So you don't mess up your nice car over there."

Tim looked back at his car...and then down at himself. The parts of him that weren't completely soaked were completely dirty. "Oh...yeah."

"Don't you love me more than your car, Tim?" Holly asked mischievously.

"Hmmmm..."

Stephen didn't quite roll his eyes but he came close. "I have a few towels in here."

"Thanks, sir...Stephen."

They covered the leather seats and waved.

"Tell your mother I'll be down in about an hour."

"Bye, Dad!"

Holly got in on her side and Tim pulled slowly out of the yard, carefully avoiding the holes.

"Well?" Holly asked.

"Well, what?"

"What did you think?"

"Could have been worse."

"How?"

"It could have been raining," Tim said.

She slugged him.

"I'm serious, Tim."

"How do you think I did?"

"I think you did great. It's not rocket science."

"No, it's harder than that."

"It's all about experience, not about education. My dad didn't go to school to learn how to farm. He was raised farming."

"You, too?"

"No, not exactly. I got both sides of the equation. I'm the daughter of a farmer, not a farmer myself. What did you think of it?"

"I can see why your dad loves it...but it's not for me."

"Well, I didn't want you to come because I wanted you to become a farmer."

"Then, why did you? I kept expecting your dad to skewer me with questions."

"He's not the skewering kind. He'd make himself known much more easily than that. I wanted you to see where I came from."

"I knew where you were from. You told me."

"You need to see it to understand. Besides...it's all a part of my evil plan."

"What's that?"

"We have a family motto. 'The family that works together stays together.' See? Now you have to stay."

"You think that's all it takes?"

"You either kill each other or you love each other forever. That's what working together does. The ones who survive stay together."

"And we survived?"

"You're not dead, are you?"

"I'm dirty enough."

"That's good honest dirt, Tim."

"I came by it honestly," Tim said.

"You did. Definitely."

They lapsed into silence and Holly closed her eyes, leaning back on the seat. Tim glanced at her every so often. There was a smudge of dirt on her cheek, her hair was matted and her clothes were dirty. She was so different from most of the women Tim had dated in the past, but...

"I love you, Holly."

She opened her eyes and smiled. "See? I told you it worked."

"Yep. I'm stuck with you."

FINIS!