One-shot
Title: Call someone who cares
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.
Note: I don't know why I did this…
Tony hid behind a bush on the side of the road as he heard the hum of an approaching vehicle. He made sure to stay in the shadows and kept as low to the ground as possible. He watched nervously as the car drove past him and back into the night. After waiting another ten seconds he started walking back onto the side of the parkway continuing towards the nearest gas station. He could see the lights now just beyond the hill and tried to rub the feeling back into his hands. It didn't help that it was a cold, windy night. Neither did the fact that he was wet, totally naked and only carrying 40 cents.
"Well, I wanted an interesting night." He muttered while remaining ever vigilant for any unwanted attention. Getting to the nearest payphone would only be half the problem. He then had to call someone to come and pick him up from wherever he was. That was going to be the embarrassing part.
"Damn it." he was too busy thinking he only just noticed another car pulling out of the service station and heading towards him. He dove behind the tree line and landed painfully on the ground. The car went right past him. It was times like these he had to think about the humour of his situation. Grudgingly he pushed himself off the ground and stealthily moved through the trees to the side of the service station. It was empty except for the clerk wondering around inside behind the counter. Tony looked for a payphone and found one just in front of the entrance. Great, it was in full view of the clerk and the security camera. The only benefit was that the bottom half of the booth had been covered with steel plates on three sides. The completely clear side was the door to get in; this meant that while the clerk and anyone in the main building couldn't see him, the people at the gas pumps would cop an eye full. Wonderful.
It didn't take him long to manoeuvre himself around the trees and towards the far side of the station. Now he would just have to wait until the clerk stopped staring out of the window in sheer boredom. This gave him time to think about who he could call. There was no way in hell he was going to call Gibbs to bail him out. However he tried to think of anyone else who would be at home on a Saturday night. Abby was at a party, Ducky was at a medical function. That left Kate and McGee and Tony didn't know which one was worse. In the end it came down to who was most likely to be sitting at home and would be willing to come help him out. He made his decision just as the clerk turned around to answer the phone. Tony took his chance and bolted through the empty station towards the phone booth. Those four seconds were some of the longest of his life. He almost broke the glass as he slammed the door shut and turned to face the phone stand. The clerk in the store was alerted by the noise and Tony saw him spare a confused look his way. He bent down a little bit making sure that he was properly covered and hoped the clerk would ignore the fact that he hadn't arrived in a car. This seemed to work and Tony released a breath he didn't know he was holding. Carefully he took the phone off the hook and dialled the number of his soon to be saviour. He waited until they answered before putting his money in.
"Hello?" the voice on the other end greeted him.
"Kate, its Tony…I need your help." Wow, he didn't expect it to be that hard to say.
"Tony? What's happened are you okay? Where are you?" Kate naturally assumed the worst.
"Kate I need you to listen real close okay. You need to be fast." He told her where he was but kept the reason from her. If she was worried she would likely come faster.
"Should I call Gibbs?" he heard her ask.
"No! No, don't worry about Gibbs just come as soon as you can…" Tony cringed as the whole booth was suddenly bathed with light. Obviously a car had just pulled into the station. He craned his neck to see the two people in the front of the car pointing at his naked behind and laughing. He took a deep breath.
"Tony I'll be right there." Kate moved to hang up.
"Hold on, Kate. I need you to do one more thing before you leave." He rested his head against the side of the booth. "I need you to bring me a pair of pants."
One hour later
"Stop smiling." Tony glared at Kate who was having trouble trying to keep a straight face as they drove towards his apartment. Of all the things she never expected to find him standing naked in a phone booth. Suddenly the pants thing made more sense. When she brought some track pants out to him he'd practically ripped them from her grip. At the moment they had the heater on in the car and she'd managed to fish out a towel from the back for his wet hair.
"Kate lets never speak of this again." Tony was getting worried. She had been in this state ever since she found him. Probably thinking of all the ways she could blackmail him. The look in her eyes was starting to scare him.
"I just need to know Tony, the curiosity is killing me." She struggled to retain her laughter as she gave him another quick once over.
"If I told you, do you promise never to bring this up again?" the last thing he needed was this circulating around the office.
"Tony, I just need to know. I promise I won't tell Gibbs if that's what you're worried about." She felt him start to crumble. "I won't blackmail you with it. Unlike some people I'm above that." he gave her a sarcastic smile which she returned but overall he decided if he had to tell someone it might as well be Kate. She'd find the most enjoyment out of it.
"Fine. I met an ex of mine at the bar. She seemed really happy to see me-"
"And that didn't tip you off?"
"Kate, do you want to hear the story or what?" she didn't respond so he went on. "As I said she seemed really happy to see me. She asked me if I wanted to go back to her place to…remember some old times. Naturally I said yes, so we took her car back. On the way she sort of mentioned a fantasy about skinny dipping. Who was I to deprive her Kate? She was counting on me!" his companion laughed at his attempt to justify himself and shook her head.
"I'm going to guess it didn't go as planned."
"Bingo, we stopped by this lovely secluded lake. She said she had something special in the car and asked me to get in the water first while she brought it out. Turns out she just wanted me in the water so she could take my clothes and leave me there."
"How do you find these women Tony?"
"Well she wasn't all bad. She did leave me enough money to make a phone call. Of course she took my cell, my keys, my wallet, my pants…" he sighed as Kate pulled her car in front of his building. "I really hope she brought my stuff back."
"Don't you have a spare key hidden somewhere for emergencies"
"How do you think my closet got defiled Kate." He stepped out of the car and moved quickly so as to avoid his neighbours. Although by the time he reached his door he was pretty sure everyone in the building had seen him.
"Damn." The spot in front of his door was empty, so much for getting his stuff back. Just in case he checked the lock to see if she'd raided his apartment. Nope, he wasn't even that lucky. He started walking back out to the curb and found Kate still waiting in her car. She leaned over and opened the passenger door for him.
"You think she's going to keep them as souvenirs of the wonderful time we had together?"
He stayed at Kate's apartment for the night. It wasn't as fun as he thought it would be, her dog still didn't like him and wouldn't let him out of the spare bed room. They drove to work early the next morning so he could change into the spare clothes he kept there. At midday he got a call from his neighbour about some crazy lady throwing his stuff all over the lawn. He and Kate excused themselves to go get lunch and picked up his belongings. Kate laughed when he found the crotch of his pants had been cut out with scissors. They also went to go pick up his car that he had left at the bar. The rest of the day was spent normally, and it looked as if he could put this small episode behind him. Of course he never knew about someone's late night trip back to the service station.
Kate got out of her car and walked into shop smiling as she reached for her badge. "I'm Special Agent Todd, NCIS. I'm going to need your security footage from last night."
