"Ooof, what a day." Tony grunted as he plopped down on Piper's couch.
"Does my poor baby need a nap?" Piper teased from her desk chair.
"Call me a baby again, and I will tackle you."
"I may just accept that challenge." Tony smiled and stretched out across the couch, facing the tiny office area where Piper sat. She was busy at her computer.
Monotony had finally been restored to his life. Well, for the most part, anyways. It had been only two weeks since Grant Thanes was arrested. But to Tony and Piper, it might as well have been two years. Things between him and Tim were still tense at work. Civility had just about reached its limit, as far as Tony was concerned. Every time he mentioned this to Piper, she got this odd little smile on her face. It reminded Tony a lot of Amelia. It was really weirding him out.
"You're cute when you're concentrating." He spoke up again, breaking his own train of thought.
"How do you know? My back is to you."
"Well, you're always cute."
"I think you're biased." He could hear her stifle a yawn.
"I think you need a nap." Tony rolled himself off the couch and stood up. Piper glanced over her shoulder just as he came up behind her. Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, he pulled her back. "Come on," he whispered into her ear. "This can wait."
"Tony…" Her voice gave the slightest hint of a warning. "If I don't do this now, I'll have to do it in the morning. And we both know how chipper I am in the morning."
"Right." Tony straightened up, not arguing.
"You go on to bed if you want. I'll meet you there." She turned long enough to give him her 'I know I'm getting my way' smile. Again, he was reminded of Amelia. He was beginning wonder if Amelia was a bigger influence than he had originally thought.
"Okay." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I'll be waiting, very impatiently." She laughed before he turned towards the bedroom. "And I'll be naked." He called when he got to the door.
"I thought you were trying to entice me, not repel me."
"I didn't hear that!" The door shut.
By the time Piper finished her work and crawled in beside him, he was already snoring softly. Piper smiled at his peaceful face. She knew Amelia was plotting something big for all of them. But Amelia had refused to divulge exactly what it was. Piper, of course, trusted Amelia… But it was still a little unsettling when Amelia got that grin on her face.
Yes, something was brewing… Or stirring… Or possibly just marinating? No, brewing worked.
NCIS
Tony strode into work the next morning with a slightly less cocky version of his usual grin. As he made his way into the bullpen, his eyes went to Gibbs' trash can. A single coffee cup lay inside. Yes, Gibbs was in. Tony sat down at his desk and booted up his computer.
"How are you here before me, again?" Ziva's voice brought Tony's eyes up.
"Well, you know what they say about the early bird?"
"It's the special that comes with pancakes?"
"No! It gets the worm!"
"What do worms have to do with breakfast specials?" Ziva cocked her head.
"I'm very close to just giving up on you."
"Now, there's the Tony I know." McGee crossed in front of Tony on the way to his own desk. Tony chose to ignore the remark.
"When are you two going to stop all of this?" Ziva sighed. "It is getting very old."
"Stop all of what, Ziva?" McGee looked up at her innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"This bickering! You two are like an old married couple, going back and forth!"
"He started it!" Tony pointed at McGee as he spoke. "If he would just let things be-"
"Me?" McGee interrupted him. "I'm not the one dating a photographer to hook up with models!"
"I am not!" Tony stood and slapped his palms on his desk. "I care about Piper! Why can't you just accept that I am capable of loving someone?"
"You do kind of lack credibility."
"Okay, you know what…" Tony came out from behind his desk. At the same time, McGee stood up, still behind his desk. "I see what you are doing here."
"And what's that?" McGee crossed his arms.
"You just can't stand the fact that I'm happy." McGee's eyes narrowed at Tony's statement. "I know you think of me as a bully, and maybe you're right to… But now I have something that's just as good as what you have. I have someone who makes me happy. And you can't handle the fact that I-"
McGee cut him off again. "What I can't handle is the fact that I know you too well. What do you think is gonna happen when you ruin things with Piper? Lexi is-"
"Wait a second," Tony interjected. "What do you mean 'when' I ruin things?"
"Oh, come on, Tony… Seriously?"
"I am being serious!" And now, he was also yelling.
"McGee! DiNozzo!" The Gibbs bark made both men turn. "With me! Now!" Gibbs led them straight to the elevator. "Get in." He demanded once the doors opened. Both men obeyed. When Gibbs didn't join them, they both sent him curious looks. "You two are gonna stay in there till you sort this out." Gibbs turned to walk away. "Acting like two damn teenagers," he muttered.
It was another twenty minutes before Gibbs' phone rang. He sent a look to Ziva. She just nodded and grabbed her bag along with Tony's. Gibbs grabbed McGee's bag. As the two of them walked to the elevator, Ziva turned to Gibbs.
"Do you think they have made any progress?" Gibbs just cocked an eyebrow at her and hit the button, summoning the elevator. The doors opened. McGee and Tony were at opposite ends of the elevator, both facing away from each other. A glare was set in both men's faces.
"Guess not." Gibbs shrugged at Ziva. He was going to have to do something about this.
NCIS
"Are you sure this is the place?" Gavin asked apprehensively. He inched the car to a stop next to the curb near a surprisingly residential house. Amelia looked down at the ripped sheet of paper in her hand and reexamined the brass numbers on the house.
"Yeah. 508 Laurel. We're good."
Her husband leaned forward over the steering wheel and arched an eyebrow at the house. "It's looks so… um…"
"Civilian?" Amelia offered.
Gavin snorted. "I was going to say 'conservative' but that works, too." Finally, he turned to look at her, his brown eyes catching hers in a mirror gaze. "You sure about this? I can stay. I can tell Mitch we can play another time."
Her lips twisted into a disapproving frown and she arched an eyebrow very slightly. He didn't cringe like most people that knew her did but that was okay. His constant exposure to her had made him immune to her various intimidating tactics. "You better not. You've been putting him off for weeks. Go be a gamer. I'll be fine."
He shifted his eyes from her to the front door, an unsettled expression overwhelming his face. "I don't know. He seems kind of… I don't know, distant, I guess? And mean. There's that, too."
Amelia rolled her eyes and finally opened the car door. "I think I can handle mean. Besides, this is just you being unduly overprotective." Using the seat as extra leverage, though she certainly didn't need it quite yet, she pushed herself out of the car and onto the street.
"But, Amelia…" he started.
"Don't 'but, Amelia' me. Go play that silly card game with Mitch right now or you're banned from Halo for a week." To add to her point, she pointed an imperious finger out at the end of the street.
Gavin's face pinched in playful irritation. "Fine, then." The expression melted instantly into fondness. "Love you."
"Love you same," she replied instantly, not wanting to get into their exceedingly sappy arguments about who loved whom more. "Have fun!" Slamming the door closed, she scurried over to the yard and watched as he left, using the time to collect her thoughts.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs. There were a lot of problems with that one, the primary one being that he was too much like her. Stubborn, always had to be right, terribly good at intimidating others and, worst of all, horrible at apologizing. It was like looking in a mirror and adding twenty years. It was a little horrifying.
That was not to say that Amelia didn't like herself. She had accepted a long time ago who she was, long before she had even met her husband. However, that didn't mean she didn't have a hefty set of flaws. She was overly blunt, very slightly sadistic, and prone to violence when words didn't seem to be making an impact.
Oh, and the schemes. She always had one of those bouncing around in her head.
It was the newest one that was bringing her to the former Marine's door, begrudgingly willing to apologize to the older man if that was what it took. Despite her earliest intentions of making her two friends as close to happy as she could manage, something somewhere had taken a bit of a left turn. Oh, Lexi and Piper were fine when they weren't arguing on behalf of their significant others but she knew that Tim and Tony had lost some of their partner dynamic through the latter's courtship of the photographer. As such, Lexi didn't trust Tony with a ten-foot pole with a red herring on the end and Piper wasn't able to get to know Tim well enough to place any kind of trust in his opinions. While the relationships themselves were solid and good and real, the friendships had suffered as a result.
It was her fault and she had to fix it.
Telling herself to have some cajones about this already, Amelia lifted her hand and knocked firmly on the door. It came out weak and hollow to her ears, causing her to scowl slightly. Wouldn't it be just her luck that Gibbs would open the door just as she was making that expression?
"Miss Shorne," he greeted in a flat monotone.
Amelia rolled her eyes and then shot him a half-dose of her normal glare, feeling offended at his tone. "Jethro," she greeted back. He arched an eyebrow at her and she felt a surge of warmth, despite the chill his gaze portrayed. Kindred spirits, huh? "Ducky calls you that," she clarified with a smile.
He suddenly looked exasperated. "Have you befriended all of my staff?"
She tilted her head slightly. "I guess so. So, can I come in?"
After a long moment, though not nearly long enough to put her on edge, he inclined his head and stepped aside. Crossing the threshold made her think instantly, Hey! Not a vampire! She mentally shook her head, clearing the thought away, in time to see the slightly intimidating man give her a slightly curious expression, though the curiosity itself was somewhat dampened by the hard set of his face.
"Okay, so, I came by to…" Amelia faded for a moment, feeling her face twist into distaste. "Apologize."
Watching Gibbs' face in its current transition from disbelief to genuine confusion to something bordering on actual fondness was more than a little interesting. "Why?" he asked then, his tone softened from the level monotone.
"Because… well… okay, I don't have an actual reason to apologize, okay?" she huffed dramatically. With a deep breath, she reeled herself in, damning the pregnancy hormones for making her outbursts a lot more frequent. "I just figured that if I'm going to do this whole thing where I try to make Tim and Tony and Lexi and Piper get along, I should at least try the same with you."
"Makes sense," he replied after a moment of internal thought. "Can't you just glare them into submission? Works for me." He smirked slightly, causing Amelia to almost laugh at the image.
"Yeah, sure." She rolled her eyes. "That might work for efficiency's sake but you can't just make people be friends."
"That's true," he murmured. He sighed and gazed at her intently. "I should be sorry, though. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions." His lips twisted into a kind of wry amusement. "It's not often that I'm… wrong."
Amelia laughed, the sound bubbling up from the center of her chest. "You don't like to admit it either, huh?"
For the first time that day, he smiled, the expression causing a twinkle in his eyes. "Not at all. How are you going to make them get along if you can't force them to be friends?"
Fully realizing that whatever barrier had been between them had crumbled, Amelia allowed her lips to curl into a mischievous smile. "Well, I've got a few ideas."
NCIS
It was dusk when Amelia stepped off of Gibbs' front porch. She felt good about this. It was going to be so much fun. And it would (she hoped) finally put an end to the fighting. She was just about to dig her cell phone out of the black hole she called a purse, when she heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking, followed quickly by a female voice cursing loudly. Just across the street from Gibbs' house was a small one-story brick house surrounded by an overgrown lawn. There was a dark SUV parked on the street with a UHAUL trailer hooked on the back.
"Hey!" Amelia threw out a greeting as she crossed the street. A woman was bent over, trying to rescue her dropped box. It looked like she had tripped over something on her way to the steps leading to the porch. She straightened up when Amelia called out to her. "Need some help?" She came to a stop on the sidewalk, just a step away from the woman's front yard. The woman eyed her curiously. Amelia got the distinct impression that this was someone who was not used to being offered something for nothing.
"If it's no trouble…" The woman's voice was hesitant, but not-unfriendly. Her eyes dropped to Amelia's round stomach for a split second before jumping back up to her face. Amelia suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.
"Not at all. I can lift." Amelia smiled and curled her arms as if to show off her muscles. The woman immediately broke into a smile.
"I'm Chloe Miller…" She stopped and frowned. "Chloe Hughes." She abandoned her dropped box and stepped forward to shake Amelia's hand. The street light gave Amelia a better look at the woman. She had chin-length dark brown hair that was kept out of her face by a thin headband. Her pale skin had a young look to it but Amelia guessed her at mid-forties.
"I'm Amelia Shorne, nice to meet you." Amelia cocked her head at the box still on the ground. "Full casualty?"
"I haven't really looked yet." Chloe turned to the box. "I sure hope not, though. All of my glasses are in there. I guess that's what I get for rush packing. I didn't use newspaper or anything." She opened the box and grimaced. "I think I have a few survivors."
"Well, even pregnant, I'm not much of a klutz, so maybe I should carry your other breakables."
"Deal." Chloe picked up the box and smiled as she handed it to Amelia. "I've been at this most of the day so there isn't much more to move."
As Amelia followed her into the small house, her eyes widened at the mess inside. The wallpaper in the front room was peeling. The once blue carpet was now a dull grey and caked with dirt in places. The front room led right into the kitchen, separated by only a bar counter. The kitchen looked even worse than the living room. The whitewashed walls were brown and yellow. Linoleum covered the floor but was cracked and peeling. Several cabinets had the doors hanging off at the hinges.
"I know…" Chloe's voice made Amelia stop looking around. "It's terrible. But, hey… I got one hell of a deal."
"Eh, fixer-uppers can be nice." Amelia shrugged as she spoke.
"I kind of wanted a fixer-upper. I thought putting this house back together might help me put my life back together. And my dad works construction. All my after-school jobs were helping him. It beats paying someone else to do it. I have new carpet and tile ordered. Once I scrape all this crap up, I can put the new stuff down."
"You don't have any furniture?"
"All in storage for now. I'll pull it out when I'm ready for it. I sleep on a blow up mattress. The master bedroom is actually the least damaged. And there's a picnic table on the back deck." Chloe suddenly stopped and scrunched her eyebrows together. "Do you live around here?"
"No. I actually live on base at Quantico. Marine spouse. I was just visiting a friend."
"Oh, I just want to make sure I'm not keeping you from anything."
"No. My husband is being a guy." Chloe's eyebrow went up. "He's with his guy friends."
"Oh!" Chloe smiled. "Now, I get why you came to visit a friend."
"What brought you out here?"
"My new job. I'm soon to be teaching American and World History at Waverly."
"I went to Waverly."
Both women moved at the same time to get more boxes. The conversation continued while they worked. Amelia talked about her friends and helping to run things at the bakery. She indulged a little bit about her two best friends dating guys who were at war with each other. This had made Chloe stop working for about five minutes to laugh. Once all the boxes had been moved in, Amelia quieted down.
"Well, do you want a tour. It won't be much of one. The house is small."
"Sure." They had left the boxes piled up on the kitchen floor. There were only three rooms and one bathroom. The kitchen led straight into a middle room. Chloe explained that this was going to be her office. To the back of the house was a smaller room. The washer and dryer took up the large closet but there was enough room for a guest bed and dresser. The bathroom was nicely sized. Amelia cocked an eyebrow at the fact that it was carpeted. Who carpets a bathroom?
"I'm pulling all this up and putting in tile." Chloe explained when she saw Amelia's face. "The thing that sold me on this house was the huge bathtub." Amelia nodded.
The master room was at the front of the house. It was almost the size of the front room. The walk in closet could've easily doubled as another room. What was it with women and huge closets? Amelia didn't ask. It was then that Amelia realized how long she had been there. Crap! Gavin!
"I need to call my husband. He might think Gibbs kidnapped me or something." Amelia quickly pulled out her phone without any further explanation. Chloe left the room to give Amelia privacy. When Amelia came back out into the front room, she was smiling.
"Was he worried?"
"He knows better." Chloe scrunched her face in confusion. "I'm just gonna call a cab." Amelia flipped open her phone.
"I don't mind giving you a ride. It's the least I can do."
"Okay." Amelia shrugged and put her phone away.
Together, they got the UHAUL unhooked from the SUV and took off for Quantico.
"So I take it you were recently divorced?" Amelia said once they hit the highway.
"Uh, yeah. Am I that obvious?"
"I can still see the tan line on your finger. And you corrected your last name earlier." Chloe nodded. "How long has it been?"
"We were separated for over a year, but the divorce wasn't finalized until six months ago. Hughes is my maiden name. I'm still getting used to it."
"What happened?" Amelia figured if Chloe didn't want to talk about it, she would just say so.
"I was young and stupid. Luckily, I got older, wiser, and a lot less tolerant of bull."
"Meaning?"
"He cheated. I got tired of it and left."
"Ah. Well, kudos for standing up to him."
"He made it hell for me. It's not easy divorcing a corporate lawyer who has his image to maintain. He wanted a bake sale wife. I wanted a stable environment and kids. Things crashed when we found out I couldn't have kids. Suddenly the world's problems became my fault. And he found his soul mate in his twenty-two year old blond secretary."
"Sounds like a bad novel."
"It was worse than being forced to read the entire Twilight series cover to cover, non-stop." Amelia laughed loudly. "You hated it too?"
"God, yes! Can you say, Mary Sue!"
"Thank you! People give me such crap for not liking Twilight!"
"So… You're new to the D.C. area and you're newly single?"
"Yeah. I'm originally from North Carolina. My parents still live there. My ex-husband and I lived in Minnesota. He didn't want me working while I was with him. I finished my degree but I've never actually taught before. I'm kind of excited about it."
"Nice to be out on your own?"
"Yes. I especially love not being under my ex-husband's thumb anymore, very liberating."
Amelia shook her head and smiled. How was it that she always attracted these broken females into her circle? Was there a sign on her back that she didn't know about? An idea suddenly popped in her head. Her smile widened.
"Well good for you. But you know, if you ever need anything… You have a very nice neighbor right across the street. His name is Jethro Gibbs. He lives alone and works all the time, but he's one of those handy kind of men. He won't mind if you ask for help with your renovations. In fact, he'd love a new project."
"Is this the Gibbs that your husband thought might kidnap you?"
"Yeah, but that was really just a joke. He's a really nice guy. He's a Federal Agent with NCIS. He's the boss of the two guys I was telling you about earlier."
"Oh. Well, I could use all the help I can get. And having a man around does have it's perks… You sure he won't mind? I don't wanna be that new bothersome neighbor that everyone ends up hating."
"The guy builds boats in his spare time. Trust me, he won't mind."
"If you say so…"
Amelia smiled again and nodded. A new plot was already stirring around in her mind.
LOVING REVIEWS. PLEASE POST MORE OF THEM! VERY ENCOURAGING! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY SET UP FOR GIBBS
The whole exchange between Gibbs and Amelia starting from Amelia and Gavin arriving at Gibbs' house to the break before she leaves his house, was written by Darkened Shadows. She is the real life person Amelia is based on. Thanx so much for your contributions and for being my happy muse! And much perks to all my reviewers!