The Bed Tale.
How did this always end up happening to him? For ten years now Tony had been hiding the feelings that he had for Gibbs, but what he didn't realize was that Gibbs had been doing the exact same thing over him, the only trouble was that just recently Tony had come very close to actually telling Gibbs how he honestly felt.
On the initial occasion that he nearly let something slip Tony had gone to Gibbs after a particularly hard case which had taken them well into a week virtually of being continually on the go, which ended up with them all either ending up trying to take naps at their desks or down in Abby's lab on her futon. One night while he was asleep, but was just coming to once again when he had a really strange feeling that he was being watched and as he came to a little more he dreamed that he could detect that familiar smell of coffee, old spice and saw dust that could only be the smell of Gibbs. In a sense he didn't want to fully wake up from his slumber to know what Gibbs was doing there or even end up waking up with a stupid grin on his face, because he knew that it could end up giving just a few things away about his feelings and he really didn't want that to happen, but then just as he did eventually manage to open his eyes Gibbs was gone and he wondered if it had just been a figment of his imagination or indeed that he may have even been dreaming that he'd been there. Although as he had set the futon up in Abby's office rather than the lab as it was a little bit more quieter in there and as he subsequently got up to return back upstairs to the bullpen and Abby gave him a coffee on his way past he could have asserted that she'd got a really strange expression on her face which he really couldn't pin down and in the end just shrugged it off.
As the case was eventually wrapped up Ziva and McGee had already headed off home leaving himself and Gibbs alone in the bullpen finishing off their paperwork, Tony had just got to the stage where he was just going to sign it off to put on Gibbs desk when Gibbs took off his glasses and set them on his desk in front of him as he rubbed his eyes and said "You nearly finished with that?"
To which Tony replied "Yep, just need to sign it off and it's yours."
"Ok, I'll sign it in the morning, are you going to come round for steaks?"
"Yeah, well as long as you're not seeing Caroline tonight?"
As Gibbs then got up from his desk and said "Nope" as he went past Tony's desk with rather a sombre expression on his face Tony pondered to himself as he swallowed hard that that expression didn't bode well for that relationship. Well you couldn't really claim it as a relationship much as he didn't really know how many dates Gibbs and Caroline had actually had, but he knew that it perhaps hadn't been that many because he'd only actually found out about things via a sheer fluke. He had been out on a date himself and after having paid the bill was just leaving the restaurant as Gibbs and Caroline had walked in, they had acknowledged each other and then a few night's subsequently when he'd been over at Gibbs he had told him about Caroline and that night Tony had seen them it had only been their second date. Most of all though Tony had ended up being somewhat thankful, because that night for the first time in a truly long time Tony had actually been there on a date with a man. Ever since his feelings had begun to develop over Gibbs he had vowed not to date any other men, but somehow between his frat brother Steve and Abby they coaxed him to go out with this bloke Martin, Abby had even advised him as she was urging him to go that he couldn't just continue sitting on his ass waiting for Gibbs to come along and give him what he wished for. In the end though the night had been a complete failure for him and this Martin was just not his type in any way shape or form. so much he had said to him that he wasn't interested in things advancing any further as tactfully as possible, before disappearing off to the men's room and he had been very happy when he came out to find that Martin had left, so he'd settled the bill and had left, mostly feeling envious of Gibbs when he saw him with that woman there on a date, even if he didn't know anything about her as yet at that time.
So that night despite the both of them being so fatigued Tony turned up with at Gibbs with some beer to go with their steaks and speculated if there was a chance that he may be able to loosen his lips just slightly and somehow get the functional mute to actually talk. As he entered the house it was of course filled with the scent of the steaks cooking on the fire and Tony could feel his mouth watering in an instant.
He then went and put the beers into the fridge and grabbed a couple of cold ones out, before going to hand Gibbs one of them. After turning the steaks over and saying that they would only be another couple of minutes or so, Gibbs then joined Tony on the sofa as they clinked the beer bottles together and took a gulp.
After enjoying their dinner and as they sat there in an easy silence sipping their beers, Gibbs eventually sighed before saying "I know you weren't being nosey about Caroline, but let's just say that things didn't work between us, which I realized it wouldn't, serves me right for listening to Abby for a change."
"How do you mean?"
Gibbs smirked around the bottle top just as he took a sip and responded "Well I let her talk me into the first date with her, she'd just moved into the apartment next door to Abby's and it seemed that they have struck up a bit of a friendship. Caroline had seen me at Abby's a couple of times and decided that she liked me so spotted me as I was leaving one day and gave me her number. Well of course Abby had seen it happen, so carried on at me to call her and arrange a date and in the end I did it. Don't get me wrong she's a nice woman but just not my type."
Tony agreed, snickered and answered "The perils of listening to Abby, as she did the same thing to me... well actually it was something that both Steve and Abby got fixed in their brains. That was why I was at the restaurant that night I saw you. Steve had got this acquaintance that he felt that I might want to meet, it also turned out that Abby knew them too and between the two of them they urged me to go on this date with them. He was just not my type in anyway, I was so relieved when I came out of the bathroom to find that they had left and I was able to go and just pay the bill without seeing them again that night. I don't know I consider it's just simpler to remain single and I'm certainly not going to ever count on Abby or Steve for that matter to ever set me up with someone ever again."
"I'll drink to you with that one."
After that talk the rest of the night turned into one of their regular nights just enjoying each others company and with Tony going and sitting on his customary stair in the basement when Gibbs decided that it was time to go and work on the boat for a little while. Tony just loved to observe Gibbs working and could just watch him for hours if only he just got the chance to do so, well along with that of course a bit of drooling didn't go amiss too, as he viewed the man work up a sweat as he worked and the way that his muscles rippled under the t-shirt when he had got a bit too warm in the sweatshirt he'd been wearing and had removed it. That night though as he decided to call things a night, Tony realised that he'd let himself get a bit too carried away with his thoughts and had got just one slight problem down below. So as he got up and took his leave he was just secretly praying that Gibbs hadn't spotted anything as they said "Goodnight" to one another.
As things stood Gibbs had of course noticed, which had then set his own thoughts off about the hope that there could perhaps end up being something more between the two of them, especially as he had also noticed Tony's little lapse earlier on as well when he had said "He" when he had been speaking about the date that he'd been set up with, but Gibbs also had known that he had to be suppressing something about that date anyway, especially with the way he had not given anything away about the persons sex, even after the little "he" mistake. Then to top things off there was also the bulge in Tony's pants that he seemed to be desperately trying to cover, but he had already seen it anyway before Tony had made the attempt at the cover up. So with that little bit of wisdom that he now had, all he needed to do now was find a way of discovering the truth and actually doing something about it!
