My Dear Good Friends

Chapter One- Mischievous Jethro

Friday, April 1st.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs always enjoyed working on his boat. He was on his fourth now and truly believed that this one had a good chance of being finished. He couldn't say for certain- he might come home tomorrow and destroy it in a fit of rage- but he had a good feeling about this one.

In spite of his good mood, he wasn't actually working on the boat at the moment. He was down in his basement- the part of his house where he was most comfortable- but wasn't in the mood at the moment. He hadn't had a case in a few days, none of his team was in danger (for once) and Jenny had given him a new bottle of bourbon for going a week without frightening Cynthia (his best record to date).

All in all, it was a good time for him. He wouldn't exactly say he was happy- hadn't given himself over to that emotion in years- but he was relatively content.

And the night was going to get a lot more fun really soon.

So, he sat there, sipping his bourbon (for once, out of an actual glass that had not first held coffee or nails) and smirking as he thought of what he'd done.

***
Flashback—Monday, March 28th
***

"McGee." After another hard day of paperwork and more paperwork, the inevitable conclusion of a case, Gibbs had just released his team. Tony had run out so fast he'd forgotten his jacket and Ziva hadn't even bothered to turn off her computer. Tim was the only one of the group who hadn't seemed to mind the day, but then again there were still a lot of computers that had to be processed from the last case that he could go downstairs to Abby's lab to play with from time to time (and Gibbs didn't believe for a second that McGee and Abby were down there doing nothing but work- not that he wanted to contemplate what his team might or might not be doing and what rules they might or might not be breaking for even a second).

Gibbs had had something in mind for a few days, mulling around in his brain, and today seemed to be the perfect day to implement it. Obviously McGee didn't have any plans and he was neither exhausted from too much work or from tedious paperwork.

"I have a favor to ask you. Are you busy tonight?" Gibbs questioned him.

He had to wait a minute or three as McGee still couldn't help the stammering that started up every time Gibbs did something out of character, holding back a sigh as he did so. When he'd finally managed to get McGee transferred to his team, he'd held himself back in order to not scare the computer geek into running screaming back to Norfolk, but apparently he'd held back too much, as now almost every attempt he made to get close to the youngest man on his team was met with confusion and anxiety.

"N-no, Boss." McGee finally managed. "What, uh, what do you need?"

Gibbs pulled out the phone that had cost him a bundle of money. Oh well, it wasn't like he spent money on anything besides ex-wives, wood and bourbon. Besides, it would totally be worth it later on. "Jenny's been harping on me about getting this new phone and I'm under strict orders not to break it for at least three months."

"Oh!" McGee visibly calmed down, his eyes gleaming with interest as he took in the new top-of-the-line phone Gibbs held up. "So, you want me to teach you how to use it?"

"If you think you can do it." Gibbs couldn't resist, as always, challenging his men.

Luckily, this was the sort of challenge McGee would excel at. "No problem, Boss." He said confidently. "We can get that set up in no time. It has all kinds of apps that you can use during investigations- I can download them for you and-"

"Sounds great, McGee." Gibbs cut off the other man with a hasty smile. "How about you come by my house around 8? We'll have some steaks and beer and work out that phone."

"Sure, Boss. See you then." And with that, his agent had scurried quickly away after the others.

McGee had arrived, as per usual, promptly fifteen minutes before the appointed time. Well used to his agent's habits, Gibbs was just pulling the steaks out of the fireplace when his front door was tentatively opened. He carefully hid his smile as his agent came in and took a seat on the couch. At least he hadn't knocked this time. McGee visited Gibbs' house less often than any of the others and had surprised the hell out of Gibbs the first time he'd came by to visit by actually knocking on his front door. Not a single other member of his team had ever knocked, but then again, none of them had the manners that Tim McGee lived by.

"Hey, Tim." Gibbs casually slid one of the steaks onto the spare plate he had laid out along with their beers and pushed it over to his agent.

"H-hey, Boss." Tim gave him a hesitant smile, but cheerfully took the steak. "Um, so where's the phone?"

Gibbs laughed. All of DiNozzo's laziness had to be because he took up McGee's share too, as Tim was never one for procrastinating. "Eat first. After that crap Ziva bought for lunch, you need it." He needed it too- Ziva had definitely earned her head smack for the day with that disgusting 'lunch'.

"Yeah." Tim could heartily agree there, wincing as he remembered the taste of the horrific tofu concoction Ziva had brought them for lunch. "I think we should take her off of lunch rotation." He said, smiling.

"Sure." Gibbs took a bite of his steak, moaning in pleasure. "As long as you tell her."

He was pleased to see the younger man laugh, finally relaxing. "No way," Tim said, shaking his head. "You're the Boss."

"And she's a Mossad-trained assassin." Gibbs teased. "More than that, she's a woman. Women are tricky things, McGee. Any woman would get angry if you criticized her food choices. This one has knives up her sleeves. We take enough risks every day without taking a stupid one."

"Yeah," Tim agreed, taking a sip of beer. "Maybe we'll get lucky and Tony'll get brave one day."

They both laughed. Tony was probably the hardest hit on those unfortunate days it was Ziva's turn to make the lunch run. She seemed to compensate her meals for Tony's, making hers as healthy as his was greasy. His face looked a little more revolted every time he opened his 'meal'.

To Gibbs' relief, they fell into an easy silence, broken only by soft jazz from a small radio he'd hunted from somewhere. He knew McGee liked jazz and was already feeling slightly guilty about using the other man, so he'd made sure to make the other man as comfortable as possible. Though he used McGee's skills at work with no guilt, as this was outside of work he didn't really have the right. But McGee would definitely be the first of those affected to forgive him, so he wasn't too bothered. Guilt was, after all, a rather familiar feeling for him.

All too soon they finished up their meal, however, and Gibbs went to retrieve his new piece of technological torture while Tim grabbed the two of them new beers and they settled down to business. Gibbs had brought the box and papers that had come with the phone, but, to his amusement, Tim didn't even look at them.

Instead, the younger man took the phone, zoning out for a few minutes, as he looked through it. His face acquired the same intense look it did when he was tracking things down on his computer and Gibbs was content to let the Master work at his craft.

In spite of his hopes, it only took McGee about ten minutes to learn everything he needed to know about the phone and begin Gibbs' least favorite part of his plot. "Okay, Boss. It works like this-"

An hour later, Gibbs knew more about phones than he ever had before. He'd only had to slap McGee twice to avoid geek-speak and the young man had become better than ever at explaining things so that Gibbs could understand them. To top it off, Gibbs got yet another reminder of just how lucky he was to have the young computer genius, as McGee showed him some 'apps' that he'd written himself. Gibbs was sure that four out of the five would be illegal, should anyone be aware of them, and he knew for a fact that the fifth was.

He couldn't have been more proud of the boy.

"Thanks, Tim." He said when McGee finally wound down. "This will be great- I can't wait to shove it in Tobias's face. The FBI has had these phones for almost two months now and he still can't even put the numbers in his contact list." He smirked. Not only was that true, he hadn't even had to put his contact numbers in - McGee had done that for him.

And, as he knew would happen, McGee took the bait. "Agent Fornell has this phone too?" He asked tentatively.

"Yep." Gibbs nodded. "That's why Jenny wanted us to have them. We can't compete with the FBI on many things, but all Senior Agents now have the same fancy phones." Of course, he'd had to pay for his own, as when Jenny had tentatively made the suggestion, Gibbs had thrown a fit that left Jenny cringing for a week afterwards every time she saw him and had made Cynthia run away from him faster than Jimmy Palmer every time he'd encountered her for the next month. Loyal, Cynthia was not- it was a good thing he'd trained Jenny to take care of herself. But it was no matter. He had no doubts this one would break soon enough and Jenny would replace it, not wanting him to go back to an older model.

"Well, Boss," Tim shrugged uneasily. "If he needs help, I can help him. I mean, he's a lot like you with computers and stuff and I didn't do too badly explaining to you…right?"

"No, that was great." Gibbs quickly reassured his agent as the anxiety returned to his face. "I actually might be able to use this piece of junk, thanks to you. I'm sure he'll be around soon- it's been almost two weeks since we last saw him and he can't avoid us much longer- but when he does, I'll let him know you offered. Thanks, McGee."

"No problem, Boss." Tim said, standing. "Well, Boss, I've gotta get going. I'd like to go online for awhile before I hit the sack."

"Sure," Gibbs got up as well, walking the other man to the door. "You weren't online earlier?" He had to ask. Maybe it was all of Tony's teasing, but he couldn't help but feel that maybe the kid did spend a bit too much time online.

"No, I wasn't online earlier. I finished two chapters in my next book."

Oh, well that changed things. "That's great." Gibbs said, grinning. "I can't wait to see what the team gets up to next."

After the whole fiasco with McGee's little sister and Tony and Ziva finding out about the book, McGee had received some of the worst teasing in his career. His partners were both still angry about his interpretations of them and Tony was angry on top of that because McGee had hidden having a sister from them, but Gibbs couldn't have cared less. He'd known about the book for quite some time and was glad he could now admit to having it. After the fighting had calmed, he'd been able to tell McGee how much he'd liked it and that he was still waiting for the second volume.

"Ah, yeah." McGee still looked hesitant whenever he was discussing his book. "I kinda wanna just send Lisa back to Israel and Tommy back to Baltimore just to shut up Ziva and Tony, but then what kind of a book would I have?" He said, laughing slightly.

"Oh, I dunno." Gibbs offered a grin. "MacGregor and LJ did pretty good tonight, didn't we?"

***
End Flashback
***

He got his answer all too soon. He'd given up his silent meditation, throwing himself into the sanding of his boat, but paused as he heard his front door open.

Seconds later, it slammed shut, making dust fall from the ceiling. Jethro grinned, getting his answer and went back to his sanding. He was carefully not looking when his friend and fellow ex-husband-of-the-she-beast-known-as-Diane stomped down the stairs.

"You bastard!"