A/N: This is actually a story I started before Nomenclature and Apparitions, but I wrote this first chapter out long hand instead of typing it like I did with the others. And since typing up a chapter already written is tedious work I kinda let myself put it off for a while. Finally worked up the nerve to force myself to type it so I could share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it.
For those of you interested, I have created a Tumblr for fanfiction where I will be posting not only the chapters of my stories that you all can read here, but also 'extended cut' chapters that include scenes I am unable to include on this website and 'deleted scenes'. This is my way to accommodate both this website's rules and the demands of my readers. The information for the Tumblr will be included on my profile.
A marine stepped off the elevator with a small smile of anticipation as his escort lead him to the Bull Pen.
"Here you go, Gunnery Sergeant." The escort's declaration gained the attention of the three team members sitting at their desks.
"Thank you, sir." The Gunnery Sergeant replied as he adjusted the strap of his duffel. The escort nodded in acknowledgment before turning and leaving.
"Can I help you, Gunnery Sergeant?" The man turned to the waiting face of Tony DiNozzo, glancing briefly in the directions of Ziva David and Jethro Gibbs.
"This is the MCRT work area, correct?" Tony exchanged a look with Ziva.
"Yes, it is."
"Then I don't need any help. I'm exactly where I need to be." The duffel dropped to the floor as the man shrugged the strap off his shoulder. "I'm here to see Special Agent Timothy McGee."
"He is down with our Forensic Scientist. I can call and let him know you are." Ziva offered.
"Oh, don't do that." The man insisted. "He doesn't know about me coming here. I want it to be a surprise. It's why I didn't tell him I was coming home early."
"You just got back state side?" Tony asked rhetorically. "Congrats. I bet you're glad to be back home."
"Very much, sir." The man grinned. "I missed being home. And if I'm lucky, I get to stay here."
"Well, I hope you get that. You certainly deserve it." Gibbs spoke up. The mystery guest's smile grew as he nodded in agreement.
"McGee never told us he was friends with a marine." Tony began, trailing off.
"We were roommates at MIT. When he went on to Johns Hopkins, I joined the Corps."
"Sense of patriotic duty?" Ziva inquired.
"In a way." The man admitted. "Like Tim, I come from a military family. I merely decided to keep up the family tradition, like my brothers."
"How very loyal of you." Tony continued. "I'm Special Agent Tony DiNozzo, she's Special Agent Ziva David, and our boss over there is Special Agent Jethro Gibbs."
"Gunnery Sergeant Dimitri Petroviak. It's a pleasure to finally meet you all. Tim has told me a lot about you. Made for some interesting letters and emails." Irritated expressions appeared on Tony and Ziva's faces at the thought of McGee talking about them without their knowledge.
"Petroviak. Any relation to the Senator?" Gibbs asked, recognizing the name.
"He's my father." Dimitri confirmed. "I try not to let people find out about that, if I can prevent it. Keeps them from automatically thinking I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth."
"I can relate to that." Tony muttered under his breath, gaining Dimitri's attention.
"So...you are Tony." The man in question froze at Dimitri's slightly accusatory tone, thinking over every prank he had ever played on McGee.
"Yes." Came the hesitant answer.
"The McNicknames stop, got it?"
"Yep, sure, no problem." Tony couldn't get out fast enough. Dimitri held his hard look for a few seconds before dropping it and smiling, showing Tony he wasn't being too serious.
"Great. I laid claim to getting to call Tim those our first year at MIT and, as all my exes will tell you, I'm a jealous and territorial man." Ziva snickered at Tony's embarrassed discomfort. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she heard the ding of the back elevator opening.
"Gibbs, it's exceedingly boring today! Why is it so boring?" Abby called out before she was in view.
"Sorry, Boss. I could only entertain her for so long before she lost interest." Tim explained with a laugh.
"McPet!" Dimitri declared loudly in the same moment that Tim and Abby noticed that there was a visitor. It took Tim's brain half a second to register what he heard and who he was looking at.
"Dimitri!" Tim shot across the Bull Pen faster than his coworkers realized he could move, nearly tackling the black haired man with a hug that put Abby's to shame. Dimitri laughed as he braced them against falling and hugged Tim back.
"I'm happy to see you, too, Tim." Dimitri said through a chuckle.
"You're home." Tim pulled away to state the obvious. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming home? I would have asked for off. I could have come and picked you up at the airport."
"I wanted it to be a surprise. I didn't even tell the girls I was coming home." As Dimitri explained himself, Tim eyed the bag on the floor.
"You came straight here."
"Well, yeah." A semi-frown appeared on Tim's face.
"Why didn't you go see Deidre and and Tabitha first? They're your daughters." Dimitri gave Tim a look that said his reason for doing that should be obvious.
"Hey, McGee." Abby interrupted at the first chance she got. "Are we gonna get an introduction any time this century?"
Tim spun around to look at her as he finally remembered that he was at work, his coworkers could see and hear everything, and went slightly pink in the face.
"Uhhh...Dimitri, these are my coworkers Tony, Ziva, Gibbs, and Abby. I know I've told you a lot about them. Everyone, this is Dimitri Petroviak. He's my roommate from MIT." Dimitri smiled at Abby in greeting as Tim formally introduced him.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, ma'am. The others and I have already made our introductions."
"McGee hasn't told me a single thing about you." Abby replied with a semi-pout, prompting an eye roll from Tim.
"I'm quickly learning that he doesn't talk about me much." Dimitri answered with a solemn nod. "Why the secrecy, Tim? Are you ashamed of me or something?"
"No, I'm not." Tim insisted with a sigh he normally reserved for Tony when the Senior Agent was acting like a child. "But there are some people I wouldn't trust you to be alone with. Particularly Tony."
"Hey! I resent that." Tony objected. Gibbs shook his head and returned to his work, tolerating the scene for now. As Abby had pointed out, the team didn't have much to do at the moment.
"You wound me, Tim." Dimitri put a hand over his heart. "I thought I was a very trustworthy person."
"Not with these people." Tim shot back.
"Why did you call him 'McPet'?" Ziva asked, diverting the banter. Tim froze in horror, the blood draining from his face before rushing back to make it a deep red. His eyes thinned out in a murderous glare while Dimitri grinned at him evilly, clearly enjoying the dark blush on his face.
"Now, Miss Ziva, that would be a prime example of why Timothy here doesn't trust me with any of you."
"Dimitri Nikolai Petroviak, don't you dare." Tim hissed.
"Oooo! Now I really want to know." Tony exclaimed, moving to the edge of his seat. Glacing at Tony briefly, Tim held his glare on Dimitri before the man hung his head in defeat.
"Fine." He conceded with a pout. "I won't tell them anything. But I reserve the right to try and embarrass you as much as possible with information they already know about you."
"Good luck with that."
"I accept that challenge." Dimitri muttered, zoning in on an amused looking Abby. "So, Miss Abby, Tim has told me you two dated briefly."
"Goddamnit, Dimitri..." Tim turned to go sit at his desk. Abby nodded slightly before answering.
"Yes. Before he transferred here from Norfolk. You know, now that I think about it, that was a while ago. I'm just happy we remained so close. I guess that most of that is Tim. He's such a nice guy. I'm not as close with other guys I've dated as I am with Tim. He really is just as loyal and cuddly as a puppy!"
Tim groaned loudly, letting his head fall to his desk with a thunk. Dimitri shook with silent laughter as he struggled to keep track of what Abby was saying in high speed. Tony and Ziva weren't quite as nice, laughing out loud.
"That he is." Dimitri agreed with a smirk. "Tell me, does Tim still have the 'Mom' tattoo on his ass?"
"Dimitri!" Tim lifted his head to look at the marine in shock, his teammates going silent with wide eyes. They had not expected that.
"...yeah. How did you...?" Abby managed to get out.
"Let's just say I had a lot of fun getting Tim drunk on his 21st birthday. Guy can, surprisingly, hold his liquor. It took me a while to get him drunk enough to agree to nearly anything."
"Yeah. Some friend you were." Tim snapped, trying to ignore the look Tony was giving him. "I had a hard time explaining to my teachers the next day why I couldn't sit properly."
"Pish posh. It was a right of passage, Tim." Tim did a double take, shaking his head.
"Did you seriously just use the phrase 'pish posh'?"
"Yes. Silver spoon and all." Dimitri returned sarcastically. "It's hard for me to hide my 'better than thou' upbringing."
"Why did Kate marry you again?" A scruched up look appeared on Tim's face.
"I got her pregnant. It didn't last long, though, remember? Only a year and a half." Tim nodded before pausing, a smirk growing on his face.
"Guess you marines just can't handle being married to a red-head." He retorted. It pulled a laugh out of Dimitri while Tony, Ziva, and Abby openly gaped at him having the guts to say that in front of Gibbs. Gibbs, meanwhile, paused in his work and waited for Dimitri's response.
"To tame a red-head would be man's greatest achievement, Tim. And I, unfortunately, am apparently not man enough to do it. You, on the other hand, had her sister wrapped around your little finger. Why didn't you go for it?" Gibbs nodded in agreement to Dimitri's comment as he went back to work. Tim let out a heavy sigh.
"You know why." Tim glanced at Abby before returning his attention to Dimitri. "Not my type. I prefer the black haired ones."
"True! Cindy Belaford dyed her hair black to try and get you into bed, didn't she?" Tony's eyes grew wider as he absorbed every little detail the two men in front of him were revealing about McGee.
"Pity her boyfriend wasn't all that into her doing that." Tim leaned back in his chair, finally relaxing. He caught Tony's expression in the corner of his eye. "Now that we've nearly sent Tony into a fit, have you gotten everything you wanted out of your surprise visit?"
The three eavesdroppers were openly disappointed that Tim was cutting Dimitri's visit short.
"Yep! Saw you, let you know that I'm home now, and finally got the meet the people you've told me so much about. I think that's everything. Unless you want to banter some more and reveal more details about yourself." Tim snorted but chose to ignore that last pot shot.
"How did you get here and where are you staying? Need a ride?" Dimitri shook his head as he picked his bag back up.
"My rental is out in the parking lot. I only brought my bag in because I have some paperwork that I can't be separated from at the moment."
"Alright." Tim stood up and pulled Dimitri into another hug, only not as enthusiastic as before. "You know my address, you know my cell number, you know my email. Let me know when you want to escape your family's clutches. I'll come rescue you."
"You show up at the estate, Tim, and my mother will never let you leave." Tim let out a chuckle.
"Probably, but I'll take that risk. Your brothers will help me escape."
"Or they'll tie you down to keep you there. I swear they prefer you over me, sometimes." Tim gave Dimitri an innocent smile, staying silent. Dimitri scoffed at it. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't push it, Moth Boy. I'm still around all-too-willing ears."
"Play dirty, Dimitri, and I'll bring you down with me. And ultimately my blackmail is more embarrassing." Dimitri hissed at Tim's statement, frowning.
"I hate it when you're right. Alright, I better get going if I want to get to the estate before my parents get home from doing whatever it is they're doing today."
"Give your mom a hug for me!" Tim gave Dimitri one last pat on the shoulder before his friend nodded farewell to them all and headed to the elevators. As soon as the doors closed Tim started to count to ten. He made it to two when Tony, Ziva, and Abby all turned on him.
"McGee!" Abby whined. "How come you never told any of us that you were friends with a marine?"
"You got your tattoo before we even met you?" Tony exclaimed, sounding scandalized.
"Why did he call you 'McPet'?" Ziva asked again with an expectant look on her face. Tim looked at all three of them in turn. A smirk formed on his face as he made his decision to turn to Gibbs.
"Sorry about the marine comment, Boss. You gotta go for the throat when bickering with Dimitri otherwise you won't survive it."
"It's fine, McGee." Gibbs never looked up. "Your friend's come back made up for it."
Happy he wasn't in trouble, Tim sat back down at his desk. The others continued to stare at him, wanting answers. It didn't take long for Tim to sigh in defeat.
"Abby, I have many friends you guys don't know about. Most of them are from school. I have little reason to introduce you to many of them."
"And your tattoo?" Tony insisted.
"When I told you about it, Tony, you assumed I had gotten it recently and got it to impress Abby. I simply didn't correct you. Considering what I was like back then, are you really surprised by my choice?" Tony opened his mouth to reply but couldn't find a suitable response.
"McPet?" Ziva asked a third time with a patient look on her face. A slight blush appeared on Tim's face as he figured out a way to answer her.
"It's a combination of my and Dimitri's last name. During our second year at MIT, he moved out of the dorms to a house just off campus shortly after he split up with his wife. Small benefit of him coming from money. Anyway, he decided to drag me along with him because he didn't want to live alone and I was the only one of his friends who Kate, his ex, could stand. His choice of roommate played a major part in the custody arrangement for his daughters." Tim explained. "After a while, our friends started calling it the 'McPet Household' every time they came over because it looked nothing like the average home of two college students. Dimitri found the name hilarious and started calling me McPet because I'm the more...domestic of the two of us despite him being the one who got married and had kids first."
"Understandable. You do seem to exude feelings of welcome and understanding." Ziva conceded. Tim scrunched his face up at the description but remained silent. He wouldn't win that argument.
"And you couldn't just say that when your friend was still here?" Abby pointed out.
"Nope. Dimitri can be truly evil when he wants to be. Not to mention his lewdness can make even Tony blush when he gets going. I wasn't about to unleash that here. With my luck, the Director would have came down here in the middle of one of Dimitri's innuendos."
"He probably would have." Tony laughed at the thought of Vance walking in on someone making dirty jokes in the Bull Pen. He opened his mouth to poke fun at Tim's usual misfortunes with timing when Gibbs' phone rang. The team looked on in anticipation.
"Gear up. Body at Rock Creek Park." Taking advantage of the fact that the others couldn't ask any more questions at the moment, Tim rushed to collect his gear.