At Sea

Summary: Part of my 'Lessons' series. Scenes from Tony's life as Agent Afloat.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just play with them.


A/N: This is part of my 'Lessons' series and builds on a larger plot arc. This takes place during Tony's time as Agent Afloat and follows my story 'Shipping Out'.


Tony sorted through the pile of mail that had been left for him in his small office. He already knew that it would be more of the same memos and briefings that he was already tired of reading. His shipmates got excited about mail-call, expecting packages from home; he got more work, and was starting to resent the fact that being stuck on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the damn ocean apparently wasn't enough to get away from the paperwork.

To his surprise, the bundle contained a large padded envelope addressed in familiar handwriting. A huge smile spread across his face as he carefully sliced it open and tipped the contents onto the battered metal desk.

Out tumbled a portable hard drive and a greeting-card-sized envelope.

After a moment's hesitation, he grabbed the envelope first, and opened it to find a house-warming card. Rolling his eyes slightly at the optimistic spin being put on his new position, he scanned the message. Tim was settling into his leadership role in cybercrimes, Abby had written, and the contents of the computer drive were a gift from both of them.

Intrigued, he snagged the drive and hooked it up to his laptop. When the directory opened, Tony nearly shouted in delight. His two favourite geeks had apparently taken it upon themselves to send him a digital movie collection, containing some of his favourites and some things he'd never seen before. It looked like the entire Magnum series was in there, too, and the first season of a new comedy show that he'd heard good things about but had never gotten around to watching.

This should be one of those credit-card ads, he though, firing up his email to send thank-you notes. Friends who know you well enough to send the perfect gift... priceless!