Title: hanging up
Author: Cath
Feedback: Is always gratefully received.
Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me.
Summary: It's early one morning and Tony accidentally answers the wrong phone. TATE cliche ficlet.
Notes: Dear TPTB/discerning readers, I come to you begging forgiveness for committing this most heinous of fanfiction crimes: indulging in the fanfic cliché. I plead temporary insanity from a plot bunny which refused to leave me. Normal service will resume shortly.
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hanging up
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The cell phone rings incessantly and disturbs Tony's sleep at a most inconsiderate moment in his dream. He leans over and picks up the damn thing, pressing the answer button and only barely registering the name of the caller.
"Morning, boss," he yawns.
"DiNozzo?" Gibbs queries on the other end.
"Sorry boss, late night," Tony responds, apologising for his lack of phone manners.
"DiNozzo, is there any chance you could put Kate on the phone?" he asks impatiently.
This causes Tony to wake up quickly. "Kate? Kate's not here, boss. What would make you think that Kate would be here?" Tony enquires in an attempt to be nonchalant that misses by a mile. He looks over at the object of their discussion. Kate lies on her side, facing Tony; her hair is more than a little mussed up from sleep and their previous nights' activities, and under any other circumstance, he'd find it strangely arousing. However she rolls her eyes, gives Tony a sarcastic thumbs up, which he interprets as a "way to go being nonchalant", and he generally finds this a whole lot less arousing. Which is fortunate, given their current dilemma.
"Because you answered her cell phone, DiNozzo. I'm assuming that there's a reasonable explanation for this?"
Tony's eyes open comically widely at this comment; he looks at the cell phone, looks at Kate, looks at the other cell phone on the bedside table and then really begins to panic. "You see boss, uh, well, Kate and I… we went for Chinese take out last night, and somehow our phones must have got switched."
He covers the mouthpiece, and whispers in horror: "Gibbs knows."
Kate goes for her best Gibbs impression, "Ya think, DiNozzo?" and taps him upside the head. "You answered my cell phone?" Given the situation, she realises that this is probably not the best of reactions and isn't at all conducive to leading Tony towards some resolution.
"Well, I'm sorry, I happened to be in the middle of an involving dream and paying attention to which cell phone I was answering wasn't exactly my main priority."
"And panicking right after; that was a tactical move how?"
"What did ya want me to say?" Tony asks, now getting somewhat offended.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs warns, noting that Tony's attention is obviously elsewhere.
"Boss."
"Now do you want to give a better explanation, or do you wanna put Kate on the phone?"
"Right boss," Tony responds, unable to make a decision either way and knowing that whatever he does or says, Leroy Jethro Gibbs is far too good for Tony to get away with this.
Kate takes the phone from him. "Gibbs, it's Kate. I…"
"I don't want to hear it right now, Kate. Just get to the office in the next twenty minutes and we can talk about relocation later."
"Gibbs…" Kate starts, but it's no use. He's already hung up. "We've got twenty minutes," she says. She puts the cell phone on the table next to her side of the bed and sighs.
"I… I'm sorry," Tony eventually says. When she doesn't speak for a moment he surmises that she's either still pissed at him, or that she's shocked at his apology. Either is possible. "Well, on the bright side, at least we don't have to think about how to tell Gibbs we've been dating for three months."
She remains quiet, and so he tries a different tactic: contact. He moves his hand over to her, gently strokes her arm. And then he notices that her eyes are darting back and forward between the two cell phones next to her and his bedside table.
"Tony," she starts, moving his hand away from her arm and sitting up. "Where exactly did you pick up the cell phone from?"
"I heard it ringing, I leaned over," he demonstrates, "and I picked it up."
"From your bedside table?" she asks.
There's a pause while he thinks about what this might mean. "Yeah," he says slowly.
"And the name on the caller ID?"
"Boss."
"And I changed my ringtone to the James Bond theme when?" Kate asks, a wry smile starting to form on her face.
A second later, Tony leans back against the bed and laughs.
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Gibbs hangs up with a barely concealed smile.
"Did they fall for it?" Abby asks, entertained.
"Oh yeah," Gibbs replied.
"How long have you known?"
"You expect me to answer that?" he asks. "All I'll say, Abs, is that I've been waiting to do that for a while."
"You are so mean!" Abby says, amused. "Gibbs?"
"Yeah, Abs?"
"You're not actually gonna relocate Kate though, right?" There's a long pause, as Gibbs starts to walk down the corridor. "Gibbs?" Abby calls after him. "Gibbs?!"
And then all she can hear is his laughter.
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Fini