"Need to talk."
Vance sighed. It was late enough that the kids were asleep and he was looking forward to some quiet time before he hit the rack. "And you couldn't have come up to my office during the twelve hours we were aboard the Yard today?" Gibbs just gave him the look and Vance rolled his eyes. "Fine, come in. You want a drink?"
Gibbs gave a slight nod and followed Vance into his study. After two shots of bourbon were poured, they sat down.
"This have something to do with the cold case I gave you yesterday and you handed back to Balboa today?"
Gibbs tilted his head in acknowledgment. "McGee can't be on the case."
"Why?"
"What do you know about Commander Avery?"
"Never met him. Why?"
"Should be a Rear Admiral at least by now, but he stalled at Commander. Lost both his mother and his only child, a son, on 9-11."
"Okay..." Vance wasn't seeing the connection yet.
"He blames McGee, blames him for everything."
"What did McGee do?"
"Absolutely nothing wrong."
"Gibbs, you can't dump something like this on my lap and not tell me the rest. It'll be off the record. At least I'm assuming the reason you showed up at my house this late at night is to keep this off the record."
Gibbs pursed his lips and bobbed his head a few times and Vance braced himself, preparing for the worst. "Commander Avery was McGee's father-in-law."
"But you said Avery only had... oh." Vance shook his head. "Okay, I didn't see that one coming. Obviously, he's pretty deep in the closet."
"Yeah, well," Gibbs looked a little uncomfortable with the conversation, too, which made Vance feel a little better. "He's bi, not gay, and Morrow made staying in the closet and only dating women requirements of his employment with the agency."
"Well, shit."
"Yeah."
Wishing he'd poured himself a double, Vance thought about their options. "Okay, the case will go back into Balboa's stack of cold cases. If he complains, I'll think of something. I hope McGee understands that times are different and I run a much more open ship. If he wants to come out, the Agency will support him in every way possible."
"Appreciate that, Leon, and I know McGee does too, but he's finally moved on from losing Sam and wants to keep it that way. Probably because he's finally in a serious relationship and this time it's with a woman. Just – just didn't want you asking questions tomorrow."
"Understood. McGee alright? It must not have been easy for him to tell you. At least I'm hoping that he told you and you didn't find out aboard the base."
"Yeah, he told me as soon as he saw Avery's name on the report. Good thing, too. Guy's got a history of violence when it comes to anybody mentioning his son's life choices."
Vance could only imagine how it would have ended if Avery had seen McGee and taken a swing at him. Just to be safe he mentally banned his top team from anything that went down aboard Naval Support's Northwest Annex.
-NCIS-
"Go back to sleep." Tony kissed Ziva's shoulder as he slid out of bed.
"Do you have to talk to McGee every night? Why not let him be the one to wake up in the middle of the night instead?"
Their agreed upon call time was very early in the morning for Israel but still pretty late in the evening for DC. Tony hadn't wanted to cause McGee too much lost sleep since he was the one actually working at the moment, so that had been their compromise. "He's the one that's got to be awake enough to face Gibbs in the morning. Besides, I thought you liked it when I come back to bed?"
"Your feet are always cold."
Instead of arguing, Tony made a show of putting on his heaviest pair of socks before padding out to the computer. Tim had sounded down when they'd talked yesterday and he wanted to make sure his friend was all right.
Today, when McGee's face appeared on the screen, he looked better, more like himself. "Hey, there's my favorite probie."
Aren't I your only probie? Therefore, logically...
"Yeah, yeah, semantics, Mr. Spock." Tony mentally patted himself on the back. McGee always smiled when he managed to work a sci-fi reference into their conversation, especially if he got it right. Judging from the grin, he'd nailed this one. "You look better."
It wasn't until these Skype calls that Tony had realized just how good at deflection McGee had become, but he let it slide as he launched into an elaborate story about his and Ziva's lunch with some of the local farmers. Whatever was going on back home, the best help Tony could give would be to make Tim laugh, so that was the goal.
-NCIS-
His fingers were beginning to cramp from all the pages to sign, but the moment was finally here and Amanda was dangling the keys in front of him. "Okay, Tim, the house is all yours."
He laughed as the keys landed in his palm. "Well, mine and the mortgage company." A great deal of time and research had gone into determining how large of a down payment to make and how much of his cash to hold onto for the upgrades. In the end, his monthly payment was one he was very comfortable with but seeing the large balance on the loan papers had given him a near heart attack.
"True." Judging from her smile, she'd seen this reaction a lot. "Just remember, every payment you make is building your own equity instead of your landlord's. Besides, come tax time, it will be even better."
"Yeah." He knew all that, but the reminder helped. Tim stood, keys firmly held in his left hand as he offered her his right. "Thank you so much for all your help. I know I wasn't the easiest client you've ever had."
She shook her head. "Easy clients aren't nearly as much fun. Besides, I owe you and your boss. After he found all that fake wiring in the first house our agency pulled out of a possible business partnership with the builder. That could have been a disaster."
"Whatever happened with that place?" Honestly, he'd put it out of his mind the moment they walked away from it, but now he was curious.
"You didn't hear?" When he shook his head, she handed him a copy of a newspaper, dated a few days prior. "Page seven."
Tim stared at the black and white picture of the charred remains of a familiar house before quickly scanning the article. "Oh, my God. An electrical fire?"
"Yes. Luckily, no one was hurt and the only one to take a loss is the builder that did the shoddy work. Apparently there was original knob and tube wiring in the attic floor that was still live."
"Wow." He started to hand the paper back but she waved it off
"Give that to your boss and tell him that if he ever wants a job as an inspector, come see me. The guy's got great instincts."
Laughing, Tim folded the paper up. "If you think that was great, you should watch him interrogate a suspect, but I'll let him know."
-NCIS-
An hour later, Tim pulled into his own driveway. Killing the engine, he leaned against the wheel and just looked as a bolt of excitement went through him. It was his. No more neighbors sharing a wall. No more landlords and their kids coming into his home whenever they wanted. This was his, he could paint the walls any color he wanted. He could hang up anything on the walls without permission. He could run his shredder or play a computer game at any time of the day or night. He couldn't wait to get started.
He'd swung by his apartment long enough to change his clothes and grab what he needed for the night. The truck rental was all set up for tomorrow, so tonight he was camping in his new house.
It was different to see the house without all the furniture, now that the previous owners were gone. Tim walked through his new home, getting a better feel of the potential. The formal living room wasn't overly big, he'd known that from the first day, but it felt much more spacious without the massive sectional and three overstuffed chairs that had literally filled the room before.
After circling the room once, Tim got to work. He'd brought a step ladder with him. It wasn't quite enough to get to the nine foot ceilings, but the three steps were enough to reach the curtain rods easily. He knew the top third of each window had a leaded glass insert, but the current draperies prevented them from being seen from the inside. Dropping the fabric onto the floor instantly filled the room with not only light but scattered bits of color as the late afternoon sun refracted through the beveled glass.
Tim grinned at the already dramatic change. "Oh, yeah."
-NCIS-
Gibbs had let him go early that day so by the time the older man showed up, Tim was deep in his work. A dumpster was being delivered, so Gibbs had to park on the street. He could have parked at his own place and walked, but he had food and beer to celebrate the new house.
"McGee?" The front door was not only unlocked, it was open, so Gibbs just yelled as he went in. There was a lot of dust in the air, which explained the open door.
"In here, Boss." The voice came from his right and Gibbs looked into the living room where the younger man was on the floor, rolling up strips of the old carpet.
"Guess you're not keeping the carpet. Come on and eat while the food's hot." Gibbs continued on in to the kitchen and set the box on the island counter top. Tim arrived a few seconds later, brushing himself off as he went straight to the sink to wash up.
"Thanks, Boss." Tim accepted a beer before going through the cartons of Chinese food. "I'm starving."
They both filled paper plates with food before sitting on the floor of the breakfast nook right off the kitchen. Gibbs looked over at the carpet the covered the floor of the family room. "I figured as much. You pulling up all the carpet?"
"Yeah. Got a guy coming tomorrow to see if the old floors can be refinished or if we're laying new hardwood. It's a whole lot easier to deal with the floors when there's no furniture."
That explained the dumpster. "Sounds good. Between the two of us, we can probably get most of the downstairs done before the crew arrives tomorrow to help you move in." Gibbs thought for a moment. You sure you want to move your stuff over this weekend?"
"Yeah. If I can be totally out of the apartment before Monday, it'll save me about fifteen hundred bucks, so we're just going to stack everything in the garage for now."
"Okay, that shouldn't take too long, then they can help us with the rest of the carpet." The knowing grin on McGee's face told Gibbs that he was already planning on it.
One thing was right, it was a lot easier to pull up the carpet when the house was empty. By 2200, the living room, dining room, halls and family room were bare wood. They'd even pulled up the vinyl floor in the kitchen to find the same wood underneath. All that was left on the main floor was the master bedroom suite, but it was late and Gibbs didn't want McGee stepping on a missed staple in the middle of the night. "This looks like a good place to stop for the night."
"This just leaves us the bedrooms, the stairs and the upstairs hallways tomorrow. With everybody here, that shouldn't take too long. Especially since we can toss the carpet out the bonus room window."
Gibbs had noticed that the dumpster was directly below the window. "Good idea. Is there carpet in the bonus room?" He honestly couldn't remember, now that he thought about it.
"Nah, it's that peel and stick fake tile. I'll probably change it later, but that's pretty low on the list." Tim turned serious for a moment. "Thanks, Boss, I couldn't have gotten this far without your help."
Remembering what he'd learned from Amanda earlier, he pulled the newspaper article out of his bag. "Actually, I'd really have been in trouble without your help. Take a look at this."
It took Gibbs a few seconds to place what he was looking at. "Is that..."
"Yeah. Apparently the old knob and tube wiring couldn't handle the new load."
"Crap." That kind of negligence bordered on criminal. "Tell me no one else had bought it."
"Nope, so the builder is the one to take the loss."
"Good."
"But if you ever want a career change, apparently Amanda will hire you as an inspector." Tim grinned at him. "And she is a red head."
Gibbs grinned back at him. "Maybe after I'm forced to retire."
-NCIS-
After an offer of his sofa, Gibbs left for the night and McGee spent an hour scrubbing the master bathroom down. It was clean to begin with, but it seemed the natural thing to do before he took his shower and got ready to spend his first night in his new home. He was in his sweats and still drying his hair when Skype pinged him on his phone. Tony grinned at him, then started to look past him.
Hey, McHomeowner, are you at your new place?
"Yeah, I got the keys this afternoon so Gibbs and I spent a couple of hours pulling up carpet. Can you believe that the original mahogany floors are in pretty good shape?"
Cool. So, what, you have them refinished and they're good to go?
"Looks that way, at least that's what I'm hoping. Got someone coming tomorrow to give me an estimate."
So, give me the tour.
"What?"
You're on your phone, right? Walk around the house, let me see it.
"Okay." Tim felt a little strange at first, but he got into it quickly, turning the phone to show Tony as he walked into each room. "This is the master bedroom and look, there's a fireplace over here. The room is kind of L-shaped and this is the sitting area." After showing that corner, he turned the phone slowly to pan all the way around before facing the screen again.
That's huge. What do all the doors go to?
Tim circled around again. "The door next to the fireplace goes out onto the covered back porch. Those two doors go into the master bath and the walk-in closet."
Wait a minute, let me see the closet.
Grinning, Tim walked over there. Technically both doors went into the bathroom, but the closet was just inside and to the left of the far door. He heard Tony whistle at the size of the closet and turned to phone back to see him.
Damn, McGee, that closet looks bigger than my bedroom.
"Tony, I've seen your bedroom. That's not saying much." They both laughed and Tim walked back out into the bedroom to show Tony more. "This goes into what was designed as a nursery. Look, there's another porch out these French doors."
Wow, a ready made nursery. So, does that mean you and Delilah are going to get started on some smart kids to fill it?
Blushing, Tim scratched at the side of his face. "Not yet. I think I'll turn it into my office for a while, instead." Tony laughed at his reaction.
If I don't have any nieces and nephews to spoil yet, then show me the rest. Let's see the kitchen and the basement.
Glad he had a full charge on his phone, Tim started walking and talking his way through the rest of the house.
-NCIS-
"Okay, what's the plan?" Palmer rolled his sleeves up, ready to work, as they all arrived at McGee's apartment parking lot. A rental truck was backed into the spot closest to McGee's apartment. McGee came around the back of the truck, startling Jimmy, while Gibbs, Abby, Ducky and Dorneget all chuckled at him.
"You in a hurry, Palmer?"
"It's a weekend and we're not on call."
"Breena has plans for you, Jimmy?"
He blushed slightly at Abby's question. "She ordered a bunch of new lingerie, so I hope she does."
The entire group laughed at the lone married man and Gibbs watched McGee for his reaction. If he hadn't been looking for it, he never would have seen the brief flash of something that crossed his eyes. It was gone just as quickly and McGee pointed up to his door at the top of the outside stairs. "Everything's boxed, ready to go. We should be able to get all of it there in one load."
True to his word, the apartment was filled with stacks of boxes and little else. Tim explained as he picked up his first box. "Most of the furniture I'm replacing, so no point in lugging it over there. The charity truck was here first thing this morning."
"And that explains why we're getting such a late start this morning." Ducky exchanged a knowing smile with Gibbs before he picked up a smaller box of kitchen utensils. His main job today would be sitting with the truck while the younger members of the team schlepped boxes and the remaining furniture down the stairs, but he could take at least one box with him.
As McGee had promised, everything fit into the truck in one load. Gibbs offered to drive the truck but McGee subtly reminded him that as the actual renter of the box truck, he was the only one authorized to drive it. That stopped the argument before it could start and soon they were on their way. For the rest of them, it seemed strange to pass Gibbs' street, then turn at the next corner.
Tim carefully backed the truck in next to the dumpster while the rest of them found parking on the street. The men moved straight to the truck while Abby stood on the sidewalk and stared at the house. "McGee, this place is beautiful, and it's so big."
Apparently realizing how her words could sound, she looked at Gibbs, who just shook his head. "Shannon's favorite part of buying where we did was the fact that we backed up against a high end neighborhood. Got the good schools, got the great parks, but didn't have to pay for the really expensive house or the extra big lot. I'm perfectly happy letting McGee pay the extra property taxes for all that."
"Appreciate that, Boss." The tone was dry, but there was a wide grin on McGee's face as he joined them. "So, what do you think, Abby? Worth all the years of living in that tiny apartment?"
"Well, let's see the inside, first."
Palmer handed her a box and they all went inside, following McGee as he looped around to the garage. From there he opened the garage door so the rest of the trips would be shorter while the rest of them split up and explored the house.
Ducky was already bursting with ideas. "Timothy, lad, are you going to replace the kitchen cabinets? A light, bleached oak would certainly brighten the place up, then perhaps a dark counter top as a contrast. And then..."
While McGee certainly appreciated the offered advice, he already had plans and they were very different that what Ducky was suggesting. Despite those differences, he didn't want to sound insulting. "Thanks, Ducky, but after the flooring is done, I'm just going to live with the rest of it for a while, really get a feel for what I want in the place. Besides, I want to concentrate on getting as much done as I can on the outside before winter sets in."
"An excellent idea. Just remember that I am here if you need someone to bounce ideas off of, McGee."
Palmer and Dorneget were on their third load of moving boxes and furniture into the garage and Jimmy stopped to wipe his face. "So, is Tony dragging his feet in Israel to get out of helping you move?"
Tim froze for a split second. Officially, Tony was still looking for Ziva and he was the only one to know any different. Not to draw any suspicion, he went along with it. "Yeah, well, you know. Hard, dirty work."
"Speaking of missing people, where's Delilah?" Abby's voice was only slightly brittle and McGee considered that progress.
"She's in Utah for a couple of weeks at least, part of the team that's overseeing the building of the new facility there."
"Oh."
"We're dating, Abby, not joined at the hip." After the gentle rebuke Tim went back to unloading the truck, making sure the boxes were stacked in the piles he wanted and that the furniture wasn't totally buried in the process. Abby went through the house to explore the back yard and came back in just as they were finishing with the truck.
"McGee, you share a fence with the Bossman."
"Yeah, I know." He was handing out heavy duty box knives as the group dispersed to start ripping out what was left of the carpet. "What about it?"
"You could put in a gate."
Tim shook his head, not noticing that the man in question was standing behind him. "Nah, Gibbs sees me every day at work, he doesn't need me traipsing over there all the time." He handed Abby her knife. "You and Ducky cut up the carpet in the front bedroom upstairs, okay? Strips, about a foot and a half wide, then it gets rolled up and tossed out the window and into the dumpster."
"Okay, what are Palmer and Dorney doing?"
Gibbs stepped in, turning Abby toward the stairs. "They're doing the other two bedrooms up there. McGee and I are going to pull up the carpet in the master bedroom. As everybody finishes, we start on the upper hall and the stairs."
Once they were alone downstairs, Gibbs stepped closer to McGee, keeping his voice low. "There's already a gate in the fence, I put it in after Harv had his stroke so I could help them easier. I expect you to use it and to remember that it goes both ways."
"Thanks, Boss."
-NCIS-
An unfamiliar voice called out just as they were tossing the last of the old carpet into the dumpster. "Mr. McGee? Hi, I'm Randy from Flooring Unlimited."
"Hi." Tim scrubbed his hands on his pant legs quickly before offering one for a shake. "You timed it pretty good, we just finished pulling up the last of the nails and padding."
"Oh, man, that's great. You wouldn't believe how many people want us to give an estimate without even seeing what condition the floor actually is in." Randy stepped inside and let out a whistle as he bent down and ran his hand over the newly uncovered floor. "Wow, I haven't seen mahogany like this in years. This is the good stuff."
"So it's worth saving?"
"Oh, yeah. Even if it was in pretty bad shape, it would be worth it and honestly, this doesn't look bad at all. Let me do a quick walk through, find the worst areas, take some measurements and then we'll talk options." Randy wandered into the living room, already talking wood grain and hardness with Gibbs.
Ducky laughed softly and patted Tim on the back. "Jethro will make sure it's going to be done right and don't ever feel like you're imposing at all. He's having a ball helping one of his chicks finally feather their nest. Now, I think we've done all we can for you today and I believe Mr. Palmer is getting rather antsy to find out what his lovely wife has planned for the rest of the weekend so we will take our leave."
"Thanks, Ducky. Thanks, everyone. You guys made this really easy."
Everyone was smiling, but let Ducky continue to be the spokesman for the group. "It was our pleasure and we're all looking forward to some lovely evenings here when you're fully moved in and settled."
Abby's pigtails bounced as she nodded in agreement. "New Year's Eve, McGee, you're hosting."
"It's a deal."
By the time the rest of the team had left, Randy had finished his preliminary inspection. "Stripping the old finish off the floor should take care of most of the damage downstairs. There's one patch in the kitchen where they took out a wall, but the refinish should cover it. A light sanding, with a little bit more in the family room and kitchen, and we'll be ready to lay down a new finish."
"What kind of finish do you recommend?"
"If you need us done in a day, we can use a quick dry, water based urethane, but if you're willing to let us take a little longer, I'd recommend a two stage oil based urethane. We do a fine grit sanding on the floor, one thin layer of the urethane, then let it cure for twenty-four hours. Then we come back in and do a final sanding with an even finer grit and lay out a thicker coat of the urethane. If we start Monday morning, you could move furniture in on Wednesday if you're careful, but I'd suggest you wait on the heavy stuff until Thursday."
"Which would last longer?"
"The oil based by far." Behind Randy, Gibbs nodded his agreement.
"Which will look better?
"On this mahogany? The oil based, definitely."
"Okay, what about upstairs?"
"Hall and stairs are the same. Bedrooms, well, it was pretty common to put a lower grade wood in the smaller bedrooms and carpet over it. We can refinish them, but it will always show that it's a different wood. It's up to you. We see a lot of homeowners that carpet the bedrooms and just refinish the public parts of the house. Besides, carpet is warmer on bare feet in the middle of the night."
Gibbs nodded his agreement again and Tim looked at the two prices that had been written down. The oil based urethane had more labor charges, of course, but it was still well under what he'd originally budgeted and all his research had showed that the family owned company had a sterling reputation.
"Then oil based, it is, and carpet in the bedrooms, at least the upstairs bedrooms. Do you have carpet samples with you?" And can you still start on Monday?"
"I'll leave some sample books with you and our carpet guy can talk to you on Monday. Sanding crew will be here at 7am and he'll come with them."
A few signatures and a deposit later and it was a done deal. After seeing Randy out, Tim turned to Gibbs. "How about dinner, my treat?"
"Sounds good. I'll drive and then after dinner I'll show you where the gate is."
-NCIS-
Sunday morning McGee was barely out of the shower when there was a knock at the back door. Gibbs was standing there with two cups and his French press full of coffee in his hands. He laughed as Tim opened the door and immediately reached for one of the cups. He and Tony had talked for almost an hour last night and he was still dragging.
"Figured you wouldn't have your coffee maker set up yet."
Tim just nodded as he sucked down the coffee. Between researching final decorating ideas, picking a carpet and talking to Tony, it had been well past midnight before he crawled into his makeshift bed. He finally came up for air as he drained the cup. "Thanks, I really needed that."
"I guess so." Gibbs gingerly took back the empty cup and refilled it. "So, what's on the agenda today? We're working on the yard?"
"Arborist is coming at ten to look at the trees."
"There a problem?"
"Maybe, come take a look." Picking up his cup, Tim walked out onto the back porch and then across the yard. Gibbs followed along, looking around. Nothing looked too bad at first, but he saw what Tim meant when he pointed up at one of the elm trees, then two more. The leaves on the first tree were very twisted and shriveled, while the other two trees had patches of the same shriveled leaf pattern.
"Crap."
"Yeah, and whatever it is, it's spreading, so I want to deal with it as soon as possible."
"Did you know about this before you bought the place?"
"Oh, yeah, I knew. I also knew that I wanted to thin it out a little bit back here, so the arborist will tell me which trees have to go and then I can plan from there. The whole property is really overgrown, but it'll look good when it's cleaned up."
-NCIS-
Gibbs watched in amusement as Tim walked his new property with the tree specialist. Apparently one of the neighbors had lost a tree to some sort of fungus last year, but didn't realize how it could spread. Now McGee was being extremely proactive and removing every tree that was possibly infected. He'd even had the arborist check several of Gibbs' larger trees on the other side of the fence and one of those was getting trimmed just to be safe.
By the time they were done, red, blue and orange tape marked a number of trees and bushes around the property, each color indicating a different action from the tree company. Gibbs shook his head as he joined McGee once the arborist had left. "I can trim my own tree, McGee."
"I know, Boss, but it's not really costing extra to do it and that way they'll make sure all the infected branches are removed from the property. He's even trimming a few trees for Mrs. Olson." Tim pointed out the house to the right of his, where an elderly lady waved back at them.
Mrs. Olson was eighty-seven and probably one of the sweetest ladies Gibbs had ever met. Not to mention one of the best bakers. "Are you getting cookies out of the deal?"
"Peanut butter oatmeal."
"Oh, yeah, she likes you."
"She seems really nice. I haven't met the neighbors on the other side yet."
"George and Clara Young. They'll hate you, but don't take it personally. They hate everybody, or at least she does. George would rather agree with her than to argue about it."
"Good to know." Tim looked down at his own brown lawn, then at the various neighbors' lawns, also in assorted shades of brown. "Nobody waters in the summer?"
"Well," Gibbs rubbed the side of his face. He usually managed to keep his grass at least mostly green until the very last few weeks of summer, but this year had been hotter and dryer than normal and his lawn, along with most of the rest of them, was looking pretty sad. "Things stay green until about the first of August or so. Don't worry, the grass will bounce back in another month or two."
"Uh huh." McGee didn't look totally convinced, but give him a year of dealing with yard maintenance and he'd learn.
"So, what's next on the agenda?"
"Measuring."
Sure enough, McGee spent the rest of the day measuring everything in the yard, both front and back, along with the side yards. It wasn't just the distance from the back of the house to the fence, it was the exact distance between every tree, every bush, and he was doing it with a laser and a laser level and mapping it all out on a color coded grid. He was still working when Gibbs needed to go get cleaned up for his weekly dinner with Fornell.
"We're going to the diner, you want to eat with us? You gotta eat at some point."
"Thanks, but I'm going to go shopping, start picking up some tools for the yard, maybe look at paint samples for the house."
"Suit yourself. Just remember, I've got pretty much every tool you'll need and you're welcome to use them."
"Thanks Boss, but," Tim looked down at the fancy laser in his hand. "I think we kinda have different taste in tools. Plus, I've been researching appliances and I want to actually go look at what I've been reading about."
Gibbs had to laugh at the subtle reminder. "Fair enough." He studied the younger man for a moment. "You're really getting into this, aren't you?"
"I'm going to spend the rest of my life in this house. My kids eventually are going to grow up here, so, yeah, I want to do it right."
Gibbs remembered that Tim grew up as a Navy brat, probably living in base housing. "How many times did you move as a kid?"
"Too many to count. When I have kids, I want them to have a real childhood home."
"You and Delilah have been dating for a while, you thinking she's the one?"
Tim blushed and shrugged, suddenly looking like one of the young man he'd always imagined showing up to date Kelly. "We're taking things really slow, but yeah, maybe. She just might be."
"Good. Looking forward to getting you boys settled and with a family. I want to be a grandpa while I'm still young enough to wrestle with them."
-NCIS-
"You're late."
Gibbs glanced down at his watch. It was only two minutes past the hour but Fornell already had finished his first cup of coffee. "No, you were early. What's got you all knotted up?"
"You mean besides the fact that you shot me in the ass?"
Gibbs tilted his head at that; he'd probably be hearing about it for years. "Yeah, besides that."
"Emily's got a new boyfriend. He's a musician – a drummer in a grunge band." Gibbs could practically hear the quotation marks in that statement. "Make me happy, Gibbs."
"What? You want me to shoot him?"
"Sure, why not. You didn't mind shooting me." Gibbs gave him the glare and Fornell relented – a little. "Fine, but tell me something that will make me happy. What have you been doing all weekend?"
"McGee got moved into his new place, and get this, he's got the back yard all measured out – with a laser."
"A laser?" That got a ghost of a smile from Fornell. "Isn't that overkill?"
"He can tell you to within one-sixteenth of an inch exactly where every plant is. Even how far apart some of the branches are."
"Who the hell needs to know that much? Hasn't anyone ever told him that those plants are going to keep growing?" The grunge musician temporarily forgotten, Fornell leaned forward. "Okay, start at the beginning."
-NCIS-
Just inside the front doors of the big box home improvement store was a display of washers and dryers. During his online searching he'd narrowed the list down to two models of washers and their matching dryers and they both were on display. He'd picked his dream set and a more moderately priced set to look at, but the dream set was actually on sale for less than his second choice.
"Hi, can I help you?"
Tim looked over at the eager young man in the bright blue vest. "Yeah, how long is the sale going on?"
"Just through the end of the month. Are you in the market for a new set?"
"Yeah, I just bought a house, can't wait to no longer be dragging my clothes down to a laundromat, but I want to replace the floor in the utility room first."
"What's in there now?"
"Avocado green stick-on tiles."
"Yuck. Yeah, that needs to go. Either sheet vinyl or tile would be a good option."
After years of apartment living, dorm living and military housing, if he never saw vinyl flooring again, it would be too soon. "Tile, not vinyl. Maybe a stone?"
"Stone needs sealing pretty often in a utility area, but we've got some tiles that are designed to look like stone and we've got free classes on installation."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Come on, I'll take you over to that department and Steve can help you decide what your best option is."
A hands-on demo was actually going on when they arrived and after Tim laid a few pieces of tile, he decided he could do it and as Steve told him, the utility room was a good place to start, where perfectly even grout lines weren't quite as critical as they would be in the master or guest bathrooms.
"You've basically got the hang of it, but we've got a four hour class every Monday evening."
Tim signed up for the free class and picked up the scraper needed to remove the old flooring before continuing onto the garden center, which had been his original goal. On the third aisle, he found what he was looking for. "Excuse me?"
"Yes, sir?" This time the employee was a middle aged woman with a master gardener tag on her vest.
"Does this stuff really work? And it doesn't damage any new growth?"
"That bottle right there is the secret to all the perfectly green golf courses."
"Good, because I just bought a place, moved in this weekend, and the lawn is looking pretty bad right now."
"It won't hide holes in the lawn, at least not up close, but it'll make it look really good for about six to eight weeks. If you're watering regularly, now that it's starting to cool off, by then you should have fresh growth."
"I'll take it. Can you show me what I need to apply it?" Armed with a gallon of lawn dye concentrate, a sprayer to apply it, plus fertilizer, the flooring scraper and a stack of paint samples, Tim left the store. If his luck held, he could get his lawn sprayed without Gibbs seeing what he was doing and before it was too dark to see what he was doing, himself.
a/n - Glad you guys are liking this one so far. It was really different writing such a massive piece without much feedback along the way (my beta rocked, though, which was great). Yeah, the eventual pairing will be McNozzo with a lot of papaGibbs along the way.
I've been asked about my WIP's. Nothing's been abandoned, but I'll probably be working on shorter pieces for a while. It turns out that my son's back injury is much worse than they first suspected - that and the delay in treatment made it worse. He'll be having an eight hour surgery next month (Part of that delay) and they expect him to be in the ICU for up to five days after the surgery, then another week+ in the hospital. He'll recover on base for a while until he's recovered enough to fly home. Between the worry and then taking care of him, I'm not so sure how much time I'll have and how big of plots I can keep track of. I'll probably be finishing up some shorter pieces over the next few months, at least until we know what kind of a recovery he'll have. Right now they are telling him to prepare for a medical retirement and a permanent disability rating. Good thoughts would be appreciated.
