Part Two

"I knew it!!!" Abby squealed, pigtails bobbing furiously as she lunged at Tony. "I told you! I told you Timmy was into you."

Tony picked himself up off the floor of Abby's lab, pulling Abby up with him. "I know you told me, I just never believed you." His face grew a little more somber but he smiled at his good friend. "I really don't want to screw this up Abs."

"Screw what up?" It was Gibbs. The smile instantly vanished from Tony's face as he struggled to think of a good excuse for being in Abby's lab. Something a little more convincing than 'I was bragging to Abby about my hot new boyfriend. Who happens to be Timothy McGee.'

He drew a blank. Gibbs knew it and his lips twitched menacingly. "Report's not going to write itself DiNozzo."

Tony nodded. That was his other reason for visiting Abby, not only to tell her his secret. He was delaying the inevitable, avoiding writing the report for the case that was still haunting his mind. Gibbs was staring at him and Tony almost got the feeling that his boss understood his train of thought. Some memories were best left untouched, but the last case had shaken up something unpleasant in his mind and he couldn't make it go away.

"On it boss." Tony gave a goodbye-glance to Abby, trudging back to the bullpen.

It was Ziva's turn to get lunch and McGee was alone, typing frenziedly on his computer when Tony returned. He grabbed a random file from his desk and stood in front of McGee's desk so it at least looked like they were working.

"How's it going?"

McGee smiled up at Tony. "Good. You talk to Abby?"

Tony nodded. "She crash tackled me. I'm fairly sure she was pleased."

McGee chuckled, his fingers still flying across the keyboard.

"You gotta teach me to do that sometime," Tony said, craning his head over so he was reading the words on McGee's screen upside-down, sentences rapidly filling the page.

"Touch type? Comes with practice."

Tony scowled, snagging a pencil from McGee's desk and tucking it behind his ear. "Practice? I do enough typing just writing these reports every other week. Speaking of reports… I probably should make a start."

McGee gave him a sympathetic look. "Unfortunately technology hasn't evolved so much that reports will write themselves. Maybe one day…"

"You know, Gibbs made the same joke. And it wasn't funny either time." He pouted at McGee, returning to his own desk. "This sucks."

"Yeah." McGee glanced around, taking advantage of the empty office. "You want to come to my place after work? It's pretty quiet, if we don't get a case Gibbs might actually release us before it gets dark."

"I'm not liking our chances, Tim. But sure, you're on."

At that moment Ziva returned and both men fell silent, provoking a suspicious glare from Ziva.

"What?" She deposited an almost-healthy looking burger on each of the desks. McGee and Tony wrinkled their noses simultaneously, arousing even more suspicion from the Israeli. "Stop it, both of you!"

McGee couldn't help but chuckle at the cheeky grin Tony threw him before he stepped out from behind his desk, ambling over to Ziva's.

"Problem, Zee-vah?" Tony leered, delighting in Ziva's growing annoyance.

"Yes! The two of you are acting so… strangely! You-" she pointed at Tony. "- have not called him McGeek once today, or thrown any paperclips or apple cores. And you-" the finger swung across to McGee. "You have explained everything in lie-man's terms,"

"Layman's" McGee and Tony corrected automatically.

Ziva ignored them. "Instead of your usual techno-babble."

Tony laughed. "Techno-babble? Now you sound like Gibbs."

Ziva threw up her hands in frustration, grabbed her healthy-burger and stalked off to go kill something. Alone again in the bullpen, Tony frowned at McGee.

"Hmm."

"What?"

"We've been on one date Tim. And that largely consisted of me getting drunk and kissing you, then eating breakfast in my kitchen. And Ziva can already tell. Abby can't keep a secret so I'm thinking, how long's it gonna be before Gibbs finds out. And fires us. Or kills us for breaking rule twelve. Or both."

"Umm… well I guess we're about to find out," McGee said as the elevator doors pinged open and hurricane Gibbs stormed out. Tony jumped back into his chair, typing randomly on the computer. Gibbs stopped in front of Tony's desk.

"You better be working on that report DiNozzo. You're not going anywhere until it's done. Not even the head."

Tony gulped as Gibbs' fixed him with a super-evil glare. "Sure thing boss."

Gibbs just growled at McGee as he sat down at his desk. McGee wondered what put him in such a foul mood. With Gibbs it was anyone's guess. His mood wasn't helped when he bit into the burger on his desk, immediately spitting the mouthful into the bin.

"Phhh… salad." Gibbs grunted, staring at his two underlings.

McGee and Tony's eyes met then they quickly returned to their work. True to his word, Gibbs wouldn't let them leave until the reports were filed. An hour after McGee and Ziva finished, after waging war on spellcheck and cursing the computer for translating his whole document into German, Tony printed the (considerably thin) file, scrawled his signature on the cover page and dropped it on Gibbs' desk. Gibbs didn't look up from the screen, so Tony interpreted it as permission to leave. He jangled his car keys walking through the garage to his car, genuinely surprised to see a figure standing beside it.

"Oh, crap Tim! I totally forgot we came together. God, I'm sorry!"

McGee grinned, waving his hand in dismissal. "Don't be. Abby already offered me a lift. I wanted to wait."

Tony grinned, glancing around to make sure the garage was empty before wrapping his arms around McGee. "I'm glad you did."

They picked up a pizza and headed back to Tony's apartment. They'd both decided it was more comfortable than McGee's, since Tony actually owned a couch. They spent the evening together, drinking beer and watching a movie.

The next day they got a lead on their new case, a dead Marine found in an abandoned warehouse. Gibbs stood up, grabbing his gun.

"DiNozzo! You're with me."

Tony jumped up, grinned at McGee as he slipped his holster on, then followed Gibbs out of the bullpen. The doors to the elevator slid shut and Gibbs jammed down the emergency stop button. Tony gulped.

"You know DiNozzo, I'm surprised you've held out for so long before breaking rule number twelve."

Tony's jaw dropped. "Am I fired?"

Gibbs chuckled. "No. Not yet. Keep it out of the office and don't hurt him."

"Yes boss."

"Or I'll shoot you." Gibbs glared at him briefly, then hit the button again to restart the elevator.

Back in the bullpen, Ziva got up from her desk and began pacing in front of McGee. McGee began to feel nervous.

"Ziva?"

She gave him a Cheshire-cat smile. "I have figured it in."

"You mean figured it out? Figured what out?"

She leaned forward into his desk, not-so-subtly revealing the huge knife hanging from her belt. "I am happy for the two of you. But if you break his heart, not only will Tony be unbearable around here, but you will have to answer to me. And, I suspect, Gibbs. And Abby."

McGee nodded. "I won't."

"Good."

That night, McGee waited for Ziva to speed away in her Mini before walking over to Tony at his car.

"Ziva knows."

"Gibbs knows."

At that moment Ducky passed them on his way to his Morgan. He winked, chuckling heartily, then drove off in the little roadster.

McGee and Tony looked at each other. "Ducky knows."

"Ya know, I'm kind of understanding the reasoning behind rule 12 now," Tony said. McGee did a double-take, alarmed.

"I mean," Tony continued. "Two dates and already the whole team knows about us. Just imagine what it'll be like if we don't work out."

Satisfied that the garage really was empty now, McGee grabbed Tony's head and kissed him, hard.

"I have a solution for that," he said breathlessly.

"Mm?"

"We'll make this work. I'm not gonna give up on us just because of the possibility that it might fail. And I get the feeling that you won't either."

Tony kissed him in agreement.

"Good. Now stop worrying about the future. I'm more worried about now. Like, do you have plans for tonight?"

Tony pretended to think. "Well, I was going to stay in and wash my hair… but if you've got a better offer?"

"I might," McGee answered, leaning in to whisper something in Tony's ear.

Tony laughed, smiling a huge, white smile. "Sounds pretty good to me." He climbed into the driver's seat, revving the engine. "Coming Tim?"

McGee jumped in and they roared off into the night.

The End.

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