Gibbs looked on in pride as his now returned to self Tony, apologised without equivocation to a relatively startled, but happily accepting looking McGee. As his two boys exchanged a brief hug he smirked somewhat, they really were like warring brothers that were actually the best of friends at the end of the day.
The remaining work day passed without further incident, and it was concluded that the Petty Officer had indeed committed suicide. This meant that the team were once again restricted to cold cases, much to their collective horror.
Gibbs frequently glanced up to see Tony squirming somewhat in his chair, which satisfied him as to the fact that the lesson he had imparted had been sufficiently thorough. As he glanced up to check on the man surreptitiously once more, he frowned as he saw the younger man begin to aim a well crafted paper ball at the top of the engrossed Ziva's head.
Making stern eye contact with the incorrigible man, he fought to suppress a smirk as the caught red handed Tony let the ball fall from his hand sharply, and dropped his head back down to his stack of cases like his life depended on it.
He's back thought Gibbs in unashamed happiness, which was then tinged with rueful suspicion. Be careful what you wish for Jethro he told himself silently. Tony, when on form, was a handful. Although the older man would never verbalise it to any entity other than his own consciousness, he was glad he was his handful.
Standing up to grab a well needed coffee, Gibbs began to make his way out of the bull pen and was surprised when he had one Timothy McGee hot on his heels. As they nearly collided in the relatively private corridor that led to MTAC, he turned round wearily to face his junior agent who clearly wanted to speak to him privately.
Remembering that Tim had had a rough day, Gibbs made a conscious effort to prevent his coffee deprived state from stiffening his demeanour with his junior team member.
"You ok McGee?" he said kindly to his youngest agent, who was clearly waiting for some kind of prompt to say what was on his mind.
"Uh yeah boss, I'm fine…I was just, well….I was just….uhh."
Sighing, Gibbs reached out and rapped the younger man round the head gently.
"Sometime today McGee, if I don't get coffee soon, one of you is going to die. By one of you, I mean you."
Taking a clearly steadying breath, Tim eventually blurted out "well, it's just…I was just wondering, well hoping more so I guess, that you weren't…umm, that you weren't too hard on Tony boss, I wound him up at the scene, I'm not entirely blameless."
Gibbs felt a surge of pride for his youngest naval offspring, it wasn't so long ago that Tim couldn't even make eye contact with him, now here he was apportioning blame to himself that he didn't deserve in an attempt to protect his teammate.
Gently squeezing the clearly worried agents shoulder gently, Gibbs smiled a rare smile at the tech enthusiast before him.
"Tony's fine McGee, he's fine. So stop worrying and stop blaming yourself, ok?"
As the youthful face in front of him broke into happy relief, Gibbs snorted and gently rapped his head once more.
"Go on now, back to work. You know I don't like Tony and Ziva left alone, if she kills him without any witness, that's a ton of paperwork I don't want to have to deal with."
McGee left out a derisive snort in agreement, and obediently turned and trotted back towards the team bull pen, Gibbs watching him in amusement.
Making his way to his beloved coffee cart, the seasoned agent sighed and thought about how different his two boys were, but how alike they were when it mattered most.
When it came to each other.