A couple days later
Tuesday
Chapter 2
Tony's alarm clock starts buzzing almost half an hour before his usual wake-up time. He quickly turns the alarm off and hops out of bed. Jamie remains in the bed and tosses the covers over herself. She certainly doesn't care for this new race her father and Tony started on Friday.
Tony runs into the bathroom and closes the door. He turns the water on to the shower, strips down and checks the water temperature. With the water temperature being perfectly warm, he hops inside the shower.
After taking a shower and getting fully dressed, Tony enters into Chioke's room in order to wake him up to get ready for school. Chioke gets dressed.
With Chioke now in the kitchen eating breakfast, Tony walks to the front door. He opens the door and looks toward the house to the right; Gibbs' house. Gibbs' car is still in the driveway.
Minutes later, Tony and Chioke exit from the house. Gibbs' car is still in the driveway. Tony locks the front door. He and Chioke walk to the car in their own driveway.
As Tony unlocks the passenger side door to let Chioke in, he notices Gibbs' front door opens. Gibbs and eight-year-old Julianna exit from the house. Tony closes the passenger side door and walks around the car.
"Looks like we beat you today, Boss."
"Not going to happen, DiNozzo." Gibbs said as he and Julianna walk to the car in their driveway.
"I'll be out of my driveway before you even get into your car." Tony opens the driver's side door.
"I highly doubt it." Gibbs motions for Tony to look down and to the back of the car.
Tony looks to the back wheel of his car. What his eyes behold is a tire clamp, or what some people refer to as a tire boot. The expression on Tony's face is priceless to Gibbs.
"Oh come on!" Tony exclaimed as he gets out of the car and looks at the tire boot.
Gibbs and Julianna enter into their car. The car is started as Tony walks across the dividing strip of grass and onto Gibbs' property.
"I need to take Chioke to school." Tony said as he taps on the glass of the passenger side window. Julianna opens the window.
"I'm sure you'll get him to school with no problem." Gibbs stated.
"Not with a tire boot on my back wheel."
"I can't help you because I have to take Julianna to school."
The car moves backward. Tony follows as he really needs the tire boot to be taken off so he can leave.
"Gibbs…"
"The tire boot isn't even locked, DiNozzo."
After seeing the expression on Tony's face, Gibbs smirks and drives away because he and Julianna win with being the first ones to leave their driveway. Tony walks to the car, leans down and grabs the tire boot. It slips right off. Tony shakes his head.
"You cheater…" Tony muttered softly to himself.
He tosses the tire boot in the trunk and enters into the driver's seat.
'Why we not win? We leave house first.' Chioke signed with his hands as he doesn't understand why Gibbs and Julianna won the race.
"Cause Grandpa Gibbs cheated." Tony said. "He put a tire boot on the back wheel so I thought we couldn't move."
'How do large tire fit in boot?' Chioke signed because he doesn't understand what a tire boot is and is thinking about boots on feet.
"A tire boot isn't like a boot you put on your foot. It's just a metal thing to prevent a car from being able to move."
'That not fair! He cheat.'
"We'll get him back. I have a plan."
The car finally leaves the driveway.
Tony arrives at the Navy Yard a couple minutes after dropping Chioke off at school. Traffic was surprisingly non-existent between the two which aren't too far apart to begin with.
Tony exits from the elevator onto the third floor. He walks in the direction of the bullpen where Ziva and McGee are already sitting at their desks. Tony places his things down and notices McGee is fully immersed in what he's doing at the computer. He wonders what geeky thing could possibly be holding McGee's attention to the point where he's almost glued to the screen.
Tony finally sees what it is; McGee is playing a video game that he recently installed on the computer. Without even realizing Tony arrived, McGee continues playing as Tony is standing next to him.
"Good morning, Boss." Tony said.
McGee quickly hides the video game controller and minimizes the game as he doesn't want to be caught by Gibbs. He quickly catches on that Gibbs isn't even in the area and Tony only said that to make him jump.
"Funny, DiNozzo." McGee said. He continues playing his game.
"Have I ever told you you're a geek?" Tony asked.
"No, I don't think you ever have." McGee said in a sarcastic tone of voice as he rolls his eyes slightly.
"It's truly sad when you can't get enough of playing video games that you end up installing a game at work. You're an addict, McGeek. A girlfriend would do you good." Tony stated. "Retreating into these little fantasy-type worlds where artificial intelligence actually listens to you because real-life intelligence won't. Someday, people will listen to you and you'll actually be a hero…" He laughs. "I couldn't even say that with a straight face."
"What's he playing?" Ziva asked from across the bullpen.
"Some superhero game… Looks like something with Marvel characters."
"It's Marvel Ultimate Alliance." McGee stated the name of the video game.
"I don't even know what Marvel is." Ziva said.
"Of course you don't." Tony said. "Yet another thing I have to explain to…" He stops from continuing the comment due to a crumpled-up piece of paper hitting him in the head. "You know, Ziva… What you just did could be considered a form of assault which I think you should apologize for."
"Aww, are the poor baby's feelings hurt? At least I didn't throw a book."
"Maybe you should keep a book within arm's reach for next time." McGee said.
"Good idea, McGee." Ziva said.
Tony smacks McGee on the back of the head for giving Ziva the idea.
"Is this two player?" Tony wondered. "Let me get in on this."
"You're the making fun of me and now you want to play." McGee sighed in disbelief. He puts the game on pause, opens the bottom drawer of the desk, takes out a second controller and plugs it in. Tony rolls his chair over and sits down. "We get four characters to play as at all times; two of which will be controlled by AI for the most part. You can switch between characters anytime you want. They make up your team. My team consists of; Captain America, Iron Man, Silver Surfer and Wolverine."
"I want to play as Wolverine." Tony said as McGee hands him the second controller.
While at her desk, Ziva shakes her head as Tony and McGee are playing the video game.
Gibbs finally enters into the bullpen.
"I was just telling McGee he shouldn't have an unauthorized video game installed on his computer, Boss." Tony stated as he jolts up from the chair and drops the controller into McGee's lap. "As senior field agent, I know it's wrong to…"
"Is that right, DiNozzo? So asking if you could play as Wolverine means you weren't interested in playing?"
"You must teach me your secrets, oh master of exceptional hearing." Tony bows slightly. Gibbs smacks him on the back of the head. "Don't appreciate bowing, eh Boss."
"I'm uninstalling the game now, Boss." McGee said as he exits from the game in order to uninstall it.
"Later, McGee… We have a dead marine." Gibbs said. "Gear up."
"I'll call Ducky." Tony grabs his phone to make the call.
"Won't be necessary, DiNozzo. The body was stolen."
Gibbs exits from the bullpen and makes his way to the elevator. The others follow.
