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Gibbs had been alone in the elevator with his father. Gibbs had been alone with his father. The Admiral. And Gibbs. Together. Random variations of the same thought had been flying though his head since he had left NCIS for the night. He had never worked up the courage to ask the boss what had happened. However, since nobody had come to take Gibbs away in handcuffs, he had to go with the assumption that no blood had been shed.
He had made it to his apartment on auto-pilot. Mcgee didn't have any set plans to take his mind off things. Abby had offered to skip bowling but he had told her not to. He needed time to process on his own. It was getting tiresome, having to deal with people just because you shared a genetic code.
Did he mention Gibbs had been alone with his father? Who knows what had been said between the two. Both knew things that he didn't particularly want the other to find out about. Surely nothing bad would have come up about him. Though he was under no illusion that they hadn't been talking about him. Worse, Tim knew that Gibbs had the tendency to go into overprotective "papa bear" mode as Abby had named it. The others were the ones that needed Gibbs like that. Abby, Tony, Ziva: they all had bonafide issues that Gibbs helped keep at bay. It was one of the things that prevented him from putting himself on the same level as the others when it came to Gibbs' favoritism.
Yes, he had proven his worth as an agent, he had made friendships with his teammates and Gibbs had begrudgingly accepted that Abby seemed content to keep him around. However, It was never Mcgee himself at the center of Gibbs concern. He wanted to keep it that way. His personal relationship with his family did not need to become tangled with his work. Danger arose when you became connected to people in parental ways. He didn't need it. Those issues had been packed away long ago. He had accepted and moved on. But now, Gibbs was kidnapping his father in elevators. The picture did not compute. Gibbs. Father. Bad.
He was confused and bit upset, if he was honest, so he wrote. Some of his best work had come out of tough emotions. It wasn't working this time. The meager disconnected paragraphs could have stood being burned instead of just shredded. He wanted his father to go back to wherever he had been hiding for the past years and he wanted to know what had happened in that elevator. It wasn't right for him to be kept out of the loop. This was about his life.
He had never wished more that there were surveillance cameras in the elevator. He would have remotely hacked them in seconds. Maybe he'd pitch the idea to the director. Wouldn't change anything retroactively but it would be entertaining to see some of Gibbs' private office time. Maybe they could even find out exactly what kind of barter system Gibbs and Fornell operated on. How long would it take him to realize his conversations were being recorded? Better question: would he disassemble the cameras by brute force or would some kind of telepathic mental fury cause them to explode?
Just as he'd managed to get his mind off of the renewed parental issues that had taken over his head for the past two days, there was a knock at his door. More often than not, he could tell who was at his door by their knock. Abby didn't bother, Sarah's was pushy, Ziva's quiet, and Tony's banging was, more often than not, accompanied by what he assumed DiNozzo meant to be humorous shrieking.
If Gibbs needed him, he called. In fact, the last time he could remember Gibbs being in his apartment was after he had lost the stare-off with Abby. It had taken Mcgee several minutes to resign himself to calling Gibbs to confess the Mikel Mawer debacle. That had been a fun conversation. No, this was not the knock of anyone accustomed to stopping by. Even his neighbors never really bothered him.
Opening the door led to more questions than answers. Shock was an appropriate description. His father had never been to his apartment. How did he even know where he lived? Most importantly, what the hell was he doing standing in front of him? Had they fallen into some kind of twilight zone? The Admiral looked about as uncomfortable as Tim felt, at least they were on even ground in that department.
He should probably say something. It didn't help that he was still grasping his gun. It was a reflex to bring it, at least he had refrained from pointing it at his father's head. That would have taken some explaining, definitely wouldn't have gone over well. "What are you doing here?" It wasn't exactly welcoming, but it was short notice and the best he could come up with. The Admiral kept going. "I wanted to speak with you." He did?
Mcgee barely kept the quick "why?" from escaping him. Unsure of whether or not he actually wanted to, he moved back from the door and let his father into his home. Was it him or did the door seem to close ominously behind the Admiral? He left his gun on the cabinet and led the way into his living area. The Admiral was standing in the middle of the room looking around. He wasn't even looking at his son but Mcgee couldn't help but feel as though he was being judged. His father's voice grabbed his attention. "You have a dog?" Jethro was lazily half falling out of his dog bed. Some guard dog. He returned his focus to the other human in the room. "Yes, Jethro." His father's eyebrows shot up at the name. Tim was quick on the defense that time. "I didn't name him."
The awkwardness hadn't dissipated. What did he want? Had Mcgee done something wrong? He replayed their conversation from earlier in the day but nothing stood out. "Is this about the case?" "No." Nervousness and silence didn't mix well. Mcgee pointed towards his sofa and his father seemed to be pleased at the invitation, actually he seemed pleased to have not been thrown out on sight. That was interesting.
Tim went for his desk chair but was drawn back when his father leapt from the sofa just as he sat. He turned around to find his father holding a three inch fang attached to a chain. So that was where Abby's necklace had gone. That couldn't have been comfortable. Mcgee really wanted to laugh but that would probably not be the best of ideas. His father did look a little red. "Security system?" "Occupational hazard." He retrieved the fang and settled into his desk, idly fiddling with the clasp. Mcgee waited for the bell to toll.
Now, he could afford to wait for his father to speak. He had not been sought out for decades. Was the Admiral dying or something? He spent the next few moments alternating between focusing on random items in the room and the man before him. Finally, the elder spoke: "Before you harass your sister, she didn't tell me where you live. I have my own means of finding information." Mcgee didn't doubt that. "Why did you come?" "Because I have learned more about you in one day than I have in the past ten years, probably longer. That is unacceptable." Mcgee couldn't put off his lingering question any longer. "Is this about Gibbs, because…" His father cut him off. "Agent Gibbs has a unique manner of interacting. But no, I am here because I should have been a long time ago. Your boss, despite his brashness, only helped along what I already knew."
Tim wanted to believe that Gibbs had nothing to do with his father sitting in his living room. In all fairness, he knew the situation wouldn't be there if not for him. His father would never have been there if Gibbs hadn't thrust himself into the middle of things. He had interceded and now the Admiral was before him. It was back to the waiting game. He had nothing left to say.
His father was going to have to knock the ball back into play, it was in his court after all. Mcgee had tried too hard for too long. Although he wasn't sure he wanted to hear what he had come to say, Tim couldn't pretend he wasn't interested. His father had come out of his way to do this, he was a man of routine. There was no way his apartment could be even vaguely considered convenient on any of the routes the Admiral took between work and home.
The Admiral started up again. "I should never have let things progress to this point. You are my child and I allowed you to think that I didn't care about you or your life. I could not see beyond my own concerns and expectations and I realize that I have caused the separation between you and our family. If you don't want to listen to me, if you never want to see me again, I understand. But I need you to know that you are important to me, to our family. And that you are loved. I did not come here today, for a response from you or expecting forgiveness. I needed you to know. Also, if you wanted, we would very much like you to be a part of our lives again, your mother's and mine. You don't have to say anything yet. Please, think about it. But know, that beyond all else, you are ours and we love you."
Mcgee did not doubt that his mother loved him. She was not the one who had cut him out. He still talked with her occasionally even though she had picked the side of her husband. He was still unsure about the rest. It was uncomfortable hearing his father say those things. On the off chance his father was serious, it was going to take more than one conversation.
You couldn't undo all that had passed in one setting. Mcgee wasn't even sure he believed him. What was to say it wasn't guilt or some threat by Gibbs that had landed them here? Trust had to be built. He did not trust the words. Time would tell whether or not the actions lived up to the offerings that were being made. He had been let down too many times to blindly be taken down another hopeless path. There was no automatic decision telling him the right thing to do. He just didn't know.
He knew his father had accomplished what he came to do. The Admiral was already getting up and Mcgee appreciated the gesture. Giving him the freedom to make choices was new. Just as he stood, his front door banged open and he could hear Abby's voice floating towards him as she went into the kitchen. "Timmy! I brought the food. I had to get veggie only, they were out of tofu. How can a Chinese place run out of tofu? And your father is here…" She had trailed off as she rounded in from the kitchen. The look on her face was priceless. Luckily, the Admiral took Abby in stride. "Not to worry, Miss Sciuto, I was leaving." He turned back towards Mcgee before heading out the door. "Think about what I said." Mcgee could guarantee thinking, if nothing else.
