The sun had been up for hours but unusually in the Gibbs household no one was up, there was no smell of freshly brewed strong black coffee, nothing at all. Exhausted from the events of the night before all of the houses current occupants were fast asleep.
Abby had called in a little help from Ziva and the two of them had been over to McGee's place to tidy up what they could and let the electrician in to have a go at fixing the place up. The whole place would need rewiring and new fuse boxes fitting. It was going to take some time and cost hundreds of dollars.
Abby was fuming, only made worse by the fact that one of the stuffed animals she swept up from the dining area had resembled Bert her farting hippo. For a moment she thought it was until Ziva had calmed her down and got her to check the internal cameras in her lab that showed her that amongst everything else Bert was still safely ensconced alongside Major MasSpec. The two had then driven over to the Gibbs residence to check on Tim.
Opening the door into the hallway both were rather taken aback by the lack of anything happening. Worrying that something more might have happened to Tim in the night, Abby rushed upstairs to see if he was still in bed.
As she bowled her way into the bedroom, she saw him lying there on his side curled up in a small ball, sheets and covers strewn everywhere as if in the night he had decided to have a fight with his bedclothes.
Assuming his bedraggled state was due to the fright that Tony had given him and not taking into account that his drinking might not have helped the situation either, she launched herself at him in order to comfort him. "Timmy," she cried as she dragged the sleeping McGee into her arms.
Startled by the sudden onslaught of Abby, momentarily confused by waking up at Gibbs' place and not in his own room, and with his feet tied up in the sheet at the bottom of the bed, Tim let out a surprised yelp.
Hearing this Gibbs awoke, grabbed his gun and rushed into the room, weapon brandished.
"For goodness sake Abby, what do you think you are doing?" he asked in frustration as he lowered his weapon and sat down onto the bed that would usually be occupied by Tony.
"Sorry Gibbs, I just had to check Tim was ok and he looked so vulnerable that I had to just hug him," she explained.
Slightly exasperated, Gibbs rubbed the sleep from his eyes and said, "why don't you wait downstairs and we will both be down in a minute when we're dressed?"
Agreeing to this request and giving Tim one last squeeze and a kiss on his forehead Abby departed the room. Gibbs looked over to where Tim still lay sprawled. "You feel up to coming downstairs and having a late breakfast?" he asked.
"Not sure I feel like eating Boss," replied Tim, "but I'll have a shower and come down."
Nodding his agreement with this Gibbs rose from the bed and went back to get dressed noting that he could already smell coffee on the go downstairs. Twenty minutes later and casually dressed he made his way into the kitchen to find Abby and Ziva raiding his cupboards to provide breakfast. Letting them get on with it Gibbs poured a large mug of coffee and sat down at the table. Tim joined him only a few minutes later and despite earlier protestations about not being hungry, when he smelt the breakfast burritos that the girls had cooked up, he started to tuck in with the rest of them.
The general noise and bustle had also woken Tony from a very fitful slumber in the spare room. Knowing that he had to get up and face the wrath of Gibbs at some point he fought his way into a sitting position at the edge of the bed and gathered his jeans and dark t-shirt from the floor where he had left them the night before. Not having stayed in his old room at Gibbs' he had no access to any of the stuff he normally kept there. Putting on the very outfit he had chosen to wear the night before in order to be stealthy only served to remind him of his guilt.
Hair still all over the place, bare footed and weary he eventually summoned up the courage to leave the room and go face the world and his fate waiting in the kitchen.
Abby was the first to notice his rather sheepish arrival in the room. She moved towards him raising her fists and shouting at him as she battered him on the arms and chest. "Why'd you do it Tony?" "You could have hurt Tim," "You're cruel and callous."
She would have carried on but Ziva had stepped in to stop the battery and Gibbs had brought the verbal battering to an end with a stern "Abigail" shouted at a level above her own yelling.
Tony shrunk back and out of the room, there were none of the usual DiNozzo quips and responses just muttered apologies and a retreat.
Tim simply stared daggers at him, Ziva remained quiet, Abby pouted from her position at Ziva's side and Gibbs rubbed a hand over his face. This was not how he had intended to sort things out. He didn't want the family, the team turning on each other; he didn't want to knock all of the confidence out of Tony. This was the worst possible start to the day. He kicked himself; he should have gone and woken Tony up and brought him into the kitchen with him, he should have warned Abby to control herself.
"Tony," he beckoned the young man back into the kitchen, "come and have something to eat, Ziva's cooked up a storm."
"Not hungry," Tony responded.
"Wasn't giving you an option Tony, you need food and I will make sure you get it," retorted Gibbs, "now sit down, grab a plate and start eating."
Tony moved to obey only to be knocked out of the way by Tim who jumped up from the table. "I'm not staying here if he is going to be," he proclaimed. Abby too nodded her agreement with the proclamation.
"Enough," yelled Gibbs. "Tony you are going to sit there and eat, Tim you are going to take a seat in the living room, Abby, you need to check your attitude and join Tim in there, Ziva can you help me clean up please."
All four obeyed his orders and requests. Ziva seeing Tony looking more pale, miserable and alone than ever before, tried to speak to him.
"Can I get you anything else to eat," she asked as she dried up the plates and mugs.
"No thanks Zi," responded Tony trying to raise a smile back to thank her for at least talking to him civilly even though he didn't think he deserved it.
"Tony," she tried again to comfort him, "Tim's just upset and Abby, well you know how she reacts when Tim is hurt, but she still loves you to bits and Tim well, you are the big brother he never had and he will forgive you, its just going to take time."
"I'm not sure Ziva, I messed his place up pretty badly," he stated and then added, "but perhaps not as badly as I scared him. Why am I so pathetic that I had to get revenge on him?" Tears formed, unshed at the corners of his eyes.
"I've been over to his place Tony, Abby and I , well we've got rid of the toys, we've tidied up what we can. He will need a new shower rail, a few holes will need mending in his walls and Abby is going to have to reconstruct his typewriter again, but they are all fixable and so is your relationship with him."
"She's right you know Tony," commented Gibbs as he came back in from having taken the trash bags out, "you finished eating yet?" he asked.
"I guess so," responded Tony.
"Well lets go in the living room and get this sorted then," ordered Gibbs, "Ziva are you going to join us?"
Nodding her agreement and popping the towel down at the side of the sink Ziva led the way into the room, joining McGee and Abby on the sofa, and leaving the armchair for Tony. Gibbs pulled an extra chair in from the kitchen and positioned himself between the two groups.
Tony gulped, he felt isolated in the chair by himself, an audience of three watching him and Gibbs positioned on a chair in the middle of the floor. A thought crossed his mind; was Gibbs going to punish him with an audience watching, was he going to embarrass and humiliate him just as he had done to Tim the night before. All of a sudden that breakfast he had been forced to eat wasn't feeling like a good idea. He could feel his stomach in his throat, he could feel a cold sweat sweeping over his neck and down his back, and he felt dizzy and weak.
The next thing Tony knew was that he was opening his eyes to see Ziva mopping his brow with a cold flannel and Gibbs gently shifting his fringe out of his face and calling his name out.
"Sorry Boss," he muttered, "I… I just.."
"Fainted?" offered Ziva.
"DiNozzo's don't pass out," came the automated response from his youth.
"Sure, they just go pale, close their eyes and drop to the floor for no reason," chuckled Ziva. "Tony its ok."
Sitting himself back up again, brought him face to face with Gibbs, "Boss," he asked, "are you going to punish me with everyone in the room?"
"Slightly bewildered by the question, Gibbs shook his head, "no Tony what gave you that idea?"
"I just thought that …. Well that you would want to humiliate me like I did to Tim last night," he muttered. "I know I deserve it but…"
He was cut off at that point. "Tony, that's not going to happen, when have I ever done that to any of you?"
Then addressing all occupants of the room, "look we all need to sit down and sort this out, do you agree."
Tony and Ziva nodded their consent, a prolonged glance from Gibbs to Abby also brought about an "I guess so," but Tim stayed mute.
"Tim," urged Gibbs, "this means you too."
"What if I don't want to?" came the reply, "what if I'm just sick of being the butt of all of his practical jokes?"
"Well maybe we should explore why they are happening in the first place Tim," suggested Gibbs.
Huffing and shrugging his shoulders McGee did not feel up to challenging Gibbs any further at this point. Instead he acquiesced to the suggestion and then sat deliberately ignoring Tony who was sat opposite him.
This was not going to be easy and Gibbs just prayed that he had enough coffee in the house to get him through this one.