When One Door Closes
After lunch Ron took Tim to a park that was part of a small woods that surrounded a large lake. Runners were using the paths that ran through the woods. The FBI Agent led his friend to a spot underneath a tree near the lake.
"This lake is bigger than the one at the Ark," Tim said looking around. He sat down on the grass with Ron. "Yeah, the first time Tobias took me here I noticed that too."
A mother duck followed by her ducklings came out of the lake and waddled up to them. Tim's eyes lit up and he cooed at the little family.
"Here," Ron said, handing over the brown bag he had brought along when he picked up Tim at the house. "Give them this. The ducks in the lake are very friendly because people who come to the park keep giving them free meals."
"You give them paper bags?"
"No, they get the bread in the bag." Reaching into the bag, Ron took out a slice of bread, tore it into small pieces and tossed them at the eagerly waiting ducks with Tim following his example.
Glancing sideways at Tim after several minutes of silent feeding, Ron spoke up. "You know what I'm going to ask, don't you?" Tim glanced at him curiously.
"How did you ever end up married to Gibbs of all people? Especially with your status! My god! Gibbs!"
Tim didn't say anything at first, letting one of the more curious and bolder ducklings nudge at his fingers; he then looked at his friend. He sighed.
"A couple of years after you left and didn't come back; Jimmy and I thought you had finally made it, finally had the life you dreamed of." Tim sighed again. "We didn't want to think of the alternative. We decided that we could take that risk too and we had planned to escape but after you left and they couldn't find you, the Ark tightened the security and we couldn't find a way out so I kind of sort of hacked into their system."
Smirking, Ron looked at his friend who squirmed, "Tim? How do you "kind of sort of" hack into a system?"
"Shut up!" Tim continued his tale, "When I got in, it was Jimmy's idea to put us in the group for the federal government, hide in plain sight and all, you know. I noticed there was a large amount of rejects from a certain government group. We figured if we got picked by one of them, we'd possibly have more freedom than we would have if we had ended with the Ark's pairing."
Tim paused eyes widening in alarm when more ducks started to surround them, wanting more bread. Ron tossed more to them. Tim continued, "We knew it was risky and we knew it was possible that we would get caught or worse our spouses would be like the rumors we'd heard, but, well…" he trailed off, unsure of how to explain the next part.
Luckily Ron understood as he took Tim's hand in his. "I know," he said. Tim smiled back at him.
"Hmmm. So you didn't know that you'd be paired with Gibbs then, nor do you know who Jimmy was paired with?" Ron asked after a moment, though he didn't let go of the others' hand.
"No to both questions."
"All right. I'll look into that and see what I can find out."
"Thank you, Ron." Tim smiled at his friend who was as always looking out for him and Jimmy. Insistent quacking drew his attention back to the ducks, and he resumed feeding them.
"What's he like?" Tim said after a few moments. "Gibbs, I mean."
Ron looked over at his friend, who refused to look away from the ducks, though his eyes kept glancing at him, a small blush dusting his cheeks.
"Well … he's a bastard on a good day; has a bit of a temper. Tobias knows him better than I do. Was an Marine sniper, and I'm pretty sure he lives on coffee."
The hand in his tightened slightly.
"Despite all that, though, he is a good man, and a damn good NCIS Agent…just don't tell him I said that…or Tobias."
Tim gave a little giggle and loosened his hand.
The only reason he took out, warmed his lunch and took it to his desk was because his team had gone out to lunch themselves and he expected them to take the full hour.
"Oooh, is that from your new wife?" Not come back five minutes later.
They ignored Gibbs's glare as they wandered over to his desk to look at the lunch that Tim had made for him, which was leftovers from last night and a bottle of water.
"Smells good," Ziva said, "Guess that means she can cook."
"I think it's a requirement that they have to learn," Kate said.
"Does she clean too?" Tony asked. "I mean your last wife thought a broom was something witches used."
Gibbs ignored them as he started eating.
"Hey Boss, is she a redhead? You never told us."
"Must she always be a red-head Tony?"
"Yes, maybe she's a blonde."
"Or a brunette."
"I wonder if she has big breasts?"
"Tony!"
"What?"
"That's disgusting!"
"I just wanna know!"
"Why do you need to know? It is not your wife."
"And Tony, do you have to say it like that?"
"Hmmm….yes, ow! Boss, Ziva hit me!"
Gibbs sighed internally. Why did the government say he needed children again?
"Anyway, I'm sure she's a lovely woman and I hope to meet her."
Pausing before taking the next bite of his lunch, Gibbs said, "Who said anything about my new spouse being a woman?"
Silence then. "Wait, wait! Our new mom is a guy!?"
Smirking to himself, Gibbs resumed eating.
"Donald! There is an odd boy in the living room!"
"Yes, Mother. That's Jimmy. My new wife." Ducky sighed.
Jimmy couldn't help but smile at the happy and loud squeal that came through the doorway before his husband and mother-in-law entered the room.
"Oh, she's adorable," his mother-in-law cooed.
Jimmy didn't even bother correcting her. His husband had advised against correcting his mother in this regard. That and Jimmy didn't really care because he knew he was the wife, as the Ark has taught him. There was no gender when you were a Bearer.
Victoria came over to him and Jimmy found himself being groped.
"She has a good waist. Oh, and look at those eyes!"
Ducky sighed before prying his mother away from the younger man. He then ushered her into the dining room for dinner with Jimmy not far behind and the dogs bringing up the rear.
"So tell me, my dear, do you want a lot of children?" Victoria asked over the salad.
"Mother please," Ducky mumbled.
"Oh yes," Jimmy said automatically. It was after all the appropriate response, "Many."
"Finally!" Victoria all but squealed, "I'll have some grandchildren!"
Jimmy smiled while Ducky just shook his head.
After dinner Ducky left his mother to her shows and headed upstairs to talk to Jimmy.
"Jimmy," Ducky said knocking on the doorframe.
"Yes, Dr. Mallard?" Jimmy asked, jumping a bit because he hadn't heard the man come upstairs.
"I've told you before to call me Ducky."
"Oh yes, I'm sorry … Ducky," Jimmy said blushing, still a bit embarrassed about their first meeting.
When the man had introduced his new husband to him as Dr. Mallard, Jimmy thought that was the man's name and after reassuring Jimmy that he should call him by name, the Bearer had started calling him Dr. Mallard, much to Ducky's amusement.
"I hope Mother wasn't too much trouble today."
"Oh no," Jimmy said smiling, "I—I think I'm getting used to all of your mother's…antics."
Ducky chuckled, "Well, that's good to know. Mother can be a handful sometimes. I know Anthony and Catlin had some trouble with her."
Jimmy hesitated; he had heard Ducky mention those names before especially when Victoria had asked her son about the Italian Gigolo and the girl with the naughty knickers. He was curious about them and while it was obvious that his new husband loved to tell a story (stories that Jimmy found himself enjoying), Jimmy wasn't sure if it was his place to ask such questions, though Ducky had been nothing but kind and patient towards him.
"Uh, those people. Anthony and Catlin, I mean. Are they the Gigolo and girl with the knickers your mother has mentioned?"
Ducky blinked at him before letting out a laugh. "Yes," he said, "That would definitely be them although I wouldn't take my mother's words to heart." Ducky smiled and Jimmy soon found himself sitting on the edge of his bed listening to his husband spin a tale.
When he got home, it was later than he expected and dinner was waiting for him. Usually he would have just picked something on his way home, but the thought of Tim's home-cooked food had the ex-marine ignoring his usual fast food place. After eating dinner (Baked Salmon with a dill sauce, wild rice and string beans), Gibbs found himself heading upstairs to check on the other occupant of the house and was surprised to find Tim still up.
"Hey" he said softly.
Tim jumped and squeaked, nearly falling off the bed he was laying on and in the process of all this, dropping the book he had been reading.
"O-oh, you're home," Tim said, "I-I, uh, didn't hear you come in."
Gibbs didn't say anything as he entered the room and picked up the book, raising an eyebrow at the title.
"Little Women?"
"R-Ron t-took me t-to this place called Barnes and Noble, and b-bought this and two more books for me."
Gibbs stared at the man who just squirmed.
"Ron brought you books? Ron Sacks?" the Agent finally said. He really had to get up to speed on how Ron Sacks came to know Tim and who was this other friend, Jimmy. Thinking back on the self defense thing at the supermarket, Gibbs was slowly coming to the realization that Tim, and possibly, this Jimmy were a bit of a dichotomy from the regular run-of-the-mill people from the Ark.
Warily, Tim nodded, checking for Gibb's reaction. "Is that okay?" he then asked softly.
"…Yeah…so you had a good time today then?"
Tim nodded and had a big smile on his face. "Yes. Yes, I did. We went to this café. It had amazing tacos. I didn't know there were so many variations." The younger man continued rambling on. "Then we went to this park afterwards, that had a lake and there were ducks, a mother duck and ducklings and we fed them and then—"
Tim trailed off when he realized that during his recounting of his day that Gibbs had sat down on the bed, intense blue eyes staring at him, head slightly tilted as the man listened to him.
"Uh, t-that was, uh, it," Tim said, suddenly nervous and a bit horrified that he had been babbling on and on.
"No it isn't," Gibbs said, "you forgot about Barnes and Noble."
"O-Oh yes," Tim said hesitantly.
"Well?" Gibbs urged when the other didn't continue.
"Oh, uh yes, Ron took me to Barnes and Noble." The big smile was back. "It was big and quiet like a library and they had books on everything! Ron let me pick three books out and bought them for me."
Tim shyly showed him the other two and Gibbs read the titles: Sherlock Holmes and Treasure Island.
"Good books," he said, "I liked Treasure Island."
Tim's eyes widened, "You've read Treasure Island?"
Gibbs nodded. "I haven't read Sherlock, but I know it's popular, so it must be good."
"Have you read Little Women?"
No, but his Shannon had loved it and used to read it to Kelly….
Blue eyes that had been open for a moment opened became clouded and closed. Tim didn't know what to say or what to do, so hesitantly he touched Gibbs' arm and jumped when the other jerked.
"Uh..."
Gibbs stood quickly causing Tim to flinch.
"Good night," Gibbs then said looking down at Tim before leaving the room.
Tim watched him go. He wondered what he'd said to make Gibbs sad. He wondered if he'd ever get to know his husband. He wondered if he should ask Ron. Tim was slowly coming to realize that Gibbs was both a complicated and complex person. He wondered where Jimmy was and how he was doing. He really needed someone to talk to. Most of all, he wondered if he could really do this.
Suddenly the excitement of the day paled and the book he was reading held no interest for him.
He put the book on the bedside table, turned back the covers, got into bed and turned off the lamp.
We finally see Jimmy!
Thanks as always goes to my beta MJ, and my readers and reviewers! You guys rock!
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