Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters.
Chapter Seven
The start of the ride in the elevator was made in absolute silence, both occupants facing the doors – though Tim had his head lowered in an act of contrition, the atmosphere was so thick that could be cut with a knife. Gibbs could almost feel the humiliation, trepidation and fear rolling off of Tim and knew that the new sub was just waiting for the expected punishment for his behaviour to be metred out. However Gibbs found that he was more angry at himself than with his boy and knew the longer he waited the more fearful Tim would become, so just as they were about to reach their destination Gibbs reached out and flip the switch, killing both the movement and the lights of the elevator.
Tim held his head down in an act of shame, hoping it looked like he was concentrating avidly on the floor, he knew Gibbs had every right to be angry, the book of rules was very specific about when a sub was allowed to speak and he had openly flouted those rules with his outburst at the end of the inspection. Tim knew he was in trouble and his mind was working through the list of punishments that a master could openly use in front of others, for a subs disobedience, but his fear turned to panic as the elevator suddenly stilled and plunged into darkness.
Gibbs moved quickly once the elevator stopped moving, turning to face Tim only to realise the boy was going into panic mood over, not just Gibbs actions, but his own when they had been in autopsy, his breathing hitched and the older man automatically reached out and pull the younger man into what he hoped was a soft and comforting hug. "Easy Tim, easy" Gibbs murmur as he felt Tim's surprise to his actions "Breathe, that's it just breathe"
It took a few moments for Tim's breathing to come back under control, the whole time Gibbs just muttered reassurances whilst keeping his touch soft and gentle so as not to cause any further problems. Once Gibbs was sure that Tim was calm enough he pulled back slightly, still holding onto his boy with one arm around his waist, using his free hand to gently lift the down turned head so he could look him directly in the eye whilst he spoke to him, the look of anxiety on Tim's face spoke volumes to the Master.
"Easy Tim" Gibbs reassured once, as he realised he need to be firm and gentle with his terrified sub, before he took the bull by the horns "Yes you were wrong to speak that way, but I'm not going to punish you and I'm not mad at you, a little angry, but not mad"
The look on Tim's face turned slowly to disbelief "I….I don't understand…..master." Tim stammered out in surprise and uncertainty
Gibbs smiled at his boy softly, pulling him back into a comfortable embrace pushing Tim head so it was leaning into his shoulder "I know, Tim I know. Just listen to me for a minute, okay?"
"Okay." Tim mumble into Gibbs skin causing the older man to smile at the trust he was being shown.
"I understand you're going to make mistakes, we all do, you haven't been trained for this and no one should expect you to behave perfectly after such a short time plus you had some unexpected news" Gibbs started to explain, Tim looked up at him and Gibbs momentarily enjoyed the puzzled look on his boy's face before he continued with clarification "The additional inspections"
"Oh that" Tim replied
"Yes that" Gibbs chided lightly "But that's what I'm mad about Tim, I'm mad at myself for not realising that your old man would probably pull a stunt like this, but I'm not mad at you. Yes what you did was wrong and if you do it again I will have to consider punishing you, however I'm not going to beat you black and blue for a mistake do you understand?"
Tim nodded what Gibbs said made sense, however the rule book was very specific and now Gibbs had him questioning everything he had read over the weekend "The rule book?"
Gibbs realised where the question was coming from and answered with a question of his own "You read it until you knew it off by heart didn't you?"
"Had to" Tim replied in sincerity.
Gibbs shock his head at the honesty of his boy "I'm going to be the one that decides what is best for you Tim. Like I said you're not trained and I can't expect you to blindly follow a new set of rules only days after having your world turned upside down. We'll work this out, get to a level that we are both comfortable, but it will take time."
"Now we are going to have to table the rest of this conversation until we get home, okay?" Gibbs waited until he received a nod of acceptance from Tim. He quickly decided to show the younger man that he meant what he said and decide to give him the choice to how they would spend their time together whilst at work, considering his knowledge that his sub was rather shy when it came to his body. "Good, now when we get to the bullpen are you going to be comfortable kneeling at my side or would you rather sit under the desk?" Tim looked momentarily surprised at the question before his features turned thoughtful.
Tim realised what he was being offered, kneeling at his master's side would mean everyone would see him, just how exposed he would be was down to how much clothing his master allowed him to wear, he was currently only wearing his jeans and a small pair of briefs as it was, however if he was under the desk sitting against the draw unit, then only Gibbs would see him, as the desk supports went all the way to the floor.
"Under the desk" Tim requested hopefully, blushing
Gibbs smirked at the bashfulness of his sub, he knew what Tim had been thinking, however he had already decided not to expect Tim to want to be any more exposed than he already was, reaching out he flick the elevator back on as he informed his sub of his decision. "Good and you may keep your jeans on boy."
NCIS
Tony was worried, he knew Gibbs was with Tim but the inspection seemed to be taking a very long time, when the pair had arrived that morning Gibbs had made a bit of a show of the fact that he had a new sub, commenting on the lack of work his team was doing, whilst taking pleasure in informing Jake Sciuto he only had himself to blame for the transfer, before taking Tim the long way down to autopsy ordering him to close his mouth as he did so.
So when the elevator ding and the occupants where finally revealed Tony was glad to see the pair back, though Tim's head was down as he followed his new Master to his desk. What surprised Tony was the fact that Tim didn't kneel down next to Gibbs as most subs did, instead the young man scouted under the desk where he wasn't visible before Gibbs sat down and glared at the files on his desk
"Oh, yeah. They're from Vance, boss." DiNozzo informed having been caught off guard by what happened, the words drying up in his mouth as Gibbs turned his glare towards him, Tony just point to Tim's desk and mouthed. "Replacement candidates."
The reaction he got wasn't exactly unexpected, Gibbs ordering Tim to stay where he was as he unlatch the cuff around his wrist that was attached to his subs leash, and attached it to the long handle of his locked draw, before he got up and stormed out of their section of the bullpen and up the stairs.
NCIS
The banging of the door informed the Director to the other man's presence, as well as altering what he was about to do next, as Gibbs stormed into Vance's office, forgoing the need to knock "What the hell Leon? It's only been a day and you're expecting me to pick out a replacement just like that!"
"Good morning to you too, Gibbs" Leon dryly replied "The timing sucks, I know, and I feel for the kid, I do, but the fact remains your teams' down a member and I can't have my best team side lined"
"I'm on light duties for the next two week's Leon, your rules remember?"
Leon didn't need the reminder, he had put the rule in place upon starting at the agency, but back then the top team had been at full complement and he hadn't seen the need to not implement the rule that all other agency had as standard practise.
After-all had Gibbs decided to take a sub, under any other circumstance, it would have meant his team could have continued on working new cases, as the rule was four field agents was the minimum requirement for any team out in the field, whilst he was on light duties, but with the team down a member and the leader on light duties the team had had to be pulled from rotation and would be off rotation until a new member was found. Then again no one could have predicted what had happened.
"Whilst I appreciate the situation is less than ideal, think of it as perfect timing for you to review your teams structure Gibbs" Leon replied evenly as he gave the other man something to think about, guessing he hadn't had time to do so as yet "What I mean is, you can consider whether or not you really need all of your team in the field or if you want the new member to be here, so you can leave Tim here"
As he thought Gibbs stare at him blankly for a moment, before seemingly realising what Vance was offering as he sunk down into a chair, all traces of the anger and fight leaving his body language. "Having a non-field agent that stays in the building, means that Tim can be left here in safety"
"Exactly" Vance replied, before reminding Gibbs of the only other option available to him if he want Tim out of harm's way "It's either that or if you don't take him with you, you put him in a holding room each time you leave the building"
"Fine, I'll look over the files and review my team's structure, anything else?" Gibbs growled unhappily
"How's McGee?" Vance asked genuinely concerned for the young man.
"How'd do you think he is" Gibbs retorted the anger back in his voice. "He's just had to endure the inspection, thinking it was a one-time only thing, only to find out that they're going to happen randomly for the next eight weeks."
"What you told him he only had to go through it once?" Vance couldn't believe that Gibbs would do that to the kid
"No" Gibbs retorted angrily "I didn't count on the old man doctoring the sales agreement." Gibbs stood and made to leave the room
"Can you prove it?" Vance questioned.
"Next on my to-do-list, after I review the files, I guess" Gibbs replied as he walked out the door.
NCIS
"Well that went well" Kate appraised from where she had been keeping quiet and looking busy.
"At least he hasn't asked for an update yet" Ziva stated with relief
"Won't be long until he does, something got him wound up, that's for sure" Kate surmised.
"Really hadn't noticed" Tony replied sarcastically, before he got up and made his way over to Gibbs desk, he had an apology to make and now was the best time to do it. Carefully he manoeuvred Gibbs chair out of the way, waving off Ziva's question without answering her, before squatting down to look at Tim who was sitting with his knees pulled up, arms firmly wrapped round them holding them in place, resting his chin on top as he starred at the desk support in front of him.
"Tony what are you doing?" Ziva hissed as Tony moved Gibbs chair and descended in height until he was level with the desk. The girls exchanged concerned looks before glancing to see if anyone else had noticed, seeing no one taking any notice, they both watch ready to step in if necessary.
"Hey" Tony greeted as lightly as he could, he already regretted his actions from the day before but seeing his former team mate like this was gut wrenching.
Tim turn his head to face Tony but said nothing, not that there was anything he want to say to him but because he had already broken that rule once, he wasn't about to do it again, even if Gibbs wasn't around others were and they'd have no problems in letting his master know, but he also remember Tony laughingly announcing his new status to the entire bullpen the day before and the hurt and humiliation from that re-kindled back to life.
The look on Tim's face told Tony everything he need, the kid was frighten about the situation he was in and still felt betrayed by his actions. Biting the bullet Tony acknowledge his mistake "Look Tim, I sorry, really didn't mean that to happen, I guess I've gotten use to teasing you and I just reacted without thinking and I'm sorry, forgive me?"
Tim starred at Tony everything the older man made perfect sense, Tony often acted before thinking and Tim had witness it first had several times since arriving in DC nine months ago. He nodded his acceptance of the apology then he blinked at the small packet of Nutter-butters that seemed to suddenly appeared in Tony's hand and wasn't exactly sure whether he was allowed to except them.
Tony realised why Tim seem reluctant to accept the offered treat as he pulled it back and went to place it on Gibbs desk "That's okay, why don't I just leave them here and I'll speak to Gibbs about it when he gets back."
"Speak to me about what DiNozzo?" Gibbs questioned schooling his anger, as he came back down the stairs, he had seen his senior agent crouching next to his desk and hoped that he wasn't upsetting Tim any more than he was already.
"Oh hey boss" Tony looked up with a grin "I was just apologising to Tim about yesterday"
Gibbs raised an eyebrow as he rounded the corner bring himself back into the bull pen "Yeah how's that working out?"
"Well, I think he's accepted the apology but, he's not sure about accepting the treat" Tony said sheepishly, as Gibbs arrive back at his desk, holding up the peace offering he had tried to give Tim.
"Did he say anything?" Gibbs questioned
"No, just looked at me, a gave a small nod" Tony informed
"Uh huh" Gibbs stated, whilst secretly pleased, before ordering "Move."
The senior field agent scrambled to comply with the given order, getting out of Gibbs way, as the older man took the packet of biscuits out of his hand, then watched as the older man sat down in his chair before carding his hand through Tim's hair and giving him the Nutter-butters "Good-boy"