A/N: This is my ninth road trip. The first one took place after the Dearing debacle back in season 9 and has become extremely AU. Some elements of the show have been incorporated into the series, but I put my own twist on it. At this point, trying to summarize everything would be well nigh impossible in an author's note. So the very basics: Tim is a team lead in the DC field office. He's married to Delilah and they have three children: a 10-year-old boy named Tommy and 6-year-old twin girls named Esther and Evelyn. He went through a rough experience a few years previously (see Road Trip 5: The Loneliest Road) and has PTSD but is doing fairly well at managing it. Tony is a team lead at Norfolk. He is almost married to a woman named Jo. They have one son named Sam who is four, and they have adopted three siblings out of the foster care system: twins, Daniel and Grace, and their younger half-brother Ivan who has some disabilities. Tim and Tony have become unofficial brothers after all they've gone through, but it's been rocky.

Disclaimer: I don't own the show, nor the characters, but I do lay claim to my OCs and I quite like how I've changed things. So I'll keep those plots, too. :)

The Reason for the Road
by Enthusiastic Fish

"Roads were made for journeys, not destinations."
~Confucius

Chapter 1

Tony was going over the budget. He was thinking that it was finally time to buy his new car. After buying Tim's telescope the year before, he'd had to start saving again. He didn't mind, but he was glad to see that he was back to where he'd been last year.

That thought made him sigh a little. Tim hadn't ever fully got over their last road trip. Tony had noticed it every time they got together. It wasn't dramatic, but Tim was still kicking himself a little bit for the way his mental health issues had come up on their trip. It wasn't that Tim avoided him, but rather that he just still seemed a little down every visit, as if just seeing Tony made things a little harder. Tony had asked Delilah about it once, and she had said that Tim really was fine.

Tony just wasn't sure he fully believed it.

The weird thing was that Tim had felt less guilt for the trips that had been unremittingly hard than he did for this last one where things just got shaky. Maybe it was because Tim had started it thinking it was going to be so good. Tony wasn't sure, but he had still noticed it being just not quite right and he didn't like it.

Absently, he began tapping his pen against the paper and staring at the computer screen.

"Hey, Dad?"

Tony looked up. Daniel was standing in the doorway, looking at him. He still got a little thrill every time Daniel and Grace called him Dad. Ivan had started to as well, just because he followed their lead.

"What is it, Daniel?" he asked. "Homework trouble again? I hope not because remember that I'm the dunce in this family."

"No. Are you busy?"

Tony looked at his budget and smiled. He saved the file, shut down the computer and turned to Daniel.

"Nope. Just finished. What is it?"

Daniel came in and sat down. He looked very earnest... although he usually did. Daniel was a very serious kid most of the time.

"I was thinking."

"Well, that's dangerous," Tony said, grinning.

"Dad."

"Sorry. What?"

"You and Tim should go to Banff by yourselves."

Now, he had Tony's complete attention.

"What?"

"This summer. You and Tim should go to Banff by yourselves," Daniel repeated.

"We were going to take you and Tommy again," Tony said. "A full road trip with just the guys. Why?"

"I know. I already talked to Tommy about it and he said yes."

"You already talked to Tommy?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. I had to make sure he'd be okay with me saying it. It's his trip, too, and I know how much he likes doing things with Tim," Daniel said. "I think he was a little disappointed, but he agreed when I explained it to him."

"Well, explain it to me, then," Tony said, raising an eyebrow.

"I think you and Tim need to talk about stuff, and I know you won't when we're around. You don't have anywhere you could drop me and Tommy off while you go around and talk about the serious things. And I noticed the last time, when Tim and Delilah came here on the weekend. Tim's still bugged by the stuff from last year. And I know you saw it, too. So you need to have some time when you can really talk it through. Without us."

Tony was flabbergasted. This was one of those times when Daniel seemed far too mature for his age. He was only sixteen and talking like some trained psychiatrist. ...but this was one of the things that he had learned as self-defense. In order to survive his situation, he'd been forced to understand people and know what might lead to anger or abuse or neglect. So he had learned very young how to read people's emotions.

"Are you sure about this, Daniel? Tim and I will work things out eventually. We always do."

"Yeah, but it'll be faster if you just do it all at once, instead of taking a long time. It's already been a year. Really, Dad, you should go. We could still do something short together. ...like, maybe we could go down and do that Freedom Trail in Roanoke or something like that, something we couldn't do last year because Tim was getting over being sick. But you guys should go to Banff alone."

Tony wasn't sure what to say, but he had to say something.

"Okay, Daniel. Let me give it some thought, all right? We haven't talked about it for a while, and Tim might be thinking that we shouldn't go at all."

Daniel furrowed his brow, as if deciding whether or not Tony was just putting him off.

"I promise, Daniel. I'm going to think about it and decide what would be best to do. Can you trust me?"

"Okay."

Daniel left and Tony started mulling it over. How would Tim take it if he suggested they go by themselves? In a way, Tony really liked the idea, but at the same time, he also really liked the idea of going with the boys. This kind of father-son trip that he'd never had himself was something he wanted to give to his sons. But Daniel was right that they could still do other things close by without making it a full road trip.

He'd have to think about it. Carefully.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Dad?"

Tim gladly turned away from the computer. Of all the days for it to decide to give him the blue screen of death. If he couldn't figure out how to get this fixed, he was going to have to start a program he'd been working on all over.

"Yeah, Tommy?"

"Can I talk to you?"

"Of course," Tim said, smiling. "I'm not making any headway on the computer right now."

Tommy looked a little nervous, actually, and that surprised Tim.

"What's wrong, Tommy?"

"Nothing!" Tommy said. "Nothing's wrong, but I was talking to Daniel and..."

"When were you talking to Daniel?" Tim asked.

"Last week when you were late at work. He called me on Mom's phone. I think he was using Jo's phone. Oh, wait. No. He was using his own phone because Mom wasn't sure if she was going to answer at first because she didn't recognize the number and..."

Tim smiled and gestured. "Oh. Okay. What were you talking about?"

"We decided that... that you and Tony need to go to Banff this year alone."

"Wait. What?" Tim asked, very surprised. Banff hadn't even come up in conversation for the last few months. He wasn't sure it was going to happen at all.

"I know it's supposed to be all the guys, but it should just be you and Tony."

Tim gestured for Tommy to come over to him.

"Tommy, why would you think that?"

"Because every time you see Tony, you get sad again, like last year. And I know it's not Tony. You like Tony! So it must be something that you need to talk about. Daniel was saying how he had noticed it and I did, too. I heard Mom telling someone about it, too. So we're all noticing it, Dad. And it always starts when you see Tony. And that's sad to me because you told me that he's family and your family shouldn't make you sad. Daniel said that if you could just talk to each other, it would probably get better. So you should go on the trip and talk to each other."

"Tommy, Tony and I can talk to each other any time," Tim said. "Really, I don't know if we'll get to Banff this year anyway. We usually don't go on two road trips in two years. That's cramming them pretty close together."

Then, Tommy did something that, in spite of the seriousness of the conversation, almost made Tim laugh. Tommy stood in front of Tim who was sitting on his chair. That meant he was almost eye to eye, and he put his hands on Tim's shoulders. He was very earnest and sincere, but having him do that to make his point was kind of funny.

"Dad, if you were talking to Tony about things, it wouldn't still make you sad like that," Tommy said. "So you need to talk to him on a road trip. And when you get back, we can go somewhere close together." Tommy's brow had been furrowed but now, his eyes widened, pleadingly. "Dad, I love you and I want you to be happy!"

Tim pulled Tommy to him and gave him a hug.

"I love you, too, Tommy," he said, softly.

"Then, will you go to Banff with Tony and talk to him?"

Tim felt like Tommy was the best emotional manipulator he'd ever met, but he still couldn't resist when his son was so earnest.

"I can't make any guarantees right now, Tommy, but I promise that I'll talk to Tony about going to Banff, okay?"

"Okay, Dad." Tommy pulled back and smiled mischievously. "Can I check to see if you really did it?"

Tim laughed at Tommy wanting to use the same threat his parents had used on him on occasion and turned Tommy around, giving him a little shove.

"Give me a week before you check, Tommy. Now, go play and let me see if I can get this computer to work."

"Okay, Dad!"

Tommy ran out of the room.

Tim turned the chair around to face the computer again, and then leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.

Tommy was right. Every time they'd got together with Tony and his family, Tim had remembered how he had ruined their previous road trip and he still felt bad about it. He thought he'd been able to hide it so that no one else was bothered by it, but apparently he hadn't been as good as he had hoped. If his other effort had been more successful, he might have a better attitude, but he was still struggling with it, and keeping it a secret from everyone meant that he wasn't able to get any support on it either. But until he had some hope of it being ultimately successful, he didn't want to say anything...which meant he'd keep struggling alone.

Or almost alone.

One other person did know what he was doing, but the problem was that this one other person was also the source of the problem so it wasn't exactly comforting.

He'd have to think about it before calling Tony. Really, there was no reason they should go on a road trip this year, only a year after their last road trip. Sure, Tony had said they needed to, but they didn't really need to. And besides, with his continuing problems, maybe it would be best to put it off for a year. Maybe another year would make a difference.

Yeah, right. When does putting things off ever make it better, Tim? he asked himself with irritation.

The answer, of course, was never. It never made things better, but it made things easier, and sometimes, making things easier was all he cared about.

However, this time, Tommy had extracted a promise out of him, and he couldn't break a promise to his son. Not ever.

He'd have to think about it for a day or two and then decide how to approach it.

Decision made, he turned back to the computer and started trying to figure out what had triggered the blue screen of death, hoping he could avoid having to disassemble the the computer to get at the data saved there.

He definitely had plenty to do right now.