Jimmy is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He's never read it before, but he knows he'll read it again. It's good, the way Charlie is whisked away into a new world - how Willy Wonka is at first scary and strange, but seems more and more to be the good guy. A tap on his shoulder jolts him from his trance.
"Everyone's here now, Jimmy." Ellie says gently. He looks around and she's right, the others are gathered around the bed in the tight circle, kids only of course. Tony had called campfire earlier in the morning, but it'd taken this long to track everyone down. "So what's up, Tony?" Ellie asks the older boy. His eyebrows shoot up.
"It's been a week, you guys." He says like it's obvious. "I thought maybe it was time to make our exit?"
There's a long pause. "You still want to do that?" Ellie asks slowly.
"Of course - that was literally the only condition of us coming here in the first place."
"Yeah, but-"
"Do we have to?" Sarah whines.
"I thought you wanted to stay together?" Tony hisses, a little too fiercely.
"We are together, Tony." Abby signs.
"Ok kid, help me out here."
Tim looks away.
"Ok seriously? It was you who didn't even want to come here! How can you be so... immature?"
"I'm immature?" Tim scoffs. "What happened to doing what's best for us? It's not how we thought it'd be here, and we should make adjustments for that accordingly."
"Alright McRobot." Tony pulls a face.
"You can stop with those stupid nicknames too." Tim says coldly.
"Or you'll what, McScaredyCat? Run to Gibbs?"
"At least I have someone to run to!" The argument has reached a significant volume, but its so rare for Jimmy to speak up in a group discussion that when does, even at a whisper, they all stop and turn to him.
"I want to stay." He says, clutching his book so hard has knuckles turn white. Tim gives Tony his best 'I told you so' look, and Tony looks about ready to explode with frustration, but Ellie saves the day.
"I think that Jimmy's opinion should carry the most weight here." She says, and nobody fights her on that point. "And besides, it's a majority vote."
Tony has to concede that. How is he going to get them out of this house if all five of them want to stay?
"So we stay." Tim says, not looking at Tony. "And we see what happens next?"
One by one, everyone nods except Tony, and Sarah who's busy playing with a Rubik's Cube she found.
"Meeting adjourned then." Ellie says, a weird little tradition she started when she called their first campfire years ago. One by one, they wander off to continue whatever they were doing before - Abby gives Tony a hug on the way out, and Jimmy even hands him a wrapped sweet he's had in his pocket for safe keeping. Tony smiles and thanks him accordingly, ruffling his hair as he goes. "Look after yourself, Gremlin."
It's only the older boys left in the room now. Tim sighs and gets up to leave.
"McGeek-" Tony calls out after him.
"My name is Tim." He interrupts. "If you cared enough about me to remember that once in a while." Then he leaves, closing the door behind him. That's ok, Tony thinks. What he's about to do will probably be easier this way.
...
"I'm just saying, I haven't had a TV for like, 5 years, and I've still seen it!"
"Yeah, we'll you're old."
"Oh I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that sci-fi was only for grown ups."
"That's not what I meant! Star Wars is a classic."
"She's seen Star Wars, but not a single episode of Star Trek."
"I like Star Trek." Jimmy pipes up, interrupting Ellie and Tim's bickering.
"Thank you!" Tim declares like his point is won. It's late afternoon and Ellie is getting tired.
"Whatever." She says. "I'm just saying it's never been a problem until now."
"Oh, I'm so telling Abby." Tim grins with glee. "She won't believe it either." He sticks his head out the back door, but she's not in the garden with Sarah and Gibbs. He heads upstairs instead, jogging the last few feet to the bedroom. "Abby?" He calls. He pushes open the door and most collides with her as she sprints out into the hallway. "Woah woah, what's going on?" She looks at him, stricken, shaking her head.
"I can't find Tony." She pants. "I've looked everywhere and he's not here, why isn't he here?" She signs the word 'everywhere' emphatically as she spits the words rapid fire.
"Hey, it's ok." Tim puts his hands on her shoulders and get down to her level to stop her running off again. "We'll have another look, all of us. He can't be far."
Ellie has caught up to him by now, speaking as she turns the corner.
"I can explain, Abby, it's not as bad as Tim is making-" She stops in her tracks. "What's wrong?"
"I can't find Tony." Abby supplies, raising her left fist and circling her open right hand in front of it as she says his name.
"I'll look outside." Ellie says immediately.
"I can check the bathrooms again!"
"I'll head downstairs and Jimmy and I will cover the kitchen, dining room and living room." Tim says decisively.
"What about the basement?" Ellie asks.
"... If it isn't locked, I'll check down there too. We'd better not tell Gibbs anything just yet."
The girls nod in agreement.
"It's ok." Tim says again, as they split up. But he already feels in his gut that Tony is long gone.
...
A/N: for anyone wondering, Abby doesn't sign Tony's name - people using ASL often do this, or sign just the first letter/initials of someone's name, but what I thought was more in character for her was an aspect of Deaf culture that I've heard about where people use personal 'name signs' as a way to identify someone without fully spelling out their name. These often reflect the person's character, hence Abby signing 'protection' when she says Tony's name.
