Brain-storm
G / K
One shot. The power goes out at headquarters.
Bellisario owns everything. He can have the boys back when I'm done.
A/N: Set whenever, no spoilers. Written for the FF100 prompt 70, storm. And no, I won't be posting every story I write for FF100 here. I'm really not a fan of people posting 100 drabbles and calling them stories. And I'm not that much of a hypocrite.
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Tony was fine with working late. It would help if he was actually working, but it wasn't too big a deal. He, like McGee (slumped in his chair behind his desk), had nothing to do. A tech guy had emerged from his cave to inform the poor losers still in the building that they were shutting down the network, and consequentially, every computer attached to it. McGee waved him away after he delivered his message, flipping the power bar off on his computer. He stood up and flipped off Tony's too, after seeing that he obviously wasn't going to do it.
McGee walked over to Gibbs' desk and was a second away from switching his off as well, when he did an about face and flopped back into his chair. Tony silently agreed with him. If Gibbs came back and saw his computer turned off and neither of them working...
Besides, it was a hell of a lot easier to explain why a computer crashed from a power surge to a techie than Gibbs. But McGee could handle that. There might be a bit of yelling (not from the techies though, they looked to McGee as some kind of miracle - a computer guy who became an agent). But other than that Tony didn't have too much to complain about.
Except the lights. They were flickering. Lights weren't supposed to flicker, they were supposed to stay on, indefinitely, until you were one-hundred percent sure you wanted them off. And then, they would stay off, without flicking back on, until you wanted them to be turned on.
So, obviously, lights were not supposed to flicker. Especially in a high security government building.
They dimmed again. The Atlantic winds howled outside the windows that stretched from ceiling to floor. They banged on the glass and threatened to find their way through the smallest cracks.
I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down
The lights flickered again. Tony looked up, inspecting the lamps that hung from the ceiling.
When Tony had finished he looked down and saw the ever curious McGee watching him, eyebrows raised in that 'should I ask?' look.
Tony turned and opened one of his desk drawers. Digging around its contents, he pulled out a pen light. Satisfied, he set it down carefully in front of the blank monitor and leaned back in his chair.
The lights flickered again.
Tony froze for a second, then grabbed the pen light. He started twisting the end, trying to turn it on.
"Afraid of the dark Tony?" McGee asked.
"No," Tony answered through gritted teeth. The pen light wasn't working. "But, it looks like the power is going to go out any minute, and when it does, trust me, all the little probies like you are going to be running around and a senior agent like me is going to have to keep them all under control."
"Uh-huh."
Tony whipped his head to the side and glared at McGee. He fumbled with the light for a few more seconds then threw it onto his desk and folded his arms to sulk.
He watched out of the corner of his eye as McGee reached into his backpack and pulled out an mp3 player. Tony opened his mouth to say something but stopped when McGee popped open the back and caught the three AAA batteries that fell out.
"AAAs work?" he asked, holding them up.
Tony unscrewed the end of the pen light and out slid three presumably dead AAAs.
"Yup."
McGee stood up and dropped them into Tony's hand. It took him a minute but he eventually got them all in the pen light and facing the right way. He turned the tip, and let out a sigh when it lit up, then looked back to McGee quickly. He had either not noticed his relief or chosen to ignore it.
It was another fifteen or so minutes of thumb-twiddling (brainstorming) and finger-tapping (also brainstorming) for the power to finally go out.
The hum of electricity was gone, but the bullpen didn't get much quieter. The agents manning MTAC probably had a few choice words though, now that they were definitely off-air.
Tony tensed, sat straight up in his chair and grabbed the pen light. He peered out both corners of his eyes, checking to see if the coast was clear.
From McGee's desk, he could hear Tony sit up, then, a few seconds later, the pen light switched on. Tony's face was illuminated in the darkness, a rare nervousness had crept into his features.
A few minutes later McGee's voice broke the silence.
"The building has generators, right?"
"Not for us Probie. They've got the freezers in the morgue going, and the ones in Forensics. And probably the Director's office. The stairs possibly. And maybe a few more minutes for the elevators."
"Oh."
No scurrying probie-feet could be heard, no agents whispering in the dark and nothing was being knocked over or run into.
Tony was still clutching the pen light, pointed straight up toward the ceiling to spread the light around.
The wind was still trying to force itself into the building and the emergency streetlights outside fought against the gales that tried to knock them over.
Tony pointed his light toward his desk drawer and started to dig around again. He pulled out a pad of sticky notes and a pen and began to write. He paused after the first word and looked over at McGee. He was looking back, curious (again) as to Tony's activity.
"You wanna sneak into MTAC and freak out the techies?" Tony asked after a moment.
McGee raised his eyebrows higher. Then: "Sure."
Tony crossed out what he had started to write, just in case Gibbs came back, and wrote: "McGee & I brainstorming in MTAC. Be back soon."