A/N: Let's remember:

Gibbs in love & content is a different Gibbs – we've already established that. He's - able to relax much more - sleep MUCH better.

And Tim's memories from what Abby did and spending even a minute of staring down a truckload of rifle toting drug cartel thugs and their boss while offering up his life to them - bad enough. Personally, I always thought the show seriously downplayed how that whole episode must have affected him - hence our story's moment of emphasis on it.

and now...

It's dinner time when he next awakens and Leroy's stomach tells him as much in no uncertain terms. The growl seemingly loud in the otherwise silent room. Glancing down at his husband, still soundly sleeping on his chest, the older man is not surprised to see that Tim hasn't moved a muscle in his sleep. Content to continue holding him, putting dinner off for a bit longer, Leroy smiles. His mind immediately begins wandering back through its' memories of the past few days, more than happy to do so.

It's not long however, that he happens on a realization while taking this trip down memory lane. Tim's done so much for him, including willingly taking on the role of the bottom any and every time Leroy has taken it in that direction, without complaint or even prior discussion. Since their relationship has been solidly built on equal roles, this feels wrong to Leroy, now that he has slowed down enough to think about it. Or at least, very much in need of some equalizing, he tells himself even as he recalls the intimately beautiful way in which Tim topped him this past Saturday morning.

Smiling down at his love again, the idea of making this up to Tim not only settles well into his thoughts but is very soon joined by anticipation. He's never once been disappointed with Tim at the reins of their sensual journeys together. In fact, he looks forward to each and every one in the very same way he knows Tim feels the same way from his side of their equation. That's why it's in no small terms, time to give back to him. A grin lights his face at the memory of one of the new items he brought that he wanted them to experience together. Letting Tim do this one to him is something he's definitely looking forward to. That is, if Tim's willing. And after the way the younger man willingly took on the adventure with the plug, well, Leroy'll be shocked if Tim says no to the next surprise.

"You're thinking too hard." Tim murmurs from his chest.

The rumble of his husband's voice and the air from his words both tickle Leroy, adding even more of a grin to his face. "Hey." He greets him softly, gently caressing the side of his face.

"Hi. Yourself." Tim says as he moves to take his weight off Leroy's chest. "You okay? I didn't mean to stay on top of you like that."

"I'm fine, Tim. Doesn't hurt. Are you hungry?"

As Tim opens his mouth to answer, Leroy's stomach growls, invoking infectious laughter from both of them, at the timing and the unmistakable message they just got. "Even if I'm not. You sure are. C'mon. Let's go fix dinner."

"Nope." Leroy shakes his head as together they get to their feet, Tim pulling on sweats and a t-shirt while his husband patiently waits for him.

"What?"

"Tonight's your night off." Leroy announces firmly without moving from where he's standing.

Tim scrutinizes his husband, fairly sure why the older man's head is heading in this direction. He knows him and it's most likely that he just wants to take care of Tim tonight, like he's made a point of doing many times during their relationship. And while Tim respects and loves him for it and appreciates it, he's not exactly onboard with it. After all, Leroy's the one that has been on the go, insatiable and stubborn about resting. Tim shakes his head. "No."

Leroy frowns. It's not like the younger man to argue.

"I get what you're trying to do, Leroy and I appreciate it." Tim tells him firmly, appreciation clear in his tone, his eyes locked on those of his husband's. "Really. But, humor me please, put that on hold until tomorrow. Tonight – you take it easy. Please. Tomorrow morning too. And If whatever you have planned for tomorrow is relaxing with no physical exertion, then maybe..." He drops it there, knowing he's made his point and doesn't have to hammer it home.

Now that the argument makes sense, Leroy has no problem agreeing to it even though it seriously sidetracks his plan for taking care of Tim in every way. The younger man is right. It's time to take a break and let his body catch up before he messes things up for himself beyond repair. "Okay."

Relieved that his husband is not putting up even a single argument, Tim smiles at him. "Okay. Are you ready for some coffee?"

"Always." Leroy smirks as he starts to walk over to him so they can head to the kitchen together. "And dinner."

"Right." Tim smiles in return. "Can't forget dinner." As he begins to head out of the room, it's a mere two strides later that he stops. He literally freezes. Not sure why he hadn't remembered until now, why neither of them had, but they've forgotten something and it can not wait. Mentally, he laughs at himself now. The plug's still gotta come out!

Surprised at Tim's frozen moment, Leroy watches silently as he waits for his husband to share with him what's running through his mind that brought this standstill about. But instead of looking over at him or speaking whatever's on his mind, Tim merely begins to slowly turn around on his feet, pivoting slowly as if afraid to move too fast. His eyes haven't come up off the ground yet and that's a red flag in itself.

As those thoughts pass through Leroy's mind, the light bulb snaps on. The plug! Feeling bad that he's been so easily sidetracked and completely forgotten to take better care of his husband than this, Leroy walks to Tim and reaches out to steady him at his hips as he somberly offers an olive branch. "Didn't mean to forget."

Shaking his head slightly in a refusal to lay blame, the younger man's eyes find and lock onto those of the man he loves. Taking a moment to just simply look into those cobalt blue oceans of emotions he depends on, Tim offers him the small, tender smile reserved just for him before he finally speaks, his voice a near whisper. "Need a shower… "With you."

Leroy's surprise must be showing on his face because as the younger man heads towards the bathroom, grabbing up their towels off the chair as he moves, he's grinning like he's just won a prize, his shoulders actually moving as he quietly laughs.

With a chuckle of his own, Leroy is hot on his trail.

*******NCIS******

Settled on the sofa in front of the fireplace together after a leisurely dinner of steaks done over the fire along with baked potatoes a good hour and a half later, Tim drags his phone off the side table and goes into the tab he's looking for. "Feel like talking about the house?" He asks.

"Sure." Leroy offers calmly. "Combining the two shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks. That what you wanted to talk about?"

"Yeah." Tim answers. "Wasn't sure you'd want to get some stuff ironed out while we're here, but I brought the blueprints to John's house just in case. And I've got photos of the all the rooms. I know they're gonna look different once he empties them out, but I figured it'll give us a great starting point in figuring out how we want the final layout to look, especially if we want to change anything like shelf heights or larger windows or anything like that."

"You got somethin' in mind you already lookin' to change, Tim?" Leroy teases.

Tim sighs. "Actually. Yeah. I do."

"Somethin' you think I'm not gonna be happy about."

"I'm not happy about wanting it changed, myself. Leroy. Not after all the hard work you put into it, but..."

"It's just a room, Tim."

"Not to me it isn't." Tim denies fiercely. "Not when you went all out to make it special for me. And I know we don't know when the time will be that we'll need to worry about this part, but it'd be stupid not to plan for it now while we're doing this."

"Makes sense." The older man sees it.

Tim barely hears him with the roll he's already on, his thoughts just tumbling out of his mouth. "But, when things work out with Sarah's gift to us...we're gonna want that room you just turned into my office - for the baby." The young man points out. "It's the room closest to ours and if it's not too much trouble, we could transplant my office on what will be the new part of the upstairs once the houses are connected."

Leroy chuckles. "You don't have to convince me, Sweetheart."

Tim blushes as he stops talking.

"Your idea sounds about right." Leroy admits without hesitation, his hand reaching out towards his husband so that his fingers can card that hair he loves to play in so much. "Nothin' to worry about, Tim."

"I just hate that it means undoing all your hard work." Tim admits as he soaks up his husband's loving gesture.

"Not undoin' - movin'. " The older man reminds him. "What other ideas you got brewin' up there in that intelligent brain of yours?"

Tim smiles. "Well, now that you mention it..."

"Don't let me stop you." Leroy chuckles as he stops messing with Tim's hair and snuggles in a bit closer to him. "Spit it out."

The younger man smiles. "Okay. Well, there's way we can add our own ideas or ones we like that aren't even ours - maybe have it figured out enough the contractors can get started the 1st day you're ready for them?"

"Yeah? What's your plan?"

"Zillow." Tim says. "The real estate listing site lets you save pictures that you come across from the houses you look at - like if you really like a particular room or part of a room. Once you've signed in, it saves the houses you've looked at - the houses you mark as favorite and the pictures you ask it to save."

"And you're suggesting we browse through what you've got saved and see if any of it suits us enough for us to duplicate in our new space."

"Yeah. I mean, we can do it like the collages we used to have to do in school." He gets up and leaves the room, coming back in a short minute with a rolled-up set of house plans in his hands. Spreading them out on the coffee table, he uses the small drink coasters to hold down the corners as he brings up the site and goes directly to his list of saved photos. Searching out his choice for what the new bathroom might look like with the sunken large tub and standup shower, complete with bench seat, he shows it to Leroy and points to the space on the blueprint where it would go.

"I get it."

"It'd be better if we had a printer - we could print the photos off and pin them in place - like a 2-d model." Tim says wistfully. He can almost picture the fun they'd have taking it that far.

"I can almost see it." Leroy grins as he gets a tad bit snarky.

"You're bored." Tim sympathizes.

"No." The older man chuckles. "Actually, like the way you're thinkin' on this. The more we get set in place now, the quicker we can get the house exactly the way we want it - once it gets started."

"Right." Tim answers excitedly. "Okay, so why don't we sort through the possibilities, maybe room by room? Anything you've been wanting to change in any of them?"

Settling closer to the younger man, turning his focus to the pictures he's seeing on the phone Tim holds between them, Leroy offers. "Lay your ideas out and maybe something will come to mind."

*******NCIS******

Two hours later, they've sorted through lots of ideas and have almost every expected new room planned out to the satisfaction of both. They're both feeling much better about the whole house project and are equally excited to get started once they get home. Leroy's even gone so far as to plan to call the contractors that he'd lined up before they'd left, in the morning. After, of course, he checks with their neighbor and their real estate agent. He wants to know that everything's coming together while they're here on what's supposed to be their honeymoon.

Putting all the stuff away that they've been using, their phones, the pads of paper and the pens along with the blueprints, Tim sits back into the crook of Leroy's embrace, his left hand intertwined with Leroy's right, his thumb lovingly caressing his husband's hand almost absently as he looks into the man's eyes. "Excited?" He asks almost as if he already knows the answer.

"To get home? No. To get this going when we get there - sure." Leroy admits as he kisses him on the temple and tugs him closer to him. With the blazing fire going, already warming up the room, this is nice, and cozy and he doesn't really want to move "How 'bout you? Excited to get inside next door and verify measurements so you can get shopping…see it take shape?"

"Not looking forward to seeing you get knee deep in heavy lifting work." The young man says honestly. "Shopping. For the new fixtures and shelves and stuff? Oh yeah! And I'm excited to watch it come together. Heh, no pun intended."

Leroy chuckles at the younger man's accidental joke about putting both houses together into one, happy to have the means to skirt the issue Tim's just brought up along with it. There'll be no more focus on his health if he can help it - especially while they're still down here on their honeymoon.

"With the way we're planning on framing up the connections, all the renovation will be on the outside." Tim reminds him. "No inside mess."

"Almost. With the hallways both upstairs and down, the only parts that need to be actually opened up." Leroy adds.

"So long as we're okay with the noise." Tim chuckles.

Leroy shakes his head. "No. While the actual wall tear downs are going on. Don't want you there with your asthma. Want you to stay at Penny's til the dust clears."

"Okay. I'll talk to her about camping out at her place." Tim says without hesitation. "Not that I want you around it either!"

"We'll see." Leroy hedges. "if it gets worse than I thought it would be, we can talk to her about me takin' up space there too."

"You know she won't mind!" Tim responds firmly.

"Not gonna crowd her, Tim." Leroy quietly refutes, shaking his head slightly.

"I don't want to either, Leroy. Let's just wait and see because I don't want to be sleeping alone any more than I want you to be." Tim digs his heels in, his eyes beseeching his husband to get where he's coming from on this.

"Yeah." Leroy agrees quietly, adding a tender kiss to his husband's lips to soften the discussion. "There is that."

Taking Leroy's response for what it's meant to be, a request to let it go for now, Tim kisses Leroy back, his arms going around the older man, settling even closer, nestling into the crook of the man's neck once he pulls back for air. "Mmmm."

"Not thinkin' of sleepin' here, are ya?" Leroy teases as he tickles him under his arm.

"Oomph!" Tim squirms away until he's quick to his feet, needing to get away from being tickled. "That's cheating!" He grouses without heat. He's shocked and genuinely pleased to see playful Leroy out again. But that doesn't mean he likes being tickled.

"It is?" Leroy asks calmly, his eyebrows marching north as a grin climbs into his expression.

Tim just grins, offering his husband a helping hand up from the couch before together, they make sure the house is secure, the fire in the fireplace banked and the thermostat turned up before they head to the bedroom to settle down for the night. Sliding into the bed, Leroy gathers Tim to his chest, wraps him in his arms and brings the blanket over them both.

As Tim snuggles onto the good side of his husband's chest, the younger man sighs sleepily. "Mmm. my pillow."

Leroy chuckles. "Go to sleep."

With one more whispered thought, "Love you, Leroy." Tim sighs again and lets sleep take him away.

Leroy's vision blurs as he hugs his husband closer, kisses his hair and sighs happily, securely wrapped in his arms, their legs intertwined. On a breathed out sigh of complete joy, the words from his heart softly come. "Love you too, Tim."

*****NCIS*****

Tuesday morning, Tim awakens more than ready to actually get out and do something. He knows he's the one that insisted they take it easy yesterday and he has no regrets about that whatsoever. Besides, it's not like they didn't play around in the shower while they took the plug out of him anyway. But now, he's full of energy and in need of something to do with it. Glancing at his watch, he sees that it's nearly 0800. In his peripheral vision, he also sees Leroy's phone lit up and blinking, thankfully on silent. Even on his honeymoon, he's got a message.

Hightailing it to the phone, Tim snaps it up and pockets it. He won't look through it, never has unless Leroy asks him to call someone out of his contacts for him while he's in the middle of doing something and he never will. But, he doesn't want it waking Leroy up, either. Wasting no time, he removes himself from the room, grabbing up his sweats as he moves, slipping through the doorway and pulling the door almost completely shut behind him as makes his way to the living room. He's ready for coffee but Leroy can use a little more sleep.

*******NCIS******

It's thirty minutes later and with the fire going warmly in the fireplace and a good cup of coffee in him, Tim is ready to admit that he's coddling Leroy. And maybe he's overdoing it. But, he can't help it. He wants his husband around forever, or at least, for a good long number of years to come. The man is no spring chicken and every day should be treasured as such. But, the man has always been active. He's not a couch potato by any stretch of the imagination. And Tim shouldn't be trying to tie him down as if he were.

Whether it's for his own good or not, Tim mentally berates himself. It's Leroy's choice and Tim using the fact that the older man will do anything to make Tim happy is not okay. It's time to give Leroy back his own choices. Armed with a fresh, hot, strong cup of coffee and the rough version of their calendar, he heads back to the bedroom to help the man get started on the day they didn't come here to sleep away.