MIT
Reaching over to shut off the alarm clock on her cell phone, she looked at the screen and smiled. Tim had sent her a text extra early this morning saying he didn't know how late he'd be, that they'd caught a case. He included some smiley faces and hearts and a kiss which reminded her of when they were together last time and he'd always blow her a kiss as he left, even if he'd just kissed her goodbye.
She realised it was later than she planned and quickly threw on a blouse and blazer, leaving her boxer shorts on and set her laptop on the table, in the dining room, waiting to be let in to her meeting with the senior research team. While she quickly poured herself a coffee. She heard her father pottering in the living room. "I can go for a run for an hour, or head into the yard." He offered, knowing she had an online work meeting thing on the computer this morning. He chuckled at the sight of her business attire on top and boxers shorts and bed socks on the bottom.
"You can stay, it's not top secret stuff and if it was, I guarantee you're security clearance outranks anything anyone has at Biotech." Kelly said, laughing at the matter of fact. "Besides, I just need to take notes. I don't think I'm expected to contribute." Gibbs handed her and old spiral bound notebook and pen, just as the meeting connected and made his way to the basement.
Gibbs reflected on what it had been like, having Kelly back under his roof again and smiled fondly. He always enjoys having her home. 'She might ask to get transferred to the DC office, now her and Tim are back together.' He thought selfishly. He knew he missed her while she was in New York and he knew she wasn't crazy about living there. She always complained about the traffic and the noise and how she never slept the whole night through. She complained about the subway and anything else she could think of. But she loved her job and loved the company she worked for.
On the other hand, maybe Tim might be the one to make the grand gesture this time. 'Maybe Tim might give it all up for her, this time.' He mused to himself. He wasn't naive enough to think that everything was perfect on his team. He knew that Tim was bullied and belittled, beyond the usual hazing standards by DiNozzo and he even knew that Abby liked to use and abuse his friendship with her. Both would be in for a rude awakening when her returned. He'd have to start cracking down on both of them. He hadn't known that Ziva and Tim were friends outside of work though and that they did little things like restocking each other's fridge when one went away. He didn't even know they'd exchanged keys in the case of emergencies. 'It made sense' he rationalised. 'They live in the same suburb, a couple of buildings over from each other, on the same street. They shop at the same shops and run in the same park.' He wondered if Tim would introduce Kelly to the Israeli woman or not.
"Thank you all for coming." Ducky began, he'd called a quick team meeting in autopsy. He'd just ruled the cause of death an accident on this morning's case. They're was still lots of work to do for the agents upstairs and he got a wriggle on. "You may have noticed Gibbs is off this week. His wife Rebecca, she died last week. Tomorrow evening, there is a small service for her. He asked that if you wish to attend you're welcome to. Timothy, he said to remind you, he'll see you at the house beforehand. About 4pm should be a suitable time. However, he doesn't want any visitors tonight. He and his daughter wish to be left alone. Timothy, I believe your presence is expected."
Abby's hand shot straight up in the air. "Why does he only want McGee? He doesn't even like McGee. No offence, McGee." Abby asked. Tim just raised his eyebrows at her.
"Abigail, that's not very nice." Ducky admonished.
"It's true though," DiNozzo said, backing her up.
"Anthony. He likes you all, equally." Ducky tried to explain. "Timothy and Jethro are different people, yes, but they're too sides of the same coin too."
"Look McGeek, you shouldn't be offended at this, but surely, even you know it's true." Tony justified.
"It's fine," Tim said holding up his hand to stop Tony and Abby. "Tell Gibbs, I'll be at his house by 1600. Thank you for the reminder about dinner tonight."
"He probably wants McGee to stay behind and prepare food for the wake or something." Abby sniped again. She was already angry at him today because she had called and called him yesterday, wanting him to take her to a concert last night and he'd told her no, that he'd had plans. "After all, it's not like McGee knows him like Tony and I do. We're his family."
Ziva had been watching the meeting with a great deal of interest, actually she'd been watching her friend Tim, for most of the morning now. He had met them at the navy yard and they'd headed out to the scene in the truck and he'd been in a jovial mood. He would smile a little wider than normal and he checked his phone a bit more often. She hadn't called him on it yet. As Tony and Abby had began their green-eyed monster duo act in autopsy, she'd watched Tim. "I thought you had a date tonight, anyway Tim." Ziva added as the three of them and Abby stepped into the foyer waiting for the elevator, after leaving autopsy.
"Is it that obvious?" Tim asked, winking and smiling at Ziva. Abby stood behind Tim, her mouth wide open in shock.
"Oh my god, you and Gibbs are dating?!" Abby screamed. "What?!" She began to get over-excited and jump up and down on the spot, exuberantly. "Why didn't you guys tell us?"
"I'm dating a Gibbs, but it's not Gibbs, our boss." Tim explained. "I'm not gay, Abby. You know that I'm not gay!"
"You and the boss' daughter are totally hooking up. Aww, probie. I'm so proud of you." Tony gushed, patting Tim on his back.
"We aren't hooking up, Tony." McGee explained. "It's complicated."
"Because you're hooking up." Tony reiterated.
"Wait I'm confused." Abby said, holding up her hand to halt the conversation. "Didn't you and Kelly just meet, like last week? You're dating her already? How has Gibbs not killed you yet? Oh, that's why he wants you to go over early. So he can kill you before the funeral and you won't go, coz you'll be all pissy at him."
Abby and the trio of agents boarded the elevator, stopping to drop Abby off at the sub-basement. Abby stood in the doorway of the elevator holding it open while she ranted at Tim. "Nice knowing ya, McGee. Gibbs will have you reassigned to cyber crimes by next Monday and you can kiss your career as a field agent goodbye. Dating his daughter, one sure way to make sure Gibbs hates you. Maybe Tony would be allowed and he loves Tony like a son, but you…. Ha!" She was waving her hands around like she was raving mad. The agents could tell she was verbally lashing out her anger at McGee for something, like every other time she found out Tim was interested in someone that wasn't her. "Hell, he might even be mad enough to have you transferred back to the Norfolk base. After ever I did to get you here. How stupid are you? That's pretty selfish of you, McGee. Who's going to take me to my concerts now, and don't think I'm not still mad about you not taking me last night. I'll let Gibbs deal with you, though. He's going to be so mad when I tell him. He doesn't trust people that lets me down. It's against the team rules!"
"Abby, enough!" Ziva hushed her. "I think you have said enough. We have work to do upstairs. Shall we?"
As soon as the doors closed, Tony jibed "it was nice working with ya but Abs is right." They stepped off the elevator into the bullpen. "Gibbs is going to kill you."
"Why am I killing you, McGee?" Gibbs asked, head slapping Tony.
"Because of Kelly." Tim answered. "Because we've been ..."
"Why would I kill you? You guys are a good couple. Makes me wish I had of been around to make the effort earlier on, maybe if I had, you'd be my son in law by now." Gibbs answered, smiling at him and Tony whipped his head back around so fast that Ziva was concerned. She thought Tony might have actually given himself whiplash.
"According to Abby, apparently you're going to transfer him out of here and you'd prefer if Tony was dating her, instead." Ziva explained, settling back in behind her desk. When it came to Abby, she wouldn't protect her from Gibbs. She always managed to make Tim out to be the bad guy. Not this time, not on her watch.
"What are you doing here anyway, boss?" Tony asked. "Ducky told us what's going on."
"I work here, decided to put a few hours in this morning before my Dad and Mike arrive in town later this afternoon."
"So that's why you don't want guests tonight? You've got visitors. Guess your dates cancelled, Probie."
"Why DiNozzo? Tim's always welcome in my home." Gibbs stated, seeing Tony visibly recoil. "I'll say this once, lay off McGee."
"Oh but Abby can say whatever she likes." Tony retorted, arguing like a child.
"You're behaving like a toddler, DiNozzo. Besides I'll be dealing with Abby today, too." Gibbs said, stalking off down the back elevator to see Ducky first.
Kelly was finished with her meeting. She had spoken with her boss at great length after the meeting. She couldn't believe it, her boss offered her to join the senior team on a new project. She would be the youngest research assistant to be invited on to the new team. It was a good promotion and it came with some great perks, but it meant staying in Manhattan. Being away from Tim and the new relationship they were building. She wanted to talk to Tim about it, but he was on a case. She couldn't have talked to her Dad about it either, as he took himself into work, despite being on bereavement leave. She decided to send Tim a text and ask if it was possible to meet for lunch, at the cafe, by the main gate. She immediately got a reply that it should be fine, unless they got a call out. To come into the bullpen because he wanted to introduce to their other team member Ziva.
She left her blouse and blazer on from this morning and slipped into a pair of her black pleather pants and wedges that she'd found under her bed.'They must be at least two years old' she mused as she did them up.
She took her Dad's yellow challenger and headed into the navy yard. Handing over her ID to the marines at the gate, she was instructed to park in the J parking lot. She met Keith at security who signed her in and bought her up into her bullpen where Tim was updating her father on this mornings case. He handed over the report he had in his hand and Gibbs automatically read and signed it. "Hey." He said softly to her, as she rounded the corner into their bullpen and he greeted her with a quick kiss. She smiled at her Dad widely but her eyes followed Tim as he returned back to his desk. "Ziva, this is Kelly. Kel, this is Zee." He introduced them and watched as the two women sized each other up.
"It's lovely to meet you." Kelly said to the female agent, offering a handshake to her. "Tim has told me so much about you. I hope you enjoyed your trip."
"Oh Kelly, you must be Gibbs' Kelly. It's a pleasure. Can't say I've heard much about you." Ziva told her, shaking her hand. "Then again, it's been a very busy morning. We haven't had a chance to catch up."
"I'll just grab my gear and we can go to lunch." Tim said to Kelly as he opened his locked drawer, put the ammo cartridge in his sig and holstered it, before shouldering his go bag.
Kelly stood there, watching Tim carefully. She'd watched her father gear up a thousand or so times over the years and never thought anything of it. To see Tim do it, made her tingle a little and she bit her bottom lip, enjoying the visual delight. "I'll be back in an hour." Tim said as he ushered her away from the bullpen to the elevator.
Tim put his arm around her back and the two of them began an animated, but soft conversation. Ziva couldn't exactly decipher about what exactly. Whatever it was must have been funny because they were both laughing. She had never seen her friend laugh like that before and it warmed her heart to see him so relaxed and carefree with her. "They are cute together, are they not?" She asked the remaining two members of her team. "He is very happy, I have never seen him laugh like that before." She mused.
"He's good for her too." Gibbs added.
"Your daughter is very nice too, Gibbs. I like her." Ziva decided.
Tony just sat there in complete shock, sure he'd heard Gibbs say he didn't mind that Probie was dating his daughter, but to see Gibbs not even raise an eyebrow actually shocked him even more. "She didn't even say hi." Tony said, pouting and Gibbs laughed at his juvenile reaction.
"Well yeah, they're stuck on stupid around each other." Gibbs explained. "I'm her father and she didn't say hello to me either, don't take it personally. Hell, Saturday night, Tim dropped her off after their date and her head was so high in the clouds she didn't even notice Fornell sitting on the sofa, saying hello to her. She's known the man since she was ten years old." Tony raised his eyebrows at that new information. He didn't know whether to be proud and slightly impressed by his probie or concerned that Gibbs wasn't concerned by that.
"Gotta go see Abs, before I head out. If you two want to take lunch now too, I'll stay aboard until you guys get back." Gibbs ordered.
Gibbs made his way back down the back elevators this time to Abby's lab. "Oh Gibbs!" Abby exclaimed, throwing herself into Gibbs' arms, hugging hun extra tightly. Gibbs had to physically remove her from his body.
"Abby." Gibbs greeted her sternly, "I heard about what you said to Tim. Why would you lie like that?" He asked her directly.
"It's true, you don't really like him." Abby argued. "He didn't even take me to my concert last night. He said no. I missed the Death Metal Trolls farewell concert because he said no and wouldn't take me."
"Listen to yourself, Abby. He isn't your beck and call boy. He's a member of our team and has every right to say no to something he didn't want to do." Gibbs argued back.
"That's just it, Gibbs. He always comes with me, but when I told him you were going to fire him. He didn't even care." Abby argued vehemently.
"Are you listening to yourself? You're out of control, Abs." Gibbs said firmly, looking her in the eye. "You can't use me to punish Tim because he exercised his right to say no to you."
"He said he had a date, too. Actually, at first I thought he was dating you. But he said he was dating Kelly. But that can't be right. You wouldn't let anyone date your daughter, except maybe Tony. After all, he is like a son to you." Gibbs was flabbergasted, he didn't know what had come over Abby.
"First off, Kelly is an adult and can make her own decisions about who she dates, she doesn't need me to approve of them. Secondly, Tony really? He's a great guy and all but he jumps from one woman to the next, sometimes even juggles them. I don't want that for Kelly. Thirdly, I don't favour one of you, above the others. You, Tony, Ziva and Tim are all equal. None of you are my children. Kelly is my only child. You're all my colleagues, Tony, Tim and Ziva are my subordinates. Yes, I count each of you as my friend's and I'm blessed to have you all in my life. Fourth and finally, you can't just threaten to have a colleague transferred or reassigned because they couldn't take you somewhere, nor can you threaten that I'll "kill them". Abby, I want you to get some help reining yourself in." Gibbs begged her. He was becoming really concerned for her mental health.
"But Gibbs …" she whined.
"No Abigail!" Gibbs exclaimed, cutting her off. "I don't want to have to go to the Director, but I will if I have to. I'm concerned about you."
"Ok," Abby conceded. She had a new plan of attack and she just needed to bide her time.
"Don't make a scene at Rebecca's funeral when you see Tim sitting with Kelly and not the NCIS people, either." Gibbs added, almost reading her mind.
"Gibbs, they've been together for two seconds and all of a sudden he's like family."
"Abs, I'm done. Straighten up, or I'll be filing a formal complaint with the Director - who is your immediate supervisor, by the way. You can't treat people that way."
"What did you want to discuss away from prying ears?" Tim asked Kell as they waited for their food to arrive, having already ordered.
"It's complicated, but it's a job offer." Kelly said excitedly.
"That's great, Kell." Tim enthused.
"It's in Manhattan. Senior Research Assistant, it's for a brand new team." Kelly gushed and Tim's heart sank. He had a feeling in his gut and he didn't like it.
"Ok, so you'd be living and working in Manhattan and I'd be living in Maryland and working in DC?" Tim asked, unsure if she was breaking up with him, wanting the long distance relationship.
"That's right, you can come to me one weekend and I'll come the next." She proposed.
"Kelly, I work two weekends a month and have a weekend on-call where I can't be more than an hour away from the navy yard." He explained his work dilemma. "Unless I'm on leave, being part of the MCRT means I may have to drop everything and come into work. Even if I'm not in call."
"I didn't know that." Kelly said in a small voice. "I just thought it was the name of your team."
"Can we talk about this after work tonight?" Tim asked, suddenly not hungry. "I need to get back to the office."
"Sure." She answered. Tim dropped enough money for the meal and tip before heading back to the office without eating.
Kelly didn't come back up into the bullpen after lunch. Tim returned and was silent. He didn't say anything to anyone. Gibbs was surprised when Tim had returned, he'd only been gone thirty minutes and the happy carefree man who left was not the one who came back. He started working feverishly on his computer and re-angled his monitors so no one could see exactly what he was doing without leaving their desk. First he searched for all job vacancies within fifty miles of Manhattan. As he thought, the closest location was Rhode Island. And that was still a three hour drive one way. Next he search the DoD vacancies. But he came up short. Everything he was vastly overqualified with only entry level positions available. He then thought he should reach out, he had two options. Ask Fornell for a recommendation for a FBI job in Manhattan or contact agent Abigail Borin and ask the same at CGIS. Neither one really appealed to him and he sighed out loud, he locked his computer and headed to the break room for another cup of coffee.
Gibbs had been watching Tim since he returned and when he re-angled his screens and started secretly searching something, his gut pinged. He knew Kelly had a meeting with her boss this morning. 'What if she asked Tim to move to Manhattan with her? Was that why he was being so secretive?' He thought. 'Unless she didn't ask and he is going to make the big gesture and move there for her.' He followed Tim into the break room and stood by the door. Tim was standing by the window overlooking the water and staring at USS Barry, in his own little world. "Tim?" He asked softly, as he approached him. "Are you ok?" He asked. He could see the sadness dwelling in them.
"Fine," he choked out. "I'm actually not feeling well. I'm going to head home." He lied, needing to get away.
Gibbs saw straight through Tim's lie, both he and Tim knew it. "Ok, grab your gear and head home." He told his agent. Normally he wouldn't give in, but whatever had happened, had Tim distressed and he knew Tim would be a liability in the field if he was like that. "If you're feeling up to dinner later, the offer is still there."
"Thanks Gibbs." He whispered, looking at his boss. "Thanks for everything." Tim said with finality and Gibbs gut pinged. He didn't know if Tim meant for today or for every day since they met and everything Gibbs had ever done for him.
Tony and Ziva returned to the bullpen and Gibbs explained that Tim had come back from lunch early looking and feeling really unwell and he'd sent the youngest agent home. Tony went to make a smart-ass comment and thought better of it at the look on his boss' face. Ziva was worried for her dear
friend. She hoped that Tim and his girlfriend hadn't fought. Or worse, that Abby and Tony really had gotten to him with their nasty green-eyed monster comments from this morning. She made herself a silent promise that she'd check on the young man, her friend that was like a little brother to her and when he hurt, she hurt too.
Gibbs left the navy yard not long after Tim had gone home, he went to the airport to meet Jackson's flight. His father greeted him with a hug. He hadn't hugged his father since Shannon died. "I'm sorry, son." He had been told by his father. Things had been strained between Jackson and Jethro since Shannon's funeral when Mrs Hennessy had suggested she escort him to his daughter in law's funeral and Jethro took offence to Jackson bringing 'a date'. But they'd remained cordial for Kelly's sake. So that she could continue the strong relationship she shared with her Grandpa Jack. "I liked this one." Jackson told him when they were nearly at his house.
"Everything wasn't perfect." Jethro had told him, truthfully. "But we were getting there. We were working on it."
"No relationship is perfect. Do I really need to remind you of that? In the end though, you forget about the bad times and focus on the good." Jackson advised him, as they pulled up in the driveway of his house.
"Speaking of relationships," Gibbs pointed to the Porsche Boxster in the driveway, right next to the yellow charger. "I think we're about to walk into round two of the lover's quarrel. That's Kelly's boyfriends car."
"Nice car," Jackson admired the car as he son grabbed his bag. "Wait boyfriend?!"
"Yeah, she reunited with the boyfriend from MIT." Gibbs explained with a smile.
"Tim, nice boy. He was the most polite young man I've ever met." Jackson said and Gibbs raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I never met him face to face, I spoke to him on the phone once, when I called her." He explained. "What's he do, to afford a car like that?"
"Works for me, he's an agent." Jethro answered and Jackson was definitely surprised.
"What's so wrong with the FBI?" Kelly asked Tim, just as Gibbs and Jackson walked in. "Are you too good for them or something?" Tim looked up to see his boss come in the door. "There's … Dad, Grandpa. You're here." Kelly declared. "Grandpa, this is Tim."
"Nice to see you again, Mr Gibbs." Tim said shaking his hand.
"Tim, I told you to call me Jackson or Jack." He admonished. "Leroy, your agent Tim is Kelly's MIT Tim? Such a small world."
Gibbs wisely ushered his father through to the kitchen, for a hot cup of coffee. "That was tense." Jackson announced as they settled at the table.
"Don't get involved, Dad." Gibbs warned his father. "I'm not even sure what the argument is about."
A door slammed upstairs and shocked the two Gibbs men out of their reverie. They were enjoying a silence together before the sound of the door slamming shattered it. "Ah Boss, thank you for the offer to stay fro dinner. But I'm going to head out." Tim said softly from the doorway. "If it's just the same, I don't think I should come tomorrow. Please call me if I can help or if you need to talk. I'm still your friend."
"Tim?" Gibbs asked, getting to his feet and following the young man to the door. He'd seen the tears that had been forming in his eyes and streaks that had been on his face from where they'd already fallen.
"I'm fine." Tim answered softly. "It's ok."
"Tim stop, please. You're my friend too." He pulled on Tim's arm and turned him around. "I'm not going to get involved in your relationship but you're upset. Talk to me, please."
"Thank you for everything. Everything you've taught me and all the times you've had my six, Gibbs. It's meant a lot to me." Tim said with that finality he had heard earlier in the break room.
"Gibbs?" Fornell called out from the doorway of his basement. "You in?"
"Tobias? What's up?" Gibbs asked. To Tobias, Gibbs seemed genuinely surprised to see his friend. Kelly hadn't come down for dinner and was still upstairs and his father was reading in his designated guest room on the ground floor.
"I received a strange call this evening. At home, on my unlisted number. One of your agents is looking for a job."
"Tim." Gibbs resigned sadly. "Kelly and Tim had an argument of sorts today, not really sure about what. But when he left here, it sounded like he was saying goodbye to the agency, not goodbye to me, as in I'll see you soon."
"In New York City." Gibbs eyebrows disappeared into his hairline in surprise at that. "Manhattan, specifically."
"Huh?" Gibbs asked confused. 'I thought Tim wanted to leave to avoid seeing me after Kelly and he broke up.'
"Seems your boy's going to make the grand gesture." Fornell deduced. "Sorry to dump this on you the night before the funeral. But I know how you feel about those on your team."
"What … what did you tell him?" Gibbs asked, he took a seat in the barstool. He felt numb. He thought he might be in shock too.
"Told him I'd look into it and call him back on Friday. Figured that'd give him time to really think about it. He seemed pretty worked up about it, still. If he was DiNozzo or David, I'd have said he'd been distraught. But McGee is pretty even keeled, he keeps his emotions in check more. It's harder to tell with him." Gibbs nodded in thanks and Fornell took his leave.
Gibbs couldn't focus on the task at hand. It was still four hours before Mike was due to arrive, so he wasn't in the mood to talk. He'd gone upstairs to check on Kelly, but he found her asleep in her bed and he let her be. He went downstairs to tell his father where he was going, but saw he was asleep too.
He made his way into the semi dark bullpen. Balboa's team were working away quietly at their desks and his bullpen was empty. Empty save for a cup on McGee's desk. He touched the coffee cup and it was warm. 'Tim's here, in the building.' He thought. He sat down at his desk and noted that there was a piece of paper, facedown on his usually clean desk. He turned it over and scanned the document. His heart sank. In his hand, he Tim's resignation letter.