"Boss?"

Gibbs looked up from his report and across the Bull Pen to Tim's desk and raised an answering brow.

"Yeah, McGee?"

The kid worried his lip and squirmed in his seat at the same time. Gibbs felt the all too familiar pang of guilt assail him at the pained expression on the boy's face. He'd had no choice but to put his belt to good use across Tim's behind not less than an hour ago and it was clear the effects were still being keenly felt. The tottering pile of case files on the left-hand side of McGee's desk were an additional punitive measure he had loathed taking but, he reasoned, one cannot let one's charges rig computers so that they emit stink bombs right in the face of their teammates without repercussions. The smell of rotten eggs was still faintly tinged with the stale office air around them, intensifying sharply around Tony's desk. The Bull Pen was bathed in sunset light and was empty save for Gibbs and his chagrined protégé.

"I'm sorry for what I did to Tony…"

Gibbs' brow furrowed in confusion. McGee had already apologised profusely to Tony, in direction contravention of the relevant rule, and Tony had accepted… albeit with an encouraging slap upside the head. The sadness in McGee's voice however belied that any such apology had already been given.

"I know that, McGee," he said quietly. "You've already apologised to Tony. You don't have to apologise again."

Tim looked at him with an odd, indecipherable expression.

"But I haven't apologised to you… for doing that to Tony."

Gibbs blinked dumbly.

"Why would you have to apologise to me, McGee? You didn't put a…. doodah on my computer."

He glanced down at the machine.

"Right?"

Tim chuckled deeply before the pleasant sound was abruptly choked off.

"Of course not!"

Gibbs smiled his rare, crooked smile and shrugged his shoulders. An instinctual get back to work order was on the tip of his tongue before something in Tim's eyes made him swallow it. There was something eating the kid, something more than a tanned behind and laborious case review. Putting his pen down meaningfully, he leaned back in his chair and eyed his youngest boy with a pointed brow.

"Ok, Tim, out with it. What's the problem? What's got you looking so worked up?"

The boy genius stared at his nails for a moment longer than was safe around Gibbs before clearing his throat and shaking his head with a mumbled nothing, Boss. Grabbing a file from the unsteadily pile beside him, he flipped it open and clicked his pen into action. His eyes didn't leave the yellowed pages for even a moment and Gibbs had been married enough times to know when he was being dutifully ignored. Sighing, he scrubbed a hand across his tired eyes and realised that a Team Lead's work was never done. He heaved himself to his feet. Crossing over to McGee's desk, he perched on the side not covered in file piles and looked pointedly down on his youngest boy's head.

"Eyes up, Tim. Only my second ex-wife gets to ignore me when I'm in this kind of proximity."

With a small groan, the boy did as he was bid and met the piercing blue eyes in front of him. Agent in Charge and JFA stared at each other for longer than could be considered normal before Gibbs reached out and very lightly slapped Tim upside the head.

"Earth to Tim. What's going on with you?"

The MIT grad shook his head as if trying desperately to retain whatever lurked within.

Gibbs sighed.

"Tim. That question wasn't an optional one. Something is clearly bugging you and it's more than a sore behind. So, out with it. Don't make me get Abby back here to get it out of you because if I have to wrestle a late night Caf-Pow from her vice grip I'm gonna blame you and you're not gonna like it."

Tim looked up at him with a small smile.

"Even you aren't brave enough to take her Caf-Pow by force, Boss."

Gibbs grinned.

"True. But she doesn't know that."

Tim returned the smile half-heartedly before dropping his gaze back to the file in front of him. Snorting, Gibbs reached out and flipped it shut with one hand before tossing it back on the pile from whence it came. He moved further into Tim's line of sight and folded his arms sternly across his chest, fixing the boy with one of his firmer stares.

"Last chance, Tim, or so help me I will hang you upside down and shake it out of you."

Knowing when he was beat, McGee laid back in his chair and felt his shoulders droop slightly. Speaking to the desk, and only the desk, he licked his dry lips and resolved to get it over and done with. He took serious solace in the fact there was no one else in the Bull Pen to witness his pathetic soul spilling exercise.

"Tony pranked me before I pranked him."

Gibbs, with great difficulty, refrained from rolling his eyes.

"I know that, Tim."

A sudden change came over the kid at his words. The drooped shoulders morphed into stiff shoulders, taut with poorly concealed anger.

"I know you know that. I also know that you didn't… uhh… you didn't take him to the Conference Room for gluing my hands to my keyboard but you had no trouble taking me for doing those modifications on his computer. I know I shouldn't have done what I did and I know I deserved to be tanned for it… but so did he! But, of course, perfect Tony never has to be held accountable for his actions because he's Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo… and your favourite."

His heated outburst ended as soon as it had begun but Gibbs processed it easily enough. He had heard a dangerously similar song from Tony. His lips twitched at the similarities between his wildly dissimilar boys. Sibling rivalry was alive and well in the MCRT and he knew no matter what he did, it always would be.

"You think I didn't punish Tony for his part in this fiasco?"

Tim nodded vigorously.

"That's what he said. He said you let him off with a warning and that… that…"

Horror splashed across the boy's face as he realised, belatedly, that he'd been played. The prank war may be at an end but Tony had gotten the last laugh. Groaning, he pushed his fringe from his eyes and glanced awkwardly up at a slightly bemused looking Gibbs.

"You… you did take him to the Conference Room, didn't you?"

The silvery head nodded slowly before speaking in a soft tone that made McGee shiver.

"Bingo…"

Tim felt his dignity flood from his body.

"Oh."

Gibbs stared.

"Oh indeed."

Silence pressed between the two for longer than could be considered kind before the Team Lead stood slowly up. He crooked his finger in a come-hither motion at a resigned looking McGee who, to his credit, didn't delay in heaving himself up from his desk. Anticipating the mother of all head slaps, he gritted his teeth and crossed the distance between he and his Boss. Gibbs considered him briefly, before tilting his head in question.

"Want me to let you in on a little secret, McGee?"

Tim, despite himself, felt his head bob up and down.

"Sure," he said cautiously.

"I do have a favourite," Gibbs replied quietly. "Your accusation isn't entirely without merit, impertinent though it may be, because I do have a favourite. Care to make a wild, spontaneous and outside-the-box guess as to who that favourite is?"

Tim scowled, a sullen look marring his handsome features.

"Tony, of course."

Gibbs shook his head.

"Nope, not Tony."

Tim stared for a moment before shrugging mutinously.

"Abby, then."

Gibbs shook his head again, causing a ripple of genuine confusion to cross across the kid's face. He let that ripple morph into a rip tide before taking pity on the boy. Leaning into his personal space, with his arms folded across his chest, he finally exploded.

"My favourite is whichever one of you four headaches gives me the least need for a fistful of Tylenol on a daily basis. That's who my favourite is, McGee. Some days its you, some days its Tony. Some days its Ziva, some day's its Abbs…ok, a lot of days its Abbs but I do not have a permanent favourite and its high time all four of you got that through your heads!"

Tim blinked before a slow, shy smile crossed his face.

"Some days its me?"

Gibbs stared before throwing his hands and eyes up to heaven in defeat.

"Yeah, Tim, some days its you."

The grin that pulled the corners of McGee's mouth upwards was short lived as Gibbs suddenly placed a hand on his upper arm and turned him to the side. Grabbing a heavy wooden ruler from Tim's desk, he expertly applied it across the seat of Tim's slacks ten times, to the backtrack of yelps and yips, before dropping it back on the desktop and releasing the kid.

"Don't you ever question my ability to fairly discipline Tony again, McGee. Understood?"

Wincing as the pain danced across his backside, Tim nodded contritely.

"Yes, Boss. That's my bad."

Reaching out, Gibbs carded a hand through the tousled hair in acceptance of the implied apology before feeling a wave of tiredness wash over him.

"C'mon, Tim. Let's grab something to eat and call it a day. I'm beat."

McGee glanced at the unfinished tower of files on his desk questioningly.

"Don't I have to finish these?"

Throwing the kid's jacket at him, Gibbs nodded sternly as he propelled the boy genius from the Bull Pen.

"Sure you do… just not tonight. You and Tony are gonna have some special bonding time over the weekend where both of you will work on your file stacks."

Tim meowled in indignation.

"Boss, c'mon… OW!... jeez ok, ok… bonding time… I got it!"

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Random drabble x

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