Chapter 9

Tony woke up first and saw that Tim and Tommy were still sleeping. Tim was actually not snoring.

It figures. When it might disturb his son, Tim makes no sound. I'll bet he snores tonight.

Oh, well. If he was honest, Tony was ready to drop Tommy off at his grandparents and get going with Tim. Tommy was fun, but it did limit what they could do. He and Tim were both willing to drive until they dropped if necessary and they could see things without worrying about whether or not Tommy would enjoy it...or whether or not he'd hurt himself. All in all, it had been fun up to this point, but it would be a different kind of fun for the next few days.

Right now, he was ready to be on their way, but while he wouldn't hesitate to smack Tim with a pillow, he didn't want to do that and scare Tommy.

Tomorrow morning.

Instead, he got ready and packed up his stuff while he waited. Then, he crept over to Tim's bed and nudged him.

"Tim, you're sleeping the day away."

Tim's eyes opened lazily.

"Huh?"

"It's getting close to seven. Let's get a move on."

"Seven?"

"Yeah, and we're burning daylight."

Tim yawned and sat up, looking around blearily.

"Okay," he said, yawning again.

He got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. The door closed. Then, it opened again and Tim came back out, walked to his bag, grabbed some clothes and then went back into the bathroom.

Tony just watched without comment, silently amused. Then, he looked at Tommy and smiled a little sadly. It was too bad that they couldn't have brought Daniel along.

Some day, he thought to himself. This will happen.

Tim came out a few minutes later, looking much more alert.

"Sleep well?" Tony asked.

Tim grinned. "A full night of sleep still isn't the norm, although it's better than last time."

"Ready to drop Tommy off?"

"Yes. I hope Tommy is."

Then, Tim walked over to the bed and sat down by Tommy.

"Time to wake up, Tommy," Tim said, shaking his son gently.

Tommy didn't respond at first, but then, he opened his eyes and sat up.

"Good morning," Tim said. "Are you ready to get up?"

Tommy nodded, getting more alert.

"Then, go potty and then you can pick out your clothes for today."

Tommy went into the bathroom looking more alert than Tim had but not really saying anything yet.

"Not a morning person?" Tony asked.

"Normally, he is, but he's been doing a lot more and staying up later. I think Delilah's idea of breaking up the trip for him by having him visit her parents was a great way to make sure he doesn't get overwhelmed."

After a few minutes, Tim looked at his watch and then walked over and knocked on the door.

"Tommy, what are you doing in there?"

"I'm waking up, Daddy!" Tommy shouted, sounding much more alert.

"You don't need to be in the bathroom for that. Come on out."

Silence.

"Uh-oh," Tony said. "Even I know that silence is not a good thing where kids are concerned,"

Tim grimaced.

"Tommy, what are you doing in there?" Tim asked.

Silence.

"Don't make me start to count, Tommy."

The door opened, revealing a guilty-looking five-year-old.

"Tommy?" Tim asked.

Then, he looked past Tommy into the bathroom and groaned.

"Tommy!"

Tony walked over to look, and it took all his strength not to start laughing. Tommy had taken the soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion and used them as paint...and the mirror as his canvas.

"I wanted to draw like we did at school! On the mirror!"

Tony could tell that Tim was trying not to laugh...or else he was deciding how mad he should be at the mess Tommy had made.

"Tommy, this isn't at school and you don't draw on the mirror unless you have permission," Tim said. "Now, we have to clean it up before we go to breakfast."

"But don't people clean the rooms?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, but we don't need to give them extra work. They have to clean a lot of rooms and they have to do it fast. This will just make it harder for them. I'll start wiping down the mirror. You clean up the sink."

"Hey, Tim. I'll get the mirror while you get your stuff together," Tony said. "I'm already packed."

"You sure, Tony?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry about it. I'd take Tommy's place, but it's his mess," Tony said.

Tommy chanced a smile at Tony who winked and smiled back. Then, he looked over at Tim who had muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Yeah...supposed to clean up your own mess," Tim said softly and then went back to the room.

Tony looked after him for a moment. Gibbs wasn't quite off-limits at this point, but every time he came up, even obliquely, like now, Tim was still affected by the memory. Maybe that was just something that would always be the case, but Tony didn't like seeing it.

"Okay, Tommy," he said, focusing on the task at hand. "Let's see how fast we can get this cleaned up. Both of us."

Tommy nodded and started wiping at the sink. Tony began wiping down the mirror. He didn't worry too much about getting everything off, but he did agree with Tim that there was no reason to make the people who cleaned the rooms work harder than they would generally.

Together, it didn't take long to clean up Tommy's mess and Tony shooed Tommy back out to get his clothes on. Tim was sitting there, a little more quiet than usual, but he smiled at Tommy.

"Are you mad at me, Daddy?" Tommy asked.

"No, Tommy, I'm not, but do you understand that you shouldn't have done that?"

Tommy nodded.

"Good. Then, get your clothes and get dressed so we can eat breakfast. I'm hungry," Tim said.

Tommy grinned, all worry gone and he quickly grabbed one of the tourist t-shirts they'd purchased and put it on.

"Okay, make sure you have all your stuff, Tommy," Tim said.

As Tommy began to search around the room, Tony walked over to Tim.

"You okay?" he asked in a low voice.

"I'm fine," Tim said, although his expression said that he knew exactly why Tony was asking.

Tony wanted to push, but remembering Tim's reaction the day before, he refrained.

Besides, Tommy suddenly declared that everything was ready for them to go. So they went down to the continental breakfast and Tony watched as Tim helped Tommy run the waffle iron and then got his own breakfast. Yes, they could wait until they got to the Fieldings' home, since they weren't really very far away, but since breakfast was included, it seemed silly not to take advantage.

After they all finished, it was back into the car for a short drive to Delilah's parents' home. Thankfully, it wasn't actually in Boston. It was outside the city and so they could miss out on driving in that traffic. Tim drove since he knew how to get there and Tony had no problem with that. His only thought was how long they'd have to stay before Tim was ready to leave Tommy with his grandparents.

He suspected Tommy would be ready before Tim was.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

They pulled up to the Fieldings' house and Tim took a deep breath. Even now, he still worried about what Delilah's parents really thought of him, if they looked on his psychological problems as an indication that he wasn't worthy of their daughter. They'd never even implied that was the case, but it didn't stop Tim from worrying, and since he knew it wasn't a rational fear, he didn't tell anyone about it.

"Okay, Tommy! Here we are!"

Tommy sat up excitedly. Tim knew he was almost as excited to spend time with his doting grandparents as he was to go on the road trip.

They all got out of the car and Tommy ran ahead to the front door.

"Gamma! Gampa!" he shouted.

For some reason, Tommy had never learned to add in the 'r' in those two words. And it wasn't that he couldn't pronounce the letter generally. He didn't make that error in any other word. Just these two.

The door opened and Virginia was there holding out her arms, ready to grab Tommy and swing him up into a hug.

"Hello, Tommy! We've been waiting for you to get here!"

"Gamma!"

"Have you had fun?"

"Yes! We saw a bell and fish and went inside a statue and played on the beach and rode in the car and saw lots of blue cars!"

Tommy started talking about everything they'd seen and done with equal excitement. He ran over to his grandfather and hugged him tightly, still talking.

After about five minutes, Tommy began to run out of things that were amazing and fun and cool to talk about. Virginia took the opening.

"Okay, Tommy. Do you want to see where you'll be sleeping while you're here?"

"Yeah!" Tommy said, excited again.

Virginia held out her hand and Tommy took it, skipping as he went with her to the spare room.

"So, anything to add, Tim?" Michael asked, grinning.

"I don't know how I could possibly do better than Tommy," Tim said. "He covered pretty much everything."

"More than once," Tony added.

Michael chuckled. "I don't know how you manage it, Tim, but you seem to never lose your balance when it comes to dealing with Tommy. I think we'll be happy to hand him back to you in a few days, although my wife would never admit it."

Tim smiled, albeit a bit ruefully. He never thought he was that good at pretending to have everything under control, but he'd fooled his father-in-law apparently.

"Well, in some ways, he's just like I was as a kid. I know how to deal with myself."

"So where is it that you're headed from here?"

"Up to Acadia National Park in Maine," Tony said. "That's our final destination, but we'll meander a bit getting up there and then we'll come back on the interstate to save time."

"Oh, I haven't been up there in years," Michael said, leaning back on the couch. "Virginia and I went up there after we got married. It wasn't our honeymoon, just one of the first trips we took. It's gorgeous up there. It was after I got laid off. Probably not the best time to go traveling, but we did it anyway, just took whatever road was going north and didn't have a toll."

Virginia came in while he was reminiscing.

"Maybe we'll have to go back up there for our anniversary," she said.

"Sounds like a great idea. What's Tommy doing?"

"Organizing the toys."

"Maybe Delilah and I should send the drum set Tony inflicted on us up here," Tim said, grinning at Tony.

"Oh, no. He has plenty of noisy toys here. We don't need the drum, too," Virginia said, laughing.

"It was worth a try."

"Just accept that Tommy is a musician," Tony said.

"Except that the drum doesn't show us that. It shows us that he can make noise."

"So how long are you going to stay before you get going? If you're headed all the way up to Maine, you have a lot of ground to cover," Virginia said.

"We're leaving as soon as I can get Tim to go," Tony said.

"Well, Tim, if you'll allow for a little in-law meddling, I think you should go sooner rather than later. Tommy knows the plan already. You've probably explained it to him more than once, and he's having fun right now. So tell him that you're going and we'll get him having some excitement to help him adjust to being here for the first time."

Tim knew that Virginia was probably right. It was just that it was his first time leaving Tommy somewhere besides home, and even if it was his grandparents, it was still someone who wasn't himself or Delilah. Yes, they'd left Tommy with a babysitter before, but never for multiple days or even overnight.

Tony punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Come on, Tim. We need to get up there soon enough to go whale watching."

"That'll be on a boat, you know," Michael said. "Can you handle that, Tim?"

"I'll take some dramamine. It'll be fine," Tim said. Then, before there could be any more discussion about what he could or could not handle, he made a decision. "I'll go and tell Tommy we're going."

Tim got to his feet and walked into the room that Tommy would be sleeping in.

"Okay, Tommy. Tony and I are going. So you have a fun time with Grandma and Grandpa, okay?"

Tommy looked up from the toys, seeming a little flummoxed.

"You're going?"

"Yeah. Remember? Tony and I are going to drive further up north and we'll come and get you in a couple of days. You'll be staying with Grandma and Grandpa Fielding while we're gone." Tim leaned close to him. "And I'll bet you could get them to take you to get ice cream."

Tommy's eyes lit up.

"Right now?"

"Well, probably not right now, but I'll bet they will today or maybe tomorrow."

Tommy clapped excitedly.

"So we're going to leave. Do you want to come and say bye to Tony?"

"Yes."

Tommy went out and hugged Tony good-bye. Tim hugged and kissed him and then, they left the house. Tommy was yelling bye behind them. Tim was glad that he'd managed to make it into something fun rather than something to worry about.

Because he was a little worried about it.

But he didn't want anyone to know it.

As they walked out to the car, Tony put his arm around Tim's shoulders.

"You going to make it, Daddy?"

Tim grimaced and shoved Tony's arm off him.

"Oh, come on, Tony. It's a couple of days."

"Yeah, and every time you've been away from Tommy for more than a day, you've missed him."

"He's my son. Of course, I have!" Tim said.

Tony actually looked surprised. "Hey, I wasn't criticizing, Tim."

Another grimace at his overreaction.

"Sorry."

"Let's just go before we embarrass ourselves."

"You mean me."

"No, I mean both of us. I'll drive and you navigate us over to Highway 1A or 1, whichever."

"How far do you think we'll get today?" Tim asked.

Tony smiled. "As far as we can. We'll see what we can see."

Tim smiled, too. His worry fading as the second leg of the road trip was beginning.

"Sounds good. Head north on I-95."

"On it."