Yay another chapter. Please review it makes me happy.
2 months, 17 days, 22 hours, 24 minutes
Tim and Edith had finished eating almost 2 hours ago but still they sat in the back of the café talking and getting to know each other. Aaron had gotten sick of them asking for more wine and had left them a full bottle.
"So how long you been living here?" Edith asked, her speech slurring slightly.
"Two weeks," he responded.
"Two weeks?" she exclaimed.
"What?" Tim asked with a laugh.
"You seem like you've been in the city for a while that's all," Edith said.
"Well I've visited a few times so I know my way around," Tim seemed to brag causing Edith to start giggling.
"What about you?"
"A year, I got a teaching offer at NYU, teaching psychology," she explained.
"Ah, so that's how you knew I was feeling like crap," Tim said as he sat back in his chair.
"You were?" Edith said with a smile "But not anymore?"
"Your therapy session has helped me greatly," he replied.
"Well I'm glad, you can write me a check now," she said with a teasing grin.
"How about I pay for dinner and all this wine we're drinking," Tim offered.
"Deal," she said. "So what is your profession?"
"I'm a fe…" Tim started to say before correcting himself. "I'm a writer."
"A starving artist then," she said before sipping on her wine.
"Not really starving, but I am an artiste," Tim said jokingly.
Edith sat her glass down and leaned forward a bit, resting her forearms on the table. "So what do you write about?" she asked with earnest interest.
"Mystery novels, but I'm working on something new right now," he explained.
"Wanna tell me what?" Edith asked.
"Nope, it's a secret," he said and she pouted a bit.
"That's not fair," she complained.
Tim shrugged "Sorry but this I keep with me."
"Oh alright," she said with an over dramatic sigh. "So are you going to tell me what was going to come out of your mouth before you backed up and said you were a writer?"
"It's amazing how you can be drunk and still so observant," Tim remarked.
"I am not drunk," she said defensively.
"Oh yes you are," Tim replied with a chuckle.
"Don't change the subject you," she said before picking up her wine glass once more.
"Yes ma'am," he said giving her a half-assed salute that would have earned him a slap upside the head if Gibbs was around.
Edith almost choked on the wine as she began to laugh. "You're trying to kill me."
"I would do no such thing," he said with a small smile.
Edith's laughter subsided and she looked at him expectantly and he sighed, knowing she wouldn't let him get away with not answering.
"I was going to say that I'm a federal agent but as of the moment it isn't true," Tim explained.
"What happened, did you get fired?" she asked.
"I quit," he said simply.
"Why?"
Tim sighed "It's a long complicated story and I am not nearly drunk enough to talk about it right now," he said before downing the rest of the wine in his glass.
"Maybe later then," Edith said. "So were you in the FBI?"
Tim couldn't help but start laughing. "What?" Edith asked, wondering what was so funny.
"I wouldn't work for the FBI for all the money in the world," Tim said still laughing. "Hell I don't think Fornell would take me after all the trouble we caused him."
"Well then what, Mr. Secret Agent Man?" she asked.
"NCIS," Tim said and before Edith could ask he answered. "It stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Services, NCIS for short."
"So you're a Navy cop," Edith said hoping she had understood correctly.
"Was a Navy cop," Tim said bitterly.
Edith could tell the topic of conversation was turning sour fast so she decided to drop the subject of NCIS for the moment.
"Come on," she said as she stood up.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"Outside for some air, we've been cooped up in here for long enough don't you think."
Tim got in line to pay for their dinner while Edith went outside to wait for him. "Having fun?" Aaron asked with a smile as Tim got to the register.
"Yea," Tim said.
"She's a great friend, but if anything happens to her, I'll kill you," Aaron said darkly. Tim felt as if he was being threatened by an over protective father but he had given more than one of Sarah's boyfriend's the same talk so he could understand.
"Nothing will happen to her I promise," Tim said and Aaron nodded his head, confident that his point had been made.
"Ok, you kids have fun," Aaron replied with a smile as he handed Tim his change and receipt.
Edith was leaning against the brick wall next to the door smoking a cigarette. "Hey," he said.
"Hey," she replied with a grin. "Want a cigarette?"
He thought about telling her no, he had stopped smoking after he had gotten out of college. "Sure," he said, figuring it wouldn't hurt as much as all the drinking he had been doing as of late. Edith handed him the pack and lighter and he took out a cigarette and lit the end as he watched her walk away, towards his apartment. Unconsciously he stuck the pack and lighter into his jeans pocket and hurried to catch up with her.
The smoke wasn't as hard on his lungs as he thought it would be after all the time he had gone without their comfort. "You're friend Aaron is a little over protective, is he some crazy ex-boyfriend that I should watch out for?"
Edith laughed "No not Aaron, he's gay, we've been friends almost since the day I got here, why did he give you the, if you look at her wrong I'll kick your ass talk?"
"Not those exact words but yea," Tim said.
"Don't worry about him," she said. "He's really just a teddy bear."
"A kindred spirit of mine," Tim said and Edith laughed. "So you're a teddy bear huh?"
"It's what I've been told, that or a puppy dog," he said and he managed to block most of the memories of Abby that began to assault him.
"You don't seem like a puppy dog to me," she said and Tim smiled.
"I'm glad you talked to me," he said, realizing after he said it that he sounded like a loser.
"I'm glad I talked to you too," she said and Tim saw his building getting closer and closer. Even though he didn't want to he knew he should go and write his over due e-mail to Abby.
"I had a great time talking to you," Tim said as he flicked the butt of his cigarette into the street. "But I've got to write an e-mail to a friend back home and if I don't then she's going to get pissed and come up here and kick my ass."
Edith laughed and nodded her head "Alright, I understand, is this your building?" she asked as Tim stopped.
"Yup, this is home now," he said.
"I live all the way down there," she said, pointing down past the café they had been at. "Not very far, maybe we'll bump into each other again," Tim with a grin.
"Oh you ca count on it," she said with a wink causing Tim to blush.
"Goodnight Edith," he said.
"Night Tim," she said before turning around and walking away. He smiled as he dug his hands in his pockets looking for his keys.
"Edith!" he called and she turned around.
"You forgot your cigarettes," he said.
"Keep it, I have a feeling you'll need them," she replied before turning back around.
He looked down at the pack and smiled as he saw that she had written her phone number on the back of the box.
Ok now before any of you start your yellin about McGee smoking. He's not gonna smoke throughout the whole story. It's just gonna be an every now and again thing...kinda. Whatever DON'T YELL AT ME!
