This another all McGee chapter. The next chapter will obviously be an all Abby chapter. I hope you guys like. Please review.
"I'm glad you called," Edith said as they met outside the café they had been the day before.
"I am too," Tim said with a genuine smile. He looked her over, her black hair hanging loose and free, wearing a form fitting button up plaid shirt, skinny jeans, and sneakers. Tim wondered how he had gotten to this point in his life. All through high school and most of college girls wouldn't even look in his general direction. Now he was getting phone numbers from a woman that seemed way out of his league. The again, Abby was way out of his league and he had her for 5 months.
"So what do you want to do?" she asked him, sticking her hands in her back pockets and Tim wondered if she knew how adorable she looked when she did that.
"I'm not really sure," he said, feeling very stupid. He should have at least had something in mind before calling her.
Edith laughed and jerked her head to the side "Come on," she said.
Tim moved to walk beside her, up the street where he knew her apartment was. He looked over at her as they made their way through the never-ending shuffle of people. She grinned over at him and offered him her arm. Tim wondered what he should do, it wasn't everyday that a woman offered to walk arm and arm with him. McGee decided to go with it and not waste anymore time thinking.
"So did you manage to write the e-mail to your friend?" she asked.
Tim was silent as he thought of Abby. "Yea but I'm not sure it was what she wanted to hear," he said.
"What do you mean?" Edith asked.
"She didn't want me to leave in the first place and I ignored her for a while because I was afraid that if I talked to her she would convince me to come back home," Tim explained, knowing that he was sounding more and more like a prick.
"Wow," Edith said.
"Yea I'm an asshole," he mumbled.
"From what you've told me, yea you sound a bit like one," Edith said as she unloosed her arm from his. Tim nodded, figuring she would tell him to get lost now.
She walked over to a red Camry parked on the street; she looked to see if any cars were coming. He watched her get in and he wondered what he should do, knowing that she would drive off and leave him standing there. Edith leaned over and pushed the passenger door open. "Then again, I don't know the whole story," she said.
Tim was surprised but happy that she was still giving him a chance. He quickly got in the car and closed the door.
"Where are we headed?" he asked.
"It's a surprise, now tell me a story," she said as she pulled out of her space.
"The director of NCIS died," he began after a long moment of silence/ Edith looked over at him in surprise before remembering that she was driving and locked her eyes back on the road.
"The director that took her place decided it was our fault that she was dead, the team I was on that is, so he decided to split us up. My friend Tony was sent to be an Agent afloat on the USS Ronald Reagan. Ziva, our liaison officer with Mossad was sent back to Israel. I was sent down to Cyber Crimes which is basically just sitting at a desk all day doing computer related things. My boss got a whole new team of incompetents that are driving him crazy. Everything just changed so fast and I couldn't keep up. I quit Cyber Crimes and tried to transfer back to my boss's team but the director wouldn't let me. So I left and here I am," McGee managed to get the summarized version of the story out and he felt slightly proud of himself for that small accomplishment. He didn't want to talk about it at all, but he figured if he wanted Edith to know who he was he would have to tell her all the grimy details.
"I'm so sorry," Edith said softly and Tim looked over to see a few tears running down her cheeks.
"What's wrong, why are you crying," he asked in concern.
"Sorry, I'm not usually a cryer but hearing this story and for you guys to get blamed for someone's death and then have all your friends taken away from you, no wonder you got so fed up and left. It's just really sad ya know," Edith said as she gingerly wiped the tears away.
Tim was amazed, he had never known someone to cry over the troubles of someone they hardly knew. Although he was almost sure that Abby would do the same thing and had most likely.
"I didn't mean to upset you, just forget about it ok, how about you tell me where we're headed?" he said, desperately trying to change the subject.
"It's going to be after this turn," she said. They turned onto Broadway and Tim knew where they were going almost immediately.
"Virgin Mega Store," he said with a grin.
"How did you know?" Edith asked.
"Good guess," he replied, remembering that he would have to call Sarah later.
Tim was amazed at how lucky Edith was at finding great parking spaces. He figured they would have to drive around forever to find a good spot or park a ways down and walk, but Edith spotted an empty space right next to the building and slid right in.
"I'm impressed," he said.
"So am I actually, I think you may be a good luck charm or something," Edith said as she turned off the engine. Tim didn't know what to say so he just looked over at the massive record store and for some reason it felt like they should be there.
"Come on, lets go explore," she said excitedly.
"Are you looking for anything?" Tim asked as they entered the store. Edith just shrugged "Not really, I just like to come here and look around, try and find stuff I've never heard before."
"Like a scavenger hunt," Tim offered.
"I've never thought of it that way, but yea kinda like a scavenger hunt."
He had visited the Virgin Mega Store more than once and its size and complete whorish nature for the music scene still astounded him.
"So tell me more about your friend that didn't want you to leave NCIS," Edith said as she weaved through the crowd of people, taking his hand so they wouldn't get separated.
"Her name's Abby," he said as he looked over at some jazz records but Edith pulled him away and he figured he would get back to it later.
"And?" she prompted.
"She the forensic scientist at NCIS, she dresses goth and gets away with it because she's Gibbs', my boss, favorite. But even though she dresses dark she's a really nice person and one of the smartest people I know, it's really hard to hate her for anything," he explained.
"Wow, you got it bad for this girl," Edith said and Tim thought he heard a tinge of jealousy in her voice but decided he was just imagining things.
"Doesn't matter if I do, we dated for a few months then she dumped me and now we're just friends," he said.
They had stopped moving, both staring at the rock L-Z rack in front of them. "Here try this band, they're really good," she said as she picked up a CD and scanned it under the listening station. She grabbed the headphones and had to stand on her tip-toes to place them over his ears. . He was suddenly assaulted with a rush of music.
'This door is always open, This door is always open, No one has the guts to shut us out./ But if we have to go now, I guess there's always hope that, Some place will be serving after hours. This night is winding down but Time means nothing, As always at this hour Time means nothing, One final final round cos Time means nothing, Say that you'll stay Say that you'll stay'
Tim's eyes were glued to Edith as the song played. For some reason the lyrics reminded him of the night before when they had met. She looked at him expectantly as he removed the bulky headphones.
"I like them," he said and her face lit up in triumph. He usually stuck with jazz or records that his mother had owned but he was open to most music that didn't make his ears bleed.
"Who are they?" he asked.
"We Are Scientists," she said and he couldn't help but grin.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing, We Are Scientists, got it," he said as he snatched the CD from her hands.
"Hey that's my copy," she said before reaching around him to get the CD back. "Now it's mine," he said with a smile as he raised his arm and the CD was now well out of her reach.
"That's not fair, now I'm going to have to where heels around you all the time," she said with a mock pout.
Tim couldn't help but lower his arm and offer the CD back to her. She gently took it from him before looking back at him.
"Who are you really?" Edith asked, wondering how the man in front of her could still be so nice and thoughtful after everything he had been through.
"I don't know," he answered, the honesty shone in his eyes and Edith's heart broke for him.
The song is 'After Hours' by We Are Scientists
