Sun. 8/5 - 1900 Hours
The Team Leader left Tim a quick note in the event the young man woke up while he was gone, then left for dinner. He would let his agent sleep until he got back, but the young man would eat, of that the boss would make sure.
Approaching the front desk, he politely asked for information on surrounding restaurants and was satisfied to hear that there were several within less than a mile of the hotel. As he perused the list, he chuckled at the idea of eating fast food when he didn't have to.
With too many choices on the list, he decided to test the chicken at a place called Atlanta's Best Chicken - for starters. Feeling revived after the long nap, the hot shower and the brisk walk he'd taken getting to the restaurant, Gibbs was more than hungry and was happy to be able to sit down and eat. They'd made good time in their trip, having left D.C. early enough to avoid weekend travelers taking the scenic tours at five miles an hour. It was barely 8:30 and he had plenty of time to enjoy his meal, since he didn't want to wake Tim for at least an hour.
Although now that he was here, he felt bad about leaving his exhausted agent alone in a strange hotel room without backup - regardless of whether or not there was any reason to be concerned about crime. Hotel rooms were always prime pickings for would-be thieves.
Gathering up his dinner, he set it back in the box and set it in the bag with Tim's order, already waiting for him as he'd requested. Getting to his feet, he ordered the young man a drink and headed back to the hotel. Suddenly, it felt like this was going to be one incredibly long week.
***NCIS****
Morning came brighter and earlier than either of them was prepared for but neither complained as they somehow managed to get ready around each other without much communication. After he'd come back to the room last night, woken Tim up and made him eat, the young man had quietly thanked him and quickly dropped back to sleep, leaving Gibbs wide awake for several hours – with plenty of time to think.
The trouble was, the only thing on his mind had nothing to do with this conference. Before he'd gone to bed, he'd needed another shower – this time, as cold as he could stand it. Now, here it was seven in the morning and although both men had already had their first coffees, courtesy of the hotel lobby's coffee bar, they still needed to eat. As they left the hotel in search of breakfast, the space between them seemed too far and yet almost too close, at the same time. Struggling to keep his head in the game, Gibbs remained silent as he forcibly refocused his mind.
"Boss, you okay?" Tim questioned.
"Fine, Tim. Why?" The boss asked as he worked to keep his surprise under wraps. This young man hadn't ever asked him that before away from working a case, although he had come to look more closely at his expressions before he spoke over the past few weeks while they'd been working together on those Christmas projects.
"I thought maybe me letting you sleep all the way here might have messed with your ability to sleep last night or something."
"Do I seem like I'm short on sleep?" After months of getting to know each other, his tone, when talking to Tim, no longer held even a hint of the impatient tone Gibbs usually used when offering a rebuttal to a personally invasive question.
"Well, maybe not sleep, but something's bothering you." Tim replied honestly, his own tone steadily calm and persistent.
Stopping their trek, Gibbs turned and glared at Tim for a silent minute. As the young man looked him head on and didn't blink or look away, the Team Leader had to grin as he stepped into his agent's personal space and quietly answered his question. "Oh, there's something bothering me, alright. There's just nothing I can do about right it now."
Watching the older man turn and walk away, Tim remained frozen in shock. So, that WAS what Gibbs meant when he said people change! Oh, God! Does this mean he wants….? Could he really be interested in…? No way!
"HEY! C'mon!" Gibbs shouted from up ahead as he looked back and noticed he'd struck Tim motionless. Mentally head slapping himself, he sighed. Damn it! He hadn't meant to do this now but the younger man's open honesty and concern had literally caused the words to launch from his lips – and opened that door. But it wasn't a door they could afford to leave open right now. They both had jobs to do and the job came first, always.
Watching Tim slowly walk towards him, the older man swallowed his smirk. He didn't want his agent to think he was making fun of him because he wasn't. He just couldn't help it if he found the young man's knee-jerk reactions to be endearing. When Tim reached him yet kept walking, as if he couldn't handle talking to him right now, Gibbs snagged his shirt sleeve to slow him down. "Hey."
Turning to his boss, Tim looked at him briefly as he waited for whatever was coming, the look on his face, for once, nearly unreadable.
"Shouldn't have said that." Gibbs apologized.
Tim remained silent, though the flicker of disappointment in his eyes was hard to miss, as was the hitch in his breathing.
"At least, not yet." The older man amended his apology. "Still have this job to do; both of us. Can't focus on anything else."
While the disappointment slipped from his eyes, to be replaced with something that closely resembled hope, Tim nodded as he verbally agreed. "Right."
Gibbs gave his short silent nod of agreement and together they headed to breakfast, each of them now trying desperately to turn their focus to the job ahead. As they slid into the booth at Burger King with their tray, both orders setting on it; Tim opened his soft, leather portfolio and withdrew both folders, laying Gibbs' down across from him as he opened his own and began going back over what he needed to focus on.
The older man took his cue from his agent and did the same, knowing he had a harder job ahead of remembering new stuff since he was an old dog and more often than not, it was damn near impossible to teach them new tricks. Smiling internally at that old adage that had come to mind, Gibbs turned his full attention to his own reading material, effectively changing the subject between them.
***NCIS***
Looking back at the end of the first day, the Team Leader only remembered the way his agent, given the room to be himself around his fellow techies, was completely in his element. Left alone to do what he did best, he shined, more than capable of holding his own, standing out in the crowd with his intelligence as well as his height, well-bred manners and peaceful, easy-going demeanor.
Taking note of very little else going on around him once he'd joined the panel at the start of the day, Tim had remained focused on the discussion, immersing himself completely. Usually able to tell when Gibbs was in the room, after years of tuning himself to the frequency of Gibbs- speak, the boss was startled to realize that for once, his youngest agent had failed to notice he was present during the entire morning session.
Breaking for lunch several hours later, the panel disbanded in small clusters, a group of three walking with Tim towards the door heading out to the parking lot. With his eyes lit with enjoyment and his laughter ringing through the air, his youngest agent brightened the room and Gibbs was hard-pressed to remain patiently waiting for the free time to talk with him.
As the group walked through the room, Tim finally noticed the older man standing there and came to a sudden halt, essentially freezing the conversation of the group with a brief series of introductions, Tim proceeded to invite his boss to join the group for lunch, earning him a raised eyebrow, a quirked grin, a silent long look and a polite refusal, citing the need to make phone calls instead.
Watching his boss walk away, Tim mentally head slapped himself. Why did he just do that to Gibbs? Inviting the techno-phobe to lunch with a group of technical wizards? What the hell was wrong with him putting Gibbs on the spot like that?
"Tim? You alright?" One of his fellow panelists asked.
Blinking to reset his thoughts, Tim mentally vowed to make amends with Gibbs later and pasted on a thin smile as he nodded and headed out to lunch with the group, even though his mind had now returned to the conversation, however brief it had been, that he and Gibbs had had this morning.
It wasn't long before he realized why it was now that anytime the man was around, something inside him seemed to instantly warm and his heart melted a little bit more. It was all he could do to get through the lunch with the group, but Tim shackled his thoughts and refocused. He still had the rest of the day to get through.
***NCIS***
"…doesn't need me here, Leon. He's doin' just fine without a watchdog." Gibbs griped into the phone. "Just like I told ya he would."
"Just following orders, Gibbs." Leon's tone left no doubt he wasn't willing to argue the point. "You still have your own task down there. I expect a full report on both conferences when you get back."
"Yeah, I figured that already, Leon." The Team Leader replied as he snapped his phone shut, ending the call.
Letting out a deep sigh, he glanced at his watch and went in pursuit of something that would take care of Leon's demands as well as help Gibbs focus more on what he was supposed to be concentrating on – the conference – as opposed to just his agent. Less than an hour later, he'd been successful not only in getting his hands on a copy of the recorded session from the morning – but also a promise that he'd get a full copy of every session for the remainder of the week.
Feeling better about being able to provide Vance with hard copy proof of Tim's performance, Gibbs headed back to the Panel Discussion Tim was on. He was just in time to slide into the room, sight unseen, to watch his agent – possibly even learn from him.
The rest of the afternoon flew by, with Tim once again in his element while the boss remained an invisible witness. This time, the older man's mind stayed firmly focused as he watched from across the room while his agent held his own among his peers and some older participants. By the end of the afternoon's session, Tim felt completely drained.
Somehow, he'd gotten drawn into at least one diversion from the topic, although he'd successfully brought that one back to the subject matter. All this management of the discussions among techies, who lived to be the best and the brightest in their field, was exhausting. Days like this were what made Tim appreciate his job even more.
He knew one thing for sure and that was that he was extremely grateful he wasn't here alone – more importantly, that Gibbs was the one here with him. Speaking of Gibbs, he really needed to mend that fence. It had been bothering him all day; hovering at the back of his mind.
As he approached the doorway to go out into the hall, he stopped as that feeling came over him that Gibbs was near. Over the years, he'd almost perfected his "Gibbs-radar" - that feeling when the older man would stealthily enter the squad room and these last few months, he'd come to appreciate it a lot more. He'd even felt it earlier when they'd broken for lunch, but had been too caught up in the conversation going on around him to pay it much heed.
Looking around, it only took him a minute to find the older man, steadily watching him with that all too familiar inscrutable expression on his face. With the knowledge that there were cameras everywhere to record these sessions, Tim kept his head and coolly walked over to the man. "Hey, Boss. What do you think?"
"I think, McGee, that we both need to eat and read up for tomorrow." Gibbs replied, deliberately reverting to calling his agent by his last name; thereby keeping it strictly on a work level between them. He knew this young man had a lot on his mind; most of it not work related and he needed him to stay focused. It was especially difficult to do now that he had himself screwed the pooch earlier that morning. He trusted Tim to follow his lead as well now as he usually did.
***NCIS***
Just as the Team Leader had hoped, Tim followed the boss's lead and as the week wore on there were no further discussions of a personal nature. Though there were moments when Tim would see Gibbs watching him with that look in his eye that melted Tim's heart and quickened his breathing, still the young man remained firmly focused on the reason they had been sent here.
The boss found himself marveling at the younger man's resolve; silently staying focused as he had been directed, despite the numerous occasions Gibbs came close to losing his own focus.
Tuesday after the sessions had ended for the day, Tim announced he needed to go out almost as soon as they'd reached the hotel room. With a small shake of his head, the young man refused to elaborate and simply left the boss to enjoy his chance at solitude and peace and quiet in the sanctuary of the room while he ran his errand.
Coming back with several grocery bags loaded down with food and supplies, Tim smiled as he began unpacking them with excitement. "Now, we can come back here and eat without having to go out anywhere. It'll be great for saving time in the morning too, not to mention late night snacks if one of us gets hungry."
Gibbs smiled as he chuckled. "Good thinkin' Tim."
The compliment had earned him a smile of gratitude.
"Make sure you keep the receipts for the week."
Tim nodded, knowing the boss would make sure they split the expense between them, as they'd taken to doing over the last four months of eating meals together. Things had returned to almost normal between them, as the previous tensions evaporated into thin air.
***NCIS***
Through the rest of the week, they were too tired to think of going anywhere after the conference day was done, but they'd each seen something at the conference center that had piqued their interest. Each had noticed a kiosk listing various events happening in Atlanta and one posting in particular caught their eyes: a listing for a local observatory, the Fernbank Science Center.
Gibbs saw the general notice for the observatory and planetarium; and knowing it was something that appealed to both of them, jotted down the address and the hours. Tim saw a slightly different notice and knowing it was something they'd enjoy, captured the information on his phone. Friday afternoon saw them at a late lunch together, with both conferences completed. The free hours gave the guys a chance to try one of the local restaurants recommended to them for dinner, a place called Canoe Restaurant.
Now relaxing on a patio overlooking the Chattahoochee River, they waited for their order; Gibbs enjoyed his coffee and Tim his iced tea. Tim asked Gibbs if he'd noticed the kiosk at the conference center.
Gibbs nodded as he replied. "I looked at it the other day; saw there's an Observatory at a place called Fernbank Science Center. Thought that might be something we could do before we leave."
Tim nodded; this was perfect. "That'd be great, Boss! There's a show on tonight featuring a 'Cowboy Astronomer' too. It sounds interesting. You up for it?"
Gibbs smiled at the light in Tim's eyes and admitted it did sound like fun and a little different. He wasn't surprised when Tim pulled a brochure out of his pocket and shared what was on his mind.
"Boss, can we stay here one more night; do a little sight-seeing tomorrow?"
"Agency won't pay for it tonight." The Boss warned.
"I will."
"Tim."
"Boss."
"Where is it you want to go?"
"It's a surprise! "
Again, Gibbs smiled, Tim's enthusiasm too infectious not to catch. "Okay, but we split the tab."
"Great!" Tim replied sounding almost like a little boy at Christmas, not even bothering to put up a fight about who paid for the extra day. It was more important that they agreed on staying.
Having gotten that discussion out of the way and the plans made, they settled into eating their dinner. After thoroughly enjoying their meal at Canoe – trading bites of the various dishes, followed by a relaxing drive to their destination, the two men eagerly looked forward to the Science Center and the chance to see the Cowboy Astronomer, Baxter Black and his unique perspective on stargazing.
They finished their evening at the Center by taking in the Planetarium, then the long week having caught up to them, headed back to the hotel.
When they got back, Tim spent a few minutes emailing Abby and even got in a little reading before giving in to the exhaustion of the week, much to the amusement of the older man who couldn't help but smile at the angelic smile on Tim's face as the younger man slept.
***NCIS****
Saturday – Aug 12, 2012
The new day dawned bright and sunny. With a smile on his face and his eyes sparkling with anticipation, Tim soon had them through breakfast and into the car as he drove them to their first destination. The younger man had to smile again, when he noticed the look of surprise and pleased acceptance on the boss's face as they got out of the car at the Atlanta Aquarium.
By lunchtime, they'd enjoyed a relaxing morning taking in every inch of the mesmerizing place and all of its wonder. Tim smiled mischievously as they left the Aquarium and headed to their next surprise destination. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the moment when Gibbs realized what was happening – the grin that lit his face as they turned into the entrance for Turner Field.
"Good idea, Tim. Who's on deck with the Braves today?"
"The Houston Astros, Boss. Thought this would be fun."
Grinning at each other, they bought their tickets and headed into the ballpark. Both men thoroughly enjoyed the game, although they were disappointed in the final outcome with Houston's 3-2 victory over the Braves. They returned to the hotel tired and quiet from the day's adventures and packed up for their long trek home in the morning.
Remembering they'd brought coolers that were still in the car, they decided they'd load them up with ice in the morning and take what was left of their groceries in the car with them. Even if they stopped to eat picnic style, that would still save them time and money on the way home
Chapter End Notes
All places, dates and times of events within the duo's travels - are actual.
