a/n - site's still wonky, but here's a new chapter. Also a new chapter of Laboring is up, but you'll have to dig for it, I guess. It didn't move up on the list yet.
Tim sat and stared at his hands before he started talking in a low, monotone voice that worried Tony even more. "I almost wish I'd been sent out as an Agent Afloat, too."
"Hey, you get seasick just looking at a picture of a ship." His teasing almost got a smile out of the other man.
"Yeah." Tim finally looked up at Tony. "None of us did anything wrong, none of us."
Tony rested his hands on Tim's knees for balance as he settled in to listen. He'd had the benefit of being surrounded by strangers during his months at sea. He never thought about what it would be like to still be at Headquarters day after day, but stuck in the sub-basement surrounded by people who knew you had once been part of the agency's top team. "It sure felt like punishment, right? You were the only one who had to face people who believed it, too."
"'How the mighty have fallen', God, if I heard someone say it once, I heard it a thousand times. Even when I started working on the encryption for Vance, it was a secret. The guys down in the sub-basement weren't so bad after awhile, but upstairs..."
Tony waited, hoping for names.
"After a couple of months of 'hey, that's McGee. He used to be an agent, now he's just a computer geek' when he asked me to go out in the field with him..."
"You jumped at the chance, right?" Tony rubbed his knees slightly. "It's okay, I would have. What happened when you went?" Tim stared over Tony's shoulder at the wall as all the memories of that day came back.
Flashback
It was late when McGee finally left NCIS that night. "Hey, McGee."
Tim turned at the sound of Gibbs' low voice in the parking lot and squinted in the dark. "Boss, is that you?" He waited until Gibbs came over to lean against his car. "What's going on?"
"Now that Vance has finally let me into the loop, I need to do some checking on my team." Gibbs looked tired but under the circumstances he wasn't surprised. It wasn't every day you discovered one of your agents was a mole.
"You and Vance already have me running financials on the three of them."
"More than that." Gibbs pinched at the bridge of his nose. "One of them turned against this country, McGee. I need to know why."
McGee could understand the feeling. "Okay, how can I help?"
"Keating spent several months doing upgrades on the computer facility out near Rayville."
That made McGee frown. "Months? I was the one to do it the year before and it only took me three weekends."
"I remember." Gibbs leaned against the side of McGee's car. "That's why I want to know if he was doing anything else while he was there. I'll pick you up in the morning." He didn't wait for McGee to answer before he walked away.
The secure, hidden facility was less than two hours away from DC, but few knew if its existence. Small and nondescript, the building looked like a small fishing cabin, common near the reservoir. Only if you knew which closet door to open would you find the high tech security door, behind which was the network that would replace the system at Headquarters should the unforeseen happen. The elevator down was cramped for more than one person, but it was sufficient.
Gibbs parked his truck in the oversized carport just before daybreak, making sure to keep it centered so that no satellite could pick up the image. A thermal blanket thrown over the engine compartment completed the job. The rain was starting to come down hard and the two men made a run for the main building, fishing gear in hand.
Once inside, Gibbs left the poles near the front door, along with their coats, while McGee carried the tackle boxes to the closet. The eye scan allowed them access and they continued down two levels to a cluster of monitors and rows upon rows of large computer towers. No sensitive information filled the hard drives, but they stood in wait, in case a disaster hit the Navy Yard.
McGee opened the two tackle boxes and unloaded all the equipment he would need to search the network, looking for the slightest clue of impropriety. Once set up, his first order of business was to let the Director know they were in place and ready to begin. That way they wouldn't set off a security sweep. Once he started working, McGee was intently studying the numbers and code that scrolled past on the largest of the monitors. He barely noticed when food was set in front of him or when Gibbs replaced his coffee.
Gibbs made a thorough sweep of the rooms as he watched McGee work. Nothing was out of place and he was bored, so he decided to check outside. Tim raised a hand in acknowledgment as he left before becoming submersed in the world of code again.
Eventually Tim had to stop and stretch his back. The coffee Gibbs had given him was cold and he realized how much time had passed. Becoming concerned, he returned upstairs to look for Gibbs. When he wasn't in any of the upstairs rooms, Tim tried his cell. Unanswered, the call went to voicemail. His concern increasing, Tim snagged his coat as he went out the door, dialing again.
The sun was setting and the intensity of the storm had increased ten-fold while McGee had been working. The small creek they had crossed on their way in was now a fast moving river, impossible to cross. Over the wind he strained to hear Gibbs' phone, hoping to use it to locate the other man. Finally he heard it coming from under a downed tree.
"Boss? Crap, Boss, can you hear me?" Luckily the trunk hadn't hit Gibbs, but he was pinned under the foliage laden branches. The older man was only semi-conscious, but Tim wasn't sure if it was from an injury or from exposure. Eventually, he got him free and instinctively Gibbs staggered to his feet, leaning heavily on McGee. A lightening strike less than fifty feet from them told McGee he needed to get them to shelter quickly.
They were cut off from the road, so McGee didn't even try to get Gibbs to the truck, instead he dragged Gibbs back to the cabin and down to the lower levels. Through the wet clothes he could feel that Gibbs' body temperature was too low. He eased him down into a chair and wrapped a blanket around him before putting in an emergency call to the Director.
"Did you find something, Agent McGee?"
McGee quickly filled the Director and Ducky in on what had happened to Gibbs. "The storm's getting pretty bad, can you get us out of here on a chopper?" It only took a few minutes for Vance to return.
"It's too dangerous. Winds are too high, everything's grounded until the storm clears. The site is right in the middle of the storm cell. You're looking at morning before we can get to you, so you're going to have to wait it out."
Ducky leaned over Vance's shoulder with a concerned look on his face. "I will be staying here at Headquarters, if anything changes in Jethro's condition, I want you to notify me immediately. For now, get him warmed up and do what you can for him."
"Understood, we'll be ready at first light." The power went out, leaving them in total darkness before the emergency generator kicked on. In the gloom of the emergency lighting, Tim pulled Gibbs back to his feet and they stumbled into the overnight room. The older man was heavy and disorientated, but Tim got him stripped down, dried off and into one of the cots. He piled every blanket in the place on Gibbs but he was still shivering.
"Boss, can you hear me?" Tim slid a hand under the blankets and performed a hard sternum rub, feeling the icy skin under his hand. Having no other source of heat, Tim pulled his clothes off and slid under the blankets to spoon up against Gibbs. His socks and boxers were no protection and the icy skin almost took his breath away. "I'll have you warmed up soon, Boss."
After almost an hour Gibbs' shaking had been replaced with a fever and he relaxed back against Tim, pulling Tim's arm close against him. "Shannon."
Tim froze, unsure of how to get out of the situation without causing embarrassment to either of them. Before he came up with a solution, Gibbs shifted again and Tim found himself draped across Gibbs' chest, two powerful hands sliding into his boxers to cup his ass cheeks. Even with the thin fabric barrier, he felt naked and exposed with his legs spread out on each side of Gibbs' legs, the other man's hard cock already drooling against his stomach and a finger exploring between his cheeks.
He was sure that even in Gibbs' delirious state, when his roaming fingers discovered the back side of Tim's balls it would stop him. Instead, his dreams seemed to change and he gave a throaty laugh before biting down on Tim's neck. "Waited so long."
As soon as his neck was released, Tim tried to scramble off Gibbs. He almost made it before his boxers were ripped apart and he found himself underneath the other man. "Boss?"
"No more teasing."
Gibbs' hoarse words stopped him. It had been their mutual, unrequited desire for Gibbs that had first brought he and Tony together. Had Gibbs been aware of his unspoken desires before he'd fallen in love with DiNozzo? He heard Gibbs spit into his hand and then felt a wet finger breach his opening. Knowing it would be worse if he fought it, and unwilling to hurt the other man, Tim forced himself to relax as one finger was replaced with two before he felt the blunt tip of Gibbs' cock pushing into him after not nearly enough preparation.
Tim bit down on the pillow to prevent himself from crying out. The fucking was hard, if it had been a stranger on top of him he would have called it brutal, but it was mercifully short as the delirious man quickly climaxed. Gibbs fell limply across his back as he slipped out of Tim's body. Still not aware of his actions, or the damage he'd caused, he nuzzled Tim's ear as he ground against his hips. "Mine now, Tony, you're mine."
Numb with the knowledge that he'd given himself to the man that would take his lover from him, Tim slid out from under Gibbs and slipped into the bathroom to wash away the evidence and the blood. Gibbs' fever broke just before dawn and by the time the medical helicopter arrived he was clean, redressed in slightly damp clothes and wrapped in a clean blanket. Tim watched as Ducky supervised the transfer of the semi-conscious man before telling the medical examiner that he would stay behind to finish the work and then bring the truck back when the road became passable. It wasn't until after the chopper cleared the horizon that Tim dropped to his knees and let the tears fall.
-NCIS-
Tony's head was spinning as Tim stopped talking. "My God, Tim, how badly did he hurt you?"
"I'm all right." Tim wouldn't look him in the eye.
"That doesn't answer my question." Tony still had his hands on Tim's knees and he gently rubbed them as he waited.
"I went to a clinic in Baltimore where they wouldn't ask too many questions. They put in a few stitches. I would have been all right without them, but I needed to make sure the scarring wouldn't be bad enough to get noticed on my next physical. I burned all the evidence."
Tony felt his heart break with each monotone word. "Tim..."
Tim shook his head, still staring at the floor. "No, you've been in love with Gibbs for longer than you've even known me. You settled when we got together."
"Tim..."
This time Tim did look up at him and silenced Tony with a finger to his lips. "We both know that you settled for second best, that your heart has always belonged to Gibbs. And now we know that deep down, you're the one he wants even if he can't admit it yet. You should go to him Tony."
"Tim..."
McGee smiled at the muffled sound of his name, but didn't move his fingers. "You deserve to be happy, Tony. I want you to be happy, so go to him." Tim stood and stepped around the kneeling man, pointing to the coat he'd tossed aside when they'd first arrived at the apartment. "Take some cash if you need it for a cab."
Tony didn't move until Tim closed the bathroom door behind him and Tony heard the shower turn on. Eventually he stood and walked to the chair where the coat was draped. With one hand wrapped around the wallet and the other hand pressed against the bathroom door, he stood and listened to the soft sobs he could hear under the flowing water, wondering just what in the hell he was going to do.