Sunday morning
The next morning, McGee felt rested for the first time in a week. Of course, passing out cold as soon as his head hit the pillow the night before had a lot to do with that. He got to the restaurant where he and Abby were meeting before it opened, but there was still a line. He should have made a reservation.
As he waited, the line continued to grow. Even when the restaurant opened, things moved slowly. He spent the time eavesdropping on conversations. His publisher was going to want to know what his next book was about soon, and he didn't have a good idea yet.
McGee watched for Abby, only to spot a different teammate walking toward him. "Tony?"
"Morning, McGoo," Tony said. "What are you doing here? Besides the obvious."
"Meeting Abby," he said. "I'm surprised you're even awake this early."
"How do you know I'm not still awake from last night?" He wiggled his eyebrows.
"After this week? Even Abby needed sleep last night," McGee said. "I know you did. Besides, you're alone."
"Not for long, McSnooze. Dan's meeting me here for brunch."
And when Abby saw them, she was going to want to talk about Tony and his boyfriend. So it was mostly self-preservation that had McGee suggesting, "You two should join us. I can just let them know I want a table for four, not two." Mostly. Or so he told himself.
"You sure?"
McGee nodded. "Just give up now, Tony, before Abby gets here and insists."
Tony grinned, his real one, not his Agent Tommy one. "Good point. She's been wanting to meet him anyway, and after running into Ducky yesterday, you two are less likely to scare him off."
"We are?" McGee held up a hand. "I don't want to know. Just hold the spot in line while I go change the information they have for me."
As he walked toward the restaurant doors, he ignored the voice in his head that said he really wanted to see how well Tony and this other guy were getting along. So McGee could be sure this Dan was good enough for Tony. Not because he was wondering if Tony and this guy were serious enough that McGee should admit he'd missed his chance.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~Tony stood facing the street as he waited for McGee to come back. This was probably a bad idea. A really bad idea. But Dan used to date a musician and had a lot of friends at the fine arts college in his hometown, so Abby was unlikely to make him blink. And he needed to see if this could work, if he could bring a boyfriend to hang out with two of the people he considered good friends and not have it be weird for all the reasons it could be weird.
He saw familiar pigtails approaching, draped in black lace. "Abbs!" he called.
"Tony!" She squealed and wrapped him in an Abby-hug. "What are you doing here? Did you see Timmy? I'm-"
"He's just adjusting his name on the list," Tony said. "When he saw I was here and heard Dan was coming, he suggested we eat together."
Abby bounced up and down in her platforms, pigtails bouncing with her. "We get to meet the mysterious Dan? Go Timmy!"
"I'm mysterious?"
Tony looked over to see Dan standing there, looking downright edible in a sweater and dark jeans. "Dan, this is Abby Sciuto, the forensic scientist at NCIS. She and McGee were also meeting here from brunch, so McFriendly suggested we all eat together." He looked at Abby. "Abbs, this is Dan Reilly. No squishing him with Abby-hugs. At least not before we eat."
Before Abby could reply, McGee joined them and Tony went through introductions again. The whole time they had been talking, they moved up as the line shortened. At least the part in front. The rest of the line seemed as long as ever.
"Do you prefer Tim or McGee?" Dan asked. "Tony usually calls you McGee."
"Tony usually calls me a McNickName," Tim replied, his tone dry as the Somalian sand. "Either is fine. After seven years at the Navy Yard, I respond to almost anything I can tell is directed at me."
"Yeah, Elflord," Tony said. "How long does it take them to get through your 'other names' section of the polygraph these days?"
"Classified," McGiggles retorted. "And less time than it will take for us to be seated. If the hostess is right, we should be sitting down in another five minutes or so."
"They didn't push you back for changing the number of people?" Dan asked, but Tony was wondering, too.
"No," was all McSmirk said, but he had that smile twitching around the corners of his mouth that meant he was hiding something.
"Ooh, sneaky, Timmy," Abby said after a few seconds. "And you know what I think of you being underhanded and devious."
"This is not the same as putting out a misleading BOLO," McGee said, and Tony flashed back to that exchange when Ziva was missing and Gibbs was about to return from his margarita safari.
"It worked at One Club," Abby said.
And that was all Tony needed to know what he was hiding. "Smooth, McGemcity."
"Gemcity?" Dan said. "Like the author?"
Abby giggled, Tony theatrically smacked his forehead, but McGee just said. "Yes. You know his books?"
Before anybody could respond before they were walking back to a booth along the windows with a view of the garden out back.
McGee and Abby sat on one side, McGee on the outside. Dan slid into the booth ahead of Tony. "I'm glad to see Tony isn't the only one who insists on being able to get up at any minute," he said.
"They're the ones who carry the guns," Abby said, rolling her eyes. "You get used to it." She directed the last comment at Dan.
"Hey, don't look at us," Tony said. "Gibbs does it, too, and you don't roll your eyes at him."
"He's right, Abbs," McGee said.
She sighed. "I know. At least it's not just me you're protecting."
Fortunately, the menus arrived then, and they turned their attention to picking out meals. Abby picked some ridiculous pancake concoction that sounded more like dessert, while McGee went with an omelet. Tony decided to indulge in eggs Benedict, and he wasn't surprised that Dan chose the farmer's platter with some of everything.
But once they ordered and the waitress brought coffee and Caf-Pow, Dan finally answered McGee. "My cousin's a big fan of the series, and she's loaned them around to the rest of my siblings. I think I'm next to get the latest one after Maggie finishes."
"Maggie's your cousin?" Abby asked.
"No, she's one of his sisters," Tony said, trying to remember all the names. "Liz is the fan, right?" He turned to look at Dan. "The one I met when they were down during February vacation?"
Dan nodded. "Maggie's two down from me, which makes her the middle of my sisters." And apparently the McEyebrow worked with more than just the team and suspects, because Dan was then explaining about his big family.
"I'm suddenly glad I just have one sister," McGee said. "I can't imagine five."
"No, we definitely don't need multiple copies of McSis," Tony said. He paused while the waitress brought their food out and set it around. "So, did you two do anything fun yesterday after the week from hell?"
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~As they settled in to eat, Dan decided to just listen for a bit. He was curious to see what Tony was like with Tim and Abby. He'd wondered for a while, truth be told. Although he was keeping that to himself, at least for a few more weeks.
Still as Abby talked about their work with Habitat yesterday, Dan couldn't resist asking questions. He'd seen Abby at Mass several times in the five months he'd been in Washington. A tall Goth sitting with nuns was tough to miss. He wouldn't have expected somebody who looked morbidly elegant in a dress patterned with tiny skulls and black lace mantilla to have the same skill set as his little brother, who didn't bother getting any fancier than jeans without holes for Sunday Mass, unless it was Easter or Christmas.
"You don't have a journeyman's license, though?" he asked her.
Abby shook her head, and McGee shifted to miss the flying pigtails with an ease that Dan suspected came from long practice. "No, the Habitat folks have licensed electricians there to oversee our work, but I learned how to pull wire from my daddy. When he couldn't stop me from going over to the junkyard near our house to poke around in the old wrecks, he decided to take me along to job sites. He told Gloria it was to translate, but he put me to work learning wiring."
"How did he get by without you there to translate?" McGee asked. "Lip reading?"
"His boss had learned enough to tell him what to do," Abby said. "Just not enough for Daddy to join in any of the conversations."
"Your father is deaf?" Dan asked.
"Both my parents," Abby said. "I'm still not sure how my brother and I were both born hearing — deafness runs on both sides. I didn't learn enough English to really understand it until I was in pre-school and then Gloria and Daddy had me start translating for them."
"The rest of us need to learn so you and Gibbs can't talk behind our backs," Tony said, but his tone wasn't actually grouchy.
"Is it really behind our backs when they're doing it in front of us?" McGee said.
"Yes, McPendantic," Tony said. "They know we can't understand, so it is, by definition, behind our backs."
"Speak for yourself," McGee said. "Gloria and Luca taught me a lot when I went to Louisiana for Christmas."
They kept going and Dan realized Gloria was Abby's mother, not her stepmother. That was weird, but he could hardly say that, not when he already had to explain to Tony why Liz and Evan's kids referred to Dan's parents as Nana and Grandpa even though Liz was a cousin, not a sister. Families came in all kinds of odd configurations, he'd known that since the summer everything went to hell. This was Tony's family, too, as much as his best friend and cousin were Dan's family in a way Chris had always rolled his eyes at when they were dating. Sitting back and watching Tony, Abby and McGee bantering while not understanding half the references suddenly gave him an inkling of how Tony must have felt when they went out to dinner with Liz and Evan during their visit. It told him so much more about Tony seeing him with friends who were obviously integral to his life, but also reminded him how much they still didn't know about each other. Like the story Tony had told yesterday about the plague. He'd always thought that terrible summer they were thirteen was the weirdest story he'd ever run into, but the plague? And then Abby mentioned Ducky and Dan couldn't resist saying something.
"We ran into Ducky yesterday," he said. "Not for long, though."
"He didn't tell you a story?" McGee said.
"Tony told me the story of the plague afterward," Dan said.
"No, McNosey, Ducky didn't tell us a story," Tony said. "We just ran into each other for a few minutes, and even Ducky—" McGee and Abby's laughter interrupted Tony for a minute. "OK, so yes, Ducky can tell a story in a few minutes, but he didn't."
"And then you told Dan about that lunatic?" McGee said. He arched one eyebrow, and Tony flushed a bit, piquing Dan's curiosity.
"I'm glad to know somebody else has weird stories in their past," Dan said.
"That's the second time you've mentioned a weird story in your past," Tony said.
"You want the short version or the long one?" Dan asked, looking around.
"Which do you want to tell?" McGee asked, putting a hand on Abby's arm. She stilled, and Dan realized that she definitely thought she wanted the long version. Well, if there was a group that wouldn't be scared off, this was it. And Tony deserved the long version, too. But he decided to start with the short version.
"When my hometown's resident storyteller spins the yarn at Corcoran's Pub, he tells the story of how Saint Danny saved the town from the Irish mob," Dan said, and waited for reactions.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~When Dan mentioned a weird story, Abby definitely wanted details. Anything hinky, especially with a guy who was so clearly good for Tony, was something she wanted to know to make sure this wasn't all some elaborate scam or ruse. Although it was usually Timmy with the crazy girlfriends. The only one like that for Tony was that bitch, the Frog's daughter who tried to frame him for killing her father, and Abby could at least understand why she did it — to her, Tony was the bad guy, which only showed how good he was undercover because Tony was always the good guy. But before she could ask, Timmy had his hand on her arm and was asking Dan what he wanted, and oh, right, this wasn't an interrogation and Dan didn't have to tell and he'd just met her and Timmy today and might not want to tell people who were basically complete strangers something hinky in his past. Except he sounded willing.
Before she could say anything about the short description because there were so many things she wanted to ask first, Timmy was talking. "Like Saint Patrick?" he said.
"Snakes would have been easier to drive out," Dan said. "Or at least we would have known they were dangerous. We didn't realize we had stumbled into the mob's mess until it was too late to pretend we hadn't. They weren't going to let it go, and they had all the power." He sighed. "McGee, you have Tony's back in the field?" Abby wanted to scold Dan for questioning that, but something in his face made her bite her tongue and just listen, even if it meant she bit so hard she tasted a bit of blood.
"Always," McGee said. "Gibbs' Rule No. 1."
"My uncle was a cop," Dan said. His hand went to the holy medal on a chain around his neck and the way he rubbed had the look of an unconscious gesture. "Except the police chief was in the pocket of the mob, and when Uncle Billy stuck his neck out to protect me…"
Abby gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. Tony's face paled under his usual tan and McGee muttered a low curse.
"So it wasn't really line of duty," Tony said, and OK, so Dan had told Tony about his uncle at least before today. Abby felt her eyes fill with tears, but blinked to keep them back.
"That's part of the long version," Dan said. "More like, it was line of duty, but they knew he was coming." He sighed again. "We were just thirteen that summer."
"We?" Abby asked.
"Me, my cousin — the one who likes the Deep Six series — and my best friend, who's now married to my cousin," Dan said. "At first we didn't know any better, and then we wanted it to stop, before anybody else died, and we didn't know who we could trust. So we set a trap and it worked. Everybody local went down and the mob left, back to Boston."
"And that's how you learned not to be too curious," Tony said.
Abby didn't know what Tony was talking about, but Dan did because he just nodded. And all she could think of was the times they had cases that involved the mob, Italian or Russian or whatever nationality. All of them were brutal and only cut off a few heads. They didn't kill the snake. Or Hydra if she wanted to be accurate.
"That was it?" she said, and knew her tone was skeptical. She couldn't bring herself to care. "They left and never returned?"
"So far as we know," Dan said. "And believe me, I keep an eye out. But that's probably more than you wanted to know."
"That's why the plague story didn't scare you off?" McGee said.
He'd asked Dan, but Tony was the one who shook his head, and Abby knew there was something else. "Tony?" she asked.
"That's why you asked if it was worth it," Tony said, and Dan nodded as Tony shifted a hand to the back of Dan's neck.
"That's why he asked about me having your back," Timmy said to Tony, then turned to Dan. "Because nobody had your uncle's."
"McGee does. Gibbs does. Ziva does." Tony said, turning to look at Dan. Abby swallowed at the intensity she saw in Tony's eyes and heard in his voice. "Gibbs was a marine, and they never, ever leave a man behind."
Dan nodded, and even blinking couldn't keep the tears from falling from Abby's eyes watching them. She knew that, she'd always known that, and that's why she had asked for another chance with Timmy last spring, because Tony, Gibbs and Ziva were as good as a guarantee could get that nobody would take Timmy the way Ari had taken Kate or Malik had taken Cassidy. And if Dan understood that, really understood that, he would know that Tony was as safe as it was possible to get because Gibbs and the team were the best. Because seeing Dan and Tony together, Abby knew Tony had found a guy who was perfect for him in a way she had never seen with any of the women he'd dated or flirted with and Tony deserved that kind of happiness more than anybody. Even more than Gibbs because Gibbs had Shannon for a while and you couldn't repeat perfection, but Tony had never known what that was like.
They all deserved that and Abby wanted more than ever to meet Ziva's mysterious Miami guy to make sure he was good for her, and definitely that he was better than Rivkin had been. As good as she hoped she was for Timmy because he deserved happiness, too, and he was a better fit for her than anybody else she'd ever dated. Even Marty, who ultimately couldn't handle their differences. Timmy could, she thought. She had gotten to where he wanted them to be back the first time they dated, and that was enough. It had to be, because if Ziva and Tony finally found the right men for them and Gibbs seemed to finally have given up, she and Timmy needed to be right for each other. Even if sometimes they were moving at different speeds, that didn't mean anything. Or so Abby told herself as the conversation took a lighter turn.
