TODAY OF ALL DAYS
By
Ashleigh Anpilova
McGee gets called into work, but to his surprise the squad room is empty and a note has been left on his desk.
A McGee-centric gen story.
Written: August 2009. Word count: 500.
Tim groaned at Tony's abrupt message telling him they had a case. It was meant to have been their weekend off and Tim had plans for how to spend the day. But duty and Gibbs called.
However, when he got to the office and hurried up to the squad room, he was very surprised to find Gibbs's part of it completely deserted. Frowning, he was about to pull out his phone and call Tony, when he caught sight of a piece of paper stuck to the back his monitor.
He hurried to his desk and pulled it off. It was some kind of hastily hand-drawn map, with a big X on it. Scrawled at the bottom, in Gibbs's hand, was the order: 'Meet us here'.
Not wasting time wondering why someone hadn't called him to tell him to go to the crime scene rather than the office, Tim pushed the piece of paper into his pocket and raced off to obey.
Twenty minutes later, having got lost twice - Tony must have drawn the map - Tim arrived at the crime scene. Except it wasn't. Well, if it was, it'd been completely cleared of the body and evidence already. There was nothing there, except pinned to a fence another hand-drawn map with another X. This time there was no extra message.
Before he set off to follow the latest map, Tim pulled out his cell phone and dialed one member of the team after the other. All to no avail. Either they were all in an area that didn't have cell phone reception, or they'd turned their phones off.
When he reached the new 'crime scene' he wasn't surprised to find it, like the first, deserted, apart from the obligatory X-marked map.
This time he didn't bother to hurry.
Nor the next.
Nor the next.
Grabbing the latest map and tearing it as he pulled it out from under a rock, Tim cursed Tony, Gibbs, and the world in general. He didn't know what game his coworkers were playing with him, but why did they have to do it today of all days?
He almost decided not to follow the latest map, but to go home and spend the day the way he'd planned. But the thought that just maybe it wasn't some kind of DiNozzo-prank, and that Gibbs was waiting for him, made him continue.
This time the map directed him, via a circular route to a park. He left his car and sauntered to where he guessed the X to be, expecting to find nothing except another piece of paper.
"Surprise!" Abby yelled, throwing her arms around him and hugging him. "Happy Birthday, Timmy!"
Staggering under the force of an Abby-hug, it took Tim a second or two to realize that he was surrounded by his other five coworkers, all of whom were wishing him happy birthday.
As he settled down to enjoy the food, drink, gifts and most of all company, Tim decided this was his best birthday ever.
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