WORK IT OUT
By
Ashleigh Anpilova
Tony messes up something Tim has been working on all morning and an argument ensues. Gibbs sends them off to the conference room to work it out.
A first time story.
Written: July 2010. Word count: 500.
"Damn you, Tony! I spent all morning working on that. And now look at it! What part of 'don't touch it' didn’t you understand?" McGee's fists were clenched, his eyes narrowed, sweat glistened above his top lip and he was breathing heavily.
Tony backed up until he ran into the filing cabinet. He'd never seen McGee this furious before. To say he was scared of his co-worker wouldn't be an understatement. "Tim," he said, falling silent as he didn't know what to say.
McGee glared. "Well? What excuse are you going to come up with this time?"
"I haven't got one," Tony said quietly, glancing away from the fury blazing in McGee's eyes. "I'm sorry, Tim. Okay? I messed up." He swallowed and said more quietly, "Again."
"You think, DiNozzo?" Gibbs had arrived unnoticed.
Tony turned to face him. "Boss, I -"
"Boss, I told -"
Gibbs whistled; both men fell silent. He looked from Tony to McGee and back again. "You shouldn't have touched it." McGee began to smile and opened his mouth. Gibbs turned to face him. "And you should have known better than to leave it unattended. You know what DiNozzo's like."
"But, boss, that's not -" McGee fell silent. Tony guessed he was being treated to the patented Gibbs glare. "Yes, boss." he muttered.
"Both of you, conference room now. You need to work this out."
"But, boss, what about -"
"We'll be fine, boss. We don’t need to -"
"Conference room - now!"
"On it, boss."
"Right, boss."
Several minutes of stony silence went by.
Finally McGee said, "Why did you have to touch it, Tony? Oh, wait, let me guess, you don't know. Do you have that little respect for me?"
"What? No! That's not it. I just . . . It looked so good, that's all. I wanted to - Oh, forget it."
"Go on."
"It was something I couldn't have done. But then most of what you do I couldn’t do. I just get . . ."
"Jealous?"
"What? No! Yes. Sometimes."
McGee sighed. "Me too."
Tony stared at him. "You get jealous of me? But that's - Why?"
McGee shrugged. Silence stretched between them again.
Finally McGee said, "Is that the only reason you try to mess up everything I do?"
Tony stared at him. Finally he said, "At least you notice me when I screw up."
"What?"
"I said -"
"I head what you said, what do you mean?"
Tony shrugged. "If you need me to tell you then -"
He was silenced as McGee grabbed the lapels of his jacket, pulled him towards him and kissed him hard on the mouth. "There are better ways to get me to notice you," McGee said, his tone sultry.
Tony grinned. "Reckon there are."
HALF AN HOUR LATER
Gibbs sighed as he saw McGee and DiNozzo saunter back into the squad room. It wasn't quite what he'd meant when he'd told them to 'work it out'. But at least it might make things easier now they weren't going to spend their entire working lives trying to get the other to notice him.
Feedback is always appreciated
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