Keryl Raist's Blog

April 16, 2015

Shards To A Whole: Rainbow Party

“You sure we’re not camping?” Jimmy says, as they turn off the tiny, but paved, road onto an even tinier dirt one.
“Is this place even on the GPS?” Tim asks.
“It’s on the GPS, and we’ve got functional WiFi. Anyone needs us, they can get us. We’re secluded, not vanished,” Abby replies.
They bump, slowly, down the dirt road for another minute, and finally come to a small clearing in the woods. And in the clearing there’s a small cabin.
Jimmy and Tim look at it. “Oh.” Tim says, nodding.
Jimmy smiles. “Looks good. Kind of wondering if there’s a witch or if Little Red Riding Hood’s going to show up.”
“Axe murders and harbingers,” Tim adds.
“We’re not thatfar into the woods,” Breena says, turning off the car. “Grab the cooler, and let’s get in.”


The guys get a few minutes to look around while Breena and Abby unpack the cooler.
Tim approves of the little nest they built in the solarium, and he spies the bag the lip tars live in on top of four plates sitting on the sofa, so he’s got a hint as to what Abby and Breena have planned for this afternoon.
He looks over to Abby, who’s in the kitchen with Breena, and says, “So, did you just bring everything with you?”
Abby looks up and smiles at him. “Not everything.”
Breena adds, “But more than enough for three and a half days.”  
Abby nods. “More than enough for a week.”
Jimmy returns from the bedroom, carrying the mirror. It had been over the dresser in the bedroom, not any more. He plops it onto the sofa.
“You’re really getting into being able to watch, aren’t you?” Tim asks him as Jimmy points him toward the mattresses. Tim gets to where he assumes they’ll mostly be, and checks the view. “Left about three inches.”
Jimmy nods and scoots the mirror over a little. “We all like it, and… Wait…” Jimmy seems to be noticing that if they can all see out, then that means anyone else can see in. “We’re far enough away from everyone else that no one’s going to just wander by, right?” After all, there’s a reason why they do stuff like this behind closed doors. And sure, maybe getting caught is a kick, but… He’s not sure if that’s a kick when it’s all four of them at once.
Actually, no. It’s not. That’s the difference between naughty and actual danger. Get walked in on in a club with his wife, no big deal. Maybe get smacked on the wrist and look a little sheepish. Get walked in on mid-orgy, and that might have repercussions. (It also occurs to him that he’s apparently getting old, because the version of him that had sex on every horizontal and most of the vertical surfaces at the Navy Yard wouldn’t have blinked at this. Or, another thought hits him, he supposes it’s possible that he’s learned something from his experiences with Lee.)
Breena strolls from the kitchen to the mattresses, slipping off her shoes, and snuggling in next to Tim. “According to Google Earth, the closest house to us is six miles away. There’s a hunting camp three miles east, but nothing is in season for another month and a half. People do camp out here, but we’re on marked private property. It’s not impossible, just like it’s not impossible that one of our neighbors at home might decide to come over at a bad moment, but it’s as unlikely as it’s possible to be.”
“This is as far away from the rest of the world as we could get, and still have all the necessities,” Abby says, sitting on the step down to the solarium. Tim kisses Breena and then scoots over to help her with her boots. She can still get them herself, but, like before, he likes her legs and she’s pregnant enough it’s starting to get awkward, so why not help? “But if this is uncomfortable, there’s a perfectly functional bedroom over there, with solid walls, and shades on the windows. Moving’s not a problem.”
Jimmy looks at the mattresses all laid out, then looks out at a lake and miles and miles and miles of trees, he thinks about what went into this, and decides that he’s being silly.
“We’re good here.” He looks down at the little makeup bag, the pack of baby wipes, and the plates on the sofa next to the mirror. “What’s that?” He knows the girls brought toys, and he’s had more than enough sex to have a clue what the baby wipes might be for, but the plates are throwing him for a loop. He’s sure they’ve got snacks, but they’ve just eaten, so… he’s not immediately seeing what might be in that bag or going on the plates.
Abby grins up at him, flexing her toes in Tim’s hands as he gently kisses her knees. “You remember when we were talking about rings ‘or something?’”
Jimmy nods, the idea that they’d get each other something to mark this, and that Abby had something besides a piece of jewelry she was interested in. He crawls into the center of the mattress, kissing both girls.
Abby lifts her leg and strokes her foot over Tim’s leg, and then scoots down to join the rest of them on the mattresses. Right now, they’re all mostly dressed, and lounging about, sitting or lying, just resting and being comfortable.
“When we were on our honeymoon,” she touches Tim’s lips on her throat, “we traded permanent kisses. I was hoping to add two more kisses, if you’d be game for that.”
Breena’s smiling at that. She’s never seen lipstick on Jimmy, and isn’t sure if he’ll be game for this, but hopes he’ll go for it. “How do you see this working?” she asks, knowing she’s setting up the show and tell part of the afternoon.
Abby crawls over to the sofa, over Tim and Jimmy, stopping for kisses on the way, and then dumps a huge collection of tiny tubes out of the bag. “I brought all of our lip tars. We’ve got every color you can imagine, and they’re liquid, so it’s really easy to mix colors or paint them on however you like.” She grabs one of the pink ones, and squirts a tiny bit on the plate, showing off that each one of them will have their own plate for color mixing. “I was hoping to collect a whole lot of kisses, and give a bunch of them, too.” She air kisses at them. “The two best prints, I’ll get pictures of them, and after Sean’s on the outside, I’ll get them tattooed on.”
Jimmy’s looking intrigued by that, eyeing the colors, and heads closer to Abby. “So, you’re going to mix up some color for me, and I can kiss you, here—“ He’s touching Abby’s throat, just below her ear, on the spider web side.
Tim butts in, “No.”
Jimmy looks away from Abby, staring at Tim, confused. “No? What, is her neck yours and yours only?”
Abby’s looking really amused at the idea that Tim might have dibs on certain parts of her. She and Jimmy settle back down on the mattresses, facing the other two.
“No!” Tim rolls his eyes a bit. Abby is his, but not like that. “It’s her neck. The reason you’re not going to put a kiss there is the exact same reason why my lip print isn’t already there. It’ll look like a snack the spider’s got sitting on the web waiting for her next meal.”
Jimmy’s eyes go a little wider at that, and as he looks at the web, and thinks about what his lip print likely looks like, and how from a few feet away, especially if it’s a bright color, it would likely look kind of caterpillarish, he says, “Oh.”
Breena laughs. “So, besides not on your spider web, or any of the other tattoos?” Abby nods. “Everywhere else is open?”
“Not everywhereelse. It takes about a month for one to heal all the way up. So, there are some places I’d prefer weren’t out of commission for a month. And, since neither of you have lips that look anything like Tim’s, it can’t be visible when I’m dressed for work or church. Any skin you can’t see now is fair game.” She’s still got her sundress on, along with a collar, one wrist cuff, and socks that go to her knees. Both Jimmy and Breena are looking all over Abby. “And, of course, for just lipstick, you can put them anywhere you like.”
Breena shifts her gaze to Tim. “We adding some to you, too? Is that your ‘or something,’ also?”
Tim smiles. “Wasn’t what I was thinking. Not permanently, at least. With the lip tars, oh yeah, I want a full rainbow from you and Abby.”
Abby smiles. “And we both know where you want it.”
He half-smiles in response; Abby’s not wrong about where he wants it. “I’m easy to please on that. Do you want to add a kiss to me permanently?
“Maybe…” Breena’s kind of liking the idea of marking Tim. “What were you thinking?” Breena asks him.
He stands up and shucks off his jeans and socks, then stretches his leg out, over Jimmy’s, foot resting on Breena’s hip. They’ve all got a good view of the dragon and Kelly’s band. He touches the bit of skin next to the dragon’s top most wing. “Molly’s band goes here.” He touches Kelly’s. “Kelly.” His fingers move two inches below where Molly’s would be. “One here, for Jon.” His fingers slip down, to just above Kelly’s, “Anna’s goes here.” Back to the top. “Sean’s. That leaves a few inches for any other children we have. Maybe Donny Palmer goes down here.” He taps above where Anna’s knot will go. “When we’re done with babies, two four strand knots, one at the top and one at the bottom, wrapping all the way around my leg, for the four of us.”
Jimmy whistles low at that, what Tim’s talking about will cover most of his calf.
Breena’s nodding. “Our family.”
Tim nods back to her. “Yeah. All of us, worn on my skin.” He’s got on a t-shirt, so he raises the sleeve a bit to show the band he and Abby share. “I was telling her that when hands that love you touch you, it should leave a mark. It should change you. That’s the change I want to make. Is that… You guys good with all the kids on me?” They haven’t specifically talked about the kids they already have, but Tim knows he’s thinking of all of them as ‘theirs’ and sure some of them are his and some are Jimmy’s for the sake of the outside world, but in his head at least, they’re theirs.
“Yeah,” Breena says softly, her fingers drift to the tiny diamond solitaire she wears around her throat. “Thanks for remembering…"
Tim nods, and looks to Jimmy who nods back at him. Jimmy looks away for a second, blinks hard, and then makes himself smile, pulls his shirt off, and says, “So… rainbow party?”


Massive DorkThe thing Tim didn’t think of when he suggested a rainbow party to Abby is that he, still, thinks he looks like a massive dork when he’s wearing lipstick.
And sure, for playing, he likes the result of all those pretty kisses on Abby’s skin. (And hers on his.) But he doesn’t like how he looks with it on. (Actually, he doesn’t like how he thinks he looks with it on. He still hasn’t looked at himself when he’s doing this.)
But, and this is the part that’s biting him in the ass, as both Jimmy and Breena are enthusiastically getting into this, it’s that Jimmy and Breena are, by default, also going to see him with lipstick on.
Sigh.
On the upside, if he looks as stupid as he thinks he does, Breena probably won’t mention it, and Jimmy doesn’t have anyone to pull into teasing him about it. He’s wearing it, too, and Tony’ll completely flip out at the idea that this is the sort of thing they get up to when they’re on their own.
Still, he’s warily eyeing the colors as Abby’s putting tiny dabs of them on the plate.
“You weren’t kidding about every color, were you?” Breena’s asking, playing with one of the tubes.
“Nope. All of them. We might have gone a little crazy on them when we decided we liked this.”
Breena laughs. “Come here, babe,” she’s patting the spot on the mattress right in front of her, and Jimmy’s scooting over. She laughs at that, too, giving Jimmy a quick kiss. “Other babe.”
“Oh, me?” Tim starts to head over. “You need different nicknames for us.”
Breena inclines her head in agreement, but right this second she’s not feeling much need to wrack her brain for new terms of endearment. “Close your eyes.”
Jimmy’s looking amused, as Abby’s getting him settled and gently brushing the primer on his lips.
“Why?” Tim asks, feeling a little nervous, wondering what the hell she’s going to put on him that he can’t see while she does it.
“Because watching makes you uncomfortable.”
“Oh.” She’s not wrong. So his eyes shut, and he can hear her messing around and humming a bit, followed by the slightly wet, ticklish sensation of having his lips painted. “Open up.”
Tim does, letting her mess around with him.
“Ohhh… Good pick,” Abby says.
“Can I pick my color?” Jimmy asks, “Or are we just the toys you’re playing with today?”
Abby lets off a diabolical laugh. “Mental note, toy night is going on the list.”
Tim can feel Breena nodding at that. He can imagine her smile.
“Yes.” Abby says to Jimmy. “Though I was thinking of mixing a few together for you.”
“Mixing them how?”
“Let me do it, kiss it on me, and if you don’t like how it looks, we’ll do any colors you like.”
Tim hears Jimmy say, “Okay.” He’s trying not to squirm as Breena’s gently putting on… It feels like a lot.
“Lighter hand, love.” Abby says to her.
“We want a bunch of prints, right? Enough for both of us, not just you.”
“Oh!”
More dabbing at his lips. It didn’t take nearly this long when Abby did it. He’d like to ask, but she’s putting more stuff on his lips so…
“How much are these?” Breena asks.
“Eighteen dollars. They’ll last pretty much forever. For just casual wear, you only need a tiny bit.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. Better texture than what I use at work. Might have to invest in some of these.”
Tim finds that a little off-putting, he’d rather not be thinking about Breena’s clients right now, but, he’s still not saying anything because she’s lightly flicking the brush over his lips and humming again. He’s got the sense that if his eyes were open, he’d see her critically looking at what she’s done.
He’s about to open his eyes, but then the brush flicks out and there are a few more light flicks.
“Okay, all done. You want to see?”
He’s done, so he opens his eyes. And, okay, yes, he looks. He’s right. He looks dumb as hell with lipstick. Eyeliner is fine. Tattoos are good. The kilt rocks. This looks stupid. Fortunately, he gets something he likes out of this.
It’s dark, metallic blue. Shiny cobalt. Not a bad color on him, if it was a shirt or something, hell, eyeliner even. DUMB on his lips. But the girls seem to approve.
He’s about to rub his lips together, because seeing that’s made him very aware of them, and Breena immediately whacks him lightly on the shoulder. “No you don’t!”
He’s not sure if he can talk without messing it up, but he tries anyway. “Okay. Shall I do you?”
Breena lights up at that. “Do me how. My lips?” She lightly touches her bottom lip. “Or are you going to decorate me?” She gestures to all of her naked skin.
Tim whistles a low breath, remembering, vividly why he likes this. So many good options with that. He knows that eventually these will dry, and once they dry they don’t budge, so…
“Decorations first, then you’re going to sit in my lap, and I’ll paint your lips, and you’ll decorate Jimmy and I.”
She grins at that.
His eyes slip all over her, and he laughs a little. She arches an eyebrow, as Abby says to Jimmy, “All done.”
Tim answers Breena’s look. “Virgin territory. Miles and miles of untouched skin.” Then, as he’s checking out what Abby did to Jimmy, he carefully lays a kiss on Breena’s shoulder. The kiss on her skin is blue, bold and vibrant. He glances over and sees the kiss Jimmy’s putting on Abby’s inner knee in dark green and oaky brown, looks like she decided to match his eyes.
Still not a great lookHe doesn’t think lipstick looks as dumb on Jimmy as it does on him, but it’s not something he’d ever suggest Jimmy should do for a going out look.
Tim does like the look of Jimmy’s lips on Abby’s skin though. And as he lays another kiss on Breena’s throat, matching the one on Abby, he really likes how his lips look on her. Yep, Abby, Breena, either and both of them, this hits that little possessive kink just perfect. He’s idly wondering if Breena might be game for a tattoo, as he decides where Abby needs another kiss.
Tim slips over a bit, laying his next kiss on Abby’s breast. Lifting it gently and leaving a blue mark on the underside along with a deep, gently biting kiss. Then back to Breena. Enough of the tar came off on the first three kisses that this one should leave a really nice print. “Where?”
Jimmy’s also over with her, so for the moment she’s a bit distracted as he’s marking her inner thigh. Right where her thigh and pelvis meet. She gently taps the other thigh, and Tim smiles. He waits for Jimmy to pull back, and then lifts her leg, gently nuzzling from her knee to her pelvis, and finishes with a wet kiss to match Jimmy’s.
As he’s doing that, he feels lips on the small of his back, and he’s not sure if they’re Abby’s or Jimmy’s, and right now, he doesn’t care.
Tim scoots up an inch, and over an inch, gently nosing Breena’s pubic hair. “Next time you shave, my lip print goes here.”
“Sunday. All four of us slick and smooth and bare.”
That sounds awesome to Tim.
Jimmy groans at that idea, and Tim looks over to see his kiss print on Abby’s mound, one slightly higher and to the right on her hip, another one next to his on her breast. Breena pulls away from Tim for a second, and kisses Jimmy, deep, on the lips, and then says to him, “Wanna see it? Me riding you, your dick slipping in and out of me, with Tim’s lips right on my pussy.” Jimmy groans at that, too, and gently pushes her back onto the bed, trailing fainter and fainter kisses from her throat to her pussy.
Abby’s not wearing any lip tar yet, so she glances to Tim, and then snuggles into his lap.
“One sec.” He’s got something he wants to do before his lips dry. He gently lowers her onto her back and lays a kiss right above her belly button. Good one, clear edges, and then grabs a brush gets a bit more tar on it, and writes his name right under it. He gets a picture, too. Her tummy, gently swollen with Sean, his lips and name just above her belly button.
Abby’s staring at that, looking amused, and he kisses her lips, leaving faint traces of blue, while saying, “Just signing my work.”
Abby giggles at that, and Breena does, too. (Jimmy’s busy, and guessing by the sound Breena makes, he does something to make sure she’s paying attention to him.) Jimmy’s maybe missing something of the spirt of this, in that he’s kissing Breena over and over in the same place, but she’s having a very good time with it, so… Maybe he’s got the idea just right.
Tim grabs a baby wipe and wipes the blue lip tar off the brush. Then he starts up on Abby’s lips. He’s not as good with the brushes or the colors, but he thinks he does a passable job of mixing and then painting her lips blow job red. (He’s a tad distracted by her in his lap, all warm and soft and gently rocking against him.)
But, after a bit, her lips are done, and Abby’s ready to get kissing.
Abby kisses Tim. First print on his collarbone. Then, after one last warm, rocking moment on his lap, she kisses his cheek, and pats him gently so he kneels up, and closes her lips around the tip of his dick. He’s not full hard, yet, they’re just getting started, but that’s certainly helping things in that direction. “That’s where you want them, right?”
He smiles. “I like them all over, but…” he looks down at the first of the rings of color on his penis, “Yeah, you know it!”
Abby winks and then flips around and gently kisses Breena’s breast, leaving her lips in scarlet on Breena’s nipple.
Next one’s on her ribs, and Tim’s not sure if he wants to just watch, or if he should jump in. He settles for at least another second of watching as Abby gently licks Breena’s lips, and then shifts over to leave a bright red print on the nape of Jimmy’s neck, then one just below it between his shoulder blades.
He takes Breena’s hand in his, and kisses her wrist, one last, light somewhat smeary blue kiss, as she’s arching against Jimmy, hand clenched in his hair. (And yes, she’s tugging on his hair, and Jimmy’s moaning, maybe at that, maybe at what he’s doing to Breena. Tim’s not sure which, but either way, they’re both having a good time.)
He pulls back, knowing he’s got to put more of the lipstick on if he’s going to leave more kiss prints. Abby’s looking busy, trailing kisses down Jimmy’s back, and he thinks she needs some kisses on her back, too, go he grabs a brush and the plate with all the colors and heads to the mirror.
Not difficult to pick his second color. He might think black’s the only acceptable color on him (at least in the sense of not looking like a total twit) but for the sake of how it’ll look on Abby and Breena, he snags the brush, and mixes the silver along with a little green, thinking that looks good, and is different enough from the green Jimmy’s wearing right now, to make it easy to see whose lips are whose.
A minute of taking off the remains of the blue, another minute of putting the new silvery-green on, and he’s ready to go.
He looks at Breena and Abby. God, so many good options. Miles and miles of beautiful skin, all begging for a little color.
Breena looks done for the moment. She’s relaxing, purring, Jimmy’s head resting on her thigh, as she gently pets his hair. Abby’s kissing her way down Jimmy’s back. Tim finds the red lip print on his right ass cheek especially amusing. Then his eyes slip away from Jimmy’s ass (kind of boring to him) to Abby’s (much more fun) which is nicely high in the air as she’s kissing the back of Jimmy’s knee.
Yep, thatdefinitely needs some kiss marks.




Tim’s lying on his back, left arm extended over his head, Abby kissing up his leg while Breena’s got his arm.
He thinks he’s purring.
He’s not a cat guy, (lifelong cat allergies means he sees them as fuzzy annoyances at best) but right now he’s feeling awfully feline, all stretched-out, naked, spotted with glorious color, beautiful women petting him.
Breena gets to his wrist, looking at the one kiss mark that won’t wash off when they’re done.
“What if I want to put a kiss on you that won’t wash off?”
Tim tilts his head toward her. (His wrist is above his head, so he’s looking up and backwards.) “I told Abby a long time ago that I’d proudly wear any mark she wanted to put on me.” Breena leans down and kisses him, planting a candy pink kiss on his lips. “Same goes for you.”
Breena’s eyeing his wrist. “And you don’t have your heart set on another ring or something like that?”
“I’m fine with the cuff, or a ring, or… It just has to be something from the three of you that I wear on my skin. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter.”
“What are you thinking?” Abby’s asking, looking up from the trail of kisses she’s painting up Tim’s thigh.
Breena scoots over, next to Jimmy, who’s adding another color to his lips. She spends a few seconds looking at the already mixed colors, and then takes the periwinkle blue that matches her eyes and paints her lips with it.
“The cuff covers from here to here?” She touches just below Tim’s palm to two and a half inches lower.
“Yep.”
“Okay.” Breena takes his wrist in her hand, and lays a kiss on his wrist. Between hers and Abby’s it look almost like he’s got a 7 on his wrist. He’s a little puzzled at the placement, until he gets where she’s going with this.
Jimmy gets it about the same time Tim does, and he looks at Tim, raising an eyebrow.
“Go kiss that off on the girls.” Jimmy’s got a dark red on right now, and it’s too close to Abby’s blow job red to work on his wrist.
“You want my kiss?” Jimmy asks.
Tim almost shrugs at that. Jimmy’s lips tattooed to his skin was never on his list of dearest hopes, but he likes the symbolism, likes the closed triangle. He’s looking at two thirds of his loves, and… it’s just not done without Jimmy.
“Not done without you. Unless it makes you feel weird.”
“Nah.” Abby’s closer to him right now than Breena is, so he pulls her close and kisses her ear lobe. Then puts another one on her shoulder, giving her angel a kiss halo. One more right above the cuff tattoo on her arm, and then over to Breena. He lays a dark red kiss on her ankle, another on her shin, and one on her knee cap before the tar has mostly wiped off.
Back to the colors he goes, spending a moment thinking, and another moment mixing. Like Breena, he decides to match his eye color. So, deep greeny-brown. Tim would call it ‘cool moss’ which is probably just him being poetic, but if there’s ever a time to be poetic, describing your lovers’ kiss colors is probably it.
Tim sits up and holds out his wrist to Jimmy, who takes it in his hand and gently presses his kiss to close the triangle.
Tim takes a moment to look at it, all three sets of lips on his wrist, and nods. He likes it. It feels… right, and done, and he likes the idea of it hiding under his cuff. Likes the idea of carrying their love on his skin everywhere he goes.
He looks at his dragon, and touches it gently. “This is who I want to be.” More than that, it’s his love for them, worn on his skin. He looks at but doesn’t touch the lip prints. Jimmy’s is still wet and he doesn’t want them to smear. This is their love for him. “And this is what lets me be him.”


Rainbow party is, forgiving the pun, a brilliant idea. Everyone’s covered with pretty splotches of color. Tim’s got reds and pinks and coral and blues and greens and purples all over him. Kisses on hands and feet and everything in between. Both he and Jimmy are sporting rainbow covered erections, and the four of them have taken about three million pictures to go with this.
Breena’s still looking Abby over. She’s covered in kiss marks, his lips, Jimmy’s, and Breena’s but so far, Breena hasn’t found a place she wants to leave her forever kiss.
And then she does. Tim sees the way she lights up with it, and then springs over to the plate with all the colors on it. She’s carefully mixing as she says, “Tim’s is black; I want my lips to be lip colored.” After a few seconds, she’s got her color mixed up, and applied onto her lips, then she kneels on the bed behind Abby, gathering her hair in her hand, and gently, carefully, kisses the nape of Abby’s neck. “Right there. Between your hair and the collars you like, no one will see it unless you want them to. But it’s still close and sensual and romantic.”
Tim grabs his phone and takes several pictures. Making sure to get the color as true to life as possible, as well as good, close-up detail of the kiss.  
Abby takes the camera from him. “Yeah. I like that.” She turns and kisses Breena. Not trading marks, this is just lips on lips and happiness slipping from one body to another.
“How about it, Jimmy, which one of yours is going to be forever?” Abby’s looking over the kisses, some green and brown, some blues, some purples, a few in black, and a few more in dark red, that are all from Jimmy. 
Jimmy’s also looking, thinking. He looks up at Tim, and then back to Abby, “When you’re touched by hands that love you, it should leave a mark, huh?”
Tim nods. “That’s what I was thinking.”
“He’ll cover our lips with his wrist cuff. You wear one most of the time, how about always?”Abby nods. “I can do that. You thinking about my wrist?”
“Forearm, really, but you’ve already got tatts all over them.” Jimmy lays his palm along the inside of her forearm, the bottom of his palm just about at the bottom of hers. “This is the first place we touched.”
She smiles at that. “When you glued your hands to my arms.”
“Who knew what that’d turn into?” Jimmy reaches over and grabs a baby wipe. He wipes off Abby’s arm, removing several kisses, and after her skin is dry, he lifts her wrist to his lips, kissing along the faint blue shadow of her radial artery. “There.”
Abby smiles at it, and then kisses him, holding her arm carefully to let that print dry properly. Tim gets a shot of it, nodding, liking the placement and symbolism.
Jimmy’s looking over his skin, and then stands up to check his back in the mirror. He’s looking at the kisses, gently touching the now dry blow job red kiss between his shoulder blades, while thinking about the idea of forever. “So, how bad does getting one of these hurt?”
“Not the end of the world or anything, but it stings,” Abby says. “Why?”
“Thinking about it.”
“No.” Abby’s shaking her head. “There’s no reason for you to do that.”
Jimmy’s looking irked at that. They’ve got them all over their skin, why not him? “How about liking the idea? Sounds like reason to me.”
“Jimmy, you react badly to henna,” Abby says.
“And Sharpies…” Breena adds.
“You tried that?” Tim asks.
Breena’s nodding, pulling Jimmy back to bed. “I did a little design on his calf, and the next day the whole thing was swollen and red for days. You and ink don’t get along. So, let’s not inject it into your skin and see what sorts of new, fun allergies you’ve got.”
“Fine.” Jimmy’s not looking thrilled, but he doesn’t want to argue. Not right now. Not with pretty and naked people all around him.  (Though Tim’s making a mental note that Jimmy’s got first dibs on the shower when they’re done.)


It looks like a Crayola factory exploded. Or… that holiday in India, with the dye, Ducky would know what it’s called, it looks like that.
There’s four sweaty, smeary, spent people on what were once black sheets that are now very much notblack sheets.
Apparently, if you get sweaty, and apply some silicon based lube that gets smeared to other places, along with natural lube, and saliva, you come up with a cocktail lip tars cannot withstand. Most of those nice, defined, brilliant kisses have bled into the most conspicuous camouflage pattern in existence.
And Tim wouldn’t have it any other way.
He’s spooned up behind Abby, her body still soft and wet on his. He lightly kisses the smear that was once Breena’s lips on the nape of her neck. She purrs a little, shifting, and he slips wetly from her, coaxing one last, soft twitch from her body.
He can feel an arm slipping against his back. Jimmy’s, he’s guessing by the hair. He’s not rubbing Tim’s back, not as his main focus, (probably). Tim’s not quite feeling energetic enough to look up, but he thinks Breena’s on top of Jimmy (she was before he and Abby rolled to their side to finish up with a slow and lazy spoon), and he’s gently stroking her back, and just rubbing Tim’s as a side bonus.
Tim drags his arm down Abby’s side, resting his hand on her tummy, holding her close as he scoots back an inch to get closer to Jimmy and Breena.
Breena kisses his shoulder, and he feels her hair on his back and shoulder, so he guesses she’s snuggled her head in against Jimmy’s shoulder, back of her head to his back.
For a few more heartbeats they rest there, tired and happy. Then his phone buzzes. He doesn’t want to get up, but… But it could be… God, what time is it? Sun’s low, so it’s got to be past six. So, Sarah maybe, or work or… He sits up slow, kissing both girls, and tries to remember where the hell his phone ended up.
Eventually he sees it in the corner of the solarium, and reaches for it with pink/purple/green/blue hands, digging his phone out of his pocket.
It’s a text from his sister. We’re doing just fine.  Under that is a shot of Kelly sitting on one side of a nicely set table with Sarah on the other. Looks like dinner’s in full swing, for them.
He flops back to the center of the bed, showing off the shot. “Looks like they’re getting on okay without us.”
Abby looks at the picture, and takes the phone from Tim. Abby here. Awwww!
You guys having a good time? ;)
Yes!
Then I’ll let you get back to it.
Thanks.
Jimmy’s still laying on his back, but Breena’s starting to get up, too. She gently pokes him. “Come on, shower time.” Tim glances at her, and yes, both of them are thinking that getting the pigments off of Jimmy is a good plan. Yes, they’re designed for skin wear, but… just in case.
“Then feeding the pregnant lady!” Abby adds.
“Shower big enough for the four of us?” Tim asks. Now that he’s not all post-orgasmic glow-y, he’s starting to feel a bit sticky and gross.
“Nope.” Breena’s pulling Jimmy up, and he’s making less than happy noises about that. He looks like he wants to sleep, but finally he lurches up. “Fifteen minutes, then it’s your turn.”
Tim nods, and Abby looks around. “Come on, phase two. Won’t take us more than a minute.”
Breena grins at them, herding Jimmy toward the bathroom.
Tim glances at her, covered in her own rainbow of smeary splotches, hair spiky and sweaty, eyes glowing at him. “You’ve got a phase two?”
“Oh yeah.” She’s smiling brilliantly. “And you’re going to love it.”
“Really?” If phase two involves anything beyond a shower and sleep, he’s not sure how useful he’ll be for it.
“Yep. Come on, let’s get the sheets off and clean sheets on.”
That sounds like a step toward sleeping. “Okay.”



Half an hour later they’re on phase two, and Abby is right, he loves it. They’re all showered and dried off, naked and comfortable. (All four of them hitting more of a second wind once they got up and moving around again.)
They put clean sheets on the mattresses, as well as blankets and pillows. There’s sushi and lettuce rolls, cold dumplings, sake and tea. There’s feeding each other, bits of dinner nibbled from each other’s fingers, as they lay around.

And then, from there, there’s falling asleep watching the stars come out above and the last of the summer fireflies flitting among the trees.
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Published on April 16, 2015 08:11

February 28, 2015

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 426: Bad Shoot

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

Chapter 426: Bad Shoot


For a split second, Tony glances at Ziva, shooting her the, I really wish these assholes would stop running look, before they break into a run after their suspect.Where the hell does moron think he’s going to run? He’s in a tenth floor apartment. What’s he going to do, fly?Ziva tacks right, through the living room. Tony takes left, into the kitchen.The perp is cornered in the dining room. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Two ways in, and each of them has an armed Federal Agent pointing a gun at him standing in the middle of it. He puts his hands behind his neck without being asked and smiles at Tony and Ziva.It’s automatic. They’ve done this so many times they barely have to think about it. He keeps his gun on the Perp. She lowers hers, grabbing her cuffs, heading (wide) to cuff the perp. They’ll take him to the car, toss him in the back, then down to the Navy Yard, Processing, Holding, and Interrogation.It’s textbook.He’s looking at Tony, and something’s wrong. He’s still smiling. He’s looking at Ziva. He’s not acting caught.Something is wrong. Tony feels it all through him. Something is wrong.Tony fires before anything other than wrong can form in his head.“Oh God!” Oh godohgodohgodohgodohgod please, please, please pleasepleasepleaseplease. Tony feels like he’s going to shit his pants, puke, and pass out all at once, and the only thing stopping that is that he’s got to see if the man he just killed has a gun.He’s never… He’s shot people before, but never… SHIT. Ziva’s just staring at him, stunned, and he can’t move, can’t do anything but stand there, too awash in too much everything to even see if his life is about to end, too.Bad shoots happen. That’s just part of being a cop. You get twitchy and someone moves wrong and FUCK! He can feel the tears starting. He didn’t wait. He didn’t see. He didn’t say stop, or freeze, or hands where I can see them, or anything. He just fired, three shots, all in the chest.Ziva finally moves, to the body, not bothering to check if he’s still alive, they can tell by the smell and the puddle of urine to go with the blood that he’s gone. She reaches behind his neck, guessing that’s got to be what Tony saw, and then says to him, “He had a gun. It’s taped up between his shoulder blades.”Tony nods once, exhales long and shaky, and then his knees go out, and he hits the floor, shaking.When he’s got control of himself, he notices Ziva’s moved something. Their perp (victim) had been standing behind the dining table in his home. Behind that table was a painting of a woodland scene. Ziva’s moved it, swapped it out. Now there’s a mirror over the table, and he guesses the woodland scene is wherever the mirror was.She’s calling it in, officer involved shooting, no need for an ambulance. AI will be here soon. He’ll give them his statement. Perp had a gun and went for it. Cut and dried…“Tell me what happened,” Ziva says, crouching on the floor next to him.“I don’t know.” Because he doesn’t. Not really. That’s not true, he does know. He knows exactly what happened. Someone made a threatening… something… not exactly a move, but something, toward his wife and child, and he killed the man for it.“Wrong answer.” Ziva’s cool, and in control right now. She’s in clean up mode, and he wonders, vaguely, how many times she’s done things like this. Made a bad kill look good.He rubs his forehead, takes a deep breath, lets it out, swallows, and then says, voice calm, “We chased Darner in here. I pulled my gun and told him to stop. He looked around, saw there wasn’t an exit, then turned to face us, hands up. He put his hands behind his neck. I nodded at you, and you holstered your weapon and proceeded to take your cuffs out. I kept my gun on him. You were going through his rights. I…” He doesn’t know. He’s not sure if he saw it, felt it, sensed it, or just knew, but somehow, something, maybe a twitch, maybe his arm tightened slightly, maybe it was a little move (maybe he was just going to scratch an itch, the little, and not very helpful, voice in the back of Tony’s mind says) but whatever it was, Tony read it as a threat, to Ziva, and he open fired without warning. Tony’s eyes flick to the mirror, and what Ziva’s given him with that. “…saw him reach for his gun. I told him to stop. He didn’t. I fired three times.”Ziva looks at him, eyes steady. “Exactly.”AI takes hours. Jimmy and Allan have come, taken care of the body, and gone while they’re still talking. Warner’s team has come, cordoned off the building, and processed the scene, and he and Ziva are still talking to AI.Their stories match, but not perfectly. They know how this works. They’re pros. The main details are all the same, but Ziva remembers him saying ‘Freeze’ he remembers it as, ‘Stop.’ Little details that get muddled when you look at real eye-witness statements are different, instead of rehearsed, prepped statements you get from people who don’t know how to do this.Ziva claims she saw Darden shift his left hand toward the gun. Tony claims right. Tony was watching in the mirror. Ziva saw it from in front of him. Just little things like that, easily explained by people being people.It’s not a fun six hours, but when it’s done, it’s done. Tony’s a good cop, with sixteen years at NCIS and a clean record. The wrong guy tried to see if he could get the drop on the wrong cop.“You gonna yell at me for this, too?” Tony asks Jimmy as he steps into Autopsy. (He’d gotten a text saying, Come down.) “Gonna wake up and find you’ve pulled some cruel shit to go with another bad decision?”Jimmy raises one eyebrow, and Dr. Allan decides now is a very good time to dematerialize. Two seconds later, he’s vanished, and Jimmy says, “Guy draws on your pregnant wife, you can shoot him as many times as you want and then cut his balls off and wear ‘em for earrings, and I won’t say boo.”Jimmy takes two steps over and gives Tony a hug. Tony stands there, stiff, not letting himself be comforted. Jimmy sighs, so much for trying that. He steps back.“I called you down so you can run me through it. If anything doesn’t match your version, it’s not going to make the report.”“You don’t need to--”“You’re right, I don’t. But I will. Because you did the right thing, and I see no reason for you or Ziva or your child to suffer for it.”That gets through where the hug didn’t.“I don’t know that I did.”“He’s dead. She’s not. You did the right thing.”“I shot before he reached for it. I think he was thinking about it, but…” Tony shakes his head, leaning heavily against one of the autopsy tables, staring at Darden, who is lying on the other table. “I didn’t see him move.”“Shit.”“He was looking at her, and…” Tony’s replaying it, again, trying to find the trigger, what made him move. “It felt bad. Something was wrong, but… I didn’t know about the gun until after he was dead.”“Ah fuck.” Jimmy bites his lip and says, “All the more reason to make sure everything’s clean then.”Tony narrows his eyes. “You ream me out for Jeanne but give me a free pass on this one? This one is dead because I fucked up.”“You’re a good cop. No one has ever doubted that. It felt bad or wrong… So you got him before he went for it? You don’t spend half your life training your gut to scream when something’s wrong to ignore it. You don’t have to let him take a shot at Ziva, not for me.”Tony’s eyes are narrow, and he’s not looking relaxed or comforted.“I didn’t ream you out on Jeanne for making a mistake. Jeanne wasn’t a mistake. It was wrong and you knew it and you did it anyway. This, at worst, is a mistake. People make mistakes. It happens. Place a credible threat against Breena, and I’ll attack, too. Tim’d do the same for Abby. Anyone who tries to mess with Abbi Borin better be ready to have so many holes in him he’ll work as a sieve. And that’ll be before Gibbs even gets to him…” Tony flinches. “What?”“Gibbs’d have to get in line, because Abbi can take care of herself and she’s got all of those years of training and a gut that yells when there’s danger.”Jimmy nods.“Ziva didn’t feel it. She was relaxed enough in it that she was looking down and getting her cuffs.”Jimmy winces, too. “Nothing?”“After, she looked at me, and she was surprised. That I remember.”“Then you made a mistake. It happens. And this wasn’t some unarmed, innocent bystander, and it’s not like you were gunning for him because he wasn’t paying taxes or had a joint on him. He’s wanted for…” Jimmy waits, letting Tony fill in the blank, hoping that saying it out loud will help.“A few bombings, believed to have killed three cops in the UK, mostly he’s a courier. Gets things from point A to point B.”   “So, this,” Jimmy points to him, “was not a good guy. This is not Mr. Wrong Place Wrong Time, and he’s sure as hell not Mr. Even If He Is Guilty of What You’re Saying He Did, That Doesn’t Deserve the Death Penalty. If you brought him in, and he didn’t deal, we’d have fried him. “And, here… haven’t sent them over to Abby and trace yet, but…” Jimmy grabs the bag that has Darden’s belt in it. It looks like a plain, black leather belt with a silver tip on the tongue. Jimmy tugs on that tip, and out slides an inch long knife. “Razor sharp. Can’t stab with it, but it slashes just fine.” He places Darden’s boots on the table next to Tony, flips one of them over, and turns the heel. There are lock picks in there. “God knows what else he’s got hiding that I haven’t found, yet. What else he may have had in that room. Take me through the shooting.”Tony shakes his head. “Don’t need to. It’ll all match up right. Everything in the story happened the way it really did. Only difference was I saw him go for the gun in the story and told him to stop.”“Okay. AI done with you?”“For now.”Two days later, his gun is back in his holster, and the case is behind him.Professionally.Personally… Not even close.He can’t talk about it. Not yet. Not to Ziva, not to anyone. He can give the route answers as to “what happened,” but they’re lies.He fucked up. That’s what happened. Doesn’t matter what he had tucked away. Doesn’t matter that Darden wasn’t a good guy and the world is better off without him. He fucked up. There are procedures. There are steps in play to make sure you take the guy, and all of the information in his head (which was why they wanted him) into custody, alive.He and Ziva were out there. A man, who he didn’t know was armed, made a move (probably, something had to set his threat sensor off) and he took him out. All of it happened before the part of his brain that actually thinks got into the act.On a sub-thought level, he knows they were chasing Darden because he was part of a trafficking ring. He ended up on their radar as a link to a link that Bishop pulled out of their data feed. He was, of all covers, pretending to be a Petty Officer working for the Quartermaster out of Norfolk. Not a bad way to get things from here to there. He could find a ship, add an extra box of, something, and whoever else he had in his circle could pick it up later. He was wanted for moving humans, drugs, guns, money, anything that anyone might want, into and out of the country. According to Interpol, ‘he was a person of interest’ in two bombings (thought to have been the guy who got the explosives from point a to point b). He had successfully escaped capture three times, and killed cops twice to do it.When Tony thinks about that, he feels better about jumping the gun. (Literally.) Obviously this guy had some sort of ace in the hole. (A plastic derringer taped to his back. And lock picks in the heel of his boot. And a tiny knife hidden in his belt. But he didn’t know that until after.) Tony likes to think all of that was processing in the back of his mind, and that, plus that move (that he doesn’t know if he actually saw or not) made his body fired before Darden could get the drop on him.When he thinks about the fact that there are no good reports on how Darden had killed those cops, (bodies were found burned to skeletons and parts were missing) that there was no way for Tony to have known he had a gun, that he shot on blind panic, that he does not, in fact, remember seeing a move, he feels terrible.Bad shoots happen. They just do. The cop who’s never screwed up is like the surgeon who’s never lost a patient, one who’s been on the job for such a short time the opportunity just hasn’t arisen.If you’re lucky, like Tony, you’ve got cover, you guessed right, and the next day you go back, promising to do a better job.If you’re not, that’s the end of the perp, and it’s the end of you, too.But the fact that it happens. That everyone has one… That’s not making it easier to deal with the little voices in his head.  It’s been a week. It’s well after midnight, and he’s not sleeping.He rolls out of bed and grabs his phone. You up?Five minutes later, when he’s decided that Gibbs probably is sleeping, or might be at Borin’s or something, he gets back. Door’s open.Gibbs is in his basement, working on Little D’s rocking chair. He’s actually been up all night working on it. After dinner he hit his groove and has been happily crafting away. The only reason it took him so long to respond was he didn’t hear his phone buzz. He’d been sketching out the shapes he wants each piece to be on the wood he’s using and decided his pencil was a bit duller than he likes for this kind of work. When he turned to the bench to sharpen it, he saw the text icon on his phone, and replied.He knows that Tony killed someone last week. They talked about it a bit at Shabbos, but he blew it off, and Ziva gave them that little headshake that said, ‘Sensitive, don’t poke.’ So they didn’t poke.But Gibbs knows that look. He’s worn it himself. He’s seen it on Tim. He’s seen it on Fornell. And he’s seen it on Mike. No matter what actually happened, Tony thinks it’s a bad shoot.And he knew, when he saw Ziva’s headshake, that Tony’d be here, sooner or later, when he’s ready to talk.By the time Tony gets there, Gibbs has two more slats sketched out, and the bourbon poured.“She had to move the mirror,” Tony says in lieu of Hello.Gibbs would have to admit that that’s a tad more cryptic than he’d like, but he can pretty much figure out what Tony has to be saying by it. Only one she he could be talking about, and only a few reasons to move a mirror.Gibbs hands over the drink, and pretty much puts Tony onto a stool. “Start at the beginning.”So he does.Tony gets to the part about seeing or not seeing or whatever it was, and Gibbs interjects, “The gut knows.”“Try telling IA that.”Gibbs inclines his head. “I know.” Then he looks at Tony, waiting for the rest of the story. And, finally, the mirror comment makes sense.“She gave you cover, something you could explain to IA.”“Yeah. She knew it was a bad shoot—““Stop that. Your wife and child are breathing. Any shoot that accomplishes that is a good shoot.”“Jimmy said that, too, but I didn’t know Gibbs, I panicked.”“You knew. You knew he was dangerous. You knew he was in his own home. Why run into the room with no exit in his own home? Not like he got lost. You knew he’d killed other cops. You didn’t know how, but you knew he’d done it. He puts his hands behind his neck, not his head, why? Without being told, why? You knew.”“Felt like panic. I’ve made good shots, besides the first one, I never almost pissed myself or hit the floor. Never didn’t sleep for a week after a good shot.”“But all of those things did happen the last time you almost lost Ziva.”“Yeah. That’s why I panicked. That’s why I didn’t say stop. I shot before anything…”“And it was a good thing you did. He had lock picks in his boot, a hidden knife in his belt. You yell stop. He stops. Ziva grabs the gun, cuffs him, hands behind his back. Into the car you go. Call it in. On the road, he picks the lock, pulls the knife, holds it to Ziva’s throat until you stop the car and let him out. Maybe he takes your gun, too. Maybe he slits her throat before he runs, knowing that calling for help and trying to keep her from bleeding out means you won’t follow. The gut knows. You knew.  “As a husband and father, as the man guarding my daughter and grandchild, you did the right thing. As your father-in-law, friend, mentor, whatever it is we are to each other, I am proud of you. Your family comes first, above and beyond everything else.”“As your ex-boss, as a cop, you fucked up, and not because of the shot, but because you had the person you’d take a blind shot for on your team. That’s why you were ready to piss yourself, not because it was a bad shoot, but because Ziva was the one next to you. You wouldn’t have taken that shot if Bishop had been there, and knowing how close to FUBAR you could have gotten wouldn’t have hurt so bad if Draga had been in that car with you.“There are a lot of good reasons for 12, and that’s one of them. I have been exactly where you are, and the only reason I was even around to ever be your Boss is when Jen and I finally got the shit cleaned up, enough people had stopped breathing that no one besides us knew what had happened.“Jen and I split after that. Lots of reasons, but one of them was I’d made it clear I couldn’t work with her. Same for you. You’re done. You can’t work with Ziva. Since you’re the problem and she isn’t, normally I’d say you need to hand in your badge, but you know she’s planning on leaving soon, and there’s no one else you’d make that mistake for.”Tony nods, feeling absolved.“But don’t put that gun back on if you go out with her. Better yet, don’t go out with her. I know it’s early days, but it might be time for her to leave, or go on desk work, or whatever it is she wants to do.”Tony shrugs. “She’d been talking a bit about working with you on the houses.”Gibbs smiles at that. He'd like having Ziva working with them.
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Published on February 28, 2015 20:12

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 425: Talk It Out

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.


Chapter 425: Talk It Out


It’s Wednesday when Jimmy gets a free lunch period and heads down to the Dungeon to find Tim. He’d been hoping to get some time to talk with him, but between the dead body they collected on Monday morning and giving himself some thinking and experimenting time, Wednesday’s the first day he’s been ready to really talk.“Got time for lunch?”Tim nods. “Yeah. What are you thinking?”“Pretty nice out today, how about the Smithsonian? Grab some food, eat in the sculpture garden.”“Sounds good.” He takes a moment, logs out of whatever he’s working on, sends a quick Out for an hour or two text to the Minions (he’s been wanting to talk to Jimmy, too.) grabs his crutch, and off they go.As they head toward the elevator, Jimmy watches how Tim’s walking. “Looking pretty smooth.”Tim nods. “If we were staying closer, I’d have left it in the office.”“Good.”“I guess. Friday I might get my last two fingers back.” Tim holds up his cast hand. “Or he might take a look at the scans and give me two more weeks in the cast.”“Either way, by the end of the month you’ll be down to the wrist cast. By the beginning of September, you’ll be out of them, period.”“Yeah.”
It really is nice out. A day that belongs in May, cool, breezy, bright sun, not the traditional hot, sticky, smog, walk outside and feel like you’ve been hit in the face with a steaming hot, wet, wool blanket that’s a usual August day in DC.Perfect day to grab a bite amid the artwork. Better yet, in that it’s August, the place isn’t covered with tourists. Most people know to show up in the Spring or Fall, so the Smithsonian Sculpture garden isn’t abandoned, there are several people hovering around snapping photos, and a few locals, like Tim and Jimmy, taking advantage of a lovely day, but for the most part, it’s pretty empty. Which suits Jimmy just fine. He doesn’t mind if strangers overhear this. Two nameless, faceless guys talking about something personal, no big deal, but they’re well away from the office for a reason.Jimmy’s been looking for a way to start this conversation since last night, when Breena assisted him in a very successful experiment, which did indeed help him figure out why he slid into that fantasy so fast and hard, and also why he’s somewhat uncomfortable with Tim running the show.So, yes, turns out that he does, really like having someone else run the show for him. (At least, as a fantasy, they haven’t tried for real, yet. Given how much he liked it as a story, Breena’s intrigued about trying in real life.) A story of Breena and Abby tying him up and playing with him, telling him what to do worked just fine for him. A very good time was had by all, and there were no lingering concerns about why that was a big deal.But he’s damned if he can think of a good way to say to Tim, So, yeah, I loved the stories, those were hot as fuck, but don’t Dom me, that’s squirmy.Instead, he ends up saying, “So, you do anal bareback? Isn’t that… risky?” because it’s easier to talk about the mechanics of sex than the emotions, and he’s sure they’ll get to the emotions sooner or later. (Plus he is curious about this, too.)Tim shrugs. He knows it can be, but so far he’s been careful and lucky. “I’ve never gotten a urinary tract infection, if that’s what you mean.”“Some. Kind of messy?”Tim’s looking at him with dry humor in his eyes. “I’m sorry, didn’t you spend your whole morning elbow deep in a corpse?”Jimmy raises an eyebrow at him and replies, also dryly, “Yes, but I was wearing gloves.”Tim nods, chuckles a bit. That’s a point. “Yeah, it’s messy if you don’t prep for it. I mean, look…” Tim’s searching for a way to say this that isn’t too gross. “It’s obviously not something you want to do without hitting the head first, and especially if there’s going to be rimming, you don’t just take a shit. You do need to really clean up, inside and out. But anal’s not an on impulse thing, usually. Between the lube and the prep and… most of the time whoever bottoms puts it on the menu and makes sure to clean up properly. And in that case, it’s not any messier than any other sex.”Jimmy nods, remembering that comment about Abby’s strap on, which he assumes is a dildo of some sort. He’s not sure if he should ask, though. Apparently it shows on his face.“Just ask,” Tim says, taking a sip of his iced coffee.“Whoever bottoms? And is bottoming what I think it is?”Tim looks a little amused a little bemused. “I’d imagine so.” He takes a bite of his tuna wrap. “And yes, both of us can and do end up on the receiving side of anal. I take it you’ve never tried that?”Jimmy’s not sure if he’s feeling shocked at that or not. No… he was kind of expecting that answer, so… mostly curious. He’s not seeing why anyone would want to do that. He gets why being on the doing side would feel good, but when he tried with Breena, she said it hurt, so… He’s not getting the appeal. “Uh. No. Don’t have anything against it, but… Just never thought about it.” Not entirely true. Like most guys he’s been teased about it, and responded with the traditional and expected ‘over my dead body’ line. But that’s a knee-jerk reaction coming from being teased and poked at by other guys. Beyond that, it’s really not anything he’s ever thought about. “Is it good?”Tim smiles, many happy memories in mind. “You ever hear the line, ‘Beer is proof that God loves us?’”“Yeah.” He’s staring at Tim wondering how those two things could possibly be related, but Tim’ll get there soon.“Okay, I can take or leave beer… and God for that matter, but, I’m sure, that if there is a God, your prostate is proof that God loves you and wants you to have a very good time. Yes, it’s good.” He nods at that. “Not if you do it wrong. Hurts like a bitch if you do it wrong, but just like when you’re doing it to her…” Tim realizes he’s making some assumptions here. “Um… have you done it with Breena?”Jimmy shrugs a bit. “Once. Didn’t seem worth it…” Felt good to him, really good, but Breena said it hurt, so they didn’t get past two strokes. “…And especially since Molly, that’s a no-go area.”“Oh.” Tim was thinking that maybe Jimmy just didn’t know what he was doing, but some vivid, overheard conversations about how bad post-baby hemorrhoids can be spring to mind, and that’d put him off anal, too. “Okay, well, anyway, you take your time, lots of lube, lots of slow prep, but yeah you do it right and it’s blow your mind, cum like a geyser, maybe pass out, good.” That has Jimmy looking intrigued. He’s all in favor of ‘cum like a geyser.’ “So, that comment about Abby with a strap on…”“Yes, she really has one. I wasn’t just making that up for the story. It’s fairly plain, dark purple, kind of small, and she really knows how to use it.”“Huh.” Jimmy slowly chews a bite of his salad.“Why are you asking? Want pointers? I’m sure Abby’d be happy to talk Breena through it, especially if we get to watch.” And suddenly watching Breena bugger Jimmy hops onto the long list of things Tim wants to see. Even better if Abby’s playing with him, too. Tim swallows and licks his lips. “I mean, really, it’s well worth trying.”Jimmy shakes his head. “Wasn’t exactly what I was thinking.” He’s not entirely sure what he’s thinking. But… Tim likes that, and he just scooped Jimmy up and started playing with him, he woke up with the guy wrapped around him, and Jimmy knows Tim was watching him, getting off on it… And, Tim’s got that excited look in his eyes at that idea… So…Tim eats some of his tuna wrap, waiting for Jimmy to say what he’s thinking.“Are you straight?” Jimmy asks.“Uh…” Tim kind of remember mentioning that, but… that was before they started playing, and… okay, he’s been thinking about it, so Jimmy probably is too. Plus, there’s a few directions Jimmy might be interested in taking this, and Tim’s not sure where he’s going, so might as well get it out. “Yeah…Probably. I think so. Abby says I am. Why? I mean, does it matter?”“Just, you like that, and you were watching me…” Jimmy says, quietly, fiddling with his fork.“Because it feels good! And... you were watching me, too,” Tim shoots back.“Well, yeah,” Jimmy looks back up to Tim, “because it was hot.”“Exactly,” Tim pauses for a moment, another possible direction this might be going, and why Jimmy might be asking springing to mind, really surprising him, because he never got even a hint that Jimmy might be interested in something along those lines, but… well the can of worms is open, so might as well deal with it. Still… and Tim’s thinking this is a pretty definitive sign of not being bi, the idea of Jimmy topping him is really squirmy, and not in a good way. “Uh… I don’t want you to do that to me. Abby or Breena and a strap-on is fine, but… not you.”Jimmy jerks at that, looking utterly stunned, and Tim can see, even before Jimmy starts to talk that he completely misread that situation. “What? Okay, I was so not offering! And…” Jimmy cringes, and Tim’s sure he’s thinking through the mechanics of how that would work. “I don’t think I could, even if you wanted me to.”“But I don’t.”“Okay. Umm… Good, right?” Jimmy’s intensely staring at his food right now. “Just, it really was hot, you know?”Tim nods.Jimmy looks back at him. “Been thinking about that.”“Me, too. Thought it’d be all about watching Breena and Abby, but… It wasn’t. But, even with as hot as that is, I don’t want to have sex with you.”Jimmy nods at that. “Me, either. But I want to watch you fuck the girls.”Tim nods emphatically at that. “Yeah. Same thing. Or watch them do you. Don’t want to do you myself.”Jimmy nods again. “Okay, good, on the same page.” He takes another bite of his salad, and says, quickly, “I loved the stories, but don’t Dom me again.”Now it’s Tim’s turn to look really surprised. “When did that happen?”“What do you call it when you tie someone up and tell them to just sit there and watch while you run the show?”For a second, Tim’s about to say, It was just a story, I didn’t actually do it, but decides that the heart of this is not whether or not he actually did it. The heart of it is that even the idea of it was weird for Jimmy, so instead he says, “Oh. Yeah. Shit, sorry. Um… I like that, so…”“It’s not that I don’t like it… It’s, I don’t want you to do it. Just like anal, the girls can do it and it’s fine, but, not you.”“Oh. Okay.”“Would you like it if I ran that story?”Tim thinks about that for a moment, it’s not making him feel weird, but he’s also going at it as a thought, not a reality. Of course, being topped by Jimmy was a thought, too, not a reality, so… “It’s not hitting me wrong, but it’s not real, either.”“Why tie me up?” That’s been chewing at the back of Jimmy’s mind, too.Tim shrugs again. “Like I said, I like it. I thought you’d like it, and I was working off a story Abby and I had already started so…”“What story?”“When we were at the club, Abby set the story, all four of us, in bed, me on my back, wrists tied to the headboard, Breena on me, hands tied behind my neck, you doing her, anal, from behind, Abby lying next to us, necking with me and Breena, controlling the vibrator in my ass. We don’t get to move. You and Abby run the show.”“Fuck!” Jimmy’s not sure he could even say that out loud, let alone to Tim. “That’s the story you were telling? And once again, you kiss your baby with that mouth?”Tim shrugs a little. “How do you think I ended up with that baby I’m kissing?”Jimmy snerks at that.“Anyway, that’s the story she told. She and you were running the show. You’re setting the pace for half of the action, and Abby’s got the control on the vibrator, so she’s got the other half, and Breena and I are just going along for the ride, completely in your and Abby’s control. So, I’m telling the story now, and all of us are there, and I want to keep some of the themes, but I want to play with them too, so, you get tied up and watch, Abby goes from watching to involved, but since she was running it before, she’s not getting off, and Breena and I are untied and get to play.” Tim thinks about it more, searching, making sure that’s what he had going through his head. “And I knew the girls would like seeing you tied up. Abby especially. She really likes that.”Jimmy nods.“So, you liked it though… If Abby had run the story…”“It would have been fine.” Jimmy notices one of the tourists is getting closer than he wants for this conversation, so he drops his voice, and Tim leans in a bit to hear better. “You asking if I want to watch you fuck my wife is one thing; Abby doing it is something else.”Tim nods at that. “Yeah, been having some thoughts like that, too. Are you straight?”“Always thought so.” Jimmy rolls his eyes some. “Part of why this weekend’s got me thinking. You know, you watch porn, and there’s a guy in it, but…”“But he might as well be furniture, and you’re mostly watching the girl?” Tim finishes for him.“Yeah. You can take him out of the show and it’ll be just as hot. But it wouldn’t have been as hot without you.”“Thanks.” Tim says with a smirk.Jimmy whacks him on his good arm with the back of his hand. “I’m being serious here.”“I know. Okay, honestly, I spent most of my babysitting time thinking about this, and my great revelations on the subject came to this: A: It doesn’t matter if I’m straight or not. My number of sexual partners from here on out is maxed at… two… three… Shit. Do you count as one of my sexual partners?”Jimmy rolls his eyes and shrugs.“Anyway, I mean, none of you care, right?”Jimmy nods.“So it’s a moot point. B: Watching real people enjoy real sex is hot. C: If you subtract Breena and Abby from the mix, your naked body is just about as sexy as over-cooked cauliflower to me.”“Are you saying I’m white, lumpy, and mushy?”Tim just looks at Jimmy. Then he smiles and continues on with, “D: I think it’s mostly an empathy thing, been there, done that, it was fucking excellent, and I’m getting off on getting to see you enjoy it, too.”Jimmy thinks about that some. Those seem like fine points, but he’s got the feeling that he’s interacting with Tim’s brain right now, who Tim wants to be, not his guts, who he is, and that there might be some deeper levels here that he’s working out for himself. He thinks about holding Tim and waking up with him, and how all of this… stuff… fits together. Then he puts his salad on the bench next to them, fork in the bowl, and takes Tim’s hand in his, twining their fingers together.For a millisecond, Jimmy thought Tim’s going to jerk away, but he doesn’t, and once again Jimmy’s got the sense that the brain wants one thing and the body wants something else, but the brain is winning.Meanwhile, brain in charge, Tim’s looking at him, curious about what’s happening with their hands. “Experimenting?”“Yeah. Remember the first time you held Abby’s hand?”Tim thinks, but that’s lost to memory. He shakes his head. “I remember the first time I touched her.”“All sort of sharp and tingly and your whole body lit up?”“Yeah. We had a lunch date, and I headed down to the lab, and she looked up and said, ‘Hi! You must be Agent McGee,’ then she came over and hugged me.”“What’d you say to her?”“’Hi. Call me Tim.’”Jimmy snorts at that. “And only fourteen years later…”“Eleven years. Okay, yeah, it took a while. It happened.” He looks down at his hand in Jimmy’s. “This doesn’t feel like that, does it?”Jimmy shakes his head, letting go. “Feels a little bit like holding Breena’s hand now. There’s no rush at it these days. It’s warm and comfortable. Feels good, reassuring, but not sexy.”Tim nods; that’s a decent description. He’s not entirely sure about comfortable, but he’s not feeling any sort of negative sensation from it right now. Of course, they’re dressed and in public, and it's definitely not erotic. This couldn’t be less sex if they tried… Okay, it could, they could be talking about work, but, that was very clearly a platonic hand hold. And… and he’s rationalizing… more than whatever it is, he wants it to be comfortable, and if he’s got to tie his brain in knots to get there, that’s what he’ll do.But that touch hints something else, making him think about comfort, and about his time thinking on the beach, and the first time he touched Abby, well, the second first time, because that time he knew he was in love with her. “Are you in love with me?”“No!” Snaps out of Jimmy. He’s giving Tim the what the hell is wrong with you even thinking of asking that look. It occurs to Jimmy as he says that, that it’d be easier to wake up naked with Tim in his arms every morning than say, ‘I’m in love with Tim McGee,’ out loud. Great something else to ponder.Tim hits him with his I’ve got a point here look, and deliberately takes Jimmy’s hand in his again. “Do you love me?”Jimmy glances at Tim’s hand in his, wondering what he’s doing with this, but then looks back to his eyes and says, “Yeah.”“What’s the difference? Been thinking about that a lot this weekend, too.”“Oh. I…” Jimmy thinks about it, there’s got to be a difference, right? The romance thing, right? But… he’s felt the full-on hearts and flowers romance thing without being in love, and he’s been with Breena more than long enough to see that romance comes and goes, but the love doesn’t. “I don’t know.”“You’re in love with Breena and Abby, right?”“Yeah.” That one’s easy to answer, doesn’t make him feel off balance.“Only thing I can come up with is that I want to have sex with them, and I don’t want to have sex with you.”Jimmy squints a little at that, like he’s thinking hard. “There’s supposed to be more to it than that... Right?”“Yeah, but I can’t find it.” Tim taps his fingers on the back of Jimmy’s hand. “I love you. I love Gibbs. I do not feel the same about you as I do about Gibbs.”“Okay.” Jimmy flashes him a smirk. “Probably be kind of awkward if you did.”Tim elbows him gently. “I love Tony and Ducky, too, and all of those relationships are different.”“Got you.”“But I don’t feel like there’s a huge difference, besides the sex, between how I feel about you, and about Breena. I mean, there are some differences… Like… I think I’d be more protective of her than you, but that’s because she’s a girl and I know you can fight, not because I feel differently about her than I do about you.“And I want to do nice things for both of you, but I don’t check in with either of you a few times a day, like I do with Abby. But I actively miss you if I go a few days without seeing you. And I run into things over the course of the day that I want to tell you about, and I make note of them so I can tell you about them the next time I see you. And I don’t tend to feel that way about Tony or Ziva. I’m always happy to see them, but if we don’t cross paths at work, Friday’ll be soon enough. But I’ll text Breena a few times a week just to see how she is and what’s up, ‘cause I know I won’t see her until Friday. I don’t know what, if anything, that means, but I’ve been thinking about it.”Jimmy shrugs. Tim knows Jimmy’s got more thinking to do, and for that matter so, does he.“Best guess,” Jimmy says, “just like if either of us qualifies as straight anymore, I don’t think it matters. It’s love; it’s making us happy; that’s enough.”Tim nods then he looks at his hand in Jimmy’s. “Is it making you happy?”“Yeah. Confusing as fuck. I’ve never spent this much time thinking about love stuff, but yeah, it’s making me happy.”“Me, too.”
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Published on February 28, 2015 20:02

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 424: Deep Thoughts (Reprise)

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.


Chapter 425: Deep Thoughts (Reprise)


Tim is a snuggler. He wasn’t always. Back before they were dating he was very careful about touching people, and making sure not to invade anyone’s personal space. But now… that’s part of how Abby can tell that Tim’s feeling happy and comfortable; he’ll touch people.And sleeping Tim… Sleeping Tim has always (well, as long as she’s been sleeping with him, granted, in the coffin it’s not like there was much in the way of non-snuggling options) been a snuggler. Abby has mentioned to both Breena and Ziva how, no matter how big the bed, or hot it is, Tim will immediately snuggle himself against her. If she’s in a ‘don’t touch me’ mood, he’ll keep his hand near her. If she leaves the bed, he rolls into the warm spot she’s left, and as soon as she gets back, he’s glued to her again. It’s cute, and, especially in the summer, kind of hot and sweaty, but she’s well-used to the fact that she’s got a large, affection-seeking teddy bear in her bed at night.She’s also noticed, that since the attack, he’s even more snuggly. If she’s in the bed, he wants to be wrapped around her. And, especially right after the attack, he’s wanted physical contact, with her, or Kelly, or Gibbs or Jimmy or Breena or anyone who happens to be nearby.Abby’s not even sure if he’s aware of the fact that if he’s sitting next to someone, he’ll have his hand or foot brushing theirs. She does know he’s aware of the fact that whenever she’s near, he touches her.  And all of this makes perfect sense to her.However, in that right now pregnant bladder makes her want to leap out of bed the second she’s awake, and in that Tim will scoot into where she was, in search of someone warm to wrap around, she and Breena have been running a private pool as to exactly how long it would be before Jimmy wakes up with Tim hugging him.They’ve both been amused to see Tim’s keeping just enough of his awake mind in place that when Abby gets up, he’s not snuggling into Jimmy. He stays put when Abby gets out of bed.Until this morning.Like every other morning, Abby’s woken up feeling like her bladder is the size of a thimble and trying to hold a Mega-Gulp Caf-Pow. But, unlike the last three mornings, this time, as she heads back, she sees that Tim has indeed snuggled up to Jimmy, who is also, apparently, deep enough asleep to not have noticed.She feels a huge smile spread across her face, and detours to the dresser for her phone. Ten or so photos later, she’s done. Jimmy’s on his back, face pointed toward Breena, lips against her forehead. She’s on her side, neck over his arm, leg over his, arm across his chest. Tim’s on the other side, fetal position, as close as he can get with his face against Jimmy’s shoulder, and his lower shins against Jimmy’s hip and outer thigh.Abby hops into bed, snuggling up against Tim’s back, resting her arm against his hip, waiting to see what happens as the guys start to wake up.

Jimmy’s very used to waking up to the sensation of someone breathing on his shoulder. That’s an every morning sort of thing.So, he’s pretty sure that’s not what’s jerking him from asleep to ‘something’s really wrong’ full-on awake.It takes him a second to place himself, and okay, yeah, Breena’s exactly where she normally is. Okay, good, so… what…He turns his head and notices that warm, damp, scratchy sensation on his right shoulder is Tim, sound asleep, curled up between him and Abby, who is propped on her elbow, watching this with a huge smile on her face.Morning. She mouths silently at him.Jimmy closes his eyes and tries to rub his face, but as he lifts his right arm, Tim snuggles in closer, one of his legs slipping over Jimmy’s. He’s not yet awake enough to notice the person he wants to be rubbing that hard-on against is behind him and not in front of him.So, Jimmy just lays there, not sure what to do with this, kind of wishing Abby wasn’t grinning so much about it. It’s not bad or anything, kind of annoying. Stubbly chin pressed into his shoulder is making him think that he’s got to be a bit more careful about what he does with Breena first thing, because if his face is really that scratchy, that’s kind of appalling.He’s looking at Abby with a sort of Would you please get between us expression.And she looks back with No room.After four mornings of waking up together, Jimmy’s pretty sure what Tim likes to do when he wakes up, and he’s just not really interested in having another guy’s morning wood rubbed against him. He can already feel it hot on his hip and that’s a bit more closely acquainted with Tim’s dick then he ever hoped to get.So, he gets his right arm up and gently pokes Tim. “Hey, wake up.”
Sleeping, nice, warm happy sleeping. “Hey, wake up.”Tim doesn’t want to wake up. He wants to be sleeping, but there’s an arm moving around and… Okay, body heat on both sides of him, and that’s nice, he likes that a lot, so he shifts further forward, leg slipping over the hip in front of him, feeling… Wait… Hair, lots of hair… Okay… This is not… Shit, is that a testicle on my leg?Tim makes a very confused sort of sound.Yeah, it is. He goes perfectly still and stiff, not even breathing, as he tries to figure out what the hell is going on. Warm on both sides, the body in front of him is VERY much not Abby. Jimmy. Oh God. Tim knows how he usually wakes up rubbing against Abby, and he feels a flash of mortification, hoping he wasn’t just sexually assaulting Jimmy. Then it hits him he’s still cuddled up against him. A second after that, eyes still closed, he scoots backward, leg slipping off Jimmy’s, while mumbling, “Uh, sorry.”“No problem. Just, know how you like to wake up. Would have been awkward.”“Uh… yeah.” Because this isn’t awkward, at all. Tim can feel Abby behind him, and starts to roll in that direction, until his arm reminds him that he still can’t lay on his right side.  He’s on his back, and she’s on her side next to him. He lightly nips her on the shoulder quietly saying as he nods to between him and Jimmy, “Would you get over there?”So she does, quietly giggling, spending a moment straddling him, taking advantage of his supine position and morning erection (which he enjoys), before settling herself between him and Jimmy, on her side, completely naked, only two inches from Jimmy as Tim cuddles up against her back.“Better?”“Mmmm…” He’s still sounding very sleepy, (feeling sleepy, too, wondering how much earlier than usual they woke up) rocking gently against her, face pressed against the nape of her neck. “His hip is pretty boney. Yours isn’t.”She can see Jimmy roll his eyes at that, as she grins.“Hairy, too.”“Speak for yourself, sandpaper chin.”He very lightly rubs his chin against Abby’s neck. “It’s not that bad, is it?”“Not like that, it’s not. But you were full-on pressed into his shoulder. That can be prickly.”“And drooly.” Jimmy adds.“Oh.” He gently strokes against her neck again, and she shivers a bit. “But this is good, right?”“Yeah, that’s good.”He does it again, slow and light, followed by a slow, light kiss to the back of her neck as he rocks gently against her bum. “That good, too?”She shifts him a bit, so he can slide between her legs. “Mmmm…”“He’s close enough you can feel how warm he is, right?” Tim asks. Blankets are all about hip high, and Abby’s maybe two inches away from Jimmy, so her bare torso is very close to his.She nods.“Like to wake up like this? Between us?”That gets a little, content purr.“Barely awake, not sure who’s doing what.” His voice is low, basically just whispering the words. Jimmy can hear them, but Tim’s hoping that if Breena’s still asleep, they won’t wake her.“Dreaming of us, not sure if it’s real or not.” Her leg hooks over his hip, and she takes him in hand, giving him some help with the angle as he slips into her, biting gently on her neck, inhaling sharply at the feel of her on him. “Waking up all wet and slick, aching for it.” He thrusts gently, looking up over her shoulder for a second. He can see half of Abby’s face, so he knows her eyes are open, and she’s smiling. He can see all of Jimmy’s, knows how the two of them are watching each other. Faces inches apart, not kissing, but holding smoldering hot eye contact. Jimmy’s very lightly stroking himself, just the tips of his fingers dragging over his dick. Abby’s rubbing herself, too. They’re close enough her knuckles are probably brushing Jimmy’s hip as she does it.Abby’s pace is quick and steady, like all morning sex, this is fast. “Should I hold your hands, Abby? Both wrists above your head? I’ll thrust, and Jimmy can rub you off.”Jimmy’s eyes jerk up to Tim’s, not sure if this story is real or not, and he gives a little shake to his head, not because he doesn’t want him to touch Abby, but because Breena’s still asleep, and this isn’t a line they’re crossing without all four of them in on it, awake, and sober.Abby’s moving faster, getting close, and Tim pulls his eyes away from Jimmy, focusing on the wet, tight slip of her body against his, the rising crest of the pleasure of this. He lets himself go, steeping in the way she feels on him, and when she starts to pulse, he thrusts a little faster, joining her in a few strokes.
Long drive home with a sleeping baby means lots of time to talk, and given how this weekend went, Tim’s thinking talking is a good plan.“So… how does being bi work?” he asks as they get onto 95, starting the trek north.Abby laughs a little at that. “Weekend got you thinking?”“Yeah.”“Looking at Jimmy different?”He opens and closes his mouth. “Sort of… maybe… Shit. I don’t know… I don’t want to fuck him, but…”“But you liked watching. Liked watching in a way you usually don’t?” After all, she’s seen how Tim watches porn, seen how he reacts to that, and to Jimmy and Breena, both at the club and this weekend. “And waking up snuggled with him wasn’t bad, was it?”Tim rolls his eyes a bit at the snuggling suggestion. No, it wasn’t bad but… It wasn’t comfortable, either. But, it’s also something he hasn’t thought nearly as much about as the sex stuff, so it’s going on the back burner until he’s got some processing time.The sex, on the other hand, that he’s thought about. “Thought it’d be…” he feels a little silly about this, but it’s true, “live action porn, you know? Extra sexy because it’s real, but I’d be staring at Breena, enjoying her, and Jimmy’d just sort of be there.”“But that wasn’t it, was it?”“No, and... So… How’s it work?”Abby laughs a little at that. “I’ve never been anything but bi, so… I don’t know. How’s being straight work?” She’s mostly asking because she wants to understand how this works for him, because she’s going to have a much easier time building off that than going into this based on how she assumes he reacts to the women around him.Tim shrugs, and thinks for a mile, watching the traffic, then says, “Okay, I’m aware of the fact that the world is filled with guys and girls. And the girls, even ones who aren’t very pretty, are all much more interesting to me than the guys. And the ones who are very pretty are more interesting to me than just about anything else. And the guys… I’ve got friends. There are guys I enjoy, guys I love, but… they’re personalities, and I don’t care about, or even look at, much, their bodies.  My guy friends could be brains in jars with a voice for all I care about their physical bodies. I know what an ‘attractive’ guy looks like, but, beyond trying to see how I measure up to them, which I don’t really do anymore, it doesn’t matter to me. For girls… it took an embarrassingly long time to get to the point where I routinely started seeing the person in the body rather than the body. I mean… you know I’ve done a pretty good job of not… acting like it. I can be friendly and professional and… I can… not shut it down, but keep it in the background, but it’s always there. I always see the body first, and it used to be a lot more intense than it is now. ”Abby smiles at that. “What’s an embarrassingly long time?”“I got honey trapped by a pair of big blue eyes and really nice boobs when I was in my thirties. An embarrassingly long time.”“After we hooked-up?”“Yeah. Apparently, it’s easier to see women as people and not sex on legs if I’m getting laid regularly.”Abby giggles at that. “I love the fact you’re honest about stuff like this.”“With you.” He glances away from traffic to her. “Penny could tie me up by my toenails, and I’m never admitting that.”“That’s because you aren’t stupid.”He inclines his head, accepting the compliment. “Sooo…” Tell me how it works for you.“Sooo… Okay, my sense is I’m not typical on this, but I rarely just look at someone and think, ‘Wow, gotta get some of that!’ It happens, but it’s not common.”“Does it happen with both sexes?”She nods at that. “Guys more often than girls, but yeah, with both. What happens much more commonly is that I see someone who makes me interested for some other reason… I liked your voice. You sounded adorably nervous and a little flustered, and that got me intrigued because that’s not a usual personality for a cop. So, how’d you end up with a badge? We had lunch, we hit it off, and… well, usually, if I like someone, and I’m interested in them, then I want to know all about them, and sex is part of that. So… I haven’t slept with everyone I’ve been friends with, haven’t wanted to, but most of the people I meet and like, then I want to see what sex with them is like.”A horrifying thought hops into Tim’s mind. “Are you saying you would have done Tony?”“Eww… no! I knew he’d be good for a good time, but he’d never respect me after, so he went on the NOPE column. Actually, that was a big reason for not making a move on Gibbs beyond flirting. I could see that the next morning he’d get weird on me. And God was I right. You remember him and Jen? He had no idea how to deal with her. But the first time I saw Kate, I knew she was special. Would have jumped her in a heartbeat. And… if Ducky had been fifteen years younger--”“Wait, you met him back in… 1999? Right?”“Yeah.”“So, he was, what sixty-five then?”“Sounds about right. I was twenty-five, and twenty-five years older than me is my upper limit, so… yeah.”That astounds him. He knows Abby’s got really specific dating rules, but he didn’t know they were that specific. “You actually know, in that much detail, where your upper limit is?”“You don’t?”Tim shakes his head. “No. I’ve never given it any thought.”Abby shrugs. “You probably didn’t get hit on a lot by older women.”Tim nods. “Yeah… Let’s see… You. Diane. And, yep, there’s the end of the list.”“I’ve been getting hit on by older guys since I was sixteen. Good plan to draw the line early and stick to it.”“Ah.” He thinks about that for a moment. “So, you’re basically saying, that if you like someone enough to be their friend, you also like them enough, most of the time, to sleep with them?”“Yeah, that’s how it works for me. Unless there’s some sort of warning sign or red flag saying, ‘Nope, this’ll turn out bad,’ I’m interested.”Tim thinks about that for a moment. “Yeah, that’s really not what’s going on.”Abby smiles and nods. “Like I said, I’m probably not typical. And no one expects you, or Jimmy, to suddenly decide that after thirty plus years of only wanting to sleep with girls, that now you’re all hot for each other.”Tim nods at that.“Look, whatever level of messing around and playing you want to do, I’m going to be supportive of. This is fun, and love, and… playing… really, that’s it. This is playing with our best friends, exploring things that make us happy. And if it’s ever not that, then we won’t do it. So, we stay where we’re comfortable, and… if you want to play with Jimmy… I mean, I don’t know where his comfortable zone is. Like you, he’s probably doing a lot of thinking, but you were having pretty bad nightmares the one night, and once we got you calmed down, he snuggled you while I was in the bathroom.”“What?” Tim had not known that. He’d certainly noticed waking up snuggled into Jimmy, and feeling weird about that, but…“No biggie. He looked a little weirded out by it, because you were both naked, but he did it, because love and comfort and supporting each other is part of this.”“How weirded out?”Abby shrugs. “I don’t know. Like it was making him think. We didn’t talk about it. He was more weirded out by you snuggling in while he was asleep.”“Well, yeah, another two seconds and I would have started frotting on him, and that would have been weird.”“So, there’s your line. No sex. If it changes, it changes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.” They drive for another few miles. Abby’s humming along with the music; she can see Tim’s thinking, then something else occurs to her. Tim really likes labels. He likes order and knowing what goes where and when and how. And whatever is going on, this is probably challenging his deeply internalized labels.“Most of the queer people I know pick their terms by what they usually like. First and foremost it’s about attraction, not action, and secondly there are no hard and fast rules on this. One of my lesbian friends is married to a man. She likes girls. That’s her main thing. But this one guy showed up and he was really special, and they just clicked, in a way no one else ever clicked for her. But she’s not straight because she’s married to a man. She’s not bi because she’s not attracted to men. She loves this one specific guy, and the fact that that’s true doesn’t make her suddenly not a lesbian, and the reason it doesn’t make her not a lesbian is because women are what turns her on. I didn’t stop being bi because we got together. The fact that I’m primarily having sex with men didn’t suddenly turn me straight, and if I’d hooked up with Kate, that wouldn’t have made me a lesbian. Breena likes men. She’s straight. She’s still straight when she’s making out with me because it’s about attraction, not about who you’re playing with. If you and Jimmy ever get to the point where you’re seriously playing with each other, you’re still straight, too. If you ever get to the point where you are checking out the guys in the gym and getting flustered at them, having a hard time seeing the guy in the body, then you’re bi.”Tim nods at that, and Abby’s thinking she hit what was running around in his head.

Long drive, good thinking time, especially with two napping infants in the back.Jimmy’s watching the road, glad that Breena’s either thinking, too, or knows that he needs some time in his own head today.He said yes.“Do you want to see your wife come on my cock?”“Yes.”Breena came when he said yes. He could feel it, she was so tight and so close, but not quite there, and he was, too. So close. And he said yes, and she moaned and twitched, shuddering on him, rippling against his body, nails digging into his thighs.He’d been so in it. When he and Breena tell stories, he’s always still in his real life. Usually he’s more focused on what they’re actually doing than the stories. He likes them and all, and they’re good and sexy, but he never falls into them, not like he did last night.Eyes closed, all four voices, Breena rocking on him, he could see it, and feel it, there were times when he had a hard time remembering he could use his hands, and… God, he wanted it. He said yes because he wanted it. Only reason he didn’t come when he said yes was that Tim had told him not to. He’d been so close, felt his balls go tight and the tingles a breath away from starting, he’d even pulsed once, one hard twitch, before he yanked his brain away and gave his balls a really hard squeeze to shut it down.He could see it, Abby between his legs, squirming against his dick, her back soft and warm against him, and Breena in front of him, Abby licking her out, Tim standing behind her, holding her leg and breast and slipping over her again and again, his dick wet and shiny with Breena’s cum, slipping between her lips, just edging her closer and closer, and finally asking him, and that ‘yes’ just ripped right out of him because he wanted it, all of it, so much.Tied up, helpless, watching another guy fuck his wife.He said yes.He’s not supposed to want that. Right? That’s the bridge too far. Right? It’s one thing to share a women, plenty of guys do that, but… he wasn’t sharing, he was letting Tim and Abby take over. Let them turn him into a passive watcher in that fantasy.But it was so hot, hit buttons he didn’t know he had, and when he said yes, he wanted it more than pretty much anything he’d ever wanted before.For all the kinks Jimmy’s got, and he’s got more than a few of them, watching another guy fuck his wife isn’t (wasn’t?) one of them. Sex in public, sure. Quickies where anyone can find you, oh yeah. Being watched, loves that. Shoes, God yes! Spankings, not often, but when he’s in the right mood, yes, please! Watching, yes, he likes that, too. But, tied up, helpless while another guy fucks Breena two inches from his face, makes him watch, gets her off, makes her moan and beg…“God Tim, fuck me, please!”They’ve played with this idea before. Breena’s told him stories of the four of them. He was watching Tim and Abby go at it all weekend. And he knew, saying yes to this, that he’s moving them closer to swapping or swinging or foursoming or… oring, whatever.He knew he was going to like anything involving the girls with each other. When Tim first suggested that, his dick was more or less jumping up and down cheering on that idea. He was fairly sure he was going to like watching Tim and Abby together. Live porn! What’s not to like? Watching them at the club was awesome, and they didn’t even get the full show then. He knew he was going to like getting watched. He’s known that about himself for a long time. Part of loving quickies and danger sex is loving the rush of the idea of someone else catching him, seeing it. (Hell, he’s had this fantasy of someone else watching, getting so turned on they can’t not touch themselves, and jerking off from it for years, and this weekend hit all of those buttons with a sledge hammer. That was amazing!)But he didn’t expect he’d want to see Tim fuck Breena. He was kind of aware of the idea that it’d probably happen sooner or later. And he thought he was okay with the idea, because he’d be sharing Breena with Tim, or fooling around with Abby at the same time, but he didn’t expect to be more than okay.He didn’t expect saying yes to make his cock twitch and practically spurt.It was just a fantasy, but he fell into it so fast. He can’t believe how fast he sunk into it, how deep he went. Could feel the silk on his wrists, could see Breena standing over him, Abby’s lips on her pussy, Tim’s hands, mouth, and dick on her, and…“You okay?” Breena asks.He jerks slightly at that. “Uh. Yeah… Think so. Why?”“You want me to drive? You don’t look all there.”“Um… No. I’m good.”“Sure?”He shrugs. “Thinking.”“About last night?”“Yeah. You got off when I said ‘yes.’”Breena nods at that. “Liked hearing you say it.”He nods, too.“Felt you twitch when you said it. Thought you’d gotten off, too. You were really close, right?”He nods again. Good thing Breena was already coming, because he had to pull his hand away from her to stop himself getting off. If he’d been less deep into the fantasy, he would have realized he had two working hands, but he was sure his left hand was tied.“Was that okay?”He shrugs. “Thinking about it.”“Me and Tim and Abby?” They’ve played versions of that fantasy before, and it never seemed to bug him in the past, but she can feel an edge to him right now, and isn’t sure what’s causing it.“Maybe…” He smiles at her, trying to be reassuring. “I’m… good with all three of you. That didn’t change. I’m not quietly melting down or freaking out over here, at least… not on that level…”“Then…”“It’s silly.”She shrugs, silly isn’t a problem. “Doesn’t matter. Something pops up, we talk about it. That way something that’s silly now doesn’t turn into trouble later.”He smiles at that, too.“Pops up, that’s a way to put it…” He shakes his head and bites his lip. “I almost got off when I said yes, too. Would have if I hadn’t grabbed myself.”She’s watching him carefully, waiting to see what else he says.He shakes his head again.“Me and Tim, that’s bugging you?”“No… not… how I’m reacting to it is bugging me.”“Thought you liked it. That’s how it felt.”“I did like it. That’s why it’s bugging me.”Breena’s eyes narrow. “Would you rather be pissed at him?”“No! But… It wasn’t just nice… I really liked it. I liked all of it. Tied up, helpless, watching him and Abby fuck you. I’m half-hard just thinking about it. I’m having a much easier time dealing with holding him naked and feeling him rubbing up against my hip this morning than that.”Breena’s eyebrows scrunch together. She’d woken up at the tail end of Abby getting off, and immediately had her hands full of very horny Jimmy. She and Abby got a few minutes alone to talk while they were getting packed up. Basically, the guys woke up together (which was insanely cute, she cooed over the pictures) and then both of them kind of freaked out, followed by Tim more or less tossing her between the two of them and both of them proving exactly how heterosexual they are by hopping on her immediately. And, given exactly how enthusiastic Jimmy was this morning (not that she minded or anything, but morning sex is usually a lot more relaxed)… she’s not thinking Abby’s diagnosis as to what was going on was far off.  “You like watching people have sex…” Breena leads, trying to help Jimmy work this out.“Yeah. I know. Part of why feeling weird about this is hitting me. And, yeah, deeper level, the idea of watching you and Abby was just fine. I liked that a lot and I’m not feeling weird about it at all. Hell, I even know the anthropology about sperm competition and how some male mammals get off on seeing their mates with another male. I intellectually know how this works.” He bites his tongue. “But it still feels weird that it hit me that hard…” He sighs and puts it into words. “This weekend was an amazing cornucopia of sex, and the thing that hit me hardest was him asking my permission to fuck you.” Jimmy thinks for a second, that’s not quite right. “No… he didn’t ask my permission, he asked me if I wanted to see him fuck you. That hit harder than watching Abby suck my cum off your tongue, and… I don’t know what to do with that.”“Do you have to do anything with it?”He shrugs at that, too.
“Only fifty miles to go!” Abby says, looking at the GPS display on their phone. Traffic snarled in Richmond, and all of the alternative routes they could find were also moving at about ten miles an hour. Finally, they’re starting to pick up speed again.“Yay.” Tim says weakly.“At least Kelly’s conked out again.”“Amen on that.” In order to get out of the traffic, they stopped for an early dinner, hoping it would have eased up by the time they were done.Didn’t work that way, they ate, let Kelly run (toddle) around, got back in the car, drove for a nicely zippy ten miles, and found themselves right back in the same snarl, just slightly further down the road.“What was I dreaming about? You know…”Abby nods. “The usual.”“Anything new?” He doesn’t remember the dream, or any of it.“Something about it’s supposed to hurt, stop crying and taking it like a man.”Tim thinks for a few minutes on that, looking for what memory that was. “Oh.” Been years since he thought of that. “He was on land when my first real girlfriend broke up with me. Somehow my mom had the insane idea that we should have some sort of man to man talk about it.”“Oh God.”“Yeah, it went just as well as you think it did. He was okay with the idea that I was bummed out about her dumping me, and if he could have taken me out for a beer and a strip joint, he probably would have been able to deal with it, but that’s not appropriate with a fifteen-year-old. So, he didn’t know how to cheer me up, and I was crying over it, and I couldn’t stop crying, and he got more and more upset about me crying, and then he decided since yelling at me to stop crying wasn’t doing to job, to double down and hit me on every reason why a girl would break up with me, supposedly ‘giving me pointers for next time’ and… Yeah, that was one of the less pleasant days of my life.”“Fucker.”Tim nods his head in agreement. “On the upside, Mom had gone out with Sarah, left us together for ‘man time’ and apparently she had some sort of little fantasy of us talking and commiserating and getting closer together or something. She gets home, he’s got steam pouring out of his ears, and I’m in my room, sobbing. She left Sarah with him, took me out for ice cream, told me it was okay to cry when you lose something you love, and that he was being a dork about it. That made me feel better. Then we got home and she yelled at him for not doing his job right, and that his job was to comfort me, not make me feel worse. So, bad day, but that was one of my better nights.”“What happened next?”“He turned bright red, stormed out, and we didn’t see him for two days. I think he called, because Mom was in a really sad mood the next day, and she wouldn’t say why, just shook her head when I asked.”The idea that that’s one of his better nights makes Abby’s heart hurt.He squeezes her hand, maybe it is the talking about this stuff with Wolf, or just… letting it out more, but stories like that are starting to hurt less in the telling. “So, what happened? I’m doing my usual talking in my sleep, and you’re cuddling me…” He knows she does that, because sometimes he wakes up in the middle of it, and sometimes she tells or asks him about it later.“He woke up in full-on ‘go get crying baby’ mode, took a few seconds to realize crying baby wasn’t the problem. I kept cuddling you, trying to pull you out of it, he petted your face a little and added his voice to it, you slipped back into normal sleep, and by that time my bladder was going to explode, so I gave you to him, took care of business, came back a minute later, and snuggled in between you two.”“You said he was acting weird about it. What do you mean?”She waves that away. “Nothing concrete, just the sense that it had him thinking. Once I got back into bed, you curled around me, and he scooted a few inches over, back into Breena. I fell asleep pretty quick, but I noticed as I was drifting off that he reached over and held your hand. He was still doing it when I woke up in the morning. Beyond that, you’ve got to talk to him about it.”“You and Breena didn’t?”“Yeah, Breena and I did, but neither of us are Jimmy, so…”“Okay.”“We talked about this morning, too.”“Of course. She okay?”“She thought the pictures were adorable.”“You took pictures?”“Yeah! My three favorite people are snuggling, of course I’m taking pictures.” She’s driving right now. “Go in my purse, get my phone and look at them.”“Why?”“Why don’t you want to?”“I…” That’s actually a good question. He goes and gets her phone. Not too hard to find the photos, they’re the newest of the bunch. He’s analyzing composition and lighting, which makes him think that he’s got some walls up against really dealing with the image.Walls he’s trying not to have.He looks, really looks. They’re sweet. Any other three people on earth and he’d, well, not coo, but that shot (of three other people) would cause a warm feeling of, ‘oh, how nice.’ In that it’s him, Jimmy, and Breena… he doesn’t know what he’s feeling.He looks at Abby, putting down the phone. “Why does this matter? If you or Breena were in the middle, it wouldn’t be an issue. If she was snuggled into his side, and I was spooned up on her back, we’d all be happy and fine. Even just sleeping, the three of us, not sex at all, it’d be fine.” He touches her phone, indicating the pictures. “It’s not sex. Him hugging me, me cuddling against him, it’s not sex, so… Why does this feel weird?”“Why does the sex part matter? You’re not attracted to him, that’s fine, but… Breena’s not particularly attracted to me, either, but the two of us making out isn’t ‘weird.’”He stares up at the car ceiling. “Uhhh…” That’s nothing that’s ever occurred to him. Of course sex would be different, right? He looks at the shots again, flicking through them, then through the much sexier ones that Abby took. (Apparently she took pictures of Jimmy oiling Breena up and playing with her. He’d been far enough out of it that he hadn’t noticed. He flips a bit further, and realizes he took some pictures, too. Some really good pictures… Abby’s butt and Breena’s boobs in one shot, he likes that a lot, and decides now is a really good time to close the photo ap because he does not need to get distracted.)  “I don’t know, but… It does, you know?”“If I had to guess, it’s that you spent your whole childhood being told that this was the most awful thing you could do or be, and your brain knows it’s not, but it’s still in there, and that’s why this feels weird, and why the fact that it feels weird annoys you.”He shrugs, that’s likely true. “I was thinking about it, on the beach, making myself imagine playing with Jimmy, and it wasn’t gross or scary, but, I didn’t want to do it.”“That’s okay.”“Yeah, but… okay, love and care and joy and… and it feels weird to get comforted. On the beach, I felt cool with this and now it’s less cool and I just… I don’t want it to matter. He’s a guy, so what? It shouldn’t matter. Love the person, not the body, that’s what you and Penny say, right?”Abby nods. “You do love him, right?”“Yes. A lot. Probably,” and he feels weird saying this but he does, because it’s true, “more than anyone who isn’t you.”“Well, sex and love aren’t the same thing. You love the person, great. Maybe you’ll never be comfortable with too much in the way of touching.”“Fuck that! That feels like a massive, steaming pile of homophobic bullshit, and I am better than that!”Abby sighs, wanting to pull over, curl into his lap, and kiss him.“Patterns don’t shift overnight. Remember how long it took before you could bottom without it hurting? Your brain was into it way before your body got there. But it got there, because you wanted it. You want it to not matter, and you’ll get there. One touch at a time. This time five years ago, you couldn’t have slept naked in the same bed with him. Or… when he hugged you guys for the wedding presents—““You saw that?”“Yeah, I was coming up and saw him pull the three of you in for a hug and you looked really surprised and jerked a little when he touched you, but you slid into the hug anyway. You don’t do that now.”“Yeah.” He shakes his head a bit. “I don’t want to stop doing this. This weekend was awesome, and I loved it.”“Me, too.”“And not just hot sex all over the place, you know? Close and intimate and warm and it was really good.”She’s smiling at that. “But I don’t want to feel like I’ve got to jerk away if I touch Jimmy, and I don’t want to feel like I need to grab you if I do and show off how straight I am.”“You heard that, huh?”He nods. “And you’re probably right, that’s part of what I was doing. My first though on waking up was how nice it was to be warm and snuggly on all sides, I really liked it, so I scooted in further, then I figured out that soft fuzzy thing against my thigh was a testicle, and not one of mine, and I kind of freaked out at that. And Jimmy didn’t exactly feel relaxed about it, either, and… Shit… I don’t know. There’s got to be something in between wake up and give him a hand with his morning wood, and wake up and jump back as soon as I notice it’s not you or Breena.”Abby nods. “Wake up, cuddle some, kiss him, kiss me, roll over when your arm’s up for it, and have at it while he’s at your back. That’s probably his skin not freaking you out, but you’re not actively fooling around with him, either.”Tim thinks about that. Then he nods. “Not sure about kissing him, but… yeah, that’s the basic idea.”

They’d gotten on the road about an hour after Tim and Abby did, so they got the Stay the fuck away from Richmond; it’s a mess! text well ahead of the mess.So, as Tim and Abby are finally just starting to pick up speed, Jimmy and Breena have parked the car, pulled the girls out, put them to bed, and crashed on their own sofa.Unpacking can wait until tomorrow.There’s a thought that’s been bopping around in Breena’s mind. Something Jimmy mentioned but didn’t stress, something she’s wondering about. She’s not sure if he’s aware of it, or if she’s on the right track or…She’s just not sure.So, yes, when she saw Abby slip that collar onto Tim, she knew what it meant and why Abby would do it. She was a bit surprised to see it there, and given the answer (and Abby adding in the next day that Tim’s a switch and can Dom or sub as the mood takes him) her surprise wandered off. That he’d like to have times where he’s not in charge, and others where he’s running the whole show, makes a lot of sense to her.She doesn’t like running the show. She just doesn’t. They read 50 Shades, and she noticed that Jimmy seemed intrigued by the idea of power games, and she’s happy to sub, she likes having a set task and doing it perfectly, but she doesn’t like giving orders; that’s being at work; it’s not fun for her. But… she’s wondering, because Jimmy was interested, and maybe he wasn’t just interested in being the guy giving the orders.It never hit her that he might like having someone take him over, partly because that’s (was, at the time) his job.But that’s what Tim did. He ran the story, and Jimmy dropped right into it, and now she’s wondering if that hit him so hard because sometimes he wants someone else in charge.“Helpless, tied, watching…” he mentioned all of those things.Jimmy’s laying back against the sofa cushions, head back, glasses off. Breena scoots around a bit, pushing him a few feet over, so he’s on the far end of the sofa, and she can comfortably lie with her head in his lap. For a few seconds, he just rests there, and then she feels his fingers gently slipping through her hair.“Mmmm…” That feels nice.He starts gently rubbing little circles into her scalp, knowing how much she likes having her head rubbed, especially at the end of a long day.She licks her lips, debating if she should just let him think about it, or if she should ask and see what happens.Ask. This works best if they talk. “You know I like it when you tie me up and play with me.”He nods.“I never asked but… would you like that?”His head shifts off the back of the sofa, so he’s looking at her, surprise on his face. “You don’t like doing that.”“I know, but, I never asked; do you like being on the subbing side of it. Maybe… That could be why you slipped into it so fast and hard. If you like it, but I don’t, it’s something you want that I’m not giving you, and you’re not getting it at work anymore, so…”He’s holding up his hands, looking appalled. “Getting it at work?”“Not sex. Just, if you like having someone make the decisions and tell you what to do. If you like playing the game instead of making the rules… You used to do that every day, and you don’t, now.”“Oh. Um…” He’s never thought much about that, let alone in any context along these lines. “It’s not something I’ve ever looked for. I don’t jerk off to fantasies of you tying me up and telling me what to do.”She nods. They’ve talked about their fantasies, and it’s nothing he’s ever mentioned.He thinks about it. It doesn’t feel quite right, but, maybe it’s next to whatever’s going on, or part of it. He thinks some more, gently rubbing Breena’s head, enjoying not driving, and finally comes up with this, “Tim and I have always been equals. Started the same time. Same age. Same low man on the totem pole. I’ve never been in competition with him for anything. I’ve never had to defer to him, not really. And… maybe you’re right, maybe falling into it so fast was wanting to be taken charge of, but, I think feeling weird about it comes from the fact that he’s not supposed to be in charge of me.” He thinks about that more, the second, third and this morning’s story hadn’t hit Jimmy as hard, but they also didn’t weird him out. Him and Tim and Abby, that was fine. Watching (in the fantasy) Tim and Abby sixty-nine with Breena, that was hot, and it’s not hitting him the way the first story did.“Do an experiment with me?”Breena smiles up at him. “Always. Tonight?”He shakes his head. “Tonight I think we’re resting until we’ve got enough energy to brush our teeth, then going upstairs to bed and crashing.”“Sounds like a plan. So, what’s the experiment?”“Tomorrow, the next day, when you’re feeling inspired, tell me a story where you or Abby takes over. I want to see how that hits me.”“No problem.”
When they get home, Tim’s not exactly feeling sexy. Mostly he’s feeling tired. They put Kelly to bed as soon as they got in, and he’s thinking that’s what he’s going to do with himself, too.Unpacking can wait for tomorrow.Everything else can wait for tomorrow.Abby seems to be on the same page he is with this. It’s 9:30 and she’s brushing her teeth, getting ready for bed. He joins her on that, tossing off his clothing, ready to crash.They’re in bed, and have been for about a minute, and he’ll admit a good long sleep, especially with work tomorrow morning, sounds really good.But, as he’s starting to drift one thought hits, and it gets his lips moving from his usual sleeping routine of pressed to the back of Abby’s neck to kissing her.She murmurs something, not really words, but not ‘back off’ either. On the second try she gets out, “Thought you’d be all fucked out.”He smiles a little. “I am.” He lays a wet kiss on the back of her neck. “But I want you to know that it’s still you. It’s always you. I love them, and I want Breena, and that was insanely hot, but at the end of the day, at the end of the journey, it’s you.”He feels her smile, and then she rolls over to face him, her lips finding his. “Always you.”“Always.”It’s slow, and sleepy, and compared to the sex this weekend, nothing special, just their average, late night, checking back in with each other, sex. But that’s the point of it, too. It’s them with each other, coming back to each other, and that matters more than all the firework sex on earth.Or like Jimmy had said to him, ‘We went home and made love and nothing had changed, I was still hers, and she was mine, and we hadn’t lost anything.’And, as he’s drifting off, he knows that there’s probably a lot of thinking left to do about this weekend, but his bedrock is still there. Nothing was lost, and a lot was gained, and he’s eager to see where this goes next.
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Published on February 28, 2015 19:55

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 423: Story Time

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

Chapter 423: Story Time

Jimmy feels something wet hit him, right at the base of the skull, and then dribble down the back of his neck. He jerks at it, looking around, but doesn't see anything.Probably just some spray or something. He's in the ocean, waist deep, boogie board in hand, waiting for a breaker. Storm's rolling in, this time tomorrow the whole coast will be drenched, but right now, the sun is shining and the waves are high, which means he, Tony, and both Abbies are getting as much surf time in as they can.A thought hits as he's looking at the waves which are not really likely to be providing the sort squirt of water he just felt, and he tentatively reaches back to check. Good. Not a seagull.The next squirt is definitely not a bit of spray. It hits in exactly the same place, and there is no chance that this isn't water pistol fire. Jimmy quickly searches the beach, making sure that Jethro isn't on it, and no, he's not. So, where the hell is he shooting from? It's a water pistol, not a rifle.Granted, it would be easier to tell what was going on if he had his glasses or contacts in, but he's fairly sure that even without them, he can see something the size of Gibbs that should be less than thirty feet away. But no, all he's got in range is water, more water, a little water to the left, and water with DiNozzo and both Abbies to the right. (And none of them are firing a water pistol at him.)One more squirt, this time to his chest, which means he should be staring right at him, but he can't see where he's being hit from.Jimmy does another 360, looking everywhere, but he can't tell where Jethro is, or where he'd been shooting from. Then, a few seconds later, he's staring at the beach again, and there's Gibbs, sitting in the sand, rubbing Mona's ears, and tossing the tennis ball for her.He's also head to toe, dripping wet.Jimmy catches the next wave, rides in, and lands near Gibbs. "You were shooting from under the water?"Gibbs smiles, very satisfied. Then he holds up two plastic bendy straws. "Always take advantage of your location and the tools around you.""You kinky bastard!" Tony says, sounding sly, bringing the plate with all of the chicken breasts over to the grill. Tim's on grilling duty. (He volunteered, thought it'd be good exercise for his foot and ankle. So far that appears to be right.)Tim jerks a little at that, feeling startled by it. "Uh…" He's looking at the chicken breasts, laying them on the grill."Got a late swim last night, heard you and Abby.""Shit." Yeah they were trying to be quiet, but apparently not succeeding. Though, he'd have to admit he's a bit fuzzy on what exactly happened last night. He can clearly remember really liking it, and he's got some interesting bruises on his chest which have a few clear memories attached to them, but for the most part he just remembers feeling really good, about the sex in specific and the universe in general."In the room with Jimmy and Breena sleeping, and the girls… Damn! I get you like the thrill of almost getting caught, but… That's really taking it to the edge." Tony's got a happy, dirty grin on his face, and Tim's got the sense he's sort of cheering Tim on with this.Still, it looks like Tony doesn't know precisely what was going on last night. Granted, Tim doesn't either, but he's got a much more accurate version than Tony does. Tim shrugs a bit, deciding that Tony doesn't need to know what was actually happening, after all they still haven't decided exactly what they're telling anyone who isn't Gibbs."What'd you hear?" Tim's curious because they were trying to be quiet and while he knows they weren't silent, he didn't think anyone was moaning or groaning. He knows one of the bite marks on his chest is from keeping Abby's mouth quiet, so…"Your room's right over the kitchen. Kept hearing a little shifting noise and a thunk when we got a drink after the swim. Shift, shift, shift, thunk, and repeat. You guys are in the bed right? Not sleeping on the floor with your arm like that. Or is Palmer the kinky one?"Probably Jimmy and Breena going full speed toward the end while Tim and Abby were chasing their orgasm, too. Bed was definitely rocking then. (Tim makes a mental note to see if there's a screw driver around here anywhere, probably a good idea to tighten up the joints before they leave, or else Ed and Jeannie might wonder what happened to their bed when they sleep here next.) Tim nods and grins. "Palmer's always the kinky one, but no, we're not sleeping on the floor."Tony smiles wide and elbows him gently. "Glad to see all of the important bits healed up and are working just fine."Tim laughs. He takes another sip of his cider, then sticks out his tongue and quickly wiggles it. "Yeah, they do."Tony almost chokes on his drink he laughs so hard at that."What has you two giggling away?" Abbi asks, heading over to the grill with shucked corn on the cob.Tim smirks. "Rule 69."Abbi looks confused. "Never trust a woman who doesn't trust her man?" That doesn't sound like the punchline to a dirty joke to her, and that kind of laughter goes with a dirty joke."Some numbers have multiple rules. Gibbs doesn't know we've co-opted sixty-nine for this one, but it is one of his rules." Tim says, smirking even wider."Oral always counts," Tony says, grinning.Abbi closes her eyes for a second, laughing quietly, and then puts the corn down. "And what got you guys making that rule?"Tony squints a bit, remembering. "God… That was your bachelor party, right?"Tim nods. "Yeah. He might have said it before then, but that's where I'm remembering it from.""And what were you talking about?" Abbi asks, sure she knows.Tim and Tony shake their heads. Tony replies, "Even if we could remember, we're not saying. You wanna know, you've got to ask him.""Uh huh…" She looks at them dryly before heading off, still chuckling.Tony looks at Tim. "You still at seven?"Takes Tim a minute to remember that was the number he gave for how often he was getting off a week. "Ish. This weekend's bumping me up some," he looks at himself, getting the injured idea across, "but most of this summer's been pretty dry."Tony nods. "Jimmy was right, getting married was great for sex."Tim grins at him and turns the chicken breasts, then adds the corn to the grill.After dinner, Tim's looking at Jimmy, Breena, and Abby. "You guys can go out. I'm good with babysitting." It's a token protest, just because that's the sort of thing he would say, and they all know it. Right now, he'd be pretty mopey if they left him to go dancing and he ended up with Marvel movies and his left hand for company.But, in that most of this group does not know what's going on, and it is the sort of thing he would say, he does say it, and Jimmy and Abby and Breena all do their part of saying, 'No, we're good at home with you, no problem' sort of thing. So, once dinner's cleaned up, and after babies have been put to bed, the four of them are lounging around on the sofas in the living room, Age of Ultron queued up, popcorn popping, waiting for the other half of their crew to head off.They're about ten minutes into it, watching Thor get all cocky about Mjolnir, and then silently freak out when it looks like Cap can shift it, (Abby's talking about how Cap can totally lift it, but isn't because that really would freak out Thor, and he's too nice of a guy to do that) when everyone else comes down. The girls are in pretty sun dresses and flip flops. The guys… Tony and Ducky have both opted for the linen pants, short sleeve button-down, right off the beach in Jamaica look. (Jimmy makes a comment about pink really being Tony's color.) Gibbs doesn't appear to own linen pants, because he's in cargo shorts, bare feet, and an NCIS t-shirt.All in all, they look ready for a night of alcohol, sand, and music."Don't wait up!" is the last thing Penny says as they head out.They actually do watch all of Age of Ultron, for several reasons. One, if asked they want to be able to answer questions about it. Two, it'll look really suspicious if there're bowls of uneaten popcorn sitting around/popcorn in the trash when everyone gets home. Three, if something goes wrong and they end up coming home early, it'd be really odd if they were all suddenly not watching the movie. And four, it's a good double date, sitting on the sofa, petting and necking movie. After all, in that many minutes of the movie can be condensed into: Big Ass Fight Scene it's not like they miss much in the way of motive plot by not having eyes glued to the screen.So, by the time Ultron is over, they've eaten the popcorn, are sure no one 'forgot' anything and needed to run home to pick it up, and two hours of necking and petting means they're all in a pretty good sexy mood, too.There's an idea Tim's been playing with all day. He remembers that Jimmy and Breena like sexy stories, and he knows Abby and he do. And, as much as he's been loving watching Jimmy and Breena play, he also wants something interactive, but not too interactive. He doesn't want to break the rules they've set. And this wouldn't break any of the rules they've got set up, but it's still a step past just watching.Also, he's thinking, if this story goes the way he thinks it will, then that'll take him and Jimmy a quarter step further toward the idea of playing with each other's wives, and if it's good… then it'll be really good. And if it's not, if they can't easily play with just the idea, voice and images and stories, then they know they can't do it for real, and they get to find out that they can't cross that line without getting hurt.Plus, when they get upstairs, Abby heads to the drawer that's got the lube in it, and grabs it and the cock ring, dropping them on the bed, and then says, "Gotta clean up first."Tim grins at her, knowing what that means, and licks his lips. So, with that in play, he knows that he's got at least fifteen minutes of gentle slow stretching time to fill, so… yeah, story time.Breena sits on the bed, and picks up the cock ring. "You like these?"Tim nods. "Got two more at home." Breena's stretching it between her fingers. "That's the plain one. Also have one with a bullet, and a leather one."Breena looks away from the ring to Tim. "Don't like the ones that vibrate. They're more of a distraction than a turn on."Tim pretty much agrees with that, but the bullet ends up at the base of his cock, and buzzing there doesn't do much for him. It's more fun for Abby. "So, you've got some of these at home, too?" Tim asks, thinking he'd really like to see what sorts of toys Jimmy and Breena have.She nods. "Kind of like this, silicon, it's got a little nub for clit stimulation. Good for grinding together." She looks at the ring and then back at Tim. "Doesn't it make it harder to come?"He grins at that. "Sometimes I can use all the help I can get. Plus it's a really nice combination with anal. And harder is always a good thing. Right Jimmy?"Jimmy's been leaning against the edge of the dresser, watching this conversation the look on his face somewhere between curious/learning and turned on. "Feels good to me." Jimmy pauses for a second, not sure if he wants to say what's in his head, and then decides to say what he's thinking. "Tend to like the way they look, too."Tim nods; that's not something he's ever said out loud before, but… it is part of the appeal. "That's why we've got a leather one, too. It's not as functional, but it looks cool.""So, this is jewelry for you guys?" Breena asks, not looking like she buys that.Tim shrugs and Jimmy shakes his head, because no, that's not quite how it works. "It's not how the ring looks, per se," Jimmy adds, "it's how I look wearing one.""Sounds like jewelry," Breena says. "And if you like the leather one…""Okay, I know for some guys they really are like jewelry. They make metal ones, and yes, some of them look cool, I've seen some I did really like, but I'm not comfortable sticking my dick and balls into something that compresses blood flow and then just hoping I'll be able to get it off after. The absolute last thing I want to do is end up hoping that the guy with the bolt cutter won't take my dick off." Jimmy's cringing along in sympathy at that. "But, even with that, it's more that they make my dick look great, and above and beyond that, bigger, fuller, more sensitive and it takes longer to get off is an awesome combination, especially with anal sex. And, if that's why girls wear jewelry, then yes, it's like jewelry."Breena giggles. "That's not precisely why I wear jewelry, but that's some of it."Abby opens the door to the bathroom, naked, smiling, and says, "You all look way too dressed for this party.""You guys like stories, right?" Tim asks after they're naked and in bed.Jimmy and Breena nod.Tim grins. "Then we're taking turns tonight. You two watch, enjoy. Touch each other all you want, but no touching us.""I thought that was already the rule," Jimmy says, looking confused."Making sure we're all clear on it. I tell great stories, but they're just stories. Not an invitation. Not tonight, at least. Tonight, you guys get to listen in, but don't do, okay?""Okay." Jimmy says, looking at Breena and then back at Tim and Abby.Tim grins and kisses Abby. They're naked and sitting against the headboard of the bed, Abby across Tim's lap. Jimmy and Breena are at the footboard. It's a slow, wet kiss, deep, tongues stroking and petting. When Tim pulls back from Abby, he asks her, "You remember that story we started at the club?""When we were dancing and they were fucking in the booth?""Yeah."Abby grins, looking at Jimmy and Breena all over, enjoying them naked and turned on, licking her lips. "Couple of them.""Yeah." Tim kisses her ear. "You think they may want to hear something like that?""Maybe." She grins and then kisses his bottom lip. "You going to tell it the same way?"Tim shakes his head. "Nope. Gonna play with it. Can't not play with my stories." He kisses her neck, fingers falling to her breast, gently circling her nipple. He looks up to Jimmy and Breena, "Stories are never done, not really. Sometimes you let them out so other people can see them, but you'll always want to fiddle with them."She grins at that. "So, where are we starting then?""Hmmm…" Tim's eyes droop to half-closed, he's seeing the set-up, feeling Abby on him, and getting into story-telling mode. He's also watching Jimmy and Breena, who are sitting across from him, Breena in Jimmy's lap, kissing a little, but mostly watching, listening, looking eager for what happens next. "I think we're at home. Babies are spending the day with Pop and Ducky and Penny, so we've got hours and hours just to ourselves." He kisses Abby again, staring at Breena while he does it, and then looks to Jimmy, licking Abby's lower lip while he does that. Abby sucks his tongue, and Jimmy squirms a little at it."Black silk ropes," Tim says when Abby lets go.Abby grins at that, too. "Good place to start." Tim runs his hand through her hair, tracing his nails down her neck and spine, feeling her shiver on him."Yeah, really good place. Breena's going to come over and spend some time with me." Tim looks at her, eyes hot. "You're going to sit in my lap, and we're going to kiss." He kisses Abby, hot and wet, deep and slow, making love to her with tongue and lips, his fingers trailing over her throat and breast. Tim breaks the kiss after a moment. "Just like that. Wet and slippery and however you liked to be kissed. You're going to show me what you like, and then I'm going to do it. And Abby's going to get up, and she's going to take Jimmy's hands, and get him nice and comfy, sitting like I am, against the headboard on our bed. It's wood, you know, mission style, two inch slats three inches apart. She's going to make sure the pillows are set nicely behind his back." Another long kiss, and Abby either knows where Tim is going with this, or she's leading him. She shifts a little, so she's straddling his legs, facing him. His hand trails down her back to cup her butt. "Perfect, baby." He's looking up at her, eyes sparkling. She leans down a little, so her lips brush his as he says, "You're on Jimmy, just like this. Soft, warm body on his lap." Abby drops her face a fraction of an inch, kissing Tim, and when she pulls back, he says, "You kiss him like that? Just a little tease.""Oh yeah. Think he likes it?"Tim grinds up a little, so she can feel his dick, not quite full hard, but getting there fast, against her pussy. "Yeah, I think he does." Over Abby's shoulder, he can see Jimmy nodding. He's not sure how interactive the story is. And Tim gets that. "You guys can both talk, add to the story. I can run the story with all four of us playing, or you can just lay back and let me tell it.""What next?" Breena asks, as Abby sits down a bit more firmly on Tim, and he grinds against her again. "Black silk ropes," Tim replies. "Abby's in Jimmy's lap, rocking against him, kissing him deep and steady, then she reaches for the rope and ties one wrist and then the other to the headboard. Sorry, Jimmy, you're just watching this round.""Asshole." Jimmy's sounding pretty disappointed at that.Tim grins at him. "Don't worry, you'll love the show. 'Cause you get to watch Abby and I fuck Breena until she's flushed pink, quivering, and screaming with pleasure."Abby adds a little to it. "Don't be cruel, Tim, not just watching. Once you're tied, I'm going to undo your jeans with my teeth, and then slip them off. You're wearing a button down, and I'm unbuttoning it. Still on, can't really take it off, but open." Breena's smiling, she likes this image, and Jimmy's watching Abby, his eye's hot, waiting to see where she's going to go with this. "Tim's right, then you're going to watch. You're going to hear every moan, see every gasp, watch Breena go pink all over. You'll see me licking and fingering her while Tim fucks her."Jimmy's eyes close and he groans, teeth clenched. Breena eyes light up and she smiles, delighted.Abby turns away from Tim, so she's still in his lap, but facing Breena and Jimmy. She's rubbing her butt against him, and Tim spends a moment, head back, feeling it, watching his dick sliding between her butt cheeks. He's got the lube within reach, and grabs for it. "You prep yourself, want to be able to keep using my hand." He says, kissing along her shoulder while he drizzles the lube onto her hand.He puts it down and goes back to stroking her nipples, feeling her hand brushing against him as Abby plays with herself. Then a second later he's moaning softly as she gets the cock ring set. Very full, very hard, yeah, he loves how that feels. Once he's got his voice back, he says, "I think, so Jimmy's got a good view, we need to be right in front of him. And Abby's already in his lap, so Breena, how about we go stand in front of them?" Tim licks Abby's earlobe, while Breena nods at his suggestion."How do you want me?" Breena asks.Tim smiles at her, licks his lips, and looks her up and down. "Every possible way you can think of, and probably a few you can't, and once we've done all of them we'll go online and find some more."Breena beams at that."Showoff," Jimmy says quietly as he realizes that his hands are not in fact tied (he's been sitting with them just pressed to the footboard. He jerks a little when he moves one and breaks the illusion of the story) and are free to pet Breena. "Get over here, you." He pulls Breena into his lap and a deep kiss."The wall's right behind the headboard, so, he's sitting back against it, Abby's in his lap, facing you. You're going to face her, and him, and the wall, leaning your weight into your arms, hands flush on the wall above their heads, so she can kiss you, and he can watch from two inches away.""Where are you?""Right behind you. Your hands don't leave the wall. If you take them away, Abby and I stop."Abby's looking at Jimmy carefully, and then Breena. They're sitting on the far side of the bed, not doing anything besides holding each other, waiting to see where the story is going to go next."Jimmy, you're, what, an inch shorter than Tim?""Something like that, yeah." He blinks, not expecting that."And Breena, you're… 5'5"?""Yeah. Why?""I stop straddling Jimmy, let him know to spread his legs, and then sit between them, back against his chest, hips against his dick. Otherwise I'm too tall, and I won't be in the right spot to do a good job licking you. Plus, he's going to want to see more than just the back of my head… So, yeah, you and Tim are going to take a step to the left, okay? Need you two at something of an angle, otherwise he won't have much of a view."Jimmy closes his eyes, seeing it in his mind, and then opens them, kissing Breena hard, before saying, "You're trying to see if you can get me so turned on my heart blows, aren't you?"Breena kisses Jimmy at that, quick peck. "Time to put all that cardio training to the test." Then she kisses him long and slow, rocking in his lap. He growls a little at her, looking like he's enjoying the teasing, and enjoying teasing back about being annoyed. When they break the kiss, Breena says, "So, I'm standing there, hands on the wall, between Tim and Abby, what happens next?""I think you need to get naked," Abby says.Tim grins at her. "Oh yeah. Very naked. I think Abby's going to slip her hand up the insides of your legs, light and soft, just the pads of her fingers skimming along your thighs. I'm going to unbutton and unzip your skirt, and you'll kick it off. What do you think, Jimmy, what's she wearing on top?"Jimmy closes his eyes, hand falling to Breena's breast, stroking lightly as he sighs. He strokes her hair with his other hand, kissing her hard. Then he pulls back and says, "White t-shirt. That small, tight one.""Bra underneath?" Tim asks.Jimmy smiles, kissing Breena's shoulder. "You wear a bra to a party like this?""No!"She looks over to Tim. "I'm going to take your hair and drape it over your shoulder, that way your ear and throat are bare. Then I'm going to kiss your earlobe, and throat, and down to your shoulder. 'You can take your hands off the wall.' Feel my breath on your neck, hot breath, wet skin? Is it giving you goose bumps?""Yeah." And Breena does shiver a little at that, as Jimmy mouths, wet and soft, against her neck and shoulder. "I take my hands off the wall.""'Good girl, lean against me.' I pull the shirt off, and then put your hands back on the wall. Abby's watching us, and you're standing there in your panties. Which pair, Jimmy?""Little pink satin ones. Bikini cut.""Abby's fingers go from your inner thighs to your panties. She starts by tracing the edges, the straps on the hips, then she drags each index finger down the edge to the crotch, pulling the fabric tight to you, and scraping her fingernails over your pussy." Breena whimpers at that idea. "Oh, honey, this is just the beginning. Wait 'til she gets her mouth on you.""You're so soft, Breena, so smooth. I'm touching the lacy edges, right along that line where your leg and pelvis come together. Not quite grazing your pussy, but dragging over the fabric enough so you can feel it.""She's teasing you; I'm stroking your nipples. Show me how, Jimmy. How does she like it?" Jimmy's hands return to Breena's breast, starting with a slow, firm circle around her nipples. "That good Breena? Want to feel me do that, too?""Yes.""Want to feel it while I slip one finger under your panties?" Abby asks."Yes.""Are you wet? Or do I need to lick my finger so it slides over you all slick and easy?""So wet, can't you smell it? See it on the satin?"Abby smiles at that, and Tim's fingers slip down between her lips. "Abby's wet, so wet. Just talking about this is getting her so hot.""What's it doing to you?" Breena asks Tim.Abby rolls her hips against him, moaning softly. "Standing at attention like the Marines at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier."Breena laughs at that."You liking this, Jimmy?"He nods, smiling. "Doing just fine for me.""How about this," Abby asks, "want to see my fingers stroking over Breena's panties while I slowly kiss from her belly button down to the top edge of them?"Both he and Tim whimper at that visual. Abby's still grinning. "Think that's a yes, Breena?""I think they want to see you peel those panties off with your teeth."Jimmy inhales sharp and shuddering."But first I'm going to mouth all over you, kissing you through them. I'm going to take my time at that, until you're rocking against me, and Tim's still playing with your breasts, kissing your lips. When you're moaning, and grinding on my mouth with that sort of frustrated rocking motion, the 'you're not quite where I need you' move," Both Abby and Breena know that motion intimately, "I'm going to take the little bow at the front top between my teeth and peel those panties off of you."Abby's still prepping herself, and Tim's petting her, stroking her pussy gently, not focusing down onto her clit yet, just feathering his fingers over her lips."You feel my dick, hot and hard against your ass? Abby's told you about that, how I love a perfect, round ass? As Abby's pulling your panties off your feet, I'm rubbing against you. And as soon as she's got them off, I reach to your front and spread that succulent pussy open for Abby, so that when she kisses you it's her wet pink lips right against yours."Breena slips up onto her knees, sinking down onto Jimmy, both of them hissing at it."Don't come, Jimmy," Tim says, also wanting to hiss at Breena slipping onto him. He knows how that feels, knows Abby's a few minutes away from slipping onto him, "this story's got a few chapters, and Breena's just the first one."Jimmy nods, kissing Breena, eyes closed, listening to the story, feeling her moving on him."She's sitting in front of you, Breena, and you're wide open. Can you feel her breath, that whisper of contact before her lips touch you?""Yeah," Breena breathes. Jimmy's rubbing her clit, but stops, holding his fingers near but not on her clit, starting to mimic the story."Then her tongue flicks out," Tim says. Jimmy follows with his index finger, and Breena shudders."God, you taste so good, Breena." Abby picks up, from Tim. "I kiss you long and soft, just slipping over your pussy, not to your clit yet, feasting on you, and then turn to kiss Jimmy, let him lick you off my lips, and show me how you liked to be licked. He's going to treat my lips like your pussy, and then I'm going to turn around and do it to you.""And while they're kissing, we are, too. You can feel my hand on your breasts, fingers on your nipples, tugging just a little, circling slow while I suck your tongue. I'm pressed right up behind you, and you can feel me, hot and hard, rubbing against your gorgeous ass. I break the kiss, and shift my left hand to right behind your head, making you look down, watch Abby and Jimmy, and then I kiss my way down your spine, one soft, wet, open-mouthed, sucking kiss after another. I'm kneeling behind you, palming your ass, kissing that perfect little dimple on your left cheek, gently biting that soft, fleshy bit where your butt and leg come together, and then lightly licking between them, working my way back up your spine, back to your throat."By the time I'm up there again, Abby's licking you, sitting between Jimmy's legs, squirming as she does it, because tasting you is driving her wild, making all three of us crazy with how hot this is. I'm so hard I could pole vault with it, and Jimmy's so turned on he can't think of a snarky comment to shoot that down."Jimmy doesn't say anything at that, he's kissing Breena, hard, hand flying between her legs while she rocks up and down on him."Are you getting close, Breena? Abby's licking you, so fast, getting you exactly right. I'm rubbing my dick between your lips, feeling how wet and swollen you are. Sometimes Abby licks me, too, her tongue slipping from the tip of my dick to your clit, or back, but mostly I'm feeling you, so wet and so slick. Is this good? Do you like me rubbing against you like this?"Breena moans."What do you want, Breena? Say the words, baby.""God, Tim, fuck me, please."Tim smiles at her, he can see she's on edge, Jimmy's just about got her over."Oh, yeah. I wrap my arm around your waist, and lift your foot, so it's on the headboard, right next to Jimmy's head. He's watching Abby eat you out, eyes glued to her mouth on your pussy. He can see my dick slipping over you, again and again. Not in yet, just brushing over you. I want to feel you pulsing around me as I sink my cock into you, want to feel your gorgeous pussy wrap slick and tight around me. You want that, Breena?""Yes!""Good. You want that Jimmy? Want to see me fuck her? Want to watch your wife come on my cock and Abby's tongue?""Yes!" rips out of Jimmy, half-whimper, half-groan, and that, his voice saying yes, tips Breena into a full body, shaking orgasm.Tim's staring, watching her ripple and twitch, skin pink, nipples hard, body glowing with pleasure, almost forgetting everything else, then he feels Abby shift a bit. She's coating him with more lube and he knows what's coming next and smiles. He kisses her, focusing back on his wife, and says, quietly, "Good timing."Abby's hand is stroking over him, making sure he's oiled-glass slick, and then kneels, facing away from him, over his lap and begins a very slow slide down."Ohhh…" slides out of Tim on a breath. His forehead is resting on her shoulder, and his hand and jaw clenches at how good that feels. "Ung." He's panting lightly through the sensation of her body so tight creeping down him. Finally, after an amazingly intense forever, she's settled in his lap. Tim lifts his head from her shoulder, and turns her face to his for a kiss. "Love you."She smiles, enjoying this, enjoying how much he's loving this. "I know. Love you, too, baby." She nips his bottom lip with her teeth, sucking it gently. She looks back to Jimmy and Breena, who are snuggling each other, Breena looking very content, and Jimmy looking like he's enjoying this, but very eager to get back to the fucking."Ready for round two?" Tim asks.Breena nods. She's still blissed out from her climax, but she wants to see what comes next, and she really doesn't want to make Jimmy wait too much longer to get off."Abby's chapter is next."Jimmy bites his lip. He knows Abby's chapter means they still aren't getting off, yet. He gently taps Breena's hip, letting her know to slip off of him. It took basically every ounce of control he had to not come when he said yes, and he's certain that this isn't about to get any less hot, so if he's going to make it through the next round without getting off, he can't be balls deep in Breena.Once Jimmy and Breena are sitting next to each other, Jimmy wraps around Breena, very lightly stroking her nipples. Tim begins slowly rocking against Abby. Slow, shallow thrusts, as his fingers slip over her clit. He wants Abby glowing ember hot, but he wants himself under control, so he keeps his speed slow. He kisses her ear, "Feels so good, Abby, so good." He spreads his legs a little wider, spreading her open, so her pussy's on full display for both of them."She looks good, doesn't she? All wet and smooth and open." Tim pulls his fingers away, and Abby whimpers as he licks them. Then he lets her suck his fingers, too, pulling the last of her flavor off of his skin. He makes eye contact with Jimmy as he says, "And she tastes so good."His fingers return to her clit, gently stroking over her, soft, light little stroke of wet finger tips on wet clit."Breena's tongue." He kisses her throat. "Feels good, doesn't it?"Abby moans. She's relaxing on him, eyes closed, submersing herself in the fantasy he's weaving for her, letting him take over, run the story.He flicks his finger tip lightly, and then circles it over her clit. "Her perfect pink lips kissing your pussy. That soft, wet, pink tongue of hers slipping over your clit, over and over. Her face is so smooth, and so soft, no missed whiskers, just her beautiful mouth all wet with your juices." He kisses her neck, still slowly and gently rubbing her clit. He's barely thrusting anymore, just keeping up a little slide, enough so she can't forget she's on his dick."She'd have to be on her hands and knees to lick you. Ass in the air. You know Jimmy can't resist that. No way he can watch her eat you out, lick after lick after lick, with her pussy, dripping wet, lips swollen and puffy, pink and spread, right in his face."Jimmy groans, that image is not helping him get through this. "God, you kiss your baby with that mouth?"Tim grins at that. "Gonna kiss your wife with it, too. Reach down, gently pull her up, and lick Abby's cum off her lips. And if she's high enough to kiss me, that means her breasts are in Abby's face, so she's going to start licking her nipples, sucking them. You want to lick Breena, right?" He rubs her clit just a little slower, little harder.A long guttural, "Yes," eases out of Abby."Good, I want to see you lick her. Didn't have much of a view last time. We're going to slide onto our sides. And she's going to come with us. Both of you, sixty-nining. I'll keep this up. Slow, gentle, just fucking you out of your mind, while she's lapping at your pussy, those long, pretty fingers of hers spreading you open."Her pussy is right at our lips."You get the first taste. I want to watch you eat her out." Breena groans at this. Jimmy's been touching her, just getting her interested again, and Tim can see Jimmy's so hard he has to hurt, but they aren't fucking yet, and he's fairly sure he knows why."I think she likes it. You know Abby's done this before? Made love to a woman with her mouth, and her hands, and that strap on in our toy box, I'm not the only one it's ever been used on. She's going to spread you open, and I'm going to watch, learn, see exactly how she pleasures you. When you arch your back, or clench your fists, when your legs go tight and your body starts to shake, I'll be paying attention."And when you're lying there, wet and limp, I'm going to kiss your juices off of her, and then start up and show you why I was always the best student in any class I've ever been in."He kisses Abby, speeding up his fingers on her clit a little, thrusting deeper, not faster, but making sure to get his full length into the game. "You get to lie back, feel me fucking you, feel Breena licking you, you know she's good at it, always wanted to taste you, and now you're all spread out in front of her and she's feasting on you. Close your eyes and you just feel it, smooth," he rocks into her, "hard slide, and wet, circling tongue. Open your eyes and you can watch me eat Breena. Watch my tongue lapping away at her, watch me mimick your moves, and hear her moan at them."Abby's starting that quicker, panting moan, and Tim knows she's getting close. He starts stroking her clit faster, little harder."How about it Jimmy? You want to watch Abby and I eat Breena out? Want to see her come on my tongue while Abby's got three fingers buried in her?"Jimmy looks pained. Very intense sexual arousal on his face, and his dick is leaking. He grunts at Tim's question.Tim's feeling the tension in Abby's body increase even further, hearing her voice go a little higher on her moans."I know you do. But maybe there's something better for you than just watching. Breena's eating out Abby, remember? Her pink lips on Abby's pink clit. And she's wide open, so open, and empty, and I bet she'd love the feeling of another hard, thick cock filling her up, while Breena licks her clit.Jimmy swallows hard, and Abby's whining at that. "God, Jimmy please! All of you!""That's right baby, all three of us at the same time." Tim's thrusting harder, deeper. "You want that? Him slipping in while I slip out." She's so tight right now, just on the edge. He switches his hold, slipping his fingers off her clit to thrust into her pussy, as the heel of his hand grinds against her clit. "That's it Abby, all three of us together, fucking you hard. Breena licking you, Jimmy in your pussy, me in your ass."She's writhing against him, just needs a little bit more. "You imagine being that filled? Your glorious body tight around us. Feels so tight and so amazing. I can feel him against me, too, through you, rubbing both of us just right, feels so good." He's thrusting hard now, with his cock and fingers, and twists his hand a little, so the ball of his thumb is right over her clit, and that does it, that little extra friction sends her body pulsing against him, and he bites his lip hard, pulling his mind away from his dick, not wanting to topple over with her.She's panting against him, shaking slightly, twitching and purring. He gives her a moment to calm back down, and then says, "Hands and knees, baby."She grins at him, enjoying that idea, scrambling onto all fours. It takes him a few seconds longer to get on his knees, properly balanced, "Toss me the lube?" It's on his right side, closer to Breena than his left hand, so she hands it over, and he dribbles a little more on Abby's ass, gently rubbing it all over her before slipping back in with a hiss. "Feel good?""Yeah," she moans back. She's facing Jimmy and Breena, palms on the bed between Breena's legs, swaying back and forth gently against Tim."What would feel better, baby?""I get to pick this time?""Yeah, whatever you like. Long as this one can end with Jimmy and I getting off, too."Jimmy moans as he says that.She straightens up and kisses him, slow and deep, then says, "Party ends when you get off.""Then you better get all the bang you can for this one." He pushes her down again and bends to kiss the small of her back, as his fingers find her clit again, once more touching with very light, soft touches."Daisy chain, all of us together."Tim smiles, kissing her back again, speeding up just a little. "On your elbows." She lowers herself down a bit. "Perfect. Just right. Jimmy's on his side, facing you, dick about an inch from your nose."Tim and Abby watch Jimmy shift into position as well. His dick is about an inch from Abby's nose, if she stuck her tongue out, she'd lick him. And Breena knows where she goes, moving to Jimmy's face. He pillows his head on her thigh and begins to lick, fingers deep in her, no teasing, not real finesse, they're both way too turned on to play with this."How would you do it? Hold him in your hand and then suck him down fast and deep?" They watch Jimmy grab a hold of himself, firm grip, and then begin a slow, steady stroke, knuckles almost grazing Abby's lips."God, yeah," Abby moans, and Jimmy shudders, able to feel her breath on his dick. "All the way down. Then pull up, sucking, just let my teeth stroke over him, no bite, but smooth sharp slide."Tim thrusts a little faster at that. "God, I wanna see you do that. You watching him on Breena? See the way he's kissing her?"Abby moans at that, and Breena does, too."Feel good Breena? Like his fingers in you, tongue on you? Want my tongue on you, too? Want me sucking your nipples while he licks your clit?" Breena whimpers, and Jimmy licks faster, holding the base of his cock, tight, not moving his hand at all.Tim knows what that hold means, knows how turned on they all are right now, and when Breena starts to twitch he almost loses it, he feels the build in his balls, and he's so close but, not yet… He's got no idea what he's waiting for or why but, not yet.Jimmy pulls back from Breena, face shiny, wet, fingers wet, too, he holds two of them up in front of Abby's mouth. "She's sweetest right when she cums, wanna taste?"And Abby does, she licks her tongue down Jimmy's fingers and then sucks them into her mouth, moaning at the taste, and that does it. Tim's thrusting hard, gone at the sight of that, of Jimmy's fingers in her mouth, wet and slick with Breena's cum, Abby's lips red and wet and wrapped around him, sucking as she moans like it's the most delicious thing she's ever had in her mouth. Tim's coming so hard he can barely see, even though his eyes are open.He's still sparking with pleasure, sweaty and tingling, but watching, can't not watch, can't close his eyes, can't miss what comes next. Abby's rubbing herself off now, he's too gone to do much other than watch. He can see that sight alone, Abby sucking his fingers, Tim getting off on it, almost tipped Jimmy over. There's a thin line of precum oozing down his dick, and his whole body is bowstring tight. Then Breena sits up, licking his dick from base to tip, flicking her tongue off the tip, then shifting again, just a few inches, and kisses Abby, full-on tongue kiss, slipping her Jimmy's precum while pumping his cock, and Jimmy's gone, lost, shouting at how good that feels and how good it looks, and that sets Abby off, her body quaking on his as Jimmy spurts onto Breena's arm and hand, and if Tim could have multiple orgasms that would have done it for him, but he can't, so there's just this incredible, warm rush of holy shit that's the hottest thing I've ever seen.For a few moments, there's just lying there, wet and sticky, breathing hard, high on endorphins and sex. Then there's a very slow mosey toward the bathroom for clean-up, followed by crashing into bed.The last thing Tim thinks before falling asleep is that it's probably a very good thing tonight's the last night here, because there's no way, if they were going to be here tomorrow night, they wouldn't all end up fucking each other.Next
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Published on February 28, 2015 19:42

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 422: Skin

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.


422: Skin

After lunch, Tim heads back into the house. The girls are getting their long nap, and Abby decides to join them. Jimmy and Breena are laying around on the porch along with Ducky and Penny. Abbi and Ziva are cooking. Gibbs and Tony are lurking about the kitchen keeping them company, occasionally being put to use for prep cook work, chopping up ingredients or measuring things out.For a moment, Tim's watching, he's not sure what the girls are doing, but he's got the feeling he's going to like it. He can smell yeasty-bready things, and there's some sort of tomato concoction bubbling away on the stove, and Ziva's mixing up some sort of meat thing."Pasta?" he asks. "No!" Abbi says, smiling. "Grilled pizza. Tomato sauce is cooking, fresh mozzarella's in the fridge. Ziva's mixing up some kosher sausage."Tim smiles at that. "I don't tell either of you how awesome you are nearly often enough!"That gets some laughing from both girls."Anyway, if I can pry you away for a moment," he says to Abbi, "and if you were to just happen to leave your laptop open and on, maybe I can get something useful for you."Abbi nods, washing her hands. "That's worth it."It reminds him of some of his most content moments as part of Gibbs' team. He's on the sofa, laptop in his lap, working away (Slowly, but, and this surprised him, he is coping pretty well with two fingers not typing, having his thumb, ring finger, and pinky back is actually helpful.) digging through layers of data and metadata, listening to the rest of his team (plus Abbi) working away, joking and playing a bit.It's a lot like a really good paperwork day. Happy people chattering around him while he does something uniquely him and useful.By the time he feels like he's got a pretty good handle on what's going on at CGIS, even better smells are drifting out of the kitchen, and off the porch, where the girls have the grill running and apparently Gibbs has been enlisted to do something involving fire, meat, and… and honestly Tim doesn't know what all else is going on, just that he smells something sweet and smoky, and approves greatly."You at a good breaking point?" Tim asks Abbi.She nods. "Yeah. Nothing to do on the pizza until we get the crust on the coals. Jethro's keeping the pie and sausages company, making sure nothing scorches, Ziva, you've got ice cream, right?"Ziva nods."You're making ice cream and pie?"They nod and smile. Ziva's looking really happy. "Fresh peaches and blackberries the size of Kelly's hands. Glossy black, bursting ripe, and taste like sweet wine.""And you didn't save any for me?" Tim says, mock appalled.Ziva holds up a wooden pint basket, showing Tim that there are, in fact, a few of the berries left, with his name on them. Abbi finishes washing her hands, and grabs them, heading over to where Tim's sitting in the living room."There was a dairy stand with local cream, butter, and the mozzarella," Ziva continues. "Tomatoes are in season. Gorgeous basil. One vendor had free-range chicken and eggs. So, yes. Grilled pizza, with homemade sauce and chicken sausage. Peach-blackberry pie, cooked on the embers from smoking the sausage.""Scoops of ice cream on top," Abbi adds."It is more peach sorbet than ice cream," Ziva clarifies. "We had more peaches than we needed for the pie, so, freeze the extras, then into the blender with the cream, a few basil leaves, little vanilla extract, and we've got a no sugar-added dessert for Jimmy.""Which I appreciate," Jimmy calls out from the porch."S'mores on top of that…" Gibbs grins, sitting on Abbi's other side as she sits next to Tim."Thought you were on the grill." Abbi says. Huge berries"I deputized Duck to handle it." He snatches the berry that Tim hadn't eaten. "Gonna be a good night. When the girls wake up, we'll go on our driftwood hunt.""So, basically, the plan of this weekend is to see exactly how fat you can get all of us?" Tim asks."Fat and happy!" Abbi says. "On a less happy front," she looks at her computer, and he nods."Less happy is right. So, every time you do something on your computer, it doesn't just do whatever it is, it makes records of it, too. Sort of like how you can't walk on the beach without leaving tracks.""Metadata, right?"Tim nods and smiles. "So, for those months where you've got no files, you've also got no metadata. There's nothing. At all.""That's what they said before.""Yeah. So, here's what this is telling me, whoever did this wants me to think no files were ever made.""Think?""Yeah. Look, there have to be records." He's pointing at a screen that's supposed to show payments rendered from CGIS from October of 2011. "You guys got paid, right? You expensed things and money came back to you?"Abbi nods."How did that happen?""Depended on what it was and who you were. Cash for little things. Direct deposit for bigger things. Checks if that's what you preferred.""You guys have credit cards for bigger things?"Abbi nods on that, too. "Some of us do. I used to have one. Spend four nights out of seven on the road and it's just easier to use their card than to keep receipts for everything.""That's how we work, too. So, on the most basic level, it is absolutely impossible that entire quarters could go by without any records being made. I mean, you don't even have bank statements here. And I really doubt VISA or whoever does your cards went months without getting paid. Whoever cleared this out wanted it to look like your boss was just a screw up, didn't keep records, and for all I know that could be true, but it's also true that records got wiped out of here. This is way too empty for just bad bookkeeping.""Wonderful, now what?" Abbi says, dryly."I'm emailing you, on your personal account, what needs to go to IA, what conclusions the 'independent investigator' you've got looking at this is drawing, and I'm going to suggest that you need to make hard copies of this, and mail it priority, sign on receipt, to whoever is in charge of your IA department, personally, so when this blows up you can show copies of what you sent, to whom, along with the receipt of them having gotten it. That should keep you covered, and yes, first thing when you get back in, get those forensic accountants on the job. Someone with access to your bank accounts will hopefully have an easier time figuring out where your money went.""Any idea who cleaned everything up?" Abbi asks Tim.He shakes his head. "Best I can give you what computer did the wiping, and I did, it's in the email, but… These got wiped clean more than three years ago. That computer may not exist any longer. Or it may, but the person using it…"Abbi nods, she understands. "So, if I'm insanely lucky that computer belongs to someone who is still working for us, and used it to do that.""But you aren't that lucky, because whoever did this knew enough to clean the metadata, too. So, if that computer still exists, and is still in the possession of someone at CGIS—""That's not going to be the someone who wiped clean my records."Tim nods, handing Abbi's computer back to her. It's only once he's doing that that he starts to feel a little bad about this, hoping that he didn't just start up the 'crime solving' itch that's going to screw Gibbs and Abbi's vacation. But she takes the computer from him, skims the email he sent her, adds her own note to it, and then fires it off to IA."We gonna be somewhere there's a post office on Monday?" she asks Gibbs.He nods."Quick detour Monday then to get this mailed out and the rest can wait until I get back, Wednesday morning." Both Tim and Gibbs look a bit surprised by that. "I haven't taken a real vacation in years. I'm taking one now. So, McGee, what do I owe you for your 'independent investigating?'"Tim shrugs, no one's ever offered to pay him for his extracurricular computer work before. "Pizza crust recipe?""I'd give you that, anyway. No, real cash. If I've hired an 'Independent investigator' to look at my problem, I need to actually hire you. Don't want IA thinking this looks off.""Oh… um… what do people in the real world get paid for stuff like this…"Abbi shrugs, not like she's ever hired for someone like this before. "What's your hourly rate at NCIS?"He thinks that through and blushes a bit. "Let's call it two hundred dollars for two and a half hours."Abbi raises an eyebrow, that sounds a bit lower than what she assumes Tim makes as a Director, more on par with what she makes as a Division Head, but maybe they do things different at NCIS. Or maybe he's counting the hours he actually works as opposed to the hours he's supposed to work. She'll ask Gibbs about it when Tim's not around, because he's not looking comfortable getting into it in detail."Look who's up!" Abby says as she heads down the steps, holding Molly's hand with Kelly riding her hip. "Anna's still snoozing, but probably not for long, she was making little chirpy getting ready to wake up noises when we decided it was time to come down."Molly scrambles up into Gibbs' lap. "S'mores?""Soon. Driftwood time. We've got to go find the wood to make the fire with. Think your Daddy wants to come along and help with that?""I'm in!" Tony adds. "Unless you need more stuff cut up?" he asks Ziva."We are good for dinner. Breena!"Breena heads in."Do you and Abby want to feed the girls first, then S'mores and bonfire, then Shabbos dinner at sunset, or Shabbos early, followed by bonfire?"Abby shrugs. "Don't think it matters much for Kelly. Molly's the one really looking forward to this, Breena?""Is dinner for all of us early a problem? I'm thinking for everyone involved it's probably easier to eat all at once, and then head down to the beach. Then we can enjoy the fire as long as we want."Ziva nods. "I can work with that. Abbi?""I'll put the crusts on the grill at 4:45, we'll be ready to eat by 5:30, plenty of playtime after for Gibbs and the girls, and then bedtime and adults by the fire."And thus, with a plan, everyone broke off. Molly on the beachGibbs has his arms full of pieces of driftwood. Molly's running all over the beach grabbing pieces for him. Tony's off a bit, stacking them up, getting them into burn position. Jimmy's got Anna in the snuggli on his chest, standing next to Gibbs."Doing it with a water pistol from ten feet away doesn't count as sniping," Jethro says quietly to Jimmy.Jimmy laughs a little. "Uh huh. Your guard was down and you didn't have a clue it was coming. I know it doesn't count for the shot, but…" Jimmy grins at him. "It was fun. And I had to get through an entire breakfast with you and all the rest of the family, with it on my back, and not let on something was up. I thought that was good practice."Gibbs smiles at that. "You're right, it was.""Plus, I set it up so I was at the sink, behind you, water on, to cover the sound of me pulling it out, taking advantage of the fact that I like wearing my shirts open on vacation, so none of you suspected, and I still had easy access.""You set it up good, for a water gun fight. For real… too close, no escape route… Getting out clean's more important than hitting the target."Jimmy nods a bit. "I know. But three years ago, I'm not sure I could have set up a good water pistol ambush, let alone done it without telegraphing I was going to do it.""Yeah." Gibbs agrees with that. He heard some stores of Jimmy and laser tag and his lack of skills. "You're learning." Then Gibbs grins. "Got all day tomorrow and Sunday morning to show you how to do it right."Jimmy's smirking at that. "Uh huh. You can try."Gibbs shoves him on the shoulder. Jimmy laughs.It's not a traditional Shabbos dinner. The bread they're breaking is actually three grilled pizzas. Sunset's still two hours off. The "wine" is the sugar-free vanilla soda that Breena makes and Jimmy loves. And, technically, the two pizzas with sausage aren't kosher.But that doesn't matter much. It's the Sabbath, and a day of rest and celebration and thanksgiving is definitely in the cards.The candles are lit, flickering softly in their cups, along with tiki torches, and sure, the sun's still up, but somehow fire makes things feel more intimate.The prayers have been said, and blessings given.Hands are washed, bread is broken. The Sabbath is in full swing.There's a little lull in the conversation. Ducky had finished telling a story about his adventures in Naples. (Birthplace of pizza, at least, Tim thinks that's how they got onto this.)Ziva looks at Tony and smiles, and he grins back at her. "So, we have news," he says, smile threatening to split his face. Everyone else is smiling, too, they all know where this is going."As you have all figured out, I am pregnant!" Ziva says, glowing at them. "If all goes well, come the beginning of April, we'll be adding another place to the table."That gets a lot of happy noise. Congratulations offered, and hugs. Abby woops at it, and Breena is giggling with happiness.Ducky's chuckling, and Penny's grinning, shaking her head. "Oh, Lord, five babies under the age of three and a half. This crew is going to be a handful.""Can you imagine when we've got the house done, say Christmas five years from now, all of them bounding around the house high as kites on sugar and excitement, presents all over the place?" Abbi adds.Gibbs is grinning at that, not just the image of it, but that Abbi's seeing his/their family five years from now."Might need another dog," Gibbs adds with a smile, "something that herds. Keep 'em all in one place."Abby claps her hand over Gibbs' mouth. "Don't you dare say that! Mona's doing a great job of herding babies. You apologize to her!"Mona, who had been laying on the porch, right at the sliding glass door, looks up at the mention of her name, but no one's offering food, so she goes back to snoozing."She knows I'm foolin' with her.""Are we finding out if it's a boy or girl?" Penny asks.Tony shrugs. Ziva doesn't. "He wants to know. I do not. But we still have a while to decide. The test they did for you… That was earlier than usual, right?"Abby nods. "Yeah, instead of taking a peek with the ultrasound, this is a DNA test. Do you have your first OB appointment, yet?""No. We're going to make it when we get home," Tony says."I don't know if there's a deadline, but we were at eleven weeks when we went in." Abby replies, then says to Ziva, "So, it looks like you're feeling good."Ziva smiles at that, too. "A little sleepy, and a little more sensitive, but otherwise, yes, feeling good. Of course, I am also only a month pregnant."The girls laugh at that.Jimmy's looking at Ziva and starts to say, "How long… Are you planning on… Uh… What are your thoughts on maternity leave?" He stumbles a bit looking for a PC way to ask that question.Penny smiles, approving of his effort."I do not know for sure. Right now I feel fine, so working is not an issue. If that changes… I do not think it is fair, or safe, for the rest of the team if I cannot bring my A game to the field. It is one thing to be tired for a day or two, another thing to feel like you're going to fall asleep at any moment for weeks at a time, and if you have to throw up six times a day…"Breena and Abby are nodding along. "Yeah, your job, cat naps, and morning sickness don't go along together well," Abby says."Let alone trying to run someone down when your joints go all loose and your balance goes sideways." Breena adds. "But, that's not a problem for everyone, I mean…"Ziva nods. "I know. So… I don't know how long I'm staying, but…" and though Tony and Gibbs know this, it's not something she's said to anyone else in this crew. "But after, I'm not going back."That gets a few seconds of shocked quiet, followed by, "Oh… wow!" from Breena.Then, "That's so cool!" from Abby. "Stay at home mom… For good, or…""I think for good. I've been ready for a change for a while now. It's time to dedicate life to nurturing life. Eventually she'll… and maybe a little brother or sister or both," she's beaming a smile at Tony, "will be in school, and I'll be looking for something else, but while they are still babies, I'd like to be home."Tim's watching Tony as Ziva's saying this, and he catches a bit of panic in the back of his eyes, but it's not nearly as bad as he would have expected it to be. Granted, he expected this to be curl into a ball, rocking back and forth whimpering in the bathroom, full on panic attack, so the fact that he's still sitting there, looking calm-ish, and mostly happy and insanely proud, is a very big step.He watches Penny, wondering what she's thinking. She hasn't said anything and right now her face is unreadable. He gets the sense that she's going to want to talk to Ziva alone, make sure she's not feeling pressured into doing anything, but… But he doesn't know.In that Abbi and Ziva cooked, they do not have to do dishes. So, shortly after dinner breaks, they head to the beach for lighting the fire.Penny offers to head down with them.They're about four steps out of the house when she asks, "Do you really want to be a stay at home mom? It can be… so limiting and dull and… Just, don't let anyone pressure you into it." It's clear that by anyone she's thinking Tony or Gibbs.Ziva smiles at Penny. "No one expects me to be a stay at home mom. If it is limiting and dull and I do not like it, no one will give me any trouble about going back to work. Sure, I will not have my space on Tony's team. He will have to hire someone to replace me when I leave, but I will not find it difficult to find work. And… like with McGee and Abby, one of us should have a safe nine-to-five job if we have children at home.""Are you sure? Men can be-""Penny, it's not about that. If anything, Tony would prefer I kept working." They've gotten to the wood, and Ziva starts messing with the matches, looking to put this into words."I'm done. I've been done for a while. I still love the job, and I'm good at it, but, it's not my life anymore. And more than that, I do not want it to be my life anymore."Abbi's listening quietly to this, looking to learn more about Ziva, and Penny's watching her intently as she speaks, making sure she's not rationalizing and internalizing external pressure."Death has always been part of my life. I was thirteen when Tali was killed. By fifteen, my parent's marriage was dead. At eighteen, I was in the army and had killed my first man. Twenty, I was working for my father, traveling all over the world, killing people because they needed to die. I was twenty-three when my father made me my half-brother's control officer, hoping to keep him tied to our side, and before that year was over, I had killed him. That was the first turning point, I was done being an agent of death. I started working with NCIS and became someone who preserved life. But on our best days, we save what is already there. Most days we sweep up the shards of someone else's shattered life. That is important, and vital, and honorable, and necessary. It is a good job, a good life, but as I told Gibbs, we preserve, but we don't create, and I want to create. I want to focus on life, and living, and make things, make people. I've been dedicated to death for a long time, Penny, and now… I'm done. So, perhaps not today or tomorrow, but when I leave NCIS I'm not going back." Ziva smiles at her. "I'm going to help Gibbs work on our home, the one for Tony and the baby and I, and the one for our family. I'm going to learn how to take real pictures, something I've always wanted to do, but never got to. I'm going to get fat and sassy and waddle around with this child growing inside of me and eat ice cream and work on building a nursery and a home." She's got tears in her eyes as she says that. "I'm going to be alive, and I'm going to dedicate myself to growing things, people, love." Ziva blinks at that. "I'm going back, to the little girl I was, and the woman she thought she would be. I'm getting the life that was stolen from me by a bomber in 1997."Penny nods, hugging Ziva close, and quietly says to her, "L'chaim, Ziva.""Exactly, Penny."Abbi's standing there, not sure how or what to do, for a second, and then Ziva grabs her and pulls her into the hug, too.If there's anything cuter than Gibbs kneeling on the sand, his arms around Molly, as she holds a long stick with a marshmallow on the end, at first too far away, and then too close to the fire, giggling happily as it toasts and then bursts into flame, no one sitting around the fire knows what it would be.The girls are in the house, putting babies to bed, and Gibbs grabs something out of the bag he had with him. Something that isn't chocolate or marshmallows or a tennis ball for Mona."Ohhh…" Tony says, looking at the very good bottle of scotch."Indeed," Ducky adds as Gibbs opens it. "I don't suppose you've got some glasses in there, Jethro?"Gibbs shakes his head, takes a sip, and then passes it to Tony. "Got this the day you told me you were going to ask Ziva to marry you. Been holding onto it, waiting for the day all of my boys were Dads."Tony hands it to Tim, who takes a small sip. He knows what Jimmy's got planned for him, already taken the Percocet, so he can't have too much alcohol, and this is a hell of a lot stronger than the wine he's had with the pain killer before.It's good though. Scotch is his hard drink of choice, and this is smooth and dark with a bit of smoke (made more intense by sitting in front of a fire) and just rolls down his throat. "Thinking of us drinking this by a fire?" he asks Gibbs."Picturing it at my house, in front of the fire place, but this works, too."Tim hands it over to Jimmy, who has a somewhat larger swallow, but also isn't going overboard. Tim's just got to keep from ODing, he's got to keep enough of his brain and fine motor control in place to do delicate work."Nice!" Jimmy says, handing it to Ducky.Ducky almost looks like he's uncomfortable with drinking from the bottle, but then he winks at Jethro and takes a healthy swig. "To the next generation!"Gibbs takes the bottle back from Ducky and takes another swig. He lifts the bottle to each Tony, Tim, and Jimmy, and then says, "To the boys you were, the men you've become, and the children you're going to raise."And maybe it's the drugs he's on, but that actually makes Tim's eyes tear up a bit.Tony takes the bottle again, and adds, "To our wives, who make all of this possible, and who will likely be back in a few minutes and laugh themselves silly at this."Tim chuckles at that, and the rest of them are laughing, too. He finds the bottle in his hand and takes another small sip. Just enough to get the flavor on his tongue. "To the men who are showing us what being a good Dad looks like."He hands it over to Jimmy, who takes another drink, and shakes his head. "Great, leave me last… Um…" He grins. "'Blah, blah, blah, alcohol is fun.'" Then he winks at them, and Tim's got the feeling that he's supposed to know what that was in reference to, but he doesn't. Jimmy takes another sip, and says, seriously, "To the love that binds us, that made a bunch of strangers into co-workers, co-workers into friends, and friends into family." He takes one more swallow. "And to the loves we have not yet met, the children yet to come, and our loves who have passed away." He takes one last drink on that, and passes the bottle to Ducky.Ducky sips again, and says, "Amen." Then his eyes slip further up the beach, toward the house. "And I believe the ladies are about to rejoin us."The girls were heading down, and they did join them, and soon they were lounging around the fire passing the bottle, toasting marshmallows, enjoying each other. Tim thinks, as he's sitting on a little folding chair, Abby between his legs, resting back against his chest (he took the time to undo the sling and rearrange his arm so she can nestle in) as flames and sparks jump to the darkening sky, his whole family laughing and joking around him, that this is what contentment is.And then they were back in their room. Tim's sure something, like walking up to the house, happened between these things, but, Percocet and alcohol, beyond being in an excellent mood, he's fuzzy on the details. And Jimmy was working on ripping his arm out of its socket, (releasing the joint) and he's thinking that this, no matter how much he needs it, and how useful it is, is not contentment.Apparently he said something less than complimentary about the whole situation, because Jimmy responded with, "Like I said last time, you trying to get me to just oil you up and play with you?""No. Want you to oil Breena up and play with her," that popped out long before Tim's brain got a chance to provide any input.Jimmy's staring at Breena; then he grins at her, and she smiles back. "That can probably be arranged."And once his arm was done, it was, and yes, Tim (and Abby) enjoyed watching it, and it certainly looked like Jimmy and Breena had a good time with it, too.And, all in all, (even if he is fairly fuzzy on the details) Tim would highly recommend sex with your wife, watching your best friends, high as a kite on endorphins and euphorics after an excellent meal with everyone you love.Jimmy wakes with a jerk, not sure what he's hearing, just that it's setting off his 'someone's hurt, gotta help' sensors. He's practically out of the bed before it occurs to him that he's not hearing either of the girls.No, the crying, and… yeah, those are words, are coming from a much deeper, but broken and quiet, voice, a whole lot closer than the closet.He looks over and sees that Tim's crying, cursing in his sleep, and Abby's wrapped around him, rocking him gently, making soft, soothing sounds."Stop that fucking crying!" His voice is soft, murmured, but very intense."Shhh…" She's whispering it, lips near his ear. "Come on Tim, you're dreaming, shift out of it.""Only babies and fags cry!" He's shuddering and crying between words."Shhh… You're dreaming, Tim. You're safe in bed. Come on, baby, shift out of it."Jimmy's not sure what to do. Abby's holding onto him from behind, cuddled around him, murmuring softly to him. He takes Tim's clenched left hand and gently works on relaxing his fingers.Tim goes quiet, but Jimmy can see from the tension in his face and shoulders that he's just not sharing what's going on with the wider world, he hasn't slipped into dreamless sleep."Should we wake him up?" he asks Abby, also keeping his voice in a low whisper."No. He'll remember the dreams if he wakes up. I just try to slide him out of them.""Of course it hurts. It's supposed to hurt. Stop being a little cunt and take it like a man.""I've got you, Tim, shhhh… shhhh… You're safe and in bed. Pull out of it, baby."Jimmy's holding his hand, but it doesn't feel like enough. He can see the tension on Tim's face, the tears. He can see the child Tim must have been, crying, cringing in terror. Jimmy's free hand comes up to Tim's face, and he gently wipes away the tears, lightly stroking over his cheek and forehead. "You're okay, Tim. You're home and safe, and we've got you. Time to go back to sleeping, okay?"More quiet, face still tense, fear still wrought large over his body, Jimmy can even smell it. Abby's still rocking him cooing softly at him, then Tim shudders all over, sighs, snuggles in closer to her, and relaxes completely.She lifts her head a little, half-smiling at Jimmy. "He's okay now.""How often does this happen?""Only about twice a week, now.""PT nights?"She nods. "Muscles hold memories, feelings, get them open and moving again, and it shifts what's in your head, too. Every time we've done this, he's had nightmares after.""Shit." Jimmy's ready to kick himself about that."No. He needs his arm working, and I think… I don't know. I think this is processing for him, too. I think this is stuff he still can't let himself deal with when he's awake.""Great."Abby shrugs. It is what it is. And the only direction they've got is through it. There's one other thing going on, too, namely pregnant bladder and right now she's really got to go. That's what woke her up in the first place. "Look, I've got to pee, you got him for a few minutes?"Jimmy nods.Abby carefully shifts Tim over, and Jimmy takes hold of him. Cuddling him in a full body hug.If anyone had ever suggested that there would be a day when he'd be naked, in bed, Breena on one side, an equally naked, sleeping Tim, on the other, wrapped in his arms, he would have laughed so long and hard he would have been in danger of rupturing both lungs.It does feel weird, and a little uncomfortable (though Tim doesn't appear to mind or have noticed that it's not Abby snuggling him) but Jimmy likes to think of himself as the kind of guy who can go the extra mile to do what his friends need when they need it, and he'd hate to think that he couldn't provide a hug when a hug is needed.Especially if (and he hears the toilet flush) said hug is only needed for two minutes.Abby gets back, and snuggles in front of Tim (between him and Jimmy, which makes Jimmy feel more comfortable again) and Tim gloms onto her the same way the girls do with their favorite, most beloved stuffed animals.Abby's facing Jimmy, and she takes his hand in hers, squeezing gently. "Thanks. I know that was weird for you."Jimmy shrugs a bit and squeezes her hand back. "All part of the job."Abby smiles at him, closes her eyes, yawns, and very quickly drops back off to sleep.Jimmy doesn't drift off that quickly. He's not sure what he's thinking or feeling, just… how strange is it to love someone so intensely that you will happily kill someone for him, but to feel odd about holding him… Holding him naked. He's hugged Tim, and that's never been a problem, and when they lost Jon, he slept with Tim and Abby holding him, and that was fine, but they were dressed.Somehow that mattered. Skin… skin's taboo. They can touch as long as it's not skin to skin. They can look as long as they don't touch. He remembers Breena saying something about how much easier this, whatever this is, will be if the two of them can be physically close without flipping out…He didn't flip out. He's fairly sure it wasn't scary on any level. It's just a touch, skin on skin. But skin means sex… Except it doesn't. He sleeps naked with Breena most nights, and most of that sleeping is just close, skin to skin touch. He's got no problem cuddling his girls when he and they are naked. That's skin, but it's not sex.And hugging Tim isn't sex. Really not sex. It's just comfort. Just skin on skin and warmth and another body holding you close when you hurt.Jimmy feels… he's not sure, something, bad isn't quite it, unsettled, that's probably closer to right, about the fact that this matters to him. It's just skin. Why should it matter? His… Tim... (He still doesn't know what Tim is to him. More than a friend, that much he knows, but beyond that, he doesn't have a good word for this relationship.) is hurting, and needs comfort, and if he'd been dressed he would have held him without so much as a second thought.But it does matter. And he's not sure what to do about that. He thinks about it, and decided it would matter to Tim, too. Reverse the situation, and Tim would hold him if he needed it, but, both of them naked and touching would make him pause, too.Tim's as curled around Abby as he can get. She's on her side, snugged up against his chest, and he's got her flush against him, leg over hers, left arm under her neck, face pressed against her shoulder, totally cuddled into her.But his hand is in reach. Jimmy shifts around a bit, feeling Breena return to her usual spot snuggled into his left side. He kisses her, and then reaches over, taking Tim's left hand in his right, just holding it, getting used to touching him, skin on skin.Eventually, he drifts off.

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Published on February 28, 2015 19:09

February 25, 2015

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 419: Nest

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.



Chapter 419: Nest


Full house for Shabbos this week, and for the first time in a long time, Tim's moving around well enough to make getting up and down the stairs leading into Tony and Ziva's building something less than a monumental chore.So they're gathering at Ziva's place, and she's having a grand time of it.Ziva loves to cook. She always has. And cooking for other people is even better than just cooking to make food.This week, puttering around her kitchen, mixing up bread dough, chopping fruit for sweet nibbles, laying out olives and nuts for salty nibbles while the chickens roast, she's having a blast. She is in a full on celebratory groove, bopping around her kitchen, music on loud, scrubbing the veggies for the salad, and mixing up pitchers of cucumber-lime (virgin) mojitos. (Officially, they're standing in for the wine so that Abby can partake along with everyone else.)Tony's leaning against the door to their kitchen, just watching. After a few beats, where she does not appear to notice he's there, he steps in and catches her mid-dance step. "Dance with me?"She grins up at him, and lets him lead a few steps."So, anything I can do to help in here?" he asks after dipping her low at the end of the song."I think I've got in here covered. But setting the table and putting food on it would be good.""Then I will set the table." He heads out of the kitchen, and then pokes his head back in. "Everyone, right?""Full house."Tony's putting plates on the table, and given that it's summertime, which means the sun sets after baby girls are all tucked into bed and snoozing, they're feeding fewer people than usual tonight. "We better hurry up on getting the house done. Add one more high chair and there's no way we're keeping this herd of people in our place."Ziva grins at the idea of one more highchair, and then a thought is triggered by 'house.' "Did Senior get you?""I saw he called, but we ended up playing phone tag, what's up?""He's got a house he wants to move on for us. He would like us to see it before starting the bidding."Tony's eyes go wide open. "Oh. Uh. Okay… He tell you where?""Georgetown."Tony thinks about that for a moment. "Oh God. If it's in bad enough shape for us to afford it in Georgetown, it's about to be condemned."Ziva shrugs. "He says it is a great neighborhood and a very good school district.""Scratch that, it is condemned.""Tomorrow morning, we'll go, we'll see. He invited Gibbs, too."Tony can see it; the more this place looks like the ruins of urban warfare, the more Gibbs'll love it. "That'll be fun. You want to tell Dad then?"A huge smile breaks over Ziva's face. "Oh yes. Do you think Gibbs told Abbi?"Tony's mouth opens and then closes. "I don't know. Is it stupid that I keep forgetting he's got this extra person now, who he's actuallytrying to tell things to?""Yes." Ziva winks at him and goes back into the kitchen, coming out a moment later with the salad. "Abbs keeps watching me, looking like she's expecting to be told something.""Yeah, Palmer and McGee keep giving me stupid grins, too. So, tonight? Or make them wait for next week."Ziva smirks at him. "I think we should make them wait."Tony laughs."Stories!" Molly Palmer knows exactly what she wants, and she's homing in on it. Namely, she wants her (new) very favorite story (Madeline) with her very favorite Uncle (Uncle Jethro) and she wants it now.The thing about summertime Shabbos is dinner starts at sunset. In Washington DC, in the last week of July, sunset is at about 8:30, which is also known as an hour and a half after baby girls go to bed. They've tried a few dinners with the girls up, and basically found that no one was having a good time. Sure the girls liked it, and Molly especially was being extremely vocal about not being tired at all, but between having to deal with exceptionally grumpy tiny people during dinner (not fun) and then having to deal with tiny little bears with sore paws the entire next day (really not fun) the adult members of Clan Gibbs have decided that babies get to sleep through supper when it happens after bedtime.So, these days, the first order of business is get everyone greeted, followed by story time with Uncle Jethro (and Dad, though whether Dad means Jimmy or Tim depends on how little girls are doing.)Jethro scoops up Molly, who already has her book in hand, and says, "Hello Molly." "Uncle Jetro!" He gets a big wet kiss on the lips. "Madeline!""I see." She's holding it right up in his face. Gibbs leans back a bit and grabs it from her. "'Twelve little girls in two straight lines, the youngest one was Madeline,' right?"Molly's astonished by that. "How do you know?""I used to read this book a whole lot.""Oh." Molly's impressed by that. "Is it your favorite?"He shakes his head. "Nah. But I like it a lot. Is this what we're going to read tonight?"Molly nods her head. Tim and Abby head in at that, and as Tim's giving Molly her hello kiss, Molly turns in Gibbs' arms, trying to get into Tim's, which isn't going to happen, but she's really excited about something. "Uncle Tim! Madeline has a hurt arm, just like you!"Tim's looking around, not sure who Madeline is, but Abby's grinning. "Yes, she does, doesn't she, Molly?"Molly nods in agreement, looking intently at Tim. "It gets better."Tim nods. "My arm's going to get better, too. See." He shows off how much less of his arm is in the cast now. He's not sure how aware of what's under the sling the girls are, but Molly seems impressed."How much better is it?" Abbi asks.Tim kisses her cheek. "Well, Jimmy comes over and tortures me twice a week, but each time he does it I get another two inches of range of motion, so…""So, it's worth it, and you bitching and moaning is just sympathy seeking," Jimmy says with a smile. "Jethro, Abbi," both of them get hugs. "Showing off your new book?" he takes Molly from Jethro and kisses Abby's cheek. "Hey.""Anyway, as I was saying, if NCIS doesn't work out, Jimmy's starting Master Palmer's House of Pain.""Oh come on!"Tim winks at Jimmy."Master Palmer?" Jimmy rolls his eyes.Tim just grins."Dr. Palmer's House of Pain sounds kinkier," Tony adds as he heads over.Molly's listening and watching and can tell there's a joke of some sort, because the adults are all goofing around but she doesn't know what's going on. "Daddy?"Jimmy kisses her forehead. "It's okay. Uncle Tim and Uncle Tony are teasing me."She glares at Tim and Tony. Everyone at daycare is very specific about how it's bad to tease people. "No teasing!"Tim nods, seriously. "No teasing. I'm sorry, Jimmy."That satisfies Molly. Now she staring at Uncle Tony, who's staring back, trying to figure out what to do with this. After all, there's no way he's going to say he won't tease Jimmy, he'll get ragged on that until the end of time. "C'mere."Now everyone is looking at Tony, wondering (okay, internally smirking, they all know what's going on) as he takes Molly. She's looking a little startled, too. Uncle Tony's good for rough housing, not so good for cuddles. He's never done story time before. "How about Uncle Jethro and I read you and your sister some stories?"Molly thinks about that, looks over at her Daddy, who nods, it's fine with him if the usual Friday night routine varies a bit, then she looks at Jethro, who also nods. "Uncle Tony's new to this story thing, so we're going to have to show him how to do it."That makes Molly happy, because if there's anything a two-year-old loves, it's getting to boss people around.Especially adult people!As Gibbs quietly closes the door to Tony and Ziva's bedroom behind him, he looks at Tony and grins. "Not so bad?"Tony grins back, then shrugs. He's still not awash in overwhelming and unending adoration for the little rug rats, but that wasn't bad. "Still like big people better.""That's fine. You're allowed to.""Wasn't scary. Felt like I wasn't completely out of my depth."Gibbs wraps an arm around his shoulders and gives him a squeeze."Looking forward to doing that with Little D."That turns the squeeze into a hug."Really don't like changing diapers. There're all those little folds the poop hides in. Ylghrk." Tony shudders.Gibbs bursts out laughing at that. "Better get used to it. Ziva's not going to let you be a 1950's dad."Tony shakes his head wryly. "Yeah. I know.""So, McComputerMaster, I've got a question for you." Tony asks once the blessing is done and they're all eating."Shoot, Tony. Looking to upgrade at home?" Tim asks, lifting a bite of chicken to his mouth."Uh, no… Why, do I need to?""No, just…" Just he knows Tony's laptop is four years old. "Never mind, what's up?"Tony puts his glass down. "So, once we off-loaded our Bin Laden and started playing with our new data, Bishop had a really devious thought." Everyone is nodding, following along. "Basically, she pointed out how, yeah, it's great that we have all this access now, but with how they gave it to us, they can take it away with just a few keystrokes.""That's how every well-designed secure system works, Tony.""Great." Tony rolls his eyes a bit, indicating that isn't exactly a revelation to him. The revelation is what that means. "We're using it, making more headway, putting things together faster and easier than ever before. It's wonderful, but… Anytime CIA or NSA says jump, we're gonna be going 'how high' because we can't afford to lose access, now.""Double edged sword," Ducky adds."Yeah. So… Can we make a copy? I mean, I give you my access stick, can you make me my own NSA database?"Tim sniggers. "Can you get me the fifty million dollars of storage I need to hold it and the fifteen or so people I'll need to run it?""No."Tim just looks at Tony. "But if you get me authorization from Vance, I'll build you a backdoor so you've always got a way in."Tony's smiling for a second, because how hard can that be, then he sees the look on Tim's face. "Vance won't give me authorization, will he?"Tim shakes his head. "He's looking at prison time if we get caught. I am, too. However, Draga can, and this is legal, set up a program on your team's computers so that every time a new screen pops up it takes a screenshot and saves it. He'll have to build your own database for it, but you won't be able to lose anything you've accessed."Tony likes the sound of that. Especially since he's building a web of hopefully related cases, so what gets used in Case A will hopefully come in handy for Case B. "That's a start.""Yeah. Step two, and Draga shouldn't have any trouble with this, write a program so that whenever you aren't actively using your computers, they're swimming through the databases, constantly pulling stuff up and getting shots. He can talk to me if he needs help turning those shots into searchable data. When you get enough of it, we'll have a chat with Vance about your storage needs."Tony nods. "Ah. And this would be… legal?"Tim shrugs. He thinks so, but he hasn't seen the fine print on whatever agreement Tony got up with either group. He's fairly certain Tony hasn't seen the fine print, either. "A hell of a lot more legal than me attempting to copy restricted databases or hack a back door into them. So long as we're just messing with our own stuff, it should be fine.""Ah." Tony's looking at everyone else at the table. "So, I guess we're all pretty much up to date on what I've been doing this week, then?" Nods. "So, how about it, Abbi, haven't seen you for a while, what CGIS doing to you?"Abbi sighs. "New fiscal year starts September 1st, and this year we've gotten notice that the GAO is coming to audit us on September 2nd, so, as you can guess, this year is mayhem. They want not just Fiscal 2015, but the five years previous, too.""Fun!" Tim says, nodding."Oh, yeah, excellent. Add in the fact that I wasn't in charge for '11, '12, or part of '13, and that Swissin, the guy who had the job before I did, needed to take his shoes off to count to eleven, and conveniently died last year." She's glaring at the mental image of Swissin, wishing he was still alive so she could blow off some steam by reaming him out properly. Gibbs gently rubs the back of her neck. "So, I can't even hunt his ass down and grill him, and I've got the least fun accounting nightmare you've ever seen." She stabs a bite of her salad, picks it up on her fork, and then puts it back down. "I've got full quarters where there's nothing, not even files. My computer guys keep telling me there should be information around here somewhere, that we keep copies of everything off site as well as locally, but they can't find them."My boss is fussing about bringing in forensic accountants to go figure out what's going on because he thinks it looks bad. He wants to just stonewall the GAO and hope they're unwilling to call a Congressional investigation, which is making me wonder if he's involved in those quarters being gone."IA reports to him, so I can't exactly call them in on this without him finding out about it, and since I mentioned the forensic accountant, expecting him to go along with it, he's got the heads up that I'm onto something here and is likely scrubbing things clean as we speak." Abbi chomps her bite of salad.The rest of the table is sitting there silent, very aware of how big of a deal this is, and that they cannot talk to anyone outside of the room about it."You've got a work laptop with access to everything on it, right?" Tim asks.Abbi nods."Bring it with you to NC. At some point, you're going to turn it on, log in, and go for a walk, at the very least I'll probably be able to tell you if your computer guy knows what he's doing or if he's BSing you, too.""Thanks, McGee.""So, if this is more than just… incompetence, where do you go with this?" Penny asks.Borin shrugs. "Officially, as head of the Chesapeake Region, I'd report it to the head of our IA department, and then he handles it. As the person who's going to have to answer to the GAO, I'm thinking those forensic accountants are showing up whether Tom likes them there or not. I want to have something to show beyond a bunch of blank spaces." Abbi takes a drink. "The real question is, do I think IA is going to do something? This feels wrong.""Hinky?" Abby asks."Yeah. Those files are supposed to be off site and if they're missing, too… Lots of hinky." Abbi shakes her head. "Swisson just up and gave notice. Just retired out of the blue one day. Next thing I know, I'm in charge of the Chesapeake Division. Cases always ran smooth. He had a good handle on all of the crime stuff, but Swisson was an awful administrator. And I don't know, maybe he got promoted too high. Maybe he was on the take. But this smells bad, and it's biting me in the ass."Gibbs has been holding her hand. This is the first time she's said that much about this all at once. He's been getting bits and pieces, but he's guessing something really shifted today, probably the information not being in the backup storage area. She smiles a little at Gibbs, and then turns to Breena and Jimmy saying, "Right now, I cannot wait for five days at the beach. Thank you so much for the invite!"Gibbs winces a little at that, but Abbi's not looking at him, so she misses it. Jimmy and Breena are looking a little curious about five days, but not saying anything. So's the rest of the group. They're all letting five days lie. One of the good thing about a family full of cops is that when one member lets slip with something all the rest of them know is wrong they all come, very quickly, to the conclusion that there is something planned that they are not yet party to, so leave it the hell alone."Okay, enough of the fun of CGIS," Abbi gives Ziva a long look, smile tugging at her lips. "Have an exciting week, Ziva?"Ziva smiles. "Quite dull really. Computers, more computers. I have been in the office every day this week. Onto more exciting things, for example, are we drawing straws for who's camping out next week?" she asks Breena.This produces curious looks from Ducky, Penny, Abbi, and Gibbs, and something that could be called, maybe, if you were looking carefully, restrained glee from the Palmer/McGee contingent."No worries on that. We're" Breena gestures to her and Tim and Abby, "sharing the master bedroom…" Gibbs had been listening, cutting his chicken, but he looks up fast at that, and stares long and hard at Tim and Jimmy. Breena's going on about how the master is huge, has a little sitting area, and a walk in closet that's currently empty, and how it's just easier to use that as a nursery for all three girls, and keep all the grown-ups who respond to them in easy earshot.Ducky, Penny, Tony, and Ziva all seem to think that makes perfect sense, and in that it means they all get their own bedroom and don't have to share or camp on the sand, they're just nodding along.Abbi's noticed something is going on with Gibbs, and since he's already mentioned the possibility of the Palmers and McGees becoming more than just friends, she's got a pretty good sense of what's up with him.Jimmy and Tim can feel Gibbs still staring at them.Tim's close enough to Gibbs that he catches his eye, looks down at his left hand. and sees Gibbs follow his gaze, and then he quickly signs (by spelling the words out) w-e-r-e-f-i-n-e-t-a-l-k-s-o-o-n.Gibbs looks back up at him, and there is very much a promise of talking soon in his eyes."How about you, Tim?" He jerks slightly, not noticing that Breena, having finished explaining both how the set up for the house works and who is sleeping where, had tossed the spotlight onto him. "Um…" For a second he can't think of what he did this week. Then it comes back. He looks down at his right arm. "So, the Third Carrier Group Cyber Attack Readiness Evaluation as well as the Paradigms For Effective Surprise Cyber Attack Tests are officially finished. My reports are done, and as of 16:45 in Jarvis' inbox." Everyone goes quiet at that, not sure if this is the sort of thing where congratulations are in order. Tim sympathizes; he also felt awash in a lot of things, not sure what, really, as he hit the send button. "Got a note back from Jarvis, just as I was heading out, he hadn't had time to read them yet, but he was surprised and pleased to see I've written them." Tim swallows and sighs. "He says that I'm getting a Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award, for going way above and beyond the call," another sigh. Everyone stares at him, he hadn't even told Abby about it, yet."You're not looking thrilled," Jimmy says.Abby's petting his thigh as he shrugs. "Am I getting it for going above and beyond, coming up with a test no one else could, and doing the job better than anyone else, or for shutting up about what happened to me and not making a fuss during an election year?" Tim shakes his head. "Well, that's a grim reaction to good news. Penny, what have you been up to?""I had a very good week…" And Penny begins to tell them about a breakthrough one of her study groups had this week.Ultimately, in perfect world, Gibbs would be shanghai-ing the boys before heading over to the house tomorrow. Fine sunny day tomorrow, they're all heading over to the house to try and get some hours in. (Especially since no work will be happening next weekend.)Except, tomorrow morning, when he would normally engage in said shanghai-ing, he's meeting Tony, Ziva, and Senior at a brownstone in Georgetown to give it a once over and see if it deserves a bid.So, no pre-house-work talk.He could talk to them tonight, but he doesn't want anyone else wandering into this conversation, so here at Ziva's is out. And with Tim only having one functional hand, it's not like he can stuff the three of them into the kitchen for some dish washing and alone time, either.He might be interested in drawing them off before heading home, but he wants to talk for more than five minutes, and with Abbi working like crazy lately, and her just managing to claw tonight free, (she'll be back tomorrow morning) so he's sure as hell not cutting his time with her short.So, as much as his Dad-sense is in overdrive, he's also got a week before those two twits do whatever brilliant plan they've got in mind, so this hasn't hit emergency levels, yet. Still, the four of them, at the house, with everyone else there. Oh, Lord, what the hell are they thinking?They're heading home, and Abbi's watching him drive, seeing the worried Dad vibes pouring off of him, looking mostly amused by it."So, I take it you didn't know there were only four bedrooms at the Slater's place?"He licks his lips. "Yeah. Never been there before, and Breena left that out when she sent the invite.""You okay?"He shrugs. "Afraid." He shakes his head. "Hopin' those two twits have some clue as to what the fuck they're doing.""Two? Last time I counted there was four of them.""I'm not worried about the girls. I know they'll be okay with each other. I'm worried about those two getting their rocks off and then getting stupid about it."Abbi raises an eyebrow. "They look happy. Neither of them have much of a poker face, and they certainly looked like they were planning on having a very good weekend.""I know. Now. While it's still a fantasy. Most guys can't take seeing their woman with someone else.""Most guys don't like thinking about it, either."That's a good point, but… "Are they thinking about that, or thinking about getting to try out a new woman?""Oh.""Yeah. Worried they're so caught up in one half of the fantasy they're missing the other half."She touches his hand. "So you'll be the dad and point it out to them."Gibbs shakes his head."Yeah, I know, conversation you never wanted to have."Another sigh."And you don't want to get nearly that deep into their sex lives.""Could go the whole rest of my life without getting' into that."Abbi nods in agreement, then she shifts the topic a little, to something he is in control of. "So, everyone else seemed a little surprised by the idea of a five day beach weekend." Abbi smiles at him.Gibbs looks a little sheepish. "You caught that, huh?""Kind of hard to miss.""Thought you could use the break."She smiles. "You know I can. So, are we staying at the Slaters'—"Gibbs shakes his head. "Got a surprise in the works."Abbi looks pleased by that. "Then I'll look forward to being surprised.""There is no way this is it," Tony says as he and Ziva pull up in front of a street of appealing brownstones in Georgetown."Your father is standing over there. Gibbs is next to him. And they are both staring at the same building." Tony's looking at it. From everything he can see it's a normal, attractive, expensive townhouse on a fashionable street in a good neighborhood. "It's haunted, there was a murder in it, the inside is burned out, something has to be really wrong with this place."She's looking at it. It's brick, flush to the sidewalk, no front yard of any sort. Parking is on the street, and like all the homes in this neighborhood it shares sidewalls with the homes next to it. It appears to be three floors high (though there also appears to be an entrance on the front to a basement, so maybe four floors) and the main door is at the top of a narrow staircase on the second floor. It's true she can't see into it from here, but the windows are clear, there are flowers in boxes on the windows, it looks fine."I do not see anything wrong.""There's got to be something! This is… these houses go for six million dollars. Unless it's condos on the inside, tiny, tiny condos," Tony's holding his fingers close to each other, "glorified studio apartments, that we're going to have to fix up, we can't afford this."Ziva shrugs. "He knows what our budget is. Let's see what he is thinking."Tony rolls his eyes. "Oh God."They head out of Tony's car and into the July sunshine."Ziva!" Senior opens his arms wide, embraces her, then steps back for a second, looks her over, a massive grin breaking out across his face, then he elbows Tony and says, "I told you. I told you she'd be so beautiful you'd risk your eyesight by staring directly at her when she was pregnant! How far along are you?"Ziva glances at Tony, and he shrugs."Two weeks? So much for telling you.""Ohhh…" He hugs Tony and then Gibbs, too, who looks really startled by that, and then hugs Ziva again. "Spring baby!""How'd you know, Dad?"Senior waves it off. "Please, you can always tell. No makeup, perfume, ten thousand dollar dress, nothing, makes a woman more beautiful than a baby on board. Lights a girl up from the inside, anyone with an eye for women can see it." Senior winks at Ziva. "Looks like this isn't a moment too soon. I want to show you this" he points to the house in front of them, "first. This is John Ellreth, a good friend of mine's, house. We see this, and you'll get an idea of what you can do with this sort of place. Then we'll go see the house we're looking at for you."Tony sighs with relief. No way they could afford this neighborhood. "So where's the actual house?""Not far. Two blocks down, one over."So much for that relief.As they're heading in Tony says, "Uh… Dad, that budget I gave you, really, we can't take a mortgage for more than three hundred thousand.""I know." He's smiling as he opens the door. "This is a traditional DC row house. The rooms are all in a row, usually, with one long hall and the stairs on the side."Gibbs is nodding along. They're looking at a much larger version, in a much more expensive neighborhood, of what Abbi has."These are four floors and you can generally keep the floor plan as open or closed as you want. Some of the interior walls are weight bearing, but because these houses are so narrow it's usually only one wall per floor." Senior knocks on the wall of the hallway. "I've seen people keep narrow doors to each room, or take this wall out all together to that everything flows together.""Abbi's place is like this," Gibbs adds. "Kept the downstairs in small rooms, upstairs is one big room."In other circumstances Tony might have teased Gibbs about that, but right now he's quietly freaking out about how, yes, this particular house they are looking at is awfully lovely, and yes, it's classic and elegant and beautiful, and he'd love to live there, because if you were to go out of your way to design a home for Tony DiNozzo a classic, elegant brownstone in Georgetown would pretty much be it, but short of cleaning out all of the drug money they have in evidence, he doesn't see any possible way he can pay for something like this.Ziva's looking around, asking good questions, getting ideas in place.Finally, after about twenty minutes, Senior says, "So, you feel like you've got an idea for what to do with a place like this?""Yes." Ziva says, looking pleased. Tony nods."Great, let's take a walk." Senior's got a massive grin on his face as he says that."I told you!" Tony says as they get close to the place they're looking at. He can see it from the end of the block the one Senior has to have in mind, so can Ziva."It's a little rough.""It's a burned out hulk, Dad!""Can we go inside?" Gibbs asks.Senior nods. "Just, watch where you step. The Fire Department cleared it last week, but it's not rock solid stable.""Oh God." Tony's not sure if this is a panic attack, or the feeling that goes with knowing this house is pretty much his relationship with his Dad, look's okay from far enough away, but the inside is hollow, charred, and filled with disappointment.Senior takes the caution tape off what's left of the splintered and charred door frame. "This was being renovated as a historical restoration, and… Apparently they didn't quite know what they were doing. Anyway, once the fire got put out, they'd burned" Senior looks pleased with that pun, "through most of their renovating budget, so, it's on the market again." He takes Ziva's hand and leads her in.Gibbs looks approvingly at the town house. Okay, yeah there is some (Tony's whimpering) fire damage, and the carpets all need to be ripped out (water damage from putting the fire out) along with the drywall (technically it's plaster and lathe), and the wiring (the reason for the fire) is original from 1910, there's no HVAC, but there is a furnace (coal burning) from the 1880s in the basement, that from the looks of it likely still works, like all houses built in the 1880s, it's got one (tiny) bathroom, the windows are broken, but they'd rip them out if they weren't because they're tiny panes of glass in wood, but the side walls are brick, the foundation (stone) is solid, the roof (slate) is in great shape, the spiral staircase (wrought iron) is in one piece, and the beams are aged oak and hard as iron.Gibbs is grinning from ear to ear on this. If Tony and Ziva don't take this, he's tempted to, just because it'll be fun to rebuild.Tony's staring at this albatross like he can't believe anyone would go for it, let alone seriously suggesting he hang it on his own neck. Ziva's poking around, smiling. After a few minutes she says, "What are they asking?""Three-ten, but we're going to get it for one-seventy-five," Senior says, cool as can be about it."How…" Tony asks, gingerly poking at one of the walls, feeling his finger sink into the crumbly, water soaked and smoke stained plaster."It's complicated, just trust me on it.""Dad. I can't 'just trust you on it,' not if I'm going to end up on the hook for paying for it.""I promise you, let me work this deal. You'll get a mortgage for the full three hundred thousand because you're going to need the money for fixing things up. You're not going to pay more than one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars down for the house. The rest of it's going to be tax credits to the seller, points in a few other operations, redevelopment credits to the sellers, and a few other issues, but all you're paying for is one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars."Tony's eyes narrow. "Is this legal?""Yes. At least five lawyers will swear to that by the time we're done.""Five?""Of course I'm going to run it by my contract department before finalizing it. Not going to leave you high and dry on this."Tony hadn't realized Senior was on enough of an upswing to have a contract department again."Are we going to have to do anything besides fix it up and move in?" Ziva asks."There's a neighborhood association you'll have to conform to. And you're not allowed to change the outside, the Georgetown Historical Department has rules about that. Beyond that, no."Tony's staring at his Dad, sure this is too good to be true.Senior sees that look, reads it right. "If I can't get it for you, clear, on less than 175, we'll walk away.""Oh God. Dad…" Tony knows all about too good to be true, and right now, this is WAY too damn good."Exactly. Dad. I know I've screwed up in more ways than either of us can count as your dad, but… Let me be your Dad for once. This is the one thing I'm really good at, let me do it for you.""You've been broke more times than I can count, too!""How do you think I kept getting unbroke?"Tony realizes he has no idea how his Dad does that. Just sometimes he's flush, sometimes he's not. "I love the deal, and real estate isn't about the deal, not this level at least. This is just find an opportunity and muck about with tax law. I can do this in my sleep. It's boring. This is how your grandfather and I got rich in the first place.""Then why did you stop?"Senior touches the brick wall behind him, patting it gently. "Because all this gets you is money, and money is boring." He glances around, noticing that Gibbs and Ziva have the good sense to give him some time alone with Tony. "A good deal is gambling and sex and… and… a good deal hits all your feel good buttons at once. It's like a drug. It uses everything, brains, charm, guile, knowledge, everything to get a ton of people all together to make something better than they could do on their own. This… this is…" Senior shrugs. "This is easy. Since Delphine and I have gotten together, I do at least one of these a month, make sure we've got steady income."Senior's staring at Tony. "Junior, I know you won't take money from me. I know you don't want it. But… This is your nest egg. Once it's fixed up, you can live here or not. You can take piles of equity out of it to keep you flush. You can sell it for market value for at fifteen times what you put into it. It's up to you to take it, all I'm doing is laying it out for you."Tony looks around at the charred wreck. He can hear Gibbs and Ziva joking about something. They sound happy."Gibbs!" They rematerialize. "One seventy-five a good price for this place?"Gibbs nods, then looks at Senior, "If he doesn't take it, I will."Senior smiles."How long to get it livable?"Gibbs keeps looking around, thinking, working out what sort of man power he's got for this. "You're helping, right?"Senior nods, smiling."Start working after you close… Baby's due in April; we'll get you home by Valentine's.""Ziva?"She heads over to Senior, eyes warm and happy. "Make the deal!"Senior's grinning! "Wonderful. Lunch is at my place. Delphine's making crepes and we're all invited!"After Tony and Ziva are in their car, out of earshot, Gibbs says to Senior, "You realize, when you die, and he's going through your things, he's going to find out that one of your companies bought this thing full price, sold it to another one, held it, and then put it on the market again, holding out for him."Senior smiles. "Technically, one of Delphine's grandson's companies bought it full price as a tax write off, then sold it at a loss to a shell corporation out of the Bahamas that I have nothing to do with. Unfortunately when that corporation was looking to fix it up, they got some bad news, black mold. Black mold meant this dump was so expensive to fix up that they decided to give it to a charitable trust a friend of mine runs, for another tax write off, and that trust held it until they could get the credits for rehabbing the place. Last week they got the certification showing that they had taken care of the black mold problem and received the tax credits for both the historical rehabbing and EPA compliant toxic fungus clean up, and then," Senior snaps his fingers and makes a frowny face, "the place caught fire, right after they'd paid out enough of their rehabbing budget that it's now too expensive to finish the rehab, and now they are selling it to him and only him as the terms of being given it in the first place."Senior smiles at Gibbs. "I've only had since Christmas, so this is as fast as I possibly could pull it off. And no, he won't find out, because not only is that end of the deal in the keeping of the trust, but he's also not the executor of my will."Gibbs is mildly surprised to see Senior's got that many levels going on.Senior smiles. "Like I said to him, I'm actually good at this."Gibbs smiles. "So, when's closing?""They're usually six weeks out, so we'll do it that way. I'll have some sort of minor hiccough pop up about a month from now, so it doesn't look too slick. But, come September, we'll be ready to start up."Gibbs looks amused by that.From lunch, they head back to the other house he's working on. Everyone besides him and Tony and Ziva are there, working on getting more of the siding up.It does look like maybe, if they really push, they'll get the siding done today. Which means that they finally have something, that from the outside, looks like a functional house.It also means, likely on Monday, they start the job that makes him really nervous, which is roofing with Ducky and Penny. He knows a fall off the roof isn't going to do him any good, but he's also sure that these days neither of them will bounce.Gibbs shakes his head and buckles on his tool belt. One way or another, that roof has to get on. And he's thinking that it's extremely unlikely that Ducky or Penny is going to be easily told, 'It's too dangerous for you up on the roof, so how about you sit this out?'News of a house for the DiNozzo family sets off much in the way of happy congratulations. Tony gets a chance to wax nervous about this 'deal' his dad has set up, and Gibbs is pleased to see both Tim and Jimmy backing him on being nervous about it, and suggesting that he makes sure his own lawyers read through everything before he actually signs his name to it.Bu,t for the most part, there's a general sense of pleasure and anticipation at the idea of the last of the nests being purchased and set to go."All grown up!" as Breena said.Tim grins at Tony, "You know what happens when you get a house…"Tony rolls his eyes, remembering saying something very similar to Tim along these lines, when he and Abby got their first place. "Yeah, yeah, babies to put in the house."Everyone stares at him and Ziva, and Tony just smiles. "So, how are we going to balance working on both places?""Should be done on all the outside stuff here before you get to closing on your place. After that?" Gibbs shrugs. "Try to get ready to get working as soon as you take possession. Get the heavy work out of the way fast… Gotta figure out what all we're doing, first. Meantime, try to get the heavy work done here before moving onto your place.""When's the lease on your current place up?" Penny asks."April." Ziva answers with a smile. "Have to have the new place ready by the end of March.""Was hoping to have this one functional, maybe not done, but all the main parts in play, by Christmas," Gibbs adds. "Kind of like to have the party here, this year. Got a lot to celebrate.""So, if we're ready to roll here by the beginning of December… How rough is this place you're getting?" Tim asks Tony."It's a death trap.""Tony!" Ziva says. Then she hands her phone over so everyone else can look at the shots.Tim's looking through the pictures and… "Tony, much as I hate to say it, but… you're right. How are we going to get this livable?"Gibbs just smiles. "Trust me. You two figure out what you want the finished project to look like, and we'll get it there."They're breaking up for the night, everyone getting ready to go to their own homes. (Gibbs notices that the McGees and Palmers already have plans for dinner together, apparently Jimmy's "torturing" Tim again tonight.) So, as they're packing up, he heads over to Breena and Abby, "I'll bring 'em home."Abby looks up at Gibbs. She and Breena know exactly what's going on here. "We're gonna be okay."He kisses her cheek. "You" he's looking at Breena, too, "aren't the ones I'm worried about. I'll bring them and some food home. Get little girls settled, and we'll have dinner, okay?""Okay." Abby looks at Breena. "What are we in the mood for?""Ohhh… Barbeque!"Gibbs nods; he won't have any problems getting that for them."Sharing the master bedroom?" Gibbs asks as soon as he's got Jimmy and Tim alone. All three of them are sitting in the shade on the back porch. They've both been expecting this, so it's not like it's a shock this is the first thing he says to them, but though they've been expecting it, they don't exactly have a plan of what to do with it."Five days?" Jimmy counters with."You first." Gibbs shoots back. "The only thing I'm risking is a sore back on mine. What are you doing?"Though both Tim and Jimmy look like they've got a pile of snark they want to bring out, neither of them does. Instead Tim comes up with, "I thought you said, if we were okay, you would be, too.""I know. I'm trying to make sure you're going to be okay!""We are. We've got rules in place and…" Jimmy glances from Tim to Jethro and back to Tim. "It's gonna be okay."Now Jethro's staring at Tim, who says, "It is. We're good, we're, all four of us, comfortable with what comes next, looking forward to it. And… anyone can back out at any time, and we're all good, and we don't go any further than what we've got planned without at least a week of thinking time, so, we're good. We're taking it slow, and not shooting ourselves or anyone else in the ass."Gibbs eyes narrow as he looks from one to the other. "Really?""Yeah, really." Jimmy says.Gibbs relaxes a bit, still staring at them. "With each other? Not the girls, but you two."Tim and Jimmy look at each other, and then back to Gibbs. "Yeah, we're good Jethro."Gibbs isn't sure if they understand what he means by, 'with each other.' "You're gonna watch him sleep with your wife, and you're okay with that?"He sees that sends a flare of nervous through Tim and Jimmy."Uh…" Tim says, staring at Jimmy.Jimmy inclines his head a bit, seeming to be saying, sure, they can talk to Gibbs about this in detail. Tim nods. Then Jimmy says, "Honestly, we don't know. And we really don't want to guess wrong on that. But that 'rules' thing we were talking about draws the line well short of that, so… At least this weekend, we're not finding out."Now Gibbs looks confused. "So… what are you doing? Like, just, sleeping together?"Tim shrugs. "You really want the details?"Gibbs isn't sure. Then he shakes his head, no, he doesn't need the gory details. "You made rules, hard rules?""Yeah," Tim replies, "Really hard rules, and built our play time to enforce them. Tonight, we're going to my place, and we'll have dinner, and we'll talk and flirt, and all three of them'll work on me because that makes the stuff Jimmy does to me bearable, then they'll probably stay over," Jimmy's nodding, they're planning on staying over, "in the guest room, and it'll be fine. We won't play at home because it'll be too easy to cross the line."Jimmy takes over. "Next week, all of you guys down the hall, that'll do a good job of keeping everyone on the right side of comfortable. So, we go, we play, we see if we like the game, and if we don't, we don't do it again, and if we do then we'll stay there. If we think more may be fun, then we'll talk about that. But, nothing happens without at least a week of thinking time between suggesting going further and going further."Gibbs nods slowly, that sounds like a very rational way to do this. "Okay." He's not sure if anyone can be that rational about sex, but… he's not seeing any tension or friction between the guys, so… "Okay. Don't be stupid. Don't let your balls do the thinking.""We're going to be okay," Tim says. "We're all well aware of where the balls want to go and what they want to do, and set this up so brains are in charge.""All right," Gibbs nods slowly."So, five days?" Jimmy asks."This accounting thing's been going pretty much non-stop since we got back from California. Wanted her to get a break. Didn't think she'd say yes to the long weekend, but she did, so I stretched it out some."Tim and Jimmy are just looking at him, pleased, waiting for more details."There's a… B&B in Virginia, was there years ago. Nice place, on a lake, fishing, swimming, horses, thought it might be a good way to add a few days off. After three days of babies, some grownup time sounded good."Jimmy and Tim are both sitting there with huge grins on their faces.Finally Tim says, "What had you at a B&B?"Gibbs smirks. "The same thing that'd get you to go to one.""Okay, who had you at a B&B?" Jimmy asks.Gibbs shakes his head."You made sure it's still open, right?" Tim asks.Gibbs rolls his eyes. "I'm not so bad at this that I don't know to make the reservations before driving 200 miles out of my way.""What's happening with Mona? You need us to take her?" Jimmy offers."Coming with us. They let you bring pets."Jimmy nods, relieved that he doesn't have to figure out how to get Mona into his van along with both girls and the twenty-seven-million pounds of baby crap any trip involving babies requires.For a moment they're all sitting there, pressing matters taken care of, then Tim says, "So, Tony and Ziva pregnant?"Gibbs smiles, laughs, and says, "Not telling!"Jimmy sees that look, grins, and says, "Oh, they are. Okay, he was at your house at two in the morning with cigars or throwing up, which was it?"Gibbs shakes his head again, still grinning.
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Published on February 25, 2015 16:09

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 418: Strut


McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.


Chapter 418: Strut


"Good weekend, Dr. Allan?" Jimmy asks as his assistant heads in.Allan nods as he hangs up his jacket and rolls up his sleeves. "Very. Starting to feel like I'm getting the lay of the land.""I take it you didn't get lost this time?" Allan has been working on getting around DC, so each weekend he's been setting a list of places to go and see, and as of yet, he has not had a weekend where he didn't end up somewhere he didn't intend to be.Allan smiles. "I successfully used the Metro to get to the Zoo, the Smithsonian, then down to Alexandria, and back to my place.""Good job. Next thing you know you'll be debating getting rid of your car and finally qualify as a real Washingtonian.""Wouldn't mind not paying for parking. Though, I was thinking I might like a bike."Jimmy nods at that. "Good exercise, easy to take with you…""Motorcycle.""Oh." He thinks about that for a second. "Those are cool, too.""So," Allan looks at Jimmy, already in his coveralls, "I take it we have customers today?""Indeed, Dr. Allan, indeed." After it falls out of his mouth, and Allan's heading off to grab his coveralls and gas the van, Jimmy wonders briefly if he said that last bit with a Scottish accent. He shrugs, if he did, he did. Allan already thinks he's kind of weird.It's okay; six months into working for Ducky, he thought Ducky was kind of weird, too.There is a certain walk a man who just got his woman pregnant for the first time has.It's the physical manifestation of the understanding of, finally, having fulfilled this whole, 'man' concept. Talk all you want about duty, honor, blah, blah, blah, on a biological level, the body knows what it is to be a man, and that's to make other, little men.On an evolutionary level, manhood means finding a woman, getting her pregnant, keeping her pregnant until the baby comes out, healthy, and then making sure her and your young survive.So, having achieved this, the male body wants to show it off. Its very favorite part, doing its very favorite thing, just did the most important thing it can. This makes it very happy, and very proud.Thus the walk. Or, more precisely, strut, of the newly pregnant daddy.Had anyone been watching closely, they would have seen it on Jimmy the day after he found out Molly was on the way, (The day of he more or less floated around in a stunned somewhat silent headspace. It took a few hours for the whole, holy shit, I made a kid, AWESOME! part to kick in for Jimmy.) but, in that there was a dead body the day he found out, he sort of blended into the background without attracting too much notice.Had Tim been able to see himself from the outside the day before his wedding, he would have recognized that was not his usual gait, and he certainly would have known why he was strutting around, but, in that it was the day before his wedding, everyone else who saw it assumed this was Groom-related strutting, and besides some needling from Jimmy and Tony about being full of himself at his bachelor party, no one looked twice. After all, if there is a second runner up in the strutting department, getting the woman you're going to have the babies with is it.Gibbs, well, remember, part of the point of Marine posture and training is to look as big and male and impressive as possible, so add that to the 'baby on the way' strut, and Gibbs was marching around with his (metaphorical) dick so far out he was practically tripping people with it.And, of course, Tony DiNozzo, newest member of the Daddy club, is in no way immune from this phenomena. If Tony was a bird, he'd be in full Peacock mode, plumage displayed, showing off to anyone who knows how to look, that he is a MAN!They were planning on telling everyone at Shabbos, but once they got the beach weekend text, that looked like an even better idea, so, for the time being, Tony and Ziva are (besides having told Gibbs) keeping quiet about 'Little D' as Tony's been calling her.Which means, in a life filled with cops, somehow, not spilling the beans, for two weeks.Ziva's (privately) thinking that Tony'll get to… noon… before someone who knows what that strut means sees him and figures it out, but, and this makes her smile, she doesn't mind the news getting out early.Ziva and Draga head down to Holding to grab Alvin Harris, their current suspect, though at this point Tony's thinking suspect is a bad term for this. Information sink is probably better. They aren't holding Harris for any specific crime; they don't think he masterminded the bombing that got them into Kazakhstan in the first place; they do think he's a 'person of interest' in relation to an 'ongoing terror investigation.'As he and Bishop head to the observation bay, she looks up at him. "Did you hurt your back this weekend?""No.""Knee?""I'm fine, Bishop.""Huh." She watches him take two more steps. "You're walking weird."He glares at her a bit and opens the door for them.While Tony is strutting his way into NCIS, with Ziva rolling her eyes a bit, and handling new baby in a much more female sort of way (namely she's quietly glowing all over the place and smiling a whole lot), Tim and Abby are pulling in and ready for another day, as well."Sure you don't want me to come?" Abby says to him as they get out of her car.Tim's nodding. "No need to take even more time away. We're just talking about work.""Okay."He's been talking to Wolf at home, four times now, and last time, since he was getting back into working, Wolf suggested that they actually meet at work and talk about work, at their next appointment.Which is six hours from now.Tim's still not enjoying talking to Wolf. To him it feels like the emotional equivalent of PT, and unlike Jimmy, Wolf doesn't hand out any happy pills to make it easier. This is why, for the most part, he doesn't want to do it at work. If he's going to be wrecked for an afternoon, he'd rather not have the Minions see it. And Wolf gets that, so he's been willing to continue making house calls, but today's topic is actually work, how he's getting settled back in, what he's planning on doing, any challenges that are arising, stuff like that.Since, technically, Tim was in a 'car accident' he didn't have to be psychologically 'cleared' to go back to work. There will never be any paperwork filed on this. He assumes Wolf and Leon have some sort of deal where if Wolf gets worried, he'll talk to Leon, and then Leon'll pull him out.But it hasn't happened, yet.Thinking about work, and about settling in, from the point of view of talking to Wolf about it reminds Tim of something he hasn't thought about for a while. He'd written up his, 'not quite, almost, looks okay, let it sleep for a while, give it one more re-write draft' of his report on the CyberTest of Carrier Group Three, and then let it sleep, and promptly forgot all about it.He's feeling pretty stupid about that. After all, that report is the entire reason he's in the shape he's in. He got beat the hell up in an effort to produce a test, run the test, and then ascertain and distribute information from the test.So, as soon as he sees that there are no major fires in need of his immediate attention, he pulls the report back up and takes another whack at it.Jimmy and Allan pull up to the crime scene, or not, it's where they found the body, he may or may not have been murdered here, and like always the various Agents part for them.Pleasant suburban house. Even has the white picket fence around the back. Jimmy's looking for Agent Carter, who placed the call this morning letting him know there was a body. Allan's getting out the gurney."Get lost?" Carter says, sarcastic, coming up from behind Jimmy.Carter usually works car thefts and drug cases, so he and Jimmy rarely cross paths. In fact, Jimmy thinks the two of them have only worked four cases together in the last six years, and all of them are from before Jimmy took over as lead ME. But, apparently, every now and again, a drug case turns up a body, which brings his part of NCIS into the case."Accident on 495," Jimmy says, turning around to look at Carter. "Took twenty minutes to get to an exit and re-route. Where's the body?""'Round back." Carter gestures, and Jimmy follows, Allan trailing behind. "We had a warrant for the place. It belongs to Lance Corporal Henry Fling. He's been missing for the last two weeks." Jimmy walks back with Carter. "Agent Dawson saw the deep freezer on the back porch, saw it was locked…""Put two and two together and decided to check," Jimmy says with a nod."Exactly."They round the corner, and Jimmy feels his heart stop. His fist clenches, and then releases, and he stops walking, staring at the deep freezer. "And, is it Lance Corporal Fling?""No." Carter looks impatient, not getting why Jimmy isn't walking any more. "Don't know who this is.""Uh huh." Another slow, steadying breath eases out of Jimmy. Allan can tell something is wrong with Jimmy, but Carter doesn't know him well enough to know he's pissed, and Allan can't see what's wrong. "And… when Agent Dawson opened the freezer, did…" Jimmy looks around for Agent Dawson.Carter nods to Dawson, who springs into attention and practically runs over to them. By the looks of it he's been doing this job for maybe eight minutes. "Did you think to close the freezer back up again?"Allan gets it, winces, looking over and seeing the chest freezer sitting there, lid open. It July. It's at least 90 degrees out. The freezer's in full sun. They've been in the car for an hour and a half, and the call came in before that. And their body, which had been perfectly preserved in its own tidy little chamber of frozen evidence was now sitting in a melted puddle.Dawson looks horrified. "Was I supposed to do that? Agent Carter told me to get pictures."Jimmy smiles at him, not wanting to chew out the Probie acting on orders of someone who should have known better. "Yes, Agent Dawson, it is standard procedure to maintain the location of the body, precisely the way you found it, until the Medical Examiner comes.""Oh, God. I'm so sorry. Is this… I mean… Shit!" Dawson looks like he's going to pass out."Is this your first case?""Yes." He's cringing.Jimmy stares at Carter but talks to Dawson, "No one expects you to know how to run a crime scene right off the bat."Carter's eyes narrow, he gets the message the he was supposed to know, loud and clear.Jimmy ignores him, heading over to the deep freeze, getting ready to see how bad it is.Tony cheats a bit on Ziva's timeline. Mainly because he's in the observation bay, watching her and Draga interrogate away, until 13:57.In fact, a few times, entire minutes go by where Tony's not thinking about the baby.He gets a text from Tim around 11:00. We still on for debriefing?Later. Still interrogating. Let you know when I'm done.Cool. If Bishop gets a free minute, send her down, want to give her all of the intel we've got.Email it?I've got a better place for her to spread it all out and look at it than you do. Tony thinks about Tim's collection of touch screen plasmas, white boards, and conference table, and decides that he's likely right about that."McGee says he's got more intel. Feel free to head down and play with it."She nods absently. "I'd like to keep watching this. You see how his eyelid twitches every time Ziva touches her star?"Tony nods. (He considers it the height of professionalism that he did not leap up and strangle Harris the first time it happened. No onetwitches at the mother of his child!)"Alvin Harris is supposed to be a mercenary, only thing he believes in is mayhem. He's not a true believer. This is the wrong guy or something about him has really changed over the last few years."Tony doesn't like that, but… Alvin Harris is supposed to be an ex-Royal Marine, dishonorably discharged after going AWOL in Afghanistan back in '07, but every now and again he says something that sounds just slightly off to Tony. The r sounds are not quite what he expects. He's biting his lip, staring at Harris. "You were there; we've got a fingerprint match."She's looking up at him, exasperated. "We've got what the CIA told us was a fingerprint match. We didn't run it ourselves, and we don't know where the comparison prints are from. You mind if I have Abby run facial recognition? I'm wondering if we've got someone who just looks like the guy."Holy Shit! Tim thinks as he reads through his draft. Jimmy really wasn't kidding. Being on narcotics is like being drunk. You think you're fine, or only mildly impaired, and you go do whatever the hell it is, and then see video of it later and want to die. Yeah, that's how Tim's feeling about this draft of his Cyber Test report. (He's got a sinking suspicion he's going to be just as horrified when he opens up the M'Gy Dragons and actually re-reads what he came up with.)At no point while he was attempting to work did Tim think he was that impaired.He's also thanking any and all higher powers that he did not send this version on. This is scary bad.So, while Cybercrime hums around him, Tim gets writing.He's got that first re-draft done, looks up, notices it's past eleven, remembers that he and Tony were going to talk, and fires off a text.We still on for debriefing?Later. Still interrogating. Let you know when I'm done.Good God, who is this guy? Ziva's been on him since Saturday and they're still going? Wow! Tim replies to Tony. Cool. If Bishop gets a free minute, send her down, want to give her all of the intel we've got.Email it?Okay, yes, he technically can do that, and pretty much crash their servers. It's a lot of data. Plus, he's seen Bishop work, the entire third floor'll be covered in files if he sends this up to her. I've got a better place for her to spread it all out and look at it than you do.Tony doesn't respond to that. Tim reaches for his coffee, sees it's empty, and decides to get a refill, without taking his crutch. Way to walk on the wild side, right McGee? Tim shakes his head wryly and gets to it.He hears the knock bare seconds before he hears, "You look comfortable."Tim smiles at Wolf. "As much as I ever am these days. But, this is day three of just over-the-counter pain meds, so that's something, right? Come on in."Wolf does, shutting the door, looking around his office. He pulls up one of the chairs, and nods at the skull picture. "I remember that one from before."Tim nods. "Abby gave it to me, a long time ago. We'd gotten this new software that'll scan a skull and make a picture of the face. I made it work in reverse, and then she sent me a picture of my own skull."Wolf nods at that. "Romantic?"Tim laughs. "Only if you've got a really weird definition of romance. We were just friends back then."Wolf's still looking at it. "So, why did you make it work in reverse? It's not… I mean, what would you use it for?""You mean, you've already got a face, so wouldn't you just scan that in and search?""Yeah.""Proof of concept. Just wanted to see if I could do it. The program works by having this huge database of information. Put the skull in, and it takes the measurements, uses its data, and builds a face. I wanted to see if I could make it scrape a face away. It did."Wolf appears amused by that. "Is that the sort of thing you do for fun on the weekends?""Depends on the weekend," Tim says dryly. "Didn't have so many interesting things at home when I did that.""Ah." Wolf keeps looking around, eyes scanning over the wedding pictures, the target, his shelf of books, the computer gear, how tidy everything is. Tim's not feeling too laid open by this, Wolf's been in his home and seen him in his laying around gear, seen him sobbing in Abby's arms, and that's a vastly more intimate experience than this. This is him, getting a sense for who Tim is at work now. Getting acquainted with "Boss.""So, do I look like I belong here?" Tim asks after several moments of Wolf just looking around."Yes. You do. You like it here?"Tim nods."Do you miss the field?"Tim spreads his hands wide and opens his mouth slightly, and then closes it. He thinks for a few seconds. "I miss being with my team. But, no I don't miss knee deep in body parts, taking orders from Gibbs or Tony, I don't miss the fear, I don't miss wondering if I was going to kill someone any given day. I don't miss paperwork, but I do miss paperwork days, where we'd all be sitting around, filling them out, just quiet, BSing with each other while we did it.""How about here, what do you like about this?" Wolf asks as he looks out at the Minions (all three of them) working away.That takes another few seconds for Tim to process into a good answer. "I can do so much here, in a way I couldn't before. Take paperwork days, as a Director, I was able to get my guys to build a program that would take the information out of our computers when we put it in, and use that to fill out the paperwork for us while we go along. Now all they do is hit print and sign the damn things. That's not as dramatic as 'got in a shoot-out and saved the day,' but… I basically added an additional half as many agents by doing that. We used to spend almost a third of our time on paperwork, and now they're using those hours to actually be out there and deal with crime. When Leon actually notices how much further I just stretched his budget, he's going to be ecstatic."Or… The guy before me didn't run this department well. He wasn't a bad guy or anything, just not a great ideas guy. So, I redid how we do the job. Rescheduled us. Changed how we picked up jobs. Changed who works what, and how, and… Okay, we're not directly saving lives. If I'm lucky I'll never have to shoot a gun at a living person again, but the guys out there who are doing that are getting intel from us so much faster now. They're waiting days instead of weeks or hours instead of days for information that lets them make the next move."So, I love that. I've got six guys rebuilding our Cybersecurity right now. Anyone hacks us again, and we're going to spoon feed them crap while tracking them down. I can do so much more with this, so yeah, it's good.""Anything you don't like about this?" Wolf asks.Tim wiggles his hand a bit. "Not sure yet. It's likely there'll be a point where I'll need to be more of an administrator and less of a tech, and that shift may be difficult. Right now I've got pretty much two seconds in command. One of them was supposed to have this job, and he's an administrator. I'm trying to turn him back into a tech guy, but as he pointed out when I got hurt, he was running the ship because I was off slaying dragons. These days, it's my job to point out the dragons and send someone else to go slay them, and that may be difficult.""But you're not sure." Wolf is splitting his attention between watching Tim answer and checking out the little bits of his life that Tim has littered around his office."I've got six other guys building the new security system. I came up with the idea, sketched it out, sent it off to them, they'll muck around and build an alpha version. I'll get that back and mess with it until it's a beta. Then we'll set it live and let the whole department take a whack at it until it's ready for a production model. So, for things like that, I'm administrating away. Give me a case where actually getting into the field again is part of it, and I don't know what I'll do." Tim looks at his arm. "Got burned bad enough I may have learned some caution about going out again. But I'm still a field agent, so I still feel like I should be able to handle anything that gets tossed my way." Tim smiles a bit. "I'll set fire to that bridge when I come to it."Wolf nods. He stands up, looks around again. "You know, for everything that's been tossed at you, you really are doing quite well with it. I know it doesn't always feel that way." Tim's giving him the no shit look. "But you are. I'm standing by my original 'mentally stable.' You've been through a ten on the Richter scale earthquake, and a lot of things are fallen down and in need of clearing out, but you've got a good foundation. So, we're good with work. You want to talk again next week, at home, personal stuff? I've got Monday morning free."Does he want to? No. But, he will, because he can't rebuild on that good foundation until all the rubble's been cleaned off. "Let me check." Tim pulls his own calendar up. "Yeah. I think that'll work. Got a PT appointment at 10:00, so we've got to be done by 9:30, that work for you?""No problem."It's 15:42 and Jimmy is ready for today to be done. This jacked up little turd of an investigator is demanding a time of death from him and he is trying to be polite."I'm sorry, Agent Carter, but when you find a body in a deep freeze, there's no way for me to give you a time of death. I've got cause. I can tell you approximately how long passed between death and freezing. But once he froze, time basically stopped. Fortu-"Carter's glaring at Jimmy, cutting him off before he gets to the part of this that is 'good news.' "Ducky would have."Jimmy stops being nice. He'd been trying to keep from laying into Carter, because he knows Carter rarely handles murders, and this was a tricky scene, but with that… Nope. He's done being nice. Carter's about to take all the abuse Jimmy wanted to toss on him from the moment he saw that freezer was open. "Ducky would have chewed you out, in front of your men, for opening the deep freeze, seeing there was a body in it, and then leaving it open to get pictures. The only possible way anyone could have told how long this body was in there would have been based on the ice crystals around the body, but, between the open door and bright lights, I don't have any ice crystals to work with." Jimmy pulls up the pictures from the crime scenes. "You didn't even get good pictures of them."Carter's puffing up, annoyed. "I didn't realize that I needed to be taking pictures of the crystals."Jimmy steps closer to him, and Carter may be taller, but Jimmy's way more pissed off and on the side of the angels on this one. "You didn't need to be taking pictures of the crystals. You needed to do your damn job and secure the body, keeping it and the environment it was found in pristine, until I could get there and release it to you! I've handled hundreds of crime scenes and every single other one was run by someone who understood that it was imperative to preserve the environment the body was found in. But somehow, maybe you were sick that day at FLETC or just didn't have the brains to pass basic police work 101, you didn't get that message. So, instead of me having exact measurements of how deep the frost around the body was, and instead of using the deep freeze and a dead pig to figure out exactly how long it takes for that frost to form around a fresh corpse, thus giving you exactly how long he'd been in the deep freeze, this poor bastard is going to sit in my morgue, until you manage to stumble, by blind luck alone, because I seriously doubt you've got the chops to actually locate evidence, into something else incriminating, and can run the case based on that." Jimmy glares back at Carter. "Other investigators, they get to poke around, look at the scene, start taking pictures while they wait for me to get there. You no longer have that privilege.""I've been a Lead Agent—""Stuff it. As of now, the only thing you get to do before I show up is wrap tape around the perimeter and keep people out of what's inside. As of today, if you or yours finds a body, you turn into a traffic cop, and all you do is direct the flow of people around the scene. We've run the prints, they've come up negative. Abby's on DNA, and I've got Dr. Allan working his dental records. If those don't pan out, we've got a John Doe with no time of death, making this man impossible to identify and his case impossible to solve, all because youdidn't properly secure the body!"Carter storms out, and Allan, who vanished about two seconds into Jimmy reaming Carter, rematerializes. "You going to tell him Abby's already matched the DNA?"Jimmy shakes his head. "I was, originally, but now, not for an hour or so. I want him to stew on that. If Mr. Alm here had been a John Doe, what he did would have destroyed our chances of figuring this out.""Lucky for Mr. Alm that we know he went missing fourteen weeks ago.""Yeah." Jimmy smiles."I will take clean murder over this terror crap any day and twice on Sunday!" Tony says as he struts (annoyed, frustrated strut, but strutting nonetheless) into Tim's office.Tim, who's working on the clean up draft of Carrier Group Three CyberSecurity Test, looks up at Tony, who's pulling a chair over while closing the door to Tim's office."Interesting development?" Tim asks as Tony sits down.Tony's got that gleam in his eye, the one that shows up when he's annoyed, disbelieving, and needs to blow off some work related steam. "Don't you know it! Our suspect? Not a terrorist. Nooo. That'd be too damn easy. No, this guy, he's a deep cover plant trained by MI6 to infiltrate other terror organizations, recruit people he thinks are 'talented' and then they go 'work for him' which is code for one way trip to wherever the hell the Brits keep people like that. Meanwhile, they've got a crew of mostly MI6 guys and a few actual terrorists who blow shit up and mess around with things so Harris has things he can 'take credit for.'"Tim thinks that's actually a fairly clever way to go about getting bad guys out of circulation. "So, how'd you get him?""We didn't. We're supposed to have him. Part of what's going on right now is that he's supposed to be captured by us and getting his butt into our prison system so he can keep 'recruiting' guys who are about to get out. Once they do, they go hunt down his company and then get swept up by the Brits.""That would have been good to know.""Yeah." Tony's rolling his eyes. "Apparently, it's some sort of deal with the Brits. We let guys out of Gitmo, which looks good and gets us good PR or something, and they use guys like Harris to pick them up again, so we don't have to worry about 'recidivism.' Someone could have given us a heads up on that. Apparently CIA knew, that's why they gave him to us because we're the 'nicest' route to Gitmo, except, joke's on all of us, we don't have the right guy."Tim's eyebrows scoot together. "Who do you have?"Tony shrugs. "Not Alvin Harris. Which is news to MI6 and the CIA." Tony takes a sip of his coffee. "Abby's got her guys working on figuring out who this is, but face to face comparison didn't match. Anyway, that's the update on my side. What do you have?"Tim shakes his head and sighs. "A new and unending love of my side of the problem.""Yeah, I figured. Anything else?""Data. Lots and lots and lots of data. Those five chips…" Tim's about to rattle off specs, but realizes that Tony's already nebulous on what a gig is when it comes down to real world information and getting into terrabites is just going to confuse him more. "Imagine my whole office filled with paperwork, info on both sides, in tiny, tiny letters."Tony's nodding."We've got that twice over and then some on each chip. Whoever your diplomatic assistant was, he had the goods on everyone and thing. It's all decrypted; all we need now is for someone to do something with it."Tony shakes his head. "I've never wanted someone to get killed so badly in my life. We go out, we go through evidence, we get leads, it all of it fits in one, maybe two boxes. How is anyone supposed to keep all of this straight?"Tim laughs. "I think that's why you've got computers. No one can keep this in one head." Then he remembers what Bishop does. "Or… I mean, is Bishop running this in her head?"Tony lifts a hand, showing he has no idea how she does it. "She might be. She's got her ten million files all spread out and scattered around, then she does her thing with them and her laptop and tells me something and I nod and say, 'Okay,' and do it, because it sounds okay, but she might as well be getting those suggestions from voodoo for all I can tell."Tim laughs at that, too."Actually… That's something I want to talk to you about. We can't keep this all in our heads and the paper folders are useless. Draga's been asking about trying to build our own terror database. According to Bishop they had this huge searchable file of the Gods back at NSA. Anything and everything you ever wanted had already been scanned, loaded, and you could just get it out by typing words in."That would be good.""Yeah. We don't have that.""You don't have that for murders, either. And, unless Draga's secretly two hundred database wonks, he's not building it for you.""I know. But I need it.""I think I can get you murders, because that's our in-house data." Tim's already writing his next project down. Though, technically, this should be a job for record keeping and IT, and he's probably going to have to run it through them, but... He can't imagine he'll have a hard time getting Leon behind it.When Tim gets done writing, Tony says, "So these chips and your full city block of data… You think I've got enough goodies in there to barter that into access to the NSA's database?"Tim shrugs. "I don't think I could do it. But… You got someone at NSA who's persuadable?""Maybe. Gotta figure out how to play this so I get what I want and don't end up with us getting it all confiscated."Tim waves that off. "I've got back-ups of back-ups that no one knows about. We're not losing this. Whether we've got the resources to do anything with it is a different story, but it's not going anywhere."Tony nods, he slumps a little, grits his teeth, then stands up, flashes his million watt smile, and says, "Okay, let's go see if I can do anything with this encyclopedia."Tim smiles and waves him on, as he's at the door, Tim adds, "Hey, beach weekend soon. Sun, sand, water, no computers.""Amen!"And with that, Tony heads off, Tim reburies himself into his computer."What'd'ya got, Abbs?""A sense of Deja vu. When'd you start channeling Gibbs, Tony?""Probably when I got far enough into this case that I began longing for a murder.""Jimmy's got one. Well, technically Agent Carter has one."Tony's surprised by that. "Isn't Carter on drugs and autos?"Abby nods. "And he's way out of his league apparently. Looks like Jimmy wouldn't mind if you had a murder, too.""Great. Unfortunately, doesn't work that way.""Yeah, I know." Abby smiles at Tony. "But, I've got some fortunately for you.""Please!" He looks relieved. "Give me good news.""Follow me," she heads into the auxiliary computer bank, and then waits for him to follow, standing next to her computer. He's a few steps behind, and sees her watching carefully as he walks in."What?"Abby smiles, eyebrows flicking up, and then shakes her head. "You'll tell us when you're ready. Anyway, we don't have a complete DNA match, so I can't tell you who the guy in Holding is.""I thought there was supposed to be some fortunately in this.""There is! I can tell you he's a bin Laden. Son, brother, cousin, no idea, yet. But, y chromosomes don't lie. This guy is part of the clan."Tony's eyes go wide as he absorbs that. "Wasn't Osama bin Laden one of fifty kids?""Something like that, and he had a pile of his own, as well, and I'm sure his dad wasn't an only child, either. I googled, didn't find the exact number, but they think there may be 600 of them. Here's the other bit that may help narrow this down some, he's got a few markers on his x chromosome that are associated with Northern European populations.""So… Mom's from Europe?""Or Grandma. Or great, great, great grandma.""Okay… Better than nothing." Tony thinks about that some more. "Actually…" He hurries two steps forward, kisses Abby on the cheek. "Thanks, Abbs. As soon as Sean's out, I owe you all the Caf-Pow you can drink!"She smiles at him, watching him strut off, and says, "That's a lot of Caf-Pow.""It's worth it." She hears from the main lab.Ziva hears a knock on the interrogation door. That surprises her. She and Draga have been at this all day, save for a quick lunch break. She feels like she's just starting to put a dent into Mr. Harris, and that if the way he's squirming about in his seat is any indication, he's just about hit the edge of his rope.Tony pokes his head in, looks at Harris, smiles at him, wide and happy, and then waves Ziva and Draga out.Ziva heads out, not happy about that, but follows Tony to observation. "What?""Damn it!" Draga's watching through the window. As soon as they were out of there, Harris grabbed the water pitcher and relieved himself. Now he's glaring at Tony. "It took us hours to get him that uncomfortable."Tony shakes his head. "It took hours to get him playing that uncomfortable. Trust me, you weren't touching who this guy really is.""We were starting to get intel on attacks in Bahrain and Gibraltar," Draga says."That's one of the cover levels. Top cover, Alvin Harris, British mercenary/terror for hire. Next level, Alvin Harris, not actually dishonorably discharged, didn't actually go AWOL in Afghanistan, deep cover MI6 Operative."Ziva's shaking her head, looking mad, she doesn't like that at all."Fuck," Draga says."Next level, this guy isn't actually Alvin Harris. MI6 is reporting now that the last contact they had with Harris where they absolutely knew it was Harris was over a year ago.""Well, who the hell is that?" Draga asks."One of the multitudes of Bin Ladens.""What?" Ziva can't believe this."How?" Draga asks."We don't know, and guess what, we don't have to find out, either! What we have here, in addition to all that spiffy new intel McGee got for us, is the engraved invitation to the NSA and CIA databases. In exchange for free access to their intel, I am allowing them to fight over who gets this asshole, and letting them deal with him."Tony hands over two thumb drives. "There's one for me, and one for Bishop, too. These are our new, spiffy, and fully functional passes to the NSA and CIA computers." He kisses Ziva. "Now, Mr. Whoever the Hell That is Bin Laden, can sit in there, and we're all going out for a celebratory dr… milkshake, and then, tomorrow, we're rounding up our best leads on our best cases and seeing what NSA and CIA have on them for us."And by the time that news got out, no one was wondering why Tony was strutting anymore. They were wrong about why, but not wondering.Tim hits save on his report. It's a lot better this time. Still, a lot better doesn't necessarily mean done. He'll give it a day or two to rest, then one last read through and re-write, and off to Jarvis it goes.He looks over the draft of the email for the reworking of their internal criminal database. Technically, this is IT's backyard, which means it's actually Leon's problem. He's already simplified the language twice. He knows Leon isn't Gibbs and that he actually knows (sort of) what a computer can do, but he doesn't want it to be too tech-y, because he wants Leon to understand what this needs to do to be better than their current system.He's hoping he threaded that needle.Tim glances at the clock. Almost going home time. He opens up the work documents for the new version of the cyber security his guys are coding away on, and give it a glance through. Nothing's jumping out as a problem."Hey." Abby's leaning against his door.He looks up at her. "Hi. Almost done. Just gotta log out.""Okay."He scans over a bit more, decides it's good, and logs out. "You know, I think I'm going to be okay at this Administration thing."She blinks at that. "Okay. Of course you are. What's bringing that on?"He shakes his head, standing up, grabbing his crutch, but not really using it. "So, good day?""Oh yeah. Got some news, too.""Good new?""Oh yeah. Come on, let's grab Jimmy.""There you go, Mr. Alm. All set for the night," Jimmy says as he tucks Mr. Alm into his drawer. "Your family will be here to see you, tomorrow.""I'm not looking forward to that," Dr. Allan says."I know. Not my favorite part of the job, either." Jimmy sighs. "It's a comfort though, to be able to touch and see and say goodbye. So we offer it, and we stuff how uncomfortable it is down and away because no matter how uneasy it makes us, it's much worse for them."Dr. Allan nods at that. "Yeah. Is that how you can do this, day after day?"Jimmy shrugs. "I don't know. I just do it.""Were you always this good at it?"Jimmy laughs at that. "No. Have a good night, Dr. Allan.""Good night, Dr. Palmer."A minute later, as Jimmy's turning off his computer equipment and lights, he hears the doors swoosh open, and "Jimmy!""Hi, Abby." He's facing away from the door. "Got, Tim, too?""Yeah. I'm here."Jimmy flicks off the last of the lights and heads over to them. "Hi. Did you have as long of a day as I did?""Mine went pretty fast," Abby's bubbling away, "And I think I've got some news.""She wouldn't tell me until we got you.""Well, you've got me, what is it?""Ziva's so pregnant!""You sure?" Jimmy asks."Not one hundred percent, I didn't see her today, but Tony was strutting all over the place, and I've seen that walk before.""I saw him, too…" Tim's thinking back, but he doesn't remember. "No idea if he was walking different. So, really, you can tell when a guy has a baby on the way by how he walks?""Oh my God, yes! You can't?"Tim and Jimmy are both shaking their heads, as she takes Jimmy's hand and wraps an arm around Tim, leading them out of Autopsy."Oh, Lord, you should have seen you two strutting all over the place…"They both look mock-appalled at the idea that they may have been involved in such activities.
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Published on February 25, 2015 15:33

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 416: Knowing

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.


Chapter 416: Knowing

Ziva is not, in fact, at Andrews.She's home, on her sofa, cup of tea next to her, laptop open, "reading" the reports that are flooding in from Okinawa now. She's "putting together questions," "getting background," and, sporadically, texting with Bishop to see what she's putting together on the flight home.What she's really doing is staring at her computer, wondering if today's the day her whole world changes.She's late. Sort of. Okay, not really, not yet. Her period should have showed up today. It should have, like it has every twenty-nine days since she stopped taking her pills, decided to grace her with its presence at some point last night.She's usually so regular that the night she expects her period to show up, she sleeps with a tampon, and as of this point she's never woken up with a clean one in the morning.But she did today.So, she's late, ish, maybe. Lot of long nights this last week, and that can mess a cycle up (though it hasn't before.)She has the test, in the bathroom, where it's been since they started 'trying.'Part of her wants to leap up right this second, take the test and find out. Cheering along is the part that's afraid Tony will flip out when this goes from a somewhat nebulous concept to something that's 'real.' That part knows he'll come around, but it also wants some alone time to savor this without having to deal with a terrified man.Part of her wants to take the test with him. He's been there for every other bit of this baby-making thing, he should get to know the same time she does. Cheering that part on is the fantasy of the little gray screen flipping to pregnant and him leaping up, jumping for joy.Part of her is afraid that they'll take the test together, it'll come up negative, and she'll have to look at him and see relief in his eyes. It's not too much to ask him to be enthusiastic about their child. She's comfortable with that. She's also sure that asking him to be disappointed by a negative result is too much. He won't, can't feel that, because for him, negative means at least another month in his comfort zone. For him, negative is another month of getting to swim along with a life vest before getting dumped naked into the deep.Part of her, the part that's noticed another text from Bishop and quickly replies to it, knows she's going to have a hell of a time interrogating anyone with this on her mind. That part is also aware of the fact that Tony will notice she's off while she's interrogating, ask about it, and in the observation bay is not how she envisioned telling Tony about their baby to be.Of course, as she finishes texting, it's not like not knowing is doing much for her concentration, either. She's re-read the same update three times now.Eventually, the tea she's been drinking works its way through her system. (As tea and all liquids are wont to do.) Which means a trip to the bathroom, where the test is, with her very unmade-up mind whirling around with images of little baby David-DiNozzo.Brown hair and eyes. That's a given. Well, okay, it's not absolutely impossible that she might have a different combination. Ziva's grandmother's family was from Poland originally. Her grandmother had blond hair and blue eyes, and because she looked Aryan, she was able to be smuggled out of Poland as a child. Her grandfather was also from Poland, dark hair, dark eyes, didn't look Aryan. He made it out of Warsaw, made it to the Polish Resistance, but they turned him in to the Nazis. He escaped again and began the trek to Palestine, done with Poland, done with Europe, and sure that no Jew would ever be safe until they had their own country. Her father's family was Iraqi, dark hair, dark eyes. They fled to Israel when Iraq forced them out. Her father was young enough at the time that he doesn't remember it, but her grandparents did. They changed their name when they got to Israel, a sign of burning the reminders of a land that tossed them out.She shakes her head, not the time to be thinking about that. Easy smile.Brown hair, brown eyes, easy smile. She'd had an easy smile as a child. Tony still does. And this baby… This baby is going to grow up fat and lazy… That's not quite what she's looking for. Safe. That is. She won't worry about being killed on a bus. Her school won't have armed guards. She won't get her first gas mask as a baby. She won't have rocket drills at school.She'll join the military only if she wants to.Knowing this family, she'll know how to use a gun and fight by the time she's in middle school, but she'll never have to worry about defending her home with it. She won't watch the people on the street and wonder if they have bombs under their clothing.Ziva's fingers touch her belly. Whatever she looks like, this child will be fearless.And right now, she will be, too.There are situations where Ziva finds patience easy. Give her a sniper's rifle and set her on top of a building, she can stay calm and focused all day. Staring at a little gray screen watching the tiny grains of sand drop from one side to the other of the hourglass to the other is, however, not a situation where Ziva's patience kicks in.No, right now, speaking of kicking, she wants to be kicking things, speeding up time by distracting herself. But she can't look away from the screen, because if she looks away, she won't see it turn, and she can't miss it.So she doesn't. The hourglass vanishes, the screen goes black, and then PREGNANT pops up, and she's jumping for joy, awash in the happiness of this moment.Knowing is way better than not knowing. How that could have ever been in doubt is something she's finding immensely silly.Knowing is… perfect.Because right now, this is perfect. Right now, there's one more person in the world. Right now things are clear and sharp and bright and beautiful.Right now is a future she'd given up on for a long time, a future she'd occasionally dream about, but banish when she woke, because those were the dreams of someone with a future, someone attached to life, living in its service, not a dealer of death. Not someone with a shelf-life of maybe 30 years.She texts Draga, Tony, and Bishop. Change of plans. Get him home and let him sit. At least twenty-four hours, forty-eight will be better. No contact, no one speaks to him. All alone except for the two minutes when someone brings food. Then we're going to break him.She gets back from Tony. Why are we changing?Got some intel that makes waiting work better. Fill you in when you get home.Won't mind a good long sleep and some decompressing time before going after this asshole. Sounds good to me. Still going to pick us up?Sure.The only reason she can pull this off is because Tony and Bishop are tired. They're asleep on their feet. Otherwise, they would notice a certain bubbliness that's been hitherto uncharacteristic of their Ninja.Tony's crashed out in the passenger seat. Bishop's laying across the backseat as Ziva drives."So," Tony says, slow, tired, "What'd you find?""Do not worry about it, Tony. It's complicated, and you'll do better with it when you've got some sleep."He sighs, looks at her, lots of gratitude in his eyes, and kisses her hand. "Sleep sounds awesome.""Mmmm…" Bishop says, eyes closed, holding up one thumb in an I agree gesture.Tony DiNozzo is a crack investigator of the highest caliber. He is also practically unconscious. This is a good thing because his wife, who is also a crack investigator of the highest caliber was a bit distracted after taking said pregnancy test and didn't do a good job of cleaning up the evidence.Which is sitting in the bathroom trash bin, right on top, just waiting to be seen.Which is not one of the seventeen ways she envisioned telling Tony. Fortunately, he gets in there, does his business, brushes his teeth and crashes right into bed (still wearing his jacket and shoes.)Thirteen hours later, he's out of bed, looking rumpled, but a lot happier, wearing his usual laying around the house Ohio State T and shorts.He wanders around their apartment for a second, wondering where Ziva is, and if she got called in or something, and the notices her sitting on their tiny balcony, watching the sun set between the high rises.He opens the door, stepping out, joining her. "Hey, beautiful."She stands up, eyes sparkling, and kisses him. "Missed you," comes out several seconds later, along with a huge grin.He sits down in the chair she just vacated, pulling her into his lap. He's about to break into what happened while he was away, what new evidence they had, but… he's not feeling it. Right now he wants to sit with his wife and enjoy the sunset. Sunset in DCIn the Jewish calendar, days begin and end at sundown.Ziva approves of that. She knows it's less precise and more complicated than days beginning and ending at exactly the same time every single day. But, even knowing that, she still prefers a concrete mark of one day passing to the next. She likes the poetry of one day bleeding away, finally extinguished, and a new one born.There's not much light left. The sun's almost all the way past the horizon, and the lights of DC are starting to dim what's left of sunset.It's a good time.Her voice doesn't catch, there's no nerves, and for all the worrying she was doing earlier about it, right now she's sure it'll be good."I am pregnant." She's looking at that sky as she says that, trails of red and orange still bleeding into black, and feels him jolt at it, then she looks to him, smile vibrant on her lips, peace deep in her eyes.He's smiling back, mega-watt smile, she's seen the fake version of it a million times, but this one is real, holding her close, petting her hair and kissing her. When he pulls back, he says, "Wow! I…" he swallows hard, looking just so in love and so blissed out and so ecstatic right now. "I didn't think I could feel like this."She's grinning from ear to ear, kissing him again, because right now there aren't words for this, but there are actions, so she'll take them.It's late. Really late. Ziva's sleeping, and Tony should be, too. He would be, but his internal clock is skewed from travel, and right now he's just too excited to drift off.He kisses Ziva's hair, and decides he better get used to her sleeping a lot. If Abby and Breena are anything to go by, any day now she'll be sleeping 24/7, or at least want to.Maybe it'll be different for them. He snorts a little laugh at that, somewhat amused at what Sleepy Ziva might be like.He gets out of bed and heads over to his dresser. There's a cigar box in there, with five cigars in it. (Three of them are real tobacco,good tobacco. The other two are sugar-free chewing gum. He knows there's no way McGee or Palmer will smoke a cigar.) It's something he brought himself when they started trying for real, a promise of sorts that he wasn't going to disappoint her on this. He is going to be a father, and he's going to do it right, and doing it right means celebrating this child for every day of his life.He takes two of them out, tosses on some going out clothing, and heads to his car.He'd forgotten that Gibbs sleeps now. Somehow that doesn't work in his mind. He's very firmly got the idea of Gibbs=awake in his head.He's also forgotten that Gibbs has a friend now who will bound to his front door and bark bloody murder if you try to just walk on in in the middle of the night.And he'd forgotten that Gibbs locks his door, too.He's a bit distracted right now.But, after a minute, as he stands on the porch thinking this might not be the best idea he's ever had, and that possibly Gibbs does not want to be rousted out of bed at 4:36 in the morning, no matter how good the news is, when a very sleepy, rumpled, wearing only a pair of sweat pants Gibbs opens the door.For a second he looks surprised, and then that smile breaks out all over his face.Tony grins back at him.This… ability to just know… no words spoken, no need for filling up the space around them with sounds, this is something Tony has always appreciated about Gibbs. He's one of the few people Tony can be silent with.Tony pulls out the cigars. "Smoke 'em with me?"Gibbs nods, solemn and joyful, and then pulls Tony into a long hug.By 04:40, Tony and Gibbs are sitting on his back porch, smoking away, not saying much, just being with each other. Between puffs Gibbs puts down the cigar, and says, "You're gonna be good at it."Tony nods. "I know. I didn't. But… I do now."Gibbs pets the back of Tony's head. "Atta boy!"

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Published on February 25, 2015 14:49

February 23, 2015

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 415: Stripped

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.


Chapter 415: Stripped


Tim's wondering, as his grandmother (as the family matriarch) sings the prayers and blessings, at what point you qualify as Jewish.It's an idle thought, mostly amused. Tony and Ziva aren't here. But they're still lighting the candles and doing the blessings and singing the hymns and… all of it, because, apparently they all like their rituals and no one in this family has any problems with saying thanks for a good week and good food.So, yeah, at what point does this stop being something you do because some of the members of your family are part of it, and start being who you are?He doesn't have an answer for that, especially since he'll likely be going to church and supper with the Slaters on Sunday."Nope." Jimmy grabs Tim's glass of Riesling and puts it at his place as they pass drinks and food around the table."Nope?" Tim's staring at the glass; he'd been looking forward to that.Jimmy shakes his head and pulls a prescription bottle out of his pants pocket. "Percocet tonight. We're working on your shoulder, biceps, triceps, pec, rotator cuff, and inter-costals.""Should I be happy about this?" Tim's feeling some trepidation, wondering how much this is going to hurt, but he takes a Percocet anyway. It should be really working by the time Jimmy gets started on whatever comes next.Tim's looking at the bottle, five more pills in there, as Jimmy says, "Probably not. But, you'll like what it gets you.""What's that?""More movement, faster, less pain in the long run." Tim nods. He wants that, and he wants it yesterday, and if he's got to hurt to get it... Then bring on the Percocet. Abby's putting a piece of grilled salmon on his plate as he holds the platter (can't hold and take at the same time yet). "So why do you get my wine?""Because I'm gonna have to listen to you whine about it, and I don't get to have any Percocet for that."Tim laughs. "I'm not that bad.""Keep telling yourself that." Jimmy takes the platter from Tim, and sends it down the table toward Jethro."So, I get why Tony's not here. He's en route, right?" Breena asks. "Where's Ziva?""Last I heard he, Bishop, a pile of evidence, and a suspect are on their way back. I think she's meeting up with them at Andrews so she can Draga can take a swing at the suspect as soon as they get him in." Tim's been texting back and forth with Tony and Ziva all day, his guys hunting through the data dump they've got for things that may be useful to interrogating their suspect."So, weekend interruptus for the rest of us?" Jimmy asks. Evidence for a bombing often involves bodies, and Abby's nodding along as well."Maybe," Tim answers. "Not sure. I think they're escorting the evidence and CIA is getting it. Ziva tells me that she and Tony are getting a reputation as the people you send suspects to when you want them broken, but you also want to be able to show it was clean. They've got black sites for when they want it done yesterday, or messy, but when they want to look like boy scouts, they send them to us, now."Gibbs smiles at that, something of the proud daddy look on his face."Looks like all of your training is paying off," Penny says to him.He shrugs, modest, still smiling.Of course, Gibbs didn't just train two investigators. And number four is staring at him, thinking there's something else going on with that smile."Okay, what's up?" Tim asks.Gibbs spreads his hands in a nothing gesture."Nope. As Ziva would say, you look like the cat that ate the canary. What are you thinking?"Gibbs takes a sip of his wine and shrugs. "Nothing.""Gibbs!" Abby says.He shakes his head. After a few seconds he says, "Your guys still pullin' data for her?"Tim nods. "By now, it's Okinawa doing it again, and a few of my night owls.""So, she's probably at Andrews, readin' up?""Should be. Last I heard Tony was due in round 05:00."Abby looks up at that, smile on her face, and Breena gets it after a tenth of a second, too. If Tony's getting in that late, Ziva normally would have had dinner with them, gotten a nap, and then headed over. So, if she's not here right now, it's for a different reason.Like, maybe the bottle of wine, the blessing and drinking of which is a big part of each Shabbos.Or maybe, if she happened to have some really good news she hadn't shared with Tony yet, that she didn't want to let out before he knew it, she could be hiding away.Or they could all be a bunch of ninnies with overactive imaginations and she's just putting in the due diligence to do her job right.Could be… But speculation is fun.At the end of dinner, after everyone besides the Palmers have taken their leave, Tim heads upstairs to swap out his work clothing for a pair of PJ pants. He's not sure exactly what Jimmy's going to do to him, but it doesn't sound like something he'll need a shirt for. Plus, not like anyone in this crew is bothered by him in his PJs.Once out of his shirt, he takes a moment to really look at his arm. First shot since before the cast.It's so thin. He feels stupid thinking that, because it requires him to admit how proud he was of what he had done with himself over the last two years. And being the guy who checks himself out isn't part of his self-concept, but… It's so thin. Thinner than it was the first time he lost weight. He's got have lost at least four inches around over the last six weeks.New scars, thin and red and angry. He guesses the two around his deltoid must be from putting his humerus back into the socket and reattaching his ligaments. More scars, long lines, one on the inside of his arm, other on the outside, right below his tattoo, he guesses that's where they had to open his arm up to screw his humerus back together.He can see at least two more hiding under his wrist and hand cast.His fingers hover over his shoulder, he hasn't touched, explored, yet. Tim figures they won't mind if he takes a minute to get a feel for his own body before everyone else hops on.He makes contact, letting himself touch for the first time in weeks. For just light, gentle, stroking touch, it doesn't hurt. Feels kind of nice actually. The scars are numb, and so are several areas under them. He wonders if that's supposed to feel that way.Soft pressure is okay, too. As long as he's not moving anything, placing his finger tips on his shoulder and lightly poking isn't an issue.He gently circles his knuckles into his pec, right where it meets up with his shoulder and winces, that hurts. A light squeeze to his deltoid is fine. Slightly more pressure burns and aches.He can remember looking at his arm and puking. By then he was in shock so hard and had so many endorphins flowing through him that he hurt, but couldn't really feel how bad it was. And then he looked, and… and he can remember the feeling of puking, and the resolution that he wasn't going to look again. But, beyond that one second of recognizing that his palm was up and his wrist was down, his mind blocked out exactly how bad it was.Looking at the scars, he's feeling very glad he doesn't remember exactly how bad it was, and hopes he won't."You okay?" Abby asks, popping her head into their room."Oh. Uh… Yeah. Probably. Just… getting reacquainted.""Oh." She smiles and walks over to him, fingers hovering over his shoulder. He nods at her, and she gently strokes them down his arm. "Hello, arm." She lightly kisses the top of his shoulder. "Hello, shoulder, been a while. Looking forward to resting my head on you again."Tim kisses her. "Me, too.""That feel okay?""Yeah. Anything more than," he gently squeezes her hand, "hurts, but very light touches like that are fine.""Good.""Can't feel the scars."She nods at that. "Join the club." Right after her c-section the numb area at the incision was almost four inches wide. It's down to closer to one now. She's figuring she'll have full sensation back just in time for Sean to come out. "Feeling'll come back, sooner or later."He inclines his head and they head downstairs."So, how does this work?" Tim asks when he gets back into his living room.At his physical therapist's office there's an exam table, and exercise equipment, and elastic bands for stretching, electro-stim equipment, various oils and gels that make his skin heat up or cool down, and just piles and piles of stuff.If there's any stuff beyond Percocet and Jimmy, Tim can't see it.Jimmy's just sitting on his sofa, talking to Breena, and the only concession to the idea of doing something with his hands is that his sleeves are rolled up.Jimmy leans forward and pats the floor between his feet. "You go here. Abby, you've got some massage oil, right?""Of course." She goes back upstairs to get it.Tim's getting himself settled on the floor. "Facing away, right?""Yeah, back to me." Jimmy taps his knee. "Head goes here."Tim feels really bizarre sitting on the floor between Jimmy's legs with his head on his knee, but… Okay, first off Jimmy's a doctor. Second of all, they're friends. Third, Jimmy's still in his work clothing, not his usual weekend in the summer time shorts, so it's not like he's snuggling his cheek against Jimmy's bare knee. And having done so, he's got an idea of what Jimmy's hoping to do, because like this his neck and shoulder are easily accessible and he's not using his neck to hold the weight of his head.Abby's back, with their massage oil, and some towels, and a few pillows, too.He's got the sense she's got a better idea of what's coming next than he does.She puts one of the pillows in his lap, which is when he notices that he's been holding his arm in place. (After all, the sling is still sitting up on his bed. Right now it'd just get in the way.) He lets his arm rest on the pillow, which does involve a little straightening at his elbow, but it's within the comfortable range.Then Abby hands the massage oil over to Jimmy. "Don't have any unscented, hope this is okay?" Which is when Tim remembers that the only massage oil they have right now is 1001 Nights scented, which means he's got a lot of very strong sensual and sexual images, memories, and sensations attached to this fragrance and that maybe if they do this again having a bottle of unscented might not be a bad plan.Of course, depending on how much this is going to hurt, thinking about sex and pleasure might be a good distraction.Jimmy opens the bottle oiling up his hands, and Breena says, "Oh, I like this one," while slipping around so she's sitting with Abby on the love seat, instead of next to Jimmy on the sofa."What are we doing?" Tim asks. Fascia"Right now," Jimmy lays his hands, gently on Tim's neck, right below his ear, and slowly strokes down his neck, over his shoulder, cupping his arm, to his elbow, "we get everything warm and soft. Happy muscles, happy limbs, are soft, and flexible, and pliable. The skin slides over the muscles underneath, muscles slide over bone, ligaments can bend and flex, and everything is in this web of soft silvery stuff called fascia.""The stuff between the chicken breast and the chicken skin?" Breena adds."Exactly." Jimmy pulls his hands up Tim's arm, cupping his palms against the skin, and when he gets to the top of Tim's shoulder, he presses down gently and pushes to the left a bit. "Yeah, see the skin should flow over the muscle. Everything should be able to move together and move around each other. The fascia keeps it in place, but allows for some glide." He pokes, gently, again, and Tim feels some burn with that move. "You're not gliding."When your body is working properly it uses its strength to do whatever it is. Strength is good, everything is doing its job right and is able to do that job. You get hurt, and suddenly your body doesn't have the strength to do the job anymore, so it replaces strength with rigid. Things get stiff, they stop moving, the lymph and other fluids don't flow properly, fascia dries out, and you end up stuck. Right now your arm is all stuck together like a dried out piece of jerky.""Vivid image." Tim says dryly, though given what he was thinking about his arm being so small, there is a sort of withered vibe about it.Jimmy nods. "Step one, get everything warm and soft. Taking a pinch of your skin and pulling it away from your arm shouldn't hurt." He does it on Tim's left arm, and it doesn't hurt. He tries on his right and it does."What's step two?""Unsticking the muscles.""Let me guess, that's the Percocet part of this?"Jimmy nods."Okay then. And five more Percocets means this isn't all happening tonight?""Exactly. We're not even touching step three tonight, which is where I start going after the ligaments."Tim nods at that. "Do I need to do anything?""Relax as much as you can and don't fight me.""Will do."Okay, honestly, this feels pretty nice. Getting a shoulder rub from Jimmy's a little weird, but he's getting used to having a guy rubbing on him. The PT does it for his foot and ankle, and, so far this feels a lot better than that.Jimmy's either really good at giving massages, or the euphoric side of the Percocet is already kicking in, and maybe it's both, but right now, this is awfully nice.Abby and Breena look like they may be enjoying this a bit too much. They're both really, really watching and he can see them tracing the path Jimmy's hands are making over his arm, shoulder, neck, and chest, but, hell, if it's making them happy and doesn't hurt… why not? Plus, he's in favor of getting really well-laid tonight, and they're lapping this up like two kittens with an extra-large bowl of cream.Two, happy, sexy kittens, talking with each other, watching him, and he's sort of idly thinking about having them head on over and help out, because, he's got an arm and leg that don't hurt and wouldn't mind some rubbing when, "Feels weird being half-naked and all of you are dressed," comes out of his mouth.It occurs to him that this could possibly be the Percocet talking.The girls are glancing at each other, and then look at Jimmy with big kitten eyes. He rolls his eyes, sighs, stops, and strips his shirt off fast before going back to working on Tim.Tim pouts at that. "You weren't the one I was hoping would take some clothing off."Jimmy rolls his eyes and adds a little more oil to his hands. (He's also in favor of getting very well-laid tonight and has I really hope you enjoy this all over his face and aimed at Breena. She's beaming back at him, grinning, and then licks her lips. He gets the I am message loud and clear.)"Yeah, but we were, so you got out-voted," Abby says.Tim looks at the girls, and then looks at Jimmy, counts, blinks, and says, "Okay, I know I'm on drugs, but… There are two of you and two of us, how did we get out-voted?""He didn't vote." Abby says."I'm voting!" Jimmy sounds surprised at the idea that he didn't vote. He was eyeballing Breena at the suggestion of less clothing. "If the question is, do you want to see more skin on the girls, the answer is always YES. The only time I'm going to tell you to put more clothing on is if you're in danger of sunburn or cold. Oh look, we're inside, at night, in a pleasantly temperate house. Hmmm…"Breena stands up and twirls around, which both Tim and Jimmy enjoy because she's wearing this cute little sundress and that flares the skirt some, flashing her panties. Tim, on the floor, gets a bit more than a flash and he approves heartily. "I'm already half-naked." Then she sits back down again."Abby?" Tim asks."You okay with it?" She's once again at that stage of pregnancy where her real clothing is snug, but not quite ready to move into maternity gear. So, lately she's been wearing one of his button downs with the sleeves rolled up, leggings, and boots."Trust me, I'm good with this." And right now, he doesn't care if Jimmy's watching, too, he's really good with it.She slips off the leggings. Since it's one of his shirts, it's long enough to cover her butt, but that's all it covers. It's shorter than her shortest skirt.Tim's eyes are slipping all over her, enjoying naked legs, and liking that quite a bit."Feeling more comfortable?" Abby asks, standing up, reaching over on the coffee table, making her shirt inch up just a hair, getting the bottle of wine they didn't finish at dinner, and pouring the last of it into a glass for Jimmy and Breena.Tim nods, very happy. "Yes, thank you." He eyeballs the glass, and then looks at Jimmy. "Not going anywhere, certainly not driving, and you want me relaxed, right?"Jimmy thinks about it for a few seconds while he keeps rubbing his fingers over Tim's bicep. He increases his pressure slightly and feels Tim wince. That's just the pressure level he's going to need to get the skin mobile, getting into the muscles will be worse. "Quarter glass. Start seeing double or having any trouble breathing, you let me know, right away.""Sure." Tim takes a sip, and yes, it's as good as he was hoping it was going to be. "Read a review of this online, wanted to try it with the salmon.""It was really good," Breena adds."Have to get more for next week." Another sip, and Tim starts to slide into a very relaxed headspace."Shit, that hurts!" Tim yelps, jerking up and away from Jimmy's hands.Jimmy gently presses, letting Tim know to put his head back on his knee, and returns to the long, slow stroke he'd been using on Tim's pec. Tim does, but this time his body is wary, and it's harder to just melt.Tim had been just chilling out, leaning against Jimmy, kind of aware of the fact that there's a conversation going on, but mostly just relaxed and happy. All was good and right with the world and he was thinking that he really wouldn't mind spending more Saturday evenings like this. (In fact, to be really precise, he was thinking about how Percocet with a little alcohol when you aren't really hurting is a really nice sensation and that anytime Jimmy wants to drug him and rub his shoulders, he's game for it, and if one, or better yet, both, of the girls would get over here and make out with him, this would be the literal definition of heaven.)And now Jimmy's ripping his arm off."Level two, Tim, stripping scar tissue hurts. Gotta break it down, stretch it out, get it soft and pliable again, or you're never going to get full use of this shoulder back."Tim whimpers, as Jimmy slowly, with deep, firm pressure, strokes his thumb across the underside of Tim's collarbone. He thought that Jimmy working on his foot was awful, but this is almost as bad as when he first got hurt. Okay, not really, when he first got hurt he was on a boatload of narcotics and felt this bad, and right now he's just got the one, but this still HURTS."Do you have to do it that hard?" Tim asks, trying to make himself relax and having a very hard time of it. Jimmy's 'don't fight' instruction is going to kill him."Harder!" Breena says with a giggle, causing both of the guys to stare at her. Yeah, it sounds silly, but she's hoping this'll distract Tim from how bad this hurts. "Oh come on, this is fun to watch!"Actually what Jimmy was doing to Tim was fun to watch. She didn't think that watching Jimmy give Tim, or any other guy, a massage would do much for her, but… yeah, Jimmy's hands, warm and firm, slipping all over Tim's shoulder and chest. That was working just fine for her. But as soon as he hit the point where Tim jerked and started wincing, it got a whole lot less fun, real fast. She knows Abby feels that, too. She glances at Abby and they're both on the same page, Mission: Distract Tim. And if anything is going to distract Tim, it's sex.Abby nods. "Watching you two play doctor is pretty nice."Tim sighs and grits his teeth, and Jimmy sputters, "It's not playing doctor if you've got an MD!"Breena looks at him, sweet and sexy. "You and I have played doctor."Tim flashes him a curious look."Oh, like you haven't done something similar," Jimmy shoots at him, rippling his fingers over Tim's pec muscles."They play dragons," Breena adds, and now it's Jimmy's turn to give Tim the curious, rapidly morphing to full-out stupefied, look."How does that even work? What, do you pretend to sit on eggs or something?"Tim rolls his eyes, staring at Abby. "You told her that?"Abby shrugs, about to say something when Jimmy (who is, because he's a professional and very good at what he does, and likely has some idea of what Breena's ulterior motive is, still working on Tim's shoulder) says, "Holy shit!" he's staring at Tim. "Oh my God, your dragon story! Is that where that comes from? Are you writing a novel about your sex games, with all of us in it?"Now Tim's really staring at Abby with a really, you had to tell her that? look. She shrugs, looking innocent, letting him do the explaining.He shifts a bit, so he can easily look up at Jimmy, who as he shifts slides his hands over to Tim's deltoid and begins stripping there. He mentally sighs, the whole thing is locked up with rock hard muscles, dried out fascia, scar tissue, extra bone calcification, staples, and ligaments that haven't moved in weeks. To say Tim's deltoid is a mess is to say the ocean is damp."They're shape-shifter dragons, Jimmy, and in human shape when there's sex happening, and…" Tim grunts as Jimmy starts to apply some real pressure, "And if you had even half of my imagination," said through clenched teeth, "you'd do it, too, Dr. Palmer.""Has he let you read some of the sex scenes?" Abby chirps. "Oh my god, they're so hot!" She looks at Breena. "You know, soaked panties, squeeze your thighs together and get off, hot."Breena looks impressed. "And why didn't they end up in my inbox?"Tim's staring at them, feeling kind of lost, and wondering when they started sending each other smut. Though… Yeah, Abby did give Breena his smutty books, and Breena gave Abby Fifty Shades, and that's the only one he heard of, but for all he knows they may be swapping erotica right and left. He does know that there have been, 'Hey, let's try… insert new position or thing here' nights, so… maybe that's where the inspiration was coming from.He gets the sense he should say something before those stories do end up in Breena's inbox. "They're just for you. I was stoned off my ass when I wrote them, they're never seeing the light of day.""They should, Tim. They're smoking hot.""They need at least a rewrite before anyone else sees them.""So, wait, Breena said some bits of the Dragon book were sexy. I thought it was like… Like Song of Fire and Ice. How smutty is this thing?" Jimmy asks.Tim shrugs with his left shoulder; he's gotten pretty used to gesturing with only the one side. "Right now about two thirds of what I've got written is sex. I was home, doped up on pain meds, not like there was any real work I could do, so I wrote, a lot. Anyway, apparently if you take away most of my higher level mental function, I spend a lot of time thinking about sex.""You mean you don't normally?" Breena's curious."There's usual being a guy thinking about sex, and then there's spending six hours a day on it." He quickly looks at Jimmy, "And if that's how long you usually spend thinking about sex, I don't want to know."Jimmy laughs. "I don't think even Tony spends six hours a day thinking about sex.""At least, not since he hit forty," Tim says, making the other three laugh. "Anyway, can't work, bored, horny, I wrote a lot of other stuff, too, but yeah, lots of sex scenes, and you didn't mind getting sent them in the middle of the day.""Anytime you want to send me smut, I'm happy to receive it." Abby says with a smile. "I think Percocet just gets you horny.""Uh…" Well, that could be true, he's, well, was, in a pretty mellow bring-on-the-sex sort of mood, which was just perfect and probably would be again in about two minutes if Jimmy would quit trying to shred his arm, but… "I think horny might be my default setting and Percocet just peels everything else away. But, once again, I think that's just being a guy, too. How about it, Jimmy?"He makes a non-committal noise. Tim's relaxing some as he talks, and he's getting into his delt a bit deeper, running the edge of his thumb along the grain of the muscle.Abby looks at Jimmy. "So, playing Doctor? Anything you really like, Dr. Palmer?"That does a better job of getting his attention, he looks up from Tim's arm. "Hey, everyone has a playing doctor fantasy, and who says I'm the doctor when we're playing?"Abby's interested in that. She knows Jimmy and Breena role play some, but this level of detail hadn't been brought up before. "You aren't?""Well, it's not exactly playing when you've got the MD, now is it?" Tim and Abby are staring at him. Breena's grinning, very pleased. Jimmy rolls his eyes. "About half and half. And it's not playing when the person you're working on is actually hurt, and what you're doing helps…""And it hurts like a fucking son a bitch." Talking about what they're doing not being playing doctor refocuses Tim on how this actually feels. "Back to my question, do you have to do it that hard?" Tim asks, because really, this is so far away from an erotic massage they're not even on the same continent."Depends, do you want it to work, or you want me to just oil you up and play with you?""Uh, I'm all for the oiling and playing!" Abby chirps."Maybe we could oil you up, too," Breena say to Jimmy."Keep that up, and you don't get to watch next time," Tim says. "This couldn't be less sexy if we tried."Abby laughs at that. "You're way the hell out of it right now, aren't you, baby? Have you noticed what we're talking about?""Yeah, what we're," he gestures his left hand at him and Breena and Abby, "doing is sexy. What he's doing to me really isn't."Breena and Abby pout. "For you. Different story for us," Abby says. "Your skin is all slick and pink." She goes to sit next to Jimmy, and kisses Tim. "And he's rubbing all over you. Trust me, Breena and I love this show."Both the guys kind of sigh at that. They know they're playing with it, but it's easier to play with if the girls don't flat-out say they're getting off on it. Tim's starting to feel a little self-conscious about it, and Jimmy's hands have stopped working.Looks like Abby notices she and Breena pushed them a step too, far, so she scoots right next to Jimmy, her hip against his. "Okay, show me what you're doing so I can do it." She gently kisses Tim's neck. "Would that be better, me doing it? Or me and Jimmy doing it together?" She looks at Jimmy. "We've got… the rest of the deltoid, rotator cuff, and bicep to work on, right?"Jimmy nods. "Traps, too.""No reason we can't do you together. Intercostals after, too, right?""Yep.""Wanna help, too Breena?" She kisses Tim again. "All three of us on you at once?"The addition of the girls to the mix is perking Tim up quite a bit. Okay, yeah it hurts, but if they're willing to rub on him some, too, that'll go a long way to keeping him nicely distracted, and… "Can I have more alcohol?"Jimmy shakes his head. "Want you relaxed and happy, not unconscious and having a hard time breathing."Tim sighs, then Abby starts rubbing her hands up and down his neck, focused, firm, not hurting pressure, helping distract him from what Jimmy's doing to his deltoid and…"Why are you working my armpit?" Tim asks, jerking, that hurts and tickles."Because your shoulder joint is three dimensional and the muscles that bring your arm closer to your body are here.""Come on, Breena, grab a part." Abby adds."Uh… I don't know what I'm doing with this. Not like I've got an MD or Rolfing certification," Breena says, looking a bit nervous.Tim's enjoying the idea of the girls helping out with this a whole hell of a lot better than just Jimmy manhandling him. "It's extremely unlikely that anything you do'll hurt worse than what they're doing to me intentionally.""Nah. Not going to hurt at all," Abby says. "At least one of us should do something that feels good. Foot rub?" she asks Breena."That, I can do!"There's the flirty, and beyond flirty talking they were doing before. And, the all of them not entirely dressed bit, too, and for a while, that helps keep up the lightness, helps keep Tim distracted, and makes this… fun.But, when it comes down to it, this isn't fun.Jimmy's not even trying to go after the joints or ligaments. He can feel Tim shaking under what he's doing just trying to work muscle, and with Abby working, too, they're doing it twice as fast, but it's still taking too long.He's torn between backing off, doing this softer and more gentle, because that's an option, but it takes so much longer, and every day he's not really moving is another day of everything stiffening, sticking, holding in places it's not meant to hold.He knows Tim wants himself back as fast as possible, so he's pushing, taking him right to the edge if not very slightly over what's a good idea, but as they're getting to the end, with Tim lying on his side, crying, while Jimmy's working the muscles between his ribs and Abby gets his traps and rotator cuff muscles, Jimmy really wants to stop. He can see Abby does, too."Almost done, Tim.""Good." That's a whimper."We can stop now, don't have to—""Just finish it. Done this much, I can take a little more.""Okay."Breena's been down at his feet, gently stroking and rubbing his right foot and calf, but she stops at that and scoots up to hold his hand."Hey, come on, focus on me, okay?"He looks into her eyes, tries to smile some."Really hurts, right?"He nods."Okay, keep looking at me." She's holding his hand, stroking her fingers between his, then lays on her side, facing him, still holding his hand, but stroking his cheek, too. "I've got you. Just keep breathing. They're almost done, and you're gonna feel so much better after. We'll ice you down, and tomorrow you'll be able to move your arm more, hurt less. Maybe get you sleeping on your side again, soon. Know you miss that." Her forehead touches his and he's staring into her eyes. "Almost done, Tim, almost done."He kisses the palm of her hand, and she kisses his forehead. "Almost done."She keeps murmuring her little pep talk while petting his hair. Not making a whole lot of sense, but her voice is soothing, and Tim doesn't look like he's listening to her words so much as her tone.Jimmy and Abby wrap up. It only takes them two more minutes, but they're a long two minutes.And when they finish, when he's lying there, aching but no longer burning, with the three people he loves best, all with their hands on him, there's a heaviness to that moment, a sense of something shifting.They all feel it, know what rationally comes next from here, can all see the next move, where Tim scoots into Breena a bit more and kisses her, and Abby spoons him from behind and Jimmy… Tim's not sure what the hell Jimmy does, but he's got the basic game plan down for what's supposed to happen next.Though that sense of what's supposed to come next is unspoken, the desire to back away from it is also clear. Even out of it, Tim's not willing to jump off that cliff yet, and he can feel they all want thinking time.Tim sits up slowly, and there the moment breaks.Jimmy gets up and grabs ice packs and as he's heading back in he sees Tim gently squeezes Breena's hand, and kisses it again. "Thanks." He turns to Abby, pulling her into his lap. She gets a kiss, too, and Jimmy gets a hand squeeze as well as Abby takes the ice packs and starts draping them over Tim's arm and shoulder. "I know I'm a pain in the ass about it, but, thanks." It's getting late, and he wants time to be with Abby, and think. "You guys can crash here if you want. Guest bedroom's made up.""Thanks." Jimmy's shaking his head. Normally he'd say yes. Girls are sleeping. The guest room is comfy, wouldn't be the first, and won't be the last time they stay over after a late night. But not tonight, he's already pulling his shirt back on. "Think I want to sleep in my own bed."Breena nods at that. "But, tomorrow night, dinner, all four of us, we've got talking to do, right?""Yeah." Tim replies.Abby nods. "Yeah, we do."
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Published on February 23, 2015 18:39