Midnight Oil, by rebecca
Title: Midnight Oil
Pairing: gen
Rating: G
Summary: He does his best work at night.
His clothes still smell a little like smoke and beer from the club he came from, and there's a smeared ink stamp on the back of his hand from the admission. The receipt in his pocket is for a dinner he didn't really taste and he thinks there's still a faint smudge of lipstick on his cheek from where his date kissed him goodnight.
Despite what Kate thinks--would have thought--he's not always after the sex, and tonight just...wasn't happening. For either of them.
As always, he squashes down the pain Kate's memory brings, focusing on what is now, instead of what was. And what is now is the case on his desk, involving a dead teenager, a missing Marine, and enough complicated family twists that he feels like he's in the middle of some soap opera.
It won't leave him alone; something's bugging him about this one. So after about fifteen minutes of aimless driving around in the rain, he gives up and heads to the office.
He parks by the elevators; af this time of night, the parking lot's completely deserted save for the plain blue sedan in one corner. He has to smile and shake his head as he pulls open the stair door, deciding in favor of exercise rather than convenience.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs says when he walks into the office, not even looking up from the papers on his desk. The circle of light from his lamp doesn't illuminate much but Tony doesn't need any aid to get to his desk and flip on his own lamp.
"Hey, Boss," he says, powering up his computer. "You go home yet?"
"Did you?"
"Point taken." Tony stretches and looks at the file in front of him. "Did the new girl finish Goodman's background?"
"Supposedly." Gibbs grunts dismissively. "Go over it again. Something's missing."
"You got it."
The darkness inside the office almost matches the darkness outside. Tony doesn't notice; he's too focused on his job, on the work he loves.
This is his time of night.
Pairing: gen
Rating: G
Summary: He does his best work at night.
His clothes still smell a little like smoke and beer from the club he came from, and there's a smeared ink stamp on the back of his hand from the admission. The receipt in his pocket is for a dinner he didn't really taste and he thinks there's still a faint smudge of lipstick on his cheek from where his date kissed him goodnight.
Despite what Kate thinks--would have thought--he's not always after the sex, and tonight just...wasn't happening. For either of them.
As always, he squashes down the pain Kate's memory brings, focusing on what is now, instead of what was. And what is now is the case on his desk, involving a dead teenager, a missing Marine, and enough complicated family twists that he feels like he's in the middle of some soap opera.
It won't leave him alone; something's bugging him about this one. So after about fifteen minutes of aimless driving around in the rain, he gives up and heads to the office.
He parks by the elevators; af this time of night, the parking lot's completely deserted save for the plain blue sedan in one corner. He has to smile and shake his head as he pulls open the stair door, deciding in favor of exercise rather than convenience.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs says when he walks into the office, not even looking up from the papers on his desk. The circle of light from his lamp doesn't illuminate much but Tony doesn't need any aid to get to his desk and flip on his own lamp.
"Hey, Boss," he says, powering up his computer. "You go home yet?"
"Did you?"
"Point taken." Tony stretches and looks at the file in front of him. "Did the new girl finish Goodman's background?"
"Supposedly." Gibbs grunts dismissively. "Go over it again. Something's missing."
"You got it."
The darkness inside the office almost matches the darkness outside. Tony doesn't notice; he's too focused on his job, on the work he loves.
This is his time of night.