Fic: Coffee Cups and Caffeine Drops Part Three
If asked, Tony really couldn’t have said how he felt about the newest addition to their team. Their first meeting hadn’t stood out that much to him other than nothing that the agent was greener than broccoli and would be a mess in the field. He was also gullible and quick to follow orders and Tony took relentless advantage of the last two. When McGee had started working officially with the team, Tony had expected him to be one more of the growing number of rotating agents that had come before.
Timothy McGee was very different from any of his predecessors. An atypical geek: pudgy, clumsy, though smart, smarter than him, though Tony would rather set his baby - 1966 Ford Mustang - on fire before admitting it, but not necessarily in a useful way for the field. Over all, nothing like any of the NCIS agents he’d met and worked with.
Still, McGee proved himself, and if on occasions Tony felt the need to remind the probie why he was the probie and Tony the senior field agent, it wasn’t as personal as McGee thought it was. That was until he started showing off on Tony with Gibbs, and when Gibbs said his name first when calling on them, well, Tony felt more than a little justified and knocking him a few pegs.
His plan had been a simple one - and with McGee still seeing Tony as a friend and not a potential enemy - an easy one. If he maybe, just a tiny bit felt some guilt about what he was about to do, it was dispelled when Gibbs gave the probie an assignment usually reserved for Tony.
Tony was an only child and had no qualms about defending his place. Though he had never felt threatened enough by any of the previous agents to act - there was always something about them that alerted Tony of their impending transfer from the team - McGee didn’t seem like he was going anywhere any time soon; which meant that, like Kate, he was here to stay and that left Tony in an unusual situation.
That McGee had been a good addition to the Team, Tony couldn’t deny that, but the probie was getting to upidy and it was Tony’s duty as senior field agent to initiate McGee in the ways of team Gibbs.
Wednesday had been the ideal day. No cases where pending and they were all mostly catching up on the backlog of paperwork. It wasn’t his favorite activity, but a necessary evil in the bureaucratic world they all lived in. He had left late the previous night/morning and was coming in earlier than even Gibbs’s non-case time. Tired but his reasons behind getting up at dawn helped keep the sleepiness at bay.
When he made his way to the elevators after a quick hello to Henry, he was surprised to find Kate already inside and waiting impatiently for the doors to close. She looked haggard some, but a fresh coat of make-up covered most of it. “Long night?”
“Shut up, Tony.” Well that was cutting to the quick.
He smirked as he spotted the cup of steaming coffee in her hand. The color wasn’t from the local coffee shop, but then again, he doubted Kate would ever drink anything with that logo ever again. Tony still flinched whenever Gibbs came in with his daily drink.
“Is that coffee?” She said with clear accusation, clutching tightly at her own cup.
“Why yes it is, Kate, how very observant of you.” He scooted back as Kate invaded his personal space, a completely instinctual reaction after the last time when she’ll all but crushed generations of DiNozzos.
“If you even think of switching my drink for that -” The twitching of her knee made for a very nice emphasizing.
“Hey, would I do that?” The knee shifted and Tony was quick to add, “And it’s not for you, it’s for the probie.”
He half expected her to grab the cup and splash it on Tony, never mind the second degree burns it might cause, so he taken aback when she smirked at him instead. “Another initiation ritual?”
Wary he unwound from his defensive position, “just thought I’d welcome the probie into our team.”
Kate snorted, “You mean poison him. You better hope he doesn’t drop dead or Gibbs will put your balls in a jar.”
“It’ll be worth it.”
“You don’t like Tim very much to do?” She asked, all teasing gone from her voice.
Tony shrugged, “I don’t dislike him.”
“You mean Gibbs’s likes him better than you. So like the incredibly mature human being you are, you decide to take it out on McGee.”
Stung, but not wanting to show it, Tony kept his tone casual, “What makes you think Gibbs’s like him more?”
Smugly, Kate took another sip of her drink, “Oh come on, Tony. It’s not like Gibbs treats him any different from the rest of us.”
Tony opened his mouth to retort, but then the door sprang apart and whatever joiner he planned went out the window when he saw McGee happily tapping on his computer, nose stuck on the screen. “Geek.” He muttered just loud enough for Kate to hear.
Kate just shook her head and rolled her eyes with an exasperated, “Jock” before clamping down on her desk.
“Cheerleader” He threw back as he passed her on his way over to the geek. Like she had room to talk.
He purposely rounded behind McGee, clapping hard enough on the shoulder to have him slam on screen. Oops. “Hey, McGeek!” He said cheerfully, keeping a steady hand on the coffee in case McGee jerked back and spilled all over. Not likely, since McGee had the reflexes of a slug and he was proven right, when he just rubbed his nose that had begun to pink.
Tony really was going to have to work with him on that before those nonexistent reflexes before them both shot. It was probably just as well that Gibbs was partnering the green bean since the man was practically indestructible.
“Tony.” McGee greeted back, albeit with less enthusiasm and his voice muffled by the hands on his nose.
“I see you’re burning the midnight oil.” He added with a small edge, which didn’t go as unnoticed by McGee as he’d expected. McGee, with remarkably good survival instincts gave him cautious look. Well, looked like he was finally learning, though for the purpose of this exercise it just wouldn’t do.
“I just had some interfaces I wanted to check. It should allow us faster access to the various federal and local law enforcement databases.” That went right over his head and out the stratosphere somewhere.
Tony kept his smile from tightening into something much less friendly. “Well, that’s good.” He said without the growler that wanted to plant itself in there. He placed the cup on the desk, and nearly smacked the hand that automatically moved it away from his precious circuits. Right. If it wouldn’t put a damper on his plan, Tony might’ve smacked McGee over the head for treating the sacred broth with such disrespect.
“What is it?” McGee, stater of all things obvious.
“It’s coffee, McGee.” This time Tony couldn’t help the sarcasm that crept into his voice. Then in a much nicer tone he said, “I just thought that since you’re going to be with us for a while, we might as well welcome you into the team.”
With due reverence, Tony motioned to the cup on McGee’s desk. “It’s one of Gibbs’s special brew.” Well, maybe not Gibbs’s, but since he was the only one that could stomach it, it unofficially belonged to him.
Whatever reluctance McGee might have harbored flew out the window at Mac 5. His whole face lit up as though he had just found out they were remaking the original Star Trek. “Jeez, thanks, Tony, this is really nice of you.”
Tony shared a look and a smirk with Kate, who stopped pretending to do paperwork and was now fully intent on McGee as he took a long pull of the coffee. Tony waited for him to start choking, to turn green, something, but when McGee merely put the cup down and continued doing whatever geeky thing he had been.
Disappointed, and more than a little frustrated, Tony went back to his desk. Kate raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed and that didn’t put Tony in any better mood. Gibbs came in. They worked and got a new case and through it all, McGee didn’t so much as sneeze. It annoyed Tony, and if he was a little nastier toward a confused probie, he felt McGee deserved it. It was childish, a part of him could admit that much.
Gibbs smacked him over the head twice and told him to knock it off and Kate shifted between mildly sympathetic and wholly annoyed. But it wasn’t until after lunch that Tony loosened up enough to leave the probie alone. It also might have something to do with McGee’s usually lightning speed speech going supernova. His usual nonsensical words blurred together until even Abby couldn’t decipher them.
The crowning moment came when Tony walked into the head, to find a very green McGee bent over a toilet, puking three days worth of food. With Gibbs walking in behind Tony, taken one look at McGee then Tony and smacked McGee over the head with an exasperated, “Will you ever learn, McGee.”
Part Four