AN: Haven't tried my hand at a team POV since Merry Misdirection. Please let me know what you think! Dorneget gets to take the first bow. Disclaimer: I'm still broke, so no. Spoilers: Not in this chapter. Warnings: At the end. Thank you for reading - it means a lot to me!

Chapter 1: Dorney

"What do you mean, you finally saw it? Saw what?"

"C'mon, McGee. You know what I'm talking about."

"No, Dorney, I don't."

"Okay, let's take it from the top, then. What did you ask me when I walked in?"

"I asked how your day went."

"What did you ask me exactly?"

"How was your day in the field with Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo?"

"Oh, no you don't...I see what you're doing! You're being clever and stubborn and that's making my case for me!"

McGee drew his brows together in annoyance, but Ned Dorneget was having too much fun to let it go, that much was obvious.

"Verbatim, Tim. This is what you said: 'How was your day with Gibbs and Tony?' not 'Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo.' Nobody around here talks like that anyway. Then I said 'I finally saw it' and you suddenly got your panties in a wad."

McGee tried a blank stare but it wasn't really his specialty, and the younger man's musical laugh took on a note of triumph. Tim sighed.

"Really, McGee? Please tell me you didn't think I wouldn't notice! What I want to know is how it stays out of the rumor mill."

This time McGee laughed, involuntarily. Gibbs. Well, Tony too - each had his own way of hiding in plain sight, but only Gibbs had the whole building frightened half to death. Ned blushed as he caught his mistake, but he kept challenging Tim with a teasing grin, and with his eyes. Denial was going to be fruitless at this point.

"We don't talk about it, Dorney."

"Not ever?" Ned asked with a wink.

McGee rolled his eyes. "Now who's being clever?"

Of course it wasn't true that they didn't talk about it. Abby and Ducky kept sensitive fingers on the individual and collective pulses of Team Gibbs in all matters. Tim and Tony were friends, as were Tony and Palmer. And thinking of Palmer, a.k.a. Black Lung, the seemingly nervous, somewhat bumbling, directionally challenged Autopsy Gremlin - well, Jimmy had long since proven to be the most stable personality among them - loyal, discerning, and wise beyond his years.

So, yeah, they talked about it. They just didn't talk about it to anybody else. Where Dorneget fit into the picture was something McGee was trying to decide, was going to have to deal with because the junior agent now understood that 'Gibbs and Tony' also meant 'Gibbs&Tony.' Did Dorney get into the club simply by being gay? Did it make him an immediate and unquestionable ally or might that be a foolish assumption? McGee had never gotten anything but good vibes from the younger man. In fact he considered him a good agent and a friend, and Dorney had certainly never shown anything even approaching a dearth of respect for the Senior Agent and his SIC. Tim decided to go with his gut.

"Dorneget, you wanna go get some coffee or something?"

There was nothing pressing going on in the office, and Gibbs and Tony were still upstairs with the Director when Tim and Ned made their way outside. The brilliant sunshine, unoccupied benches and the quaintly familiar environs of the coffee-cart worked their usual magic. Topics off-limits in the bullpen were approachable here, could be carried off on the breeze instead of being funneled straight into the security feeds, the inquiring minds of other agents, or the preternaturally sharp and ever-present ears of Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Tim and Dorneget settled down with their coffees.

McGee rolled out the opening gambit. "So? What did you see?"

"Well first off, there was this girl."

There always was.

"At the paper company. We were getting samples to compare to our evidence. So Agent Gibbs introduces us and Tony just starts talking. The girl looks away from Gibbs like he was never there and DiNozzo is explaining about the samples we need and the dates of sale and stuff, except he's making it sound like a marriage proposal complete with an early honeymoon."

"We've all heard that."

"Yeah, sure, but it's just that Gibbs wasn't nearly as amused as I expected. I tried to catch his eye but he was watching DiNozzo. And this girl, she's eating it up. She's all over Tony like he's made out of honey."

Tim grinned. He knew the script, backward and forward.

Dorney went on, clearly excited. "So Tony has this shit-eating grin on his face and he's throwing glances at Gibbs here and there, and if Tony is the honey and the girl is the bee, then Gibbs is the exterminator. His glare could have blasted her through the nearest wall. And then when she put her hand on Tony's arm..."

"Wait, she touched him?"

"Yes! And Gibbs' back went really straight and he took, like the deepest breath ever."

"Welcome to my life. Did she even notice?"

"No! She kept moving in. I thought she was going to sniff him, or check him for fleas or something! So then Tony goes all shy and smug at the same time, like 'mission accomplished,' only he's not looking at her. She goes off to get the stuff, and Gibbs is pretending to look around the office, but he's balancing on his toes and his hands are twitching. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it."

"And that was just the warm-up."

Dorney looked at McGee in awe. "Wow, you really have seen this before, haven't you?"

"Only since I got here. Did he head-slap him?"

"Oh, yeah! On the way out of the building. I mean I thought Tony would keep a safe distance, I know I would, but he just walks out shoulder-to-shoulder with Gibbs and lets him smack him one. It was total..."

"Don't say it..."

"Foreplay!"

Tim made a mental note to call Tony after work. There was nothing he could do about it now. Dorney was in.

A/N: Dorney was later in the series, season nine. Chapter two jumps back almost to the beginning of the show - late season one.