Title: Dinosaurs and Transformers
Rating: K I suppose? No language. Very tame.
Disclaimer: Tony, McGee, Ziva, Kate, Shepard, and Ari are not my characters. I'm just borrowing them for a couple of minutes at a time
Summary: Post "Kill Ari," Tony and Tim talk about what keeps them sane.
Level of completion: Done like dinner.
Tony and Tim sat quietly in the car, set up with everything they needed for an all-nighter stakeout.
Now and then, the silence was broken by the occasional comment, slurping of cold coffee, or rustling fabric as one of them raised their field glasses to their eyes to check things out, or tried to stretch their long legs in the cramped space of the car.
Tim finally broke the silence by saying, "Dinosaur cereal."
Tony turned and looked at him. "What was that, McGee?"
Tim smiled. "Dinosaur cereal. You know, Kate found a box of it in my cupboard when you guys broke into my apartment that one morning last year."
Tony smiled. "Haven't surprised you like that lately. That was fun, though." Tim raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at his colleague. "Maybe for you it was."
Tony chuckled softly. "So, what about the cereal?" He was grateful that the silence was finally being broken. It made the endless hours pass by more quickly.
"This job can be pretty intense, on a good day. On a bad day, it's just this side of bearable." Tony nodded. "That's the understatement of the century."
"So I eat dinosaur cereal sometimes, to remind myself of a more innocent time. When things weren't so complicated. When all I really had to worry about was being a kid." Tim paused, waiting for a reaction. He wasn't disappointed.
Tony nodded thoughtfully. "Makes perfect sense. Keeps you from cracking. For me, it's Transformers."
Tim raised his eyebrows. "Transformers? Those robotic things from the 80's?" He laughed. "I remember those." Tony paused a moment as he brought his field glasses to his eyes, checking their target. Still nothing of note.
"I have one in my desk. I almost wore the hinges out on it when Kate died, then when Ziva and Shepard started messing with our plans to hunt down Ari, it finally fell apart. I had to start searching on eBay to replace my old one… But you wouldn't know that unless you snooped. Which, I know you haven't." Tim grinned mischievously, "Reaaaaaaally. You know that, huh?" Tony levelled a look at him. "I learned from the best, Tony. I also know where you hide your little black book." Tim winked at him. Tony's eyes grew wide. "You do not!"
Tim smiled with mischief and waggled his eyebrows. "Do so. You really need to get a better lock for your desk."
"Did you hack into it?" Tony was sounding worried, though he wasn't sure why. He knew Tim only had eyes for Abby.
"That's something else you should do, change your password. The old one doesn't cut it."
"Damn," Tony muttered. "I KNEW "katesboy" was too obvious." He stopped a moment and all but slapped himself on the head. He glanced over at Tim, who held a triumphant gleam in his eyes. "Busted," he said to Tony, grinning ear to ear with a sweet smile that Tony had long since learned to recognize as McGee playing his innocent baby-faced looks to the max.
"So you were paying attention to all those lessons about extracting information." Tony shook his head. "Nice work, Timmy." He reached over and the two high-fived.
Tim turned to him and said, "I told you Tony, I learned from the best."
Tony sighed. "Got lots of that cereal left at your place? I could use a dose of childhood in the morning."
"For you DiNozzo, there's always plenty left in the box. Maybe we can play Transformers when we're done eating."
Tony chuckled warmly. "Sounds like a plan, McGee. Look," he suddenly said, pointing towards the house they were watching. "Finally some action." Tony peered at the house through his field glasses, while Tim made notes in his PDA, as the two big kids got back to work.