Gelid

Day 17: One Horse Open Sleigh (or carriage)

Abby clapped excitedly. Tony uncharacteristically blushed at the attention everyone was giving them as Gibbs pulled back from the kiss.

“Ok. Ok. Enough of that. Now that Gibbs is here, time for presents!” Tony announced, hoping to distract everyone and avoid more embarrassment. “Would you do the honors, Gibbs?”

“Sure, Tony.” Gibbs headed for the tree and handed out the presents underneath it.

They all took turns opening presents. McGee received a book on characterization from Ducky. Jimmy gave him a book titled “Plot? What plot?” which was all about how to get over writer’s block.

Tony gave McGee the role playing game that released this month which McGee had been blabbering about, but hadn’t had a chance to get himself. Bishop gave McGee a CD of inspirational music. Gibbs gave McGee a hand carved knife with an elf lord on the pommel. Abby gave McGee the latest flagship cellphone.

Bishop opened her presents and discovered an NCIS hat with a bullet hole in it from Tony. Gibs gave her a hand carved knife with a butterfly on the pommel. Ducky and Jimmy pitched in together to get Bishop an absolutely beautiful blue dress. Tim gave her a new purse to replace the one she’d recently broken. Abby gave Bishop a beautiful blue necklace that matched the dress Ducky and Jimmy had bought.

Ducky had told everyone not to get him anything. He wasn’t one for collecting material possessions these days. He preferred to collect stories. So instead of many presents, everyone had pitched in to provide Ducky with some new stories which Tim had typed up and gotten bound into a book. Gibbs had also given him a hand carved knife with the words Semper Fi on the pommel. Ducky started reading the first obviously hand made page of the book and it brought tears to his eyes at the obviously personal story being shared with him.

Jimmy opened his presents to find many items for Victoria and various other things to make his and Breena’s lives easier. “Thanks guys.”

“You still have an unopened present, Jimmy.” Gibbs pointed out.

Jimmy’s last present turned out to be a hand carved knife from Gibbs, of course, with a gremlin on the pommel. Gibbs knew how much Jimmy appreciated Tony’s nickname for him and wanted to make sure that Jimmy knew he was a part of the team too. Abby opened her gift from Gibbs first, eager to see what hand carved knife she’d gotten.

She revealed a hand carved knife with a vampire on the pommel. “Thanks Gibbs!” She hugged Gibbs.

Moving onto the next present, she opened a new umbrella from Tony who had noticed her old one had gotten rather worn. Bishop had gotten her a skull and bats jacket, which Abby immediately put on. McGee had gotten her a set of sheets specially designed for her coffin.

Jimmy’s gift was a cute stuffed vampire bat plushie. Ducky gave Abby some tea to try in place of her Caf-pows. He said it was guaranteed to give her energy.

That left only Gibbs and Tony to open gifts. Gibbs turned to Tony indicating for him to go next.

“Oh no. You go next, Jethro.” Tony shook his head. He wanted to see what everyone else got. Plus, he was worried about Gibbs reaction to Tony’s gift and wanted to get it over with.

Gibbs stared deeply into Tony’s eyes as if judging how serious Tony was before conceding gracefully and opening his first gift. It was from Ducky and contained some loose leaf tea supposed to help calm nerves. Jimmy gave Gibbs a gift card to his favorite coffee shop.

Gibbs nodded his head in thanks, impressed that Jimmy had remembered his favorite coffee shop. Most agents thought his favorite coffee came from Starbucks. Moving on to Bishop’s gift, Gibbs opened it to reveal a bottle of bourbon.

McGee’s gift turned out to be a gift card to Gibbs’ favorite place to buy lumber. Abby had found the perfect figurehead for Gibbs’ boat in the shape of an angel. Gibbs had saved Tony’s gift for last.

Tony was sweating now. He really hoped Gibbs liked his gift. Gibbs opened the gift and stared in shock.

“How?” Gibbs stared at the framed picture, not sure how Tony would have come by it. He hadn’t even seen it before.

“I asked Jackson if he had any pictures of Shannon and Kelly. I liked this one the best.” Tony murmured softly.

“Thank you, Tony.”

“You’re welcome, Gibbs.”

“Your turn, Tony.” Gibbs pointed to the presents.

Unbeknownst to Tony, he’d slipped a little something extra into Tony’s gift as he was handing them out. He just hoped that Tony liked it. If Tony were a woman, it would be practically guaranteed, but as a man he didn’t know what Tony would think.

Tony opened Ducky’s present first only to find a set of loose leaf tea that was supposed to help ease the airways and prevent his lungs from constricting too much and causing him problems breathing. Jimmy’s was next and inside Tony found a shirt exactly like Magnum’s from the show.

“Wow, Jimmy. This is awesome.”

Jimmy smiled shyly at Tony. Tony moved on to McGee’s gift to find the complete box set of all seasons of Magnum. Tony had never been willing to spend the money to get it given he already had all of the seasons of Magnum, just not in the box set, but he’d always wanted it.

Abby had found Tony the perfect date shirt and given it to him. It matched his emerald eyes. Bishop had found a premium collection of hot chocolates for Tony to enjoy and gifted them to him.

Tony opened Gibbs' gift to find a piece of paper and a hand carved knife. Tony’s knife had a Saint Bernard on the pommel. Tony unrolled the piece of paper and read the brief note.

“Tomorrow at 9am, I’ve reserved a one horse open sleigh for the two of us. I’m looking forward to being able to cuddle under the blanket with you to stave off the gelid temperatures. I hope to see you there. Jethro”