Work Text:
It was only after Clay had made sure that Tim was preoccupied with the TV and a coloring book that he had apparently been hiding from Nick and Clay, as well as some crayons, that Clay cornered Nick in the kitchen. "Okay, what happened today to cause Tim to...do this?" Clay asked.
Nick shifted from foot to foot. "He's been overworked, and you know he hasn't been sleeping lately..."
"Yeah, and he also insisted to you that he was 'a big kid' and you ran after him in the hallways like you had massively screwed up," Clay said. "So there's more to it than that."
Nick sighed. "I really messed up, Clay. More than usual."
"Okay," Clay said. "You know the rules about admitting that you were wrong."
"I have to do it and I can't beat myself up over it, I know," Nick said with an eye roll. "I...look, Tim's been practically crawling up the walls like a horror movie. He's that off. And I just...I couldn't handle his 'better than you' attitude and his barking orders and doing nothing himself, so I said some things I shouldn't have."
"Those things being?" Clay prompted.
"I may have called him a baby, told him to leave, and let the adults handle all the work," Nick said with a grimace.
"Nick!" Clay hissed. "Why would you do that?!"
"I didn't mean it! I just got mad and didn't think!" Nick defended. "And I apologized to Tim, and I'm trying to make it up to him, but this is completely new territory!"
Clay pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he shouldn't get mad at Nick over this. Nick knew it was wrong and he apologized. But that didn't stop Clay's protective streak protesting Nick's actions. "Okay. This does mean Tim will probably have some reservations about regressing, you realize. More than usual."
Nick grimaced and nodded. "Which is the exact opposite of what either of us want, I know. Like I said, I really screwed up."
Clay caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Tim approaching. His posture was drawn inward and his eyes were trained on the ground, and it hurt Clay's heart to see and know why he was acting this way. "Hey, sugar plum," he said, addressing Tim, causing Nick to turn around. "You need anything?"
Tim was hugging himself and worrying his lip, and judging by the stiffness of Nick's posture, he wasn't liking this shyness any more than Clay was. "Hey, no worries, okay?" Nick said. "Whatever you need, we'll help you best we can."
"I wanna play," Tim said uncertainly, glancing up from the floor.
"Okay," Clay said. "You don't need our permission or anything."
"Wanna play with Daddy," Tim said, turning bright red from the bottom of his cheeks to the tips of his ears.
"Oh," Nick said. And when he turned back to Clay, it was clear he was panicking internally. "Do you need to talk to me more, or...?"
"I would like to talk to you, but it can wait until everyone here is an adult. In fact, that might be better," Clay said. "Go play with Tim, I can handle dinner."
"Okay," Nick said, turning again and letting Tim lead him to the living room.
Clay shook his head and watched them go, thinking everything through. Tim being overworked meant Nick had to be overworked as well, or close to it. He wondered what exactly was going on that would require Gibbs forcing his team to be working all day, every day. Sometimes he wished they could have safer jobs, things that didn't require them to be up at odd hours, but then he reminded himself that none of them would survive a job of being paper-pushers.
Still, working this much seemed a bit excessive. If it got to the point where Tim of all people was cracking under the pressure and snapping in response, it was very bad indeed. With a sigh, Clay got out some of the food he'd need for pasta, and started bringing some water to a boil.
He was halfway through the meal when he heard a crash in the living room, followed by a squeal and two pairs of laughs drifting to the ceiling. He walked to the edge of the kitchen to find Nick had pinned Tim to the ground and was mercilessly tickling him. "What's going on here?" he asked, resisting the urge to grin.
Tim looked up at Clay desperately as he managed to get out, "Papa! Daddy...won't stop...tickling me!"
Clay looked to Nick and Nick shrugged unapologetically. "The kid was acting way too revved up, I figured he might need to burn off some energy."
"All right, you two, enough roughhousing," Clay said with an affectionate shake of his head. "Dinner's almost done anyway, I just need to finish the sauce. And I think we need to have a serious talk during dinner."
Tim's smile fell and he tried to squirm out from under Nick, but Nick had done too good a job pinning him. "What do we need to talk about?" he asked.
Clay waved a hand around. "This. Us. You. How we're gonna handle everything from here on out."
Tim sighed and tapped the floor twice, and Nick got off him. Tim sat up, stretched, and looked at Clay. "I know Nick didn't mean what he said."
"Yeah, well, we're not just gonna talk about Nick's behavior, we need to talk about yours as well."
"Mine?" Tim asked.
Clay could tell that wasn't the best choice of words, and he said, "How much you're working, and when it's good to take breaks, that sort of thing. We don't need you running yourself into the ground."
Tim relaxed a fraction and Clay turned back to what he was doing in the kitchen. He worked quickly on the sauce, and decided that he would settle for it not simmering as long as normal if it meant he could have this discussion with Nick and Tim while everything was still fresh in their minds.
Once everything was on plates, Clay announced, "Dinner's ready!" and all three of them got settled at the kitchen counter.
The atmosphere was slightly uneasy, everyone waiting for someone else to say something first. Tim sighed and put down his fork, saying, "I know I shouldn't have run out during work today, but I couldn't trust myself to stay any longer and not cause issues."
"I'm really sorry about what I said to cause that," Nick said. "It was unfair to you."
"You both have been working too much," Clay said simply. "I understand, sometimes things happen. But this? Isn't just a lack of communication. It's a lack of rest, and trust, and communication."
Tim winced. "Do we...have to talk about this now?" he asked.
"Yes," Clay stated. "We do. Otherwise, we'll never talk about it."
Going back to eating, Tim clearly wanted to say something, but was unsure on how to say it. Clay waited patiently, and Torres just took a sip of his drink as they both waited for Tim. "I know I was in the wrong. I know that. I provoked Nick, I ran out when I should have stayed. I didn't do what I should have, and now you guys are paying the price. And Gibbs...Gibbs is going to kill all of us."
"It's not all your fault, Tim. You can't control how Nick reacted to you, only he can do that. The way he handled it was...less than stellar," Clay said.
Nick made an offended noise and Clay shot him a look. "Mate, you took a jab at one of Tim's biggest insecurities. If anything deserves to be called less than stellar, it would be that," Clay insisted. "We need to set up boundaries if we're going to continue this. And we are continuing this, Tim. You need it."
"Not that badly," Tim mumbled. "I handled just fine when you two moved in and I couldn't do this anymore."
"Yeah, until you got a nightmare and regressed in the middle of the night," Nick pointed out.
"Oh, screw you!" Tim snapped. "I was just fine until you two came out of the bedroom!"
"Is hiding under the table scared out of your wits your idea of 'fine'?!" Nick shot back.
"Hey, hey!" Clay exclaimed. "Both of you, calm down! Tim, if you want us to stop, we can stop, but if you need this, then we aren't going to stop you, even if you want to be alone during it. Nick, I know you're trying to help, but you're also making Tim feel more insecure. If he pushes back like that, you don't continue pushing. You stop."
Nick scowled at Clay, until he took a glance at Tim, and paled. Tim's hand was gripping his fork so hard his hand was shaking. Clay made a point to not draw attention to Tim's pink-rimmed eyes. When it was clear neither of them were going to continue fighting for the moment, he said, "Both of you have very different ways of looking at the world, okay? Each view might not make sense to the other person, and that's okay. I can see where both of you are coming from, and I can help when there's a breakdown in communication. All I ask, is that both of you keep me in the loop, like we agreed to when we first started dating."
"That way, if a problem comes up, at least all of us know about it?" Tim asked.
"And all of us can work on it too," Clay said. "I know we need to talk more about boundaries and everything, but I'm not sure you're up for much of that. You look exhausted."
"I feel exhausted," Tim yawned.
Nick pursed his lips together, and Clay turned to him. "Something on your mind, Nick?"
"Tim wouldn't be so tired if he stood up to Gibbs. If he didn't allow himself to be pushed over at every turn. Yeah, he's stood up for me, and you, and Bishop, but he never stands up for himself, never says that his work day is done. He keeps up on all the paperwork that needs to be done without staying late every night. The only reason Gibbs believes he's behind is because Tony would do things two weeks in advance, almost every single time reports were due. He's holding Tim to an impossible standard, and Tim needs to understand that he can and should stand up for himself," Nick said.
Tim laughed. "Are you crazy? If Tony did one thing wrong, or stood up for himself, almost every time Gibbs would smack him upside the head. I'm not looking to get concussions, thank you very much."
"So say that you'll report him if he does it!" Nick ordered.
"No way!" Tim exclaimed. "I don't have a death wish!"
"Boys!" Clay interrupted. "Case in point!"
Tim and Nick grew quiet again, but this time Tim was actually crying. Nick growled under his breath. Clay just shook his head. "All right, I think we need a cool-down period. We'll leave the rest of this discussion for later, yeah? Right now, let's just finish dinner."
All three of them ate in tense silence, and when Tim and Nick finally started talking again, they were stead-fastedly ignoring the elephant in the room. Clay sighed. This was going to need more work than just keeping him in the loop.
But what could he even do to help?