Work Text:
“You’re not really leaving, are you, Tony?” McGee demanded, getting up into Tony’s face with a furrowed brow.
”Where’d you hear that, Probie?”
“Marsha in accounting said she heard you turned in your two week notice.”
Tony rolled his eyes at the vast amount of quidnuncs in this office. “You should know better than to listen to the office gossips by now, Tim.”
“So you’re not leaving?”
“He knows better.” Gibbs growled. “Now, get back to work you two.”
“On it, boss.” Tony barked.
McGee glanced at Gibbs, but quickly realized that now was not the time to push it. He wondered what Gibbs meant by Tony knowing better, but that question would have to wait for a time when Gibbs wasn’t quite so pissed, if such a thing ever occurred. McGee hoped that he could get Tony alone for a few minutes to follow up, but somehow Tony never seemed to be alone with him.
It was making McGee suspicious. What secret was being kept from him? Was there something that Tony wasn’t telling him?
He didn’t mean to, but he couldn’t help paying more attention to Tony. He started tracking Tony’s comings and goings in his head, looking for a pattern. At first, nothing jumped out at him, but then he realized that Tony was just a touch more serious, just a touch worried all the time.
There was no way it could be case related as it was a constant thing even when they weren’t actively working a case. McGee started to get worried now. Clearly, something was going on in Tony’s personal life that was causing this change and it couldn’t possibly be for the good if he looked tired and worried so often.
McGee considered going to Gibbs about this. After all, the boss always seemed to know everything, so he would surely know what was going on with Tony. Then he remembered how Gibbs shut him down about Tony leaving and decided that going to Gibbs would be a last resort.
Instead, he started following Tony. Unfortunately, so far he couldn’t see anything that would explain Tony’s recent changes in behavior. The guy worked the same hours the rest of them did and then he went home to his apartment.
McGee couldn’t see what Tony was doing in his apartment, but it wasn’t like he was having a ton of visitors or anything. It didn’t make any sense. McGee knew he must be missing something.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t figure out a way to bug Tony’s apartment without alerting him to what McGee was doing. His surveillance so far had only managed to draw Gibbs’ attention when they were out at a scene and McGee was accidentally paying more attention to Tony than his job.
Gibbs had looked over his shoulder and given McGee the look, snapping at McGee to get back to the job at hand. They still hadn’t talked about it and McGee liked it that way, but he was really getting worried about Tony who didn’t seem to be getting better in the slightest. If this continued on, Tony would be breaking rule 5, “Don’t Waste Good,” and would start making mistakes at work.
He really wished he knew what was going on with Tony. Maybe Tony really was leaving and couldn’t figure out how to tell Gibbs? Of course, his sneaking around hadn’t gone unnoticed by Tony either and Tony had finally gotten fed up with it.
“What’s your problem, McSneakster?”
“Nothing.” McGee protested.
“Then why have you been following me every day for the past month?”
“You noticed that?”
“Of course, I did. I thought when Gibbs caught you at it that you would back off, but you only toned it down at work. Now, what is going on?”
“I’ve been worried about you. You’re stressed out and tired all the time.”
“And you didn’t think that was because of your stalking?”
“It was happening before I started tracking you.”
Tony sighed. “McGee, if I wanted you to know about it, I would have told you.”
“I thought I was your friend, Tony.”
“You are.”
“Then let me help.”
“You can’t help with this, Tim.”
”I don’t want to see you break, rule 5, Tony.”
Tony sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“You can’t go on like this, Tony,” McGee eagerly explained.
“I think I know myself better than you, Probie.”
“Please, Tony. I’m worried about you.”
“It’s fine, McGee. I’m not leaving. Gibbs would kill me for wasting good if I left.”
“Please tell me that’s not the only reason you’re staying, Tony.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “It’s not.”
“So what’s really going on, then?”
Tony bit back the snarl that wanted to come out, apparently McGee wasn’t going to let this drop. “Not here. My place. Tonight.”
McGee nodded and they both went back to work. Tony just hoped that he could come up with something that would make McGee back off tonight. He highly doubted that McGee actually wanted the truth as to why Tony was worried.
Certainly, Tony didn’t want to tell McGee that he was afraid he was pregnant.