Chapter Text
Leroy Jethro Gibbs surreptitiously glanced around the bullpen, studying his team. They’d just finished investigating a theft on Norfolk, Virginia’s navy base. All that was left was the paperwork. His MCRT wasn’t on the weekend rotation, and he could tell everyone was excited to finish and start the “camping” trip he had scheduled for them. All except his youngest agent, Tim McGee.
When he had scheduled the trip, he had Abby go around with the leave forms for his team to fill out.
“There’s one missing, Abs,” he said when Abby passed over the paperwork.
Abby shrugged; her black pigtails swinging. “Tim said he already had plans with his sister.”
Gibbs nodded. “Good for him. I’m glad they’re getting along.” He took the papers and went to drop them off to HR.
“So, you excited for this weekend?” Tony asked. Gibbs had told them that Tim wasn’t able to come to the cabin he had rented and not to rub it in. Even though he was more apt to tease and poke at Tim’s soft spots, he was all too familiar with being left out or even left behind. He wouldn’t do that to his Probie.
“Yeah, I guess. It’s just nice to have a free weekend for a change,” Tim smiled, looking away from his monitor. “I’m almost done with my report,” he added, looking at the clock. Gibbs had told them they could leave when they finished.
“Me too.” Tony focused back on his work. He was ready to get out of here. The plan was to head home, pick up his bags, and meet at Gibbs’ house. All he knew about the trip was there would be a cabin with plenty of bedrooms and a lake. He already pulled out a few movies to bring for everyone to enjoy.
Ziva glanced across the aisle and smiled at her two co-workers. It was nice to see Tony and Tim getting along. She was sad that Tim couldn’t come for team weekend, but Abby, Ducky, and Jimmy would be there. She was looking forward to talking more to the medical examiner, and not about cases or dead bodies.
Tim clicked one last key and shut down his monitors. “Just finished, Boss,” he said. Tim walked to the corner of the bullpen and retrieved his reports from the printer. After carefully rereading and collating his information, Tim stapled the reports and placed them in the in-box on Gibbs’ desk.
“Have a good weekend, McGee.”
“You too. Bye guys.” Tim grabbed his weapon from his desk, his jacket, and his go bag. With a final wave, he got on the elevator and left the office.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Monday morning
“Hey Tim, how was your weekend with your sister?” Tony asked as Tim hung his jacket over the back of his chair.
Tim frowned, “I didn’t see my sister this weekend. Sarah’s studying for finals and we’re currently in a cold war phase. She’s mad because I wouldn’t let her hold a birthday party for one of her friends at my apartment.”
“There’s no space in your apartment for you, much less for a party,” Tony countered. He was proud that Tim hadn’t let his little sister take advantage of him. His head snapped up. “If you weren’t seeing Sarah, why didn’t you come to the cabin with us this past weekend?”
Tim sat. “What cabin? I wasn’t invited anywhere.” He sighed and turned to his computers. With no new cases, he was expected to check in with cybercrimes to see if he could help in any way.
“Tim,” Tony said softly.
“Leave it Tony,” Tim answered. He didn’t want to hear the soft big brother voice. It was bad enough to find out that he had been excluded from a team event. He didn’t want sympathy or pity. He wanted to ignore the fact that Abby had purposefully not invited him. She didn’t see him as part of Gibbs’ team, didn’t want to spend time with him, or just wanted to hurt his feelings.
“No Tim.” Tony dragged his chair over to Tim’s desk. “This was a team vacation. Gibbs rented a cabin in the woods on a lake. We ate barbeque, watched movies, played cards. We had a good time. You should have been there.”
Ziva walked to her desk, catching the last part of the conversation. “You were missed this weekend. You didn’t have a good time with Sarah?”
Tony shook his head. “There was no weekend with Sarah. Abby never invited Tim. She lied to Gibbs about why Tim couldn’t come.
Ziva clenched her jaw as she turned to put her purse in her desk drawer. “She lied? Tim, I am so sorry.”
“Nothing for you to apologize for, Ziva. Just forget about it. It’s good to know where I stand and that it was just Abby who didn’t want me around.” Tim’s eyes never left his monitor. “I gotta go to the basement.” He edged past Tony and walked to the stairs.
Gibbs’ eyes narrowed, watching Tim go downstairs. “What did you do?” he asked Tony, knowing how Tony’s teasing can get out of hand.
“Not me this time, Boss. This was all Abby.” Tony leaned his elbows on Tim’s desk and ran his hands over his face. “There was no weekend with Sarah.”
“Sarah canceled? What does that have to do with Abby?”
“There was never a weekend with Sarah. Abby never told Tim about the cabin.”
“She made up that story, so we’d not talk about the weekend plans with Tim,” Ziva added. “I never knew Abby to be mean. She can be petty and immature, but plain mean like that? I did not know she had that in her.”
“Tim went to cybercrimes. They emailed him something,” Tony explained.
“Keep an eye on him,” Gibbs warned. He turned around and made his way to the elevator. He stared at his reflection in the stainless steel. How did he get duped like that? How could Abby, his joyful and fun-loving Abby, treat a co-worker like that? What happened between her and Tim? He had thought they were best friends.
He paused at Abby’s forensics lab. The woman was shuffling along to some punk music by a band Gibbs didn’t want to know the name to. There was no guilt or shame in her movements. In fact, Abby looked like she always does - happy.
Feeling a presence behind her, Abby’s head snapped. “Hey Gibbs, just catching up on some cold cases. You know, rerunning DNA…” Her voice trailed off. “What’s the matter? What could have happened? We’ve only been in the office for about half-hour.”
“Did you have fun this weekend?” Gibbs asked softly.
“I did,” Abby squealed. “The woods was beautiful. There’s something about being in nature to rejuvenate the soul.”
“What could have made it better?” He led her on as he sipped on his coffee.
Abby leaned on the stainless-steel table. “Well, a longer trip is always good, not that I’m upset at two days together. Maybe, we could coordinate cooking, and we each could bring some special food to make.” She was already thinking of the next time they would be together.
“How about Tim being there?” Gibbs growled. He saw Abby’s shoulders tense. He knew that she now knew what she had done. “Is there a reason why you didn’t extend the invitation to Tim like I asked?”
“He said Sarah -”
“No, Abby. Tim never was meeting Sarah this weekend. Don’t lie to me Abby. What did you think would happen today? You must have known Tony or Ziva would ask him about his weekend, tell him about theirs. What did Tim do to you that would make you ostracize him like this?”
Abby frowned. “I wanted to go to a concert a few weeks ago. Tim didn’t take me. If he can’t be with the team for that, he doesn’t deserve to be with the team now.” She snapped angrily. “Tim always says he’s going home after work. He doesn’t come out with us for drinks or a movie. He’d probably not have gone this weekend so why bother asking him!”
“Not your call, Abby. This was a weekend for the entire team. All you did was divide us, and it’s not Tim against everyone else.” He swallowed the last of his coffee and tossed the paper cup in the trash. “Figure out how to fix this.”
“But Gibbs!” Abby shouted as the agent walked away.
When Gibbs returned to his desk, Tim was back at his desk. He was frowning at the monitor, letting his fingers float over the keyboard. Gibbs readily admitted that he didn’t understand a thing about what Tim did with technology. He did know that cybercrimes and other teams frequently emailed him for help. Tim never said “no”. He didn’t deserve what Abby did to him.
“Tim.” He waited for the agent to look up. “Already talked to Abby. She was wrong and knows it.”
Tim nodded. “I should have expected her to do something like this. We haven’t been friends for a while Boss.” He returned his attention back to his work.
“Why?” Tony asked. He had seen Tim and Abby’s relationship ebb and flow over the years, but this was a new low.
“I’ve been telling her no,” Tim rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to go to her concerts or drive her home from bars at 2 in the morning. She takes advantage of me and doesn’t like it when I refuse to let her. I’d rather her not talk to me than treat me like a doormat.”
“Good for you, Probie,” Tony answered. “I never liked how she talked to you sometimes.”
The pair of agents looked at their team lead. They knew Gibbs had a blind spot for Abby, his favorite. “If Abby talks to you, let me know.” It was enough to know that Gibbs was on Tim’s side.