Temerarious

Tony stared down at the gift he'd gotten for Gibbs and proceeded to freak out. The team was supposed to be meeting at Gibbs’ for some holiday time together. They actually had Christmas off this year.

They had agreed to meet late, so that those with families could finish their Christmas stuff and come over afterwards. Unfortunately for Tony, that meant he had a full day to freak out over his temerarious gift. Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten the gift at all.

He’d seen it and it had screamed Gibbs, but at the same time romantic. The problem was he didn’t know if Gibbs was actually interested in him. A romantic gift like this would totally reveal his interest in Gibbs, which would go horribly wrong if Gibbs wasn’t interested back.

“I’m not going.” Tony announced as McGee picked up his phone call.

“What? Tony you have to go. You know how Abby will get if you’re not there.” McGee protested. “What’s going on?”

“I did something stupid, I think. Or well I don’t know if it’s stupid or not, but if I don’t show up I won’t have to find out how stupid it is.”

“It can’t be as bad as you think it is, Tony. Now, tell me what’s going on. Let’s figure this out. Everyone will miss you if you’re not at the Christmas party.”

“I bought a present for Gibbs.”

“We all did. Nothing wrong with that. Unless you got him honey dust again?”

“No. Not honey dust. Something even worse.”

“Tony, spit it out. What did you get Gibbs that’s so horrible?”

“An anchor.”

“How is an anchor worse than honey dust?”

“It’s not the anchor. It’s what it says.”

“Tony, just tell me.”

“People everywhere are searching for the key, To make it through life’s troubles that set us out to sea. So when you’re lost in darkness and nothing’s going right, just place this anchor in a place for all to see and remember you’ve always got me.”

“Tony, that’s beautiful.”

“It’s based off of the Legend of the Anchor Christmas Ornament, but less religious.”

“I’m sure Gibbs will love it. You should give it to him.”

“But it will be obvious how I feel for him if I do that.”

“You’re not still worried about that, are you? Even Abby says Gibbs likes you.”

“Yeah. Sure. He likes me in a can work with me kind of way. That’s not the same as he loves me and wants to date me.”

“Tony. Just bring the gift and show up. You won’t regret it.”

“How can you be sure?”

“We’ve all seen the way Gibbs looks at you. Trust me. He’s into you.”

“I don’t think I can do it, Tim.”

“Do I need to have Abby call you?”

“Would you?”

“Sure. Promise me, you’ll listen to what she has to say and that you’ll show up and give Gibbs a chance?”

“I can’t promise that, but I’ll think about it.”

Tim sighed, but he knew that was the best he was going to get for now. “I’m calling Abby, now. I’ll see you at the party.”

Tony answered his phone when it rang. “Abby?”

“No.” Gibbs growled.

“Eep. Hey boss.” Tony replied.

“Why aren’t you over here, already?”

“Uh. I thought the party wasn’t until 7.”

“The team party, but unlike the team you didn’t have plans for Christmas. Get your ass over here, Tony.”

“Uh, yes, boss.”

“Not your boss. Just get over here.” Gibbs hung up the phone.

Tony stared at the phone and sighed when it started ringing in his hand. This time it actually was Abby. “Hey Abbs. Sorry, can’t talk right now.”

“What the hell, Mister? I get a call from Tim about how you’re not going to the party and now you don’t have time to talk?”

“Gibbs just ordered me to come over for Christmas. I’m pretty sure he’s going to kill me if I’m slow in getting there even though he didn’t invite me over until just now.”

“Do you need Tim or I to come over for support?”

“Thanks for the offer, but you guys have your family Christmas stuff. I’ll be fine.”

“Ok. If you need something though, don’t hesitate to send the SOS signal, Timmy or I will be happy to come and rescue you. Even though I’m pretty sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised at Gibbs’ reaction to your gift.”

“Thanks Abbs. I’ll keep that in mind. Now, I really must go if I don’t want Gibbs to skin me alive.”

Tony grabbed his anchor gift as well as some gunmetal cufflinks engraved with LJG that he thought might make Gibbs wear dressier clothes more frequently. Or at least he hoped they would. He also grabbed his gifts for the others since he probably wouldn’t have time to grab them from his apartment before the party given Gibbs invited him over now.

With the invitation Gibbs had provided, Tony just walked right into Gibbs’ house when he arrived. He stared in shock at Gibbs’ living room. “When did you get a big screen TV screen?”

Gibbs glared. “Just help me get it all setup.”

“Oh, I see. You only invited me over to help you hook up your TV and other systems.” Tony joked as he stared at the mess of electronics on the floor.

Gibbs grumbled. “I thought it would be good to be able to watch some Christmas movies tonight.” He wasn’t going to mention that he hoped it would lure Tony over to his house more frequently.

“Alright. Take this and put it up on the wall wherever you want the TV to hang.” Tony handed Gibbs the TV wall mount. Gibbs should be good enough with tools to do that much. “Once that’s done we can attach the TV to the wall and figure out where the rest of the electronics go.”

Gibbs nodded and started working on that while Tony continued to go through the electronics. “What did you do, buy out the whole store?”

“Well I didn’t know what electronics we would need, so I just got everything that looked like it might be necessary.”

Tony shook his head. Gibbs really was clueless about electronics. They didn’t need over half of the cords he’d gotten and he still didn’t have the right cord needed to setup the TiVo which was rather impressive.

Fortunately, they didn’t need the TiVo to watch movies. Gibbs had bought a blu-ray player and a bunch of DVDs. Tony was just glad that he’d gotten a blu-ray player that was backwards compatible.

Tony started hooking up the components they needed as well as setting up the ones that they didn’t have the right cords for. By the time they were done, the blu-ray player was connected to the TV on the wall and the TiVo and surround system were put in locations, so that they could be hooked up later.

“What’s with the rest of this?” Gibbs glared at the remaining cords.

“These need to go back. You don’t have any components that use these cords and we’re missing some other cords we need, but we can fix it another day. It’s not needed to watch some Christmas movies.”

Gibbs nodded and scooped the cords up and hid them away before the party started. They still had about 3 hours to the party and Gibbs grabbed his actual gift for Tony after hiding the cords. He also grabbed the steaks to start cooking for their dinner.

The Christmas party would just be snacky foods not dinner, so he’d figured Tony and him could have their own dinner together. He started the steaks marinating and then thrust his gift for Tony at Tony. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

Gibbs just grunted and turned back to the steaks even though there wasn’t anything to do for them. He was worried what Tony would think of his gift and couldn’t bring himself to watch Tony open it. Tony stared at Gibbs, aware he was acting strangely, before shrugging and opening the gift Gibbs had handed him.

Tony stared at the gift, his face softening as he realized just what Gibbs had gotten him. “How did you find it?”

“Is it the right one?”

“Yes. It’s perfect. Where did you get it?”

“I have my ways.” Gibbs didn’t plan to share anything about how he’d found the exact Magnum PI toy car that Tony was missing from his collection.

Tony stared uncertainly at Gibbs before deciding to just go for it and handing Gibbs the box with the anchor. He’d save the cuff links for the Christmas party. Gibbs took the box and opened it slowly, not sure what Tony would have gotten him.

As he read the inscription on the decorative anchor, Gibbs expression softened. He lifted his head and looked Tony in the eyes to see if it was true. Seeing the feelings in Tony’s eyes, Gibbs grabbed Tony and pulled him into a kiss.

They pulled back and Tony couldn’t help asking, “Really?”

“I’ve wanted you for a long time.”

“Me too.”

Realizing they still needed dinner before the rest of the group arrived, Gibbs returned to cooking his steak. Tony popped a movie in for them to watch while they waited for everyone to arrive. Together they cuddled on the couch when Gibbs wasn’t tending to dinner.

They ate dinner together on the couch or attempted to. It was hard to eat dinner with their arms wrapped around each other as they watched the movie as close together as they could, but they made it work. Both Tim and Abby smiled as they arrived and saw the two on the couch.

They were glad it had worked out for Tony. Kate was a little surprised, but offered her congratulations as well. Ducky too offered his congratulations.

After everyone offered their congratulations, the group settled down to watch movies and just enjoy spending Christmas together. Everyone basked in the feeling of family that pervaded Gibbs’ living room, this Christmas.