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“Delete that, Tony!" Exclaimed McGee, reaching over to try and snatch the phone out of his hand. "It's just a bad picture! I am not scared of heights!"
"Buddy, you are terrified in this photo," Dinozzo said, holding the phone as far away from McGee as possible so that he couldn't take it from him.
McGee sighed, then sprang into action as he attempted to climb over Tony to get to the picture and dispose of it properly.
Tony put up a fight, keeping it just out of reach and moving it so Tim never had a clear shot of it. "I think I'm gonna print this out and put it on my desk!"
"You wouldn't dare!" McGee continued his unsuccessful attempts to gain control over the image of his face.
Just then, a new voice entered the conversation. “Oh my, you said you were having problems over the phone, but this is worse than I thought,” said the couple's therapist.
Both men snapped to attention and looked at him. “What?” McGee asked, knitting his brows.
“You're my three o'clock, right? Relationship troubles?”
Tim glanced at Tony, unsure what to do. Tony decided to do what he did best and confuse everyone further. “Yes, thank you for seeing us on such short notice. See, we just got back from Cuba, and…”
McGee sighed. “We're not together.”
Dinozzo got that mischievous gleam in his eye that indicated he was about to say something absolutely not true. He put his hand on McGee's arm. “Timmy, this is a safe space. We can be ourselves here.”
He shook Tony off and fumbled for his badge, showing it to the therapist. “We're special agents DiNozzo and McGee, NCIS. We called ahead?” He did his best not to let the warm feeling in his chest overpower his ability to do his work.
“Of course, come on into my office,” the couple's therapist replied, opening the door for them.
Tony ended up asking most of the questions during the interview, and that was fine with McGee. He sat next to him and tried to shake off the tingling feeling on his arm where Tony had deliberately touched him earlier.
* * * * *
He could hear Tony calling out for help in the car park. The perp had nearly pushed him off of the ramp and he was barely hanging on. McGee rushed over to the edge and looked down. He immediately wished that he hadn't after he saw far down it was to the ground. He stumbled backward a bit and swallowed hard.
“Tim, if there was ever a good time to get over your fear of heights, it would be now!” DiNozzo shouted. It looked like he was starting to slip off.
McGee wanted to protest that he wasn't scared, but there were bigger fish to fry right now, and to be honest, he was scared. Scared enough to let his best friend potentially die, though? He bit his lip and looked over at Tony again. He could hardly see his fingers. He stepped closer to the edge. There wasn't much of a chance that Tony would pull him down with him. He could do this.
Tim leaned down and grabbed both of Tony's wrists, allowing him to grip onto him in the way that would provide the most support. He then did his best to pull him up as quickly as possible, bracing against the ground. Tony gritted his teeth and managed to climb up onto the safety of the ramp's concrete.
Both men stumbled backward and fell to the ground, luckily in a place where there was a concrete wall between them and the drop.
He didn't let go of Tony's hand; it didn't seem like he wanted him to. Tim swallowed hard and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
DiNozzo turned his head to look at him. “I love you, McGee.”
It could have been (and probably was) the adrenaline and the relief of Tony not dying, but in the moment, Tim felt the same way. He leaned toward him. “Please never die,” he said bluntly.
Tony laughed breathlessly and cupped McGee's face with his free hand. “I'm not planning on it anytime soon,” he said, and closed the space between their lips.
In that moment, all of the nervousness Tim had felt around Tony for months melted away and he realized just how much he wanted this. He squeezed DiNozzo's hand, and even so close to a thirty-foot drop, he felt safe and at home.