NCIS Fic: LFWS rounds 1 and 3
Jun. 18th, 2009 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
healingmirthRound One: Mising Scene
Title: Creating a Monster
Season/Episode: Season One: Marine Down
Character(s): Tony DiNozzo, Caitlin Todd
Eventually, the flight settled from a lurching, nauseating, constant promise of death to a jolting, buzzing, rattling annoyance, but Kate realized that no amount of deep breathing was going to put her to sleep. She'd given up hoping that Tony was as uncomfortable as she was, but at least he hadn't fallen asleep, like Gibbs had, just to spite her.
Thankfully, Tony'd stopped eating, but now he was slowly working his way through a magazine - slowly enough that he had to be reading rather than just looking at the pictures, and her stomach gave one more lurch at the thought of trying to focus on words while bumping around. A few cautious glances to her side revealed that he was looking at a glossy magazine with photos of cathedrals and rain forests, and urban areas with tropical landscaping. From the headline on one of the articles, it appeared to be written in Spanish, so it wasn't much of a leap to assume he was reading something about their destination. He wasn't bouncing in his seat the way he had been in anticipation of Puerto Rico and Cuba - well, they were both bouncing in their seats, but not from excitement - but he was still way too upbeat for her peace of mind.
"You do realize that this isn't going to be a vacation, right, Tony? Just like Puerto Rico wasn't a vacation. Just like Cuba wasn't a vacation."
He turned the page again and then finally looked up from the magazine to acknowledge that she'd spoken, and smirked. "Just because there's no joy in your life doesn't mean the rest of us have to be bored too. Besides, maybe I just like learning about new places," he said, gesturing to the magazine.
Kate snorted. "You don't jump around like a 5-year-old because you 'like learning about new places.' What is it with you and trips? You act like you grew up locked in a tower."
Tony's gaze darted away, almost too quickly to notice, and when he replied, it was with the practiced smile that she'd grown to distrust shortly after meeting him. "Oh, we traveled, but my mother preferred the destinations that came with 5-star hotels and pricey fashion designers. Those are a little thin on the ground, South of the States." He closed the magazine, and turned a bit to face her. "What about you? You must've travelled all the time. You don't like it?"
If anything, she'd had even less time to be a tourist with the Secret Service than they had with NCIS. "We weren't exactly sightseeing, Tony. We were scouting locations for security risks." She paused to think. "There's places I'd like to go back to, though," she allowed "Beijing, Madrid, Prague..."
Tony grinned. "Oh, I've been to Prague," he said, with the quirk to his expression that he usually reserved for tacky innuendo, but this time, Kate had no idea what he was trying to imply. "I mean, I haven't been to Prague, but I've... it's from a movie. Kicking and Screaming. Noah Baumbach? Parker Posey? That skinny blonde chick who looks like that skinny blonde chick who was on Survivor?" Kate still had no idea what he was going on about, and as her forehead wrinkled in confusion, Tony huffed out a frustrated breath. "Eric Stoltz?" he tried, then sighed, condescendingly, and shifted as much into his "storytelling" pose as his perch would let him. "It's a great movie. changed my life. Like a..." he trailed off, snapping his fingers while he thought. "Like a coming-of-age movie, but for adults. Y'see, it's about this group of friends, and they're all done with college, but they don't really want to move on, or know how to, an...
"You haven't seen Shane," Kate interrupted, grumbling mostly to herself, "and you live your life with lessons from a Gen-X slacker comedy. Why am I not surprised?"
Of course, Tony objected, because he had an answer for everything. "Hey! Kicking and Screaming came out at a very important juncture in my life. It's about figuring out who you want to be when you grow up." He nodded for emphasis, and then tapped a finger against his temple. "Stuff to think about."
"Word to the wise, Tony: if you want people to pay attention to your stories, you need to branch out a bit. When you start talking about movies worth talking about, you can make as many movie references as you want."
Round 3: A Day at the Movies
Characters: DiNozzo and mystery secondary character
Tony wove through the crowd, popcorn, soda and Twizzlers balanced in his hands. He had his ticket to Up trapped between two fingers, ready to hand off to the kid manning the velvet rope. When he made it to what passed for the line to get in, he barely resisted the urge to check his watch, which would've sent at least one thing flying, and settled for bouncing impatiently as the line crept forward.
The moment he cleared the ticket-taker, biting down on the urge to make a snide remark in response to his muttered, "Enjoy your show," Tony broke into a barely-contained power-walk, not wasting any seconds in the name of "cool" in his rush to get to the theater to find a seat. He pushed through the door to the theater to find about what he'd expected. It was nearly full, and Tony found himself in the odd situation of being glad he hadn't been able to find someone to go with him, because now he didn't have to worry about finding two seats together.
After noting a few seats open in the back and along the walls - good enough if he got desperate, but no place to really experience the movie from if he had a choice - he spotted a few seats open almost in the center of the theater, and headed that way, hardly able to believe his luck. Seconds later, he had the chance to note that his typical "luck" was holding, because when he got closer he could see a preteen girl slouched down in the middle of the group of seats. He cursed under his breath, and scanned the rest of the theater, before returning to the girl and the empty seats around her, noting a couple of guys his age that had stayed well clear of her.
Tony debated a few moments longer, keeping an eye on the aisle behind him in case someone showed up to take the decision away from him, until he noticed that the girl had two sodas and two bags of popcorn, each bigger than her head. Deciding that, worst-case scenario, he'd end up being very careful to keep his body contained within the borders of his seat while putting up with a couple of chattery girls for two hours, he started to move into the row, and tried to catch the girl's attention for the universal is anyone sitting there gesture. Thankfully, by the time he'd nearly stepped on 4 people, she looked up, and shrugged, which he took for a yes and sat down in the open seat on her far side, closer to the center of the theater.
He got his own things settled, and finally had a chance to check his watch. Now that he'd found a seat, he was even able to be grateful that they hadn't had a case to keep him at work, instead of being angry at how long it'd taken him to get out of the building.
As he turned his phone to vibrate with a brief prayer that it would be a quiet evening, the lights in the theater dimmed for the previews, and Tony slouched down in his seat to get comfortable. Within seconds, he caught up in the trailer onscreen and Will Ferrell's buffonery, and he didn't notice the man making his way through the row. Didn't notice, that is, until Fornell was standing over him, scowling as usual, and even then, he only noticed because someone behind him yelled out "Down in front!"
Tony jumped, and would've sent popcorn flying if he hadn't already made a good dent in the bag, but he recovered nicely, if he did say so himself, and acknowledged Fornell with a casual nod as he dropped into the seat on the girl's other side.
"Why am I not surprised to find you watching cartoons in your spare time," Fornell grumbled, and Tony was on the verge of retorting back, when the girl, who Tony'd totally forgotten to worry about, hissed, "Daddy! Be quiet!" Tony belatedly put two and two together and got the girl who might've, under other circumstances, been Gibbs's daughter. He snuck a glance over at her - Emily - and caught a few seconds of an enraged adolescent glare that looked right at home on the face of the daughter of Tobias Fornell and Mystery Redhead.
Tony turned back face the screen, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, and started praying that Gibbs would call him back to the office to correct a typo in one of his reports. Not even Pixar was worth this.
Title: Creating a Monster
Season/Episode: Season One: Marine Down
Character(s): Tony DiNozzo, Caitlin Todd
Eventually, the flight settled from a lurching, nauseating, constant promise of death to a jolting, buzzing, rattling annoyance, but Kate realized that no amount of deep breathing was going to put her to sleep. She'd given up hoping that Tony was as uncomfortable as she was, but at least he hadn't fallen asleep, like Gibbs had, just to spite her.
Thankfully, Tony'd stopped eating, but now he was slowly working his way through a magazine - slowly enough that he had to be reading rather than just looking at the pictures, and her stomach gave one more lurch at the thought of trying to focus on words while bumping around. A few cautious glances to her side revealed that he was looking at a glossy magazine with photos of cathedrals and rain forests, and urban areas with tropical landscaping. From the headline on one of the articles, it appeared to be written in Spanish, so it wasn't much of a leap to assume he was reading something about their destination. He wasn't bouncing in his seat the way he had been in anticipation of Puerto Rico and Cuba - well, they were both bouncing in their seats, but not from excitement - but he was still way too upbeat for her peace of mind.
"You do realize that this isn't going to be a vacation, right, Tony? Just like Puerto Rico wasn't a vacation. Just like Cuba wasn't a vacation."
He turned the page again and then finally looked up from the magazine to acknowledge that she'd spoken, and smirked. "Just because there's no joy in your life doesn't mean the rest of us have to be bored too. Besides, maybe I just like learning about new places," he said, gesturing to the magazine.
Kate snorted. "You don't jump around like a 5-year-old because you 'like learning about new places.' What is it with you and trips? You act like you grew up locked in a tower."
Tony's gaze darted away, almost too quickly to notice, and when he replied, it was with the practiced smile that she'd grown to distrust shortly after meeting him. "Oh, we traveled, but my mother preferred the destinations that came with 5-star hotels and pricey fashion designers. Those are a little thin on the ground, South of the States." He closed the magazine, and turned a bit to face her. "What about you? You must've travelled all the time. You don't like it?"
If anything, she'd had even less time to be a tourist with the Secret Service than they had with NCIS. "We weren't exactly sightseeing, Tony. We were scouting locations for security risks." She paused to think. "There's places I'd like to go back to, though," she allowed "Beijing, Madrid, Prague..."
Tony grinned. "Oh, I've been to Prague," he said, with the quirk to his expression that he usually reserved for tacky innuendo, but this time, Kate had no idea what he was trying to imply. "I mean, I haven't been to Prague, but I've... it's from a movie. Kicking and Screaming. Noah Baumbach? Parker Posey? That skinny blonde chick who looks like that skinny blonde chick who was on Survivor?" Kate still had no idea what he was going on about, and as her forehead wrinkled in confusion, Tony huffed out a frustrated breath. "Eric Stoltz?" he tried, then sighed, condescendingly, and shifted as much into his "storytelling" pose as his perch would let him. "It's a great movie. changed my life. Like a..." he trailed off, snapping his fingers while he thought. "Like a coming-of-age movie, but for adults. Y'see, it's about this group of friends, and they're all done with college, but they don't really want to move on, or know how to, an...
"You haven't seen Shane," Kate interrupted, grumbling mostly to herself, "and you live your life with lessons from a Gen-X slacker comedy. Why am I not surprised?"
Of course, Tony objected, because he had an answer for everything. "Hey! Kicking and Screaming came out at a very important juncture in my life. It's about figuring out who you want to be when you grow up." He nodded for emphasis, and then tapped a finger against his temple. "Stuff to think about."
"Word to the wise, Tony: if you want people to pay attention to your stories, you need to branch out a bit. When you start talking about movies worth talking about, you can make as many movie references as you want."
Round 3: A Day at the Movies
Characters: DiNozzo and mystery secondary character
Tony wove through the crowd, popcorn, soda and Twizzlers balanced in his hands. He had his ticket to Up trapped between two fingers, ready to hand off to the kid manning the velvet rope. When he made it to what passed for the line to get in, he barely resisted the urge to check his watch, which would've sent at least one thing flying, and settled for bouncing impatiently as the line crept forward.
The moment he cleared the ticket-taker, biting down on the urge to make a snide remark in response to his muttered, "Enjoy your show," Tony broke into a barely-contained power-walk, not wasting any seconds in the name of "cool" in his rush to get to the theater to find a seat. He pushed through the door to the theater to find about what he'd expected. It was nearly full, and Tony found himself in the odd situation of being glad he hadn't been able to find someone to go with him, because now he didn't have to worry about finding two seats together.
After noting a few seats open in the back and along the walls - good enough if he got desperate, but no place to really experience the movie from if he had a choice - he spotted a few seats open almost in the center of the theater, and headed that way, hardly able to believe his luck. Seconds later, he had the chance to note that his typical "luck" was holding, because when he got closer he could see a preteen girl slouched down in the middle of the group of seats. He cursed under his breath, and scanned the rest of the theater, before returning to the girl and the empty seats around her, noting a couple of guys his age that had stayed well clear of her.
Tony debated a few moments longer, keeping an eye on the aisle behind him in case someone showed up to take the decision away from him, until he noticed that the girl had two sodas and two bags of popcorn, each bigger than her head. Deciding that, worst-case scenario, he'd end up being very careful to keep his body contained within the borders of his seat while putting up with a couple of chattery girls for two hours, he started to move into the row, and tried to catch the girl's attention for the universal is anyone sitting there gesture. Thankfully, by the time he'd nearly stepped on 4 people, she looked up, and shrugged, which he took for a yes and sat down in the open seat on her far side, closer to the center of the theater.
He got his own things settled, and finally had a chance to check his watch. Now that he'd found a seat, he was even able to be grateful that they hadn't had a case to keep him at work, instead of being angry at how long it'd taken him to get out of the building.
As he turned his phone to vibrate with a brief prayer that it would be a quiet evening, the lights in the theater dimmed for the previews, and Tony slouched down in his seat to get comfortable. Within seconds, he caught up in the trailer onscreen and Will Ferrell's buffonery, and he didn't notice the man making his way through the row. Didn't notice, that is, until Fornell was standing over him, scowling as usual, and even then, he only noticed because someone behind him yelled out "Down in front!"
Tony jumped, and would've sent popcorn flying if he hadn't already made a good dent in the bag, but he recovered nicely, if he did say so himself, and acknowledged Fornell with a casual nod as he dropped into the seat on the girl's other side.
"Why am I not surprised to find you watching cartoons in your spare time," Fornell grumbled, and Tony was on the verge of retorting back, when the girl, who Tony'd totally forgotten to worry about, hissed, "Daddy! Be quiet!" Tony belatedly put two and two together and got the girl who might've, under other circumstances, been Gibbs's daughter. He snuck a glance over at her - Emily - and caught a few seconds of an enraged adolescent glare that looked right at home on the face of the daughter of Tobias Fornell and Mystery Redhead.
Tony turned back face the screen, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, and started praying that Gibbs would call him back to the office to correct a typo in one of his reports. Not even Pixar was worth this.
