More Than a Heap of Stones

Chapter 11 – December

Tim settled into his favorite chair as he raised the footrest and let out a contented sigh, enjoying the warmth of the fire he had built in the living room fireplace. It was nice to not have any chores for once and he could enjoy a real day off, something he hadn't had in a long time. His plans for the day included catching up on his reading and finishing off the last of the leftovers Ducky had sent home with him after Thanksgiving dinner with the team. Other than that, he hoped to just relax and enjoy the peace and quiet he had experienced at home for the past few weeks.

Rufus's suggestion had apparently worked. The strange incidents that he had lived with and generally tried to ignore since he had moved into the house had lessened considerably. There might be the occasional dog toy found someone other than its normal place, or other non-important objects moved from one place to another, but the more annoying pranks had not made a re-appearance since his 'talk' with the other residents of the house.

Tim had wondered several times if the surprisingly easy resolution of the problem was merely an indication that it had all been in his head to begin with, but every time he entertained that train of thought something occurred to remind him that he wasn't completely alone in the house. Finally he had just decided to accept it since apparently there wasn't much he could do about it beyond what he had already attempted.

He had almost finished the chapter he was reading when he heard the doorbell ring, followed by a flurry of knocks at the front door. Maddie raised her head and gave a short bark, then started to wiggle her butt as a voice reached Tim's ears.

"Open up, McGee!"

He rose from the chair and went to open the front door where he was greeted by the sight of Abby, dressed in work boots, overalls, and a plaid barn coat, standing on his front porch with a large box in her arms.

"Abby, what are you doing here?" he asked as he took the box from her and opened the door wider to allow her to enter the hallway. "And what is this?"

"Christmas decorations," she replied with a grin and Tim bit back a groan.

"Abby, I'm really not into the whole decorating thing."

"Yeah, I know, which is why I'm going to help. I have a bunch more stuff in the car."

"How much stuff? And what exactly did you bring?"

"Greenery, mostly. Wreathes, garland, swags, stuff like that."

"Won't that be a fire hazard?"

She punched him lightly on the arm. "No, it will go outside. I have the artificial stuff to decorate in here, but don't worry. It looks really real, so it will look more like historical decorations and will fit in with the house better."

"I'll take your word for it. What do you need me to do?"

"Well, I think we should do the outside decorations first, and then we can set up the tree inside."

"You know I'm allergic to pine, Abbs…"

"Yes, I know Tim. Don't worry, I got you an artificial one. My church was given a new tree so I claimed the old one for you." She reached out and put both hands on his shoulders. "McGee, you have a house now, a real home, and a real home needs to be decorated for the holidays. I'll even help you clean up after they're over. Deal?"

"OK, deal. But nothing too gaudy, alright?"

"You wound me, Timmy. I'd never do that to this old place. It would upset the natural balance."

"Whatever you say, Abby."

She gave him a brief hug before taking the box from him and carrying it into the living room.

"Where do you want to put the tree?"

Tim thought about that for a few moments before replying. "In here, I guess. That's the traditional place, right? I just want it as far away from the fireplace as possible."

"We can put it next to the door, then." She turned to study the dark stained-wood secretary desk that occupied that space. "Do you have someplace else for this?"

"I'll have to do some re-arranging, but yeah, I can find a place for it."

"OK, that's settled. Now go get ready so we can work on the outside. You have a ladder, right?"

"It's in the barn, handing on hooks on the south wall."

"Got it. Now go, get dressed."

Tim sighed. "OK." He went upstairs to put on a sweatshirt of over the long-sleeved t-shirt he was already wearing, and replaced his slippers with thick socks and his own pair of work-boots. When he returned to the living room, Abby was rubbing Maddie's belly, and the dog looked so content he hated to interrupt them.

"Ready to go." He held up Maddie's leash and she immediately jumped to her feet and ran over to sit in front of him, an expectant look on her face.

"She can stay with us, right?"

"She'll probably be better off in the kennel…at least for now. I'll meet you at the barn."

Once he had his dog secure in her kennel he went down to the barn to help Abby carry the extension ladder back up to the house, where she set it up between the first two upstairs windows on the left side of the house. He was surprised to see Gibbs' truck in the driveway instead of her hotrod.

"Gibbs let you drive down here by yourself in his truck?"

"Yep. He was busy making toys for the children's hospital, otherwise he would have come, too." Tim tried to imagine Gibbs decorating and couldn't quite picture it. He decided Gibbs had given Abby the best excuse he could to avoid the chore.

She went to the truck and retrieved another box from the front seat. The box contained several small pine wreaths, a big roll of two-inch-wide red ribbon with gold edging, scissors, and a small roll of wire. Abby cut a yard-long length of the ribbon from the roll and a couple short pieces of the wire, then took the piece of ribbon and threaded one end through the center of the wreath to form a long loop. She wired the ends of the loop together and climbed up the ladder to affix the end of the loop to the top of the first window so the wreath was hanging near the center of the window with the red ribbon holding it in place.

"What do you think?" she called down from her perch near the top of the ladder.

"Looks good. Are you going to do that for all of the windows?"

"Just the ones in the front and the sides."

"OK."

Abby climbed down the ladder and Tim helped her prepare the rest of the wreaths for the windows. When they were in all place she retrieved several pine branch swags, enough for each window. The swags were decorated with wheat sprays, apples, nuts, and strange-looking multi-holed pods. After they had attached the swags to the windowsills, Abby brought out a bag of pine roping from the bed of the truck and they wrapped it around the two columns and draped it across the top of the front porch. Finally, she brought out a larger wreath, adorned with apples, oranges, magnolia leaves, and cinnamon sticks. She used another length of ribbon and wire to hang it on the front door before turning to Tim.

"Well?"

"I like it. It looks like the decorations they have in colonial Williamsburg."

Abby grinned. "That's where I got the idea. I looked at pictures on their website and found something I thought you'd like."

He kissed her cheek. "Thanks, Abbs. You really didn't have to go to all this trouble, though."

"I didn't mind. This is fun. I'm not allowed to use real greenery at my apartment, so…"

Tim chuckled. "Understood. Now what?"

"Let's take the tree inside."

They pulled the long box from the bed of the truck and carried in to the living room. After re-arranging the furniture to make space for the new addition and retrieving a step ladder from the garage, Abby started pulling the pieces of the artificial tree out of the box and laid them out for easy assembly. Once she had found the base pieces, she put them together and they started to assemble the tree. Tim was pleased to find that the white lights were already part of the tree – he remembered how much of a pain it was to string lights- and was surprised at how big the tree actually was. It reached almost to the top of the room's 9-foot ceiling and took up most of the space they had cleared for it.

"Do you have enough ornaments to cover this?"

"I should. If we run low we can always go get some…but it might be hard to find any that go with the rest." Before he could ask what she meant by that she headed back out to the truck and soon returned with yet another box.

"Where did you get all of this stuff?"

"I've been collecting it for you, ever since you told us about the house. I bought a few things at a time, here and there. I figured that wouldn't be as bad as having to buy everything at once, plus I found some real treasures." She opened the box and pulled out a long string of small red wooden beads, studied them for a moment, and grinned. "You know, if you have popcorn, I've got needles and thread, and we can make another garland to go with this one."

Tim shook his head. "I don't think edible decorations are a good idea with a dog in the house."

Abby giggled. "True."

"Also probably not a good idea to put any ornaments that resemble any of her toys within reach."

That earned him a mock salute. "Aye, aye, captain!" Abby replied with a smirk and Tim just rolled his eyes. They started decorating the tree, first with the garland and then with the collection of ornaments Abby had brought. One box contained a number of gilded pine cones, decorated with red or green gingham bows. He raised an eyebrow when he saw them and Abby noticed his confusion.

"Youth group from my church made those."

"Ah. Interesting."

They distributed the cones over the tree and Tim grabbed the next box. The ornaments within were wooden, obviously hand-carved, but did not look very old.

"Gibbs sent those."

Tim blushed, touched by the gesture. "I'll have to remember to thank him tomorrow."

Each new box revealed a slightly different style of ornament, but all appeared to be of the old-fashioned, hand made type. Tim wondered how Abby had managed to find such a variety. When he asked, she just smirked and said, "You'd be amazed what you can find if you're willing to shop outside of the internet."

"I'll keep that in mind…"

It took nearly two hours but finally they had the tree decorated to Abby's satisfaction. They stood back to admire the sight and Tim had to admit that the tree, adorned with wooden, tatted, and decorated pine cone ornaments, looked really nice and did fit in well with the age of the house.

"Thanks again, Abbs. I really appreciate all this."

"Oh, I'm not done yet. There's still a lot left to decorate." She disappeared out the front door and soon returned with yet another box. Tim wondered how she had managed to load all of it by herself as she opened the box and started to pull out several battery powered candles.

"What are those for?"

"They'll go in the windows. They have built in light sensors and timers, so when it gets dark they turn on and stay on for eight hours. You never have to worry about turning them on or off, and the batteries will last all season."

"Convenient. What about he rest of the stuff?"

"I have artificial greenery and pillar candles, also battery powered, for the mantles, plus more roping for the stair railing and doorways."

"Don't you think it's a bit much?"

"Nope. Trust me, it will look just right. Or are you doubting my skills, Timmy?"

"Not doubting, but…Abby, this must have cost a fortune. You really shouldn't have gone to all this trouble."

"I told you, no trouble. Besides, I haven't been able to help decorate a whole house since…for a long time."

Tim winced, realizing that Abby was trying to reclaim at least one good memory from her childhood. "Sorry."

"It's OK. Now let's get to work."

Several hours later the house had been transformed, and Tim was finally starting to get into the holiday spirit. He even started thinking about inviting the team down so they could appreciate Abby's handiwork.

The last room they worked on was the upstairs guest room. Abby had been a bit apprehensive about going in there, but once she stepped inside and realized that it was no longer 'creepy', she happily went about her task…but not before questioning Tim about it.

"It feels different in here, you know. What did you do?"

"Well, it was actually really simple. I just asked the other residents to behave themselves." He allowed the corner of his mouth to turn up slightly after he made that statement and Abby gave him a light smack on the arm.

"Very funny, Timmy."

"I told you Abbs, nothing to worry about. Everything is fine."

"Promise?"

He gave her a hug. "I promise."

After they finished Tim went to retrieve Maddie, who eyed the tree with suspicion and barked at it a few times before finally settling down next to Tim's favorite chair. He turned off the lights in the room and he and Abby sat in silence for awhile, enjoying the soft glow from the tree's lights. Finally hunger broke their reverie and they decided to head to the closest large town for dinner.

During the meal Tim mentioned that it would be nice if everyone could see the great job Abby had done, and soon they were planning a holiday potluck. Tim was surprised that he wasn't quite as nervous anymore about guests, and surmised that he was just getting used to having a place where friends could gather. It was a good feeling, he decided, and silently thanked his great-aunt for giving him that option.

XXX

Tim mentioned the party idea to his team the next day, and Palmer suggested having a cookie-baking party, too, with each person bringing their favorite holiday cookie recipe to make. Tim was surprised that everyone, including Gibbs, agreed, and the Saturday before Christmas was set for the event, since they were surprisingly not on call that weekend.

Tim had decided on some simple recipes for the main dishes he prepared, which included two types of barbecue cooked in crockpots: chicken and pulled pork. He had bought some good small sandwich buns from his favorite bakery in D.C. and made some traditional coleslaw to top the sandwiches, so the meal would be ready to assemble when they were done baking for the day. He bought beer and soda, which he put in the cooler on the back porch, red and white wine to have with dinner, and he also purchased eggnog and the ingredients for the homemade hot chocolate recipe his mother had given him, along with whipped cream for the hot chocolate and bourbon for the eggnog.

By noon all of his guests had arrived and after Abby had given them a tour so they could see the decorations they were soon busy working on their cookies. Since Abby had brought traditional sugar cookie dough, cookie cutters, and colored sugar, they all decided that would be a group effort. In the mean time, she helped Jimmy roll out his batch of gingerbread dough, which they then cut into gingerbread men and women, and decorated with icing after they were baked and cooled.

Tony made cranberry pistachio biscotti, and after it was sliced and in the oven for the second round of baking, he wandered over to Jimmy and Abby's station to see what they were snickering about. He looked at the first batch of decorated men and first a puzzled, then an amused look crossed his face.

"Some fancy dudes ya have there, Abbs. I thought bowties were traditional. These guys are wearing suits." That produced a fit of giggles from Abby and Ducky abandoned his final batch of shortbread for a moment to see what was so funny. He stared at the cookies, which each bore two diagonal lines reaching from the shoulders to the center of the chest, and a third line extending down from where the other two lines met. A deep chuckle erupted from his throat as he realized what he was seeing.

"I'm afraid those are not suit lines, Anthony." Tony took a closer look and groaned.

"That's sick, guys, really. Who wants to eat an autopsied gingerbread man?"

With an evil grin, Abby picked one up and took a bite. Tony groaned again and retreated to the other side of the kitchen where Ziva was finishing her batch of rugelach and Tim was planting an upside-down Hershey's kiss in the center of each of the peanut butter cookies he had made.

"Need any help?"

Tim shook his head. "I'm good. Why don't you go help Breena?"

"OK."

Tony moved to Breena's section of the counter where she was pressing out spritz cookie dough into Christmas tree shapes. She pointed to a plastic canister of red and green nonpareils. "Give each cookie a sprinkle of those, and they'll be ready to go in the oven when the whole sheet is covered."

"Got it." Tony decorated the traditional butter cookies with the small sugar decorations until the timer buzzed indicating his biscotti were done. He took the pan out of the oven and moved the cookies onto a rack to cook before pouring some white melting chocolate into a glass bowl. He then microwaved and stirred the contents until it was smooth and ready for dipping.

Tim finished transferring his cookies to a rack to cool and walked over to Tony. "Need any help?"

"Yeah, you can decorate. Breena, are you done with those?" He pointed to the can of nonpareils.

"Help yourself."

Tony gave the can to Tim and after he had dipped the bottom and half of the top and sides of each cookie he put them on a tray lines with wax paper. Tim immediately understood what he wanted and sprinkled the decorations over the cooling chocolate. After they had finished, Tim went to check on Gibbs' progress with his Cowboy Cookies – oatmeal with dried cranberries instead of raisins, nuts, and white chocolate chips. The lead agent was transferring his last batch from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack, a rather wistful look on his face.

"Everything OK, Boss?"

"Yeah, I'm good." He chuckled. "It's been awhile since I've done this. Forgot it could be fun. Thanks."

"No problem. Thank you for joining us." Gibbs nodded and carried his cookie sheet to the sink to wash.

After the rest of the cookies were done and the cookie sheets were clean they started on the sugar cookies. Jimmy rolled the dough to an impressive paper-thinness, then Abby and Breena used the assortment of cutters to cut the dough into seasonal shapes. After the cookies were transferred to a cookie sheet, Tim carried them to the table where the rest of the team used the rainbow of colored sugars to decorate them. Tony and Ziva argued about how much sugar was necessary until Gibbs gave them both a head-slap and Abby abandoned her post to give them a quick demo.

"If you put too much on, it just becomes caramel and looks awful. Not enough and it's boring. It should just cover the dough in a single layer. OK?"

"Thanks, Abbs," Gibbs replied and treated the two members of his team to one of his classic glares, which caused them both to grin sheepishly and return to their task. When they had the first two sheets done, Tim carried them to the oven and waited, since Abby had informed him that he had to keep a close eye on the cookies so they wouldn't burn. Ducky took over the task of transporting cookies while Tim watched, and when they reached the described exact shade of light tan, he took the trays out and transferred the cookies to a cooling rack.

"That's perfect, Timmy."

"Thanks, Abbs."

Several hours later they had used up the last of the dough and the final batch of cookies was in the oven. The team cleaned up while Tim took care of getting the last two sheets out of the oven and then started to prepare the dishes they had brought for dinner. Tim shredded the chicken in its barbecue sauce, then pulled the pork roast out, drained it, shredded it, and added a different sauce before turning the crock pot up to high to heat it through while he went to set the dining room table.

Gibbs built a fire in the cooking hearth for the steaks he had brought, and Abby decided to use the hearth as well to re-heat her cast-iron pot of gumbo. Tony opted to use the oven to heat up his cheese manicotti with marinara sauce and Jimmy added his macaroni and cheese casserole to the second oven shelf before Tony closed the door. Ducky used the stove to get his non-alcoholic wassail heating and Abby set pot of rice on the stove to cook as well.

Breena cut the top off of the round loaf of pumpernickel bread she had brought and then pulled out the center of the bread to make a bowl for her spinach dip. The lid and interior of the bread bowl were torn into pieces to use as dippers, and she also arranged an assortment of raw vegetables around the plate as additional dippers. Ziva gave the tabboulah and marinated vegetables she had brought each a quick stir before going into the dining room and helping Tim finish setting the table.

Finally everything was done and they all filled their plates with food and mugs with wassail before gathering around the large table. When they were all seated, ducky tapped his wine glass and they all turned their attention to him. He raised his glass. "May I present at traditional Scottish toast:

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your window pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you."

"Hear, hear!" called Tony and the rest raised their glasses in agreement. Soon the clink of silverware against plates filled the silence as they all began to enjoy their meal.

"This barbecue pork is good, Tim," Abby commented after she had taken the first bite of her sandwich.

"Yeah, it is. What did you put in it?"

Tim smirked. "Don't think you'd believe me if I told you, Tony."

"Aw, come on, just tell me."

"Root beer."

Tony stopped mid-chew and stared at him incredulously before finishing his mouthful. "You're kidding."

"Nope. Found the recipe and tried it once before." Tim grinned. "Surprised me, too."

"Huh." Tony took another bite and paused as if he was trying to detect the flavor. "It's good, though."

"Thanks."

The conversation throughout dinner was light, mostly centered on complimenting each other on their contributions to the spread. When everyone's plates were empty, Ducky brought out the cranachan he had made and they all enjoyed the traditional Scottish dessert. Tim whipped up a batch of the hot chocolate and offered it to everyone along with the eggnog.

After clearing the table and storing the leftovers, they all retired to the living room where Tim had logs ready for a fire in the fireplace. They enjoyed their eggnog and hot chocolate in relative silence gazing at the tree and listing to the crackle of the logs in the fireplace.

Tim had almost dozed off when Gibbs cleared his throat.

"Yeah, Boss?"

"Thank you." Tim raised an eyebrow and Gibbs chuckled. "Thank you for letting us share your home today."

The rest of the group murmured in agreement and Tim smiled, warmed by more than just the fire.

"My pleasure."

XXX

Monday morning Tim awoke with a start, surprised that his alarm hadn't already pulled him from his slumber. He rolled over and checked the clock and grumbled when he saw the numbers blinking again. The weather forecast had called for a storm the night before, with high winds and snow accumulations ranging from three to four inches, something Tim wasn't looking forward to driving in. He rolled out of bed and went to the window where he stared in shock. The snow was still coming down heavily, and it looked like the accumulation estimates were quite wrong, based on how much was covered outside. He grabbed his phone from the nightstand and hit the first number on speed dial.

"Yeah, Gibbs." He sounded as if he had just woken up, too.

"Boss, it's McGee. I'm going to be a bit late to work-"

"You and everyone else, Tim. City's at a stand still, only essential employees reporting. If we get a call-out, I'll call you. Otherwise, get here when you can. And McGee?"

"Yes, Boss?"

"Be careful."

"I will."

Tim got dressed and went downstairs to take care of Maddie and to get a better idea of the snow depth. When he opened the door he saw that the walkway between the house and garage was covered with snow that had blown across it, and the drifts at the side of the house were almost up to the windows."

"Three to four inches, my ass," he muttered. Maddie took one look at the snow and turned to run back inside but he gave a sharp tug on her leash and she stopped, giving him a decidedly disgusted look. She stepped off the walkway and sunk up to her chest in snow which caused her to yip in surprise. Tim bit back a laugh and waded out after her. It wasn't long before she was ready to head back inside.

Tim returned her to her crate, brushing off as much snow as he could before letting her inside, and went back out to the garage to retrieve the snow shovel he had bought the day before, just in case. He cleared the walkway—only to have it covered up again a short time later—and muttered a few choice phrases as he cleared a space around the garage door and driveway big enough for him to turn his car around. By the time he was done the snow had covered the cleared space again, and Tim was really wishing he had bought that snowblower that had caught his eye at the hardware store.

The rumble of a large engine caught his attention and he turned to see headlights piercing the gloom created by the early morning darkness and blowing snow. Soon the vehicle was close enough that Tim could see it was a Bobcat with a plow blade in front and Rufus at the controls. The mound of snow in front of the blade was pushed to the edge of the driveway and the vehicle stopped before Rufus climbed out of the cab and walked over to Tim.

"How ye likin' this weather?" the old man asked with a wicked grin on his face.

"I'm not."

"Yeah, well, this ain't normal fer down here. It'll pass. I'll get yer drive cleared fer ye, but the roads are bad still. Ye might want ta wait awhile 'til the county gits theys act t'gether."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for dealing with the driveway for me. I wasn't looking forward to that."

"I guess not. Ye have a plow fer yer tractor that will work next time. Shoulda got it hooked up for ye before, but this weather were a surprise."

"Looks like it."

"Best git inside. Ye look 'bout half froze."

"OK. Thanks again."

"No problem." Rufus climbed back into the cab of the Bobcat and started to clear the now that had fallen since Tim had cleared the area. Tim watched for a moment but decided it was too cold to stand and gawk so he went back inside to get ready for work.

Tim spent more time in the shower than intended, trying to get warm again, and it was already well past his normal departure time when he finally pulled his car out of the garage. The drive to Mikela's wasn't too bad, and after dropping Maddie off he started towards D.C.

Three hours later he stumbled into the bullpen, only to find most of the regulars missing. Gibbs was there, sipping his coffee, and he looked up at Tim in surprise.

"Bad drive in?"

Tim collapsed into his chair. "Boss, you have no idea…"

XXX

While the team had been on-call for Christmas, they didn't get a case, so Tim had been able to enjoy at least a few hours of the holiday with Sarah and Penny. The next day they had gotten a call, and the case kept the team occupied until New Year's Eve.

Uninterested in joining the drunken revelers at any of the local clubs Tim, after wishing his teammates a happy New Year, headed home. He kept a wary eye out for impaired drivers and made it to the house unscathed. After tending to his faithful companion, he heated up his dinner and ate at the kitchen counter before retiring to the living room with a glass of wine in his hand and Maddie at his heels. He touched a match to the kindling already stacked in the fireplace and soon the room was aglow with warm light from the hearth. He eased into his chair and raised the footrest, happy to be able to finally relax after a long and tiring week.

As he watched the flames dance, he heard the tinkle of one of the ornaments dropping from the tree, helped along, no doubt, by some unseen hand.

"Stop that," he muttered, and the sound of the ornament rolling along the floor ceased.

Tim smiled and shook his head. A year ago, being where he currently was hadn't even crossed his mind. And now, after living here, with all its ups and downs, he wondered what would his life had been like if Cassandra hadn't given him this house…his home. A home he had shared with his team, which now seemed even more like a family. His life, while certainly never experiencing a dull moment, had changed so much for the better because of it.

As the clock ticked toward midnight, he wondered what the next year would bring. One thing was certain: it would all be worth it. The truth in the old idiom he had heard so many times was finally understood.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

THE END

Once again, special thanks to thecookiemomma for her help with this story. Also thanks to the readers and reviewers for your kind comments.