A/N: I just finished a WIP and before I got back to other WIPs, I wanted to write something simple. This is a pre-series oneshot looking obliquely at why Tim chose NCIS. It's not a direct correlation, just a little conversation.

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS and I am making no money off this story. More's the pity. I could use it.

Burger and Fries
by Enthusiastic Fish

Tim slammed the door as he left the house. He slammed it as hard as he could and began to run. Another evening, another fight with his father. He wasn't sure when it had started being normal, but it was depressingly normal now. Before his dad had become an admiral, they had talked all the time. Tim hated his father's promotion. He wished things were like they had been in the past.

But they weren't.

He ran to the docks and stalked to the end of one pier. He glared out at the water, hating everything about it. He hated the Navy. They'd moved so many times. He had no real friends, and now, even his plans for his life were being pushed aside because his dad didn't like them.

He saw a bolt lying on the dock. He picked it up and threw it as hard as he could out into the ocean.

"You know, the Navy could charge you for that, Tim."

Tim grimaced and didn't turn around.

"Who sent you after me this time, Agent Fuller? Dad because I'm a disappointment or Mom because she's worried I'll fall into the ocean and drown?" he asked, feeling bitter.

"Neither. I saw you running. Figured you'd had another fight."

"So? What business is it of yours?" Tim asked.

"Come on, Tim. Just because you're mad at your dad, don't turn it onto everyone else."

Tim swallowed and turned around. The older NIS agent had a tolerant expression on his face as he stood there. He'd met Agent Fuller when they first moved to the base, and he had been nice enough to Tim, although Tim hadn't sought him out ever. His mom had asked Agent Fuller to keep an eye on Tim when he wandered around the base, as if he was a child instead of sixteen years old.

"Why are you here?" Tim asked. "If Mom and Dad didn't send you after me, why?"

Agent Fuller raised an eyebrow.

"You have anything else you want to be doing? Or is being mad taking up all your time?"

Tim sighed, suddenly no longer angry. He didn't know why he could be furious one moment and then depressed the next.

"Come on. You don't like the ocean anyway. You don't need to be standing here, getting mad."

"I don't want to go home yet," Tim mumbled.

"That's not what I meant. Did you eat dinner before you ran out?"

"No," Tim said and his stomach growled a little.

Agent Fuller smiled.

"Then, let's fix that."

He gestured for Tim to follow him.

"Okay."

Tim walked with Agent Fuller to a burger place close by the base. Agent Fuller ordered them both a burger and fries and then, they sat down at a table.

"So...what was it about today?" Agent Fuller asked.

"Dad keeps trying to make me into him! I don't want to be in the Navy! ...but he just won't listen! I wish he'd never been promoted to admiral. He was more like a human being when he had a lower rank." Tim stared at his plate, waiting for Agent Fuller to lecture him for how he felt.

"Yeah, those higher-ranked Navy officers...they lose sight of the things around them sometimes. Doesn't mean they don't care. They just forget how pay attention."

"Well, I don't want to be in the Navy and Dad isn't going to make me!"

"What brought this on, Tim?" Agent Fuller asked.

Tim sighed again. "I got accepted to MIT. I didn't tell Dad I was applying."

"Tim...are you old enough to go to college?"

Tim smiled. No one ever thought he could be going to college yet.

"I'm smart enough to," he said. "I even qualified for a scholarship! But all Dad sees is that I'm not going to be in the Navy and that means I'm a failure! I'm not a failure! I'm smart! I got into MIT! Not everyone can do that! Why isn't that good enough?"

Tim sighed again and took a big bite out of his hamburger. Then, he leaned on his hand and started making designs in the ketchup with a french fry.

"Tim, it is good enough."

"Not to Dad, it isn't. I just...thought he'd be proud of me. I know he wants me to be in the Navy, but I thought that he'd be happy that I got in, that it's what I want. But it's always the same thing. Always. If I'm not doing exactly what he wants me to do, I'm not good enough. I don't want to go back home and have Dad keep telling me I'm wrong until I do what he says. I want to go to MIT! I don't want to be in the stupid Navy."

"The Navy isn't stupid, Tim," Agent Fuller said.

"Yeah, it is. It hasn't made Dad any better. The higher his rank, the worse he is."

There was a bit of silence and Tim looked up at Agent Fuller who had a speculative expression on his face.

"Tim...I'm going to tell you something and I want you to listen to me carefully."

"Okay."

"No. I mean really listen. I wouldn't normally say this to someone your age because most kids would take it wrong. I think you might be smart enough to get it. So I'm going to tell you and then I'm going to have you tell me what I mean. Got it?"

"Sure, okay," Tim said, feeling a little confused.

"Good. Now, what I want to say is that you can't let your dad keep you from doing what you really want. Notice that I'm saying what you really want, not whatever you want. If what you really want from your life is to go to MIT and be a computer guy or whatever, then, that's what you should do. If you're not sure, then, what you're getting from your dad is another perspective. Going into the Navy is a good career if that's what you want, and I won't have you putting down the entire U.S. Navy because you're mad at your dad."

Tim flushed and looked down.

"But I think your dad is wrong to push you to do something you really don't want to do. He's not doing the Navy any great service by trying to give them a bitter sailor. So don't let him force you to do something you don't want to do, and again, I mean really don't want to do. I don't want you going home and telling your parents that Agent Fuller said you didn't have to listen to them."

Tim laughed a little.

"Now, what did I just say to you?" Agent Fuller asked.

Tim thought about it, wanting to make sure he got it right.

"That it's okay to want to be at MIT and it should be my choice if it's what I want?"

"And?"

"And...I shouldn't let my dad make me be in the Navy if I don't want to be in it...but what if he says that I really can't go to MIT? Could I just leave anyway?"

"You could, but you don't want to do that."

"Yeah, I do!"

Agent Fuller laughed.

"No, what you want is to go to MIT. That's fine. That's great, in fact. But you don't want to create that kind of family conflict."

"It's not my fault!" Tim protested. "Dad's the one making it wrong!"

"What about your mom, Tim?"

Tim shrugged.

"I don't know. Mom doesn't seem to care if I go to the Navy or MIT. She hasn't said anything about it."

"Why don't you ask her, then? She might be able to talk to your dad and get him to listen."

"I'm not supposed to do that," Tim said.

"You're not supposed to ask permission to do something after one parent has said no," Agent Fuller said. "But your mom knows about this?"

"Yeah."

"Then, you're not going behind your dad's back. You're seeing what she thinks."

"But what if both of them say I shouldn't go to MIT? I'm only sixteen! I don't have a car since...since the one I got was... Dad said that I wasn't getting a new car when I wrecked the old one. And I don't want to be in the Navy. I...I get seasick!"

Agent Fuller raised an eyebrow.

"Really! I do. Dad thinks I'm just pretending, but I'm not! Boats make me sick!"

"Okay, Tim. Be honest with me. Do you really want to go to MIT or is it just a way to get away from the Navy?"

For some reason, Tim didn't feel like he could lie to Agent Fuller.

"Some of it is...I'm tired of the base, the boats, and Dad." He swallowed. "But I really do want to go to MIT! I'm good at this stuff and why can't I do what I'm good at instead of something I suck at?"

"Then, go for it."

Tim widened his eyes. "What?"

"Go for it. If this is really what you want, you should go for it. But do it right."

"What's right?"

"That you show your dad that you're right by being calm and logical when you tell him what you're going to do. Don't turn it into a shouting match. Act like the adult you want to be."

"You think that will work?"

"I think it's worth a try. Don't you?"

"I guess."

"Now, finish your hamburger."

Tim smiled and did as he was told. They both ate their meals and then left. As they walked back to base, Tim kept looking at Agent Fuller out of the corner of his eye.

"What, Tim?"

"Why did you do all this?"

"It was just a burger, Tim."

"No, why do all this?"

Agent Fuller smiled.

"I've talked with your dad before, Tim. Not about you...and I think you've needed someone listening to you."

Tim couldn't have explained why it felt so good to have Agent Fuller say that. It was like someone was talking to him, really talking for the first time ever. Was this how it felt to have someone really pay attention? The NIS agent had managed to do what his father seemed unable to do...and all it had taken was a burger and fries.

Agent Fuller walked Tim back home, and it didn't bother him for some reason.

"Tim! Where have you been? I was so worried!"

Tim barely managed not to roll his eyes at his mother's overreaction. It wasn't like he didn't know his way around base. ...but he remembered what Agent Fuller had said. He needed to act like an adult.

"I was just walking around base, Mom," he said.

"You missed dinner!"

"I got him a burger, ma'am," Agent Fuller said. "I hope that's all right."

"Of course, Agent Fuller," she said. "I hope that Tim didn't distract you from your job."

"Not at all. We just talked a bit."

"Well, thank you. I really appreciate it."

"No problem."

"Tim, come inside."

"All right, Mom."

Tim started inside, hoping that he wouldn't have to talk to his dad again. Not tonight.

"Hey, Tim?"

Tim turned back.

"Yeah?"

"Good luck, and I can always use an excuse for a burger and fries."

Tim found himself smiling.

"Thanks, Agent Fuller."

Going inside was easy.

FINIS!