Author's Note: Written for Challenge #392 - Paper challenge at the ncis-drabble community on livejournal. The title is borrowed from a George Straight song.

Check Yes or No

Tim and Ellie sat back and watched as Tony frantically searched for a mystery object he wouldn't even mention. He'd been tearing apart the bullpen all morning but was being tightlipped about whatever it was he was searching for, despite their offers to help. Sure, they'd offered mostly out of curiosity about what he was looking for but the mumbles and grunts and his stranger than usual behavior was distracting them enough that there was no way they could get any work done.

Oddly enough, Gibbs was sitting at his desk watching Tony as well. There were no sharp commands to get back to work or demands to know what was going on. Just an amused look on his face as he, too, took a break from work to watch his SFA.

"Sure you don't wanna any help, Tony?" Ellie offered, casually sitting atop her desk with a folder open and paperwork spilling out into her lap.

An incomprehensible, garbled response was all she got, causing her to exchange a smile with Tim.

Gibbs let Tony's search continue for a little while longer before he spoke up. "Lose something, DiNozzo?"

"Huh?"

"Did you lose something?"

"Um…"

"Maybe you forgot something in the copy machine?" Gibbs suggested.

Tony shot straight up and froze. "You have it?" The question came out in a panicked shriek.

Gibbs reached into his desk drawer, pulled out a single sheet of paper and leaned back in his chair as he studied it. "I was thinking it might be a good addition to the office newsletter," he said. "Isn't that why you left it on the copy machine?"

"No!" Tony yelled. He'd moved over in front of Gibbs' desk and was impatiently dancing around like a toddler who needed to be rushed to the bathroom.

"Hmm," Gibbs hummed, thoroughly enjoying himself. "Well, I think I'll hang onto it, just in case you change your mind."

"I can explain, Boss!" Tony said and Gibbs prepared himself for Tony to go into full rambling mode. "You see, Ziva leaving all of a sudden and the men's support group I've been going to and, well, so much has changed and it's all happened so fast and I know it's cliché but life is short and if you have something to say to someone you just gotta come out and say it no matter what their response might be 'cause—"

"Here, Tony," Gibbs interrupted, handing the folded up piece of paper to him.

Tony stared blankly at the note, feeling a bit dejected after what, in his mind at least, was a manly gesture of love. How could Gibbs interrupt him mid-speech and just hand him back the note with no acknowledgment whatsoever? When he got past the stunned stupor he took the paper and walked back towards his desk with his shoulders slumped and his head down. The air coming from the vent flipped the note open, revealing the brief message scrawled in Gibbs' handwriting just below the love note Tony had written.

My place. After work.

The dejection instantly turned into a bright, hopeful smile as Tony realized Gibbs had responded with his own manly gesture of love.

End.