Storm Stories

The weather outside matched the mood inside the car. Dark and stormy. Special Agents Anthony DiNozzo and Timothy McGee, N.C.I.S. were supposed to be on the way down to Newport News to investigate the disappearance of a Navy Petty Officer from his ship. Had they stuck to the instructions Tim had pulled off the Internet, they would almost be there but Tony had sworn up and down that he knew a shortcut that would cut their travel time in half and Tim had believed him. Now, they were lost in middle of nowhere Virginia with a nasty spring thunderstorm slapping rain against the car.

"Don't you realize that by stopping and asking for directions you'd be violating the code?" Tony said.

"Don't you realize that by not stopping and asking for directions, we're going to see parts of the Virginia countryside that haven't been seen since the founding of Jamestown?" Tim replied. He gripped the steering wheel harder and peered out the windshield in a vain attempt to see through the pouring rain.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. We're almost there. I think I see a street sign up ahead." Tony said.

"Yeah, Rod Sterling's leaning against it." Tim muttered.

"What's that, Probie?"

Tim pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped. "Tony, I can't see, I have no idea where we are and with the way the weather is acting, it's a wonder we haven't been sucked up in a funnel cloud. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to make it home in one piece. The next place I see, I'm stopping."

Tony lookedat him but did not reply. Tim put the car in gear and pulled back onto the road. If he ever made it back to N.C.I.S. headquarters, he was never, ever, EVER getting in the car with Tony DiNozzo ever again.

Slowly, the rain slacked off enough to allow Tim see where they were. Tony had been right, there was a street sign up ahead. It said 'End of road.'

Tim glared at him and turned the car around. Tony had enough sense to keep his mouth shut and not say anything. The wind and rain picked up again, forcing Tim to slow the car to a crawl. Finally, the car reached a paved road and Tim offered a thank you to whoever happened to be listening. With luck, they'd make Newport News by nightfall.

"What's that noise?" Tony asked, a few minutes later.

"What noise?" Tim replied, his attention completely on the road.

"That rumbling noise, sounds like a train. We're not near train tracks, are we?"

The car came to a screeching halt.

"What did you say?" Tim asked.

"I said, we're not near train tracks, are we?"

Tim took his attention from the road, listened to the storm and heard what he did not want to hear. The rumbling, roaring sound of an approaching tornado.

"Oh, hell." He muttered. He pulled the car off to the side of the road and killed the engine. "Get out." he told Tony.

"What? Are you nuts? It's pouring out there." Tony protested.

"That wasn't a request, Tony. Get out." Tim said, zipping up his rain coat.

"You've lost your mind!"

"Okay, listen, we have to get out of the car now! For once in our relationship, do what I say."

Tony blinked, looked at Tim, saw a completely different person and nodded.

"Follow me when we get out." Tim replied.

It was nearly impossible to get the car door open in the rapidly rising wind gusts but between the two men, they forced open the driver's side door and staggered out into the wind and rain. Tim grabbed Tony's arm and dragged him over to a drainage ditch running along side the road. With a shove, he pushed Tony in and jumped in on top of him.

It was none too soon. Moments later, a tornado screamed overhead, ripping trees from the ground and tossing the car the two men had been in to the other side of the road. Then, it was over and the tornado was gone.

Tim waited a long moment, waited for the silence he knew would follow, then, slowly raised his head and peered out of the ditch. Nothing was where it had been just a few moments before. He closed his eyes and offered another prayer to the Heavens.

"You okay?" he asked Tony when he was finished.

"What the hell was that?!" Tony said. He sat up and glared at Tim.

Tim was hard pressed not to laugh. For a man who took great pride in his appearance, Tony looked like hell. Soaked to the skin and splattered with mud, he was as mad as the prophetic wet hen. Tim was certain he didn't look much better.

"That was a tornado, Tony." Tim climbed up out of the ditch and reached back to give Tony a hand up. "You still have your cell phone? I can't find mine."

Tony took one look at the destruction and whistled. "Damn." he added "How do you know about tornadoes?" he asked Tim. "I thought you were from Massachusetts."

"I went to school in Massachusetts but I've got family up and down the Eastern Seaboard and along the Gulf Coast." Tim replied. "Tornado season there is like a winter storm up here. You learn what to watch for. Oh, wait, here it is." He located his cell phone, tucked in the pocket of his raincoat. "I hope I can get a signal. Gibbs is going to freak when he hears about this."

"Where's the...?" Tony's question died on his lips when he saw their car upside down in a field across the road. The enormity of what had just happened to them finally sunk in and he sat down hard on the road. He had come *that* close to meeting his maker and it scared him.

"You okay?" Tim asked him again, a few minutes later.

"Yeah. I'll live." Tony squinted up at Tim and asked "How do you know so much about tornadoes? Just having family down South doesn't explain it."

Tim joined him on the side of the road. "I used to spend my summers as a kid down South. If you spend anytime in the South during tornado season, you learn what to do."

Tony nodded. This was a whole new side to Tim.

"You get ahold of Gibbs?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. He freaked. He's on the way."

"Okay."

The two men sat there, said nothing and waited.

"McGee?"

"Yeah?"

"What else don't I know about you?"

Tim grinned and said "There's all kinds of things you don't know about me, DiNozzo."