Aloha! Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last story, Moving On. And special thanks to Precious Pup, TechnoMistress, and Maudlin Mush! I loved everyone's ideas for the prompt, and if no one objects, I might eventually write stories for all the suggestions. However, Precious Pup's idea really stuck with me. My mind took it and ran, so it's actually going to be my first chapter piece. Hope it goes ok!

The prompt was: Place a character in a situation they would not normally be in.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of NCIS, including characters mentioned in the following story.

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"McGee!" Three sets of eyes snapped up to the balcony above the bullpen.

"Yeah Boss?" the agent in question said tentatively.

"Director's office. Now." Gibbs stepped away from the railing and disappeared from view.

Two of the three pairs of eyes slowly turned to one stunned agent.

"Probie!" Tony said, "What did you do?"

"Yes, McGee," Ziva cut in. "Whatever you did it has Gibbs acting very… agitated."

"I didn't do anything!" Tim claimed. His brow furrowed as he stood and headed towards the stairs. "At least, I don't think I did." He climbed the stair and walked over to the door to the office. The secretary gave him an encouraging smile. He took a deep breath, mind racing, and knocked. He pushed the door open slightly. "You wanted to see me, Sir?"

The Director and Gibbs were both seated at the conference table. Vance looked up from a file he was looking over. "Agent McGee. Come in and have a seat." Tim cautiously made his way into the room and took a seat beside Gibbs. He gave his boss a questioning look, but Gibbs merely shrugged, giving nothing away. "McGee, have you heard of the Malloy Company?"

Tim couldn't see where this conversation would go, be he decided to go along. "Rich Virginian family: comes from old money. Owners of one of the largest international trade companies on the eastern seaboard. Most profitable product is the tobacco grown on the family's plantation."

"I see you follow the news as closely as the rest of us," Vance said. He slid a file across the table to Tim. The agent took the folder and flipped it open. He was greeted with a photo of a beautiful red-headed woman. "Connie Malloy. She is the head of the company. Ever since her father passed away last year, the company has become suspect in dealing with products other than tobacco and international goods."

"What are they after?" Tim asked.

Vance looked grim as he gave an explanation. "Military secrets." Vance picked up the monitor remote and brought up a new file. "This is ex-marine Paul Wallace. Dishonorably discharged in 2009 for alcohol use. A year later he resurfaced, arrested in Richmond Virginia. Went to court, paid his fine of 2,500 dollars, and dropped off map."

"What was the charge?" Tim asked.

"Prostitution." Tim stared at Gibbs, but couldn't think of anything to say. At least, nothing that would be appropriate. He ignored the snickering voice in the back of his mind – it sounded remarkably like Tony – and turned his attention back to the Director.

"How does he tie into the Malloys?" Tim asked.

"Apparently, Wallace didn't end his new career after his arrest. He found himself mixed up with a male escort service, one that has been known to deal in prostitution. His last mistress was none other than Ms. Connie Malloy." Tim nodded, but still didn't see the connection.

"Wallace always kept in touch with some of his Marine buddies, and a few of them had their careers slipping away as well. A leak in the Pentagon was discovered several months ago: turns out to be one of Wallace's friends. The leak pointed out several other leaks. Interestingly enough, all the names connected to Wallace. Wallace was arrested and taken into custody three months ago. However, the Pentagon is still worried about leaks."

"They think Wallace was working for Malloy," Tim said as he connected the dots.

"While no one is positive that Connie Malloy or anyone else in the family is directly involved, the secrets trade is definitely surrounding the company. The FBI has already been investigating the Malloy Company, but they haven't been able to get an undercover agent into the upper levels of the company or family. The one agent that did has been missing for four months." Everyone in the room gave a moment of silence in honor of the missing agent. "Now that the Navy has a connection, it's our turn to try. Thankfully, we've got a tip on how to get an agent close to Malloy herself, and I have picked just the agent to go undercover."

"That's good. What's the position, and who have you found to go undercover?" Tim asked, a knot beginning to form in his chest. Was this conversation going where he thought it was? No, he thought, pushing the hope back, it couldn't be. He was the geek, the tech guy: he would never be considered for undercover work.

"We've received word that Malloy is looking for a new escort to fill Wallace's place. With the right set up, we should be able to get our man in fairly easily," Vance explained.

The bubble of pride and hope in his chest popped. Suddenly he wished this conversation was going anywhere other than where he thought it was headed. "And the agent?"

Vance and Gibbs both stared at him. Tim's heart sank.

"You're joking…" he said blandly. He didn't even let himself become embarrassed, because he couldn't (or more likely, didn't *want* to) comprehend what the Director was asking.

"Agent McGee, I do not make it a habit to joke about assignments I send my people on," Vance said with an equally dry tone.

"But… but wouldn't Tony be better suited for this?" Tim asked softly, thinking of the older agent's antics.

The Director shook his head. "Agent DiNozzo may act like a college frat boy, but he can't fool the world forever. I'm not risking my agent's life because he didn't look young enough." Tim almost grinned as the Director almost insulted Tim's partner. Vance caught Tim's smirk. "You ever tell him I said that I'll have you in Cybercrimes for a month."

The grin slid from his face. "Yes, Sir." Suddenly it hit him what the Director was asking him to do. The blush crept onto Tim's face and he looked down. As he did so, he took note of his own body and grew self-conscious. "Even though Tony may not look as young as he thinks he does, I'm not exactly fresh out of college either. I know there are other agents that would look and act the part much better than I would."

Vance bit his toothpick, hard, and seemed to choose his words carefully. "McGee, I have two points to make. One, as strange as it is for me to say this to you, you're not that bad looking a man. You may not pass for a twenty year old, but you're not going to send women screaming in terror. Second point: I have plenty of agents with experience, but they lack the look of youth the mission requires. On the other hand, I have plenty of young agents who can play the part, but lack field experience. I need a balance between those two extremes. You see what I'm getting at?"

Unfortunately, Tim did see what he was getting at. An older agent would never be able to complete the op, and sending an inexperienced agent would be taking a huge gamble with a man's life. His shoulders slumped, but he nodded. "Ok."

Gibbs reached over and gripped Tim's shoulder. "What's wrong? You always wanted to go undercover. Here's your chance."

Tim shrugged, desperately trying to hide his discomfort from Gibbs. "I know. It's just, this isn't really my thing, you know?" He bit his bottom lip, thinking out his words before he said them aloud. "I'm just, not good at… at *that* sort of thing… and I'll probably screw the assignment up."

Gibbs raised his hand from Tim's shoulder and let it collide sharply with the back of his head. "Tim, if you weren't ready or capable of doing this, do you think I would have approved it?" Tim raised his head and looked at Gibbs with surprise. "Why do you think I was up here with Vance anyways?"

At this point Tim moved his eyes over to Vance. The Director shrugged. "You didn't think I was about to pull one of *his* agents out from under his nose without a warning, did you?" His voice held the hints of amusement.

Gibbs gave the Director gave Vance a hard look. "Not like you haven't done it before."

Vance looked as if he was fighting the urge to roll his eyes, but he showed no other reaction. "Yes, well, we all know how well that worked out." He turned his attention back to Tim. "I'll understand if you turn this assignment down, but understand, Agent McGee, another chance like this might not come up for a long while."

Tim looked back down at his hands. He knew that he should take the offer. Vance was right: if he turned this down, he might never get assigned undercover work. Not because another chance wouldn't come up, but because Gibbs would always think he wasn't ready. "So how do you propose that I get in?" he asked, signaling the two men he was accepting.

Vance nodded. "We'll discuss the details of your assignment when the rest of your team is present."

*That* made Tim's head shoot up again. "My team? You mean, I have to t-t-tell Tony about this?"

Gibbs, not quite as professional as the Director, did roll his eyes. "Ya think?" Tim didn't groan in protest, but his scrunch his eyes closed. Gibbs sighed. "Look, do you really want a repeat of what happened last time one of our team tried to hide an assignment?" Tim flinched inwardly. Yeah, he remembered what happened, and no, he most certainly did not want a repeat.

"Fine. Are we going to brief them soon?" Tim asked.

Vance nodded. "Just as soon as the FBI representative gets here."

Both Tim and Gibbs looked at Vance. "Why are they getting involved?" Gibbs growled.

Vance nodded. "The FBI has been trying to get someone inside the upper levels of the Malloy Company for years, with little to no success. Their agency has always suspected them of running a marijuana operation under the cover of the tobacco trade, but the Agency has never gotten enough evidence to tie it the operation to the Malloy's. They just want any Intel McGee can give them. Also, the NSA is involved solely on the Pentagon's insistence, due to the vital information at hand. While not a joint operation, we still need to keep them informed. Neither agency is interested in taking this case from us."

Gibbs nodded. He stood up and walked to the door. "Might as well go get DiNozzo and David." He let the door shut softly behind him.

Tim still wasn't sure if he made the right decision. He had just heard the Director admit that a man had already died for this case, and he really didn't want to make the body count higher. He jumped as Vance spoke to him again. "McGee, is it really that hard for you to accept the confidence of two of your bosses?"

Tim sighed. "I just can't help thinking that someone along the line made some sort of mistake."

"McGee, I became the Director of a Federal Agency, so I must not have made too many mistakes. And are you really going to accuse Gibbs of screwing up?" That hit Tim, hard. He kept his eyes on the table as Gibbs came back into the room. None of the men spoke until the rest of the team joined them.

"Hey! It's a party!" Tony said excitedly. "And look who else was apparently invited!" As he and Ziva made their way inside as a third person walked in a shut the door.

Gibbs chuckled. "Should have known you'd be the FBI contact, Tobias."

"Of, course," Fornell said as he sat down across from Gibbs. "When word came down the undercover agent was from Gibbs' team, no one else would to come."

Both Tony's and Ziva's eyes lit up at the word undercover. "We got an undercover case, Boss?" Tony asked, barely containing the excitement in his voice. Before the conversation could carry further, Vance dove right into the briefing. He explained the case to the rest of the team, but Tim tuned him out. He noted uncomfortably that Gibbs' eyes remained on his bowed head the entire time.

Tony's smile was wide at the end of the briefing. "A gigolo? That's the cover? Oh, this is going to be so much fun."

Vance shook his head. "Not you, Agent DiNozzo."

The corners of Tony's lips fell slightly as his eyebrows went up. "Not me?" His eyes drifted across the room to Gibbs. He started to laugh, his mouth curling upwards again? "Boss? Oh come on. Really? Boss, you've got some good looks: that silver hair is probably a real turn on for the ladies, but an escort?" His snickering dies off as Gibbs glared at him. Suddenly the entire group saw the answer. The older agent turned to stare wide eyed at his partner. "McGee? Really?" He was unable to keep the laughter from his voice.

Tim felt himself bristle at Tony's remark. "'What, Tony?" he said softly, with just a hint of his anger. "Think you'd be a much better choice than 'Probie'?"

While Tony was taken aback, he didn't hear the anger that Ziva did. "I am sure what Tony meant," the Israeli woman said gently, "is that he was surprised because we were not expecting-"

"Expecting what, exactly? That the Director would ask automatically ask Tony? Didn't expect that anyone would ever suggest that I do undercover work?" Tim wasn't sure why he was getting so defensive, but something about the way Tony and Ziva had looked when they found out he was the undercover agent rubbed him the wrong way. He was about to say something else (as was Tony) when two resounding smacks echoed through the room.

"Thank you, Boss," the two younger male agents said, rubbing the backs of their heads.

"Can we get on with it?" Fornell said, un-phased.

Vance nodded at the FBI agent. "Certainly. A week from now, there's going to be a banquet of sorts at the La Cygne hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. The event is held every year, and is a dinner for escorts and their handlers to meet potential customers. Thankfully, this event caters to those looking for long term escorts, so if we can get McGee in, his position will be secure for a while. This is where Malloy met Wallace, and this is where we'll make sure she meets McGee. His connections within the Navy will hopefully get her attention. Until that night, McGee, you need to learn anything you can about Malloy. Find out her interests and exploit them." Tim nodded. "Gibbs, you and David will work on building McGee's cover. DiNozzo and Fornell will coordinate the surveillance for that night. Also, we need to get McGee's handler set up for undercover."

Ziva looked confused. "Wait, his handler will be going undercover as well?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Not his handler as in his agency contact, his handler as in his owner. You know, his pimp?" Ziva gave a silent "oh" and nodded. "So, who's going to be Probie's owner?"

Vance turned and looked at Gibbs. This time it wasn't Tony that burst into snorts of laughter. Everyone present turned to stare at the FBI agent. "Find something amusing, Tobias?" Gibbs asked with a growl.

After one last chuckle Fornell managed to curb his laughter. "Nope. Not a thing, Jethro." He allowed an evil smirk to remain on his lips. Gibbs glared, knowing that later he was going to receive more than his fair share of teasing from his old friend.

Vance shook his head at the odd relationship between the two elder agents. "Alright people, we've got exactly one week to get this op underway. Get to work."

As everyone got up to leave, Tim sat in silence for a moment. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

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Reviews are appreciated. It makes me feel good when I know what I did well and what I need to work on.