McGee sat in his favorite coffee shop to write a little. His editor, a new one, was riding his ass to complete the next tale of L.J. Tibbs. So he was spending the last few moments of his free time battling writers block.

"Sir?"

McGee looked up to see one of the coffee waitress standing next to him, holding the hand of a little girl, about two.

"Your wife had to run and told me to give you your daughter and this note."

Before McGee could get over the initial shock, the waitress had left, leaving the little girl. The blond haired girl just stared at him with piercing blue eyes.

"Uh," McGee said to the silent girl, "just second."

McGee opened the note.

Dear Tim McGee,

I know you, you don't know me. And, you aren't the father, but I have watched you and decided you'd make a good father. Her name is Chelsea Anne. She is two years and three months old. All her medical stuff and birth certificate is in the mail.

Take good care of her.

"What!?" McGee said loudly, causing the coffee shop to become silent, "Uh, sorry."

So McGee went to the only people he could. The team.

"Where is McGee!?" Gibbs barked, entering the bullpen.

"Late!" Tony gladly offered.

"I know that DiNozzo." Gibbs said, sitting at his desk, "But where."

"Ok. I don't know." Tony said, wincing.

"Obviously." Ziva said from her desk.

"Sorry I'm late!" McGee said, running out of the elevator.

But Gibbs couldn't yell at him. He was staring at the little girl in McGee's arms.

"Who is your little friend?" Ziva asked him, the first to recover.

"Her name is Chelsea." McGee said nervously.

"Where did you get her?" asked Gibbs, still a little dazed, but hell if he'd show it.

"Read this boss." McGee said, handing Gibbs the note, "She was left with me at the coffee shop."

Gibbs read the note and gave a frustrated sigh.

"Go see if Abby can lift any prints." Gibbs said, "Ziva will watch her. Tony, scrape your jaw off the floor and call the local LEO's."

McGee hurried off, Ziva held Chelsea, and Gibbs started towards the Director's office. But Tony was yet to move.

"DiNozzo!"

"Sorry Boss!" Tony said shaking his head, "I just had this weird hallucination that McGee brought a kid in with him."

Gibbs just smacked the back of his head.

"Somebody gave you a WHAT!" Abby yelled, waving the note around.

"A little girl named Chelsea." McGee told her for the second time, " And this note. Can you look for prints?"

"What a stupid question." Abby said glaring, "Of course I can. It's what I do!"

"I know." McGee said, tiredly.

"Who all has touched it so I can eliminate them?" Abby asked, clicking away on her keyboard.

"A waitress, me, Gibbs, and you." McGee said, counting off on his fingers.

"I will find this deserter!" Abby vowed, "No one just throws a baby out on my watch.

McGee's cell rang before he could point out that she never wore a watch.

"McGee."

"It is Ziva." she said, crying noises in the background, "Chelsea keeps asking for her father and pointing at your desk."

"It sounds like a couple of babies are crying." McGee said, riding in the elevator.

"Oh, that is Tony. He says he has a headache."

McGee laughed as he exited on his floor.

"Probie," Tony said, leaning back in his chair, "I wasn't crying, DiNozzo's don't cry."

"Daddy!" Chelsea cried, running to him, almost knocking him over with the force of her hug.

"Hey Chelsea." McGee said, his heart melting at her earnest blue eyes and lopsided pigtails.

"Chelsea?" Ziva asked, kneeling in front of her, "How do you know this is your daddy?"

Chelsea blinked at her, then pulled a picture out of the front of her overalls.

"Mommy said he was my daddy. He is my daddy!" Chelsea said, beginning to panic.

McGee scooped her up, not wanting the girl to cry. He put his hand on the picture Chelsea gripped in her tiny hands.

"Chels," he said, not ignoring the fact that he had given her a nickname, "Can daddy see his picture?"

Chelsea nodded, then buried her face in his shoulder. McGee looked at the picture. It was taken from a distance. It was of him at a table in the park, where he sometimes did writing.

"McGee?"

"Here." he said, handing it to Ziva, Tony looking over his shoulder.

"This is just a writing spot." McGee said.

A light snore from his shoulder made him smile. He motioned to Ziva and Tony that he was taking Chelsea to Abby's futon in her lab.

"Gear up!"

"Where to, Boss?" Tony asked, rushing to gather his things.

"Georgetown, a dead Petty Officer." Gibbs said, leading the trio into the elevator.

Gibbs drove like a mad man as usual.

"Did you get Abby to run DNA on Chelsea?" Gibbs asked, swerving away from a dump truck at the last second.

"Yeah." McGee said, cringing, "There were no prints on the note or anything else."

"How about the photo?" Ziva yelled over an orchestra of car horns.

"Only ours and Chelsea's" McGee yelled back.

With a screech of the tires, Gibbs parked. The Petty Officer was on the loading dock of a warehouse.

"Her name is Petty Officer Hannah Jones, age 23." an officer told Gibbs as the team came up.

"Let's have a look-see." Ducky said, pulling out a liver probe.

"Ziva! Photos! Tony! Bag and tag!"

"On it, Boss!" Tony shouted in Ziva's ear.

"Boss! Ziva punched me."

"Well, I'll shoot you if you don't get busy." Gibbs told Tony, silencing him with a glare.

"And me, Boss?" McGee asked.

"Figure out who owns this Warehouse." Gibbs said, "And find out what it's for."

McGee scurried away. Gibbs turned to Ducky.

"What do you have Duck?"

"Well Jethro," Ducky said, removing the liver probe, "liver temperature puts her death at about 18 hours ago."

"What do you think happened?" Gibbs asked, motioning for Palmer to bring the gurney.

"Well, I cannot be certain," Ducky said, rising, "But it looks as though she was stabbed straight through the gut."

"She isn't in uniform." Tony pointed out.

"McGee!"

"Yeah Boss?"

"It is your job to find out who she belongs too and DNA stuff."

"No problem, Boss!"

Little did he know how wrong he was.

"Abby," McGee said, hurrying into the lab, Tony and Ziva hot on his heels, "what's wrong? Is it Chelsea?"

"Where's Gibbs?" She asked ignoring him.

"Right here Abs." Gibbs said, waving a Calf-POW in the air.

"Where is Chelsea!?" McGee hissed.

"She is with the director, geez Timmy." Abby said, waving her finger in his face.

"Abs." Gibbs said, "Your emergency?"

"Petty Officer Hannah Jones' DNA matches someone we know." Abby said waving her hands excitedly.

"Not playing guessing games Abby." Gibbs told her, threatening to take her drink away.

"Petty Officer Hannah Jones is the mother of Chelsea." Abby said triumphantly, "She gave her up for Chelsea's safety!"

"But why McGee?" Gibbs asked, "And what danger was Chelsea being protected from?"

PHOOMPH!

CHELSEA

CHAPTER ONE

IT'S A STORY OF LITTLE GIRL