Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of its characters.

The Director's Son

A/N: This is another version of my former story 'Stronger than Blood', though this story will be different.

Timothy McGee walked into the Italian restaurant he was to meet his sister, Sarah, in. She wanted him to meet her new boyfriend. He wasn't looking forward to it. For one, he had been ambushed with it. He hadn't even known Sarah was seeing anyone. It was irritating, but not surprising. Sarah kept her boyfriends a secret from the family as long as possible. The fact that both Tim and his father were very hard on her boyfriends might have something to do with that. Still, it was annoying.

Tim surveyed the restaurant. He found his sister sitting by herself in the back. He immediately went to join her. "Sarah."

Sarah looked up at him. "Oh, great, you're here," she said unenthusiastically.

"You invited me, remember?" Tim asked as he sat across from her.

"That wasn't my idea, it was Brad's. He had this crazy idea that we should meet each other's families," Sarah said. Personally, she could've gone the rest of her life without her boyfriend meeting her family. Her mother and younger siblings were fine, but her father and Tim were both going to be unbearable as usual.

Tim gasped in fake horror. "How insane."

"Oh, shut up. I have plenty of reasons not to want Brad to meet you. You and Dad make it your lives' missions to scare my boyfriends away,"

"Don't be dramatic," Tim said.

Sarah gave him a look. "Dramatic?! Dad went out of his way to make sure my last boyfriend knew what he did for a living and told him he could make his life a living hell if he ever heard one bad word from me about him. Then you purposely showed him your gun, making you think you'd shoot him if he hurt me."

"Who says I wouldn't have. So where is this Brian guy," Tim asked, purposely saying the name wrong.

Sarah glared at her brother. "It's Brian, as you very well know, and he's running a little late."

"Uh huh," Tim said sounding very unhappy.

"Oh, come off it. People are late sometimes," Sarah said.

"Yeah, well, guys shouldn't be late when they're meeting their girlfriend's families. It doesn't send a good first impression," Tim said.

Sarah shook her head in frustration. "Why did I choose you to be first?"

"Because you knew Dad would be worse and if you just went to Mom, she would tell him. Face it, I was your test run. If you can get through me, maybe the relationship will survive Dad." Tim said with a smirk.

Sarah glared at him again. "You know, the guys in this family are all sexist pigs. You don't get this kind of treatment when you bring someone home."

"I do now," Tim said quietly. After a long string of bad relationships, his parents had become much more wary about the people he dated. They didn't get the same treatment Sarah's boyfriends got, but they were subjected to background checks by his father and long interrogations by his mother.

"That's because you choose such horrible girlfriends," Sarah said.

"You're no better," Tim argued.

Just then, a young man with dark brown hair and brown eyes made his way over to Sarah. "Hey, sorry I'm late."

"It's okay," she said as he kissed her cheek.

The man sat down next to Sarah and held his hand out for Tim. "Hi, you must be Sarah's brother. I'm Brad."

Tim took his hand after a minute. "Tim."

"It's good to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Brad said.

"Well, that makes one of us. I've heard absolutely nothing about you," Tim said. He then felt a swift kick to his shin and glared at his sister.

"Yeah, Sarah said she was avoiding telling you guys about me. I actually had to pressure her into letting me meet you guys," Brad said.

"So you're pressuring my sister?" Tim asked.

"Tim!" Sarah growled.

"No, it's okay, Sarah. I understand where your brother's coming from. I have two younger sisters. I'm not exactly easy on their boyfriends either. God help them if they hurt my sisters is my motto.

Tim had to admit that so far this guy seemed alright. He seemed decent enough and he was understanding about how Tim was with Sarah. But Tim knew that not everyone was how they appeared. Most monsters were the masks of decent people. He knew that for a fact. "Tell me, Brad, have you ever been arrested?"

"Tim!"

"Once for shoplifting," Brad answered without missing a beat.

"Brad!" Sarah rounded on her boyfriend.

"Sarah, he's gonna find out anyway. He's gonna run a background check, aren't you, Tim?" Brad asked knowingly.

"I won't have to. My father will have your information before he even meets you," Tim said honestly.

Brad chuckled. "Well, I knew one of you would do it, so I figure it's just better to be honest. You'll respect me more for it. Anyway, I was sixteen and my friends and I decided to be stupid and lift a bike from this sporting goods store. Obviously we were caught and arrested. We got lucky. The store owner dropped the charges the next day. Though, I kind of wished they would've kept us locked up. My father was not pleased when he found out," Brad said.

"Yeah, well, we're not gonna judge you because of one mistake. Tim is certainly not one to judge. He went joyriding in our father's car when he was fifteen," Sarah said as she gave Tim a knowing look.

Tim cringed. That was not one of his brightest ideas. It was the first and last time he'd ever been so stupid. He really thought his parents were going to kill him that day. He could still hear the screaming when he thought back on it. "Well, everyone makes mistakes I guess. But should you make any mistakes where my sister is concerned, you will have my entire family on your ass."

"Understood," Brad said.

"Good. Let's order," Tim said before picking up his menu.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

An hour and a half later, Tim, Sarah, and Brad were leaving the restaurant. "Well, it was good to meet you, Tim. I can't wait to meet your parents and younger siblings," Brad said.

Sarah looked at her boyfriend annoyed. "Do you have self-preservation whatsoever?"

Brad chuckled. "Come on, it can't be that bad. You said your brother was unbearable and it wasn't so bad."

"That's because I made him leave his gun at home," Sarah half joked.

"I still had my knife," Tim bantered. He took a knife everywhere. Gibbs would kill him if he started breaking rule nine."

Brad looked at Tim with a smile. That smile then turned to a frown.

"Something wrong?" Tim asked.

Sarah looked at her brother and saw what her boyfriend had noticed. There was a red dot from a laser on her brother's head. "It looks like some stupid kid is playing with a laser pen. You've got one of those fake red target dots aimed at your forehead."

Tim frowned and looked around for the cause. He looked up and found the cause from one of the surrounding buildings. It wasn't a laser pen. "Get down."

"What?" Sarah asked.

"I said get down!" Tim repeated loudly before pulling his sister to the ground. Brad went down at the same time. Seconds later a shot rang out