Abby doesn't even complete the search on the first database—which of course she'll search on the DL if it helps her Timmy! she promises—before Tony and Ziva discover firsthand what's been going on in McGee's life.
It starts with a phone call from security while Tim's down a flight helping Michaelson's team with some eh…blah, blah, blah computer thing. Wallace asks Tony whether it's okay to send up Lila Johnson for Agent McGee, and certainly it's all right! And Tony tells Wallace that right away.
"Wallace is escorting a Lila Johnson up here for McGee," Tony declares, and rubs his palms together in anticipation. Much to Tony's disappointment, Tim makes it back up the stairs before the mystery woman arrives, but, as Tony immediately consoles himself, he'll at least be able to watch Tim's unchecked expression the first time Tim sees Ms. Lila Johnson in MCRT.
Tony checks in with Ziva across the way, who's obviously biting her cheek in her own eagerness. One glance at the Boss, whose own head is up and curious, tells Tony Gibbs is too interested to interfere either.
And then the elevator dings and out steps Wallace with a very pretty redhead who looks a little too mature and waaay too pregnant to be Probie's girlfriend. About half of Tony's face squinches in disappointment at the let down. She must be some relative, Tony supposes. Or—ooh—Tony cringes. He hopes she's not a crazed Thom E. Gemcity fan. It was bad enough the first time, but if it happens again after Tony's okayed her presence, he sucks in a breath between clenched teeth. Oh, that does not bode well.
"Lila!" Tim stands immediately upon spying her, his brows lifting in surprise and, is that pleasure? Tony really hopes it's pleasure.
"Tim," she grins back a little more sedately, and waddles his way.
Tim kisses her cheek in greeting and offers her his chair at once.
She waves him off, "I'm good." She glances around their cubicle and then back to Tim, lifting an expectant eyebrow.
Tim lifts a brow right back at her, completely unintimidated despite the distinct schoolmarm overtones emanating from his guest's direction.
Tim steps around her to her side, places a friendly hand between her shoulder blades, "Lila Johnson," he introduces her, "meet my team. Tony," Tony gives a little wave when Tim points at him, "Ziva," Probie gestures to Ziva, who probably smiles at her, "and our Boss, Gibbs," and Boss gives her that broad smile—well, broad for him—that he always gives attractive redheads.
Lila smiles back at them all. "Good to finally meet you," she tells them, sending a pointed glance Tim's way. "I've heard a lot about you."
"Really?" Tony begins incredulously. "He hasn't said a word about you!" and the words simply pop out.
"Tony!" Ziva hisses from across the way.
Tony shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. What? He mouths, but she just rolls her eyes.
"No, it's alright. I already knew that," and Lila grins like there's something terribly funny about that.
Tim levels a look at her, but it just makes her grin a little more cheekily. Tim licks his lips and glances at the space between the two of them. He drops his hand from her back and twists his body just a touch to face her. And then, Tim very deliberately does not ask her into the other room to speak with her privately. Or, at least, it looks deliberate to Tony, though the senior agent supposes he could be wrong. Tony looks at the tableau with renewed interest.
"What's up?" Tim asks, his face a little closer to Lila Johnson's than Tony would expect from McPersonalSpace.
"I need the car keys," she holds out her hand like a sixteen-year-old daughter to her dad. Although the amusement with which she does it kind of takes away from that image.
Tim licks his lips and ducks his head in a smile. Maybe he caught on to Tony's idea. Immediately, Tim dips into his pocket.
"You're letting her drive the Porsche!" Tony asks, scandalized. Tim's never, ever, ever even let him drive the Porsche. Not even that day when Tim got really sick and started throwing up everywhere, and Tony so very nicely offered to return his car to him so it'd be ready for him the next day.
Lila turns and scrunches her face up at Tony, as if she feels a little bad for him. "He got rid of the Porsche a month ago," she reveals as she takes the proffered keys and exchanges them for another set.
"Haaah!" Tony clutches his heart. "I thought the Porsche was in the shop! I thought the SUV was just a rental! Why would you…" he looks to Tim imploringly. "Why?"
"Because you can't fit a baby in a two-seater, DiNozzo," Gibbs fields the question, and when Tony's eyes shoot over to Boss, the older man's watching Tim appraisingly. Tony's gaze zooms back to Tim.
Tim ducks his head and smiles broadly, yet almost shyly. "No, you can't, Boss."
"My mom finally found the last pieces of the old crib, and I want to pick it up today," Lila begins again while Tony's practically spasming in shock.
"I can come with you after five-thirty," Tim says in hushed tones as he lowers his head a little closer to her.
"Nah," she waves him off. "I'd rather do it now. I'm dying to finish setting up the nursery," she reveals.
And Tim nods and smiles indulgently and when he leans into her, she leans right back as if the response is ingrained. The kiss is light, and the soft palms Probie rests on her belly are possessive and sure of their welcome.
"I love you," he mouths against her lips.
"I love you, too," she mouths right back.
And Tony must have been the only one on the team who could have seen the exchange of words, and it kind of makes him feel bad for catching it, like he's intruding on something private.
"See you later," she bids Tim back into her with a look even as he's pulling away, and Probie comes as surely as if she's reeling him in.
Lila puts a little bit of a show into it, Tony can tell, maybe because Tim's hidden her from them for so long, maybe because she likes to show off her man like some women do. Maybe it's just to give Tim an extra bit of a thrill, too, on the other hand. When she leans back again, it's with a satisfied glint to her eye. "Thanks," she says.
Tim clears his throat, eyes still shut. "Yeah." He blinks them open quickly as she starts to move away. "Oh, wait, Lolly! I've gotta walk you out!" Tim grabs her hand.
And this calm, confident woman blushes bright red at that. "Tim!" she exclaims in two lilting syllables.
"Ooh, I, uh, sorry," Tim tilts his head, not looking sorry at all.
"Yeah," Lila—'Lolly'?—chuffs, apparently as convinced of Tim's apology as Tony is. But she keeps his hand in hers as she bids the team goodbye and the pair walk down to the lobby together.
It takes an excruciating ten minutes for Tim to see his girlfriend off—girlfriend? Tony reconsiders, but then again there wasn't a ring on her finger, so he supposes that has to be an accurate term what with the kissing.
Tony and Ziva are both pacing and practically vibrating with anticipation when Tim calmly walks back into MCRT, smug grin all over his face as he struts right past them and the questions shooting from their mouths to get back to his work station. He reaches into his back pocket for his wallet, and gets out a few pictures before leaning against his desk.
"His name is Josh," Tim begins shyly, and lets them pass the ultrasounds between them. "Joshua Isaac Johnson McGee," he elaborates.
Tony hears Gibbs stand up behind him, and he hands the older man the first picture as soon as he makes it to the group.
"Long name for such a little guy," Tony observes with a grin as he surrenders the rest of the ultrasounds to Ziva and Gibbs.
"We fought on it for months," Tim confesses almost cheerfully.
"Why did you not tell us?" Ziva's the first one to ask the question on all their minds.
Tim just shakes his head. "Because it's my personal life."
And Boss' eyebrow goes way up at that, but Gibbs doesn't say a word, so Tony has to step in.
"That's never stopped you before!" Tony exclaims. "And this is seriously a big thing to not tell us about, Tim. We didn't even know you were seeing this 'Lolly' until today, let alone—"
Tim straightens immediately, "Don't," he points a single digit right at Tony, "call her that," he warns.
Tony blinks at the anger, the protectiveness in Tim's tone, but most of all, he's startled by the fact that Tim seems to feel he has to protect his home life from his friends at work. "I-I'm sorry," Tony literally stutters. "I didn't realize—"
Tim winces, "No, I'm sorry," Tim backs away. "I know you didn't mean," he clears his throat. "It's just private," he concludes, voice low. And, of course, for Tim that means it's something sexual. Tim never dishes on the really good details.
"How far along is Lila?" Gibbs finally adds something to the conversation.
"Six months and three weeks," and Boss must be a genius because that's all it takes to make Tim grin again.
"That change of address you put in four months ago," Gibbs leads, and Tony's eyes shoot right for the Boss, then flitter over to Ziva when Tony doesn't find any details there.
But Ziva just shakes her head in amazement, and it doesn't make Tony feel better, per se that Ziva didn't know about Probie's move either, but it does make Tony feel slightly less worse about not knowing.
"It's Lila's townhouse," Tim confirms. "We've talked about buying a new place together later on, but there's no rush. We have to trade off on the study right now, which is not ideal," he admits, "but I doubt I'll have much time for writing in the next year or two anyway," and Tim's grin is chock-full of glee this time.
Ziva smiles back at Tim, but there's something sad about it. "I am very pleased for you, McGee," she says, and Tim looks right at her, and as Tony looks on, the formality of her statement brings a distance back between Tim and the team, taking the edge off Tim's excitement and regulating the three of them back to some mere co-worker realm where Tim thought they should live for whatever reason in this place where it seemed okay to him not to share his major life changes with them.
"Thank you, Ziva," Tim returns, equally as formal, and as Probie extends his hand to take the ultrasounds back, Tony watches as Ziva starts kicking herself for bringing that distance back into their circle.
"Are you, are you getting married?" Ziva tries again, but Probie just gives a false little smile as he shoves his wallet back into his slacks.
"Nope," Tim answers as he bolts off his desk and moves back around to his chair.
"Would you tell us if you were?" Tony asks pointedly, no longer seeing a reason to tread softly.
"I'd tell you if you asked," Tim confirms, but it's easy to see, considering the last few months, that that's not quite the same thing in Probie's point of view.
"Congratulations, Tim," Gibbs offers, gaining a little bit of that smile back on Tim's face.
"Yeah, congrats, Probie," Tony follows suit.
"Congratulations, McGee," Ziva speaks a little more quietly, perhaps in concern of creating an even greater chasm between them.
"Thank you," Tim returns, smiling that public smile he gets sometimes. Then he gets back to work.
The cubicle is uncomfortably quiet for an aching forty-five minutes afterward. Their rhythm doesn't start to return until Gibbs gets the batsignal and the team piles into their respective vehicles and makes their way to the crime scene.
On second thought, Tony reconsiders in the silence of the van, he's afraid their team's rhythm may be too far gone to ever recover.
It is easily the most uncomfortable crime scene MCRT has ever worked together. Tony is unable to make jokes of even the burnt bacon littering the floor of the kitchen. For some reason, he normally finds poorly cooked food unreasonably funny, so Ziva knows how very deeply affected he is by McGee's incredible revelations.
Since the cat is already out of the box, McGee apparently decides to tell Ducky and Palmer about the baby as well, offering the ultrasounds as he did in the bullpen. Ducky is exceedingly excited to learn of the pregnancy until he sees the pictures.
"I'd judge him to be six months along or so, wouldn't you, Mr. Palmer?" Ducky actually speaks hesitantly—Ducky!
"Oh, right!" Jimmy leans over Ducky's shoulder to better view the pictures. "And you've got a 3D ultrasound, too! Those are so cool. Although they don't usually do that unless the mother's high risk," Jimmy looks up in concern.
When Ziva glances to McGee at the near-question from Palmer's lips, McGee simply nods. "She's forty-three," he confirms, "and it's her first pregnancy."
Ziva raises her brows in surprise. While it was obvious Lila was older than McGee, she had not imagined there were ten years between them.
"Oh! Oh wow! Did you have fertility treatments?" Jimmy asks completely unselfconsciously though his question is incredibly invasive.
Ziva glances to Tony, and with that look, she can tell he'd never considered the idea either. How much more has McGee hidden from us? she has to wonder, but then McGee responds,
"Um, no," and he says it with a little chagrin, "plain old-fashioned accident."
And something in Ziva relaxes a touch at the declaration.
"Well, the good news is the twelfth rib and the nasal bones look normal," Jimmy smiles at his pronouncement.
"What's that mean?" Gibbs asks even though he'd normally be prodding them back to work about now.
"It means the baby is unlikely to have Down's Syndrome," Ducky tells Gibbs, "the most common birth defect of babies born to mothers over the age of forty."
"Good," Gibbs nods with a glance over at McGee. McGee nods back, gaining a bit of a smile back to his face. "That's good," Gibbs concludes.
"The doctor already let us know," McGee nods as he takes the pictures back.
"Tim!" a man's voice booms from the foyer and into the living room where the team has gathered around the body.
McGee turns, "Jeff!" he smiles and walks over to greet the newcomer with a handshake. "Hey, how's it going?"
Irritated does not begin to describe the look on Gibbs' face, and yet their team leader says nothing to this man with a US Marshal's badge invading their crime scene.
"Fair to middlin'," the marshal smiles, "How've you been?"
"Great!" McGee enthuses. "Lila and I tried that foot massage thing you described and the difference is incredible!"
"Always good to know when your experience benefits somebody else," the marshal heartily pats McGee on the back, and Ziva can feel Tony practically ready to bark beside her.
"What are you doing here?" Tim asks.
Jeff points to one of the dead men on the couch. "Your second victim was in WitSec."
"Oh," and when McGee turns back to the primary crime scene, he rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably.
"You gonna introduce us to your buddy, McGee?" the words drip with sarcasm from Tony's lips.
"Uh, sure," Tim agrees distractedly like he does not hear Tony's tone at all. "US Marshal Jeff Brown," he uses his palm to point at the man. "Agents Gibbs, DiNozzo, David and our medical examiner Dr. Mallard and his assistant Jimmy Palmer," he finishes distractedly.
Marshal Brown drops his chin to glance at McGee from the corner of his eye, but then he looks right back to the team and offers a smile. "Good to meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
Tony visibly cringes, "I'm going to finish the kitchen," he points towards the most disgusting room in the house—even when taking the two dead bodies into account—and walks right for it.
McGee watches him leave, and the look of what can only be guilt slipping across his features bids Ziva to say, "I will help you."
Between them, Tony and Ziva make quick work of the kitchen, but for the first time since she has known him, Tony works beside her in silence.
"Do you think it was a job interview?" he finally asks when the voices coming from the living room get softer as they move the bodies outdoors. "With the Marshals?" Tony clarifies, though there is no need.
Ziva licks her lips, fully intending to lie to him, knowing that she can frequently get away with it if she angles her brows correctly. "Yes," she whispers instead.
"Why would he," Tony sits heavily in the nearest chair. "I mean, sure we haven't really hung out lately," he begins again, "but he's my best friend. Why wouldn't he have said something?"
"Why would he remain silent on any of it?" Ziva returns fervently, taking a seat across from him. "He has had a girlfriend for at least seven months, a child nearly ready to make his appearance into the world, a new home, perhaps a new job," Ziva's brow furrows heavily at that, and she shuts her eyes tightly, feeling the sting. "I do not understand, either," she confesses.
"He talked about privacy yesterday," Ziva opens her eyes at the desperation in Tony's voice. "That has to mean something important right?"
Ziva shrugs, shakes her head, "I don't kn—"she pauses mid-word. "Yes," she reconsiders. "He was most preoccupied with it," she easily recalls. "He was upset that you wanted to know details about his life but would not share the same details about your life."
Tony nods and swipes at his mouth, "Right," he points at her. "So if I tell him everything going on with me, then that should make us square," he lifts his brows at her, and it is obvious to her that he is grasping at grass.
"Tony," she shakes her head.
"No," he refuses her, still holding that single finger up. "No, this is gonna work," he declares. "I mean, I don't really have anything going on right now, exactly," Tony admits reluctantly, "Well, the usual one night stands after the whole thing with EJ blew up, but he doesn't like to hear about those." Tony scratches his forehead. "I kind of stopped talking to him about most of them after it got kind of obvious how he was just humoring me 'cause sometimes I could see him cringe when I went into any details, and," Tony locks his jaw. "Okay, so he probably doesn't actually want to hear about those, but he knows everything about me! What the hell could I tell him that he doesn't already know?"
Ziva purses her lips together. "There must be something he feels he is not a part of, Tony."
Tony brings his fist to his closed mouth. "Did I cause this thing, whatever it is, with Tim?" he asks hesitantly. "Am I the reason he's moving away from the team?"
"No," she shakes her head, certain this is not so. "I do not know what has caused this, but McGee has worked with us for too many years to have been so upset by one thing or even one person," she clarifies before Tony can interject. "We are missing something."
Gibbs' heavy footfall approaches them from the main hallway, but neither of them move despite their relaxed positions.
"Come on," Gibbs orders gently from the doorway.
Ziva feels as though her feet are drugged as she gathers her evidence and makes her way to the van.
Abby hears the two pairs of footsteps the second they exit the elevator. She realizes immediately that neither set belongs to McGee, so she doesn't bother to move from her stool where she sits with her chin in her hands.
"It's quiet in here," Tony sounds freakishly off balance as he observes.
"Don't feel like music," Abby's face pinches as she remembers anew why she doesn't even want to hear her new Farmer Death MP3s today.
"What is wrong, Abby?" Ziva prods, setting a heavy evidence box down on the table to Abby's back before coming to stand at her side.
"A part of me thinks that it can't be the same Timothy-no-middle-initial-McGee, except that it's a local bank and—"
"You found something in McGee's financials?" Tony sidles up to her other side.
"No," Abby drops her hands to her sides, only wishing that was all there was. "I found his name along with a Lila Johnson on an umbilical cord blood donation list. It says their donation to a cord bank is due in two months, but that would mean Timmy's had a pregnant girlfriend for seven months and—" she sighs heavily and wipes away the tears leaking out from the corners of her eyes. "It can't be true, right?" she looks between Tony and Ziva's stoic faces. "McGee would have told us if he were going to have a kid, wouldn't he?"
By the way Tony's face falls as she implores him, Abby already knows she's wrong. "We found out this morning," he confesses, "right before we left for the crime scene."
Ziva lays a hand on Abby's forearm, "I am sorry we did not think to say anything to you."
"The truth is we were caught off guard," Tony rubs a hand across her back.
She shrugs him off. "Off guard? Off guard? No," Abby stands and looks at them both, "Off guard is when you forget to shave your armpits for two days and then somebody spontaneously invites you to the beach. Off guard is when the guy next to you on the plane throws up all over his lap and there's no barf bag in front of you. Off guard is not when you find out one of your best friends is two months away from becoming a dad! That," she points to the small triangle between them, "that is unforgivable!" and she's breathless when she finishes.
And Tony opens his arms to her, and she catapults right into them. He holds onto her so tight that she knows the whole thing is true. She can feel in his grip of her that Tony feels how very suddenly and far Tim's fallen away from them, too. "How did this happen?" she whispers, and she swears she'll hit Tony so hard if he makes a joke about the birds and the bees.
It's almost worse when he doesn't. "I don't know," he confesses, arms still holding her tight. "I just don't know."
"I don't know if it's her," she whispers into Tony's neck, "but there's a history professor at Waverly named Lila Johnson."
"Redhead?" Tony asks in a puff of breath against her hair, and that makes it all that much more real.
Abby loosens her grip around Tony's shoulders, and he lets her go.
"We met her this morning," Tony tells her. "That's how it all came out. He wasn't even going to tell us," Tony grasps towards the ceiling like he's trying to understand it all.
"She has all these articles published, and a book!" Abby conveys what she's learned. "She travels all over the world to study source material and to lecture to international audiences. She's a real academic, and she's beautiful. She's perfect for Timmy," Abby feels her face scrunch up because yeah, she and McGee may have been more off-again than on-again in the last eight years, but it had always felt like there was that chance lying there and just waiting for her. Even during the whole thing with Simon, who was sweet and adorable and just really interesting, she'd always known she'd choose McGee if she'd had to choose between them. To think how proud she'd been of McGee that he didn't try to make her choose. She'd even started thinking lately that maybe it was time for the two of them because of how cool Timmy'd been during the whole Simon thing, but it so obviously is not time, and maybe will never be now. It probably never will be, she corrects herself, feeling her face fall.
"I always thought McGee and I would—" and she can't finish because how could she? It's so foolish in retrospect!
Tony's face pinches up at that, and he takes a step away from her. "I can guarantee you he never knew that because I sure as hell didn't!"
"Tony!" Abby ducks her head just a little. "He had to have known," but she bites her tongue because she knows it's not true. "Timmy knows he's my desert island person! I've told him a thousand times," and that's simply a fact.
"You want him on a desert island just not any other time, is that right?" Tony lays into her, eyes narrowed, jaw locked.
"Tony," Ziva's calm voice cuts between them like a tugboat through the water. "This is not helping."
Tony turns his glare to Ziva, and Abby can't help but feel the tension in her shoulders ease by a hair. "If he'd known that she—" Tony points to Abby.
"Then it may not have changed anything," Ziva fairly points out, but Tony just steps away from them both, shaking his head.
"You know how he felt—" Tony cuts himself off because McGee's feelings for Abby have never been something any of them have really talked about with one another.
"I understand," Ziva begins again, and Abby's eyes shoot towards the other woman—does she agree with Tony in his anger of Abby? "But we must be united on this if we have a hope of making him stay."
"Wait!" Abby shakes her head in alarm. "Where would McGee go? He wouldn't leave NCIS? That can't be what you mean, and she's got tenure at Waverly, so it'd be foolish of her to move away, so," she licks her lips, trying hard to believe in her argument.
"We believe McGee may be looking at other federal agencies," Ziva admits.
Abby shakes her head. "But he wouldn't. His dad was in the Navy, and Timmy never could be with his asthma and his seasickness, so this was the closest thing he could get to being in it," she implores them to agree with her.
"Yeah, well, Tim's moving on from everybody else. Why not his dad, too?" Tony interjects bitterly.
"No," Abby shakes her head once more, confident now. "Timmy always said being at NCIS was the only way he could reach out to his dad that would make his dad reach back. He's not going to give up on the best connection he has with his father."
But instead of giving them hope, Abby's words make Ziva's brow wrinkle and cause Tony to lean his back against the doorframe.
"Tim's tired of reaching for people who won't reach back," Tony purses his lips. "That's what this whole thing is." He shifts towards Ziva, "Did you see the way Lila just leaned into him today when he bent down to kiss her?" and oh! how Abby wishes she could just cup her hands over her ears, but she can't do anything but listen to Tony's description. "Lila meets him halfway, and we don't," Tony concludes. "That's what this whole thing is," Tony declares again.
"Tony," Ziva shakes her head sounding exhausted. "I hope you are wrong."
"But if we know what's wrong, we can fix it!" Tony steps off the wall towards Ziva.
"Some relationships cannot be repaired, Tony," Ziva blinks hard.
Abby studies the other woman's profile, belatedly remembering Ziva's distance from her own father.
"This one can," Tony insists, mouth twisted in determination, and just when Abby starts hoping with all her might that he's right, she realizes that he's only talking about his own friendship with McGee. She's going to have to create her own direction in order to keep Timmy close to her.
She sits back down on the stool thoughtfully, signs for the evidence when she's bid, and then barely listens as Tony and Ziva make their way back upstairs. She pops her favorite Death Splotch CD into the player and cranks it up loud. Gordon next door will complain, but she needs to stay pumped while she thinks up a plan.