Chapter 2
Tim came into work on Monday still feeling excited. He'd called his family over the weekend and celebrated with them. There were other things he had to worry about, but for the moment, he was happy about this one thing.
In fact, he couldn't keep himself from smiling as he walked to his desk. He'd tried to suppress his giddy feeling, but it was in vain. Gibbs came walking in as Tim sat down. Tony and Ziva hadn't arrived yet.
"It went well?" Gibbs asked with a raised eyebrow.
Tim couldn't help it. He grinned...and nodded.
"I still have to wait to hear about the essay part, but they don't look at those as much as the other two anyway."
Gibbs smiled.
"Well?"
"Perfect 170 on the Quantitative and 165 on the Verbal. That's lower than I wanted it to be but it's still in the 95th percentile."
"So...you missed five points and you're not happy with it?" Gibbs asked.
"Well...I could have probably done better, studied a little bit more and..."
Thwack!
"McGee, your score means that you did better than 95 percent of the other people taking this test."
Tim laughed. "I know...and I'm glad I did so well. I just always think that I could have done a little bit better."
"So...what's going to happen once you get into grad school and you're doing assignments...or whatever you do in grad school?"
"I'll either learn how to deal with it or I'll fail," Tim said. "This isn't a replacement for my job here, Boss. If you think I'm not cutting it, tell me...which I'm sure you would anyway...and I'll either step it up or I'll step out."
Gibbs nodded as the elevator dinged and Tony and Ziva came in together.
"You look happy, McGee."
"I had a good weekend, Tony," Tim said, knowing what Tony would think.
"What's her name? Or did you finally pass a really hard level of some computer game?"
Tim just smiled.
"Wouldn't you like to know, Tony? I see you and Ziva came in together."
Tony looked at Ziva, giving her an exaggerated leer. She rolled her eyes and walked to her desk. Tim hadn't told her anything, either, but he could generally rely on her to back him up in razzing Tony. She would join in with Tony in razzing him given the opportunity; so he tried to bypass that.
"Yes, I was running a bit behind this morning and so Tony and I arrived at the same time."
Tim smiled. He saw Gibbs suppress a smile at his diversion. Tim would be happy to tell them...later...when there was no chance of them teasing him about something that secretly worried him. For now...well, he could now start thinking about his next step.
Applying to his grad schools of choice.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Two weeks later...
Tim sat staring at his phone. It had been more than a decade. What were the odds that his master's advisor would remember him after all this time? He'd likely had dozens of students over the years, if not hundreds. Tim was only one of many. Maybe he should send an email first? No. Tim remembered very clearly Dr. Mallon's feelings on communication by email: a necessary evil. He tended to ignore emails if he felt the conversation would be better suited to actual speech.
Okay. He'd checked for Dr. Mallon's office hours. He was sitting outside NCIS. Tony and Ziva were off conducting interviews on their latest case. Tim himself had left a phone searching running. He had time. Okay. No more stalling. He dialed.
The phone rang and rang and rang.
"Hello, this is Dr. Mallon's office. I'm not in right now. Leave your name, number and a brief message and I'll call you back. Emphasis on brief."
Tim smiled. He hadn't changed a bit. There was a beep.
"Hi, Professor Mallon. This is Tim McGee. You were my Master's supervisor about thirteen years ago. I'm going to be applying to get into a doctorla program and I was hoping you remembered me well enough to write a letter of recommendation for me. Uh...that's it. My number is 555-2157. Thanks."
Tim hung up and let out a loud exhalation. No going back now. He decided to head in, but his phone rang before he'd taken more than ten steps toward the building. He checked the number. Dr. Mallon. He answered quickly and walked back to the bench.
"This is Tim McGee," he said.
"Tim! You're going back to school? Finally going to get that terminal degree?"
"Finally?" Tim repeated. He couldn't remember ever hearing Dr. Mallon so excited about anything that was alive.
"I never could understand why you stopped. Your ideas were ingenious. Out of date now, of course. You'll have to start over, but that doesn't matter. I'm sure you'll come up with something. Where are you applying?"
"Uh...well, I'm going to try for Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon. They're in DC. I'm a federal agent here and I'm not leaving my job."
"You're going to do both?" Dr. Mallon asked skeptically.
"Well, that's my plan. I'm not doing this to make a name for myself, Dr. Mallon. I don't need it to do my job. That's not what this is about."
"Then, why, Tim?"
Tim hesitated...but Dr. Mallon had never betrayed Tim's confidence.
"Because I want to do more with my life than just be content with what I already know."
A moment of silence.
"I knew there was a reason you were one of my favorite students. You're always unexpected. Keeps an old guy like me on my toes."
Tim actually blushed. "I was one of your favorites?"
Dr. Mallon laughed. "You couldn't tell? Nevermind, of course, you couldn't. Yes, you were."
"I wasn't even sure you'd remember me," Tim admitted.
"Well, I do, and I'm more than happy to write a letter for you. Who else are you getting?"
"My current employer...if I can get him to write more than a word or two. I'm not sure about the third. The computer work I've been doing isn't academic at all and really there's no one I can could go to as a reference."
"Have you considered Jorgenson? You did independent study with him one summer as I recall."
"I didn't think of him."
"Why not?"
"I only ever did that one course with him. It was just because I liked the topic."
"Ask him. He'll do it. Or what about your advisor from Johns Hopkins? Biomedical engineering may not be what you're going to focus on, but it will show your versatility. You're not the typical grad student at this point, Tim. That can work for you or against you. You need to make it work for you. Stand out, even though I know that's not necessarily your preference. These are people who get sometimes hundreds of application in each academic year. You need to stand out as someone they'll think about and want to try out."
"Who do you think would be better?" Tim asked, easily falling back into the old pattern of mentor-mentee.
"Who was your advisor at Johns Hopkins?"
"Brad Miller."
"Hmmm...well, I've heard of him at least. Any ideas about your choice of specialty?"
"Still deciding, but I've been thinking about the areas of cybersecurity and...well, uh..."
"What is it, Tim? You suddenly sound like a teenager again."
Tim laughed. "I feel like one."
"What is it?"
"Well, I've been interested in creating ciphers...breaking ciphers..."
"Hacking?"
"Is it hacking if I'm doing it as part of my job?"
"I'll stay away from commenting on that, I think. It's a hot topic; so you have options. Send me the info and I'll make sure I write you an amazing recommendation. Send me your resume and c.v., too. I might as well be up on everything, and when you get admitted, make sure you keep in touch if you have the time to breathe between your job and school."
"Will do," Tim said. "Thanks, Dr. Mallon."
Tim hung up and smiled. That had gone better than he could have ever thought. Things were slowly falling into place and if he could get a hold of Dr. Miller, he be able to get all of this done in time to apply for the next school year. Then, he could tell the others about all that he was planning. ...and hope that they wouldn't be mad at him for keeping it a secret.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
One week later...
Tim walked to Gibbs' door and knocked before he could talk himself out of it. NCIS was what he'd been doing for the last ten years. No way could he avoid getting a letter of recommendation from his boss. He'd mentioned it to Gibbs once but hadn't followed through...and he couldn't do it at work where Tony and Ziva might overhear.
Still, he was nervous.
The door opened.
"McGee."
"Hi, Boss."
Gibbs seemed a little amused.
"What do you need, Tim?"
"Well, I mentioned a letter of recommendation a couple of weeks ago..."
Gibbs stepped back.
"Come on in."
"Uh...okay."
Tim followed Gibbs inside and sat down on the couch.
"So you really are going through it, huh?"
"Yeah. I've already got my applications all ready to submit. I've got two of my old professors writing letters, but I need three...and I've been working for you for the last ten years. I need to have your recommendation."
Gibbs smiled.
"You worried that I'll say no?"
"Yeah...a little."
"You don't think I would give you a good recommendation?"
Tim debated whether or not he should confess his true worry...but Gibbs was still sitting there, waiting.
"I think you would...if you actually did it, Boss. You have to submit it online."
Tim was worried for a minute that Gibbs would be irritated, but then he smiled.
"You may have a point. How soon do I have to figure this out?"
Tim smiled with more than a little relief.
"About a month at most. The sooner, the better."
"Okay. I'll do it, Tim. I'll get it done. If I can't figure it out, I'll ask you."
"Okay. Thanks, Boss."
"Still not going to tell anyone else?"
"Not yet. Not until I know that I've made it."
"What if you don't?"
Tim shrugged.
"I'll be disappointed, but at least I won't have to deal with Tony in addition to being disappointed."
"Well, good luck, Tim."
"Thanks, Boss. Really. I appreciate it...since I'm pretty sure you don't get why I'm doing this."
Gibbs didn't respond to that. He just stood up, signaling to Tim that it was time to leave. Tim left.
When he got home, he woke up his computer, signed in...and submitted his applications.