The Morning After

He couldn't recall hearing the alarm go off at 0530 as it usually did but he must at some point in his sleep deprived state have reached over to stop the incessant buzzing. Usually when he did this he would activate the sleep function which would give him another 10 minutes, today however he must have caught the off button as when he eventually opened his blurry eyes and stared at the digital display it was flashing 0730 and he was late.

Quickly grabbing clean clothes out of the closet and pulling them on frantically, Tim noted the pile of clothes from the night before and quickly routed through there to grab his wallet and keys. He took his gun out of the lock box in the corner of the room and rushed out of the door. He wouldn't have time to get his usual coffee and the doughnut with sprinkles on.

As he pulled into the parking lot McGee reached over to the glove box to take the creds out of their usual storage spot. An increasing feeling of fear crept over him as he rummaged through the assortment of papers, empty food wrappers and CD's that littered the storage compartment. No badge was to be found. Trying to force a calmness to overcome him so that he could think, Tim tried to replay in his mind the last time he'd had them.

Memories of the night before came swimming back, the queue of traffic, the insistent Abby worrying about missing the start of the concert, the traffic cop dismissive of their reason for trying to get through the queue but ultimately disinterested, the stashing of his badge in his jeans pocket and going into the mosh pit. Forcing down the sickening lump rising in his throat he tried to continue, was the badge still in the jeans on the pile on the floor. If so he was ok, but the crushing memory of rummaging through the jeans to retrieve his wallet and the checking of all of the pockets for it made him realize that the badge was not there. Had he only dreamt about his use of them the night before. Perhaps he hadn't taken them home, perhaps they were still in his desk. This was more of a prayer than a hope but McGee needed something to cling to, to get him into that building where his boss would be waiting.

Already late for work and clearly already in a whole heap of trouble if Gibbs knew, Tim rushed into the building, practically ignoring Murray who was sat at Zivas computer and Tony who tried to speak to him.

He checked through the desk only looking up as Tony strode over to his desk to find out what was going on with the junior agent.

"What's the matter?" enquired Tony rather perplexed at the normally cheerful Probies lack of morning jollity.

"I can't find my badge and ID" blurted out Tim.

"Urgh, lost your creds that's serious," Tony said, his facing contorting with the thoughts of the reaction Gibbs was going to have when Tim told him.

"Yeah I know Tony I couldn't find them at home I was hoping I'd left them here" snapped back McGee, almost immediately realizing he was taking the anger at himself out on his friend and senior agent to boot.

"You are so screwed," helpfully added Tony trying to get across to his friend that he sympathized with his plight but clearly failing to do so.

"Thank God I didn't lose my building access card" added Tim, as if this made things any better, he thought to himself, he was so screwed, Tony was right.

"Lost creds initiate an automatic IG-2(b) investigation, that's almost as serious as losing your weapon, you didn't lose that too did you?" Once again Tony was thinking out loud and not necessarily helping the ever panicking Tim.

"You keep talking and I'll use it" Tim snapped back.

"Hey you gotta chill out alright, no need to report the loss if they're just gonna show up ok, you just need to think, visualize, when was the last time you saw them," Tony responded realizing that his comments were not really helping his friend but still a little hurt himself that Tim had threatened to shoot him.

"Tony I've tried that" replied Mcgee, only to be cut short by the arrival of Gibbs announcing they had a case at the apartment of a navy lieutenant whose flat had blown up killing the building manager in the process.

As they arrived at the scene Gibbs led the way leaving Tony and Tim at the rear of the NCIS truck gathering the kit. As usual Tony was letting Tim do the majority of the carrying (well in fact all of it) and was taking a note of the surroundings.

He took great pleasure in reporting to his Probie that the rookie cop who was on duty was taking a lot of care checking peoples badges as they entered the crime scene and with that he took off leaving Tim in his wake. Tony took care to demonstrate his creds to the rookie and when allowed entry turned to watch the approach of McGee. One thing, he thought to himself, the Probie has learned how to improvise over the years. He waited as Tim approached, arms full of kit they did not need and his note pad stuck in his mouth so that he could not be expected to speak clearly. Somehow he got through and Tony applauded him, but once in the building he took him to one side.

"First of all nice improvisation Probie, but you know you need to tell Gibbs, if he finds out you are on site without creds…." Tony was cut off.

"He won't find out Tony" spoke Tim in a rather muted voice but none-the-less through gritted teeth, "cos you're not gonna tell him."

"Oh Oh and why's that McLoser?" prodded Tony.

"Because if I tell him now, he will ask who else knew and if I'm being honest I would have to tell him that I had told the SFA on the team and then he's going to ask you why you didn't tell him either" retorted Tim.

Just as Tony was about to retaliate they heard Gibbs boom from the floor above,

"How about you two get your backsides up here and start doing some work or are you intending to look for a new job?"

Both agents raced up the stairs and started bagging and tagging evidence and taking photos and drawing diagrams of the area, their argument put to one side both having realized that neither of them would come out of this scenario with Gibbs without some painful reminder about telling him the truth and making sure they backed their partners up rather than set them up to fail.

With that, the two efficiently and quietly processed the crime scene, Tony even helped Tim carry the kit back to the vehicle, which was almost an unprecedented action. As he did so he took McGee to one side,

"Look I'm sorry about earlier," he began, "I could see you were stressed out and I wasn't helping, still a good move with the improvisation though."

Tim smiled weakly, "it's Ok Tony, I'm sorry too, I'm just so worried about telling Gibbs, he's going to kill me."

"Not as much as if we keep lying to him though…. look you need to tell him, I'll come with you for support and say that you reported it to me as the SFA on the team because he wasn't around." Offered Tony, "at least it might re-direct a bit of his anger towards me rather than all at you."

"You'd do that for me?" Tim was quite taken aback.

"Of course Probie its part of the job, I'm there when you decide you need to tell him."

The two rode back to the Navy Yard in almost absolute silence, Tony hoping that his Probie was going to do the right thing soon and Tim trying just one final time to think where on earth he had lost the Creds.

Once back in the bullpen the case hit full swing and Tim didn't really find the time to take Gibbs to one side to tell him, well that's what he kept telling himself anyway. Then the perfect opportunity to come clean presented itself. Gibbs requested McGee's attendance with him at the Pentagon.

Tim and Tony both stopped in their tracks. That was going to need the use of ID and a badge, now Tim had to tell Gibbs surely. Tony waited expectantly expecting the next words out of Gibbs mouth to be to tell them to both get their backsides into the conference room for a little conversation. However that did not come.

He stood there astounded as instead Tim compounded their situation by lying to the all-knowing Gibbs, their boss, their father figure, the man who above all else hated being lied to. Out of the corner of his eye Tony could see Gibbs patiently listening to Tims bumbling explanation of Abby needing his help with processing the bomb residue. Was Gibbs really going to buy that? he thought to himself. He waited for the explosion….. none came.

To his other side stood McGee, pulse racing so much and pounding so loudly that he swore the rest of the people in the bullpen could hear it. He couldn't believe what he had just said to Gibbs, it was if his mouth had just taken on a life of its own, it certainly did not appear to be connected to his brain anymore. He watched as Gibbs paused for a moment, he saw how Tony cringed clearly expecting their Boss to explode in someway. He almost saw a tinge of disappointment, did Gibbs know? But then suddenly he just accepted it as if it were perfectly natural.

Gibbs for his part felt that famous gut of his start to churn. Something was not quite right with the scene. Tim had been acting rather odd all day, the conversation he had interrupted this morning between Tony and Tim in the bullpen did not seem quite right and at the scene he'd had to shout at the two of them to get started and then on the ride back they had both been so quiet. Surely one of them would tell him if something was up, maybe everyone was just feeling the strain of not having Ziva around. It would all come out at some point, he just hoped that he would be able to fix whatever it was. With that he turned and headed for the elevator.