A/N I was going to wait to post this until I had chapter three sent to my beta, but I decided that it's more important to give anyone who needs or wants distraction today something to read.

When Timothy McGee went to work the next day, he was in a bit of a distracted fog. He was glad it was a paperwork day.

Until his partner, Tony DiNozzo, grew bored and started pushing for information.

"Will you just lay off, Tony?!" Tim begged. Gibbs had gone upstairs to meet with the Director, and Tony had started pitching idea after ridiculous idea about where McGee had gone the day before. It was a familiar pattern of teasing, one Tim had grown used to since he knew it was one way Tony showed affection, but this whole fatherhood thing was just too fresh and unnerving to roll with the banter.

"Timmy! How did it go? How's Philip?" Abby Scuito asked as she clomped into the squad room in her platform boots.

Tim wanted to bang his head on his desk.

"Oo! Who's Philip?" Tony asked, putting an awful innuendo on Tim's newly discovered son's name.

"That's enough, DiNozzo!" Tim snapped. He stood up and stared at Tony. "Philip is my son, alright? I just found out about him, and-"

"There's a mini-McGee toddling around? That's adorable! Who's the mother? You've been holding out on-"

"Cut it, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, stopping the barrage of questions. The older man came down and approached Tim. "How's he doing?"

McGee looked around. "He got his memory back."

"That fast? Oh my God that's great!" Abby exclaimed.

"The moment his boyfriend showed up," Tim admitted, smiling.

"Wait, mini-McGee is gay?" Tony asked.

Tim rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Tony."

"But... How old is he?"

"Twenty."

"But you were a virgin when you met us! Abby plucked your flower, popped your cherry, made sweet, sweet-"

Tim rolled his eyes and decided to ignore Tony. He focused on Gibbs and Abby.

"Lukas, his boyfriend, is really protective. And his foster parents are great. The boys have an apartment in New York, in the city. Philip is in school for photography," McGee said. There was just so much that he'd learned in such a short time. "He said he wants to stay in touch. I...I get to try to get to know my son..."

Abby hugged him, and Gibbs slapped him on the back.

Tony's desk drawer slammed and he was suddenly there beside Abby, a genuine smile on his handsome face.

"Congratulations, Daddy," DiNozzo said, holding out a cigar. "It's a boy!"

The NCIS crew laughed.

~~NCIwitness~~

"Thanks for staying," Philip said. Sitting in a diner with Lukas, Helen, and Gabe having breakfast seemed like a strangely normal thing, and made the previous week feel like a dream. Or a nightmare, really.

Except that Philip now had a father.

Of course he had had a father but since he had never known him, had never even been told his name, it was as if he hadn't.

"Well it isn't as if we had to come from Tivoli or something. We were in the city working with the police to try to find you," Helen said, shrugging, ever the nonchalant pragmatist. Philip looked at Gabe and saw the overwhelming emotion in his foster father's eyes that always more than made up for Helen's stoicism.

His eyes slid to his right and caught Lukas staring at him as if he could devour him to keep him safe, and Philip tilted his head and smiled a tiny, private smile at him. Lukas' mouth twisted and he rolled his eyes, but Philip understood everything that Lukas didn't say. When Lukas had broken down and cried for a few moments the night before, Philip knew how epic that was. He'd seen Lukas finish a motocross race dry-eyed with a broken collarbone and dislocated wrist; he knew how tough his boyfriend was.

"We can stay as long as you want," Gabe said. Philip nodded.

"I really just want to go home as soon as possible. I don't think I ever want to come back to Washington DC again."

"But... Your Dad is here," Lukas protested. Philip's eyes widened.

"Dad... Well, he's my biological father but I don't think I want to call him my Dad."

"Fine. Tim, or whatever. You do want to see him again, right?"

Philip glanced at Helen and Gabe, not entirely comfortable discussing it in front of them.

"I guess we can get to know each other in different cities. I mean, he's obviously a tech guy. I need to get back to school. I was only supposed to be gone a few days and... Oh shit, the mugger took all my equipment! How am I supposed to go to photography classes with no equipment?" Philip's mind churned. Not only all his gear, but his phone as well as his wallet with his debit card. He groaned. "Everything is a mess..." He covered his head and slumped.

"Hey. Hey," Gabe said. "You're safe. You got your memory back. Everything else is just stuff. You are what's irreplaceable, Philip."

"And look, man, your fath-er, Tim, he's like a serious cop, right? Maybe he can track your stuff and help with the card and shit," Lukas added. "I'll call him, okay?" The tall young man stood.

"Lukas, finish your breakfast," Helen protested.

"Nah. I'm done. I'm gonna go outside and call."

Philip looked after Lukas and sighed again.

"He went crazy looking for you," Gabe told him. Philip nodded. He didn't even want to imagine how hard it must have been for Lukas. Philip knew, after all the twists and turns their relationship had taken, even when it had ended for a while, that he was Lukas' rock.

Philip just felt overwhelmed by the thought of having to replace all that had been taken from him.

"So Tim says we should meet him at lunch time. He wants to help take care of everything," Lukas said as he slid back into the booth beside Philip.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Philip asked.

"I don't know, but he gave me an address. I say we go and see what he can do."

Philip nodded. Sometimes it was just easier to let Lukas take the lead.

~~NCIwitness~~

McGee got the okay to leave as soon as he got off the phone with Lukas. He searched for information on the school and program Philip was in, and found a store that sold the equipment he'd need. On his way to that store, he stopped and picked up the latest model cell phone and brought it with.

At the camera boutique, he had the employees get every piece of suggested hardware the school's web site listed and have them ready for Philip to sort through for what he wanted. Then he spent the rest of the time while he was waiting for Philip to arrive canceling the boy's debit card and arranging for a new one to be delivered to his home address and looking at laptop computers online that might be right for Philip in case that had also been stolen.

When Philip arrived with Lukas in tow, Tim was a little relieved that Helen and Gabe weren't with them.

But Philip didn't want Tim to buy him all the supplies as he'd planned to.

"This isn't your responsibility to do, Tim," Philip protested.

"I... I have a lot of time to make up for, and-"

"Throwing money around won't make up for you not being there," the boy replied.

McGee shook his head. "No. It won't. But I have the money to help you get back to where you were before last week and if I can do that, then we can talk about starting from there to get to know each other."

Philip turned and walked out, but Lukas stayed and pointed out which items Philip had lost from the gear on the counter. Tim paid for them and gave Lukas the cell phone, too.

"Thank you, Lukas," Tim said. The boy sighed.

"I just want things to go back to normal. My season is over, so I can start my online classes again. We're going home, probably tomorrow. He's worried about school. This stuff will help."

"I want to help however I can. And I really want to get to know you guys."

Lukas looked around. "I think he wants that, too, but..."

"I won't push."

The boy shook his head. "Sometimes you gotta push."

Tim nodded and watched Lukas walk out after Philip.

He'd do anything he needed to to do right by them. He just needed to find out what that was.

He followed slowly.

~~NCIwitness~~

"Here," Lukas said, handing Philip the bags of camera stuff.

"What?! You just let him-"

"You need it. You need it for school, okay?"

Philip huffed and turned his head away. "I don't know what to do with this guy."

Lukas took Philip's hand. "Give him a chance. Right now, he's trying to help, dude. We should let him."

Philip pursed his lips. "Looks like you already did," he said sourly, swinging the bags. Lukas shrugged and took them back.

"Let me carry those. You got stabbed."

Philip chuckled at the reminder of how many times he'd said the same thing to Lukas two years before when he'd been shot. And then in the time since when Lukas was injured from bike wrecks or strains from training.

"So, you guys gonna let me take you to lunch?" Tim asked as he came up behind them.

They shared a look. "Yeah. Okay," Philip said.

"Great!"

~~NCIwitness~~

Tim McGee, Philip's father, was unflaggingly upbeat and enthusiastic. Lukas had no idea how Philip had ended up quiet and cynical with Anne's optimism and Tim's positivity.

Well, he did understand it. He'd heard of nature versus nurture, and nurture was for the win on that one.

Lukas watched as Tim doggedly asked questions and ended up telling them stories about Philip's paternal family when Philip was unforthcoming about himself.

As they finished eating, Tim grew serious.

"I only knew Annie briefly. Can you tell me about her?"

"Anne."

"She stopped using the diminutive. Okay. Anne."

Philip looked away, and Lukas put his hand on his thigh under the table, trying to be supportive.

"She said we didn't have any family. It was always just us."

"So she never mentioned her brother, your uncle, Jeff?"

Philip shook his head.

"I'd...I'd like to try to get in touch with him. We went to college together for a semester. He was older than me. Lived on my floor in the dorm," Tim offered. "I'll let you know how it goes and you can decide if you want to have contact with that part of your family. You may have a lot of blood relatives on that side, I don't know."

Philip frowned.

"If there's family of Anne's, why weren't they there when Philip was a kid? Why weren't they at the funeral?" Lukas asked resentfully.

Tim looked sad. "I don't know. Anne was sixteen when I met her. We both were. Some families don't react well to teenaged pregnancy."

"I thought you said you met her when you were in college," Lukas said.

"Yeah. I went early."

Philip kept sneaking times to study Tim, and Lukas recognized that he was trying to figure the guy out. Lukas hoped that Tim would end up awesome. So far he hadn't even blinked at them being gay, so that was something.

"Why don't you, um, tell us about you," Lukas suggested when the silence started to feel weird.

"Oh, sure. Okay," Tim said, then spent a while telling them about being the son of a Navy officer and moving a lot and disappointing his dad and becoming a cop. He talked more about his team at work than he had about his family.

"Gabe built a boat, too," Philip offered when Tim talked about Gibbs building boats in his basement.

"Yeah? That's pretty cool that we both have someone in our life who builds things. I'm not a water guy at all myself."

"Seasick, you said?" Philip asked. Lukas wanted to cheer. He could see Philip starting to open up a little.

"Yeah. Bad. And, um, I write. I'm a novelist."

Philip's eyes narrowed and he looked closely at Tim, who seemed a little uncomfortable with the admission.

"I don't know if your mom was creative, so I figured I would let you know you have some of that through me," Tim hurried on.

"You...you're successful. Aren't you," Philip said. Lukas looked at him, unsure how he could have known that.

Tim nodded. "So...I really, um, if you need anything, I really do want you to ask."

Tim's eyes flicked to Lukas for a split second and then he focused on Philip, leaning in.

"I don't know how to say that I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm so glad to get to be a part of your life now, but I understand that you've gone through a lot of stuff that sucks. I want to know you. I want to be there for you. Do you think you're going to let me do that?"

Philip bit his lip. "I don't... I don't need a dad."

Tim's face fell.

"But I think we can try to, um, be friends."

The smile that lit Tim's face at that made him look almost their age. Lukas squeezed Philip's leg in support, and Philip covered his hand and squeezed back.

When they were done with lunch, they split up outside, but before they parted ways, Tim shook both their hands, and Philip thanked him for buying him the phone and camera equipment.

Lukas and Philip walked to Lukas' truck and they agreed that Tim was pretty okay.