The drive back to the Navy Yard was ominously silent on Tim's part. Tony and Ziva had their usual bantering and even tried to pull Tim into it, but it was obvious that the youngest of the three junior team members had been dropped back down into that ocean of anger he'd been drowning in when he'd started work earlier. In the small confines of the car, it seemed to crackle in the air around them making the atmosphere thick and cloying despite their attempts at alleviating it.

The boss felt like he'd been sucker punched. Did McGee just say what he thought he'd said? Putting every ounce of himself into driving, his mind still insisted on going through the questions that refused to stop beating at his mind until they were answered.

Was all of this adding up to what it seemed to be adding up to? Was it possible? Was there any way to help McGee? Why didn't that that kid talk to him about it to begin with!

***NCIS***

"Wanna tell me why NCIS is being called into an adoption case? Why the hell would an adoption agency be calling me about one of your agents?" Leon Vance was practically shouting now as he stood toe to toe with his best Agent. "Gibbs, I don't know what the hell is going on but I sure as hell want answers."

"Well I don't know, Leon. Why don't you tell me what they wanted." Gibbs remained outwardly calm despite his gut screaming at him that this little piece of the mysterious puzzle was an answer as to what was bothering Tim. He also couldn't help the feeling that it was going to spell trouble.

"Wanted to know if we could verify whether Agent McGee is fit to raise a child with the job he has."

"What? Tell me, you didn't sell McGee out like that!" Gibbs snapped out angrily.

"No, Gibbs. I didn't and I wouldn't. What I did do, is tell them that they needed to get in here and talk to us face to face so we could figure out what the hell is going on. Don't know what led me to tell them that, since this isn't the public welfare office, but…"

"Leon, it's more complicated than that." Gibbs reassured the man quickly.

"Oh? You know what's going on? Because I sure as hell don't. You know I don't like it when I don't know what's happening under my nose in my own agency, Gibbs." Vance bit out with the anger he was still feeling at getting the phone call and being left in the dark.

"Relax, Leon, I don't know exactly what's going on."

"But, you do know something." Vance stated succinctly and kept his almond eyes firm on the team leader. "You better start talking."

"What I do know, Leon, is that McGee came in to work this morning more pissed than we've ever seen him before." Gibbs sat down in the nearest chair. "And he said something out at the scene about thinking that the situation was something that only happened to him."

"What?" Vance sat down in his own chair. That wasn't what he expected; hell, he didn't know what he was expecting but that statement shocked him.

"Culpepper said he only took the baby because he just found out that the boy was his. Turns out the girlfriend lied to him by telling him she wasn't pregnant when she was. She had he kid and put it up for adoption without the fathers knowledge or consent."

"Culpepper was the father and he had no say in anything?"

"Yeah. Apparently, the adoption agency had no knowledge of the real father's identity and went ahead with the adoption. Now it's finalized, Culpepper would have to fight it out in court to get that boy back. He can't afford a lawyer so he went about it the only way he could think of to gain custody and bring his son up himself."

"And McGee said he thought that situation only happened to him?"

"Uh huh." Gibbs answered and nodded once.

"He said that to your kidnapper?" Vance asked angrily at the fact that a member of NCIS had let their emotions fumble when professionalism was needed.

"C'mon, Leon, my agents wouldn't do anything so stupid. The guy was already in custody and being put in the car by then. McGee was busy packing everything up and said it when he thought he was alone."

"But you heard him because you have excellent hearing." Vance observed dryly. "Guess I need to be careful of what I say in the future."

Gibbs remained silent on that given fact.

"Gibbs, I'm gonna need to talk to him about this before they get here." Vance warned. "He can't go in blind."

"No. if you talk to him he's gonna feel ambushed. Let me talk to him first." Gibbs countered stubbornly. "I can get through to him."

"Fine. But make it fast. They'll be here in two hours."

Gibbs nodded and headed out of the Director's office to make his way to the conference room. Once inside, he took out his phone and walked over to the nearest chair hitting the speed dial for the person he needed. After issuing his quiet order, he tossed the phone on the table and sat back to take a moment to take in the new information and figure out a way of trying to talk to Tim without scaring the kid off or making him clam up completely.

***NCIS***

Tony, Ziva and Tim remained steadily typing up their reports, none of them speaking into the quiet that had descended on them after Gibbs had gone up to the Director's Office. Both of them knew something had sent Tim off and although they had no clue what it was, they did seem to believe that leaving him alone was what they needed to do.

Into the quiet, the shrill of Tim's cell phone rang clear. "Agent McGee."

"Conference Room 2. Now ."

Tim snapped his phone shut and headed out of the squad room without a word or a backward glance.

"What the hell's up with that?" Tony asked.

"I do not know, Tony. But whatever it is, it is not our business unless McGee makes it our business, yes?"

"You know I hate it when you're right, right?" Tony grumbled.

"I know. But think of it this way. The sooner we get our reports on this case done, the sooner you can find something else to do to amuse yourself while we await the next case, yes?"

"Now you're talkin'!" Tony enthused as he dove back into his work.

***NCIS***

Tim felt his heart sink more and more as he walked to the conference room. His anger had already reached fever pitch on several occasions leaving him feeling as though he was walking that fine line of keeping his emotions in check and blowing completely. His gut felt heavy and churned at the thought that Gibbs probably just wanted to call him out on his attitude over the day and just wanted to do it privately to give him some time to think and talk if need be. He guessed he should be thankful for the small mercies the boss was showing him in that regard.

Come to think about it, getting called to the conference room as privately as he had was a huge leap in Gibbs' book because usually discretion flew out of the window and it was a quiet word at desks or a bellow across the squad room…that was unless the favorite meeting room of Gibbs' choice was available, then a trip to the elevator was the call of the day. Despite counting himself lucky about the change in events, Tim's gut filled with dread at what was coming next. He grasped the handle of the door and paused briefly before biting the bullet and walking in.

"Close the door, Tim . Take a seat." The boss directed quietly.

As Tim sank down into the chair opposite Gibbs, he noted the older man's tone and use of his given name; both unusual occurances in their own right. Something was definitely up. Oh, God, was he being fired? Oh, crap! He knew he should have gotten a better handle on his anger this morning! Damn it!

Gibbs watched the panic rise in his agent and wondered what he was thinking to bring it on.."Calm down, McGee. Just need to clear something up."

Tim did breathe easier at those words, but his nerves were still feeling raw and stretched thin. Even before walking into the conference room, it wouldn't have taken much to snap that tenuous hold but this conversation was making him feel more exposed.

"What's this about, Boss?" he finally managed to ask nervously.

Gibbs smiled softly. He hadn't heard this much nervousness in McGee in years. The tension the young man was feeling was fairly evident and it was easy to see that this didn't need to be prolonged any longer than necessary.

"Need you to tell me what's going on with you." Gibbs said quietly even as the look in his eyes clearly showed that he knew more than Tim thought he did.

Tim swallowed hard and looked down at the table in front of him. After a minute of tense silence, the quiet was broken with an unusually soft encouragement.

"McGee?"

Tim looked up at him. "Boss, I don't know what you want me to say." He said cautiously.

"And here I thought I was the only one that happened to." Gibbs quoted hoping that it would be the catalyst for Tim to open up and explain what he had meant by the statement.

Tim's face lost all color as he was hit with the realization that the boss had heard his words. They had been spoken in a moment of pained frustration when their case hit to close to home for him. "Boss, I'm sorry." Was the only thing he could think to say as he sat there at a complete loss.

"Talk to me. What's going on with you?" The soft request surprised Tim slightly and he looked up to see Gibbs gazing at him softly rather than glaring. There was a concerned interest about what was going on and for an instant, Tim saw what kind of father the older man had been.

The young man sat back in his chair and breathed out a sigh of frustrated relief. He hadn't wanted it to become part of who he was at work but it was obvious that there was no avoiding it now. Now, he'd be the laughing stock of the agency the minute Abby or Tony found out. Wait, this wasn't Abby or Tony. This was Gibbs. And Gibbs kept his secrets.

"Boss, can this stay just between us, please?" Tim asked worriedly.

"Not sure I can promise you that, McGee. Director's already hot under the collar since some adoption agency called him to verify what you've told them?"

"Oh, God!" Tim muttered. "Now, I'll never live this down."

"Live it down?" Gibbs asked harshly. This wasn't the response he wanted and it pissed him off."That's what you're worried about? Damn it, McGee I think you'd better start from the beginning."

"Okay. But, first, Boss. You have to know that it's too late to change anything. I've accepted it. It hurts…really hurts; but there's nothing I can do about it. I don't even know why they'd call anyone about me." Tim said with a heavy air of resignation. "It doesn't make any sense."

Gibbs felt his anger dissappating in the face of his agent's personal pain. It was plain to see that this was not something Tim was taking lightly. In fact, if the boss had taken a minute to recall the young man's behavior and mood throughout the day; he realized now, he'd have known that without question.

"Okay, McGee. Just take me through what happened." Encouragement was the only way to go in this situation, but it wasn't hard at this point and all the team leader had to do was try and keep Tim on an even keel.

"You remember a while back when the girl I was dating turned out to be crazy enough to get off on going through my mail and getting credit cards in my name and charging tons of stuff in my name?" Tim asked and let his mind travel back to the situation 15 months ago.

Abby "McGee."

McGee "Yeah."

Abby "Did you know it is 365 steps from my lab to your desk? I'm trying to get my blood pumping. What's wrong with you?"

McGee "Nothing"

Abby "OK this is a new caffeine-free non-jittery Abby. Still waters, deep. You're hiding something and I seek it. Speak."

McGee "I've been seeing this girl."

Abby "Oh. That's...nice."

McGee "No actually it's not nice. She uh..stole my mail and took out $65,000 in pre-approved credit cards in my name."

Abby "Wow you have really good credit."

McGee "Like a score of 750. Was."

Abby "So this is like the best worst love story ever?"

McGee "Abby, what do I do? It's like I'm nuts for this girl, and she's just... nuts."

Abby "She stole your heart but she stole your money. Arrest her."

McGee "That's the thing; that's what she wants. She admitted everything to me." He takes out a paper from his desk drawer and hands it to Ab.)

Abby "That is a check for $65,000."

McGee "Yeah, her father is Ernest Lenord. He's worth billions. She does this for fun. She's been arrested twice, she steals people's money, she buys things."

Abby "The crazy ones are the best?"

"I remember." The boss interrupted Tim's trip down memory lane. "You asked Abby's advice and she told you to have her crazy ass arrested before she did it to anyone else."

"Yeah, and I stupidly told her I kinda digged the girl's wild side. I still did as Abby suggested and had her charged. But…."

"But, what, McGee. Just spit it out. We don't have a lot of time here." Gibbs coaxed hoping Tim would get to the point. He didn't like the thought of going in to this meeting blind.

"Why not? What's going on, Boss?"

"Just tell me what happened, McGee."

"Let's just say, when we had that case a while before that, with the surrogate parents and Abby suggested we do a search for all my past girlfriends in case I had a kid I didn't know about, I shouldn't have been so quick to blow the idea off."

ABBY: It's just so sad, you know? You have a son you never knew about for all those years. And then right when you find out. Oh, it doesn't seem fair. Maybe you should call all your old girlfriends, you know, just to check.

MCGEE: That won't take long. What I mean is, I can't imagine any of them having a baby without telling me…

Tim took a deep breath as he blinked at looked at his boss now. Looking the older man straight on, he let him in."I was wrong, Boss."