Dean walked into the bullpen later that morning to find McGee glaring at his computer. "What's up McGee?" he flopped into the chair kept beside McGee's desk and stared intently at the computer screen. "Techie problems? You?"
McGee scowled at him. "Believe it or not, I do run into a wall every now and then. Gibbs wants me to pull this sealed file from Fornell's server but I can't get at it. I've tried everything that I can think of and Gibbs is going to be back soon…" he cringed, he hated to disappoint Gibbs.
"Talk to Abbs yet?" Dean suggested softly. He knew how it could hurt a person's pride to need to ask for help in what was considered their field of expertise. McGee nodded in response; he and Abby had been brainstorming for twenty minutes.
Dean pushed McGee away from the keyboard, his wheely office chair spinning as he moved across the floor. A moment later Dean was clicking away, stroking keys faster than McGee had known he could. Sure, they talked tech fairly often, but Dean had yet to let anyone see his skills on a keyboard. It was something he seemed to feel embarrassed about, though McGee couldn't understand why.
All too soon Dean was shifting back from the desk. "There you go, file retrieved, no need to face an angry Boss Man." He leant back in his chair, leaning his head against the filing cabinet and crossing his arms.
McGee wheeled back to his desk, glancing through the information Dean had retrieved for him. "But how did you…? I didn't know you could hack!"
Dean's lips twitched into a smirk. "Come on Timmy, who do you think did all the hacking when Sam was away? Dad sure as hell couldn't do it. Who do you think taught Sammy in the first place for that matter?" The team knew the bare bones of how Dean had grown up, of the 'work' he had done before coming home to Abby. Gibbs had been the only one so far to realise he was a Hunter.
McGee nodded, staring at the computer screen. "Well sure I knew that but…I just never thought it out I guess. Why didn't Abby suggest I talk to you? She's been trying to help me get in there for twenty minutes."
Dean shrugged, looking away. "She knows I don't…like people to see that I can do that. All my life, I was the muscle, Sammy was the brains. It got to be simpler to not let on that we both excelled in more than one thing. People wouldn't believe it anyway, so why try, right? And then if we had to do something that was out of the norm…people would stare and make a big deal out of it." He shook his head. "So I don't let on."
Gibbs walked in, coffee in hand, before McGee could respond. "Got that file for me McGee?" he asked as he sat behind his desk, glancing curiously at Dean. He didn't often make his way to the bullpen.
"He sure did, just tidying it up a bit before he sends it to you." Dean responded, wandering over to the elevators. Forensic evidence was slow on this case, and he was hoping Abby might have time to have a morning tea break.
x x x
McGee waited until the elevator closed behind Dean before turning to Gibbs. "Gibbs…I didn't get that file for you. I'd hit a wall and couldn't fathom a way around it, neither could Abby when I called her about it. Dean glanced through what we'd tried so far and a few minutes later the file was open and downloading."
Gibbs turned to look at McGee, giving the younger agent his full attention. He didn't know why this had amazed the kid, he and Dean were forever talking about computer things. "And? I thought he knew the sort of things you and Abbs know? Why's this surprise you McGee?" he didn't know half of the stuff Abby and McGee did in the cyber world, and he didn't even try to pretend that he did. If McGee wanted him to be amazed, he would have to explain why.
"Sure, we talk about it a lot. Discuss the merits of different programs and things but Gibbs, knowing how computers and the internet work and being able to sit down and hack an FBI file are two very different things." McGee tried to explain without getting too technical on his boss. "It's like knowing you turn the key in the ignition to start a car versus pulling one completely apart, fixing something and putting it back together again."
Gibbs nodded slowly. "So he's more skilled with computers than he's let on. But he told us how he was raised, the things he did, so it's not that he's trying to hide that he's done illegal things in the past. Did he say why he hadn't let on about it?"
McGee nodded, emailing the file to Gibbs before walking over to his desk. He got the feeling that Dean wouldn't appreciate the whole bullpen overhearing this because he was too lazy to walk four feet so he could whisper.
"He said something about people thinking he was the muscle and his brother was the brains. It seems like whenever he showed how bright he is the reaction was poor. Eventually he just stopped letting people see it. He said he didn't tell us because it's habit to hide it now."
Gibbs sighed, wishing like hell he could travel back in time and slap John Winchester up the back of the head. He knew the man had loved his sons, but someone should have knocked some sense into him as to how to show those boys he loved them.
Dean was certain of himself in most areas of his life; his love for Abby, cars, guns and fighting, and he was sure lore was on that list. But when it came to other areas he was sorely lacking in any confidence at all. The Hunter knew he was a good hacker, but refused to let anyone see it because the reactions had always been poor. And for him to have received such reactions he had to have been portrayed in a certain way.
John had been proud of his eldest and his abilities as a Hunter, but had obviously talked up the ones he favoured and not mentioned anything he didn't find important. So whenever anyone else in Dean's life had witnessed his other skills they would have reacted in shock. Not having imagined he could do such things because he was, as he had told McGee, the muscle. Gibbs was sure that Dean, for his whole life, would have taken that shock as proof that people thought he couldn't do certain things because they thought he was dumber than Sam.