Disclaimer: Still, I don't own anything.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who has left a review; they really mean a lot to me. (: Here's McGee's chapter - I hope I was able to keep it in line with the show. I'm not entirely what all has been said about his stories, so.. Well, anyway, enjoy!


Six Years: McGee

McGee sighed, carefully placing the paper onto the pile. Writing was usually something easy for him to do - press the pen to the paper and let the words flow. Writing was fun, he liked it, and it came easily to him. Usually.

He had been working on this story for a little over six years now. He couldn't get an idea of a plot in his head, nor could he draw up an outline, and just letting the words flow sure as hell wasn't working for him. Just as he always based his characters on people he knew, McGee wanted to make a story around Kate - something that was becoming no easy feat. He found himself remembering new things about her as the years dragged on, whether from videos they'd taped or from some untapped place in his memory. Other things he couldn't find that he remembered so well, like what kind of comebacks she would always give Tony and the way she looked at him or Tony or Gibbs. He couldn't remember if she ever actually listened to Ducky's stories and he couldn't remember exactly what her reaction had been that one time that she had lost the coroner. It didn't matter how hard he racked his brain; McGee just couldn't remember.

He had about three tall stacks of failed attempts to get her character down and the story rolling. He had a relatively large pile of notes, too, every little thing that he remembered about her and that might prove to be relatively helpful somewhere down the line.

Despite the absolute failure of his project, he never gave up. McGee would get home after work, sit down at his laptop, and just type. Sometimes he stared at the blank Word document for what felt like years. Sometimes he typed and typed and typed until he had pages and pages, only to print them out and find so many errors in her character. It never felt like he was reading about Kate. It felt like he was reading about a stranger. And if he couldn't even tell it was supposed to be Kate, how could he expect anyone else to?

One day, he would get it right. One day, he would get it close enough to be acceptable as a worthy tribute to her life. One day, he would be able to read over the work he did and be proud, and know that she would be proud of him too.

McGee had no idea how far or how close 'one day' was. All he knew was that he was determined to keep trying until he reached it.