#4 The Drill: 6 years as Director (2028)

Tim watched as Lainey slowly and carefully placed a Jenga™ log in place. They all held their breaths as the structure swayed but did not collapse. Lainey exchanged a fist bump with her cousins Henry and Talia, Ziva and Brian's children, who along with their little sister Grace were spending part of a long holiday weekend with their uncle, aunt, cousins and grandparents while their parents had some time to themselves. Born the same day although a year later than the McGee twins Lainey and DJ, five year old Talia looked like her mother and was as carefree as a child could be. In contrast 3 year old Grace was a redhead with freckles, a Metzger through and through and as her Poppy said, quite possibly the most curious kid on the planet.

Startled from his thoughts by sirens on their usually quiet street, Tim looked at the news. There was a house fire a couple of miles away; the family of four and their pets had gotten out safely. The McGees had no pets, between Tim, Andy, Jorry, Zoe and Lainey there were too many asthmatic, allergic people in the family to have a dog or cat, even a parakeet had proved to be a problem! However the main house had 2 dogs, Digs and Toby, rescued from shelters and although they belonged to the MFH and the foster kids, both canines regarded everyone who lived on the property as theirs.

Tim later read the details of the family's evacuation, nodding as he saw they'd had practice fire drills and everyone had stuck to the plan. That was good; the MFH had state mandated fire drills and whoever was occupying the suites at the time also had to participate. Tim and Lina had drawn up a plan years ago and discussed it with the children, posted it upstairs and downstairs and had practices. Practice had become more important to everyone after the Powells had a small kitchen fire a few months back, Sarah's latest attempt at cooking. George was home with her and the kids; while Sarah got her children out of the house, calling 911, her father-in-law doused the fire with an extinguisher. The fire trucks arrived in less than 4 minutes, much to the delight of every child on the property.

Tim didn't know exactly why the news of the fire or thinking of the fire at his sister's triggered the thought but there it was. They'd had fire drills and disaster drills at HQ, nobody who'd been there had ever forgotten Harper Dearing's bomb back in 2012, and the agency participated in annual disaster drills within the District and as mandated by Congress but he didn't recall any NCIS only disaster drills off site and he decided it was about time for one. He thought back to his time on Gibbs' team and remembered a plane crash with scattered, broken caskets and a missing body. That was in a remote area and the first responders arrived by helicopter; he did not want to pay for use of one or more helicopters for a drill. Something involving ships? No, Navy and Marine personnel involvement should be as minimal as possible. Maybe land movement - troop movement by land? Probably Marines then and something that would take 3-4 hours. Trucks or rail? Trucks meant shutting down public roads; even if done in the wee hours of the morning it would be tricky and costly. Rail then. A simulated crash, cause unspecified, with a few, maybe between 50-80 'trapped, injured or dead' Marines.

He mentioned it to Lina that night and she looked at him, "What kind of drill?"

"A train…troop movement. Be easier to set up. A train wreck, I bet that would work."

"And what's the purpose?"

"Response time, preparedness, who organizes and takes point of multiple teams. We have a lot of young agents at HQ and on Matt's teams, I want to see how they do. The older agents have responded to enough real life disasters in the past 20 years but most of the younger ones haven't had the experience yet and we have more and more of them – agents, not disasters."

"Wouldn't you be the one to organize and take point?"

"Not necessarily. In a real disaster I might not be there yet or I could be away; anyway not for the purposes of the drill. I need to plot this out!"

"Tonight?"

He chuckled, "No, got another sort of practice in mind."

She smiled, "Oh good, although I too am interested in response time and taking po…" She made a pleased noise as he kissed her.

XXX

Tim's first task when he reached his office the next morning was to look through the files Leon left him, which also included Shepard and Morrow's files, for anything about disaster drills. He found an old plan from Morrow's predecessor that he could use as a base and shook his head. Morrow and Vance had been too busy handling real disasters to stage any drills and Shepard seemingly too tied up in her own personal agenda.

He looked through the agency's current budget to see if he could squeeze money out of somewhere for this. He made some notes and then put that aside to tackle plotting out the drill. He started and then stopped, wishing he had another brain to pick. With a wicked smile he looked at the time and made a call.

"Tim, everything ok?"

"Yeah Bro, just spit balling an idea and thought I'd run it by you. Strictly confidential."

"Not classified?"

"Nah, you'll understand…do you have a few minutes?"

"Yeah sure, just got back from taking Arin and Emma to school."

Tim snorted, "Emma still let you pull all the way up or do you have to drop her a block away?"

Tony made a noise, "Yeah, around the corner."

"Us too, especially with the van."

"Ouch, that hurts!"

"A little, just glad I have prior experience with Sarah's teen years! It's better now that Anna has her license, she usually drives the tank and Gemma rides with her. Anyway, here's my idea…" Tim explained what he wanted to do with the drill and why, including the use of rail cars and Marines. As he'd hoped, Tony was enthusiastic with some great ideas and for a few minutes it was like old times, DiNozzo and McGee bouncing ideas off each other, teasing, laughing, occasionally serious. Tim half expected Boss to appear and head slap both of them.

While Tony was recovering from the shooting three years ago, he'd thought long and hard about his priorities. Of all the injuries he'd endured, this was the one that told him it was time to pay attention. Rather than take the investigative agent position he was offered, he chose retirement so he could be a stay-at-home dad to Arin and Emma. With the Colonel's precarious health and the pull to be with her family, Maggie didn't stay at the agency long after Tony's retirement. The estate inherited from Senior meant there would be no financial worries and the couple quickly embraced their new life. And so the sometimes tumultuous era of Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo at NCIS came to a quiet and thankfully happy end.

Although Tim saw his brother two or three times a week and spoke with him often, he'd never stopped missing him at work: his expertise, his persistence, his crazy humor, his support, the shared experiences and intuition as well as his solid presence. He also missed Maggie and when Rick Carter announced his retirement shortly after Maggie left, Tim wanted to follow the three of them from the building. But there were a lot of good people, solid investigators there and he wasn't quite ready yet for retirement. Jim O'Brien, Ned, Stan, Jimmy, Matt, Bec, Rusty, Lydia, Julian, Rose...they were all still with the agency, although of course not all aboard the Navy Yard.

Now by the time Tim and Tony finally disconnected they had the general plan for the drill drawn up and Tim started gathering specifics. Pulling up a map of the railroads in the greater DC metro area he pinpointed several decent locations. The plan was to do this between 2 and 4 in the morning so the morning commute would not be affected and he wouldn't have agents asleep at their desks later. Frowning he made a note to think about doing this on a Saturday morning.

He selected the teams to involve, including two of Matt's teams, one from the DC office and one from Bethesda. He excluded the Pentagon team because all four of the agents had real disaster experience, there were no young juniors on the team and to be truthful he'd rather not have to deal with the Brass. He'd want the MCRTs from the Yard; Jimmy and his assistant; he looked at the list, Ned's Cold Case team would work here in the office and he'd want Wilson to join them.

He made a short list of who needed to know: SecNav, Marine Commandant Bohr (Ellison's replacement) and his Second in Command Sanger, plus the CO of the volunteer Marines. The Federal Railroad Administration (the FRA) would also need a heads up. His chosen location was outside the District and any city limits; he'd notify County Emergency Services so they'd know it was a drill, he'd have to make sure that included 9-1-1 dispatch, Police, Emergency Medical Services and Fire Departments.

The last thing he did then was write a quick program to randomize the selection of dates for the drill. He inserted a call to his phone so he would know to get to the train yard before it all started and thought about programming a call to dispatch but decided to do that call himself to make it more realistic. He didn't want any hints that this might not be real.

Once that was done, he looked at the calendar. He'd like to get this done soon, in the spring rather than the heat of summer. Asking Pam to set up a meet with Secretary Porter, he saved his work into a folder and moved on to something else.

His meeting with the Secretary went well, she liked the idea, added two more names to his 'must know' list and gave him the name of a contact at the FRA, advising him to start there and to get it done as soon as possible.

When he contacted the FRA, he used Porter's name and got instant attention. The official, Jessie Lightfoot, was intrigued, no one had done a specific drill like this in several years. She met with Tim to approve the location, time and work out the details.

As it would be a simulated crash with resulting fire, with first responders from the agency not having any knowledge of what caused the crash (drone attack, sabotage of the railroad, an obstacle on the tracks, a bomb or chemical attack) Tim planned to add some pop that would trigger at certain times.

He spoke with General Bohr, who'd already heard from the SecNav and was given the contact information of the platoon officer who'd be participating. Once she was up to date, Tim set up the program and they were ready to rock and roll! Lightfoot would send the date to the program, setting the trigger and notifying local services this was a NCIS drill. When Tim had all his permissions in place, he let his AD know and they agreed she could run something similar on the West Coast but not anytime soon.

He cheated on only one detail, taking home a jumpsuit, jacket and hard hat for his own use during the drill. Other than that, he waited for his program to give the word. Deciding it wouldn't be fair to leave out his co-conspirator, he invited his brother to join him, warning that it would be a random, early morning call. Tony didn't care, he was thrilled to be involved and Tim added him to the plan as a consultant, making sure he also had the right equipment.

Saturday morning, May 20, 2028, he received a call at 2:00 AM with his own voice telling him this was it, time for the drill. He dressed, kissed Lina, gathered what he needed, called Tony and headed out of the house, placing a call to dispatch. "This is Director McGee. We have a situation at…" he gave the address, continuing, "Teams A, B, C are to report to the location, Team D and Agent Dwayne Wilson are to report to the Navy Yard. Call in SSAIC Watson's teams from DC Metro and Bethesda, have them report to the location. This is a priority one call out, repeat a priority one call out."

He jumped into the vehicle that had been moved up the driveway as soon as he walked out the door - and gave Security the address. Tim deliberately hadn't told his security team about the event. Before he got in the car, he contacted Emergency Services who verified they knew it was a drill. Stopping for Tony on the way, they were quickly at the train yard where Tim and the Marines set up the 'smoke' and the fake pyrotechnics; then the platoon took their places, some of them looking bloody, some seemingly trapped, some plainly 'dead' and others unconscious or ready to yell for help in escaping the inferno. Tim and Tony walked into the station office intending to stay hidden to see what happened.

Tim watched the time and the first responding NCIS agent rolled through the gate at 8 minutes past the call out. Given driving distance for anyone in the area, that was a good response. The agent was already wearing a jumpsuit and pulled more equipment out of his trunk before hurrying to assess the situation. Doc Palmer was the next to arrive at 9 minutes past call out, also in a jumpsuit and carrying his own emergency medical provisions. Ms. Lightfoot, the FRA rep, had agreed to act as the 'local railroad official' (she said she didn't want to miss any of the fun) and she approached the agent and Jimmy. As she did so, four more cars squealed into the yard and the agents quickly got to work. Tim was happy to see the first arrivals were a mix of experienced and less experienced agents. Not surprisingly, Jim O'Brien had been the agent first on site; he quickly assessed the situation and got organized. As he got close to the train, the brothers saw the moment Jim realized it was a drill but the agent kept going without saying anything.

By 12 minutes after call out, every local team had someone there and the ME's van was on site, driven by Jimmy's assistant; they triaged the Marines and Jimmy handled first aid for the 'injured' and tagged the 'dead'. Tim was happy to see most of the agents had jumpsuits and crime scene gear with them. He was surprised to see Matt appear and mentally gave him extra points for responding. Although he'd been out of the field for several years, he could assess, organize and rescue with the best of them. Tim thought if the drill had taken place in San Diego while he was the SSAIC there, he would have turned out too. The last group arrived from Bethesda at 20 minutes after, a little scary for a normal 45 minute drive. Tim called dispatch, stood them down and then spoke with Team D, the Cold Case team plus Dwayne Wilson, asking them to join them at the site. They'd clocked into the Navy Yard at 9 minutes past the call out; Wilson must have been channeling Gibbs as he was the first in.

When they arrived, Tim walked out of the office as the train music he and Tony selected played on the loudspeaker, "Monkey and the Engineer" performed by the Grateful Dead, followed by "Chattanooga Cho-Cho" by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. When those finished, Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" was next.

Tim grinned at his teams, "Great job, everyone, thanks!" Ms. Lightfoot, retired Agent DiNozzo and the Marines gathered around, giving the agents a round of applause. Tim grinned at the Bethesda group, "Who has the Batmobile? That was pretty amazing timing!"

The group laughed and pointed to their Team Lead. Tim nodded and gave the man a short bow, adding "You ever meet Jethro Gibbs or Ziva David?" There were comments from others in the group but the man shook his head.

Tim smiled at Dwayne, "First in at the Navy Yard was Agent Wilson. Dwayne, good job and thanks to Agent Dorneget and his team, today including Agent Wilson; in a real situation, your presence aboard the Yard would be essential. Not only to help contain the crisis, handle any research but to respond to any further call outs."

He smiled at Jim, "Great job, Agent O'Brien! 8 minutes after call out, well done! And kudos to all of you who were fully equipped! I don't remember if I carried a jumpsuit and boots in my car when I was in the field, but I should have!"

When Matt and Tony nodded at him, he amended his statement, "I've just been informed by former teammates that we did; I'm sure that was due to the training I received from retired agents Gibbs and DiNozzo!"

He looked at Jimmy, "Knew you'd be in early, Doc, thanks…excellent work!"

"SSAIC Watson, congratulations on the responses from your teams, I'm impressed! And thank you for turning out yourself." Matt smiled and nodded.

Tim motioned to the office, "There's coffee and pastries in there, help yourselves and then go home and get some sleep."

After dropping Tony at his place, he was home by 0500 and asleep by 0505. He awakened to the smell of bacon cooking, a big treat. He blinked a few times, looking at the time, 0900, that was nice, four solid hours of sleep! First grabbing a shower, he got dressed, checked his messages and headed downstairs for breakfast, smiling when he saw Matt, Damian, Rob, Ned and the kids there. "Hi! You guys get some sleep?"

Damian looked at him wearily but Matt nudged him while he answered, "Yeah; so we really did well?"

"Yep, we aced it, exceeded expectations, I'm happy and proud! All of us here have had to respond to disasters during our careers but most of the juniors haven't. Want them to think about it, what they'd need to be ready."

That earned him an eye roll from Daim and Tim chuckled. "Collateral damage, waking the spouses." There was a snort from Rob who had his head pillowed on his arms on the kitchen table.

"C'mon guys, let's have some breakfast and as much coffee as we can get down us. Melody, Sasha, Teddy - would you like juice or hot chocolate to drink?"

"Hot chocolate, Unca Tim…please." Teddy and Sasha nodded their agreement and the group settled in around the table. Tim was just sitting down when he had a call from the SecNav, congratulating him and all the agents for a very successful disaster preparedness exercise. Even Damian smiled when he heard that.


Note: Doesn't sound like it, even to me as I read this again shortly before posting, but I wrote the scenes with Tony's injury and this one with the drill and Tim's thoughts about missing his brother at the agency months before Michael Weatherly's announcement. I'm thankful for the friendship allowed to develop between McGee and DiNozzo; I still have a copy of the interview the two actors did about that friendship. Also thankful for the recent interview with Sean Murray where he said he's staying with the show.