Disclaimer: I own nothing except the pretty pictures floating around inside my skull, they give me the best ideas.
"Are you sure you want to go? You could get spotted, and by someone who shouldn't see you."
"Yeah. I mean, how often do you get to go to your own funeral?"
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Timothy McGee's funeral was held the Saturday after his death, it was attended by all but a handful of NCIS employees that had to remain behind to provide a skeleton crew for the office as well as a great many individuals whose lives McGee had touched through the years- including, but not limited to, Agents Fornell and Sacks of the FBI and Thom E. Gemcity's publisher- but it didn't make up for the fact that none of his family bothered to show up. And Gibbs just didn't understand that.
Penny Langston, Tim's grandmother, was travelling abroad and no-one had even been able to reach her to break the news so it wasn't a surprise that she wasn't there, but Gibbs had broken the news himself, in person, to the rest of McGee's family and had been shocked by the apparent apathy with which it had been accepted.
Sara, Tim's sister, had been the one to give an explanation as she walked him out that day, and even then it didn't sit well with the Team Leader- especially when she went along with her family in boycotting Tim's funeral.
"I love- loved- my brother, Agent Gibbs, but you need to understand that Tim... Dad disowned him when he turned down a desk job at the Pentagon to be a Field Agent with NCIS. With his inner ear problem keeping him out of the Navy- even though it wasn't Tim's fault- Dad never really considered Timmy able to... keep up with the Big Boys, if you know what I mean. I tried to keep in touch with Tim, but... family comes first, Agent Gibbs, I'm sure you can appreciate that."
Thinking about how different that conversation might have gone if he'd been able to tell them that Tim was in fact alive... but no, Gibbs shook that thought off, no-one could know until Tim was able to come home safely.
He couldn't even tell Abby about Tim being alive, especially not after she'd been remanded into custody for a seventy-two hour mandatory psychiatric observation after having screamed at the on staff psychologist because he couldn't tell the difference between Goth culture and Vampire culture.
She had even threatened to kill the man without leaving any forensic evidence if he didn't learn the difference and soon.
Shaking his head and turning back to the lowering casket, Gibbs wondered how he could have missed her deteriorating mental state.
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"You were seen."
"But not by anyone who shouldn't have seen me."
"But still..."
"Don't worry so much. And Kevin is going to do a great job of setting the proper bread trail and leading these people right where we need them to go."
"..."
"You worry too much."
"So how was your funeral?"
"Nice subtle change of subject there. It was fine, a little hard not to just walk out there and tell them all to stop grieving because I'm alive, but fine."
"You're family never showed."
"I didn't expect them to."
"Sara..."
"Has always been a Daddy's Girl, I was just there to provide her a safe way to rebel; and sometimes a means for clearing her name. It's fine, like I said. Can we just drop the subject?"
"Alright. It's time for your pills now anyway."
"You are such a Mother Bear."
"Growl."
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Monday morning saw Team Gibbs filing into the Bullpen, and coming up short at the sight of someone new sitting behind Tim's desk.
"Kevin Miller, Agent Gibbs, it's a pleasure to be assigned to your team." The stranger at Tim's desk said as he rose and extended a hand to Gibbs in greeting.
"We don't sit at a fallen Agent's desk, Miller. Move!" Gibbs barked as he began heading for the stairs with an angry stride.
"DiNozzo, get to work on those leads we talked about. Ziva, find Miller a desk and then help Tony." Pushing his way through to the Director's office without knocking, Gibbs slammed the door behind him and then looked at Vance who had been waiting patiently for him.
"He is your new Agent until further notice, Gibbs, you need someone to do the computer runs and... you're not here to complain, are you?" Vance asked once he realized the man before him hadn't yet begun yelling.
"No, I'm not, Leon. But I did need to make it look good for anyone watching and reporting back to the wrong people." It was a sad fact but true one that there were always eyes watching, and you never knew who was on the other side of them.
"So, you know who Agent Miller is really working for, and how important it is to keep this all as quiet as possible?"
"I know who he works with, if that helps. Recognized him from the hospital. But yeah, we'll keep it quiet- none of us will do anything to endanger Tim, wherever he is."
"You know, I think that was the main reason for Kort and them having shown themselves in the first place, told you about working with McGee, it was all to let you know who to trust in this situation." Vance then checked his watch.
"I think it's been plenty of time now for me to have read you the riot act and sent you packing. Get back to your team, Gibbs, you have a new member to terrorize and an old one to get back." Turning to the door with a smirk, Gibbs paused only a moment as he was called back.
"And Gibbs, don't forget to slam my door as you leave. You're right in thinking that we need to be as convincing as possible." Gibbs slammed the door convincingly and stalked angrily towards the Bullpen, stopping in front of Kevin's new desk on his way.
"You're part of my team now, I expect you to keep up." Gibbs barked out, making the seated man jump and look up from his phone.
"Yes, sir."
"And don't call me sir, I work for a living."
"Of course... Boss." As Gibbs went back to his desk, Kevin looked back at his phone.
Your Boss is scarier in person than you made him out to be.
I know. Just don't mess with his coffee and you should be fine.
Should be?
Well... depends on if it's good coffee or not.
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"It's too soon, you're barely healed."
"They aren't waiting so we can't wait, we need to do this now before we lose the informational advantage."
"I hate it when you're right. Okay, let's do this."
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Saturday, a week and a half after Tim's 'death', Team Gibbs- including Ducky and Jimmy- gathered at their newest team member's house for a little getting-to-know-you barbeque- and, hopefully, for some off the record leads on who had shot their teammate as Kevin hadn't given any while at the office.
And, though they had all been quietly hoping to see him there, they were all still surprised when they arrived and found Tim already ensconced in a patio chair and sipping on a lemonade.
"Hello! You must all be Team Gibbs, am I right?" As he spoke, Tim held up a sign for all to read before continuing.
We're bugged so play along.
And Tony, please be belligerent instead of funny; we really need to sell this.
"First I'd like to apologize for your teammate, it was just a misfortune of fate that he and I looked enough alike that he was mistaken for being me." Tim gave a small smile at that, a silent apology for what they had been put through.
"You... you got Tim killed? Who are you?!" Jimmy yelled, being the first- and the only one prewarned- to regain use of his mouth.
"You can call me Murray if you like, it's the closest you're going to get to who I really am." In a van parked a half mile away a tech, who was only being paid to find out what a CIA operative was doing working at NCIS, was scrambling to set up a live link with his boss. This was bad news- Murray was still alive!- but it had to be relayed as soon as possible.
The tech would have been even more nervous if he'd known about the squad of FBI Agents- led by none other than Tobias Fornell who had been brought up to speed after having spotted Tim at the cemetery and confronted him- that was now surrounding his van, waiting for the signal that the proper message had been sent and that they could now take this small fry down.
