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"Agent DiNozzo, I just want to talk to you." Tony heard Charles on the other side of the door sounding desperate.

"Didn't we put you in jail?." Tony said still standing next to the door with his SIG in hand. He cut off the lights in his living room and motioned McGee to do the same in the bedroom.

"I umm… I escaped. Look you can arrest me all you want. I just need to talk to you and I don't think you want to have this conversation in the middle of your hallway."

"How do I know you're alone and not armed?"

"Look, you can search me but I'm clean I swear. I am pretty sure that no one followed me here."

Just then Tim came out of the bedroom and motioned for Tony to come near him.

"Tony, I think I should talk to him." McGee said in a whisper.

"Ummm….no. McGee you are not going anywhere near that guy."

"Come on Tony, give me 5 minutes. I can tell when he is lying and he might actually tell me something useful."

Tony just continued to shake his head. "No, because if something happens to you, Gibbs will have my ass. Abby and Ziva too."

"You can stand there and give him your best Gibbs glare while we're talking. 5 minutes."

"This is a very bad idea."

"5 minutes."

"If it goes to 5 minutes and 30 seconds. I am calling Gibbs. If he tries to touch you, I will shoot him with no hesitation. Same goes with if he tries to touch Jethro."

"Then we would need Ducky here." Tim said giving a small smile.

Tony just rolled his eyes and pointed McGee to the coach. Once he saw the younger man settled he moved back to the door. With his SIG in ready position he slowly opened his door and saw Charles sitting next to the door with his knees to his chest. Tony slowly moved to face him, gun still pointed.

"Get up, slowly."

Charles obeyed getting up and putting his hands up serenading. Still keeping his eyes locked on Charles, Tony searched him. Satisfied that he didn't find anything threatening he led him through the door and into the living room. He looked at McGee who was now joined with Jethro lying his head next to his thigh. As soon as the door closed, the German Shepard got up and sniffed Charles with Tony warning him not to touch the canine. Once he was sure the stranger was somewhat harmless he went to his previous position.

"You have 5 minutes." Tony said once he settled into the corner of the room where he had a good full view of both of them.

"Hey, Tim." He said giving a small wave.

"Charles. How did you find this address?"

"I broke into your personal file and he is listed as one of your emergency contacts. I swear I didn't know you were going to be here."

"So why are you here?"

Charles took a deep breath and tried to step forward but Jethro let out a small growl, so he stepped back into place. Tony smiled to himself and made a mental note to get the mutt a treat.

"I think you guys should know that Roger is planning to leave the country once this all over and he is going to use an alias."

"Tim, is he lying?" Tony said looking at Charles trying to tell if he was.

McGee just shook his head "No, he's not. How and more importantly why are you telling us this?"

"Cynthia, the tattoo lady, she sells fake passports to people. I was in charge of getting them. I used my one phone call to Roger he basically said screw me and he'll find someone else and that he is not paying me."

"I still don't…"

"Look, Roger is planning something big, like possibly kill you big and your life is in danger. I think the bomb is a distraction to lure you in and then kill you. Not to say it isn't real because it certainly very real. I may not like you but not enough to kill you. Plus if my dad knew I was trying to…"

"Ruin my life and career, yeah I am pretty sure he wouldn't be too happy."

Tony was impressed with the snarkiest in McGee's voice, proud that his years on the team taught him that.

Charles just looked down at hands and was fidgeting with them looking a bit ashamed. "Yeah, well he thinks you deserve the best in life."

"What exactly was your role in all this?"

"I was just told to get the passports and to help rob your house and storage locker. I was looking for your gun and badge and other personal things to put at the site of the bomb. I don't know where it is being placed or made."

"What's the number?"

"What?" Charles said looking up from his hands.

"The number for Popper." McGee said emphasizing on each word.

"Oh, it was his house number. He's probably not there anymore."

"You're lying. Just give me the number Charles."

"Tim"

"Give me the number. Or you can add lying to a Federal Agent and obstruction to an investigation to your list of crimes." McGee said raising his voice just a tad.

"You're not going to catch him, I mean you may think that you're…."

"Obviously, you haven't met the MCRT of NCIS."

"5 minutes is up." Tony said knowing that Charles was just making Tim more frustrated by the second.

"Number now."

Charles gave a huge sigh and rattled off the number. Just then there was knocking at the door.

"I called Gibbs who called Fornell to take him back." McGee said.

"Tim, you got to believe me. I don't want to kill you." Charles said while Tony was handcuffed him.

"Yeah, sure Charles. Tony take him away." McGee said while making his way to the bedroom.

10 minutes later, Tony came back inside and found the junior agent sitting on the bed with his laptop in his lap.

"Charles said you owe him." Tony said sitting at the edge of the bed.

"I don't owe him anything. The only reason he came tonight because he doesn't take rejection well. He always, always have to get revenge. So because Popper kicked him off his little team he got mad. So telling on him is the next best thing apparently." McGee said not looking up from his screen.

"Have he always been like that?"

"Yep, once when the bank rejected a loan request he wanted to rob the bank and I had to talk him out of it."

"Wow, and you were friends with this dude."

"Basically had to, our fathers were best friends."

"What are you doing?" Trying to look over at the screen.

"Deleting my emergency contacts from my file. I'll put it back once this whole thing is over."

"Was he lying when he said he didn't know you were here?"

"He wasn't surprised. But technically no, he was not lying."

"Do you think he would have not gone through with all this if he knew Popper wanted to just kill you?"

Finally, McGee looked up at him and just put his head to the side. "I don't know, he may not want me dead but he really doesn't care if I am alive. And finished, I now have no emergency contacts and my personal file is encrypted."

"Good, so random people won't be knocking at my door wanting to talk about you."

"Hopefully not."

Tony was about to walk out but then decided to tell McGee about his theory.

"I have a theory about the whole Popper wanting to kill you thing."

"Okay what is it?"

"Well…I think he wants to kill you and make it look like a suicide."

"He wants everyone to think I committed suicide?"

Tony just nodded searching for an expression on McGee's face. It went from anger to confusion to disbelief in a matter of seconds. Seeing that he wasn't saying anything Tony decided to continue.

"See, Popper had articles connecting high IQ and suicide and…"

"Did he have things that looked like shrink notes or anything else personal about me?"

"Not that I saw it was mostly articles about you and your success. Your different papers. Performance reviews. His own inputs on cases you had. He had a lot to say about your first kill and your 'emotional journey' whatever that means. Oh, and a lot to say when your sister was a suspect. Even though that was years ago. And how you should have not gotten your job back."

"Yeah, I quit but you know Gibbs, can't quit without his permission."

"McGee, what are you thinking?" The older agent said seeing that something just clicked in his brain.

McGee just quickly shook his head and started typing again on his laptop.

"Working theory."

"Do you want to tell me this theory?"

"I'll tell you once I am finished."

"McGee…"

"Tony, I'm not shutting you out. Just something I want to make sure before I present it. Even if is a bust I'll tell you promise."

Tony wanted to argue but he knew that McGee could be just as stubborn as him when he was determined.

"Okay, just get some sleep sometime in the near future." But Tony might as well be talking to the wall because Tim was once again glued to his computer, mind solely focused on the theory and fingers going the speed of light. Tony just gave one last glance to him and walked out.

The next morning Tony was woken up by a very excited Jethro who was pulling the pillow from his head.

"Ow!" Tony said as his head hit the cushion.

"Jethro!"

"He wants to go out and I can't leave without my protection detail." McGee said emerging from the bedroom looking like he had gotten no sleep at all.

"Did you get any sleep?"

"An hour or so. This one" Pointing to the German Shepard "Pulled the sheet from me, woke me up."

"What did you find?"

"Can we please just walk him and then coffee and then talk."

They walked Jethro around the block, after clearing the apartment Tim headed for the shower while Tony made coffee. Tony looked over at McGee and waited until 3/4 of his cup was empty before asking questions.

"So about that theory?" Tony said trying to sound casual.

"You couldn't wait until I was done with this cup?"

Tony just shrugged not wanting to delay any further. McGee just sighed while finishing off the cup and refilling it.

"It goes with your theory how Popper wants to kill me. I looked into the all my therapy sessions both in NCIS and personal going all the way back to my teens. Then found out that he also looked into my sessions at MIT."

"How would he know about your sessions?"

"It's in our files. Not the details of course but that we saying that we saw one and that we've been cleared for active duty again. He doesn't have a high enough security clearance or any clearance really to look into the details but he could hack into it. Just it takes time a lot of time and skill to do it and not get caught. Which Popper of course has. For my personal therapist, guessing Charles told him about that. It didn't take me that long to hack into the system and get all the personal notes the doctor kept about me, guessing it wouldn't take Popper that long either.

Popper is building a case against me, wanting to make it seem that my sanity is being compromised. Taking a piece of a session here and another piece there, putting it all together to make it look like I will crack at some point."

"Wait, so I was right?" Tony said with a slight smile.

"Yeah, once you said what you said I knew what exactly to look for."

Just then both McGee's and Tony's phone went off. Both gathering up their stuff while frantically talking on the phone.

"Ziva's got something."

"Abby got something."

They both said at the same time after hanging up their phones. Making sure they had everything they were both talking a mile a minute while walking to the car.

"You go first." McGee finally said after realizing they were not listening to each other.

"Abby figured out what kind of bomb is being built and possibly the location."

"Popper bought an installment kit that would be used for bomb making and some rope."

"He used his credit card?"

"No, he used Maria's but she is still in our holding cell and he used it when Charles was at the house last night. And security cameras caught most of the license plate number of the car he is using, it was reported stolen last night. A BOLO is already out."

They got into the office after stopping for the team's drinks. Ziva was updating the BOLO and Gibbs was just walking back to his desk when McGee's office phone rung.

"Agent McGee."

"Timothy McGee, how lovely to hear from you."

Tony was about to go down to Abby's lab when he saw Tim freeze in his tracks.

Tony knew in his gut who was on the other end but he didn't want to believe it. McGee quickly started trying to trace the call while he mouthed to the team that it was Popper on the other end.