Thank you again to anyone who is still reading this and to those who took the time to review. I'm very grateful. Sorry that this chapter is so short.

Chapter 10

Tim took Dylan's hand and pulled him over to where there was a short wall and sat down pulling him between his legs. He made Dylan look up at his face. "Ok Dylan what's been going on in your head today.?"

Dylan shrugged.

"That's not an answer."

Dylan got a look of determination on his face. "Th........."

Tim stopped him with a sharp smack on the bottom. Dylan's mouth fell open and he looked like he might cry.

"Now don't start that copying business with me. Mom told me that you did that to her in her lab." Dylan hung his head. "Look at me Dyl. You don't treat your mother like that. It's rude and disrespectful. Now, when you told Mom you wanted to go to the bathroom by yourself, did you go to the bathroom at all?"

"No."

"Did Mom tell you to come straight back?"

"Yeh."

"Then why did you come up here when you knew Mom would be worried?"

"I didn't know she would be worried." He said sadly.

Tim looked at Dylan's face "Did you think she might NOT be worried?"

He shrugged his shoulders again.

"Why would you think that ?"

" 'cause she was wasn't paying any attention to me and I was bored."

"Mom wasn't ignoring you Dylan, she was working. In the day during the week and even sometimes on the weekend, we have to work. Anyway, you can't act badly just because your not happy with something. Got it?"

Dylan nodded.

"Any other reason?" Tim knew by the look on Dylan's face that there was something else. "You know it's wrong to lie. If there's something else tell me. You can trust me."

"I wanted to see if someone would look for me."

"Ahhh I see." Tim said hugging him. "Well if it makes you feel any better half of NCIS was looking for you."

Dylan smiled.

"I'm sorry that you felt you had to test us like that but I'm still going to punish you. It wasn't the right thing to do. Neither was disrespecting your Mom or lying about going to the bathroom. If you're not sure about ANYTHING at all or your just feeling scared, we'll always listen but you can't ever run away to get attention. This was a very dangerous place to run to. Come on let's finish this."

Tim pulled his son over his knee and brought his hand down with a solid smack. He thought he'd already given the boy enough of a lecture so he decided to just get the spanking over with as quickly as possible. It didn't take Dylan long to start crying and it nearly broke Tim's heart. Although he knew that Abby thought he was too quick to spank, it gave him no pleasure to hurt his child. But Tim had a deep sense of duty which gave him the strength to do what he thought needed to be done. So even though he had tears in his own eyes he continued to spank Dylan with smack after stinging smack. As soon as Tim thought that he had well and truly delivered the message he pulled Dylan into a hug and soothed away his tears. "It's all over now son. Your forgiven." He said.

"Dad?"
"Yes Dylan?"

"I'm sorry."

"I know." Tim said kissing the top of his head." Let's go to mom's lab and you can apologise to her too."

When they got to the door of Abby's lab, she rushed over to greet them. "Oh Dylan, thank God your ok. I thought that someone had taken you."

Dylan looked up at Tim who nodded. "I'm really sorry that I ran away. And I'm sorry that I was naughty this morning." He said.

Abby immediately pulled him into a massive hug. "You're forgiven" She said smiling. "Now where do you wanna spend the afternoon, down here or up in the bullpen?"

"Can I spend some time down here and then go upstairs?"
"You sure can. But no touching the equipment ok? Abby said.

"You listen to Mom, Dylan ." Tim said giving him the look.

"I will." He said eagerly.

"Come on Dyl, I'll set you up with something in my office." Abby said putting her arm around him. As Dylan went to sit on the chair he winced. Abby shot a look at Tim but wisely decided to leave the discussion for later but she wasn't happy about it.

Tim kissed her and Dylan and went back upstairs. He found him self standing at Gibbs desk. "Ah.........Boss could I have a word please?"

"With me." He said striding towards the elevator. When the doors closed behind them he flicked the switch. "What's on your mind Tim.?"

"It's just Abby. I took Dylan down to the lab and when Abby saw that he had trouble sitting............."

"She's pissed that you spanked Dylan." Gibbs said " Tim don't beat yourself up. It's what I would've done. It's what Tony would've done. Hell it's probably what Ziva would've done. Abby's just...........Abby's all hugs and kisses and bandaids right now. You know what a perfectionist she is. She puts her whole heart and soul into everything. She's not going to be any different with motherhood, but she'll come around. She did with Sarah didn't she? She'll see that sometimes you have to be a bit hard. And Tim?"

"Yeh Boss?"

"I think you're doing a great job. Don't think she doesn't know that. She does." He said patting him on the shoulder.

Gibbs said he was going for coffee and Tim went back to work. Tim worked extra hard to clear some of the paperwork from his desk. It had been a distracting day but it wasn't fair to everyone else if he didn't pull his weight. Sarah had apparently taken herself to the mall once she knew that Dylan was safe and well. So things in the bullpen were fairly quiet.

Gibbs did in fact go for coffee but he thought he might just bring back a caf-pow for Abby and a juice for Dylan and see what was going on in the lab.

As he marched into Abby's lab he smiled to see that everything appeared to peaceful down there too. Abby was working away at her computer and Dylan was laying on his tummy on Abby's futon reading a comic. Gibbs kissed Abby on the cheek and passed her the caf-pow. Moving over towards Dylan he sat on the edge of the futon and passed him the juice.

"Thankyou .......Uncle Gibbs."

"You're welcome. Hey Dyl." he said. "You gave us a bit of a scare today." He said watching his face intently.

"I'm sorry." Dylan said

"That's ok. I guess you got in trouble with your Dad huh?" gibbs said smiling.

"He gave me a spanking."

"Oh well. I guess you kind of deserved it huh?"

'Yeh. I guess I did. I shouldn't have run away it was dangerous and I scared my Mom."

Abby looked over and smiled.

"Never mind. It's over now."

"Yeh." he said going back to his comic."

Gibbs went over and whispered in Abby's ear. "You see he's fine. Don't give McGee a hard time." And he gave her a soft smack on the bottom and left.

Abby looked over at Dylan and smiled. He WAS fine and so was she .They all were. She sent Tim a text message. When his cell dinged to indicate a message he opened it and smiled. It said............I'm sorry Timmy. you were right and I love you xoxoxox.

Later that day when they were getting ready to leave Tony asked Tim "What have you got planned tonight Probie? Chasing your kids or your wife around town?"

"Not tonight Tony, he said. "We're picking Sarah up at the mall and going home for a quiet dinner and bed. I'm beat."

"Oh well Mc Daddy! I guess you've gotta work on completing the McFamily."

"What are you talking about Tony?"Ziva said.

"Well..... they have the older sister McBrat, Now they have Mini McBrat. Now all they need is a baby McBrat and their family will be complete."

Ziva rolled her eyes and got up from her desk.

Tim spied Abby and Dylan coming down the hall from the back elevator. "Don't even think it Dinozzo. Especially in front of Abby."

"Don't think what in front of me?" Abby said.

"Tim gave Tony a murderous glare."

"Nothing." He said.

"Tim?" she asked.

"Ah.........he was just making a joke Abs."

"Ok. Let's go home."

Later that night when they were in bed Abby asked "Tim?"

"Yeh Abs?"

"What was Tony joking about."

Tim said nothing.

"Timmy?"

"He was joking about us needing a baby to complete our family."

"Oh. What did you say."

Tim said nothing.

"Timmy?"

Tim held his breath. "I said......don't even think it."

"Thank God!"

"You don't want a baby?" Tim said surprised.
"One day maybe. Not yet."

Tim let out the breath he'd been holding and closed his eyes. "Yeh maybe one day."

"Besides." Abby said mischieviously." There are lots of little girls available to adopt."

Tim's eyes popped open.

Abby giggled.

TBC