"Help me, please, Boss."

As Tim's cry for help rang in his ears, Gibbs quickly looked to Ducky, a silent question of how Tim's sister was holding up.

"She's fine, Jethro. I have her making coffee in the kitchen." Ducky reassured him. "I'll go keep her company while you two talk." Ducky offered.

When Duck had vacated the bedroom, Gibbs quietly coaxed Tim up off the floor and out of the bedroom, encouraging him to take a walk outside in the fresh air. After a long silent few minutes, with Gibbs patiently waiting for the young man to pull himself together and Tim pulling out all the stops to put himself back together; Tim stopped walking and looked directly at Gibbs.

"I'm so sorry. You know I would never..." He choked out, his voice breaking with regret and inner pain he felt from disrespecting the man he'd come to love as much as he loved his own father. Tim'd figured out how to talk about the worst of his anger and save the rest for later, relishing in the rebuilding relationship in the meantime. Sure, he still had things he was angry at Gibbs for, but the things that had hurt the most were only stinging now, and what had been dumped on him in the last two days made the things he was angry at Gibbs for seem like ancient history.

"Hey. I know. Tell me what happened. The last time we talked, three nights ago, you said you were fine. Have you started lying to me?" Gibbs quietly demanded.

"No. But, it was right after I got off the phone with you that everything fell apart." Tim explained with the wealth of pain in his eyes. The lack of hurt or outrage at the suggestion that he'd been dishonest. spoke volumes about the mountain of other emotions the young man was buried under at the moment.

"Is there a reason you didn't call me and let me help you deal with whatever it was that happened?" Gibbs asked pointedly.

"I haven't been able to think straight." Tim defended himself.

"I might believe that; if we weren't talking about three days time, Tim." Gibbs reminded him. "Talk to me, what happened?"

"Honest, Boss. It all came at me so fast, Where do I start?"

"The beginning. What happened first after we spoke?"

"I got hit with a triple whammie. It all came down on me at once. My parents are staying overseas indefinately. They've already sold the house. My apartment in D.C.'s been rented out from underneath me. I've got two weeks to vacate that. And my job at MIT's been given to someone else. A computer glitch! Within the space of 10 minutes, I've been left with no job; no more parents to turn to and no where to go! Tell me that doesn't prove I'm not important! I came home because the world had shown me I didn't matter. And now, it turns out, I don't even matter at home!" Tim explained, as the tears trickled down his face.

Angrily he wiped them away; trying desperately to show his former boss that he was still capable of an inner strength he most definately wasn't feeling at the moment. With shoulders stiff from pain and anger, Tim walked away from Gibbs a few feet and stood, overlooking the hill behind the house. "Sara's transfered to Cal State. She leaves in the morning. No one told me. The new owners of the house will be here in two weeks. I'm supposed to take care of getting my parents' things put in storage. Me! All by myself because, after all, I have two weeks of vacation time." Tim said with bitterness.

"You should have called me, McGee. We could have helped. We still can." Gibbs vowed, his tone daring Tim to argue with him. He'd seen Tim's struggle to stay strong and he wasn't gonna take that away from him by going there with him just yet.

Tim looked at him helplessly. "I know you can help me with the house, and I'd be grateful for it, Boss. But..." Tim turned back away.

"Let's take care of one thing at a time, all right?" Gibbs encouraged, knowing exactly what it was Tim wasn't able to say. Sure they could help him take care of his parent's house. But how could they help him feel any different than he was feeling right now? Whipping out his cell phone, Gibbs made a call. As Tim watched silently, his former boss spent a few minutes on the phone. "Thanks, Leon" Gibbs ended the call. "

"Help with the house is on the way." Gibbs reassurred him.

"Thank you, Boss." Tim offered quietly.

"C'mon, let's go get some coffee and we'll form a battle plan to get this done." Gibbs encouraged. He wasn't about to let Tim get lost in the emotional crap this had brought down on him. The practical things needed to be dealt with first. It would help keep the young man's head on straight anyway.

Together, in silence bred by the need for the space to think, they walked back into the McGee house and headed into the kitchen where Ducky and Sara already sat enjoying coffee and conversation.

"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to living in California" Sara was excitedly telling Ducky.

Tim looked at Gibbs with pain in his eyes and fled the room. He couldn't handle this too. As Sara put her coffee down and started to go after her brother. Gibbs stopped her.

"Sara, let him go." his quiet request stopped her in her tracks.

"Sir?" Sara asked respectfully. This man who her brother worked for for the last 6 years still intimidated the hell outta her. Tim may worship the ground this man walked on, but the guy still scared her in a normal minute as much as her father did in an angry one.

"He's had a lot dumped on him in the last week and he needs the space to deal with things in his own way." Gibbs reminded her.

"I don't know what you mean." Sara answered with surprise in her voice.

As Gibbs sat her down and ran through just the basics of everything that had been dumped on Tim, Sara's shock and sibling outrage marched across her face on Tim's behalf.

"That's why he lost it in his room earlier?"

"You gotta admit, Sara; it's a hell ova lot to have dumped on a person in one full swoop." Gibbs reasoned.

"I agree, Agent Gibbs. But why wouldn't he talk to me about any of it?" Sara asked in confusion. "Why wouldn't he tell me he almost got killed?"

"Don't you know your brother better than that? He wouldn't tell anyone he cares about that something almost happened to him." Gibbs reminded her.

"Yes, Timothy doesn't needlessly worry people he cares about, if he can help it." Ducky added. "When did you tell him you were transferring to California?"

"I reminded him over the phone two days ago, And I reminded him of my travel plans when I got home earlier this afternoon." Sara answered.

"No, you dropped another bomb on him." Gibbs informed her.

"You're saying he didn't know I was transferring?" Sara asked angrily. "Why wouldn't he have known?" she demanded.

"Because, Mom and Dad chose not to tell me." Tim's pained answer came at her from the doorway behind them. "And you already know that you didn't tell me, either."

"Tim, I'm so sorry. I thought you knew." Sara apologised.

"Doesn't explain why you didn't tell me. We live; lived in the same city, for cryin out loud, Sara! Why the hell wouldn't you tell me?" Tim suddenly exploded.

"Tim." Gibbs had gotten up from the table and walked over to the young man as Sara had apologised, now put a restraining yet comforting hand on the his shoulder.

Allowing his former boss to calm his raging anger and over wrought nerves, Soaking up the older man's strength, Tim remained glued to the floor as he looked at Gibbs; needing to see those anchoring eyes that could ground him to the knowledge that he wasn't in this alone, no matter how alone he felt. He stood there deliberately working to calm his breathing down.

Gibbs delivered exactly what he saw Tim was looking for, needing. support, sympathy, strength. As he steadily looked at his agent, watched him fight to calm down, Gibbs once again chose to steer the conversation into safer waters as he asked him. "When's the last time you ate something?"

"I don't remember." Tim said quietly as he looked away from Gibbs and sat down in a kitchen chair, the weight of the world obviously sitting on his not so broad shoulders. The weight he was carrying had him slouched over as he clung to the coffee cup Ducky set in front of him. like it was his life vest. "Timothy, you need to eat something." the M.E. instructed him.

"I couldn't even if I tried, Ducky." Tim admitted.

"McGee, you know that's not a request. Sara, you need to help Dr. Mallard find your brother something to eat." Gibbs instructed in his no nonsense tone of voice.

"Just toss me one of Mom's Slim-Fasts, Sara." Tim told his sister. "That's probably all I can manage for now, Boss. Ducky." Tim told them.

"Yes, well, since it has been a few days since you've eaten properly, I've no doubt you are most likely correct, Timothy. But, we must work to rectify this situation, young man." Ducky insisted.

"I know, Ducky. Thank you." Tim conceded.

As Gibbs motioned for Sara to take a walk with him, Ducky sat with Tim, wanting to watch over him for a few minutes. They hadn't talked since the young man had found the stregnth to start talking things out with Jethro.

Now that he had the younger McGee sibling walking with him outside, Gibbs wanted to talk some sense into the girl. "Sara, you're leaving for California in the morning?" he asked her.

"Yes, Agent Gibbs."

"When do classes start?"

"Next week."

"Why leave so soon?"

"So I can have the week to get settled in and learn my way around."

"You do realize that means you're leaving the full responsibility of packing up your parents' house in your brother's lap?" Gibbs asked.

"He can handle it, Agent Gibbs. If he couldn't, Mom and Dad wouldn't have asked him to do it." Sara vowed.

"Sara, were you listening when I told you everything your brother's been through in the last two weeks?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes."

"And you honestly don't see a problem with your assumption?" Gibbs pushed.

Sara silently contemplated everything she'd been told and added this man's obvious failure to agree with her belief that Tim could handle this. "What is it you want me to do, Agent Gibbs?" she finally tried to meet him halfway.

"The rest of Tim's team is on their way. I was hoping you would stay and help supervise the effort to get your parents' things squared away. Take at least that much pressure of Tim's shoulders." Gibbs told her patiently.

"If he doesn't work for you anymore, how are they still Tim's team?" Sara asked in confusion.

"Because, we're family by extension. And we don't leave each other in the lurch." Gibbs told her.