Gibbs was back at home in DC. He'd come back for a few days to start getting things together for when Tim came to live with him and to finalize his Leave of Absence from NCIS. Director Morrow had been very understanding about letting him take the time, especially considering he hadn't been with the agency very long, but he needed to fill out the paperwork for it before the director stopped being so understanding.

Gibbs was currently cleaning out his guest room in order to turn it into a room for Tim. He didn't have guests over anyway and he couldn't bare to touch Kelly's room, so the room would just be Tim's from now on.

Gibbs of course knew he might be getting ahead of himself. He was likely a ways away from getting a ruling on custody, but he wasn't going to wait until he actually had custody. He wasn't going to bring Tim home and not have a room available for him. Tim needed to start to feel like this place was his home as soon as possible and making sure he had his own space was the first step.

Gibbs soon heard his front door open, followed by his boss' voice. "Probie, where are you!"

"Upstairs!" he called out.

There were steps on the stairs and soon Mike was in the doorway. "So you are here. I heard you came to fill out paperwork for Morrow."

"Yep," was all Gibbs said as he went through boxes. The spare room had basically become a storage space, to Shannon's annoyance. She always hated that he'd holed everything up in there. Well, there wasn't a lot. It wasn't like they were pack rats, but there were a few things that neither one of them could decide if they should get rid of or not. Now though, he was chucking most of it.

"How's the kid?" Mike asked.

"Hurt and angry. His sister went home with their grandmother. That had him pretty upset. He's stuck in a group home while his sister got to leave. He thinks it's unfair and he's right," Gibbs said.

Mike nodded. "That kid's gonna have issues for a long time. What are you doing here?" Mike asked as he watched his agent go through a bunch of crap and throw most of it in a garbage bag.

"This is going to be Tim's room, so I'm going cleaning it up so I can start fixing it up for him," Gibbs said.

"You sure you wanna jump that gun, Probie? You don't know that you'll win. Maybe you should wait," Mike said.

"No. Then he has no place of his own when he gets here and he'll just feel like an unwanted guest. No way in hell does that happen. This kid already feels unwanted. There are very few people in this world who actually treated him like he deserved. The McGees treated him like he wasn't worthy to be in their family. They didn't care about him and they made sure he knew it. That's not going to happen here. I want him to know that this is his home. I want him to feel welcome," Gibbs said.

"What if you lose?" Mike asked.

"Don't plan on losing, but if I do, the worst that happens is that I wasted some money. I don't care about the damned money. I don't care how it affects me. Tim won't be hurt if I do this, but he he will if I don't. I won't let him be hurt anymore," Gibbs said firmly.

Mike nodded that he understood. He did understand, but he also worried about Gibbs. He'd seen how beaten Gibbs looked right after he lost his wife and daughter. He was broken. He was still grieving, but he seemed to be doing a little better because of this kid. He was putting everything into getting him and making sure he finally had the life he deserved. If he lost, it could break him even worse. "Just try to remember that you may not win."

Gibbs nodded and got back to work.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The next day, Gibbs went to the cemetery to visit his wife and daughter's graves. He knelt down and touched his daughter's grave. "Hey, sweetie. Sorry I haven't been here in while. I've had my hands full trying to find your brother and bring him home. I'm still working on bringing him home. I wish you'd had a chance to meet him. I think the two of you would've had a great relationship. You would've idolized him, I'm sure. He would've loved you too. He's got another sister and they're really close. He would've looked out for you the same way," he said. Tim was a great kid and Gibbs knew he would've loved his sister. He hated the McGees and the Carson women for taking that away from both of them, as well as Shannon.

Gibbs turned to his wife's grave after a second. "I found him, Shannon. His name is Timothy. Well, he goes by Tim. He's a wonderful young man, though he's not dealing with things well. How could he though. Adults couldn't bounce back from finding out they weren't who they thought, so I wouldn't expect a fourteen-year-old to handle it any better. It doesn't help that the people he lived have been emotionally abusing him his whole life."

Gibbs sighed and rubbed his eyes. "They've treated him so badly, Shannon. I know you would rip them apart if you were here. They make him feel like he's worthless. They call him weird and abnormal. They force him to do things he doesn't want to in an effort to force their choices on him. I'd like to kill the bastard that called himself his father for that." He hated McGee. He of course hated him for keeping Tim away from Shannon, but he also hated him for the way he treated that kid. No child should ever feel unwanted by his parents. Tim did. More than that though, he felt he deserved that. They'd ingrained it into him that he wasn't good enough to be their son.

"I promise you I'm going to get him back. I will take care of him and make sure he learns that he deserves to be loved. I will love him, Shannon. I already care about him a lot and I know it won't take much more time with him to love him. I will get him through this and I will make sure the McGees never get near him again," Gibbs promised. He knew that promise would seem premature to most people, but he would keep it, no matter what that damn judge said. He would never let the McGee's torture Tim again.