Since the last chapter was short and I got a pretty please (Flowerfairy30 this is for you!), I decided to post the next chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: NCIS doesn't belong to me - although I wish!

Airman Williams was getting worried. He glanced at his watch, McGee had been gone for twenty-five minutes, fifteen more than he had said. He looked over to Airman Masterson and exchanged an anxious look. Williams grabbed the next agent that walked past. "Excuse me, sir? I was wondering if you could take me down to an 'Abby's Lab'.

Agent Brooks looked the Airman up and down, it was the same one whom he had followed the day he went out after Agent McGee. "Why?"

"Agent McGee said he would be back from there in ten minutes, it's been twenty-five."

Brooks gave a knowing smile. "Abby probably roped him into helping her with something. I wouldn't worry." Everyone in the building knew of the special friendship between Abby and McGee. They all also knew that he was the only one ever allowed to work in the lab, with or without Abby present.

Williams gave him a doubtful look. "Still ..."

Brooks realized these airmen were taking their protection detail very seriously, and he was glad to see it. "Alright, come on." He motioned with his hand as he walked away, expecting the airman to follow.

It took Williams a few moments to realize he was being asked to follow the agent. He quickly caught up to Brooks at the inner elevator. The ride to the lab was quiet. When they walked in, Brooks raised his voice to be heard above the music, while Williams cringed.

Abby bounced over to the two men. "Hey Shane, what's up? Got a case for me?"

Brooks shook his head and pointed a thumb over his shoulder to the airman. "Nope, just got a bodyguard looking for his body to guard."

Abby looked over Brooks' shoulder to the airman. "Timmy's not here." She frowned at first and then smiled, "Oh, he said he was going to talk to Ducky. I bet the Duck-man is talking his ears off. He is so polite, he never cuts off Ducky during a story, he usually has to be rescued. Come on, I'll take you to autopsy."

"That's alright Abby, I got him."

"No problem Shane. I don't have anything going on right now." She pushed past them, taking the lead out of the lab.

Williams gave a question look to Brooks. He just shrugged and followed Abby out, with Williams closely behind.

Abby was going a mile a minute about how Ducky can talk and talk, while the two men exchanged smirks. However, the smiling and talking stopped when they arrived to a quiet autopsy.

Williams turned to Brooks. "I'm going to need a security check of the building."

The agent was going to protest, until he remember they were talking about one of Gibbs' boys. If something had happened to him and they didn't take every measure possible to find out what, Gibbs would skin them alive. He nodded to the airman and took out his cell phone.

"Wait, wait, wait ..." Abby was nervous, she didn't want to think something could have happened to Tim in the short amount of time that he had left.

"Abby, listen, the sooner we figure out where Agent McGee went, the sooner we can ..."

Brooks didn't get to finish his statement as Abby let out a squeal. "Oh, I bet I know where he wondered off to! Come on!" She again, took the lead with the two men following behind.

"Abby, I'm not so sure about this, the longer we wait ..."

"I know, but if we sound the alarm and Timmy is where I think he is, he is going to be sooooooo embarrassed. I don't want him any more upset than he already is."

"Miss Scuito ..."

She rounded on the two of them. "No! This first, then if he isn't there you can call in the troops and lock-down every building from here to the FBI. But only after."

Brooks and Williams exchanged a look but nodded to Abby in agreement. She turned back around, getting herself under control. You better be there Timmy, because if your not, I'm going to kill you ... once we get you back safe and sound.

As Abby opened the door to Cyber-crimes, she called out, "Marco ..."

She received four responses of "Polo". She frowned until one of the techs stood up and pointed to a figure completely engrossed in the screen in front of him.

Abby paused and put her arms up to stop the two men behind her. She took a moment to look over her friend, and her smile returned. He looked so calm and focus, back to his old self. When she didn't find Tim in autopsy, she had started to worry, but then she took a moment to put herself in his shoes. She would want everything as close to normal as possible. Which would mean back to work, and since he didn't have anything going on upstairs, Cyber-crimes had always offered a place for him to go to keep his mind and skills sharp.

She was brought out of her thoughts when McGee started chanting, "Come on, come on, come on."

After another moment he jumped up and yelled, "Yes! Joan, I got it!" He took a moment to look around, triumph written all over his face. Then he noticed Abby and the two men behind her and his face fell. "Oh, ah ... Hi?"

Tim lowered his head and took a quick look at the computer, it was thirty minutes since he left the bull-pen, twenty past his time. He kept his head down. "How long have you guys been standing there?"

Abby took his reaction as embarrassment. "Oh, just a couple of minutes." She was smiling and thought about teasing him, but decided he had been through enough lately and let him off easy. "It was nice seeing you have fun."

Tim lifted his head and gave a small smile and nodded to Abby. "It was nice to be back to normal, for ... how long was I down here?" He hoped his little misnomer about not know the time would be taken for embarrassment instead of the lie it was. He hated to lie, but the stakes were too high, he knew what needed to be done and that he was the only one who could do it. It was his responsibility to stop this; not his team, not the Air Force, not even Roger.

Abby opened her mouth to respond when Joan came walking over. "Great job Tim!" She took a moment to look over his work. "It was hidden in the data stream from the overseas offices ...hm, that's cleaver, how did you think to look there?" She straightened back up and looked, with pride, at McGee.

He shrugged. "Hiding in plain sight. It's what criminals do best." Now he was embarrassed for real.

Joan walked over to McGee. "That's a good job. It might have taken us a while to think of that." She eyed him up and down. "You know, if you ever get tired of being a field agent, we would all love to have you back. Right guys?"

Abby, Brooks and Williams looked around as "Yes", "Anytime", "Please come back Boss", and many other responses echoed around the unit.

McGee, blushing furiously, put an arm around Joan's shoulder and gave her quick squeeze. She reminded him a lot of Matt's mother, full of spirit. "This is your unit now. I'm where I belong."

She gave him a frown. "You think of things we never would, you could do more good here." During his time at Cyber-crimes, they all had grown fond of Tim. Even though it was years later, the unit would gladly welcome him back.

"I think of those things because I'm a field agent. Maybe you should draft an exchange program. Every team gets a cyber-geek, so they can know what I know."

Joan sighed, she had this conversation with Tim every time he came down to help and she knew she would never persuade him. However, that didn't mean she wouldn't keep trying. "I don't think any of us would be able to know what you know. Besides, can you see Matthews or West handling a gun?"

The two techs in question gave a resounding, simultaneous, "No way!" Causing everyone to laugh.

Everyone, except Abby. She didn't like the thought of Tim leaving Team Gibbs, even if it would be an assignment in the same building. She walked over and slipped an arm through McGee's. "You ready to go." She said gently to him, but gave a glare to Joan.

Tim sighed. "Play nice you two. There's more than enough of me to go around." He gave a quick squeeze to Joan's shoulder again and then left with Abby.

Joan watched as he left. "That's where you're wrong Tim." She shook her head. "Alright everyone, the excitement is over. Matthews, pick up where Tim left off. I think he did most of it, you just need to follow through."

"Me? Follow after The Boss?"

Joan smiled, Matthews was new when McGee had been head of Cyber-crimes. He took to Tim immediately and had a hero worship going on, that if left alone, could stunt the boy's career. He was good, almost as good as Tim. Then again, they were all almost as good. "Yes, you Matthews. You worked with Tim pretty closely when he was stationed down here. I think you'd be the best to follow his lead."

"Yes Ma'am!" Matthews said with pride as he took over the computer, giving a moment's respect before starting.

Joan shook her head, but smiled, knowing he would be more confident now. "Alright, the rest of you geeks, back to work!", she playfully yelled to her unit.

They all smiled, gave a "Yes, Ma'am", and bowed their heads back to their computers.

XXXX

Abby pouted all the way to the bull-pen, holding onto McGee's arm the entire time.

"Abs, I'm not going to make a run for it."

"It's not that McGee. You won't go back to cyber-crimes will you? I mean I know you're great down there, and everyone really likes you ... but we all really like you and you're a great agent, and ..."

Tim smiled and leaned over to give her a kiss to the top of her head. "Don't worry, I'm not going any where. Like I said down there, I'm where I belong."

Abby sighed happily and rested her head against McGee's shoulder, being careful not to squeeze too hard in case it freaked him out again.

Tim looked at Agent Brooks and Airman Williams. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make anyone worry. I just wanted a bit of normalcy." And to see how much I could get away with, he added to himself.

Williams looked over the man in front of him. He remembered when Sergeant Ferris had started talking about McGee at the beginning of this assignment. He had sounded like a caricature, no one could really be that good of a person. But, each time he was around McGee, he could see what Roger did, someone who truly cared and wanted to do some good in this world. Even he started to feel protective of the agent in his care.

Williams nodded to him. "I can understand that. But you need to understand that you need to take your protection seriously. We don't know how far this killer's reach goes. He could get to you even here."

Tim nodded solemnly.

"Just don't let it happen again. If you get the urge to go somewhere else, or even if you get called away, let one of us know - no exceptions. If there is a repeat performance, you will have a shadow every where you go. I do mean every where. Are we clear?"

McGee nodded. "Yes, sir. Very." He sighed and lowered his head. He gave me fifteen minutes this time. Next time I will probably only have ten. Okay, so that will give me a twenty-five to thirty minute head start. It will just have to be enough. Now, how am I going to leave the building?

Everyone took Tim's lowered head as him being resigned and unhappy. Abby glared at the two men.

Brooks and Williams glanced at each other, but they knew the airman was right.

"Hey, your team will get him. Don't you worry. You guys aren't the MCRT for nothing. All of us other teams have some pretty high standards to measure up to." Brooks gave in his most confident voice.

McGee's shoulders slumped for a moment, but then he lifted back up. He looked at each of the men in the eyes. "You're right. I guess I'm being a little selfish here. Everyone is working so hard and I'm just wallowing. My team's the best, no offense Brooks, I just need to give them the time to figure this out."

The elevator doors opened into bull-pen. Abby still held onto Tim's arm as they walked to his desk. "Your not being selfish. You're doing amazing! Don't be so hard on yourself."

McGee smiled at her as she finally let go of his arm as he sat at his desk. Williams went back to the outside elevators, speaking briefly to Masterson.

Brooks nodded to McGee and went back to his own team.

Abby jumped up and took a seat on the edge of McGee's desk.

He looked at her and smiled. "Abby you don't have to watch me. I'm not going to run off."

"That's okay McGee. I don't have anything going on right now. Besides, I like watching you at your desk ... where you belong."

Tim gave a genuine smile. "Okay, Abs. Stay as long as you want then."

Abby smiled back and nodded. Tim got back to his searches for Mark and Nate. Abby sat, swinging her legs on the edge of his desk, waiting for the rest of the team to return.