Not beta'd; Standard disclaimer applies;
Science Doesn't Lie, Chapter 13, Gifts
The next morning Tim pulled into a parking space on the yard and exited his vehicle. He took a deep breath and mentally reminded himself that today could not possibly be worse than yesterday as he shut the car door and took a step towards the large building that housed NCIS Headquarters.
"McGee."
Tim jumped and spun around at the sound of his name.
"Ziva," he stated in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you," she replied as she walked towards him, a bag dangling from her hands.
"Well, I'm here, shall we go?"
"Not yet," she replied as she held out her hand holding the bag.
Tim frowned, "What's this?"
"A present for the new father," Ziva answered, "And for the twins."
"You didn't have to do that," Tim said, still not taking the bag.
"I know. I wanted to," she explained. "I wanted you to know that I am happy for you and that despite the stony start, I hope to be a part of your and your children's lives."
"Ziva," Tim dragged out her name, his voice filled with emotion. Clearing his throat, he replied, "Part of the rocky start was because I didn't share the news with you, that's on me. I would love to have you be part of their lives, no gifts needed for that."
"I know," she replied. "As I said, I wanted to. Now open it," she ordered, waving the bag in front of his face.
Tim laughed at her antics as he set down his pack and took custody of the bag.
"Forgive me for not wrapping them," Ziva filled in the silence. "I forgot to buy paper."
"That's okay," he replied dismissively.
A smile graced his lips as he read the 'World's Best Father' t-shirt he had pulled from the bag. He then turned it around and held it up in front of his chest as if modeling it.
"That is for you, obviously," Ziva stated. "I have no doubt that you are going to be a great dad and thought that you should be attired appropriately."
"Thanks, that means a lot," Tim said as he reached into the bag again and pulling out a couple of outfits, teethers, and rattles.
"I was not sure what size to buy," Ziva admitted. "I know that your children are three months old, but I also know that they were born early so I was not sure how big they are. The lady at the store told me that size does not necessarily correspond with age, but I did not have any additional information to help her determine the correct size. She did suggest that I buy the larger size, saying that they would always grow into them if it was too bag at this time."
"They will," Tim agreed, smiling at her. "They seem to grow like weeds, practically doubled in weight since they were born," he informed her. "Thank you, Ziva," he said as he neatly placed everything back in the bag.
"You are welcome," she replied smiling back at him. "Are you ready to head in now?"
"Yep, just let me put these in the car to make sure I don't misplace them," Tim stated, his actions mirroring his words.
"Can I ask a question?" Ziva inquired a few moments later after they had started walking.
"Of course."
"After what Abby did, why are you letting her run the retesting?"
"In a way, I'm not," Tim began. "I set the test up and programmed the system to alert me if it is interrupted."
"But she will still have access to the results," Ziva commented.
"Not if someone else is down there when the test finishes," Tim replied. "After dropping off my gear and checking in with Gibbs, I plan on heading down to the lab to check on the status. I then plan on working down there for a few hours. If we're reviewing cold cases again today, all we need is a desk, a phone, and a computer," he explained. "Hopefully, it will be complete before Abby comes in for the day."
"And if it is not?" Ziva asked.
Tim frowned, "I can easily ignore her," he replied. "But I don't know if she would do the same. Past experience, as well as how she acted yesterday, tells me 'no'," he admitted dryly.
"Hmmm," Ziva hummed non-committedly before continuing with her original question. "But why even bother doing the retest"
"Vance wants it done,"
"At NCIS and not by an outside lab?"
"Oh," Tim blushed as he realized that he hadn't let her finish the question. "I was going to do that if Vance didn't request that it be done or approved the use of our equipment," he admitted.
Ziva gave him a look that plainly said that his reply did not answer her question.
"Do you remember when I estimated that the test would take between 12-24 hours?"
"Yes," Ziva replied, controlling her features so she wouldn't roll her eyes. After all, that had only been yesterday afternoon.
"With an outside lab, it could be weeks before we would receive those results. And if they came back the same as Abby's test, it would then be another several weeks before we get the next set of results. I…" Tim paused and cleared his throat, "I couldn't last weeks, months not knowing if or how they were related, not even if I was the only one who cared."
"I see," Ziva nodded. "But could you not have asked someone to run them as a favor? You must know another scientist," she commented. "Or perhaps ask a favor of another agency?"
Tim shook his head, "Everyone I know who can or would do it I know through Abby," he shared. "I have no doubt that if I went to them, they would tell Abby about it, perhaps even forward the results to her for her to give to me. At least here I can set up the tests and monitor it so she doesn't interfere or receive a copy of the results. The same with another agency," he added. "They all know each other from various workshops or working cases together. If they know Abby, then they probably know Gibbs, or at least know of him." Tim snorted, "Hell, even if they don't know Abby, if they work for any of the alphabet, they probably know of Gibbs and that he works for NCIS, either way, if something involving his DNA came across their desk, they'll probably contact NCIS,meaning Abby, regarding it."
Ziva frowned, "Would that not be unprofessional? Sharing results and discussing testing like that?"
Tim looked as Ziva, "Your point?" he asked, meeting her gaze. "Abby's been getting away with things like that for years; hell, I hack into systems for similar information," he admitted. "Abby isn't about to turn down information, especially if it involves Gibbs."
"I…yes," Ziva agreed as the two fell silent as they completed their walk to work.
Tim followed his plan: drop off gear, check in with Gibbs, grab files and head downstairs to work in lab while waiting for test to finish, something he was hoping happened before Abby entered the building.
"Okay, Ziva," Tony addressed his coworker who was also reviewing cold case files. "You've been looking at McDad's desk every five minutes. Did you develop a crush on the new father? I heard that babies were a chick magnet, but I didn't expect it to happen this quickly, especially since you haven't seen him with his kids yet," Tony smirked at her.
Ziva turned and scowled at her coworker, both for his assumption and the exaggeration that she glanced that way every five minutes. "I was just checking to see if he had returned yet," she tried to explain the reason for her looks.
Tony snorted, "I seriously doubt that he could sneak by both of us and sit at his desk without us being aware," he drawled. "What gives?"
She sighed, "He has been down there for over an hour now,"
"Aw…you miss him," Tony sweetly taunted. "Was I right? Does our Ninja Assassin have a crush?"
"And the test has not ended," she continued, not even acknowledging that Tony had once again spoken. "Abby could be appearing in her lab within the next forty-five minutes. I know that Tim can handle himself and is more than capable of dealing with Abby, but-"
"But he shouldn't have to," Tony injected, nodding his head in agreement.
"Exactly."
"Couldn't he just leave and work up here?" Tony asked. "I mean, it's not like he was sent down there by Gibbs or Vance to help Abby with something,"
"No," Ziva shook her head. "Well, he could," she admitted, "But he does not want Abby to have access to the results if the test completes and no one is there."
"After what she did when she got the results the first time, I can understand that," Tony muttered.
"Who knows what she would say or do with those results," Ziva worriedly speculated, not hearing her teammate's comment.
Tony shivered imagining the next mess Abby might make. "So what are you thinking?" he asked, looking at her shrewdly.
"Well, as Tim pointed out to me earlier, we are on cold cases, yes?" When Tony nodded, she continued, "All we need is the files, a computer, and a phone,"
A slow smile graced Tony's face, "The lab has the latter two and we can bring the former," he commented.
Ziva smiled, glad that he understood her point.
"So, you're thinking a cold case party in the lab," Tony continued, rubbing his hands together in glee.
Ziva rolled her eyes, "Not quite. I doubt Timothy is up for a party, especially with Abby."
"Oh, right," Tony frowned.
"I am thinking that the two of us each take a shift working in the lab until we have the results. We will be able to make sure Abby does not get to the results first, even if we have to shoot her."
"Er," Tony hesitated, "I hope it doesn't come to that."
Ziva smiled and shrugged, the look on her face informing him that part of her did.
"That should work," he agreed. "The only problem is that we," he waved his hand between the two of them, "have never worked in the lab before, McGee, sure, but us? How would we explain our presence to her?"
"Simple, we tell her the truth, that we do not trust her."
"Ouch," Tony gulped, imagining the pain Abby might cause once she heard that. "Uh, yeah, you get the first shift so you can tell her that."
"Gladly," Ziva smirked as the two stood up, Ziva also grabbing a stack of files to work on.
Hearing the elevator beep and the doors open, Tim momentarily tensed. "You can do this," he muttered to himself before he forced himself to continue working. So, what if Abby was earlier than normal. She was probably hoping that the test was done and that she could sneak in and get the results before anyone else was aware that they were available.
At the sound of voices talking, he looked up. "Ziva? Tony? Did I miss a call?" he asked as he pulled out his phone. "Is something wrong? What happened?"
"Easy there, McWorry," Tony consoled. "Nothing's wrong."
"Then why are you here?" Tim questioned, still worried. While he was relieved to know that it wasn't Abby that entered the lab, he figured that if his two teammates tracked him down while he was alone whatever they wanted to say couldn't be good.
"Can't we just come down and visit a teammate without wanting anything?" Tony asked, grinning widely.
"No," Tim bluntly replied. "Not you two and not me, at least," he added. With a shake of his head he realized that they might as well get this over with, and quickly, Tim thought. It would not be good to be caught discussing things and have Gibbs show up, or worse, Abby. The former would probably give them a head slap and order them back to work, the latter would take whatever they were discussing and somehow attempt to make it all seem like Tim's fault. "Just say or ask whatever it is you came down here for."
"We did n-" a confused Ziva began only to be silenced by Tony.
"Well, since you offered," Tony grinned, taking a seat and making himself comfortable. "I've been thinking about what you told us yesterday and I came up with some more questions,"
"A lot of that going around," Tim muttered, while Ziva looked away.
Tony frowned as he wondered what was meant by those words before deciding not to get sidetracked. "Anyway, according to Abby's illegally run test, the results show that you and Gibbs are somehow related,"
"No," Tim denied.
Tony's eyes narrowed. "But you said-" he began, only to be cut off by the younger man.
"My kids and Gibbs are somehow related," he clarified.
"Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to," Tony waved his hand dismissively. "My question is how?"
Tim just looked at him for a few moments before finally saying, "If we knew how we they were related, we wouldn't be rerunning the test to confirm that they are related, now would we?" His companions were surprised at the sarcasm in his response.
Tony rolled his eyes, "Seriously," he began again. "How? I mean we're talking distant cousins, or a common ancestor from like 50 years ago, right?"
Tim sighed, not really surprised by this first question. He should've known Tony would ask the one question he didn't want to think about. "No. Assuming the original test is accurate, it's probably a pretty close relation."
"Probably?" Ziva repeated.
Tim shrugged, "When the results were printed, Abby was so…," he paused for a moment before deciding he wasn't sure how to finish that statement. "Well, she ripped the document test page, so I couldn't determine the exact parameters she set, but I doubt she would set it to list any known relative. She was focused on my relationship to the twins," Tim explained, not wanting to mention that she originally believed that he was their uncle and was raising the kids as his own to because his sister had an unexpected pregnancy.
Ziva frowned, "Could she not have printed another copy?"
Tim shook his head, "She couldn't," he stated. "Since she wasn't supposed to be running it in the first place, I'm sure she deleted the results from her system, especially since she was leaving the lab. Couldn't leave proof of that around," he added sarcastically. "And I wasn't about to ask her," he said before one of them could ask that question. "Not for another copy, even if she could print one, but also what parameters she set. One, because I did not want to talk to her if I didn't have to, and two, I wasn't sure I could trust her to answer the question honestly," he admitted.
Tony snorted, "Yeah, giving what she pulled earlier that day, she probably would've said she set it for fathers only."
Tim simply nodded, knowing that it wasn't worth the time it would take to explain anything about DNA to his teammates.
"So, it would be a really close relation, huh?" Tony repeated, receiving a nod of confirmation from Tim.
"If this test shows the same results, yes," he said, nodding his head towards the still running analyzer.
"Oh…and you're sure Gibbs isn't the other parent?" Tony teased.
Tim rolled his eyes, ignoring that comment. "Well, if that is all why you came down here…" Tim trailed off, looking between them and the door.
"Actually, we are here to help," Ziva replied, tapping the stack of case files she had placed on the table.
"By bringing me more work?" Tim stated in confusion after a few minutes of looking at the files. "Um, thanks?"
Tony sighed, "No, by taking shifts working down here so we can keep an eye on the test and Abby to make sure nothing happens. Ziva's going first, those are for her to work on while she is down here."
Tim stared at them as he processed what was said, "You don't have to,"
"We know," Ziva interrupted, "and I know you can handle Abby, but there is no reason for you to do so if you do not have to. We are your team, we have your six," she reassured him.
"I…wow," Tim leaned back in his chair in surprise. "Thank you,"
"It is my pleasure," Ziva replied, grinning at them.
Tony shook his head, suspecting she was thinking more about her confrontation with Abby than monitoring the tests for Tim. Deciding not to question it, he nudged Tim to get moving. "Come on, McWander," Tony prodded, "Let's get you packed up and back at your desk." Even though he never said 'before Abby gets in', everyone could hear those words linger in the air.
The team quickly worked together to pack up Tim's files to accomplish that goal and after showing Tony and Ziva the equipment used for the testing, the two male agents were ready to head back to the bullpen while Ziva settled in to work.
"Uh, Ziva?"
"Yes, Tony?"
"Don't kill her. I really don't want to deal with the paperwork that would generate," he instructed, meeting her eyes before exiting the lab. He tried his best not to focus on the fact that Ziva didn't make any promises.
2-8-2020
So the team is starting to act a bit more like a team...amazing what happens when you stop keeping secrets :)
I realized that 'tuesday' might be just as long as 'monday' in this story. The good news...the team learns a lot more about the relationship of Gibbs and the twins on this day.