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Science doesn't lie, Chapter 14 Possibilities

"Why is he still mad at me?" Abby complained as she paced around her lab.

When Timmy and Gibbs had left the lab yesterday, she had really expected one or both of them to return before she was supposed to leave for the day. Instead, moments later, she had gotten a call from Vance telling her to head home. She tried to argue, saying that she was waiting for tests to finish, but the Director had overruled her and insisted she leave and not return until her scheduled time the next morning. Because she hadn't seen those two men again yesterday, she figured Gibbs would be down early today with a Caf-Pow in hand. Tim, she expected to appear begging her to forgive him. To her astonishment, either one had shown up. Instead, when she entered the lab, Ziva was there working on cold case files.

Normally, she would welcome the company, but when the other woman said she was there because no one trusted Abby to be on her own while the DNA test was running, the scientist got angry and started shouting about how this was her lab and that no one had a right to interfere with her work. Ziva had quietly pointed out that this test was not work, therefore no one was interfering with Abby's job. That only seemed to make Abby madder, causing her to go off on another tirade, one where even she wasn't sure what she had said or the point she was trying to make. After that, she spent the next twenty minutes yelling and arguing about how she wasn't the one keeping secrets from the team. This time, the only response Abby received from Ziva was an eyeroll as she played with a paperclip in her hands, her focus seemingly on the papers in front of her.

Eventually, Abby stopped talking and starting setting up her lab for the day… loudly setting up the lab for the day, Ziva simply watched her every move to make sure she didn't interfere with the test. Ziva suspected that Abby was trying to garner a reaction from her, so made sure not to give her one. Abby then pointedly ignored Ziva, much to the Israeli's amusement. About an hour later, Tony appeared and Ziva packed up to return to the bullpen.

Tony immediately focused on cold cases, occasionally looking up to confirm that Abby wasn't jeopardizing the test. Even though she had a stack of paperwork she should be working on, Abby was more focused on the objects of her wrath. She would frequently pick up the phone and dial it, only to slam down the receiver when no one answered her calls. She also tried to contact the two men via email, but again, received no response, not even a 'read receipt'. As the morning wore on, she was getting more and more desperate. By now, she had given up all pretense of work and for the last fifteen minutes had just paced and complained about them.

At her question, Tony couldn't help the snort that escaped and he quickly tried to cover up the sound by coughing. He had been able to block out and ignore most of Abby's ranting, even if it had gotten progressively louder, but that last question, Tony shook his head. How could someone be so oblivious to what their actions caused?

Unfortunately, the sound of his coughing seemed to remind Abby of his presence and she immediately turned to him looking for an answer to her question.

"McGee or Gibbs?" Tony pointedly asked. Part of him was curious to know which man's actions had gotten Abby more upset.

"Either," she pouted. "Both. Neither one should really be mad at me. I was just trying to help and I might have found a family for Gibbs," she reminded him.

Before Tony could formulate a reply, a voice from the doorway answered. "McGee because he feels betrayed. Gibbs probably because he is not sure what he feels and is trying to keep McGee from killing you." She had arrived a few minutes earlier to check on her teammate and had observed the older woman's rant.

"Ziva!" Abby shouted in surprise. "Timmy wouldn't hurt anyone, let alone kill me."

"He is mad enough to kill," Ziva retorted. "And you have given him plenty of cause."

Abby huffed, "I'm the one who should be upset," she argued, "First he called me a mad scientist, then insane, crazy, psychotic."

"Whoa," Tony muttered, wishing he had overheard that conversation. "If he did all that you might want to watch your back until he calms down," he joked.

"Tony!"

"Abby," Ziva injected, "You are the only friend, the only person from NCIS he willingly told about his children. He asked you to keep his confidence until he was ready to announce the news himself. Not only did you fail to do so, but you al-"

'Beep…Beep'

Ziva stopped speaking as all three of them looked towards the source of the noise.

"No, stop," Tony ordered Abby when she stood up.

"But the test is done," she protested.

"I know," Tony replied, blocking her path even as he took out his phone and sent a text. "It can wait."

"Wait for what? And why?" Abby asked, not receiving a reply. When she stepped closer to the analyzer, Ziva moved to stand next to Tony, both of them blocking her access to the machine.

"Boss, test is done," Tim stated as he put his phone away.

"Okay. You ready to do this?"

Tim nodded, "I'm pretty sure the results will be the same as when Abby illegally ran it," he admitted. "As angry as I am, I know that Abby is good at her job."

Gibbs snorted at the understatement his agent just uttered, but knew better to comment, especially with the mood Tim was currently displaying, "Let's go then."

As they walked away from their desks, Tim spied some movement in the corner of his eye from the mezzanine. "Er, do we need to contact the director?"

"Nope. Only if have new or confirmed information," Gibbs answered as he exited the bullpen, Tim on his heels, heading towards the lab.

It was only moments later that the two reached the lab, the older man entering first.

"Gibbs! Timmy!" Abby cried, heading to the older man to hug him the moment he appeared in the doorway. "I knew you couldn't stay mad at me."

"Still upset and disappointed in you, Abs," Gibbs said as he broke away from her.

"Results are over there," Tony injected. "We haven't touched them yet."

"Thank you, Tony," Tim said as he walked over to the analyzer.

Abby huffed, "I still don't know why you wouldn't let me look," she complained as Tim read the results. "It's my lab."

"Not a case," Gibbs commented, watching his agent review the paper in his hand.

"Because I asked Tony to contact me when the test was completed. They are my kids," Tim replied before turning around to face her, "As the retesting confirmed."

"Of course, it does, I don't make mistakes," Abby huffed.

Tim had turned back to the machine to have it reprint additional copies of the results. "No, you just steal DNA from innocent children, and run it without permission from their father," Tim replied, reiterating the words he had repeatedly stated the day before. Eyebrows raised from his team at his continued attitude. Usually Tim was not one to hold a grudge, or at least not continuously vocalize it.

Tim picked up on one of the papers and placed it in a confidential envelope that he then sealed, writing the dated and subjects on the outside.

Abby stared at all of them in surprise. Tim for his words and continued anger, and everyone else for not defending her. "I was-"

"Don't," Tim interrupted her. "There is no excuse or explanation for what you did. Especially when you could've talked to me about your concerns," he reminded her, before removing the DNA samples from the analyzer and placing them in secure evidence jars. After gathering the jars and the reports and resetting Abby's equipment he turned around and with a questioning head tilt to Gibbs indicating the door, headed towards it after receiving a subtle nod in return.

"Wait! I don't get to see?" Abby cried when she realized that Tim was leaving, with the results.

"Other than being the reason this testing is being done, this does not concern you," he snapped.

"It concerns the team and Gibbs."

"It might concern Gibbs," Tim corrected, glaring at her. "And if he chooses to share any information with you or anyone else, that is his right. Something I will not take away from him," he concluded leaving the lab and heading towards the stairs.

"Gibbs," Abby whined, turning to the older man. "You're going to tell me, right?"

"I don't even know what the results are," he admitted. He could not tell from the expression on Tim's face whether the results were the same or different from Abby's original testing.

"So, make him tell you and then you tell me."

Gibbs just shook his head and left, not speaking another word to Abby.

"Whoa," Tony muttered once Gibbs had left. "I think Ziva's right, Abs, McGee just might kill you. Seriously, I suggest you watch your back."

"I can't believe he's acting like this," Abby huffed.

"Just like he could not believe your actions," Ziva calmly commented.

"So, you think this is payback?" Abby asked.

"No, I think he is truly pissed at you and may never trust you again," Ziva corrected. "And with good reason, it seems," she added, before leaving the lab.

Abby stared after her in shock.

"You went to far this time, Abs," Tony commiserated, as he perused the lab to make sure nothing was left behind and echoed his teammates' actions.

"I can be trusted," Abby protested to the empty lab.

After checking the bullpen, autopsy, the breakroom, and multiple other places, Gibbs finally located his wayward agent holed up in a conference room twenty minutes later. Entering quietly, he took a seat across from Tim and waited.

"Hey, boss," Tim greeted him, sounding like his regular self.

"You okay?"

"Fine, why?"

Gibbs just shook his head, not answering.

Tim passed a copy of the results to him, "Thought you might like a copy."

"What exactly am I looking at?" the older man asked, staring at the paper in front of him.

Tim grinned briefly before beginning to explain how to read the results.

"Bottom line," Gibbs interrupted. "What does all this mean?"

"You are definitely related to my kids," Tim confirmed, not meeting the older man's eyes.

Gibbs nodded, not really that surprised at the results, like Tim he knew Abby was skillful in the lab, it was just her methods he was beginning to question. The confirmed results though didn't change the fact that he was still a bit confused about how it could be.

"I have no siblings, no living children, no aunts, uncles. The only family I have is my father."

"That you know of," Tim added softly.

Gibbs' head snapped up as he growled, "What do you mean?"

"You didn't talk to your father for years," Tim pointed out. "You have no idea what happened during that time. Plus, as men, we don't always know when we've fathered a child. We have to rely on the woman to tell us," Tim paused as he let that sink in. "I was lucky that the twin's mother did not want children and did not believe in abortion. She told me about them and gave me the option of raising them. She could've kept it hidden from me very easily," he pointed out.

Gibbs nodded while Tim remained silent to give the older man time to think.

"What are you thinking?" Tim finally prompted after several minutes had passed.

Gibbs shook his head while Tim continued to stare at him.

"Gibbs," the younger man dragged out his name, almost pleading for a response.

"I just don't know how," he once again admitted. "I hadn't been out of touch with my father long enough for him to have a grown daughter, and definitely not one that's old enough for you to date," he dryly added. "He would have told me if he found out he had a child from a former relationship. Even if he didn't tell me at the time, he would tell me now. There is also the fact that I really don't recall him seriously dating anyone." Gibbs paused and frowned at the idea that he had a younger sister…a much younger sister. Of course another option was if one of her parents was his sibling. "If the twins' mother is related to me, I can guarantee you that my father doesn't know about her."

Tim opened his mouth before closing it again, not sure how to ask the question that came to his mind. His movements went unnoticed by the older man, who continued to stare down at the table.

With a sigh, Gibbs looked up, "What can you tell me about the twins' mother? About her family, her mother, father, and such? Where they are from?"

Tim simply stared at him.

"My father never leaves Pennsylvania, so if she's from that area, we could possibly be related," Gibbs explained to his agent. "The more we know about her, the easier it will be to figure out our relation. As the unknown, it is most likely through her," he added.

Tim nodded and given a sigh, began to talk, "I've known her for a little over two years."

Gibbs blinked at that, "Two years and we've never heard of her? Never met her?"

Tim shrugged, "Yeah, I was a bit surprised I was able to keep that relationship a secret from Tony as well."

"Not what I meant," Gibbs frowned even as he waved his hand for Tim to continue. Gibbs wasn't surprised because Tony hadn't discovered the relationship, but rather because Tim had never mentioned it.

"As for her family," he shrugged, "I don't know too much, mostly because she doesn't know a lot. She has a few theories," he stated.

Gibbs gave him a puzzled look. "Theories?" he repeated.

Tim nodded sadly, "She's an orphan. Her mother died before she was a teenager; her father has been gone longer than that, since she was about 8. She doesn't remember a funeral, just that he went away and never came back. She doesn't remember much about him, except that he was gone a lot. She said her mother never talked about him," Tim shared. "She thought they might have been separated, her father slowly fading out of their lives. She doesn't remember them fighting when she was little, but admits that they could've hidden that from her, and isn't really sure how else to explain his long absences and subsequent disappearance.

"She thinks her mother was Irish because she remembers that she had red hair, green eyes, often sung her Irish lullabies, and talked in an exaggerated Irish accent to make her laugh. After she died, no family came to claim her, she grew up in the foster care system and homes.

"She often told me that she wishes she had kept a journal when she was younger to write down the things her mother had told her. She also wishes that she had asked more questions, but," Tim shrugged, "she was a kid, at the time, family history and such didn't seem important to her. Now, the history is all she'll ever have and she'll never know what it is, only suspect."

"The reason for the Irish names," Gibbs commented knowingly.

"They definitely are Irish from my side, and I figured it was also a good way to honor their maternal grandmother, as well as give them a sense of where they came from," Tim embarrassingly admitted. It had been quite a challenge picking out those Irish names, at least the one for his daughter. The most popular and widely known names all seemed to be connected to people he, or someone in his life, had loved and lost: Shannon, Kelly, Erin, Caitlin. It was another reason why he delved into the less common names.

"She's smart, really smart," Tim added, continuing sharing what he knew about the twin's mother. "Was able to get scholarships for school, and is focused on her career, one of the reasons she wasn't ready for kids," Tim added.

"Name? Age? Place of birth?"

"Kelsey," Tim replied, "Kelsey Gibson. Not yet 30 years old," Tim flicked his eyes to his quickly, "She would never tell me her exact age, only that she was old enough, but under thirty. Piecing together some things, I'm pretty sure that she's about 28. I'm not sure where she was born, but I know she did live in California for a bit," Tim admitted.

Gibbs nodded. "You showed Abby pictures of her, can I see them?"

"Of course," Tim nodded as he dug out his phone and brought one up on the screen. Gibbs studied the pictures, searching for common features, a resemblance, something that might seem familiar. As Tim had mentioned, she looked to be in her late 20's-early 30's, blonde hair, he tapped the screen trying to zoom in on the picture. Realizing what he was doing, Tim showed him how to enlarge it. Looking once more at the picture he noticed her eyes. Slowly, he passed the phone back to Tim. "She's pretty."

Tim nodded, "Yeah, I really hope Kiva takes after her," he admitted. "I was told my best feature is my eyes, so I hope she doesn't really look like me."

"Kiva has her eyes?" he asked, remembering what was said in the bullpen yesterday.

Slowly, Tim nodded, "Yeah, I think she will, still time for them to change, though."

Gibbs nodded. "She has my eyes," Gibbs whispered, remembering another little girl that had those eyes as well. "Hair's too light, though," he added, not sure whether or not to be upset at that.

"Uh, she colors it," Tim admitted. "Said blondes have more fun, plus she likes to be underestimated and says that the blonde hair does that."

Gibbs gave a faint smile upon hearing those words; he could understand why Tim might have liked her. "Are you still in contact with her?"

Tim hesitated then nodded. "Yeah, a bit. I have a number and email for her. She doesn't want to be very involved in the kids lives, but agreed to keep in contact for medical reasons. And with no other family, has listed them as beneficiaries to her insurance policies," Tim added.

Gibbs nodded, before falling silence once more as he thought about things. "Okay. We'll test our DNA against each other and have you contact Kelsey and ask her to supply hers. Also, see if you can get more information about her parents, like their names, birthdays, place of birth. My dad has hardly ever left Stillwater, so there should be a connection to there."

"I…Um…" Tim began only to falter. As much as he didn't want to bring up this topic, he really felt like he should. It had been plaguing him the moment he saw the initial results.

"What?" Gibbs prodded.

Swallowing, Tim said the words he had tried so hard not to think about since the relation was first revealed. "Um, couldshebeyourdaughter?"

Part of Gibbs wanted to grin at the reappearance of the rookie agent, the quiet, shy, unsure man he first met in Norfolk. "Once more, slowly," he ordered, stifling his smile.

Tim closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he then slowly opened his eyes and met the eyes of man sitting across from him, "Could she be your daughter?" he quietly asked, preparing to meet the fallout head-on.

Gibbs startled at that unexpected question, "No." he replied firmly.

"But-"

Gibbs shook his head, "No."

"Gibbs, it's the most likely scenario," Tim softly stated, not wanting to anger the older man.

"No," Gibbs firmly replied. "I agree the relationship is probably through her," he admitted, "But that is not how."

Tim just looked at the older man, "Never assume," he states softly.

Gibbs glares back at him. "We won't. We'll run both her sample and yours against mine to be sure. The question is, should we run our DNA first, or wait and run Kelsey's first?" he stated, closing the door on the topic Tim brought up.

Tim continued just looking at the older man, not understanding why he wouldn't even entertain the idea that he could be Kelsey's father. It could make it much easier for all of them if he just opened his mind to the possibility.

Realizing that Tim wasn't going to reply, Gibbs suggested that they run their DNA while waiting on a sample from Kelsey.

"Fine." Tim nodded in agreement as he brought out his phone to text Kelsey and asked to meet, this was definitely something that should be addressed in person and not through texts. At the same time, he started thinking about how to run his and Gibbs' DNA without involving Abby. "Oh, crap," Tim muttered as a thought popped into his head.

Gibbs looked at him ins concern, "What? Is Kelsey away or something?"

"No," Tim replied dismissively. "Would she?" Tim questioned softly, before coming to the most likely answer to that question. "Uh, Boss," he hesitantly began as the thought that came to him now took roots.

"Yeah?"

"Abby, well, I wouldn't be surprised if she plans on running our DNA without telling us," Tim stated, trying to keep ahold of his temper. "In fact, I think there's a very good chance she already started it."

"What? How could she do that?"

Tim raised an eyebrow. "It's Abby, she has already proven that she has no scruples. She stole DNA from my kids the first time she met them; do you really think she would have difficulty obtaining ours from our workplace? Especially once we excluded her from the results? You know how she is. She's pissed because I didn't let her see the results and wiped the system so she couldn't track it that way. There is also the fact that our DNA is in the NCIS database. If she can't get samples of our DNA, I'm sure she'll run it that way."

"Damn it," Gibbs hissed before jumping up and racing out of the room, taking his phone out of his pocket as he did so.

Tim sat in the conference room alone for a moment, not sure if he wanted to go to the lab and see if his gut was right. He hoped he wasn't. He hoped Abby wasn't secretly running pilfered DNA again. Wanting to know if his suspicions were correct, he stood up and headed towards the door.

"Probie? What did you do to get Gibbs so upset? Confirm you knocked up his daughter?" Tony stood in the doorway smirking at the younger man.

"Shut up, Tony," Tim muttered as he tried to leave the room. That was something Tim definitely didn't want to think about.

"Whoa, McDaddy, seriously? Your secret girlfriend and baby momma is Gibbs's daughter?" Tony said, still blocking the exit.

"Out of my way, Tony, I need to go."

"I know you said the relation was close," Tony continued, ignoring Tim's words, "But this? Gibbs has an unknown child and you find her, sleep with her, and get her pregnant?"

"Tony, shut up!" Tim said, startling Tony, not only by his harsh tone, but by grabbing him by the shoulders and moving the older man. Once outside the conference room Tim raced towards the lab. As much as he didn't want to see Abby or risk another confrontation with her, he had to know if his suspicions were correct.

2-14-2020
Happy Valentine's Day! The 14th Chapter on February 14th...

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