AUTHORS NOTES:

ICYMI: (In Case You Missed It)

NCIS wrote the character of Tobias Fornell (born 1956) as 10 years younger than Joe Spano (born July 7, 1946) is in real life. His birthdate (7/15/1956) is revealed on his drivers license in 'Keep Your Enemies Closer' in S15E15.

Yes, I sat there and painstakingly researched every appearance and mention of Tobias, Emily and Diane on NCIS to make sure the back story I created was sound and fit in with the narrative of my story, also making sure it wasn't too out of the realm of possibility. Luckily, so little is known of Tobias' backstory so it was easy to work with.

FUN FACT TRIVIA: The legal drinking age in the state of Maryland in 1977 was 18 for beer and wine and 21 for hard liquor. That law was introduced in 1974 and the legal drinking age was raised to 21, for all alcohol in 1982.

Thank you all for your amazing reviews, they continue to inspire me. Especially Momcat and Alix33 who have been on a review crusade, lately :)

Tim awoke to find himself covered up on the sofa with a grey mink weighted blanket. Tim decided he liked the feeling it created and was determined to invest in one of these, for his own use. Tim sat up and stretched, cracking his back along the way. He noticed an envelope sitting on his laptop. "I didn't even take a peak." Fornell told him as he bought Tim in a cup of hot coffee in. "Vance was here and as creepy as it sounds, he watched you sleep for a moment before leaving that for you."

"That is creepy, tell me it was you that covered me up though." Tim begged.

"I could or it could be fun to watch you flip out over the thought of the NCIS Director was being all paternal with you." He laughed. "Or I could tell you that Gibbs was here, but right now he wouldn't want to show his face here."

"So it was you?" He asked unsure, his head hurt a little from sleeping on the uncomfortable sofa, with a 'pillow' that wasn't designed to be a pillow. He would have slept much better in his own bed where it was big enough to stretch himself out.

"I'll only tell you if you promise to open those results at some point and not avoid them, forever." Tim just glared at him and Tobias held his hands up in mock surrender. "Ok, it was me. The temperature is expected to drop significantly this afternoon and into this evening, I didn't want you get a chill. Oh and here's some Tylenol for your back too. That sofa is awful to sleep on." Tobias advised him, before leaving him alone to finish cooking their dinner.

"Thank you." Tim told, taking the Tylenol that Tobias had offered.

Tim sat there toying with the envelope, before opening it gently. He pulled out the paperwork attached, he skimmed his information on the first page, before reading his mother's information.

'Mother:

Samantha Darlington (Deceased) formerly Samantha McGee, née' Gallagher born in 5/14/1956

Died 9/11/2001 in Manhattan, New York.

Son: Timothy McGee born 11/15/1977 in Bethesda, Maryland.

Daughter: Sarah Louise McGee born 6/2/1985 in San Diego, California.

Married: Johnathon Timothy McGee on 7/7/1977 in Annapolis, Maryland

Divorced: 9/7/1990 in Los Angeles, California.

Married: Scott Franklin Darlington III on 3/2/1991 in Dallas, Texas.'

Tim re-read his mother's page again and he couldn't believe his eyes, his mother had died. No one had told him, not even his 'grandmother Penny' who still claimed she'd kept in contact with his mother and maintained a relationship with Sarah.

"How's it going in there?" Fornell asked as he stirred the sauce through the stir fry he was making.

"My mother died in New York on 9/11." He said sadly. Tobias stopped what he was doing and hugged the man, in comfort. "Penny never told me, she always claimed she kept in contact with her." Tobias pulled away from Tim and gave him a questioning gaze. "Penny's the Admiral's mother - Professor Penelope Langston. She did the lion's share in raising me."

"Are you ready to read your father's page yet?" Tobias asked, "I should warn you, dinner is only five minutes away."

"I'll wait 'til after we've eaten and cleaned up." Tim told him. "I need to let my Mother's death sink in for a moment."

"Done, grab some plates." Tobias instructed, putting Tim to work.

After dinner, Tim washed up the dishes before going into the living room. Tobias joined him and he picked up the book he was currently reading. 'Gateway to the Seventh Frontier' which was a novel from one of Tim's nom de plumes, written by Nathaniel Thomson. Tim raised his eyebrows at Tobias, not believing his eyes. "What? I don't normally read science fiction but it's a cross over with a western and I like cowboys." Tim looked amused but said nothing that that. "Ok, fine. I steal these books from Gibbs when he's finished with them. Gibbs likes them and I can't get enough, I'm hooked on the storyline and you're using this as a distraction, not to look at your DNA results."

"Just wondering how come you don't buy your own copy?" Tim asked curiously.

"Oh I do, but it annoys Gibbs when I steal his." Tobias quipped, playfully. "Honestly? They show up on my desk in the mail. Gibbs and I send books through the Federal Internal Mail Exchange to one another. We've been doing it for about five years now and four years ago he sent me Nathaniel Thomson's first book. I asked him why, did he want to start a book club with me?" Tobias laughed for a second. "Gibbs said the only 'book club' he'd join was a club where they clubbed me with books."

"Gibbs watches the Simpsons?" Tim asked in shock at the reference to Side Show Bob from The Simpsons, before laughing out loud at the image of Gibbs siting on his sofa with his tiny tv, watching The Simpsons.

"I don't know, but I laughed because it's Emily's favourite episode and she probably showed it to him." Tobias decided. "When the next book came out and I had to beat him to the punchline and send him one. Attached a post it that said 'delayed gratification' and this began our weird version of a book club."

"Do you know why it was so long between book one and two?" He asked Tobias and Tobias shook his head no. "I went skiing in Colorado with some friends and caught pneumonia, took me a long time to recover. I was in the middle of writing 'Deep Six' and 'The Passion Lies Within' when Lyndi Crenshaw, my publisher was on my case about getting the next book out to keep the generated momentum going, my publicist agreed with her and it took me three weeks to write, no re-writes and she loved it."

"Wait, Nathaniel Thomson is one of yours too?" Tobias asked, surprised. "Hell I'm proud of you, how many exactly do you have ?"

"Four Nom's, three published, fifteen best sellers, twenty two published books. Started sending manuscripts in three months before my eighteenth birthday, signed my first contract the day after I turned eighteen, been writing ever since."

"Holy hell, Tim!" Tobias exclaimed in shock. "Why am I not surprised? You're a very talented man." Tim snatched up the papers containing the results of the DNA test off the coffee table. "Good, I'm going to stop distracting you now. We both have something to read." He looked down to where he'd finished up reading before dinner and turned the page over, not truly expecting much. Tim read the page three times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

'Maybe I got hit in the head harder than I thought.' Was his first thought, followed by his hallucinating theory. He stared at the man sprawled out on the sofa. He was engrossed in his book, off in an imaginary world where the Lonestar sheriff Jack Wallace had been hand selected to travel into space, to search for the planet of where the shapeshifting aliens that had taken over the towns saloon had originated from. "Everything ok, Tim?" Tobias asked him, looking up at him and wondering why Tim was staring at him like he'd suddenly grown another head.

"You tell me, Tobias." Tim replied, shakily and Tobias was a little unnerved at the brittleness he heard in the young man's voice. Tobias marked his page, closing his book and came to sit by Tim on the sofa. Tim showed him the page he was reading and there it was in black and white.

'Father:

Tobias Charles Fornell, born 7/15/1956 in Crofton, Maryland.

Married: Diane Marie Sterling, formerly Fornell, née' Myers, biological mother of half sister Emily Rose Fornell. (see below)

Divorced: 11/12/2003 in Washington DC.

Son: Timothy McGee, born 11/15/1977 in Bethesda, Maryland.

Daughter: Emily Rose Fornell, born 10/1/2000 in Alexandria, Virginia.'

"Want to clue me in?" Tim asked, shocked by what he read. He took in Fornell's appearance, the man had gone white as a ghost, his mouth had a perfect 'o' shape to it.

"What? How? When? Who?" Tobias finally verbalised, still in shock at what was written on the paper before his eyes.

"All very good questions." Tim snapped, feeling hurt and frustrated. "Why didn't you say something? Did you know?" He asked.

"I swear I didn't know. If I had of, I'd have never let that bastard get anywhere near you." Tobias answered angrily. He shot up to his feet and rubbed his hand through his barely there hair on his head. "Tim I swear, there was only one woman that year and the dates don't add up. Maybe the lab made an error, a contaminated sample?"

"Not likely, in fact with all extensive work I've ever done in a lab, I have only ever seen it happen once and that evidence was manufactured to frame Tony by Abby's former Lab Assistant, Chip." Tim told him, as a matter of fact. "Besides, you do know that I was born prematurely at twenty nine weeks? My mother was very unwell and I had to be delivered early." Tobias looked at Tim guiltily, now it added up.

"Your Mother is Sam Gallagher?" He asked and Tim looked at him with wide eyes. "She was the girl who lived across the street from me, she was in love with a navy man in officer's candidate school at Annapolis. We were good friends, she and I had a brief, but intense fling at the beginning of '77. It didn't last long though and we went our separate ways, we bumped into each other in early May at 'Sidelines', its a sports bar in Crofton, where we lived. She was celebrating her birthday with some school friends and I was with my Dad and my three older brothers watching the Kentucky Derby replay, which had been run earlier that day. We were having a few beers. We got talking at the bar and we went out to her car for a ... more intimate reunion, before separating again. Never heard from her again." He told Tim. "I only saw her one other time, I was a Junior Field Agent with the FBI on my first posting out in the Seattle Office, in Washington. Must have been either ... '84 or '85, because I left Seattle for California in '86. She was pregnant and had a small boy with her, maybe six or seven. She was coming out of the public library, I was with my boss, leaving for a case and couldn't stop to say hi. She didn't see me, though."

"Mum had Sarah in June 1984." Tim stated, his memory clear "I remember that particular day all too well. We had been to see the space needle on that morning, ate lunch in the park and stopped at the library for my very first visit in my whole life. I fell in love with books that day. I remember it so well because it was the only time I got to go to the library while we were living in Seattle. We sat on the beanbags and read books together. When we got home that afternoon, the Admiral was waiting and he was really mad. We lived on base and it was a long ride home. He punched the wall beside her, when she'd told him where we were and what we were doing. After that we weren't allowed to go more than five miles from the base. I didn't set foot in another public library again until we moved to San Diego, I was in twelve by then."

The two of the men sat in silence, stunned still. "So you really are my son, then? I have a son, a Biological son." Tobias half stated, half asked, trying to wrap his head around it, breaking their silence.

"It appears so." Tim answered, he began feeling awkward and unsure of his welcome in Tobias' home. "Ah, ... maybe I should ... ah," he stammered, trying to find the right words to say.

"Stay! You're always welcome here, son." Tobias said firmly. He had called Tim 'son' a few times before, mostly the night he and Vance arrested the Admiral and he found out about his DNA. Tonight when he said it, he didn't hesitate with it, it just slipped out and it felt natural to him. "We have to tell Emily." Tobias suddenly realised.

"Oh no!" Tim worried, "She's going to hate me now and what about Diane?!"

"Emily loves you like a brother already, don't worry about that. As for Diane, honestly, it could go either way." Tobias said, squeezing his eyes closed tight at the thought of the tantrum that Diane could potentially throw at this new information. "We better tell Emily first, Diane would tell her before us, just to be vindictive."

"Oh my god!" Tim groaned out loud. "I just realised, this makes Diane my ex stepmother." and Tobias laughed out loud.

Tim had barely slept a wink the night before and had laid awake, most of the night, as had Tobias. Both dreaming of how different their lives would have been if they'd already known. Tim went early and met up with the contractor for a quote, being happy with the price, he was being charged agreed to let them immediately start work on his house and he agreed to install the cabinetry, vanities and benchtops that had been waiting on Gibbs to install before he was called away to New Orleans.

Tobias and Tim both sat down with Emily at the park across the street from her school, it was a cool afternoon with a crisp breeze. School had not long let out and the duo had met her, each with a hot coffee in hand and a tray with a hot chocolate and little marshmallows in it for her. " So ... what's with the meeting?" She asked, before noticing Tim's face. "Oh my goodness, Tim! What the heck happened?" she fussed over him.

"I'm fine Em, small training mishap." she told him, playfully pushing her prying hands off his face. "Its no big deal." Tobias audibly scoffed at Tim's explanation of what had happened.

"Emily, sweetheart." Tobias began, not quite really sure how to explain what they'd discovered. "We need to tell you something very important." Tobias made sure he had one hundred percent of Emily's attention before continuing. "So about three months ago, Tim found out that his father wasn't really his father, can't tell you how. He went to an external lab and they took a DNA sample from him and ran it through the DNA database, to see if he could find some of his family. They found a few matches. He has a father, a half sister and he found the mother of his half sister. You remember when you did your family tree project for school last year and you all had your DNA registered?" She nodded in the affirmative. "Tim's your big half brother."

Emily sat perfectly still for thirty seconds, she didn't move a muscle, not even blinking, her eyes were wide open. All of a sudden, Tim found Emily flinging herself into his arms. "Yes!" she screamed, crying happy tears down her face, not caring who saw her cry. "I used to dream I had a big brother, especially all the nights I laid awake wondering when I'd be seeing my Dad next and vice versa."

"So this is good news?" Tim asked, making sure he was reading her right.

"The best!" she exclaimed, excitedly. "And we're a bit alike too, we both love math, we both love science, we both get excited seeing a chemical reaction and we both love to read. I like to write too, but I suppose as a federal agent, you don't have much spare time to write stories, but you told me once that you enjoyed writing when you were my age." Tobias managed to keep a straight face, but Tim could see a small, faint smirk there and his eyes dancing with laughter at Emily's assumptions. "Can I tell mum?" she suddenly asked with glee.

"Absolutely not!" Tobias answered, vehemently. "Besides she's coming to dinner at our house tonight." Tim groaned at hearing that new piece of information. "Emily, this doesn't change how I feel about you, it just means Tim's part of our family now too and I love him the same amount as I love you."

"Well duh! What I really want to know is, is there another ex wife out there? You know like Uncle Gibbs has mum, and those other women and Mum has Uncle Gibbs, you and Victor?"

"Sorry to disappoint you Em, but Tim's mum was a woman I was briefly involved with when I lived at home with my parents. She lived across the street from me." He told her. "We were friends. Tim found out from his DNA search that she died in 9/11." He finished sadly, he knew that was weighing on his friend, no son's mind. He had missed his mother for most of his life and to find out she perished in perhaps the most devastating attack on American soil. It broke his son's heart, his too a little. He fondly remembered Sam. Before they were flinging together, they were friends. That's the girl he was mourning, but his son was mourning his mother.

An early dinner with Tobias, Emily and Diane was actually a success. Diane hugged both of the men in congratulations. "If you need a mum's advice, you can come and see me, Tim." she had told him kindly, which had surprised him. "Tobias and I may be divorced, but one thing I've learnt in my life and surprisingly it was from - Leroy, of all people was, that 'you divorce wives, not children.' Leroy always has time for Emily and he treats her and loves her, like she's his family too. I want us to have that too Tim." she told him, hugging him again and kissing his cheek.

Diane observed the two men, who sat side by side. "I can see some similarities between you two. So, Tim is taller, but Tobias I have seen photos of you when you were younger. You have the same hair and hairline, the same jawline, the same hands and the same glare."

"Mum, they both love law enforcement and became federal agents too." Emily observed.

"Actually Tim looks like my Dad and Giovanni." Tobias corrected them. "That's your oldest Zio, or Uncle and your Nonno. Dad died in 1997 and Giovanni my oldest brother, we called him Johnny, he died last year. Your other two uncles are alive, Marco and Matteo, both older. I am the baby of the family. Marco is a truck driver in Utah and Matteo is an architect in Ohio."

"I have Uncles?" Tim asked in wonder. "I've never had uncles before."

"You have a Nonna too." Tobias told him. "She is still alive, she lives in Fairfax. Emily stopped visiting her two months ago, she had a fall and we had to put her into a care facility. We'll make the trip over there on the weekend, I can't wait for you to meet her."

"Don't forget Uncle Gibbs, too." Emily said, reminding him. "He's going to be so excited about having you as a nephew."

"Sure Em." He smiled at her, as Tim and Tobias shared a look. Diane caught the look and wondered what idiotic thing her former husband had done now.

"Come on Em, let's go do the dishes." Tim said, urging her to the kitchen.

"Great," Emily said sarcastically. "I suppose I have to listen to you more, now that you're my big brother."

"Yep, that's the price you have to pay, come on squirt!" Tim ushered her into the kitchen.

"Wow, it didn't take long for Emily and Tim to start behaving like siblings, did it? How are you really doing, Tobias?" Diane asked in a low voice, as soon as Tim and Emily were out of earshot.

"They we're like that before we found out, it's not new behaviour. Truthfully Diane, I'm really good. I have a son, as well as our beautiful daughter." He smiled widely at her. "My son isn't just a federal agent. He's a certified genius, he has four degrees, a doctorate, he's a federal agent and he's an accomplished, published author. Could a Dad be any prouder than I am?"

"You deserve every happiness, Tobias. We may not have had Tim in our lives when we were married, but it doesn't negate the blessings we're going to share by having him in our lives now." Diane told him, before kissing his cheek softly. The two of them shared a couple of soft, shy looks before Diane remembered she had somewhere else to be and called out her goodbyes before leaving.

"Are you going to tell anyone at NCIS?" Tobias asked, as he handed his son a beer. Emily had gone to bed without an argument, for a change.

"Well they might work it out, if I change my name to Fornell." Tim said softly. "They're investigators after all."

"You're going to change your name?" Tobias asked, genuinely surprised. He hadn't even thought about it. He knew Tim had a stellar reputation on the McGee name.

"Well yeah," Tim said "want to have the same last name as my Dad and my sister. Might give myself a middle name while I'm at it, I've never had one before."

"May I suggest Charles?" Tobias asked, before rushing to explain. "It was your Nonno's name, his Dad's middle name, his Dad's Dad's middle name and it's my middle name. You'd be the fifth Fornell generation to share that name."

"I'd like that." Tim smiled at him and Tobias pulled his son in for their first hug as father and son.