Tim was called in at 0500, he'd not long woken up beforehand and was quietly making a pot of coffee when the golden silence of the early morning was shattered by the shrill ring of his cell phone. He answered it, putting it on loudspeaker and set his phone on the counter so he could tie his shoes. "Pack your bags, Probie. We've got two dead NCIS agents on base in Diego Garcia. You're running things solo, you'll join Ducky to head up the investigation from there. Ziva, Jimmy and I will run things from this end." Tim picked up his phone and clicked the speaker off.
"Do we have the agents ID'd yet?" Tim asked pulling his notepad out to take notes, resting the phone against his ear with his shoulder as he did.
"NCIS Agent in Charge Peter Grant and Probationary Field Agent Kelsey Michaels."
"Copy that." Tim replied into his phone, re-grasping it in his hand. He looked up to see his father standing in the doorway of the kitchen searching for his own morning cup of coffee, still all bleary eyed and half asleep.
"Booked you and Ducky on a cargo flight out of AB joint base Anacostia. Leaves in two hours, be at the yard in one." Tony told him. "Tim, be careful. The whole island is that base and it's just you and Ducky with a whole island of suspects. Pack for warm weather with cloud cover. Vance said temps average 78 overnights and 84 during the day and one day is exactly like the next."
"Got it, Tony. See you in one hour, for a final briefing."
"You're heading out?" His father asked him.
"Yeah, Ducky and I are flying out in a couple of hours, we'll be heading up the investigation on scene. Might not be home for a couple of days." Tim told him vaguely. "Gotta go pack."
"Be safe." Tobias told him, patting his son on his back as he passed him.
"Tell Em, I'll be back soon." Tim packed his extra gear and his go bag. "I'll call you, as soon as I can." Tim told him.
"Watch your own back too, son." Tobias told him as he walked Tim to the front door.
Tobias' heart hurt, already. He was worrying already and it wasn't settling down. It was like the feeling you get when you see your toddler climb to the top of the jungle gym and they're preparing to jump off. 'You know it's dangerous, you can't stop them and you're just praying they won't get hurt too badly.' His heart wasn't prepared for the feeling of worrying over his son, already. Despite his head knowing that Tim was the same agent and the same person, as what Agent McGee was before they discovered the familial connection.
Of course his plans for today weren't helping the pain in his heart. He was going over to see Gibbs, to confront him about his actions with Tim.
"Tim?" Vance greeted as he waited for the acting Senior Field Agent in the foyer, by the security desk.
"Director Vance," Tim greeted him in surprise. Vance had a bag similar to Gibbs' sea bag, slung over his shoulder and was dressed similar to Tim, in jeans and a tee.
"I'm your back up." Vance told him. "Unofficially anyway, officially I'm here to secure the NCIS files and close down the base office temporarily while the investigation takes place and we can assign a new team there. Every single person on that island is a suspect from the janitor to the base commander General Robert Stevens. At any given time there's four thousand people on that island. That's a lot of suspects to eliminate for one agent, alone."
"Thank you Sir. I'll appreciate the unofficial back up." Tim told him. "I have to check in with Tony for a briefing, before we leave."
Tim went up into the bullpen and greeted Tony. It seemed odd to everyone not to see Gibbs at his desk, but they got over it pretty quickly. Tony briefed him, not having much more to add. Ducky came up into the bullpen, his gear in hand.
"I have an update, since this is a time sensitive matter SecNav has authorised the use of his plane. Otherwise we were looking at a 27 hour flight on a C-130. With SecNav's plane, we will be there in nineteen hours instead. The pilot has scheduled stopovers in Puerto Rico and Sierra Leone. Stopovers for refuelling only, no one leaves the plane or boards the plane, not even the pilots. We have four pilots on board, all vetted and regularly used by SecNav himself. They will rotate as they see fit."
"Thank you, Director." Tony said and Tim nodded in agreement. "Better than a military transport! It's a Gulf Stream!" He was green with envy, Tony loved the SecNav's jet.
They said their goodbyes and Ziva hugged Tim and Ducky tightly. "Watch your backs and watch the Director's back." She told them as they departed to meet their flight.
"Is our destination classified, Director?" Tim asked, wanting to let his father know where he was headed. Just in case.
"I'm afraid so, Tim. If you need to make contact with someone to let them know where you'll be roughly, you could tell them how long the flight is to give them a general vicinity." Vance suggested. "It's just until we land on base."
With their gear stowed away, Tim and Ducky took a seat opposite the Director. SecNav was with his security detail at the back of the plane. SecNav was flying on to the to USMC base in Darwin, Australia. Vance's security surrounding the Director, acting senior field agent and good Doctor. With the plane to remain on standby in Diego Garcia for whomever needed it first. Which would most likely be the Director, Tim and Ducky. They would also be exporting the agents bodies back to mainland USA.
With a smooth take off and an hour into the flight, Vance had began a card game of Gin Rummy with Ducky, while Tim opened his laptop and began working on his latest Gemcity manuscript 'Deep Cover' which was his fourth book in the LJ Tibbs series. The third book 'Betrayed' had hit the shelves that morning, so for Tim, it was a good day to hightail it out of DC, just in case of retribution from his team.
Vance and Ducky looked up when they noticed Tim had began typing furiously, his face was set in a determined manner and his eyes were squinting a little as if he was concentrating extra hard. Finally Tim breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little, but still typed at a warp speed pace. Ducky pulled a book out of his bag and showed the Director. "I believe this is why Timothy is avoiding engaging in conversation with us, Director." Showing Vance the newest Gemcity book.
"Yes, I think you're right, Doctor." Vance said with a sly smile, bringing his own copy out of his bag. Neither statement garnered any reaction from Tim, though.
"Tim?" Leon Vance asked, putting hand over Tim's forearm, causing him to look up. "Is everything ok?" He asked, "You're not avoiding me because of the packet I bought over for you on Tuesday?"
"Packet?" He asked, before cottoning on to what the Director was referring too. "Oh that, no. Not avoiding you either of you, just simply typing out some thoughts I had for the new book." Tim explained vaguely. He didn't want to tell anyone that in the fourth book Officer Lisa decides to seduce McGregor in order to access the decryption of the US mainframe for their NORAD weapons before defecting to Mossad. They continue their illicit liaisons behind LJ Tibbs and the rest of the agent's backs. McGregor was playing a dangerous game, and that was all Tim had. He had no idea how to end it the story.
"Was everything ok with it?" Leon asked again quietly, seeing Ducky snoozing behind his book.
"Fine, I'm still processing all of the information I received." Tim told him. "It was a lot to take in and a lot to think about."
"I hope you found some of the answers you were looking for, Tim." Vance told him.
"Gibbs!" Tobias greeted him firmly. The tone held no warmth in it at all.
"Fornell!" Gibbs greeted in return. The two men just stared at each other. Gibbs had been coming down stairs from the top floor, he'd never seen Gibbs go up there before. "If you're here to have a go at me about me attacking Tim, have at it. I feel awful about it."
"First step accomplished, you admit you have feelings on the subject." Tobias commented dryly.
"I am getting help, a therapist. I'm doing Anger Management and I even went to a group session." Gibbs told him, truthfully. "I want to apologise to Tim. But part of the course said not to apologise and make amends until the course is complete. So I'm holding off, how is he doing?" Gibbs asked, Tobias thought he sounded as if he actually was serious about making amends.
"Damn it, Gibbs! I am so mad at you. I came here, all fired up ready to demand an explanation, but even I can see your calmer than I've seen in a long while. Four days ago, I wanted to kill you. How could you do that to him? To another human being?"
"I don't know and I have no excuses." Gibbs told him.
"Step two accomplished." Tobias retorted. "Admit your own your mistakes and own up to them." Tobias took in his appearance, he was calmer then he had seen him in a long while. He wasn't cured, not by a long shot, though. Even Tobias could see that the grief and guilt he wore daily was still there. "He's ok, or he was ok when I saw him last. He and the team caught a case, Ducky and he had to catch a flight to the scene and rest of the team were working it from here."
"You sound worried about him." Gibbs commented.
"Not worried, he's a competent agent. But to not have the back up, that's odd."
"It's probably a base where we have a satellite team or an office." Gibbs told him and that made sense to Tobias. "Vance would never allow him to have no back up on a case, without a contingency plan."
"Knock, knock!" A feminine voice called out, interrupting the men and for a moment, Tobias thought it was Kate. "Ready Gibbs?" She asked, not seeing he had company.
"Tobias, this is the Doc, Rachel Cranston - I think the boys call her Dr Kate's sister. Doc, my friend Tobias." Tobias shook her hand before raising his eyebrows at that. Gibbs had never openly called him, his friend before, especially to his face.
"Tony calls me that, Tim just calls me Rachel, although he is somewhat more formal with me if anyone else is around." She told Tobias. "Meeting you is a pleasure. Gibbs thought he may have lost your friendship with you. A friendship that obviously means so much to him."
"The jury is still out on that at the moment." Tobias told her, honestly. "So you're Kate's sister? I knew Kate, thought highly of her too. Tim spoke highly of you the other night, also." He said giving her a shy smile and winking at her. In that moment, she knew exactly what night he was talking about. She'd received a sad, but cryptic text from Tim and was hoping to schedule some couch time with him soon. But Gibbs and Vance had called her in for help and now she couldn't reach out - due to a conflict of interest. "Pleasure to finally meet you."
"Pleasure is all mine." She told him, with a flirty smile.
"I'll leave you two to it, Gibbs this isn't over." Tobias warned, taking his leave.
"Wait!" Rachel called out to him on the driveway. "Can you call me this evening, about 8?" She asked handing her card over to him. "I have some questions for you."
"Sure and flirting with me to throw Gibbs off the scent, very nice tactic." He told her, complimenting her and keeping his voice low, as not be overheard by Gibbs and his supersonic hearing.
From Gibbs' vantage point on the porch, it looked like she was flirting with Tobias. He couldn't hear what was being said and Rachel was careful to block his view, knowing he could lip read. But to him, they were definitely flirting.
"Yes, do you have a card you can leave me?" Rachel asked. "Make it look like you want a date, when you hand it over to me. Gibbs has an overprotective streak. I need him to see he has a problem there."
Tobias, then turned on his charm and flirted a little more with her, holding her arm in a way that had most women give him a little flirty giggle out loud and it looked like the doc was no exception, as he angled them so Gibbs could see them in profile. He handed her his card. "Call me." He said and kissed her cheek lightly. Before bidding her goodbye and taking off.
Rachel was impressed, that man was very good at improv. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was genuinely interested in her.
"Sorry about that Gibbs." She told him. "Inside or outside for today's session?"
"After you." Gibbs said softly, motioning for her to go in first before shutting the door behind the rest of the world.
Tim had Vance over a barrel, they'd been playing poker for an hour and Ducky was still sleeping. "I'm out and I'm done. Jackie's going to kill me, one hundred dollars lost playing poker." Vance said frustrated.
"Take it." Tim told him, handing him the money back to the Director. "After all, I have an unfair advantage."
"You count cards, why am I not surprised?!" Vance asked, exasperated and looked over to see Ducky smile widely in his feigned sleep. "Doctor Mallard, I know you're awake. A heads up would have been nice."
"I am nice, I assure you." Ducky told him, "However, it is a lesson that everyone must learn for themselves."
Tim bit back the grin he was holding inside, he'd have to challenge Tobias … no his Dad to a hand or two of poker when this case was over. "Now you're both awake, can I run something by you both? Hypothetically, of course." He asked. Both men nodded. Ducky had seen something weighing deeply on the young agent's mind. It had seemed to him that the Director was in the know, at least partially and he was about to be read in too. Tim began by recapping the case that involved the Admiral, for Ducky's benefit. "So the DNA results came in on Tuesday. Didn't manage to stay awake to read them until Wednesday. Sorry Sir, I know you're invested and wanted to know. That's the part I'm still processing. So I will keep that to myself for now, but I did find my Mum. Well, I found out what happened to her. She's dead," he announced clinically with little emotion. "died on 9/11 in Manhattan."
"Oh my dear," Ducky told him. "How did you find out?"
"From the DNA results, it listed where she was when she died." Tim told him. "Am I wrong to feel like I'm upset at her death?"
"You need to grieve the loss of your mother, even if you were estranged, Tim." Vance told him and Ducky's eyes bugged out of his head. "You probably need to grieve it twice, once for her abandonment and for her physical death, too."
'That's why the Director has been calling him Tim and not McGee for a few months now. He knew that Timothy wasn't a true McGee.' Ducky thought to himself. "Have you thought about contacting your grandparents for answers?"
"Mum's parents each died in 1992, respectively. Penny is still alive and I really want to contact her, but she's often out of reach for months at a time. I'd have to email and it's a delicate matter. I don't think she knows that I'm not the Admiral's biological son. She might be able to help me find Sarah, though. I haven't seen or heard from her since the case she was involved in, years ago."
Ducky pinched the bridge of his nose, tightly and removed his glasses. "It seems I owe Agent Fornell an apology." Tim looked cryptically at his friend. "When you were ill with peritonitis, he wanted me to contact your family, he was specific about not contacting your father though. I told him you had come from a close, loving family. He seemed irked that I hadn't come forward and urged Jethro to support you better. Oh dear, it seems I have been just as remiss as he accused your family of being. I fear that I bare some of the blame of Jethro's behaviour of late."
"Doctor, Agent Gibbs' behaviour is on him, not you. You can not control him anymore than I can." Vance told Ducky. "How did Fornell know not to call your father, though? We didn't know about the Admiral's case until after your return to work from that illness."
"I get chatty when I drink beer, occasionally. Tobias asked me about something that had happened during that investigation and I told him something I remembered from my childhood and we broke the case because of it. We discussed my relationship with the Admiral, maybe? I don't really remember much of anything from that night. Tobias said I was already pretty out of it. That's why he didn't let me go home, alone that night."
"It was probably more the fever and raging infection than the beer, Tim." Vance told him and Ducky nodded in agreement.
Tim had dozed off and Vance had settled in with his copy of the book. The latest book from Gemcity. The story had come from the brilliant agent sitting opposite him. He watched Tim as he peered over the top of his book. He was truly underestimated within NCIS. Somehow, he needed other agents to take what Tim had to say on board, more often. "Hell, you have four degrees and a doctorate. A doctorate in Justice and Criminology, no less. Geez Tim, is there anything you can't do?" Vance mused out loud, not realising that he had actually verbalised his thoughts.
"Excuse me, did you just say he has four degrees and a doctorate?" Ducky asked Leon in shock. "Surely you're mistaken."
"I certainly am not." Vance said, proudly. "I am only aware of it as it's in his 201 file."
"I was in there the other day, I must admit I skipped straight to medical section. I should be more vigilant in my work. I should probably admit, that I changed Timothy's emergency contact from Jethro to Tobias Fornell too. I was angry at Jethro for his actions on poor Timothy and remembered that Fornell had immediately cared when I'd asked him to check on Timothy later that evening. I can change it back, if you like." Ducky confessed. "I believe he left work at the FBI and went straight to check on him. I wanted to be there for Timothy, but I was needed at Mother's care home."
"It's ok, Ducky. Leave it be, let Tim decide who to list. He may have found more relatives in his DNA search. He only focused the conversation on his mother. I also checked on him that night. He was sleeping, soundly."
"Who covered the cost of the DNA search? That is an enormous cost to run that test privately." Ducky asked, suddenly concerned for his young friend's finances.
"The agency covered it. After the case was closed, I ran Admiral McGee's name though our database and got myself a surprise." Vance confessed. "Let's just Jackie was happy that I stopped by the gym on my way home, otherwise I'd have lost it at the Admiral. I found more than enough to justify for NCIS to foot the bill."
"That's a relief, then." Ducky said, letting out an audible breath he'd been holding. "Mr Palmer said Timothy had bought a house in Alexandria, he wasn't living in Silver Spring anymore. I had been worried about his financial situation."
"It's a beautiful house," Vance added "he's doing a great deal of the renovations himself. I believe Gibbs and Fornell have helped out a little."
"I don't think Jethro will be coming by to help Tim for a while." Ducky added, sadly. "Have you thought about what to do if an apology never happens?"
"I believe that is my headache not yours." Vance said, effectively ending the conversation.
He was upset, he'd been in a mood ever since Tobias stopped by. 'Why did Tobias stop by? Oh yeah, what was it he said, he wanted to kill me.' Gibbs thought to himself as Tony checked in with him. He threw his sander across the room in frustration. "DiNozzo!' he growled.
"Whoa! Hey there, boss." Tony said, jovially. "That was a bit gruffer than usual." He descended the stairs into the basement.
"Tony, I heard you have a case, shouldn't you be working?" Gibbs snapped gruffly again. Hoping Tony would realise he wanted to be left alone.
"Can't do much until Ducky, Tim and the Director check in." Tony argued, "besides I offered to go out and grab our lunches so I could stop by and see how you're doing. Abby is complaining too much, apparently you threw her out of your house last night?"
"Vance is with Tim? Good, Tobias was worried Tim had no armed agents as back up." Gibbs added, dangling Tobias' name to distract him with.
"Yeah, two dead agents are never good. It seems rather than give us a TAD agent, Vance is our new TAD." Tony didn't take the bait as Gibbs expected him to, which annoyed Gibbs more.
"I'd say he's was probably evaluating our team personally." Gibbs deduced. "Where are they headed?"
"Classified, sorry boss. But it'll be about a day before they arrive."
"That narrows it down, especially if travelling by C-130 or B-152." Gibbs surmised.
"They're in SecNav's plane. The Gulf Stream." Tony told Gibbs, excitedly.
"Thanks for stopping by." Gibbs said, before suddenly stopping Tony again, before he could leave. "Hey, how is Tim doing as your senior agent so far?"
"So far he's good. Better than when you were on your Mexican Retreat. He has been professional, dedicated, he's taking it very seriously."
"Good." Gibbs told him. He was glad, not that he thought he'd Tim would be anything less than stellar.
"You know in a couple more days, if you wanted to approach Probie to apologise, he'd probably be willing to at least, listen to you." Tony advised him. "You aren't going to get away with this one, not without apologising. Fornell's pissed, Ducky's furious, Vance is fit to be tied and Ziva - well you better sleep with one eye open, she's so full of rage, she's going to snap soon. Me, I'm past my anger and have moved onto why? If you could lose it McGee, you could lose it any one of us like that."
"Sounds like you all need apologies from me." Gibbs stated, realising the severity of what he'd done.
"Let's not go straight for climbing Everest, Gibbs. Let's climb the small hill at the end of the street, first." Tony said and Gibbs chuckled, he got the metaphor. Tony didn't say much else to Gibbs after that and he left to pick up their lunch order.