Sorry about the long delay, if you haven't read on my other updates, we got flooded out by a major weather event, the clean up has been huge. In that time we had to go away for a wedding, whilst away we caught covid. Slowly, when I've felt up to it, I've been working away. But it's been a hard slog.
Here's hoping I'll have an update for a couple more stories soon.
A special McGiva friendship scene for MonkeyWrench
All mistakes are mine, computer still isn't up and running so I've written it out on my phone and sometimes autocorrect doesn't like to cooperate.
Reviews are appreciated, loved even.
Time progressed along and before they knew it was Halloween and they were having an impromptu party. Weirdly, it was DiNozzo and Vance that had been the ones who'd uttered the dreaded words "don't lift a finger, we'll take care of everything." Jackie and Ziva had taken over the kitchen duties, preparing a delicious dinner of appetisers, a main and a variety of sweets.
Kelly was tired, more than nauseated now and had been sent upset to rest for a while. Ziva had her suspicions as to why, but wisely kept her mouth shut firmly. Gibbs, Tim, Ducky, Fornell and Vance had been fussing and doting over her, driving her up the wall … and around the bend.
For a party, it was a small crowd. The Vance's, the DC crew, Jimmy and Breena, the Santiago's, Tim's Aunty Clare and Uncle Dave, his cousin Lucy, Fornell and Teen. Originally, Ducky and Gibbs were planning to stay in DC but Kelly had an ultrasound the day before and everything looked really good. Jackson was sorry to miss their first party at their place in Jacksonville, but he was travelling to DC for thanksgiving and to Kelly and Tim's for Christmas.
"Listen up," Tim said holding his beer up to make a toast. "Kelly and I want to thank you all for coming. Before we wish everyone a happy Halloween, Kel and I have announcement."
"Yesterday we went to the doctor and they did an ultrasound, we have a baby McGee on the way." Kelly announced.
"Congratulations!" Gibbs called out loudly and excitedly with everyone following suit. He reached the happy couple and took them both into his embrace. Kissing Kelly's cheek and carding his hand through Tim's hair.
Tony came over and patted Gibbs back in jest. "Hey Grandpa!" Tony was well on his way to being wasted. "I'm gonna call you Grandpa from now on." He teased, throwing his arm around Gibbs.
"Not if you expect me to answer you." Gibbs growled at him. "Besides, I'm Poppy, not Grandpa."
"Tim, this is amazing news," his Aunty Clare gushed, scooping Tim up in her arms, before grabbing Kelly into the hug too. "Kelly, Tim's mother would have loved you. Welcome into the family." She kissed both Tim and Kelly's cheeks. She was on cloud nine. Phil shook his nephew's hand and hugged Kelly.
Everyone was buzzing with the news, Vance approached Tim and motioned for him to follow him to the front porch. "How are you feeling about fatherhood?" He asked as they took a seat together on the front porch with their beers.
"I'm excited, honestly." Tim said, his eyes were buzzing with happiness, now that the secret was out. "I can't wait. I'm a little afraid of messing up though. How will I know what to do? "
"That's a normal feeling, Tim. " Vance chuckled. "All first time parents feel that way. Wait til it's 3am and your kid's teething, screaming, grumpy and running a temp of 104. No parenting book will ever prepare you for that."
"I can only imagine. But I'm looking forward to it all." Tim said. "As Tony would say, the good, the bad and the ugly."
"That pretty much sums parenting up." Vance laughed. The two men sat in companionable silence, savouring the moment away from the noise and crowd.
"Tim," Vance said, breaking their silence "I've registered you for a bunch of workshops. First one starts 0800 Monday. I've enrolled you in sharp shooting, hostage negotiations, close combat, operation management, operation logistics, tactical analysis, standard leadership, team leadership, politics, intel analysis, undercover work levels one and two, at least and psychological profiling levels one, two and three. Is there anything else you'd like to do?"
"Wow, you were serious about the workshops." Tim replied. "I'd love to do level two and three of sharp shooting and hostage negotiations, if I have time."
"That's great, shoot me an email in the morning to remind me, I'll get you booked in. This isn't a full time task force. I was serious, when you return to DC in a years time, or move on to your next post, I want you to be up to at least SFA level, if not almost ready to be leading your own team. These are workshops you should have already started them, Shepard had been stalling your career, let's tell-kickstart it." Tim had known that Vance had wanted him to undertake a couple of workshops, but it sounded like he'd barely have anytime for the task force.
"Sounds like I'm going to be pretty busy." Tim said with a smile. He always liked workshops, it reminded him of school and FLETC. He always thought he'd make a good FLETC instructor when he retired from his active agent status.
"I'm downgrading you to part time on the taskforce, it's two and half days instead of three and a half at the same pay. I want you to do, as much as you can physically can do and take in. Don't forge the workshop bonus pay too. There's assessments to pass for those workshops. I have complete faith in you. Are you still looking for a good gym?"
"Yeah, I tried the one at the local pool and it wasn't really equipped for what I'm after."
"Ok, report to Colonel Henderson at 0500 Monday, Building four, he will help you out. Tell him I sent you and when asked for a level, say banana. That's the top level, he'll help with hand to hand combat too. You'll train for two hours before work five days a week and an hour after work twice a week, I'll let you negotiate what days with Henderson." Vance said, he didn't tell Tim he'd already fully briefed Colonel Henderson of Tim's entire situation and his previous injury that's he's almost recovered from. He had advised Henderson of his goals for Tim and requested the Colonel take over his physical training. Vance had called in one of his favours with the colonel. The colonel owed the Deputy Director loads of favours and Vance knew this favour was a solid investment. "I have discussed this with both SECNAV and SECDEF. Both seem to want this too, they're glad you're finally getting a go. This year may be the best year of your career yet."
"Everything ok out here?" Kel asked, interrupting the two men deep in conversation.
"Hey baby, everything ok?" Tim asked, spying Kel from the door.
"Your Uncle and Aunt, Lucy, the Santiago's, the Palmer's and Aunty Teen are headed out." Kel said, referring to their extra guests, minus the Vance family.
"I won't be a minute, hon." Tim said, he turned to Vance. "You'll have my full co-operation and I can't wait. But I'm telling you, I won't abandon Kelly or miss anything major, like scans, to get this done. I don't want to be the Dad that's not involved."
"Understood and agreed. I don't want you missing out on that either."
All the guests had taken their leave minus Gibbs, Ducky, Tony, Ziva and Fornell. Ducky and Gibbs had their usual guest rooms, Ziva had the pullout sofa and Fornell and DiNozzo had the two beds in the finished basement. Kelly had been using the study for preparation of her upcoming practical exam. The DC crew, Tim and Kelly sat around the living room in their pyjamas catching up. "I can't believe you guys are having a baby!" Ziva gushed to Kelly. "It's so exciting."
"We'd like you and Tony to be Aunty Zee and Uncly Tony." Kelly said proudly. She and Ziva had a close relationship and she knew Ziva considered Tim to be her brother and vice versa. She was beginning to feel that way about the Israeli too.
"Anyone else feel old?" Tobias suddenly asked and Gibbs and Ducky groaned. "I mean, if you guys are starting a family, that means Em potentially could. Oh my, I could be a Nonno and not even know it." He rested his forehead into his palm and sighed dramatically.
"You would know Tobias." Gibbs teased. "I'm sure Em would tell you and if not, I'm sure Diane would take great joy in telling you. This time, it was Tobias who groaned.
"We do have another surprise for you all." Kelly said excitedly, looking at Tim. "But were not telling you til the morning. The Davenport's, Palmer's, Vance's and Aunty Teen already know. We need to be ready to leave this house by 0500, bring a jacket and solid shoes."
"Yes!" Gibbs exclaimed "I think I know what it is."
"And you can keep it to your damn self." Kelly growled. "Rule four." She quoted.
"Well if we've gotta get up early, I'm going to need my beauty sleep." Tony said, yawning along the way.
Slowly, one by one, they all turned in for the evening.
Morning dawned bright and early in Jacksonville and sure enough, Gibbs and Tim were the first two awake and began making breakfast and coffee for everyone. A small tapping noise at the door startled Gibbs as he was starting the coffee maker and he went off to investigate. Opening the door, he always surprised to see who was on the other side. "Dad!" He exclaimed, throughly surprised.
"Surprised son?" Jackson asked "There's no way I'm missing this! I couldn't get down here before today. Pat Harris couldn't watch the store 'til today. I took the red eye here. I'm scheduled to fly out with you all late tonight. I'll fly outta Dulles Tuesday morning."
"Tim, look who's here?" Gibbs announced, ushering his Dad into the kitchen.
"Jackson, you made it." Tim said happily, as he shook the older man's hand.
"Morning Grandpa." Kelly said entering the kitchen and kissing his cheek.
"Kel-Bel, let me look at you." He said, holding her out at arms length. "No belly yet, don't you worry, my great-grandchild is getting super comfy in there."
Soon enough, everyone was awake, had eaten a light breakfast and were meeting the rest of the party-goers from last night on the dock at the end of the street. There, at the end of the dock sat the 'seven seas'. A beautiful, large boat, fully equipped to do some serious deep sea fishing.
On board the 'seven seas' the captain ran through some quick safety instructions including what to do in emergency and the promise of pointing out some of the more interesting places along the way. Tim had explained that nearly all of them were either out of towners or new to the area and the captain had promised to make it extra special for them, in exchange for a personalised autograph on his copy of Deep Six. After all, he was a huge Gemcity fan and was surprised to learn that the author was the one hiring their services.
Fornell, of all people had the first nibble, but it got away. They suspected it may have been a Tuna or Mackerel. Jackson was next and he reeled in an undersized Blue Marlin, which was promptly tossed back. The rest of the crew had various nibbles and bites, until it was time to pull their lines in and Gibbs had hooked something huge, it was big. Tim, Vance and Phil had to brace Gibbs' body to ensure he didn't hurt himself or get pulled overboard. Fornell had whipped out his cell and quickly began filming, as did Tony. Gibbs fought the catch hard but halfway out of the water, the monster of the deep broke the line free, jumping back into the water and swam off. The captain had taken them out to Ocean Isle Beach, knowing that his clients wanted the chance to catch a shark. The Great White one of the clients had hooked was a beauty, at least six foot long, but it wasn't meant to be.
Luckily, Tim and Kelly were prepared, just in case they returned from their fishing trip empty handed. Tim and Kelly planned to take them to the diner for dinner before everyone headed back to the airport at Jacksonville for their commercial flight home.
They arrived back on shore, at their dock by 1550 and immediately, the Vance's, Davenport's and Palmer's begged off. The Davenport's had dinner plans with friends of theirs, before heading to Louisiana tomorrow afternoon. Phil had a meeting with Vance first up in the morning. The Palmer's were continuing on to California to see Breena's family and Fornell was heading up a training exercise out of the Jacksonville office for two weeks and would be staying with Tim and Kelly.
"How's your week looking Tim?" Gibbs asked over coffee while everyone else was either outside, in the shower or resting. "Maybe we can do the video chat dinner thing Ducky was telling me about on Friday night."
"That should work," Tim confirmed, refilling their mugs. "I've got a workshop on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Not sure which one, Vance scheduled me in a list of them, as long as my arm. But I have a workout at 0500 tomorrow morning at the base."
"Vance wasn't kidding about it, hey?" Gibbs asked, surprised Vance had followed through on his promise to further McGee's career.
"Nope!" Tim grinned, finally happy his career seemed to have some direction.
Back in DC and life was back to semi normal. SECNAV and Deputy Director Granger were temporarily filling in for Director Shepard while IA finish their investigations and the DA compiles a list of the charges they'll be pursuing. To Gibbs, it still felt strange, saying goodbye to Tim and Kelly. He didn't think he'd ever truly get used to it. Tony had chatted the whole way back to DC and he'd been annoyed that Ducky had sat by Ziva.
The visiting party met for breakfast in the park opposite the coffee cart in the navy yard and quickly caught each other up on each of their plans for the week. It seemed Ducky would be doing guest lecturing at Georgetown U, along with Kasie, Tony and Ziva have overdue paperwork before the MCRT go back into rotation and Palmer is the ME on call.
Tim reported to Henderson at 0450, as Vance advised him. Tim immediately like the colonel. He was a few inches shorter than Tim, very muscular and tanned. His face was made out of stone though, he was virtually unreadable. Which Tim immediately liked. The colonel had immediately been impressed that Tim had taken the initiative to arrive dressed and prepared to get stuck into it. The first session Henderson took base readings of Tim's current limits and advised Tim that he'd be doing this all week to get the average.
Tina Grey stood off to edge of the outer car park between buildings four and five and couldn't believe her eyes, there was Kelly's Tim, dressed in fatigues wrestling with one of the biggest and toughest marines on this base. She immediately grabbed her phone and began filming as Tim struggled to pin the colonel down, but eventually succeeding. She didn't cheer for him, luckily because he looked up before shaking hands with the colonel and making his way into building three where NCIS was housed and made his way down to the locker room. Once Teen was at her desk, she emailed the video to her NCIS computer and forwarded it to Gibbs before picking up her receiver to call the man.
"What the hell does Tim think he's doing?" Teen asked Gibbs. "I thought he was supposed to be taking it easy still."
"Whoa! Wait, slow down." Gibbs asked, garnering attention from Ziva, Tony and Balboa who was standing by Gibbs' desk when his landline rang. "What's Tim doing?"
"Watch the video I just emailed you." Tina advised him.
"I'll call you back!"
Gibbs bought up the email in question and cued up the video to play before mirroring it to the plasma. There, they all stood still and silently as they watched Tim wrestle with the colonel, before getting the upper hand and pinning him. He helped the colonel up and they were very surprised to see how much bigger the Colonel was than Tim. Picking up his receiver and returning Tina's call, "I'm impressed." Gibbs gushed.
"That's Colonel Henderson, he's one of the biggest, toughest and ruthless marines on this base, Gibbs. They call him the tank."
"Relax Teen," Gibbs placated. "Cool your Mumma bear jets, Vance teed it up. Tim needs to max out his physical training some more and the local personal trainers weren't cutting it."
After hanging up from Tina, Gibbs replayed the video again and again, which Tony began to ignore. Something was obviously bothering Gibbs about it. "Your boys good, Gibbs." Balboa said to him across the bullpen divider. "Didn't know he could wrestle." The video having caught his attention.
"Neither did I." Gibbs resigned, sadly. Ziva looked up in time to see Gibbs watch the video again, this time in slow motion.
"What's wrong Gibbs?" Ziva asked softly, coming to stand in front of his desk.
"Trying to work out how he did it." Gibbs chuckled. "That Colonel is a big boy and Tim's not much for hand to hand."
"You do know that he was the all state wrestling champ for four years in a row at school, then at Johns Hopkins and MIT?" Ziva asked softly, her voice low enough that it wouldn't carry over to Tony's desk. "Had the chance to go Pro, but a ski trip combined with exhaustion from finishing his doctorate resulted in a nasty pneumonia and it took him nearly a year to recover. He gained some weight and puffed up from all the medicine he had take."
"How?" Gibbs asked non-verbally with a raise of his eyebrows.
"Tim told me, when we first started training together. He doesn't want Tony knowing." She replied, keeping her voice low. Gibbs nodded and smiled proudly, watched the video one more time, then began to settle in to do some work with huge smirk in his face.
Tim arrived at his desk to find an email from Vance telling him his workshop was relocated to the FBI office in Greenville. He checked out an agency sedan and made the journey with fifteen minutes to spare, enough time for a coffee. Entering the training room, he was surprised to see himself as the only NCIS agent. There was a couple of DoD staff, but mostly FBI grunts. "Morning, I'm SSAIC Fornell from the DC office." He breezed into the room, writing his name in capital letters. Turning to face the room he spied Tim at one of the desks. Let's go around the room and introduce yourselves including background, rank and agency."
When it came time for Tim to introduce himself, he stood up. "My name's Tim McGee. I'm a JFA for NCIS. I've been stationed at Camp Lejeune for a month now or so, prior to that I was on the MCRT in DC and a case agent at Norfolk. I have a double degree in Biology and Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins, a double masters degree in Computer Science and Forensics from MIT and a doctorate in Justice and Criminology from Georgetown U."
Fornell raised his eyebrows in surprise at Tim's answer. He knew Tim was freakishly smart, but he didn't know the man had a doctorate. There were a few murmurs around the room, a few in surprise, but a couple of the DoD staff were calling him out, saying that the math don't add up. That he was too young to have that many degrees.
"I'm going to stop you all right there," Fornell interrupted. "I've known Agent McGee for a very long time. The man was in his first year at Johns Hopkins at fifteen. He was a fully fledged agent by twenty one and before his first year as an agent was out he was promoted to the Major Case Response Team, stationed at the navy yard in DC. I've worked many cases and ops with him and can vouch for his character."
"Wow," one of the grunts said out loud. "What's the most interesting case you've worked?"
"Sorry, most of my work is classified." Tim answered.
"Agent McGee has a double alpha security clearance. He can't talk about his work."
The workshop was tactical analysis and Tim enjoyed learning from Fornell. Tim already knew a lot about tactical analysis from his doctorate, but to apply it in a real life cases and to see how under appreciated it really is, especially when the next generation will be doing it electronically.
Tim reported back to Vance on his arrival from Greenville and he looked beat. "You looked wrecked McGee. Go home."
"Could of told me Fornell's the instructor." Tim laughed and Vance chuckled.
"Where's the fun in that? Go home Tim. You earned it, after all, heard you pinned Henderson, that's not an easy feat."
"State wrestling champ. He wasn't the hardest opponent I've taken down." Tim jested. "Night Director."
Arriving home, he walked into the house tired. The smells from his kitchen were mouthwatering. "How the hell, did I beat you home?" Fornell asked, handing Tim a cup of coffee. Kelly was still at school, the message on the whiteboard said she would be home at 1900.
"Had some stuff to do on base and a PT scheduled." Tim explained through his yawns.
"Why are you in that workshop, Tim? You've got a damn doctorate. You should be teaching me!" Fornell asked, genuinely curious and a little bit peeved off for Tim at Vance.
"Because NCIS requires me to have completed that particular workshop." Tim deadpanned.
"Next time request an RPL from HR and show them your damn doctorate." Fornell advised him.
"I think it's a pre-requirement of a couple of other workshops I have to do, while I'm here, that's why. Normally, NCIS runs their own. Don't know why Vance assigned me to the FBI one."
"Go wash up, I've got my mamma's chicken cacciatore cooking for dinner." Fornell said, as he smacked Tim's hand away from the green beans he was preparing.
Kelly walked in the house at promptly seven. "Hey" she called out, she could smell dinner cooking and was surprised. She'd gotten out the chicken out this morning, with no idea what she was going to cook. "Hey babe," she cooed, having found Tim upstairs in their bedroom, going to him, straight into his arms. She kissed him with passion, her tongue parting his lips and introducing hers to his. "Where's Uncle Toby?" She asked, her lips brushing his.
"Downstairs, cooking dinner." Tim said, this time kissing her again, moving his lips along her jawline and down to her neck, easily finding her sweet spot.
"I'll go down, you finish getting dressed." Kelly whispered, kissing him chastely. "But mark my words, to be continued tonight."
Dinner was a lively affair, with Fornell retelling the events of the day including the agent's reactions to Tim and his degrees, which amused them greatly. "You should probably just ride in with me tomorrow Tim." Fornell offered.
"I got PT at 0500 on base, if you're up you can ride in with me, there's a cafe on base that makes the best coffee." Tim offered, we can check out a car from the motor pool and save the miles on both our cars."
"Done," Tobias agreed. "Tomorrow's only the one more component and the exam. We should be done by lunch.
Kelly, Tim and Tobias were settled on the sofa, originally they had plans to Skype Gibbs, but they'd caught a case, which didn't surprise Kelly a bit. They were watching a segment on the search for illegal weapons of mass destruction, which Tobias and Tim were into, but Kelly wasn't. She'd began to play with Tim. "Don't you dare lower your hand any further young lady." Tobias warned, catching the movement of her hand on Tim's chest out of the corner of his eye. Kelly cringed, she'd forgotten that her Uncle was sitting on their sofa.
"Come up to bed in five minutes, we can pick up where we left off before dinner." Kelly whispered hotly in his ear. "Good night, Uncle Toby." She kissed his cheek and threw Tim a sultry smile and a wink.
"Night sweetheart." Tobias said, blowing her a kiss.
Tim left it ten minutes, before bidding Tobias a good evening and headed upstairs.
Tim and Kelly kissed each other slowly, taking their time. They heard the television go off and the door to the basement open before they made love. Tim noticed Kelly's sex drive had increased and he definitely wasn't complaining. They'd had more sex in the last seventy two hours than the last week combined. Tim knew during the second trimester a woman's sex drive can increase, but Kelly was only two days into the second trimester.
They awoke tangled in each other and after the slowly made love again, they headed into the shower for a second morning romp. Tim finally dressed and headed downstairs to leave for the base with Fornell.
They met up with Colonel Henderson and they duo started Tim's PT class while Fornell watched on with fascination. Tim was doing boxing this morning and found himself performing surprisingly well. Henderson called an early end to the session reminding Tim he had to swim twenty laps for PT in the morning and that his afternoon session would be with the rest of the marines in hand to hand combat.
Tim made light work of a quick shower, while Fornell grabbed the coffees and they were on the road by 0700. "Ya know? Ya probably don't need to be that fit for NCIS. It's not like you're joining the ROTC." He said to Tim, breaking the silence. "It's a little extreme. Even Gibbs doesn't train his agents that hard."
"I requested this," Tim admitted. "I want to increase my skills and fitness to be the best agent I can be. My mind is on the top of its game, always. I need my body to follow suit. So far, working out with the Colonel isn't any harder than a Ziva workout."
They were almost all the way to Greenville when Tobias broke the silence again. "Everything ok, with you and Kelly?" He asked.
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Tim asked, thinking maybe they'd had a fight and blue hadn't realised.
"She seemed eager for bed, last night." The older man teased. "How far along is she now?"
"Almost thirteen weeks." Tim said proudly. "We're a third of the way there."
"Ah, one of the best parts of pregnancy has began. Increased sex drive." Tobias stated. "Welcome to the second trimester." Tim didn't know what to say to that. It was an awkward conversation to have with a man that considered Kelly his niece and an awkward silence followed the FBI agent's teasing.
"Tim, I didn't mean to make it awkward." Tobias said as they arrived at the Greenville office. "I want you to know that if you want to talk about anything, you can come to me. I know that with your father gone and Kelly pregnant, Gibbs might not be the best option. Ducky's only good for some areas. Coming to me to talk is an option. Granted, I only have a daughter, but I'm a bit easier to talk to than Gibbs."
"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you." Tim replied. He couldn't think of a single thing he would need Tobias for that he couldn't go to Gibbs or Ducky for. But he appreciated the sentiment.
"Remember, if you tell me something, I will keep it in the strictest confidence."
The day passed faster than either of them expected and the exam was undertaken. Tim dropped Fornell off at the same time as Kelly arrived home from classes. Tobias had to mark todays assessments and it worked out in his favour that Tim had to return to base to do some work for the cyber security taskforce. There wasn't any workshop for Tim tomorrow, but Tobias had more work to do, this time over at the Charlotte Field Office.
Returning to the base, Tim found a stack of files had been dumped on his desk Agent Driscoll, one of the SFA's on the taskforce, with a post it note chewing him out for not 'calling in' that he would be away from the office today. He booted up his computer to double check his team's calendar and sure enough, it was there, for the whole team to see that he was off rotation at the workshop 'til four. He'd only met Driscoll a few times but he reminded Tim so much of DiNozzo in the early days.
After checking his email, he settled in and got started. He'd barely made a dent in the pile by 1900 and called Kelly to let her know he'd be home late.
Vance was coming down from MTAC, after a conference with the Melbourne office who was fifteen hours behind them. It was close to 2300 and noticed the lights were still on in the taskforce bullpen. "Tim?" He asked, surprised to see him here. "It's late. Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Attending workshops are all fair and well, but I didn't realise at the end of the day, I still needed to put in my twelve hours on the cold cases." Tim mumbled. He wasn't trying to complain or be difficult, but it was a lot to ask.
"You're not supposed to be. I gave these files to Driscoll, why are you doing them?" Vance asked angrily. Tim wordlessly handed him the post it. And Vance's cheeks turned red in anger. "I put the training in the damn calendar! I know it was there. Leave them Tim, Driscoll has to answer to me."
"Let me finish this file, first. It refers to a case I worked with the DC MCRT in my first year. The victim had his hands cut off to bypass the bio security system at a secure location." Tim explained. "The perpetrator was a rogue Mossad double agent. Kate paid with her life and Ziva arrived."
"Let's pick it up tomorrow and we can conference them in."
Vance followed Tim home, he could see the young man was tired, he wanted to make sure he made it home. He had contacted Henderson and cancelled for Tim tomorrow morning, citing operational reasons and had told Tim to skip PT, that if everything went well he could make it up at the end of the day.
Tim waved good night to Vance and crept inside. Kelly was upstairs, asleep and Fornell was dozing on the sofa with a book. "Tim, you're home." He whispered sleepily.
"You're dreaming, go back to sleep." Tim said softly, making his way to the kitchen for a bottle of water and a sandwich. It was almost midnight and he needed to be back at work in five hours.
Tim was showered and dressed for the day, an usual occurrence since he wasn't dressed in the fatigues required for PT. He was dressed in his favourite work jeans, blue dress shirt and his Armani Leather Jacket. "Tim, you did come home last night." Fornell jested entering the kitchen.
"Yeah and I've gotta go again." He said downing the rest of his coffee and grabbing his go bag. "Hey, you around today?" He asked.
"Yep, day of leisure before the next workshop."
"I'm on a case, that has ties to an old case. If it heats up, can I call you for a consult?"
"Of course," he said and Tim looked off in the distance. "Tim, you're gonna be late."
"Shit!" He grabbed his travel mug and headed out.
"Tim leave already?" Kelly asked, coming down the stairs. Tobias nodded at his niece and held up a tea bag in a silent question. "I'm worried Uncle Toby, he came home so late, he barely slept and when he did sleep he was calling out for another woman in his sleep, he was holding onto my body, but shouting her name."
"Oh sweetheart, I know it's hard. He can't tell you everything, but it's not anything to worry about."
"He was calling for Kate. I'm assuming that it was Special Agent Caitlin Todd." She looked her uncle in the eye.
"Oh shit!" Fornell swore, sloshing his hot coffee over his hand. "Fuck!" He muttered under his breath.
"What's going on?" Kelly asked, her eyes wide. She very rarely heard her uncle swear like that about a case. The last time he heard it, Kate had been killed.
"Kelly, I know we were going to spend the day together. But I think Tim's going to call me in. Can you make some other plans? Maybe with Jackie Vance? Make sure she has her security detail with her." Fornell advised and Kelly immediately dialled her number. The older woman had been pre-warned by her husband and was in the process of calling Kelly when she called. Jackie invited Kelly over for a study day, making plans to kick her Doula training into high gear.
"Now I know you went home last night." Vance said breaking Tim's concentration. It was 0520 "tell me you didn't double back last night."
"I didn't. Fornell's free today. He was the FBI agent who worked the case with us. The FBI were chasing their tails, while Ari hunted us down, one by one. Or attempted to anyway. I know Ari's dead. He was killed in Gibbs' basement. But we never found Ariq Sharardi."
"Call Gibbs, get him in MTAC." Vance advised. "It's time to bring Ariq Sharardi down."
"Gibbs," the mumbled voice came over the cell phone connection.
"Hey, it's Tim, you awake?" He asked, Gibbs sounded like he was asleep. "I need help."
"I'm up," he said firmer and Tim could hear Gibbs pulling on some pants and starting his coffee maker. "What's up? Kell ok?"
"She's fine, need you in MTAC asap!" Tim rushed out.
"Be there in thirty." Gibbs disconnected the call, grabbed his weapon and headed out the door. Completely forgetting his coffee.
Tim didn't normally call, especially when he'd spoke to Kelly yesterday and mentioned that they'd wrapped up their case and were off rotation today. Meeting in MTAC spoke to the serious nature of what Tim wanted. What was a bigger red flag was that Tim asked for help!
He hurried into the navy yard, rushing through security, apologising to Keith for not being able to chat and a mere twenty seven minutes since he'd hung up from Tim, he saw Tim appear on the cinematic screen in MTAC. "Sorry to wake you Boss." Tim apologised, even though Gibbs hated apologies. "Want to catch Ariq Sharardi?" Tim asked.
The lure was dangled in front of Gibbs and he knew that he'd take the bait. The feral grin on Gibbs' face said it all. "What ya got?"
Tim explained what he'd learnt in the cold case files and how he'd been running a few searches, along with the computer code embedded into his phone remotely and that they had his location.
"McGee's on point, we need you three, Matt Balboa and Sam Callahan to report to Camp Lejeune Asap. We're bringing in Fornell from here." Vance ordered. "I've got Dante, Schwartz, Santiago, Flunetz, Michaels, O'Grady, Scott and Colonel Henderson leading the beta team. I want you guys and Fornell on Alpha. McGee's got operational control."
"See you in three hours."
"I'll call Fornell." Tim advised Vance. "I want to brief him before Ziva gets here. This guy is formerly Mossad before he defected to Hamas, we might need his assistance convincing Ziva to take him down."
Tim made light work of calling Fornell, who'd been pottering at the cafe, across from the main entrance to the base, fully expecting to be called in after hearing about Tim's nightmare from Kelly.
"McGee!" Driscoll bellowed across the bullpen as he was leading Fornell into the conference room down the hall. "You haven't finished yesterday's files. Vance is going to be on your ass. He was so pissed off at you for not showing up yesterday."
"Was I, Driscoll?" Vance retorted, poking his head up from where he was reading Sharadi's file at Tim's desk. "I don't seem to recall that. I do recall that I gave you those files as punishment for IA's findings into your random tox screen. Luckily for you, McGee has solved one of them already. You're bound to your desk til I get back. I want a detailed statement as to why you delegated these files off. Well re-convene at 0600 tomorrow. IN MY OFFICE!"
"Yes sir!" Driscoll stumbled a little and glared in the direction that McGee went.
"Wow … wow." Fornell said stunned. "Wow! Of course I want in on the take down. I'll contact my office and get us the intel on Sharardi that we have." He offered.
"Use this conference room, we'll be prepping in here. I've got point, are you going to have a problem answering to me?" Tim asked.
"Nope, I've got your six."
Gibbs' arrival, along with Tony, Ziva, Matt and Sam saw them quickly ushered by the MP's into the conference room. The beta team were in their seats and Tim began. He started off by introducing himself, and everyone else. He then laid out his plan. "Director, I want you co-ordinating from MTAC. I want Schwartz on Alpha liaison to Vance and Scott, you're beta liaison. Next up I'll hand off to Agent Fornell from the FBI." Tim said.
Fornell explained that Sharardi was the mastermind behind the attack on Pax river two years ago and the sniper attack that cost Agent Todd her life.
Gibbs picked up the explanation that once they'd captured Ari Haswari, they were to go after Sharardi. But he disappeared into the wind shortly before Ari was captured.
Tim followed on "Last year, Sharardi was responsible for a canon attack on the Cave Springs Mall that killed seventeen people including eleven marines. "It's time to bring him in!"
They made an operation plan to capture Ariq Sharardi alive. But they did listen to McGee and agree with his ideas. The murmurs around the room was that they were all generally impressed with McGee's plan to capture him, especially Gibbs.
The alpha and beta teams were successful in taking Sharardi out, Tim and Gibbs successfully slipped into the bedroom where he was sleeping and they took him by surprise. They found some unused explosives in the basement and some plans for the what looked like a non descriptive warehouse in Anacostia. "Looks like blowing up the warehouse was a training exercise for a new type of explosive." Fornell added out loud. They teams began bagging and tagging the evidence as Gibbs went to advise Sharardi that he would be charged as a terrorist and didn't have any rights.
Their arrival back to the base was applauded by the remaining agents as their terrorist was taken into the holding cells. Tim felt a blush creep up on his face and lowered his head to hide it. But Tony and Gibbs patted him hard on the back. "Now that's a job well done, Tim." Gibbs quipped.
"What the boss said, Probie." Tony added.
Tim felt Ziva step up behind him and hug him from behind. He noticed the back of shirt was wet, he surmised it was her tears. This was personal for the David family, one of the men who coerced Ari into being a double agent would spend his life in Gitmo. Tim desperately wanted to hug Ziva. Pull her into his arms and give her the comfort she needed. But he didn't want to expose the normally stoic woman that way. She was still opening her emotions up after a lifetime of shoving them back into a tiny box, hidden away under lock and key.
When the teams went to debrief, Tim saw Ziva slip off into the ladies room. He decided to turn the tables on her, all the times she'd pestered both he and Tony in the mens room, it was payback time. "Zee" Ziva jumped out of her skin. "Sorry didn't mean to startle you."
"Geez Tim, make some noise next time." She said, angrily wiping her hot tears away from her eyes. "Seriously though, thank you and thank you for my family. It was a good idea and it was a good operation. One of the smoothest operations I've ever been a part of."
"You're welcome, but I just came in here for a hug. You look like you could use one." He offered her. She had to remind her brain she was allowed to receive comfort and she hugged her friend tightly in the middle of the ladies room. She flung herself into his arms and held on for her life, as the remaining tears in her eyes fell. Being all cried out, her face splashed with cool water, Ziva recomposed herself and they left the ladies room together.
The debriefing went quicker than planned, everyone was happy with the op and Vance let Tim put a red line through Sharardi's photo on the top ten most wanted wall and Gibbs would do the same thing at the navy yard in DC.
"Gibbs, Fornell, my office. The rest of you are dismissed." Vance ordered at the end of the debrief.
"You four, start writing up your reports." Gibbs added his own orders in. "If you get them done, we can have pizza for dinner with Tim."Ziva looked dubiously at him.
"I'll call Kel to come to the base." Tim added, luring Ziva in before catching her.
"Actually, might be better to eat off base." Vance added. "I'll call Jackie, the kids are at my mother in law's house. We can eat on the back deck at my house."
"That was good work Tim did today," Vance began. "What did you two think?"
"I was impressed, wasn't sure at first. The simplicity of it was unsettling. I wasn't sure if putting Tim on point was a good call, but rule 38 - your case, your lead. He lead the operation, admirably."
"I've spent the better part of this week with McGee and it's only Wednesday. I was happy from the FBI's standpoint." Fornell added. "He's got a shrewd analytical mind, a simple approach worked. The fact he pulled this together over several hours showed he has the skills, he needs the chance to use them more, to hone them. A bit more confidence wouldn't go astray either."
"Leon, Tim's a good agent, we trained him well and he's smart as hell. What he did today, what we did today …"
"I know, Jethro." Leon added, stilling the MCRT team leader's forearm. "I think those who knew Agent Todd the best, they're the ones that feel it the most right now."
"That's Gibbs, Tim and Tony. Me to a lesser extent." Tobias added.
"And Matthew Balboa." Gibbs amended.
"And Ziva, to have that feeling of justice for her brother." Leon added and silently both he and Gibbs thanked the stars above that Ziva had never met Ariq Sharardi.
Eli David would be happy too because Sharardi was in Mossad's top ten most wanted too.
Vance dismissed Callahan, Balboa, DiNozzo, David, Gibbs and McGee. A look towards Fornell said job well done. The NCIS interrogators at Gitmo would extract any further information and pass it on accordingly. The MCRT climbed into Tim's SUV automatically and Fornell ushered Balboa and Callahan into his FBI fleet car he'd been using since his rental car ended on Monday morning.
Pizzas were ordered, drinks were served. Kelly and Jackie took theirs into her study and claimed they needed a working dinner, both Tim and Tobias suspected that Kelly had told Jackie of Tim's nightmares the last night and they'd used their instincts that the case they'd just closed was big.
"To Kate." Tony said, raising his glass in a toast.
"To Kate," Tim confirmed. "Our agent, our friend, our sister" and they clinked glasses.
"We miss you Kate." Gibbs added.
Leon Vance and Agent Callahan never met Agent Todd, as the afternoon and evening progressed on, they felt the same amount of justice as everyone else felt.
Ziva hadn't met Kate either, but unlike Vance and Callahan, she'd felt her presence. She'd witness their mourning, she knew when she was added to team she wasn't welcome, she had huge shoes to fill. But she also felt Kate's gentle hand from up above guiding her into the role and encouraging her to open up and become more human.