Sorry, I know ... another story and another one not finished. I swear I just can't help myself.
Yes momcat: the idea of Tim being related to Jenny did come from the story you mentioned - partially. Mostly it came from her friendly attitude towards Tim in my story MIT. I thought, "what if?" And went from there. I scoured through FF and could find barely any stories where Jenny is nice to Tim. And even less where they're related. Then I saw a photo of Lauren Holly with Sean Murray and Mark Harmon and the idea came to me. This one is a (hopefully) a lot more antsy and angst ridden than what I usually write.
Oh and don't shoot me, I have another one shot story almost ready to post!
Thanks for the reviews.
Gibbs retrieved Jenny's DNA profile from his copy of the cafe shoot out file from the locked drawer in his workbench and smoothed it out. He went into the spare room downstairs and pulled out a copy of the Hanson case from the locked drawer hidden in the bed base. Skimming through it to find Tim's DNA profile, plucking it out of the pile of papers and took them back down onto his basement before heading to the sofa to catch some rack time.
No one else on his team knew that he kept a copy of almost all of his files at home. He'd done it ever since the FBI had locked them out of their own office and seized their files when they were investigating Jen.
The morning light greeted him and he sighed, he had a slight headache from overdoing it on the bourbon. He'd been drinking bourbon longer than Tim had been alive, so he knew the young man upstairs would be feeling pretty under the weather. He took himself into the kitchen, downing two Tylenol along the way to start a pot of coffee. Gibbs decided to experiment with the young man upstairs. He knew Jenny's hangover remedy was unique, he wondered what Tim's was. 'Would they be the same?' He wondered as Tim appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.
"Morning sleepy head." Gibbs teased as he entered the kitchen. "Eggs? Bacon?"
"Coffee, black." He moaned as he took the pills he'd bought downstairs with him as Gibbs handed him the mug.
"That's not a remedy." Gibbs chastised him. Secretly hoping to bait him into needing food.
"It is for me." Tim reminded him, downing the remaining coffee in his mug in two mouthfuls and refilling it again.
"I've been in and pulled the profiles, they're downstairs whenever you're ready." Gibbs lied smoothly. He hated lying, but sometimes it was necessary.
"Let me shower and I'm good to go." Tim told him as he finished his second mug and retreated back upstairs to the bathroom.
--
After Tim's shower he was refreshed and re-energised. Gibbs wasn't disappointed that his experiment failed. Jens hangover cure of scrambled eggs, Tabasco sauce and puréed apple was not something her son used. The thought of being asked to cook it made his stomach churn anyway, but he'd been curious. It was clear by the state of Tim, after his shower that he was a black coffee, Tylenol and hot shower kind of man.
"Let's look at those profiles up here." Tim told him. "It's much better light."
After examining each of them individually, Tim hand traced each profile with grey led pencil onto grease proof paper and inlayed one over the other, just like their computer system in the lab at NCIS would. "I've got an initial count of seven of thirteen markers, that match and one partial match. I'm assuming, and yes I know your rules that the the other seven markers or so would match my father's DNA." Tim told him.
"So we go for a full DNA check, using an external lab." Gibbs told him. "I know a lab that we can use. Unconnected to Abby."
"So do I," Tim added. "Over on Louisiana Avenue."
"KGI labs? Hey that's the lab I know too. How do you know them?" Gibbs asked and Tim gave him a pointed look. "Right, not my business."
"We should ask for Sam." Tim told him and Gibbs raised his eyebrows at that.
"You know Sam? Did you meet her through Kate?" He asked, surprised.
"No, wait … Kate knew Sam?" He asked. "I'll call Sam and set up a meeting." Tim offered, pulling out his cell and calling. Tim moved away from Gibbs so he couldn't eavesdrop on Tim's call.
"She can meet us in forty minutes? Do you have The Director's DNA sample?"
"Right here." Gibbs held up a bag with hair from her hair brush as well as some used chewing gum from the bin liner under desk.
Tim assumed that was Jenny's gum, but in reality, it was Gibbs' in his tired state two nights ago when he was searching for DNA samples, he'd plucked the wrong ball of gum from the bin in her office.
--
They met Sam at a cafe across the street from the lab. Gibbs went to the counter to order three coffees for them. Gibbs watched Tim with interest as Sam entered the cafe. "Tim!" Sam called out, crashing straight into his arms, before she pecked his lips lips gently. "How's Penny?" She asked immediately, as they took a seat. Sam staying in Tim's arms.
"She's good, working up in Manhattan at the moment, guest lecturing at NYU."
"Gibbs?" Sam asked, unsure if it was him as he took a seat. Her late friend's one time lover.
"Sam, I believe you know Gibbs." Tim said, reacquainting the pair.
"Lovely to see you again, Sam." Gibbs said with a charming smile for the young woman.
"I haven't seen you since the funeral." She commented, stating the fact, watching for his response.
"Tim was there, too. I don't recall seeing you two talk." Gibbs stated, "how do you two know each other?"
"We've been friends since we were kids. We first met in Norfolk, then we got friendlier in our Johns Hopkins days. Tim and I were very good friends there."
"I can see that." Gibbs dryly commented, noting that Tim kept his hand on her upper thigh and his arm around her. "So the DNA?"
"Right, Tim filled me in on what's happening. Here's the swab. I'm assuming you know what to do." Sam handed the long cotton swab over to Tim and he ran the swab around the inside of both cheeks, liberally coating the swab with his salvia. Before handing it back to Sam to be labelled. "I'll head back to the lab and get started. Five to seven days, possibly sooner." She said as she stood. "Thanks for the coffee." She said nodding at Gibbs. "I'll see you on Friday night." She said kissing him again, this time with a little more enthusiasm into it, locking her lips squarely on his.
--
Gibbs looked at Tim somewhat amused, he didn't realise that Tim was more of a ladies man than he'd ever let on in the bullpen. "We're just friends." Tim said to Gibbs in a low tone, warning the older agent against asking any questions.
"Not sure if Tony really would believe me, anyway." Gibbs jested at his former agent. "For a man who claims to be a one woman man, you certainly attract the ladies."
"I'm loyal to my partners, Gibbs." He told Gibbs. "Sam's not my partner, she's a neighbour of Penny's. We've known each other for a long time. Her Father used to work with the Admiral, we've been stationed at the same posts."
"You didn't ask her about Kate." Gibbs stated, wondering why Tim didn't ask his friend.
"We don't ask about each other's work, it's our thing." Tim told him. It was the truth, he and Sam rarely discussed work. The two families were so intertwined and their friendship so strong, neither felt the need to mention their work.
"Nothing more to do, but wait for the results. I'll take you to get your car." Gibbs told him, as the two of them left the coffee shop and headed for Jen's home.
"I'll call you when Sam has the results." Tim told Gibbs as he reversed out of the garage in his Porsche.
"Hey Tim, maybe I'll see you around the yard." Gibbs offered.
"Yeah, maybe." Tim replied, knowing he would rarely cross paths with Gibbs.
"Let me know when Sam has the DNA results and we can go from there."
--
Aboard the navy yard that week, Gibbs and Tim only crossed paths once, it was at security on Thursday morning. They nodded hello to one another, as Gibbs waited for the elevator and Tim bypassed him, taking the four flights of stairs down into the lowest level of the basement where the NCIS Cyber Crimes Department was located. Tim came into work earlier than the other staff and left later than them too. He reported directly to Vance, working on a secret project. He didn't know who else was working with them on the team, but he suspected that each of the former MCRT team members had their own assignments and no one else knew anyone else's role. He suspected that Ziva was monitoring someone in Israel, he suspected Gibbs was looking for the mole and that one of the members of his new MCRT team was the mole, he suspected that there was a reason Tony was agent afloat too, he just wasn't sure why yet.
Director Shepard had had personal agenda's while in the top job and now, it seemed to Tim that Vance was the same. He hadn't worked under Morrow long enough to work out if he'd had one too or not. He knew his task was to crack the encryption on a laptop that had been confiscated from someone who's identity was unknown to him. All he knew was to contact Vance as he deciphered each encryption layer of the laptop until the contents were revealed and that it was top secret, not to be discussed with anyone other than Vance.
His desk phone rang and he picked it up, not looking at the caller ID, it was late at night and the basement was deserted as he gave his usual polite greeting.
"Hey McGee." Gibbs greeted the man, he knew Tim would be still in the building. "Working late?" He chuckled.
"Ah yeah, it's only …" he looked at the computer screen and it was showing 0100 hours Friday morning. "Crap, 1am! Where did the time go?" He asked Gibbs as he laughed at the young man.
"Sounds like you need sleep more than coffee." Gibbs commented and Tim was surprised by that remark.
"Nah, coffee is good, need to get this done. Going to be an all nighter." Tim explained. "As soon as it's done, I'm taking a long weekend."
"Does McCormack know?" Gibbs asked, amused by Tim's new attitude.
"Don't care, anymore." Tim told him. "McCormack is a two bit hack. Don't even know how he's still in charge down here."
"Sam not done with the DNA yet?" He asked, anxious to see the results and get the next part over with. He'd really like to be done with Jen's estate.
"Tomorrow afternoon, Gibbs. She promised." Tim told him, before thanking him for calling and disconnecting the call. Gibbs stared at the receiver in his hand for a moment before realising that Tim had hung up on him again.
--
Daylight Friday morning rolled around and Gibbs woke up in his desk chair, with Vance looming over him. "You shouldn't have spent the night, Gibbs." He chastised the senior agent.
"What time did McGee leave? I never leave until all my agents are gone."
"McGee is in cyber crimes now. He's not one of yours." Vance reminded him.
"He'll always be one of mine." Gibbs told the Director. "What time?"
"He didn't check out. He's not at his desk either." Vance told Gibbs with a slight worry in his voice.
"Follow me," Gibbs instructed as they took the back elevator down to the very bottom floor. Entering the cyber crimes department, it was silent. It was not long after 0600 hours and no staff had arrived for the day yet. Gibbs led Vance around to the edge of Tim's desk and slightly moved the desk chair back so Vance could see. There Tim lay, curled up in a ball under his desk. 'Just like his mother.' Gibbs thought to himself.
As the two men retreated back to main hallway and back upto the bullpen, Vance looked over to Gibbs surprised "How did you know? Besides the fact he used to be your agent."
"Had a lot of agents work for me over the years, pulling all-nighters. Not the first agent to seek sleep under their desk, curled up in a ball like that." Gibbs didn't tell Vance that he'd only ever seen one other agent do it, and that was his former Probie and the late Director - Jennifer Shepard, Timothy McGee's birth mother.
--
"Gibbs" he answered his cell curtly, seeing it was KGI labs.
"It's Sam, we have a problem." She told him. "I haven't called Tim yet, but the sample you gave me … it must have been contaminated."
"How?" Gibbs asked. "It was good."
"Tim's sample matched the hair sample, like we expected. But Tim must have contaminated his sample. Somehow it matched your the chewing gum sample, too." She told him confused. "Unless your the birth father of Tim. Is that possible?"
"I was in the area at the time of his conception, but I didn't meet his mother until '93. Must be a mistake." Gibbs offered.
"The chewing gum was yours, right?" She confirmed her theory.
"Possibly, I was tired when I went looking for samples." Gibbs told her.
"Kate always thought you and Tim had too much in common not to be related. Like he was a mini version of you - but with emotions."Sam told him. Gibbs stayed silent, trying to get a read on his infamous gut, but it was all over the place and he couldn't get a read on it.
"It's not possible." Gibbs denied, vehemently. "I was in basic in '79 and '80 at Pendleton, but I didn't meet her til '93."
"Look, I'm meeting Tim in fifteen minutes to give him the results." She told him. "I'll let you two hash out the details."
"Can you hold off an hour, let me get a buddy on the phone?" Gibbs begged. "I don't understand how it could match."
"I can give you thirty, after that I'm going to see Tim." She told Gibbs. "Tim's meeting me at my apartment, we have plans."
"I want to hear all about them too. Your friendship with him intrigues me." Gibbs told the young woman. "I promised myself when Kate died, I'd look out for you - for her."
"We're fuck buddies, Gibbs." Sam explained to him as fact. "When we've both had a dry spell or if one of us goes through a bad break up, we fuck it away!"
Gibbs audibly gulped, he hadn't expected that. "Like friends with benefits? Like me and Kate, were?"
"Exactly, except Tim and I started when we were a lot younger than you two. It was a lot more innocent in the beginning, too. Just lots of cuddling and making out. As we grew up and evolved, so did our complex relationship. My father was the now Admiral McGee's aid for the last fifteen years. We were five when we first met and my father was assigned to him. It was at Alameda. We've travelled the world together."
"So you know? About Naples?" Gibbs asked.
"I know. Now, promise me you'll never speak of it again?" She demanded. "Daniella was my best friend. She loved Tim, he loved her too. He saved up all his money. He was going to fly to Italy and bring her here to live with him in the US. She took her life before the letter arrived, telling her that he was coming. He still blames himself for her death."
"He carries a lot of survivors guilt for Kate too." Gibbs told the young woman. "But no one carries more guilt over Kate's death than me."
"She was like my big sister, Gibbs. She took care of me, took me under her wing when my mother was killed. She told me a long time before she met you, that she always knew she'd die in the line of duty. She'd made peace with that. You both need to make peace with it too."
"Give me thirty minutes to talk with my friend. Don't talk to Tim until I call you back, Samantha!"
--
Gibbs called his old friend from USMC Phil Stapely. "Phil, it's Gibbs!" Gibbs rushed out, barely letting his friend greet him.
"How the hell are ya, Gunny?" His friend asked.
"Could be better, need some clarification." Gibbs asked, in an almost begging tone. "The rave party, the one we got busted coming back on base from. When was it it?" He asked his friend.
"Oh god Gunny, now you're talking." Phil told him, mentally strolling down memory lane. "It was for Saunders bachelor party, maybe Feb '79."
"Shit!" Gibbs swore. "Did I hook up with anyone at that party?"
"Yeah, you met some petite little redhead. You and your redheads!" He jested. Gibbs knew he had a type. "Last I saw of you that night, the little redhead was batting her eyelids at you and you had your hands all over her." Phil told him, reminiscing the past. "What's bought all this up?" He asked his long time, often absent friend.
"My past is catching up with my present. I'll buy ya a beer and tell ya all about it, soon." Gibbs told him. "gotta go." He said before disconnecting the call.
--
"Well shit!" Gibbs swore again.