JF6


Leon Vance managed to catch a much more in control, Agent McGee over by the coffee cart in the park. "I think it is my shout, don't you Tim?" he asked, sidling up beside the JFA.

"I've got it." Tim insisted, trying to stop the Director from paying for the coffee. He paid for coffee more often than not, when the two of them met by the cart for a meeting. "Don't take his money, Alfred."

"Alfred, I mean it, don't let him pay." Vance argued, warning the kind owner of the coffee cart. The man who owned the cart knew all his customers by name and was the epitome of discretion. Politicians, Paper pushers, Agents, Spies, all felt comfortable to speak in front of him, about anything, as if he was invisible. It was also an unspoken rule of the DC political landscape that Alfred was off limits, for information gathering. He couldn't be bought.

"If you two don't stop, I'll pay for them both." Alfred warned. "Now, how about the two of you, start behaving like the gentlemen, you are."

"Tim, let me pay. You earn less than me and have done more than your fair share for everyone around here, it's the least I can do." Vance begged the younger man. Not long after he had met this young agent, had he seen the potential for himself. Of course, people talked, and many spoke of Agent McGee's talents and potential, but as soon as he had met the shy agent, Leon Vance had found himself trusting the young man. Time and time again, he has proved himself worth to him. "One of the benefits of a smaller agency is that we take care of our own. Let me help, even if it's just a cup of coffee."

Tim stepped back and allowed the director to pay for the coffees. "Of course." He had always been taught to respect his elders by his strict militant father, but to take care of his elders too, by his wayward, often absent grandmother. His mother and her laissez-faire attitude to life had been the exception, she boasted her attitude everywhere in everyone's life. His grandmother and his father had both taken verbal exceptions to his mother at various points in his life. Ironically, his grandmother, Penny, would never admit to anyone, let alone herself, that she shared some of that same attitude with Tim's mother. Which was probably what attracted his Admiral father to his mother in the first place.

The two men ventured over to the far corner of the park, taking a seat on the bench. "How are you doing? Doing, ok?" the director had asked him. "Heard you and Gibbs had a small misunderstanding last night and again this morning."

"Just a consequence of working with Tony for too long, Director. Gibbs and I are fine." Tim answered and Vance found a little humour in the fact that both Jethro Gibbs and Tim McGee blamed Tony for the misunderstanding. He knew blaming Tony wasn't a team rule, because he had been Director in the agency under the old 'let's blame McGee' regime.

"Talk to me, how's everything going?" Leon begged. "Not as your boss, not as an agency director. But man to man, as men who have both lost the woman they love."

"The pain in my ribs are almost gone and I am breathing better." Tim admitted. "Can I come back to work?"

"Sleeping?" Vance asked, not believing that Tim had wanted to come back to work so soon after losing Delilah. His physical injuries hadn't even healed yet.

"Some, not solidly." At Leon Vance's pointed look at him, he continued. "I boxed up Dee's stuff she had at my place. Gibbs took me to the UPS, shipped it to her sister's place in Florida. Gibbs let me stay the night at my apartment. It was awful, felt so empty and desolate, probably going to have to move."

"Don't lie to me, Tim. I can see that you're not sleeping. You're tired and you have bags under your eyes." Vance had been to McGee's shoebox apartment and was surprised Gibbs didn't feel claustrophobic in it. "Have you thought about moving?"

"Dee and I actually had started looking for an apartment together before all this happened." Tim admitted, he hadn't even told Gibbs or Tony yet. "I hate my place. Gibbs has been great, letting me stay with him, but I can't stay there forever. Guess I'm going to have to go back there sooner or later."

"I think it'll be good for you, just don't rush in and make any hasty decisions." he advised his subordinate, his mentee, his young friend. "Of course, staying at Gibbs' house has other benefits."

"Huh?" Tim asked, he genuinely had no idea what Leon Vance was talking about.

"Kelly." he smiled at the rookie. "I've seen the the two og you together."

"What about her?" Tim asked. "I guess we're friends now, if you want to label it."

"Precisely, you're not ready for anything more right now. But in the future, you might be, she seems to have herself together. She's a pretty girl, got that spunky streak you seem to be attracted to. You could do worse than her."

"We're just friends." Tim said with a small smile gracing his face. "Besides, looking for a new partner isn't even on my radar."

With their coffees finished, Vance stood to take his leave. "You need to take the month, at least and have clearances from Cranston and your doc. I won't rush your recovery, Agent McGee. No matter how much you are missed."

"I just want everything to go back to normal." Tim muttered and Vance pat his arm comfortingly. "Now are you ok to get back to Gibbs' place or can I get Greyson to give you a ride?"

"I'll be ok, thanks." Tim promised as the two men waved off and Tim headed towards the base's main gate. "Want to stop by Elaine's and say hi."


Tim wandered down the street from the base, and into Elaine's diner. Elaine was busy and he slipped into the back booth where he could watch the comings and goings. When he caught Elaine's eye, she came over with his usual coffee and a kiss. "Glad you're ok Tim. Sorry about your girl." She said, leaving the young man who was her favourite customer's agent to his own thoughts.

He sat and thought to himself, he reflected on everything that had happened so far and how he had been willing to double cross Delilah to get the intel from the gala to help their case. He was low, that was a low act, and she didn't deserve it. But at the same time, she was a woman who would have stepped on anyone or anything to get what she wanted. She was career driven and ambitious and he liked that about her. He had heard her boss discuss a new assignment she was up for, and it would have required moving to Dubai, something he wasn't sure he was ready to do, or would have liked her doing.

He felt a tear slip down his face at the thought that they probably would have fought about the Dubai assignment before he just supported her silently. But he knew from past, painful experience that long distance relationships, they don't work out. Abby had taught him that painful lesson. Being in Norfolk while she was in DC, drove that one for him. Although at the time, there were other factors he didn't want to admit; like she is terrified of commitment, she doesn't know what she wants and doesn't acknowledge any feelings to do with love, unless it's "loving them like puppies."

"McGee?" Abby's shrill voice broke through his thoughts. He couldn't believe he had actually been thinking about her and the relationship that they had shared. A relationship of nothing but bad choices, heartbreak and harsh life lessons learnt. "What are you doing here? You should be at home. Out of the public."

"I had a meeting with Vance." he told her, lowering his voice. "This morning, it didn't go well."

"You need to go home and relax." She chastised him in a harsh tone. "When you're all relaxed, we'll talk about Delilah and why you lied to me about dating her. I love you like puppies, that should be enough."

"Abs, I didn't lie to you." Tim protested, he had been waiting for Abby to start this argument, it was inevitable, and he had known it was coming. It was always, either Tony or Abby, they always thought they had the right to know everything about your life, whether you wanted them to or not.

"MCGEE! Don't you lie to me, you're already on a slippery slope, Buster." She warned. "A lie by omission is still a lie and it's a double lie in the world according to Abby. Now, you're injured so I won't tell Gibbs about the lie, this time. But mark my words mister, next time you lie to me, you're going feel the Gibbs wrath, as well as my own." She was getting up in his face, in his personal space, she had completely ignored the fact that Tim had been crying and was he was beginning to feel trapped as she loomed over him.

"Abby, move" Tim warned, he could feel his heart speeding up now. It was threatening to beat right out of his rib cage and his chest. He was starting to feel dizzy and light-headed. His hands were shaky, and his vision was blurry. His body now in a cold sweat.

"No, McGee. Not until you admit you lied to me!" she pestered, getting closer to him.

He couldn't see straight and all he could see what he must have looked like, trapped under all that dust, wood and debris. He had a large concrete slab across his ribs, the rebar was protruding into him, under the ribs, but not breaking the skin. Tim reached down; he was sure it had penetrated his skin. He couldn't move his arm; it was trapped under something. It was heavy. He opened his mouth to call out and a dust had fallen from the debris above him; it had been precariously threatening him and he managed to look over and he could see an arm next to him. It wasn't attached to a body, and he prayed it wasn't his other arm. He couldn't feel anything, and he had tried to move and found he couldn't move his body. He tried to move his neck to look to the other side of him and realised that he would not be able turn his head. Something was stopping him from moving his head. He tried to shift his body again and nothing. His head felt numb felt like it was going to explode, it felt like ...

"Tim? Tim? Can you hear me? Tim?" Gibbs' voice broke through his memory. "Tim?"

As Tim tried to focus on Gibbs' voice, to come back to the presence, he registered that he was on a seat, but he didn't know where. He could hear the shrillness of Abby's ranting and raving in the background as he tried to focus some more. "That's it, Tim. Come back. You're safe. Nothing is hurting you, you're ok."

Tim could hear Gibbs talking to him. The older man's hands rubbing his arms and his hands in a soothing rhythm. Tim looked down at Gibbs' voice. He didn't know why he could hear Gibbs's voice. Opening his eyes, he saw Gibbs squatting down beside him. He was in the booth, his favourite one, out of the way, by the back of the diner, the one where he could see everything that was happening. "Ga .. Gi.. Bo.." His voice tried, but his throat felt constricted, like it was closing over.

"It's alright Tim, you're just remembering the Gala. Nothing is going to hurt you here, you're ok." Gibbs reiterated to him again. Elaine had called him in a panic, she told him to come that something was wrong with Tim and by the time he had cleared the NCIS security desk downstairs, Abby was calling him too. Abby had told him that Tim was in a trance, and she was just talking to him when it happened. "Tim?"

"Gibbs?" He asked, looking down at his boss. He wondered why Gibbs was squatting down beside him. "What are you doing here?" He looked around the room and although no one was looking at him or paying him any attention, with the exception of Abby and Elaine, he felt embarrassed.

"Hey Tim." Gibbs grinned at him. Gibbs was still rubbing his forearm comfortingly. "You, ok now?"

"What?" Tim tried to clear his throat. His mouth was dry. He took a sip of his coffee, and it was now cold. "Coffee's cold, what happened?"

"I wasn't here, Tim." He begun to explain to his subordinate and current house guest. "From Abby and Elaine's word, it sounds like you might have had a flashback."

"Flashback?" Tim asked, confused.

"Tell me what you remember." Gibbs asked, his voice soft, but not demanding.

Abby was surprised at the softness in Gibbs' voice, especially towards Tim. He obviously didn't listen to her before, and she was starting to get angrier. Now, she had to make Gibbs listen to her. "Gibbs, Gibbs. What happened was Tim was being mean to me and I was scared. I've never been scared like that in my life, Gibbs." She threw herself at him for an Abby style hug, for good measure.

"I just want to go home." Tim muttered and Elaine pat his shoulder in sympathy.

"I'll call you a cab." Elaine offered, but before she could move away, Gibbs protested.

"I'll take you home, the sedan's out the front." Elaine and Tim both muttered their thanks to Gibbs and Gibbs offered to help Tim out of the booth, but he declined the offer. He didn't want anyone's help.

Abby had invited herself along for the ride to Gibbs house and had regaled Tim to the backseat. The traffic to Alexandria was light at this early hour of the morning. "You know I need you to tell Rachel about this?" he asked as he let Tim into the house. Kelly and her dog weren't here and that was a relief as Abby and Kelly quite often fought and Gibbs wasn't sure he could handle that today. Abby had been quite shaken by what had happened to Tim.

"I'll tell her, tomorrow at our session." Tim promised as he continued down the hallway towards the room, he was staying in.

"Maybe stay out of public until you can control that rage of yours too, McGee. You could have hurt me." Abby snapped at his retreating form. "I was so scared of you, I have never been scared of you, before."

"Not helpful, Abs." Gibbs growled at her from his spot. Gibbs left to check in the utility room, to see if Sharni had destroyed anything and luckily for him, she hadn't. He returned to collect Abby and leave for the yard, when he saw a bag in the hall outside Tim's door. "Go wait in the car, Abs."

"Gibbs." She whined and Gibbs knew she was going to be difficult. "I just want to help, Tim needs me. Maybe I should stay here with him?"

"Go Abs! Now!" He snapped, he needed to talk to Tim without her. The sound of Abby's boots clonking on the tiled entryway told him she was retreating to the car.

Another bag had joined the first bag in the hallway. Gibbs made his way down the hallway towards the bedroom. "You are going somewhere?"

"Home." Tim answered in a monotone and Gibbs couldn't believe his ears, just yesterday Tim was begging to not go home. "I guess, or maybe to Penny's. I can't stay here."

"Sure, you can." Gibbs placated him. His heart ached for him. "Tim?"

"I hurt Abby." Tim told his boss and winced in preparation for the head slap. "You heard her, she was scared of me."

"It was scary for everyone, Tim. But she will be ok." Gibbs tried to reassure her. "You didn't physically hurt her."

"GIBBS!" Abby's voice echoed through the house again. "Balboa needs me back at the yard. We gotta go, now!"

"Don't you leave; I'll talk to you about it tonight." Gibbs promised him, as he patted Tim's arm supportively and headed out the door.


Gibbs' day had gone from bad to worse. Abby had cried almost the whole way back to the Navy Yard and as soon as he had walked in, he and his team had caught a case. The traffic to Shannondoah had been a nightmare and the scene had been a mess. The dead sailor had been found with a boot full of electronics and this was one case, where they really could have used Tim's technological expertise. To make matters worse, his coffee order at the diner was wrong and he could have sworn that Sandy had given him decaf instead. He looked around and saw that Elaine was nowhere to be found. He hadn't had a chance to speak to her earlier and now she was gone. He had asked where she was, and Sandy had told him she'd be back later.

Back in the bullpen, Tony and Abby were butting heads over the electronics with Tony wanting to call McGee in as an expert, with the electronics and Abby was offended and indignant that he wanted to call McGee in and not trust her to do it.

His mind was on Tim, and he hoped that Tim was doing better. He had messaged Kelly to stop by and check on him, but that was hours ago, and she hadn't replied either. He had decided that this case wasn't go anywhere and sent Tony, Ellie and Abby home a half decent hour, before he followed them, shortly after. He didn't expect to encounter Tim in the parking lot.

Tim had called a cab, twenty minutes after Gibbs had left. He wasn't staying there. He knew Gibbs would be angry at him and he wasn't looking forward to the lecture he would be saving for Tim tonight. Abby had said she was scared of him and in Gibbs' eyes, that was unacceptable. After all, it was an unwritten rule of their team that Abby must be protected at all costs.

As much as he hated to and didn't want to, he went back to his apartment. He showered and changed his clothes. He had felt clammy and sweaty, needing to get clean. Once he was showered, he napped for an hour and a half on the sofa before waking to the alarm he had pre-set. As soon as he was awake, he was on a hunt for his car keys. He headed downstairs and flagged a cab down, duffel bag on his shoulder. He patted his pocket, making sure he had his NCIS credentials for the main gate, too. He didn't know where he was going, but he had his bags packed and he just needed to get his car from the Navy Yard before he decided on his destination.

The cab dropped him off at Gate E, the gate closest to the NCIS employee parking lot. It was close to five and he could see the MCRT team were just coming back into the yard. He hid behind the side of the garage, allowing the three of them to drop the truck and sedan back without seeing him standing there. As soon as they were clear of their truck, he made his way over to his Porsche Boxster in the main lot. "Where do you think you're going, McGee?" Gibbs asked, stopping Tim in his tracks. "I know you're not cleared to drive, and you're not supposed to be carrying anything heavier than your wallet." Gibbs took the duffel bag from his subordinate's shoulder.

"I'm leaving Gibbs, let me get to my car." Tim told him, defiantly.

"Are you trying to kill yourself, too?" Gibbs asked, taking in the look of desperation on Tim's face. He had been there; he knew what it looked like and felt like. "Because I can tell you from personal experience, it won't bring her back."

"I need to get away." Tim told him, "Need to leave, before I hurt someone else."

"Not happening, Tim." Gibbs argued, he could see the pain in Tim's eyes and the hurt dripping down his face. "Who did you hurt?"

"Please, Gibbs." Tim begged, "just let me go."

"Who did you hurt, Tim? Because I know you, you'd never hurt anyone or anything." Gibbs told him, truthfully. Gibbs could see Tim was waging a war with himself. He didn't know what triggered this version of Tim's grief. He was truly beginning to worry about his young friend. "Abby's overly dramatic, we both know that. You didn't hurt her."

"It doesn't matter, Gibbs. Just let me go." Tim argued with him again vehemently and defiant.

Tim was feeling isolated and alone, he was wracked with guilt. He couldn't believe he had hurt Abby and he felt awful. Which had led him to self-recrimination for Delilah and her death. "It does matter." Gibbs reiterated, grasping Tim by the shoulders. "You matter, Tim. Today was hard. You had a bad day. You can try again tomorrow, Tim."

"I can't, Gibbs" he asked in a whisper, his tears now carelessly falling. "What if tomorrow's worse?"

"Then the next day, will be better." Gibbs offered him with a small grin. "Tim, you've gotta fight the grief a little, don't let it consume you or it will, completely snow you under and you won't be able to get out."

Gibbs put his arm around Tim, scooped his bags up off the ground, as he ushered the man back into the NCIS building. Gibbs needed to talk to Leon Vance, and he didn't trust how Tim was feeling right now, to leave him alone. Upstairs in the Director's office, Gibbs set Tim down on the Director's sofa and stepped over to the desk to speak with Leon in low tones. "I'm going to need some time, Leon." he told the director. "He's not in a good space."

"Take all the time you need. Do you want me to call Rachel?" Leon Vance offered. He could see Tim from his vantage point at his desk. Clearly the man was barely hanging on.

"Yes. To my house." Gibbs told their boss, as he collected Tim, and they made their way to the door.

At the Gibbs family home, Tim was flopped onto the sofa by Gibbs as soon as they made their way inside. They had found Rachel waiting for them and she had promptly followed them in. "Tim?" she asked, concerned for his state of mind. "Is there anything that you would like to tell me?"

Tim shook his head no, but Gibbs wasn't having a bar of that. "I didn't see it start doc, but there was some kind of flashback earlier today." he told Rachel in a low whisper. "Give Abs a call, she was there."

"Tim?" Rachel tried again.

"You can't keep me as a prisoner here, Gibbs. Let me go." Tim warned, trying again.

"You're not a prisoner, Tim." Gibbs told him. "You want to go? Go where? I'll take you myself. You need to make sure you're following up with the doc here and with your doctor at the hospital. Have you changed your mind about telling Sarah or Penny? I can make the call for you."

"P...P... Penny." Tim told him softly. Tim's voice was so soft, Gibbs thought he was hearing things at first. "She's in China. Can you get her to come home?"

"Sure, son." Gibbs replied, his voice just as soft. Tim's voice reminded him of a scared and sad little boy, and it tugged at his heart strings. It reminded him that Tim was still in pain. Gibbs didn't want to raise his voice for fear of breaking the lines of communication now they're open, again. "It's going to take her some time to get back here. Can you stay with me until she gets here? It'd make me happy. That way I know you're safe."

"Please?" Gibbs begged after a couple of minutes of nothing from Tim.

Rachel raised her eyebrows. She tried to remember the last time she had heard Gibbs say please. "Sounds like a reasonable request, Tim." Rachel told Tim, reassuring the young man it would be ok.

"OK." Tim replied, softly.

Gibbs excused himself to the basement, leaving Rachel and Tim to talk. As soon as he knew he could not be heard from the occupants of his kitchen, Gibbs pulled out his trusty flip phone and dialled his dear friend Ducky. "Hey Duck. Have you got a number for Penny? Maybe a way to contact her, it's an emergency."

"Oh my, is Timothy OK?" Ducky asked his friend, very concerned about his young friend. "Should I come by? Perhaps I can take some leave and stay with him until Penny arrives."

"Duck? A number? I've taken emergency leave for the time being, but you're always welcome here. He's decided to let Penny in." Gibbs said. "I've told him that he matters, but I think he just needs people who have loved him his whole life around him."

"Penny has an email address. I can send her an email asking her to phone you, as soon as she gets the communicate." Ducky offered.

"Regardless of the time difference. Be sure to reiterate it's an emergency. Thanks Duck." Gibbs reiterated to his friend.


It took another day for word to reach Panny. She had been trekking along the Great Wall of China, the last time she had checked in with Tim and Ducky's SOS email found her when she returned to the campus in Hong Kong, after sky camping in Shanghai.

Flipping through her cell phone for the number that her grandson had specifically requested that she save, she found it before asking the school switchboard operator to place the call. Her cell was good for email and for a Wi-Fi hot spot for her laptop, but she had run out of minutes to make calls.

"Yeah, Gibbs." he squinted at the cell phone screen. He didn't recognise the number or the country code the caller was from. He hoped it was finally Penny.

"Jethro Gibbs?" a female caller asked. The phone connection was awful, and they could barely hear one another. "It's Penny Langston. Is Timothy OK?"

"I can barely hear you, Ms Langston. "Where are you?" he asked.

"Hong Kong." she replied. "I've taken a teaching job as a guest lecturer."

"You need to come home, now. Tim needs help. Make your way to Okinawa, to the US Marine base, Camp Gonslave. I'm dispatching Tony to meet you there." he told the grandmother of his brightest.

"What's going on? Is he OK?" she asked again, but she could barely hear Gibbs. The connection was poor and crackly.

"When you get to Okinawa ask for NCIS Special Agent Stan Burley, tell him who you are, and ask for a video conference with me." Gibbs was almost shouting into his phone.

"Gibbs, I can barely hear you. I'll go to the Marine Base at Okinawa and call you from there." Penny said and all both of them heard was dead air, a severed phone connection. Gibbs looked over and saw it was a little after 0130 and scrubbed his face with the palm of his hand. He needed to call Tony and have him report to JB-AB to fly out. He quickly made the call to his buddy and secured a flight to Okinawa, Japan for Tony on the next flight out. Coincidentally, it was leaving in 90 mins.

He called Tony and Tony said he'd make the flight, remarking how he finally felt like he was doing something helpful and constructive for Tim, before promising he'd make the flight on time and bring Penny home safely.

'Remember to ask Ducky to email Penny and remind her to ask for Burley when she gets to the Okinawa Marine base.' Gibbs thought, before closing his eyes again.

Morning came and Gibbs was surprised to see his daughter and her dog on his front porch. After greeting one another hello, he raised his eyebrow in surprise that Sharni had automatically gone to the spot Tim had put her makeshift bed and curled up there, ready for a nap after her strenuous workout with her mistress. "I think your dog is broken." Gibbs commented to her with a wry chuckle. "You switched pups, right?"

"It's the darnest thing. She has been so obedient lately, ever since Tim watched her really." Kelly said to him as his daughter went into the kitchen to pour himself some coffee. "How is he?"

"Barely hanging on, Kell. Need you to stay here, I've got to go to the office for a video conference. Managed to get hold of his grandmother, Penny."

"She'll kill you if she hears you call her that." Tim told them, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes and was definitely forced.

"Why?" Kelly asked confused. At her father and Tim's shared look and her father's chuckle, she raised her eyebrows, expecting an answer.

"Why does Penny do anything? How did she sound?" he asked, he hadn't spoken to her on some time and hadn't had an email from her in over a week.

"Far away, Tim. The phone line was horrible. Tony's bringing her here, he left very, very early this morning." Gibbs told her. "She won't be back until least midnight, tomorrow night. Relax Tim, she'll be safe with Tony."

"I know, boss." Tim told him.

"Go back to bed, Tim. Relax." Gibbs suggested to him. His tone wasn't his usual gruff tone. He was soothing and soft spoken to Tim.

"Rachel is due here, in an hour, I need to be up, showered and dressed." Tim reminded him.

"The doc isn't going to care of you're not neat as a pin" Gibbs told him. "Relax, Tim." as he was forced onto the sofa and physically encouraged the younger man to lay on it.

As soon as Gibbs was gone, Tim was in his feet. "You're not going anywhere, Tim." Kelly told him sweetly, handing him a mug of fresh coffee.

"Kell? Please. Just let me.. -" Tim was going to beg Kelly to let him go, but she had other ideas.

"Tell me about this Penny of yours? Sounds like I would like her." she suddenly asked, trying to distract him.

"She's my grandmother, although we never use that term. She's a modern thinking, smart, feminist, who is ahead of her time. Big fan of strong women with strong ethics. You're a bit like her, actually"

"Sounds like a woman worth knowing." Kelly surmised as she sat on the sectional, by his head. "I can't wait to meet her."

"She saved my life." Tim started out of nowhere, as Kelly tucked her feet under her legs on the sofa beside his head. Her fingers carding his hair, much like she did in the hospital. "Before I was born. My mom's parents were traditionalists, and they weren't impressed that their only child had been knocked up outside of wedlock." Very few people knew this story, Gibbs knew, and Tony and Ziva knew, his parents knew, and he knew, that was about it. "She marched into that clinic with a twelve-gauge shot gun from her dad's hunting collection and marched my mother out of there. Saving my life."

"So, what happened next? Did your parents have a love story for the ages?" she asked, she'd never admit it, but she was a sucked for those.

"Nope. Dad split when I was three, mom died when I was six. He remarried his second wife, Laurie when I was 10 and they had Sarah, my sister. Laurie loved me like her own, until Sarah came along. Now, Laurie divorced him, and I haven't spoken to my father in thirteen years."

"Wow." Kelly said, not stopping the motions her fingers were making on Tim's head. "I thought I was the only one with a messed-up family."

"How is Gibbs messed up?" Tim asked, before he could realise what he had asked.

"Mom died when I was and my grandparent's disowned dad and I. Dad didn't speak to Grandpa at the time either, they'd had a fight at mom's funeral. Never did find out why." Tim kept his face neutral, eight years ago, he had overheard Jackson and his son arguing when that case had bought them to Stillwater. "Dad was messed up after mom's death. They had the perfect love story. he proceeded to lose his mind and marry three of the most useless, nasty women I have ever met. They made my life a living hell, although Diane was kind of ok."

Tim let out a shiver. "Diane!" he commented and shook himself again, trying to rid himself of the memory of that woman, sleeping on the sofa in his apartment, the night she had spent in his protective custody. "Yeah, she hates me. Calls me Chucky."

That got a rise out of Kelly. Her laughter was melodic and made Tim feel strange in the pit of his stomach. He ignored the familiar pang and turned his head to catch her eye. "Tim, the term is Irish slang. Tiocfaidh, it means our day will come. Chucky is also be used as an affectionate term for a loved one. It means she likes you."

"She's got a funny way of showing it." Tim deadpanned and chuckled softly at her.


Gibbs was standing at MTAC and staring at the screen showing Special Agent Stan Burley and Ms. Penny Langston. "Gibbs, this is Professor Langston." Burley introduced the two of them. "I believe you're expecting her call."

"Penny, how are you?" Gibbs asked, trying to wordlessly reassure the panicked woman.

"I've been better. Tell me is Timothy, ok?" Penny was being her usual no nonsense self.

"Penny, Tim was caught in the terrorist attack on the Conrad gala two weeks ago. I'm sure you heard about it." Gibbs explained to the woman, softly. He didn't want to worry her, but she needed the background facts.

"Please don't be telling me, Timothy is dead, Gibbs." Penny begged him.

"No, nothing like that." He smiled at her a charming smile, trying to reassure her. "He has superficial injuries, but his girlfriend was killed in the explosion. At first, he didn't want us to phone you, but now."

"He wants his Penny." She smiled at him. "When can I leave?"

"Tony will be there at 2230 tonight. You're booked on the 0400-flight home. I'll meet you both at JB-AB with Tim." Gibbs told the woman and witnessed half of her stress leave her body.

"You mentioned Tim has superficial injuries." Penny said, wordlessly asking Gibbs to elaborate further.

"A couple of broken ribs, bruising and contusions, cuts and lacerations. He's lucky Penny, he dived under a staircase. If he hadn't, we'd be having a very different conversation right now."

"Why wasn't I contacted immediately? Or at least, as soon as you knew he was, ok?" she asked, she looked angry now and Gibbs hated to say what he had to say to her. He had been all for calling the young agent's family.

"He requested we not contact you. He knew you had been looking forward to the trip and didn't want to drag when you away when he was physically ok." Gibbs told her truthfully, mentally recalling the information that Tim had told them at the time. "I was all for contacting you, but Tim was of sound mind, and I had to follow his requests."

"In future, Jethro, do not withhold information about Timothy from me. His father may be a remissive, cold and uncaring man, but I adore Timothy and Sarah. I practically raised them. No one else in this world loves those two as much as I do. I'll see you soon, Gibbs." she told him, stepping away as Burley came back on the screen.

"I'll keep an eye on her here, Gibbs." Burly told Gibbs. "She's Tim's grandmother, that makes her one of our people." Stan told him.

"She was the wife of an Admiral and is the mother of an Admiral, Burley. Don't cross her."

"But she's Tim's grandmother ... he's so kind and soft spoken, he had to of learned it from someone." Burley argued with his former boss and mentor.

"Don't let her hear you call her a grandmother, Stan. Watch your six." Gibbs warned, disconnecting the video call.