JF17
"A successful outcome on all fronts then, I take it?" Leon asked Pride, on the video. conference call in MTAC. "I certainly hope that Agent McGee was helpful to you, down there."
"Helpful? He broke the case and the SOB, Director." Pride answered with a chuckle. His voice was definitely amused. "I was impressed, and I am not that easily impressed. Make that impressed and a little intimidated. He literally wrote a computer program."
"We're not surprised. Breaking the suspect though, that doesn't sound like the Agent McGee we know here in DC." Leon asked, worried. "Not that you were impressed. That is McGee. Send me the video of the interrogation. I look forward to reading all of the reports, Pride." Leon Vance made the motion to sever the call and took his seat again. Feeling a person take the seat beside him, he looked to his left, not surprised to see Gibbs take a seat and hand Leon a coffee cup from his usual caffeine dealer, Elaine. "Cue up the interrogation video from the NOLA office."
The two men watched as Tim sat ramrod straight and perfectly still as time ticked on and Fornell ranted and raved at him. Both men had witnessed McGee interrogate suspects before and both men had been in the room with him, that was not his usual modus operandi. The sudden movement caused both men to jump and flinch as Tim suddenly moved. "Wow" Leon said, once it had finished. "Did you know?"
"Not me, I can see why Pride was impressed and intimidated, though." Gibbs let out a huge laugh and asked the techs to rewind it again. "Look at Tobias, he shat himself." a smug look of satisfaction graced his face.
"Well imagine if it was you in there with him." Leon replied to his friend. "That man allegedly murdered three schoolgirls. After Tim's move in interrogation, he confessed to ten more girls across two states that no one had yet linked to him. I told Tim to take tomorrow as well. The FBI are flying out on Sunday and Fornell has assured me he will look out for Tim. From their office in DC, they'll link the other bodies. They asked if they could borrow McGee, - "
"Absolutely not!" Gibbs demanded.
"As I was saying, they asked if they could borrow McGee, which I declined. I explained in great detail to Fornell that McGee had moved from KIT days to desk duty, he was not yet back to field duty status."
"Thanks, Leon." Gibbs said. "I just hope they don't badger him on the flight home."
"Fornell made the request, on his boss' order. But he doesn't want Tim on it, personally. He wants Tom as far away as possible." the Director explained, dropping his voice. "The surviving witness apparently looks exactly like his sister, Sarah. Tobias was fairly certain that's why Tim did what he did in interrogation."
"Because it couldn't have been a move he was saving for a special occasion." Gibbs commented dryly. At the look on the Director's face, a look of worry and concern, Gibbs continued. "I'll keep an eye on him when he gets back. I'll rope him into some woodwork and sound him out. Keep you abreast of anything you need to know."
At the Director's nod, Gibbs patted him on the arm and left.
Tim relaxed back in his seat on the FBI's leer jet. Tobias to his left, by the window, snoozing away. It was late into the following evening. It had been midnight Louisiana time when they had departed and Tim had already completed his report of investigation and his after-action report, plus his expense report for the trip out to New Orleans for the accounting department. Tim had his laptop open and was resting it on the tray table, furiously typing away. "Don't you ever rest?" Tobias grumbled, not even bothering to open his eyes at the sound of the keys tapping away. "What's so damn important that you must type it out this late in the evening?"
"A thought I don't want to lose." Tim grumbled and continued feverishly typing away, not bothering to look up at Tobias. The man had opened his eyes and sat up at Tim's comment.
"An idea? For a new book? A Gemcity book?" he asked, intrigued. Tim's Deep Six book was a guilty Pleasure for the FBI agent. He read it and re-read it over again and when he would feel upset, he always read it while he ate bacon and banana pancakes.
"A Timothy McGee book, I hope." Tim grinned, still not breaking his typing to look at the FBI agent. "I've never published anything under my own name before, except for my dissertation for my PhD."
"You're going to publish under your own name?" Tobias asked, surprised. "Wow." He was surprised to hear that the brilliant agent was contemplating publishing under his own name, especially with all the drama Deep Six had caused for him.
"Settle down, it's just a thought I've been having on and off for a while now." Tim explained softly, finally stopping himself and looking at Tobias.
"But you're brainstorming ideas and making notes?" he asked, sounding the younger man's true feelings out on the subject. Tobias had heard second hand the team's reaction to the Gemcity book. Gibbs had filled him in, even telling him that he had told Tim to cuff himself, during the second book debacle with the crazy stalker fan.
"I swore I'd never write another book and I still feel like I should stick to that. It's just... These ideas I have been having, they won't leave me alone." Tim confided in him. "Kelly's been pushing for me to finish out my Gemcity contract, but I can't."
"Maybe you should do it. Not because I'll enjoy seeing DiNozzo pissed at you, but to prove to yourself that you can do it." Tobias told him. "Look Tim, as an outsider that's close enough to be an insider, maybe you should finish it. Damned what your team says. Ziva is gone, Bishop is here, now. You and Tony are in better place now, as are you and Gibbs. Abby is Abby. The way I see it: she's either in your corner or boxing you into a corner. Even you and Gibbs have a better rapport now. The team has different dynamics, it'll probably be better received. Maybe by finishing the second novel, you'll find some closure. Oh, and give them a heads up, so they're not blindsided. Although Gibbs knew before your sister spilled the beans. He had picked it up the day it came out, Director Shepard casually mentioned that the DoD were vetting a book for one of his agents. He knew it was you. You should see that as a compliment that he immediately suspected it was you."
"Want to know a secret, Tobias? The second book is up to the editing stage. I picked it up again after I was injured in the drone strike." Tim confessed. "I made sure to only work on it when I knew no one was around to bother me. When everyone was at work or busy. Learnt my lesson about using the typewriter, use my laptop now. When Kelly would leave Sharni with me, we'd head out somewhere and I'd write, and she would sit dutifully by."
"That's great, Tim." Tobias encouraged him. Tobias had hated the way they had belittled him about the book. It wasn't like anyone else had written a book, let alone a best seller as big as the book Deep Six was. "I can't wait to read it."
"As soon as it's through the vetting and editing stage, I'll get you an advance copy. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it." Tim said and found he was genuinely looking forward to the FBI agent's thoughts on his newest book.
"Tim; promise me that regardless of what anyone thinks, you'll publish and it. The reactions be damned. You're not responsible for their feelings, only your own. I think you will find that finishing the second book might help the negative feelings you have around publishing under your own name." Tobias offered, trying to support the JFA because he knew that Special Agent Timothy McGee rarely felt supported by his own team.
Tim thanked the man for his insight and his advice. He and Tobias had never had such a personal conversation as the last two they had, especially in light of the Diane Stirling saga.
Landing in DC at 0215, was a surreal experience. They had landed at a small, privately owned airport, not far from Dulles that the FBI used regularly. Tobias had his personal truck parked in the lot beside the hanger where the FBI stored their jet when it wasn't in use.
"Come on, I'll give you a lift home." Tobias urged the young man. At the end of the last case, they had worked together, before this one his views of the MCRT's JFA had begun to change, especially when he finally let go of his unwarranted hostility over the Diane saga.
Tim thanked the man and told the FBI agent his new address. When Tobias pulled up out the front of his apartment building, he whistled. "Whoa! I'd love to see you explain to the IA department at NCIS, just how you can afford a place like this on a JFA salary."
"It's a family trust property. My grandfather used it as his home office when he was on the Joint Chief of Staff in the 80's and 90's before he retired from his assignment at the White House. He was a Fleet Admiral in the US Navy." Tim explained, as Tobias parked the car to let Tim out. "You're not planning on driving all the way out to Crofton tonight, are you? That's a long drive, Tobias."
"Ah yeah, it's not that far." Tobias replied as he switched off the car to help the younger man gather his bags.
"Grab your bag. Come on, I have a guest room. Don't know about you, but you're most likely expected to be in the office in a couple of hours, too." Tim offered, yawning.
"Thanks Tim, I actually appreciate it." he replied as the two men grabbed their bags.
"Get your FBI creds out, you need to check in with the security desk." Tim told him as they entered the lobby of his building.
Tim introduced Tobias and added him to his prescribed list of visitors while security took their copy of his ID for the approved visitors list. Once safely in the elevator, Tim explained that all he had to do next time was tell security he was here, sign in and they would send him up. Tim entered his access code and Tobias thought it was cool that the elevator opened up, right into the foyer of his apartment.
"Welcome to my home." Tim said and did a double take, seeing that his sofas had finally been delivered. "And my sofas' arrived."
"Atlas? That you?" Kelly asked, coming out of Tim's bedroom in an NCIS tee that belonged to Tim, messed up hair and barely awake.
"Hey you." Tim greeted her, really surprised to see her, especially in his tee in his apartment at 0245 hours in the morning. "What are you doing here?"
"Security called me about those sofas being delivered." Kelly explained softly, coming to Tim and hugging him to her body. It was only when she stopped short of kissing him did, she realised that Tim wasn't alone. "Oh, hey Tobias."
"Kelly." he nodded, surprised to see her in Tim's home, in his clothes, come out of what he assumed was Tim's bedroom. What surprised him more was that Kelly; his pseudo niece had gone straight to the younger man's and had stopped short of planting one on his lips.
"Let me show you to the guest room, it is this way, Tobias." Tim said, ushering the man down the hall to the doorway of said room.
"I don't want to kick Kelly out of your guest room. I can drive back to Crofton." Tobias offered. He knew it was a token protest, but he didn't want to put the NCIS agent.
"It's OK, Kell never sleeps in here. We always sleep in my bedroom together." Tim said, before groaning out loud. "I meant when Kell stays over, she bunks in my room. platonically."
"I think you had it right the first time." he muttered to himself, more than Tim. "After Kelly leaves for work in the morning, you and I are going to have a long talk about this."
"Good night, Tobias." Tim said, reminding him the conversation was closed.
"Sleep Tim," he grinned at the younger man. "Good night."
Returning to his own bedroom found Kelly back in her black camisole and matching black panties, rather than Tim's tee. "Lucky, I threw your tee on. Imagine the look on Tobias' face if I had of walked out, looking like this." Kelly sighed in relief at her forethought.
"Definitely not. You know you are allowed to sleep in my tee." Tim reminded her. "I don't mind."
"Don't want the temptation?" she asked, looking into his eyes for an answer. They both knew the answer.
"Let me rephrase that. Kell, please put the tee back on." Tim said painfully. He had stripped out of his one suit he had taken with him and thrown it haphazardly on the armchair in the corner of his bedroom and come over to the bed in just his elastane briefs, he had thrown on that morning.
"Fine." she huffed. She grabbed the tee shirt from where she had tossed it at the end of the bed and turned her back to Tim before removing her camisole and slipping into his tee.
Tim's mouth went dry at the sight of her naked back and cheeky black brazilian lace panties. The hemline cut higher than he had seen her wear previously, showing off the vast majority of her ass cheeks. The sight of her almost naked sent the blood rushing to an area particular to men. The jolt of desire sent a shock through his body and he took some deep breathes, willing his body not to react.
"Happy?" she asked sarcastically, and Tim grinned at her, climbing into his bed.
Later that morning, Tim awoke almost the same time as Kelly, half an hour before the alarm was set to go off. Tim noticed that he had awakened with an impressive morning erection, which once again, he put down to spooning Kelly in his sleep, again. The tee he had insisted she wear was bunched up around her waistline and he was tightly nestled against the crutch of her panties.
Kelly could feel how hard and how much Tim was aroused as soon as she woke. Shifting slightly, she felt his penis brush the entrance to her womanhood. "Morning." she whispered over her shoulder as her right arm reached out and pulled his lips towards hers, pulling his body flush against hers, causing him to nudge her womanhood again.
Enjoying a leisurely kiss good morning, Tim enjoyed the feel of Kelly against him. Kelly moaned into the kiss as his body brushed against her again.
Suddenly she broke off the kiss, rolling over to face him and reattached her lips to his, linking her hands around his neck, urging him to close the gap between their bodies.
This time Tim happily complied, gently rolling her beneath him, making sure that his morning erection was touching her lace panties. He felt her open legs a little bit wider to accommodate his body. He introduced his tongue into her mouth as he rested his weight on his elbows and splayed his hands over her cheeks, carding them into her hair. Her hands resting on his flanks onto his equally naked back.
Enjoying the kissing and making out that they were doing, Tim gently broke off his kiss and pulled back from Kelly slightly. "As much as I'd love to continue this, we need to rein it in. We both have work today, but maybe we can get some dinner tonight? A date of sorts, if you'd like?"
"I'd like that a lot, actually." she smiled at him. "I better get dressed for work, I still need to stop by my apartment and let Sharni out. Might have to see if she can spend time with Dad, tonight."
"And when he asks why?" Tim whispers.
"I could tell him that you asked me out, or I could tell him I'm meeting a friend for dinner." Kelly offered.
"Meeting a friend for dinner." Tim answered her. Not that he didn't want to tell Gibbs, or anyone else for that matter, but he felt they owed it to themselves to at least enjoy one date, privately. If all the advice he had received was anything to go by, lots of people were keen to see the two of them develop their friendship further.
"Is that what I am doing?" she asked, gauging if he was truly wanting tonight to be a date. Now Tim had her second guessing herself.
"Well, I thought I asked you out on a date, if I am wrong..." Tim answered her, his tone hesitant and unsure and he mentally cursed Abby's name. He had always been fairly certain of himself, prior to his brief relationship, if you could even call it that, with the goth all those years ago.
"Just making sure." she smiled at him before kissing his lips softly and slipping out from beneath him, eager to start the day.
Kelly headed to the shower and Tim headed to the coffee maker, noting that his alarm hadn't even gone off yet, that Kelly's hadn't either. Smiling to himself, he set the coffee to brew as he started pulling out the makings for some blueberry pancakes, with a side of fresh fruit. The grumbly FBI came into the kitchen in search of coffee just as he was plating up the pancakes. "You cook?" He asked, astonished. He could barely believe that the young man could cook too. "Maybe I should encourage you to go fro Emily instead."
"Thanks, I think." Tim grinned. "But she is way too young for me." Tim wasn't going to tell Tobias that he had a date tonight, or that he thought that he might already be taken. He knew he had been having strong feelings towards his boss' daughter, almost since they met. But it was only now, did he feel that maybe he might be ready to see if there was more than friendship between them.
"You're damn straight." Tobias said as he dished up breakfast for himself, as Kelly came into the kitchen, freshly showered and dressed, ready to start the day. She had dressed herself in a black pencil skirt, sage green blouse with forest green swirls on it and matching black blazer. She had tied her hair back in a twisty updo that Tim had seen her in before and her heels, low black and pointy toed. The sound made a small clacking noise on the tiled kitchen floor.
"Morning Tobias." Kelly said in a sweet, melodic voice as she reached for the already prepared plate that Tim had made her, and he handed her a cup of coffee. As soon as she was settled at the table, Tim slipped out of the room into his office, leaving Tobias and Kelly at the table to talk.
Finally making it into the Navy Yard just before 0900, he was relieved that he had made it on time. He had sent Gibbs a text message at 0300 telling him that he had just arrived home and would report in by 0900, after some much-needed sleep.
"Morning McTardy!" DiNozzo teased as Tim strolled into the bull pen, almost two and a half hours later than his usual arrival time. "How was wherever the hell you were?"
"Oh, it was interesting assignment, and we caught a serial killer." Tim jibed back at him, knowing that Tony's curiosity would be piqued by.
"Don't lie to your teammates, Tim." Gibbs chastised as he reappeared in the bull pen from parts unknown, to see Tim settling in at his desk. "I've read the reports and seen the interrogation video. You caught the serial killer, you got the confession, there was no we."
"As you constantly remind us, there is no I in team." Tim replied.
"You OK, though? That was a tough one." Gibbs asked, looking carefully at Tim and seeing that he was still looking peaked.
"Yeah, we had a team debrief over a beer and Tobias and I had a three-hour flight home together. We also had breakfast together this morning." Tim told him.
Looking over at Ellie and Tony, he could see the battle of which barb he would let loose first, it was all there, on the tip of his tongue. But for some reason Tony was reining his sharp tongue back in. "Breakfast?" he finally asked, amused before stammering a little. "To.. Tobias?"
"That's his name." Tim deadpanned and even Gibbs looked surprised.
The ringing of Gibbs' desk line had Tony grabbing his gear, automatically. He had been anxious for a case and hated that they seemed to be going through a slow period, not that he would have wished anything bad to happen to any Marines or Sailors.
"Sit down, that clearly wasn't a case." Gibbs grumbled. He took a hard look at Tony and Ellie, they had been stuck on cold cases for two weeks now and although he was enjoying the downtime, Tony and Ellie were both getting antsy. "You know what? Gym time, DiNozzo. Take Ellie with you, go!"
"What about McGoo?"Tony griped at their boss.
"He isn't doing anything until he is medically cleared at his appointment on Monday, go!" Gibbs ordered, before taking a closer look at Tim.
He saw Tim was uber focused on the cold case he had been working on. He knew that the particular case he had open was a thorn in the young man's side, as it was the first case in his career he had ever had to let go cold before. Tim was like him in that regard, he hated not having the answers and not getti g justice for the victim's families.
The phone call he had received earlier from his daughter wasn't overly unusual, although her request was. Being asked to watch her dog so she could go to dinner was certainly one of her stranger requests.
Gibbs sat in contemplation, wondering if Tim was the friend, she was having dinner with and if it was a date. The jarring ringtone of his cell phone had Gibbs absent-mindedly answering it. "Yeah Gibbs." his voice gruffer than usual.
Surprised to hear Tobias' voice on the other end, it didn't take much persuasion on his friend's part to get Gibbs to agree to a meeting at the coffee cart in Andrew's Park, just outside the main gate. Especially since, Tobias had also offered to buy.
The day passed slower than a snail in the rain and Tim felt his frustration climb at every turn. He wasn't frustrated at anything in particular, just at how slow time seemed to be passing. He was in denial that he was actually looking forward to tonight. In the car on the way into the yard, he had called his best friend from MIT and used his friend's connections as head chef at an exclusive Michelin five-star restaurant and secured some dinner reservations for two at 1900 hours. Just to be sure the restuarant wouldn't cancel them on him, his best friend from MIT, Justin, placed the reservations under Gemcity.
When it got to 1600 hours, Gibbs called it a day, just so he didn't have to put up with Tim's impatience any longer. Something that had crawled up Tim's butt, and after the conversation Gibbs had had with his counterpart at the FBI, he was pretty sure that Kelly was the answer. Gibbs wasn't privy to anything in particular, he had even held Tony back when he dismissed his team to see if the team's professional snoop had any leads. More shocking than Tim's restlessness, was Tony's vehemence that he truly didn't know what had crawled up Tim's ass and since they were off duty and banished from the yard for the rest of the weekend, neither one of them had an excuse to go and pester Tim for answers.
Tony and Gibbs decided to grab a quick bite to eat at the diner, having spent more than half an hour throwing suggestions back and forth over Tim's problem. "What about the assignment that SecNav and the Director had him on? Could that be the reason for his ... agitation?" Tony asked, worried as they took a seat at the counter, with Elaine automatically pouring them each a cup of coffee.
"Nah, it's not that." Gibbs denied. He knew that, already. Afterall, he and Vance had been privy to what had gone down in New Orleans and Fornell had filled him in on their trip home and mentioned that he had spent the night at Tim's apartment. "Met Fornell today for coffee. He was on the taskforce with Tim. They landed here at 0200 this morning and Tim offered Fornell his spare room, so he didn't have a long drive home and back into the office, this morning."
"Kelly, maybe?" Tony offered. Tony knew his best friend really liked her. What he didn't know was how Kelly's dad felt about that and perhaps Tim was also worried about that. "I mean, we know they like one another, and we know they had an argument about it. Did they make up?"
"Going by the big flower arrangement in Kelly's living room on Friday, yes." Gibbs grinned at Tony. "I'm sure that Tim will talk to one of us about it soon."
"Course he will, it's Tim." Tony returned the grin. "But the big question is: how does Kelly's dad feel about the 'friendship' that the two of them are having?" Tony made sure to mime the inverted commas, to get his point across and Gibbs resisted the urge to head slap Tony.
"Kell's a big girl, she doesn't need to run her life's choices by me. She earned that right the day she turned eighteen." Gibbs reminded Tony. "But that being said, we both know the terrible taste she has in men, Tim being the exception, of course. Tim's a good man, we both know that. But the question is: will Kelly break his heart? Tim has had enough heartbreak already in his life."
"I don't know. We know that she is capable of long term." Tony sighed. "We've just got to let whatever happens play out. Just so we're clear though, you do want Tim and Kelly to get together?"
"Not saying it's going to be a walk in the park, but yeah, I think they make each other very happy." Gibbs smiled a genuine smile at him. "There's a lot of worse people I could end with for a son-in-law."
Elaine's voice greeting a new customer floated down the counter and Tony and Gibbs shared a stunned look at the sight of Tim leaning over the counter and kissing Elaine's cheek, before smiling at him and taking his cash. As quick as Tim had arrived, he was gone, barely even glancing around the diner. "Hey Elaine," Tony called over to her. "What did Probie want?"
"He was just picking up an order to go." She said dismissing them, politely before continuing on down to the other end of the counter.
"Guess she's sworn to secrecy." Gibbs grinned. Gibbs had recognised the box that Tim had collected. It was the dessert assortment tray. He smiled to himself at that, he knew Tim usually didn't partake in too many sweets and hadn't for many years now, since he shed the extra weight. Obviously, Tim had something happening that he required the sweets for."
