Chapter 3 - Enter the She-Devil

It was three weeks later when McGee noticed a change in Abby's attitude towards him. At first she was just a little standoffish. Not interested in what he had to say, completely non-plussed by their mutual computer work. The geeky words were only flowing one way.

As no more invitations had come his way, he assumed she had found someone else for now. He was fine with that, they had no real long term commitment but there was something else. Even when she was seeing someone else, they always shared some kind of commandery in the lab. Not now.

Then as they were standing in strained silence staring at the monitor, McGee noticed something Abby had missed and made the rather catastrophic mistake of telling her so. She exploded with a rage that stunned him into silence.

"You're mad at me for something, aren't you?" he said quietly when she gave him the chance.

"Yes, I'm mad at you, Elf Lord."

"Do I get to know why?"

"I…..I've outgrown you McGee," she yelled at his face.

At that moment, something inside him shattered. He felt tears rise unbidden to his eyes and he stormed out of the lab as fast as he could without breaking into a run. He found solace in the men's room, shutting himself in a cubicle and sitting on the toilet lid hyperventilating and waiting for the shaking to die down. He toyed with the idea of going home. There was no way he could hide this from Tony or Ziva's prying eyes but he knew that wasn't really an option. So he took a deep breath, rubbed his hands over his face a few times, and resolved to take his ipod with him to the lab. Or better still, refuse to go.

His cell phone rang suddenly, its bathroom amplified tones making him jump.

"McGee," he answered.

"Where are you?" came Tony's voice. "We got a great case. You're going to love this. Get down here now."

"I'll be right there," he replied wearily.

"Wait. Are you in the can?" McGee hung up.

McGee looked in the mirror on his way out. He looked as bad as he felt. He splashed water on his face. Now he looked bad and wet. Sighing, he made his way back to the bullpen.

Tony greeted him like a long lost brother.

"Grad student…..found fried……at….. NRL!" said Tony invitingly. "Hey, you OK, you don't look so good?"

"I'm fine," McGee lied. "What's so great about it? I used to be a grad student."

"We're going to NRL. That's the Naval Research Labs. Don't tell me you've never wanted to go there?"

McGee managed a wry smile. "Yep, I actually have. Let's roll."

His slightly heightened mood last for as long as it took for him, Tony and Ziva to settle into the car. Siting alone in the back seat while Tony recited the specifics of the case, McGee looked out the window and his mind drifted back to Abby's harsh words and the look on her face. There were three things of which he was certain: something had happened, it was probably his fault, he was never going to find out what it was.

Funny, he expected it to be raining to match his mood but the rest of the world seemed unaffected. He felt a tear roll down his cheek and hastily wiped it away with a sniff. He hadn't realised he had let himself get so morose. Then another fell from the other eye and pretty soon he seemed to have a slow but steady stream of them dripping one by one off his cheeks.

In the front seat, Ziva caught a glimpse of McGee and was momentarily shocked. She casually continued her conversation with Tony while touching his hand and gesturing to the back seat. Tony used the rear vision mirror to catch a glance and his eyebrows rose.

"So McGee", he called out. "Tell us what we can expect from a whole building full of geeks?"

"You can expect to understand nothing," McGee replied quietly looking out the window.

Tony got his first taste of what was to come when he handed in his cell phone at NRL reception. His phone was bagged, tagged and thrown in a box. McGee's Blackberry drew an adoring crowd.

By the time they entered the main building he was beginning to get extremely unnerved. The corridors were full of jeans-wearing, t-shirt clad, backpack wielding geeks walking in groups, alone, in pairs. Everywhere he looked it was geek city.

"Did you ever see the film 'Being John Malkovich'? " he asked Ziva"

"No, why?"

"Well there's this scene when John Malkovich gets into the John Malkovich portal and everyone he sees is John Malkovich and they're all saying 'Malkovich'. "

"So…" Ziva wasn't sure where this one was going.

"I swear everyone's saying 'McGee.'"

They were led by an escort to the room where the grad student had died. Ducky and Palmer looked up as they entered.

"Find anything Ducky?"

"Only that he was a member of some Greens group and that badges can sizzle really well. I suspect the poor fellow was electrocuted."

Tony and Ziva bent down to get a closer look.

"Wow, really fried," said Tony admiringly.

"Yes, well, I'm sure he appreciates your concern. Get your pictures and we'll take the poor boy home."

The interview process was Tony's third shock. Word of their presence had spread like wildfire through the building. Well, not specifically their presence; McGee's presence. Every geek that entered to be interviewed would speak the name 'Tim McGee' in hushed reverent tones. Some were even so bold as to mention they had read some of his papers. All seemed awe struck. Tony was pretty sure only half the people they interviewed had actually anything useful to offer, the others were merely coming to pay homage. It was a parallel universe he was getting more and more anxious to leave.

As Tony and Ziva rounded the corner to leave the building, they noticed simultaneously that McGee had not made the turn with them. Instead, he was chatting away merrily to the adoring geek fan club huddled around him.

"Ah,….. McGee?" Tony called. McGee looked up. "You're with us, remember?"

McGee looked genuinely disappointed. "Oh, yeah. Sorry guys, gotta go," and he rejoined Tony and Ziva.

"So McGee," Tony began as they pulled out of the labs. "Do you miss all that academic stuff?"

"Sort of," McGee replied thoughtfully. "I mean the people are obviously great but I always wanted to be in law enforcement. That was the whole point of doing all the study."

"Why law enforcement?"

"Been asking myself that same question lately," McGee replied returning to stare out the window.