Gibbs sat at the table sipping coffee, all the preparation for Tim's favourite breakfast done, ready for the final touches in ten minutes so that it was ready for Tim when he came downstairs in twenty minutes. Gibbs heard the staircase creak and looked up to see Tim walking towards the door.

"McGee!" He tried to keep his tone light and maintained a smile on his face.

Tim turned and stood almost at attention. "Yes sir?"

"Where are you going, son? Actually nevermind. Come in and have breakfast, son. I will have all your favourites served in 10 minutes."

"I'm not hungry, sir. I'd like to get a headstart on the day."

"We had a late night, Tim. And even after breakfast we'll get to work early enough."

"I have some things I need to catch up on."

"Tim, take it easy. Who is going to ask you about work? Me right? And I'm telling you that you have time to enjoy the breakfast you've earned."

"I don't want it."

"Why are you still upset, kiddo? Come eat, talk to me, let's sort this out."

"I'm not a kid. And you are my superior at work. I am not currently on duty so you cannot order me around. I'll see you at the office." And Tim left. Gibbs was left with a table full of breakfast foods that he only tolerated because of Tim. He decided to skip breakfast too, grabbed his coffee and got into his car."

Thanks to Gibbs' speeding he and Tim reached the NCIS building parking at the same time but McGee didn't even acknowledge Gibbs on the walk or the elevator ride. It looked like a slow day with no active cases so it gave the team some much needed time to catch up on paperwork and obviously goof around some. As rare as it is, Tony managed to amuse and involve Gibbs in his banter too. It felt nice and warm but then Gibbs would look at McGee and rack his brains again about what might be bothering his favourite geek. He even bought the team coffees during his own coffee run but McGee even reused that saying he was cutting down his coffee intake. That reminded Gibbs of the time when McGee had just joined his team and on accidentally spilling Gibs' coffee had started making promises about never drinking coffee again. He smiled and couldn't help but reach out and ruffle Tims' hair. On instinct, Tim leaned into the touch but then realised this and moved away scowling.

Gibbs sighed then smiled and said, "So McGee now that we have some time, let's talk about the idea you had about developing a base search algorithm that we could use on all cases instead of starting from scratch each time. Let me hear it."

"Sir, I need to catch up on this paperwork first, right?"

Gibbs laughed, "Pitch a good enough idea and I can be convinced that paperwork is not the best use of your time and I can find someone else more suitable to this task while you work on the algorithm."

"What even is the point?" Tim muttered but gibbs had heard him clearly enough. He raised an eyebrow, gave Tim five seconds to correct himself then on instinct gave Tim a headslap. "Sorry boss" old habits die hard, "I mean, as you say sir."

And Tim outlined his idea on the plasma. In between the director walked in too and was impressed and agreed that Tim should get working on the algorithm right away while they had some down time between cases. Not wanting to deal with the sulking from the others, Gibbs offered to take care of the paperwork himself. That's how Tim and Gibbs ended up being the only ones in the bullpen late into the evening.

Gibbs stretched as he said, "Where do you want to order dinner from?"

"Not hungry."

"You need to eat, Tim."

"I'll go home soon enough and eat." He still hadn't looked up from his screen.

"I know that look you've got. I know we're not leaving for another couple hours at least.

"You can leave whenever you want and you know nothing." Tim realised a moment too late what he had said, he stopped typing but he still didn't look up.

"I'm willing to go back ten seconds and pretend you never said that. Let's try the response again."

"You can leave, boss. I'll get the work done. Which is all I am accountable to you about."

Gibbs snorted. "First of all, you are like a son to me. So no, I don't just care about you as an employee but as a son and so I care about your overall wellbeing and whether you are eating and healthy. And even as an agent, I need you at the top of your game and so I need to make sure that you are eating properly and have the energy to be on the field."

McGee couldn't form a response to that so he remained silent just looking at Gibbs.

After waiting for another minute, Gibbs shook his head and walked out.

Gibbs returned twenty minutes later carrying some strange food and a stranger dessert from McGee's favourite place (which Tony had told him and he tried to confirm with Ziva before he realised that she was still in Israel and then had called Abby). He had expected to find a still sulking and grumpy McGee and so was worried when he heard sniffling and walked to the bullpen to Tim quickly wiping at his eyes but couldn't stop the sobs. Gibbs quickly pulled him from his chair and took the food and Tim to a conference room. It was highly unlikely for anyone to come back now but there can always be a new case which brings people in and he didn't want to be disturbed.

When McGee spotted the food Gibbs was carrying he started crying harder and Gibbs finally did what he had been itching to do since the previous night and wrapped Tim in a bear hug. Tim struggled a little but Gibbs did not let go and eventually Tim settled into the hug and cried his heart out. Once the tears had stopped, Gibbs gave him tissues a few moments to compose himself then directed him to sit down and asked in the tone he often reserved for Abby, "What's going on Tim?"

The kindness was too much and Tim couldn't hold the anger and fear and sadness inside any longer and told Gibbs everything. About how worried he was about losing his credentials and the IG investigation and about losing this job that he loved, and losing these people who had become family, about how hurt he was with his father's words about his achievement being insignificant and how angry he was that his father could still hurt him with a text message, he should be over it by now, and how his butt still hurt and how unfair that was after all the stuff he does to contribute at work. Gibbs let him speak his heart till he was done. Then he tilted his head in the silent gesture of "anything else?" When Tim moved his head in the negative, Gibbs opened up the food containers and said, "eat."

After a couple minutes he said, "I can understand being worried about the investigation and the job but always remember I have your back, no matter what. And on most days, Vance too. No matter what you've done, we can handle it together. And if worst comes to worst and you have to leave the job, our family is above and beyond that. No matter where you work, even by choice if you decide to work in the private sector, you will always be my son and you will always have a sister in Abby and a brother in Tony. And a sister in Ziva too. Nothing, nothing can take that away."

He waited for Tim to process that and when he saw Tim nod, continued, "About your dad, you can't be so hard on yourself, Tim. Some people will always be able to have that effect on us. We can't always choose who we love and want approval from. But there are better ways to handle the hurt. For one, you could have come and talked to me about it instead of bottling it up and hurting yourself more." Gibbs thought for a moment about whether he needed to be sterner about this but he didn't have it in himself after seeing the boy sob and after hearing a soft "yes boss" decided to leave it at that.

"And about the punishment, you do the crime, you do the time. Lying to me will never be acceptable because then I cannot keep you safe and I cannot and will not allow a situation where I am not doing absolutely everything I can to keep you lot safe. My heart cannot take it, son." And with that McGee couldn't scream or argue or even eat anymore. He stood up and hugged Gibbs, hard. As the moment passed Gibss said, "Abby seems to be rubbing off on you, I don't think my ribs can take your Abby-style hugs!" Both of them chuckled, sat down and enjoyed the meal. Although Gibbs remembered to complain in between, because he couldn't be seen genuinely liking this fancy, prim food of course.