Author's Notes:

1) Waves to everyone, I hope you can see this! The system wide problem seems to be fixed now, however if you still can't see Ch 3 for Homecoming, or any other story you're following for which you've received a new chapter alert, please send an email to the fan fic net support folks, use the 'Help' at the bottom of your profile screen. I've heard from Momcat that she has finally been able to read Homecoming's Ch 3, so other guests should also be able see it.

For future reference, I also post on A03, that is Archive of Our Own, under the same screen name.

2) Back in Chapter 2, Tim sent a condolence card to Colonel Fielding, signing it Tim McGee. That should have been an e-card sent through email; Ive fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out.

3) For those who questioned why Charlie wouldn't know Tim (aside from the above): 1) He hasn't seen him yet! Tim is not at the ranch when Charlie arrives and 2) The 'photo' that started the whole mess with Joann Fielding, the one with the Gibbses, including Tim, Ty and Grandpa Mac, ('After' , Ch 13 if you want to re-read) is not online. Charlie found photos of the two ranches and the Evacuee homes online but no photos of people. And when he found the names of the owners of La Serenidad, one of them was Timothy J. Gibbs but he would have no way of knowing that was his former almost son-in-law Timothy McGee.

McPenname and Smartkid37, hope you both enjoy and thanks for your help, whether you knew you were helping or not (smirks), it's always a treat chatting with you. Hugs to you both and to RR for all her support.

Thanks to everyone who's reading, following, favoriting, commenting, I always love hearing from you! And now on with our story!

Chapter Four

Tim tried very hard not to fidget or look at the time. After all, it was Thursday, there was still all day tomorrow to work. He was usually motivated, he had plenty of work to occupy him and he enjoyed his work. He was restless this week and he didn't know why. Idly he wondered if Ellie had enough vacation days to visit Tahlequah. Barb and Jerry had come up a few weeks ago to meet Henry in person but it wasn't the same as having the whole family there. They all missed John, Jazzy, George, Eileen and their kids. He was also impatient for them to meet Henry in person.

He settled down again. He knew he could leave early, nobody would say anything and he certainly worked enough hours of his own time to justify an hour here or there. However, his team didn't necessarily know about those extra hours and he didn't think it would be fair to them.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Back at the ranch, the three adults took the four littles to the pools, which were nicely shaded this time of day. Liz set Ricky in the wading pool, she was uneasy with the toddlers being in the big pool without their parents. Charlie followed her example and Eleni happily splashed in the water. Henry climbed in by himself while Lia tugged on Mac's shirt. "Big pool, Grandpa."

"Not without your mom and dad, sweetie."

She stuck her lower lip out but once she was in the wading pool she forgot about her sulk.

Liz tilted her head, saying to Charlie, "Lia and Ricky can hold their breath underwater but I'm not comfortable with them in the big pool unless their parents are around. Henry's been here nearly two months, he's had some lessons but he's not quite ready yet and he's not comfortable in the big pool."

Charlie nodded, "I don't blame you for your discomfort. Eleni can hold her breath and dogpaddle but I'd rather she stick with the wading pool, too."

Mac patted his shoulder. "Must be tough, raising her by yourself."

His nephew made a noise, saying, "It was difficult enough when Carol and I brought her home from Delilah's. My daughter thought a child would ground her, keep her head straight and she wouldn't listen to us when we told her how much work it is raising a child, especially a baby. On her own and in Delilah's condition. Oh, you wouldn't know about that." He filled Mac in on the explosion at the Gala and Delilah's injuries. Liz was sitting cross legged in the wading pool, playing with the kids.

He sighed, "She had a lot of support, we were there and her boyfriend was with her every day. He's a great guy, a good man. She seemed all right at first, had some counseling, and learned how to live in the wheelchair. We were thankful she was alive when so many others died. She was determined to prove she could still do her job and moved to Dubai to do that. Her boyfriend stuck with her. He flew over there a few times, a long and expensive trip, to see her. Finally, she moved home and they moved in together. He called to tell us he was about to propose. He went home early one day and found her in bed with another guy. He took his stuff and left.

"Delilah, who we believed was crazy about this guy, shrugged it off. The other guy she was sleeping with was married, just a fun adventure for her. After that, she kept spiraling downward. She managed to keep her job but she became a hoarder, mostly shoes and designer clothing. We loaned her money several times until we realized we were never going to get it back. We have a decent retirement income and savings, but not enough to support her bad habits.

"Then about three years ago she decided she wanted a baby. She picked a sperm donor before discovering she's infertile. She went looking for egg donors, there's a national bank for them now, a bit like sperm banks but not quite. Anyway, she put all the pieces together and hired a gestational carrier. Somehow she had the money to pay for all that but not her rent.

"Anyway, she had the baby and Eleni was four months old when Delilah came unglued, called us in hysterics, saying she couldn't handle being a mother and she was placing Eleni in foster care. This was our only grandchild; she was always going to be our only grandchild, and a defenseless baby. We drove up to San Diego and brought Eleni home with us, adopting her.

"Then Delilah asked us for more money. When we said no, she'd never paid us back a penny of what we'd already loaned her, she left in a fit of anger. Days later, my bank called me to see if it was really me or Carol online transferring most of our savings account to another bank. We've been members there for over 20 years and neither of us had ever done any kind of banking online. So when someone set up an ID and password and started to transfer money, our bank's cyber security got suspicious. They said the "IP" address, whatever that is, showed that it was someone out of state. Luckily, they were able to stop the transaction before it was finalized so we weren't out any money. In the meantime, when we questioned Dee about it, she didn't deny it, instead blaming us for lack of support.

"At that point, we realized there wasn't anything else we could do for her but practice 'tough love'. She'd become a stranger to us and so we legally disowned her, although that really only removed her from our Wills. We were both afraid that she'd taken out loans or credit cards in our name or that her next step would be doing that. And we were right to worry, we had a full credit check run and found a credit card that had been created two weeks before, with charges of $1,800. Our attorney had the card canceled and the charge removed, easily done within the 30 day limit. We pay our credit bills in full every month so there weren't any balances and if there had been, they would have been Delilah's and we would have disputed them. I'll have to continue to monitor the balances and the credit card company is monitoring too but that's fine if it saves me headaches and money in the long run. We thought about canceling our cards but she's a talented enough hacker that she would find any new cards we acquired.

"Anyway, a few months after all that, Carol was diagnosed with cancer and started treatment, but then died from a blood clot to her lungs, one of the side effects of the treatment. I had help from friends, neighbors and folks from my church and eventually I hired a live-in nanny, but I worried about something happening to me and my little girl being put in foster care."

While he was talking, Liz remembered it was Sarah who told her about the woman who cheated on Tim the day he planned to propose to her. The woman's name was Delilah but as she still didn't know for sure that it was the same woman, she wondered if anything should be done. She sent a quick text to Claire.

A few minutes later, Mac smiled as the Hubbards joined them. "Jim, Claire, like you to meet my nephew Charlie Fielding. And the new little one in the wading pool is his daughter Eleni."

They welcomed Charlie and sat with the others. After a few minutes, Liz said, "Will you three please excuse Claire and me?"

Jim nodded, he'd been briefed by his wife, "Sure, we'll watch the kids."

The two women walked to the Cranes' new home. As soon as they were inside, Liz told Claire the story. Claire nodded her head, "I've heard that story; it was pretty bad for Tim. But, Liz, the name could be a coincidence. I don't remember anything about the woman being a paraplegic."

Liz was pacing, "I don't either. Then do you think we should do anything at all?"

Claire shook her head, "No, not unless we know for sure it was her. Otherwise, we've stirred the pot for no reason. I haven't seen Sarah today, have you?"

"She's in the ranch house with the kids, doing some writing."

"Then let's not bother her. She's had so little time to write since the twins arrived!"

Liz agreed, "I don't know how Tim does it and he's got another book coming out soon!"

Claire shook her head, "Liz, we're missing something obvious here! If Jethro and Shannon know, we can be sure Mac also knows and he would have said something if it was the same person!"

"You're right, let's just let it go then."

Rolling their eyes at each other, the two women returned to the wading pool party. Jim looked at Claire who smiled.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Having heard through the ranch grapevine about the new arrival, Sarah sat in the library of the ranch house, trying to figure out what was bothering her. She wrote the name Charlie Fielding down and then stared at it. Then she added 'Colonel' in front of Charlie. Finally, she called someone she was sure would know the answer.

Tony frowned at the caller ID on his phone. The kids were next door at the daycare and Maggie was here at the office. Breathing deep, he took the call.

"Sis? Anything wrong?" He looked at Bob's desk, remembering he was in the lab, discussing the forensics of a cold case with one of the techs.

"Nobody is sick, dying or in danger. But a situation has come up that's bothering me, I can't get it out of my brain. It might involve Tim."

"Does Tim know? Or Ellie?"

"No. Is Ellie close, can she hear you?"

"No, she's in another part of the building. Ok, I'm in a private room now. What's up?"

Sarah explained the sudden arrival of Mac's nephew, a man in his late 60s named Charlie Fielding. "Tony, his daughter is named Delilah and she left a child he's now raising although I don't think it can be Tim's."

Tony was too shocked to reply for several seconds. "You said 'left'. And are you sure it's the same Delilah?"

"How many Delilah Fieldings do you think there are? Wait, I'll check." She gulped, "Oh, there's over 600,000 results on Google."

Tony sighed, "All right, let's assume, because this is our family, that this is Tim's former girlfriend. Now tell me what you mean by 'left'?"

Briefly she told him what had happened with Delilah wanting a child, giving the baby to her parents, trying to steal money from them and then transferring out of the country.

"Wow! How old is the kid?"

Liz told him and Tony sighed in relief. "She's not Tim's then, she'd have to be about Teddy Palmer's age." He shook his head, "I was almost as shocked about her cheating on Tim as he was. I liked Wheels; they were dating before the explosion that injured her; she helped with a case, that's how they met. I met her a few weeks later. The only reason Tim wasn't hurt or killed when Delilah was injured is that we realized the terrorist was going to bomb the Gala and called to warn him, have him start evacuating people. Cell reception was lousy so he walked outside to take the call and that's when everything exploded."

"I remember all that now, Tony. Thank God Tim wasn't hurt."

"As it was, the force of the bomb blew him to the ground, knocked the breath out of him for a few minutes. Anyway, I thought the two of them were good together, the real deal. So did Tim and Boss. I remember him saying one time when Tim was in Dubai visiting her that he thought Tim might be looking for a job over there and he wouldn't blame him. Wheels moved home instead, but yeah, it was good and it was serious."

He told the story of the day Tim flew home from LA and he flew out to Italy, their breakfast together and picking up the ring. "You know the rest. And my flight hadn't even left yet, that's how quickly everything fell apart for him. He was devastated. I'll tell him and then we'll tell Ellie. I don't want either one of them meeting this guy until they know. Thank you for taking care of him this way, now I have to go. See you later, love you, Sis."

Before he could call Tim, his phone rang with a call from Dispatch, with a triple homicide, three Navy Petty Officers, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. While his junior called Bob and started looking for flights, Tony sent Maggie a text they'd be in Canada for a triple murder and to please call Sarah at some point. With seats available on a flight if they hurried, the field team nearly flew from the office with their gear and go bags. Their travel crime scene kit was already in the agency sedan assigned to them.

Maggie spent the afternoon in meetings and calls with her contacts. By the time she saw Tony's text, she was in the elevator to the parking garage, on her way to pick up their babies from the daycare center.