Title: Once upon a summer time

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.

CHAPTER 5

By myself

Fast food restaurant at airport

Gibbs and Jenny eyed each other incredulously from where they sat on opposite sides of the table they shared with the two children. Tony and Ziva were openly bickering over whether or not Tony had saved Ziva from the man who had been chasing them. Ziva kept telling him that she had not needed any saving. She insisted she had had the situation totally under control until he came along.

The discussion had started while the kids were explaining how they had ended up on the runway with a team of airport personnel and a rugged man chasing after them. Tony had offered a smug comment about how he had saved Ziva and the comment had not been made the smoothest way possible. Ziva had almost hit the roof, not wanting to admit to needing any help. Gibbs could see despite the short amount of time they had spent together that this girl was used to fending for herself. At her young age she was quite independent.

Finally Jenny had to tell the two of them to give it a rest and eat their lunch before it got cold. They still had to drive to the train station to pick up Tim and then drive back to the airport just in time for Abby's flight to arrive.

Jenny estimated they should have left five minutes ago but the kids needed some food in their stomachs after the excitement they had had the last hour so she had convinced Gibbs to make a quick stop at the fast food restaurant at the airport before heading over to the train station.

Out in the parking lot they loaded everything into the trunk of the car and then jumped in. Gibbs drove and Ziva and Tony had placed themselves on opposite sides of the car in the backseat. Both were quiet, watching the view from the window. Jenny eyed them in the rear- view mirror and grinned. She hoped their disagreement was just temporary and that they would get along. Right now she was mostly focused on picking up Timothy and then Abby. She was worried he might have been waiting for them for some time now by himself. Maybe he was scared or maybe he had wondered off to look for them. She nudged Gibbs elbow slightly and with a worried frown she asked him if he could please drive a little faster. She quickly regretted asking as he picked up the pace considerably and she instead started worrying he would scare the two kids in the backseat witless. Glancing back though she caught them exchanging little smiles of excitement at the speed they were travelling in.

Tony leaned forward, "Hey, Agent Gibbs. Does your car go any faster?"

Gibbs cleared his throat, a bit embarrassed at being accused of owning the car he was currently driving. It was a rental Jenny had insisted they'd need for the summer. She had explained to him that with four kids it wouldn't be enough with a car with only five seats. So they had rented a Volvo with eight seats including the driver's seat. "Do I look like the type who would own a car like this?"

"Jethro." Jenny scolded.

Tony regarded that question for a second before he replied, "No, not really. "

Gibbs smiled, "Exactly." He caught Tony's confused look in the mirror and grinned, "It's a rental for the summer."

"Oh."

======================%%%Tim's POV:%%%====================================

At the train station

"This was how I first met Special Agents Gibbs and Shepard and Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo."

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. This was my nightmare. I was by myself. All alone. No one in sight. And I had no idea what to do. Stay put. Yes, that's right. That was the right thing to do in a situation like the one I was in at the moment. I stood at the sidewalk, keeping my suitcase on wheels right next to me so some bad guy wouldn't come and take it from me. I had everything I needed in there. Money, deck of cards, my own sheets from home, some emergency candy bars…everything. I simply couldn't lose it.

Ilooked around. People who had been on the same train as me were starting to scatter. They were on their way to their cars. The trip had been fine and everything had been going according to plan up until I got off the train and found myself alone. I knew I probably hadn't been standing there long but to me it felt like hours.

I peered down at my pale legs that yet hadn't been tanned by the sun and my green shorts that almost reached down to my knees. I wore a t-shirt with Mickey mouse on it that I loved and my new tennis shoes.

I clutched the handle on my suitcase until my knuckles went white and tried to breathe deeply to keep myself from panicking. Before I had been terrified of even meeting Special Agent Gibbs but now I just wished him and Special Agent Shepard would get here.

To my huge sense of relief I saw a car approach. It stopped right in front of me, next to the sidewalk and out stepped a silver haired man and a red haired woman. I had seen pictures of Special Agent Gibbs so I recognized him immediately; he just looked a little older than on the pictures. I had never seen the woman before though but my guess was that was Special Agent Shepard.

As they steered their steps toward me I felt my palms begin to sweat again. They had very determined steps, like the cops on TV. Maybe the kid on the train had been right. Maybe they were really tough and expected me to be as tough as them right away. I gulped and left my mouth open wide. They stopped in front me and I forced myself to look up at them. Behind them stood a boy and a girl, who looked like they were a few years older than me. The boy wore baggy jeans and a big sweater with the letters T-O-N-Y on it. The girl wore a yellow sundress that went down to her knees. They both stared at me in a way that made me feel a little uncomfortable.

The red haired woman smiled at me, "Hello. You must be Timothy McGee." I nodded and she stretched out her hand to shake mine. "My name is Jenny." She gestured toward the silver haired man, "And this is Jethro."

"Hi." I managed and then diverted my eyes to the ground with an occasional glance at them.

I shook hands with the man too and he then insisted on helping me with my suitcase. While he put it in the back of the car, Jenny introduced me to the boy and girl. "This is Tony and this here is Ziva." They both gave little hellos to me and I did the same. Kids older than me sometimes scared me a little. And Tony was definitely old.

We all got back into the car. I sat in the middle, between Tony and Ziva. I noticed there were only three of us here. I remembered my mom telling me there would be four of us kids living with the Special Agents during the summer. I summoned my courage and asked the girl in a quiet voice, "Isn't there supposed to be someone else here? A girl?"

Before she had time to answer Tony answered me instead in a loud voice, letting the adults know I had asked a question. "We're on our way to pick her up now." He examined me closely with his eyes. "She's supposed to be very little…so she should be the same age as you." He replied casually.

I frowned. If I had had the guts I would have objected. I wasn't little…well, at least not that little. I knew because I had been told that the youngest girl would be the youngest of us four, and therefore must be younger than me. And that made me…not so little.

Gibbs started the engine and soon we were out on the road. "Actually, Abigail is six years old." Gibbs grinned at me in the mirror and I managed a small smile in return. It was nice of him to say that to Tony so he would know I wasn't the youngest of us four. It was as if he had felt I wanted to object but didn't dare to so he did it for me. "You're seven years old, right Timothy?" he asked and I nodded, but frowned a little at the use of my full name. People usually didn't call me that unless I had somehow misbehaved, but that rarely happened. So I was quite unaccustomed to being called Timothy. "Do you want to be called Timothy or do you have something else you prefer?" I flinched. What was he, a mind reader?

"I…I…prefer to be called Tim, or Timmy."

I wondered how old Tony and Ziva were. I didn't dare to ask Tony but I figured if I asked Ziva, who didn't seem quite as old and scary as Tony did, he might answer too. I turned my head and looked at her. "How old are you, Ziva?"

Ziva hooked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. "I'm eight." She answered matter- of- factly and then proceeded to braid her own hair by herself. I didn't understand how she did that without even a mirror. But she didn't even use the window to see her reflection; she just stared ahead while she moved her fingers back and forth, quickly creating the long braid.

Tony didn't say anything. That was until Gibbs once again asked him for me. "How old are you, Tony?"

Tony looked up and sighed. "I'm eleven."

I couldn't see Gibbs mouth in the mirror but I could tell he was smiling because the smile reached his eyes. He didn't seem to be as bad as I had imagined. In fact I could no longer remember why I had been so petrified of the mere thought of the man before. "Are you sure about that?" he asked Tony who looked stunned.

Tony studied his fingernails for a while and then changed his mind."No, sir. I guess I made that up…kind of. I'm really nine and a half."

To be continued

A/N: I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post chapter five but during the last couple of weeks I've moved and then moved again because I didn't like the new city so things have been a little rough. But now I'm back to writing again. Please review and let me know what you think. Even just a small or quick comment means a lot.