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2 months, 18 days, 16 hours, 27 minutes

They had left the Virgin Mega Store behind and Tim had forgotten all about going to the jazz section with all the new artists Edith was introducing him to.

"So tell me about you," Tim said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, glancing over at him.

"Well I mean, you've heard of some of my messed up past, what about you?"

Edith shrugged "I'm from Ohio, which you already know. My mom owns her own dance studio in Toledo and my dad's been absent my whole life, and my half brother is a druggie living out in California, he's trying to make it as a musician. When I was 11 I accidentally killed my kitten Billy when I stepped on its back in the middle of a power outage. I've been working at NYU for a year and get mistaken for a student a lot cause I'm younger than most of the professors there/ Pretty mundane stuff, not like the excitement I'm sure you're used to."

"Well your life may be a little mundane but you certainly aren't," he said with a smile.

"Thanks," she said. "So what's your favorite colour?"

"Clear," he answered with a grin.

"Smarty pants, come on Tim what's your favorite colour?"

"Red I guess," he answered with a shrug.

"Oh fire, passion, anger, love," Edith said.

"Are you psychoanalyzing me based on my favorite colour?" he asked.

"Perhaps," she replied with a playful wink.

"Where are we headed now?" he asked, they had been driving aimlessly for a while and didn't seem to be headed anywhere unparticular anytime soon.

"I have no idea, I'm just driving around wasting gas," she replied.

"Sounds like a plan," he said as he settled back into the seat and pulled out the pack of cigarettes she had given him the night before.

"I see you're getting some use out of those," Edith said, spying the pack.

"In more ways than one," he replied as he rolled down the window and lit the cigarette.

"Mind if I have one?" she asked.

"They are yours," he replied, handing the cigarette he had just lit to her. He watched her put the filter in between her lips. For a moment he thought that her placing her lips on the same filter as him was some weird roundabout way of kissing. He shook his head and lit another cigarette.

2 months, 19 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes

"Did you know his mother had died?" Abby asked as she stared at the floor.

"No, he never said anything," Gibbs replied and Abby sighed tiredly.

"He never told me either, why didn't he tell me?" Abby asked.

"I don't know Abs, sometimes people just keep things to themselves," Gibbs tried to explain to her and his thoughts went back to how he had hidden the fact that he had been married 4 times and divorced 3 and that he had, had a child.

"But I told him about my parents and everything, then the whole smoking thing, I mean I would have been upset but I would have gotten over it."

"I'm sure he would have told you at some point," Gibbs said, his attempt to calm her and see things from McGee's perspective didn't seem to be working all that well.

Abby shrugged in defeat and looked at the time on her phone. "It's getting late, I should get going."

She gave Gibbs a hug before turning to head up the stairs. "Night Gibbs, thanks for everything."

"Night Abby," he said as he watched her go.

***

She sat in front of her computer looking through the Newark obituaries for 1993. She had started looking for anything concerning McGee's mother's death a few years earlier but had found nothing so she went back to 1993 and began to look through each month. Abby finally found her in November.

"Chantelle McGee," Abby whispered as she looked at the woman's photo. She was beautiful and she looked like a slightly older version of Sarah. But her eyes were exactly like Tim's.

She typed in the name at Google and clicked the first link that came up. It was a newspaper article, Abby began to read the story in front of her and she gasped. "Oh my God, Tim."

2 months, 18 days, 16 hours, 38 minutes

They had gotten turned around and where now headed back in the direction of home. Tim leaned his head against the window and watched the cars, cabs, and buildings go by.

"Are you hungry?" Edith asked.

Tim looked over at her "Yea, starving actually," he said, his stomach growling in agreement.

"Alright, how about I cook something for you, make up for you paying for my dinner last night," she said.

"Sounds good, just don't try and kill me once you get me all alone," Tim joked.

"Damn you've seen through my cunning plan," Edith said with a laugh.

"Well I was a federal agent ya know," he replied.

"Does that mean you automatically know who the bad guy is?" Edith asked.

"Um, no," he said sheepishly and Edith laughed. "So what were you going to do if I do turn out to be some crazy serial killer?" she asked.

"Well I've never hit a woman before but I'm pretty sure if it came down to my life or the moral high ground I'd probably kick your ass and feel bad about it later," he said.

"Oh what a gentleman, and what makes you so sure that you could kick my ass anyway?" she asked as she reached over and gently pushed him with her fist.

"Fear for my life," Tim answered honestly. He wasn't a great fighter but Ziva had taught him enough to hold his own in a fist fight. Tim wondered if he had ever really thanked her for her lessons.

"You're right, you probably could kick my ass," she said. "So how do you feel about lasagna?"

"I would love some lasagna," Tim replied, his stomach growling even louder causing Edith to laugh and Tim to blush beet red.

***

"So this is home," she said as she opened the door and threw her keys on the small table next to the door.

Her apartment was a bit smaller than his but she had more furniture so he supposed it made up for its size. He followed her into the kitchen but she chased him out. "Go sit at the bar, I'm making dinner here," she said.

"Ok, ok," he said as he exited the kitchen and sat at the bar built into the cabinets and faced into the kitchen. Tim watched her run around, getting the oven ready and pulling out the store bought lasagna from the freezer.

"So who do you like better, The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?" she asked as she brought out a cookie sheet.

"You ask the weirdest questions," Tim said as he placed his chin in the palm of his hand.

"How is that a weird question, I'm trying to start a dialogue here," she replied.

"Bob Dylan," he answered and she looked over at him in surprise. "Good answer," she said, impressed.

He watched her walk over to her entertainment system and begin to look through an impressive stack of CDs that reminded him slightly of Tony's huge movie collection. Tim wondered how the older man could survive without watching his classics every day.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Dylan's voice coming through the speakers. Edith shook her hips and bobbed her head in time with the music of 'It takes a lot to laugh; it takes a train to cry.'

"Did you notice that all of our conversations usually end up at music?" McGee asked as she walked over to him.

"I had noticed," she said as she took his hand and gently pulled him off the bar stool. "But I like to think that music is life."

"I think I saw that on a T-shirt somewhere," he replied and she laughed. "Guilty as charged," she said before she began to dance once more.

"You know this would be the point in the conversation when you ask me if I'd like to dance with you," she said.

"To Dylan?"

"Why not?"

He shrugged "Sure why not, so would you like to dance?" he asked as he offered her his hand and she took it.

Tim had never been that great of a dancer but Edith said nothing about his two left feet. She smiled as he twirled her around before she stepped away from him while keeping a hold of his hand. He spun her back into his arms as the music ended. They stared at each other, bodies pressed together and for a moment neither was sure of what to do. Another song began to play and moved away from each other as if scalded.

"I should go check on the oven," Edith said.

"Yea," he replied dumbly as she walked back to the kitchen. Tim let out a breath he hadn't even known he was holding and sat back down at the bar.


Uh oh, methinks McGee may be developing a crush on someone, and whats all this buisness about McGee's mother and what did Abby find out. Well stay tuned and you'll find out soon enough. Please review.