Days Go On Forever
Special Agent Simon Delaney took a moment to let his ears get accustomed to the wave of sound that still took him by surprise every time he went into Abby's lab.
He checked out the number on Abby's Post-It note, when it read 182 he would be heading back to San Diego. Director Vance had promised he could go back to his family when his six months was up, even if McGee wasn't coming back. But something was different today, posted below the number 155 was a new note bearing the number 3.
"Hey Abby, what's with the new number? Oh, wait, that's how many days Agent McGee has been undercover."
She glanced up from her work, she was never going to be close to Delaney, but she tried to be friendly, after all it wasn't his fault that Tim left…it was theirs, his so called friends, they drove him away. Now he was further away than ever, out of reach…
"Tim… I can't even email him…Eric says he's okay and I shouldn't worry, but I…"
"You do worry, of course you do, he's your friend…and you miss him…"
Abby's eyes misted over a little, and Simon moved a little closer.
"I don't want to step out of line here, but you look like you could use a hug."
Abby nodded slowly, help out her arms and enveloped Simon in a ferocious embrace, and all her fears escaped in a flood of tears.
"S...sorry about this, but Tim, he's never done anything like this before...I mean, I know he can do it; and he has a great team behind him, but he...he's all alone, and last time he was alone..."
"From what I've hear about Tim, he'll do a fine job; he's a tough cookie Abby, look how he came back after his accident, not everyone could have done that."
He gave her one last gentle squeeze and released his grip.
"You going to be okay? Should I get Gibbs or Ducky?"
"No! No, you're all busy, I'm fine now, thanks Simon; you're a good man."
Simon headed for the elevator, and with a watery smile at Tim's picture Abby got back to work.
Delaney sat down at Tim's desk, he still didn't think of it as his desk, and he was pretty sure the others felt the same way; they were still hoping that McGee would come back, and soon. He got down to checking phone records and started a search on Petty Officer Rayner's financials. As he waited for the programme to run Simon glanced at the two remaining members of Team Gibbs. They had welcomed him, and there was no doubt he was learning a lot just watching them work, but there was also no doubt that they were still missing McGee. They were also still coming to terms with the part they all played in his decision to go. Delaney was never going to get to know these people really well, and getting close to Gibbs would take much more time than he had. But he had noticed, when they were working on their reports they sometimes looked wistfully in his direction; and he knew they weren't looking at him. They were looking at the space where Tim McGee used to sit, and if he caught their eye, they were always quick to look away and look busy…
But they weren't fooling anyone, certainly not the man sitting at that desk, who had been called McGee or Tim on numerous occasions since he had joined them.
He'd been to dinner with Ziva and Tony a few times, and the talk always turned eventually to 'Probie'; Tony in particular seemed to need to talk about McGee. About the superglue, the stakeouts, Elf Lord, the other seemingly endless nicknames; but occasionally he would get serious, talk about Somalia…and Delaney would get a glimpse of Tony's real feelings.
"I never meant for him to go…if I could unsend that stupid email…I should have thought it through…tried to imagine what he felt like after that woman betrayed him…I should have been a friend…"
"As should I Tony, you told me what you were doing; I could have put a stop to it. It would have been the kind thing to do, but I did not…and here we are. Delaney, forgive me, I do not wish to make you feel…unwelcome, we were a team for some years, adjusting to new people…"
"It's hard I know; look people, I'm out of here as soon as my six months is up, so I'm not expecting us to become best buddies…and from what I've heard about him, McGee is a hard act to follow."
Tony took a sip of his beer.
"You got that right, but you're doing a great job, and so long as you haven't changed any of the settings on his computer, Tim will appreciate you keeping the geek end of things working smoothly."
Delaney gave a short laugh.
"Thanks for the glowing recommendation…Seriously though, do you think he will come back? I was talking with one of the guys in the San Diego office the other day…ex Navy Seal, served with Sam Hannah. He told me Sam says it was their lucky day when Tim agreed to join OSP, says he's fitted in like he's been with the team since day one…"
Delanley's voice tailed off as he realised that he might just have won the tactless remark of the month award.
"Oh, sorry guys…I didn't mean to…"
"Not a problem…"
But if course, it was a problem. Delaney had reminded them that Tim was making a success of his new life, and now he was under cover.
Tony and Ziva had been amazed to hear that their erstwhile team mate was working under cover, but Gibbs hadn't been surprised by the news. He of all of them knew how well Tim was doing with OSP, not only did he get regular calls from Callen, but he also knew from personal experience that whatever Tim set his mind to, he would work at it until he had it mastered.
Simon couldn't help smiling as he remembered the expression on Tony's face when Gibbs had told them all that Tim was on an undercover op. To say he had been surprised would have been the understatement of the year.
"It must be geek stuff; no way they're letting him loose on anything dangerous!"
The head slap echoed round the squad room, and Gibbs treated Tony to one of his most fierce stares.
"You still don't get it, do you Tony? McGee has changed, but you won't see it."
Gently rubbing the back of his head Tony looked directly at Gibbs.
"I get it Boss…I do…guess I don't want him to enjoy undercover too much, if he does we may never get him back..."
"Morning Travis!"
"Morning Emma, how did your date go last night?"
The receptionist mimed sticking her fingers down her throat and gagging, Tim chuckled.
"That good, huh?"
She handed him the signing-in log.
"If I tell you the highlight of my evening was straightening my hair, that should give you some idea."
"Ouch! That's a bad one...you calling time on the online dating now?"
Emma shrugged as she pressed the button to release the door into the lab area.
"Unless a certain Product Development Engineer would like to ask me out..."
He shook his head.
"Never say never Emma, but I'm taking a time-out from the dating scene..."
"Well, you know where I am if you have a change of mind."
As the door closed behind him Emma sighed to herself. Travis had caused quite a bit of interest among the women at Ferroman, some of the men too, but he pretty much kept to himself. She perked up a little when she remembered that he had agreed to join the team on their paint ball experience on Saturday. Perhaps she could get him to loosen up a little when he was away from work.
Tim stared into the lens of the retinal detector and waited for the doors to slide open. Even now, after two weeks of working here, he kept expecting the doors to remain closed, for the system to refuse him admittance to the inner sanctum of Ferroman Enterprises, the research lab. But, as they had done every morning, the doors opened and he stepped into one of the most amazing places he had ever seen. It was like something from the set of a science fiction movie…Tony would probably have been able to give him an example…more than one. Banks of computer screens surrounded on all sides by prototype bionic limbs, artificial muscles, lightweight, but incredibly strong body armour; it was like a high tech chop shop.
"Hey Travis, I sent the results of the overnight testing to your computer, it's looking good, but I still think we need to get a better balance on those force plates. The more accurate the readings we have from that data, the better our chances of getting the McKibben muscles working to optimum capability."
"Thanks Scott, I'll get to it right after I set up this morning's test programme."
He headed out of the lab toward the physical endurance testing room, this was where the volunteers, many of them veterans who had lost limbs in Iraq or Afghanistan. All willing to take part in a battery of physical tests to help Ferroman's scientists in their attempts to perfect a workable exoskeleton, to greatly improve the quality of prosthetic limbs, along with which would come a vast improvement on the day to day lives of these brave men and women.
The day passed quickly and Tim sometimes found himself forgetting that he was here for NCIS, that someone who worked alongside him could be attempting to sabotage any one of the incredibly important projects being undertaken here. Every person he had met so far seemed dedicated to the work, but that was the appearance he was giving to others…shows how easy it can be to live a lie.
No, it wasn't his working days that were the problem; it was the time when he was away from here, on his own in Travis' apartment, that was when time dragged. That was when he wanted to call Verity, tell her how much he missed her, to talk to Sarah, Mom and Dad; check on the state of his apartment...and his car. To join in the OSP team in another game of softball, or even share another evening of karaoke…no, maybe he didn't miss karaoke, but he did miss being with people who knew him as Tim.
But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, so he kept on working, kept on watching, and went home every evening to an empty apartment.
He had enjoyed the paintball, and for the first time since he'd become Travis he had felt comfortable inter-acting socially with his new colleagues. He started to accept their invitations for a pre-commute drink, and even dinner with two of the lab techs who were also keen gamers. So far, he'd still managed to avoid being asked out by Emma, but he had a feeling it was only a matter of time.
Tim strolled into the coffee shop and ordered a regular black coffee.
"Can I interest you in one of our breakfast scones? They're on special today."
"Sounds good, I'll take a reduced fat cranberry please."
The barista lowered her voice.
"You're looking chipper today, things getting better?"
Tim looked into Kensi's dark brown eyes and smiled.
"Yeah, much better, and tell Eric I may have something for him soon; nothing definite, but I think I've spotted something...hinky."
She nodded briefly and handed him his coffee and scone, he passed a bill over the counter.
"Keep the change, and thanks."
"You have a good day."
Tim gave her another smile and headed out to his car. He knew the coffee would be too hot to drink right away, so he opened the paper napkin around his scone and checked inside. Sure enough there was a mini thumb drive folded inside the napkin, Tim slipped it onto the case that held his sunglasses and put it on the passenger seat. He'd get to that at 'home' tonight, Eric had promised him more detail on Ferroman's financial records, and the data would be on the drive.
Tim pulled away from the parking lot, back into the rush-hour traffic; as he drove toward Ferroman he thought of Kensi, stuck with having to do a spell as barista at a busy coffee shop. His daily visits to the shop had been set up as a way of exchanging communications. Folded inside the $10 bill he'd given Kensi were the names of two employees who had been acting...off; nothing he could really pin down, but Callen had told him that the slightest thing could be important, so he'd left the names with Kensi.
As he carefully negotiated the traffic Tim smiled at the recollection of his own brief undercover experience as a waiter. He'd been dismissive of his own role, but now he was deeper undercover he could see the value of the 'bit part' players in any clandestine operation.
Without Kensi the OSP team would find it difficult to remain in contact with Tim, at least, without arousing suspicion. Ferroman had electro-magnetic shielding rendering any tracking or listening devices useless. They couldn't be sure that whoever was behind this wasn't capable of tracking his personal electronic communication, so Hetty had set up the 'old-fashioned' method of data exchange, and so far it was working perfectly.
Tim would have to remember, when this was all over, to ask Kensi how she felt about standing behind the counter of a coffee shop for two hour shifts every morning. But he was pretty sure he knew what her answer would be, the op required her to play barista, so that was what she would do, for as long as Tim needed her to be there.
He barely paused as the retinal detector scanned his eye…almost a month into his assignment he didn't doubt for a second that he would have access to any room in the facility; and tonight he was going to be working late…alone. Tim had already laid down the ground work. He'd buried a bug in one of the programs that would disrupt the data-stream at around 9pm, Abbott; the tech who was running today's overnight testing wouldn't be able to deal with the problem, so he'd contact the on-call duty manager, and tonight that just happened to be Travis McGann.
Tim knew he was getting close…he knew for certain that someone was skewing test results; it had to be someone with ninja programming skills, but that didn't exactly narrow the field here. It also had to be someone with top level clearance, and a knowledge of the biomedical side of the process that few people had. So few that Tim had been able to hand Kensi a list of three names this morning, there had to be something in their background…one of them was doing this; but Tim couldn't understand why…surely not just for money…
So, when he came to answer Abbott's call tonight Tim would send him home, get into the mainframe and work through the night until he had a name…
It was 03.30 when Tim cracked the last level of encryption, he watched, totally engrossed and immersed in the code as line after line scrolled up the screen…and then he saw it…he leaned closer, hardly believing what he was seeing; this can't be true…he was so taken aback by this staggering discovery that he didn't hear the footsteps behind him. He barely registered the pain that seemed to split his skull open…and didn't feel his head hit the desk as his body folded and the darkness closed in around him.