Since I forgot to mention it in the first chapter you should know that this takes place in season 5 sometime after 'Requiem' but before 'Judgment Day'.
The smiling face of an age progressed twenty-five year old Michelle Nead greeted Tony when he opened up her file. She looked her mother. Tony closed his eyes as he fought the rising nausea. When he opened his eyes he saw McGee typing away on his computer, probably fiddling with one of the many searches he was currently running, Ziva was busying arguing with someone over the phone in a language Tony didn't immediately recognize and Gibbs was missing. Without a word to either of his teammates he quickly got up and practically ran to the bathroom, just barely making it before he lost his lunch, breakfast and then some. After splashing some cold water on his face and getting his hands to stop shaking he reappeared at his desk no more worse for wear than he was before he had left. He was too busy trying to avoid looking at Michelle's file that he didn't see the worried looks McGee was throwing in his direction.
Tony may have thought that he managed to escape and return unnoticed but McGee noticed. He noticed how Tony's body stilled after coming across the picture of a twenty-five year old Michelle Nead and then noticed how he all but bolted from his desk soon afterwards. McGee saw how slightly pale the senior field agent looked when he silently returned and wondered if he had done the right thing. A newly aged photo of Michelle was badly needed since the version up on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was hugely lacking, unfortunately it seemed that they didn't have access to the latest morphing technology. He thought that Tony would appreciate the gesture but judging from his visceral reaction he doubted that Tony would appreciate what he had done.
--
"What are you doing?" asked Abby as she looked over his shoulder.
"Trying to figure out the correct parameters needed to age this girl ten years," he replied not looking up from the book on his desk.
"Hey, I know that girl, is that—"
"Yes," McGee said cutting her off.
"Does Tony know?"
"No."
Nothing was said for nearly five minutes and McGee turned around to see if Abby was still there. He found her staring at him intently with a look that McGee couldn't quite decipher.
"Abby?"
"What do you need help with, McGee?"
--
The file lay untouched in the top drawer; he didn't want to think about it right now. Thinking about it would mean he'd have to think how a decade later he still couldn't keep his promise to the Neads. Tony had never liked failure; it had been drummed into him as a small child by demanding parents that failure was just not an acceptable outcome. No matter where he worked Tony worked hard to close his cases because never closing them would be akin to failure and for the most part he closed them or put in enough hours chasing down leads and left meticulous notes that even after he left a particular department he would often get calls telling him that thanks to the notes he left or that obscure lead he insisted that he just had to check out they managed to close that particular case. He took pride in the fact that the majority of the cases he worked ended up closed and he also took pride in the fact that he had managed to keep his promises to those rare individuals he met during a case. Well, he had managed to keep them until now.
--
"Mrs. Nead, I know this is a difficult time for you and your husband but could you please walk me through the last time you saw Michelle."
"Of course," the statuesque blonde woman said. "It was last night, around seven last night; she was annoyed that I was fussing last minute over her dress."
"Why were you fussing over the dress?"
"She had brought that dress herself, saved up all the money she made babysitting or helping out the neighbors, she refused to show us the dress until the night of the dance. She thought that we wouldn't approve of her choice," Mrs. Nead said.
"Did you approve of her choice?"
"While it certainly wasn't my style nor is it my husband's but we did approve of her choice, it was appropriate for a young woman her age."
"What happened next?"
"We took some pictures, she told us that we were embarrassing her and then her date for the dance arrived."
"What's his name?"
"Zachery Durhan, he's one year old than Michelle."
"How well you do and Mr. Nead know Zachery?"
"Well, they've been dating for almost six months, we've met his parents, and Zachery's father works with Richard, we all approved of the relationship if that's what you're asking."
"What time was the dance supposed to be over?"
"Eleven thirty, she called us right before they left to tell us that a bunch of them were going to stop at a local all night diner before coming home."
"Thank you, Mrs. Nead, you've been very helpful."
"Please, bring her home."
"We will."
--
The day had been excruciatingly slow and with no new cases they were stuck doing paperwork. As annoying as that was it was probably for the best since it was Tony's first day back to work in three weeks. No one discusses why Tony had been absent from work the past three weeks and Tony himself never brought up the Michelle Nead case or even opened his drawer once he had placed the file there. Since they had steadily worked through the paperwork backlog Gibbs had dismissed them early telling them to leave once they wrapped up whatever they were working on. Returning to the squad room McGee was surprised to find a coffee cup sitting on his desk as he got closer he recognized the logo on the cup, it was the coffee shop that Tony really liked. He smiled; maybe Tony appreciated it after all. Sitting down at his computer he logged onto the website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and his smile got a little bit bigger as he saw that the original age progressed photo had been replaced with the version that he and Abby had worked on.
--
"Ta-da!" exclaimed Abby as she showed the new picture on her screen with a flourish. "So, what do you think?" she asked eager to know if the fifth time was a charm.
McGee looked at her screen and smiled. "Abby, I think we've got it."