Chapter 4
He packed his clothes and some of his personal belongings; he wouldn't have space for the rest in his hotel room anyway. At work he basically locks himself in his office and works more hours a week than he sleeps. His secretary expresses her concern more than once but after a few days she simply gives up. Tim isn't stupid and after three weeks he knows that he is on the edge of a breakdown. His chair makes a small shrieking noise as he leans back and he closes his eyes to rethink the situation.

His door flies open and he is about to give the intruder an earful as he notices that it is the SECNAV. Tim stands up so fast that he almost falls over. "Welcome sir!" he said as he tried to stand up as fast as he could, almost toppling over and falling face first on his desk. "We need you right away in DC Agent McGee, Marines are getting your belongings from the hotel-room as we speak. I will debrief you in my personal plane."

Tim ran to keep up with the older man who was already walking towards a parked car. In his hasty retreat he had grabbed some things he thought he might need from his desk. When he finally sat in the car SECNAV was on the phone and Tim caught some words like, security breach, terrorist attack, funeral, and hospital.

It wasn't until the plane was setting off that the phone was finally turned off and McGee was about to find out what was happening.

"Director Vance has been 'killed'; he has been shot while driving home. For the time being he is barely alive. Agent DiNozzo is currently investigating it but we think that it was a terrorist attack. If we pretend that Leon really died we have an advance, the natural course of action is to install you as acting director of the agency."

Tim blinks his eyes and wonders if this is really happening. But the serious face opposite of him says enough.

"You will be briefed completely as soon as you arrive at your new office; I have arranged a place for you to stay. In the meantime, read up on some of this stuff." he says while handing Tim a big stack of files. "This is what Vance has been doing for the past weeks; you will take over all of his duties, so good luck."

Tim sighs as he grabs the first file of the stack. It's a good thing that he has at least something to do while flying to the other side of his country again.

It turns out that Tony was waiting for him at the airport and he was happy to see that it was him, not some weird guard. He knew about Tim's divorce but he didn't waste any time about it. He quickly brought Tim up to speed about his investigation and as it turned out, he didn't have much yet. McGee looked aside and was surprised to see grey strikes in his friend's hair.

"Comes with the job." Tony says. "Gibbs has been senior agent for many years, see how grey he is."

"How is he, by the way?" McGee asks "I have been trying to call him on his home phone and cell; I even tried sending an e-mail but no responses so far."

"E-mail?" Tony chuckles. "Last thing I have heard the man took one of his sailboats and is somewhere on this planet. I expect him to check in with me some day though, the man always had a pretty good gut feeling and he cares more about Vance that he is willing to admit."

Being with Tony, falling in their familiar banter makes him feel better than he has in a long time. They arrive at the navy yard and Tim feels weird, going to level four instead of three and the fact that the big desk is now his scares him more than he is willing to admit. He sits in the chair behind the desk for seven minutes and thirty three seconds before he realizes that he needs to do something. He reasoned with himself for several seconds before realizing that he should gather all the people to do some sort of a speech.

He sends a quick message to all personal that he expects them all in the conference room in an hour. He takes the stairs down to autopsy to say hello to Ducky but much to his surprise he finds Palmer conducting the autopsy.

"Didn't you hear?" Jimmy asks, surprised. "I finished med-school and they hired me as the new medical examiner, Dr. Mallard only comes in to consult on cases, he didn't want a goodbye party, in fact, he left rather quietly."

Tim is quiet for a minute before stepping towards Jimmy. "Well, I guess that my congratulations are in order in that case Dr. Palmer." They shake hands and suddenly Tim realizes that he has been gone for five years and that makes all the difference in the world. "I'll see you in an hour in the conference room." McGee says before he walks away, wondering what other changes he will find.

He takes the stairs to the next level and walks in to Abby's lab. The music is softer and there is a strange man standing at the evidence table. "Hello" he says and the man jumps up, he looks very young and Tim suspects that he can't be older than twenty five. "Miss Sciuto is away for the moment sir." the man stutters. "Can I leave a message for you?" McGee shakes his head and walks over to the elevator, only to bump in to Abby herself. The blond hair is gone and replaced by some deep brown color, but she still has the same sparkly green eyes and he wraps her in a hug.

"Tim!" she exclaims, "You are our new director?" She seems happy to see him without her usually hyperactive energy and that is a good thing. "Yes" he says "temporarily." he adds for good measure because he isn't sure if he is ready for that to become permanent just yet. "I just came from you lab and there is a man." he says and is utterly surprised as Abby chuckles. "Yeah, that is Chuck. He is my assistant, I know that I never wanted one, but I am closer to fifty than to forty now and I can't pull all-nighters anymore. So now I have this shiny assistant, he is really fun to work with and he kicks ass at science." Tim wonders for a few minutes about this new revelation before he notices that she is walking towards her lab. "See you in the conference room!" she yells as she walks through the door.

As McGee walks through the building he wonders what happened to the place that was once so familiar to him. People had gotten older, older people had been replaced by young people and he wondered if he himself was one of the older people now. Forty wasn't really that old, forty-one wasn't that old but it wasn't an age that everyone in his branch reached. He wandered the halls and couldn't help but feel a little lost.

As suspected most of the people were in the conference room an hour later. A prepared speech would have been nice, but with everything else going on it had slipped his mind. His first act as a director was going to be looking really bad in front of the entire agency. He stepped in front of the crowd and watched as everyone fell silent and looked at him full of hope.

"I left this place a few years ago." he started hesitantly. "Trained by the best, I went away but I didn't have any idea that I would make it to deputy director within five years. Standing here today I realize that I don't have to do it alone. There is n brilliant group of people here to back me up and the more I see you people the more I realize that it is something I can do."

He took a deep breath and scanned the crowd. So far no one was laughing at him, that was a good sign.

"I know that things have changed after the recent events but the agency's best team is on the case and I am fairly confident that they will figure it out. As for other things, I know we are on temporarily lock down but please continue with your duties as much as possible, if nothing else, do some paperwork!"

A laugh went through the crowd and some people did some fake mocking and Tim felt instantly better.

"I recognize a lot of faces, but there are even more I don't know. If I come by in the next day or so, it is not to check up on you, I just make it a point to get to know all my personnel. I want to thank everyone for showing up and I hope that we can continue to keep up or high standards."

Tim's eyes scanned the leaving crowd and for a second he could have sworn that he saw a man with silver hair standing in the back. Walking back to his office he straightens his back to look bigger and he tried to have a certain air of leadership with him. Tony gave him thumbs up from Gibbs' old desk and he smiled back at him.

After he closed the door of his office he rested his head against the door frame, desperately trying to figure out what he was trying to do next while trying to keep calm at the same time.

"Not bad director." he heard in a very familiar voice and he jumped up. "Boss!" he said as he jumped to attention. Then they both chuckled. "Gibbs." he corrected himself. "Bullied your way in?" he asked as he took a closer look at the man standing in the corner of his office. The silver hair was unchanged but his skin looked tanner and Gibbs looked happier that Tim has even seen him. When it became clear that that Gibbs wasn't going to answer him he continued. "You look good." Tim said, still trying to start a conversation. Gibbs chuckled and also ignored that comment. "I always knew that you would be director one day." he said. "But not in five years, you continue to surprise me Tim." said director walked over to his desk and sat down. "As good as it is catching up to you, what are you doing here? As far as I know you are retired and you know that I can't give you any intel on what is going on."

Tim showed some of his backbone and gave Gibbs as good as he got, showing that now he was director he wouldn't let Gibbs walk over him, as he did years ago. Gibbs grinned and walks over to the desk. "atta boy." he says as he sits down opposite of Tim. "I heard the news of the shooting and I came to offer my experience. Vance is a damn good director and I think that I should acknowledge that." Tim leans back in his chair, silently enjoying the power he has over his former boss. "Tony is the lead-agent on the case; you can't just barge in and take over. If I assign you as consultant Tony will still be the lead agent and you do everything he says." Tim's eyes lit up as he realized what he just said. "Well, everything within reason." he says and Gibbs smiles again.

"As long as Tony agrees I take that deal." Gibbs says and they wait until Tony comes walking in after Tim gave him a call. Tony wasn't the least bit surprised to see Gibbs and Tim expected that 'contact' in the agency was Tony, but for now that was good enough.

Tony happily accepted Gibbs offer and together they went out to get some coffee.

Tim crashes Tony's guestroom instead of the hotel that is already booked for him and the next few days he buries himself in his work. On the third day they get a break trough in Vance's case and Tim smiles as they put the attacker away. It didn't have anything to do with his position as NCIS director, instead it was someone from Vance's boxing days that held a grudge. Tony and Gibbs go to the hospital to tell Gibbs while Tim briefs SECNAV in MTAC. He gets a compliment for running the agency well and then he is cut off.

In his office he finds the one person he is been trying to avoid. "Abby" he says as he walks in "Can I help you with something.?" She tenses and he braces himself because he knows what is coming, he can feel it buzzing in the air and so does she.

"I made a mistake breaking up with you ten years ago, but I have changed, I tried to grow up and act my own age. I want us to date again. "

She was going for blunt, he could do that too.

"You should have thought about that when you said we didn't have a future, when you didn't back off when I asked you to. I got over you once, but I honestly don't think I can do it again." He locked the door for good measure.

"Then don't get over me! You don't have to, we could marry and stay together forever, about a few kids or maybe a dog or something. We can be happy together."

Tim sighed as he closed his eyes. "I barely got over you last time and I don't want to do it again."

"You already said that." she snarked. "It is not as if I asked you to marry me! I just want to go on a date." He knows he is a lost cause as soon as he sees her eyes. He will never be able to resist them. They set a date and he regretted it the moment she walked out of his office.

He drove to Tony's place that night and wasn't surprised to see Gibbs sitting on the couch and drinking beer.

"You have a date with Abby." Tony stated the moment he sat down. Denying was no option so he prepared himself for an intervention. "She really changed after you lift." Gibbs said, tipping his bottle back. "She hardly dates anymore and has really grown up." Tony chips in.

"She used to come by every week." Gibbs says. "She always wondered why she had been so blind and driven you away."

Tim accepts the beer Tony offers him and watches the two men he trusts with his life.

"She really has changed Tim. Every guy she dated was more and more like you and in the end she gave up dating all together, she had been celibate for three years now." Tony whispers. "If you and her don't work out I bet she is going to live with the nuns."

McGee finishes his bear and quickly makes his way too his bedroom, things are confusing enough as it is and he doesn't need more on top of that.

The days fly bye and before he realizes it, Friday has come around. He 'borrows' some of Tony's clothes and he prepares himself quickly for his date before picking Abby up. Surprisingly the evening goes pretty much flawless they talk and discuss several science things and more than once McGee wonders what happened to Abby, but the answer is no surprise, he happened to her.

By the end of the evening he is head over heels in love with this new woman and his heart jumps up in joy as he kisses her goodbye at the door. She doesn't invite him in and he doesn't want to, because this is a new them, it is going to be special.

Tim gets called in to a meeting with the SecNav on his Saturday off, he doesn't want to go but he also knows that he doesn't have a choice. He gets informed that Vance has decided to retire from the agency and if Tim is willing to become the new director. He agrees without realizing and suddenly he is the new director of NCIS, effective immediately. Stunned he phones Tony who is pretty happy to hear the news and after that he drives around aimlessly around the city for a few hours.

Suddenly things had never seemed cleared and he know what he wants and what he needs to do.

-

"Abigail Jennifer Mary Sciuto, we may have been stupid and screwed up a lot of things in the past, but will you please marry me, because I will love you for the rest of your life and more."

It was a little bit of a risk, just showing up on her doorstep, and the old Abby never would have married him, but this was a new Abby and he didn't want to live anymore without her. He held his breath as she considers the proposal.

"I would love to."

Tony appears out of nowhere and congratulates them both. They get pushed inside and Tim finds out that there is a surprise party for his promotion and now apparently also his engagement.

-

Do you, Abigail Jennifer Mary Sciuto take Timothy as your husband?

"I do."

Epilogue.
"I didn't think this day would ever come." Tim snuffles as he accepts the tiny bundle. They had both know that Abby wasn't as young as she used to be and if they wanted kids it had to be done fast, but now, half a year after their wedding his was holding a boy, his son, their son and he couldn't be happier about it.

"He is perfect." McGee whispered as he kissed his wife for the umpteenth time.

Being married to Abby wasn't the easiest thing in the world; they fought, got mad and threw things at each other, but at the end of the day none of them would sleep alone and there was no hesitation if someone asked them about the choice they made, because it was the right one.

Being the agency's director meant a lot of traveling and horrible hours, but all the hours of loneliness couldn't beat the nights that he slept with his wife in his arms. After eleven long years he was finally home.

~The end!~