Before he could even get up and follow his troubled agent, Gibbs' cell phone rang and he answered it quickly so it wouldn't wake Christopher, despite not wanting to start up the habit of keeping all noise from him when he slept. "Yeah, Gibbs."

"Leroy, it's Tim's mom. Have you seen him? He was supposed to bring the baby to me for the weekend. His car's there but they're not. He's not taking my calls either."

"They're here."

"Did something happen?"

"You could say that. He overheard you and the Commander fighting." The Team Leader didn't pull any punches.

"Oh, no!" Mrs. McGee was clearly devastated at the thought of her son having been caused any pain.

"Give him some time, Meg." Gibbs calmly urged her in hopes of keeping her from acting on her emotions before she'd had time to calm down.

"He's upset." She was quick to catch on to what he was saying without words, since she'd begun to get to know him over the past month and understood his way of speaking without many words.

"Yeah." Gibbs' response was quiet, still sympathetic to his agent's reasons for being upset.

"He must have heard his father say…"

"That everything was his fault? Yeah, he heard that." The Team Leader agreed. "My guess is he heard a lot more than that."

"Oh, no! Oh, Leroy, he must be so devastated! Charles is always so ruthless when he's angry. But, this time; oh, the things he said this time…!" Tim's mother cried sadly, as her broken heart came through loud and clear in her tone.

"If you talk to me, I might be able to help him work through it." Gibbs suggested in a way that spoke more of asking permission than demanding she do so.

"Tim always speaks so well of you and I can see he thinks the world of you. Maybe it would be best if you did know. Why don't you bring Christopher to me and give Tim the break I wanted to give him for the weekend and we can talk about it then?"

"I think Tim needs to be around his son right now." The Team Leader advised calmly.

"Alright." She replied quietly. "You're more than welcome to come over here so we can talk."

"How 'bout I buy you a cup of coffee instead?" Gibbs offered calmly, knowing it would be less troubling to Tim if the boss weren't seen going in and out of his parents' house while things were on such tremulous grounds in the family.

"That would be lovely."

"C'mon over. We can sit on the front porch. If you don't mind the chill in the air." Gibbs suggested, wanting them both to be available to Tim if he decided he was ready to talk, or in the case of his mother, ask questions. He was also concerned that the young man not have reason to possibly think the boss and his mother were talking behind his back or at the very least, keeping him out of the loop on something very personal.

Flipping his phone shut, he slipped it into his shirt pocket and headed inside to check on the young McGee men who'd come to him for either solace or help. What exactly Tim had been looking for, wasn't clear, but it was good that the young man had been able to get the gist of his problem off his chest since it put things on the right course to be sorted out. Noting with a smile that the baby was still sleeping peacefully, the older man continued on further into the house, heading to the kitchen.

In the doorway to the kitchen, Gibbs stopped short as his eyes came to rest on Tim, currently standing in front of the sink, staring out the window, a cup cradled in the palm of one hand while the other hand remained wrapped around the handle. As the older man watched for a minute now, Tim continued staring out at the side yard without any sign of being aware of anything around him. Needing to get the coffee started but not wanting to startle the young man, Gibbs cleared his throat before going straight to the coffee maker and starting to take care of brewing another pot, opening the conversation as he did. "You alright?"

Blinking, Tim came back to the present and glanced at the older man. "Yeah, Boss. I'll be fine. Thanks. Thank you for letting me just show up here like this, too." Turning away from the window, he glanced at his watch and frowned. "I'd better wake him up now or he won't sleep tonight."

"I'll be out on the front porch talking with your mother." Gibbs told him outright with his unspoken invitation to come and talk, clearly included even as he held on tight to the urge to head slap his agent for even thinking for a moment that he needed to thank Gibbs for being able to come to him the way he had.

"Thanks, Boss. I'm sure she needs to talk to someone who isn't responsible for her pain and suffering." Tim replied quietly as he walked out, heading to the living room to wake up his son.

Frowning, Gibbs found and set up a small dinner tray with the coffee pot on a warmer and two cups and headed out to the front porch to sit and talk with Tim's mom. Maybe she could figure out how to help get Tim past this guilt and back to the joy of being a parent himself.

Tim breathed out a ragged sigh and forced himself to put everything he was feeling back behind the steel door of his mental ability to ignore it and move on with life. He had a baby to take care of, a mother who was now suffering through the breakup of her marriage because of him and a job to do with a team of people that depended on his skills on the computer when the weekend was over. He couldn't afford to wallow in this or let it get him down, no matter how responsible he was. Bending over, he scooped Christopher up and spoke soothingly to him as he gently woke him up and got ready to change him and bundle him back up to take him home.

Mentally thanking Gibbs for the foresight of having a plentiful supply of baby changing supplies close by the crib, he set about changing the little one, focusing all his attention on talking to the baby while he cleaned him up and put a clean diaper on him. Fastening his snow suit back up on him, Tim then picked him back up, wrapped him back up in the blanket he'd been in earlier and hoisted him up against his shoulder. "C'mon, let's go see Gramma McGee and Granpa Gibbs." Tim cooed to him, watching Christopher's smile at the mention of the names he was fast becoming accustomed to hearing.

Tim knew his mother and Gibbs wanted to talk and he didn't want to intrude on that but neither did he want to outstay his welcome here; feeling more than ready to go home to his own place now that he'd gotten the freshly dealt guilt out in the open with the help of the one person he now felt most comfortable letting his private self be open with. He was grateful that in the four weeks his parents had been settled here, next to him and across the street from Gibbs, his mother and his boss had bonded over their roles as Christopher's grandparents, both biological and honorary, alike.

Even so, there was a part of him that knew it was time to leave Gibbs alone because the man had his own history of pain and suffering with losses within his own family and it wasn't right to burden him with this. After all, it wasn't as if someone in Tim's family had died. Keeping that comparison in mind, helped Tim keep things into perspective as he began wading through this mental minefield now, one step at a time.

Briefly, his thoughts turned to talking to Tony. The older man had become a great big brother once he'd toned down his pranks and jibes to less than cruel within the last two years and he had stepped up phenomenally as Christopher's Godfather. But he wasn't someone Tim felt comfortable talking to about this; especially given that he had his own personal traumas regarding family, judging from what little the older man had spoken of them. Ziva, too, had her own family pains were such that she never discussed it so she was also someone he didn't want to burden by talking to her. Ducky's own mother was in the midst of a horrible battle with Alzheimer's and the elder man most definitely did not need to be drawn into anyone's family drama as such that this was. In short, Tim knew he'd have to carry this one alone, that he'd done all the sharing of his problem that he was going to.

Walking out to the front porch, he was surprised to find his mother trying to hide her tears from Gibbs as they sat talking. With her face turned away, her hand wiped at her eyes, breaking his heart anew at the sight. As his own sight became blurred, he cleared his throat and walked up to her, causing her to rise to her feet and reach for the baby immediately. Tim shook his head as he wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her to his free shoulder, whispering into her ear as he did. "I'm so sorry. I hope you can forgive me some day."

As he pulled back from his mother, he kissed her on the cheek as she lavished Christopher with attention and kisses. With a soft smile, Tim secured the baby in his arms as he turned away, glancing at Gibbs with abject gratitude and a softly spoken, "Thanks, Boss" before striding slowly down the porch to the steps before walking down to the street and heading back home without another word.