Tony knew that Tim had only walked out into the darker part of the yard for the space to think because he knew, the baby monitor on the porch would alert him if Christopher needed him, no matter if he stayed in the light or not. Breathing out a sigh of frustration for what his friend and teammate was trying to sort through without letting it sweep him under, Tony stood still for a moment to do some thinking of his own.

Hearing the rustle of movement behind him, the Senior Field Agent turned to find Gibbs and Mrs. McGee standing in the shadows of the porch, both obviously having heard everything Tim had just said. The Team Leader was the first to break the silence. He was relieved since he knew it would take more experience than what he had under his belt to help Tim through this.

"Thanks, DiNozzo. We'll talk to him." Gibbs broke the silence as he and Tim's mother approached him under the light of the hanging porch lamp shades.

"You heard?" Tony needed confirmation that he could pass this baton without any conversation being necessary.

A silent nod from both the older people was all the answer Tony needed to confirm his suspicions. "Okay. I'll just go sit with my godson." Tony replied quickly as he took up the baby monitor and headed back inside before he embarrassed himself with sentimental expressions of regret for something that really wasn't the right thing to say here and now.

"Thank you, Tony." Mrs. McGee offered quietly before the young man disappeared completely back inside. "For everything."

Stopping long enough to acknowledge her words with a nod of his head and a small smile of both sympathy and appreciation, Tony then headed back inside, trusting the two grown-ups to look after his probie.

***NCIS****

Gibbs removed what had been a guiding hand in the dark as they'd come from his yard to Tim's from Mrs. McGee's back and sat down on the porch swing, giving her the space she needed to make the first move in going after her son and talking to him about this guilt he had been so ruthlessly handed by his father. With a small smile of her own, directed at the man who'd been determined to help both her and her son through this minefield, she descended the porch steps in her son's wake.

Through the shadows that barely touched the outskirts of the yard, she was barely able to make out the form of her little boy, now a man with a son of his own, who right now, needed his mother, more than any other person in the world. "Tim." She spoke quietly, using the form of his name that he appreciated the most.

Turning to face his mother, as her voice reached him before her footsteps crunching down on the dry grass had, Tim almost reached for her, but held himself back. He wanted; needed her to tell him he was still, at this moment, her little boy who would always find love and security in his mother's loving arms. But that didn't mean he expected it. What he was expecting was, just as he'd told Tony, that she wouldn't be able to look at him without feeling the pain and loneliness that putting his right to live his own life before the demands of his narrow-minded father, had brought to her. Her words to him now, brought tears to his eyes, but didn't give him the okay to cross off the guilt completely

"You're wrong." Her quiet words chipped away at the wall of guilt that had been raised up around his heart. As her small hands reached out to caress his temple while she smoothed his hair back, Tim felt tears come to his eyes and hope so securely fill his heart that he felt the wall of guilt tremble under the weight of it. Still, he held himself still, undeserving of this positive show of emotion.

"Oh, Honey. None of this has ever been your fault." His mother's tearful reassurance tugged strongly at his heart.

Her forgiveness seemed to crest over the wall in a wave, but the guilt stubbornly refused to break completely. Too much time had been spent over the years with his parents in verbal turmoil over him and the weight of his father's conviction that Tim had yet to become someone worth anything and wasn't fit to be a father himself, alongside their pending divorce that had been angrily deemed to be his fault, far outweighed this pardon his mother was handing him.

Almost desperate to take the raw emotions her son was becoming buried under, away from him, Meg McGee pulled her son into an embrace she hoped would literally douse him with comfort and reassurance that would undo what her husband had so cruelly thrown at him. "Don't listen to your father, Sweetie. He was just angry. People say things they don't mean when they're angry."

Tim wanted to accept his mother's hug, her reassurances and her unconditional forgiveness. But, he couldn't. He hadn't earned any of it because his father had been right and he knew it. Not knowing what else to do, he hugged her back for a brief moment before pulling away enough to look her straight in the eye and reminding her of something she'd forgotten in her quest to make him feel better; she'd forgotten the truth.

"Most people. Not Dad." He told her in a voice that shook as it barely reached her. "We both know he meant it, just like we both know he's right."

"NO! He's NOT right!" Meg McGee bit out angrily now that she knew her son actually believed the garbage her husband had spewed out in the course of their argument; the argument she wished with all of her heart her son had not overheard.

"Sash. Mom. It's okay. Really. It was the wake-up call I needed. It straightened me out about a few things. Now I know not to ever bother trying to talk to him again." Tim tried to soothe her distress.

"Oh, Tim."

"And maybe someday…"

"What, Honey?"

"Maybe someday, you'll be able to not have to face the consequences of standing behind me instead of him." Stepping back from her enough to let her know he couldn't accept any more physical support from her, he turned to look out over the yard once more, effectively ending the conversation in the way he'd learned from Gibbs over the years.

It broke her heart to see and hear what upheaval her husband had brought about in her son's heart as she watched her boy turn away from her now. Once he'd pulled away and turned to look away from her, she'd understood the conversation was over. Never one to push her children beyond what they were willing to discuss from their own private persons, Meg McGee sighed and began to walk back to the porch, only to find Tim at her elbow, silently and protectively watching out for her as she walked.

Without breaking that silence, she turned to him as they reached the steps, kissed him on the cheek and spoke at his ear. "I have never blamed you and I never will. You're my son and I love you. Maybe someday you'll let yourself stop feeling responsible for your father's selfish narrow-minded meanness." With tears in her eyes, she stepped away from him and went on inside the house, quietly sliding the porch doors closed behind herself as she did.

Left alone with his thoughts, Tim let himself plop down on the step, unaware that he wasn't alone.