Disclaimer: I have a purple-polka dotted cow that can fly and I live in cotton candy clouds. Nope! Just kidding! I don't own a purple cow that can fly, and I most certainly do not own any of the characters or anything that has to do with NCIS!

Author's note: Hi, I just wanted to apologize for all of the confusion yesterday. I accidently republished the first chapter, so here's the REAL second chapter and I want to apologize once again for everything yesterday. Thank you for your patience. Hopefully nothing will go wrong with publishing this time around!

Chapter 2

Practical Jokes aren't Funny

McGee groaned inwardly when he saw the humongous pile of work that was on his desk waiting for him. How had he possibly received those many work assignments in one evening? They would take forever to complete!

"Great, just great," McGee mumbled to himself as he sat down at his desk, removing packet after packet after worksheet after reports off to the side of his desk. He would never be able to finish these reports by tomorrow.

"Well, at least tomorrow's a Saturday," he thought. "If I can finish these by the end of the day, and then start looking for leads, then I might be able to finish by Saturday afternoon. But Gibbs will be expecting me to work on the case, and the case always comes first, but at the same time, I have to finish all of these assignments by tomorrow! How can one agent possibly receive three new assignments in one day? How does Gibbs expect me to be able to finish typing up all of these reports and worksheets and work on the case at the same time? How come Tony and Ziva don't have nearly as much work as I do? Maybe I should go talk to Gibbs. Oh, but wait. I should probably log onto my computer first."

As McGee pulled out his chair from his office desk, he thought that there was definitely something suspicious about the way his computer keyboard was propped up next to his computer. Upon closer examination, he noticed that nothing seemed to be too out of the ordinary, so after he set down his backpack with his work supplies on the floor, he began to type.

Then came the unexpected surprise. As McGee tried to log into his computer, an ominous gray "Error" warning window appeared on McGee's screen and told McGee that the network was unable to recognize his password and that he would have to try again. McGee figured it was just a slight computer glitch, but at the same time, he couldn't help but suspect that this had to do something with Tony. McGee could hear Tony's smirk from a mile away, even though it was impossible to hear smiles. After McGee tried to log on again, the same "Error" window appeared again, leaving McGee to realize that something was definitely up with his computer. It had never given him any trouble before, so why wasn't it letting him log in? After a third and final try, the computer locked McGee out from being able to log in again. McGee was speechless. He had never, never once in his entire career of working at NCIS been locked out of his computer up until now. He could do nothing but stare in shock at his computer screen for a moment. From behind him, McGee could hear Tony cracking up with laughter, no longer trying to hide it from McGee anymore.

"Having some computer problems there, McGeek?" he asked McGee, mockingly.

"Yes, as the matter in fact, Tony, I am," McGee tried to hide his irritation. If he could just relax some more and realize that Tony was only trying to play a practical joke on him, then surely his irritation would disappear. Besides, Tony was only trying to lighten up the mood in the NCIS Headquarters. But still, McGee was beginning to get a little annoyed at Tony for delaying him from working on the case of the murdered naval cadet. If only Tony would realize that he was going a little too far this time, and that McGee was trying really hard to make Gibbs proud by finding a lead, and that he really needed to log on so that he could get started on his ten reports and find a lead, then McGee would drop his irrational irritation. But he still considered that if he expressed these thoughts to Tony by yelling at him, then it would only make the day go worse. Sigh. So McGee decided that he would face today's challenges without getting upset, and that he would find things to be optimistic about instead.

"Okay, Tony, I know that you did something to my computer, and ha ha, the joke's on me, but right now, I really need to get to work. So would you please mind fixing my computer and return it back to normal, please?" McGee asked Tony.

"Sorry, no can do," replied Tony, who was now standing a foot away from where McGee was sitting at his desk, stress and worry etched into his face.

"You're officially locked out of the computer, and I can't log you back on. You'll need to get Gibbs to do that." Tony chuckled. "And I thought that you were the computer specialist, McGullible!"

McGee's face cringed upon hearing those last words spoken from Tony's mouth. His entire day had just gotten worse. Not only was Gibbs mad at him for being late, but now Gibbs was going to be furious when he learned that McGee couldn't log onto his computer and was slowing down the rest of the team.

"Again, as usual," McGee thought.

"B-u-u-u-t," Tony added with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, "I can plug the network cable wire back into your computer for you. You'll still have to go face Gibbs though and ask for him to grant you access necessary in order for you to log in again," Tony concluded, with pure amusement etched upon his face.

This time, McGee groaned out loud. This really wasn't what he needed right now. How on earth could his day get any worse? He didn't want to think about it. Instead, McGee resentfully thanked Tony for plugging the computer wire in again, and then chided himself for being so gullible as to fall into the trap that was set up for him, one that he could have easily avoided. How could he have been so stupid to not realize that the network cable had been unplugged? Stupid, stupid, stupid! And now, as a result of his stupidity, McGee had to face Gibbs' anger once again, but this time would be even worse than the last time.

"Let's just get this over with," thought McGee. What a day so far.

Author's Note: Once again, thank you for your paitence! I will try to upload a third chapter tonight! Enjoy the story!