Author's note: Hello again, everyone! This is me writing! I have a few things to say...
First of all, thank you soooo much to everyone who is reading this story! It means alot to me, and I'm glad to know that you all like it! Believe me, that makes my day.
Secondly, thank you for your patience. I'm stuck working with an erratic, chaotic, unusually crazy schedule right now. I have final Final exams coming up in two weeks, and I have to prepare for those first, then type later.
Third of all, THANK YOU for all of the reviews! 77! WOW! I am in shock! I had no idea that my story would recieve that much attention! And I'm very, VERY grateful for the reviews! I love reading everyone's feedback. It gives me thoughtful insight as to what you guys (and gals) like about my story, and what I can do to improve it. So THANK YOU, everyone, very much for leaving your reviews! You guys are the best!
Fourth, this is a personal thank you/ shout out to my close friend LikeAFirework. Thank you for being my BFFF!
And FINALLY, this is the last chapter before McGee is kidnapped. I decided to upload Chapter 12 at the same time with Chapter 13 so that you guys had an action-filled chapter to look forwards to reading. And without further ado, may I present to you... Chapter 12! I hope you enjoy!
P.S.- there's a special surprise in here! I think that you guys will like it! It has to do with Tim and another fellow friendly *wink* *wink* certain gothic character. I hope you enjoy!
Missing McGee Chapter 12
At the Office
It was 5:10 pm, and McGee still hadn't been able to find a lead on the case. Gibbs was downstairs in Abby's lab, double checking on the results from the evidence, while Tony and Ziva were stuck writing their reports. McGee had finished his report earlier shortly after he had been dropped off by Ducky and Palmer. He had been typing away at his computer since noon, and still nothing out of the ordinary came up or popped up on his computer screen.
When McGee heard the elevator ding, he knew that he was in for more trouble because Gibbs would not be pleased to know that he hadn't found a lead yet. McGee knew that Gibbs would be mad at him but it wasn't his fault! McGee didn't know how he would be able to convince Gibbs that it was not his fault, though. Nonetheless, McGee braced himself for the oncoming storm, expecting the worst as Gibbs walked over to his desk.
"What have you got for me, McGee?" Gibbs asked.
McGee breathed in a deep breath. Now came the moment he was dreading the most.
"Nothing, Boss. I'm sorry, but I can't find anything." McGee told Gibbs with dread in his voice. McGee knew that Gibbs was going to get mad at him again, but this time, he wasn't certain just how upset Gibbs would be. He braced himself for the worst.
"Nothing?" Gibbs roared, raising his volume from a low monotone to a voice that was several decibels louder. McGee winced.
"Here comes the storm," McGee thought.
"What do you mean that you've got nothing? I know that I talked with you about this earlier, McGee, but you still haven't found anything? D*** it, McGee, I need a lead, and I need it now! Why haven't you found anything yet? You've been trying to find a lead for the last week, D*** it! And I thought that you're supposed to be the smart one! What is taking you so long?"
"I know, Boss, and I've been trying, I've been working my hardest, but…"
"No buts, McGee! I asked you to start searching for a lead on Monday, and today is Friday, Friday McGee, do you hear me? Friday, and you haven't found one single d*** clue. Why? What's been taking you so long? Have you been fooling around on the job?"
"If you had found a clue earlier, McGee, then naval cadet Alexandra Williamston wouldn't have died!" Gibbs yelled.
Gibbs sighed, then continued in exasperation, "Go home, McGee! Just go home. I'm tired of yelling at you today and I'm not in the mood to take any more of this crap right now. Just go home."
There was a moment of shocked silence in the room. Tony just stared at his computer, pretending that nothing was happening, while Ziva switched from looking at McGee from looking at Gibbs. She wanted to defend McGee, but she couldn't do so this time. Gibbs would've gotten mad at her and sent her home as well, and what good was she in solving the case if she couldn't work on it, because she had been sent home? No, this time, she wouldn't interfere with Gibbs. She felt bad for abandoning McGee, but she couldn't risk being sent home by Gibbs. She was needed here.
McGee looked around the room, his gaze resting on Ziva's, silently pleading for help. But Ziva turned her face around and stared at her computer screen instead. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see McGee's look of betrayal and hurt.
McGee returned his gaze to Gibbs' glare. Since Ziva wasn't going to be of any help, he had to face Gibbs alone. And he wasn't going down without a fight.
"But… Boss, you don't understand! You, of all people, should know that I have been working hard, and that I have been trying to find a lead! It's not my fault that I can't do everything right, and it's not my fault that I can't please your every wish and command! I'm not perfect, and I know that I've made mistakes before, but I haven't made any mistakes this week! I am trying to help find the murderer, and that's what counts! If you think that I've been slacking off, or fooling around on the job, then you're wrong!"
Gibbs' frown darkened. He looked at McGee with more anger now than he had looked at him earlier. McGee had never told him that he was wrong before.
"What did you just say?" Gibbs whispered so softly that McGee could barely hear him. Gibbs was seething, and that's when McGee snapped.
"I think you heard what I said. I told you that I've been trying. I can only do so much, and I'm sorry if I've failed you, but it's not my fault! I don't know how many times I've tried to tell you that, because it's the truth! It is not my fault. I didn't kill Alexandra with my own bare hands! I hate working on this case as much as you do, and I'm sorry that I haven't been able to find a lead yet, but it's not my fault that she died when she did. And it's not fair for you to yell at me when I've done nothing wrong! I don't want to get angry, Boss, but… you are being a bully! It's like you care about the case more than you care about me!"
McGee was angry now. He couldn't keep his rage bottled up inside any longer, so he decided to finally let it out.
"How can you expect me to be able to find a lead when you give me three reports to write up, several various typing assignments, and ask me to investigate a crime scene at the same time? Why is it that when I got something right this week, you didn't even acknowledge it, but when I made a mistake, you criticized me instead and told me that I was useless and gullible? I've tried, Boss, I've tried so hard to find a lead, but I can only do so much. And it's not fair! I put up with your yelling and your criticism, I listen to you lecture me and destroy my dignity, and you don't give a d*** about how I feel! I've tried, Gibbs! I've worked really hard this week and I've done everything you've asked me to do, but no matter how hard I try it's not enough. So if you want me to leave the office, then fine! I will! But I'll show you Boss, I'll show you in one way or another, that for once I am right, and you are wrong. And I'll make it up to you- I will find a lead, but when I do, your apology will mean nothing to me, if you even do decide to apologize. I will find a lead, Gibbs, and I will make you proud. I'll find a lead if it's the last thing I do!" McGee finished.
Gibbs face showed no trace of any emotion, but on the inside, he was surprised by what he had just heard. Anger soon replaced his initial shock and surprise though. Sure, McGee had been working hard, but that was no excuse as to why he hadn't found a lead yet. And he had no right to yell back at him.
"I'm not the one who's wrong, McGee. You are. I don't care about your excuses! You should have found a lead on Monday, and Alexandra should not have been killed! If you had found a lead on Monday, then she wouldn't have died! You aren't of any help here, anymore McGee! There's nothing that you can do! I won't tell you again! Just go home! Go. Home," Gibbs finished.
McGee turned away from Gibbs and stood up. Silently, he stacked his papers and his files and put them away in his backpack. Then, without any expression whatsoever, he yanked out the hard drive that was waiting in his computer outlet, and without bothering to log off or save any unfinished data, McGee jammed his finger onto the main power button and waited until an audible click was heard from the computer. His computer screen died instantly and turned black.
Never in his entire career of working at NCIS had McGee deliberately turned off his computer by pressing and holding in the power button. Ziva took careful note of this and realized that McGee must have been very angry if he didn't bother to properly shut down his computer, his only instrument of expertise.
Silently, as the rest of the team watched, McGee gathered his belongings and put on his backpack. He didn't even try to clean up the mess on his desk. Then, without a single word, McGee strode out of the room and walked into the stairwell, making sure that the door slammed behind him.
Then there was silence once more where Tony, Ziva and Gibbs stood.
Gibbs broke the silence by saying, "Let's get back to work."
McGee decided that he would head down to Abby's lab before he headed off home, hoping that Abby's friendly and enthusiastic personality would cheer him up a bit. Knowing Abby, she would probably make him smile in more ways than one.
McGee reached Abby's lab and slowly walked in. He was greeted by the sound of heavy rock music playing at a very loud volume. Smiling already, McGee set his stuff down and walked up towards Abby.
"Hey, Abby!" he had to shout.
Abby stood up from the counter where she was bending, noticed Timothy, then went to her sound system and turned down the volume. McGee relaxed a bit when the volume was finally lowered. For some strange reason, he wasn't too fond of loud music.
"Timmy!" Abby squealed, turning around. She then embraced McGee in a hug. "What brings you down here to my humble little lab?" she asked.
"Honestly, I need some encouragement right now," McGee answered, sighing as he did.
"Why? Is everything alright? Mean ol' papa bear Gibbs didn't get mad at you again, did he?" she teasingly asked, smirking at her pet name for Gibbs.
Her smile faded though as she watched McGee sigh and nod his head yes.
"What? He did? Oh, that's terrible! What did he get mad at you for doing this time?" she asked, worried and suspicious that McGee might be in bigger trouble than he was at the start of the day.
"He yelled at me again because I still haven't been able to find a lead yet," McGee said dejectedly. "I tried to explain to him that I've been working hard all week to find a lead, a clue, anything- but he wouldn't listen. He told me that if I had found a lead on Monday, then Alexandra wouldn't have died. But it's not my fault! I've been searching all week for the identity of the murderer, but my computer isn't coming up with anything. This man is virtually invisible! I mean, I know that I've had tougher cases before, but this case is hard! And it doesn't make it any easier for me to find a clue when Gibbs is yelling at me constantly!" McGee exclaimed, and then sighed for what seemed to be the billionth time that day.
"Oh, Timmy… I know that this is not an excuse, but I'm going to say it anyway- this case is hitting everyone hard, not just me or you. It's much harder on Gibbs, because of the age of the cadets. I know that you won't want to do this, but… try cutting Gibbs some slack, okay? He's not a bad guy, Tim, and he's not a bad boss… he's just having some issues right now, to put it sweetly," Abby finished.
McGee half smiled, but a look of hurt quickly replaced his smile.
Abby saw McGee's smile disappear, then she started smiling again because she knew what would make him happy. She beckoned him over to her office side of the lab.
"Come here, Timmy! I know exactly what you need!"
"Oh really? What's that?" McGee asked, curious to know what Abby had in store for him now.
"You need a hug!" She said cheerfully, and smiling, she continued, "But not just any hug…. You need a special hug! One that will make you smile again! I know that I can do that, but I think that someone else can do it much better right now than I can…"
"Who's 'someone else'?" McGee asked cautiously, curious to know who exactly Abby was referring to. He asked somewhat nervously as well, because knowing Abby, she could be referring to anything- a cupcake, one of her voodoo dolls… who knew?
"You need a hug from… Bert!" Abby squealed once again, lifting up her stuffed plush farting hippo and holding him up in front of McGee.
"What? I need a hug from Bert?" McGee asked, backing away from the farting hippo, completely confuzzled. He saw Abby frown in disappointment, hurt that he didn't want to hug her toy, and realized that if he didn't act fast, Abby would begin to cry. Quickly, he walked up towards Abby again, gently removed Bert from her hands, and gave the farting hippo a hug.
There was an awkward silence that followed the hippo's noise, and then Abby started giggling. McGee couldn't help himself. He started giggling as well. Soon, the pair's giggles transformed into full blown out laughter which lasted for a couple of minutes.
When the laughter had died down, McGee set Bert back on Abby's floor then gave Abby a hug. She in turn gave him a good squeeze then backed away to one of the counters.
"Thanks, Abby," McGee spoke to her. "You are a great source of contagious encouragement, laughter, giggles and smiles, did you know that?" he asked.
"Yes, actually I did, but I hadn't heard it from you before up until now," Abby replied. "Do you really think that I'm a source of contagious giggles?" she asked, giving McGee an inquisitive look.
"Yes, yes I do. I know now that you are definitely a source of contagious giggles, based on my own most recent experience," McGee replied.
"Aww… thanks, Timmy! You're such a nice geek. And I'm sorry about what Gibbs said to you earlier. Sometimes you just have to look at people more ways than one. I mean, there are more sides to me than you originally thought there were, right? Right?"
Abby turned around and looked at McGee, trying to find out why he hadn't answered her question yet. He was standing completely still, and seemed to be lost in thought.
"Timmy? Tim? McGee? Can you hear me at all? This is Earth base to Timothy McGee, can you hear me? Can you hear me? McGee? Tim!" Abby nearly yelled McGee's name on her last time.
McGee shook his head suddenly, then looked back at Abby.
"Abby, you're a genius!" He exclaimed. "Thank you so much! You may just have helped me find the key to finding a lead! Thank you! Now I know what I have to do! It's not about looking at people, or in this case- ha! No pun intended- one person, in one way, it's about looking in more ways than one! And I know exactly how to do it! I've been searching for the wrong lead, Abby! I've been focusing on finding the identity of the murderer when really, instead, it's about looking at his motives as to why he's been committing these murders! And his motives can be hypothesized by basing them off of the similarities between his victims! That's it! If I want to find a lead, then I have to compare and contrast the differences between the dead naval cadets. That's all there is to it! Maybe I can prevent another murder from occurring this week! And now I can prove myself to Gibbs! Thank you Abby! Thanks for everything!"
McGee gave Abby another tight hug then grabbed his gear and quickly left her lab.
"Now I wonder what all that was about?" Abby questioned herself silently. "What did I do?"
McGee knew that Gibbs wouldn't be happy to see him return to the squad room, but he honestly didn't care. Gibbs couldn't make him leave. He certainly couldn't force him to leave, especially if he was on the verge of finding a lead.
As McGee was riding in the elevator up to the squad room level, he couldn't help but wonder how he had missed it before- the key to finding the identity of the murderer rested in finding the similarities between the two dead cadets. That meant that McGee had to find out why the man would murder these two particular cadets before he could find the man's identity. Now if only he knew what to say to Gibbs when…
The elevator jerked to a stop and dinged. Taking a deep breath, McGee waited for the elevator doors to open, then boldly walked out and headed back to his desk.
Ziva and Tony were still busy typing their reports when they heard the elevator's ding. Ziva knew that Gibbs was still seated at his desk, so he couldn't possibly be getting off the elevator. When she lifted her head up from her work, she was surprised to see that it was McGee who had gotten off, and was now walking back towards his desk.
"McGee!" Ziva called out towards her friend, alerting Tony and Gibbs of their colleague's presence.
McGee seemingly ignored Ziva's call. Having arrived at his desk, he went straight to work, setting down his stuff, checking to make sure that the computer network cable was plugged in before he turned on his computer and logged in.
Tony looked up from his computer screen and was also surprised to see McGee back at his desk, acting as if nothing had ever happened before he had left. McGee was too busy typing to notice Gibbs stand up from his desk and walk over to where he was sitting.
"I thought I told you to go home," Gibbs growled. Even though he was curious to know why McGee had returned to the office so quickly, McGee was disobeying a direct order- again.
McGee didn't answer Gibbs immediately.
"You did," McGee answered, never taking his eyes off his computer screen.
Gibbs didn't hesitate before he asked his next question.
"So why are you still here? Why did you come back, McGee? Do you know that you are disobeying a direct order?"
"I'm here because I'm trying to find a lead," McGee answered calmly, keeping his cool. "And I'm trying to prove my point. I'm also trying to prevent another murder from happening. And yes, I know that I'm disobeying your direct order, but you can't take me off the case now, and you most certainly won't stop me from trying to find a lead. Now if you would be so kind, it would be very much appreciated if you would step away and go back to your desk and let me finish typing here in peace."
Tony blinked twice and shook his head. Had he really heard what he thought he just heard? McGee was talking back to Gibbs? McGee told Gibbs to leave him alone? Ziva shared Tony's disbelief. What in the world did McGee think he was doing?
Gibbs cocked his eyebrows. McGee was not known for talking back to authority. What had gotten into him?
"What did you just say?" Gibbs asked, a threat hidden in his question.
"You heard me, Boss." McGee started. Tony's jaw dropped. Ziva blinked twice. Gibbs kept his composure, but leaned in closer to closer to where McGee was working away furiously.
"No offense, Boss, but unless you don't want to find a lead, then I'm going to ask you to leave me alone. I'm not trying to be rude; I'm just telling you the truth. I told you that I would find a lead if it was the last thing I did, and that's what I'm working on doing right now."
"Now you listen here, McGee…" Gibbs interrupted, but was cut off by McGee.
"No, you listen to me, Gibbs. First of all, you told me that you wanted me to stand up to you if I thought that you were doing something wrong. And that's exactly what I'm doing now. So listen to me! Just let me explain myself to you, and you two as well, Tony, Ziva. If you hadn't kicked me out like you did earlier today Boss, then I never would have gone to Abby's lab, and if I hadn't gone to Abby's lab, then I wouldn't have understood what I was doing wrong. The answer is really simple, Boss- it's been sitting in front of me all week. I was just too stressed out to notice it earlier. I've been looking at this case from the wrong perspective- I've been trying to find the sole identity of the murderer alone, but the first thing that I should have done was look at his motives behind murdering the two cadets. If I can find his motives, then I can narrow down the search even more. And the sooner I get started here, the sooner I'll have a lead for you. I just need for you to be patient. So if you don't mind, then allow me to finish my work here, and if I can't find a lead by tonight, then you have my full permission to get mad at me again. But not right now. Let me work in peace, please."
Gibbs, Ziva and Tony stared at McGee in shock. He never talked back to Gibbs! Or for that matter, he never really talked back to anyone. He was a gentleman that way. But here he was now, talking back to Gibbs, his boss, politely.
"Then so be it." Gibbs growled. "But you'd better have a good lead, McGee, or so help me I will…" he trailed off, muttering to himself as he stomped back towards his desk.
Tony and Ziva just stared at each other once more with confused glances, then returned to their desks and went back to work.
When everyone had gone back to their own independent work, McGee let out a sigh of relief, glad to know that he would now be able to work alone in peace and concentrate on the task in front of him. He just hoped that he would get it right this time.
Author's note- Again: So how'd you like it? I thought that I would experiment with a bit of McAbby. Did you like it? I tried to get Abby's character down as best I could. Let me know what you think. Oh! And don't forget to read the next chapter!