Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.

Ghosts from the past

Joy went home, but first she made a quick stop at the supermarket to buy some things. She was finishing the Bolognese sauce when she heard a soft knock on her door. She closed the burner beneath the saucepan and wiped her hands on a kitchen cloth. She approached the door and "Who's there?"

"It's me," said McGee.

She opened the door a little, and there he was, standing in black jeans and a black jacket, and his faithful backpack in his hands, "may I come in?"

"Sure," she opens the door wider, and he enters the apartment. "You came just in time for dinner," she leaves him in the foyer and goes back to the kitchen; he closes the door and follows her inside, leaving his backpack on the dinner table.

She stirs the sauce and opens a bag of pasta. She was just waiting for the water to boil so she can finally put the spaghetti in it. He leans against the fridge and just watches her for a moment, with his arms folded in front of him. He had thought a lot about what she said, "did you mean what you said tonight?"

She glances at him, and starts breaking the spaghetti in half, to submerge it in the water, "every single word of it." She gathers the dry pasta in her hand and waits for the water to reach the boiling point so she can start cooking it.

He studies her for a moment longer, and finally unfolds his arms and approaches her, turns off the burner of the spaghetti and stands behind her, with his hands on her shoulders. He leans his head forward and whispers, "I've always hated my name," his forehead touches the back of her head, "my whole life," her hands are frozen over the pan, one holding the wooden spoon, the other a portion of pasta, "I've always," pause and a shaky breath, "hated my name," he squeezes her shoulders, she lets go of the things in her hands and turns in his arms, and they look at each other, and he continues, "at home, at school, at NCIS," he closes his eyes for a moment, as if trying to gather his thoughts, "at home, Dad never really stopped being a commander," he opens his eyes, but his mind is lost in memory, he's not really there, "mom tried valiantly to make a home for me and Sarah, but he was still always ordering us around as if we were one of his officers or aides. Mom tried very hard, but she got tired of him, and divorced him when I left for University." He has tears in his eyes, "she died in the same year I started working at NCIS, a couple of months before actually, and since then it has been only me and Sarah," he shrugs, "I don't really talk to the old man since we moved in with mom. Up until then, I was little Timmy, tiny Timmy, useless Timmy, stupid Timmy…" he looks down at her, with misty eyes, "I hated every single time he pronounced my name," he looks up, and takes a deep breath, "high school wasn't any better, I was humiliated daily, being bullied by anyone or everyone who thought that geeky Timmy was an easy target," he looks down at her, and she is looking at him with sad eyes, "that was the first time I recall I was called McGeek. I believed that, once I graduated, things would be different, that when I started working at NCIS, I just…" he lowers his head and stays silent. She simply throws her arms around his waist, hiding her face in his chest, and he hugs her back. They stay like that for a moment.

Her voice was muffed by his chest, "you believed that things would be different, that after so many taunts and so much mockery, people would start to accept you and respect you for who you are," she steps back and looks up to his face, "not for what they thought you were."

"I was so wrong," he shakes his head at how extremely naïve he had been back then, "in the beginning, it hurt, I never seemed to do the right thing, but later," he looks down at her, and starts playing with her hair, seeing how the curls spring back into form after he stretches it. Pull, stretch, spring back. Pull, stretch, spring back into form, "I noticed that it was who they were, the Boss doesn't really say what he thinks, we have to kind of guess what he wants when he wants things, Tony just… Tony…" She nods, and says "he needs the attention, as he came from a very dysfunctional family and his sole role model of a father is Gibbs, a man who thinks that a headslap is the corrective measure to all and any transgression," they smile at each other, remembering all the times the slap had been given to someone in the team. Joy hasn't received any yet, but she had seen Gibbs doing it to all three of the other agents.

She frames his face with her hands, forcing him to look her in the eye, "I understand and accept his needs, but it is not an excuse to hurt you," she bites her soft lip, and studies his face, "and I will hunt down and make bleed anyone who dares to hurt you, Tim," she says seriously.

He studies her face, "you really would, wouldn't you?" she smiles, but she can't help a single a tear running down her face, "when I was at my lowest point, and you entered my life, you never judged me, or questioned me, you just…" they are studying each other, "you just were there, and there is nothing I'll ever do for you that will return the favour enough for what you did that night."

Her soft fingers start tracing his features, he closes his eyes for a moment and deposits a soft kiss in the palm of her right hand. He opens his eyes, gathers her in his arms, and kisses her.

The kiss gains momentum, as he pulls her body closer to his, and her hands glide through his hair, coming to rest on his neck. His mouth starts to leave a trail of kisses in her neck, "the spaguetti, I need to…" she mutters, but loses her train of thought when he start suckling on a stretch of skin in her neck that makes her weak in her knees, she supports her body on his, "McGee, dinner, I'm hungry," he stops kissing her neck and lifts his head, with a smile in his face, "you may call me Timothy," and kisses her again, "and I'm also hungry." He grabs her by her waist and carries her to the kitchen counter, "and I'm planning to feast tonight," and before she says anything else, he shuts her up with another kiss.

Reviews are food for my soul.

A/N: Uhm... Bossy Timmy is a sexy Timmy.