Neeeext installment. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Three

It was the middle of August 2007 the last time the entire team had been together. The first few weeks of them being separated was governed mainly by secret meetings held by Gibbs in Autopsy. Black lung had been kicked out of their meetings as Gibbs felt he may tell Agent Lee what they were discussing and she was highly likely to spread the word. So, Gibbs, Ducky and Abby would be holed up there discussing tactical plans on how to resurrect Gibbs old team. McGee sometimes popped in for them as well, mainly because he had less work to do in Cyber crimes, it was typically nine to five and he often spent a few hours on an evening or in a morning in Abby's lab.

McGee was the easiest person to get reinstated. Mainly because Gibbs had control over McGee still, them both being on the same continent helped. McGee under Gibbs' strict orders was performing happily well below his standard, he was bordering on average. He kept it at a standard enough to keep his job, but the new Director would get nothing 'special' from him. McGee actually spent most of his time playing solitaire, or Tetris on his high tech computer. He found it highly amusing that those wonderful tax dollars he gave to the government to buy this equipment was being used to try to beat a Tetris world record. Gibbs was actually quite amazed when he realised what McGee did most of the day, and reminded himself to try to keep him separated from DiNozzo in the future and to regularly look over his shoulder when he was busy staring at his computer.

Gibbs' opportunity came to persuade the director to have him return McGee in the middle of September when Agent Keating got some news about his family out in Arizona and took holiday leave. Gibbs had Vance pull McGee as a substitute field agent whilst they were an agent down. McGee immediately pulled his socks up and returned to his normal working speed, glad to be able to work at his desk, at his speed. He spent two weeks here before they got any news of Keating. This just happened to be the best news McGee had ever heard, Keating's sister had given birth to triplets which is why he left, but the news came when he was due to return. He wouldn't be, he had bumped into his old high school girlfriend and they had fallen in love, she was leaving for England next week and he was going with her. Basically, he quit.

Director Vance almost hit the roof when he heard this news, he immediately suspected Gibbs had paid Keating off or something, and spent nearly half an hour screaming at Gibbs who remained perfectly calm throughout this. Although it was quite possible he just didn't have a clue what was happening. When Vance had finished yelling however he had turned to McGee and slammed a piece of paper on his desk. McGee tentatively picked it up wondering if it was him being fired or transferred to some far away corner of America. No, it wasn't it clearly stated he had his old position back, he was officially now a member of Gibbs team again. McGee grinned from ear to ear and looked up at Gibbs who was watching Vance as he stormed back up to his office with a slightly amused expression on his face.

"Boss. I'm officially back on your team!" He waved the paper lightly above his head, grinning, Gibbs looked at him bemused before ordering his thoughts and putting two and two together. He nodded his head and told him he should go and let Abby know, in person. McGee nodded enthusiastically and ran off towards the elevator. He jabbed at the down button and the elevator arrived soon enough. He leapt in and hit 'Lab' or the basement. He arrived in a few minutes and he saw something blurry running towards him as he stepped into the lab. He grabbed the doorframe just in time as Abby lunged at him. She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face in the crook of his neck. When he regained his balance he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her a few inches off the floor so he could walk into her lab. Once inside they let go of each other and Abby grinned before starting to launch into a ramble. McGee cut her off.

"I'm officially back on Gibbs' team, Abs." He held the paper up in front of her face allowing her to read it. She quickly scanned it before once again flinging her arms around his neck. "Keating flew off to England, quit his job."

"Did Gibbs make him do it?" Abby asked innocently, walking towards her computer grinning happily.

"No, at least I don't think so, Vance was yelling at him for it though, apparently Keating bumped into an ex and is going with her."

"Oh? How sweet."

"Abby? You had something to do with it didn't you?"

"How? I thought he left because his sister was having triplets and her husband was away. I didn't even know he had a sister until then, I can't work that quickly!" She grinned.

"So, she got a promotion at work, the one she was after, I'm sure if either you or Gibbs referred her they would have sent her anywhere. England even."

"I'm glad you're back Timmy." She walked up to him and pecked him lightly on the cheek before returning to her work. He stood there innocently smiling at what his friends would do for him.

Timothy McGee slowly headed back up to the bullpen full of a renewed hope that in the next few weeks Gibbs could easily persuade Vance to give back the other two members of their team. McGee thought that once he let Gibbs have McGee back it would only take a few weeks maybe until Tony arrived and a few days after that they should have Ziva back. This thought remained running around his head during each of their meetings in autopsy. It spiralled around whenever he saw Brent Langer sitting in Tony's chair, or whenever he caught sight of Michelle Lee typing away serenely at her computer. A week later and the thought was still churning around in his mind, another week and it was still there, another week, another and another. It was five weeks after McGee had been reinstated and they were still no closer to being able to even say DiNozzo or David out loud without being scowled upon, screamed at or avoided like the plague.

It was the beginning of the second week in November when any of them heard anything from Tony. Sometime son the Sunday night Vance had received a message informing him that Agent DiNozzo had come down ill and the medics believed it best he get off the ship. Vance had quietly informed them he was most likely faking and should be given some morphine or similar and confined to his quarters for a few days. The medics had highly disagreed saying he had begun to cough up droplets of blood, and this was highly unusual for a cold. The medics quickly packed him off on an air rescue helicopter and he was zoomed off back onto dry land. He was transferred to Bethesda much to Director Vance's annoyance.

That Monday as soon as Gibbs had entered the building Vance swooped down on him like a vulture, he marched Gibbs up to his office and began a new shouting match, this time Gibbs had absolutely no idea what Vance was talking about, there was no playing dumb like last time. The second Vance said DiNozzo Bethesda Gibbs flew out of the room, leaving Vance's doors swinging on their hinges and his temper steadily increasing. Gibbs marched out past McGee grabbing him by the arm and yanking him up he stormed with him into the back elevator and quickly pressed the button for Abby's lab, he carefully let go of McGee's arm. He smiled apologetically at him as they arrived at Abby's lab Gibbs didn't get out.

"Abby, Elevator now!" He yelled, Abby instantly appeared at the door, her white lab coat flapping around behind her. She stood in the elevator as if she did this all the time and allowed Gibbs to press the button for Autopsy. He did the same thing at Autopsy, shouting for Ducky when the elevator doors opened. Ducky proceeded in the same way as Abby did. McGee growing slightly more confused, he gently reached out and grasped Abby's hand, who squeezed his back, grasping it tightly. The next stop for the elevator was actually the car park, Gibbs strode out followed swiftly by Ducky, then Abby who was dragging McGee behind her. All four climbed into the car as Gibbs unlocked it, Ducky riding shotgun, Abby and McGee riding in the back, Gibbs driving. Gibbs speeding.

The four of them arrived slightly worse for wear ten minutes later outside of Bethesda. McGee looked even more perplexed, Abby worried and Ducky saddened. Gibbs led the way in, marching directly for the front desk. He held up his badge, and indicated who he and his fellows were before asking to see a one Anthony DiNozzo. Abby gasped, and McGee stuttered slightly, Gibbs having only just said the name of the person they were heading out to see. McGee felt Abby's grip on his hand tighten dramatically. He pried his hand away and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, she clutched onto his chest, her face buried in his chest. The nurse looked at the four of them oddly before giving them a room number and floor.

Gibbs swept off towards the elevator, Ducky following suit, McGee and Abby walking behind swiftly. When they reached Tony's floor they quickly headed around the corner and headed down the left into a quiet corridor. Gibbs found the door in minutes he didn't even bother to knock but walked straight in and scanned the room. Tony was propped up in the bed, looking slightly paler than normal but otherwise he seemed to be quite healthy. He raised an eyebrow at Gibbs, a slight smirk crossed his face before he returned his attention to the television he had been watching. He stared at it for a few seconds, changed channel and then he spoke up.

"Took you long enough, I've been here hours. Thought you'd have already been to see me, Boss. I'm hurt." He said in mock. His cough was hoarse and croaky. He coughed a bit which was closely followed by a sneeze. He scoffed slightly, "I get a cold and I get sent to Bethesda. Sucks." He sneezed again and then had to endure Abby pouncing on him screaming that she was glad he isn't dying. McGee was laid flat out on the floor having tried and failed to restrain Abby from leaping on Tony, which she was trying to do since she entered the room.

"Tony, are you sure you're ok? I mean they wouldn't ship you out if you weren't really sick." She queried poking and prodding at him. He laughed a bit before explaining what had happened.

"It was quite funny really, the medics over there knew I had the pneumonic plague and so when I went to see them saying I had a cold and wanted something for it they started doing all these tests. I sneezed during their little experiments and bit the side of my mouth. Next time I coughed a load of blood came up. The panicked a bit and before I could explain it I was half way back to D.C. So I sat back and let them panic a bit more." He reeled off, happy to be back on land.

The team laughed all obviously greatly relieved he was perfectly fine and back in D.C. They spent the next half an hour telling each other the main things that had happened, Tony wanted to know everything about Gibbs' new team and Abby was only happy to oblige, with every detail down to a scar Langer has on his fingertip from picking up a knife the wrong way around. Gibbs, Ducky and McGee left after a while leaving Tony and Abby to finish talking, mainly because Abby refused to leave.

When they got back to NCIS, while McGee headed to his desk Gibbs walked straight past the bullpen and up the stairs to the Directors office. He walked straight in allowing the door to bang against the wall, increasing the indentation that was growing in size since Vance had been promoted to Director.

"You will have to pay to have that wall fixed you know Gibbs?"

"You didn't tell me that DiNozzo was sick. He could have died. All because you thought it a good idea to send him off into the middle of the freaking sea when he's had the pneumonic plague. Are you out of your mind, or are you trying to kill off all the decent NCIS agents?"

"I was trying to allow him time to heal away from here, he blames himself-"

"That's bull and you know it. I don't know why you split up my team but damned if I'm letting you send DiNozzo back to that god-damned boat. I want him back on my team." Gibbs and Vance glared at each other.

"So be it. Although you may need a new desk, I believe all of yours are full."

"I'll find him a spot." Gibbs merely said before walking more calmly out, shutting the door behind himself with a lot more control than how he entered.

When Gibbs got down into the bullpen he gave only two instructions, one to Michelle Lee, he gave this one first. He gave the second to Agent Langer, who apart from not being DiNozzo was a damn good agent.

"Lee, move that desk there. Langer I want you in Lee's desk." He quickly said before walking out to go and visit Abby or possibly Ducky. Langer and Lee just stared at each other before quietly packing up their things and swapping desks. Neither knowing why Gibbs wanted Langer's desk emptied. McGee smiled happily to himself as he watched his two team members moving around.