A big thank you to all who have reviewed or added this story to their alerts. Now, on with the show.

Title: Slow Burn

Story: NCIS crossover with a book (to be revealed in future chapters); AU for both

Rating: T/Gen

Summary: McGee's heritage catches up with him, and DiNozzo is caught in the crossfire.

Set in: mid season 6

Disclaimer: Don't own, just playing, yadda yadda

Chapter 2

"T-tony? W-what are you doing here?"

"I think I should be asking you that same question…"

*earlier that evening*

"What's up with you, McGoo?" Tony DiNozzo grinned at the look of annoyance that crossed the other agent's face. McGee had been checking his watch for the last half-hour, his nervousness broadcasting to all within direct view of him.

"Nothing, Tony. Don't you have a report to finish?"

"Already done. Work smarter, not harder, Probie. It takes, skills, practice, and finesse."

"Is that what you call it?" snarked Gibbs as he made his way through the bullpen.

Tony automatically stood and held out the file, but Gibbs waved him away. "Did you check it for typos?" Not even waiting for an answer, he headed up the stairs.

"Wow," exclaimed Tony after Gibbs had vanished from sight.

"Meetings with the director do tend to have that affect on Gibbs," noted Ziva.

"Wonder what it is this time?" Tony glanced over at McGee. "Any ideas, McSneaky?"

"No." McGee hit a key and turned to the printer to retrieve his document before placing the papers in a folder and setting the folder on Gibbs' desk. Without a word he gathered up his belongings and headed for the elevator. Tony moved to block his path.

"Why the rush, McGee? Hot date tonight?"

"No, Tony, I just want to get home before the weather gets too nasty. There's supposed to be a bad storm coming in."

"I thought it was not supposed to start until after midnight?" said Ziva, a brief expression of puzzlement crossing her face. "You have plenty of time."

Tony saw a flash of something that looked like guilt cross McGee's features. "Yeah, but I have some…errands to run on the way."

"'Errands'? Do these 'errands' have a name?" Tony's grin broadened as the younger agent became even more flustered.

"Give it a rest, Tony. Goodnight, Ziva." McGee dodged DiNozzo and entered the elevator before turning to glare at the Senior Agent as the doors closed.

Tony turned to Ziva but she cut him off with an impatient gesture.

"Do not even ask me, Tony. He has not told me anything."

Dinozzo pondered for a moment and grinned. "I bet I know who he did tell," he said as he turned and made his way to another level of the building with a spring in his step. It was always good to have more fuel for tormenting the Probie.

DiNozzo walked into Abby's lab, Caf-Pow! in hand.

"Hey Abbs," he yelled over the music.

She turned to him and grinned. "Tony! What brings to my humble abode?" she asked as she lowered the volume to a bearable level.

"Abode? You don't live here, Abbs…or do you?"

She smirked and reached for the drink in his hand. "Tonight, at least. I have way too much to do and I don't feel like fighting traffic in the morning. They're predicting—"

"Yeah, a storm, I know."

"So, what can I do for you?" She glanced and the quart-sized plastic cup he had yet to relinquish. "Should I beware of Greeks bearing gifts?"

"I'm Italian," he deadpanned.

Abby giggled. "Yeah, I know." She managed to grab the drink and took a few slurps.

Tony watched her enjoy the drink before voicing the reason for his visit. "I was wondering…what's up with McGeek?"

"Tim? Nothing that I know of. Why?"

"No romance, hot dates, anything like that?"

She chuckled. "If he has, he didn't tell me. Why do you think that?"

"He's been acting really weird lately." He paused. "You don't think he writing about us again, do you?"

"I doubt it." She turned back to her computer and typed a few commands before return her attention to him. "Anything else?"

"So…you really don't know where he went?"

"If he's left the Navy Yard, then I can't help you. Sorry."

Tony took a moment to parse what she had said. "But if he's still here, you'd know? How?"

She gave him a wicked grin and turned back to her computer before typing a few commands. A map appeared on the screen. Tony peered at it for a few moments before he recognized it.

"That's the Yard." He saw several small glowing dots, two of which, one black and one dark red were practically on top of each other and pointed to them. "What are those?" He looked closer and realized that the dots were where he was currently standing.

"Us." She pointed to a dark blue dot in the director's office. "That's Gibbs. Huh. I bet he's going to be in a bad mood later. He never likes meeting with the director," she said, indicating a brown dot. She then pointed to a purple dot in the bullpen area. "That's Ziva." Finally she pointed to two dots in autopsy, one dark and one light green. "And that's Ducky and Jimmy. Looks like McGee has left the building," she said as she pointed to a light blue dot near the main gate.

Tony stared at the map with a sinking feeling. This was not good at all.

"Abby, what the hell is this?" he asked, working hard to keep the alarm he felt out of his voice.

"We call it The Marauder's Map. You know, like the one in the Harry Potter books?"

"No, I don't. What is it?"

"It's a tracking program; a way to know where everyone is while they're at work. It tracks you by your cell phone GPS chip, though, not by magic." She winked at him.

"Why…why would you write a program like this?"

"I didn't. This was Tim's idea. He said he knew how upset I was after Vance split up the team, that I was always wondering where everyone was, so when you all came back, he said this would give me peace of mind. It only works when you guys are on base, but it's better than nothing."

"Abby, this is...a massive invasion of privacy." Even he could see that what this program could potentially do was a cause for concern.

She snorted. "Says the guy poking into his teammate's love life. Don't worry, Tony, no one else knows about it, and it only works on base. One you leave the Yard, your privacy is secure. See?" She pointed to the light blue dot, which disappeared as it crossed the security gate.

"What about after you leave the Yard?"

"Then you'd have to do it the old-fashioned way, with a manual GPS tracker. Like this." She pulled up the program and typed in McGee's number. The tracker indicated he was traveling west away from the gate, but then it suddenly switched off.

"Huh. I guess he really doesn't want you to know where he went."

"How do we track him now?"

"We don't. C'mon, Tony, it's McGee. He wouldn't do anything to make you worry."

"So there's no way to know?"

"Well…he drives a fancy car, so he probably has some sort of anti-theft tracking system installed."

"Then-."

"No, Tony. I'm not helping you track Tim on a date, if that's where he's going. Now shoo. I've got a lot of work to do." She turned and walked over to the mass spectrometer, effectively dismissing him.

"Thanks, Abbs."

Dinozzo left the lab and went upstairs to get his coat before exiting the building and walking to his car. He wanted to believe that he was wrong, that McGee's behavior was just innocent jitters, but his gut was telling him that there was much more too it than normal evasiveness and desire for privacy. After he reached his car and got in, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Hey Dave, it's Tony DiNozzo. Yeah, I know, it's been awhile. Listen, I need a favor…"

*three hours later*

Hidden from view, DiNozzo watched the exchange between McGee and Kort with cold fury.

Of all the people you had to work with, why did it have to be that bastard?

Kort was self-serving, manipulative, and disloyal; everything DiNozzo had believed that McGee wasn't, but the younger agent seemed perfectly at ease in Kort's company. Tony didn't think anything else would surprise him at this point, but after Kort left, it became obvious to him that McGee was waiting for another meeting. What sort of exchange would take place then, he couldn't even begin to guess. He has seriously misjudged the man, and what was worse, McGee had done what he had promised not to do after the events of that past summer: he had gone behind their backs to work on something else. Far worse, he had essentially betrayed Gibbs by working with a man DiNozzo knew Gibbs did not trust. Anger overwhelmed Tony when he thought what this would do to the man that had been more of a father to him than his own, and as he silently followed McGee back to the parking lot, he was barely able to keep it in check. When McGee was distracted by unlocking his car, Tony approached him.

"Going somewhere, Probie?"

McGee spun around and stared at DiNozzo, a look of panic crossing his face as he struggled to speak.

"T-tony? W-what are you doing here?"

DiNozzo raised his gun and aimed it at McGee's chest. He had to know what was going on, and this seemed the most expedient way to find out.

"I think I should be asking you that same question."

The fear in the younger agent's voice was even more pronounced, as expected, but it was what McGee said next that surprised DiNozzo:

"Tony! Put that away? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

A/N: So, what do you think? Still interesting? Reviews are always appreciated.