The silence was getting ridiculous now. She was getting ridiculous.

She chased down murderers on a daily basis and a six year old – if he was even that – was freaking her out.

Usually when it came to cases that involved kids Gibbs was the one to deal with them – the man was a freaking child whisperer when he put his mind to it - or Abby would somehow get herself involved outside of the lab.

But not this time.

This time they were at a bustling crime scene and everyone else was apparently occupied.

Gibbs had walked up to her just as she had finished fetching the bags from the car and left her. He had patted the little boy on the back, introduced her as Agent McGee, smiled that all knowing smirk of his at her and left to do - she assumed – what he would have told her to do.

They stood and stared at each other while the world bustled about them and then she rapidly glanced around in what she hoped was panic disguised as general interest in the goings on of the crime scene.

Nope. No one was around to call upon or to beg for help.

Ziva was off questioning witnesses and Tony had been sent off almost as soon as they arrived to chew-out some poor local cop who had accidentally contaminated the scene.

She – Timothy McGee – was on her own for now and it didn't look like that would be changing in the near future.

She forced herself to look back at the boy.

Just who was this kid anyway? Maybe a more appropriate question was whose kid was this? She found herself hoping that the eerily silent child wasn't related to the victim.

Her phone began to vibrate against her hip.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

She fumbled for her phone under the watchful gaze of – Damn it Gibbs, she didn't even know his name.

Seeing Gibbs' name on the caller ID she relaxed with relief. This would be her boss calling to tell her she had better pass the kid onto one of the hovering LEOs and get her ass into the building to sketch the crime scene or catch a cat or something. Anything.

"McGee," she answered, almost before she had flipped the phone open.

"They don't bite, McGee," came Gibbs' voice, without even so much as a hello – not that she actually expected it, but it would be nice…one day.

She looked at the boy from the corner of her eye. He stood watching her.

"You can never be too sure boss, I'm behind with my shots,"

Tim turned from the boy as she slapped a hand over her mouth and scrunched her eyes closed.

Had she just sassed Gibbs?

There was silence.

She had. She had just sassed Gibbs. Tim felt the back of her head itchy. The man was giving her a 'Gibbs Slap' through the phone.

"I'll talk to him boss," she rushed out.

"The victim was the babysitter, McGee," was the last thing she heard before the line went silent for good.

McGee sighed, closed her phone, slipped it back into her pocket and turned back to the still quiet child. He couldn't have seen much surely as he was reacting very well to the whole thing. But then kids had a habit of handling crime scenes a lot better than adults who tended to go to pieces.

It wasn't that she had never dealt with children before. She helped out with local youth groups – when she had the time – and she had a younger sister for Pete's sake. It was just that she still wasn't used to encountering them during her work. She didn't know how to deal with a child that had seen something she came across on a regular basis no matter how well they handled it.

Well, thanks to Gibbs it looked like she was going to have to learn pretty fast.

She looked around for some inspiration for just what to do.

They were in a nice part of town – apartments above boutiques and flower boxes – containing some stubborn all weather plants that had stuck out the freeze - outside ground floor windows kind of nice. She scanned the shops. A grocers, nail salon, hair dressers…BINGO.

She smiled and crouched down to the boy's height to look him in the eyes. They were a little bit red but whither that was from a previous bought of crying or just the nippy weather she didn't know.

"You already know I am Agent McGee, but I don't know your name yet,"

The boy studied her, obviously gauging whither or not she was worthy of this information.

"I'm Timothy,"

Apparently she was.

A little hand was thrust towards her and she took it in her own to shake. Despite the thick jacket that someone (Gibbs no doubt) had had the presence of mind to dress him in before sending him out, his little hand was freezing in her own. Tim forced herself to let go of the icy digits.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr Timothy," that got her a tentative smile.

"Now, would you like to join me for some hot chocolate," she pointed towards the little café she had spotted tucked between a deli and a jewellers.

The boy looked unsure and she gave an exaggerated shiver – surprisingly difficult to do without falling over. The poor thing's nose was turning red.

She leaned in close to the boy, channelling all the inner five year old she could muster.

"You see, Timothy, I really don't like being cold. And you would be doing me a big favour if you came with me. I hate drinking hot chocolate by myself," she smiled as reassuringly as she could.

Finally with a small smile he nodded and reached out to take her hand once she was standing.

She gave it a quick squeeze and hand in hand they crossed the road to the café.

"You know," she began as they reached the opposite pavement, "My name is Timothy too,"

The boy looked at her with wide eyes.

"But that's a boy's name,"

She released his hand to hold the door open and he walked under her arm and into the coffee scented warmth of 'Julie's'.

"I promise you, that is my name,"

She released the door and stepped in after him.

"I can show you my badge if you don't believe me,"

A still pale but excited face looked up at her as the door thudded shut behind her.

She could do this!

I just got this idea of poor McGee being thrown in at the deep end with something that in most episodes Gibbs deals with and just ran with it.

I really hope you enjoyed this.

Take care :)

x