A/N: Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews and the continued interest in this story.

Thursday – Dec 14th

The next morning found Tim feeling almost completely rested if not a little stiff and sore from Gibbs' couch. He'd spent the first few moments of wakefulness feeling disorientated and baffled when he realized that someone had covered him with a blanket. Somehow, it wasn't something he pictured Gibbs doing for him. Shaking his head, he almost had to laugh at the irony of wondering about the blanket when the fact that he had even spent the night under the boss' roof was in itself such a rare occasion, he was having trouble fighting the urge to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Man, he was hungry, though.

"McGee, get in here and eat some breakfast." Gibbs calmly called from the doorway before he turned and headed back to the kitchen, fully expecting the younger man to do what he'd just asked of him

Tim got to his feet and took himself into the kitchen without wasting any time as the man's ability to know what he'd been thinking even first thing in the morning threw him off kilter for a minute. As he took a seat at the table, the boss had more to say.

"You crashed before you could get a decent meal last night, so, you're not skimping on breakfast." Gibbs instructed as he handed the young man a glass of o.j. and turned back to the stove to finish dishing up breakfast.

"Thanks, Boss." Tim replied quietly .

Through the silent breakfast and the equally quiet ride into work, both men seemed to have come to an unspoken yet understood impasse. It was clearly evident that Tim was not ready to talk. It was also clearly obvious that Gibbs was genuinely concerned about him, although Tim had a strong suspicion that it was only so that the boss wouldn't be a man down on the team. But, no matter, at least he appeared more human that Tim had credited him with. That wasn't to say the man didn't care about them; only that he only opened up and let see that caring when things were really bad or in the case of the rest of the team; when they needed it.

As they put in their appearance in the squad room, it was to find Tony and Ziva already at work, literally. Their computer stations were already up and running and both of them were already talking shop. As he picked up on what they were talking about, Tim joined in with what he knew and things quickly seemed to get back to normal for the team. Gibbs sat back and reveled in the normalcy that seemed to have returned almost as if nothing had happened to the contrary.

Needless to say, the morning hours passed by much quicker that way and when a lead was discovered, Gibbs was happy to send Tim and Ziva out after it. As he and Tony worked through what they already knew about the case, they found there wasn't much they could do until Tim and Ziva got back. Gibbs called for a break.

Abby and Jimmy came through the squad room on their way out to the airport. Both of them were taking the week off to spend time with their family. While Abby would be back on Christmas Eve, Jimmy wouldn't be back until the day after Christmas. Ducky had asked Jimmy to drive Abby to the airport since their flights were only 30 minutes apart from each other. Goodbyes were said all the way around as the four of them left the building together and split to go their own way.

While taking a much needed coffee run, Tony and Gibbs found themselves with nothing more to say. Tony needed to broach the subject that had kept him awake last night, needing to know what he could of what was going on with his Probie. He hoped Gibbs would have some answers that would help ease his worry.

"Boss."

"Mm?"

"Did you get Probie to open up?"

"Where you goin' with this, DiNozzo?"

"Boss, somethin's going on with him."

"McGee's fine."

"C'mon, Boss, you know he's not fine." Tony argued.

"He is right now, Stick with the here and now, DiNozzo. Don't screw with it."

"Meaning he wouldn't talk to you." Tony reasoned out.

"Meaning, DiNozzo, that you need to stop tryin' to fix what isn't broke."

Tony stopped and stared at his boss. Did he really believe that nothing was wrong with McGee, just because the kid was acting like everything was okay this morning?

"Let's go, DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked.

Tony silently caught up to Gibbs but angrily held his tongue. He hated it when Gibbs acted like everything was right as rain with one of them when it was obvious things were not okay.

"Never said whatever's bothering him isn't there anymore, DiNozzo. Just don't want you tryin' to force your way in if he's not ready to open the door to you." Gibbs said from seemingly out of the blue.

"Okay. I hear ya, Boss." Tony gave in now that he realized Gibbs wasn't acting blind at all.

As they entered the security entrance to the building, they were shocked to see Sarah McGee waiting for them.

"Sarah" Gibbs greeted quietly.

"Agent Gibbs, I hope you don't mind, but I really need to talk to you!"

"Isn't this something you can talk to your brother about?" Tony asked in surprise.

Sarah looked at him for a minute as they got into the elevator together and it started taking them up to the squad room. Somehow, he would always be "Tommy" to her. The fact that her brother had based one of the characters in his book after this Agent still tickled Sarah's funny-bone when she thought about. It unnerved her to have to answer his question now.

Flipping the switch and engaging his 'office' Gibbs waited for her to answer Tony's question. He knew the answer judging by the phone call from Mrs. McGee just yesterday. Still, he wanted to hear it from Sarah since she was obviously upset enough about it to come to him after telling her mother that she couldn't bring herself to do that.

"Agent Gibbs." Sarah finally said, as she looked away from "Tommy" and turned her attention to her brother's boss. "I know my mother spoke to you yesterday. And I wanted to thank you for letting her know that Tim is safe. But, I need to talk to you. In private."

Gibbs searched her eyes for what she was thinking and all he could see was fear and worry. Then he flipped the elevator back on and let it resume its' course toward their floor.

"Tony, go man the fort." Gibbs said as he held the button for the open door, once it stopped the right floor for the Senior Field Agent."

"On it, Boss." Tony said as he headed to his desk with his mind racing at what he'd just heard.

"Have a seat." Gibbs bid his youngest agent's little sister as they entered the conference room and Gibbs closed the door behind him.

"Thank you. And thank you for giving me the time to talk to you"

"What's this about? Aside from your brother."

"No, it's about Tim."

"Okay. What's on your mind?"

"First, can you tell me, is he really okay?"

"Sarah. I wouldn't have told your mother he was if he wasn't. Your brother's fine."

"No, Agent Gibbs. That's just it. He's NOT fine."

"I'm listening."

"He won't talk to anyone! I know it has to be tearing him up inside, I just know it is!" Sarah cried as she gave in to her need to cry it out.

"Sarah. Your brother has the right not to talk about whatever this is, if that's what he so chooses. I won't let you take that choice away from him. So, if you're here to tell me what it is that he doesn't want to tell me himself? I'm afraid you've wasted a trip down here."

"But, Agent Gibbs, you need to know!"

"I doubt that. If it was something I needed to know, your brother wouldn't be keeping it from me."

"You don't understand!"

"Okay. Calm down. All right? I'll be right back." Gibbs said as he stepped outside and closed the door behind him. Whipping out his phone, he called Ducky.

"Got a live one for ya, Duck. Upstairs. Conference Room 2. Oh and a bottle of water with you, would you? Thanks."

As he reentered the room, he was startled to find Sarah McGee standing at the window, lost in thought. Wordlessly, he watched her as she remained thinking of things unknown. When Ducky came in just a few minutes later, Sarah hadn't budged from the window, but she had started silently crying. Unwilling to risk hearing from this young woman,what his agent obviously didn't want him to know, Gibbs quickly made his silent exit, leaving the M.E. to look after his youngest agent's little sister.

Coming back to the squad room, it was to find all three of his agents working on the case, in quiet harmony and discussion of fact and theory as they waded through what they had and where in the case it brought them. Gibbs silently walked up behind his three agents as they stood grouped in front of the plasma TV looking at the hard records and addresses. After a good ten minutes of tossing ideas around, the remaining puzzle pieces slid into place and Tony threw his arms up in triumph as the motive came to light and finally fit together to form the solution.

"So, as usual, the wife did it! Another slam-dunk for the DiNozzo theory of criminal Behavior 101!" Tony gloated as he turned around and came nose to nose with a bemused Gibbs.

Tim couldn't help but grin at Tony being caught unawares in the midst of such a resounding moment of his own glorified case solving. While the humor on Tim's face and actually in his eyes for that moment was nice to see; his grin quickly faded to be just as quickly replaced with a stormy look of anger mixed with something not quite discernable. Since Gibbs was the only one facing Tim at that moment, he was the first to notice the change in the young man's expression and the boss' heart sunk as he followed where Tim was now looking, at his sister coming down the stairs with Ducky.

Sure enough, as Tim stormed past a now startled Tony and Ziva and a boss that was quickly trying to stop him, the air seemed to suddenly sizzle with the younger man's rising anger.

"McGee!" Gibbs barked out in an attempt to settle the young man down.

"Probie, Stop!" Tony tried to help Gibbs put a stop to Tim's trek toward his sister.

The Senior Field Agent's mind was screaming at him. What would cause Probie to be so pissed about his sister being here? Oh, Right! She'd told Gibbs that Tim wasn't talking to anyone. Guess that meant her too. Oh, No and now she was at his job talking to the people who were over him? No wonder he was pissed! Oh, No! Train wreck! Obviously the boss thinks so too.

Tim stopped himself at the edge of the squad room, unwilling to make a scene out of whatever was going on here. Just letting her see that he was aware of what she'd done and that he was extremely pissed about it, should take care of the message he needed her to receive. He couldn't bring himself to look at his boss, who'd come to stand beside him, or even Tony, who'd come to stand right behind his other shoulder. Even Ziva stood nearby in case her support for what ever was going on was necessary.

As Sarah and Ducky came around the edge of the stairwell, and were brought up short by the wall of bodies bordering the squad room, Tim's eyes snapped to his sister's who's own reflected her joy at seeing him again, only to be replaced quickly by anger that seemed to match her brother's at his apparent oncoming temper.

Without wasting any time, Sarah stepped up to Gibbs and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for taking the time to listen to me." She said as she turned back to her brother and gave him something to think about as she stepped up into his personal space to speak quietly to him. "You may have been hurt the deepest by what you found out, but don't forget that this has affected Mom and me, too! You really hurt her."

Having said her piece, she turned back to Ducky, smiling at Tony and Ziva before she allowed Ducky to walk her to the elevator and escort her out of the building. Tim stood stock still, so angry it literally crackled in the air around him. His hands were clenched at the ends of his stiffened arms and his breathing was beginning to resemble that of someone who'd just run a marathon. Tony stepped back and made eye contact with Ziva before making a quiet rear exit with her so that Gibbs could calm Probie down in some semblance of privacy.

Seeing Tony and Ziva's discreet exit and knowing the reason for it, Gibbs wasted no time and immediately attempted to calm Tim down.

"McGee. Whatever this is about has nothing to do with work. So go take a break and calm down so we can get this case put to bed and go home."

Tim snapped at what his muddled brain perceived as more uncaring pushiness from Gibbs. "What was she doing here?" he demanded. "What did you tell her?"

Gibbs' eyebrows arched up to his hairline as he silently attempted to glare his agent back into submission. Surprisingly enough; which in itself was worrying, Gibbs' glare was having no effect on McGee's anger. Finally after a moment of a genuine glaring contest, Gibbs threw down his ace, "Are ya done?" Knowing that question would communicate the proximity to that line he felt Tim was crossing.

"Yeah." Tim huffed out, still too angry to be apologetic.

"I wouldn't let her tell me anything, McGee" Gibbs reassured him calmly.

"I don't understand." Tim said quietly. His tone was now apologetic and it was obvious that he was feeling bad for having treated Gibbs that way.

"Whatever's going on with you – is your business and you've made it clear that you're not ready to talk about it – I wasn't gonna let her take that decision away from you."

"Boss, I'm sorry!"

"Don't apologize, McGee."

"Sign of weakness, I know. I got it, Boss." Tim replied meekly, still feeling extremely humiliated and embarrassed over what had just happened. His head fell almost to his chest as his shoulders slouched in humiliation and guilt.

"No, McGee, believe it or not there are other reasons apologies aren't needed and this is one of them. You thought I'd betrayed your confidence, what little of it you've let me in on. I get that, but next time, take the time to hear someone out before you go off on them, you got me?"

"I will." Tim promised. He remained frozen in place and it was almost as though if he moved, he'd have to think too much beyond what he was capable of right now.

"McGee. Your mother called me yesterday." Gibbs revealed cautiously as he walked back over toward him.

The color drained from Tim's face and Gibbs felt the need to grab hold of him before he fell out in the floor. Luckily, Ducky returned in time to wheel a chair over to the obviously upset young man.

"McGee? She just wanted to know that you were okay, since you haven't been returning her calls either. She wouldn't tell me anything else. I told her you were fine. That was it." The boss was quick to reassure his agent.

Tim nodded silently as he fought to regain his breath. This just kept getting worse and worse. Even as he fought to keep it out of work, his family was dragging it straight across the bow of his place of work and there was little he could do to stop it. He hated the helpless feeling it gave him but he hated the deep vulnerability he felt right now, even worse. It obviously wouldn't take much to push his buttons and have him doing something stupid. As it was, he could very well see sanctions coming down on his head for the way he'd just treated Gibbs.

"Duck, take him for a break, will ya? See what you can do for him?" Gibbs requested quietly as they stood in the middle of the work space watching Tim try to pull himself together while he sat at his desk.

"Absolutely. Come, Timothy, let's get you a snack and some juice." Ducky encouraged.

Tim cracked a smile as he got to his feet and headed in the M.E.'s direction . "You weren't by any chance a kindergarten teacher at one time, were you, Ducky?"

Ducky chuckled. "No, dear boy, but I did just sound like one, didn't I?"

Tim nodded as he walked slowly with the M.E. toward the break room.

Gibbs couldn't stop the grin that escaped him at Tim's cheekiness as well as his returning sense of humor, despite the fact that the young man was still visibly upset.