Thank you everybody for your sweet thoughts since my aunt's passing. It's been really hard on my mom because my aunt was her only sister and they were very close, but we will all miss her. Thanks for thinking of me though.

Also, sorry if I faked some of you out with a pseudo posting of Chapter 19 the other day. The site messed me up. It's driving me crazy b/c I can only log in on my computer occasionally. Anyway…here is the real chapter 19!

McGee was in the sub-basement working when Agent Shelby walked in with a box. He looked around, slightly annoyed.

"Where is Agent Gibbs?"

McGee looked up from his computer.

"Uh, looking for Tony and Ziva."

Shelby grunted and dropped the box, leaning back against the desk.

"Well, I'm glad that you guys at least had enough sense to get away from the windows since Gibbs wouldn't let me move you to a safe house."

"We have our moments." McGee said dryly. He nodded to the box. "What's that?"

"Mmm, files. FBI brought it over right before I left. SOBs were holding out on us."

"Anything good?"

"Not really I looked though a few before I came over. Looks like the same stuff we had in our files. There were a lot of duplicate files, like somebody was trying to pad it. Pretend they had more than they actually did." He rolled his eyes.

McGee smirked. Shelby sighed looking around again before pushing himself off the desk. "I'm gonna get some coffee from the break room, you want anything?"

"No, thank you".

McGee reached for the box, when something caught his eye and a thought struck him like lighening. His eyes widened. It would explain everything if he was right. He abandoned the box and quickly pulled up several search windows on his computer.

McGee was frantically typing at his keyboard. When Ziva entered the subbasement and sat down at one of the other desks that had been set up for them.

"McGee-." She started before she was cut off.

"Shhh!" He held up his hand before it quickly dropped back to the keyboard and continued typing.

If Ziva hadn't felt so bad about outing him to Gibbs, she would have snapped back at him, or worse, but instead she sat silently and watched him type. When he didn't acknowledge her again, she sighed and turned back to her desk. Ziva absently worked, all the while surreptitiously watching the elevator out of the corner of her eye. She had seen Tony and Gibbs get on the elevator and wondered how much longer they would be.

"Where's Gibbs?" Tim asked suddenly as if reading her mind.

"Umm, upstairs." She hedged, thankful he was consumed enough in his information that he didn't notice her unease.

"I think I might have a lead." He said breathlessly, not noticing her mood. That perked her up.

"What?"

"I think I might know who he is."

"What!" Ziva stood up and rushed to his desk, looking over his shoulder at his computer.

Ziva studied his screen, silently shaking her head.

"I'm not sure, McGee…"

"Ziva, I know it's a long shot, but it's all we have." He argued. She studied him for a moment. When all she saw was resolve and determination she nodded.

"What can I do?"

He handed her a slip of paper with a name on it.

"Check them out. They were either in on it or tricked as well."

Ziva nodded and returned to her desk, forgetting momentarily about the conflict going on behind elevator doors and between floors.

Gibbs flipped the elevator switch as soon as the doors closed.

"What is this about?" He demanded.

"I think you heard the highlights." Tony said defensibly, stalling

"This why you've been acting like a sulking kid all week?"

Tony was quiet, having an internal battle with himself. "I can't tell, I told McGee I wouldn't."

"You didn't promise to keep quiet if Gibbs asked, that would be like signing your death warrant. You could lie, brush it off, say you didn't know what Ziva was talking about."

"We both know that wouldn't satisfy Gibbs."

"We? Wow I really am going crazy, talking and answering myself."

A headslap brought him back to the present.

"Damn it, DiNozzo. This is not the time-."

"If it's not the time then why are we here?" Tony snapped.

Gibbs glared at him. "I need my team 100%, your head in the clouds is not going to help. I heard you and Ziva talking and I want to know what the hell is going on."

This is what I've been waiting for he thought to himself.

"Gibbs, this is going to sound really girly or weak or both, but I have to ask…"

Gibbs stared at him impatiently

"Are we a family, is that how you see us?"

Gibbs eyes softened a little bit, but he shook his head.

"Tony, we don't have time." He reached over and flipped the switch to resume the trip. Tony just as quickly flipped it back.

"You don't have time for a yes or a no?" Tony challenged. Gibbs stared at the switch before looking at his senior agent.

"Fine, yes". His eyes narrowed as he reached for the switch again. Tony blocked his hand.

"Tim doesn't think he's part of that." Tony said cutting right to the chase. He started pacing as much as the elevator would allow. "All these years and he still sees himself on the outside. The worst part is I thought he was crazy I told him he was wrong." Tony leaned back to study Gibbs. "But I started thinking back and you do seem to keep him at a distance. You don't interact with him or reach out to him when he needs help. Which brings me back to my question. Are we a family, is Tim included, or are we just some random people who work together. Because Tim…Tim is like my brother, the closest thing I've ever had to one and I won't be part of this if he's not." Tony finished staring hard at Gibbs. Gibbs meet his gaze.

"I've always told you, all of you that my door was open."

"Gibbs, no offense, because you've done a lot for me, more than anybody else, but anybody can say that." Tony said bluntly. "Anybody can say if they had just come to me I would have listened. Proving that is different."

"It always worked for you. It always worked for Abby." Gibbs said quietly with narrow eyes.

"Yeah," Tony was getting worked up all over again, "it has always worked for me. Me and Abby, but Gibbs, come on." He said throwing his hands up. "McGee is very very different than me and Abby. Did you not ever consider the same approach might not work with him? I mean he was devastated when he shot Benedict, but he didn't come to you. Didn't that tell you something about the lengths he would go to try and take care of things himself? Did you really think if things just got bad enough he would show up in your basement? Did you care? Do you care if any of us do?"

Gibbs, who hadn't broken eye contact with Tony, frowned deeply, but didn't say anything.

"I'm serious." Tony pressed. "Is our presence in your boat building workshop just something you tolerate when you have to? An obligation you feel you have? Because-."

"That's enough." Gibbs snapped. "If you don't know the answer to that question then you're not much of an investigator."

Tony stared at him. "And what kind of investigator are you that you couldn't even see how lost one of your own agents was just sinking right under your nose. He needed a dad Gibbs, just as much as me or Ziva or Abby. Only difference is you remind him too much of his own father. He's too afraid to risk that rejection again and you never gave him a reason to think otherwise." With that Tony reached over and flipped the switch sending the elevator into motion once again.

McGee was pacing anxiously outside the elevator. Ziva hung back a little, but she was also anxious to share the information they had found. She was also nervous to find out what direction the conversation between the two men had taken once they were in the elevator.

Shelby came back with coffee to find the two agents staring at the elevator.

"Yeah, elevator's broken." He said indicating the doors. "You're going to have to take the stairs. It's funny because it was working when I got here."

"Gibbs is in the elevator." McGee said absently.

"What? Crap, what a time for the elevator to get stuck and with Gibbs in it of all people."

"Not broken." McGee said never taking his eyes off the doors.

"Then why-?"

"It is a long story." Ziva interrupted.

They stood in silence for a few more seconds.

"Ummm, what's going on?" The CIA agent asked.

"We are waiting for Gibbs." Ziva said smirking at McGee who kept moving closer to the elevator centimeters at a time.

"Why is he in the elevator?" Shelby asked thoroughly confused.

"Probably chewing Tony out for not being at his desk." Ziva said wincing, wondering how many times she was going to have to lie before it all came out.

Shelby rolled his eyes, resigning himself to join the vigil outside the sliding doors.

Gibbs and Tony were quiet in the few moments it took to ride the elevator the rest of the way down. Gibbs' mind was working furiously.

Was Tony right? Had he pushed McGee away? If he did, it certainly wasn't intentional. McGee was hard for him to connect with, hard to find a common interest. The younger man had never really needed him either. That wasn't true though, he chastised himself. Tim had needed him when Erin died, when Kate had been killed, when the dog attacked him, when he killed Benedict, when Amanda had tried to kill him and many other times in this stressful jobs the wreaked havoc on your nerves, emotions and sanity, but he had never been there. He had let others take the lead. He had assumed McGee would come to him if he ever really needed him.

Never assume. He almost winced as he reminded himself of the rule. Tony was right, if he had truly been observant he could have seen the distance that had grown between him and his agent. Really though, when he thought back, it wasn't a distance, it couldn't be a distance because there had never been a closeness from which to drift.

Too soon they reached their floor, but right before the elevator door slide open Gibbs promised himself to make it right. He owed it to his team to focus on the situation at hand, but after that…

When the light the elevator had reached the floor, Ziva smothered a smile at how McGee was practically bouncing from excitement.

The door opened and Tony caught sight of McGee first, feeling his stomach sink at the betrayal he felt. Tony couldn't look at his friend and quietly slipped out. McGee was so excited with his information he didn't notice Tony's discomfort as he rushed the elevator nearly knocking Gibbs down.

"McGee, wha-!"

"I think I figured it out." McGee interrupted. "I first thought it would be impossible and there was no way he could have done it, but then I started looking and it's actually brilliant. I-."

"McGee what did you figure out?" McGee paused and Gibbs was almost prepared to headslap him.

"The shooter, I think know who the shooter is." McGee clarified.

"Who?" Three voices shouted nearly in unison. McGee took a deep breath.

"Cal Baird."

Ok, I have this weird writing style. I don't write chapters in order a lot of times. For example I've had this conversation with Tony and Gibbs typed up for a long time. I just had to get here. That's probably the only reason this chapter is getting put up so quickly. I wanted Gibbs to know the conversation Tony and Tim had, but I didn't want Tony to out and out break his promise. This was a nice compromise.

Thanks for reading!