AN: This is a short one and might not seem to relate to the case... but much as PP said everything in the last few episodes of S7 was there for a reason, everything in this story is here for a reason. ;)
Chapter 5
When he walked into the bullpen, Gibbs just looked at his desk, where Tony saw a list of names by his phone, presumably related to Ziva's cold case.
"I'll start calling, Boss," he said.
Later that afternoon, Tony was on hold waiting to talk to the CO of one of the petty officers who had been killed in a case similar to the cold case and amusing himself by making faces at Tim, who was scouring databases for other similar crimes. Tim just rolled his eyes and looked away, but Tony could see the corners of his mouth twitching as if he wanted to smile.
When Rick Balboa walked through the bullpen, Tony thought at first he was just on his way to the back elevator until he stopped at Tim's desk.
"Hey, McGee," he said. "Got a minute?"
"Sure, Rick. What's up?" Tim straightened up from his computer search hunch to focus his attention on the other special agent.
"I heard how you hacked right into that laptop that Abby spent all week working on. We've got a couple computers on this new case that look just as tough. Can you give us a hand, since you're just working on cold cases?" At his words, Tony started hoping the lieutenant commander would stay tied up for a few more minutes, long enough for him to continue listening in.
Tim checked his watch. "I can help until we catch a case, but if we don't, I have to leave by 5 today. My dad's at Bethesda with pneumonia, and we're stopping by to see him when we get done here."
Balboa nodded. "Sorry to hear about your dad, McGee. I understand. I'll take whatever help you can give us. Andretti has the most computer experience on my team, but he's nowhere near Abby's level, let alone yours."
Tony stifled a snort. Abby was better at hacking than half of CyberCrimes, and Tim was probably the best in the agency. Heck, he was one of the best in D.C. None of the other teams had an agent with even half Tim's skills. For all Tony bragged about his undercover skills, any of a dozen agents in NCIS could do what he did undercover. Tim, on the other hand, was in a league of his own.
Tony took a moment to set an alarm on his computer to remind him when it was time to leave. Tim wouldn't deliberately forget about visiting Sean - he'd been looking forward to seeing his dad, reassuring himself the senior McGee was doing OK all day - but he got into a completely different headspace when his brain chips were in high gear. Just then, Tony heard a voice in his ear and switched to interviewing the sailor. When he got off the phone 15 minutes later, sure enough, Tim was deep in his McGeeking, and he stayed that way the rest of the afternoon. But then, about five minutes before Tony's alarm was set to go off, Tim surfaced and walked over to talk to Balboa.
Tony sighed silently. He knew Tim was worried about Sean, but now he knew just how worried. Normally nothing could get him to come up for air when he was that deep into a computer. Tony looked over at Gibbs, whose eyes were following Tim across the room. Standing, he walked over to the team leader's desk.
"Boss, we're headed out so we can stop by Bethesda to visit Tim's dad. I think we're supposed to take Sarah back to campus afterward, too."
Gibbs nodded. "Do what you need to. We're bound to catch a case tomorrow or Wednesday. Be tougher to get over there then. Anything I can do to help, let me know. Make sure Eileen knows, too."
Tony nodded as Tim walked back over.
"Boss, I'm not done with the computers for Balboa's team."
"Keep going until we catch a case, McGee," Gibbs said. "For now, get out. Say hi to your folks for me."
"Thanks, Boss," both men said.
"Goodnight, McGee, Tony," Ziva said. "McGee, I hope your father is doing better. If there is anything I can do, please let me know."
"Thanks, Ziva," Tim said.
"Yeah, thanks, Zee," Tony said. "Come on, Tim, let's go." He grabbed the younger man's hand and tugged him toward the elevator.
After fighting traffic for the better part of an hour, the two men finally made it to Bethesda, only to find no parking spots near the entrance.
"Tony, let me drop you off. It's too cold out here for you to be walking around. You can go up, and Dad can grill you to make sure I'm treating you right. Or maybe that you're treating me right." Tony looked over to see a furrow in Tim's forehead.
"McOverthinker, I'll be fine," he said. "I brought my ski mask and everything in case we got called out today. I'll just do my Abominable Snowman impression. Besides, your dad wouldn't grill me. Sarah, maybe. Or your mom. But your dad likes me too much to grill me. Besides, how bad can it be? I survived an interrogation by Eli David, remember? The only father who could scare me in the interrogation room would be Gibbs, and he's much more likely to interrogate you than me."
Tim snorted. "True. He already warned me once about hurting you."
"Really? He does know the only thing you're capable of hurting are dirtbags, right?"
"It was the day he and Jimmy helped me get the piano in. And he's not worried about me being cruel. He just doesn't want me to be careless with you. You've had enough of that in your life." Tim stopped in front of the hospital entrance. "Now get out."
Tony looked over at his partner and saw the worry clear in his eyes. "All right, I'm getting out. But I'll wait for you down here. Don't want your dad to think I'm here alone either because Brad found something wrong or because something happened to you at work." He leaned over and kissed Tim. "Now go park the car and hurry back."
When Tony walked into the hospital lobby, he saw one of the other sailors in Brad's study, a chief petty officer named Steve Jenkins. They had met a few times when Steve's appointment to see Brad was immediately after his own check-up.
"Hey, Steve," Tony said.
"Tony? You're here late." Steve stopped to take a couple of breaths. "Nothing's wrong, is it? Haven't seen you lately."
Tony shook his head. "Just got back from two weeks in the Caribbean, so I haven't been around. And I'm here tonight because my father-in-law is in here with pneumonia."
"He's Academy, right? Another one of Brad's?" Steve again stopped to breathe.
Tony nodded. "Sean McGee."
"Commander McGee. I know him. Served with him..." Another pause for breath. "When he was XO of the Enterprise, right around the time his daughter was born." Steve frowned. "She's got to be almost 20 years younger than you, Tony. The commander's OK with that?"
At that, Tony realized he'd never mentioned one tiny detail to Steve in all the discussions they'd had. Before Tony could answer, Tim walked in and joined them.
"Tim, this is Chief Petty Officer Steve Jenkins. He's another one of Brad's." Tony decided to go for broke. "Steve served with your dad on the Enterprise. Steve, this is my partner, Tim McGee."
Steve sucked in a breath and started coughing. Tim looked over at Tony, that one eyebrow shooting up.
Tony shook his head and pressed his lips together, hoping Tim would take the hint. Fortunately, years with Gibbs had made them both adept at nonverbal communication.
"You OK, Steve?" Tony said.
The sailor scowled, but nodded. "Gotta go." He hurried off before either of the agents could say anything.
"Well, that went well," Tony said. "I should have just introduced you and let him think I worked with my brother-in-law."
"You lost me, Tony." Tim led the way toward the elevator.
"When I mentioned Sean was my father-in-law, he assumed I was married to Sarah and wanted to know if your dad was OK with it because of the age difference. That's when you walked in." As the elevator door opened, Tony motioned Tim in ahead of him.
"Great." Tim sighed. "You know, as great as everybody at NCIS has been, I forget the Navy is a whole different animal sometimes. Especially the sailors my dad's age and older. He's had a lot of years to become open-minded about me. They don't really have that motivation." When the elevator stopped, it was Tim who led the way off. "Let's not mention this to Dad. He's got enough on his mind."
Tony nodded, but the "become open-minded" comment went into his mental filing cabinet. Sometime when things weren't in crisis, he wanted to ask Tim about that. But that could wait until Sean was better.
When they walked into his room, Eileen and Sarah were already there, sitting in chairs by Sean's bed. He was sitting up in bed, his skin color looking a bit better than the day before. Tony's eyes strayed to the monitors by the bed, and he was relieved to see that Sean's numbers looked OK. Not healthy, but a lot better than they could have been. Of course, the idea that he knew what normal and bad readings were and could distinguish them without a medical degree, or even Tim's biomedical engineering background, reminded him just how much time he'd spent getting tested since Hannah Lowell's brain tumor had turned his life upside down. He pushed that aside and settled into the usual caring banter that he'd learned characterized any McGee gathering. Tim seemed to have forgotten Steve's negative reaction to them, if the amount of grief he was giving Sarah was any indication.