AN: This one is short, but for all those who've been wondering where the case in this case fic is, wonder no longer. It's going up a bit early because my work schedule's a bit hinky today and tomorrow. Morning posting will resume Tuesday. And this just lets me torture you guys for a few more hours. ;)

Chapter 7

Ziva's cold case had definitely heated up — the two of them had linked it to five other unsolved NCIS cases, plus Tim had found another dozen civilian cases that appeared to be by the same person. Tim was also still knee-deep in the geek stuff for Balboa's case, in part because he kept stopping to help them as needed. But the team didn't catch a fresh case.

By Wednesday, Tim had to force himself to tune out the cold case discussions Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs were having while he focused on cracking the computers Balboa had asked him to look at. He was glad he could help with a current case, but he'd much rather be working with his team than just assisting another team. It felt too much like those weeks in CyberCrimes when Vance had split them up and sent them to the four corners of the earth.

"Gibbs. I believe I have it," Ziva said.

At the excited tone in her voice, Tim looked up to see Ziva moving to stand in front of the plasma. He joined the rest of the team as she explained how she had found a common number in the background for each of the aliases they believed the suspect had used in the different cases.

"Nine digits," Tim said.

"Probably a Social," Tony said. "Can you...?"

"On it," Tim said, sitting down to access the Social Security database. "Give me about 15 minutes."

He was so deep in his searching, he didn't notice Balboa had walked up until Gibbs joined them.

"Balboa, he's busy," Gibbs said.

"With a cold case," Balboa replied. "Mine's a hot one, but it's getting colder the longer we go without cracking this guy's computers."

"And David's linked this cold case with 17 others. We have a chance to close 18 cases with this, all of them murders," Gibbs said.

Tim resolutely shut out the two team leads as they argued about what he should be doing. Gibbs would win. He always did.

Except by the time he'd found the real owner of the Social Security number Ziva had linked to all the cases and a lead on his current location, Vance had joined the team in the bullpen. Gibbs and Tony stood facing Balboa, with Vance on the side watching all three men.

"Ziva, I've got it!" He sent the information to the plasma. "We're looking for one Jason Paul Andrews, last known address in Fredericksburg. Virginia Employment Commission has him listed as receiving unemployment benefits just last week, so he's either still there or he'll have to file a new address this week to claim them again."

"Good work, McGee," Gibbs said. "Gear up, team."

"Gibbs, I need McGee," Balboa said.

"He's on my team," Gibbs said. "I don't mind if he helps when we aren't working a case, but we have CyberCrimes for a reason. Get one of them to handle it."

"They're a bunch of geeks, not field agents," Balboa said. "They wouldn't have a clue what to look for. We don't have any other agents with McGee's skills."

Tim just grabbed his backpack and joined Tony and Ziva at the entrance to the bullpen. The three agents watched, mostly in silence.

"Isn't this Balboa's week in the pool?" Tony whispered in his ear.

Tim nodded. "If he gets Vance to step in on his side, he might just win it," he whispered back.

But Vance didn't get a chance. Gibbs grabbed his SIG and headed for the elevator, forcing Balboa to move out of his way or get run over.

The director didn't say a word, just watched as the Gibblets turned and followed their boss.

Their suspect tried to run, but Ziva and Tim had cut him off from escaping into the woods behind his house while Tony and Gibbs disabled his car and blocked the street. So by the time they secured him, gathered evidence from his house, and returned to the Navy Yard, it was after 8 p.m. and both Vance and Balboa had already left.

Gibbs looked at the time. "He can sit in lockup overnight. You three go home. DiNozzo, you're seeing Brad in the morning, right?"

Tim looked over as Tony nodded. "Visiting Sean first, then meeting Brad at 0730. Should be in here by 0900."

"McGee, you visiting Sean too?"

Tim shook his head. "I'll go by tomorrow night since we have to take two cars in anyway. Plus my mom's coming down in the evening, so I'll be able to see how she's holding up."

Gibbs nodded. "I'll make sure you get there. You did good work today. Even if we're working a case, I should be able to cut you loose for a bit to go visit."

"Thanks, Boss," Tim said. "Besides, I want to get in here early and finish off those computers for Balboa."

Gibbs just snarled at that, so Tim jerked his head toward the elevator, and Tony followed him out.

Once the doors had closed on the bullpen, Tim turned to Tony. "How much you want to bet Vance and Balboa are waiting for me tomorrow morning?"

"I'm not taking that bet, Tim," he replied. "Especially not since Balboa's got this week in the pool. Did Abby put anything in the rules that said if the person who had that week provoked the punch, they were disqualified from winning?"

Tim shook his head. "Since when are Abby's pools that organized?"

"Good point," Tony replied. As they walked outside, he sniffed at the air. "Smells like snow."

Despite the heroic effort it took, Tim refrained from explaining the phenomenon of southerly winds and ozone production to his partner who wouldn't have appreciated it anyway. "We should make sure we're prepared if the storm comes in as strong as they're predicting and we're called out this weekend."

Tony nodded. "I'll call Allison and ask her to keep Jethro in case we're stuck here on duty all weekend. Your mom has enough to deal with this week."

Tim nodded. "If you do that, I'll pack our kits so we have enough for a few days. If we get that much snow, we won't be able to get home until Monday or Tuesday. The Navy Yard will get cleared, but I think Silver Spring public works is going to be in over their head with this storm."

The next morning, Tim left home before Tony and was at his desk by 0700. Gibbs was already there, and Ziva not far behind.

He finished cracking the computers in just a few minutes, typed up a summary of what he'd found, and e-mailed it to Balboa, who wasn't at his desk.

"McGee, the director wants to see us," Gibbs said.

Tim sighed. "Finishing that argument from yesterday?"

Gibbs glared at him, and Tim got up and followed him. He knew Gibbs wouldn't let Vance move him off the MCRT, so he wasn't really worried. Or so he tried to tell himself.

But he couldn't help the twist in his gut when they walked into Vance's office and found Balboa already there.

"The results are in your e-mail, Balboa," Tim said. "I just finished. Looks like Andretti's hunch was right."

"Agent Balboa, go close that case," Vance said. "I'll keep in mind what we've talked about."

Another twist to the gut. Tim hadn't felt this queasy since the Chimera fiasco. But before Vance could say anything, Gibbs' phone rang. The team leader flipped it open "Yeah, Gibbs."

He listened for a second. "What do you mean, he's missing? Like kidnapped missing? From Bethesda?" After another few seconds, he said, "We'll be right there, DiNozzo."