Ducky arrived early the next morning as he had a body from another team's investigation to work on, but as he walked into autopsy and switched on the lights he had a fright as he saw McGee sitting on one of the autopsy tables.

"Good heavens Timothy, You very nearly caused me to expire from a heart attack. May I ask you what you are doing here sitting in the dark this early on a Monday morning?" Tim had nearly jumped of from the table as the Medical Examiner's arrival had startled him from his thoughts. After he and Jethro had grabbed a few hours of sleep Gibbs had headed to get coffee and breakfast, but Tim had needed some time for himself an so had headed down to the morgue to wait for Ducky's arrival.

Tim smiled sheepishly at the older man before speaking "Sorry about that Ducky, just needed some time and privacy to clear my head"

Dr Mallard hung his coat and walked to his office motioning for McGee to follow him. "Why yes, considering all the events of the last few days I guess it's no wonder you'd need a bit of space for yourself. May I ask how your visit to Bethesda was? I trust you got to see young Anthony. Would you care for a cup of tea?" He asked as he went to put on the kettle he had in his office.

Tim nodded his thanks for the tea offer and as Ducky motioned for him to take a seat he did as directed and explained the other reason for his early morning visit. "Yeah, we went to see him and he's doing well considering the circumstances" He went on to tell about Maria's involvement in the whole thing and finally told the ME about her attempt at helping "That's actually the other reason I was here. We were hoping you would take a sample from me so we could compare it to the once we have from Tony." Tim took a deep breath after the lengthy explanation and again nodded his thanks as Ducky handed him a cup of perfectly made tea.

"Oh my, of course I will take the sample for Abigail to run." The elderly ME took his own cup of tea before sitting down and offering his guest a cookie from a tray, which the younger man readily excepted with a soft 'thanks'

"I cannot phantom what on earth the poor nurse was thinking breaking your confidentiality and furthermore endangering the hospital's records by allowing Rossi access. Well I guess she was desperate and thought she was doing the right thing in the beginning, but "I'm sure she will be properly chastised for her lapse of common sense." Tim sighed

"Yeah, I don't think Gibbs is willing to let this go, I just don't really care that much." At the other man's dubious look he continued hastily "Don't get me wrong I'm not saying I'm not pissed that she reported some things to Marco and helped him, but right now I just want my son back home and with me, Maria did something she regrets and I think she truly didn't mean any harm so as far as I'm concerned all that matters is that she tried to correct her mistakes and as long as I get Tony back, I won't harbor any hate towards her."

"Well I believe you have your priorities in order then. Shall we get the matter of collecting the blood sample over with?"

"That'd be great Ducky, Thank you"

It didn't take long for the ME to gather what he needed to draw the blood and soon he had two vials of blood for testing.

"There we go, I'll just label these and bring them to the lab for you. I do hope you will get this matter resolved quickly so you can bring little Anthony home as soon as he's better."

Tim smiled at the other man and with final thanks headed for the bullpen.

When he reached his desk it was half past six and only Gibbs was sitting and working at his desk, Kate probably wouldn't be in for at least an hour.

Tim nodded to his boss and extended his arm a bit to indicate that he had talked to Ducky and the sample had been collected. Gibbs responded with his usual curt nod and the two men went to work to look at any and every record they had of Marco Rossi.

It was just after seven when Kate walked in and with wishes of good morning went to her own desk to continue from where she left of the previous evening.

The team worked in silence for a while until McGee's cell rang. He checked the caller Id and upon seeing that it was Maria, his irritation of the fact that they didn't have anything concrete yet made his

voice terser than usual.

"What do you want?" The terse question made Gibbs look up as he very rarely heard his lover be so abrupt with anyone but his curious look changed to one of concern as he saw McGee pale.

"It's Maria somethings wrong with her." Gibbs motioned for Kate to start a trace of the call as he listened to Tim try to get the woman to tell him what had happened and where she was, but obviously she wasn't answering him.

The team leader saw McGee's eyes widen at whatever he heard from the phone and he looked at Kate to see if she had the location. Her triumphant expression was answer enough.

"Maria we're coming to you, just hold on." He saw from the corner of his eye as the other two members of the team grabbed their gear and he did the same while holding the phone between his ear and shoulder. He heard the last word spoken by the nurse and his already wide eyes widened more and he barely registered the sound of her phone clattering to the pavement and the line going dead.

"Kate give me the address" Gibbs ordered as they excited the elevator as it reached the parking garage. Kate gave him the location before going to sit on the back seat and letting McGee have the front one.

Gibbs started the car and glanced at his agent sitting beside him, he noticed the slightly dazed look and decided that it would best to just get him to focus and deal with the rest later so he didn't feel like a complete bastard as he barked to the distracted man.

"McGee report!"

Tim jumped slightly as he heard the command and hurried to tell the others of the call.

"The nurse called me and told me that she fought him, I think she's injured badly." He swallowed as his mind supplied him with the gurgling sound of her breathing. Gibbs glanced at his agent, but upon seeing that he wasn't going to say anything else settled his attention back to the road.

It didn't take long with Gibbs behind the wheel for them to reach the opening of the alley the call had originated from. The agents got out and quickly drew their weapons before entering the alley. They cleared the space before focusing their attention to the woman lying on the ground with her long hair in a tangled mess around her head.

McGee was shocked and so stayed frozen to his spot, but Kate moved quickly with Gibbs and they knelt next to the still figure, but the closer they got the more obvious it was that they were too late, which was confirmed as Agent Todd felt for a pulse and shook her head as she found none.

Gibbs stood up and angrily kicked the side of a building before telling the female agent to call Ducky and secure the scene. He then turned to McGee ready to issue an order, but upon seeing the state of him, walked towards the younger man and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Tim, you okay?" The man in question shook his head slightly to clear it and focused his eyes to the gruesome sight of Maria lying in a pool of her own blood, a knife still embedded in her stomach. He shuddered before turning his eyes to meet Gibbs' sympathetic ones.

"I'm good." He had trouble processing the fact that the nurse he had been talking to earlier was lying dead on the ground. He had seen many crime scenes and some of them were a hundred times worse than this one in terms of brutality, but still when you knew the person whose body you were gazing at. It made the whole scene so much harder.

"Ducky is going to be here soon. Go and see if you can find any witnesses" Gibbs watched as Tim nodded and left the alley. The team leader knew that the younger man was having mixed feelings towards the nurse and seeing her dead wasn't going to help those emotions so he wanted to give him something to do outside of the actual scene so he could get back his composure, thought he really doubted that there would be any witnesses at this time of the morning.

He himself got their kit from the trunk of the car and worked with Kate at taking pictures and bagging and tagging evidence until Ducky arrived and he left Kate to continue the processing.

"Well what do we have here. Oh my, you poor dear, lets get you looked at so we can get you of this dirty alley now shall we?" Ducky made his was straight for the body and his assistant brought the gurney after him. "Do we have an ID yet Jethro?"

"Yeah, meet nurse Maria Summers" Ducky looked up surprised from where he was inserting the liver probe.

"And does she happen to be the same nurse you met last night and who gave you Anthony's blood samples?"

"The one and only"

"Well that explains the expression on Timothy's face when we came past him. Now lets see" He pulled out the probe and looked at the reading "According to her liver temperature she hasn't been dead for more than half an hour. How on earth did you get here so fast?" Ducky didn't look up from his examination, but the disbelief was clear in his voice.

"She called McGee, from the DOD I'd say she died during that call or right after."

"Oh dear. Well it seems that the cause of death is as you might first surmise, the stab wound to the abdomen, as you can see the wound is fairly large, and I would have to say the knife was twisted to cause this much damage, but I can tell with more certainty after I've had a chance to perform the autopsy."

"Thanks Duck" Gibbs moved away as Ducky and Gerald started to get the body ready for transport.

Kate take the evidence down to Abby and fill her in on what's happening, also tell her to fill you in on what happened last night at the hospital" The last part was added as an afterthought as Gibbs parked the car into the NCIS parking garage and he realized that Kate didn't have all the info yet.

The female agent nodded and climbed out of the car and after taking the small box of evidence from the back seat with her, made her way to the lab.

"You holding up okay?" Gibbs asked his lover as they were left alone in the car. When there wasn't an immediate answer he looked at the younger man and squeezed his shoulder.

"Um, yeah, I'm just a bit shocked by what happened" Tim wasn't feeling guilty for Maria's death 'cause he knew there was nothing he could have done, but still the sounds of her labored breathing and the fact that those wore her final breaths haunted him, as did her final words 'absolution'. The small space of the car felt suffocating so as quickly as he could, McGee exited the car and leaned against the side of it.

Gibbs didn't say anything about the fact that Tim's hands were trembling slightly but instead placed a hand at the small of his back and guided him to the elevator.

The rode in silence to the bullpen and once there, Tim moved to his desk while Gibbs took the stairs to the directors office to update him on everything that was going on. It took him over an hour as it seemed that every answer he gave to Morrow, ignited at least three questions until he had told the man almost everything from the moment Tony had been born to the very moment they were currently living.

When he exited the office he had to stop on the top of the stairs to get control of the blush staining his ears pink. Gibbs shook his head with a slight smirk as he thought how well their director played the don't ask don't tell-game, because Tom his old friend had subtly congratulated him on making a move on Tim and becoming, in a same bargain, a daddy, but Director Morrow had been clear to not ask and keep Gibbs from telling.

"Going to see Ducky" He announced to his agents who were sitting by their desks, but as he walked past them, Tim sprang up and followed him to the elevator.

Gibbs sighed and as the doors closed and they were alone in the elevator, he turned to his partner. "You sure you want to come?"

"Yeah" Jethro nodded his head and trusted the younger man's judgment. Tim gave him a tiny pleased smile and soon they walked into the morgue side by side.

"What have you got Duck"

"Well Jethro, it seems that my preliminary findings at the scene were correct and the poor girl died of the stab wound. She also has two broken ribs and a bruise on her arm, consistent with the idea of someone holding her tightly" McGee was silent and his eyes kept staring at the woman that now was covered with a sheet all except her head and he could see her peaceful expression and that coupled with the words from Ducky that next filtered into his mind made him gasp.

Ducky had just told them how Maria had obviously fought back and had scratched her attacker so they could identify the attacker from the DNA. He said that the sample was already with Abby for matching when the older men heard a gasp from Tim's direction and turned their eyes at him.

"Are you quite alright?" Ducky asked with a slightly worried tone and Gibbs just moved closer to the man.

"She told me she fought back, she told me on the phone-" he took a deep breath before continuing "I this was her absolution"

Tim watched as realization dawned in Gibbs' eyes.

"I'm afraid you lost me dear boy" Ducky said as he looked at the two men.

"She gave us our boy back." Gibbs turned slightly sad eyes to Ducky as he thought what the woman had done. "The DNA will prove that Marco isn't Tony's father as well as put him away with murder. He will never get Tony or hurt him again." And that thought brought joy to all occupants of the room and the three men held a moment of silence in the honor of the woman lying in front of them, who had made a mistake but sacrificed everything to make it right.

TBC...

A/N: so now we have all the pieces so to speak so all we need is to put them together and wrap this up. The goal: To finish this story before the end of next week, then I can really start writing my NCIS/supernatural crossover and the third part to this series.

And if anyone's interested.. it wasn't thunder :D (if you don't get it, don't worry, neither do I )