When Abby and Tim reached the outer office of the Director, it didn't really come as a big surprise to be greeted by the smiling face of the Director's assistant. She had a warm face, but it didn't stop them feeling uneasy at both the meeting and having to spend this amount of time together; they were ushered to the seats and asked to wait for the meeting, something that was done in complete silence given they had absolutely nothing that they wanted to say to each other.

Tim looked at her warily as she walked back to her desk; Did she know what was going on and it was something good or did she just not know and it was bad? Neither of them could tell. While the waiting seemed endless; the tension in the air seemed to thicken very quickly. Looking at the two of them sitting as far apart as they could be with only three chairs to choose from; they were not the picture of best friends; heck; you couldn't even tell Abby and Tim even tolerated each other, the way they put every square inch of distance between them that was possible. Were they even doing it on purpose? Did they realize they were doing it? It was so unlike them, it just didn't seem real. Had anyone who knew them come in; what they would have seen would have shocked them.

Finally, the Director's Assistant's phone buzzed and when she answered it; the call was very brief and to the point. Hanging up the phone, she rounded the desk and bid both of her guests to follow her as she walked to the door to Director Vance's office and opened it inward for them, shutting it behind them as they stepped into the room. The click of the door closing behind them had the ominous sound of trouble to it and neither of the summoned team members felt very good about this.

"Have a seat." Vance instructed them as he gestured toward his meeting table in front of the television screen that hung high on his wall.

Tim looked up off the floor long enough to very quickly scan the room; notice Gibbs standing by the window, looking at both of his team members with something unreadable in his expression; and look back to the floor. With uncertainty, worry and even a touch of fear; Tim took himself over to the table and sat in a chair as the Director had instructed. With iron-clad control, Tim kept his eyes focused either on the television screen or the Director, when he wasn't looking at the grain of wood on the table in front of him.

As expected, Vance was the first to speak into the silence that had settled over the room so thickly it was almost suffocating. "Either of you have anything you need to tell us about Mexico?"

Tim knew the gig was up. He wasn't sure how it had come up; or how it had gotten back to Vance; but he knew without a doubt the gig was up and Gibbs knew about it too. The question was; just how much of what happened down there was now in evidence against him? And how the hell was he supposed to talk about this in front of Abby and her champion defender?

"Agent McGee?" Vance asked him directly. "Do you have anything else you need to add to your written report?"

Tim thought about this for a minute. He would not lie on record; and he hated like hell to lie at all; most especially to either one of these men; men he looked up to and respected; men who had helped shape who he'd become. But, he'd never been one to rat out anyone and knowing that part of Gibbs' moral code came from the Marine code 'You rat, you fry' didn't help.

Technically, he didn't need to add anything but he was beginning to question just how much not ratting Abby out was worth to his career. Then again, he wasn't willing to discuss what happened down there in front of Abby or her surrogate father who held her up on a pedestal. If it were just himself and Director Vance, it might be a different story; the operative word being might. Swallowing hard, he bit the bullet and cast his fate with a quiet, almost solid two word response. "No, Sir."

"McGee." Came Gibbs' growl from the man's place by the window.

Tim kept his eyes on Vance with more strength than he realized he even had, but his heart dropped to his toes. This was it; his relationship with Gibbs wouldn't be the same after this, he could see it coming. Damn it, the price of this trip had just crossed over into 'too high'.

"Ms Scuito? Do you have anything to add to your report?" Vance turned his attention to the other person at the table.

"No, Sir." Abby's answer came very quickly and in voice full of determination.

"Unbelievable" muttered Gibbs from where he remained as if he were too angry to come any closer to them.

Vance stared at the two members of Team Gibbs who were very clearly not being honest with him for a long minute before he silently picked up the tv remote and clicked the button that turned on both the television and the recording they both obviously needed to see. "Watch this closely." was his next order.

As the tape played, Tim became so engrossed in what he was hearing and the ever-sinking feelings that were coming from it that he hadn't noticed Gibbs moving away from the window and coming to stand at the head of the table where he could see both of their reactions up close.

While it had always been true that Tim's eyes were more clearly windows to his soul than anyone else the team knew, Gibbs was more than worried about him as much as he wanted the kid to spill his guts. For Tim to be so determined to not speak to the truth he'd been asked for; meant he was protecting someone. Abby was the only one he could be protecting here; but why was he doing it? What did he think he was protecting her from? His eyes were screaming not only desolate resignation, but also anger. Who was he angry at?

Abby, on the other hand, was looking more and more surprised, guilty and embarrressed as the recording played on. Obviously, she somehow hadn't realized that her secret had been safe until now. Hadn't she known McGee hadn't ratted her out? She sure hadn't acted like someone who expected to be catching hell for her actions. Well, she had a hell of a shock comin' This was unacceptable and he seriously hoped that Vance would be the heavier of the two of them. He was feeling too out of his depth at the moment to be effective in dealing with her appropriately.

He'd never had to deal with Abby's behavior at this level before. She'd never crossed the line like this before and Gibbs had no clue what he was gonna do about it. Silently, he repeated the hope that Vance would handle this enough for the both of them.

Tim's behavior was also a struggle to deal with. The young man had never shown this level of refusal to cooperate. Even when his sister had been in trouble, he'd shown deep remorse for not coming to Gibbs first; for handling it by himself; and most importantly, for breaking Gibbs' trust.

Gibbs remembered how Tim had looked crushed for a long time after that case had been successfully solved. It had taken Ducky to open Gibbs' eyes to what exactly was going on with his younger agent. Once he'd been clued in, though, Gibbs had been vigilant in re-shaping Tim's understanding of where things stood between them; silently but steadily, in the way he handled things on the team after that, always being sure to include Tim in the field calls and call outs; always giving him things to do that left no doubt he was being trusted to do his job just as much as he had been before.

Now, it seemed as though whatever was going on with McGee was somehow more serious. What could be more serious than protecting his sister from a murder rap? Unwilling to let his working relationship with these two affect the investigation into why these two hadn't disclosed these situations in their reports; Gibbs silently removed himself from the room. He needed to let Leon take this one by the horns and go with it with no interference from him; or prejudicial behavior from his team; which his presence would most undoubtedly bring about.

When the tape was done, Vance looked at both Abby and Tim with an air of expectancy. When nothing was said by either of them, The Director found himself loosing patience and he wanted them to know it. "I'm not going to tolerate this. This is inexcusable. It's embarrassing and it should have been reported by both of you! Agent McGee, wait outside!"

Tim got up and took himself out to the outer office and sat in one of the chairs.

Director Vance's assistant smiled encouragingly at him but left him to his thoughts.

****NCIS****

Vance looked at Abby, almost too angry to deal with her. He knew exactly why Gibbs had left the room; knew the Team Leader was just as angry as he was and even felt betrayed that these two trusted members of his team hadn't gone to him with this. Having this come from complete strangers had to have hit like a punch in the gut; and no one appreciated that; most especially a Team Leader who prided himself on having a team he could trust.

"I've run out of patience, Ms. Scuito. If you have nothing to say for yourself, I will deal with you according to what we've just seen and heard."

Abby was speechless. Hearing and seeing what she'd done and said in hindsight like this was truly eye opening. The fact that Timmy hadn't said a word before now and was even now refusing to say anything, to Gibbs even, stole her breath away and left her completely shaken and unsure of what to say or do. While Timmy hadn't thrown her to the sharks; he had, in effect, left her to sink or swim on her own. Despite her own guilt and responsibility in all of this; a piece of her couldn't help but feel angry that McGee hadn't even thrown her a life jacket.