Gibbs watched his team reconnect without saying anything. Tim had only been gone for four and a half days and Tony was once again on his game, big brother hasseling his little brother and loving every minute of it. Ziva was also back in her comfort zone, the middle sister working at keeping the peace when she wasn't caught up in the humor involved. Tim. Yeah, Tim was once again the resident little brother who, while he no longer fell for the pranks and the overkill with the pranks, he did still let them get by with the jibes and remarks that he'd learned not to let bother him anymore. But, when Gibbs looked closely, he could see something was still bothering his youngest agent.

While he looked much better and more comfortable with himself, than he had a mere three hours ago at lunch; Tim's eyes still spoke of something unsettled and uncomfortable. He knew it had something to do with Vance's mixed messages earlier. But he could also see it went deeper than that. The fear was more prevalant than the anger. Having made great strides and boatloads of progress in getting Tim to let him in and getting him to speak his mind without fear of reprisals, Gibbs wasn't about to let the young man stew in anything that resembled the muck he'd been mired in all week long. No, he'd make the effort to talk to Tim before he let him go home for the night.

When six o'clock hit and Tony and Ziva began actively became antsy in an obvious desperateness to leave, Gibbs' curiosity was peaked. "You guys got somewhere to be?"

"Um, actually, yeah, we do." Tony answered a little sheepishly.

"Yes, Gibbs. We do." Ziva seconded.

"You guys wouldn't be breaking Rule 12 now, would you?" Gibbs asked pointedly.

"What? No!" Tony reacted with shock.

"No, No, we would not." Ziva reassured the boss with conviction.

"Good, So, then, what's the rush?"

"We have a dinner reservation."

"You two? Together? What's the occasion?" Gibbs pushed as the curiosity over this unusual event became contagious.

Tony and Ziva looked at each other for a minute, glanced at Tim, who wasn't watching the situation, but was listening as he worked; and proceeded to walk up to Gibbs' desk and whisper.

"Abby."

Gibbs' eyes darkened with a yet to be dealt with fury at the mention of his Lab Tech's name. While he'd been furious with her from the beginning of this week of craziness; that fury had become full blown and white hot after hearing Tim's
first-hand account and witnessing for himself, what the whole situation had done to his agent. Unwilling to draw any further attention to this than his agents were, he let them go with a silent motion of his head and sat back down, glancing over at Tim's desk as he did. When he found Tim looking in his direction with a faraway saddened look of guilt in his eyes, the boss gave up the idea of going back to work for the moment.

"Hey,"

Tim blinked and cleared his vision as he looked at his boss.

"Talk to me."

"I didn't tell you all that to ruin your relationship with her." Tim admitted with the sadness that had been written on his face now mixed with guilt he couldn't hide any better.

"You didn't ruin anything. We'll work it out." Gibbs promised. "Just give it time."

"Okay." Tim answered in a quiet tone and turned back to his work.

"McGee." Gibbs said as he walked over to the young man's desk and perched himself on the corner of it.

"Boss?" Tim asked hesitantly.

"Something still buggin' you?" the quiet question spoken of concern rather than censure.

Tim looked down for a minute and took a deep breath. Looking up at Gibbs finally, he silently nodded.

"I'm listening."

"I can't." came the unexpected answer.

"McGee…" Gibbs growled in frustration.

"Not here." Tim clarified quietly through Gibbs' rising objection.

"My office." Gibbs requested as he closed down his work station for the night and waited for Tim to finish doing the same to his.

"Ready?" the boss asked to spur their steps forward.

Tim nodded and followed Gibbs to his office. He hadn't wanted to bare his soul completely but now that he was back at work, he couldn't tolerate keeping secrets from his Boss. The efforts Gibbs had gone through this afternoon to set things right and make this all be a thing of the past, made this the only option open to him.

"Okay. Tell me. What's buggin you."

"Vance."

"Yeah, I figured this was comin'. Listen, McGee. He just wants to make damn sure this never happens again. If it means scaring the hell out of ya, then obviously, he's willing to go that far to make his point."

"Then why'd he say he understood?" the younger man asked in aggravated confusion.

"Because he does. It's your typical double-edged sword, McGee." Gibbs answered in his 'you should know that' tone.

"Okay. I guess I get it." Tim conceded meekly.

"Just don't let it get near this point again, and you'll have nothing to worry about." Gibbs warned in genuine concern.

"Okay." Tim's answer sounded very much like the promise Gibbs knew it to be.

"What else?" the boss pushed, knowing full well there was more going on underneath the surface with his agent.

"Boss?" Tim was surprised. He hadn't realized Gibbs would see more than one problem simmering.

"Something else's buggin' you. You're afraid of something, what is it?"

"I don't want to be keeping secrets from you, but this doesn't just affect me. I don't want her to lose her job." Tim admitted with relief that he wasn't keeping secrets from his boss any more.

"You're dating Vance's Assistant."

Tim's mouth hit the floor.

"I saw her reaction when she read the ticket paperwork." Gibbs told him with a small smile.

"Oh Right. She told me about that."

"Relax, McGee. There's nothing that says you two can't be dating. Unless she's not treating you right."

"Thanks, Boss."

"How long have you been dating?"

"Six months."

"You've kept this a secret for that long? Why is it all of a sudden a problem?"

Tim had the grace to wear his guilt well.

"McGee, this isn't about you not telling me before now. Why is it bothering you now?"

"I don't want you to have any reason to think I'm being dishonest." Tim admitted.

"Nuh, Uh, What's this really about?" Gibbs pushed.

"I guess, neither of us are as sure of Vance's reaction as you seem to be."

"If he gives you any trouble, let me know." The boss answered with a show of support.

"Thank you for that, but it's not me, I'm worried about."

"You think Vance will give his assistant trouble?"

"That's just it, I don't know, but I'm worried that the trouble he will give her won't be fixable."

"And instead of getting it out and off your shoulders, the two of you have decided that keeping it a secret works for you? Must make for a pretty strained relationship."

"Just hard with having to be so careful."

"Then do something about it."

"I'm not sure I could convince her to risk it."

"Won't know til you try, McGee."

"Yeah. You're right. Thanks, Boss."

"You're welcome."

Gibbs snapped the elevator back on and silently waited for it to take them where they needed to go. As they walked to their cars in companionable silence, the boss hit upon an idea. "McGee."

"Boss?"

"You willing to go for some extra training?" Gibbs asked casually.

"Sure." Tim answered without hesitation, just as the boss had known he would.

"No matter what it's for?" his boss pushed.

"If you feel it's necessary, I'll go." The younger man vowed.

"Good. Okay. See you tomorrow." Gibbs said with a straight face.

"Night, Boss." Tim said before he climbed into his own car and drove out.

Gibbs smiled and let out a laugh. He couldn't wait to see the look on this kid's face when he figured out exactly what he'd just agreed to.