Gibbs headed up to Tony's apartment after having left Ducky to stay with Tony back at the house. He was surprised to see McGee's car in the parking lot. But at the same time, he was a bit okay with that fact. He needed to ask him a favor.

Once unlocking the door, Gibbs let himself in and saw Tim hard at work trying to sweep up a mess of broken ornaments on the floor, where he'd already picked up and reassembled the tree.

Tim spun around when he heard him enter. "Boss?"

"Didn't expect you to be here, McGee," Gibbs said as he closed the door.

"I just uh...I wanted to...ya know, clean up a bit. For Tony." His eyes skittered sheepishly.

"That's nice of you," Gibbs told him.

"Is he okay?" he asked. "Palmer said he brought him to your place. Said he'd had a pretty bad migraine before that."

"Migraine's gone," he replied as he approached the messy area around the tree and examined what remained intact. "But he's upset, understandably." McGee nodded, then stooped down to pick up the full dustpan and dump it in the kitchen trash can. "How long have you been here, Tim?" Gibbs asked when he noticed the kitchen was cleaned up fairly spotlessly. He hadn't been there, himself, yet. But he'd been told the condition of the apartment when they spoke to him on the phone earlier.

"Maybe an hour," the younger agent replied. "I wanted to get everything up before he comes back here. Last thing he needs is to come home to this...after everything." He swallowed and turned back to sweeping. "Did you know he was planning to come to town?" Tim asked.

Gibbs narrowed his eyes. "His father?"

"Yeah..."

"Yeah, I know. Tony told me."

"Abby and I found his plane ticket verification online," McGee explained as he swept, not looking up from his work. "No hotel booked here. So we figured he was meant to stay here. And Tony has the guest room made up all nice... I didn't think Tony was very close to his father, but Abby thinks that he really was coming to stay with Tony for Christmas," he stopped and turned to him with a look of question on his face. "Do you think she's right? Did he tell you?"

The look on Tim's face showed something akin to pleading. Chances were that he hoped it hadn't been true. Because he knew that if they'd reconciled, this would be harder for Tony. But Tim already knew; he was becoming a great investigator, like he'd been well taught to be. His final clue being the answering look on his boss's face.

"Tony's gonna be stayin' with me for the next few days," Gibbs told him. "Think you can help me out with somethin', if you're free for a bit this evening?"

11 00 11 00 11

"Thanks for comin' to help out, Abs," Gibbs told her as they redecorated the tree with ornaments after they'd gotten it to Gibbs' house. They'd also transported all of the Christmas dinner items Tony had in his fridge, and any wrapped presents that had been out under the tree at Tony's place.

"Like I'd pass up on a chance to do something nice for one of my best friends in the whole world," she replied with a small smile. "Poor Tony...I can't believe he didn't tell anyone."

"I don't think he was ready to deal with it himself, let alone tell usabout it," McGee defended.

"But usually he talks, at least to me, about stuff that's bothering him," she said as she hung a new ornament she'd brought from her own supply. "He must've really been trying to pretend it didn't even happen..." her voice drifted off.

"The point is, now," Ducky said as he hung another ornament, "We do know, and we will be here for him, should he need to talk."

Tbc...