a/n - Thanks for all the wonderful feedback. I'm glad everyone is enjoying this one.

That late in the evening traffic was light and the round trip to Silver Spring took less time than Vance would have expected. He cringed at the thought of the dog hair in his car, but Jethro was surprisingly well mannered for a dog of his size. When McGee explained his history, it made sense although he was a little annoyed to learn that NCIS had a trained drug detection dog at their disposal and they weren't using him as such. Putting that aside, he decided to bring up something else.

"Are you worried about the memories this may drag up?" When McGee frowned, Vance hurried to explain.

"Gibbs was afraid some of this might bring back what happened to you as a child. He wanted details of the case so we didn't make it worse for you. If you don't want him to know, just say the word and I'll tell him the records are off limits."

"This is Gibbs we are talking about, remember?"

Vance realized the other man had a point. "Sorry, for a moment there I thought I was the one in charge of the agency."

"The agency, yes, but Gibbs will never back down when it comes to his team." McGee chewed on his bottom lip as he tried to explain the details the records would show. "What that man did to me was bad enough, but…" He struggled to find the right words. "My family, actually my dad, didn't deal well with what happened."

"McGee," Vance cleared his throat and tried again. "Tim, if an animal did that to my child, I wouldn't react well either. Hell, I'd probably be in jail for killing the bastard."

"Would you want to kill your own child?" After he asked his question, McGee turned to look out the window, but Vance could see his reflection.

"I'm afraid you lost me."

"They told my dad about how many child molesters were molested themselves as children. Apparently it was so he'd make sure I had therapy to deal with what happened." Tim swallowed hard, hating what he had to say, but knowing neither the Director nor Gibbs would walk away without all the facts. "Dad became obsessed with the idea that I was going to become a monster. He told one of the doctors at the hospital that maybe it would be better if I didn't have a chance to grow up if that's what I was going to become."

Not trusting himself to drive after hearing that revelation, Vance quickly pulled the car over to the curb. "My God, what happened? They didn't let you stay with him unsupervised, did they?"

"No, foster care for a few months until they were sure it was safe." McGee leaned against the glass and closed his eyes.

"Was it safe?" Vance didn't get an answer, but he could see that the younger man had reached his limit.

Once they were back at Gibbs' home the four men made quick work of unloading the car before Ducky and Vance left them for the evening. Vance managed to pull Gibbs off to the side long enough to bring him up to speed on what he had learned about McGee's childhood. Overhearing, Ducky made noises about spending the night to keep an eye on them, but Gibbs assured him they would be fine. After a promise to call if they needed anything and an assurance they would meet up in the morning, he got the door closed behind them. Gibbs leaned against it for a moment before searching for his new housemate.

McGee was in the kitchen, filling the refrigerator from a box on the floor. Curious, but patient, Gibbs moved closer to take a look, picking up a head of lettuce that McGee was reaching for. "This is food."

"Umm, yeah." McGee frowned at the obvious fact his boss had just recited while he explained why he was loading his own groceries into the fridge. "I went shopping yesterday, and since Director Vance is pretty adamant that I stay here until all this is sorted out, it seemed pretty silly to waste it."

Gibbs was still clutching the lettuce so McGee leaned past him to pick up a bag of jalapeno peppers. "How spicy do you like your food?"

"You cook."

McGee wasn't sure if it was a statement or a question. "I eat, therefore I cook." He glanced at the refrigerator that had only contained a carton of eggs, some take out boxes and a few ancient condiment bottles before he started to load his own food onto the shelves. Apparently the older man leaned towards the 'I eat, therefore I buy' method of survival.

"You cook." This time it was said with a grin as Gibbs tossed him the head of lettuce. "So, what's for dinner tomorrow?"

The grin was shyly returned. "How about marinated pork chops with a pineapple salsa, Boss?"

Gibbs' smile grew even wider. "If nothing else, I'm gonna eat well until we get this sorted out." He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "And Tim, if we are going to let people think we're lovers, then away from work it shouldn't be Boss or Gibbs."

"You're right Bo…Jethro."

At the sound of the shared name, the other Jethro came bounding into the kitchen, his paws sliding on the tile floor. Both men shared a laugh as the four-legged Jethro sat between them expecting a treat from the open refrigerator. Tim snapped his fingers and pointed to the corner. "Go lay down."

After the dog circled and then settled in the open corner Gibbs shook his head. "I knew it was a bad idea to let Abby name that dog."

McGee tossed the oldest looking boxes of Chinese food into the trash to make room for the beer he had brought. "I've been trying to train him to respond to Jett instead."

"So did my mother."

"Yeah? Well, I'll let the two of you sort it out in the morning." Tim put away the rest of the cold food and closed the door. "Show me where I can hang my suits so they don't wrinkle and I'm done for the night."

McGee picked up his suit bag along with his overnight bag, planning on leaving his other bags until morning. He wasn't even sure what clothes he had, as Vance had packed them while he had boxed up the food. He'd raised an eyebrow at the amount of clothing the Director had packed, but decided it wasn't worth the bother. Now he wasn't about to worry about unpacking more than a few days worth of clothing. Gibbs didn't say a word, just grabbed the other bags and headed up the stairs. At the top of the stairs he opened the door to the master bedroom. He turned to address the surprised man behind him.

"Once we're publicly out, some people are going to get pretty nosy."

"You think that Tony's going to sneak over here and go through the closets to see if…" Tim paused and hung his head. "We're talking about DiNozzo; of course he's going to sneak over here. It'll serve him right if Jethro bites him in the butt."

The human Jethro laughed at that image as they entered the bedroom. He stopped and took the bag off McGee's shoulder, tossing it and the ones he already had onto the bed. Now serious, he stepped closer to the other man. "Tim, with any luck, Fornell is going to show up here in the morning to tell us that he broke the case, the people who grabbed us are in custody and we can go on with our lives. Until that happens, we need to spend every minute pretending to be a happy couple until it's second nature. That means we share the closets in here, we share the bed, and we look comfortable in each other's personal space." To prove his point, he brushed his hand down the side of Tim's face, secretly enjoying the license to touch the other man before he stepped away and opened one of the closets in the large bedroom.

"This closet is yours, along with that dresser." He pointed out the low dresser with a mirror. "Most of my exes were clothes horses, so there should be plenty of space for you. You know where the bathroom is, the drawers on the left side of the vanity are empty."

McGee nodded, and then started hanging his suits and blazers. He was right; Vance had packed almost every garment he owned. He wasn't the clothes horse any of the ex-wives had been so in only a few minutes he had everything either hanging or put into a drawer. He took his toiletries into the bathroom with him and closed the door.

To give the other man some privacy, Jethro busied himself turning down the bed before taking his own turn in the bathroom. Once they were sliding into the bed, an inhuman sound started echoing from the lower level of the house. Gibbs reached for his gun while McGee started laughing. "Jethro."

"What?" When Gibbs realized Tim was talking about and to the other Jethro, he put his gun away and started laughing. "Some ferocious guard dog we've got there, Tim."

"He was a drug dog, not a guard dog, and his bed is still at the apartment. Vance refused to let me put it in his car." Another mournful howl came up through the stairway and Gibbs glared at his laughing bunkmate.

"He is not sleeping on my bed."

McGee shook his head. "Of course not, he knows better. Do you have an old blanket he can use for the night?"

"Yeah, I can come up with something." Grumbling under his breath about how he had never made this many concessions for any of his ex-wives, Gibbs went into the guest bedroom and pulled off the comforter Diane had paid way too much money for and dragged it back into the bedroom. Once he had it wadded up between the two dressers he whistled, and then got out of the way as seventy pounds of German Shepard bounded up the stairs to his new nest. The two Jethros grinned at each other as they each settled in their respective beds.

Gibbs turned serious while he observed McGee as he stretched out on the far side of the bed. The other man couldn't quite hide the shiver as he pulled the blankets up. "You okay, are you warm enough?"

"I'm all right. Ducky said the drugs they used on us might make us feel a little chilled for a while." Tim didn't object as Gibbs rolled onto his side and tucked the blankets closer to him, pulling Tim onto his side in the process.

As the two men faced each other in the dark, Gibbs reached across and laid his hand on McGee's arm. "You know how I feel about apologies, but I am sorry I got you in this mess. You would probably be more comfortable with Tony rather than me."

"Hardly," Tim gave a sleepy snort without opening his eyes.

"You don't really trust him, do you?"

In the dark, sharing a bed like this, it was impossible to even shade the truth. "In a gunfight, I'd trust him almost as much as I trust you, but on a personal level, no, not so much."

Jethro thought about the interactions he'd seen between the two over the years. "Is this your gut talking or are there specific reasons you don't trust him?"

If Vance didn't already know, Tim might have kept silent, but he couldn't keep something like this from Gibbs. Not now, when it was so close to what they could be facing. "Do you remember the gay bashings in the Yard a few years ago?"

He did remember. It started out as just rumors; luckily the first confirmed attack had been followed minutes later by an arrest by a group of vigilant MP's. "You were targeted? Why?"

Tim shrugged as he tried to explain. "Tony didn't want any of the women there to be interested in me. He thought it was funny to tell people I was gay."

"Why didn't you come to me, Tim?"

"At first, I thought I was just being paranoid because the Yard is kind of creepy at night. Then I thought it was just some prank of DiNozzo's and it would just get worse if I fell for it. The night it got really bad and I had to defend myself, the MP's were patrolling and the guys heard them and took off. I gave all the information I had to the MP's and the patrol caught up with them as they were attacking someone else. Because of the rumors, the sergeant listed me as an anonymous witness in his report. I would have testified if they had needed me to, but they copped a plea so it never went to court." McGee shrugged again as he drifted off to sleep. "His idea of funny can really hurt and it was kind of hard to trust him after that, at least about personal stuff."

"I almost lost you." The words were so soft no one else in the room heard them as he let his hand ghost across Tim's head before returning to his arm. Just as he was trying to force himself to sleep, something cold and wet brushed against his back where his shirt had ridden up. He froze, and then slowly looked over his shoulder.

The battle of wills would have been a disappointment to anyone awake to watch. Gibbs jerked his head and pointed. "Other side." With one Jethro gently pulling and one Jethro gently pushing, they had Tim scooted to the middle of the bed without ever waking him. Both now happy, they joined him in easy slumber in the bed.