CHAPTER TWO

McGee felt lonely in the bullpen knowing Ziva and Tony were off on protection detail. Sure, he was used to working alone, but this time, he felt an odd sense of abandonment.

You're just being stupid, McGee.

He looked up from his computer at the shrill tone of his phone. "Special Agent McGee." He listened for a moment, nodded and smiled slightly. He jotted down a few notes as he replaced the receiver. The Metro police had located the shooter's car. Of course it had been reported as stolen shortly before the attack on the admiral, but now they could search it and hope the guy had been sloppy. Right now, they had precious little to go on.

He picked up his paper and hurried down the Abby's lab.

"Hey McGee," she smiled, looking up from her computer. "Whatcha got?"

"The Metro police found the shooter's car. They're sending it over. Just giving you a heads up so we can start on it as soon as it arrives in the evidence garage."

Abby grinned wider and gave him a salute. "That's great McGee! I'm ready whenever it gets here."

"Have you had any luck with the bullet Metro found at the scene?"

Abby shrugged. "It's a 32 caliber, but that's about all I can say about it until we find a gun to go with it."

Tim nodded and turned to leave.

"Um, Tim?"

He stopped and looked back. "Yeah?"

Abby bit her lip and hesitated. "You okay? I mean, this is your dad and all, and maybe you don't get along so well, but he is your dad and somebody tried to kill him…." She trailed off, frowning unhappily. "And, well, I heard about what he said to you."

Tim averted his gaze and sighed deeply. "I'm fine, Abby. He's, well, he's just being the admiral. I'm used to it. And frankly, it would take more than one lone gunman to take down my father, believe me." He gave her a weak smile, then turned and disappeared into the elevator. Abby stared after him a moment longer, then returned to her own work.

The car arrived a couple of hours later. Tim joined Abby dusting every surface for fingerprints while she dug under seats and searched the trunk. The car had been wiped clean except for one partial on the mirror adjustment button.

Abby smiled in triumph as she studied the print. "Don't worry, McGee, this little print may be the key to everything."

Tim didn't feel quite so certain. "Let's hope so. We don't have anything else to go on right now."

He returned to his desk to continue searching through his father's phone files looking for anything that might indicate who the stalker was. So far, they had been routine calls and Tim didn't expect to find anything useful. Why should he? His father might even know who tried to kill him, but Tim suspected the last people he would tell would be NCIS. The admiral just couldn't bear the thought that the organization that stole his son from him might actually prove effective. It would especially gall him if Tim were the one to track down the assailant. But it would be even worse if he failed. Tim tried to ignore the tightness in his chest. Focus, Tim!

"Talk to me, McGee."

Tim was jolted from his reverie by the arrival of Gibbs. He blinked trying to bring his attention back to the problem. He leapt to his feet nearly knocking over his chair.

"Oh, Boss, um, yeah. Hold on." He scrambled through the papers on his desk while Gibbs watched impassively. Tim stumbled as he hurried over. His face burned. It was like being a green probie again.

"McGee?"

"Right, okay, well, Metro police found the shooter's car. Abby and I went over it with a fine tooth comb. It was wiped clean, but we did find a partial on the control for the side window. Abby's running it now. Could simply be the owner's but maybe we'll get lucky. Um, I've been going through my father's phone records for the past month and so far nothing out of the ordinary. Most business related, but I'm making a list of everyone he talked to so we can ask him about them." He ran his eyes down his list.

"Oh, and Abby checked out the bullet but there was nothing remarkable about it. Thirty-two caliber but that's it. We'll need to match it to the shooter's gun."

Gibbs nodded. "Good work. Let me know if Abby gets a match on that print."

"Right Boss."

"Oh, give me the list of names and I'll go talk to the admiral about them." Gibbs paused and eyed McGee. "Unless you want to."

McGee's head shot up as he took an involuntary step backwards. Inwardly, he cursed himself for acting like a frightened kid. He took a deep breath. "Probably be better if you did it. I'm not sure he'd give me a straight answer."

Gibbs said nothing for a long moment. "You're going to have to face him eventually, Tim. You can't let him have this kind of control over you. You're a grown man and a damn good agent. Never forget that. Don't let him make you doubt yourself or your abilities."

Rubbing the back of his neck, McGee gave his boss a rueful smile. "I'm afraid it's a little late for that."

xxxxxx

Tony DiNozzo sat outside the admiral's office at the Pentagon staring off into space. He blinked as Ziva strode up, two cups of coffee in her hands.

"Anything exciting happen while I was gone?" She handed Tony a cup as she sipped her own, settling into the seat beside him.

Tony gave a snort. "Besides him chewing me out for following him to the bathroom? And for following him back here. And for simply existing? Hmm. No. Not a thing." He shook his head. "I never had any idea how rough McGee must have had it growing up with this guy. I mean, my dad was a royal pain in the butt and disappointed me more times than I can count, but I'll take Senior any day over this asshole."

Ziva smirked. She'd heard so many stories concerning Senior's benign neglect that it amused her that Tony thought somebody might actually had had a more miserable childhood than his own. Then she sighed. "I agree with you, Tony. I had my differences with my own father and even though I know he used me, I never doubted he loved me. I am not so sure about Admiral McGee. The way he treats Tim is dispicable."

"Yeah. But it sure explains a lot about McGeek. You shoulda seen him, Ziva, as a probie I mean. Man, he was so insecure and green, but he was smart and never gave up. I can't figure out why his old man can't see the difference since he joined NCIS."

"Hmmph. It is very clear to me that the admiral does not think much of NCIS period."

"You're right about that, Ziva."

The two agents looked up to see Gibbs striding towards them. They both scrambled to their feet.

"Anything new, Boss?" Tony set his coffee cup down, ready for action.

Gibbs shook his head. "Not much. Metro found the car. McGee and Abby scoured it and only came up with a single partial. Abby's running it now." He nodded to the closed office door. "I assume the admiral is in?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah. He's in. We tried to convince him to allow us to stay in the office but like McGee once told me, the admiral does what he wants to do no matter what anyone else says. So, we're stuck out here." He paused. "No loss, really. I've only been around the guy a little while and I'm ready to shoot him myself. I'm sick of him badmouthing McGee and the agency."

Gibbs shared his look of disgust. Then stepped forward, knocked and entered without waiting for a reply.

An officer at a reception desk stood up, startled. "Sir…"

Gibbs flashed his badge and ID. "Special Agent Gibbs. I need to speak with the admiral."

"Sir, the admiral is very busy! Sir! Wait! You can't go in there!"

Gibbs ignored the flustered assistant and pushed open the door to the inner office. Admiral McGee's head snapped up, his eyes blazing.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Gibbs? I gave my assistant strict orders that I wasn't to be disturbed. It had better be something damned important. You find out who tried to shoot me?"

Gibbs shook his head. "No, sir. We're making some progress, but I need to ask you a few questions. I knew if I called first, you wouldn't see me. So, here I am. Should only take a minute."

The admiral's jaw worked furiously as if he couldn't quite figure out how to respond short of exploding. But finally, he took a deep breath. "Fine." He spat the word out as if it had a foul taste. "What do you want?"

Gibbs handed him a print out of all the names and phone calls Tim had provided him. "I need you to look through this and see if there are any names that you think may have some connection to your attack. I know you're involved in a top secret project and these are likely linked to that, but I need to know if you think any of these people might have some grudge against you or the project."

Reluctantly, the admiral took the paper and studied it, his scowl deepened. "These are my private calls from my secure Pentagon line. How the hell did you get these?"

Gibbs tilted his head, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Your son is very good at what he does."

The admiral spat out another word. Gibbs' eyes narrowed dangerously. "Your son deserves respect, sir. He is very talented and a highly capable agent."

The admiral rolled his eyes. "I am not going to discuss my son with you, Agent Gibbs. I don't give a damn about what you think of him and his so-called abilities. In fact, I am not even going to argue about how you got this classified information, but I think perhaps it's time someone looked into how NCIS goes about its business. As for the names on this list, I will vouch for each and everyone one of them. They are all vital to project and none of them has any reason to want to stop it, much less kill me off." He tossed the sheaf of papers back to Gibbs and picked up his phone. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have important work to do."

Gibbs fought back a few choice words of his own before retrieving the papers and turning on his heel. He marched past the nervous looking assistant and back out to the hallway where Ziva and Tony waited.

"By the look on your face, I'm guessing the meeting wasn't as cordial as you would have hoped, huh, Boss?" Tony grinned as he leaned against the wall.

Gibbs glanced back at the closed door, his face rigid. "I don't get that guy. Especially when it comes to his own son. It's like he can't respect anything McGee has done. It's all I can do not to punch him in the face."

Ziva and Tony exchanged amused glances. It wasn't often Gibbs let someone get under his skin like this. Tony certainly understood. He'd had to restrain himself several times while in the admiral's presence.

Gibbs shook his head and sighed. "Okay, listen Morales and Carter from Monroe's team will relieve you at 2100 hours. Monroe's team is short some people, so we agreed to divide this protection detail."

"Lucky them," muttered Tony, glancing down at his watch. Two more hours. If he and Ziva were lucky, the relief team would arrive before the Admiral was ready to go home. The less time they had to spend in his physical presence, the happier he would be.

A/N: Thanks for the kind reviews. I watched the McGee and his father episode last night and for the most part enjoyed it. Thought they rather smoothed things over between them a little too easily though. Glad to see McGee actually does have a mother somewhere! Anyway, hope you enjoy the story as it goes along.