Rating: T

Disclaimer: None of the characters from NCIS belong to me and this story is purely for entertainment purposes.

Chapter Warning: If you are a die-hard Tim McGee fan then my recommendation would be to skip reading this chapter in its entirety because I can pretty much guarantee that it will offend you and elevate your blood pressure. Proceed at your own risk!

Warnings: While parts of this chapter may appear to be taken directly from events that have occurred in the last couple of months I would like to point out that the first draft of this chapter was written at least five months ago (as my beta Arress can verify since I sent her the rough draft to read.) This story was supposed to be a little tongue-in-cheek so I was extremely disturbed when the parallels between RL and my imagination started to emerge.

To the guest reviewer txgal who wanted to know what my intentions were and if I expected them to feel sorry for Leon Vance et al, I'd say IMHO that Leon was already feeling sorry enough for himself, so no, not at all. LOL His purpose was merely to provide an overview of how Tony leaving affected the team and the agency while subsequent chapters will be more focused on how it affects each individual. And also to explain why after having his integrity shredded by Jefferies in my last story and in the show in general (think season 10 & 11) avoids any consequences for his behaviour and appears to be a law unto himself. And he seems to wield much more power and influence than his position as a SSA would warrant i.e, standing in for the Director instead of the Assistant Director assuming power. And for people wondering about Jimmy, your patience will be rewarded towards then end when I'll reveal what he's been up to.

Finally credits: Arress is beta-ing this story once again and big thank-you for her help and suggestions. FYI who knew that spat the dummy was an Aussie idiom but's that's what Beta's are for lol. Oh and as per normal, all mistakes are my bad.

What a Difference a Day Makes: 8760 Little Hours

Chapter 2

Special Agent Timothy McGee, Junior Field Agent MCRT

Special Agent McGee slipped the key into his lock and sighed with relief to be home at last. Toeing off his shoes and shucking his coat and hanging it up in the cupboard, he wondered if he should order takeout or if there was something he could throw together for dinner. He was exhausted and looking forward to chilling out for a few hours as the Elf Lord before having a deep and meaningful relationship with his bed.

Today, like most days lately, had been like something out of Dante's inferno and he dreaded having to go into work. He had definitely descended to the ninth circle of Hell. The NCIS agent was giving serious consideration to asking for a transfer or better yet, retiring, so he could write full time. He had hardly any time to write anymore and even if he did, lately he seemed to have an almost permanent case of writers block. Wandering into the kitchen he grabbed a cold beer out of his fridge and took a deep swallow, letting the iced brew dance across his parched throat with a groan of relief.

Noting that the fridge was barer than Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard, he decided that Thai takeout looked to be the go. Note to self – need to find time to do grocery shopping. And therein lay the rub! It seemed that Gibbs was barely giving them time to hit the head these days, let alone give them time off to deal with mundane matters like eating and sleeping. Sometimes he was convinced that Gibbs forgot that not everybody was a cyborg like him.

Wandering back in to the living area to peruse the mail, he found a letter from his publisher and he grinned. He had been wondering when his latest contract for his new book would arrive for him to sign. Maybe he should talk to Director Vance tomorrow and see if he could make a counter offer to persuade him to stay on as an agent. After all, his cyber hacking skills were second to none and they could hardly afford to lose him. Ripping the envelope, he took out the letter and started reading eagerly.

Mr. T. McGee AKA Thom E. Gemcity

Dear Mr. McGee,

Re: Your book series Deep Six and contractual issues.

Further to our various telephone conversations on the subject of your latest book, this letter is to formally advise you that we will not be picking up the option on your latest book 'Unfathomable Eleven' following the lack of interest in your previous book in the Deep Six series 'Subterranean Ten'. After exhaustive market research, including numerous focus groups, we have determined that your precipitous killing off of the extremely popular character Agent Tommy in your earlier book in the series "Never-Ending Nine' was deeply unpopular to your readership. It has had the extremely unfortunate consequence that they have refused to read subsequent books because he is no longer in them.

Contrary to your assertion that Agent Tommy's sole purpose was that of comic relief and served to highlight the proficiency of the other members of the team, apparently he was seen by many readers as their favourite character and pivotal to the success of the books. Market research also revealed that he was viewed as possessing much greater complexity than you perceived or perhaps intended when you created him and readers felt that he was merely hiding behind the face of a clown. Whatever your intent, it seems he has become a much loved character and as such, people are reluctant to purchase future books in the Deep Six series when he is no longer present.

So after serious consideration of these factors, it was decided that we would not produce further books in this series. I'm sure that you can understand that while this was a difficult decision, it is a purely commercial determination, based purely upon projected sales which at this point in time, would not justify our expense in producing further books.

Furthermore, after giving due consideration to your other book proposals, we have decided not to proceed with them either. Unfortunately at this point of time, due to the current controversy, your literary profile is not one that we can afford to be associated with currently. We encourage you, however, to continue to submit new proposals should you have any and would definitely look favorably on a proposal that had Agent Tommy in it. Perhaps you would consider writing a stand-alone book dealing with Detective Tommy's earlier exploits as a cop when he worked in Peoria, Philadelphia or Baltimore – all of which would be excellent settings for a novel. Alternatively, a book that details how he met Special Agent L. J. Tibbs and how they came to work together, prior to Agent McGregor and Officer Lisa joining the team would be something we would be keen to consider. Our research indicates that either of these books could be a best seller as these two characters are highly popular.

Two other stories were identified as having sound commercial merit with regard to attracting back your former readers and were also centered upon the relationship between Agent Tommy and L .J. Tibbs: One where they have concealed a long-lost father and son connection from everyone, and the second, where they were in a monogamous loving but secret relationship. We hope that you will consider developing one of these Agent Tommy-centric story lines into a book. Meanwhile, we wish you every success in your future literary endeavors.

Yours Faithfully,

Lyndi Crawshaw

After reading the letter which was effectively a publisher's 'don't call us we'll call you' missive, he picked up his half full bottle of beer and flung it at the opposite wall of his apartment in a fit of anger. Goddamn DiNozzo, he'd been the bane of his existence even before he'd joined the MCRT full-time and even now, a year after him resigning from NCIS just because of a stupid joke, he was still ruining Tim's life. He hated the stupid guy and now he had ruined his book deal, too. The guy was a narcissistic buffoon, how the hell could people prefer dumb-as-a-rock, frat boy Agent Tommy over messianic and lethal Agent Tibbs, sexy, dangerous Officer Lisa or the super smart computer savvy Agent McGregor? Obviously, they must also all be dumb as rocks, too, and he so wished that he didn't have to think about Tony DiNozzo anymore.

It had been a year since Tony DiNozzo had gone all diva on them and left because they had been joking about his narcissistic personality behind his back. Why would anyone feed that enormous ego of his by giving him the satisfaction of knowing they were talking about him to his face, anyway? When the perpetual frat boy found out about it he'd thrown a hissy fit, caused a big fracas that had them all fighting amongst themselves and left them high and dry.

Sure, he'd tried to convince everyone that he resigned because the team had ruined his precious reputation, but hey, it wasn't as if people had any respect for him anyway. He was a joke, the class clown! Vance had made it very plain that if it came down to a choice between the two agents, McGee was the type of agent where the future of the agency lay. Super smart and able to investigate crime using new digital techniques as opposed to the more labour intensive old-fashioned cop methods favoured by DiNozzo.

McGee remembered the final time that he'd spoken to Tony DiNozzo when he came to NCIS to tender his resignation and he took his leave of the team. Before he took off to go show just how shallow and narcissistic he truly was, he had shown his true colours as a prima donna, breezing in and refusing to discuss the situation like a rational adult.

Flashback

McGee was filling out paperwork - requisition forms for office supplies which were Tony's responsibility, but he was on a week leave and Gibbs had tossed him a boatload of paperwork. He didn't dare complain since Gibbs was in the foulest temper that McGee could ever recall and that was really saying something. He remembered filling out this particular form before, but a lot of the forms were new to him, so he figured that they must have been newly implemented since he had been the team SFA when Gibbs reti… was on sick leave. Note to self - don't mention Gibbs' retirement; in fact, don't even think about Gibbs' retirement since it was a sure fire way of earning a head slap. A hysterical bubble of incipient giggles tried to break the surface as he remembered the classic line 'Don't mention the war' from a definitive English comedy Fawlty Towers that he'd watched as a child with his Grandmother Penny. Sometimes he felt like the concussed Basil Fawlty around Gibbs, trying desperately not the mention the war and failing miserably.

There was a buzz around the bull pen since Tony had come in earlier and gone up to see Director Leon Vance, even though he was still on a week of unpaid leave. He'd heard the scuttlebutt that their SFA was inconsolable after they lost a slam dunk of a case against Lt. Rixon Wells because his legal counsel had gone after Gibbs and Tony to destroy their credibility. Truth be told, Tony had made no bones of the fact that he blamed the team for shafting him, claiming they hadn't observed Rule #1, but McGee couldn't see how any of them could foresee that a harmless joke about his narcissism would be twisted around by the defense attorney. There was no way to know unless you were psychic, and unlike Abby, he didn't believe in that crap.

Finally, he looked up aware that the hum of conjecture had ceased and the reason for that was soon apparent. Tony was stalking across the walkway on the mezzanine level towards the stairs, his eyes icy and his expression unlike any that Tim had ever seen on DiNozzo. The author in him had to admit that this Tony exuded power and menace in equal proportions and McGee had to concede that he was scary… no, he was crap your pants scary, and he was now heading for his desk. Ignoring his teammates, he sat down and booted up his computer, fired off something at a speed that was unlike his usual one-fingered typing before shutting down his computer and collecting the document from the printer. As he returned to his desk, Ziva, who didn't like being ignored sidled up to him and purred.

"So, Tony, you are coming back from leave early, yes? We can put aside this foolishness and scrabbling. This was just a misunderstanding, but we can get back to what we do best?" She questioned, although he remained silent.

"You could come to my apartment and I could cook you dinner, Tony?" She tried again to illicit a response from him. Still he remained silent.

"If you behave yourself you might just get desert," She tried to flirt, but McGee thought it was hard to flirt when the subject was implacable as a brick wall.

Ignoring her, Tony picked up a pen and signed the printed document and walked over and dropped it on Gibbs' desk before heading back to his desk and putting several items into his back pack, throwing other possessions into the trash and pulling out a box from his filing cabinet and assembling it. By now it was abundantly clear to all that Tony was cleaning out his desk. Stealing a glance at Gibbs, who looked like he was about to combust, McGee felt like they were all headed towards an abyss and there was nothing that could stop them plunging into the dark, bleak maw. It was like watching a train wreck, but he just couldn't look away.

And then all hell broke loose. Ziva, who hated to be treated as if she was irrelevant, decided it was a good idea to playfully slap Tony on the back of the head to force a response out of him. Tim thought it was clearly inappropriate behaviour, but Ziva was not the most socially perceptive of individuals. Millimetres before her hand made contact with his skull though, Tony struck out like viper, grabbing her hand in an iron grip and addressed her in a coldly furious tone.

"I told you once before that you don't get to head slap me, Officer David. You're lucky that I don't bring you up on assault charges."

Ziva snorted, "Do not be a mule, Tony. It is a joke, you out of everyone should understand about jokes, yes?"

"No, frankly I don't Ms. David. I don't understand jokes that can ruin a teammate's credibility or their livelihood, but more importantly, that allows a killer to walk free. I don't understand how my teammates can complain about me to perfect strangers who are looking for ways to discredit my character. Nor do I understand how someone whose six I've had for the last eight years would ever find it appropriate to liken me to a cold-blooded serial killer. Just goes to show that you never really know someone." Tony turned on his heel, missing or just not caring that Gibbs' eyes had dilated dangerously as his fury escalated.

Tim decided to step in to say what Gibbs and Ziva never would. "Look, Tony, I know that you're sore about the trial, but none of us ever imagined that a joke would backfire like that. We're just as upset about Lieutenant Wells getting off as you are."

Without stopping the packing up of his desk or looking up, Tony responded. "So, what you're saying is, McGee, that for the last however many years you've been joking behind my back about me having a personality disorder that you don't really think I'm a narcissist? That you were just kidding?"

Taking a few seconds to respond to the enquiry, Tony gave a cynical laugh that was so cold that it could freeze molten lava, before the former cop interjected just as Tim was about to speak. "Yeah, that's what I thought, Special Agent McGee. I'll refrain from any cheap and obvious retorts about narcissism and Agent McGregor."

Ziva chimed in again. "You are making a fountain out of molehill, Tony. I will take care of this Jefferies… this Richard-cranium. We are a team and we have your back."

Finishing clearing his desk, he looked up outraged at her last statement. "Not as of 15 minutes ago we're not, Officer David, and you've got to be freakin' joking, right? If this is having my back then I'd hate to imagine what it would feel like if you didn't give a damn!"

McGee felt a frisson of dread at his response. "What do you mean, not as of 15 minutes ago, Tony?" He noticed that not only was everybody listening in to the exchange intently, but Special Agent Balboa had come to stand near Tony's workspace.

"I mean that I'm no longer a part of your team because I don't work for the agency anymore, Special Agent McGee. Director Vance accepted my resignation, effective immediately."

Gibbs finally found his voice. Picking up the letter of resignation that Tony dropped on his desk, he ripped it up and threw it in the trash. "Your ass is mine, DiNozzo and you don't have my permission to resign. You don't leave til I say you can."

Tony shook his head and exchanged glances with Balboa. "And I'm supposed to be the narcissist?" he commented to the onlookers. "My ass along with every other part of my anatomy is mine for the first time in eight years, Leroy, and I've gotta say it feels damned good, too. You're free to withhold your permission, but you can't stop me resigning. Leon is already in his office doing the happy dance as we speak all the while drying the ink on the promotion of his golden boy McGee to SFA."

Balboa tapped Tony on the shoulder to get his attention. "Are you sure you want to do this, man? You don't have to leave the agency. I would kill to have you on my team and all the other SSAs feel the same, although frankly it's a serious waste of your skills to be just a SFA, but none of us want to lose you."

Tony smiled briefly at Balboa and nodded his thanks to the other SSAs who were standing around the bull pen, nodding their agreement. "Thanks Rocky and everyone, but I can't stay here. My ability to perform my job has been compromised along with my credibility. I don't HAVE a choice!"

"Wait, Tony, you do not want leave on bad terms. We are your family and you will regret your fierce words. Let us talk about it."

Tony glared at his former teammates. "Actually Officer David, yes, I do. If we're family and that's how you treat family, then I disown you, forthwith. And absolutely no regrets, not anymore. Finally, not one chance in Hell, lady!"

He picked up his box and Balboa picked up the former senior field agent's backpack.

"C'mon, Tony, I'll walk you out."

As Tony waved goodbye to the throng that had gathered before walking away towards the elevator, one of the Senior Special Agents proceeded to send him off with a round of applause. Everyone, bar the MCRT, who were standing looking dumbfounded, rapidly joined in. The clapping soon turned to cheering and finally escalated to stomping which prompted Leon Vance to come running out to see what had caused such riotous behavior from his troops. As he hung over the mezzanine level gawping, he was greeted with the astonishing and highly galling sight of the former Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo being given a farewell like a triumphant hero.

End of Flashback

Timothy McGee grimaced at the memory. As Tony had predicted before his departure, McGee finally got his chance to shine after Tony resigned and he was appointed Senior Field Agent. Although frustratingly, DiNozzo was still there in spirit, screwing up his life even if he'd moved on to greener pastures, screwing him in more ways than one!

After Tony deserted the team, McGee had decided to kill off Agent Tommy in his latest novel since he was no longer a part of their team and, in all honesty, Tim had found it seriously cathartic to be able to get rid of him. He'd made it a three-tissue job and the chapter when the team avenged their 'none-too-bright but loved him despite his flaws' teammate, Agent Tommy, by catching his killer was a literary masterpiece, even if he did say so himself.

After writing it, he wondered why the hell he hadn't done it years ago. When the book hit the shelves, he was expecting that his standing as a novelist would rise markedly. No longer would he be regarded as just a popular crime writer. Expecting to receive plaudits as a serious novelist at last, he had been shocked and appalled at the reception that he had received. He'd started getting hate mail protesting his killing off of their 'favourite' character in the thousands. Then there'd been all the book burning ceremonies at various venues to protest over the killing off of Agent Tommy.

Suddenly, the Deep Six characters were spawning gazillions of fan fictions for heaven's sake, all rewriting his latest book so that Agent Tommy didn't die, was really undercover, abducted by aliens who placed post hypnotic suggestions in the team to make them believe he was dead or other equally ridiculous situations. The scenarios were becoming increasingly bizarre and were driving him to distraction and into a permanent state of hangover.

Meanwhile, his publicist and publisher demanded that he fix the mess in his next Deep Six book ASAP. So he'd been trying to get the next book out as quickly as possible to appease all his fans and stop the rash of vampire Tommy stories that were the latest incarnation of Deep Six fan fictions that were currently all the rage. And he'd been really confident that he'd come up with the perfect remedy to reinvent his series sans Agent Tommy.

After lurking round the various fan fiction sites, McGee thought he knew what it was that the fans wanted. One of the largest communities was one dedicated to TISA, i.e., Tommy plus Lisa and their kids and after reading the various stories he'd been inspired. Tim set to writing furiously, even though it was difficult because Gibbs was being impossible, more so than ever before. Gibbs was a bastard even when he got out of bed on the right side in the morning, but lately, thanks to Tony's betrayal, he'd been ten times worse than normal.

Tim's head was permanently aching from all the head slaps he had to endure. He'd always thought it was funny when the boss did it to DiNozzo, but he didn't find it so funny now when he was the constant focus of Gibbs' head slaps; Hell, call a spade a spade, his assaults. Gibbs was stomping around, roaring, yelling, throwing stationary, even a computer monitor or three, and destroyed twice as many cell phones as usual. And everyone was complaining to him and expecting him to handle Gibbs' moods and calm him down. After all, Tony always could!

More unpalatable than all of that though, was every time Tim made a mistake, and hell he was still learning to do the job thank-you-very-much, or Heaven forbid he didn't anticipate or he didn't do it quickly enough or he didn't do something that he was supposed to do but hadn't actually been aware of, Gibbs would snarl the same hurtful epithets that were slowly destroying his confidence. "… DiNozzo wouldn't make a mistake like that…. DiNozzo didn't do it that way….You're not DiNozzo are ya Elflord… I never had to explain it to DiNozzo; he did it without being told…" If he heard one more comparison to DiNozzo out of Tibbs', um Gibbs', mouth he was gonna lose it and freakin' well punch the boss right in his sarcastic mouth.

And Ziva didn't make his life any easier, either. She thought she should have gotten Tony's old job as SFA, which was just ridiculous as she wasn't even an NCIS agent, but she had made his life a living Hell. She was always making snide comments about his inferior skills in hand-to-hand combat and firearms proficiency. She would question any orders he gave her, especially when Gibbs wasn't around to witness the insubordination, and would boss him around and intimidate him. The Mossad officer was constantly trying to one-up him, not just in the field when she went to great pains to point out her superior fitness skills. Ziva wasn't his partner and watching his six anymore, since she was Hell-bent on showing up all his deficiencies and proving why she should be SFA, not him.

With so many pressures on the job and not being able to sleep when he finally went home at night, he took to the writing of his latest book as therapy, confident at least that he now knew how to rejuvenate his Deep Six series. If all else failed and he ended up shooting Ziva and thumping the Boss in the mouth, at least he had a second career to fall back on. Thom E. Gemcity could provide him with a more than adequate income, especially if he had more time to do self-promotional tours. Soon, he was immersed in the new adventures of LIBBS and McAMY and their hot steamy love affairs and pregnancies. Just for good measure, he had McGregor and Tibbs engage in a steamy but short-lived BDSM relationship where Agent McGregor forced Tibbs to acknowledge that his bastard personality was because he hadn't embraced his sub nature. McGregor taught him how to submit before realizing that it was Amy who he was destined to be with and kicked Tibbs out of his bed.

He also gave Pimmy Jalmer a torrid love affair with the Eurasian legal officer Rochelle Chee, and when it was all done and dusted, he was debating if he should give McGregor a team of his own since he was rapidly getting fed up with his current one. The fact that their closure rate had steadily declined after DiNozzo had left, made him hope that the Director might decide it was time to hand the leadership of the MCRT over to a younger, more competent agent. One with more skills in keeping with the digital age, and he did already have experience leading a team in cyber-crimes.

Either way, Supervisory Special Agent of the Major Case Response Team or celebrated author, Thom E. Gemcity; it would be a good life and he was excited about his newest book coming out. He was confident he had hit all the popular angles with fans that would resurrect his book series again and make it more successful than ever. Yet two weeks after the launch of Subterranean Ten, sales figures were stagnant, critics were panning all the shipping of the main characters, including the McTibbs ship, before starting in on the statistical improbability of dual pregnancies of the only two female characters. The hate mail that had all but slackened off after Agent Tommy had bought the farm in the last book, picked up again with a vengeance. Apparently, the Tisa shippers were outraged that he'd shipped Tibbs and Lisa and got her pregnant, and this time they weren't simply content with burning his books.

He couldn't believe how fanatical, and yes some of them were unhinged even, these shippers were. There were death threats, and even as a federal agent he feared for his safety with some of these whack jobs that appeared to have a very tenuous grip on reality. They formed militant picket lines at any place where he attempted to publicize the book, such as when he attempted to do the talk show circuit and talk-back radio.

He was being constantly stalked. His car was egged on countess occasions and he had rotten fruit chucked at him routinely, which was bad enough, but some of the fruit was canned. The combined pressure of his two professions simply became intolerable. Between his boss, who was behaving like a feral maniac, and the rabid harpies who called themselves Tisa shippers, he was between a rock and a hard place.

He wasn't eating or sleeping and started having panic attacks, but when he suffered a psychotic break convinced that Bert's farts were really a derivative of Klingon and a portent to the end of the world, he was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Bethesda for ten days of observation. Upon discharge, he was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder complicated by exhaustion and stress and placed on medication and his doctor, in consultation with the Director and Gibbs, deemed it advisable to recommend a less stressful working environment. He was demoted from his position as SFA, and because he was still within the probationary period, he had no recourse to fight it. So there he was, back as the junior agent on the team again, and didn't Ziva love that, although she wasn't so smug when Leon Vance appointed an outsider as the new SFA.

So, as he regarded his future now that his publisher had cut ties with him, he had to admit that it was looking bleak. Basically his life was screwed. He lost his writing career, and he'd been twice demoted from Senior Field Agent, which wouldn't look too good on his personnel file, and he doubted if he would be in the running for the directorship after this demotion and developing a mental illness. Basically, if Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo wasn't such a princess, his life wouldn't be such a shambles. Why couldn't Tony just put the needs of the team before his own for once?

They needed him to stop them falling apart and he was off swanning around as some superficial movie star. How much more proof did anyone need anyway? Narcissistic not!

Eyeing another unopened letter that Tim recognised as being from his literary agent, he almost didn't open it. He figured that she was telling him that his contract was cancelled with the publisher or that she decided to drop him, too. Finally, he decided that it was better to just rip the band aid off the ouchy, so he seized the letter and tore it open. Instead of more rejection, his literary agent was informing him that she'd been approached by a party who was interested in securing the film rights to his Deep Six Series with the view to making a feature film sometime in the future.

Tim couldn't contain his relief or his excitement. And he couldn't help thinking about who might play him and the other characters: L. J. Tibbs was obvious, he should be played by Harrison Ford or Clint Eastwood, Officer Lisa should be played by Penelope Cruze or Selma Hayek (Angelina Jolie was too tall), and let's face it, there weren't any famous Israeli actresses, but audiences couldn't tell the difference between Spanish/Latino and Israeli. Agent Tommy was a no-brainer – either Adam Sandler or Jim Carey were the obvious choices, perhaps even Ben Stiller, and Agent McGregor should be played by Sam Worthington or possibly Daniel Craig or Matthew McConaughey.

McGee decided that perhaps his luck was starting to change after all. On balance, if this deal went through, he might just be able resign sooner rather than later. He would have it written into the contract that he act as a technical advisor and script consultant. It could be the start of a beautiful new friendship.

Maybe he'd call up his good buddy DiNozzo and see if he could introduce him to the power brokers in Hollywood.

Next chapter L.J. Tibbs oops my bad... Gibbs!