Chapter 5
Explanations
A little while later, Ducky accompanied Catriona back upstairs to the bullpen and Gibbs' team.
Tim rose as they entered and Catriona squeezed his hand as she passed and made her way to Gibbs' desk. Gibbs looked up at her and flashed her a gentle smile before rising from his seat and moving around the desk to wrap her in his arms.
"Hello, Katie."
"Hello, uncle Jethro." Catriona said, dropping her American accent, Tim smiled- that was the voice he remembered, the loving and beautiful lilt which sounded even more beautiful when it was put to music.
"What are you doing here? Apart from visiting your old dad?" Gibbs shot a kind look at Ducky who returned it.
"My boss was murdered and I asked Da to do the autopsy. I cannae do it alone." Catriona said, slipping into her native tongue once more.
"Murdered?" Tim asked and Catriona nodded, turning to him.
"Yes. I want his killer caught. I'm afraid at the moment I havenae got much for ye, Timmy." Catriona said walking slowly towards him. He gulped as he found his gaze slipping lower than her eyeline.
"Okay," he gasped out. "What have we got?"
"Male, mid to late sixties I would say, foreign. As I said not much. He knew Andy though, he called him "lieutenant". I heard it down a phone line." She said answering DiNozzo and Tim's questioning gazes.
"Right. I'll work on it." Tim nodded as he sat typing at his desk. Minutes later, everyone dispersed back to labs, to desks and to autopsy, and Tim felt a pair of arms slip around his neck and two slender, pale hands lay flat on his chest.
"Katie?" He questioned.
"Always." Catriona smiled in his ear and Tim smiled too. He stopped typing. "There isn't much more I can do here at the moment. can we..." He was interrupted by Katie's phone ringing and her arms, he'd been enjoying being in, receded and dug into her coat pocket.
"Hello, love." She said, answering the ringing device. She listened carefully for a few minutes. "I'm alright, sweetheart, you didnae have to worry. I'm with Ducky." She listened again and flashed a look at Tim and smiled at him. He smiled back instantly.
"Aye, I'll sort it, I promise. I'll tell him... Soon... I know I've been saying that for months... Aye, I promise. Be good, study hard. I love ye. Bye." She put down her phone and slipped it back in her pocket and then turned back to McGee. "You were saying Tim?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Yes it does. Everything you have to say matters to me, old chum." She teased perching on the edge of his desk, her pencil skirt moving up slightly as she did so, her knee high boots hugged her calves. Tim stared and swallowed and looked up at her face, to find her laughing to herself. "I still have a power over you don't I?" She teased and Tim blushed. "Don't be embarrassed Tim, you still affect me too." Tim blushed even more,
"I was going to ask you to go for a drink with me." Tim said quietly so only she could hear, as Ziva and Tony looked up from their computers- they were checking bank statements and phone calls et cetera for Andy.
"I'd like that, Tim. I've missed ye." Her accent permanently back now, she was sick of hiding it.
"I've missed you too. You were gone for too long." Tim added, his hand on hers on his desk. He gazed at their hands and he flipped over her left hand and ran his finger along her knuckles. She smiled and pulled a chain out from the space between her ample chest and held it out to him.
"Looking for something?" She asked and his eyes met hers and then flashed to the glinting item on the chain. A ring. But not just any ring. The one he had given her before she went back to Scotland all those years ago.
"Yes. Glad you've still got it." Tim smiled.
"Aye, and I hope the sentiment behind it still stands." She smiled back with a wink.
"Yes, it does... Unless there is someone else." He whispered, thinking of her phone call.
"No, there is no one else, Tim. Only you." She kissed the back of his head and he looked up at her again.
"Looks like we both have a few explanations to give one another and the team." He said.
"Aye, but not just yet. Between us first, Mr McGee." She teased.
"Yes, Mrs McGee to be, you're right. As always."
"Not always, just sometimes." They exchanged a smile and both thought back to that day 15 years ago when she had said yes.