McGee paused from taking pictures of their apparent murder weapon—a busted brick crusted with blood and bone—and took a moment to observe Dinozzo. Gibbs had given Tony lead on this one in order to take Ziva to an appointment, but instead of gloating Tony scowled like a sullen teenager as he watched Ducky and Palmer placing the victim's body in a black bag. Tim wanted nothing more than to stay out of whatever was bugging him, but some of the local LEOs were starting to notice and murmur amongst themselves. With the reputation of NCIS on the line, he had no choice once Tony noticed his gaze. Once the body was ready for transport, Tony drifted his way, eyes scouring the ground for further clues. Tim let his camera hang from the strap around his neck and took a deep breath.
"Got something on your mind, Tony?"
Tony's eyes darted to him, darkened, and then returned to the pavement. "No," he growled.
Tim sighed, but took up his camera again, almost ready to drop the subject entirely. "Could have fooled me."
Several moments passed silently before Tony finally turned back to him. "Gibbs and Ziva slept together," he stated forcefully. Tim raised one eyebrow, unimpressed.
"Figured that one out on my own," Tim shrugged. "Because, you know. The baby."
Tony's expression soured further. "Before the baby, McDoofus. Before Kabul. They've been sleeping together for years… while Ziva was still on the team."
Tim stopped to consider that. If that was what Tony was pissed about, Tim failed to see how that affected them now. It certainly explained a few oddities over the years between Ziva and Gibbs, and made the idea of a family far more natural now. "Okay," he responded.
"Okay?!" Tony exclaimed incredulously.
Tim shrugged again. "What else should I say, Tony? It's none of my business. The fact I never realized before means they obviously did a good job keeping it out of the office, so I can't really complain, even if I wanted to. I think it's great."
"You think it's great that Ziva's been banging the boss? You're not worried that Gibbs abused his authority, or played favorites?"
At that, Tim's spine stiffened as he finally rose to Tony's baiting. He gave his team leader a hard stare. "That's absurd."
"Is it?" Tony challenged.
"Yeah, it is! Because if Gibbs had, I seriously doubt Ziva would have ended up in Somalia!" His shout rendered Tony speechless, and attracted the stares of several police officers. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Tim lowered his voice. "And you know what? I really wish he had, if it would have spared her that."
They didn't speak about Somalia. At first they had avoided it out of respect for Ziva, to protect her from the memories of it while she was at the Navy Yard. That silence extended even to when Ziva wasn't present. They were grown men, they had gotten captured on purpose, so it didn't really matter what had happened in the confines of that camp. It also meant they didn't have to talk about what had led them there, or why Ziva had left NCIS in the first place—for which McGee was sure Tony didn't want to think about.
"And what about Rule #12, huh?" Tony pressed further, clearly not content to let the subject drop. "That doesn't bother you either?"
Tim waved that one aside. "Why would it? It's Gibbs' rule, not mine. If I had a problem with them breaking Rule #12, then I'd have to be bothered by my dating Abby."
Tony blinked. "You're dating Abby?"
"Not anymore," Tim said quickly. "But we were, we did."
"Abby isn't part of the team—"
"You can be the one to tell her that, then. I'm sure Gibbs would have something to say about that too." In the form of a smack to the head.
Tony rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant, McGee."
"If you really think that Rule #12 didn't apply to Abby, of all people, then you're being intentionally obtuse. Whether you think it does or not, Gibbs didn't say anything when we were dating."
"You're sure he knew?"
"Gibbs knows everything."
Tony couldn't argue with that. At the time, Tim had been grateful they'd been careful enough to not draw Gibbs' attention, but as the years had passed he'd become increasingly convinced that he hadn't gotten away with a damn thing. Gibbs had let them make their own choices in spite of Rule #12 and still had yet to say word one about it.
"Look, Tony, I know you thought you had some kind of future with Ziva, but the bottom line is, if you really care about her, you'll be happy that she's happy. That's it."
"But—"
"Tony. Stop it. You weren't even happy as partners!"
Tony gritted his teeth. "I suppose you think you're the expert on all things Ziva now, don't you?"
Tim rolled his eyes. "Anyone with eyes could see it."
"Why are you taking their side anyway? We've been partners even before Ziva came—"
"We were never partners, Tony," McGee responded swiftly. "We were teammates, but not partners. You belittled me and degraded what I do and what I enjoy even after Kate died. I tolerated it because I knew under all the disparaging remarks that you were a good agent and I could learn a lot from you, and because Gibbs and Ziva made it easier to swallow. But don't pretend our working relationship has been all sunshine and roses."
It felt good to finally say it—Tim had suffered in silence a long, long time. Still, he did regret it a little when Tony's expression shut down completely, leaving nothing but anger behind. "Then I'm sure you were all too happy to get one over on me, huh?"
"What?!" Sensing that the conversation was shifting towards the erratic accusations of a tantrum, Tim turned away. "You know what? Forget it."
"You must have loved it when she came to you for help finding Bodner. That she came to you, instead of her damn partner!"
McGee froze, then turned on his heel. A hard laugh bubbled in his throat, but the barely contained fury in Tony's eyes made him swallow it. For years, Tim had seen Tony's behavior shift and change, not always for the better. He'd seen it drive Kate, and then Ziva, crazy. For Ziva, it had pushed her straight out of the country and back to Mossad. In that moment, in front of half a dozen nameless officers and the persistent rubberneckers, Tim realized that Tony truly didn't have a clue when it came to Ziva, and that this crush—infatuation—was centered around Tony, and had nothing to do with any bond between him and Ziva.
"She didn't," Tim replied finally, his throat tight with growing anger.
"Oh, sorry, I must have been mistaken when I found you guys working together in a seedy motel room!"
"Tony, just shut up for a minute, will you?" McGee said forcefully. Tony blinked, taken aback. His jaw clicked shut. "Ziva didn't ask me for anything. I knew she was going to pursue Bodner, and I started to dig on my own. When I had information, I passed it along to her, and offered to help. I told her I would be able to work faster if I knew which bases she'd already covered. That's when she brought me up to speed. I did it on my own time, of my volition. She didn't ask."
Tony shook his head. "Why the hell would you do that? We could have lost her—"
"Because we did lose her!" Anger burned low in Tim's gut, remembering the look in her eyes when he'd said goodbye to her on the tarmac before she, Tony and Gibbs flew Rivkin's body to Israel. It was the last time he saw her before Saleem's men had dragged her hooded and bound into their cell in Somalia, and that look lingered for months after her rescue. The memory of it still haunted him, as did the knowledge that he could have prevented it. "We lost her," he repeated, "and we had to go to Somalia get her back. I wasn't going to let that happen again. I wasn't going to let your pride drive her away again."
Tony's features darkened dangerously, his fist curling at his side. "What's that supposed to mean, McGee?"
McGee refused to be cowed. He let his own anger rise, and push him onward. "It means that you haven't cared about anyone but yourself in a long time. You're mad now because your partner didn't include you in an operation you immediately condemned when you found out about it. You're mad that your partner has chosen to make her life with Gibbs. You're not her partner, Tony, you're her keeper. You became her watchdog and you're pissed she never thanked you for it. You're selfish, and petty. I can live with that, but I don't blame Ziva for wanting to get away from it."
"You don't know what you're talking about. I love—" Tony's growl stopped abruptly, catching on the words he no longer had any right to say.
"No, Tony," McGee said. "You don't. I love Ziva. She's my family. That's why I knew she would go after Bodner and why I offered to help her do it. You might love the idea of Ziva, of a having a life with her, but you don't love her. If you did, you'd be happy that she's happy now, and not stay hung up on who she chose to be happy with."
McGee froze, suddenly very aware that if Tony chose to slug him, it would be in front of the watchful eyes of their audience. Tony glared at him, standing mute with dark eyes that tried to skewer Tim where he stood. Now that the words were out, McGee deflated. While not a word that had spilled out of him was untrue, they hadn't been said with the intent to drive Tony away. Looking at him now, McGee was almost certain that they would. Ziva was gone and not returning to NCIS, and Tony's faith in Gibbs had been shattered, perhaps irreversibly. That left McGee as Tony's sole tether to the Major Case Response Team, and Tim might have just severed it as well. Still, as the silence pressed in on them, he couldn't bring himself to apologize.
"I'm going to go… photograph something else."
He left Tony standing there, aware of the eyes on his back and trying to convince himself that he wasn't bothered by it. His feet carried him past the autopsy van, where Palmer's solemn gaze caught his eye. He expected the younger man to pull his gaze away immediately, guilty at having overheard, but Jimmy only gave a single nod of agreement.