Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters.

Chapter 9

"What we got?" Tobias asked as he returned to NCIS having been to update his own Director.

"Well the evidence on the bank robbery just arrived from archives, Balboa said to meet him in the lab apparently there's video." Sacks informed.

"Oh great, so now we have to deal with Abby Sciuto, actually thinking about it I'm surprised she's here and not at the hospital." Tobias replied.

"Actually Abby's not even in the country, her cover is Delilah Fielding, Jimmy Palmers with her at the moment helping out."

"Okay then let's get down there."

NCIS

"May I ask as to why?" Vance questioned, taken aback by Sarah McGee's statement regarding her parent's.

Not knowing that Tim's team already knew that they weren't actually brother and sister, Sarah nervously bit at her lower lip.

"Sarah, you have nothing to worry about." Ziva reassured the younger woman, before glancing over to Vance in what he thought was seek permission to inform her what they already knew, however Ziva surprised him by asking a question instead. "Sarah do you remember anything about the bank robbery that happen when you were little?"

"You know about that?" Sarah asked surprised.

"Found out yesterday." Tony informed, he had taken the seat on the other side of the younger woman. "Why don't you tell us what you know?"

Sarah looked between the three before starting. "In answer to your question Ziva, I don't remember any of it, I know what I was told growing up and what I found out later to be the truth…"

"What do you mean what you were told?" Vance questioned, as he finally sat down, having pulled a chair over so it was directly opposite Sarah.

Sarah sighed before getting a really faraway look in her eyes. "Dad always puts Tim down, did you know that? Always telling him that he was weak and pathetic. Anyways it took Tim years to get over what happened that day at the bank, though thinking about it now he probably never really has gotten over it."

"Sarah, what were you told?" Tony asked

"Look you have to remember was that I was only seven when Tim left home, all I remember as a kid was the constant arguments between dad and mum or dad and Tim. When Tim left for MIT, whenever I stayed with dad, he was constantly telling me to forget about him, that it was all his fault that Uncle Patrick got killed but it wasn't, it was mine."

"Sarah you were only two." Tony reminded.

"Yeah, and you know what they say about two year olds…" Sarah continued.

"Oh I've heard of those, they are the treble twos." Ziva jumped in excitedly.

"Terrible, Ziva, terrible twos." Sarah giggled, and from the sly smile on her face Vance and Tony knew Ziva had purposely got it wrong to help Sarah relax and it appeared to work as she continued. "Well according to mum I was going through them big time….."

"About your mum, where was she when your dad was telling you what happened?" Tony interrupted.

"Mum moved out just after Dad and Tim had a massive argument about Tim not wanting to join the navy, they got a divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, something else dad blames Tim for. Anyways, they agreed on joint custody of me as part of the divorce settlement and though I mostly lived with Mum, whenever Dad was home I'd stay at his place."

"So what, you didn't question what your dad told you?" Tony queried disbelief evident in his voice.

"At seven no not really; I was a daddy's girl, his little princess, and I wasn't willing to give that up so it wasn't until just before my teens that I really started asking questions. You see for the first few years every time I brought up the subject Mum didn't want to talk about it; it was only when Tim came for a visit when he was between MIT and John Hopkins that Mum told me the truth." Sarah's voice trailed off.

"Why? Why did she suddenly decide to tell you the truth, Sarah?" Vance prompted.

NCIS

The video was old style due to the age of the case and only in black and white, but it clearly showed the robbers entering the bank, forcing the customers up against the counter. They quickly identified a young and scared Timothy McGee huddled close to a man they guessed was Patrick as the customers were forced to kneel on the floor. After a few moments the video jumped and Tim was, for a few seconds, nowhere to be seen, then he crawled slowly and carefully from the bottom of the screen back towards Patrick who was giving him an encouraging smile, until he was close enough to be pulled in for a hug.

"Wait, stop - run that again." Tobias requested, they hadn't been watching the bank's video for long.

"Okay?" Delilah sound confused. "Mind if I ask you why?"

"Time stamp jumped." Tobias told her.

"So?" Delilah probed, as she rewound the tape until the image was back to where it showed the robbers entering the bank.

"So we need to figure out how much time passed." Tobias educated the temporary lab tech.

"Tim re-started the video." Jimmy stated, amazed.

"Looks that way." Tobias replied. "Brave thing for a ten year old to do."

"Okay looks like twelve minutes plus or minus a few seconds, past between the stopping and starting." Ron said after paused the video again having had taken the control unit from Delilah and replayed it a couple more times.

"Okay so that's means we're twenty minutes into the robbery, so let see what else happened." Balboa stated.

NCIS

"I had been staying with my dad, for the weekend, before Tim arrived, so I started spouting off at him the moment he arrived. Tim kept stuttering, that's something else you can blame my dad for by the way. Anyway he kept trying to telling me I was wrong, but I wouldn't listen, well not until Mum stepped in and told me what actually happened."

"Dad won't come because he still won't accept the truth, Mum won't come because she can't stand the reminders. You see Uncle Patrick didn't die until three days after the bank robbery, Mum hates hospitals, just as much as Tim does, did you know that neither of them left his side after his emergency operation? Tim literally watched his dad die."

"No Sarah we didn't." Ziva informed, knowing looks from Tony and Vance told her that just as she had, they had picked up on what Sarah was obviously still in the dark about.

"Well now you do." Sarah stated with finality, which told the others that she'd had enough of memory lane.

"I see, very well, is there anyone else that needs to be notified?" Vance asked.

"Not right now, Penny's out of town and it would be unfair to worry her when there's nothing she can do." Sarah replied, getting to her feet, it was obvious she was getting frustrated, as she started pacing. "Now could one of you please tell me how the hell this happened?!"

"It would probably be best if you sat down Sarah." Ziva said gently, as she guided Sarah back to the chairs near the window. Vance's phone buzzed; indicating he was stepping out he pointed silently from Tony to Sarah, silently telling him to explain.

"Thank you, so much." Tony muttered sarcastically as the doors closed behind the retreating man, before turning to see Sarah looking at him expectantly.

NCIS

Half an hour later Gibbs found himself sitting, subconsciously rubbing his arm, next to the bed in McGee's room, watching as Ducky and Brad Pitt consulted the charts whilst talking quietly, at the end of the bed. Patience had never really been his strong suit, but he was getting more and more agitated as he waited for the doctors to announce their latest finding following the last round of tests done shortly after the plasma extracted from his blood had been injected into Tim.

His mood hadn't been helped by Vance's announcement that his team was being pulled from the investigation and the FBI was now heading up the case, as a federal agent's shooting was by rights their jurisdiction, with Agent Balboa's team assisting.

***Flashback***

"You've done what!" Gibbs shouted at Vance, as he met them in the hallway whilst they were making their way towards Tim's room, having been informed that his transfer back from theatre was complete.

"Hey! Last time I checked I was in charge of the agency." Vance retorted.

"He's a member of my team, that makes it my case, Leon." Gibbs growled back.

"You can't be involved in a case concerning your own brother, Gibbs. Now Fornell has agreed to work with Balboa's team and keep us posted, our own agents will continue with the protection detail."

"Well isn't that considerate of him." Gibbs growled unhappily.

"Jethro, the director has a point, let us just concentrate on Timothy, shall we?" Ducky reasoned.

"How is Agent McGee doing Doctor Mallard?" Vance inquired.

"As well as we can hope at this stage Director." Ducky informed. "These things take time and Timothy has a long road to travel, however before this incident he was in good health, that and his age stand in Timothy's favour."

"Very well, I need to head back, there are calls I need to make; keep me posted." Vance informed and instructed them at the same time.

As he walked away Gibbs called after him. "Hey, or when is the rest of McGee's family coming?"

Vance turned. "They're not, that's why I need to make some calls."

***End Flashback***

"Leroy?" The tentative use of his name pulled Gibbs out his musing, looking up he saw Jack standing just inside the doorway across the other side of the room, with a questioning look on his face.

"Hey Dad." Gibbs greeted as he got up, before moving around the bed and engulfing his father in a hug.

"So you going to tell me what's so damned important that I just had to drop everything and come here, now?" Jack questioned

"I think you better sit down, Dad" Gibbs informed.