Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters.

Chapter 20

Gibbs turned to come face to face with Abby, the one person he knew that Tim really didn't want to see right now, then again neither did Gibbs at this precise moment not after everything Tony had informed him had been going on behind his back, since Tim had joined the team.

"Abby" Gibbs stated guardedly.

"You should let him defy you like that Gibbs!" Abby ranted.

Gibbs raised an eye brow in surprise. "Tim isn't, you're the one disobeying orders right now Abby"

The reply came with a stamping of her foot. "No I'm not!"

"Yeah you are, leave." Gibbs ordered, seeing shocked faces from both Abby and Tim, his brothers via the rooms window, Gibbs knew that wasn't what either of them had been expecting him to say.

"But Gibbs…." Abby whined, not hearing the door open behind her.

Gibbs stepped angrily forwards into Abby's personal space forcing her to back up as he growled at her for the first time ever. "Do you know how disappointed I am, how angry I am at you right now Abby, you need to leave now."

"But, But…" Abby stammered in complete shock at what was happening.

"I believe you were told to leave." Tony's voice drifted in from behind Abby where he had been standing in the door way, before he slipped past her and hand over a coffee to Gibbs "Sorry boss got held up in the queue, hey Tim you're awake."

"Hey Tony" Tim replied softly, unsure what was going on, the whole scenario playing out in front of him seemed unreal.

"Leave now, Abby" Gibbs repeated firmly.

"But Gibbs I need you!" Abby protested, just as Gibbs phone rang.

"Yeah Gibbs…..uh huh, yeah she's here…yeah hold on a minute" Gibbs responded to how ever was on the phone, before he held out the phone to Abby. "They want to talk to you."

Surprised Abby took the phone. "Abby speaking."

"Miss Sciuto if your ass is not back in this building with in the next twenty minutes you can consider yourself fired!"

NCIS

Leon Vance entered the forensics lab expecting to find Abby Sciuto, what he was not expecting was to see his new head of department surrounded by Balboa's team, Tobias, Jimmy and Ziva David, as she worked carefully on some papers in front of her.

"Sitrep" Vance requested, making the whole room jump as they hadn't noticed his arrival which amused him momentarily and he smirked whilst Balboa quickly brought him up to date with their findings and what Delilah was currently doing.

"So have we found anything interest Miss Fielding?" Vance questioned.

"Actually yes." Delilah replied, turning to the computer, Delilah quickly brought her findings up on the large plasm screen so the others could see what she's looking at. "Firstly I looked at the finger prints, even with the age of this court document and letter useful prints can still be found. Now both Tobias and Tony wore gloves when they handled the letter earlier and Tony informs me that though he knew were Tim stored it, he has never held it before today."

"Tim's prints are naturally all over the document, letter and the envelope, but there is only one other set of prints on the pages of the document itself, whilst there are two sets on the envelope, I'm theorising that one of those would have been the post man…"

"Never assume Miss Fielding." Vance informed, before realising Delilah didn't know Gibbs rules and that she wasn't finished "Carry on."

"Err okay, so anyways, the lawyers office this paper belongs to keeps finger print records of all their employees past and present, however none of them are a match" Delilah finished, but Vance had noticed she was smiling.

"But you have a match?"

"Yes sir I do."

"Okay I'll bite – who?" Vance stated as he tilted his head.

"Jim Ward."

"Jim Ward, as in…" Vance voice trailed off at the possibility of what the results implied. "Get him in here for questioning. Now!"

"On it" Balboa replied "David with me, Tobias would you like to join us?"

"You bet I would" Tobias informed.

As the main group hustled out of the lab, Jimmy could be heard making some lame excuse for his need to leave also making it possible for to Vance turned his attention back to the reason he had originally come back to the lab. "Where is Miss Sciuto?"

"She had not requested permission to leave." Delilah replied moving across the lab to the desk, picking up an unsecure file and offering it to the Director, so he could clearly see the post it note on it which stated the word 'hospital'

Vance walked over and took the offered file. "These had better not be the results I was waiting for on the Miller case that LA is working on."

"I'm afraid they are Sir." Delilah winced, knowing how badly this could affect the LA team's current case.

"Re-work the evidence Miss Fielding I need a secure hand over on this evidence, this is not the time for amateur hour." Vance stated angrily as he dug out his phone putting it on speakerphone so Miss Fielding could hear both sides of the call as they waited momentarily for someone to answer.

"Yeah Gibbs."

"I believe you have an unexpected visitor." Vance knew Gibbs would automatically identify who he was talking about.

"Uh huh, yeah she's here."

"I want a word."

"Yeah hold on a minute."

The pair heard Gibbs state "They want to talk to you.", before the noise of a phone exchanging hands was heard and the surprise voice of Abby came over the phone "Abby speaking."

"Miss Sciuto, if your ass is not back in this building within the next twenty minutes you can consider yourself fired!"

NCIS

The moment Abby left Gibbs turned back to Tim only to see complete shock and confusion on his brothers face, approaching the bed carefully Gibbs sat down as he questioned Tim gently "You okay Tim?"

"I….I don't understand, She's your favourite." Tim looked at him confused.

Gibbs smiled sadly. "And you're my brother."

"But….."

"No, Tim no but's, right now your more important, I'll deal with Abby later, much later." Gibbs informed.

An awkward silence descended on the room and Tony, not being good in moments like that started babbling and let slip something he didn't mean to "So boss when we gonna decorate Tim's room."

"My room?" Tim puzzled, before he caught the look between the pair. "No…No definitely not."

"Why not?" Gibbs challenged, lightly as not to offend Tim, though he was taken aback.

"Yeah McGoo, why not?" Tony queried.

"Live with Gibbs, seriously Tony?" Tim looked desperately at Tony.

"Hey" Gibbs retorted offended at pairs antics.

"Oh come on boss, you got to admit he's got a point." Tony huffed out.

"And what would that be exactly DiNozzo?" Gibbs questioned, though he thought he had an idea what Tim was thinking and his was proved right with next words that came from Tim.

"We're just so different"

"That's a bad thing because?" Gibbs challenged.

Tim starred at Gibbs, before swallowing hard "Boss…"

"Jethro" Gibbs corrected as the door opened.

"Leroy, actually." Jackson smirked as Gibb turned and starred at his father Jackson continued. "What? He's your brother, Leroy, so he get so call you by your given name."

"How are you doing Timothy?" Ducky asked as he passed the pair that looked like they were about to re-hash an old argument, just as multiple phones started to ring.

NCIS

Ziva stood in the observation room watching Jim Ward whilst she waited for the integration to start though she was unsure who was going to be doing the questioning, just as she was starting to get impatient both doors opened. Turning she quickly greeted Tony, Tobias and Agent Balbo, before looking back into the integration room which Gibbs and Vance had entered together.

As they waited Ziva quickly questioned Tony "Who's with McGee?"

"Ducky and Jackson." Tony replied before indicating to the man in the other room "What do we know about him?"

"Jim Ward, previous head of the legal department here, has ties with Admiral McGee and his finger prints are on the court papers sent to McGee..." Ziva quickly filed Tony in on what else they had found out.

NCIS

"What is the meaning of this?" Ward questioned, displaying his still shackled hands, as Gibbs and Vance took their time in getting comfortable across the table from him.

"We have some questions for you Mr Ward, regarding a so called court document sent to Timothy McGee which the court themselves have no record of." Vance informed, watching the man carefully he notice how the man visibly paled as he spoke.

"That and your acquaintance with Admiral McGee." Gibbs added darkly, since leaving the hospital he had been rapidly brought up to speed with the investigation, not only with what Delilah had found regarding the fingerprints but the banking information on the letter had been looked into by the cybercrimes department and that had brought some interesting results.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ward spluttered.

"Really, I think you do." Vance stated as he opened the file and produced a copy of the document in question, pushing across the table.

"I've never seen that before" Ward denied.

"Yeah you have." Gibbs countered as he leaned in. "After all you produce it. So you better start talking."