Jf23 - Surprise! I was holding another chapter back, to surprise you all. Thank you for all your reviews.
We had a wonderful time away, the weather was ordinary, until the last two days. On the first really warmish day (28C/82F) we went to the beach, although we couldn't swim due to the poor water quality from the recent floods. But it was good to walk along the beach, build some sandcastles and explore the rockpools. On the second nice day, it was really warm (35C/95F) and stayed at our holiday house, AC on inside, swimming in our pool, BBQ and some cheeky bottles of wine on the deck after our daughter was in bed. My mum and my mother-in-law drove out and joined us and my daughter loved having the sole attention of both of her grandmothers (Nan and Nonna) and not competing with all the other kids for the one-on-one time. Of course, the weather turned cold again, just in time to come back home.
Gibbs took the conversation he had just held with Vance and became proactive. His first stop was to Tony's apartment. Time for the boys to grow up and step up, more Tony than Tim. He needed to give Tony a heads up that an IA investigation had been launched and that he should get himself a lawyer. Gibbs knew he would have to talk Tony into it, because Tony knew how Gibbs felt about them. But this was his career at stake.
He needed to speak with Ellie too and prepare her, for the investigation. No doubt IA would call upon her for a deposition or a statement of facts. She really was just a probie and shouldn't be too caught up in this mess. The good thing was that she wasn't at the incident when it happened. She was back in their room video conferencing with her NSA contact to see if there was any chatter about an attack on the Kittyhawk.
He then planned to catch up with Tim and advise him of the investigation into his job, too. In the grand scheme of things, Tony had a lot more to lose. Tim probably had a bit less to answer for than Tony, though because Tim had documented his attempts every step of the way and also had paperwork to apply for a warrant to prove his accusations against the dirty NIS agents already prepared. Basically, Tim had covered his own six.
Gibbs felt torn at that. One of his mentor's, whom he already knew was capable of being dirty, had treated a kid's accusations of a dirty Admiral like that. A kid that would grow up and become one of his men. His mentee, a man who when they met, he didn't think would last as an agent, that he was too kind and gentle. But what he had originally perceived as Tim's weaknesses, were actually his strengths and he played them well. Then, he got to know Tim and he saw for himself the kind of agent and the kind of man he was. He was proud that he had helped train and mould that agent into a future star of the agency; his legacy to NCIS.
Gibbs reflected as he drove across town to Tony's place. Did he inadvertently cross paths with a young Tim at some point? He worked for McLane around the same time. No, he would remember a young kid coming in. Especially if that young kid had accused a well-respected Admiral of the molestation and rape of his daughter. Tim had said his father knew, did his father report what was going on to NIS, back then?
Kelly and Tim went shopping for pieces of his costume for Abby's party on the following weekend, then went back to her apartment and opened it up, did some laundry, watched a movie before Kelly packed some more clothes and her work laptop. Kelly cleaned out her fridge and cooked them a simple meal of steak, mushroom and salad for dinner. She encouraged Tim to lay out on the sofa and have a nap.
After dinner, they closed up the apartment and locked up, before Tim surprised her by stopping for some ice cream at a little, hidden gem of a shop he knew in a lane way in Georgetown. She was surprised to see that it was walking distance from his apartment. Instead of eating in the shop, or sitting in the car, which she already knew was a big no for Tim and his Porsche. They headed back out to the main street and across the road to the park, taking a seat on the fountain. Kelly was telling Tim in excruciating detail a story from her college days involving a sorority house, a frat boy, a well-known senator and a hotel room. It had been a story that had made the tabloids at the time and Kelly had only been privy to the insider details because she worked at the hotel while in school, which happened to be when the incident occurred.
Tim had laughed at the funny parts of the story, he could just picture poor Kelly trying to keep a professional look and keep her face straight as the fire alarm was pulled and the three of them stumbled from the room, naked as the day they were born. Slowly, once their ice creams were finished, Tim wrapped his arm around Kelly and they walked through the park, admiring both the beautiful flowers, beautifully lit up water fountain and the blanket of stars across the unusually clear night's sky. He walked her back to his car, before they headed home for the night. "Not bad for an impromptu date." she teased him, as they rode up to his apartment.
Walking in the foyer, Tim put his finger to Kelly's lips to quieten her, before she realised that the lights were on in the apartment. He tucked Kelly behind him as they made their way, further inside. Tim pulled his sig out of the holster, holding it in his left hand, handing Kelly his knife, he tucked Kelly behind him. Her cell phone in her hand, unlocked just in case.
"Hello Timothy." a cool male voice said calmly from the sofa. A lone figure sitting in wait for his son.
"Damn it, Dad. I could have shot you. What the hell are you doing here?" Tim snapped, re-holstering his weapon. "I thought you were in South Africa with Penny and Sarah."
"We need to talk." The former Admiral told his son. "Alone, send the girl home, Tim."
John looked hard at his son. His son's glare was unrelenting, and he didn't want to admit that he found the coldness in his sons eyes a little intimidating. "No." Tim said vehemently. "She's not going anywhere. You want to talk, fine, talk. But I'm not kicking her out."
"I see you found your balls after all, son. No doubt Agent Gibbs must be relieved, finally." John slurred out his words. "Not to having to deal with a coward like you. Your grandmother told me what happened to that girlfriend of yours, you didn't even have the decency to die with her. What a hero you are?! How's your love life, now?"
"What do you want?" Tim asked, angrily. It was hard enough to hear that from Delilah's parents at the funeral, but to hear it from his own father. It hurt, a lot. More than he wanted to admit.
Kelly nodded to Tim, excusing herself as she slipped down the hall into his bedroom. She could feel the older man's eyes on her body as she walked, and it creeped her out. "I see you've moved on." he spat out in more anger. "But at least we're alone now. I've been summoned by the Secretary of the Navy to give a deposition on Barclay and his relationship with his daughter."
"I can't talk to you about it, Dad." Tim told him explicitly. "Kelly!" he called her back. Luckily for him, she hadn't actually set foot inside the bedroom yet, therefore, not leaving Tim alone with his father. She had only gotten to the end of the hallway. She had heard her name and came straight back. She had called her dad and he had picked up the phone to her, all her father could hear was Tim's voice and the former Admiral McGee's voice. "Stand right there please, Kelly." He had instructed her, and Gibbs could hear every word, crystal clear. "Now, whatever the SecNav wants from you Dad, has nothing to do with me. Read my lips, I can't talk to you about it." Tim told him, not aware his boss was on the other end of the phone line with his daughter.
"Only four people knew what he was doing to his daughter, Tim. Him, her, you and me. She is dead and I haven't said jack shit, so what the fuck did you say to who, Timothy?" John snapped, screaming in Tim's face. "Don't you know what's going to happen if this gets out? He will go to prison. I will go to prison, too."
"Dad?" Tim asked confused. "How will you go to prison?"
"Barclay, he did unspeakable things to Jessica. Simone, she suspected what was happening. She came over and asked me to get him to stop, she begged me. I went over to their house, pretended to just stop by and talk to him about the mundane stuff. When he admitted to me, exactly what he was doing to his daughter, I snapped. He offered to buy my silence, too. I told him to go to hell. I didn't want his money. I just wanted him to stop." John took a minute to compose himself. "I made a plan, I picked you and Sarah up from school, dropped you both off at Penny's and double backed to the school. Jessica was just finishing cheerleading try outs, I called her over to car and told her that her mom asked me to pick her up. I took her back to our house and told her that her parents would pick her up later. She didn't question what I said, she just hopped in the car with me. Everything was going OK, for the first hour. She asked if she could shower, as she was sweaty from try-outs, and I said OK. Told her that she could use the bathroom in my room. Sarah had left yours a mess."
Gibbs had arrived, stealthily letting himself into Tim's apartment. The phone line still open. Tim had been pleading with his father to stop talking. That he couldn't discuss the case.
"After her shower, she came on to me. I told her no, but she was persistent. She started telling me what her dad had been doing to her, how he was teaching her, and she wanted to show me what she had learnt. She had sat astride me, and I knew if I pushed her off, I'd hurt her. I let her sit there a minute, but when she went for my belt buckle. I manoeuvred myself out from under her and left the room. I called Simone and told her that she was at our house to come and get her. She was angry I would not have sex with her. Apparently, she had asked you earlier that day and you said no, too. The following afternoon, Simone finally caught him in the act. That was the final straw, that night Jessica left that note, stole her mother's car and killed herself."
"Why, why take Jess?" Tim asked, he knew that Gibbs had arrived. He had heard the faint ding of the elevator. "To save her? To protect her?"
"I was going to seduce her, but I couldn't go through with it. I thought if she wanted it with me, fell in love with me, she would want to live with us, and I could keep her safe." John began to cry. "I imagined how I would feel if a man my age seduced Sarah."
John grabbed onto his son and Gibbs stepped further into the room, letting John see him now. Gibbs reached out his hand and covered Tim's gun on his left hip, a spilt second before John could get his hand to it. He knew Tim couldn't stop John from reaching for it as both Tim's hands were supporting John's body. Gibbs helped Tim pry John's body off Tim and cuffed him, looking at his subordinate as he read John his rights.
Gibbs gave his cell to Kelly, instructing her to phone Leon and then Tobias. "Tim? Are you OK?" Gibbs asked concerned, he didn't like seeing the look on Tim's face that he could see. Tim just nodded at his boss. He felt numb again. Kelly could see Tim was struggling to feel anything. She recognised the haunted look on his face as the one from last night. She heard the story that Tim's father had just told them, and she assumed it was related to the case from last night, at the look on Tim's face. She stepped up to him and put her arms around him, pulling him into her and she then pulled back from him. She could feel John's creepy eyes on her again.
"Is that your daughter, Agent Gibbs?" John asked him, as they sat on Tim's sofa together. Gibbs didn't answer him, he wouldn't give John the satisfaction. Tim clearly hadn't told him anything and Gibbs wasn't going to break the trust they shared, by answering him. "Look Gibbs, if it is, get her away from my son. That boy is like toxic quicksand with women. They either end up dead or institutionalised. She looks like she's a good girl, get her the fuck away from Timothy. I'd hate to see anything bad happen to her."
"I certainly hope you aren't threatening any harm to that young woman?" Sarah Porter snapped as she come in, which caused Gibbs, Tim and Kelly to look up to see that Penny, the Director and SecNav had arrived, along with Balboa and his probie. "John McGee."
"Madam Secretary." John gulped, he hadn't expected to see her arrive with his mother and the Director of NCIS to his son's apartment.
"Very nice apartment, Agent McGee. I see being a published author pays better than being a federal agent." she quipped, and John rolled his eyes.
"Like my worthless son could afford to live at a place like this." John snapped, spewing his hatred towards his son. "It was my father's love shack..., I meant office. He's a gutless coward who couldn't man up and be part of the McGee family legacy. He thought by being a Navy cop, a worthless paper pusher, it would count. But it doesn't. Not only did he drum his own father out of the Navy, but he also screwed me out of the apartment which should be rightfully mine. You're not even a real McGee. You're nothing, Timothy! Nothing but a whore's son!"
"Agent Balboa, he's all yours." Director Vance snapped at him. His anger wasn't directed at Balboa, it was at the man Balboa was hauling away. It never sat well with him when John McGee had come aboard the yard and requested the private meeting regarding his son's status at NCIS. Who leaves a meeting telling the director of a federal agency that the Director of said agency should teach his son to box, because his son needs it. "Feel free to gag him to stop that vile spew of hatred pouring out of that mouth."
Balboa gave him a nod and escorted the former Admiral John McGee back to NCIS, where he would be put in a holding cell. "Are you OK, Tim?" Gibbs asked him, immediately seeing him in shock.
"Timothy, sweetheart?" Penny tried softly. "I'm sure John was just being John. Trying to rattle you. I know in my heart, that you are my grandson. Don't listen to him, my sweet boy."
Sarah Porter had been having a business dinner with Leon when the call had come in about John McGee and it was by a pure coincidence that Penny had been in the foyer of Tim's building, on her way up to intervene between the father and son. Sarah pulled Kelly aside and asked her to make Tim a cup of sweet tea, before sitting down beside Tim. She put her hand on his shoulder, waiting for him to acknowledge her. From her vantage point, she saw Leon follow Kelly into the kitchen. No doubt he would be questioning her about the evening. She hoped he was recording her statement. This whole case was a huge mess.
"I'm not his son." Tim announced, a tinge of hysteria in his voice. "He has implied it many times before, but tonight, he finally admitted it."
"You're his son, I know you are, Timothy. You've got my fighting spirit." Penny told him. "Don't let him get inside your head, you're better than that!" She nudged Gibbs forward and motioned for Sarah Porter to step back.
"Tim?" Gibbs tried again to coax Tim out of his head. Seeing Tim look up at Gibbs, made the two older women smile. "I was going to ask if you were OK, but I don't think anyone would be OK after that."
"Do you think he was telling the truth?" he asked his boss. "You have the best bullshit detector of anyone I know boss. You have to tell me."
"I don't know." Gibbs sighed. He hated lying to Tim, but he couldn't do it. Tim had already gone through so much this year; he didn't want to be responsible for another upheaval. "But if you want to really know, we can get your DNA checked. Test it against Penny or Sarah. I'm sure Abby knows a lab tech we could use."
Seeing Kelly come in, carrying the sweet tea, Gibbs ushered Penny and Sarah into the kitchen and let Leon talk to Tim. He knew what the protocol was and hoped that Leon would be able to get through to him.
"Quickly Penny, is there any chance that John was telling the truth?" Gibbs asked, as soon as they were in the kitchen. "This is going to drive Tim crazy."
"No." Penny denied and both Gibbs and Sarah Porter both saw that she was lying. Gibbs gave her his patent glare. "Ok, I have suspected of a while. When Tim had his appendectomy, he was nine. The doctors said he has AB negative blood. Which isn't possible. Nicole had O negative; I remember her having the shots when she was pregnant with Tim. My son has A positive blood. I don't think Nicole was his mother, either. As the wife and then mother of father and son Admirals, I have learnt not to ask too many questions or pry. No one has ever outright admitted anything to me, either."
Sarah Porter paled. "The only way a child can have AB negative blood is if both parents have AB negative blood, Jethro. AB negative blood is rare." She explained and both of them looked at her in surprise. Both Penny and Gibbs knew her background was business, not medicine. "My first child to my former partner, the one I was with before I met my husband, he was AB negative, as am I. We had a son, but he died shortly after he was born. He was AB negative, like both of us."
Gibbs too knew the heartache of losing a child. He and Shannon had lost a baby at thirty-three weeks, stillborn. Before Kelly, the baby had been a girl. They didn't get to name her, because she died in utero, she didn't take a breath and therefore wasn't categorised as having lived. That meant that they couldn't have a funeral for her and didn't get a death certificate, either. It had been like she had never existed at all.
He wordlessly comforted the secretary; he knew her pain. "I'm so stupid, Jethro. I knew things didn't make sense. I just didn't want to know the truth. I love Tim, he and Sarah are my world. I don't want to lose him." Penny sighed and sobbed, as Gibbs desperately looked towards the living room where Leon was still talking to Tim while Kelly comforted him. It was well known fact that he didn't do well with crying women. "What is it about Timothy, that makes John lose all rational thought? It's like he is hardwired to mentally destroy Tim. He has been like this since the day they bought him home from the hospital."
Gibbs was internally steaming mad and was grateful when Kelly came into the kitchen, he practically ambushed her for information, desperate not to tell the grandmother what he really thought. "They're discussing the impact of his father's confession on the case. I was asked to leave so they can get into the particulars." Kelly explained to her dad when he handed her a coffee.
Half an hour later, a small callout from Leon, had Gibbs joining him in the living room with fresh coffee. Kelly had taken Tim into the bedroom, to allow him to compose himself in private, before the two of them returned. "Jethro, just thought you like to know that I have just heard from the FBI; Tobias Fornell has proven that McGee did everything correct. His evidence of McLane and McCallister accepting a bribe from Barclay is legit. It has been found that McGee doesn't have a case to answer for." Leon told his friend, the relief clear in the Director's voice. "Now just to sort the IA mess with DiNozzo."
"And apply to JAG for a court ordered petition for a DNA analysis to be ran against the AFIS system for Tim." Gibbs added and Tim looked up in surprise at Gibbs' request. "The information came to light in the course of an investigation."
"I thought he was just blowing off steam." Leon muttered, looking at Tim and Gibbs. "I meant; we're now taking it seriously?"
"Tim's grand... Penny remembered that when Tim had an appendectomy, his blood type didn't match either of his parents." Gibbs explained, correcting himself about Penny. "We know he was born in Bethesda and I'm willing to bet if you did a quick adoption data base search, there would be no adoption paperwork for John and Nicole McGee adopting anyone, let alone a baby boy in 1978. That leaves us with some huge questions, how did Tim come into their custody? Who are Tim's parents? What did they think happened to him?"
"So, it's true? I am not a real McGee." Tim asked Gibbs and sighed, as he came back into the room, just in time to hear that Penny had been suspicious back when he was a child and had never said anything to anyone. Tim had rarely felt any anger towards the older woman, but right now, the anger he felt was palpable.
"What Penny said is true Tim, you're still a McGee. It is your legal name, she raised you." Gibbs reminded his agent and Tim became resigned on the fact he wasn't biologically related to Penny and Sarah.
"Tim, I agree with Gibbs. We need to run your DNA and confirm John McGee's claim, I'll start on the petition today." Leon nodded and he couldn't believe how much the young man's life had unravelled in the last six months. "I will see if I can get some answers out of the former Admiral, myself."
Everyone clearing out, was the best thing for Tim. He had been unable to look Penny in the eye, he was hurt and upset that Penny had suspected and had never spoken of it to him. He felt betrayed by her, but Penny had reminded him that; no matter what happened, she still loved him, and he was still Sarah's big brother and her grandson, even if they weren't biologically related. Gibbs and Vance had given him sympathetic but supportive smiles and had promised to help him find the answers, but they'd wait until Monday morning, giving Tim the space to process the news and enjoy a long weekend. Sarah Porter had stepped up to Tim and hugged him tightly. She had whispered to call her if he needed someone to talk to. She patted his cheek affectionately and Tim let out a huge sigh of relief when everyone, but Kelly was gone.
"I had you all nice and relaxed last night, this afternoon that's all gone to hell in a hand basket." Kelly joked with him, trying to ease the tension. "Maybe I should give you another massage, like last nights."
"I have a better idea." Tim told her, winking at her as he told her to wait there. He ran around the apartment and gathered some towels from the ensuite bathroom and a small handful of bath pearls that Penny had gifted him a little while back. He put the plug in the spa bath in the main bathroom, before coming and taking Kelly by the hand and leading her inside. "Spa bath for two."
"Yes please." she whispered, reminding Tim not to drop the bath pearls in until the end of filling the tub, so the jets would make the bubbles instead.
Both of them, sat their cell phones on the counter behind the deep, free-standing spa bath. The spa bath was big enough to easily fit two people in it. It had been marketed as a three-seater and Tim had helped Penny pick it out when Penny had renovated the bathroom, five years ago. Tim mused out loud they could probably squeeze four people in it and if the weather was warmer, they could have utilised the outdoor spa on his balcony.
Stripping off their clothes, the two of them grinned at one another, before Tim helped Kelly into the tub. She leaned herself upright against the edge, before encouraging Tim to sit between her legs and lay back against her chest, wrapping her legs around his torso. Tim dropped the bath pearls into the water and pressed the button for the jets, setting them to low, as he lay back enjoying the feel of Kelly's naked body against his back. Reaching for the fresh loofah off the shelf, Kelly drizzled a little bit of bath oil she found on the shelf on it and began working it softly into the skin on Tim's chest, toying with his nipples. Leaning back against Kelly's naked body, her bare breasts flush against his back, her legs open wide and accommodating. "Hmmm." Tim moaned as he twisted his neck upwards, placing hot wet kisses on every spot his lips could reach on her body. His hands resting over her legs and the palm of his hands on the back of her thighs. He knew he could lift her legs to open them wider or give him access if he needed to.
"You can touch me you know." she said in a small throaty tone of voice. She was trying to encourage Tim to open up a little more. Sometimes she found when his mind was laden with emotional baggage, he needed the extra encouragement.
"If I touch you, we're going to do more than just touch." Tim warned her, his tone throaty and seductive and from her vantage point she could see his erection bobbing on the water's surface. "I'd like to at least take you on a couple more dates before we become that intimate."
"Whenever you want to." she quipped and tightened the grip of her legs around his waist. "Just so you know, I'm ready, I don't want to pressure you. Whenever you decide you're ready, so am I."
Enjoying the feel of her ministrations on his body, he thought he'd amp it up between them a little more. "I've got an idea." Tim whispered, huskily. It reminded Kelly of his bedroom voice he had used in her at her work function, and it sent a shiver through her body, in anticipation of what he had planned. Tim stood up and moved so he was sitting at the opposite end of the spa, facing Kelly propped himself up against the back of the spa. "Come sit on top of me, astride me. Legs either side."
Kelly crawled over and sat astride his legs, his erection between their bodies and her womanhood resting on his testicles. Tim reached up and kissed her, pouring everything he was feeling into the kiss. His feelings, his passion, his wants, his desires. Hearing Kelly moan into the kiss, spurred him on more. He used his large hand as a loofah and rubbed the silky pearl bubbles into the skin on her chest, arms and back, taking extra time and effort over her breasts, tweaking her nipples, making them hard as he went. Kelly was undulating against his manhood hard. "Oh Tim," she moaned, as she felt his fingers massage her back, digging into a particularly sensitive spot, she hissed. She was loving the feeling of his hands roaming all over her naked body. "Right there." she panted hotly in his ear, the tone suggestive.
Tim left one hand massaging the sensitive part of her back, as his other hand smoothed over her skin, following the natural curve of her body, down her back, around her hips, down her legs and around the back of legs, spreading them a bit wider as they journeyed back up onto her ass and rested his hand there. Tim could feel Kelly quicken the pace, she was grinding against him too, as he moved his hands off her ass and around to her womanhood. Finding her clit, he toyed with it, teasing and tantalising her, before running his long slender fingers along her slit. Making sure that he brushed against her pleasure nub, as he slipped two fingers inside her. Feeling the inside of Kelly's walls clamp down on his fingers, before slipping a third one inside her. Feeling her wet cavern stretch to accommodate his long fingers, her walls clamped at the intrusion. He could feel her cervix and played there a little, before curling his fingers forward, finding her pleasure spot. Her moans and encouragement was keeping him in the moment and making him harder. Tim wanted to wait a bit longer and was determined to do so before they had full penetrative intercourse, so right now, he was content to ignore his problem.
"Oh God, Tim." she panted in a high pitched half scream, half shout, kind of squeal. "Right there." Two more strokes and she was tumbling over the precipice in waves of pleasure. Tim removed his fingers and held her close as Kelly came down from the euphoria, he had given her. Once she calmed down again and could speak, Tim asked if she was OK.
She nodded, still unable to find her voice and Tim smiled at her widely. "We're both like a prune on the outside. All wrinkly. Ready to get out? It's been a crazy day."
"Sure, unless you have plans to cook, I think a pizza and movie sounds like a perfect dinner." Kelly mused out loud, as she let Tim pull her out of the spa tub.