TAP 22


"Are you sure?" were the first words out of Pete's mouth, as soon as Tim had told him about his day. "Gibbs is like a dog with a bone on a case," said Pete. "We both know that. If I go UA, his next call will be to you. If you are missing, too, he will put two and two together and immediately know we are together. He knows you have Emily in your care, as well. If he goes to her school and she is missing, also. Gibbs gets the missing persons trifecta."

"Exactly," said Tim, as he sighed. "See my dilemma?" Pete pulled him down to sit in his lap. He could see that Tim was becoming increasingly distressed. "It's not every day when you have to trust people who once stabbed you in the back for help because you can't rely on your own agency to watch your back. It's like deja vu. This wouldn't be happening if Tobias was still in the office."

"Ironic, isn't it? Considering you left NCIS because they stabbed you in the back, now it's looking like you need to go to them for help." Pete marveled as he kissed Tim's hair and lightly drew patterns on his belly over his shirt to calm his lover down. "What do we tell Emily?"

"Nothing, not a thing. I don't want to risk her saying something to one of her friends. She is friends with Mia. Mia, she is Agent Tom Stewart's daughter." Tim explained, succinctly. "If we have to leave, we will tell her a carefully constructed story. One that is believable to the teenager and foolproof."

"I'll need a story to tell my family too, especially my sister Jen. She'd worry if she didn't hear from me. I wouldn't put it past Gibbs to interrogate my family, as to my whereabouts." Pete told him. "I'll run home before dinner and bring a bag of stuff over to stay here. That way, if we have to go, all of our stuff is together, ready to go. What about Emily?"

"Em keeps a go bag all packed, in case of emergencies, as do I. I'll add some feminine hygiene products in there because I don't think she has any stashed in there." Tim added, standing up and leaning over his boyfriend, into his personal space, their faces' barely two inches apart. "Go get your bag and when you come back, pop it in the hall closet with the other two. If anyone stops you, tell them you're spending the night with us. You're still off duty tomorrow, right?"

"Okay," Pete agreed, nodding yes to Tim's question. He didn't like the idea of running, but if it meant keeping Tim and Emily safe, he would. He knew by going UA, he would face sanctions in his job, but his hitch was nearly up, and he was contemplating a transfer to the private sector as a DOD contractor. It was better money, and he wouldn't be bound to such strict military rules, especially since he and Tim were getting serious. If NCIS were involved, he was hoping Gibbs or Vance would go to bat for him against the Navy. "Call Vance and Gibbs to the house, let's bring them in. Maybe they can come up with an elaborate ruse to keep me from a court-martial."

"I need you to understand something, Pete," Tim said gravely, before Pete took his leave to return. "I have the know-how and the contacts to make us disappear. But I need you not to double-cross me or Emily. That means don't pack any electronic devices of any kind. No credit cards, no photos, nothing that links you to your life here, not even a piece of paper with your name on it. We leave our cells and all our electronics, here. Take this, let yourself back in. Don't wait to be let back inside." Tim handed him a spare front door key to his home.

Pete knew that Tim was a good agent and talented, but the seriousness in Tim's words almost frightened him. He would never betray Tim or Emily, and he heeded Tim's words. With a kiss to his boyfriend's lips, he was gone. He promised to return within the hour.

Tim used that hour, deciding only to bring Vance in at this stage. Not wanting to tip his hand to Gibbs, just in case nothing eventuated or worse, if Gibbs leaked his plan. Leon Vance was surprised to receive a phone call on his personal cell phone, just as he pulled up in his driveway. He had been hoping for an early night, but after today's developments, he couldn't see the FBI agent calling to gloat.

Leon answered curtly. Tim didn't say much on the phone; brevity was his friend. He mentioned nothing about the FBI or the real reason he was phoning the director of a rival agency.

"Hey Leon," Tim greeted him casually, as if they were old friends. Tobias had always taught him that a little paranoia was a good thing. Anyone could be listening in on their call. "The new Star Trek movie is streaming on demand; would you like to join us to dissect it over a beer?" Tim asked and he hoped that Vance would understand the covertness of the call.

"That one we saw at the multiplex four months ago?" Vance asked, detecting that something was up. It was clearly a ruse to get the Director to his house. "Sure, should we invite anyone else?"

"Nah, we can invite Gibbs over on the weekend, if we don't get through it all tonight." Tim answered and Vance's gut sank. Bringing Gibbs into whatever Tim was mixed up was a last resort for the man.

"Cool, I'll bring dinner," Vance said and he hoped that Tim knew that dinner meant his personal arsenal of contacts and weapons. "Twenty minutes?" Leon knew that he would be disappointing his wife. He had promised her that he would be home early tonight, and he would have to break that promise. He just hoped that when he gave her the Star Trek cover story, she bought it, without question. Jackie could be stubborn and sometimes questioned everything he told her.

"Sounds good. I'll text you my new address." Tim said as he disconnected the call.

Tim was in the kitchen, just starting to cook dinner. Emily had been helping, but she noticed that he seemed quiet. Her father often went quiet when a case was bothering him, so she didn't think much of it. However, it wasn't until Tim handed four dinner plates, instead of three, that she voiced her concern. "Oh honey, it's nothing to concern yourself over. Another agent is coming by; we'll be talking about some case-related stuff."

To Emily, that sounded boring. She had a ton of homework. "Can I please eat in my room?" she asked. "I promise to bring my dishes out when I'm finished." Emily pleaded with her uncle. Tim tried not to grin; he knew that would make their discussion go a lot smoother if she wasn't there. "I have a ton of homework, plus I need to revise for my literature exam."

"I suppose." Tim was proud of himself, for making his voice sound like he had been mulling it over. He thought that Tobias would be proud of him too. Tobias had been the one that had taught him how to lie and act, to improve his undercover skills.

"I'm back," Pete announced, letting himself into the house using the key that Tim had slipped him in the study before he had left to pack a bag. As soon as Pete entered the living room, Tim saw immediately why Pete had called him into the other room. There was a white Subaru hatchback parked three houses down, and the sole occupant of the car had binoculars pointed directly at their house.

"Go, stay with Em." Tim warned, as he headed to his study to run the plates of the suspicious looking car. "If Leon gets here before I come back, direct him to my office."

Tim worked quick; in his head he knew that no one would make a move on them so soon. But in his heart, he knew he had to protect Pete and Emily at all costs. Especially Emily, Tobias had trusted him to take care of her and when he had put that plan in action, Tobias hadn't foreseen this scenario unfolding, despite Tim's warnings. He managed to remote access his computer at the bureau and log in, he made quick work of running the plates. However, it was a dead end. It was a rental vehicle and it had been paid for in cash and the driver's license was clearly a fake, and a bad fake at that.

As he returned to the kitchen and began heating the wok for dinner the doorbell rang and Pete went off to answer. Tim noticed as his boyfriend walked away that he too was wearing his sidearm and his backup. In all the time they had been together he had only ever seen Pete wear them a handful of times, so now he knew that Pete was taking the threat seriously. He must have brought them with him when he had returned home for his bag.

"Dinner is ready in five. Emily, pack up your gear." Tim announced, not turning his back to see that Leon and Pete were standing back in the doorway. Tim added the final bowl of egg noodles and the sauce, before tossing it all together in the wok and beginning to plate his steak stir fry with hokkien noodles and vegetables, ready to serve. "Hi." Tim greeted as he turned around. He smiles at Em, who had done what he had asked, without argument.

"Uncle Tim?" Emily asked, as she reminded him of her earlier request.

"You may be excused." Tim grinned at her, and Leon almost swallowed his tongue as he saw the young girl blow her uncle a kiss, taking her plate, fork, and book bag out of the room. "Thanks for coming Director. I hope Mrs. Vance wasn't too upset with you."

"Not overly, but she understands that this is the nature of the job." Leon replied, finally speaking. He was still curious as to why he was here and he would be really upset with McGee if he was here, just to watch a movie he had already seen. "Why am I here? Why the cryptic phone call?"

Hearing the telltale sign of the bedroom door closing firmly, Tim let out a small sigh before closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration and anger. "I think it's best to just tell him straight up, Tim." Pete advised his boyfriend. He had almost slipped up and called Tim, babe. But at the last minute, he had hesitated and changed it to Tim, remembering that Leon Vance was a former colleague.

"Gibbs and Ziva, their stuff up cost us more than just the crime family case we've been pursuing." Tim began, laying all of his cards on the table. "Tobias has been undercover for almost a month, chasing the Reynosa Cartel in conjunction with the DEA. Gibbs and Ziva's actions, running the crime family players through Interpol triggered something in the cartel and Tobias and his handler went off grid. No one has heard from them, and they missed their security check in. No emergency codes were activated either. Even Gibbs knows, that is not how Tobias runs an op. Something is fishy. This afternoon the Director of the FBI came into Fornell's office, where I am currently pro-tem and hinted that Emily was in danger and that I may need to run to protect her from the Cartel. Dilemma one, how is the cartel mixed up in the crime family dispute? Dilemma two, how did the Reynosa crime family know about what Gibbs and Ziva did before we knew about it. Heck, I knew before you."

"How did they manage to connect Tobias to a fed in such a short space of time?" Vance finished for Tim. "Was it because of his connection to Gibbs. You and I both know that Gibbs has a lot of bad blood between the cartel and him. In the past, Gibbs hasn't hesitated to care if other people get in the way of his argument with them."

"That's if the cartel are even involved in their disappearance. The DEA are being less than forthcoming with information." Tim sighed and Pete took his hands. "Thomasson was acting suspicious and jumpy in my office this afternoon. He gave me an envelope stuffed with cash, fake ID's, passports and a burner cell, pre-programmed with a burner number in it belonging to him. For the three of us. You and I both no that regular policy and protocol dictates that Pete should have never entered the equation. He didn't know about Pete. Tobias and I never discuss Pete in the office, Emily knows not to say anything to Stewart's daughter, and I highly doubt that you or Gibbs outed me to the man."

"You are being set up." Leon groaned out loud. He had a sneaking suspicion there was more to the case than what Thomasson had told him earlier today, that was why he and Gibbs hadn't put a bigger fight up with the JAG to keep the case.

"I need help." Tim admitted and they heard the door open and stopped talking as Emily made her way into the kitchen, dirty dishes in hand and her nose down in her literature novel she was studying, Night by Eli Wiesel. "Em honey? Everything ok?" Tim asked, seeing the crumpled look on her face.

Looking up from her book, she was surprised to see three adults staring back at her. "Oh yeah, I am so going to ace this exam on Friday." She grinned at them, returning to her room.

Hearing the bedroom door close once more, Tim continued. "Pete and I discussed it at length, we know we're being set up. There is too many inconsistencies. To add fuel to the fire, Diane is missing. We haven't been able to contact her for twenty-four hours now. The hospital said she left AMA, not long after we last spoke to her. Took her belongings and left, they assumed she discharged herself. She has a broken leg, Director and is on heavy pain meds. Emily doesn't know any of this."

"What do you need from me?" Leon Vance immediately asked and almost regretted asking the question. He was hoping Tim didn't want to leave the twelve-year-old with him.

"We need someone we can trust. I'm going to need fake ID's and passports for the three of us, separate from what the Bureau gave us, a burner phone and a vehicle." Tim said in a whisper, hearing Emily in the hall, presumably headed to the bathroom. "We'll take the cash the Bureau gave us and I have some too. I made a stop on the way home."

"Me too, I stopped and emptied my account out tonight. All cash." Pete confirmed. "I somehow got dragged into this mess. If I leave with Tim, I am going to be marked UA. My hitch is up in three months, and I have been considering processing out for a private DOD contracting position. I can't have a UA blemish my record, I am a good sailor, Director."

"But you need to go with Tim to make Thomasson think that the two of you are playing by his rules." Leon Vance finished Pete's sentence. "Gibbs would get the call, go to Tim, see Tim is missing and check Emily's school. Devil's trifecta. Before reluctantly checking with Diane, only to find out she is now missing too. A quadrella, before he would come to me. Or worse, go straight to the FBI and possibly blow your cover. "

"Tim? White car?" Pete prompted his boyfriend. Pete was sure that his boyfriend hadn't forgotten about the white car. His boyfriend didn't forget things like that. It was his job. But he was feeling anxious to get it all out in the open.

"Between Pete leaving earlier and his return we were watched by a white Subaru. The exact make, model and plates are in my study." Tim informed the Director and Leon resisted the urge to groan out loud. This was escalating faster than he would have liked.

"Ok, I need to wake people up. I'll get you everything you need." Leon announced. "I need you to get ready. be ready to leave the house in an hour. I am assuming you're packed, Pete."

"We all are. Emily keeps an emergency go bag and I repacked when I got home tonight. Everything is in the hall closet." Tim informed Leon. "Emily might need a few extra items, but we can get them on the way if we have to."

"Emily needs no flashy clothes, jeans and dark hoodies. Boots, simple toiletries, no make-up and no tech." Leon reminded the agent and Tim grinned at him with a big sign of a check, in the air. "Let me make a couple of calls and we can get everything in motion, I don't like the idea of you three being alone here overnight, they're moving too quickly."


By the time that Leon was finished making his calls in the safety of the living room, Tim had told Emily to grab her schoolbooks, but leave her electronics and get dressed and meet them in the living room. "Em honey, swap your green jacket for the black one." Tim advised her. Emily was getting worried now, she was frightened, but had not yet reached scared. Tim and her father had always prepared her for a scenario where a case might go south and that she might have to suddenly leave. But she had always thought that they were being paranoid. They weren't being so paranoid now.

"Ok, my security team are on their way." Leon announced and Tim felt a small sliver of comfort pass over him. He knew those men; he could trust those men. "What is it that Emily needs? I'll have someone on my team pick it up on the way."

"It's ok, I can go into a drug store and get some." Tim told him and Leon realised what it was that the young woman needed.

"I have some in my car." Leon grinned at Tim. "When my team get here, I will get them for you, Emily. I have a daughter the same age and I was bringing them home for her."

In the next fifteen minutes, Tim had emptied his safe full of cash and ammunition for both his service weapon and his back up. The bags had been pulled out of the closet and Leon had taken a cursory glance over and through each bag to make sure there was nothing that anyone could trace on them. All the bags were nondescript, and Leon Vance had been impressed at how much effort Tim had thought and put into planning this.

"My team is in place." Leon announced, seeing each of them grab their own bags and stand in front of him, ready to leave. "Emily from here on out, I need you to call Tim, Dad. I know it's going to be weird, but it was the best we could come up with at short notice. Pete is going to be your stepfather. He and Tim are going to be a newly married couple. Tim, Emily is your daughter from a previous marriage."

"Em, remember when you were little and we all went to Baltimore and played the new name game, just like that." Tim said, hugging Emily close to him. He had reminded her of the playing undercover games in Baltimore that Tibias had put him to task when the three of them had spent a whole weekend there to take Emily to Disney on Ice.

"Your new name will be Emma, that way, Tim can still call you Em." Leon Vance announced. "You two will decide your names when you arrive at your next destination."

"Isn't it better that Tim is just married to Pete, and I was born by a surrogate?" Emily suggested. "That way I only need to remember Dad and I could call Pete, Pops." The two men in question looked at one another. Tim knew there was still time to change their backstory. "Probably going to be easier for me to remember and trust me, it's more normal and accepted to have two gay dads', rather than a dad, stepfather and mom who used to married to a now gay dad. Less questions, all round."

"She's a regular chip off the old block, isn't she?" Vance asked Tim and Tim kissed, Em's forehead. "Ok, let's do that. But Tim, Emily will be homeschooled by you and Pete and the two of you will work in online digital marketing. We can't risk either of you having mainstream jobs. I am sure I don't have to tell you never to reveal your faces online." Leon reminded them, but it was mostly for Pete and Emily's sakes. "Let's go."

"Wait, before we leave." Tim said halting them, as he quickly hit a series of commands into his alarm keypad. When he was complete, he looked at the querying looks. "If there is an alarm breech, it will send an alert to your cell, as well as the master controller in MTAC and the NCIS switchboard. I've marked it as attention Agent Gibbs and Director Vance. "If something happens to us, give this to Pete's family and to my partner at the FBI, Mac." Tim said, handing two envelopes over to Leon.

"Watch your backs." Leon advised them, as he hugged Tim goodbye and half of his security team whisked them away, while the remaining security team would shadow the Director closely now. By helping them, he had just put a target on his own back. "I'll be in touch soon."


Tim was impressed with the strings that the Director had managed to pull. They were being driven straight through the security gate at JB-AB, right onto the tarmac and on to the C130. Before they exited the car and the vehicle reversed off the plane. Tim tossed Emily some noise cancelling earmuffs. They didn't even so much any play music, but they worked great for blocking out the noise, when he had worked for NCIS, and they would routinely have to take a C130 for work.

In all the time that Pete had been in the Navy, he had only ever been on a C130 twice before and both times he had hated it both times. Not so much the sound, but the comfort factor and right now, the cushy DOD contractor job was looking pretty good to him.

Emily felt scared. But she knew as long as she stuck by Tim, nothing was going to harm her. She knew that Tim would go to the end of the earth to protect her. She was beginning to feel safe with Pete, too.

Sitting between the two men, Tim's arm around her, and touching Pete's shoulder, the three of them settled in for take-off. The engine was louder and nosier than she expected, but she couldn't believe that Tim's earmuffs worked so well.

She must have dozed off because when Emily opened her eyes next, Pete had moved from beside her to behind her uncle. Pete's arms around Tim, as Tim held her tight. It seemed the three of them had snuggled in together and Emily was surprised by how safe she was feeling.

Landing by the pre-dawn light, the three of them were surprised to find that they had been flying all night and when they landed at Camp Pendleton, they were greeted by another vehicle driving onto the C130.

"Welcome to California, Agent McGee, Ms. Fornell, Commander Kennedy. From here on out, you will use your alias names at all times. You are Emma, Daniel and Simon Delaney. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, Callen." Tim replied. He could live with being called Daniel. It was a name that he had always liked and not the name of an ex-boyfriend, so he was happy with it.

"Daniel, welcome back to California." Sam Hanna said, as he popped his head out of the driver's side of the car window. "We have a two-hour car ride, let's get a move on."

When they were roughly thirty minutes out from their HQ, Callen turned to them and handed each of them a heavy-duty black eye mask. "Put them on. We're taking you to an undisclosed location."

Pete, who was now Simon complied, as did Emily and Tom grinned at the two OSP agents. "You can leave it off, Daniel, you've been here before."

Tim felt relieved to still be in the hands of agents he trusted. Sam and Callen had worked with Tim on many ops before and they always had one another's back and his. If they were going to the NCIS LA, Office of Special Projects, then Tim suspected that they'd be seeing Kenzie and Deeks, Nate, Eric and Nell, possibly even Hetty as well. He felt safe enough to rest his eyes for the last thirty minutes of the journey.

Pulling into the undercover car park at OSP, Tim gave both Pete and Emily's hands a squeeze of reassurance. Keeping their heavy black masks securely in place, they were frantically ushered into the building, past security and into the bull pen.

"Welcome to Los Angeles." Hetty greeted them with a smile from the top of the stairs. "Mr. McGee, welcome back. Miss Fornell, please don't be frightened and Mr. Kennedy, it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I am sure Mr. Callen and Mr. Hanna informed you, but from here on out, you are to use your alias names. You three will spend the day practicing. Mr. McGee and Commander Kennedy into the Special Operations room. Ms. Bligh, please escorts the young Miss Fornell to the ladies' room to freshen up and get something to eat."

Kenzie quickly hugged Tim hello, before offering to take Emily to the ladies room for a shower, but not before she ordered Deeks to go and get some food for them all.

"Em honey, I know you're scared, but I trust Kenz. You're in safe hands with her, OK? Just listen to everything Kenz says. Uncle Gibbs knows her and trusts her too, ok?" Tim reminded Emily. She nodded at him, and he watched Emily follow Kenzie down the hall and into the ladies room with her bag.