IN MOTION

Volume Three of the series Becoming Tim

January, 2014

Notes:

Hello! Thanks to everyone who's written asking about my return/when the next story will be posted and/or to ask if I'm all right. The answers are now, this chapter and I'm doing all right now after a tough year. I really needed a break although I didn't expect that break to last an entire year!

At the end of the chapter I've included the names of Canon Characters and my Original Characters. There may also be more notes there.

A reminder: this series begins in May of 2008 with the breakup of Gibbs' MCRT which means many things that have happened on the show have not/will not happen. My primary reason was to prevent the canon deaths that happened post season 5. That includes, in no particular order, Jackie Vance, Jackson Gibbs, LJ Moore, Ned Dorneget, Breena Palmer, Emily Fornell and Diane Gibbs Fornell Sterling and any other canon characters I may have forgotten. They're alive and likely to stay that way throughout this series.

And, NCIS has been renewed for season 21. However, with writers and actors currently on strike, who knows when we'll actually see anything new.

From the last chapter of Reaping the Bounty:

Secretary Porter thanked Jimmy, Ducky, Nikki and James and then stopped when she came to Jethro. "I've heard so much about your team, been told I should count myself lucky that I haven't had to deal with some of the events that happened over the years. And yet I wish I had known your team, seen the four of you in action. Even though I wasn't in this position then, I remember reading about the cases you successfully closed, the number of bad people you took off the streets, the number of families you helped. You four," she shook her head, "I doubt there will be another team quite like yours. Certainly no one will ever break your closed case record!"

From there she segued to Tim, "And you, Timothy, are the flag bearer for your team. With the work you've done and will resume doing for the agency, I know you'll do your teammates proud. It's my honor to be here today to swear you in for what Leon says is the 6th time you've taken a federal oath, 5 times to positions at NCIS, including the night Freddie was in desperate need of your help in locating him and once as an Assistant Agent in Charge at the FBI."

She looked at the crowd, "If you'll gather around, I think a circle will be easier. Artemis, Jethro, Lu?"

The three of them came forward and Grandpa Jack handed the Gibbs family bible to Artie. With a smile, Artie handed it to Jethro and Lu. She and Tim had discussed it, deciding that it felt right to have Jethro and Lu, as his mentor, former boss and now father and the woman who'd been his mother since he was 9, stand with him, holding the bible.

The agency photographer, who, at their request, had not taken any photos of the family, was ready and started snapping shots without being too intrusive while the Secretary administered the oath to Timothy that would allow him to return to NCIS and his roots.

Shaking hands with her and then with Vance, Tim kissed his wife and parents and then grinned when Leon handed him his badge. Tim held it up, "Look, it's my badge, my old one!"

He smiled happily as he rubbed it with his fingers. "My NCIS badge!"

Vance smiled, "Welcome home, SAC-Special Agent Timothy Gibbs!"

And now:

January, 2014

Chapter 1: Returning to NCIS: SAC Timothy Jackson Gibbs,

As their aircraft taxied down the runway a few days after Tim's swearing-in as the Senior Agent In Charge or SAC of the European Field Office and the party afterwards, Tim tried his best to relax. After five weeks in the US, with several notable events, the London and Marseilles branches of the family as they began their return flight to London after their five week stay at the large colonial rental house in Arlington, Virginia.

Trying to distract himself, he thought of the several happy events in which he was not directly involved that had happened since their arrival in Virginia in early December, 2013. He'd gained a nephew and a niece as his sister-in-law Charlotte, married to his brother Jose, gave birth to baby Tomas, followed by the arrival of brother Barry and his husband Ned Dorneget's second foster daughter, Ava.

Tomas and Ava were the last of eight children to join the Midei-Camilo-Mallard-Gibbs clan in 2013. The first to arrive, in May, were Tim and Artie's foster children Liam and Chloe whose adoption would be final in April of 2014. Following the toddlers' arrival was Artie's sister Susannah and her husband Ian's son Alec, born in May. In turn, Alec was followed in August by Jimmy and Breena's son Donald, who was promptly nicknamed Donnie. He in turn was followed by the birth of Tony and Maggie's 2nd daughter Madelyn In October, the arrival of Barry and Ned's younger foster daughter Naomi the same month and then in December, Tomas, already called Tommy, made his first appearance and was followed by the Dorneget-Gibbs' second and older foster daughter Ava. With the arrival of four newborns and four foster children in one year, the large family's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were still bragging about all of their progeny.

Tim smiled as he added Ziva's wedding to Brian Metzger the day after Christmas, a wonderfully joyous time for their Ziva and everyone who loved her. While Ziva's aunt Nettie hadn't been able to join them, with some help she'd viewed the recording of not only the wedding but the ceremony before along with Ziva and her attendants' preparations, a Welcome to our Family message from Brian and his parents, another message from Ziva's chosen parents, Lu and Jethro and of course the party afterward. The friend whose granddaughter set up the recording for Nettie and who watched with her reported that she cried happy tears throughout the viewing and was now making her own video, with help from the friend's granddaughter, for Ziva's new families as well as her new nephew-in-law Brian.

Having run through all the happy events, Tim's brain took him right back to his memories of the swearing-in ceremony and the reason for it. Although he was honored that Secretary Porter and Director Vance believed he was capable of managing the European Field Office in London, he was nervous and becoming more so by the minute.

For one thing, he'd been away from the agency for 6 years, longer than he'd been a field agent! The first two years, he'd taught university classes in California and worked part-time for the FBI. After he and Artie won a huge sum of money, he left the FBI, feeling he could not ethically take a salary when he and his love had enough money for at least 2 generations. In the meantime, he had already accepted the university's offer of an 'exchange year' in the UK where he would teach the same courses he'd taught at Stanford and Artie, their infant twins Jackson and Ellanne and his parents would enjoy exploring the UK and Europe. Artie would also start her own engineering and architectural business, fulfilling one of her lifelong dreams. With their new wealth, after his exchange year was complete he and Artie decided to stay in the UK, along with his parents and several other members of their large family.

Aside from a brief stint as a temporary SAC while the official SAC was recuperating from an accident, Tim had been away from NCIS for 6 years. While he'd worked with the agency and the FBI for the better part of 2 years to cross-train their Field and Cyber Crime agents, he had done so as an independent consultant. Now all that had changed.

Six offices! He would have 6 offices to manage: London, Marseilles, Athens, Rota, Naples and the new satellite office in Hamburg, Germany. That meant at least 28 field agents, 8 Intel Analysts, 19 Cyber Crime agents, including their leads, who were classed the same as the Field Agent Team Leads, Senior Supervising Agents or SSAs, 6 office managers, along with management in London for the Intel Analysts, Medical Examiner(s), Forensics, Evidence, Information Technology, Security, Human Resources, the Legal Department, Accounting, Operations and any other departments he was sure he was forgetting!

Sighing in relief, he reminded himself of three things. One, each of the satellite offices had an SSA and an office manager or a staff member who was the de facto office manager. None of his satellite office SSAs nor their office managers were new to the job nor did any of them have any problems in their records. The only agents new to the European offices were one SSA, two juniors, a senior and three probationary agents. From what Tim had heard here and there, most of the office managers had either been trained or heavily influenced by Kim Ellis, the office manager of NCIS: Athens and that was a very good thing.

Two, and Tim supposed it was really a continuation of one, was that the field, cybercrime and cold case agents certainly knew how to handle criminal cases and the office managers were experts at running their teams and handling all the administrative duties, although ultimately the SSAs reported to Tim and were responsible for their offices.

Three and perhaps the most important saving grace for Tim was that Cynthia Sumner Dalton, who 6 years ago had been Director Shepard's Executive Assistant, had agreed to return to NCIS as Tim's Administrative Assistant. That was a huge save after the Administrative Assistant to Agent Zhao, the preceding SAC, had also decided to retire.

Cynthia was already in London. At the time she'd been contacted, her husband Chaz Dalton, who worked in the tech industry, had been trying to decide between two job offers, including one in London. After some discussion, the couple accepted the offers in the UK. Their family moved overseas before Christmas, going straight to the Gibbs' home in Jaxton where they would housesit while the residents were away. They arrived before some of the family had departed for their Christmas in Virginia, much to the newcomers' relief. By the time the others left, the Dalton family knew where everything was and what things were different in the UK from what they were used to at home.

Two of Nikki's workmates were house-sitting the London townhouse for Tony and Maggie and had offered to help the Dalton family any way they could. The same friends were also visiting Nikki's comatose brother Eric, who'd been moved from the US to London when Nikki accepted the permanent Intel Analyst position after her temporary duty.

While Cynthia and her family were enjoying their stay in Jaxton, they were diligently searching for housing in the area, having decided they'd rather live in London's suburbs than in the City itself. It would be less expensive to take the tube or train into London to explore than it would be to actually live in it.

While they supposed it would be fun to live in London and to able to say they lived and worked in London, it was too late as they'd already fallen in love, both with Jaxton and another suburb of London, a market town called Brambury. The first time they visited the market town, they traveled by tube into London and then out to Brambury. For the second visit, they took one of the family's cars, with permission and drove over.

Before he and Cynthia met, Chad had lived and worked in New Zealand for two years and now had no problem resurrecting his 'driving on the left' skills here in the UK. At first their children thought it was funny and then a bit scary. By their third or fourth outing, they were used to it. Cynthia promised herself she'd learn how to drive here although for now she had other priorities.

While the Gibbses were in Virginia, she emailed Tim that she, her husband and their children were thoroughly enjoying the indoor pool and the snowy back gardens. She'd started at the office the first business day after Christmas, shadowing the retiring Administrative Assistant.

Tim's thought now was that Cynthia would be very helpful, after all that was why he hired her. Beside him, Artie took his hand, murmuring that being nervous was really a good thing, it would drive him to be as ready as possible before he made his first appearance as the official SAC the following Monday. Smiling, he leaned in for a kiss, agreeing and then thanking her for her love and concern.

Retiring SAC Zhao had agreed to continue in her position this week, giving Tim the time he needed to recover from jet lag, a very busy autumn and early winter. As far as the retiring agent was concerned, she was more than happy to stay longer. After a last minute change of mind about her retirement destination, she'd scrambled to put a new plan together.

She'd already sold her home and was not excited about staying in a hotel while waiting for seat availability on a flight to her new destination, Australia. As it was in the Southern Hemisphere, where it was now summer, the country was a popular destination for people not fond of chilly winters in the UK.

She shouldn't have worried about where she'd stay before her flight as she was quickly offered one of the larger guest rooms in the Jaxton house until she was ready to leave. She would now leave the Saturday after the Gibbs' return, traveling to her new home on a government flight which meant she'd be more comfortable and secure.

Tim nodded to his wife and to himself, settling back in his seat. He'd forgotten that Zhao was staying at the house and wasn't leaving until Saturday. That should be enough time for her to share what had been her biggest concerns during her years as SAC of the Field Office, not to mention the thousand other questions Tim had. He winced, he'd better check his notes first as he and Zhao had already discussed the position and the offices several times.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Finally landing at Luton airport's FBO near London, the group went through their usual Customs check before boarding the chartered bus. All too soon, they were waving goodbye to those who lived in London, Tony and his family were the last of the Londoners to leave the bus, and then the Jaxton residents began to gather their belongings, more than ready to be done with their trip!

Once at the house, the first order of business was to get the luggage to the right rooms. They had this down to a science, the process made easier with the addition of the elevator. No one was home but then they'd expected that. Special Agent Zhao, Cynthia and her husband Chaz were at work and their children at nursery or school. One of their 3 children was school age, Chaz's 8 year old nephew, and would be in class while the other two children were likely at the Jaxton nursery.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The following Monday morning, Tim stepped out of the carriage and into the tube station nearest the NCIS office, walking a few steps before he stopped. Glad they were the last ones out for this stop, Nikki and James smiley-smirked at each other before giving their brother-in-law a slight nudge. Making a noise neither could interpret, he took a deep breath and began walking toward the exit.

It was a few blocks to the office and during the short walk Tim thought to whatever deity or power might be listening that there would be no big problems or nasty cases that week, for the rest of the month or, better yet, while he was the SAC.

For all his worries, his smile was genuine when they entered the lobby and saw a banner reading "Welcome Back to NCIS: London-Euro, SAC Gibbs!" hanging on the back wall of the reception area. He liked that, welcoming but not overly conspicuous. He especially liked the 'Welcome Back' part, that helped, remembering he'd handled the SAC responsibilities not so long ago, after Zhao's accident. Really, he should be fine.

Except he'd known that was temporary and this was permanent. He smiled to himself, permanent wasn't the right word. He and Artie had enough money to live comfortably without either of them working. Firmly ordering himself to stop being a 'worry wart', he was relieved when he remembered how to pronounce the receptionist's name, thanking her for the banner.

Nikki and James disappeared to their departments while he checked in with Security to make sure they didn't need anything more from him. From there, he took the elevator to his new office, promising himself he would use the stairs from now on.

The layout of the various departments was somewhat similar to NCIS Headquarters aboard the DC Navy Yard. The forensics lab, autopsy, holding cells and a security office were in the sub-basement, along with a small break room, every floor but the basement had a break room. Although on the same floor, the lab, autopsy and break room were securely separated from the holding cells and security.

The basement had the evidence lock-up and garage as well as the fitness center. While the London office didn't handle all of the lab work or autopsies for its satellite offices, they handled enough to keep the forensic techs, medical examiner and her assistant busy.

The fitness center was very popular with everyone, especially during the chilly winters. Tim planned to swim every day, either here in the fitness center or in their own indoor pool at home.

A few of the administrative offices were on the first floor up from the lobby: Human Resources (also known as Personnel), Accounting and the Operations departments along with two conference rooms, one inside the Human Resources Department and used exclusively by them, while the other was available to whoever needed them. The Mail room was also on that floor. Although the agency didn't get much paper mail these days, there was still enough to necessitate having a separate place to scan and sort it.

The second floor had a briefing room that was large enough for the entire NCIS London employee population. James' lair, the Information Technology Department, was on the same floor.

The 2 field teams, there was a Cold Case team here as well as a Field team, were on the third floor with the onsite CCU agents. The Cyber Crime unit had 2 teams, 6 agents each, 1 lead, ranked as the equivalent of a Senior Field Agent, per team and one Cyber Crime SSA who was manager of both teams along with an additional 4 Cyber Crime agents stationed, one each, in the satellite offices, Marseille, Rota, Athens and Naples. The exception was the newest office in Hamburg, Germany. They didn't yet have their own CC agent and were assisted by either the Marseille CC agent or one of the agents in London. Although in general the CCUs didn't have separate teams for Cold Cases, they worked closely with the Cold Case team to resolve those cases.

After Tim's cross-training marathon two years ago, the CCU teams and the Cold Case teams had successfully closed more than 75% of NCIS' cold cases, some dating back as far as 30 years, while the FBI ran a close second, closing around 70% of their cold cases.

Although personal computers and computers in general weren't as sophisticated or as widespread in the 1970s and '80s as they were in 2014, many companies, especially financial institutions and hospitals, were already handling their financial data through computers and enough of it still existed to provide key evidence, either in decades old paper copies of the data runs or on 'ancient' hard drives that had never been purged or removed.

The third floor also had Interrogation, Observation, 3 conference rooms, a smaller version of the agency headquarter's MTAC, the Legal Department and the SAC's suite.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Tim smiled as he walked into his new office. Although the suite here was smaller than the Director's suite aboard the Navy Yard, the setup was similar. Cynthia had the outer office while Tim's lair was inside another room, accessed through a single door leading into the SAC's office. Both offices had a large window in the back of the rooms, complete with thermal drapes.

Tim knew he'd worked in here while subbing for Zhao but didn't remember much. He did remember he deliberately hadn't met all of the staff or even toured the entire office as he hadn't wanted to look like he was settling in, taking over. Although truthfully he had avoided meeting everyone because he was afraid of being roped back into the agency. Now he huffed to himself, at least this was his choice!

His office had a desk, desk light, chair, a conference table large enough to seat 4 around it with overhead lighting, along with a floor lamp next to a small sofa that would seat 2 people and two guest chairs in front of his desk. Next to a blank wall where his artwork would eventually go, was a door that opened to reveal a small bathroom he'd forgotten about, complete with a shower, commode, sink and closet. He was happy to see it all again, although once again amused at the shower he'd never use. The closet gave him someplace to hang his rain gear and he noticed a boot tray on the closet floor for wet footwear. There were also a few drawers in the cabinet with the sink and he thought he'd keep a few things here, toothbrush and paste, mouthwash, eye drops and possibly an extra shirt or sweater in case he spilled or the weather changed. He rolled his eyes at that thought, the weather on this island almost seemed to be an entity that delighted in keeping the professional forecasters on their toes.

He was pleased that the outer office also had a restroom discreetly tucked against a private conference room in the back of the outer office. When Tim noticed a full-sized sofa in there, Cynthia told him it was one with a pull-out bed.

He turned to her, "Any idea why we'd need one?"

She shrugged, "I don't know who would use it here but in DC there were times the director had visitors who needed tight security as well as a place to sleep for a few hours. Perhaps for an agent who worked undercover the safest place for them might be an NCIS field office or headquarters. Honestly, I believe the director sometimes slept in there. If she had a late meeting, for instance or she was too tired to go home or if it was late, she was tired and had an early morning meeting. There's a closet in both baths. "

He nodded, "That makes sense. And yes, I remembered the closet in the SAC's bath, huh, my bath. That will be better than throwing my overcoat over a chair and having muddy boots in the office."

Cynthia grinned, "My thoughts exactly! I plan to leave my good shoes, that is my office shoes, here and then I can wear walking shoes to and from the tube station and tuck them away during the day."

"Great idea!"

Deciding to unpack his desk later, Tim told Cynthia he was going to make the rounds, introducing himself to the staff. He'd already scheduled an online meeting with the entire staff of NCIS: Europe. That would take place in the large briefing room tomorrow morning with the satellite staff attending online but first he wanted to meet everyone here in person. He would also meet online with his satellite offices' team leads, SSAs, this afternoon.

After checking his email, he walked downstairs to the lab, stopping at the closed door and pressing a buzzer for admittance. If there were dangerous chemicals or even noxious smells in there, no one but the lab staff, there were two of them as well as a part-time assistant, would be admitted. Today, he was buzzed in and he entered, greeting both scientists by name and when he asked, was told the part-time assistant generally worked in the afternoons.

When Tim revealed that he'd taught Forensics at university level, the two asked several questions, laughing when he told them how long he'd been away from any active forensic work at the time and the rush to be ahead of his university students that first semester.

He smiled when they asked if he'd ever met Abby Sciuto and then when the two were nearly awestruck when he mentioned working with her. Refraining from rolling his eyes although Abby was certainly a star in the world of forensics, he decided not to mention she was part of his family. However, he did confess that he'd co-authored a book with her. One of them frowned, "I thought that was Sciuto and McGee and he was also a forensics geek and field agent. I remember that he said he was still a geek, a very proud geek."

Tim grinned, "And I am still very proud. Yes, I'm still a geek and yes, my name has changed."

"Wow!" The older of the two techs turned to a shelf, removing two books from it, "I know this isn't work, sir, but would you please sign them for me?"

"You mean autograph them?" Tim decided to ignore the 'sir' for now, to think about it later. He realized it was easier than saying "SAC Gibbs" and he'd been advised by two of his new peers that his first name was only to be used in private by his team leads and possibly his department heads. Still, he was uncomfortable being called 'sir'. When he remembered he was still 'Special Agent' Gibbs, he let go of his fear of turning into a bureaucrat.

The young woman nodded, "You and Abby Sciuto are two of the heroes of every forensic geek I've ever met and when you updated the first book, it again lit the fire under many of us. My friends and I were crushed when she had to leave her lab, that was awful."

Tim nodded, "It was and I'm thankful she's alive."

"Wow, I didn't know it was that bad! Does she like teaching?"

"Yes, she loves it, she's great at it and she's still able to spend a few hours a week in a lab at the University. Along with her classes, she tutors high school students in general science as well as forensics." He tilted his head with a grin, "She especially loves the regular hours."

Both smiled at that, they'd also love having regular hours. Rather than sign the books, Tim asked if he could borrow them and he thought the older one, the book owner, might faint, she was so excited. Putting them in an evidence bag, he left with them, intending to mail them to Abby for her signature, then he would add his and give them back to his lab tech.

He sent Abby an email later, saying that her fans wished her well and would love to have her autograph on the books he was sending her. He added that she might consider stopping into the lab here to say hello when she came to visit, which he hoped would happen in the next few months, perhaps before or after their annual trip to Greece.

Leaving the lab, he easily found the Autopsy suite, blinking as he entered. Although it was empty of people, dead or alive, it was so much like the one in DC that for a few seconds he expected to see Ducky and Jimmy hard at work and swallowed hard, feeling both sad and silly at being homesick for orange walls. Of course there were no orange walls in the Autopsy suite aboard the Navy Yard!

Diagnosing a flash of homesickness for his former team, he mentally gave himself a shake. He knew everyone was fine, he'd just spent weeks with them, and they were family now, acknowledged family. Looking around again, he blinked, firmly reminding himself that Ducky and Jimmy were all right, he'd just seen them. Right now, Ducky was either asleep in Georgetown or in Alexandria helping with his baby namesake. Jimmy, Breena and baby Donnie were also fine, hopefully getting some sleep.

He stood in the middle of the room knowing that he'd have to get used to this. The return to the agency was a return to his roots, home but not home. This was different. Although the physical setup was familiar, it was different and definitely not the Navy Yard, not even close.

Here and now he had a vastly different position within the agency, he shook his head at that thought, still in disbelief at his jump from a junior field agent/part-timer at the FBI to an SAC, a senior agent in charge of an entire Field Office, one with 5 satellite offices.

Most of the people here were new to him and he smiled, grateful that Nikki was here, one familiar face, along with James and Cynthia. No Ducky, no Jimmy, no Abby but then she had also left the Navy Yard, no Boss, Tony, Ziva or any of his friends, Rick, Jim, Balboa, Greene, Natalie, Dallas, Pringle or the others. With a sigh, he straightened his posture, squaring his shoulders and resolutely left Autopsy.

James looked up when his brother-in-law entered IT looking pensive, almost sad. When Tim caught sight of him, he smiled, again straightening his posture. James made a mental note to ask him later if something had happened.

Before he did that, he sent a message to Nikki who replied that she'd been downstairs and spotted Tim leaving Autopsy looking like he wanted to cry. She reminded James of his own surprise at how Headquarters was laid out, how similar it was to this office. She thought maybe that was happening with Tim, it was too much like being 'home' without the familiar people being there.

Nikki also reminded James of the circumstances surrounding Tim's departure from the agency. Although on paper the transfer to the FBI had been voluntary, everyone who knew the truth felt he'd been forced out. And even though Vance had apologized and done what he could to make up for his errors and was now on firm ground with Tim, it had still happened, there were no 'undo', 'delete' or 'back' keys to escape or erase human experiences.

All that made sense to James and he spent a little extra time introducing Tim to his staff, telling them a little more about their new boss and Tim a little more about his staff than he'd intended, wanting him to start to feel that this was also 'home'.

Finally leaving IT, Tim felt much better, making a mental note to thank James later. He made his way through the rest of the office, greeting people he'd met during his few weeks substituting for Zhao, nodding to those he was meeting for the first time. Although he thought he was doing better than he had in IT, the strong relief he felt when he saw Nikki told him he wasn't yet through his collywobbles.

He didn't shake hands with anyone. After various epidemics in the past few years, including a deadly global pandemic, discussing human immune systems with Nikki and remembering the warning he and Tony had seen online back in 2008, about not touching sea stars because human hands are so full of bacteria, he'd decided to forego hand shaking whenever possible.

Back in his office, he checked his email again before making a few phone calls. He had lunch out with his 3 SSAs, the leads of his field, cold case and cybercrime teams. That felt better. Although he didn't know them, he understood what they did and how they did it. After reviewing their recently closed cases he congratulated each for their diligence. Mentioning that he'd reviewed several cases from each team, he said he was impressed, although not surprised, by the smart work, especially the way the Cybercrime team and the Field teams, including the Cold Case team in that, worked together. Coming from a man who'd been on the top team in the agency and who had spent 2 years cross- training field and cybercrime agents, his words of praise meant a great deal to all three SSAs.

While Ethan Tyler, the SSA for the Cold Case Team, and Emma Carter, the SSA for the Cybercrime Unit, had about 18 months each in their positions, Chesni O'Brien, the Field Team SSA, had been in her position and in London for 4 years.

Tim made a mental note to speak with O'Brien about future plans. Not that he wanted to lose her but he did feel he should touch base about her future. Her next step could be as an SSA for a satellite office. While the title was the same, a position like that would be a promotion with a raise in salary and could lead to an SAC position in one of the field offices if she was interested.

They ate at one of Tim's favorite Greek restaurants in London. The food was delicious and he always enjoyed catching up with the owner, also the chef, and her staff. The three SSAs were a little startled when their new boss was welcomed in a language two of them had never heard while the third one had heard it before although she didn't understand any of it. Even more startling was that SAC Gibbs answered in what they assumed was the same language.

Once they sat and had menus, Tim grinned at them. "Have you ever had Greek food?"

Emma smiled, "Yes, when I was growing up the local Greek Orthodox church had an annual Greek festival and every year we tried something different. I've been to a few of the Greek places in London but hadn't been to this one yet!"

Ethan shook his head, "I've never had any Greek food that I know of. Can't wait to try some."

Chesni shrugged with a smile, "Only Greek yogurt, sorry!"

"Don't apologize, that counts and anyway, I look at this as an opportunity to introduce you to some of the best food I've ever had, and Emma, if you remember what you've had before you could try that here or something new. I've had just about everything on the menu, if not here, then at home. There are also other delicious selections if you prefer."

With a smile, Tim continued, "My wife is Greek, most of her family live in the Hellenic Republic and her uncle is a professional chef with his own restaurant, although it's in Italy, not Greece. So, yes, I speak and eat Greek as do our children and my parents, who live with us. My siblings, I have 11 of them, we're all adopted, speak Greek to some degree. Some of them live in the States and visit Greece every summer, as do we all, so they don't get much practice in during the rest of the year. The man most of us regard as our grandfather is now partners with my wife's Greek grandmother, so he speaks almost as fluently as I do. All right, how about we see what looks good to you?"

Going over the menu items, the quartet selected their meals. Emma asked Tim questions about a dish whose name she recognized and then decided to order something she hadn't had before while Ethan decided to stick with what his new boss was having. Like Emma, Chesni decided to try something very different from her usual choices, although everything but Greek yogurt would be new to her!

While Tim had previously enjoyed the dish he ordered today, Yaya and Nik had each made it for the family. However, he'd never had anything he didn't like at this restaurant and decided to also have it here. As he recalled, he and Artie wanted to make it themselves and then possibly play around with the recipe a bit but they hadn't yet had time.

After a delicious lunch, all 3 SSAs and Tim genuinely enjoying their meals, the group returned to the office where the Cold Case team was waiting to tell Agent Tyler about a new lead on an old case. Tim, Emma and Chesni stayed to hear the news and then Agent Carter called her two lead agents to join them while Agent O'Brien had her team join the others as they'd need several field agents on this. Tim quietly left for his office, smiling the entire way.

Next up was his online chat with his satellite SSAs, a call he was looking forward to with pleasure. Chesni, Emma and Ethan would normally have been included but the new hot lead on the old case took precedence for them and their teams.

He knew all of his remote SSAs, some better than others: Pete Russell for Athens, Stan Burley, a former Gibbs team member, for Rota, Jessica Knight for Naples, Roger Martinez for the newly opened Hamburg office and Tim's brother-in-law Ned Dorneget for Marseille. He'd spent many happy hours on the beaches of Greece with Pete, had also met Roger at a couple of Pete's beach parties, along with several phone conversations with him while he was filling in for Zhao and of course had known Ned since his brother-in-law was a probie.

Knight was fairly new to her current post. Previously she'd been a member of NCIS' REACT, that is, the Regional Enforcement Action Capabilities Team. In the aftermath of the murder of her team and catching the killer, she was relieved to be offered the SSA position in the Naples satellite office. She needed to do something different and wanted to work in an environment where she wouldn't be reminded every day of her lost teammates and friends.

Tim had met Knight three times, the first time through MTAC and phone only, the second and third times in person. That first time, she was part of the same REACT group who were subsequently killed. During the case that the MCRT worked with REACT, Gibbs, DiNozzo and David were in the field while McGee anchored the team, working the electronics from the office.

The second meeting was at his dad's retirement party where he'd been surprised Knight remembered him. The third time was shortly after her arrival in Italy, months before Tim assumed the SAC spot in London.

That meeting occurred during a short vacation visit to Sorrento, Italy, home of Artie's uncle Nik, his partner Sergio and their daughters Katerina and Damaris, in October of 2013. He, Artie and the children flew into Naples, taking the train to Sorrento where they stayed in an Airbnb within walking distance of their uncles' home. The day after their arrival, they had a tour of the island of Capri, which was interesting, including a boat tour of the Blue Grotto. Both evenings, they had dinner at Belle Figlie, Nik and Sergio's restaurant. The next day the children were tired so the family, including their cousins Katerina and Damaris, decided to spend the day at a beach. As Sorrento sits on the top of a cliff, the beaches take a little effort to get to but they managed, even as far as finding one of the few sandy beaches in the area. It was quite beautiful and after Tim checked for holes and rip tides, all six of the children had a wonderful time playing in the water. They had a fun and very relaxing day.

That evening, a Friday, the visitors returned to Belle Figlie, although a little earlier than the previous visits as the children were tired from their day in the sun. The six of them enjoyed another delicious dinner at Nik and Sergio's restaurant, trying a different entrée on each visit. On this visit, their third, a woman eating by herself looked over at Tim a few times, finally rolling her eyes, giving him an apologetic smile and discreetly showing her badge.

Surprised, Tim smiled and nodded, telling Artie who she was, Jessica Knight, his new SSA for the Naples office. As the newly designated future SAC of the NCIS European Field Office, he'd been involved in the selection of a new SSA for the office and was quite happy to agree with Zhao who wanted to offer Knight the position.

When the agent accepted the job, Tim was pleased for her, thinking a new team would be good for her and for himself as her acceptance meant that he would know all of the satellite offices' Team Leads when he assumed Zhao's responsibilities.

After finishing her delicious meal, Artemis excused herself from the table, walking over to the woman with the badge, introducing herself and inviting her to join them when she finished her meal, for dessert and an after-dinner beverage. Sergio, Nik and the girls eventually joined them, warmly welcoming Tim's colleague to Italy, Sorrento and the Sorrentine Peninsula. Sergio made sure she had their cell numbers if she should need anything, that is anything that wasn't agency related. Jessica, Tim and Artie chuckled when Nik added that caveat. Artie also added her contact information, telling her she knew what it was like to be new to a country and being homesick.

Leaving the restaurant that evening, Jessica thought the chance encounter with Timothy Gibbs, formerly a member of NCIS' celebrated MCRT, his family and extended family gave her a strange but very welcome feeling of being at home. Now she knew people here in addition to her team and the JAG staff next door to them. She'd been indecisive about where to live but within a few days chose an apartment home with the drive to Naples a few minutes under the agency rule of being no more than 1 hour from the office, and about 25 minutes from Sorrento.

Seeing Jess, as he'd been asked to call her, on screen with the others now, Tim nodded happily to her. From everything he'd seen and heard, she was doing very well leading the team and the office. The team's results showed much improvement and the overall morale of the office had greatly improved.

When he first looked at the records for the Naples office, he'd been surprised to find a note directing whoever was reviewing that office to a paper file in the 2nd drawer on one side of the SAC's desk. Remembering that the drawer was set up to hold Zhao's' most pernicious problems, Tim winced at the bulky manila folder titled 'NAPLES'.

Inside was a stack of paper, he estimated at least 50 pages, with various notes, copies of reports and Zhao's own thoughts. Toward the middle of the volume of paper, he read a note written to Zhao by a Marine Colonel at the JAG office that shared quarters with the NCIS office in Naples, telling her things were much better.

Stapled to the back of that document was an older note from the same officer, telling Zhao that the NCIS lead in Naples was not, in the opinion of the officer, doing his job, morale was very low, that despite several crimes involving either Navy or Marine personnel, no suspects had been interrogated in weeks, reminding the SAC that the Interrogation and Observation rooms were shared between JAG and NCIS. When Tim read that, he made a mental note that he needed to visit each of his offices in the next few months. While he didn't expect to uncover any office secrets, he believed he was a good enough judge of character and body language to get a feel for the atmosphere of an office.

At the very front of the bulky packet were copies of forms for retirement, an early one judging by the man's birth year, with an itinerary dated a week before Knight's arrival. Tim noted that the retirement form itself was signed and dated by Zhao the day before Knight accepted the position. The itinerary included a military flight from Naples, Italy, to Joint Base Anacostia Bolling, there were copies of a voucher for vehicle transport from JBAB to Reagan National Airport and of an e-ticket for a flight from Reagan to Kansas City International, Kansas, with the final destination listed as Wichita, Kansas.

Tim winced, whatever he'd done or hadn't done, the man would have had plenty of time to think about it on his long journey home. Tim had heard horror stories of government employees being terminated from employment with prejudice, meaning they forfeited all their benefits, including their pension. As this was an early retirement and not a termination, the former SSA should be all right. Whatever had happened, apparently there was enough 'wiggle room' for Zhao to have him take an early retirement, with transportation home. There was a note from Zhao that the SFA from the Athens office had served as temporary SSA of the Naples office until Knight's arrival. To Tim, that indicated the SFA was ready for promotion and he made a note on his phone to ask Pete Russell about that.

Putting that aside to look at the current reports, Tim saw that since the new SSA's arrival the field team had arrested the culprits in the three cases they'd handled, along with 2 additional suspects from older cases, 'pre-Knight'. That was great news and he mentioned the recent arrests during his SSA call, congratulating Knight and her team for quickly getting back in order.

What Tim thought he appreciated most of all were the welcoming calls and messages Jess told them about while they were at the restaurant in Sorrento. She'd had calls from all her fellow SSAs, Pete, Roger, Stan, Ned, Chesni, Emma and Ethan. Each had reached out to her on their own, welcoming her to NCIS: Europe and to the life of an ex-patriot American.

At the table that night at the restaurant, she'd laughed, telling them that she'd told her callers she'd lived much of her childhood in Asia where her father, also employed by NCIS, was stationed, and it had taken her some time to stop thinking of herself as an ex-pat while she was working in the US. During his call that first day, Tim saw she was already a solid member of the European team and that she would do very well here.

Oddly enough, of all the SSAs on the call that afternoon, it was Stan Burley, the man who'd spent 5 years working for Gibbs, that Tim didn't know very well. While he'd worked a case or two with the MCRT during Tim's time on the team, DiNozzo and David were the ones who'd been in the field or aboard ship with him while Tim ran the electronics from the office.

When they were all online, he smiled, "Good afternoon, it's great to see you all, I'm happy almost everyone could make it. Special Agent Tyler and his team are hot on the trail of new leads for a complex cold case; Special Agent O'Brien, her team and Cybercrimes SSA Carter and her teams are assisting as there is a lot of information to organize, decipher and track to the sources, physically and in cyber space. This just broke a few minutes ago and we're pretty excited about it!

"I'm certainly aware that all of you know who I am, some of us know each other fairly well. However, to satisfy protocol I am Special Agent Timothy Gibbs, formerly known as Special Agent Timothy McGee. My previous NCIS team was led by now retired Leroy Jethro Gibbs. After the team was scattered in 2008, with only Tony DiNozzo remaining at the agency, Gibbs married my mother and adopted my siblings and me. We all took his surname in one form or another. There are 12 of us, 10 of us adopted first by our mother while the other two chose to be part of the family without being formally adopted. None of us share DNA.

"Amongst the 12, at the moment there are 12 grandchildren. And yes, as you're also aware, 1 of my siblings and 3 of my in-laws also work for NCIS." He paused to smile at Ned, who returned the smile. "I'm proud to say that Ned is one of them. I'll also mention Jimmy, Nikki, James and Ned when we have our NCIS: Europe briefing tomorrow. Oops!" He grinned.

Most of the others smiled at his intentional 'slip' while Burley was quietly shocked. He and his wife had attended 'Boss's' retirement party, where he'd been surprised to discover Boss had married again and had seemingly become 'Dad' to his entire team. The videos and stories had been eye openers and on some level he wished he'd taken the opportunity to reestablish communications with Boss. However, after the party and their return home, he'd once again forgotten about Gibbs and his retirement.

Although he vaguely remembered that Gibbs' MCRT Lead replacement had been introduced, he'd forgotten the name until he'd seen something in Stars and Stripes that Gibbs' replacement had moved up and there was another new SSA for the MCRT at agency headquarters, someone he'd never heard of. Of course, he'd been in Spain for several years and other than calls with his peers, his former boss SAC Zhao and now his new boss, SAC Timothy Gibbs, he and his wife felt more like citizens of Spain than of the US. They had decided to stay in Spain after he retired, hoping to become citizens of the country.

Burley resumed listening, catching up as his new boss told them a few of his plans for all of them, plans that he thanked Russell, Martinez, Dorneget and Knight for helping him develop. Stan didn't wonder why he hadn't been consulted. Although he and his team proudly served the Navy and Marine Corps in Europe, he'd always been a bit of a loner and as such rarely joined in, except for the monthly calls with his fellow SSAs, or joined his peers for their twice yearly gatherings. On those occasions, the other SSAs would meet for a weekend, with their spouses and children, leaving their senior agents to handle things and gain more management experience. He and his wife had gone to two of those weekends but while Patricia enjoyed herself, Stan spent both weekends worrying about his team and some big disaster he was sure would happen, although nothing did. Still, he and his team were close and he held onto that. Now, as he listened to his new boss, he admitted he was curious about the man and what seemed to be a very large family.

CANON CHARACTERS:

Timothy McGee, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Tony DiNozzo, Ziva David, Abby Sciuto, Donald 'Ducky' Mallard, Jimmy Palmer, Breena Slater Palmer, Victoria Palmer, Nikki Jardine, Eric Jardine, D'Arcy McKinna (child advocate), Ned Dorneget, Tobias Fornell, Emily Fornell, Ron Sacks (FBI), Sarah McGee, Leon Vance, Jackie Vance, Kayla and Jared Vance, Secretary of the Navy Davenport, Secretary of the Navy Sarah Porter, Special Agent Stan Burley, Sandy (MTAC), Henry (Security), Balboa (NCIS Agent), Jackson Gibbs, LJ Moore, Courtney Krieger (FBI), Dallas Smit, Pringle (both Dallas and Pringle are from "Last Man Standing", S6 ep 1,), Pamela Cook, Cynthia Sumner, Jerome Craig (Assistant Director, NCIS), Cassie Yates, Richard Owens (S1, Ep 5, "The Curse"), Jessica Knight (current member of the show's MCRT), Nick Torres (current member of the show's MCRT).

Note: Tim now uses Gibbs as his surname at the agency, although there will also be references to Timothy McGee. His legal surname is now Camilo-Gibbs. He uses his wife's surname Midei whenever they travel, to keep his identity as a federal agent as quiet as possible.

Major Canon Characters:

Timothy Jackson Camilo-Gibbs: Formerly known as Timothy McGee, Tim is happily married to the love of his life, OC Artemis (Artie) Christina Midei, is the adopted son of his former boss Leroy Jethro Gibbs and of course the mother, Luella Rose Camilo Gibbs, who has, for all intents and purposes, been his mother since he was 9 years old. Tim and Artie have four wonderful, energetic, loving children: twins Jackson and Ellanni, born in early February of 2010 and Liam and Chloe, siblings who were first fostered and then adopted by Tim and Artie in 2013. Liam was born in December of 2010, nearly a year younger than the twins, he had his 3rd birthday in the last chapter of Reaping the Bounty. Chloe was born in April of 2011 and will be 3 in 2014, a couple of months after the twins' 4th birthdays.

Sarah Gibbs-Powell: Tim's canon sister, married to OC James Powell; raised by Tim, adopted by Lu and then Jethro. If they decide to have children, the list will be updated. Sarah moved to London to obtain her master's, met James and never left. She is now a best-selling author and a wonderful aunty to her nieces and nephews. She also loves her life as a wife, lover, aunty and daughter to two mothers and three fathers, as her adoptive mother Malu and her mother-in-law Edie Powell guide her and Timpa, Dad Gibbs and father-in-law George Powell are always there when she needs them.

Ziva DavidMetzger: 'chosen' sister and daughter of the Gibbs' clan. Married to OC Brian Metzger in the last chapter of Reaping the Bounty. Brian's parents are Ben and Julie Metzger, introduced in The Common Thread. Ziva has decided to wait to be adopted until she is a U.S. citizen, wary of what her father might do if she legally becomes Lu and Jethro's daughter before then. Until then, she remains a much loved 'chosen' daughter and sibling, granddaughter, friend and aunty in the family. Ziva and Brian live in New York City, where he works at the United Nations and she teaches and manages a ballet studio owned by her cousin.

Tony Barnes-Gibbs: formerly known as Tony DiNozzo, Jr. now adopted by Jethro and Lu Gibbs. Married to OC Maggie Barnes-Gibbs, father of OC McKenna Barnes-Gibbs and Madelyn Barnes-Gibbs and son-in-law of OC (Ret.) Colonel Dick 'Papi' Barnes. Tony is now a senior officer in his family's business, Paddington North Sea Oil. He, Maggie, their daughters and Tony's father-in-law, Dick Barnes, live in London in a Georgian era townhouse he inherited from his late mother's family. Maggie Barnes and her father were first introduced in Finding Home, and were also in The Common Thread and the Serendipity series.

Jimmy (Palmer) Camilo-Mallard: adopted son of Lu Gibbs and also of Ducky Mallard after Ducky retired. Married to Breena Slater Palmer, now known as Breena Camilo-Mallard. Jimmy is the father of OC child Donald Geoffrey Palmer and canon child Victoria Elizabeth Palmer. Also son-in-law of canon Ed Slater and OC Ginny Slater; Ginny and Donnie were introduced in the Serendipity series.

Abby Sciuto: partner of Freddie Camilo Gibbs, aunt of Menolly Sciuto, who lives with Abby and Freddie. Although Abby doesn't want to be adopted, she is a much loved 'chosen' daughter, sibling, granddaughter, aunty and friend in the family and extended family. After going through a horribly painful and frightening experience, she's rebounded fairly well, taking the initiative when she realized she wouldn't be able to return to her beloved lab due to new physical constraints. Although she misses her lab and NCIS in general, she's happy with her life with Freddie, her new work and having regular hours. When her niece Menolly is accepted to a specialized program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the young teen moves in with Abby and Freddie.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs: now Dad to his former team and several others, he's very happy with his life and loves. No longer the angry, bitter, sometimes rude or abrupt man he once was, he smiles, laughs and amazingly enough, speaks a lot more than during his NCIS days. He's very affectionate with his 'kids' and grandchildren. He's happy and deeply in love with his wife.

Donald 'Ducky' Mallard: Now retired, Ducky's life has also changed since 2008. He is now legally father to Jimmy, father-in-law to Breena and grandfather to their children as well as Tim, Tony and Nikki's children. On top of that, he's finally found his true love, Tim's grandmother-in-law, Athena Midei. While the couple spend as much time together as possible, they also want to spend time with their children and grandchildren. Ducky visits his Scottish family, cousins, every year and Athena frequently joins him.

Nikki Jardine-Gibbs: Now married to Tim's brother Bill and mother to young Jasper, nearly 2 years old as our story begins, Nikki is happier and more satisfied with her life than she's ever been. She's pleased that her new family, her in-laws, are as careful with her somewhat precarious health as her husband and enjoys living in Jaxton with her new family. She's become good friends with her sibling in-laws and her mother-in-law. She's even grown close to her father-in-law, the former Agent-to-be-avoided-whenever-possible and the former 'Frat Boy DiNozzo', now a trusted friend and family member. All of that constantly amazes her. While her brother Eric's condition hasn't changed, he is still comatose, she is very pleased that her new family visits him at his hospital in London, reading or just talking to him.

Leon Vance: even though Leon made some serious mistakes at the beginning of this series, he has apologized and made things as right as he could. By the time he returned from his jaunt with Secretary Davenport and realized what a mess he'd made, our team had moved on, although they'd become an even stronger family. By the end of Reaping the Bounty, Leon is in everyone's good graces, has successfully worked with Consultant Tim, managing to lure him back to the agency after 6 years away, has established a strong, positive reputation for the agency and himself in DC and considers both Tim and Jethro close friends. Leon, Jackie, Kayla and Jared see the ever expanding family of Gibbses, in-laws, children, cousins, extended family and friends every summer in Greece and are now considered part of the extended family.

Jackson Gibbs: the elderly man is full of life, happy to be reconciled with his son after too many years. While they have been working things out, they continue to grow closer. Jack has also reconciled with his best friend LJ Moore and that relationship also makes him happy. He loves his new grandchildren and their partners and best of all, all their babies, his great-grandchildren!

LJ Moore:in The Common Thread, I established LJ as Leroy Jethro's godfather and I've continued that in this series. LJ and Jackson have moved beyond their years of angry separation, possibly initiated by the long illness and death of Jethro's mother Anne, and have re-established their friendship. Uncle LJ lives with the gang in Jaxton, visiting his own family members in the US during visits there. LJ is now firmly entrenched within the Gibbs family and is much loved by Jethro, Lu, the adult children and all the littles.

Original Characters:

Luella Rose Camilo Gibbs, aka Malu: Tim, Sarah, Tony and Jimmy's adopted mother, Jethro's wife, grandmother to Tim, Sarah, Tony and Jimmy's biological and adopted/foster children as well as those of the OC characters and Tim's OC sister-in-law Susannah's children. Former manager of the 59th Street Homeless Shelter.

Bill Camilo Jardine-Gibbs: Adopted son of Lu and Jethro, was formerly the eldest of the Baltimore bunch and the eldest sibling of Lu's kids until Tony and Abby joined the family. He's a Master carpenter; married to canon character Nikki Jardine and father of 20 month old Jasper, a special needs infant and baby who is now catching up with his age peers.

Geordie Camilo-Gibbs: Adopted son of Lu and Jethro, brother to all their kids. A Marine officer married to OC Bec Childers. Now in the reserves, Geo has earned his PhD, allowing him to teach at college and university levels. He's currently working at a University in London while his wife is a visiting professor in the UK.

Barry Camilo Dorneget-Gibbs: Adopted son of Lu and Jethro, brother to all their kids, a former Detective Sergeant for the Baltimore Police Department, married to very much alive canon character Ned Dorneget.

Freddie Camilo-Gibbs: Adopted son of Lu and Jethro, brother to all (except Abby), master plumber, business partner of Jose Maier-Gibbs; partner of canon character Abby Sciuto. While Freddie has been very shy for most of his life, his relationship with Abby, having a dad and the love and support of not just one but two parents and his siblings, he is starting to open up a bit more.

Jose/Joe Maier-Gibbs: Adopted son of Lu and Jethro, brother to all their kids. Master plumber and business partner of Freddie Camilo-Gibbs; now married to OC Charlotte Howe who is cousin to OC Bec Childers and niece of Bec's OC father Ben Childers. Joe's mother was Peruvian and his father Swiss. He is one of the two boys originally adopted by Lu who remember their parents, Geo is the other one. Since his marriage to Charlotte, the pair have reconnected with Joe's Swiss birth family. They have a son, Tomas, nickname Tommy, the last of the 2013 babies to be born.

Rob Camilo Gibbs, MD: Adopted son of Lu and Jethro, brother to all their kids and the youngest of the whole bunch. Along with Sarah, he was raised by Tim. He still relies on his Timpa and has also become closer to his new dad. Although Rob is incredibly busy with medical school and residency, he keeps up with his family as best he can. It's said within the family that if Rob sits in one place for more than 3 minutes, he'll fall asleep.

Jethro's Family:

Luella Rose Camilo Gibbs: Jethro's wife, mother to Tim, Sarah, Tony, Jimmy and all their siblings (see above) and grandmother to their children, see above under Tim, Jimmy and Tony's and the OCs' families, while Jethro is a very happy grandfather;

Jackson Gibbs: Jethro's father, grandfather to Tim, Tony, Jimmy, Ziva and Abby and their OC siblings, great-grandfather to all the children in the family.

Cousin Richard Baxter: Jethro's mother Anne's nephew. Richard's family includes his daughter Tricia, grandson Doug, Doug's wife Kat and their children.

Mac Fielding: Shannon's father, Kelly's grandfather, 'Grandpa Mac'. Although Mac has never physically been introduced on the show, he is mentioned as Shannon Fielding Gibbs' father and Joann Fielding's ex-husband in the episode "Mother's Day";

LJ Moore: dear friend of Jackson Gibbs (the elder), godfather to his namesake Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He is LJ to 'Junior' and Lu and 'Uncle LJ' to the rest of the clan. Although LJ's death was mentioned on the show, he lives on here.

Ducky's Family:

Jimmy (Palmer) Camilo-Mallard, adopted by Ducky after his retirement. Jimmy's wife is Breena Camilo-Mallard, children Donnie (Donald) and Victoria. Jimmy is also the adopted son of Luella Gibbs and thus brother to Tim, Sarah, Tony, Ziva, Abby and the OC siblings.

Ducky's Cousins: Ducky's mother Victoria's fictitious maiden name is Quillan; her nieces and nephews, Ducky's first cousins, are twins Archie and Adair Quillan and twins Morag Quillan Buchanan and Una Quillan Murray. Other cousins are Gaven and Sloane Mallard, Ray Buchanan and Ewan Buchanan (married to Morag) and all the next generation(s) of (nameless) offspring. The only ones who are featured are Archie and Morag. I'm really including all the cousin's names here so I'll be able to find them again! Also, I established in Finding Home that Ducky's French Mallard ancestor emigrated to Scotland to marry 'a lass' in the Buchanan clan. I'm sticking with that in this story and a possible stand-alone future story.

Artemis' family:

Susannah Midei: Artie's sister; Ian Clacher, her husband; children are Alec and (future child) Danae. Alastair and Fiona Clacher are Ian's parents, first introduced in The Common Thread. Susannah is also featured in Notes in the Key of Life and Ian is mentioned there as well.

Athena Midei: also known as Yaya and Mimi, grandmother to Artemis, Susannah, Katerina, Damaris, Cassie and Matthaíos; partner of Donald 'Ducky' Mallard; first introduced in The Common Thread. In practice, Athena is 'Yaya' to all the children and young adults as well as the adults of Artie and Susannah's generation, including Tim, Ian, Tony, Jimmy and all the Gibbs' siblings. She is 'Mimi' to all the children, teens and young adults who are not her blood relatives, including Artemis and Susannah's half-siblings and Athena to Donald (Ducky), Jethro, Lu, the Porters, the senior Powells, Clachers, Peter Lekkas, his wife Rhode Elytis and to her friends.

Nikolas and Sergio Costas, Artie and Susannah's uncles. Nikolas is Athena's oldest child and only son. Sergio is Nikolas' partner while Katerina and Damaris are Nik and Sergio's adopted daughters; they were first introduced in The Common Thread.

Gaia Costas and Theo Caras: Artemis and Susannah's aunt and her husband Theo. Their children are the 'older' twins Cassie and Matthaíos; first introduced in The Common Thread.

Peter Lekkas: biological father of Artemis and Susannah. Peter is married to Rhode Elytis (known as Yaya Rhode to Peter and Jethro's grandchildren). They have four children. Peter's parents/Artemis and Susannah's paternal grandparents are Galen Lekkas and Katarin Florakis, who live on the island of Crete; Peter and Rhode were first introduced in The Common Thread.

Sophia Costas and Kosmos Galanis: Artemis and Susannah's estranged mother and stepfather; introduced in The Common Thread. While Sophia appeared in Reaping the Bounty, (angry woman in the park in Denmark), I don't plan on a return appearance for her and Kosmos is only mentioned in the series.

Lu's birth family:

Walt and Rudy Camilo: Lu's older brothers, unnamed wives. Seen only at Jethro and Lu's wedding. May turn up later but only as background characters. Otherwise, they are ONE and DONE OCs.

(Ret.) Colonel Charlie Camilo: Lu's brother, closest to her in age, a retired Marine Colonel and a widower. Uncle Charlie lives with the gang in Jaxton, travels with Tim and family to New Mexico, his former home.

Others:

Maggie Barnes-Gibbs: Tony's wife, a Marine Captain now in the reserves; first introduced in Finding Home, also appeared in the Serendipity series and The Common Thread and Notes in the Key of Life.

Colonel Richard Barnes: Maggie's father, a retired Marine Colonel; first introduced in Finding Home, also appeared in the Serendipity series and The Common Thread and possibly Notes in the Key of Life. Papi to his grandchildren and their cousins, occasionally referred to as 'Uncle Papi'.

Larry and Cyndie Porter: friends and mentors of Tim from MIT, now at Stanford University; they first appeared in The Common Thread and mentioned in Fallout in the Serendipity series.

Biros-Santos: Artemis' legal guardians when she started at MIT at age 16; first appeared in The Common Thread (T&A's wedding); mentioned in Fallout in the Serendipity series.

Donovans: Professors and mentors from MIT; first appeared in The Common Thread (wedding); mentioned in Fallout in the Serendipity series.

Mrs. Ferguson: a native of Canada (per a discussion of Thanksgiving in one of my stories), the now deceased woman was the landlady of Tim, Rob and Sarah while Tim was at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her deceased professor husband had a huge library that she rented to the three McGees to live in. When she died, the trio were shocked to find that Mrs. F, as they lovingly referred to her, willed her home to them. When the trio lived with her, she helped Tim with the children, also working with the Porters and others to help Tim.

James Powell: Sarah's husband and father of her possible future children. His parents are George and Edith (Edie) Powell. James was first introduced in The Project, and is featured many times in Finding Home and The Common Thread.

Bec Childers Gibbs: Geordie's wife, a former Navy Captain, now a professor of Environmental Botany. First introduced in Finding Home, Bec also appeared in The Common Thread and the Serendipity series.

Ben Childers: Bec's father, Geordie's father-in-law and uncle to Charlotte Howe (see below). First mentioned in Finding Home at Geordie and Bec's wedding at the Big House in Virginia, first featured in The Common Thread. In this series, he's been divorced from Bec's mother for years and Bec has been estranged from her since she graduated from high school. The former Ms. Clacher does not appear in this series.

Charlotte Howe: Bec's cousin, Ben's niece, girlfriend and eventually wife of Jose Maier-Gibbs and mother of little Tomas, one of the 2013 babies. Char was first introduced in Finding Home and also featured in The Common Thread.

Gail Tehama Fornell: the mother of Emily's best friend Pauley, eventually the wife of Tobias Fornell.

Lloyd Davis: NEW OC, Husband ofchild advocate/social worker D'Arcy McKinna, appeared in Reaping the Bounty.

Henry Sailes: Director, FBI; first featured in The Common Thread.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer Ted Becker: NEW OC Tim's friend and his first and last guest speaker for his Stanford Practical Application of Criminal Justice classes. Also has Tim's Porsche Boxster in storage at his home in California. From Professor McGee, with additional mentions in Reaping the Bounty.

Lawrence Callaway: Assistant director, FBI, Fornell's immediate superior; mentioned and featured in the last story of the At What Price series: What the Heck Happened?.

Bucky Fuller: FBI IT Expert, the only IT or Technical person from the Hoover Building that Tim's ever worked with. He's been mentioned in a few of my stories.

Tim's FBI Team: Ron Sacks, Kourtney Krieger, Liz, Kay, Dai, Hector, Saul Ng, Matt, Baris, Kim, Rami, Mal. Except for canon characters Ron Sacks and Kourtney Krieger, these are probably one and done OCs. Two of them attended Tim's cross-training in New Mexico.

Bob Chalmers: mentioned as a new SSA for one of the European satellite offices. OC Bob first appeared in Fish, then the Serendipity series as Sarah's boyfriend and eventual husband.

Nate, Juanita and Big John: from the transient/homeless camp in Baltimore; first introduced in At What Price, although not named until Finding Home. The three were also mentioned in the Serendipity series and in The Common Thread. The three have been featured in every story where the camp in Baltimore or 'Bayopolis' is part of Tim's backstory.

Jamison family: Trudy or Mrs. J., short for Mrs. Jamison, and her grown children: Billy and Heather; former residents of the shelter. The family is part of the non-profit organization that helps keep the shelter and camp running. Introduced in Finding Home although nameless, mentioned in The Common Thread and in the Serendipity series. Heather is also a member of the non-profit and in this series, is Nikki and Bill's wedding planner.

Duarte Silva: Former resident of the shelter. Duarte is also part of the non-profit that keeps the shelter and camp running. Introduced in Finding Home although nameless, mentioned in The Common Thread and in the Serendipity series.

Chaz Dalton: the husband of canon character Cynthia Sumner who is the former executive assistant to Director Shepard and, in The Common Thread and the Becoming Tim series, Cynthia is also the Administrative Assistant to Timothy (McGee) Gibbs. Her husband Chaz works in the tech world and they have 3 children.

Dept of Defense:

Secretary Becker: Secretary of Defense, originally a canon character from the now-defunct TV show Madame Secretary.

Pentagon:

General Roberts: one and done OC for Vance's lunch with the SecNav in Professor McGee;

NCIS: Navy Yard, DC:

Richard (Rick) Carter, James (Jim) O'Brien, special agents and their wives Denise Carter and Annie O'Brien, who is also a real estate agent. Rick and Jim, have, I believe, been in every story of mine that involves NCIS. Annie debuted as a real estate agent in The Common Thread, Notes in the Key of Life and again in this series. Denise Carter was originally a police officer and in this series attended Jethro's surprise retirement party with her husband. She was featured in Fallout, part of the Serendipity series, and later in After when the couple were transferred to the UK and during Tim and Vance's quick visit to the UK (and other offices). They were also featured in The Common Thread.

Natalie Andrews: squad room neighbor of the Gibbs' MCRT; another one who's been in most if not all of my NCIS-DC Navy Yard stories. She gained a surname and a husband named Jay in The Common Thread.

Pauline Marsh: Head of Human Resources: I believe she was introduced in The Common Thread.

Ms. Horner: Head of the Legal Department: introduced in The Common Thread (the replacement for the compromised head of the Legal Dept.) and featured again in Professor McGee and Reaping the Bounty.

European Offices and Agents

Piraeus, Greece: Pete Russell, SSA, his wife Trina and family, agents Rusty and Lynn, others unnamed, Office Mgr. Kim, Clerk Eva Elytis. Pete, Trina and their children are close friends of the Vance family. Pete, etal, originated in Finding Home and also featured in the Serendipity series in After and were in The Common Thread as well as this series.

Marseille, France: Ned Dorneget, his husband, Tim's OC brother Barry, their adopted daughters Ava and Naomi.

Hamburg, Germany: Roger Martinez, SSA, his wife Marla, unnamed staff (unless Bob Chalmers is there). Originated in Finding Home, where they were posted to Marseilles, and also featured in The Common Thread.

Rota, Spain: Stan Burley, SSA, his OC wife Patricia, unnamed staff. Stan and Patricia appeared in Finding Home and The Common Thread.

Naples, Italy: Jessica Knight, SSA (surprise!)

London, UK: Timothy Camilo-Gibbs, SAC, see above for family. SSAs: Ethan Tyler (Cold Case team), Emma Carter (Cyber Crimes) and Chesni O'Brien (Field Team); Intel Analyst: Nikki Jardine, Asst Mgr./Mgr. of IT: James Powell, Tim's Admin. Assistant: Cynthia Sumner Dalton.

Other NCIS offices:

Southwest: Joel Morris, wife Carol. Joel and Carol are featured in my stories when Tim is in London, Greece or San Diego (aka the Southwest office).

Stanford:

Aaron Mitchell: the head of Human Resources, introduced in Professor McGee;

Patricia Cassidy: Tim's friend, introduced in Professor McGee;

Dr. Chaz Rogers: Tim and Larry Porter's Chair, introduced in Professor McGee;

Dr. O'Brien: Chair of the Criminal Justice Department, introduced in Professor McGee;

Dr. Newell: Chair of the Mathematics Department, introduced in Professor McGee;