Disclaimers:

1) I've created the name of a fictional country and at least one fictional person inside that country. The fictional country is not meant to represent any country or combination of countries on our planet, it is truly fictional as is the situation that is presented. Nor is the fictional person meant to be any flesh and blood human being or any combination of people. I couldn't find even close matches on Google for the combination of letters used in the fictional names.

2) The plan under discussion by the SecNav mentions harbors that may or may not currently harbor US military vessels. Again, this is fiction!

3) The storm mentioned as having happened in Europe 'the previous winter', causing damage to various locations mentioned in the story is also fictional.

And now…

Ch 16: Again?

Although very happy when Jimmy called to accept the NCIS European Chief Medical Examiner (aka CME) position, Tim wasn't overly surprised when the junior Mallards jumped at the chance to move overseas. His idea of offering Jordan Hampton the CME job made Leon very happy, he remembered the woman previously filling in for both Dr. Mallards.

Leon asked Jimmy's evaluation of his assistant, who'd been with him for several months now and Jimmy sent a formal evaluation to the director, recommending she continue her employment. She knew agency protocols which would be a great help for whoever replaced him. Knowing they'd have to post the CME job Leon rolled his eyes at the discussion he and Tim had had without even thinking of posting for Jimmy's replacement!

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Once everyone knew about Jimmy and Breena, the adults immediately moved into action, helping to sort and pack what they'd need to take with them on the trip home. Nikki offered Jasper's crib for Donnie, saying that Jasper was now sleeping in one of the twins' toddler beds and that she and Bill wouldn't need the crib for several months, telling Breena that they hoped to adopt another child but not until after Jasper's birthday in early June, asking her to keep that to herself. Grinning, Breena agreed.

All of Donnie's toys were packed, along with several favorite books of his, his parents' and his grandfather's. Clothes were all packed, with winter clothes packed on top of everything else in the suitcases. Donnie had new winter clothes and boots so he was all set. In the hours left before New Year's, Malu, Jethro and Ducky bought a few new things for Donny's parents, warmer maternity outfits for Breena along with new hats, gloves, scarves, snow boots, lined pants and jackets for their adult children, having everything delivered to the Jaxton house. The couple had warm enough clothes to get them to the jet here and then from the jet to Jaxton.

With the help of their friend and realtor Annie O'Brien, the junior Mallards also contracted with a property management company who would find tenants for their home. The agent who toured the house was impressed with the renovations, saying those and the Craftsman architecture would be big draws for families.

It was definitely a big push, reminding Jethro and Lu of the former Palmers' move from their tiny apartment to the Alexandria house days before Donnie's birth. However, big push or not, they had it all done in time.

During the rush and at the urging of her mother-in-law, Breena called her mother to tell her they were moving to the UK, leaving on New Years Day, that Jimmy had been transferred there and they'd probably live at the Jaxton house. Although shocked, Ginny was happy and relieved for her daughter and especially for her son-in-law. While she didn't mention it to her daughter, she was very aware of the gap between them and knew that after their last serious conversation she'd used work to avoid making any changes. Now her daughter was making her own changes.

During their phone conversation, she told Breena she would be there for the baby's arrival and stay to help. That was a relief and Breena knew her father wouldn't want to leave with her mother away so Jimmy wouldn't have to worry about that.

Barry and Ned returned with the girls Tuesday morning, having taken a red-eye Paddington flight that originated in Los Angeles, picked the four of them up in Phoenix before continuing to the DC area FBO used by North Sea Oil. Barry said they'd had a wonderful visit, he and Ned were satisfied with the time spent with Ned's grandparents and now amazed and very happy to find the junior Mallards were joining them in Europe. Ziva, Brian, Jose, Char, Tommy, Freddie and Abby were also at the house, the latter two having changed their plans for New Orleans to a later date.

Ducky and Athena had planned to close the Georgetown house for the winter and were happy to change their minds when Rick and Denise Carter asked if they could rent it for 6 months. Their home had some serious issues that needed immediate attention and they wouldn't be able to live in it until everything was finished. Although the work would not take 6 months the brownstone was much closer to the Navy Yard and Denise's employer than their own home and that would really help, especially during the winter.

Tobias told Ducky that if Rick and Denise were ready to move home before their 6 months was up, he and Gail would be happy to take over their rental agreement.

With all the rest and spoiling Ducky had had as well as Athena's loving ministrations along with the wonderful news about his son and family moving to the UK, he was feeling much like himself again and looking forward to the winter they'd spend in Greece and the UK. They'd stay in Jaxton until after the twins' 5th birthday in February, then travel to Varkiza for about 5 weeks of sunshine before returning to Jaxton in early April to await the births of Donald's newest grandchild as well as Sarah's first child.

Breena and Donnie had breakfast with Donnie's Slater grandparents on Tuesday, while Jimmy worked his last day aboard the Navy Yard.

The junior Dr. Mallard grinned when he heard he was having an all day party and didn't mind a bit that there were no new cases that day. He and his assistant had done multiple autopsies on Monday and that was enough to close out the year! Dr. Hampton had come in to assist on Monday afternoon, much to Jimmy's relief as he was exhausted, although still elated with their new adventure! While his replacement would be an MD who'd worked at the Great Lakes office for a few years, Dr. Hampton would fill in as Medical Examiner until the new CME arrived in mid-January.

Breena had expected to be sad when she left her parents but she was too excited to be sad and had to work hard to be patient with her parents. Her mother was very sad and for a while she thought her father was as well until she realized he was pretending to be sad to cover his anger. With Jimmy, of course. Ed made just enough snarky comments for Breena to know.

She kissed her mother goodbye and then looked at her father, saying quietly and calmly, hoping Donnie would only react to her calm, "Don't bother coming for a visit. You're not welcome unless you can be civil to my husband for the entire time you're there. And there won't be room for you at the Jaxton house, unless you wear a muzzle. I'm done with your crap."

She looked at her mother, "You're welcome anytime, as long as he's not with you. Come live with us!" Then she kissed her again and walked out with Donnie, who was singing his favorite song, one MacKenna taught him, and feeling that she should have said that or something similar, years ago.

Wondering whether she would cry later, they returned to Alexandria, Breena smiling the entire way. When her in-laws asked her how it had gone, she grinned, "I finally told him off." Telling them what she'd said to her father, she continued smiling as Malu and Jethro gently hugged her. She never did cry.

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New Year's Eve morning was crowded at the house as the Baltimore folks, including Menolly who'd returned by train with her mother who'd then flown home, Ziva and Brian, Ducky and Athena arrived for lunch, dinner and stayed over. They played in the snow, making some adjustments to their snow family who had melted here and there since Christmas and the arrival of Mia and Brian, swam in the pool and even took a walk in the snowy woods just before dusk. That was fun and someone started singing an old folk song with everyone eventually joining in.

When it was time for people to leave, Ziva held onto her parents and siblings, wishing she and Brian could also live in the UK. Or spend more time with them, perhaps a month or two at a time. She sighed at that, knowing they both needed to work and taking more than two or three weeks at a time would be difficult. Later, she smiled as her husband reminded her that she would become a US citizen the first week of March and then she could become a Gibbs as her brothers, her former teammates, had done. That brought smiles to his sad wife.

While Brian and his parents would keep it a surprise for Ziva, members of her family, Jethro, Lu, Tim, Tony, Abby, Freddie, Joe, Charlotte and possibly Jimmy and Ducky, would attend Ziva's swearing-in ceremony, although some of them, likely Jimmy and Ducky, would likely attend via Skype or FaceTime. Still, they would be there to witness her becoming an US citizen. After that, he would leave the adoption to his in-laws and his wife. He'd also been thinking about the possibility of them moving to the UK for a year or two. He knew the UN had positions for which he was qualified in several countries, it was really a matter of deciding and then finding someone to run the ballet school while they were away. Truthfully, that was the biggest hurdle. Finally falling asleep, Brian dreamed of his wife and a young girl pirouetting on a big stage.

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While everyone gathered, sorted and packed their belongings for the trip home, Tim was still absorbing everything that had happened at the meeting on Tuesday with Secretary Porter and Director Vance.

Nearly a year ago, he'd listened to a speech given by a politician in the country of Flauvtic. He sometimes did that, not just for that particular country but for all the others where the US Navy had interests. The topic of the politician's speech was freeing the country of all the US government employees. Halfway through the speech, Tim began recording it and as he'd anticipated, the man reiterated all of his remarks about his country being overrun by US government employees. Other than the considerable Navy presence there, Tim wasn't aware of anything else. He rolled his eyes at the numbers the man gave. Two days later, he gave in to what he called a 'brain worm', taking the name from the term 'ear worm' wherein a song won't leave one's brain. He'd looked up the phrase, having thought it might have been generated by Disney's famous (or infamous) song, "It's a Small World" and found the phrase started in Germany more than a hundred years before. The term in German is "Ohrwurm" for stuck song syndrome, a very clear definition. That term morphed into the term 'ear worm', at least in the US.

In his case, he was sometimes inflicted with a 'brain worm' in which he had an idea that wouldn't go away until he did something about it. A previous brain worm had been his need to cross-train CCU staff and Field Agents for both NCIS and the FBI.

For this particular brain worm, he needed to know if the numbers the politician gave were anywhere near accurate. So he took care of that, digging deep until he had what he considered numbers as close to accurate as he could get while staying within his agency authority to search Department of Defense records.

While doing his digging, he began to think about the US Navy and Marines, stationed in many parts of the world, and what the Department of Defense, also known as the DoD, would do if their host country suddenly ordered them out, including all of their support. Going back to his Flauvtic numbers, and ignoring military personnel, he already had those numbers, he dug deeper, finding even more Department of Defense employees than the military folks.

Looking at other countries with large complements of US Navy or Marine personnel, he checked those for DoD employees but didn't find many.

Finally, he returned to his original 'brain worm', how to move them from their no-longer-wanting-to-host country. In his first try, he gave the military personnel 30 days to get out. That didn't work, there just wasn't enough time and he found his brain worm wouldn't let them just leave, they had to be posted to another port in another country.

It was ridiculous, he kept telling himself to stop but then it became a challenge and as he'd often said, once it was a challenge, he had to answer it. So he worked on his non-specific evacuation plan when he could. Finally, he put it away, having done as much as he could manage without having to get clearance to go deeper into the DoD's files. So far, he was within the authority he'd been granted for his job.

Deciding that was enough, he put the whole thing into a folder on his laptop. Then he moved it to a thumb drive, labeling it as 'Brain Worm 2014' so he would know to leave it alone.

Months later, he was looking for something in his desk and pulled out a basket full of thumb drives he'd stashed in the middle drawer, putting it on top of his desk to get it out of his way.

He was still looking when he had an email from Leon asking him to forward a copy of another project he'd worked on. With his desk top cluttered, Tim rolled his eyes and went looking. In the process he knocked the overflowing basket with the thumb drives onto the floor.

After he stopped cursing, he picked them up, putting them back into the basket. Spotting the one Leon wanted, he knew by the orange color of the thumb drive, good thing as the label had fallen off, he plugged it in and sent the entire contents of the thumb drive to his boss.

Leon thanked him and that was that. Eventually Tim found a more complete version of the file Leon had asked for and sent it to him. Although puzzled, Leon thanked him again. In the meantime, he'd found his own copy of what he'd originally asked Tim to send him. He hadn't paid much attention to the first and larger file Tim sent that night.

Eventually taking the time to satisfy his curiosity, Leon found Tim's first email, tested the attachment and when it was good, opened it. The title caught his attention right away and shaking his head, he read through the whole thing. It took him four hours and even that was more of a skim through rather than a 'read every word' review.

The content was an excellent plan and Leon decided to share it with Secretary Porter. While there wasn't any current need for the plan, as far as he knew, he could see that it could happen at some point and having a plan in place, even if it needed amending and expanding, would be a very good thing as well as highlighting Tim's thought process, always thinking ahead. So he sent the file to Porter, with an accompanying note.

She was also impressed and sent it up the chain of command to her boss, the recently appointed Secretary of Defense, also known as the SecDef.

Secretary Smyth, the new SecDef, also liked it, tucking it into a personal file where he could find it if it was ever needed. He also took note of the author's name and looking him up, saw he was the Senior Officer for NCIS in Europe. He nodded to himself, he'd keep an eye on him, he'd be great at strategy and any number of things and was probably wasting his time and brains at the small agency when he could be part of the SecDef's 'Brain Trust'.

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In recent months, with national elections for the country of Flauvtic coming up in the new year, the politician Tim still blamed for his 'brain worm' was now running for president of his country and seemed to have a good chance at winning.

Remembering and reviewing the plan, the Secretary of Defense called the Secretary of the Navy and asked her to arrange a meeting with the author of that evacuation plan. By now he'd also shared it with the State Department, proud that his department had such a plan while State apparently did not or were keeping it to themselves if they did.

Secretary Porter had also filed Tim's plan in with her own files, so she could find it easily. She reviewed it again before realizing that Tim and his family were still in the US, she needed the meeting arranged before they left. Calling Leon, they found a time that worked for them and Leon believed would work for Tim. It wasn't until early Tuesday morning when Vance was told what would happen at the meeting that he realized how bad this could be, what a mess it could turn into.

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Tuesday morning, listening to his uneasy gut, Tim let Leon know he would Uber directly to the Pentagon rather than riding with the director.

Vance was 3 people behind him at Security and Tim waited for him. When they reached the office of the Secretary of the Navy, her assistant asked them to take a seat in the anteroom, pouring fresh cups of coffee for them both. Leon had taken one sip when he opened his mouth to tell Tim what was about to happen. He shut his mouth when the assistant reappeared to usher them into Madam Secretary's office.

Entering, they were greeted by the SecNav and then nodding in thanks, took their coffees from the assistant. Sitting, Tim tried to shake his uneasy feeling.

Secretary Porter asked him if he remembered the plan he'd written, the evacuation/relocation plan.

Dumbfounded, Tim stared at the SecNav as well as at Director Vance, finally shaking his head. "Yes, I remember the plan. What's happening?" Shaking his head, he added, "How did it get here? I don't remember sending it to anyone."

Leon twisted his lips, "I asked you to send me a copy of a file I couldn't find, the Howser plan we'd worked on, and you sent me something. Then you sent me something else, only that turned out to be what I'd asked for. In the meantime, I read the first file you sent me, liked it and sent it to Secretary Porter."

Tim looked horrified while his mouth opened and shut a few times. He finally shook his head, "That was a brain worm, something I had to work out for myself, it was never meant to share. I must have, oh geez, was that on an orange thumb drive?"

Thinking, Leon visualized the thumb drive, remembering chuckling at the orange color and wondering if Tim was homesick for the Navy Yard squad room's orange walls.

When he nodded, Tim made a face, groaned and slid down in his chair, quickly sitting up again as he remembered where he was. One does not slump down in one's chair during a meeting with the United States' Secretary of the Navy, in her office in the freaking Pentagon!

Secretary Porter bit back a smile, she'd never seen him so plainly confused and surprised. Clearing her throat, she began, "First of all what I'm going to tell you is highly classified."

Having quickly recovered his wits, Tim managed to nod his understanding and agreement and she continued, "The politician in Flauvtic who gave the speech that led you to this plan, a man named Waevlez, is one of three front runners for the office of president in his country. And he's still emphatic about his plan to order us out. The Secretary of Defense wants you to flesh out your plan with real numbers and real locations. I noticed that while you mention several places where our ships might be placed, you weren't specific as to how many or how long it would take, although you do have some estimates in here.

"We understand you meant this as a general outline, not a specific plan. However, the election is coming up quickly and we need to be prepared.

"Here's the most classified part: the Secretary of State wants to take the fleshed out plan to the candidate immediately after the election, once everything is confirmed, to let him know we're willing to leave. Both Secretaries are horrified at the numbers of DoD employees in the country, many of whom have worked there nearly their entire careers, more than a few have actually retired there.

"Obviously, we have questions your plan can't answer, although possibly they could be written as contingencies. However, we need the numbers and where the ships will be moved more than we need the contingencies. I'm assigning Undersecretary Leo to work with you on the where and any other information you don't have access to. Questions so far?"

Tim took a breath, "Yes, but first, new information. The storms in the Mediterranean last winter wreaked havoc in Souda Bay, Crete. The bay is now both larger and deeper, which means we can move more of our carriers there. Not the supers, or if another super is placed there, it would take up the room that could otherwise hold two additional carriers and one strike group.

"There are two carriers, not supers, currently in Flauvtic's harbors. Also, both Rotterdam and Antwerp harbors also gained more water acreage and depth, enough to hold at least two carrier strike groups. With Antwerp, as the carriers would sail past the English Channel on their way to their destinations, their carrier strike groups, those not berthed in Souda Bay, could easily join them and although the ships berthed in Rotterdam Harbor would need more time, it should also be fairly easy for them to join." He gave them some other information he'd found, adding more information and questions.

When they'd gone through everything, Tim sat back, mentally going through his options for finding the numbers and the locations, relaxing a bit when he remembered he'd be working with Leo, she was excellent at her job and the few times he'd worked with her she was receptive to his ideas.

"Ma'am, how many locations are you looking for? I know of three right now but the other thing that will be needed is relocating all the Navy and Marine dependents as well as the civilian DoD employees and their dependents and that's going to be tougher than moving the ships and the military personnel."

Leon made a face, he hadn't thought of dependents of civilian employees and from the look on his boss's face, she hadn't either.

She replied, "Leo will give you the total number of ships berthed in Flauvtic. Keep in mind we don't want all those ships in one location, we try to rotate them when possible. However, when it comes down to it, placing them together somewhere outside of Flauvtic is acceptable as long as they'll eventually be moved. Leo will also get you the total number of Navy and Marine personnel. From there, we'll order a count of US dependents and children, including those of the civilian DoD employees, living there. She'll also handle that, with your assistance."

Tim nodded, "Thank you. I don't know if we'll need these, but knowing what pets will also need relocating will help. Also, will we relocate all pets or just dogs and cats? I know that sounds silly to go to that level but it's the little things that will be the problems. We can hammer out the big things. A question for the candidate, what about the American government retirees living there? Do they need to leave and that is just a question, not a complaint. There are also a fair number of American ex-pats living there, never employed by the US government. Do they need to leave?

"And what about our NCIS office, never mind, that's obvious, we'll relocate those agents, there are three of them and we can certainly put them to work in the other offices.

"However, the two Flauvtican citizens who work in the NCIS office will be out of a job. Do we pay them severance or does their government, please strike that one as well, I'm guessing we'll pay."

He stopped for breath and Porter shook her head, "No, that's a valid question. The candidate may not realize that some of his own country-folk work for the US government. We'll need to ask the State Department for a read on that. Not you, Timothy."

"What if an employee of the US government is married to a Flauvtican citizen? How will that work? Although that US employee will lose their job so that might take care of that question." Tim looked up to see Porter writing that down as well and she said, without looking up, "another question for the State Dept. to ask." She flicked on her phone, "Mind if I record the rest of our conversation?"

Tim shook his head, "No, ma'am, be easier." He stopped to think about something, finally shaking his head.

When they thought they had identified everything they'd need to put in the plan or to know if something would be involved, Porter sat back, looking first at Leon and then at Tim.

Tim's next thought was, 'Oh *#%&, here it comes!"

Deciding he didn't care if Vance noticed, he moved the hand that was out of sight from the SecNav into a pocket of his suit jacket, quickly moving it out again, this time holding a pen.

Porter sat up straight. "Timothy, once the plan is presented and if Wauvlec wins the election, you'll be overseeing the plan in action. You'll have plenty of help, and you won't need to move."

Tim stared at her for so long she started to feel uncomfortable before realizing he was thinking. Finally he said, "I know I'm not where the 'buck stops', is that Secretary Smythe?"

"Both Secretary Smythe and Secretary McCord."

He nodded, glad McCord would be involved. He turned to Vance, "Who's replacing me?"

"No one."

Tim's pale face paled even more. "I'm expected to oversee all this and still manage 6 offices?"

"Yes, although you'll have plenty of help." That was Porter.

"With what?"

"The relocation, as I've said." Porter again.

"But I'm the guy who is charged with what happens, no matter how much help I have. And who is this help, what will they be doing? How do you envision this?"

Leon decided to stay out of it, he'd already argued until he lost his voice with Smythe and Porter, to the point where he didn't care if he lost his job and then realized they could force him to stay. They could and would do that to Tim as well, they had all their hopes pinned on him. One man, who once again was losing control over his own life. Unwilling to watch Porter, he turned his gaze slightly to a wall.

Porter explained what help he would have and where they would be, most of them on the ground in Flauvtic working on the massive evacuation, only they would call it a relocation, of the thousands of DoD employees in the country. That group would report to someone in Tim's command who would report to him. The person they had in mind had handled evacuations and relocations before. There would be Navy and Marine officers who would handle relocating the fleets. They would work with him on a daily basis.

Tim stopped listening while he tried to capture a memory. Some obscure rule he read somewhere, a Department of Defense rule clarified by a federal court. Finally remembering, he tucked it aside for now and returned to whatever Secretary Porter was saying. She was still talking about his 'help', which of course didn't matter, he would still be responsible.

When he asked where he was supposed to be overseeing from, Porter looked puzzled, "From your office in London."

"My NCIS office."

'Yes."

"And I will have no backup, no help managing the 6 offices or for my responsibilities in the Director's office?"

"You won't need any, Timothy, your relocation help should leave you all the time you need to manage those offices. And I'm told that some of those are led by old hands, so that's even less need for you as far as NCIS goes. This could lead to big things for you, Timothy."

So was that part of it, to push, or pull, him from NCIS. Again, although this sounded more like an 'upward' threat than the 'downward' one back in 2008.

He quickly thought about that, realizing he'd have to make his play, such as it was, now. He wondered if either the secretary or the director would know and then mentally shrugged, right now it was the only thing he could think of. He hoped that if Vance knew, he'd keep it to himself.

"Ma'am, is this being classed as a special assignment?"

"Yes, it is."

"I see. So again to clarify, I'll have two full-time jobs?"

"Yes, if you look at it that way."

Tim nodded, "I need to have the fact that this is a special assignment in writing, as well as a separate statement that I will have two full time jobs, both signed in person by Secretary of Defense Smythe and Secretary of State McCord. No electronic signatures, pen and ink only, with witnesses also signing in pen and ink."

"Very well. I can email those to you later today."

Tim shook his head, "No, I need the originals of the signatures."

"All right, I can send them by courier this afternoon."

"To recap, that's a statement that this is a special assignment, signed manually, pen and ink, by both secretaries and the witnesses. Also, manual, original signatures by both secretaries for the statement that I will have two full time jobs, including managing 73 employees in 6 locations, as well as my responsibilities with the Director's office, with no additional help, also manually signed by both secretaries, pen and ink original signatures as well as those of the witnesses. Please have them delivered to this address." He sent the address of the Arlington house to her, waiting until she said she had it.

He stood, managing to keep a polite façade on his face, asking if there was anything else, and was told no. He stood, somehow scaring up a nod, gathered his coat and briefcase and left the room. Calling Uber, he had the driver pick him up at a door out of sight of the one Porter generally used. The one he chose was one he knew was used by the NCIS team posted at the Pentagon. Debating whether to return to the Navy Yard, he decided he didn't want to chance running into Vance and went directly to the Arlington house.

Then he waited. He decided he would not work on anything for the government, NCIS or the Evacuation plan, until he had the signed paperwork in his hands. Then he would find his wife and tell her what was happening. There was another step he'd have to take but he hadn't figured out how or who. Yet.

Remembering the offices in the addition at the back of the house, he took his laptop case, with all his notes, with him, glad to find the first office he came upon unlocked and nicely warmed by the house heating system. He pulled out the chair tucked under the desk, sat down and scooted forward, resting his elbows on the desktop. Now what?

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Leon left Porter's office, not surprised when there was no sign of Tim. He wasn't sure what he had in mind with the paperwork other than his insisting on having original signatures.

Getting into the SUV waiting for him, he sighed. This was it, he was finally done, he'd talk to Jackie tonight about putting the house up for sale and moving overseas as soon as he put in his papers. They might try to hold onto him for a year but after his vehement arguments against what they were doing to Tim, he was pretty sure they'd want someone they could control in there as soon as possible.

Maybe he and Jackie would send Jared to the Russells in Greece, there might be extra seats for the three of them left on the Paddington jet leaving New Year's Day, they could stay in Jaxton and send Jared to Athens with Artie and Bill when they left to resume work on the new property. Or they'd send Jared ahead, he'd be fine with the Gibbses and he could still fly with Artie and Bill to Athens.

Then he'd take Jackie on a business trip overseas, sending in his retirement papers from there.

He shook his head, although he liked the idea of being outside of the US when he filed for retirement, he wasn't sure that was the smartest plan. Unless, another idea occurred to him and he worked on their escape plan for the rest of the drive home, sending word to Pamela that he'd be working from home. Although the only work he intended to do was to try to come up with something that would help Tim and to continue plotting his own escape.

Kayla would be fine in the UK and Jared, yes, his son could finish high school at the International School the Russell kids attended in Athens. He knew Jackie wouldn't be happy but their son could live with the Russells until he and Jackie could escape. He grimaced, afraid of what having Jared there might do to Pete's employment, although it was entirely possible that no one would take note of another teen living with the Russells.

Still, his old friend was eligible for retirement, several months ago Tim had signed the waiver for Pete to continue as a field agent. That meant the man had 4 1/2 more years before he'd be forced to retire from the field.

Pete and Trina only had one child still in school and she was in her last year, her last few months of high school. He thought nothing would probably happen to Pete right away, he'd probably be allowed to retire. Who cared what happened to NCIS? Certainly not either SecDef or sadly, the SecNav.

Still, he'd always known she was by nature a politician. She was good with NCIS because Gibbs' team solved her daughter's kidnapping and saved her own life from a terrorist in MTAC. Although there were plenty of other times they made her look good, she would likely not be happy with whatever revolt Tim might be planning.

He shook his head, as long as she'd worked with them, she apparently still didn't have a clue about Tim, not what made him tick. Which was sadly amazing considering the interest she'd taken in him all these years as well as her gestures and remarks at Tim's swearing-in ceremony nearly a year ago.

Sighing again, he changed out of his suit into his sweats before he headed to his home office. There he sat for the rest of the morning, thinking about the mess.