A/N - If the phone call was briefer than you were hoping, rest assured that the team will make an reappearance pretty soon. They are actually integral to the plot, so don't worry!

*Now edited to change Harvard to MIT - thanks to all who pointed it out. I knew that, I'm just dozy sometimes!*

There was a lot of waiting around, at first.

The personnel who kept the equipment in MTAC ticking over had no idea what to do when faced with an unauthorised outside broadcast. Especially not when the person who suddenly appeared on screen was one of their own agents, calmly demanding they fetch Gibbs, his team and the Director immediately in a tone that brooked no argument.

While waiting for them to get a grip on the situation, Timothy wondered idly about the reactions of his team mates, Gibbs in particular. He had no idea how long he had been gone for; Harriet was not very adept with her dishonestly obtained Shifter and they had appeared several hours after they were supposed to. Factoring in the time it took to get new identification papers prepared, change into his uniform, meet Kinoan and set up the call, a whole day might well have passed.

MTAC's door flew open and Gibbs came thundering in.

"McGee, what the hell do you think you're doing?" He barked at the screen. Timothy didn't flinch. A day ago he would probably have dissolved into a stuttering mess, trying hard to come up with an explanation that would satisfy his demanding boss. But things were different up here.

Fear was simply not an option. Everything reminded him of the responsibility suddenly resting on his shoulders. As General of the Peace Force, he was in charge of Earth's protection. If the planet was attacked then Timothy, along with Kinoan, were not only the ones who would fight off that invasion but the ones who would take the fall as well. If war was coming, he did not have time to be intimidated by his boss.

Technically, he outranked Gibbs now anyway.

"I'm at war, Gunny." Timothy's instincts in this area had always been strong, and still were despite so long without use. Right now, he needed to talk to Gibbs soldier-to-soldier. "Don't think I'll make it in for a while."

"What?"

Behind the boss, Tony, Ziva and the Director had filed in. Timothy wasn't surprised to see Abby, Ducky and Jimmy there as well. They had probably insisted on it once they found out he was the source of the disturbance. All of them were gawping up at him, clearly bewildered.

"I've been lying to you." Timothy admitted. This was harder than he had expected. Finding the right words wasn't easy. He knew the team cared about him; they were his friends, his family. How could he tell them the person they knew was essentially a fabrication, his personality diluted so far that Kinoan and Harriet would never have recognised him?

How could he tell them he wasn't expecting to come back at all?

"I didn't go to MIT or Johns Hopkins. I joined the army. A branch you won't have heard of, but I can't tell you anything about it. It's classified."

"Come off it, Probie," Tony said with a roll of his eyes that didn't quite look sincere. "How did you set this up?"

"Not joking, Tony." Timothy looked down at the floor for a moment. Like the walls, it was a very bright white. Telling the team anything about Stars was a criminal offence under more the laws of more than 3 million planets. "I've been retired for these past ten years but something's coming. Something big."

Off-screen, Kinoan shot hit a warning look. Mention nothing, it said. The less they know the better.

Timothy looked directly at Gibbs again. Soldier-to-soldier. He was the only one who had any chance of understanding why Timothy needed to do this.

"There's a war coming, Gunny, and I've gotta be here to fight it."

Gibbs' look was searching. "Are we in danger, McGee?"

Timothy felt a flood of relief; Gibbs clearly believed what he was saying. There was an intensity to Timothy's voice and eyes that any old soldier would recognise. Gibbs had also borne witness to the times when Timothy's old take-charge personality had bled through: when Sarah was a murder suspect and when he was taken hostage inside the woman's prison.

"Yes." Timothy ignored Kinoan's look. He could not lie to his friend about this. "But that's why I'm here. To protect you all. Chances are you won't ever hear of this war again but it's still coming. It's my duty to be here."

"Why don't I know about this?" Vance demanded. After taking over from Jenny and assigning McGee to Cyber Crimes, he had done his own thorough background checks on all of Gibbs' team. There was nothing to suggest, even remotely, that Timothy had been anything other than a rather intelligent tech geek.

"This goes way higher than you, Vance." There was no time for the usual courtesies or bowing to Vance's position. This call wasn't cheap and Timothy didn't know how long they had until all hell broke loose. "I doubt even the SecNav could get his hands on this information."

"You'll be coming back once this is over, McGee?" As usual, Gibbs didn't phrase that like a question. "You're a General, I see." Gibbs' eyesight wasn't nearly as bad as he seemed to like people to believe, apparently.

Timothy shrugged, trying to look as if it didn't worry him. "Don't know. I'm not the kind of solider who sits in a boardroom making calls that will decide whether my men live or die. I'm a fighter. Whatever I have to do to end this thing, I will do it."

"Tim, you're scaring me." Abby spoke up for the first time. A deep frown was etched upon her face.

"I'm sorry." Timothy tried not to look at her. In front of Caliien, Leah and Varigandi, it was important that he look as strong as possible. He would probably send them out of the room when he made the call to his parents and sister; showing weakness, so soon after returning, might cost him the respect of his troops.

"I'm sorry that I lied to you all but it was unavoidable. Maybe, once this is over, I'll be able to explain a bit better. Just know, I wouldn't have done any of this if it wasn't so important. We don't know what's coming, but it's big and I have to stop it. I have to."

Kinoan cleared his throat. He was entering dangerous territory. But the loyalty he felt to the team was strong, even now, and he hated the looks on their faces. Gibbs, ever the soldier, seemed to be the only one who understood the urgency.

"I have to call my family now." Timothy ran a hand through his hair and immediately cursed himself for this sign of stress. Harriet had drummed it into him time and time again; show no weakness, no matter the situation. It was all flooding back now.

"I'll try to email you if I get a quiet minute, Abby, and tell you what I can."

Another mistake. He would not be able to email the team, or contact them in any way and saying this just raised their hopes and his. Before he had the chance to say or do anything else that would have earned him one of Harriet's special punishments, he waved to Varigandi to terminate the connection.

The abrupt end would haunt him later, he was sure, when in the heat of battle and facing an enemy vastly stronger than himself.