a/n - Thank you, everyone, for all your wonderful comments and reviews. I do treasure each and every one of them. This is it, the final chapter of this story. I'll be back in a day or two with the first chapter of My Father's Keeper. When Gibbs goes too far protecting Tony after the events in Flesh and Blood, who will pay the ultimate price? I'm currently working on chapter three of that one and chapter two of Puppet Master, so there's lots more stories coming up.

The sound of yipping woke McGee when the box was set on the back seat. Blinking, he turned his head to better see what was making the noise. "Puppies?"

Gibbs grinned at the expression on his young agent's face and leaned over his seat to grab the most active of the pups, depositing the wiggling animal in Tim's arms. Even Fornell joined the rest of the group as the sound of Tim's soft laughter relaxed them all.

"When we get back to the motel, you'll have to tell us how you found these guys." By now, Fornell had one hand in the box, letting one of the puppies chew on his fingers. "I've been promising Emily a dog, and her birthday is in a few weeks..."

Tony leaned over and loudly whispered in Ziva's ear, much to everyone's amusement. "One down."

Vance had been absently scratching the mother dog's ears. Now he picked up one of the puppies and held it up in front of his face. The tri-colored dog had long fur and floppy ears. "It should be pretty easy to find homes for these guys." The pup started licking his nose.

"Two down."

Gibbs knew he had to get the group moving again. "Let's hit the road, people." To emphasis his point, he fired up the car.

Fornell reluctantly pulled back from the puppies chewing on his coat sleeve. "We'd better stop and pick up supplies for these little guys and their mom. We'll see you back at the motel." He gave one last look at the occupants of the car, both two legged and four legged, before returning to the other sedan. Ziva was right behind him, but it took Tony a few more moments to turn away from Tim and the small dog now snuggled up against his neck, dozing.

---NCIS---

It was difficult, but Tony kept a straight face as he watched Fornell check out every squeeky toy at the store. In the end, Fornell bought one of each, and three different kinds of food for the mother dog in addition to puppy food.

"I don't know a lot about dogs, but are they old enough to eat this stuff yet?" Tony hefted the bag of puppy food up as he was loading the trunk.

"If they're not yet, they will be pretty soon, DiNozzo."

"Well, yeah," Tony looked back and forth between Fornell and Ziva. "But what happens when it's time for us to go back to DC?"

Ziva steadied Fornell as he climbed back into the car. "The SecNav's private jet is still here in California for us, Tony."

Tony immediately decided that the best part of having the Director tag along on this adventure was the fact that it would be Vance explaining the small, furry passengers to the SecNav and not him.

---NCIS---

Being the only uninjured one in their car meant that Gibbs had the job of carrying the box to the room while McGee and Vance leaned against each other. He quickly realized that he shouldn't have been in such a rush to get them moving earlier as the pups tumbled around in the box, playing, and almost tipping it out of his arms. He made a note to himself to let the dogs play themselves to exhaustion first before attempting to lug the box anywhere by himself.

He was almost into the room when one of the motel maids leaned over the railing from the upstairs units. "If you're going to bring dogs into the motel, you'd better make sure there's a pet deposit on record before the manager catches you."

"Great." Gibbs set the box down on the floor as he kicked the door closed. Vance looked up after he eased McGee onto the bed.

"I'll go take care of it. I'm sure Tim would be more comfortable with you helping him get changed."

After Vance left, Gibbs patted the mother dog's head as she whined. "Easy girl, let's take care of Tim first, okay?" She settled down, resting her muzzle on her paws as she watched him move to the suitcase at the foot of the bed and retrieve a clean pair of boxers. With only a canine witness, Gibbs gently helped Tim strip down and pull on the boxers before holding up the blankets to allow him to exhaustedly crawl into the bed.

Once Tim was settled, Gibbs filled the paper ice bucket with water for the dogs and sat on the floor to give them a quick once over.

---NCIS---

Vance glared at the manager as the portly man sputtered in protest. "You brought a feral dog and her mongrel pups into my motel? What will the other guests think? It's bad enough to have an entire squadron of federal agents, but now you've got dogs with you."

"Look on the bright side, at least we haven't shot anybody yet." Vance slammed his credit card on the counter. "Just put the deposit on my card."

The other sedan was pulling in when Vance finally walked out of the motel office and he detoured to see what they had bought. He did raise an eyebrow at the sixty pounds of dog food, but covered by picking up the bag with the collars and leashes. Tony had two bags of food balanced on each shoulder, which just left the toys and bowls for Ziva as Fornell slowly climbed out of the car with the dog bed. Vance surveyed the multitudes of bags and decided he'd gotten the better end of the deal. Now, all he had to do was call Jackie and break the news that they were about to become foster parents. After he'd deposited the bags in the room he headed out to Gibbs' rock to start making phone calls.

It was nearly dusk when Vance returned to the rooms. At some point McGee had apparently awakened, because he was wearing clean sweats and was laying on the floor with the pups. Ziva and Tony had joined him and now the three supposedly seasoned agents were all asleep on the floor, Tim in the middle, looking like exhausted but happy children. Tony and Ziva were on their sides, both facing Tim, each with an arm over him. Draped over the three of them were four of the five pups, all sleeping. The fifth pup was still awake, chewing on Tony's shoelaces. Fornell was in the adjoining room, on the phone, while Gibbs was sitting, watching over his agents, with the mother dog curled up at his feet.

"Don't take my team again, Leon. Whatever the problems are, we tackle them together."

Vance took a deep breath, preparing to explain, again, his reasoning behind the temporary separation that had apparently affected them so much, but then he looked at Gibbs and realized that he was not being asked by a team leader, but by a father.

"Understood, Gibbs."

---NCIS---

Tony cracked an eye open when he heard the soft groan as McGee climbed off the other bed. Half awake, he tracked the other man's progress into the bathroom before settling back down. Just as he was about to go back to sleep, Tony heard the shower kick on. This time he opened both eyes and raised his head up to look around. It had been a day and a half since they had returned to the motel and Tim was much more steady on his feet, but Tony couldn't imagine a reason he'd be taking a shower at 0700. The black suit he'd taken in to the bathroom with him sent an alarm off in Tony's mind and he was on his feet before his brain even registered that he was moving.

When McGee came out, straightening his tie, only fifteen minutes later, Tony was casually sitting at the table, sipping at a warm soda. "Dressed kinda formal for a day playing with the dogs, Probie."

Tim didn't look directly at him as he pocketed his wallet and phone. "Mink's funeral is this morning. I asked Fornell if I could ride with him."

Behind Tim, Tony looked over his shoulder to Gibbs and Vance who were standing in the door from the other room. "Why would you want to go to that man's funeral? He kidnapped you, Tim. He kidnapped you and handed you over to that monster." Behind the other two men, Tony could hear some noise as Ziva arrived in the other room with breakfast.

"I know what he did, Tony." Tim winced as he pulled his jacket on. "I have the scars to prove what he did."

"Then why?"

"I can hate what he did to me and still pity him for why he did it."

Gibbs stepped through the doorway before Tony could think what to say. "He doesn't deserve your pity, Tim. You don't have to prove anything by going."

"He lost his only child, Gibbs." Tim hesitated before continuing. "Think about it, Boss."

"No." In truth, it had been niggling at him ever since he'd head about Mink's missing son.

McGee wasn't ready to back down. "I know what it did to my parents when I was missing, and I was only gone for two years. What if it had been Kelly, Boss? You had the closure of knowing what happened to her, of being able to bury her body. What if you hadn't? What if you'd spent more than twenty-five years not knowing if she was dead or alive? Every night, wondering if she was cold, if she was hungry, wondering what kind of monster was keeping her prisoner, what he was doing to her? How far would you have gone to get the answers?"

"Damn it." Gibbs let his chin drop onto his chest for a moment before turning to the closet and throwing his suit onto the bed. He had his t-shirt half way off before he looked over at Ziva, still standing there with a bag of pastries. "It's not a peepshow, David."

Ziva set the bag down on the table. Through the door she could see Tony pulling his suit out of the closet. "Of course not, Gibbs. I will go back to my room and change as well. Mink was part of this task force and was killed in the line of duty. We should attend."

---NCIS---

Epilogue

It had been a month since the six surviving members of the task force had attended Mink's funeral and Gibbs refused to admit how much the somber affair had affected him. Other than the five members of NCIS and Fornell, only Mink's elderly mother had been in attendance. She had readily admitted that her son's obsession with the disappearance of his child and the possible link to Kehoe had driven away everyone else in his life.

Tim's questions still rattled around in his mind. Most of the time he was able to ignore them, but at night, with the honesty that came with too much bourbon and too little sleep, he had to wonder how far down that path he could have gone if things had been different.

Today, however, was a day to celebrate. McGee had returned from a visit with his family and had finally been cleared to return to the field. Fornell's teams had successfully raided the last of the pedophiles listed in Kehoe's book. Across the country, several families were being reunited while many more would soon find closure.

Celebratory drinks were on Vance tonight and Gibbs planned on teasing him about the background checks he'd run on each of the pup's adoptive families, but first he had to nudge the one agent that wasn't already headed for the elevator.

McGee was still sitting at his desk. He knew his friends were waiting for him, but he had this one last thing to do before he left. He'd already pulled up the last photo taken of Larry Mink's son before he vanished, and now he was downloading the photo he'd just located of the boy's mother. Once that was added to the program along with the FBI's photo of Mink, he'd be able to update the missing person's report with a current estimate of how the boy would look today. Gibbs came up behind him and rested a hand on his shoulder as the two of them looked at the image as it resolved on the monitor.

"No new leads on him?"

"Not yet. They're still digging up bodies in both Texas and Pennsylvania and still sorting out the remains they found in Michigan." The image on the computer was complete and Tim electronically added it to the file and sent a copy to the missing children's division. He recognized the worried expression on Gibbs' face and tried to reassure him. "I'm not going to obsess about him, I just want to make sure the file is up to date. He deserves that much. They all do." File transfer complete, McGee shut down his computer as Gibbs waited for him.

"Yeah, they do." Gibbs handed him his coat as he stood "Come on, DiNozzo is expecting more stories about your grandfather tonight, and so am I."

Tim followed him to the elevator where Tony and Ziva were waiting for them. "Aren't you guys tired of hearing Grandpa's stories yet?"

Tony slung his arm around Tim as the metal doors opened. "Never, Probie. Where would our team have been without his stories?" Ziva joined in from the other side and the three stepped into the elevator together, Gibbs a step behind. From the balcony, Vance watched the interaction and smiled.