Aftermath

A/N:- Well, this is the end of my first story here - and it's been quite a ride! Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to leave reviews, every one of them has been so much appreciated.

Special thanks, too, must go to Teri, who patiently beta'd everything for me, and gave me the encouragement to come here.

I'm working on two more stories - one from Dog Tags, and the other a missing scene from Deception. Once they're finished, I'll certainly be posting them here!

For now, though, I think our beloved Timothy deserves a rather special ending. So as always, I hope you enjoy - thanks again for the support and your reviews, and hope to be back here soon. :o)

Chapter Nineteen - From Zero To Hero

Gibbs hadn't been joking. There really had been a small tub of general polish in the sedan's glove-box.

Thanks to that, and some gentle buffing, Tim McGee's badge now gleamed, spotlessly good as new – which, Gibbs noted in puzzled concern, was more than could be said for its muddily dishevelled owner.

Still studying his young agent, Gibbs felt that niggle of concern deepen into a frown. Tim McGee had never been one for crowing over his achievements, of course, he was far too shy and modest for that. Yet where he now had so much reason to be proud of himself, he was still so quiet. Much too quiet.

Yes, he'd shyly appreciated all the delighted hugs and backslaps after he'd decked Clint Baron into oblivion. But there'd still been a telltale strain in his eyes, as if he were somehow angry with what he'd done. For the life of him, Gibbs couldn't understand why.

It had been a textbook operation. Baron was back in custody, and his team was still blessedly in one piece. Yet for some inexplicable reason, he'd seen disappointment, frustration, even a flash of anger, betray themselves in McGee's eyes.

In an unsettling echo of that day, several months ago, he was now staring pensively down at his badge – and, Gibbs realized, not quite managing to hide a wince of discomfort as he clipped it back onto his belt.

He wasn't the only one who'd noticed it either. Tony's worried reflection in the rear view mirror told him that. Before they could voice their concerns, though, Tim sighed and, tellingly quietly, saved them the trouble.

"Damn it, boss, I – I still couldn't do it! He - He was aiming right at you, boss, then me, but I – I just couldn't take him out..."

"Hey, you stopped him, McGee," Gibbs told him firmly, just pipping Tony to the rallying post – bringing just the right mix of reassuring pride and kick-ass authority into his next, no-nonsense words.

"However you did it, McGee, you stopped him. You took him down, Tim, with one hell of a shot. Baron's back in custody, you took him down, and no-one else got hurt. That's the main thing."

Watching Tim nod, in more hopeful agreement, Gibbs then realized that wasn't quite the case. The perfect roundhouse which had flattened Baron into the ground had left its mark on McGee too – prompting another nudge of fatherly concern as Gibbs nodded towards a grazed row of knuckles.

"And considering you knocked half his teeth out, you'd better let Ducky check you out too."

To his relief, the smile came slightly easier this time as Tim nodded, gingerly flexing the soreness out of his fingers.

"Yeah, I - uh, gave him one hell of a whack, didn't I, boss?" he said at last, trying, in vain, not to blush – laughing outright as Tony double-patted his shoulders, reassuring him as only Tony DiNozzo could.

"Jeez, McRocky, you hit that creep so hard, even my teeth hurt!"

"Yeah, watch yourself, DiNozzo, it'll be your butt next," Gibbs warned, winking across at Tim – sharing with him a grin of pure, gleeful delight as Kate Todd's impossible dream came a little bit closer.

For once ignoring the brewing mischief in front of him, Tony just allowed himself a slyly knowing smile. His butt-kicking probie didn't know it, but Anthony DiNozzo had quite a surprise planned for him too – Tim McGee's reaction to it, and Gibbs' too, all Tony had hoped for when they arrived back in the bullpen.

Stepping out of the elevator, Tim was almost knocked back into it by a spontaneous blast of cheering applause. Led by Ziva, Ducky and, of course, Abby too, every agent in the room stood at their desk, to give him a homecoming he'd never forget.

Equally stunned by the applause which now chimed in behind him, Tim turned in puzzled surprise to face it – just in time to see Gibbs slide an approving glance towards his smugly grinning senior agent.

They'd both wondered why DiNozzo had, with inexplicable gallantry, walked Ziva back to the van - especially when he'd returned from an animatedly deep discussion.

He'd looked so innocent. Much too innocent. And when they'd left the stakeout scene, Ziva had shot past them as if the van was hitching a lift on a Saturn V rocket.

Now, as one laughed and the other blushed in realization, both Gibbs and Tim McGee knew why.

Before either could say anything, though, Abby succeeded where Tony's subterfuge had failed – flying into Tim's arms with so much kissing, cuddling force that he almost collapsed beneath her.

But then he recovered, fighting a hopeless cause to reassure her as Abby fussed anxiously over him.

"Aw, Abby, I'm fine. See? No, I'm not hurt or anything, it's just some mud. Yeah, you see? I'm really okay, and… I'm fine, Abs, I promise. Honestly, I'm fine, I'm really okay, and- Abs? Abs! Tr-Trying to breathe here!"

Even when she finally released him, letting him breathe again, Abby still couldn't fully let him go – the lingering fear in her eyes laid to rest now, once and for all, as Tim grinned, playfully tugging her pigtails.

"Really, Abs, I'm really okay. I promise, I'm staying right here, I'm not going anywhere else. Ever."

There was much more, of course, that he wanted to say. For the moment, though, he simply couldn't. A rush of pure emotion was one reason – Abby's renewed strangle hold around his neck the other.

Instead, hugging her closer, every bit as choked as she was, Tim McGee glanced shyly sideways – meeting the eyes of the surrogate father who'd led him into one unthinkable nightmare, and who'd brought him, through thick and thin, safely out of another.

Despite the open pride in those eyes, he knew that Jethro Gibbs wasn't one for slushy sentiment. Yet a simple glance, and two soft words, still managed to convey all that Tim McGee needed to say - and everything that Jethro Gibbs needed to hear.

"Thanks, boss."

Winking back at him, Gibbs then stepped back to enjoy the moment he'd once feared he'd never see. His family was safe, blessedly reunited. Tim McGee was back where he truly and rightly belonged.

And at long last, the nightmare which had almost proven so costly to both of them was finally over.