Gibbs stepped out of the elevator carrying his usual cup of coffee.

Yesterday had been difficult, trying to get through the last day of the training programme. Keeping his balance on the mechanised platform that simulated the rolling of a ship's deck had strained muscles that were already sore, and had ensured that his ass continued to hurt like hell. He'd then had to sit through writing final reports on his students, and an interminable final meeting with Colonel Johnston. By the time he'd driven back to DC, he'd felt like his ass was on fire.

Even now, walking was more painful than Gibbs would like, and he was hoping to find enough excuses to avoid sitting down much today.

'Boss! You're back!'

Tim McGee's delighted shout brought him out of his quiet thoughts. The younger man seemed positively jubilant about his return, and he suspected that Tony had been making the most of his status as the senior agent.

'Hey, Boss! How's it feel to be able to ditch the uniform again? 'Cuz I gotta tell you, I never could understand how you managed to take orders all those years, the way you don't like doing what anybody else tells you to do. I mean, just ask Fornell, or even the Director. And I've never been able to find a decent cup of coffee on a Marine base. So I'm thinking, by now, you're probably... OW! Good to have you back, Boss.'

Gibbs set the coffee on his desk and turned back towards Tony, who was still exaggeratedly rubbing the back of his head.

'DiNozzo! Report!'

'We solved the Davis case, Boss, and the Director has had us working on cold cases for the past week. The probie thought he'd found something on one of them, but the guy's been dead for two years so we can't exactly follow up on that.'

'So, how much did it turn out Davis embezzled, in the end?'

'It was just the thirty grand we knew about. We went through everything, and trust me, there's not another penny missing from anything Davis had access to.'

'You're telling me a Commander threw his career away for thirty thousand dollars?!'

'It wasn't the Commander, Boss.'

'What are you talking about, McGee? When I left, you said you had proof that the money went missing from the account when he logged in from his home computer using his own password, and ended up in a whatsit account that you also traced to his computer... aside from the man being an idiot, how was it not him?'

'It was his eleven-year-old daughter. His password was the name of a pet he'd had as a child, with 3s instead of Es. She guessed it, got into his system, and transferred the money to a account that she'd set up, not her dad.'

Gibbs scrubbed a hand over his eyes. The world just kept getting stranger.

'Ok. So you got the money back...'

'Actually, Boss, she'd already spent it.'

'How the hell does an eleven-year-old girl spend thirty thousand dollars?!'

'Itunes, mainly....'

'Eye-whats?'

'She spent it on music, Boss.'

'She spent thirty thousand dollars on music?!'

'Mainly. She spent some of it on external hard-drives to store the MP3s...'

Gibbs stared at him blankly.

'Computer equipment for digital music files.'

'Ok. It's wrapped up?'

'Yes, Boss. The Director's already signed off on it. Case closed.'

'Ok. I'm going to go check in with her.'

He retrieved his coffee and headed off, hoping he wasn't moving too awkwardly, and that nobody noticed that he wasn't taking the stairs two at a time, like he usually did.

It was nearly an hour later when he finally returned to the bullpen, having chatted with Jenny as long as he could get away with, then visited both Abby and Ducky before reluctantly making his way back to his desk.

'Where's DiNozzo?'

'With the Director. Something about his report on the cold case we were looking at.'

'Ok.'

Gibbs stood at his desk for a long moment, moving papers around in apparent distraction, then carefully sat down, making sure to keep his face expressionless at the flare of pain. Ignoring the tenderness as much as possible, he switched on his computer and reached for his phone to check for messages, not noticing Tim's astonished eyes on him.

A few very uncomfortable minutes later, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up, finding Tim hovering sheepishly near his desk.

'What, McGee?'

'Uh, I thought... uh... maybe you'd... uh...'

Tim gave up trying to speak and just held out the pillow that he kept in the bottom drawer of his desk.

Gibbs smiled self-deprecatingly and stood up, accepting the offering.

'Thanks, Tim. That obvious, huh?'

McGee flushed and refused to meet his eyes, nodding sheepishly before adding, 'No, um... probably not... to someone who hasn't... um... been there. Um... lately.'

Gibbs swallowed a laugh at the earnest innocence of his youngest agent, and positioned the pillow on his chair before carefully sitting down again. When he looked up again, Tim had retreated to his own desk and was trying to look busy, apparently embarrassed by the knowledge that his mentor had messed up badly enough to be spanked.

Gibbs went back to sorting through the accumulated memos that he'd missed while he was away, very much looking forward to the end of the day.

And wondering just how long he could avoid cases at Quantico.