a/n - Here it is, the last chapter. Thank you all for the wonderful feedback, hope you guys like this chapter. I'm hoping to clear the decks, so to speak, of a lot of WIP's this summer. Some you've seen, some you haven't. Some more comedy first, I think.

"You wanted to see me, Sir?"

After watching McGee with the boys, Vance wanted to roll his eyes at the tentative words as Tim stood in the open doorway. "Yes, Agent McGee, come have a seat."

For his part, Tim was a little worried about the three Cheshire cat smiles that he was facing. "Umm, okay. Is there a problem?" In answer, Gibbs tossed him an apple and McGee gave a shy grin. "You watched the tape."

"That was pretty cool, Probie. Man, the look on the faces of those monsters..."

"Almost as good as the look on your face, DiNozzo."

Gibbs was still beaming with pride at this least experienced agent. "Your nose prints are right next to Tony's on the plasma, Leon."

Vance stopped himself before he rubbed at his nose. "Yeah, well, you were right there with us, Gibbs."

"Not denying it for a minute."

As the other men had bantered, Tim quietly twisted the apple around, holding the stem. Once the stem came loose, he popped the apple in half and held out the two pieces for his two teammates.

Gibbs grinned and took a bite while Tony carefully studied the split surface, looking for any evidence as to how it had been divided. "Okay, McClever, how'd you do it?" Next to him, Gibbs may have been munching on his apple, but the eyebrow was raised.

Vance tossed him another apple. "With footnotes this time."

Tim chuckled as he caught the fruit. "Okay, first thing is that you remove the stem. Now, do you see how I'm holding it?" He held his hands up so that they could see his fingers at the blossom end and his thumbs draped over the stem end. Behind the desk, Vance had an apple clutched in his own hands, following along. "All you have to do is to press up with your fingers and then roll out with the fleshy part of your thumbs." A few seconds later he again was holding two halves of an apple.

"That's it? There's no trick?"

"It's simple physics, Tony, nothing more."

"Yes!" The two younger agents turned around to see Vance sitting at his desk, proudly smiling at the two apples halves he was now holding. "It really works."

Seeing a smart-alec response forming on Tony's lips, Gibbs quickly changed the subject. "So, junior phantom, how'd you manage to never get caught?"

"You, uhh, you heard that too?"

"Oh yeah, we heard all sorts things. You messed with reveille? On a Marine base that would have never flown."

Tim smiled and shrugged slightly. "It was Captain Adams' birthday and that was his favorite song. He never came out and said it was me, but the next week he called me into his office."

"If he didn't accuse you, what did he call you in for? What about your dad?"

"Well," if Tim let himself think about Tony's questions, he could still feel the claw-like grip on his shoulder that day. "Dad was pretty PO'd, convinced that he was going to get reamed out for something I did, but Captain Adams talked about what a wonderful acknowledgment of his birthday it had been. Then he said that whoever had done that was not only smart, but honorable because the system had been programmed to reset to standards after that one time. I think that was the first time my dad took a breath since we walked into the administrative building. There were these boxes in the corner, filled with bits and pieces of electronics that were scheduled to be recycled and Captain Adams told me to take them home and make something out of them and that he wanted weekly updates on my progress."

Silently, Gibbs approved of the action that supported the young genius while reinforcing lines that should not be crossed. "So what did you make?"

"The weapons research guys had been complaining about not having enough lab power units to plug everything into, so I took the power supplies from a couple of old computers and converted them over. I made a lot of friends with the researchers over that one, plus they weren't turning in requisition forms every week..."

Vance did understand that. "Which made Captain Adams a very happy man."

"Yes, sir." Tim smiled as he thought back. That little corner of the research lab that he'd been given in thanks was his refuge from the many people that didn't understand him. "After I had figured out the power system in a desktop computer, then I started playing with the portables. Considering those first ones were the size of a suitcase, they had a lousy battery life. Dad, Commander Hamilton and Captain Adams all had one, but they could only work away from power for about an hour."

"You figure out how to make the battery last longer?"

"I'm not that good, Boss, but I did figure out how to construct a 12v power adapter for them. It sucked a lot of juice, but as long as a car was running, you could keep them charged."

"Damn, what else did you come up with, Agent McGee?"

Tim scratched the side of his face as he thought about how to tactfully give the Director a non-answer. "Not anything with a practical value, Sir, but nothing that would have gotten me into any real trouble."

Vance understood what wasn't being said. After all, McGee had been a kid – precocious, for sure, but brilliant nonetheless. "Remind me to invite you to dinner the next time school science fairs come around. Captain Adams must have been sad to see your dad's transfer come through."

"Yeah, but Mom and Dad were happy to be back on the East Coast, even if it was a little further south than they wanted." Even as he explained, Tim couldn't quite hide the sadness he'd felt at leaving. Florida had been hot and humid and the base large enough that one smart child was considered a nuisance, despite the casual comments from Captain Adams before they arrived.

Gibbs picked up on the shifting mood. "Florida wasn't for you?"

For the first time since he'd arrived in the office, McGee wouldn't look him in the eye. "Dad just wanted me to fit in, but Pensacola is fighter jock country, Navy and Air Force both. All the kids on base were either varsity athletes or beach bums and I'm... me."

"Nothing wrong with being you, McGee."

"It was tempting, though. When I heard one of the trainees complaining about the food, I got the idea to get into the provisions order. Thought if I could change an order to give them something good, well, you know. Instead, I discovered that the Aircraft Structural Maintenance Training Facility was ordering good food, but that wasn't what was being delivered."

"Why didn't they figure it out themselves, Probie?"

"Too many steps between the person placing the orders and the one handling the payment authorizations."

Gibbs understood exactly what had gone wrong. "The guy signing the purchase agreement knew he was buying the good stuff, the guy receiving the order figured the brass had cut back on the order."

"Yeah, and I was just a stupid kid, so what did I know. Nobody would even take the time to listen to me. Eventually, I decided that if the Navy was going to be paying for top of the line foods, the trainees might as well be eating it. That first night caused a near riot, made people in command take a closer look."

"Did they listen to you after that?" Tony was already planning to make McGee his co-conspirator for next April Fool's day rather than his number one target.

"The brass? No, but the guys that were sick of Spam and out of date food, they called me a hero."

Vance was mentally taking notes. "What about the distributor? Did he go down?"

"Fraud and theft, not much jail time but the fines put him put of business."

"Kid or not, the station commander should have acknowledged you as a whistle blower, McGee. You probably saved the Navy millions."

"He would have also had to acknowledge that it had been going on for years. That's part of the reason he was forced to resign his commission. Like my dad said, protecting the Navy's image was more important than boosting my ego."

"I'll have to disagree with your father on that one, McGee." Vance stood and offered his hand. "It may be late, and it's not enough, but on behalf of the Navy, thank you."

Tim could feel himself blushing. "Thank you, Sir. Now, I've promised Mr. and Mrs. Nyler that I'd arrange for a tutor for the boys to keep them more challenged."

Tony was right on Tim's heels, pestering him for more cool tricks while Gibbs followed, staying within head slapping range. Finally alone, Vance picked up another apple and gleefully split it in half before taking a bite.

-NCIS-

In the dimly lit squad room, long after the team had left, Gibbs dialed a number with a California area code. "Captain Adams, my name is Agent Gibbs. I thought you'd like an update on a young man we both know..."

-NCIS-

A shower and a few hours of killing digital monsters was the plan for the night and Tim almost ignored the knock on the door. Assuming it was Tony and knowing he'd just pick the lock anyway, Tim pulled the door open. "Tony, it's late... oh, umm, hi Ziva. What are you... wow."

Ziva leaned against the door frame, one hand behind her back, smiling as McGee took in her appearance. From the toes of her sleek high heels, up the long legs barely covered with the black miniskirt to linger on the silky top with the plunging neckline, to finally rest on her face. Her hair was down, her make-up perfect, as the hall light glowed around her. "Hello, McGee."

"Wow, Ziva, were you out on a date?" He struggled to think of a reason she would have to come to his apartment dressed like that.

Ziva smiled and shifted slightly, enjoying it as McGee tried so hard to not look down her blouse. "No, I just went to the grocery store." Her hand came out from behind her back, a net bag of apples dangling from one finger as she stepped inside the apartment and closed the door behind her. "I want you to teach me..." she gave a predatory smile, "everything."

~Fin~

Youtube has a video of an apple being split - of course I can't put the link here, but look for How to: Split an apple in half with your hands. The video is 56 seconds long and the user's name is bballa4life522. There's more than that one, but it showed the details the best of the ones I looked at.