ALL I CAN DO IS SAY I'M SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. A LOT OF DRAMA. I HOPE THAT I STILL HAVE SOME READERS.

I CAN'T THINK EVERYONE ENOUGH FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, FAVORITES AND ALERTS. THEY ARE MUCH APPRECIATED. IT ALWAYS SUPRISES ME THAT WHEN I RECEIVE THEM BECAUSE I HONESTLY DIDN'T THINK ANYTHING THAT I WROTE WOULD BE READ AS IT HAS BEEN.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING THAT MAY BE FAMILIAR IN THIS STORY. I GIVE CREDIT TO WHOEVER IT DOES BELONG TO.

CONSTRUSCTIVE CRITISIM APPRECIATED. ANYTHING ELSE IS NOT, SO IF YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE, PLEASE DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL, OKAY?

~NCIS~

After Gibbs finally made his way out of the hospital, instead of getting in his car and heading home to the comfort of his bourbon and his basement, he headed back to the Navy Yard. He needed to see Tim's personnel file. Gibbs wasn't sure what he expected to find but he knew he needed to go through and discover whatever else his…son…might be hiding from him.

~NCIS~

After leaving the hospital, Jimmy followed Tony back to his apartment, stopping to pick up a pizza and some beer along the way. He knew that his friend probably wouldn't feel like eating but he also knew that he needed to. When he made it to the senior field agent's apartment he hesitated before knocking, uncertain of his welcome.

When Tony answered the door, all he did was look at Jimmy and then he stood back for Jimmy to enter, not saying a word. While Jimmy headed into the living room and deposited his burdens on the coffee table that sat in front of the couch, Tony disappeared into the kitchen, coming back with plates and a stack of napkins. The two men settled back, Tony on his couch and Jimmy in a chair, and ate, the silence between the assistant M.E. and the special agent growing. Finally Jimmy couldn't stand it anymore.

"We all have secrets, Tony." Jimmy said into the silence. "We all have things, that for whatever reasons, we don't want anyone else to know." He absently rubbed a finger down his chair. "Things that might embarrass us or things that we think are shameful. Sometimes we aren't really sure why we hide the things we do. Just that we have to." Jimmy paused to take a drink of his beer and to give a minute for his words to sink in. "Tim keeping his parentage a secret doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean he doesn't trust you. It just means he couldn't tell you."

"But why couldn't he tell me?" Tony cried, jumping up from where he sat and starting to pace.

"I don't know why he couldn't, Tony." Jimmy said, watching him walk back and forth. "That's something you'll have to ask Tim." Jimmy wondered the same thing. He had watched the two agents this past year and a half. He'd watched as they had grown closer, becoming more like brothers instead of just co-workers. He knew that Tony would have kept the secret because Tony had kept his secrets. None as potentially explosive as Tim's, of course, but still things he had only ever shared with his friend. Jimmy watched as a myriad of emotions crossed his friend's face. "Just be glad that you will get the chance to ask him why." He pointed out quietly. "It could have easily been worse than it was."

Tony stopped in mid-pace, guilt crossing his face. "Oh, no," he said, horrified. "I left Sarah there by herself!" He swung to face Jimmy. "Please tell me that Ziva is still there!"

Jimmy shook his head regretfully. "She called before I got here. There was a problem with Abby and Ziva took her home."

Tony groaned. "I've got to get back to the hospital!" He quickly moved to pick up his wallet and keys on the table beside the door.

His hand was on the doorknob when Jimmy's voice stopped him. "Uh, Tony. Aren't you forgetting something?"

Tony turned back impatiently. "Come on, Jimmy, we've got to get back to Sarah and Tim!"

Jimmy smirked at his friend. "Yeah, I know, but shouldn't you at least put some pants on first?"

Tony looked down at himself, stunned. He'd forgotten that he had changed out of his suit when he'd got to his apartment and all he wore was his red boxer briefs and his white tank top undershirt.

~NCIS~

After Ziva dragged Abby from the room, Sarah forced herself to calm down. She could see Tim moving on the bed and if he did happen to wake before the Doctor said he would, she didn't want him to worry about her.

"Sa'ah?"

Sarah moved quickly to his bedside, picking up his hand and cradling it in both of hers. "I'm here, Tim." She said quietly.

Tim pried his eyes open and glanced around. "G'bbs?"

"He was here." She said, not going into details. "They all were." Tears pooled in her brown eyes.

Tim nodded. " G' t' w'rk?"

Sarah gave a non-committal reply, her tears spilling down her cheeks.

"I's n'ce, is't it?" He slurred, grass green eyes closing.

Sarah gently pulled a hand from his to wipe her eyes. "What is, Tim?" She asked, her voice thick.

"N't bein' 'lone a'ymo'e." He managed to get out.

Tears pooled in her chocolate brown eyes again and Sarah cleared her throat, trying to get the lump there to go down.

"Ne'va had a'y'ne 'fore." He slurred.

"Go to sleep, Tim." Please. She begged silently. Please go to sleep! She couldn't take much more of this.

"Now we have a dad," His voice was starting to get stronger and Tim wasn't slurring his anymore. "Brothers, a sister." He trailed off. "F'ml'y." He mumbled after a moment. "We have a family." It had taken a long time for Tim to trust his father and team, but sometime over the last year and a half he had come to accept that they really did mean what they had said, what their actions were saying.

"Yeah, Tim." Sarah managed to push out, tears spilling again. "We have a family, now." She whispered to him, her heart breaking.

Tim opened his green eyes back up when he heard the strain in his sister's voice. "Why cry, Sarah?" He asked, raising one hand and wiping down one cheek.

Sarah forced a smile. "I'm just so happy you're okay." She knew she would have to tell him but she just couldn't do it now. He was happy. She couldn't take that away from him. Not now. He would have to learn the truth soon enough. She would let him have this one day. "Go to sleep, Tim. You need your rest." She watched as his eyes fluttered closed and his breathing evened out. Just before he succumbed to the oblivion of sleep just leaned close and whispered a quiet, "I love you, Tim," In his ear.

~NCIS~

Ducky let himself into Gibbs house a just a few short hours after leaving the hospital. He was worried about his friend. Jethro hadn't taken the news at all well. Ducky was quite surprised to find his old friend in his living room sitting on his green couch, a file spread out before him on the coffee table.

"Jethro?" He inquired softly.

Gibbs looked up at his friend, not shocked to see him there. "Celia Spencer McGee." Jethro said out of nowhere. "That's his mother's name, Duck." He looked at his friend with ice blue eyes. "I have no knowledge of that woman. That name doesn't spark even an ember of memory."

Ducky walked further into the room. "Perhaps she is not his birth mother, Jethro." He pointed out. "Timothy could be adopted."

Gibbs sat up. "Maybe." Gibbs shook his head. "But I don't think so." He sorted through the pages of Tim's personnel file. "It doesn't say anything about being adopted in here, for one thing." He looked back at Ducky. "And how did he find out about me if he is adopted, for another." He paused as a picture of Sarah flashed through his mind. "And…" He trailed off.

"And?" Ducky prompted when he didn't continue.

"Sarah's familiar to me." He said reluctantly. "She always has been I just couldn't place her."

"She favors her mother." Ducky said, finally taking a seat. "That is what Timothy and Sarah has said on numerous occasions.

Gibbs nodded.

"Then you do remember her."

"No!" He denied swiftly. "Yes." He said, running his hand through his silver hair, frustrated. "I remember their mother—maybe—but I do not remember Celia Spencer."

Ducky arched an eyebrow. "I'm not sure I understand."

Gibbs growled in frustration. His friend picked the perfect time to act the doddering old man!

Gibbs blew out an impatient breath. "He lied, Duck." Ice blue eyes met sky blue ones. "Who lies about their mother's name?"

Ducky settled back into his chair. "Someone that is afraid. Someone that fears other's reactions." Ducky shrugged his shoulders. "Someone who feels he has something he must hide." Ducky shook his head. "I don't know why Timothy has done what he did, that is something that you will have to ask Timothy. But I do know that he must have a very good reason."

"What reason could justify lying about almost everything on his resume and application?"

The eyebrow went higher. "There's more?"

Gibbs nodded, pointing to one of the first pages laid out on the coffee table. "There is no way that birthday is right! I was seventeen!" Gibbs said, agitated. "For that to be right I would have had to—" Gibbs clamped his mouth shut, his cheeks ruddy.

Ducky had never seen his friend blush before. He hadn't even thought it possible, actually. He would have found it amusing if the situation hadn't been so serious. "Timothy's lied about his age, as well, I take it."

"Ya' think, Duck!" Gibbs snapped back quickly.

"Jethro." Ducky quietly admonished.

Gibbs took in a deep breath and blew it out, trying to calm his anger. "His truth is so much a part of the man I thought I knew." He said, trying to explain something he wasn't quite able to understand himself. "He is incapable of lying." Gibbs turned to his friend. "I said that. Hell, I believed that."

"We all believed that, Jethro."

Gibbs ran a hand wearily down his face. "I don't even know who he is anymore." Gibbs felt so tired. "What kind of person lies about their mother's name?" He asked again. "What does it say about a person who lies about their mother's name, about when they were born?"

Ducky didn't have an answer to give his friend that he hadn't given already so he just remained silent.

"I…" Gibbs hesitated. "I never had any more children after Kelly." Gibbs said, surprising Ducky, because the younger man never talked about his daughter or his first wife. "There were other women after Shannon. Other wives." Gibbs shook his head. "But not anymore children." He looked his old friend in the eyes. "Did you ever wonder why?"

Ducky shook his head. "No, I never really gave it much thought." He informed the Team Leader. "I just figured the opportunity never presented itself."

Gibbs leaned back on his couch, ice blue eyes on the ceiling. "I never wanted anymore." He said in the stillness of his living room. "The women didn't bother me. I knew that no one could ever mean to me what Shannon does, but children?" He shook his head. "I couldn't even face the possibility of failing another child." Gibbs kept his eyes on the ceiling, unable to look at his friend as he admitted his greatest fear. The only thing he had ever really been afraid of.

~NCIS~

"I knew something was going on with Sarah and Tim." Abby repeated once again when they were in Ziva's mini.

"Be that as it may, Abby," Ziva gritted out, her anger at the older woman still palpable. "That was not the right time to argue about it." Ziva pulled out of the hospital parking lot, heading toward the other woman's apartment.

"But—But—" Abby sputtered.

"There are no buts." Ziva cut in. "There is a time and a place for that kind of conversation." Ziva said insistently. "And a hospital room, just after your friend has come back from surgery after being stabbed in the back is not it!" She exclaimed disapprovingly.

Abby slumped down in her seat. She knew Ziva was right, but she just wasn't ready to let it go. "But I was right." She said stubbornly.

"It wasn't about you being right, Abby!" Ziva snapped angrily, slamming her fist on the steering wheel. "It was about you making a bad situation worse!"

Abby just crossed her arms mulishly and refused to say anything else the rest of the way to her apartment.

~NCIS~

THANKS FOR READING! HOPE NO ONE'S DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS CHAPTER.

NEXT CHAPTER SHOULD BE UP IN TWO WEEKS. (I'M WITHOUT INTERNET AT THE MOMENT AND I WON'T BE ABLE TO BE SOMEWHERE WITH IT UNTIL TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY.)