A/N: I wasn't planning on writing fanfiction again, but this story just latched onto me and the next thing I knew I had 10,000 words and no end in sight. A very special thanks to Lawral for keeping me company on aim while I wrote and for looking over this chapter and telling me I should post it. I waited to post until I had a few chapters written, so I'll try and update once a week or so.

The Middle Ground

Chapter One

"I wasn't there the moment you first learned to breathe
But I'm on my way"*

*"On My Way" by Boyce Avenue

The message, which had arrived sometime between a 3 A.M. online gaming victory and when McGee's alarm had gone off at six thirty, still sat unopened. McGee maneuvered the cursor over the email. He hesitated again, letting go of the mouse and sighing. This really was ridiculous. He could face an armed suspect without a second thought but he was afraid to read an email from his daddy?

McGee glanced around the room as if he were doing something wrong by checking his personal email at work. He always felt like as soon as he opened something Gibbs would be behind him, watching.

Not that Gibbs usually begrudged them personal time when they didn't have a case, because he really didn't. Just liked to scare the crap out of them when they were caught, in what McGee assumed was Gibb's own way of keeping them on their toes.

Gibbs especially didn't care when they were all caught up with paperwork, which they were, or at least McGee was. Tony had spent the past several hours doing a variety of things that didn't have anything to do with work, but McGee would hesitate to say he hadn't gotten his paperwork done, because he had seen Tony pull far stranger feats in the past.

Ziva was seated at her desk leaning over a magazine. Her paperwork was almost always done on time, leaving McGee to hope she wouldn't get bored and decide to sneak up behind him and read his email.

It was probably nothing, he thought to himself, staring at the message in his inbox. Just a casual message. But it was the first time his father had initiated a conversation with him since McGee had called home a few weeks back, and he couldn't seem to help feeling nervous.

Renewed with motivation, McGee clicked on the email before he could change his mind and leaned forward in his chair. He skimmed the message, which was short and to the point.

"You've got to be kidding me." McGee squinted at the computer screen in front of him.

Across the room at his own desk, Tony appeared to be perfecting his paper airplane design. He had his chair tilted back and his feet crossed on his desk as he folded the wings. "What's the matter, McGeek? Your Elf friends mad at you?"

McGee decided to ignore the second question. "It's my father."

"I didn't know you were in contact with your father again." Ziva looked up from her reading with a curious look on her face.

"I wasn't, until Penny talked me into calling him a couple weeks ago," McGee admitted.

Tony perked up, dropping the half built airplane on his desk and putting his feet back on the ground. "Your grandmother talked you into it?

"Yeah." McGee rolled his eyes. Tony was such a gossip. The man was practically rubbing his hands together in glee.

Tony wiggled back in his chair, giving McGee his full attention. "So, you and your father hadn't been talking before then."

"Not much, no." He reread the email again. "But now that we are talking, he feels the need to inform me of my responsibility to provide my mother with grandchildren."

Tony let out a loud snicker. "Did you tell him your last girlfriend was inflatable?"

"Tony," Ziva warned, half smirking. "Let McGee tell his story."

"That was pretty much it." McGee sighed and read the email out loud. "Timothy, your mother is pleased that you called but would like some grandchildren before she dies and it is your responsibility to provide her with them."

Ziva let out a small snort of laughter and Tony stared in amazement. "Does it really say that?"

McGee leaned back and shrugged while the two of them fell over each other to read the email. When they had both finished, Tony looked amused and Ziva amazed.

"I believe our fathers are two beans in a pod," Ziva said, sitting on the edge of McGee's desk.

"Peas," Tony corrected her. "Peas in a pod."

Ziva dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Neither of them apparently require niceties before ordering us to do their bidding."

"Apparently not," McGee agreed. "I don't know why I'm surprised. He's always done stuff like this."

"Stuff like what, McGee?"

The trio all leapt to their feet as Gibbs strode past, ever present cup of coffee in one hand.

"Nothing, Boss." McGee made the email disappear with a couple keystrokes. "We got a case?"

Tony and Ziva were already getting their gear when Gibbs responded. "Put your gear down, we don't have a crime scene yet. Lieutenant Brian Flynn reported his ex-wife Christina and their two children missing this morning. She was supposed to drop them off at the Lieutenant's house last night."

McGee sat down again and began typing furiously. Ten minutes later he began putting documents on the plasma screen. "Lieutenant Flynn and his wife divorced last month after the birth of their second child. He petitioned the court for full custody due to his wife having a prescription drug problem which was granted. The judge agreed to let his wife have visitation providing she checked into a rehab center."

"Did she?" Gibbs asked.

McGee shook his head. "She was scheduled to check in this morning."

"Ziva, start looking into where the wife may have gone. Tony, get the Lieutenant in here for an interview ASAP and McGee, start checking cell phone and credit card records."

"Of course."

"On it, Boss."

"Yes, Boss."

The trio went to work typing furiously at their respective computers while Gibbs grabbed a stack of papers off of the fax machine and began scanning the missing persons report Metro PD had just sent over.

Tony was the first to speak. "Boss, Lieutenant Flynn isn't answering his cell or his home phone and Metro PD said he left immediately after filing the missing person's report."

Gibbs looked less than pleased.

"Christina Flynn was an only child," Ziva reported, skimming the information in front of her. Her parents are both deceased but there appears to be a grandmother living in Palm Springs. I'm getting the number as we speak."

Gibbs nodded as Ziva picked up the phone and began dialing. "McGee?"

"Her cell phone is turned off so I can't track it but she made several calls last night to a woman named Alison Penn. I'm checking the connection between the two right now."

"Gibbs?" Ziva hung up the phone. "According to the retirement home, the grandmother is on safari in Tanzania. She isn't due to return to the states for another three weeks."

Gibbs let out a low grunt of displeasure. "Tony-"

"I just put a BOLO out on the wife's car."

"I just received pictures of the children from Metro." Ziva added before he could ask.

"Good." Gibbs nodded. "Better put out an Amber Alert."

A few minutes later McGee looked up. "Boss, Alison Penn was Christina Flynn's roommate in college. She currently lives in Burlington, Vermont and one of Lieutenant Flynn's credit cards appears to have been used at a gas station about a half hour away."

Gibbs' face softened. "Someone book us a flight."

"Already done, Boss." McGee looked pleased with himself.

"Now get moving!" Gibbs declared loudly, grabbing his gun and badge and heading for the elevator as everyone clamored behind him.

The rented black SUV parked several hundred feet down the road from the driveway. Alison Penn lived in a beige single wide trailer set back from the road on a dirt drive. McGee had called her employer on the plane ride only to find she was in New York taking a new business course.

The team approached the trailer cautiously. Christina Flynn's car was in the driveway, but no lights were on despite it being nearly dusk.

"This is way too easy," Tony murmured. "Something bad is going to happen, I just know it."

"Very reassuring, Tony." Ziva rolled her eyes.

"What? Pick any movie, Ziva. This is where the least important character gets killed off in a variety of gruesome ways."

"Then perhaps you should watch your back."

McGee rolled his eyes at their banter.

Gibbs, in the meantime, was silently surveying the property. "McGee, you and Ziva watch the back while Tony and I try the front."

Ziva took the lead and McGee followed her obediently through the clumps of trees and through the long grass to the trailer's back porch.

"Stop." Ziva's voice brought him to an immediate halt. She pointed to a clump of poison ivy near the back door. "Stay away from there. We do not need to you itching all over the place again."

"Thank you," McGee murmured appreciatively. That was the last thing he needed.

The two stood silently together, hands on their weapons as they listened to Gibbs announce NCIS's presence loudly, then kick in the front door. After a long tense moment, Tony opened the back door and motioned them in.

As the Ziva and McGee walked in, several things were immediately clear. One, something terrible had happened here. There was blood splatter all over the walls and a large stain on the living room carpet. However, there was no body visible anywhere.

The second thing, was that there was a baby crying.

"What happened?" McGee asked, mostly to himself. There had obviously been a struggle. Furniture had been pushed askew and anything that had once been lying on a table or surface had been smashed or knocked onto the floor.

Gibbs strode into the room holding a small baby in one arm. "That's what we're going to find out. Tony, you and Ziva go get the gear out of the car and start processing the scene. McGee, you start searching."

"Searching for what?" he asked without thinking.

Gibbs gave him a stare that caused McGee to swallow nervously. "The Flynn's had two children, McGee. This would be the baby, Gavin. They also had a three year old daughter named Beth who's either with the mother, or she's hiding somewhere. Start looking."

"Right, Boss."

McGee started with all the obvious places, behind the couch, under the kitchen table, then he began searching more intensively, checking cupboards and closets.

"Find anything?" Gibbs asked as McGee passed by him in the living room. Gibbs was changing the babies diaper on the couch, which happened to be in the one corner of the room that appeared untouched by blood. McGee was a little surprised at first, Gibbs being so rigid about not contaminating crime scenes, but then he noticed an evidence bag protecting the couch and he smiled to himself.

"Not yet. I still have the two bedrooms to check though."

Gibbs nodded and turned his attention to Ziva and Tony, who had just gotten back to the trailer. He began giving them instructions as Tim slipped down the slender hallway.

The first bedroom had obviously been used as an office, sparsely furnished with a desk and file cabinet. It had also obviously been where Gibbs had found the baby, as there was a small portable crib in one corner. McGee wrinkled his nose at the smell of sour milk and stale urine. He peered inside the portable crib and grimaced at the stain inside. Whatever happened here, it had to have been several hours ago for the baby to make a mess like that.

The second bedroom didn't have many furnishings either, just a tall dresser and a mattress and box spring directly on the floor. McGee opened the closet, the final hiding place he could think of and peered inside. He was just about to push past the clothes when he heard a tiny sniffle.

He grabbed his flashlight and crouched down in front of the open closet. Shining the light inside, past the shoes and hanging clothing was a tiny shaking body and two scared looking eyes.

"Hey," he said softly, reaching out slowly. "You must be Beth."

The little girl shrunk back as far as she could.

"It's okay," McGee told her. "I'm a policeman. I came here to help you." It was easier than trying to explain to a toddler what NCIS was, and it seemed to work. The little girl no longer looked like she was trying to disappear into the wall behind her, but she wasn't moving closer either.

"My boss found your baby brother," McGee tried, but the girl didn't budge.

"McGee, the boss wants to know-"

"Shhh!" McGee shushed Tony as he stood in the doorway. He motioned towards the closet with his head. Tony nodded and kept quiet, staying in the doorway to see what happened.

"I need to make sure you're okay," McGee said honestly. He heard footsteps coming down the hallway and the little girl flinched. How was she supposed to know that they were the good guys?

"Please? I know you're scared," McGee told her in as soothing a tone as he could. "I'm going to make sure nothing bad happens, I promise."

With Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs all watching the scene unfold, the little girl launched herself out from her hiding place and wrapped her arms and legs around McGee. Surprised by the force of her embrace, he dropped the flashlight and fell backwards onto his bottom.

He sat there stunned for a moment before awkwardly putting his arms around the little girl as she clung to him as if her life depended on it. He looked over her strawberry blond curls to the rest of the team. "Found her, Boss."

Gibbs didn't realize until the paramedics showed up that little Beth was not going to let go of McGee. One of them tried to pry her off of the man and she kicked, screamed, and even tried to bite the woman. Finally they settled for a cursory inspection. She couldn't be hurt too badly if she was fighting that hard.

Beth was small for her age, and all skin and bones, but Gibbs best guess would be that was normal for her. She was wearing pink stretchy pants and a Hello Kitty t-shirt with a small stain by the hem, which appeared to be purple paint at a glance. Her matching pink socks had holes in the bottom and her curly hair was a mess of riotous curls.

If her hair had been a little darker, she would have looked just like Kelly did at that age. Gibbs swallowed and tried not to focus on that fact, knowing it would only make things harder for him.

Gavin, the baby, smiled a happy gummy smile at Gibbs as he lay him down on the kitchen table to be examined. He barely made a squawk as they installed an IV to give him fluids, just kicked his legs, happy to be dry and in nothing but a diaper.

Tony was talking to one of the local cops about how to get the evidence back to their lab while Ziva was still taking careful notes and photographs of the bloody living room. McGee was sitting in a kitchen chair of in a corner, stroking Beth's back gently as she continued to cling to his chest like a barnacle.

"The local cops are working on getting some dogs to search the woods."

Gibbs looked up when he realized Tony was talking to him.

"Doubt they'll find anything. Ziva found a blood trail that led out the back door, through the poison ivy patch and out to the road, where it stopped. So whoever took the mother is going to be itchy later, but they didn't leave any obvious clues." Tony nodded towards the cop he had been talking to. "Local PD's going to arrange for the evidence to get shipped back to Abby. Should we call social services?"

Gibbs glanced down at Gavin, who was sucking on his fist from his space on the table and watching the two men intently. He shook his head. "We'd better take them back to Washington with us. The girl might have seen something and we're going to have to talk to her."

"Don't we have to have a relative's permission for that?"

"Did Lieutenant Flynn ever call you back?" Gibbs raised his eyebrows.

Tony shook his head. "Um, no."

"We'll deal with social services in Washington. Maybe by then we'll be able to peel the girl off McGee." Gibbs and Tony both looked over at the man in question, who still looked very uncomfortable with his position.

"I'll call ahead and let everyone know."

The female paramedic finished putting a doo-hicky on Gavin's arm so he wouldn't pull the IV out and picked the baby up. Gibbs gestured for her to pass the baby to him, and she hesitated. "We should really take him to the hospital for observation."

Gibbs pulled the smiling baby out of her arms. "We'll stay here until the IV is finished," he said firmly. "And I'll make sure he gets checked out by a doctor when we get back to NCIS."

The woman nodded and began packing up her supplies.

Gibbs looked down at the little boy in his arms. Bald except for a bit of light brown fluff on top, Gavin was smaller than he remembered Kelly ever being. He made a silent promise to the baby that he would find out what had happened to Christina Flynn.

No matter what.

Tim staggered into NCIS, the weight of the little girl in his arms beginning to feel like a hundred pounds. Beth had not let go of him once on the way to Washington. She'd dozed on the plane but even then had a death grip on his collar. No one had made mention of getting her off of him at any point, and he was starting to get nervous that she was never going to let go.

He was starting to get desperate, for more than one reason.

"Boss," McGee said weakly as they exited the elevator. "I really have to go to the bathroom."

Gibbs glanced over his shoulder at him. "You don't need a hall pass."

"Boss," McGee pleaded. "What about her?" he gestured desperately to the little girl in his arms.

Gibbs had a slight smirk on his face. "Take her with you."

McGee's eyes widened at the thought, but nothing better came to mind, and he was starting to get desperate. Tony snickered as they passed him on their way to their desks.

Finally realizing no one was going to help him, and a bathroom was required pronto, McGee headed for the men's room.

The room was empty, since it was nearly four in the morning and most of the staff had gone home, but McGee checked under the stalls anyway, groaning as he stood upright again.

"Beth," he said plaintively, trying to loosen her grip. "I really have to go to the bathroom."

The little girl was silent, not that he'd expected anything in response. She had not spoken a single word since he'd found her hiding in the closet, and Tim wasn't sure that he blamed her, given what she had likely seen.

"Okay." He took a deep breath and tried to think things out. "I'm going to lock the door, okay Beth? Then no one can get in. It'll be just the two of us." He walked back to the door and clicked the deadlock into place.

Almost immediately, Beth's grip loosened, although she did not let go. She pulled back a tiny bit to look McGee in the face.

McGee turned her towards the counter, where there were three sinks below a big mirror. "Can I put you down on the counter while I pee? Just for a minute?"

Beth appeared to think things over, then nodded slowly.

Trying not to shout with glee, McGee walked over and set her down gingerly between two of the sinks. Beth allowed him to put her down, but didn't let go of his shirt collar.

McGee crouched down in front of her. "Just for a minute, I promise. Then I'll pick you right back up."

Slowly, Beth uncurled her fingers from his collar and let them drop into her lap. Her eyes filled with tears as McGee slowly backed away.

His heart feeling a little broken, he turned toward the urinals and reached for his pants button, but froze. He glanced over his shoulder at the teary eyed little girl staring at him. "Um, could you close your eyes?"

She sniffled, but closed her eyes obediently, and McGee got on with the business of emptying his bladder. When he was done and everything was zipped and buttoned, he walked back to the sinks.

"You can open your eyes back up," he told her as he washed his hands. Beth watched him intently as he turned off the faucet and dried his hands on a paper towel. When he was done, she silently held out her arms.

When McGee lifted her back up to his body, Beth curled against him like she belonged there, laying her head down on his shoulder and sticking her thumb in her mouth. Her other hand held onto his shirt, but not as tightly as before. He seemed to have gained a small amount of her trust.

Truthfully, McGee had no idea what he was doing. He liked kids, but he'd never spent much time around them when they were this small. He preferred to wait until they were big enough that he was completely sure he couldn't break them. Like the little boys in his scout troop. Old enough to tell him what is on their mind. Somehow when he'd thought about having kids of his own, he'd never thought much about the early years. He'd more imagined them old enough to go on camping trips and read comic books with. And he'd rarely thought of having girls (perhaps trauma from growing up with Sarah).

Gibbs, he looked so natural taking care of Gavin, even though it had to hurt. When Beth had peed her pants on the plane, McGee had been on the verge of panic. Gibbs had simply pulled a change of clothes out of the carry on bag he'd thrown together of the children's belongings and ordered McGee to help her change in the bathroom.

That had been another fiasco, cramming him and a three year old in an airplane bathroom which was barely big enough for one person, let alone two. He wasn't sure how he had managed it, only left with vague impressions of Beth standing in the sink. But somehow he had managed. By the time they returned to their seats he was desperately wondering when he could give her back to whoever was responsible for her now.

But for the rest of the night at least, the responsible party was him. McGee could practically hear Sarah laughing at him, if she could only see him now, struggling to hold one little girl in his arms and unlock and open the men's room door at the same time.

Beth flinched when he unlocked the door, but other than that showed no emotion as he left the room and headed back to the bullpen.

Gibbs was seated at his desk sipping coffee while Tony had already dozed off in his own chair. McGee approached the boss and noticed Gavin sleeping at his feet in the car seat they had brought with them from Christine Flynn's car.

Glancing up, Gibbs waved McGee away. "You two go down to the lab and try and catch some sleep on Abby's futon. We won't know any more until the morning anyway."

McGee considered protesting, but his arms were killing him from carting around the unaccustomed weight and his eyes were barely staying open. So he simply nodded and turned back towards the elevator and headed down to Abby's lab.

He turned on as few lights as possible as he walked through the lab. It was strange to be there without Abby, without the loud music or her overly caffeinated body bouncing around. The futon mattress was already spread out, Abby having likely slept there recently and not bothered to put it back.

Beth's eyes were wide as McGee tried to think if there was anything else he needed to do. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Bert, and impulsively grabbed the stuffed hippo from his spot on top of a filing cabinet.

McGee sat down on the mattress and shifted Beth onto one of his knees. He set the hippo down on the other. "This is Bert," he told her. "He belongs to my friend Abby."

Beth reached out one hand slowly and touched the top of the hippos head.

"Give him a hug," McGee urged. Hugging Bert always seemed to make Abby feel better, maybe it would work on Beth too.

She thought about it for a moment, then pulled the stuffed animal onto her lap and gave it a gentle hug, her eyes widening at the loud farting noise. She looked up at him, her green eyes radiating surprise.

McGee smiled. "Silly, isn't it?"

She nodded, but looked pleased. Bert was a success. Now what? McGee found himself asking the eternal question: What Would Gibbs Do?

So McGee stretched out on the mattress, settling Beth and Bert beside him. She nestled in the crook of his arm and buried her face in his chest. Beth seemed to just take it for granted that he was going to be there, that he would know how to take care of her.

That was amazing, and yet terrifying. He had no idea why she trusted him. He had just done what anyone else would have done in the situation, he'd found her. Heck, he hadn't even realized she was lost until Gibbs told him so.

A yawn escaped Beth's mouth as she stared at him. She seemed completely relaxed, but McGee had never felt so tense in his life. Despite that, he knew they both needed some sleep. The morning was going to be hard enough as it was without adding exhaustion to the list.

McGee watched until Beth's eyes drooped and finally closed before closing his own and, to his surprise, falling soundly asleep.

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