James 'Jimmy' Palmer was different. Not a bad kind of different, though. Even though others would tell him that he was. He'd had many words thrown at him over the years, 'weird', 'stupid', 'crazy', and 'retarded' to name a few. But the words that scared him the most were 'High-functioning autism', because those words rang true.

Jimmy Palmer had been five years old when they told his parents that he was autistic. But Jimmy wasn't stereotypical, they told his parents and older brother that in some ways he was like a child with Aspergers but in other ways he was more challenged. So they stuck him with a label of severe Aspergers and sent him on his way. They discovered two months later that Jimmy was a wanderer. He would suddenly slip away from whoever was watching and would wander towards danger, whether it be from a body of water or incoming traffic, in an almost trancelike state. But when you grabbed him and stopped him, he would awaken and not understand how he got there. It terrified his family to no end.

Somedays they would find him half-waded into the lake near their home. Luckily, by the time he reached the age of fifteen his wandering episodes had become few and far in-between. But he still had some issues, like yellow foods, he would never eat anything yellow, he would even touching something yellow if he could. They had learned early on that enough yellow at one time could send him into a Meltdown. Jimmy's Meltdowns would very in severity, he didn't have mild Meltdowns very often and severe Meltdowns almost never.

Jimmy's mild Meltdowns just consisted of him being usually moody, but the severe Meltdowns would reduce him to a screaming, crying mess. Jimmy's father or brother, Clark, would usually have to carry Jimmy back to his room after a severe Meltdown left him mentally and physically exhausted.

It was Clark who discovered Jimmy's 'special ability'. Medicine and science. Clark had been struggling with his eleventh grade Science homework when eleven year old, Jimmy came over and swiped it from him, filling in all the questions before handing it back. Clark checked them against the book and realized that they were right. After that day, Clark would always bring Jimmy, High school science textbooks and Jimmy would always thank him brightly and hug him around the waist tightly. That made everything worth it to Clark.

Most people never noticed that Jimmy was autistic, he was smart, very verbal ( using words even adults could barely understand) and always smiling. But there were always moments that would give it away, like his odd irrelevant statements and the way he would sometimes close his eyes and rock back on his heels, or watch a pen spin in his fingers for hours and hours. But most of the time they just thought Jimmy was weird or had bad parents. Autism never came up.

Clark hated the 'stares', the way people would send nasty looks at his little brother when he was stimming with his pen or rocking back and forth on his heels. They thought his Jimmy was just stupid or special needs. His little Jimmy was just as normal as anybody else, even smarter! But sometimes he just felt like looking at those people and snarling. 'Leave him alone, Normal is boring!'

Yet, Clark could deal. He always did. Jimmy knew that he was loved, Jimmy was happy. So Clark never minded. Until the day, his twelve year old little brother came home with a black eye and a split lip. What was worse was that Jimmy wouldn't tell him who did it. Clark sat his brother in a chair and began to clean his face when he asked, but Jimmy avoided the question or flat out refused to tell. But Clark wouldn't stop pushing and Jimmy whimpered out in a tiny, broken sounding voice.

"What does it mean when someone puts a mean note in your locker? Did I do something wrong Clark? You'd tell me, right?"

Jimmy had whimpered softly and Clark froze. He just nodded, numbly at his little brother, still in shock. The preteen just kept talking though and it made Clark's heart tighten painfully in his chest.

"They just kept pushing me down and kicking me. I tried to apologize but they wouldn't listen to me!"

Tears filled Jimmy's eyes and Clark lunged forwards to wrap his baby brother in a tight hug. He pressed the boy's face into his chest and just let him cry. Finally, Clark pulled the boy away from him and forced Jimmy to look him in the eyes, he pushed the boy's wire-rimmed glasses up his nose as well.

"James Daniel Palmer, there is nothing wrong with you. Never believe what they say because it isn't true and never will be."

Clark ordered and Jimmy just nodded into his brother's shirt. But the preteen never did tell who it was who did that to him. His lips were sealed, no matter how hard Clark pressed for an answer and eventually he let the subject drop. Clark could deal, yes, he could deal. Except when it came to the severe Meltdowns, he couldn't deal with those. But he always had his parents to help with Jimmy when those came, they always knew exactly how to calm him down or how to ride it out.

But then there was a car accident when Jimmy was sixteen and Clark was in his early twenties. Clark had been at work and Jimmy was at an FDA meeting (Future Doctors of America). So both of them were the last to know, Jimmy was just frozen as they got the news, until two days later, when it finally set in and Jimmy exploded. Their parents were gone.

It started out small but it soon blossomed into screaming, keening, crying and ripping at his clothes. Clark had no idea what to do, but when Jimmy grabbed a knife, Clark basically tackled him to the ground to rip it away and he held his younger brother as they waited it out. Finally, he carried the exhausted teen to bed. Neither boy could believe that their parents were dead.

But they moved past it, past the death and got on with their lives. Clark was there when Jimmy graduated High school two years early and was beyond proud when he moved and became an M.E assistant as he went to college.

Team Gibbs and Dr. Mallard had no idea of Jimmy's different-ness. To them, his irrelevant statements and cruel untimely seeming jokes were just in bad taste and the way he would some times space out and just rock and twirl his pen, were just Jimmy-quirks. They didn't notice the autism and Jimmy liked it that way and he was fine.

Until he had a severe Meltdown at a crime scene...