Fic: Five Ways McGee Never Got Caught As A Watcher (NCIS/Highlander)
Title: Five Ways McGee Never Got Caught As A Watcher
Fandom: NCIS/Highlander
Rating: PG-13
Summary: What it says on the tin. Five ways the secret never came out, from Gibbs interrupting a challenge clean up to Abby finding a pretty tattoo on Timmy ;
Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even a laptop to write this on.
Chapter 1: Cleaning Up
Something McGee both hated and loved about working for Gibbs was that he was like a dog with a bone. It was great to see when he was chasing after some marine who'd killed someone or spilled state secrets, or something along those lines. But not so great when he was the one Gibbs was staring at so hard as if he would confess to stealing the pyramids. Which he was dangerously close to doing if it would get Gibbs to stop looking at him like that.
They were standing in a deserted parking lot, deserted except for Gibbs, him and the dead body Gibbs had found him trying to haul away from what had very obvioiuly been a serious fight. The fact that the body and the head were no longer together made the scene that much more disturbing..
"This isn't what it looks like Gibbs, I swear!" McGee spouted.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "So you weren't trying to haul a headless body into the trunk of your car?"
McGee's shoulders fell, resigned. "OK, it's exactly what it looks like." He concieded. "But theres a good reason behind all this!"
"Oh?" Gibbs questioned softly.
Damn, McGee though, there goes that other eyebrow. He thought for a second. "What are you doing here anyway Boss? This place is so far out of your normal areas?"
"I'm not the one being questioned here McGee." Gibbs slowly reached for the gun he always had holstered at his waist. "why are you standing here with a dead body? You kill him?"
"Can't ask the simple questions now can he?" McGee grumbled under his breath. "Do you really want to know Gibbs?" He said a little louder, Gibbs just looked at him in the same cold stare. "No I didn't kill him, though it wouldn't have upset me if I had." He said honestly.
GIbbs pulled out his cellphone and hit speed dail two. "DiNozzo? I want you and Ziva to meet me in the Georgetown Univercity parking garage." DiNozzo must have said something in response because Gibbs snapped at him. "Just get here. And get Ducky to bring the van." He added, looking at the body one more time.
McGee settled down on the bumper of his car. It seemed Gibbs wasn't going to shoot him there and then so he relaxed. Slightly.
"So we're' going to wait for them?" He asked timidly, his brashness having run out in the face of Gibbs's anger.
"We're going to wait. And there better be a damn good story about this or you're going to wish you were the dead body."
McGee cringed. So much for relaxing.
Chapter 2: Abby and her Big Mouth
The bar was quiet. the group of them relaxing after a case that had almost driven Gibbs up the wall with all the CIA and Top Secret bureaucracy that the team knew he hated. They had been getting the run around by the higher up for the last three days which had reduced Gibb's already short fuse even shorter. So it hadn't been that hard for Abby to convince Gibbs and Ducky to joined the four of them at the bar.
McGee relaxed back in his seat watching Tony and Ziva back and forth over their drinks, arguing about the waitress Tony had been flirting with.
"You couldn't even get one of these women to date you if you had 'I will pay you' attached to your head Tony." Ziva taunted.
"It's tattooed Ziva. If i had it tattooed on my head. And I so could."
"Ooh, speaking of tattoos..." Abby piped up.
Tony leaned in. "Tell me you're thinking of getting a new one." He almost bounced in his seat.
"Yeah, I was thinking one like Tim's."
McGee gulped.
"You have a tattoo McProbie? I didn't know you had it in you!" Tony said almost impressed. "Tell me its not a butterfly."
Abby was excited. "No it's this really cool wavy M in a circle. Show them Tim!" She tried to pull at his left cuff but he held them away.
"No, it's okay, and you shouldn't get one like mine, it's stupid."
McGee waved her hands away from his, he didn't really want to show them his tattoo, bad enough Abby had seen it when they dated with her fascination with all thing esoteric. However, he wasn't too worried about the others understanding what it meant. Tony and Ziva were both leaning in intently and Tony started chanting 'show us, show us' like he was at a football match.
Finally, Gibbs spoke up. "Just show them the tattoo McGee." He grumbled.
Tim sighed, pulling his hands up from under the table and pulled back his shirt cuff on his left wrist. "I got it when I was younger, my mom has the same one." He supposed that was enough information.
The last thing he expected was for Ducky to freeze at the sight of it. Catching sight of Ducky's face he groaned. So much for a secret society, he thought.
Chapter 3: Ducky's and a Dead Man's Inconvenient
McGee grunted with exertion.
Bodies were heavy. Dead, unmoving, very unwieldy bodies? Even more so.
The reason he was trying to lug a dead body out of the morgue would have slid past most people but then, most people wouldn't have known that with in the next hour or so the body would no longer be dead and therefore cause him ( and by association Gibbs and the team) no end of trouble. And the last thing McGee wanted was to cause Gibbs trouble. Half a year on the man's team and he was still terrified of the man.
"Stupid drug bust. Stupid dead man. And now I have to get you out of here without a) anyone on the team finding out, or b)with out you waking up and causing a fuss. Just had to die at my crime scene didn't you? " McGee kept grumbling at the dead man under his breath as he propped the man's body against the wall to open the door to the stairwell.
McGee froze as he heard Ducky's voice.
"Timothy? What are you doing in here?"
Ducky walked into the morgue and froze in the doorway. Directly to his right was Tim, and, glancing slightly downwards was the body Gibbs had asked him to investigate. Ducky just raised his eyebrows. "I do hope there's a good reason for why you are trying to take a dead body out of the morgue Timothy? It's generally the place for them."
McGee stammered. "Umm, Well, You see-" What ever else he was going to say was cut off by the body at his feet jerking and coming to life with a curse.
"Goddamn it!"
McGee sighed. "Perfect timing Mathew. Just perfect."
Chapter 4: Not Paying Attention to His Surroundings
Sometimes Tim really hated having two jobs. Gibbs expected 110% out of his people and that made it exceptionally hard to also do his secondary job to a high standard as well. Though Gibbs' rules and training had made him much better at following someone without being seen. The systems he was allowed access to at work also help there as well. Perhaps he should mention it to Joe the next time he filed a report, Tim mused.
Tim was just glad that his new assignment wasn't a headhunter or else he was sure he'd keel over from lack of sleep after a week or so with all the activity that would produce. The fact his assignment worked in the same building made it easier as well.
But there was sometimes light at the end of the tunnel. Days like this when they didn't have an active case, which gave him the chance to catch up on all the paperwork that he didn't have time for when Gibbs was rushing them to find the links between crime and punishment. He was tossing insults back and forth with Tony when his phone rang. He picked it up.
"Agent McGee, NCIS speaking?"
"Oh now didn't that sound horribly official." Came a dry British voice from the other end of the phone.
Tim pulled the phone from his ear and stared at it then put it back. "Adam, what are you doing calling me here?" He asked in a puzzled tone of voice. Tony obviously picked up on that and leaned closer, having been dithering over his paperwork for the past half hour by playing computer games. Tim battered him away and held the phone closer.
"Oh don't want to talk to me now. I suppose that I should probably get out of your apartment and go somewhere else then." A rattle in the background and some other sounds made Tim even more suspicious.
"Is that, are you going through my fridge?"
Tony snicked as Tim's voice rose in indignation.
"Maybe." Adam replied.
Tim just sighed. "Fine, stay there. I'll finish work in an hour or two and I'll pick up some Chinese or something.
"Good." Adam's voice was entirely too insufferable for Tim's liking.
"God I wonder why I'm friends with you sometimes Adam Pierson. Just watch your head old man. It's not just Duncan MacLeod who wants to keep you in one piece. " The phone clicked in Tim's hand with just the disconnected sound now ringing. It was the spluttering and then a dull thunk from behind him that made Tim turn.
Behind him was Tony, on the floor underneath his desk with his chair tipped over, looking at him with a dazed expression. Tim mentally replayed the words that Tony would have heard and groaned.
Another thing he should have learned from Gibbs, when to keep his stupid mouth shut; especially around men who were around a hundred years old and had spent most of that time in law enforcement.
Chapter 5: Pecause the Witness Wouldn't Talk
"And I'm going to have another word with Mr Harrison. See if sitting alone has jogged his memory at all." Gibb's stood out of his chair and made to turn to the interrogation, sorry -interview room when McGee spoke.
"Ahh Gibbs. Do you mind if I try something? I have an idea."
Gibbs looked him up and down his eyes running over McGee for what ever answer he needed. He gave a short nod of his head and waved McGee forward.
"What are you waiting for then McGee, get a move on."
McGee rummaged in the draw of his desk and grabbed a thin file from the mess. Half running to the interview room behind Gibbs he hoped that his hunch was correct.
David Harrison, who they had picked up sprinting away from the crime scene at a very fast pace, was sitting very calming in the small room. And had been for the past half hour. McGee would have called him completely unremarkable but knew just how deceptive appearances could be.
He settled himself into the chair across from Harrison, shuffling papers and getting himself established. Finally he spoke.
"It's nice to finally meet you Nathan. Do you mind if I call you Nathan?"
"My name is David Harrison, I don't know this Nathan you're talking about." He replied calmly
McGee's face pulled into a look of surprise. "Really, these papers here seem to show that your name is Nathan Michaels. You mean this isn't you? He sure looks a lot similar to you."
He slid a passport over the desk and the man looked at it. McGee pulled out another.
"Or perhaps you're James Connors. Born 1934. Or Rodney Ganton, he was born long before that even. " McGee lined the papers up along the desk in a tidy row. The two of them sat there is silence for another few seconds before Harrison spoke.
"You obviously know so much about me." He started calmly, then his voice went cold. "So what is the point you're reaching for?"
McGee leaned back in the chair taken aback but not frightened of the strange attitude change.
"I know you didn't kill Private Josephs, for one you haven't taken a head in twenty-two years and two, I talked to your Watcher who vouched for you. So why were you running away from our crime scene."
He gentle nudged his sleeves up his elbows and saw Harrison's eyes focus on the tattoo. Bingo he though as Harrison started to talk, he'd deal with the consequences of Gibbs in the other room later, right now he was listening to a story.
Fandom: NCIS/Highlander
Rating: PG-13
Summary: What it says on the tin. Five ways the secret never came out, from Gibbs interrupting a challenge clean up to Abby finding a pretty tattoo on Timmy ;
Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even a laptop to write this on.
Chapter 1: Cleaning Up
Something McGee both hated and loved about working for Gibbs was that he was like a dog with a bone. It was great to see when he was chasing after some marine who'd killed someone or spilled state secrets, or something along those lines. But not so great when he was the one Gibbs was staring at so hard as if he would confess to stealing the pyramids. Which he was dangerously close to doing if it would get Gibbs to stop looking at him like that.
They were standing in a deserted parking lot, deserted except for Gibbs, him and the dead body Gibbs had found him trying to haul away from what had very obvioiuly been a serious fight. The fact that the body and the head were no longer together made the scene that much more disturbing..
"This isn't what it looks like Gibbs, I swear!" McGee spouted.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "So you weren't trying to haul a headless body into the trunk of your car?"
McGee's shoulders fell, resigned. "OK, it's exactly what it looks like." He concieded. "But theres a good reason behind all this!"
"Oh?" Gibbs questioned softly.
Damn, McGee though, there goes that other eyebrow. He thought for a second. "What are you doing here anyway Boss? This place is so far out of your normal areas?"
"I'm not the one being questioned here McGee." Gibbs slowly reached for the gun he always had holstered at his waist. "why are you standing here with a dead body? You kill him?"
"Can't ask the simple questions now can he?" McGee grumbled under his breath. "Do you really want to know Gibbs?" He said a little louder, Gibbs just looked at him in the same cold stare. "No I didn't kill him, though it wouldn't have upset me if I had." He said honestly.
GIbbs pulled out his cellphone and hit speed dail two. "DiNozzo? I want you and Ziva to meet me in the Georgetown Univercity parking garage." DiNozzo must have said something in response because Gibbs snapped at him. "Just get here. And get Ducky to bring the van." He added, looking at the body one more time.
McGee settled down on the bumper of his car. It seemed Gibbs wasn't going to shoot him there and then so he relaxed. Slightly.
"So we're' going to wait for them?" He asked timidly, his brashness having run out in the face of Gibbs's anger.
"We're going to wait. And there better be a damn good story about this or you're going to wish you were the dead body."
McGee cringed. So much for relaxing.
Chapter 2: Abby and her Big Mouth
The bar was quiet. the group of them relaxing after a case that had almost driven Gibbs up the wall with all the CIA and Top Secret bureaucracy that the team knew he hated. They had been getting the run around by the higher up for the last three days which had reduced Gibb's already short fuse even shorter. So it hadn't been that hard for Abby to convince Gibbs and Ducky to joined the four of them at the bar.
McGee relaxed back in his seat watching Tony and Ziva back and forth over their drinks, arguing about the waitress Tony had been flirting with.
"You couldn't even get one of these women to date you if you had 'I will pay you' attached to your head Tony." Ziva taunted.
"It's tattooed Ziva. If i had it tattooed on my head. And I so could."
"Ooh, speaking of tattoos..." Abby piped up.
Tony leaned in. "Tell me you're thinking of getting a new one." He almost bounced in his seat.
"Yeah, I was thinking one like Tim's."
McGee gulped.
"You have a tattoo McProbie? I didn't know you had it in you!" Tony said almost impressed. "Tell me its not a butterfly."
Abby was excited. "No it's this really cool wavy M in a circle. Show them Tim!" She tried to pull at his left cuff but he held them away.
"No, it's okay, and you shouldn't get one like mine, it's stupid."
McGee waved her hands away from his, he didn't really want to show them his tattoo, bad enough Abby had seen it when they dated with her fascination with all thing esoteric. However, he wasn't too worried about the others understanding what it meant. Tony and Ziva were both leaning in intently and Tony started chanting 'show us, show us' like he was at a football match.
Finally, Gibbs spoke up. "Just show them the tattoo McGee." He grumbled.
Tim sighed, pulling his hands up from under the table and pulled back his shirt cuff on his left wrist. "I got it when I was younger, my mom has the same one." He supposed that was enough information.
The last thing he expected was for Ducky to freeze at the sight of it. Catching sight of Ducky's face he groaned. So much for a secret society, he thought.
Chapter 3: Ducky's and a Dead Man's Inconvenient
McGee grunted with exertion.
Bodies were heavy. Dead, unmoving, very unwieldy bodies? Even more so.
The reason he was trying to lug a dead body out of the morgue would have slid past most people but then, most people wouldn't have known that with in the next hour or so the body would no longer be dead and therefore cause him ( and by association Gibbs and the team) no end of trouble. And the last thing McGee wanted was to cause Gibbs trouble. Half a year on the man's team and he was still terrified of the man.
"Stupid drug bust. Stupid dead man. And now I have to get you out of here without a) anyone on the team finding out, or b)with out you waking up and causing a fuss. Just had to die at my crime scene didn't you? " McGee kept grumbling at the dead man under his breath as he propped the man's body against the wall to open the door to the stairwell.
McGee froze as he heard Ducky's voice.
"Timothy? What are you doing in here?"
Ducky walked into the morgue and froze in the doorway. Directly to his right was Tim, and, glancing slightly downwards was the body Gibbs had asked him to investigate. Ducky just raised his eyebrows. "I do hope there's a good reason for why you are trying to take a dead body out of the morgue Timothy? It's generally the place for them."
McGee stammered. "Umm, Well, You see-" What ever else he was going to say was cut off by the body at his feet jerking and coming to life with a curse.
"Goddamn it!"
McGee sighed. "Perfect timing Mathew. Just perfect."
Chapter 4: Not Paying Attention to His Surroundings
Sometimes Tim really hated having two jobs. Gibbs expected 110% out of his people and that made it exceptionally hard to also do his secondary job to a high standard as well. Though Gibbs' rules and training had made him much better at following someone without being seen. The systems he was allowed access to at work also help there as well. Perhaps he should mention it to Joe the next time he filed a report, Tim mused.
Tim was just glad that his new assignment wasn't a headhunter or else he was sure he'd keel over from lack of sleep after a week or so with all the activity that would produce. The fact his assignment worked in the same building made it easier as well.
But there was sometimes light at the end of the tunnel. Days like this when they didn't have an active case, which gave him the chance to catch up on all the paperwork that he didn't have time for when Gibbs was rushing them to find the links between crime and punishment. He was tossing insults back and forth with Tony when his phone rang. He picked it up.
"Agent McGee, NCIS speaking?"
"Oh now didn't that sound horribly official." Came a dry British voice from the other end of the phone.
Tim pulled the phone from his ear and stared at it then put it back. "Adam, what are you doing calling me here?" He asked in a puzzled tone of voice. Tony obviously picked up on that and leaned closer, having been dithering over his paperwork for the past half hour by playing computer games. Tim battered him away and held the phone closer.
"Oh don't want to talk to me now. I suppose that I should probably get out of your apartment and go somewhere else then." A rattle in the background and some other sounds made Tim even more suspicious.
"Is that, are you going through my fridge?"
Tony snicked as Tim's voice rose in indignation.
"Maybe." Adam replied.
Tim just sighed. "Fine, stay there. I'll finish work in an hour or two and I'll pick up some Chinese or something.
"Good." Adam's voice was entirely too insufferable for Tim's liking.
"God I wonder why I'm friends with you sometimes Adam Pierson. Just watch your head old man. It's not just Duncan MacLeod who wants to keep you in one piece. " The phone clicked in Tim's hand with just the disconnected sound now ringing. It was the spluttering and then a dull thunk from behind him that made Tim turn.
Behind him was Tony, on the floor underneath his desk with his chair tipped over, looking at him with a dazed expression. Tim mentally replayed the words that Tony would have heard and groaned.
Another thing he should have learned from Gibbs, when to keep his stupid mouth shut; especially around men who were around a hundred years old and had spent most of that time in law enforcement.
Chapter 5: Pecause the Witness Wouldn't Talk
"And I'm going to have another word with Mr Harrison. See if sitting alone has jogged his memory at all." Gibb's stood out of his chair and made to turn to the interrogation, sorry -interview room when McGee spoke.
"Ahh Gibbs. Do you mind if I try something? I have an idea."
Gibbs looked him up and down his eyes running over McGee for what ever answer he needed. He gave a short nod of his head and waved McGee forward.
"What are you waiting for then McGee, get a move on."
McGee rummaged in the draw of his desk and grabbed a thin file from the mess. Half running to the interview room behind Gibbs he hoped that his hunch was correct.
David Harrison, who they had picked up sprinting away from the crime scene at a very fast pace, was sitting very calming in the small room. And had been for the past half hour. McGee would have called him completely unremarkable but knew just how deceptive appearances could be.
He settled himself into the chair across from Harrison, shuffling papers and getting himself established. Finally he spoke.
"It's nice to finally meet you Nathan. Do you mind if I call you Nathan?"
"My name is David Harrison, I don't know this Nathan you're talking about." He replied calmly
McGee's face pulled into a look of surprise. "Really, these papers here seem to show that your name is Nathan Michaels. You mean this isn't you? He sure looks a lot similar to you."
He slid a passport over the desk and the man looked at it. McGee pulled out another.
"Or perhaps you're James Connors. Born 1934. Or Rodney Ganton, he was born long before that even. " McGee lined the papers up along the desk in a tidy row. The two of them sat there is silence for another few seconds before Harrison spoke.
"You obviously know so much about me." He started calmly, then his voice went cold. "So what is the point you're reaching for?"
McGee leaned back in the chair taken aback but not frightened of the strange attitude change.
"I know you didn't kill Private Josephs, for one you haven't taken a head in twenty-two years and two, I talked to your Watcher who vouched for you. So why were you running away from our crime scene."
He gentle nudged his sleeves up his elbows and saw Harrison's eyes focus on the tattoo. Bingo he though as Harrison started to talk, he'd deal with the consequences of Gibbs in the other room later, right now he was listening to a story.