The Trials Of Timothy by ceilidh

A/N: Hello again, all, and welcome to my latest story!

Now, as with Unbreakable, I've written this before seeing The Inside Man. The idea for it came purely from a truly wonderful promo shot from that episode - the mug shot of McGee after he's been 'arrested'.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who looked at that 'oh, boy' expression, and imagined what Tim was thinking: "Mom's gonna kill me... mom's gonna kill me... mom's gonna kill me..."

So this is the first of what, I hope, will be a series of little one-shots, reflecting those moments in Tim's life where... well, when he's been in deep, deep trouble.

The first, of course, just has to feature Sarah. If Twisted Sister is anything to go by, she must have been the kid sister from hell when she was little. I know I was :o)

As always, I hope you enjoy - and if anyone has any suggestions, or special situations for me to put poor Timothy 'on trial' for, please let me know!!

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The Trials Of Timothy

Chapter One - Cursed

"Tiiiiiiiim!!"

As that whiny voice sneaked under his bedroom door, Tim McGee rolled his eyes in resignation. Jeez, did kid sisters have some kind of unique gene, for them to make life hell for their big brothers?

Maybe he'd raise that point in class tomorrow. See if it was scientifically possible to remove it.

"Tiiii--iiimmy!!!"

If he ever found a quiet, kid-sister-free zone where he could actually study for that class, in undisturbed peace.

Yeah, right. That thought wasn't even half way through before a mini tornado swept into his room – piles of painstakingly written notes wobbling dangerously sideways as Sarah bounced onto his bed.

Big brother patience, hell! Damn it, he'd spent half the afternoon writing out these notes, and now –

"Sarah!!!"

– and now the most annoying six year old on the planet had sent them flying in all directions.

All that work, all that painstaking study, now lay strewn over his bed in a hopelessly jumbled mess of paper. Little wonder, then, that Tim's already frayed patience now snapped as he tried to re-stack them – making an equally frustrated point of then placing them, sensibly safely, on an especially high shelf.

"Damn it, Sarah, be careful! I've spent all day on these, and I don't have time to do them again!!"

Was there the slightest chance that she'd obey him, go away, and leave him alone to work in peace? Like hell there was. In fact, the infuriating smirk on her face now grew even more infuriatingly wider.

"Timmy, you – you swore!" she crowed, gleefully following that score-point up with the ultimate threat.

"I'm telling mommy-"

"You do, Squirt, and I'll hang you up there by your pigtails-" Tim shot back, pointing up to the ceiling – allowing himself just a trace of a triumphant smile, for his own combination of parental inheritance.

His placid shyness, and seemingly endless patience, may have come from his mother, but for height – yes, as his six foot plus father had proudly observed, his firstborn son was definitely a McGee.

He'd only just turned sixteen, but he was already taller than mom, and already on eye level with dad.

If he stood on his bed, as he did now, and levered himself onto his toes, he could just touch the ceiling. So yes, this playful threat to hang his pesky kid sister from it by her pigtails wasn't that implausible. And as the budding scientist in him already knew, nothing proved the theory better than the practical.

Grabbing Sarah around her waist, he then hoisted her, squealing and shrieking, above his head – teenage exuberance, and six year old wriggliness, combining to prove another law of physics.

Every action had an equal, and opposite, reaction. Movement, of any kind, always had consequences. And standing on your bed, swinging your kid sister towards your ceiling, had an inevitable result. All it took was the tiniest loss of balance, and Newton's Law of Gravity was painfully proved.

So was that part of Murphy's Law that seemed to apply purely to already tormented big brothers – providing Sarah with the much softer landing as she crashed, full force, onto Tim's chest.

Any protest he might have justifiably made was lost in the air that now whooshed painfully from his lungs. And to add sisterly insult to brotherly injury, she was the one who had the nerve to start screaming.

"Moooooommm-mmmmyyyyy!!!"

Oh, great. Not content with ruining his study, and breaking his ribs, now she'd deafened him too.

Yeah, like he could ever be that lucky. He could already hear their mother, sprinting up the stairs. So yes, Tim knew his fate was sealed. He knew what was about to happen. He knew who she'd yell at.

He knew what to ruefully groan.

"Awww, jeez!! Mom's gonna kill me-"