McEureka - Part 8

Tim studied the thin disks of metal under the microscope one at a time. Gibbs had even procured the dog tags from the other marines for her to look over. They showed the general wear and tear from being worn almost constantly, and the scratches were to be expected. Apart from the small - almost unnoticeable really - marks on the tags belonging to the dead man. These weren't just scratches, they were tiny dents on either side of the metal, as though something had been gripping onto the metal. Tiny teeth.

Like something to charge the metal…

She rolled away from the microscope and began to carefully bag all the dog tags, tearing away the protective strips from the bags to bend over the flaps and stick them down.

So she knew how they had done it.

Somehow they convinced the marine to allow the device to be attached to the tags, and a charge passed through the tags. And then they had somehow remotely switched off the charge when he had no chance of getting back to the surface…or maybe they had been communicating with him somehow and told him to take a deep breath just as they flicked the switch.

Tim shivered. Unable to think of anything worse than her lungs filling with chocking water. Trying to cough but unable to draw breath. Just more of the liquid to draw in.

She shivered. A horrible way to go.

But who had done it? One of the marines? According to their own statements they had no idea how the devices really worked, just that they did when attached to their bodies.

"Hello Tim,"

Tim froze in her thinking and blinked to clear her mind. During the investigation she had been too busy to think about the presence of a certain doctor. She had almost forgotten completely that there was an office with his name on it somewhere in this very building. Several floors above her probable.

She turned slowly in the chair, her heart thudding violently in her chest.

He was as handsome as ever. He always had a twinkle in his eyes and it was still there. He was tall. His shoulders broad and his frame slim.

"Hello Nathan," she breathed, stuck to her chair, but she didn't have to move, he was the one who came to her.

He just looked down at her, all dark hair and glimmering eyes, his lips stretched into a soft smile and she felt her insides begin to liquefy, just as they used to do. She knew that if she had been standing her legs would have had all the strength of a cooked noodle.

She planted her feet on the floor and pushed back, rolling the chair away from him until the back of it collided with the desk with a deafening thud. She winced slightly but Nathan showed no reaction. He just continued to look at her. His gaze following her every movement.

"NCIS," he finally spoke, "You made it,"

Tim nodded, at a loss for how to react, how to speak to him, she had thought she would never see him again.

"A lot quicker than you thought, and onto the number one team. I feel there is a story there,"

She couldn't stand craning her neck to look up at him anymore and decided to risk the jelly legs. She swiveled to the side and stood.

She tested her legs. They were surprisingly firm beneath her.

"Oh, you know…people died. Place and time just happened to be in my favor,"

Tim groaned inwardly as she began to fuss with the bagged dog tags.

'People died'. Really Tim!

"Ah, the stars were aligned, were they?" Nathan chuckled.

"Something like that," she mumbled.

How many times could she put the same bags into a pile and move them around. She would go for a record.

"Are you happy, Tim?"

The question caught her by surprise and she turned, the bags forgotten. And she regretted it the moment she did. He had moved closer to her while she had her back to him. Too close.

"Yes," she nearly whispered, "Yes, I'm happy," she talked to his tie, keeping her eyes fixed on the material.

"And you Nathan, are you happy?" she looked up now.

"I've missed you, Tim,"

Tim closed her eyes against the light in his. No. Not again.

"Nathan, we have been over this, years ago," she slid along the table to free herself from the closeness of him and walked around the other side. There. A whole table between them. That was more like it.

"I was not going to be a rebound relationship," she told him, proud pf her steady voice but annoyed of revisiting old hurts. She could do this. She could keep her calm in the face of the man who had stolen her heart, "You were still married," she added. That had been the clincher, right there, "She had just left. There was every chance you could have still made a go of your relationship," And that had been the other reason. She would never be the cause of a marriage on the rocks finally going under. She couldn't do that. And because of that they had never really became anything to each other. She had not let it.

"Alison and I were done long before we separated," he told her, stepping around the table with each word, "There would have been no rekindling with or without your presence," he made it to her side of the table and then behind her, she tried to ignore his presence at her back. Was she fooling herself by thinking that she could feel the heat of him though her own clothes. She probably was…but she could swear she could.

"You have no idea how happy you made me, Tim,"

She scoffed at this, remembering what she had been like back then.

"Happy? I was an overactive intern who was desperate to please," she told him sternly, describing just how she had seen herself when she had been placed with him – the great Doctor Stark – to try and convince her to join the programme in Eureka.

"You were adorable," he smiled softly.

Overeager and overweight was more like it. She had never been described as adorable in her like. She was certain of it.

"Step away from my agent, Dr Stark," the heat – imagine or not – vanished from her back as Gibbs' voice cut through the room and her eyes shot to the entrance.

There was Gibbs. A face like thunder. How long had he been standing there for? Tim gulped. He looked like he was ready to draw his gun on someone. And that someone was Nathan Stark.

Tim flushed with embarrassment, trying to remember any odd noises that could have been her boss arriving on the scene, but she had been so caught up with Nathan she couldn't recall anything else.

"McGee,"

"Yes boss," she chirped, feeling the brush of Nathan's body against her own as she slid past him and walked to Gibbs, heart hammering in her chest.

"Tony and Ziva need some help with translating the local language,"

"Local language?" what did he – Oh. She couldn't stop the giggle.

"I'll see to it, boss,"

She left the room without looking back, back straight, pace steady.

"You have no idea how happy you made me Tim,"

"Agent Gibbs," the man nodded and went to leave the room, unable to control himself Gibbs grasped the man's arm, halting his progress.

"You will stop harassing my agents, Dr Stark," a flare of protective fury swept through Gibbs. Quite alien were McGee was concerned - Ziva and DiNozzo being the two who tended to get into trouble - so when he entered the room he had not expected to over hear what he had.

The man had the nerve to smirk and forcefully removed his hand from his arm – surprisingly strong for a scientist.

"I assure you, Agent Gibbs, I have no intention of harassing your agents," Gibbs felt his anger – never far from the surface when it came to defending his team – begin to boil, "Tim and I are old friends,"

Old friends? From what he had over heard Gibbs was sure they would have been more than that if this Doctor Stark had got his way.

But Tim was a good girl in the oldest sense of the word, something that often concerned Gibbs when it came to her ability to do her job. But she had a spine of iron that tended to balance her out. And it seemed it had balanced her right away from Stark and Eureka once upon a time.

The man smiled a smile that spoke volumes. He knew something Gibbs did not and Gibbs did not like being kept in the dark where it concerned his team.

"You truly have no idea how fortunate you are to have that young woman working for you, Agent Gibbs,"

"I am more than aware, Dr Stark, and I will not repeat myself. You will leave my agent alone,"

"Surely Agent Gibbs, what Tim gets up to in her personal time is no business of yours…" he smiled and left the room.

Gibbs glowered at this retreating back.

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday season. :) I was hoping to get this out to you earlier than now but the plot bunnies just weren't cooperating. I think I have got them hopping in sync once again though….I think…

Anyhoo. A wee bit of Tim's past with Nathan has now come to light. Dun dun duuuuun.

Please let me know what you think. Your comments and feedback are always so encouraging. :)

Take care x