Because I can't very well send everyone treats for Passover or Easter, or Sunday if neither applies, or Ramadan later this month, I thought instead I'd post the final chapter of The Common Thread. Best wishes to all of you! I hope and pray we'll be together, as readers or readers & writer, again. So, yes, this is my 2020 version of a holiday treat.

Chapter 133

July, 2028, Varkiza, London and Brambury

Tim laughed as he, Artie and Hope walked onto the sand. Returning from a trip into Athens for Hope's infusion, they were the last ones on the beach for the first day of the annual Gibbs' clan vacation in Varkiza.

The object of his laughter was one of Mimi's long outdoor benches, made by Dad to go with a table he'd also built, now cleverly disguised as the steed of a medieval knight. It might have taken him longer to recognize that's what it was supposed to be had it not been for the banner placed on two poles in the sand behind it that read, "Binky, the steed of 'Sir' Timothy Gibbs, Honorary Knight of the Realm of Her Majesty Elizabeth II."

A decent likeness of a horse's head, made of paper mâché, was attached to the top of what Tim thought might have been part of a broom handle which was in turn attached to the bench, with multiple streams of white yarn providing a mane.

A prop sword leaned against the body of the horse/bench and a medieval knight's helmet sat waiting on the back on its back. The short legged steed was further decorated with cardboard armor and displayed the colors of 'Sir' Timothy which he thought came from the family coat of arms they'd designed a few years ago.

He grinned at his kids when he saw he was right and that the Gibbs coat of arms was actually painted on the armor covering the horse's sides. What must have been two or three skeins of white yarn hung from the other end of the horse in a beautiful plume-y tail. Taking a photo, he sent it to Cousin Teck.

Leon appeared and stood next to the steed, frowning, "Sir Timothy! Is this motley steed why you left my service?"

"I believe you left your service first, my former liege lord!"

"Nevertheless, I gift you these." Leon handed Tim a pile of what he thought might be a knight's costume. "You are not required to wear this now as the sun shines too brightly. However, once we gather at the table, you must wear it."

Tony, holding a pair of long black riding boots, picked up the helmet and stepped up next to Leon, "Honorary Sir Knight, here also is your foot and head-wear."

Tim nodded, "I am honored." He turned to the others, "I thank you all and ask that you join me in your best finery at our feast!"

He bowed deeply to his audience and then laughed at the applause. "Seriously, thanks everyone!"

The horse and costume were, of course, his family's way of congratulating and teasing him for the honorary knighthood granted him by the Queen, adding Leon's tease about the retirement from NCIS that preceded the honor.

After a glorious day at the beach and in the water, they retired to Mimi's backyard for their feast. Tim was excused from the kitchen and grill so that he might further enjoy the humor of his siblings. Changing into the knight's costume, he quickly took the boots and helmet right off again, they were too hot and he was in an air conditioned house! Before removing them he had Dad take a photo that he'd also send to Cousin Teck. Then he tore the boots and helmet off, replacing them with black flip flops and one of his sun hats. They would have to do.

He smiled to himself, remembering the brief ceremony in which he was granted the honor of being an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or KBE. Because he was not a citizen of the UK, he was not entitled to use 'Sir', but was entitled to add the KBE after his name. He joined an illustrious group of Steven Spielberg, Bill and Melinda Gates and a few former U.S. presidents, among others. There was no sword tapping, that was reserved for UK citizens. He'd been surprised when the Queen read the commendation, his delivery of a felon complicit in the murder of a member of the Royal Family, his work for the good of the world, his work in supporting the homeless and orphaned and finally, his creation of wonderful characters and stories for both children and adults. Tim was thankful that his children's books and novels written as Zubin Cai were better known than the Deep Six series and Thom E Gemcity. There had been a few questions about 'his work for the good of the world' by which the Queen meant his covert work, but between the Palace and NCIS' news handlers, nothing much came of them.

As for his retirement, he'd planned to stay until the end of this year. However, when Secretary of Defense Becker retired, his replacement was not a fan of one of his federal agencies being run by someone in another country, whether he was a U.S. citizen or not. In one of his first meetings with the Secretary of the Navy he questioned her about Gibbs and she saw the proverbial writing on the wall.

The next afternoon Tim Skyped into SecNav's staff meeting at the Pentagon. Although on her weekly schedule, her staff considered themselves lucky if the meeting actually happened more than once a month, although it was better now that the U.S. Navy had returned to their US home ports.

At the end of the meeting, she asked him to stay on for a few minutes. Then she made a face, "I know you planned to retire at the end of the year. However, I had a meeting with my new boss yesterday and I think it's time. He didn't give orders to have you move home but he did let me know of his displeasure, even after I explained Hope's illness and treatments."

Tim nodded, he'd thought of the possibility, knowing newly appointed politicians often make a clean sweep and his position was certainly unusual. "I'm fine with retiring now. Artie and I have already discussed it. How soon?"

"Do you have your list ready?"

Tim chuckled, "It was ready before you swore me in 4 years ago! I'm down to two and I know which one I want to recommend." At her raised eyebrow, he told her and she smiled, "That's an excellent choice, she's on my list, too. Who else was on yours?"

With an amused huff he told her and she frowned, "Either one would be fine, do you have a specific reason for one over the other?"

"Yes, the one I did not select is not comfortable outside the U.S. I'm afraid that could present a problem with our offshore offices and staff. They can't be ignored or made to feel less important to the agency because of their physical location. Also, because they're not in the U.S., a more delicate approach is sometimes needed with their host countries."

"I agree and I'd actually forgotten about her overseas assignment! But was that her only time?"

"Overseas, no. Outside of the U.S., yes. She was also posted to Pearl for a couple of years and disliked being so far from home."

"Oh!" Porter shook her head, "So her posting to London between Wilson and Childers had a purpose, other then her expertise?"

"Yes, I wanted to see how she'd do outside the U.S., in an English speaking country. When I transferred her to the Southeast office, the first words out of her mouth were that she couldn't wait to get home. From what I've been told and the information was unsolicited, she did very little traveling – only to visit the offices. I can't imagine leaving the UK, Ireland or Europe unexplored when it's right there and so inexpensive and she had her flights paid for on her business trips!"

SecNav laughed at him, "Not everyone likes to travel and many Americans are just fine staying home or exploring the U.S. Which is, as you've often reminded me, close to the same size as the European continent. However, I agree with your thoughts, I'd also worry about our overseas staff. So, if you've discussed this with Artemis, do you want to go ahead and set the date?"

Tim looked at the calendar and his schedule, "I have several weeks leave, what I'd like to do, with your permission, is take terminal leave while your new director handles the agency as Acting Director. Would that be acceptable?" He grinned, "And we'll be in Maine the first 10 days, that might help."

"That's right, I forgot you're able to go again. How wonderful that Hope will be able to handle the flight and have her infusions there! And I like that you'll be fairly close and in the same time zone. You'll be on hand for anything that comes up?"

"Yes, since Dr. Rob is licensed in both the US and the UK, he is now allowed to give Hope her treatment here in the U.S. And yes, I'll be available for consultation if anything comes up, although I will be after my separation, too. Leon has been, Tom Morrow was for him and I intend to carry on the tradition."

"Good! When are you leaving for Maine?"

"Friday, May 29th, returning to the UK on June 7th."

"Are you considering taking all your leave?"

He sighed, "I have 5 weeks on the books. That will almost do it and I'll take a few days off over the next few weeks to make sure they'll all taken. If it were me as Acting, waiting to be sworn in as The Director, I'd want the former director to go already and let me do my job. How about July 6th for my end date?"

"Let's make it the 7th and you can knock off a few more days of leave. I'm planning to fly over for your party again this year."

"Great!"

"All right, so you will be on terminal leave from June 1st through July 7th." Sarah Porter took a deep breath, "Timothy, when you go, I'm going, too.

"I don't want to do this job, all the things we've had to do, without you or Leon, or your dad. And, for your ears only, I'm not the least bit impressed with the new guy. So, I'm leaving, also retiring, sailing off into the sunset! I've had the thought in my head for some time now but then Becker retired and now, well, after that meeting, I feel no compunction to stay."

He blinked in surprise and then grinned, "Congratulations, Ma'am! It feels great, doesn't it?"

"Yes it does! I'll stick around to swear-in Agent Yates as Acting Director and then Director, but then I'm out of here." She added, "I'm not filing until June 1st., with a last day of July 10th. Although it's traditional to give 90 days' notice or more, legally I only need to give 30 and I'm afraid if he's as much of a jerk as I think he is, he'll use those days to make my life miserable."

"Understood. Have any plans?"

"Yes, there's this crazy bunch of people I know in a little town in England and I think I'm going to hang out with them now and then. Other than that, no. I mean yes, as I want to learn how to cook. Real food, not just microwaved or mac 'n' cheese. Too bad your uncles don't have a culinary school."

Tim grinned, "That's a great idea, I'll mention it to Uncle Nik and Uncle Sergio. Their older daughter is running their catering business, I'll mention it to her, too. And we'd love to have you in the neighborhood! Unless you have plans, you should come to Greece in July and August. You can fly over with the other Porters, the Baxters and some of the Langstons/Ibarras."

"Thanks for all of that. Greece sounds wonderful! Hot but wonderful."

"So are you going to travel the world?"

"Eventually but not right away. I want to find a place I love and plant myself there. And I do want to explore more of Europe, by train whenever possible and for more than long weekends or between meetings! Megan's employer has offered her a position in one of their European offices, so I'll visit her wherever she ends up and go from there. How about you, will you travel the world?"

"We'll continue to travel during the kids' holidays and on long weekends. I have a standing invitation to guest lecture at Bedford, MIT and a few other universities so we'll travel for those. In 2 years, when Jed's finally old enough and if we can find a way to handle Hope's infusions, we want to take all the kids, no matter how old they are, to Africa on Safari. We've wanted to go since Artie and I were at MIT!"

She chuckled, "You might have grandchildren by then." She laughed aloud when he blinked in surprise. Then he smiled, "That's true for both of us."

She smiled, liking the idea.

After Tim disconnected, he called home. When he told Artie, she took a deep breath, "Oh, I know we've discussed it, but somehow I didn't think it would happen just like that. Is it because of the new Secretary of Defense?"

"Yes and he hasn't given the SecNav any orders. However, she doesn't think it'll be long and I'd rather go out on my own terms. I'm sorry, honey, I should have talked with you first!

"No, that's fine, we agreed and it's only 6 months early. Financially, we're ready, we've been ready for years now! The 7th of July, oh good, so we'll have our party!"

"Yes and we can continue those if we want."

She chuckled, "We have more than a year before we need to decide."

Once they finished their discussion she found Jethro and Lu and handed them her phone. "Our Tim has news!"

Jethro wasn't surprised, although he was immediately torn between worry that Porter would retire and Tim would be bumped up into something in the DoN or that the new SecDef would want him in the U.S.

As he and Lu listened to their son, they smiled, happy with Tim's decision. Lu was happy that he'd have all of the kids' school vacations off while Jethro was relieved that Tim could leave on his own terms, without the sour taste of the new SecDef's orders or worse, getting fired. He wasn't the least bit surprised that Porter was also retiring, although at least she was old enough to call it that. Tim was only 51! He knew his son was only retiring from his career at NCIS, not from working. He'd end up doing something interesting.

After telling Artie and his parents, Tim made one more phone call.

When Leon answered, Tim said, "Nothing's wrong."

"Good. What's up?"

"I'm leaving, retiring. I'm on terminal leave June 1st, with an end date of July 7th. Sarah has agreed to an Acting Director during my terminal leave."

Leon was quiet, finally saying, "That's wonderful, I'm so relieved!"

"Relieved?"

"Yes, because I know how miserable that job can be and I'll be relieved every time someone chooses to leave it!"

Tim made a noise, there had been miserable times as well as good times but then his wife hadn't been murdered while he was in office, nor had he suffered from cancer or a stroke. Rather than reminding Leon of those experiences, he said, "it'll be great to have the summer off. With the kids still in school, Artie and I can take a few day trips."

"Overall, how do you feel about your time in office? I know we've talked about this before, but this feels pretty final. I hoped your experiences would be different from mine."

"And they were. It's the place and the politics more than anything else. I forgot about the cut-throat politics or maybe when the war was over I thought that would be, too. It's the new SecDef. He hasn't ordered me back to the U.S yet, but Sarah said he questioned her and was quite unhappy with the situation. I'd rather go on my own."

"Smart man!"

"You're not upset that I'm leaving after 4, barely 4 ½ years?"

"No, I wish I'd been smart enough to do that. I'm proud of you and grateful that you decided to take the job in the first place. And you've certainly accomplished a lot in what will be your 54 months in office."

"Thank you. There's more, I have permission to tell you."

"Oh?"

"Sarah's also retiring. She says she doesn't want to do what we've had to do without either of us or my dad." While Tim rarely called Secretary Porter by her first name to her face, he and Leon almost always did in their conversations. It was easier.

"Wow! But you know, that makes sense and I like that. We three, four with your dad, went through some awful things together and did a lot of good stuff together, especially during the war. Have you told him yet?"

"Yes. I just got off the phone with Artie and the folks."

"I know your dad understands! Hey, before I forget, one word of advice! Take all of your personal leave before you go, don't opt to sell it back to the agency, it all goes to taxes. Found that out the hard way, but then I didn't really think much about it. And it was only a couple of weeks, but still."

"I have about 5 weeks on the books. I'm going to take a few days between now and when we leave for Maine, so that will make it even. And I can't accrue more PTO while I'm on leave! How did Dad do it?"

Leon snorted, "He was on terminal leave for what felt like 6 months! Have you given Sarah your list of agents to succeed you?"

Tim chuckled, "Yes, we talked about it. I'm down to one person and she agrees. My list was Jane Melankovic, Bob Chalmers, Cassie Yates, Rose Peters, Faye Dawson and Dwayne Wilson."

"Wow, I like those. I know Cassie better than the others, although if she takes the job and finds out we recommended her, she'll never speak to either of us again. Is Dawson one of your INV agents?"

"Yes, she and Bob Chalmers both came out of Northwest under Melankovic."

"And that says a lot about Melankovic's management style. Feel like sharing?"

Tim chuckled, "How about you guess?"

"Oh, that's too easy, although maybe not. Hmm. I'm going with my first guess, Cassie Yates."

"Got it in one!"

"Great, I like your pick. When are you going to announce it?"

"As close as possible to my leave date. Maybe the day we leave for Maine?"

"Right because you'll be in the air for 7 hours after that!"

Laughing, the two disconnected.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

His mind returning to the present, Tim smiled as his siblings 'ganged' up on him after dinner in Mimi's backyard, wondering what he and Artie planned to do next. Freddie huffed, "You have a plan, I know you do. As long as I've known you, you've always had a plan!"

Patrick laughed at that and when he'd caught their attention, he nodded, "Us too. When we were little, Timmy was always planning what we'd do next. A hike, playing space pioneers in the backyard, score cookies from our friends' mothers…"

They laughed at that one and Tim did a soft 'high five' with his brother. He loved that Twick was part of the family, that he fit into the gang of siblings as if he'd always been with them. To some extent he had, as Timmo had told many stories of his and Pat's adventures as young children and by now, Pat had heard years-worth of stories about Timmo and the gang. Although they hadn't known about Patrick, Tony, Abby and Jimmy were never shy about telling Tim stories.

With a chuckle, Tim let his mind roam back a few weeks to his last day as the Director and an employee of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. He was surprised when his siblings, even Barry who'd returned to Marseilles less than 48 hours ago, came in to escort him home that evening. As everyone had been to the 4th of July party a few days before, the staff expected them and had their own plans that would mesh well with the siblings' plans.

The gang arrived in Tim's office, having pre-arranged it with Bec and Cynthia, Pam Cook had already returned to the U.S., and stood there in a line. Pat and Geordie stood in the middle, both firing off salutes to their brother. With a smile, Tony explained, "It's a tribute to all of your years taking care of the Navy and Marines, Tim. Whether you were a case agent, my probie, field agent, INV agent, SAIC, SSAIC, Deputy Assistant Director, Assistant Director, or Director, you're one of the best they've ever had protecting them and their families, helping to keep our country free and working to bring it together again."

Tim didn't bother swiping away the tears, although he was also laughing at his crazy siblings. They motioned to him, making a space in the middle. As he joined them, the door to his suite opened and their father entered. He took his place in the lineup, someone grabbed Tim's laptop case from him and they exited the suite. When they walked out into the hallway, Bec, Ellie, Nikki, Mo, Ray and Kendra were there, lining the hall along with other NCIS staffers. Slowly walking toward the elevator, he shook hands with each of them, accepting a hug here and there.

It was that way downstairs too, everyone had lined up to say goodbye to the man they'd worked with for years, in some cases, more than twenty years. Tim thought he would lose it, gaining strength from his dad's hand on his back. When they reached the lobby and the front door, he smiled when he saw Leon outside waiting for him. As he reached the door, he turned and with a big smile, said, "Thanks for everything! Good luck, stay safe!"

Outside, Leon gave him a hug, "You made it, you're out now, Special Agent McGee-Director Gibbs. Time for new adventures!"

With a cheer, his siblings still surrounding him, Tim walked away, following Leon and Boss-Dad. When they arrived at the Manor, he stepped inside the front door, set his laptop case down, took a deep breath and held his arms open to his wife and children, smiling to see all of them, even his daughter-in-law, exclaiming, "I'm out, I'm done, I'm home!"

With Love to All,

Finis