Not Beta'd; Standard disclaimer applies.

18 EPILOGUE

That afternoon, after Tony's constant harassment, or as he called it, encouragement, Tim went down to Autopsy to visit and 'introduce' himself to his fellow doctor and doctor to be. Five minutes after he entered autopsy, Tony followed, Ziva right behind him. Tim was surprised to see them, did they get a case? Was that why they were down here? After all, they knew Tim was going down to autopsy, so why didn't they join him in the elevator?

Tony grinned as he entered, nodding to Ducky, he greeted, "Doctor," before turning to Tim, "Doctor," and finally Jimmy, "Doctor to be," he concluded, motioning with his hand to Ziva to speak. With a roll of her eyes, she mimicked Tony's greeting, whose smile got wider with each word uttered, making it clear why Tony had insisted he head down there and why he and Ziva followed.

Picking up his cue, Tim continued, "Doctor, Doctor to be," he said, turning first to Ducky, then Jimmy, when he turned to Ziva and Tony, he just nodded a greeting, not speaking.

"Doctor, Doctor," Jimmy joined in, also smiling.

As one, they all turned to Ducky, "Oh, for…fine, Doctor, Doctor to be," he finished.

"Okay, back to work now," Tony called, as he ushered Ziva out of autopsy.

"Wasn't expecting that," Jimmy commented after they left.

Tim snorted, "I wonder how long Tony's been wanting to do that."

"A better question is why he wanted to do that," Ducky commented dryly, before redirecting the conversation to Timothy's degrees and a long-winded story regarding the history of the doctorate degree.

That weekend, the four agents, along with Ducky and Palmer, went out for drinks to celebrate Tim's 'graduation'. Tim had tried to back out, letting them know that it wasn't necessary, however, Tony was adamant. He reminded Tim that he should be proud of his accomplishments and that now that everyone knows, there was no reason to hide it.

And it seemed like everyone did know. Word had quickly spread throughout the building, that Special Agent McGee had earned his doctorate. Of course, the team's 'doctor' jokes left on McGee's desk probably had a hand in that. Unknown to most of the NCIS staff, however, was that this was actually accomplished five years ago. Tim asked the team not to mention that detail as he just accepted the congratulations sent his way. To Tim's surprise, he was actually sought out by a few agents who were thinking of added to their education.

Abby's actions did have consequences. Gibbs was right about the sign on the door, something McGee still hadn't learned the specifics of, since everyone was warned not to talk about it. The director suspended Abby for two weeks, one week with pay, one without, after an investigation by Internal Affairs was conducted. Since Abby was careful not to use anyone's name in the note, it was only suspected that she was referring to McGee, not proven. Neither Gibbs nor Tim mentioned how they suspected Abby learned of the information, partly because there was no proof and partly because neither one of them truly wanted the Forensic Scientist gone from NCIS, so she did not have to face consequences from the Director regarding that. Gibbs, did, however, ask McGee if he could 'block' her computer from accessing that information in the future.

However, it still took about three months for interactions to return to something resembling normal between the MCRT and lab personnel.

For most of those three months, Tim avoided Abby and the Lab. Surprisingly, Tony and Ziva seemed to avoid it as well, at least when they could, since they were the ones Gibbs sent down there.

It had only been in the past few weeks that Tim and Abby have started talking. Abby gave a half-hearted apology that first week, which Tim accepted. He had realized that Abby no longer had the hold on him that she used to and her opinion of him no longer mattered. For a while, that only seemed to make interactions between them tenser, since Abby seemed to resent that. Slowly, they had settled into a professional and, for the first time, Tim, realized, a mutually respectful relationship. Recently it seemed like they had gained back some of their old camaraderie.

Tim, Ziva, and Tony did watch the movies (and the sequels). Tim held true to his word and answered almost all the questions the two came up with. The three had never been on better terms and often found opportunities to spend time together outside of work.

Gibbs' attitude toward him seemed to change as well. The older man asked and listened to his opinions regarding cases, and not just regarding the technical aspects of them. To Tim, it also seemed like he was in the field more often than before, a big plus as far as he was concerned. He still did computer searches, and hacked into files, providing he had a 'get out of jail free' card, but that was no longer how he spent the majority of his time.

Tim was actually amazed by their behavior these last few months. One of the reasons he had been hesitant to inform his team about his doctorate was because of the teasing he expected. After all, with five degrees, one of them a doctorate, could he be any geekier? And yes, Tony did follow through on his threat of Doctor or Doc nicknames, but, Tim realized, they weren't said to be cruel. In fact, it seemed his teammates respected and appreciated him more now than they had previously.

And at least once a week, when Tim was called on to give an update on a case, Tony would jokingly ask, 'What's up Doc?'

Sometimes Tim wondered what it would've been liked if he had shared the information regarding his degrees with his coworkers, either when it first happened or at any point during the previous five years and if the result would've been the same, minus the drama from Abby, of course. He was pretty confident that it wouldn't have been. He suspected that it would've been a very different atmosphere that day, compared to the conversation that took place in the conference room. Gibbs, who never seemed to have much use or respect for education, had really surprised him that day, telling him that he should be proud of his degrees. Abby making such a huge deal about it, and in such a dramatic way, seemed to make them stop and think about Tim, his strengths, weaknesses, and exactly what he added to the team.

Overall, the MCRT learning his secret had become a good thing. Perhaps Tim owed Abby more than he realized.

Wow! It's actually done/complete. Some people thought Gibbs was too harsh on Abby, some that he was too light. Many wanted he team (esp Tim) and Abby to be okay. I liked the idea of what if Tim had left NCIS, not willing to work with Abby, but that wasn't the point of this story (not that there really was a point, but I think you get what I mean). Abby didn't completely get away with things, but she was smart enough to protect herself from any serious consequences (And warned not to be so unprofessional in the future).

So, do you think Tim thanked Abby for her dramatic actions? Do you think Abby did it on purpose?

Movies/Doctors-I said the movies featured doctors, not necessarily that the word Dr was in the title (What can I say, I'm a child of the 80's).

Back to the Future, Doctor Emmett Brown

Indiana Jones series (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones

You guys really know your doctors! The reviews I got that mentioned all of them were incredible! There were many that I had wanted to include as well, but I only had 5 days, which is why I had Tim as Dr. Seuss and Tony giving him two movies. Originally, I had the stethoscope on the chair on Tuesday, but luckily found it worked better on Monday (not only because it gave me an extra 'doctor' to use), with Tony starting the gag before Gibbs talked with him.

I did think of Tony using Dr (Indiana) Jones for a day, (leaving a hat, a whip, and a snake on Tim's desk, but knew Tony wouldn't have been able to restrain himself from making jokes about the whip, which probably would've a) upset Tim rather than encourage him or b) caused Gibbs to be annoyed and kill Tony via blunt force trauma to head (Gibbs' slap).

I wanted to use Dr. Strange as one of the doc's Tony used, but he wasn't as well known in 2009 (when story takes place) as he is now.

As for Dr. Doolittle, that was the scene Tony was going to stage when Tim made his vet/cat hair comment; Tony was trying to use as many different 'types' of doctors as he could.

In honor of my birthday, I decided to post updates for all my current fics throughout the day :)

6-25-18