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“Parker, you still got your briefcase?”
Their leader blinks confusedly at him, “What are you thinking, McGee?”
“I’m thinking, we’re gonna pull a ‘Bishop.’”
“We’re gonna what?”
Ignoring the tone to Nick’s voice that always appears when Ellie is mentioned, he shrugs lightly, “Was before either of your times-“ ignoring that technically Bishop was before Parker’s time entirely, he’s heard enough stories from him and Kasie and Jimmy and, very occasionally, Nick, to know- “actually, it was kind of before Ellie’s time too.”
“Okay, McGee, you’re gonna need to say more words. Torres looks about as confused as I feel.”
Biting back an impatient sigh, Tim explains, “Bishops’ first case with us, literally the first day I ever met her, she did this. Waltzed into interrogation as calm as anything, let the guy think she was his lawyer and got him to write the information we needed-“ he allows himself a fond grin at the memory- “confused the hell out of DiNozzo but I gotta say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so impressed.”
“Wait, so you want me to pretend to be his lawyer? That’s not in any way legal.”
“No, I want you to let him assume you’re his lawyer,” Tim counters.
“Okay…” Parker considers him thoughtfully, face pinched into a frown, “that just might work. Okay, let’s give it a go.”
Tim watches anxiously from the other side of the glass as Parker sits down with his briefcase and visitor’s badge.
Nick, who’s been silent up till now (again, not unusual when Bishop is mentioned), finally breaks his silence to ask, “Are we sure this is legal, McGee?”
Holding back a wince, he answers, “As long as Parker doesn’t say that he’s his lawyer, it is legal…ish.”
There’s a pause, then Nick follows up quietly, “And Bishop really did this?”
“Yup, and it worked too-” again, the fondness seeps back in at the memories of those years when it had been him, Tony and Ellie, she’d brought some much-needed joy to their team after Ziva’s departure- “I think it’s partly why Gibbs stuck out to get her on the team.”
“He always said he saw something in her.”
Tim has known Nick for long enough to be able to detect the slight pride in his voice, even well concealed as it is.
There aren’t two people in the world more different than Torres and Bishop – in Tim’s personal opinion – but no one had ever really had more pride in Ellie than Nick had, even if he’d never truly understood her process.
Perhaps that’s why. He’d always found her fascinating, if confusing.
And, if Tim had to guess, he’d say that feeling had probably been mutual.
“We all did,” he admits, then frowns, “but Nick, she was like a different person back then, almost bubbly. Being a field agent really changed her.”
“And not necessarily for the better.”
His voice is soft, almost vulnerable, in a way that Tim very rarely hears from Nick.
“You know what this job is like. We all make choices, every day, but we don’t know where they’re gonna take us,” he takes a breath, “we can just hope we don’t get sucked in too far.”
The, ‘and Ellie did’ hangs unsaid between them, lingering in the air as they watch the suspect write something on the paper in front of him.
It’s worked. Of course it has. Ellie had always had the strategists brain out of them all.
“Do you ever… think about her?” Nick asks suddenly, “about where she is, if she’s safe?”
“I try not to,” Tim confesses, “I suppose it’s easier to not let myself wonder because… well we don’t know what she might be getting up to.”
He hates to think about what Ellie might be going through, just like he’d hated to think of what Ziva might have been going through when she’d returned to the Mossad or what Vance had been going through when he had been captured by Hakim or even what Tony had been going through when he’d caught the plague all those years ago.
Thinking causes the helplessness to come flooding in.
Tim doesn’t know how to deal with things unless he’s working to solve them.
“Or what danger she’s in. Or when she’s coming back. If she comes back.”
And it seems that he isn’t alone in this helplessness.
“Do you want her to come back?”
Nick finally turns to face him and Tim is glad he’s able to decipher at least some of the expression on his face.
Years ago, he might have thought it was anger. Now he knows it’s raw fear.
“I know sometimes I want to go back. Parker is great and Jess, sometimes it’s like she could be my twin or something,” that startles an involuntary laugh out of Tim and Nick grins along, “but B, Gibbs. They were my family, more than my team. My closest family.”
Taking a mental breath, Tim reminds himself that he’s senior field agent here. It’s his job to reassure.
And even if it wasn’t his job…
“Our family,” he reminds Nick, resting a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he sees the silent agreement fill his eyes, “and they still are, even though they’re far away.”