Disclaimer: "I do not own NCIS, no matter how much I may want to.
Author's Note: OK, so, I've been writing for years but I've never been brave enough to post any of my stuff until now. I let my little sister read this and she told me I should do it, so here goes. Hope you like! ************************************************************************************************************************************************************
"Hey Abs, whatcha up to?" Tim asked as he stepped out of the elevator and into the evidence garage. The Gothic forensic scientist did not respond. "Abby?" She was seated at a metal table, computer set up in front of her, and as he stepped closer he saw the black headphones she was wearing camouflaged in her hair. She jumped when he lifted the cover from her right ear and said her name again. "Abby, what are you working on?"
"Jeez Tim, you scared the crap out of me," she snapped. "I'm trying to find the kill command in this thing, you know, the trigger that locked it up and filled the cabin with carbon monoxide. I'm hoping that if I find the command that set it off I can trace it back to whoever put it there."
"Abby, that's brilliant." He squeezed her shoulders gently as she turned back to the computer. "Do you need any help? I've already run credit card and bank statements and pulled the phone records for every employee on the Otto project so there's nothing for me to do right now."
"Sorry McGee, this is kind of a one person job, but if I need any help you'll be the first to know." She picked the headphones up and put them back over her ears. McGee sighed as he turned and headed toward Otto, the self driving car.
He walked over to the vehicle, wondering again why the victim hadn't hit the kill switch. He stuck his head through the open passenger window, awestruck once again by the sheer power of the technology in front of him. He wanted to get in and inspect it, to find whatever had prevented the victim from saving herself. He glanced over his shoulder at Abby, engrossed in her computer. He smiled affectionately at her back and opened the door, sitting down in the passenger seat.
She had been finishing a test run, he thought to himself as he pulled the door closed and sat back, so she probably still had her seat belt on. He buckled himself in and looked down at the computer between the front seats. He ran his fingers over it, trying to mimic the victims final moments. She made a vocal recording of the road test results on this computer. He inspected every inch that he could reach while still seated in the relaxed position that she would have been in, but he could find nothing that would have prevented her from reaching the emergency switch.
They knew that she hadn't been incapacitated before the car had filled with carbon monoxide, the voice recording told them as much, and the clear panic in her voice told them that she hadn't been expecting it, so she wasn't suicidal. He decided to get Gibbs's permission to tear this thing apart until he figured it out. Resolved, he moved to unbuckle himself so he could get started as soon as possible. However, instead of releasing when he pressed the button, the seat belt tightened, slamming him back against the seat and holding him firmly in place.
"What the hell?" he gasped, pulling at the belt stretched across his chest. Several things happened at once. The automatic locks engaged and the window started going up as an ominous cloud of white gas started billowing from the backseat. He started coughing almost immediately."Abby!" he shouted, pulling desperately at both the seat belt and the door. "Abby, help me!" He banged his fist against the window but though she sat a mere ten feet away, she could not hear him. The window had fully closed and he was coughing violently, his lungs filling with the toxic carbon monoxide that had engulfed the interior of the vehicle. He reached for the kill switch but it was useless, the seat belt held him in place and the poison was quickly sapping his strength. He was still straining to reach, refusing to give up, when he remembered rule nine: Never go anywhere without a knife. If he could reach his he could cut the seat belt away and hit the switch.
The lap belt would not allow him to shift his hips more than an inch but somehow he managed to get the blade out of his pocket. Spots danced in front of his eyes as he flicked it open and his vision was starting to darken around the edges. He tried to maneuver the knife so that he could cut the belt away but his strength was completely gone. 'Well, I didn't intend to mimic her last moments this closely', he thought disdainfully. He couldn't get his hands to obey him and he thought, in a disconnected sort of way, that Gibbs would probably head slap his corpse for not remembering the knife sooner. When his violent coughing turned into quick short gasps and his body went completely slack he knew it was over. He couldn't draw any oxygen into his lungs, he was going to die in this godforsaken car, in his own evidence garage, mere feet away from Abby. 'Oh God, Abby', he thought hazily, eyelids drooping; 'She's probably going to be the one who finds me'. Tim's final coherent thought was to pray that she didn't blame herself for his stupidity.
*********************************************************************************************************************** The smoke filled car was the first thing he saw as he stepped off the elevator. He glanced at Abby, who was sitting in front of a computer, in confusion before looking back at the car. Why the hell would she let it fill with smoke like that? He started to move toward her, intending to ask, when he thought he saw something move in the haze. He stopped walking and focused more closely on Otto and his blood turned to ice in his veins. 'Oh my God, someone's in there!' He spun around and slammed his fist into the emergency alarm, setting lights and sirens blazing, before sprinting to the car. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Abby pull a set of headphones off her ears and look around frantically.
"Tony, what the hell?" She saw the smoke-filled car and sprinted after him. "Oh my God, Tim!" she cried, and Tony's heart froze. He skidded to a stop next to the passenger door, Abby right on his heels, and his stomach dropped to somewhere around his toes.
"McGee!" he shouted, yanking viciously on the door handle. He could see the younger man slumped in the front seat, already unconscious. Very near panic now he practically pushed Abby aside as he rushed to the other side of the vehicle. Without hesitation he slammed his bare fist against the window as hard as he could, shattered glass exploding every which way, and a plume of toxic gas hit him in the face. He thrust his arm past the jagged shards still protruding from the window frame; body pressed firmly against the side of the car so he could reach, and slammed his palm against the kill switch. The car shut down immediately. When he heard the locks disengage he ripped his arm back out of the window, rushing back to the passenger side. Abby already had the door open and he nearly knocked her on her ass again in his hurry to reach his friend. The senior field agent leaned into the car and tapped McGee's cheek gently with one hand while using the other to undo the seat belt.
"Tim, buddy, wake up". There was no response, his eyelids didn't even twitch, and he was so pale that he was almost transparent. He was so still it was scary, and that's when Tony realized that Tim's chest wasn't moving. "No, no, no," he mumbled under his breath, placing a hand over his Probie's mouth and nose, looking for some sign of life. To his horror he felt nothing. His own breath caught in his throat as he frantically thrust his fingers against the pulse point at McGee's throat. He could hear Abby sobbing somewhere behind him but he paid no attention to her. Tony allowed himself a shuddering gasp of air when he finally felt a weak pulse thumping against his fingertips. He wrapped one arm around McGee's back and hooked the other under his knees as he heard the ding of the elevator doors sliding open. Without turning around he called out.
"Gibbs, call Ducky!" Tony lifted Tim from the car and turned to place him flat on the floor.
"DiNozzo, what the…" Gibbs faltered when he saw his youngest agent, limp and unresponsive, cradled in, of all people, Tony's arms.
"Damnit Gibbs, questions later, Ducky now! He's not breathing!" Tony shouted. He heard Ziva gasp and Abby's sobbing increased. He knew he sounded terrified but for once he couldn't be bothered to care. Besides, he was terrified. He could hear Gibbs on the phone and Ziva talking softly to Abby as he knelt beside his probie, tilting his head back and opening his mouth. Tony quickly leaned over McGee and, pinching the other man's nose closed, pressed their lips together, breathing twice into his mouth. He shifted slightly and placed both hands in the center of Tim's breast bone. As he performed compressions, pressing quickly and firmly on the younger man's chest, Tony kept up a steady monologue.
"Come on Probie, breathe for me. You gotta breathe!" After thirty compressions Tony again sealed his lips over McGee's and gave him two more breaths. He placed his cheek over his friend's mouth and nose, but there was still no sign of life. "You know you can't let me and Ziva work together alone, we'll kill each other." He forced more air into the younger man's lungs. He had no idea how long McGee had been in that deathtrap, how long he'd been without oxygen. "You don't have permission to die, McGee, I won't let you!" He felt someone kneel down next to him but he wouldn't take his eyes off of Tim's face long enough to see who it was.
"Damnit Tim, don't do this to me! Come on kid, breathe!" Tony knew that his own future depended on this one man's survival, because if he lost Tim now he'd lose himself as well. He continued compressions and breathing silently for a while, putting all of his energy into the task, but when he'd been working for about two minutes with no results he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Tony…I think he's gone." It sounded as though it had caused Gibbs physical pain to force those words from his throat. Tony just shook his head and continued working, compressions then breathe, compressions then breathe. It was all he could concentrate on, his Probie's lifeless face the only thing he could see. He could almost feel the eyes of the girls on his back; feel their hearts breaking along with his own. The hand on his shoulder became more insistent, trying gently but firmly to pull him back.
"DiNozzo, it's been four minutes. You've done everything you can." Gibbs coughed and cleared his throat before continuing. "He's dead, Tony." The sound of that word, spoken in the boss's hollow and emotionless voice, snapped him. Tony swung his elbow violently behind him, connecting hard with Gibbs' rib-cage. He heard a soft grunt and the hand disappeared from his shoulder.
"NO!" he shouted, violently shaking his head back and forth. "No, he's not! His heart's still beating and as long as his heart is beating I can still save him! I can still save him." His eyes never left Tim's pale face. He redoubled his compression efforts, moving faster. He performed two more breaths "Come on, Probie, you can do it. Breath, dammit!" Two more breaths and another status check. "Come on McGee, please." His voice broke on a sob, "Tim, please, you're my best friend, I need you." He begged in a broken voice, leaning down to fill the inert man's lungs again when suddenly, miraculously, Tim coughed, then gasped, then coughed again, violently.
Tony heard gasps of shock and relief from the rest of his team but he had eyes only for Tim. He gathered the younger man into his lap, raising him slightly into a sitting position and rubbing his back until his coughing eased. Eyes still closed, McGee mumbled something incoherent, but Tony understood anyway.
"It's OK, Tim," he said gently, "No one blames Abby. We know it's not her fault." He looked up with a reassuring smile as Abby choked on a sob. Ziva had her arms wrapped so tightly around the Goth that it looked like it was the only thing keeping them both on their feet. As quiet as she had been since arriving Tony was surprised to see that there were tears on the Israeli's face, and she was giving him a very strange look. He felt McGee take a shuddering breath and looked back down at him, surprised to find his own fingers gently stroking the younger man's hair. He watched the green eyes open slowly, blinking rapidly for a moment, before focusing on his face.
"Tony?" his voice was weak and raspy but audible and he looked incredibly confused. "You're crying." He tried to lift a hand to wipe the tears from Tony's cheeks but he was still too weak and the limb only made it about a quarter of the way up before dropping heavily onto his stomach. Tony's heart skipped several beats when McGee's eyes fluttered closed and he sagged again, head drooping to one side. Panicked, he frantically started checking his friend's vitals before realizing that he had just passed out. Tony chuckled shakily, resting his forehead against Tim's.
"You ever scare me like that again Probie and I swear I'll kill you myself." he whispered softly.
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Author's Note: "I can't decide if I should end it there or not. It seemed like a good place but I also had a few ideas about a hospital scene afterwards with a tad more Tony/Tim friendship and a little Ziva/Tony bonding as well. Tell me what you think. If you want me to continue I will.