A/N: Written for channeld with the prompt of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Jethro the Dog, I'll do anything you want. It's just a little oneshot having the two Jethros interacting in a moment of anxiety.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS. I'm not making money off this. (If the opposite were true of either of these statements, I'd be wealthy...and season 7 would have been vastly different.)
Face-Off
by Enthusiastic Fish
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock...
Gibbs found himself in a strange position...staring into the dark and somehow extremely expressive eyes of a German shepherd. He wasn't sure how this had come about. It seemed as though one minute he had been staring into Tim's green eyes as they widened with shock. Then, the next minute he was under the unfaltering gaze of a dog.
How had this happened?
Okay, really he knew. After hours of waiting for word at the hospital, they'd all be told that it was a waiting game and Tim was not allowed any visitors outside of his family. If there was one thing Gibbs hated more than sitting around waiting, it was feeling the sting of knowing that there was nothing he could do. That would not stand; so he had gone to Tim's apartment and picked up Jethro.
...which led to his current predicament. How was it possible that a dog could make him feel ashamed of himself?
Jethro whined pitifully at him. It was as if he already knew something was wrong with his master.
"Look, what do you want from me?" Gibbs asked, embarrassed that he'd been goaded into speech by a mere animal.
Another long whine.
There was nothing I could do. The guy moved too fast. ...McGee moved too fast.
Gibbs leaned forward.
"Why, Jethro?"
At the sound of his name, Jethro got up on all fours, shifted slightly and then when there was no movement forthcoming, he went back onto his haunches, never looking away from his namesake.
"If he had just stayed back, the guy might have hit me, but it would have been a clip, nothing serious. If he had just stayed back..."
Two quick barks, high-pitched. Anxious-sounding.
He remembered Tim staring at him. They had both just stared at each other after Tim had shot the man they had been pursuing. It was a surprise when the blood began staining Tim's abdomen. Tim had dropped the gun and then followed it to the ground.
Gibbs rubbed a hand over his face and shook his head. Jethro moved a little closer to him...and made a strange sound. It wasn't quite a bark.
"He wouldn't look away from me, either," he whispered. "He just kept staring at me."
"Boss?"
"It's all right, McGee. The ambulance will be here."
"Clumsy."
"No. You got him."
"Too slow."
"Nope. Too fast."
Tim laughed and then began to convulse.
"No, McGee. No."
A whine followed by a sharp bark brought Gibbs out of his thoughts.
"I wasn't worth it, Jethro. McGee shouldn't have risked it."
Jethro dropped his head to his paws, his eyes still on Gibbs, and he began to whimper and whine.
Gibbs smiled at the dog. Strange that there should be a bond between these two. Tim attacked by a dog high on drugs and Jethro shot by the federal agent who had invaded his space. Now, Jethro was whining on the floor because his master wasn't there, because he sensed something was wrong. ...because he didn't understand why Tim was gone.
"What do you want me to do, Jethro? I'll do whatever you want me to. ...except what you really want. I can't bring McGee to you."
Another long whine. Gibbs wondered how much the dog really understood. In a dim doggy way, he probably understood that there was something wrong...but how much further it went was questionable.
"I can't make McGee okay. He's not." Again, Gibbs shook his head, trying to dispel the image of Tim bleeding out on the pavement. "I wish he was, but he's not."
Before he quite realized what he was doing, Gibbs slid off the chair and onto the floor beside the anxious dog. He began petting him, scratching his ears, anything to get that whine to stop...to get Jethro to cease keening his despair.
"McGee will be okay," Gibbs said finally. "He will. I promise." Was he saying that to make the dog feel better or himself? Funny that he was, in essence, talking to himself if one went only by names.
After a few minutes, Jethro put his head in Gibbs' lap and finally looked away from him...to close his eyes. His even breathing eventually lulled Gibbs to sleep as well.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
The ringing telephone brought him out of his slumber and had Jethro up and barking.
"Quiet!" Gibbs ordered and grabbed for his phone. "Gibbs!"
"Boss, he's awake!"
"What?"
"McGee! He's awake! His family just called to tell us. He's still in ICU but they think he's going to be okay! McGee's old man says we can come by and see him!"
"Good." Gibbs hung up and looked at Jethro.
No one was around. He let out a relieved breath and went down to his knees. Jethro approached him tentatively.
"He's going to be okay, Jethro. He's going to be all right."
Then, only because he was alone, Gibbs hugged Jethro and felt a few tears in his eyes.
Tim would be all right. All he'd been able to do was enough. It hadn't been much, but it had been enough.
FINIS!