A/N: This is the story I wrote for the NFA WEE fic exchange this year. It's Tim-centered, as usual, and grew out of the following quote: "It's possible there's a little monster inside all of us."

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters. I'm not making money from this story.

Only a Suggestion
by Enthusiastic Fish

Chapter 1

He sat back and waited, thinking about everything. All the words that would sum up what had happened. Words to explain the unexplainable. The saying was that an image was worth a thousand words. He wished he could replace the images with mere words.

"Where did you start?"

"At the beginning. Where else?"

"What's the beginning, then?"

It wasn't a real question. They both knew.

"It was such a simple thing," he said. "It shouldn't have led to this."

"You're right. It shouldn't."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"McGee, you and Tony take the back. Ellie and I will go in the front," Gibbs said in a soft voice.

They didn't want to alert their target to their presence. Not until it was too late to escape. They all knew their part.

There were two doors at the back. Tony gestured to one and Tim nodded. They were all in position. At Tony's signal, Tim quietly opened the door.

Then, they all stepped inside.

Tim took a breath and almost gagged.

Cats.

He could see cats all over the room. Living and dead.

Worse than that, though, it felt like every breath he was taking in was saturated with cat. Cat hair. Cat dander. Cat odor. Cat. Cat. Cat. He hadn't had this kind of assault on his respiratory system in a long time. Maybe not ever.

Then, it happened.

He could feel it, and he couldn't stop it. He tried. He tried to hold it back, but he couldn't.

He sneezed.

Then, he sneezed again.

And again.

And they were loud sneezes. All the louder because he'd tried to hold them back. He was stuck in the throes of a sneezing fit and he could barely breathe. Instead of going further into the house, he staggered back outside, trying to regain control of himself. He was vaguely aware of a lot of action and noise, but he couldn't focus on it.

After a couple of minutes, he felt someone grab him and turn him around.

"What is wrong with you, McGee?" Gibbs demanded.

It was not spoken out of concern for Tim's well-being. It was an accusation, and Tim knew it.

"Sorry, Boss. Cats. I'm allergic."

"You're allergic?!" Gibbs repeated. He looked furious. "You gave everything away! You could have ruined three weeks of work!"

Tim was still trying to beat back another sneeze; so he didn't say anything. He figured that his input probably wasn't really needed at this point anyway. Gibbs let him go and Tim turned away before he sneezed all over his boss. The sneeze was loud, yet again, but it wasn't as bad as the others had been.

"You'd better get this in hand, McGee," Gibbs warned. "The next time might do more than throw our timing off. You could get a teammate killed."

"I didn't know that there were cats in there. I would have said something, Boss!"

Gibbs just glared at him and walked away. Tim groaned inwardly. He'd never experienced a reaction like that. How was he supposed to know that there would be a million cats in that house? No one had mentioned it being a haven for every cat on the East Coast.

It didn't feel so much like he was going to suffocate, now. That was something.

He walked back around the house to the front. Ellie and Tony had their suspect in hand. Thank goodness. What if the guy had got away? Tim hated the idea. Maybe he could talk to his doctor about his options. Gibbs meant it, and even if the odds of this happening again were slim to none, why take the risk?

Gibbs basically ignored him for the rest of the day. Tim knew what needed to be done; so he worked on that while Tony and Ellie were busy elsewhere. Tim didn't know if they were mad at him, too.

In a free moment, Tim called his doctor and got an appointment for that evening. That way he could demonstrate that he wasn't taking this lightly.

Near the end of the day, Gibbs finally deigned to acknowledge Tim's existence again. He walked into the bullpen and glared.

"I have an appointment with my doctor this evening, Boss," Tim said, quickly.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to see if there's anything he can do. I've never thought about it before, but I am now. I don't want something like this to happen again."

For a long moment, Tim thought that Gibbs was just going to stalk off like he so often did. However, Tim couldn't think of anything else he could possibly do at this moment to make things better. Gibbs didn't like apologies. They'd, at least, still caught the guy. He couldn't snap his fingers and make his allergies suddenly disappear. He was doing the best he could.

He just hoped it was enough.

Then, there seemed to be some relenting.

"When's the appointment?"

Tim hedged. He was afraid that Gibbs would be mad at him anew for making an appointment so close to the usual departure time, but his doctor couldn't stay all night.

The eyebrow went up again, but Gibbs didn't give him a chance to stammer.

"Go."

For just a moment, Tim waited to make sure he'd really understood correctly.

"Go, McGee."

Tim nodded, gathered up his stuff and headed for the elevator. He didn't want to say anything more. Best to walk on eggshells for a while.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"That does sound like an extreme reaction, Tim."

Tim nodded.

"It really could have been dangerous. If everyone wasn't in position..."

"It could also have been dangerous for you if you hadn't been able to get out of the house. You say that you've never had that before?"

"No...but then, I've never been surrounded by 50 million cats before, either. Usually, it's just one or two and that's bad enough."

Dr. Hatch chuckled.

"I'd imagine that's the case. I don't like cats myself. They shed too much for my liking. Okay. I'm not an allergy specialist. I'm just a GP, but I do have a suggestion for you."

"What's that?"

"I have a colleague who just moved to the area a few months ago and opened a practice. He used to be in research but decided he missed working with real people rather than petri dishes. He's an allergist and he's been asking for referrals. If you're willing, I'll give you a referral for him and you can meet with him and figure out the best way to deal with this. His name is Dr. Gerald Ubica. I've only met him a couple of times, but he has a solid background and education. If you decide he won't work out, then, we can always go another direction. We can try other allergists or just see what our options are."

Tim considered it. He trusted Dr. Hatch and he didn't have a problem with seeing an allergist, but still...

"I'd hoped for something more..."

"Some kind of instant panacea?"

"Yeah."

"Doesn't work like that, Tim. Sorry. But Dr. Ubica can probably prescribe some allergy medication for you in the short term."

"Okay. I'll see Dr. Ubica."

"Great. I'll tell him to contact you and fit you in as soon as possible."

Tim shook hands with Dr. Hatch and headed home. He hoped that this would fix this problem.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Two days later...

Tim walked into a simple medical office. It was located in a large building with a number of other physicians, most with different specialties, although there were a few other allergists on the directory.

He checked in and then, he waited.

Finally, a nurse brought him back into the examination room. Tim was instructed to sit on the table and wait.

He did.

The door opened after about fifteen minutes.

"Hello, Mr. McGee. I'm Dr. Ubica," the man said. Then, he looked at the chart again and smiled. "Or I guess I should say Agent McGee. A federal law enforcement agent?"

He seemed almost eager, which Tim found slightly odd.

"It's not that exciting," Tim said.

"I'm sorry. This is my first time working in DC, and I'm not used to all the federal people around here. It's still a novelty."

He had a kind manner, and that eagerness faded. He put out his hand. Tim shook it firmly.

"All right. So what Dr. Hatch told me was that you'd like to figure out some way of managing your allergies. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Both short term and long term, I take it?"

"Yes."

"All right. Here's what we'll do, then. First, we'll give you an allergy test. Basically, we'll see what types of allergens you react to."

"Cats," Tim said, drily.

Dr. Ubica laughed. "We will, of course, start with that one, but there may be other allergens you may not be aware of, and if you want to make sure you're really taking them on, it's best to know the full scope of the attack on your sinuses."

"Okay. What then?"

"Then, providing we don't find anything unexpected, I'll set up a schedule of allergy shots which I think will be the best bet to overcoming your allergy."

"How long will that take, though?"

"Three to five years."

"What?"

"I can also prescribe some allergy medication to help you in the interim, but allergy shots are a long-term solution. You can't cut the time, but after about a year, you should see some real improvement."

"How does it work?"

"For the first five or six months, you'll come here three times a week and get the shots. After six months, it will decrease to once a week. The shots consist of a very small amount of the allergen. We introduce that to your body, basically, to teach your body that it doesn't need to react to the presence of cat hair, for example. It takes time because, if the amounts are too high, you'll just have an allergic reaction to the shot and we don't want that."

"No."

"Well, that's the plan, Agent McGee. Does that work for you?"

Tim thought about it. He wasn't really happy about the prospect of months of shots, but if this was the best they could do, he wouldn't get anywhere by demanding more.

"That's the best option?"

"It's the best I know of. Of course, if you want to get a second opinion, I can help you find another allergist. These kinds of allergies are unpleasant, but they're rarely going to be fatal. We can take our time."

Tim thought about it. Dr. Ubica seemed very reasonable. Tim was familiar with the idea of allergy shots, although he'd never considered them for himself. He could just imagine Gibbs' increased irritation when he found out that Tim had postponed getting started just to ask someone else about something as simple as allergy treatment. This would be taking too long for him as it was.

"No, that's all right. I'd like to get started."

"All right," Dr. Ubica said. "Given the situation, I'll get my nurse in to do the allergy test right now. Then, if we find what we expect, we'll get your schedule set up today and we can start the shots next week. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great," Tim said.

"Okay. I'll get Lorraine in here and we can get started."

Tim waited. When the nurse, Lorraine, came into the room, she smiled and got started. What Tim discovered from this process was that he had a definite allergy to cat dander, but that he wasn't allergic to a lot of other things. He had ink all over his arm and a bunch of little pricks.

"It looks like cats are your problem, Agent McGee," Lorraine said.

Tim smiled ruefully. "You have no idea."

"Well, it's a good thing you came here. You wouldn't believe how many different awards and degrees Dr. Ubica has. He specializes in a lot of areas of medicine and he's good at them. Allergy shots aren't cutting-edge research, but he's done cutting-edge research. He's not in it for the money. He's doing it because it's what he wants."

That sounded great to Tim.

"I'll report this to Dr. Ubica and we'll get you all set up. It is a long-term commitment, but you will see improvement in six months to a year. And, after the first few months, it'll only be every two weeks and then every month. It's really easy, even if it takes a while."

"That's sounds good. If it works long-term, then, I'm okay with it being long-term."

"We'll set you up and get you going on these shots in no time."

Tim left the office, feeling much better about the whole thing. He had a genuine solution to this problem and a good doctor to take care of it. He'd be happy to tell Gibbs that he was going to get this taken care of.

Everything seemed to be going right after it went really wrong.