A/N: I'm back to my usual Tim-centered fic with this story. It's a pretty dark story, my entry in the NFA Obscure Ailments challenge. Thus, I've given Tim a pretty obscure ailment and there's a lot of weird stuff in this story, but I've done a lot of research on it, and I've done my best to make it accurate, as always.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS and I don't make any money off my writing. Alas.
White Silent People
by Enthusiastic Fish
"Can they feel, I wonder, those white silent people we call the dead?"
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
Chapter 1
It was impossible what happened. It wasn't supposed to be a shoot-out. It wasn't supposed to be anything but routine.
...and it was anything but routine.
...and before they knew it, Tim was reeling backward.
Tony would be the last to admit it, but he thought Tim was dead before he hit the ground. He couldn't even think of a time when he'd seen someone shot in the head who wasn't dead when he hit the ground. ...now, granted, he had mostly seen people shot in the head in movies, but still...
Ducky and Jimmy, who were cowering behind the crumbling rock wall, instantly moved out of cover and crawled toward Tim's unmoving body.
Gibbs tried to tell them to stay back (which told Tony that Gibbs thought he was dead, too), but nothing doing. They would not, they could not leave their friend lying there.
Tony was focused on trying to kill (no, not disarm...not now that Tim was lying on the ground) the men who had opened fire on them while they were investigating a murder. He felt a grim satisfaction as he saw one of their attackers fall to the ground.
"Mr. Palmer, quickly, call for an ambulance, but warn them of the situation!"
The sentence burrowed through Tony's concentration.
An ambulance? You don't need an ambulance for a dead person...
If Ducky wanted an ambulance then...
Tim was still alive! ...and the EMTs couldn't get to him to help him while this was going on. He redoubled his efforts.
Ziva seemed to have come to the same conclusion and she got another of their attackers.
There was only one left, and Gibbs decided to make it a clean sweep.
"Ziva, come with me to check them," he said after the bullets stopped flying.
Ziva nodded and the two of them headed over, with Tony reluctantly covering them while mostly conscious of the activity going on behind him.
"Keep him still, Mr. Palmer. We don't want to jostle him at all. Keep the pressure consistent."
"Yes, doctor. I don't see an exit wound."
"Nor do I. The bullet must be lodged somewhere inside. Nevertheless, we will have to keep him alive until the ambulance arrives."
"Yes, Dr. Mallard. Can we?"
"Absolutely. I refuse to accept it to be otherwise."
"They're dead, Tony!" Gibbs said.
"Good," Tony muttered and instantly turned around to see what was happening behind him.
Tim looked dead. Even with Ducky and Jimmy trying to stop the bleeding, Tim was not moving. He was so still. There wasn't as much blood as he'd thought there would be.
"He's alive?" Tony whispered, almost afraid of the answer.
"Yes, Anthony...and as long as the ambulance arrives soon, he may stay that way."
"Anything I can do?"
"Not at the moment."
That was disappointing...but Tony had no idea what he might be able to do beyond stand there.
He looked over toward Ziva and Gibbs. Gibbs was on the phone, probably calling in for help. Ziva was coming to join him.
"Well?" she asked.
"He's alive. I don't know how."
She just nodded without speaking, but her hand strayed to the Star of David on her neck. Her lips began moving silently. A prayer.
Tony wasn't particularly religious himself, but he was sending a few prayers of his own heavenward.
...of all the people it could have hit, don't let McGee die. He doesn't deserve something like this.
The ambulance was there after what seemed an interminable time but was really less than five minutes. Jimmy left with the EMTs, helping them keep Tim as stable as possible. Ducky remained behind.
"Ducky?" Gibbs asked.
"I don't know, Jethro. I really don't know. Timothy was alive and breathing, but how long that state will last? I just don't know. It depends entirely on the damage caused by the bullet. It obviously missed the major blood vessels, but Timothy could suffer from hemorrhages or ischemia or herniations in his brain. Even if he survives, he could be brain damaged. There is too much that could go wrong for me to even hazard a guess as to what the outcome of this will be."
"How long will it take for us to find out?" Tony asked.
"I also can't answer that, Anthony. If he pulls through, it will likely be many hours before we know. This is one case when no news is good news...at least for a while."
"How did this happen?" Ziva asked, staring at the bloodstain from where Tim had fallen. "This should not have happened!"
"But it did," Gibbs said. "As soon as Lovitz gets here, we're turning this over to him."
"Fine by me," Tony said.
It took some time, but a few hours later, they were waiting at the hospital for news.
...and it was many hours before they got any information.