a/n: I do not own NCIS nor any of the characters that you may recognize from the show, but I do have ownership over Charlie McGee. And, this fic will make more sense if you've read "Kin"—but I suppose that it may not be necessary.
BLOOD
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He rounded the corner as quietly as he could, his sig. drawn and ready.
A pain seared through his stomach, causing him to stumble at the sudden intrusion of pain. His gun clattered to the floor as he fell to his knees, his hands clutching the wound. Blood seeped through his fingers as he heard foot steps retreat, the sound of the gun shot echoing to silence. He was losing blood quickly as his heart beat sped up, blood spreading across his white dress shirt.
He couldn't die like this, not now, not here—he couldn't leave his brother alone. He had just only begun to scratch the surface of his career, of his life.
Gibbs.
He had to get to Gibbs.
With one hand still clutching his stomach he placed the other one against the wall. His bloody hand slipping slightly as he painfully pulled himself up into a semi standing position; he stumbled forward, his hand leaving bloody smears on the wall.
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"McGee!" Gibbs yelled when he heard the shots fired, his gut churning when he got no answer. He took off at a run were he knew Tim was clearing.
He knew it was too early; he should have at least given McGee a vest.
He ran up stairs and around corners, his sig. drawn. His feet slid and slipped across the tile floor for a few moments as his feet met McGee's blood puddle. As he righted himself, slightly out of breath his eyes were drawn to the blood smears on the wall.
It was definitely too early for this kind of crap—and after what had happened with McGee's brother...
Keeping an eye out for the asshole that shot Tim, Jethro fallowed the blood trail. God, this definitely was not the way it was supposed to go at 10:00 in the morning. A watery coughing met his ears, and he rushed to the source; his gut churning badly all the way.
What met his ice eyes would stay burned into his mind, forever haunting his dreams.
He tucked his sig. saucer away as he crouched beside Tim—who had not made it very far in his journey to find Gibb's, with all the blood loss, his vision would come in and out, his legs grew weak and he became light headed and dizzy. This caused him to stop and fall to his knee's, his only conscious action was holding his hands against the hole in his stomach; the blood flow slowing with the passing minutes. Even though only 3 minutes passed since McGee was shot and the suspect escaped.
Though catching the suspect was the last thing on Gibbs' mind as he called for an ambulance. He carefully leaned Tim against the wall, applying more pressure to the wound.
"You're going to be fine, McGee." Gibb's tried to sooth.
Tim watched him with glassy green hues.
"I-I'm s-s-sorr-y, b-boss-s." Tim stammered out, a trail of blood dribbled down his chin.
"I hate apologies, McGee." Gibbs told the younger man softly; why was the ambulance taking so friggin' long! "But I'm gonna let it slid, Tim, just this once." Jethro placed a hand on McGee's face as his eye lids started to droop, "Hey," Gibb's patted McGee's cheek, whose lids lifted heavily. "There you go."
Tim's strength was sapping out of him as the minutes ticked by in slow motion, as he looked into Jethro's ice blue eyes. He never thought that he would be going out with something as petty as a gun shot wound to the stomach. And no, he didn't want to go out in a blaze of glory like Tony, not that that really didn't matter; he just wanted to be able to die doing something of importance, not by being shot by some low life scum who kills marines. And what about his sister, he hadn't seen her since she was accused of murder and she went back to live with their parent's. And there was no way that he could leave Charlie like this; not with all of the loss that he had suffered, and when they had just as recently found out that they were really brothers. Gibbs has got to be so disappointed in him right now as tears over flowed and streaked down his pale cheeks; he was such a bad Special Agent.
"Charlie ..." Tim rasped out.
Gibbs' thumb swiped the tears form Tim's face, as they feel from the greenest eyes Jethro had ever seen in all his years, and right before his own eye's that green was fading away. Gibbs shifted them so he was hugging McGee to his chest; he shushed Tim soothingly as he groaned.
"You can not die on me, Timothy McGee, and if I have to, I'll make that an order." Jethro begged into Tim's hair, and Leroy Jethro Gibbs was not one to beg.
Tim let his head fall back onto Gibbs' shoulder, he buried his face into Jethro's neck; there was no way that he'd do something like this in any other circumstance, but he was shot ... and if anything, he could blame it on blood loss.
"If you do now, you're not only going to have to answer to me, but you're going to have to explain it to your brother." was the last thing that Tim heard before he passed out, and Gibbs was right; if he did die he was gonna get hell for it.
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Gibbs paced the length of the waiting room, his hand squeezing the band aid under his sweater sleeve; Tony having brought him some clean clothes.
When the ambulance finally made it to their location, McGee was in critical condition; he lost a lot of blood and they needed a quick blood transfusion. Tim was O-, Tony AB+, Ducky AB-, Abby A+, Ziva AB+, Palmer B-, Jethro was the only one with the same blood type other than Charlie, but if they had waited for the other McGee to get here, it would have been too late. Now Tim was in surgery, and they had to wait; which is the hardest part.
Abby was crying, and being comforted by the team; Jethro's own emotions screaming on the inside too loud for him to comfort anyone else. He couldn't get the image of Tim on the floor, covered in his own blood looking so vulnerable.
"Gibbs," it was came out like a hissed whisper, but sounded as if it were shouted in Gibbs' ears.
He had stopped pacing at his name and turned to the doors to find a very pissed, very upset McGee twin—the team had quieted and their gazes turned in the same direction.
Charlie paused for a second, trying to collect himself for Tim's sake, but didn't have much luck because he found himself stomping up to Gibbs, grabbing the front of the man's sweater.
"If Tim dies, Gibbs," Charlie growled, "You'll be too because I'll kill you myself."
He and Gibbs were the same height, so Charlie was able to stare Gibbs straight in the eyes, proving that he was very much going to comply with the threat if necessary. Gibbs could believe it, but he wasn't scared; this kid may look like Tim, but he and his brother were complete opposites in personality—though that fact didn't detour him nor did it detour Charlie. After a second and making sure that Gibbs really did get it, he released the other man, taking a step back.
"Not gonna happen." Gibbs told him, the same intensity in his blue eyes.
They stood there staring at each other with such attention that they seemed matched, the atmosphere seemingly catching fire around with the force.
The doctor walked in and the fiery atmosphere seemed to dissolve, the team instead turned their attention to him rising to their feet as the doctor came to stand in front of Charlie and Gibb; both of whom seemed to put their staring contest on hold—for the moment at least.
"Is one of you Mr. McGee?" the blond doctor questioned, looking at each person in turn. "And Agent Gibbs?"
"Here." Charlie spoke-up, sending a glare Gibbs way after hearing his name.
"That's me." Jethro told the doctor, ignoring the brother's look—for now at least.
"I'm Doctor Fields," he shook Charlie's then Gibbs' out stretched hands. "I was one of the attending doctors when Agent McGee came in." He looked at each worried team member in turn, but directed his words at Charlie and Gibbs, "The surgery went well considering the condition he came in; he pulled through and is in the ICU at the moment."
"When can we see Timmy?" Abby demand holding Tony's arm tight, completely ignoring Charlie and Gibbs for that matter.
"Abigail," Ducky chided the forensic scientist. "That is not the way to talk to the man who helped save Timothy's life."
Abby buried her face in Tony's shoulder as he pulled her close in comfort.
Charlie looked at the Goth for a moment, glad that Tim had friends that cared as much, but getting pissed because the lab tech was holding off on their qualms being answered.
"That's okay." Fields told Ducky, "But I'm afraid, that at the moment Mr. McGee and Agent Gibbs will be the only ones to see Timothy for now."
"Why is that?" Ziva questioned.
"Because," Gibbs answered, "Charlie's McGee's brother and I are on his emergency contact."
"That's right," the doctor agreed.
"You guy's can go home—get some rest." Gibbs said before pair went to see McGee, Abby opened her mouth to protest. Gibbs stilled it with the raise of his hand, "We'll take care of him until you can visit, Abby. Now let Tony take you home." He looked Tony in the eye 'til he got the message.
"On it, Boss." Tony said as he and Ziva dragged an upset Abby away.
"Keep an eye on them for me." Jethro asked Ducky, as he patted him on the shoulder. He knew his old friend would and his heart went out to the man's kind heart.
"Of course, Jethro." Ducky said before he and Palmer left also.
Gibb turned and found Charlie staring daggers at him, his arms crossed over his chest. He was surprised the McGee twin had even stayed put through that whole transaction; knowing that he just wanted to see him brother and not get sucked into Abby's selfish-drama.
"Well?" Gibbs demanded. "What are we standing around for?"
Dr. Fields didn't take the comment or the tone personally; having dealt with distressed family and friends daily; knowing that he should get a move on because he could see that patient's brother was seemingly holding back on causing someone bodily harm—it was a contest between him and the Agent, and Fields knew for a fact that it would be the Agent on the end of things.
"Right this way," Fields said, turning them and leading the two into the ICU area.
The pair didn't waste time in fallowing him and soon they were outside of Tim's room.
"He'll still coming of sedation and he's under alot of painkillers, he'll be groggy and have trouble talking." Field warned them. "I'll give you three minutes and then you'll have to leave. You can visit longer tomorrow." He waited for Charlie and Gibbs to nod before he continued, "I'll leave you to it then." Fields gave them a friendly nod before he turned and left them to it as he had said.
Charlie stared at Gibbs for a long moment, daring the other man to just try and go in first. Gibbs stared back of course, their gazes matching, but Charlie could tell by the micro-shift of his eyes that Gibbs allowed him to go first—this wasn't a win for Charlie but it wasn't a win for Gibbs either, and both of them knew it. Charlie didn't know what it was, but being around Tim's boss made his inner Alpha come to the surface. He was normally easy going, outgoing and ready for a laugh, liked to be in crowds; he was generally a nice guy—but Gibbs just seemed to irk him.
Charlie slipped passed Gibbs, pissed, but that was put on the back burner when he caught sight of his brother.
Tim was as pale as the sheets that he lay on; which Charlie knew was understandable—he had been shot in the stomach and had a major surgery in one go. His eyes were closed and his face was relaxed, a smirked tried to tug at the corner of Charlie's lips, knowing that Tim had gotten the good stuff.
He gave a sigh though as he propped his hip onto the side of the bed, and gently taking Tim's lax hand in his own, playing with his brother's fingers.
Gibbs watched from the other side of the bed as Tim gave a soft moan, his eyes flickering open.
"Hey," Charlie greeted him softly.
"Hey," Tim said back, his voice cracking slightly.
"Here," Charlie took the plastic cup of water and straw from the side table, and placed the straw end against Tim's lips. Charlie allowed his a few sips before he took the cup away and set it back on the table. "Better?"
Tim nodded as much as he was able in his current position, and grinned goofily at Charlie, his brother sending him a soft smile.
"What happened?" Tim asked, his voice just a whisper.
Charlie stared at Tim for a moment before his eyes flickered to Gibb, Tim fallowing his gaze.
Tim had been happy to see his brother, despite the circumstance but when he fallowed Charlie's gaze there was a drastic change. Over the years he had been on Gibbs' team, he had learned to mask his expression relatively well—and he did it relatively good at the moment despite the drugs—but he knew that Charlie and Gibbs had seen it.
"Boss," Tim started but Gibbs stopped him.
"McGee—Tim," Gibbs corrected himself, taking a step closer to his Agent's bed.
Gibbs never used his first name unless something was really wrong.
"That guy was scum, he had already gotten the drop on three seamen; we had to go in without back-up or we risked the chance of losing him."
"And did we, boss?" Tim asked. "Did we lose him?"
"No, McGee, we didn't loose him." Gibbs said. "Tony and Ziva got there just as he was exiting the building."
"Good," Tim sighed tiredly.
"You need to rest," Charlie told him softly, suddenly.
Tim nodded his agreement, his jewel green eyes at half mast.
"Let your eyes slip closed," Charlie said in a soothing tone, the pad of his thumb lightly rubbing the space between Tim's brow. "There's nothing to worry about, little brother, just gotta catch some Z's floating about."
Tim hummed sleepily, his eyes slipping closed. Seconds after his lids touched his cheeks, his lips parted slightly and he was finally asleep.
Charlie continued the movement of his thumb for a few moments more before he leaned forward and placed a light kiss on Tim's temple. "I'll be back tomorrow, Tim, don't you worry." he assured softly as he stood up.
There was no response to the comment as Charlie turned from the now sleeping Tim to the quiet Gibbs. They stared at each other for a long moment before Charlie slipped past Gibbs, and out of Tim's room. Gibbs fallowed him, closing the door behind him.
Charlie wasted no time in turning back around and facing Gibbs.
"The Agents on your team may fear you, Gibbs, but I don't scare so easy." Charlie said in a harsh whisper. "My brother was injured in the field under your watch; Tim and the rest of your team may not blame anyone, but this is on you." he gestured at Gibbs for emphasis. "You and I know what it's like to loss those closest to us; you don't want to see what would happen if I ever lost Tim because of you."
Gibbs could see the truth in what Charlie was saying, and yes, his team may not set blame on anyone for Tim getting shot, but Gibbs did blame himself. Gibbs was the same age as Charlie when he had lost Shannon and Kelly, so they did have that in common, and he knew that the younger man had changed from the experience; growing even more protective of the family that he had left. Gibbs would be the same way.
Gibbs also wasn't stupid, so he knew that Charlie would act on the threat that his eyes conveyed; despite the fact that Gibbs had more combat experience than him. Charlie may have the same outward appearance as Tim, but he didn't have the same innocence as the computer tech did, his eyes had more age to them—he had experienced things that Tim hadn't, had seen things that Tim hadn't.
It would appear that they were more alike than he had thought.
Charlie stared at Gibbs a moment longer before he turned and walked away, disappearing around the corner.
Jethro stayed where he was for a moment, turning back around to look through the glass of McGee's room. There was a flash and he saw Tim on the white tile floor for a moment, so still and pale, cover in stark red blood, the liquid everywhere. It was for just a second, but that was long enough for Gibbs. Tim wasn't dead, but he had been badly injured and nearer to it than Gibbs would have preferred.
He knew that Charlie wouldn't do anything now, but if something like this ever happened again ... But Gibbs was going to make sure that it didn't; McGee wasn't going to get injured under his watch again.
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