Gibbs was livid; his anger had already gone way past red; steamrolling beyond boiling, even. No one deserved this kind of attack, especially without just cause. He could only pray that his agent would be okay.

******NCIS*****

Pain! Excruciating pain! It ran through his body; hitting every nerve in its' path as the weapon worked against him. Caught in it's paralyzing grip; The young man could only writhe in agony and try his best not to scream. But, that took too much effort; so scream he did. Somehow, even in the overwhelming pain of the moment, his mind tormented him with the sight of his teammate somehow finding a slice of humor in what he was verbally deeming another "priceless" situation.

The reality of it was, that as the poor agent lay caught in the grips of this unprovoked attack, his co-workers could only watch and pray.

******NCIS*****

Gibbs and Ziva hurriedly chased; subdued and cuffed the culprit; while they waited for the shock waves of the tazor to stop. Helping Ziva muscle the bastard into the waiting patrol car; Gibbs cast his eye over his suffering agent; grateful to see that the shockwaves finally seemed to have stopped.

"DiNozzo! Call Ducky! Tell him to be ready to check McGee over when we get back. Ask him to meet us in the squad room." Gibbs ordered just before he knelt down next to McGee. Immediately, he turned his complete focus on to Tim. "McGee, can you hear me?" He asked loud enough to penetrate whatever fog might be hanging over the young man's mind after such an ordeal.

"Yeah... Boss." Tim's voice was raspy and uneven.

"You okay to sit up?" Gibbs wanted to take this slow; but not too slow.

"I'm... fine." Tim answered; not feeling fine at all. He did, however, understand the way Gibbs' mind worked. All work with no time for weakness. The younger man wasn't about to have another mark against him in the weakness department; not if he could help it. He'd deal with how he really felt later. Right now, he just wanted to get to the car where he could sit down and try to catch his breath and get the boss' attention off him. Tim struggled to control his breathing as he rolled himself over and unsteadily got to his feet. Once on his feet, he found the ground had decided to move against him and only Gibbs' strong arms and quick reflexes prevented him from falling back down. Offering a small, weak smile of thanks to his boss for keeping him from falling on his ass, Tim stepped back.

Wordlessly, the hurting young man walked away from his team, unwilling to hear anything they had to say at the moment. Once again, his pain and suffering meant precious little to them, other than another joke to hold over his head. Tim made his way to the car, thankfully reaching it without falling over. Gently sitting himself down in the back seat, he slowly got himself situated and closed the door; where he promptly leaned against it heavily, closed his eyes and prayed for the fire in his chest to go away, the pain to stop and his breathing to slow down and even out. This was really starting to scare the hell out of him. Was this how he was destined to die? It sure the hell felt like it.

Having watched his injured agent struggle to make it to the car and settle into it, Gibbs pushed Tony and Ziva to get finished with the photos and sketches of the attack.

****NCIS****

Tony frowned, It was a good ten minutes before they all made their way to the car, where McGee had apparently taken himself to; obviously to sleep off the trauma. The Senior Field Agent had already gotten his humor out of it, but, looking at McGee now; he wasn't ready to find any more in the situation. Probie looked like he was dead to the world. Not noticing the younger man's ragged breathing,Tony was content to let him be, knowing the presumably sleeping man needed to have his peace.

****NCIS****

The ride back to NCIS was quiet; each lost in their own thoughts. When they arrived back at work; Tony roused his Probie up and helped him become steady on his feet. Upon reaching the squad room; they found Ducky anxious to look Tim over. Abby was restlessly bouncing on her toes; also anxious to see that her Timmy was okay.

One look at the young man; and Ducky's heart jumped up into his throat. He looked at Gibbs with anger; something which took the entire team by surprise. "Jethro! How could you not take him straight to the hospital? Look at him! Cant' you see he's in trouble?" Ducky raged. Quickly he escorted the young man right back out the door; "I'm taking him to the hospital!" was his last snappish statement.

Gibbs was pissed. Although he didn't know quite what he was more pissed about; his friend reaming him out in front of the whole squad room; or his own lack of judgment in not taking his wounded Agent straight to the hospital. Ducky should know Gibbs had a valid reason for not believing the hospital was necessary. McGee had slept the whole way back to the yard! Hadn't he been sleeping? Yeah, Gibbs; was quick to admit; it was his bad judgement call he was most pissed at. All he could do now; was hope and pray that it wouldn't turn out to be fatal.

"All right; get those reports done! They won't write themselves!" Gibbs barked; once again turning his anger onto his team; undeservingly so.

Abby shot him a pissed off glare and marched back to her lab to get her own report done for the case. "You better hope Timmy's okay, Gibbs!" was her last demand before she disappeared.

Gibbs dropped into his chair; scared; for the first time in a very long time; that he'd just made a fatal error. Angrily, he got up and took himself up to the director's office. Guess, it was time he explained the situation before the man heard it from someone else.

******NCIS******

Ducky quickly put a first aid kit oxygen mask on Tim. As he drove quickly and efficiently through traffic; he called the e.r. and alerted them to the incoming situation; wanting to have them ready to help the suffering young man the moment they arrived. Concern and fear kept the M.E.'s heart in his throat and that fear was steadily growing. Timothy was showing all the signs of someone whose heart wasn't able to recover its normal rhythm and the outcome in those situations was never good.

******NCIS******

Tim; thankful to have Ducky looking after him; still felt like the vise on his chest was made of fire and his breathing was still out of his control. Silently, he thanked God for Ducky. He closed his eyes and tried not to concentrate on the pain.

Mentally; all he could do was pray; pray that his family knew how much he loved them; pray that Abby knew she always had a special place in his heart; pray that Gibbs would some day understand and realize how damn hard he had tried to make that man proud of him; prayed that Ziva would always remember how special she was to him; prayed that Tony would someday realize how painfully his overzealous training and bullying adversely affected people; but that he could be such a great big brother underneath it all. But, most of all; he prayed that if he was gonna die; that it would come sooner than later; because he didn't know how much more pain he could take. If he had the strength; he would still be screaming from the pain ripping through his chest.

******NCIS******

As soon as they reached the emergency room doors; Ducky leaned on the car horn harshly before almost jumping out of the car; leaving it in park and running as he hurried to Tim's door and helped him out and handed him over; thankfully, to the waiting doctors. The agent was quickly placed on a gurney with Ducky offering reassurances to him as they quickly began to rush him down the hall and behind the doors of the e.r.

Ducky took the time to calm his own breathing as he watched them roll Timothy away from him. Knowing he needed to move the car; he did so as fast as he possibly could, anxious to get back in there and be kept informed of the young man's condition. Inwardly, he prayed that he hadn't gotten him the medical help he'd needed too late.

******NCIS******

Thirty painfully silent; lonely; anxious minutes later; Ducky was approached by the lead Doctor who had taken Timothy to be attended to. The look on his face was less than positive and Ducky could only hope the news was better than it looked to be.

******NCIS******

Gibbs was just returning to his desk from talking to the Director; when his desk phone rang. Unconsciously; he hit the speaker phone to answer it; not bothering to register the caller id. "Yeah. Gibbs."

"Jethro."

The ominous tone in Ducky's voice spelled something bad. Gibbs felt his legs give out and he quickly sat down. He fought to catch his breath.

Tony and Ziva froze in their tracks; their eyes and hearts filled with hope that McGee was all right.

Having just come back to the squad room, wanting to hear in person, any update they had on her Timmy, Abby froze next to Gibbs' desk, her eyes filled with just as much hope.

Seeing them all in his peripheral vision, the Team Leader pushed forward, needing answers for all of them. "Ducky, how's McGee?" Gibbs strove to keep positive hope alive in his tone. He would not accept anything else.

Ducky's voice was extremely unsteady. "Jethro, I'm sorry to say, Timothy died on the table fifteen minutes ago."