I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING! MY WRIST IS NOT HEALING AS THE DOCTOR SAID IT WOULD. UPDATES WILL CONTINUE TO BE SPORADIC AND CHAPTERS WILL BE SHORT LIKE THIS ONE IS. THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, ALERTS, FAVORITES AND ALL THAT!

I INTEND TO ANSWER ALL THE REVIEWS BECAUSE I TRULY APPRECIATE READERS TAKING THE TIME TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK.

THIS IS A WORK OF FANFICTION. THIS IS MY INTERPURTATION OF AN EVENT INVOLVING NCIS CHARATERS. IT IS NOT CANON. IF YOU DON'T LIKE THAT THEN THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE: DON'T READ IT!

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!

-NCIS-

FBI Agent Courtney Krieger hurried through the hallway of Bethesda Naval Hospital, her low-heeled black shoes clicking on the hard floor, carrying a container that held three tall cups of black coffee. She was glad to finally be there, anxious to see if there were any news on her new friend, the NCIS agent that had recently joined her team.

Courtney was a woman of average height and weight, with straight long light brown hair that she wore loose, falling around her slender shoulders. She had creamy, ivory skin, a too wide mouth and a face that was redeemed from plainness by a pair of lovely dove gray eyes.

She turned the corner and entered in the waiting room where the other members of her team, Senior Agent Ron Sacks and Team leader Tobias Fornell waited.

Ron was a tall, slender man with deep, coffee colored skin and dark eyes. Tobias Fornell had dark blue eyes that stared out of a pale, lined face and receding gray hair. He was a thin man of average stature and a slim build, but he had a presence about him that made him seem so much taller and bigger then he actually was.

Ron Sacks held up a hand when she entered and she stopped, watching him where he stood, with Tobias and another man that she recognized as Tim's boss, Agent Gibbs, talking with a blue-scrubbed doctor. She watched as Ron moved away from them and came toward her. She was actually thankful that he had stopped her. Courtney could tell by Gibbs stiff posture and the angry tone to his voice as he questioned the doctor that the man was absolutely furious.

"Hey, Ron." Courtney said quietly, handing him the container that held the three coffees. "What's going on?" She asked, glancing at Tobias, Gibbs, and the doctor.

Ron sighed. "Tobias called Gibbs so he could call the kid's family in."

Courtney nodded, with one eyebrow raised. That wasn't what she had meant but it was useful information anyway, even if she was a little confused. They didn't need Gibbs to call in Tim's family. The fact that that had escaped Ron's attention was an indication of how worried he was. "Wouldn't he have called Gibbs anyway?" She asked. That was the other thing she was confused about. "To let him know how the mission went? To let him know that he could stand down?" Courtney imagined Gibbs pacing the floor, as Tobias would if it was Ron or her involved in an operation he wasn't a part of, waiting anxiously for word that his agent was okay, becoming angrier by every minute that passed with no word. Courtney looked around, suddenly noticing the lack of other people. "Wait. Where's the rest of Tim's team? They aren't here yet?" She asked in surprise.

Ron shook his head. "Courtney..." He breathed out. But before he could find the words to tell her that the other members' of Team Gibbs hadn't' been informed—and he wasn't entirely sure they would be here even if they had been told—Tobias called him over, a look of relief on his face.

Ron left and Courtney just stood there uncertainly for a few minutes before deciding to go see if Tim could have a visitor. She wouldn't feel better until she could see him for herself, even though, judging by how Tobias was acting, it looked like Tim was going to be just fine.

Courtney left the waiting room, glancing over her shoulder as she left. She was glad to get away from Gibbs. Gibbs face was so red it looked like he was going to explode! If he was anything like Tobias, and he must be—they did share an ex-wife, after all—then she didn't want to be anywhere nearby when he did.

-NCIS-

Timothy McGee groaned as he shifted slightly on the hard, uncomfortable, not to mention little bed they had him on—if it could even be called a bed—sending a white- hot pain through his wounded shoulder. He should have known this would happen! Tim had had a bad feeling about this from the start, he hadn't trusted the FBI or their intel, but it wasn't as though he had a choice in the matter. Tim moved again, trying to find a comfortable spot, wincing when he jarred his shoulder again.

"Does it hurt bad?" A voice inquired, coming closer to the bed.

Tim opened his eyes, ready to fire back a sarcastic reply to such an inane question—he'd been shot for goodness sake!—but stopped when he saw the concern in the pretty, dove gray eyes of his FBI counterpart. He might not fully trust Tobias and Ron but he did like Courtney Krieger. He had begun to think of her as a friend or at least more than an acquaintance or co-worker. "Only when I move, Courtney." He said instead, sinking back into the bed and gritting his teeth as a spasm of pain worked its way through him.

Courtney moved closer. "Then may I make a suggestion?" She asked, stopping at the edge of Tim's bed.

"What?"

Courtney shrugged. "Don't move."

Tim barked out a laugh then winced when even that movement caused pain to vibrate through his body.

Courtney winced in sympathy. "They aren't giving you anything?" She asked, a little bit of anger entering her voice.

Tim clenched his jaw as he rode out the pain, keeping his eyes shut tight.

Courtney narrowed her eyes as she watched her friend, moving closer to the bed and gently smoothing a soft manicured hand across his forehead.

"They're giving me what they can." Tim said finally in a strained voice, leaning a little into her touch. He couldn't remember the last time someone had touched him like that. So softly. So gently. "I have trouble with a lot of medicine." He explained, sighing. "They don't want to give me something that will over tax my already weakened system." It was another thing that made him different. It was just another thing that set him apart from everyone else. Another thing that kept him from being normal.

Courtney nodded in understanding. "What does the doctor say?" She asked.

Tim opened his eyes. "Hasn't the doctor been out to talk to Tobias yet?" He asked in confusion. "He said that he was going right out."

Courtney shifted her eyes widening then dropping. "I, uh, didn't stay to hear."

Tim's eyes narrowed at the uncertainty in his friend's voice. "Why not, Courtney?"

"Gibbs was there when the doctor came out." She said, moving to perch on the end of his bed. "He wasn't...happy." Now there was an understatement if there had ever been one!

Tim groaned again. Great! This was just great! "What's he doing here?" He exclaimed. "How did he even find out, anyway?"

Courtney jumped a little, startled at his loud voice. "Um, Tobias called him." She said, uneasy and confused at his reaction to Gibbs being there. To Courtney the question was why wouldn't he be there, not why was he there.

"Why would Tobias do that?"

"He told Ron that he was calling in your family."

Tim snorted. "And Ron believed that?" He asked incredulously.

Courtney laughed. "I know, right? I mean, come on! We're federal agents!"

Tim smiled but refrained from laughing, not wanting to cause himself more pain.

Courtney's laughter stopped and an uneasy silence descended on them, each unsure of what to say or ask. "Why is Gibbs so mad?" She asked finally, breaking the silence. That had been bothering her. Not that he was angry but that there had seemed to be more anger than concern.

Courtney didn't know that Gibbs' concern manifested as anger.

Tim rolled his eyes. "Oh, I don't know, could it possibly have anything to do with being woken up at 3:00 in the morning and no one's dead or dying?"

Courtney blinked. "He wasn't waiting up?" She asked, astonished. "I mean, he knew that tonight was the night, right?" Courtney couldn't imagine the team leader being able to sleep knowing that Tim was going on an assignment, even if it wasn't suppose to be dangerous. Maybe the man didn't do anxious but to be so... so...cavalier about it... Courtney shook her head.

Tim sighed. "No, Courtney, Gibbs did not know that this was the night. How would Gibbs know that tonight was the night of the assignment? He wasn't a part of it, remember?" He asked.

Courtney just stared at him. "Wait—you didn't tell him!" She exclaimed. That certainly would make her mad!

"Of course not!" He exclaimed. "I was ordered not to, remember?" He asked pointedly. He stared over her shoulder, in remembered shame. His humiliation hadn't been in private. There had been other people there to hear how little he was thought of by his own agency. It it embarrassed him every time he thought about it.

"Yeah, but—but he's your boss!" Courtney sputtered.

"I was ordered not to." Tim repeated stubbornly.

Courtney just stared at her friend. She couldn't believe it! If Gibbs didn't know, did that mean that the rest of Tim's team didn't? Why? Courtney shook her head again. She couldn't imagine not telling her team something as important as this, especially when Tim didn't entirely trust them. So why didn't Tim tell his friends and team mates?

-NCIS-