Gibbs was trying his best to keep his emotions straight as the day wore on but found he was snapping at anybody and everybody. In fact, he had been doing that a lot lately. He had been unable to sleep properly for weeks and it was taking its toll. He was having trouble concentrating and nothing annoyed him more.
When he heard what sounded like a small gasp behind him, coming from Tim, he turned in annoyance thinking he would see Tony pretending he hadn't just head slap the other agent, but instead found Tim trying his hardest to stay on his feet and breathe, with Tony looking at his Probie like a deer caught in headlights, hand still in the air.
Gibbs paused for a second wondering what could have happened in the half second but quickly rushed forward to catch McGee as he fell to his knees, still unable to catch his breath and clutching his right arm in pain. Gibbs was grateful as his mind cleared for the first time in a long time and ordered Tony to call Ducky. Tony jumped into action just as McGee slumped forward into Gibbs' arms unconscious. That was when Gibbs noticed the red that was seeping through McGee's shirt sleeve, and swearing at his own carelessness he realized Tim had been trying to tell him about his since it had happened that morning.
Gibbs put his ear to Tim's chest, trying to see if he was breathing, as well as listening for his heartbeat. He was relieved to hear both, but Tim's breathing was too shallow for his liking. He was grateful when he heard the ding of the elevator and saw Ducky and Jimmy rushing toward them. Ducky wasted no time in laying McGee out on the floor and checking his vitals, noticing the gash quickly, while he instructed Palmer to try and bring Timothy back into the conscious world.
It wasn't long before McGee was gasping for breath and sitting up. Gibbs, overwhelmed by his relief, stood up and started pacing between his and McGee's desk. Ducky was focused on Tim's arm, as was Jimmy, so neither saw the fearful look he was sending his boss. Even Tony was too focused on watching Gibbs pace to notice the odd reaction.
Ducky stood up after a few moments, instructing Jimmy to help Timothy to his feet, then turned with a glare toward Gibbs, who stopped dead in his tracks, his full focus on the Doctor who seemed very angry. "Jethro, Timothy needs to be brought to the hospital immediately. He needs stitches and his wound is in great danger of becoming infected. He should have been taken right after getting this gash," Ducky looked about ready to kill as he added, exasperated, "Or in the least you should have brought him to see me."
Gibbs felt his emotions taking over as he took a few steps toward Tim, taking the younger man's face in his hands, and in quiet frustration asking, "Why didn't you tell me to take you to the hospital, Tim; or at least go down and see Ducky?"
There was a silent moment as people looked at Tim expectantly before he whispered, "I tried to tell you. When no one would listen I figured I'd just take myself but I haven't gotten a chance to yet." He looked down as best he could as he said, "I didn't want to mess up again and make you angry, and I knew my getting injured would just get in the way of the investigation."
The second Tim's words had reached his brain Gibbs felt his anger rising again, anger at himself for letting Tim get hurt in the first place, but most of all for letting Tim think that he didn't care about him getting hurt, that a case would ever be more important than his well-being. "Dammit, Tim, you should have told me, should have made me listen."
Tim flinched back at the anger that was in Gibbs' voice, the anger on his face. He knew he shouldn't have told, not that they found out on purpose, but now Gibbs was angry with him. Tim felt a frown pulling down on the corners of his mouth as he whispered, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you angry."
The breath was taken out of Jethro at Tim's words, at the implications. Words rarely had an effect on him, but Tim's felt like a blow to the stomach as well as a knife to the heart. The young man was apologizing, not only for getting hurt, but for the anger he thought it caused his boss. Gibbs didn't know what to say to make Tim understand his anger wasn't at him, but he himself, in the end all he managed to say was a quiet, "Tim", before Ducky was interrupting, reminding everyone that Timothy had to be brought to a hospital right away.
Tony wasted no time in grabbing his stuff and heading to the elevator with a quick, "I'll pull my car around." The second the words were out of his mouth he continued past the elevator, choosing to go down the stairs instead.
Before Gibbs could try again McGee started losing consciousness, as the day caught up with him, and by the time the door closed behind Tony he was slumped forward into Gibbs. For a second he just stood there, holding Tim up, as he tried to once again reign in his emotions but he quickly received a text from Tony saying he was down and waiting, so Gibbs decided he would simply push them aside briefly while he got Tim down to Tony's car.
When he had his agent secured in the back seat, with the help of Jimmy and Ducky, he slid in beside the unconscious man, and with a thank you to the two coroners he and Tony were headed to the hospital.
Gibbs found himself taking his anger at himself out on Tony as he somewhat harshly asked the senior field agent, "Why didn't you tell me McGee was hurt, Tony?"
Tony frowned, he knew what the boss was doing but he also knew that part of the problem had been he himself doing the same to Probie. Quietly he told Gibbs, "I didn't notice. You had me doing the work of two agents, and I was preoccupied." What he didn't say was that he was picking up his bad mood from his boss and taking it out on McGee. He knew accusing his boss would only make him angrier, and in turn make his boss have more to take out on him. Tony was already beating himself up enough for not noticing he wasn't the only one the boss had been doing that to, so he didn't want to add more fuel to the fire if it wasn't only him getting burned.
Unknown to each other they both vowed in that moment to try and keep their anger in check. It wasn't lost on them that Tim had taken it personally. They also both decided to stay silent for the rest of the ride to the hospital, knowing they would only make things worse if they said anything in that moment. Neither was in a very good state of mind, not that either could compare to the unconscious man's own, whether they had realized that yet or not.
