Gibbs made his update to Leon as quickly as possible before he hustled back down to the squad room. Once there, he informed the others of Tim's status and added that he would be at the hospital until futher notice since there was no active case. Tony was directed to man the fort. As Ziva, Abby and Tony watched in both deep concern and shock, Gibbs all but ran from the squad room."
Once he reached the hospital, he tore through the hallways until he located Ducky who happened to be talking to another Doctor. As he saw Gibbs almost skid to a stop a mere yard away from him, Ducky broke off his conversation to draw the Doctor in Gibbs' direction. "Jethro, this is Dr. Grey. He is Timothy's treating physician." Ducky made the introductions and Dr. Grey dove right into Tim's condition. "Agent Gibbs, your agent is suffering from the Swine flu. He'll need to be kept in isolation for the next 24 hours and all who came in contact with him will need to be tested immediately."
"How is he?" Gibbs asked.
"Jethro, he's resting as comfortably as he can at the moment and he's on a nutritonal i.v. as well as antibiotics. He's as well as he can be at the moment." Ducky informed him.
"I need to see him." Gibbs pushed.
"Agent Gibbs, he's in isolation for his own protection as well as everyone else's." Dr. Grey insisted."It will be at least this time tomorrow before he'll be allowed visitors."
"That's unacceptable, Doctor. Unless you can guarantee me that he won't be awake and alone in that 24 hours." Gibbs declared.
"No, Agent Gibbs, he's not in a coma, medically induced or any other type. I really must insist you allow us to take these precautionary measures." Dr. Grey insisted.
"Dr. Grey, I appreciate your caution. My agent is alone. His family lives at least three hours away from here and his sister is a college student. Right now, I'm all he's got becuase I won't risk my other team members, but I won't leave him alone either." Gibbs pushed. "You can suit me up any way you want, but I'm going to sit with my agent and I won't be leaving him alone."
"Jethro, I really must advise against this. You have the rest of your team to think about. And Timothy would not want you to put yourself at risk like this for him."
"Ducky, he's always thought he didn't matter to me. Weren't you just on my case about this Friday? He needs to know that he's important!" Gibbs insisted.
"Jethro, this is not what I meant and you know it!"
"Ducky? Call his parents for me. Bring them up to speed, will you? And keep an eye on the others for me." Gibbs turned and headed toward Tim's room.
As Ducky conceded defeat, he dug out his cell phone and made the call he needed to make to Leon and Tim's parents. With their promise to be on the next flight out, Ducky then turned his attention to Gibbs' team still in the office. "Anthony, Jethro will be staying with Timothy for the next 24 hours."
"Ducky, what's wrong with him?" Tony asked in blatent concern. He'd put his phone on speaker when he'd seen it was Ducky calling. As Abby and Ziva clustered around Tony's desk, they all waited with bated breath for Ducky to answer the question.
"Swine Flu All of you need to get tested immediately. And then you need to go home and catch up on your sleep. Sleep depravation is especially unsafe with this running around out there among us." Ducky warned.
"Ducky, what about Tim's family?" Abby asked.
"I"ve contacted his parents. They're coming in tomorrow."
"And Sara?" Tony asked.
"It's best to wait for the 24-hour quarentine to be over before alerting her. She would just do what Jethro has done and insist on going in his room."
"Ducky, she needs to be told. She'll be extremely pissed if she's the last to know. And I wouldn't blame her." Tony insisted.
"Yes, I suppose you're right. Anthony. Why don't you pick her up and bring her with you when you come to get tested?" the M.E. suggested.
"Yeah. I'll do that. We'll see you in a bit, Ducky." Tony signed off and ended the call.
Within the hour, Tony, Sara, Ziva, Abby and Jimmy were all at the hospital getting tested for the flu and looking at their sick teammate through the window in his hospital room. Seeing Gibbs in there, covered in protective gear. brought it home to them, how serious this could be. As they stood there in shock, seeing Tim hooked up to hoses and wires, Abby decided she needed more. Soon she was carrying on an ASL conversation with Gibbs through the window. After a long few minutes, Abby smiled and turned to the rest of them.
"Gibbs says Tim's sleeping peacefully. He hasn't woken up since Gibbs went in there over two hours ago. But we know he hasn't slept all weekend cause that's what he told Ducky. So this long sleep is good for him, right?"
"Yes, Abby, it's just what he needs right now." Ducky reassured her and the rest of them.
"Gibbs said to tell you all that he'll be pissed if we don't do whatever Ducky tells us. He's worried about us getting sick, too, I think." Abby shared.
"Abby, ask Gibbs to promise that he'll tell Probie we were here for him. Then we'll go. We'll come back tomorow night when he should be allowed visitors." Tony asked.
A few minutes later, Abby told them the mission was accomplished and they all left to go home and get the required sleep.
Gibbs continued to sit at Tim's bedside. As he looked at his sick agent, he couldn't help but think back over the years Tim had given to his team. From green probie to mature slimmed down serious man who still thought the world of his boss, Tim remained the reliable, responsible, honest, character that Gibbs was proud to have on his team. Seeing him here like this, sick, brought vivid memories of Tony's near death from the plague back to his mind. He was no more prepared to lose one of his boys now than he had been then.
Tim began to grow restless, rousing Gibbs from his thoughts and memories. As his agent shifted and began to become agitated, Gibbs put a calming hand on his shoulder and quietly spoke to him.
"Ssh. Tim. It's okay. Go back to sleep."
Instead of listening to the direction being given in his ear, Tim McGee's eyes popped ope, panic-stricken.