Chapter 6

He didn't know how long he lay there, but after a while, there was a hand on his arm. He said nothing. He'd felt awful in that other place, but for some reason, he felt a lot worse now.

"McGee?"

He knew that voice.

"Boss?"

"You all right?"

"No."

There was a soft chuckle.

"You going to open your eyes?"

"No. Are we back?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now, would you cut off my head? It's pounding like Niagara Falls is thundering around inside it."

"Don't think that would help, McGee."

"Right now... I don't think I care."

"You will later."

Tim shook his head, even if he knew that Gibbs was right.

"Open your eyes, McGee."

"No."

"Open your eyes!"

To forestall a headslap that would not make him feel any better, Tim squinted and groaned what seemed like the light of a thousand suns hitting him.

But he squinted up at Gibbs and then tried to look around. Everything was new and yet utterly familiar. Thank goodness.

"Duck! Over here!"

Tim winced at the sound and closed his eyes again.

"Oh, dear. What happened, Timothy?"

"I fell," Tim mumbled. "Twice."

"What did you hit?"

"Nothing."

"Clearly, you must have hit..."

"That's what he hit, Ducky," Gibbs said.

Whatever nonverbal communication went on between them, Ducky didn't push it.

"I need you to open your eyes, Timothy. Let me get a look."

"No. The light hurts."

"I'm sure it does, but please, do it anyway."

Grimacing, Tim did as he was told. He opened his eyes and then, there was a bright flash and he closed them again.

"Yes, he definitely has a serious concussion. We should get him to a hospital and have him checked out."

"Come on, McGee. Let's go."

Tim felt hands under his arms and he was lifted to his feet. He tried to open his eyes again and he saw someone extra. A man was sitting on the ground, talking to Tony and Ziva, with Jimmy and the Metro police hovering around them.

"Who's that?" Tim asked, his eyes slipping closed again.

"The Marine we were looking for. He came out just after we did," Gibbs said.

"He said that his father helped him but that his father died when he was in high school," Ducky added.

"Like Kate," Tim said.

"Yeah," Gibbs said. "Let's go."

"The camera," Tim said. "I took a picture."

"I know. Don't worry about that, now."

Tim stumbled as Gibbs urged him to start moving.

"Is he all right?"

"Says he is. A little disoriented, said that he saw a whole bunch of trees but they weren't really there."

"Yeah."

Tim's mind started wandering.

"Maybe it was quantum tunneling. Only that's just supposed to be with particles, not people."

"Just relax, Timothy. We'll have a doctor look at your injuries and see what needs to be done to help you recover."

"Maybe it didn't really happen."

"It happened, McGee," Gibbs said.

"Maybe a wormhole but those are just mathematical. Never any proof that they actually exist and why here and now?"

"Later, McGee."

Tim was urged to sit down in the front seat. Then, he was lying there alone. He tried to open his eyes again and caught a glimpse of Ducky.

"Where..."

"I believe Jethro is going to tell the others where you're going."

"Oh."

There was a moment of silence and Tim's mind went back to where they had been, back to what he had seen.

"Timothy?"

"Yeah?"

"You seem to be very confident about what you experienced."

Tim smiled.

"That's because I'm not thinking clearly."

"Ah. I see."

"Do you really?"

"Not all, I'm quite certain, but enough that I will trust you."

Then, Gibbs was back and getting into the car.

"All right, McGee. We're going to the hospital. They said you should stay awake."

"Okay. As long as I don't have to open my eyes."

"Not required. You ready?"

"Yeah."

Tim felt the car start and then, the movement as Gibbs headed for the hospital. This was real movement. Whatever he had experienced before had not been real movement.

This was real. He had missed it.

But at the same time, it left him feeling strange, almost like he had lost something.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Gibbs was relieved to be back where he understood things again, and yet, at the same time, he privately wished that he could have talked to Kate once more.

Now, as he sat and waited to find out about Tim's situation, he thought back to what had happened. He accepted that it had happened, but he felt that he would be better off to forget it and just go on without worrying about it. Would that happen? Probably not for a long time, if for no other reason than that this would become a news story, and he could imagine a lot of eggheads wanting to talk to them about it.

But what would any of them say? According to Tim, what they'd experienced wasn't even what was really there. Really, how impressed would scientists be by a description of trees and sky? Speaking of, Gibbs picked up the camera Tim had been holding and turned it on. Then, he looked through the photos Tim had taken. The first few were of the scene in the park. Then, the very last photo, the one Tim had taken when he had inexplicably tried to stay.

He looked at it and, in spite of himself, he laughed.

It was black. Completely black. There was nothing else. Not even a hint of anything else, and it wasn't because the lens cap had been on. It was just black. It figured. He hoped that Tim wouldn't be too disappointed.

"Boss, is he okay?"

Gibbs looked up and saw Tony and Ziva walking over, accompanied by Ducky and Jimmy. He wasn't sure when Abby would show up, but he was sure it would be soon enough.

"They just took him back a few minutes ago," Gibbs said.

"Ah, then, it will probably be a while before we hear," Ducky said. "I'm sure that, given his head injuries, they will want to make sure that there is no permanent damage. Multiple concussions can be very serious."

They all found chairs and sat down.

"Do you think that's why he was saying all that stuff?" Tony asked.

"And why he tried to stay?" Ziva added.

Gibbs just shrugged. He had no idea why Tim had resisted being taken out of the world that none of them wanted to be in.

"He did say he wasn't thinking clearly," Ducky said. "A head injury can be very disorienting."

"What was it like?" Jimmy asked. "Corporal Daniels said it was really strange, but that there were all these trees that looked wrong and a sky that kept changing."

"That's what it was like," Tony said.

"He said he saw his dad, too. Did you guys see anyone dead?"

Tony looked at Ziva who looked away.

"Yeah. We saw Kate."

"Wow. Really?" Jimmy said, softly.

"Yeah."

Jimmy was silent for a moment, but Gibbs could see he was going to ask something more.

"How was she?"

Tony looked like he couldn't decide if he wanted to answer or not, but then, he smiled.

"She looked good. Still snarky."

"That's good," Jimmy said. "I'd hate to think that dying would change who she was."

"You seem pretty chill about all this, Black Lung," Tony said.

Jimmy shrugged. "I saw you guys all disappear, and I saw you reappear. It's not like it was just one guy with a head injury. You all say you saw it and so did Corporal Daniels. It makes more sense to accept it."

Gibbs found that he envied Jimmy's calm acceptance, somewhat. He didn't fight it. He'd seen things. People he trusted had said things. He believed it.

After a few minutes, a doctor came out.

"Agent Gibbs?"

Everyone stood up while Gibbs stepped forward.

"How is he?"

"Lucky. That's how he is," the doctor said. "We're going to keep him in the hospital for a few days to make sure no bleeds develop, but I think he'll recover. He's a little disoriented, though. He kept saying that he hit his head on nothing, but head injuries can easily distort the events around the injury."

Gibbs just nodded. They'd all be required to talk about this, he knew. Why get started now?

"Can we see him?"

"Yes. He's just down the hall, room 236. He doesn't have a roommate at the moment, but that could change anytime."

Gibbs nodded and started walking, knowing that everyone would be behind him.

"Well?" Ducky asked.

"Doesn't change anything, Duck," Gibbs said.

"Of course not."

"We were all there."

"I understand."

They reached Tim's room and Gibbs knocked once in warning, but he didn't pause for more than that before stepping inside. Tim was lying on a bed. No oxygen, no IV. Just him in a hospital gown, eyes opening rather lazily. He managed a lopsided smile.

"Hey, Boss. Why is it that I feel so much worse now than I did before?" Tim's voice was mostly clear, but there was still a little bit of slurring.

"You have time to think about it," Tony said. "We had too much to worry about in that other place. Now, all you need to do is lay there and all you can do is think about how much your head hurts."

"Thanks, Tony."

"Are you thinking more clearly now, Timothy?" Ducky asked.

"Yeah, but things still seem a little weird. The doctor said that's normal. Hopefully, it won't last very long."

"I think you'll find that it might take a few days, but you'll start improving quickly."

"Good. Is what's-his-name okay? The Marine? You said he'd come out, right?"

"He is fine," Ziva said. "Just glad to be back and surprised that the time was so brief. He said it felt like he was stuck there for years."

"And it was only a few hours," Tim said. "But then...there wasn't anything like time in there."

"Unless we brought it with us," Tony said.

Tim nodded and winced. Gibbs could see that Tim would likely be fine, but that all this attention probably wasn't really what he needed right now. Sleep would probably do him the most good. Questions would have to wait.

"You realize that we'll have to answer a lot of questions, don't you," Tony said.

"Yeah, but what will we say? There aren't words for it," Tim said.

"Don't worry about that for now, Timothy," Ducky said. "I'm sure it will be easier than you think."

"Yeah, because no one will believe it," Jimmy said. "It'll be weird for a while, but then, when they can't duplicate it or anything, it'll just be swept under the rug. Will you tell them about Kate?"

"We should say everything that happened," Ziva said...and then, she smiled. "That will make them more likely to dismiss it. As you say, it is too strange to believe."

"Yeah," Tim said.

Unlike the others, though, Gibbs could see that Tim regretted it. He really wanted to talk to him, but not with an audience, so he knew he'd have to wait.

"I'm kind of tired, guys," Tim said, finally. "You mind if I just close my eyes?"

"Not at all, Timothy," Ducky said, quickly. "That will likely be the best thing for you."

"Good. Thanks for dropping by."

Then, Tim fell asleep.

"He's okay. Right?" Tony said in a low voice.

"He will be. But for now, let's give him the time he needs."

Everyone nodded and shuffled out of the room, but Gibbs lingered. Now wasn't the time to talk to Tim in depth, but he shouldn't be left alone after what happened today.

"Jethro?" Ducky asked.

Gibbs smiled and sat down on a chair beside the bed. Ducky nodded in understanding and left the room.

Alone, with the exception of Tim who was sleeping, Gibbs allowed himself the chance to reflect on what had happened, what they all had experienced.

But his mind kept going back to Kate. Had they really been seeing her or had it been some kind of illusion? If it was an illusion, it was a really good one and why would that have been the one chosen, if illusion it was? Wouldn't someone else have appeared to him? Wouldn't someone in his family? Shannon or even one of his parents? Why Kate? And why would she appear to all of them but not to Ziva? Why did Ziva have a sister appear, but Kate for the rest of them? So did that mean she had been an illusion? But if he decided it was an illusion, how could that explain the information she had given? Not even about the world they'd been stuck in but about Tim and what had happened to him. And then, why would Tim have been in the state he was if it was all an illusion? But if Kate wasn't, then, what about the rest of it? Could he really accept that they'd somehow stepped into another universe? Would Tim still say that when he was no longer suffering from a concussion?

What did he hit his head on?

At least once he had said something about the trees, but if the trees weren't really there and if Tim was right about there being no such thing as matter there, what could he have hit?

There were so many questions he had, and Gibbs had a hunch that he'd likely not get satisfactory answers to many of them, if any at all.

But if he could at least square it away in his head, if he could get it settled enough in his own mind, he could live without having all the answers.

He just needed something to help his mind accept the insanity they'd all experienced.