a/n - This should thicken the plot a tad. Thanks for all the great reviews, I am looking forward to revealing his powers soon. Enjoy, and I'll see you guys tomorrow. It's officially the holiday season here because I made my first three loaves of my annual holiday eggnog bread over the weekend. Yummy.
"You wanted to see us, Sir?" DiNozzo was very formal as he entered Vance's office, Ziva at his heels.
Vance was leaning back in his chair and tossed a file onto his desk, near DiNozzo. "I want the two of you to start monitoring this group."
Ziva was reading over Tony's shoulder. "Is there any indication they are going to target McGee?"
"Sarah McGee was seen near their headquarters this morning. I don't want Tim worrying about this right now, but I don't want him in any danger from them either."
"The Superhero Rescue Alliance, are they for real?" DiNozzo had finished flipping through the pages and returned to the first page to read more carefully. "Do you really think that Sarah is going to try and kidnap her own brother?"
"Are you willing to ignore the possibility?" Now that he had their attention, Vance leaned forward, resting his chin on his interlaced fingers. "How will he feel if she shows up with a couple of muscle men to overpower Gibbs and take him?"
"Crap, this could get really ugly."
Ziva nodded in agreement with her partner. "Do you want us to pick up Sarah and have a talk with her?"
His phone call with the local LEO's from McGee's home town had not given him any real hope. "Maybe, but not yet. Let's see what she does. If she is just trying to protect him, then it won't be so bad, but if she believes what her father says, then we've got a major problem."
Something in Vance's tone set off alarms in Tony's head. "How major?"
A week ago, Leon would not have told DiNozzo much of anything. Since then, he had been watching the rest of Gibbs' team very closely. The jokes and the teasing still bothered him on some levels, but beneath that he saw the awareness of how others responded to McGee.
The names on the restroom petition had been quickly separated between the misinformed and the troublemakers. The misinformed had been quickly educated, while the others had been shown the errors of their ways. All that was left for Vance was to sign a few transfer requests, which he had done willingly. "We already knew that McGee's father actively encouraged him to take the third option."
"The third option?"
Ziva answered Tony before Vance could. "Self-termination."
Sick to his stomach at the thought of his friend having that kind of conversation with his adoptive father, Tony almost missed the rest of Vance's words. "It got bad enough that the local police were called in by the neighbors."
"The argument was that loud?" Ziva couldn't remember the last time she'd heard McGee raise his voice.
"His father wasn't willing to accept his decision; apparently he tried to end it for him."
"He tried to kill Tim? Damn it, is he still in custody?"
Ziva was the first to interpret Vance's expression. "He did not press charges, did he?"
"No he didn't.
---NCIS---
Gibbs smoothly pulled the car into his driveway, grinning to himself about how his team would react to his driving. It may not happen very often, but occasionally he could drive like this. In the seat next to him, McGee slept peacefully, tired from both his days in the hospital and his visit with Jethro. He didn't bother trying to wake the other man until he had the passenger door open. "McGee, can you get up the stairs?" Tim nodded without even opening his eyes.
Just to be safe, Gibbs held onto him until they were upstairs and McGee was safely in his bedroom. He didn't have to ask how bad the headache was, it was etched on McGee's face. By the time Gibbs returned with a glass of water and the prescribed pills, Tim had stripped down and was climbing into bed. He could feel the heat rolling off the younger man as he handed him the glass.
"Are you running a fever? When did that start?" It had been many years, but instinctively he pressed the back of his fingers against the warm forehead.
Tim cracked open his eyes. "I'm okay, just a little warm from the car." Neither of them mentioned the shaking of the hand that reached out for the pills or the fact that Gibbs had to help him hold the glass.
The second the bedroom door closed behind him, Gibbs was on the phone, summoning Ducky.
---NCIS---
Ducky made a few phone calls of his own as he left his house, so he was not alone when he arrived at Gibbs'. A dark green Lexus pulled in back of him as he climbed out of his car. "Leon, Mrs. Vance," he gave the shortest greeting as he rushed into the house, "send Mr. Palmer up as soon as he arrives."
"Jackie, help Dr. Mallard." Vance waited on the porch, seeing several more familiar cars coming down the street. Once the group joined him, he started barking out orders. "Mr. Palmer, you and Abby will have to run whatever tests are needed. We do not want to take him back to the hospital unless there's no other choice. DiNozzo, get the box from the trunk of my car and then you help Gibbs with McGee. David, why don't you start some coffee, it's going to be a long night."
Abby was helping Jimmy unload lab equipment from the back of his car. "What's happening to him, Leon?"
"I don't know, Miss Sciuto, I just don't know."
They all moved into the house as she continued to ply him with questions. "What about the other Supers, is this happening to them?"
The news wasn't good; they could see that even before he spoke. "The Supers who had their powers before the implants were placed are having no problems. The children who have had the procedure…" He let out a huff of air, trying to decide the best way to explain.
Tony wasn't willing to give him time to debate. "How bad?"
"They've done four more of the children, since Tim's surgery. Two died in the operating room and one was brain dead a few hours after the surgery was completed, and the fourth," Leon hung his head as he continued. "The fourth young man suffered some sort of psychotic break and threw himself out of the window before anyone could stop him."
"That's not going to happen to McGee, is it?"
'We're not going to let it happen, Abby." Tony answered before Vance could draw a breath.
"We most certainly are not going to let that happen." As a group, they all turned to stare at the new arrival. Hetty Lang circled the room, giving them each an appraising look before she set her bag on the floor. "We are not going to lose him, is that understood?"
As they all murmured their agreement, Jackie leaned over the upstairs railing. "Leon, we need ice, lots of ice."
Hetty immediately took over. "You two, DiNozzo and David, carry the ice upstairs for Leon. You," she pointed at Jimmy, "get upstairs and help Dr. Mallard with the samples, and you," she turned and pointed at Abby, "Let's get the equipment set up."
Everyone scrambled to their assigned tasks. Tony went straight to the freezer in Gibbs' kitchen. "I don't think the Boss keeps a lot of ice on hand, I'll have to make a run to the store."
"I do not believe that will be necessary, Tony."
Tony started to ask Ziva what she meant when he saw the Director standing over the sink, turning the stream of water into perfectly formed chunks of ice and instead, started digging through the drawers for plastic bags. When Ziva headed upstairs with an arm load of bags, Tony let a grin slip through. "You must have been a lot of fun at frat parties back in the day, sir."
---NCIS---
Ziva entered the bedroom to find organized chaos. McGee was only vaguely aware of his surroundings as Gibbs and Palmer held him in a tightly curled ball while Ducky eased a needle into his spine. Jackie Vance was wiping his face with a wet cloth as she encouraged him to hold on. Ducky worked quickly and efficiently to draw a sample of spinal fluid. Once the needle was withdrawn, Jimmy took the syringe and the vials of blood from the nightstand and rushed out of the room.
Gibbs eased Tim back down onto the bed and Jackie took one of the bags from Ziva. "You've treated someone for heatstroke before, right?"
More times than she was willing to count, but Ziva just nodded and started to place the bags of ice. While Jackie dumped ice in the water she was using, Ziva tucked an ice pack against each of McGee's armpits. She started to put the third ice bag in place, but knowing how embarrassed the young man would be, Gibbs took it from her and slid it under the sheet himself.
Once Jackie had the cool compresses replaced on his face and neck, Ducky rechecked his temperature. He gave Gibbs a worried look. "If his temperature doesn't stop rising soon, we will have to take more drastic actions."
---NCIS---
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."
"Abby, what is it?" Jimmy wanted to shake her while she stared through the microscope, chanting. Hetty had even less patience and moved the much taller woman out of the way to look for herself. Once she was looking at him, Jimmy repeated the question. "Abby, what is it?"
Abby chewed on her lip as she tried to explain what she had been looking at. "It's not an infection; it's like his red blood cells are tearing themselves apart and transforming."
"That is exactly what is happening, Miss Sciuto." Hetty turned away from the microscope and started pulling vials out of her bag. Once the viewfinder was free, Jimmy took his turn at the microscope. Vance and Tony watched from the kitchen doorway.
He watched as the small red spheres twisted and tumbled as they divided and reformed. "Wow, I've never seen anything like it. Is this because his powers are starting to develop?"
Hetty found the vial she needed, and was staring at it in her hand. It was small, only one full dose. "Yes, it is." They scrambled to their feet to follow her up the stairs. Vance and Tony were right on their heels, Vance asking questions.
"It's not Kayhan's Syndrome, is it? What about Mallot's?"
Instead of answering him, Hetty entered the bedroom and handed Ducky the vial. "It's all I have; we'll have to stretch it out into two doses and continue to treat the symptoms."
"What is happening to him?"
It was Gibbs question that she finally answered. "When a Superhero is born, their powers are just a fraction of what they will be when they are grown. It takes years for them to fully develop."
"It's happening all at once for McGee, isn't it?" Vance remembered his own childhood and the stages his own abilities went through. "His body can't handle the stress."
Gibbs didn't like the sound of that as he watched Ducky prepare the injection. "How do we help him, what are you giving him?"
"It should temporarily inhibit his powers, at least partially. Unfortunately, this is all I have."
Ducky gave more detail to Hetty's explanation. "If we are able to slow down the development of his powers, it will give his body more time to adjust." Once he had given Tim the shot, he rechecked his temperature. "It's still climbing. Ziva, I need you to fill the bathtub with tepid water, the ice packs aren't enough. Leon, as soon as we have him in the water, start icing it."
Gibbs gently sat McGee up, letting the feverish head rest against his shoulder as he shifted him around. Tony helped and the two of them grasped each other's wrists under Tim to carry him into the small bathroom. It was crowded and Ziva left to make room for them as they eased him into the tub. Gibbs kicked off his shoes and climbed in, sitting on the back corner of the tub to support the semi-conscious man as Vance slowly stirred the water, dropping the temperature.
Tony refused to leave, instead perching on the edge of the sink as Ducky continued to monitor Tim's condition. The tub was filled with more ice than water by now and he was as worried about Gibbs as he was McGee. Finally, Ducky was satisfied and they prepared to lift Tim. This time it was Vance, who lifted him like a small child. With Tony's help, Gibbs stood and climbed out of the tub. Ducky dried Tim as much as possible and wrapped several towels around him before turning his attention to Gibbs.
"I'm all right, take care of McGee." Ducky didn't look convinced as Gibbs stumbled, but Tony had him and was steering him towards the master bedroom.
"We'll take care of him, Boss, but you need to take a hot shower and get warmed up." Gibbs wanted to argue, but since he couldn't feel his feet, he knew DiNozzo was right.