A/N: The remainder of this story is dedicated to Shelbylou - who, due to complications from her surgery - is unable to help me finish it.
Since she is trusting me to take this to the finish line for the both of us - I shall endeavor to do her proud.
We both appreciate all of your patience and kind words of review.
"Hey, Probie! Look at you, all grown up and breathing on your own again!" Tony congratulated him as he led the trio into the room. With his eyes fastened on the patient, it was easy to see that their teammate was upset about something.
"McGee, what is it?" Ziva asked. "It is obvious something has upset you."
Tim blinked and looked down at his bed, unwilling to dump this on them. The fact that he'd done this and brought them all to this place with the situation, only left him feeling undeserving of any of their attention. They shouldn't be wasting their time visiting him.
Since Tim refused to look back up at them or even address them, Tony, Ziva and Abby were left staring at each other in confusion and silence. It was this silence that Gibbs and Ducky walked into a few moments later and it was their entrance that seemed to snap everyone out of their stasis.
"What happened?" Gibbs asked tersely.
Tony motioned with his head as he led the way back outside Tim's room. After he explained what had happened, Ducky advised Tony to let Gibbs talk to Tim while the rest of them take some time to get some coffee in the cafeteria.
"Feels like déjà-vu" Tony muttered.
***NCIS***
Gibbs stood at the window of Tim's room, just out of sight from his agent, while the others headed down to the cafeteria. Already knowing what Tim was doing made it easier to understand exactly what he was seeing with the young man's defeated look in his eyes as he lay back in his bed, staring at his hands where they lay on the bed. It wasn't long before one of his hands rose up to wipe the suspiscious dampness from his face. The Team Leader waited until it seemed as though Tim had calmed down before he entered the room and approached him.
Grabbing the chair by his bed, Gibbs turned it so he could straddle it and sat down in it, silently waiting for Tim to speak his mind. After a few moments of silence in which Tim remained staring at his hands, the older man drew in a ragged breath and slowly let it out before speaking his own mind.
"Pretty quick on the draw with this, McGee. I have to give you credit. Thought sure it'd be at least this time tomorrow before I'd have to beat this outta your head."
Now, Tim did look up and over at him but still remained silent but with expectation of an explanation clearly in his eyes. He knew he wasn't supposed to be using his voice until tomorrow but was dying to know what the boss was talking about. It had to be important or Gibbs wouldn't be addressing it. The man wasn't known for being much of a talker unless he felt it was necessary.
"Been sittin' here doin' a hell of a lot of thinkin', haven't ya?"
Tim nodded, his eyes still locked on his boss.
"I'm guessing you've been tryin' to figure out what's gone on for the past three days while you've been in here. Am I right?"
Three days? Tim's shock must have shown because Gibbs actually smirked at his reaction.
"Yeah, McGee. You've been in here for three days. Gun went off on Monday."
Tim's eyes slammed shut. Trust Gibbs to make sure the heart of the matter got out into the open when it affected his team. The axe was getting ready to fall and suddenly Tim wasn't ready for it.
"Need you to tell me something. Do you remember exactly what happened?"
Tim nodded.
"You remember apologizing to me? To Tony?"
Tim nodded again.
"Why?"
Tim cleared his throat but before he could open it, Gibbs tossed his notepad and pencil on the bed in front of him. "Don't even think about using that voice yet. Only reason we're even having this discussion tonight is so this thinking you're doin' stops before it gets outta hand, McGee."
Silently, Tim wrote out what he needed Gibbs to understand. It took him a good long minute but when he was done, he handed the bossman back his notepad.
Gibbs read what Tim had written.
If I'd just ignored Tony's antics and not reacted like I did, he wouldn't have been distracted. I caused this. And now Tony's out of a job because of me."
Gibbs tossed the notebook down on the bed and reached over and delivered a firm head slap to his agent along with one of his trademark glares.
Tim looked at the boss for an explanation.
"You breakin' my rules now?" Gibbs fairly growled.
Shaking his head in denial, Tim looked at him with confusion.
"You're assuming DiNozzo's been fired. He's been suspended pending the investigation. Nothing more."
Relief filled Tim's eyes, only to quickly be replaced with regret. As far as he was concerned, Tony shouldn't be in any kind of trouble like this. His career was blemished now because of this and that wasn't anything that could be taken back.
"Knock it off, McGee. What did Ducky and I tell you when it happened?"
Recollection filled Tim's eyes as he remembered both of them telling him he had nothing to apologise for.
"I won't have either you or DiNozzo wasting any more time feeling guilty for this accident. You hear me?"
Tim nodded. Wait a minute! Tony feels guilty? Damn it, of course he does. But, he's not responsible. It was an accident." Tim's mind argued.
"Good! You make sure and tell DiNozzo that." Gibbs said with his normal dose of authority as if he were still reading Tim's mind. " Neither one of you are any good to me or to yourselves until you move on. See that ya do."
Tim nodded as he looked back at his boss with thanks and genuine appreciation.
"Okay. I'll let the others know they can come in now. I'll be back tomorrow. You get some more sleep." Gibbs walked out, knowing that the worst was now over and things would begin to look up from here.
As he stepped out into the hallway, he was met with a somberely silent Tony.
"Told you to quit carryin' it. DiNozzo. Don't make me head slap ya before you listen."
Tony blinked and looked at Gibbs. For a long silent minute, their argument remained until Tony finally surrendered to the unmovable object that was the bossman's word.
"Yes, Boss."
"Good. See to it that McGee sees it too!" Gibbs ordered as he headed out.
Tony glanced at the rest of the group, who'd already gone inside, having walked around the two men while they'd squared off. As Abby sat at Tim's side on the left, Ziva sat on his right and Jimmy stood at the foot of his bed, watching the monitors and the numbers on them. Tim appeared to be sleeping.
"What's wrong?" Tony asked as he joined Jimmy at the end of the bed.
"Huh? Oh, Nothing's wrong, I'm just familiarizing myself with what the normal readings should be for him so we can know what to watch for. This is the first time I've been in here long enough to do that since this whole thing started." Jimmy explained.
"Oh. He sleeping?" Tony pointed to Tim as he asked the question.
Tim shook his head, opening his eyes and looking Tony straight on, a mixture of unreadable emotions in his eyes.
"Guys, could you give us a minute?" Tony asked with enough pleading in his tone that they knew he wasn't being mean, but really needed to talk to Tim.
"Don't…" Abby started to warn.
"Tire him out or aggravate him, I know Abbs. I promise, I won't." Tony told her with a kiss to her cheek.
Tim watched silently with a wary look on his face as the group all smiled at him, promised to be back and then left him and Tony alone. Turning to the older man with a warily expectant look in his eye, Tim remained silent.
"Guess this is where I exploit your ban from talking, huh?" Tony quipped as he took the chair Abby had just vacated in the exact same manner Gibbs had taken it earlier. If he'd been expecting a smile, he was disappointed since all Tim could do was turn his frown into a straight face.
"Look, Probie. I think we both know what's going on here. I mean, knowing you, you're probably finding someway to blame yourself for what happened. And I know I blame myself. My gun not properly safeguarded, my slippery fingers when I'm not paying attention and all…"
Tim picked up the notebook with his written explanation in it and handed it to Tony after he'd turned it to the right page. He needed to let Tony see exactly where the blame should be placed.
Tony read the notebook, looked at Tim with abject disbelief in his eyes and in a strangely ironic complete copycat series of motions, tossed the notebook down on the bed and issued Tim a serious headslap. "This is NOT your fault! You've got NO reason to think it was!"
Tim gestured for Tony, trying to make the point that the same went for him.
Tony allowed himself the tiniest of smirks before turning serious. "Yeah, well, I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on that one, McGee."
Tim shook his head almost violently.
"Yeah, you're right. Gibbs won't go for it, either. Whattaya say, we let it go and just get you on the road to recovery from here?" Tony asked almost nonchalantly.
Tim looked back at him with blatent disbelief in his eyes.
"Don't look at me like that. I know when I'm beat. Besides, Gibbs is right. We can't expect you not to blame yourself if we won't stop feeling responsible. I mean, I AM responsible, but…"
Tim emphatically shook his head in denial.
"Tim. Look. There's no denying I was careless. Doesn't matter if I was busy trying to goofing around or not. My weapon was loaded when it wasn't supposed to be. Plain and simple. Not only did I fail to remove the clip, but I also failed to make sure the safety was on it. Doesn't matter how you dress it up or try to excuse it."
Tim sat back, head almost down on his chest as he breathed out a sigh of frustration. Suddenly, his fingers found the pen and paper again and began writing. It didn't take him long before he was setting the notebook back down on the edge of the bed near Tony.
The older man picked up the notebook again and read what his teammate had written.
What does this mean for your job?
"Suspended until the investigation is complete. Probably lookin' at more time suspended if not worse."
Tim hung his head. Suddenly, he felt another swipe to the back of his head and looked up.
"You're not listenin' to me." Tony whined. "I said it wasn't your fault. Don't make me have to beat it into that head of yours." His tone changed to bossy by the time he was done speaking. "Capice?"
Tim smiled softly as he nodded.
Good. Don't forget 'cause we're not having this conversation again. Now, go to sleep. You need the rest."
Tim looked at him in surprise because he'd basically shooed the rest of the team out of Tim's room and they hadn't even had a chance to visit with him tonight and now Tony was telling him to go to sleep?
"Oh, right. Yeah, they'd probably turn me into one of Abby's experiments if I kept them from seeing you tonight. Just don't lose sight of what we talked about here, Probie."
Tim nodded in agreement and Tony smiled. "Okay then, I'll tell them they can come back in. But, we're not stayin' long. Bossman'll kill us if we wear you out."
Tim smiled and settled back against the bed, more than ready for their visit now that his need to talk things out with Tony had been dealt with.
***NCIS***
A short thirty minutes later and Tony was gone to get the car for them while the others said their goodnights to Tim. When Abby remained behind for a minute, Tim made his move. Motioning for typing, he begged her with his eyes to bring him his laptop as soon as she could. Smiling from ear to ear, Abby kissed him on the cheek and promised to bring it to him tomorrow if he got a good night's sleep tonight.
Tim smiled with gratitude, he settled back against the bed and closed his eyes, letting sleep take him without a struggle. He knew that Tony would be back to sit with him for the night but this was one night he would not keep Tony from getting any sleep. It was time for everyone to start recovering from this mess, beginning with him.
