Chapter 8

Tony had hated that he was stuck doing nothing while Tim was standing with his leg against a trip wire. He hated that he was being used to force Tim into a decision he shouldn't have to make.

He really hated all of that.

At the moment, though, he was on the floor, his hands cuffed behind him and a ten-year-old girl cowering beside him while a serial killer was trying to force Tim to essentially commit suicide.

Then, he noticed Tim looking back and forth over his shoulder while Paul was taunting him with the time he had left.

Susan wasn't tied up, but she wasn't going to start running when Paul had a weapon.

Then, he saw something change in Tim's stance. He wasn't sure what it was that he was seeing, but he had a sinking suspicion that Tim was about to do something desperate and stupid. And if Tony was right, the slightest error would leave Tim dead.

But also, if Tony was right about this, they were all at risk. He looked at Susan and made eye contact with her. She was terrified.

"Move behind me," he said softly.

"Ninety seconds!" Paul said, with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Move behind me," he whispered again.

Susan nodded and shifted as quietly as she could so that she was behind him. Tony struggled to sit up.

Then, suddenly, Tim turned around and leapt at Paul, but his aim was a little off. As he did, Tony heard the click and he rolled over trying to shield Susan from the blast. Susan screamed and huddled against him and he felt the heat wash over him and the shock wave, along with some debris.

In the midst of that, he could have sworn that he also heard a gunshot.

As soon as the blast quieted down, he rolled back. Both Tim and Paul were lying on the floor, unmoving.

"Tim!" he said. "Tim!"

Paul Ahrendson looked dead. Tony didn't know if he was, but he had no interest in that. He wanted to know if Tim was alive.

"NCIS!"

Tony heard the voices from outside and was relieved that he recognized them.

"In here, Agent Balboa!" he called. "Susan, these are my friends. We're about to get out of here."

"Can I go home?" she asked, whimpering.

"Yes. You're going to go home," Tony said.

Susan started to cry as Balboa and Jensen came running into the building, guns out, ready for anything.

"Check Tim," Tony said. "And maybe one of you can get me out of these cuffs."

Balboa ran over to Tony while Jensen went to Tim. Tony watched as Jensen pulled out his phone and called for an ambulance. He was out of the handcuffs in a moment, and he would have run to Tim right then, but Susan was still there, crying. Balboa was checking Paul.

"Are more people on the way?" he asked.

"Yeah. But I think we'll need Ducky for this one," Balboa said, looking at Paul.

"Good," Tony said. "I hope he rots."

"He will, now. This our guy?"

"Yeah. He wanted Tim to be T and this is Susan."

Balboa nodded in understanding. He walked over to Susan and knelt down in front of her.

"Hi, Susan. I'm David Balboa. Do you know your parents' phone numbers?"

Susan sniffled and nodded.

"Good. Let's go out of the building and you can give them a call. I'm sure they'll be really glad to hear from you."

"Okay."

Balboa put a comforting arm around her shoulders and started to lead her out.

"You all right, DiNozzo?" he asked.

"I'll be fine."

Then, Tony hurried over to Jensen.

"I heard a shot," he said.

"It must have missed," Jensen said. "He's alive, but..."

Tim wasn't moving. His jacket was smoking a little bit.

"Tim, come on, man. Snap out of it," Tony said.

He didn't dare shake Tim at all, for fear of aggravating any injuries he might have. Jensen clearly felt the same. Tim was still lying prone on the floor.

"What happened?"

"Ahrendson was trying to get Tim to blow himself up. He was supposed to be T."

"And the girl was S?"

"Yeah."

Jensen swore feelingly. "She's about the age of my oldest."

"Ten years old."

He nodded.

"I can't ever understand people who are willing to kill... at all, but especially kids."

"Yeah."

Tim suddenly moved a little bit and moaned.

"Tim!"

There was a shaky breath, but no words.

"Tim, you're still alive. You're an idiot, but you're still alive and I expect you to stay that way."

"T-Try to...do that..." he whispered.

"Good. You got him, Tim," Tony said.

"Can't...move..."

"You'll be fine," Tony said, although he and Jensen exchanged concerned looks.

Faintly, they heard a siren and in less than a minute, the EMTs were coming in to evaluate Tim's status and get him to the hospital. As soon as they were gone, Jensen sighed.

"I don't know, Tony. It didn't look very good. He wasn't moving. He said he couldn't. You think that means..."

"No," Tony said. "He was hurt, not paralyzed. He's going to be fine."

"Just saying it doesn't mean it'll happen, you know."

Tony grimaced and got to his feet. "You need to hang out with Torrance more."

"Positive attitude didn't help her much, either, did it."

"She's still alive and she's still happy," Tony said. "That's one step ahead of you. I'm getting out of this place. I can't wait until this is over."

Tony walked out of the room and out of the building. Metro was just pulling up and Balboa was sitting with Susan. He was like Gibbs in that he didn't seem like he would be, but he was really good with kids. He sat down to wait until he could leave. This whole thing was pretty terrible. What he really wanted was to wake up and have this never have happened.

He sat down and waited for a few minutes while Metro and the FBI and NCIS were wrangling with each other. He didn't want to be involved in that. What he was thinking about was how this case had turned out.

"Tony?"

Tony jumped and looked up. Balboa was standing in front of him.

"Yeah? Everything all decided?"

"Hardly, but you don't need to be here. We've got plenty of law enforcement on hand. You'll have to give a report on everything that happened, but you should be at the hospital with McGee and Gibbs."

"You sure you don't need me here?"

"Positive. Jensen's here and Ducky will be here in a little while. Fornell and Sacks just showed up and Metro's here, too. We could do with a few less cops, actually."

Tony smiled.

"Look, I've got to hang out here until Susan's parents come and you don't have a car. I'll have Jensen drive you over."

Tony grimaced, and Balboa smiled in response.

"Yeah, I know. He really needs a vacation. I'm going to give him some of my personal days after this, but he does care. He just doesn't show it very well."

"I know."

"I'll tell him to ease off and you can give him a little break and you'll get to the hospital in no time."

Tony chuckled a little. "All right."

"Good."

Balboa went back to the building and Jensen came out a few seconds later. He walked over.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

They got in the car and Jensen drove him over to the hospital. Neither of them spoke. Tony could only guess that Jensen had been lectured a little bit about his dour attitude, and Tony didn't want to needle him.

When they pulled up, Tony started to get out.

"Thanks for the ride."

"Hey, Tony."

He paused. "Yeah?"

"Let me know how he is, okay? I'm worried about him, too."

"I know. I'll call."

"Thanks."

Then, Tony walked into the hospital. He was told that Tim was still being evaluated and he would have to wait. So he settled in the waiting room, hoping for good news.

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

It was two more hours before anything happened. Tony was starting to relax enough that he was even getting tired. Of course, it was around four a.m., so he could be justified in being tired.

"Agent DiNozzo?"

Tony heard the voice, but the words didn't really register.

"Agent DiNozzo?"

A hand on his arm startled him out of his doze. He sat up and blinked a few times.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I have some news for you about Agent McGee."

That woke Tony up. He blinked again and looked around. There was a doctor sitting beside him.

"Is Tim okay?" he asked.

The doctor smiled. "Well, he'd probably disagree, but he is okay. He's not great. He got a serious concussion. The burns are painful, but minor. He has some stitches."

"He said he couldn't move before."

"That was likely due to the initial trauma. He just couldn't think about what to do to move. We did check his spine and there's no sign of any damage."

"That's great."

The doctor nodded.

"Now, he's just starting to wake up, but he's still pretty out of it."

"I can handle that."

"Then, come on back."

Tony got up and walked with the doctor a hospital room. He was relieved to see that there was nothing to indicate serious injury, but Tim was still definitely not in the best shape.

"Agent McGee, you have a visitor."

Tim's eyes opened and he was definitely not quite all there.

Tony walked over and sat down by him.

"Hey, Tim."

Tim looked at him for a few seconds.

"Hey, Tony."

"How are you feeling?"

"Terrible."

"Serves you right. What were you thinking?"

Tim was silent for a few seconds. Then...

"I don't know."

Tony smiled.

"You're just a hero, Tim. What can you do?"

"I am?"

"Yeah."

"I feel terrible."

"You'll feel better later."

"Okay."

Another long silence. Then, Tim's brow furrowed.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"There was a girl. I heard her."

"She's fine. Scared but fine."

"She was S."

"She's not. Ahrendson is dead."

Tim appeared to give that due consideration. Then, he nodded.

"Okay."

Tony smiled.

"You're going to be fine, McGee. Just wait. By tomorrow, you'll be complaining about stuff again."

Tim gave a weary smile, although Tony wasn't sure that he'd actually understood everything.

Then, his eyes closed and he was asleep again. Tony looked at the doctor.

"Don't worry. He'll be sleeping a lot for the next few days. For now, we'll be waking him up every couple of hours to check on him. He's going to have to take it slow, but he'll recover. If you want to stay here, you can. It'll give him someone to lean on when he wakes up."

"Okay, but I have one other visit to make, first. Then, I'll be back."

"That's just fine."

Tony got up and walked to the ICU where Gibbs was still being kept. He got permission to go in and walked back to the bed.

"Hey, Boss," he said, softly.

Gibbs' eyes opened and he looked more alert than he had.

"Early, isn't it," he rasped.

"Yeah. It's over."

The eyebrow raise was heartening because it was exactly what Tony would have expected Gibbs to do with that kind of declaration.

"Ahrendson tried to make McGee into his T murder. He rigged a bomb in a building and lured McGee there."

"How?"

"He broke into my place and took me," Tony said, grimacing at remembering how he'd been taken so easily. "Dragged me there, and he'd also kidnapped a little girl. Susan. She was going to be his S, but he tried to get McGee to kill himself to save her and me. He tried to stop it, and he did, but he's been hurt pretty bad. Ahrendson is dead. He was standing too close to the bomb when it went off."

"Good," Gibbs said.

"Yeah, but now, we have to wait and see how things go for McGee. How about you?"

"Tired," Gibbs said. Even with how taciturn he usually was, this was pretty terse and Tony knew it was because of the damage to his throat tissue. He'd talked more before, but there were times when it hurt more than others. He was being very careful. He had a long road ahead of him, even now when he was starting to recover.

"I'll let you go back to sleep. I just wanted to let you know. It's over."

"Good," he said again and closed his eyes.

Tony left him to his sleep and went back to Tim's room. The others came later, with Abby fretting as usual. Tony had to go and give reports on everything that happened, but then, he came back, trying to be there as much as possible.

Tim started to recover after a few days. Gibbs still faced a long recovery, and there was damage that still needed healing. However, he was getting better which was a relief.

All in all, things were better than they had been, even if they weren't great.