Epilogue
Three months later...
Tim stared at himself in the bathroom mirror as he straightened his tie. He'd been waiting for this day to come, and now that it was here, he wasn't sure that he wanted to go through with it.
The past few months had been rocky, but he was finally starting to feel like the Tim McGee he once was, and that made him feel good.
If only he could get through today.
A knock on his door brought him away from his thoughts. He quickly finished with his tie and went to open the door for Gibbs.
"Are you ready to go, McGee?"
"Just about," he said as he pulled on his shoes.
"You don't have to do this, you know," Gibbs said as Tim put on his coat.
"I have to do this. For closure."
Gibbs nodded his approval, and they left the apartment.
The drive was long and silent. Two hours later, they pulled up to the Penitentiary where Damien Blake would be executed that morning, by lethal injection. They showed credentials in order to be let inside, and they parked the car and went in by way of the visitor center.
Gibbs let the guard know why they were there, and in ten minutes, the Warden himself was leading them through the penitentiary, toward death row and the execution room. Tim tried to be stoic like his Boss, and ignore the hooting and swearing coming from the cells as they walked through the jail.
The prisoners in Death Row were quieter than Tim expected. He and Gibbs were lead into a small room, equipped with several chairs, and a side table, with nothing on it but a box of tissue. They took their seats and waited quietly.
They waited for a half-hour, before the curtain on the observation window was pulled back. Damien Blake was strapped to a table that looked like one of Ducky's autopsy tables. There were two IV lines running into his arms.
Tim watched as an IV drip started in one of the lines. About 30 seconds later, Blake was unconscious.
"Pentobarbital," Gibbs explained. "Knocks him right out before step two."
Tim kept his eyes on Blake as the second injection was administered. Gibbs explained to him that it was a muscle relaxant, designed to paralyze the prisoner.
When the muscle relaxant had finished its job, Tim saw a third and final drug coming through the tube. He didn't need Gibbs to tell him that it was potassium chloride.
He watched quietly as the drug was administered, and they waited for the inevitable to happen.
It took ten minutes for Damien Blake's heart monitor to flat line. Tim watched as the prison Doctor came in and performed a check on the prisoner. Tim saw him consult his watch, and he knew it was over.
Damien Blake was dead.
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Are you ready to leave?" Gibbs asked gently.
Tim stood up as the prison officials prepared Blake's body to be removed from the execution room.
"Yeah. I'm ready. Let's go."
They left the execution room, and a prison guard led them outside to their car.
Tim didn't look back as they drove away.
END