Abby looked as unhappy as he felt as she climbed out of her car to join him. He wondered if she had any details. "Any idea what's up?"
She slammed the car door hard before walking over to him. "You mean besides the fact that Palmer is acting like he's in charge of the Agency, ordering us here two hours early? He didn't tell you either?"
Tony raked his hand through his hair. A cryptic phone call had woken him way before his alarm was set to ring with Palmer telling him to be at the Yard by 0600, Tony reacting automatically to the authoritative tone in his voice. "Come on, let's just get it over."
They both signed in and went down to the basement. Palmer was waiting for them with a snow shovel and a stack of clothes. "You guys have any breakthrough about McGee last night?"
"If we said yes, could we go back home for a couple of hours? Come on, Palmer, we talked about this yesterday. McGee did everything he could, it just wasn't enough."
"But you've still got this nagging little voice telling you that you could have done more, right?"
He didn't get an answer, but Tony's eyes flickered over to look at Abby for a split second. Her jaw was set and she was glaring at Palmer.
"Okay, let's prove it."
"What?" Tony turned his attention back to Palmer just in time to catch the jeans and sweatshirt that was tossed at him. A heavy canvas coat with a thick lining came next.
"Let's recreate the scene, that's what we do, right? That way we'll know exactly how easy it would have been to save Jackson. Isn't that right, Abby? After all, if a day of thinking about it hasn't changed your mind, maybe seeing it with your own eyes will."
Despite his inner doubts, Tony didn't want to do this. "Palmer, I don't..."
"What's the matter, Tony, chicken?"
Cornered, Tony stormed into the small room Palmer and Ducky used as a dressing room. When he came out Abby was drawing a diagram on Jackson's property on the white board while Jimmy supervised. Jimmy looked up and handed another marker to Tony. "Make any changes you think it needs and write down all the measurements you can remember."
Tony closed his eyes for a moment as he pictured Jackson's house and property, then opened them to study Abby's drawing. It was pretty close, but he changed a few details and starting writing down the distances between the various landmarks. "There, now what?"
"Okay, so if the snow from here to here was dug out, how man cubic feet of snow would that be?"
Abby looked at their drawing. "It depends on how deep it was."
"Deeper than it is here – almost double." Jimmy handed the shovel to Tony. "Consider that a gift. I figure from the service exit door to the north end of the building would be about equal to the distance Tim dug, even it it's only half as deep."
"And then what?" Tony threw the shovel down onto the floor. "What the hell is this going to prove?"
In answer, Jimmy pulled the sheet back off of one of the tables to show the CPR dummy they used in training. "Then we'll see just how long you could keep it up."
"Fine." Tony scooped the shovel back up and stormed out. He couldn't even express why he was so angry all of a sudden. Outside, he started shoveling. By the time he was at the end of the building, he'd burned through his anger along with his energy. "Okay, I get it."
"Body's on the floor, Tony. Clock's ticking." Palmer was standing there with a stopwatch. "You're the expert, right?"
Groaning, Tony lumbered back to the door, wondering why he hadn't jumped down Abby's throat in the beginning instead of letting her get to him. Once inside Autopsy, he peeled off his coat and dropped down to his knees. Palmer gave him a funny look at the deviation, but didn't say anything as Tony shook his head. "No point in giving myself heat stroke just to make the point, Palmer."
Before he could start, Palmer tossed a small notebook on the other side of the DPR dummy. "There's your phone, remember that you have to be talking to the 911 dispatch at the same time."
"Shit." Tony struggled with getting his rhythm started as he leaned closer to the notebook. He started to rattle off the required information, then faltered as he saw that the actual transcript was printed out for him. Knowing it was exactly what Jimmy wanted from him, he read off Tim's exact words as Jimmy played the part of the dispatcher.
"911, police, fire or medical?"
"Medical, I need a bus, I think he's had a heart attack." Tony was finding it very hard to talk as he worked.
"You're calling from a cell phone, sir. I need an address."
"What?" Tony looked up at Palmer. "The address?"
"Figure it out, clock's ticking." Palmer held up the stopwatch as Abby started crying behind them.
"I don't know." Tony could feel the panic building as the CPR dummy beeped a warning that he wasn't giving enough pressure on the chest plate. "I can't talk and do this, Palmer."
"Then just do the CPR and we'll listen to the recording, okay?" Jimmy pulled a small tape player out of his pocket and turned it on.
Is someone giving the victim CPR?
"I am." They could hear him panting and struggling to speak
Are you alone with the victim?
"Yes! Three... four... five... How soon?"
ETA on the ambulance is fifteen minutes, sir. Local officers have been notified.
"Are they coming?"
ETA unknown, sir.
"Damn it, we need help now."
Hearing the panic in McGee's voice made it real and gave Tony a burst of energy. It seemed like forever before the dispatcher came back.
We're checking, sir.
Another seemingly long wait before a different voice came on the line.
All right, son, how you doing? My name is Daniel and we're going to get you through this. Now, what's your name.
"Tim, I'm Tim. We need help."
We know, son. Sheriff Gantry is on his way, but he's way out on the north side of town, almost to Maple Grove. It's going to take him a while to get through the snow. One of his deputies is trying to get back from Waterton. They're the only two on duty today, Tim.
More time passed. Tony had all but given up on the rescue breathing to focus on the compressions.
"Where's the damn ambulance?"
We're trying to raise them now, Tim. Hold on.
Tony's compressions slowed down and his head dropped as he imagined the scene. His arms were already burning and the few minutes of rescue breathing he'd done left him too winded to do more than whisper. Hearing the almost sub-vocal count the recording barely picked up told him of the determination of his partner. "I can't do any more."
"Tony!"
He had to take a few deep breaths before he could answer her. "No, Abby. I can't. Maybe a few more minutes, but not enough to do any good. I couldn't have saved him either." God, those words hurt to say. He dropped onto his butt and scooted back far enough to lean against the nearest table. Abby joined him and buried her face in his shoulder and cried as they listened to the rest of the recording and Palmer calmly counting off how much time had lapsed.
"Fifteen minutes."
"Eighteen minutes." Abby started crying harder.
"Twenty minutes." Tony gave up trying to blink back the tears.
"Where's the damn ambulance?"
We're trying to raise them now, Tim. Hold on.
They could hear some muffled noises in the background and obviously Tim had heard them, too.
"What? What's happening? How much longer?"
The ambulance went off the road and rolled. We're going to try to...
They could hear the near panic in his voice. "No! He needs help now. How long for another ambulance?"
There's been a multi-car pile up on Interstate Eighty. All the other ambulances in the area are there, but we're trying to reroute one now. Just stay calm, Tim, you're doing fine.
"He's not! Please..." They could tell that Tim was struggling physically at this point. "You have to help us."
You're inside the house? Can you see anyone outside? Do you know any of the neighbors?
"No, no one. I... I don't live here, I don't even know who to find."
Okay, Tim, I'm going to try and get the Sheriff on another line. Just hang on.
"Yeah, sure." They could hear Tim counting to himself, no longer the sub-vocalization from earlier. Tony suspected that he was struggling to keep the count straight as the obvious exhaustion was beginning to overwhelm him. Listening to round after round, Tony wanted to reach through the recorder and stop Tim from hurting himself any further.
Sheriff's close, Tim. He'll be there in a few minutes. Listen for his siren. Tell me when you hear it.
"Yeah, okay."
Time seemed to stand still for Tony as he listened to McGee's continuing struggle to keep Jackson alive.
"I hear it, I hear a siren."
"Please tell me that Gantry made him stop."
Jimmy turned off the audio player and sat down next to them. "He couldn't. Tim wouldn't listen to anyone about giving up. They carried Jackson out to the Sheriff's truck and Tim went right back to performing CPR." Now that they were ready to really listen, Palmer explained everything that had happened on the trip to Berwick right up through McGee's collapse after calling Ducky, giving them more detail than Dr. Mallard had earlier.
"Is McGee going to be all right?"
Palmer didn't answer Tony's question right away, which alarmed Abby and she finally looked up. "Jimmy?"
Sighing, Jimmy told them what he could. "He's showing a few symptoms that suggest he might be developing some complications. Dr. Mallard is running a couple of tests today and he's going to send him for a set of x-rays."
Tony tried to read the expression on Palmer's face. "What kind of complications?"
"He's got a cough starting. Heat stroke can damage both the lungs and the kidneys and either one could cause a cough."
"Why would the kidneys be causing a cough?"
Abby answered before Jimmy could. "Because if his kidneys are shutting down, the excess fluid would be collecting around his heart and his lungs. The damage to his ribs..."
"Affects his ability to breathe deeply and makes any possible problem worse." Jimmy gave her a nod. "Yeah, Dr. Mallard is worried about it."
Tony was still trying to read Palmer's expression and not liking what he was picking up. "You're worried, too."
"Yeah, I did some research last night after I talked to Dr. Mallard. Something that was kinda weird..."
"Weird how, Jimmy?" The fear was slowly building up in Abby's voice.
"Okay, it was just one research paper, but..."
"But?"
"A hospital in Chicago tracked all of the heat stroke patients they had in a year and most of them eventually developed permanent problems."
"But the rest were okay, right?"
Tony's question hit at the heart of the matter. "No, Tony, they died."
"Oh, God."
Abby shook her head. "Numbers, Jimmy. I need numbers."
He could still see the numbers when he closed his eyes. "Fifty-eight original victims, twelve died after they'd been released from the hospital – most in the first three months. All the rest showed some level of brain or nervous system disorder. Half developed kidney problems or blood clots and about ten percent had something go wrong with their lungs."
Abby was just staring at Palmer, but Tony needed more information. "Why isn't he still in the hospital?"
"There's nothing they can do. We just have to wait and see what happens."
"Wait and see? Wait and see?" The realization was on Abby's face, it was apparent that she finally knew she'd screwed up. "No, we have to do something."
-NCIS-
Once again, Gibbs woke feeling more comfortable and content than he probably had the right to be under the circumstances. He laid still for the moment, enjoying the feel of Tim nestled against him. He'd taken his t-shirt off last night and he reveled in the feel of Tim's lips against his skin. Without conscious thought his hand started to trace random circles on Tim's back and he was rewarded a moment later with a gentle kiss to his chest.
"Didn't mean to wake you."
"It's okay, I can't think of a better way to wake up." Tim tilted his head up to smile at Gibbs.
They'd done no more than some kissing and heavy petting the night before, but he felt more connected to Tim than he'd felt to any one in a very long time. "Yeah, me either." He brushed his lips across Tim's before shifting them both in order to get up. "I think Ducky wants to take some samples this morning. I'll go find out what the game plan is before you get up, okay?"
a/n - Yeah, that's a real research study I found. I'm obsessive like that.
