AN: Sorry it took forever. Typos pre-apologized for. Enjoy!

*~.~*

Three weeks went by without event. Gideon remained securely imprisoned, and life seemed to go on like normal. Two cases had run through the MCRT and been solved. Everything was as usual, and even Tony seemed not to have any issues with his abilities, nor a need to use them in a while.

Their Tuesday morning began fairly routinely. They were working cold cases, longing for something else to come in. Ziva had brought coffee and doughnuts, and was in a cheery mood no one could quite place, but no one was complaining, either.

Things were so slow, McGee offered to go pick up lunch for the team, and Gibbs sent Tony along with him since the senior field agent was starting to go a bit stir crazy and he was afraid the kid would pop if he didn't get outside for a while. Tony happily agreed and the two had gone to pick up burgers from a nearby diner.

They were on the way back to the office, talking casually about one of the cold case files they'd been reading into that day, when Tony's head starting doing that buzzy achy thing it did right before a full-blown migraine. Tim knew right away, before the pain started to kick in, just by how Tony had started to get a bit fuzzy in his thoughts.

"You okay, Tony?" he asked, concerned as he glanced away from the road to look at his partner.

"I uh...I dunno..." Tony shook his head as if to clear it.

"Okay I'm pulling over," Tim decided, seeing a gas station up ahead.

"No, it's...it's okay..."

"No, it's not," Tim replied. "Just keep talking to me, alright?" he told him as he pulled into the thankfully empty lot, grateful that the store was open.

"McGee...I...I think..."

"Yeah, I know," Tim replied as he cut the engine and turned toward Tony's quickly crumbling stature. He pulled off his own seatbelt before doing the same for Tony, and as the older man began to fold in on himself, whimpering against the pain, Tim pulled him over against his chest, supporting him through the onslaught of whatever was about to flash through his head.

What he hadn't expected was the sudden scream-like sound that came through gritted teeth, and Tony's hand grasping onto one of Tim's arms that was wrapped around the front of him. This was a bad one. And it had been a while since anything like this had happened, and the intensity of it had him worried.

"Sir, is he okay? You need me to call an ambulance?" the store owner had been sweeping up the mat at the front door when he heard and saw the distressed agent.

"It's a migraine attack," Tim replied. "They can't do anything for it. But it should be over in a minute," he tried to remain calm.

"Can I get you something?" he looked nervous.

"Milk. Whole milk, please. I'll pay you when-"

"It's okay. I'll be right back," he hurried off into the store, and Tim returned his full attention to the suffering man in his arms.

Just a minute had gone by before the owner was back out with a quart of while milk, handing it through the open window. "What's it for?" he asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"It helps him. When he comes out of it, it helps him for some reason," he explained.

"Oh... Well, if you need anything else, let me know. We're not busy, and I'll keep an eye out the door."

"Thanks," Tim replied, putting the carton in the cup holder. It seemed like an eternity, but it was just a couple of minutes later that Tim felt Tony's body ease up the tension some. The SFA groaned as he stirred back into reality. "Tony, you with me?" he asked.

"Guh..." Tony pushed himself up, slowly, hands moving to cover his eyes.

"Here," McGee picked up the milk and opened it, handing it to his partner, who willingly accepted. "Tony?" his concern grew when he saw tracks of tears on the agent's face as he chugged the entire contents of the container. He gave him a few moments, waiting for him to catch his breath and get himself together. "Tony, what'd you see?"

Tony turned to him, opening his eyes. "I..." he swallowed around the lump in his throat, feeling unable to continue the statement. "We need to get back," he said and his eyes moved somewhere into the air between them.

Tim furrowed his brow for a moment, then nodded. "Okay." He moved to put on his seat belt and start the car.

"We need to get back, right now," Tony said more urgently.

"Okay, I'll get us there, fast, alright?" he assured him, glancing from the road to his partner as her tore out of the lot. "But can you tell me what you saw and why we need to hurry back?"

Tony looked a bit distressed as he shook his head, "I can't let it happen. I gotta stop it..."

"Stop what?"

"Can't let Gibbs leave..."

"Why, Tony? What happens? What'd you see?" he grew more nervous by the moment.

"Jolie Simon," he replied.

"The...the witness in our cold case?" Tony nodded. "What about her?"

"We go to talk to her today."

"And?"

"And...she kills Gibbs..." he said, then turned slowly to look at Tim, eyes glassy from the memory of the vision.

Tim pressed down harder on the gas...

*~.~*

"I believe she may know more than what she led on," Ziva told Gibbs after looking into one of the witnesses in the cold case they'd been going through.

Gibbs looked at the information she'd handed to him, then looked up at her, thinking for a moment. "DiNozzo and McGee will be back soon with lunch. Witness doesn't live far from here. I'll go bring her in. Shouldn't take long."

"Are you sure you do not want me to come with you?"

"Just a witness, Ziva," he said as he stood and grabbed his badge and weapon. "Be back in twenty." He headed to the elevator, taking it down to the parking garage. The trip to the witness's house didn't take long, with his driving.

He parked in front of the house and got out just as his cell rang. Checking the ID before he answered, he saw that it was Tony calling. But as he pressed the side button to answer the call, the phone twisted awkwardly in his hand and it went crashing to the asphalt. Sighing, he bent down to pick it up, checking for damage and realizing the screen was now cracked.

"Great," he sighed, attempting to get the dial screen to come up anyway to no avail. He shoved it in his pocket and made a mental note to requisition a new one when he got back to the office, and headed toward the house...

*~.~*

"He has gone to bring in one of the witnesses from the cold case," Ziva told Tony over the phone.

"Ziva, we need the address, now!" he shouted on the other line. "Gibbs is in danger!"

"How would you..." she stopped mid-thought, realizing now how he would know. "Not far from here. I'll text you the address and meet you there..."

*~.~*

"Jolie Simon?" Gibbs asked when the front door cracked open and a woman's face appeared in the small opening.

"Who wants to know?" she asked in a small voice.

Gibbs pulled out his badge. "Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS," he informed her. "I'd like to bring you back to the office. We have a few questions for you about the Shaddon murder case."

"Can't leave," she told him, quickly. "Can't leave my Mama here alone, Agent Gibbs."

Gibbs cocked his head a bit. "Then maybe I can ask you right here, Miss Simon. Mind if I come inside?"

Jolie looked at him skeptically for a long moment. "Can I see that badge again?" she asked.

"Sure," he told her, calmly, pulling the badge back out and holding it up closer to her.

She looked at it long and hard, then turned her gaze back to Gibbs. "Shaddon was murdered years ago," she said. "Why're y'all comin' around askin' questions again?"

"We just want to make sure we didn't miss anything."

"I told you everything I know; everything I saw."

"But the agents working the case back then might've failed to document it all," Gibbs told her. "You want us to catch the killer, don't you?"

"It's been over a decade, Special Agent Gibbs," she spat. "You haven't caught them yet. What makes you think anything I have to say will change that fact?"

"Truth is, in might not," Gibbs raised a brow. "But I won't know that until I can hear the story straight from you."

Jolie stared at him once again, seeming to think that over. Then she closed the door and Gibbs could hear the chain being taken off its track before the door clicked back open. "Quiet, now," she told him. "Don't wanna wake up Mama."

Gibbs nodded and waited for her to open the door all the way, to step in. He got a strange feeling in his gut once he crossed over the threshold. But he chalked it up to the place looking like it hadn't seen the light of day since the seventies. Olive green shag carpeting, gold-yellow furniture, antique-framed photographs lining the shelves. Even a television that Gibbs recognized as something he'd seen as a kid. The house looked like some dying version of a family sitcom from his childhood. It smelled musty, and there was a layer of dust on every surface of the house.

"Have a seat," Jolie motioned toward the couch. "Would you like some tea? I was making some before you got here."

"Sure," he accepted, just to be polite and break the ice a bit. He cautiously sat on the couch, almost afraid it'd crumble beneath him. He watched the small middle-aged woman walk over to the cupboard to pull out an extra tea cup. He glanced around the room for another few moments until she came in with the tea. "Thank you," he said as he took his cup from her. "Can you tell me what you remember from that day?" he asked, wanting to get the show on the road.

"Well, it was a long time ago," she began, glancing toward the staircase. "But I remember it like it was yesterday..." She began to explain how she'd been walking home from the store alone that night, and heard a fight in the alley where Shaddon's body was found. She'd stopped and stood back against the wall, afraid to be seen once she heard the gun shot. She'd hid in a doorway to the adjacent apartment building and waited. Then she saw a man running away. "He was very tall; over six feet. It was dark, but I'm fairly certain he was a black man. He was wearing a brown leather jacket and black pants. He had a gun in his hand as he was running away. Once he was out of sight, I rang the buzzer to the apartment and told them to call an ambulance; that someone had been shot. I waited for them to show up."

"Did you see Shaddon's body?" Gibbs asked.

"Only after they put him on the gurney," she replied. "It's when I knew he was dead."

"Hm," Gibbs nodded, knowing the woman was lying. "You told our agents that you'd gone into the alley after the man ran away," he countered, calmly. "That you checked his pulse and he was dead before they got there."

"Oh," Jolie looked down for a moment. "I must've mixed it up in my head since then."

"And you were the only one to hear the shots fired," he continued. "Kinda strange when it was right beside an apartment building, don't you think?"

She met his eyes, then, and he saw something change in them. "I suppose," she said, setting her cup down on the coffee table. "Excuse me a moment, Agent Gibbs. I need to use the restroom."

Gibbs simply nodded and watched her head out of the room. He set his cup down quietly and stood from the couch, taking another look around while Jolie was gone. He realized there was a bedroom door just barely cracked open off of the living room by the bottom of the staircase, and his gut was drawing him toward it.

He cautiously walked to the door, looking back to make sure Jolie wasn't in sight, and listening for signs of her being done in the bathroom. He pushed the door open slowly, and was hardly prepared for the sight before him. Jolie has said her mother was sleeping. But it was obvious that her mother was long dead. If Tony were there, he'd mention that movie with the hotel and the murderer...Psycho, the name came to him.

The cock of a gun sounded behind him, and he straightened up and turned around. Jolie had a revolver pointed at him, and he could see from there that it was fully loaded.

"You shouldn't have gone snoopin'," she told him.

Gibbs held his hands off to the sides of him. "Let's talk about this, Jolie," he told her, calmly.

"Nothin' to talk about, Agent Gibbs. You seen what you shouldn't have and now you're a problem for me. You'll have to go."

"Just think about what you're doing," he told her. "You kill me, you think I won't be missed? You think no one knows where I am right now?" They both heard when a car came screeching up the road. "What'll you do, Jolie? When you kill me, what do you think will happen?"

"I don't need no advice from you," she spat.

Something clicked in Gibbs' head, then. "You killed Shaddon, didn't you?" he narrowed his eyes. "You killed him right here, in this house, for seeing that your mother was dead. That would've ruined the scam you've got going, wouldn't it? You've been collecting your dead mother's social security for over a decade, and Shaddon was a threat to that, so you killed him. Then you dragged him into the alley in town and acted like it had nothing to do with you. You'd have gotten away with it, too..."

"No one suspected me," she hissed. "Why'd you have to go...snoopin' around?!" she frantically waved her gun.

And suddenly McGee was bursting through the door, Tony right behind him, and Gibbs was yelling for them to stop as the rapid gunfire came from every direction. He felt a spray of blood on his face, making him flinch and blink. And when he opened them again, he saw Jolie fall dead to the floor, and realized that both of his agents were already down.

"Tim!" Tony was shaking, turning around on the floor to face his injured partner. They'd both been shot. Tony in the stomach, and Tim in the side of the neck, and Tony scrambled to cover it tightly with his hand as he scooped the younger agent in his lap. "Tim, you're gonna be okay," he told him, cupping the other side of his face in his free hand and meeting his pained eyes. He looked away only once, to glance up at Gibbs who the house phone to his ear shouting for paramedics.

"T-Tony..." Tony's eyes shot right back down to Tim's. "W-we saved...Gibbs?"

"Gibbs is fine," he told him. "And you're gonna be fine, Tim, okay?"

"N-not y-your f-f-fault..." he shook, his face becoming pale from the blood loss, only prolonged by Tony's hand as he felt it flowing through his fingers anyway.

Tony shook his head," You're not gonna die, you hear me? You can't. I can't..." Tim's hand reached up and held weakly onto Tony's arm. And their eyes held until Tim's last breath, when his grip loosened completely, and his arm fell back to the floor. "No," Tony shook his head. "No!" he shouted, pulling McGee to his chest, feeling the warmth of his own blood leaving his body, and it was the only thing he felt besides the rage and devastation as he held to Tim with every ounce of strength in his body.

Gibbs hand dropped from where it held his phone to his ear as he looked at his agents. He couldn't remember ever seeing Tony so horrified, and he knew McGee was dead in his SFA's arms. Gibbs felt his knees go weak. All of this...for this suspect he was just supposed to bring in.

He took the few steps it took to get to Tony's side and dropped down beside him, realizing that he was bleeding pretty badly. But as he reached out to touch him, something happened. At first he thought Tony's body was getting ready to heal itself. But this was different. Tony screamed out, not in agony, but in anguish, and something began to almost glow from him, and he watched his body begin an unearthly quake. Gibbs was frozen where he knelt, helpless as he watched this all happen.

Then something unexpected happened. McGee was suddenly gulping in air, back arching with the effort, and as his eyes opened, Gibbs would've sworn they were glowing for the briefest of moments. McGee was alive...

And then Tony was limply falling back into the floor, unconscious. Not healing. Bleeding heavily from the gunshot wound in his stomach.

Gibbs was sprung back into action, tearing off his over shirt and pressing it to the wound. "Tony!" he shouted. "Tony, stay with me!"

tbc...