a/n - One more chapter after this one, then this story will be done. It's been a wild ride, thanks for sticking with me. The next two stories to be posted will be My Father's Keeper and Puppet Master. I'll warn you now, they both are dramatic, angsty stories. Stock up on tissues. Yes, I do have some lighter stories I'm working on, but deadlines come first. Enjoy.

The nagging question of if Gibbs was right was answered when they could see an old Chevy truck parked outside Kehoe's cabin and hear the sound of a generator running. Not knowing if McGee and his assailant were up in the main house or down in the hidden room, Gibbs cut the engine and let the Jeep coast as far as it could. Once they were almost to a stop, Gibbs and Ziva jumped out. Climbing over his Director delayed DiNozzo, but only by a few seconds. The two injured members of the task force were not going to be left behind, but they managed on their own as to not slow the rescue.

DiNozzo and David took the back door, kicking it in as soon as they heard Gibbs' yell at the front. The two doors hitting the walls at the same time reverberated through the house, but no reaction was heard. Gibbs went straight to the bedroom Tim had pointed out earlier, gun drawn, but it was empty and unused.

With Vance and Fornell taking up defensive positions behind them, the others converged on the closed trapdoor. At the count of three, Tony yanked the door open while Gibbs and Ziva leaned in, weapons first.

Faint sounds of a struggle could be heard, and Gibbs tore down the ladder, gun still at the ready. Ziva was on his heels, and Tony was only seconds behind her.

"Tim!"

Gibbs holstered his weapon as he rushed in. The two combatants were tangled together in a corner, the rope making it impossible to separate. "Easy, kid, it's over." He shoved Kehoe's hand away from McGee's face, but he couldn't gain any distance between them. "Ziva, get these cuffs off him." Before she could get close enough to do anything, Kehoe managed to elbow Gibbs hard before grabbing McGee around the throat. He used the momentum of both of both of them to rear back, slamming his head into Gibbs' face.

Ziva went down when Gibbs was knocked backwards. Tony tried to sidestep both of them as he moved to take out Kehoe, but there was no place to go. Shooting him in such close quarters would almost certainly mean a through and through, something he couldn't risk with McGee wedged in behind him. As Tony looked for an opening, Vance and Fornell stumbled down the ladder to join them.

The new arrivals distracted Kehoe for a split second, but that was all Tim needed. In a move born of both training and desperation, Tim used his hip to roll Kehoe up and over the cot Tim was tied to. He dropped to the floor as soon as Kehoe was airborne. The rope was still around Kehoe's neck, and while it nearly pulled Tim's shoulders out of their sockets, the effect was much more devastating to Kehoe as his body weight was hung by his neck.

Neither Gibbs nor Ziva bothered to get to their feet as they both scrambled to finally reach McGee. Gibbs wrapped his arms around Tim's shoulders, helping to take the pressure off them as Ziva finally got the handcuffs off of him.

Tim was gasping and shaking as he was finally freed from Kehoe and as soon as Gibbs pulled him close, he buried his face in the older man's jacket. Ziva reached to comfort him as well, but Tony pulled her back with one hand and held his other hand up to stop Vance and Fornell.

"Tony, let me..."

"DiNozzo..."

"Agent DiNozzo, he needs..."

"No." Tony's voice was loud in the crowded room and he saw Tim flinch, so he lowered his voice. "Nobody else touches McGee. Not now." He shook his head as he repeated what had been a private conversation, needing the rest of them to understand. "When he was a kid, the first time he was rescued from here," Tony paused and waved his arms around. "All he wanted for his dad to wrap his arms around him and tell him that it was going to be okay." He had a soft smile as he turned back to watch his surrogate kid brother and the man that was a father figure to them both. "That was all he wanted."

Vance was torn, but when he looked at the two men sitting on the floor, he knew DiNozzo was right. Gibbs had scooted back far enough to lean against the wall and had pulled Tim up onto his lap, the bowed head tucked under his chin as he softly talked to him. For his part, Tim seemed no longer aware of anything outside the circle of arms around him as his shoulders quietly shook.

Unsettled, and feeling like he was intruding, Vance moved to the other side of the cot to join Fornell as he watched Kehoe. The monster they all had come to loathe twitched one last time before his body stilled, the larynx crushed by the rope around his neck.

Fornell turned to him, his splinted arm still pressed tightly against his body. "Don't think I've ever enjoyed watching a final breath as much as that one before."

"Almost makes me want to give him CPR so I can watch it again." Vance's smile was grim enough that Fornell knew he wasn't joking.

The hidden room was soundproof, but the open trapdoor allowed them to hear their back-up arrive. As the most senior agent, Vance took it upon himself to greet them, rather than force Fornell to climb the ladder with his broken arm. He stood under the opening and yelled up to them.

"This is Director Vance with NCIS. The scene is secure, suspect is dead and we've got injuries." He stepped back as a portly man in a uniform came down the ladder followed by another half dozen deputies and several medics.

"Vance, I'm Sheriff Collins, it's nice to finally meet face to face. Is this the last scene? Because I don't mind telling you, between the body you folks left in the desert and the one at the old factory site and now here, my boys are stretched pretty thin." He walked over to peer down at Kehoe. "So which one of you fellows finally put this animal down? I'd like to shake his hand."

Tony and Ziva had set themselves up as guards to keep the arriving personnel away from Tim, but even the sound of the strange voice made his curl up even tighter against Gibbs. Tony caught Vance's attention and the Director immediately saw what the problem was. Kehoe's body was covered and all of the new arrivals except for the Sheriff and one medic retreated back upstairs.

The medic didn't move closer than Tony, but crouched down, trying to look harmless. Gibbs made eye contact with him for a moment before returning his attention to McGee. "Tim, we're going to get you checked out and then get you out of here whenever you're ready. What do you say to that?"

McGee didn't say anything, but he did shift enough to look up at Gibbs, finally with some awareness. Gibbs nodded as he, too, shifted to keep McGee comfortable in this new position.

"Agent McGee, since we don't know exactly how badly you've been injured, we're going to strap you down on a backboard to get you up above ground." The medic stood and prepared to leave for the equipment.

"No, please, I don't want to be tied down."

"Easy, easy, nobody is going to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"That's right, Buddy." Tony elbowed past the medic as he agreed with Gibbs. "You tell us how you want to do this."

"I want to walk out, but..." He looked down at his half naked body and blushed, pulling his knees further up against his chest.

"Easy fix, Probie." Tony turned to Ziva who was standing in back of him. He didn't even have to say anything. She nodded and rushed up the ladder to retrieve his clothes that they had found earlier.

Fornell and Vance were busy explaining to the Sheriff everything that had occurred that evening, filling in the large gaps from their earlier calls for assistance. Vance insisted that nothing be done with the body or any part of the crime scene until McGee was out of the basement and on his way to the hospital.

Vance found that his attention kept wandering back to the scene in the corner. Tim was quietly leaning back against Gibbs, still drawing strength from the older man. DiNozzo was closer now that Tim was communicating with them, but still not so close as to crowd him, sitting on the ground telling him some sort of story. Vance couldn't hear the soft words, but Tim was smiling slightly and nodding back.

In the back of the Jeep, Ziva quickly found the clothing they had stumbled onto near Doyle's body, but they were covered with sand and now damp from the night air. One of the deputies who had been in the basement came over with a gym bag.

"Ma'am, there's some clean sweats in here. It might be more comfortable for your man right now than jeans." He unzipped the bag and partially pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt to show her.

She took the offered bag. "Thank you, this will be easier for him." Bag in hand, all she took from the Jeep were McGee's shoes. After a brief conference with the medic waiting outside to let him know what McGee needed, she returned to climb down into the underground bunker.

"Tony, here." She handed him the sweatpants first and he grinned back at her before he turned to the pair on the floor.

With a minimum of speaking, Gibbs and Tony dressed Tim as if he were a child. Tony guided his feet into the pant legs as Gibbs lifted him up, and then as Gibbs continued to support Tim, Tony carefully brushed off as much of the grit from Tim's socks and straightened them before helping him into the shoes. As Tony tied Tim's shoes, he realized that the young man's shoulders and arms probably were in no condition right now to tug on a t-shirt, so he slipped his jacket off and put it on Tim.

Once dressed, Tim leaned back again against Gibbs, exhausted. It seemed a lifetime ago that he was having his check up, but it really had only been that afternoon. He wondered if they would be taking him to the same hospital and if the doctors there would yell at him for not taking it easy like ordered.

"Tim?" Gibbs lightly tapped him on the back of the head, forcing him to open his eyes. "If you're going to get up that ladder, then you need to stay awake for a few more minutes, okay?"

"Uh uh." Tim tried to get his feet under him and they lifted him as they stood. Once he was upright, with Tony on one side and Gibbs on the other, Tim started to the ladder. Part way there, he turned to look back at the sheet covered body. "I killed him, didn't I? I killed him with my bare hands."

"He gave you no choice, McGee, it was either him or you."

"The Boss is right, Probie, and we're all really glad it was you that made it out alive." Tony looked over at Gibbs, wondering how they were all going to fit through the trapdoor.

Gibbs knew what he was thinking, and turned to McGee. "Tony is going to go up the ladder first. So he'll be up there waiting for you. I"m going to support you on the ladder, and then I'll be right behind you. Now, are you ready?"

When Tim nodded, Tony scrambled up the ladder, ready for him. It took Tim much longer, but with Gibbs help, he made it to the top of the ladder. As promised, Tony was waiting for him, lifting him the rest of the way before wrapping him up in a hug that would have made Abby happy. "Grandpa would have been proud of you, Tim."

"Thanks, Tony... for everything."

Gibbs never broke contact as he came up just a step behind, ready when Tony transferred Tim back to him.

As per Ziva's instructions, the stretchers had been locked down and the attendants stepped back out of the way as Gibbs climbed in with Tim. Tony helped Tim balance from the other side until he was up the steps and sitting on the edge of one of the stretchers, then he turned to help Vance.

Vance gave him a long look before nodding. "The four of you work well together, DiNozzo. I was glad to see that."

"Does that mean you won't break us up again?"

"It was never a punishment and it was never meant to be permanent, but at the time it was necessary. Now, you and David officially hand over the crime scene to the locals and meet us at the hospital."

Tony grinned as he gave Vance a boost up. "With Ziva driving, we'll probably beat you there." He watched as the medic from the basement helped Fornell into the front seat of the ambulance, then pulled out his phone to follow the last instruction Gibbs had given him as they'd gotten Tim up out of the basement.

It only rang once on the other end before excited chatter could be heard. "He's safe, Abby. It's over."