She eventually convinces him to leave. She finds herself alone in a hospital room connected to an IV. She stares at the clock on the wall in the dimly lit room. She hears a knock on the door, and a nurse in navy colored scrubs enters the room. She flips on the light, and nearly blinds Sarah. She drags a vitals machine behind her. She smiles from ear to ear, and approaches the bed with a chipper attitude.
"Is it okay if I check your vital signs?"
"Sure," Sarah agrees. She watches at the nurse slaps a blood pressure cup on her arm. The cuff inflates, and she waits impatiently for it to be over.
"Your husband left?" The nurse comments.
"My husband?" She furrows her brow.
"The gentleman who was here with you earlier," the nurse responds.
"He's not my husband."
"Oh."
"We're not together."
"Okay."
She finishes checking Sarah's vital signs, and turns towards the door. Halfway there she stops, and spins back around.
"If you need anything, let me know," she tells her.
"Okay," Sarah agrees.
The nurse leaves the room, and Mac finds herself alone again. She sighs, and adjusts the blanket over her. She wears a blue and white hospital gown. Her glance shifts to her abdomen. She reaches for the bed controller, and lowers the head of the bed. She turns off the light, and closes her eyes in an attempt to get some sleep.
He stands in the now empty reception hall. The tables, and chairs have been cleared out, and the crime scene has been secured. He stares at the ground. He thinks about how differently tonight could have ended. The General could have left in a body bag instead of an ambulance dead, instead of alive with minor injuries.
He swallows hard. Alive, and pregnant. He furrows his brow in confusion. He tries to wrap is head around the idea. It certainly wasn't something that he had expected. None of it seems to make sense. Mac seems calculated, and meticulous. From what he knows about her he can tell that she's a planner.
The idea of her getting pregnant so soon after the death of her husband just doesn't seem right. He reminds himself that he wasn't present to see the relationship between them. He can't know the intricacies of their relationship, or why she would choose not to use his sperm to create a second child.
He runs his fingers through his hair. So whose sperm had she used? A donor? A random stranger? Had the conception occurred naturally? The more he thinks about it the more confused he becomes.
What about Izzy? His subconscious screams at him. She hadn't given birth to the girl. She couldn't, he reminds himself. She told him she couldn't carry a child. Scientific evidence, and medical records reflected this statement to be true. So how could that all change?
Maybe she was trying to conceive a second child before Harmon was killed. He shakes his head, dissatisfied with that answer. She said it wasn't Harmon's baby. Why would she try to bring another child into the world, if she was going through a divorce? Why would she continue after his death, and choose to be a single parent to two children?
"Boss," Tim clears his throat.
He returns to reality, "Yeah?"
"It's late. We're done here. You should go home."
"Yeah," he nods.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine," he lies.
"Is this about the General?"
"No."
"Really?" He arches an eyebrow.
"What would make you think that it is?"
"You've been standing there, staring at floor where she was shot for the past twenty minutes."
"I was just thinking," he admits.
"Is she okay?"
"Just a little banged up. I am certain that she's seen worse."
"For the record she knew we were here," he adds.
"How do you know?"
He grins, "She winked at me earlier."
"McGee you should go home."
"Boss one more thing."
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to tell her?"
His face puckers, "Tell her what?"
"That you have feelings for her. I know that it's none of my business, but…"
He cuts him off, "You're right, it's none of your business."
"You should tell her."
Weeks go by, and Mac reluctantly begins to settle into retirement. She's in the living room picking Izzy's toys up off the floor one night before bed. Izzy has already been asleep for nearly an hour, and Mac is already wearing her pajamas. She wears a matching pair of pink pajamas. She's tossing toys into the toy box when the sound of someone knocking on her door grabs her attention. She glances at the clock, even though she already knows what time it is, and heads towards the door.
She stops at the door, and looks out the peephole. She finds an NCIS agent standing on the other side of the door. She furrows her brow, and considers pretending to not be home. The only light on downstairs is a lamp in the living room.
"Mac?"
She feels a knot forming in the pit of her stomach as she unlocks the door, and pulls it towards her.
"What are you doing here?" She questions.
"Can I come in?" He responds.
She nods, stepping aside, and allowing him to enter the house. She closes the door behind him.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I just stopped by to check on you," he admits.
"I'm fine. My bruise is healed, and my head has finally stopped throbbing."
"Good."
"How did your interrogation go?"
"He confessed," Gibbs reveals.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're here to interrogate me?"
"Something that I couldn't seem to make sense of," he answers.
"What's that?"
"Your estranged husband died a few months ago, and you decide to have a child?"
"You think that I'm crazy?"
He shakes his head, "I think that you're a marine."
"What is your point?"
"It seems out of character," he admits, scrutinizing her facial expression, and body language.
"Life is full of out of character moments."
"Like the out of character moment you had with me?" He raises an eyebrow.
"What are you asking me, gunny?"