Chapter 26

Tim slumped down and his eyes closed, all his energy spent. As he felt his body start to slide toward the ground, suddenly, there was an arm underneath his shoulders.

"I've got you, Tim. Don't worry. I've got you."

"Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I never get hit in the head again? Not even a tap, not even a Gibbs slap, please? I don't want anyone ever touching my head again."

There was a soft chuckle.

"I'll do my best."

"Good."

"But for now, you're going back to the hospital."

"I don't want to move anywhere," Tim said. "I'd rather just sit here, thanks."

"I don't care what you want, Probie. You're going. You shouldn't be here at all."

"Good thing I was," Tim said.

There was a pause.

"Yeah."

There was more silence, but Tim had to ask the question, even though his eyes were closed.

"Do you remember everything, now?"

"I don't know. ...I remember you... falling. I remember that day. I haven't... really tried going further yet. Too much else to do. I'll let you know. For now, just let me help you. You shouldn't have been here."

"Neither should you."

He felt Tony squeeze his shoulder.

"Hey, my partner was stupid and left the hospital to come here. Could someone get him back where he belongs?"

There was a chuckle that Tim thought was rather inappropriate under the circumstances, but he couldn't make himself do anything to protest.

"Sure. We'll need you here, though."

"I know. I'll just get him back there and then I'll be here. The owner of the bar knows me. Jack Barton."

Another pause.

"I have my ID," Tim whispered. "I can show you..."

He started to fumble for his badge.

"No. No need."

That was a new voice.

"Joel. I should have known you were part of the trouble."

"Hey, Langston. The name's Tony. Tony DiNozzo."

"So you're an Italian. I should have known."

Another laugh, but it was Tony.

"Only my name is Italian."

"About time you admitted it," Tim mumbled.

"Can you give us a ride back to the hospital, Langston? Tim really doesn't need to be here."

"Sure. No problem, but I expect some information when that's done."

"Promise."

"Okay."

"All right, Tim. Time to get up."

"Don't want to," Tim said, resisting Tony's arms lifting him.

"No options. You're going back to the hospital if I have to carry you myself."

"Promise?" Tim asked.

There was a sigh.

"Langston, can you help me out?"

"What happened?"

"He got beat up yesterday and nearly died about eight months ago."

"Eight months, huh."

"Yeah."

Then, there were two sets of hands lifting him and he couldn't resist that. Tim tried to open his eyes and he only got a glimpse of another man before his head dropped and his eyes closed again. The lids were far too heavy. All the energy that had carried him through leaving the hospital, riding in the taxi over here, and then running down the alley when he heard Ensign Thomas ready to kill Tony, it was all gone now. All he wanted was to curl up in a ball and never move again.

He was essentially carried to a car and then laid down on a seat.

"We'll get you there, never fear."

Tim felt the car starting to move and he just kept his eyes closed and waited for the ride to end. When it did, the door opened.

"Okay, Tim. Time to move."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, but we'll help."

"Okay."

He didn't move.

"Tim, you have to do something."

Tim sighed and pushed himself up and then started to tip toward the open door. Tony caught him.

"Whoa, there."

"Sorry."

Instead of having to walk, he was lowered to a wheelchair, which was great.

"Agent McGee, I told you that you wouldn't make it very far."

Tim forced his eyes open again and saw Dr. Bates. He managed to smile.

"I made it as far as I needed to."

"Let's get you into bed and I'm going to give you a full checkup. Then, you are to sleep and not get out of this bed until I let you go."

"Sounds wonderful."

Tony helped him out of the chair and into the bed. Dr. Bates checked him over and was grudgingly satisfied that, while Tim had worn himself out doing too much, he hadn't caused any new injuries. Then, it was quiet in the room and Tim's eyes were closed again. He thought Tony had left, but then, there was a hand on his arm.

"Tim?"

He forced his eyes open once more.

"Yeah?"

Tony looked very serious.

"None of this was your fault. I remember now. It's not your fault that you fell. You weren't doing anything wrong."

"I was... supposed to be your backup."

"Then, we failed each other, Tim, because you fell and I left you there."

"You thought I was dead."

"Yeah, and you probably wouldn't have fallen if I hadn't been pushing you to move faster than you were ready to."

"Doesn't matter."

"Whether or not it does, I don't care. Tim, I'm okay. You found me. And I'm amazed that you did. So now, take a break. Rest. I'm not going to run again."

"Gibbs is coming," Tim said and let his eyes close one final time.

"Okay. I'll be ready for him. You need to sleep. I can tell that you do."

The hand vanished from his arm. Tim reached out for a moment.

"Tony?"

"Yeah?"

Tim smiled. "You sounded really good. ...on the piano."

There was a laugh.

"Thanks, Probie."

Then, Tim fell asleep, amazingly comforted by Tony using that nickname.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony watched as Tim finally relaxed into sleep. He looked questioningly at Dr. Bates.

"He will be all right, but it'll take a few days. I didn't want to let him leave, but he wouldn't take no for an answer."

Tony smiled a little.

"Yeah. He can be really annoying like that. Could there be some security guarding him? This is part of a case and it's bigger than we thought it was."

"Of course. Now, what about you?"

"What about me?" Tony asked.

Dr. Bates raised an eyebrow. "I was informed that you have been suffering from some sort of memory loss."

"Oh. Well, it cleared up. I'm fine."

"Are you?"

"I'm... fine enough. I have to go and talk to the police about what just happened. No one else can do it at the moment."

Dr. Bates didn't seem convinced.

"Look... I haven't been... I didn't... know who I was, but it's coming back now, and what I remember tells me that I need to get this done before it's too late."

"What is too late?"

"I'm not sure of that, but this is really a big case. Way bigger than we thought it was when we started and I need to do my part for now... before I do anything else."

"No one else can?"

"Not right now, and I really think time matters."

"From what I've been told you are or were suffering from psychogenic amnesia, possibly in a fugue state, and that's not something you just throw off. It doesn't just clear up even if your memories are coming back. You could risk a relapse if you try to ignore it."

"Well, right now, I need to throw it off. Tim can't do it. I'm the only one who can until Gibbs gets here."

Dr. Bates looked at him for a long moment.

"All right. I won't fight you on this, but you need to come back here as soon as it's possible to do so."

"I will. I promise." He looked back at Tim asleep in the bed. "I'm his backup."

"Go, then. We'll take care of Agent McGee."

Tony nodded and left the room. He didn't like that it was obvious to Dr. Bates that he wasn't quite normal. The only reason Tim hadn't noticed was because he had been almost unconscious the whole time. Tony felt strange, almost as if he didn't fit in his own skin. It was like there was a tug of war going on in his brain between the Joel he'd become and the Tony he'd been before.

But no matter what else, right now, it was more important to get things taken care of as far as the case went. His mental status could wait. He hurried out of the hospital and was surprised to see that Langston was still there.

"I didn't realize you'd wait for me," Tony said.

"I thought you might appreciate a familiar face."

"I might. I don't know. Right now, everything is familiar and strange at the same time. You need me to go to your bosses?"

"No," Langston said. "What I didn't tell you before is that this thing is big enough that it's infected some of the districts here. I'm part of a task force that's been investigating drug dealing in this area. It started out just in Southern California, but over the last year, we started seeing that it was getting bigger and bigger."

"And maybe involving the Navy?"

"Yeah."

"That's what Tim and I were investigating... when everything went wrong."

"Go figure that we're trying to do the same thing. Anyway, I have a few guys I know I can trust. Do you?"

"Yeah. They're on their way here."

"Good." Langston nodded. "I'm not going to ask you what you have that these guys wanted so bad. Just in case. We just need to regroup."

"I need to report on what happened."

"I took care of that. Or rather, by the time you got back there, Jack will have taken care of that. He's vouching for you. The cops will need to talk to you, of course, but this is more important."

Tony nodded and tried not to be suspicious. Langston had done a lot for him without any reason before. He'd helped Tony with his groceries, for goodness' sake. But at the same time, Tony was having a hard time dismissing his feeling of being suddenly very exposed. Maybe he should just say so.

"Langston?"

"Yeah?"

"I have to admit that part of me is really worried about what you're going to do."

Langston glanced over at him.

"Why? You weren't before."

"No one knew about me before, about how I couldn't remember anything. Now, a lot of people do."

"You're feeling exposed?"

"Yeah."

"So... it wasn't an act? You weren't just pretending?"

"No. I wasn't. I'm not now, either."

Langston nodded and was quiet for a moment.

"You know... it's never been easy being a Black cop. I'm kind of stuck in the middle sometimes. Some of my family think I'm betraying my race by becoming a cop. Some of the white cops I work with think I'm not quite trustworthy." He laughed a little. "This might be the first time that someone isn't sure he trusts me and it's not because of my race one way or the other."

Tony chanced a smile. "You're welcome?"

Langston laughed again. "Tony, I swear I'm on the level with you. I get that you have to worry about this, but I'm not doing anything here but trying to make sure that this case can get solved."

"I'm trying to believe it," Tony said. "So where are we going?"

"To the Chief of Police. He's the one who first organized this task force and he needs to know just how big it's getting. We'll have him call your people in NCIS as well and make sure that they know this happening."

"Only Director Vance to start," Tony said. "We had some indications that at least one NCIS team is part of it, or at least a couple of case agents in Norfolk."

"Gotcha."

Then, Tony remembered what Tim had said about him.

"Oh, and...I don't know if this will come up, but at one point, apparently I was implicated as well."

Langston glanced at him for a moment.

"As far as I remember, I wasn't involved, and to me, it's ridiculous that anyone would ever think I would be involved in something like this. I'm not perfect, but I'm no crooked cop."

"You trust me, and I'll trust you," Langston said after a bit of awkward silence.

"Okay. I'll try."

The rest of the ride over was silent, but Tony felt very uncomfortable and edgy. He kept feeling for the flash drive in his pocket. And every time he felt the flash drive, he also touched the button from Tim's shirt. He kept remembering that moment. It was kind of unfortunate that, now he was remembering things, but it was the worst memory that came the most clearly. He'd rather not remember seeing Tim fall. Even though he knew Tim had survived it, his mind insisted that Tim had fallen to his death. It made him very tense. Things still felt out of balance to him.

He was starting to wish he'd stayed at the hospital until Gibbs came.