Chapter 8

Tim struggled to open his eyes, wondering what was going on. He hurt and nothing was really clear to him. Had that man got him? Was he dead? Maybe he could ask someone.

"'m I dead?" he mumbled.

"No, Agent McGee, you're not dead."

"Whre'm I?"

"Almost to the hospital. I thought you'd be out until we got there."

"Out? Whre?"

There was a chuckle.

"Just relax, Agent McGee. We're almost there and the doctors will take good care of you."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Okay."

Tim tried to let himself relax. As soon as he did, everything went dark again.

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

Abby was looking through the pictures that were on Tim's computer. Since Tony had told her that they'd found Tim and they just needed to know why someone was after him. She wasn't sure why Tim had been taking photos of random rundown places, but there sure were a lot of them. Most didn't have any people in them, or the people were so far away that there was no way they could be identified. Why would anyone be thinking that Tim was taking pictures of them?

She kept scanning through, but she kept thinking that this just didn't make sense. It didn't make sense that Tim was taking these pictures. It didn't make sense that someone was after him because of them. Then, she got to the last pictures. She couldn't tell where Tim was, but there were three people all grouped together. They weren't close to Tim, but they were in focus. The picture was a good quality one and Abby thought she might be able to zoom in on those people and see who they were.

It took only a few minutes to get a fairly good look at the people in the photo. Three men. Abby didn't recognize them, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. So she fed the images into the database and set it scanning. Maybe they'd come up.

"That's good enough, isn't it?" she asked aloud. "I should be able to be done now, right? So I can go and see how Tim is doing. The work day is over and the computer can work on its own. Yes, I'm convinced."

Decision made, Abby signed out, gathered her stuff and began the drive to Baltimore to see how Tim was doing after his brush with death.

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

It had taken time, but Gibbs and Tony were finally able to get to the hospital to check on Tim. Abby was on her way, and it would be better if they could find out what was going on before Abby showed up in all her frenetic glory. BPD was holding the man they'd arrested, who was unwilling to give his name thus far, and the injured man had been taken to the hospital under police guard. Everything was kind of in a holding pattern and that meant there was time to see how Tim was doing.

They went to the front desk.

"We're looking for Agent Tim McGee. He had a facial injury," Gibbs said.

The nurse looked up at him and then at her computer. After a moment, she nodded.

"It looks like he's scheduled for surgery in the next hour."

"Can we see him?"

"You can try. They should be taking him back soon. He's in room 302, just down the hall and on your right."

"Thanks."

They walked down to the indicated room and knocked on the door. No response. So they quietly pushed the door open and Tim was there, sleeping or unconscious. He had an IV and a heart monitor. It looked like he had been cleaned up a bit and he was in a hospital gown instead of the stinky clothes he'd been wearing. And his face might have looked worse than it was before. It was swollen and bruised and the patterning made Gibbs think that it must have been brass knuckles that caused the damage. No wonder he needed surgery.

"Should we wake him up?" Tony asked softly.

Gibbs actually wasn't sure if that was wise or not. There had been no question before that Tim was in a bad way and after everything that he'd likely gone through, he deserved some rest.

The door opened and a nurse came in.

"Oh, I didn't realize he had visitors."

"They said he was scheduled for surgery," Tony said.

The nurse nodded. "Yes, we're just going to take him up now."

"What are they going to do?" Gibbs asked.

"They're going to do some facial reconstruction. There's a complex fracture of his zygoma, possibly damage to the orbital as well. Specifically, Agent McGee will be having an open reduction internal fixation surgery to repair the damage to his zygoma, his cheekbone. They'll be attaching a few small metal plates to rebuild it."

"What about his brain?" Tony asked. "He was acting really weird before."

She nodded. "He has a concussion, but he's also exhausted and somewhat dehydrated. We'll be watching, but he should be all right. The surgery will take a few hours, but if you're going to be here?"

Gibbs nodded.

"Then, you can go to the OR waiting room and you'll be informed when you can see him again."

"Thanks," Tony said.

Seeing that they had to stand back and let the doctors take care of Tim, Gibbs just got out of the way as they wheeled Tim out of the room. Tony sighed.

"Man, I hope it goes all right," he said. "What a crappy day for McGee. I know we need to figure out who these guys are and why they were after him, but can we wait until after the surgery, Boss? They're in custody. It should be fine to wait until tomorrow."

Gibbs considered. There was no way that the man they'd arrested would be released given that they'd seen him holding a gun on Tim. The other man was under guard and had been knocked out, probably by Tim. It all could wait until tomorrow.

"Yeah. Let's wait."

"Good. I'll call Ziva and let her know. You can deal with Abby when she gets here."

Gibbs smiled a little at that. It would be no small feat.

In the meantime, they could head to the waiting room and hope for the best.

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

It was late in the evening. Ducky and Jimmy had come. Ziva had joined them after assuring BPD that they'd be fully cooperative. Abby was there, leaning on Gibbs. Tony just wanted to be able to see Tim acting normal again. It had been so weird seeing him so disconnected and he wanted to see him not that way. ...although if he admitted it, talking to Tim as he was coming out of recovery probably wasn't the best time to see him acting normally.

The door opened and a doctor came out. He saw the large group and walked over to them.

"I'm Dr. Jeppson. You're all here for Timothy McGee?"

"Yes," Ducky said, acting as spokesman. "Is Timothy all right?"

The doctor smiled and nodded. "Yes. The surgery went well. He's in recovery right now and as soon as he's settled back in his room, you can see him. It will probably be another hour before he fully wakes up."

"There weren't any problems with his eye or anything?" Tony asked.

"No. Amazingly enough, the orbital wasn't cracked. His cheekbone was badly broken and required three plates to get it stabilized. Once Agent McGee is awake, he'll meet with an ophthalmologist who will test to make sure his vision hasn't changed. If all goes well, he'll stay in the hospital for a few days and then be released to recover at home."

"That's wonderful," Ducky said. "Thank you so much, Dr. Jeppson."

"My pleasure. If you have any questions, you can ask one of the staff."

Dr. Jeppson excused himself and they all were relieved whether they admitted it or not. Tony was glad that it sounded like the surgery itself wouldn't pose any problems. He just hoped that the concussion would be the same.

"He's going to be all right!" Abby said.

"Yes, but even if he wakes tonight, he likely won't feel up to celebrating, Abigail," Ducky said.

"But he's going to be all right!"

Ducky just smiled as Abby hugged Gibbs. They all settled down to wait until they could know that Tim was awake and at least somewhat aware.

It took about 45 minutes and then a nurse let them know that Tim was being moved back to his room, although they were warned that they couldn't all plan on staying the night. Only one person would be allowed in the room beyond visiting hours. For now, that was not discussed. They could deal with it later.

They all trooped down to Tim's room. He was asleep. His face was swollen and covered with bandages on the left side. There were also some bandages on the top of Tim's head. All in all, Tim didn't look very good, but at least he was in good hands at the moment. Abby hurried over to the bed and sat down by Tim, taking his hand in hers.

"Timmy, are you awake?" she asked softly.

There was no response at first and Tony was ready to tell Abby to shut up and let Tim sleep. He wanted to see Tim awake, too, but he deserved some real rest. Surgery and anesthesia didn't count.

But then, Tim mumbled a little bit and his eyes opened slightly and then closed again.

"Timmy?" Abby asked. "Are you awake?"

"Give him time, Abigail," Ducky said. "He is likely going to be a little slow."

Tim mumbled unintelligibly again and then his eyes opened once more and this time stayed open in narrow slits.

"Timmy!" Abby said.

"Hey," he mumbled. "'s goin' on?"

"Just visiting you here in Baltimore," she said.

"Why?" Tim mumbled.

"You had surgery, Timothy," Ducky said, sitting down on the other side of the bed.

"I did?"

"Yes. But it was successful and now you just need to rest and recover. Does that sound good?"

"Shhhhure," Tim said.

"So now, if you're tired, you can go back to sleep."

Tim didn't respond but his eyes closed completely and he seemed to fall asleep.

"I think that one of us should stay here with him tonight. It will likely not be restful because I anticipate that they will be checking on him frequently to make sure that his concussion isn't worsening, but..."

"I'll do it," Tony said quickly before anyone else could.

"Why you?" Abby demanded.

Tony grinned. "Because I called it first."

Abby didn't have any response to that kind of answer because there wasn't really anything to say against it. Tony had volunteered first and they were all more than capable of staying the night so Abby couldn't claim that he wasn't able. Tony wasn't about to admit that, after discovering Tim missing and then finding him in that garden shed, he really wanted to see Tim acting normally again and all things considered, he would probably be mostly in his right mind by the morning.

Whatever Gibbs felt about it wasn't expressed. He just shrugged.

"Fine."

"I'll take a personal day, Boss," Tony said.

"Okay. Everyone else, go home. Still have to work tomorrow."

Ziva, whatever she felt about it, simply nodded. "We will come back tomorrow then."

Abby still looked a little grumpy about it but she nodded reluctantly and then kissed Tim on the forehead very gently and followed Ziva and Gibbs out. Ducky stood and left with Jimmy who had said almost nothing. That left Tony alone in the room with Tim. He walked over to the chair that Ducky had vacated. It was one of those chairs that pulled out into a cot. He sat down.

"Okay, Tim. You just need to let everything be as normal as it can be. No emergencies or anything. You just sleep and I'll sleep and we'll both get through tonight. Got it?"

Tim said nothing. He was asleep.

Tony smiled a little and then tried get as comfortable as he could. With Tim slumbering beside him and the ambient noise of the hospital, Tony was eventually able to relax enough to sleep himself.