Truth 9

Tony gathered Ziva, Abby, Jimmy, Ducky and the Director for a meeting in Tim's room with Gibbs and Tim. Tim had been becoming more aware of his surrounds each time he woke up. It had barely been a day since had woken and recognised Gibbs, calling him dad.

Tony hadn't wanted to hold the meeting in Tim's room but Gibbs had adamantly refused to leave his bedside to attend the meeting. So he had been forced to take matters in to his own hands. Actually, he couldn't take the credit for the idea. It was Abby's idea to hold the meeting in Tim's room.

Abby's excitement was palpable, she could barely contain it as she stepped off the elevator, onto the fifth floor. Finding Tim's room had been pretty straight forward, even having made no effort to visit him before now. Flinging the hospital room door open harshly and seeing Gibbs had tipped her excitement over the edge. "Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs!" she screeched at the top of her voice as soon as she saw him, barrelling into him for an Abby style attack hug.

Pearched up on the bed, facing Tim's propped up partially awake body, Gibbs had been totally unprepared for Abby to prolaunch herself at him in such a way that caused him to lose his balance. The momentum of her movement sent Gibbs' body flying across the bed and landing on the opposite side of floor beside Tim's bed with Abby managing to stop herself from landing on Gibbs. Instead landing across Tim's abdomen.

"Ahhhh!" Tim screamed out in pain at the force of Abby's body impacted with his body. The force of her body landing on both the abdominal wound where they removed his spleen, the stitches were he had a large laceration from the windscreen shards, collarbone pain, his shattered kneecap, torn calf and snapped achilles tendon. She had slammed into the left side of him, the side that had the more severe injuries. Tim's kneecap, calf muscle and snapped tendon hadn't been operated on and he was still in an immense amount of pain, he had not long awakened from his medically induced coma.

Gibbs didn't know what hit him, one second, he was facing Tim, trying to coax him awake, in the next jiffy; Abby was screeching his name and launching herself at him.

"Tim!"

"McGee!"

"Probie!"

"Timothy! LET ME LOOK AT YOU! "

Four voices shouted simultaneously. "Agent Gibbs, are you OK?" Jimmy asked, rushing around the bed to check on Gibbs. Momentarily, Jimmy had felt guilty for not being able to catch Abby in time or save Tim. He had warned Abby before they had gotten in the elevator to watch out for Tim.

"I'm OK." Gibbs grumbled. Gratefully taking Palmer's assistance in getting him off the floor. "Check Tim."

By the time Jimmy had Gibbs on his feet, Tony and Ziva was holding Abby by the upper arms, grasping her tightly. Tim's face was white, screwed up in severe pain, it obvious he couldn't catch his breath or calm himself down. The unexpected force had winded him, in addition to the shock of the attack and pain from said attack.

"Leon, hit the yellow button behind you, now!" Ducky shouted and immediately an announcement called for Staff Assistance in Tim's room. Within seconds, his room had been swarming with nurses, doctor's and other medical personnel.

The team had been forced out of the room by the irate Nurse In Charge and Ducky had been the only one to remain. Even Gibbs had been forced to leave. Which made Leon internally grateful as he wanted Gibbs to be seen in the emergency department.

The sound of the announcement of a Code Blue being called to Timothy's room, had Gibbs back on his feet in an instant, anxious to know what was going on in there. He knew Ducky was in there with his son and would brief him as soon as he could. But that didn't help the tightness and the physical pain manifesting in his chest.

"Deep breath, Agent Gibbs." Jimmy instructed as Vance had found him a stethoscope, both men being quite concerned about Gibbs' physical well-being. "Deep breaths, that's it. Inhale, hold, exhale."

"Jethro, I really think you should get checked out." Leon advised his friend. "In fact, that's an order."

"Not disagreein' with you, Director." Gibbs gasped between breathes. "But not before I know how Tim is."

Abby had been silent since she saw that she had sent Gibbs flying off Tim's bed and onto the floor, immediately remorseful for hurting her silver haired fox. She hadn't tried to apologise for it yet, she knew her best bet was to wait until he had his undivided attention on her. She knew from past experiences that if he wasn't one hundred percent focused on her, she would have to face consequences.

'After all, Tim was collateral damage in the incident, what happened to him wasn't my fault.' she thought to herself, trying to assuage her guilt over hurting Gibbs.

She had tried, repeatedly to tug herself free of Toby and Ziva, but Ziva in particular had only held onto her tighter. It was almost twenty minutes later that Ducky found them in the waiting room at the end of the hallway. "How is he?" Gibbs asked, jumping to his feet the split second he saw Ducky.

"I am afraid that Timothy is now, back in surgery. The impact reopened his wound and fractured three of his ribs. One of his ribs is snapped completely, puncturing his left lung." Ducky took a deep breath; he knew the next piece of information would be a harsh blow to Gibbs. "I am afraid that Timothy coded as a result of the punctured lung. We managed to resuscitate him and stabilise him enough to operate on his lung, but two ribs on his right side were fractured from the CPR."

Gibbs was numb, he physically sank back into his seat. "Wha.. Wil.." Gibbs couldn't get the words out and Tony's anger grew, as tightened his grip on Abby even more. They had never seen Gibbs non-verbal like that before.

Leon noticed the extremely tight grip that Tony and Ziva had on Abby and worried that they could injure her. "Cuff her and read her rights to her, DiNozzo." Leon ordered. "Make sure she can't escape; I'll call Balboa to extract her. No one interrogates her, but me." The director's voice was full of venom and Tony visibly took a step back at the anger that rolled off the former boxing champ.

To Ziva, she was grateful that the Director had decided to arrest her, she had been two seconds away from practising her knife skills in the Goth. But just to be sure, Ziva unsheathed the dagger she kept in the waistband of her pants and showed it to Abby, discreetly.

Abby protested, loudly and vocally, scolding them at her unfair and unjust treatment before Ziva had sticky taped her mouth shut when she started spitting at Jimmy and at Tony.

Gibbs looked hard and Ducky, Ducky returned the look with equal fervour and as soon as Matt Balboa had collected Abby, along with orders that no one interrogates her but the Director, Tony and Ziva immediately offer to go get coffee, dragging Jimmy off with them.

"Are you OK, Jethro?" Ducky asks his dear friend, once the younger ones are out of sight. "I mean besides your worry for Timothy."

"I'm not strong enough to bury another child." Gibbs whispered and the other two men exchanged worried looks. It was unlike Gibbs to voice his deepest worries and that disturbed them.

"Let's not write Timothy off, just yet." Ducky reminded him, with a reassuring touch to the forearm. "After all, he is much like his father. He will not back down from a fight, and he will fight until he cannot physically fight any longer."

"Jethro, let's not get ahead of ourselves." Leon whispered to his friends. "Tim's strong, we all know that." Leon Vance had to admit that from a parental standpoint Gibbs had been through the proverbial ringer, that didn't even include what he had had to contend with, trying to have a parental relationship with the agent that he knows the least. Timothy McGee and Jethro Gibbs being father and son threw him, finding out the way he did, had thrown him off kilter.

Gibbs furiously wiped his falling tears from his face. Tony, Ziva and Jimmy had silently returned but Tony seeing Gibbs so unhinged had set him on edge. He refused to leave again. The waiting room was silent. Barely anyone moved, let alone breathed too deeply. It reminded Ziva of the coldness of the sterile halls of Mossad, no one dared have any kind of expression on their faces.

"Agent Gibbs? Doctor Mallard?" the doctor asked as he entered the waiting room to find himself ambushed by the small crowd of NCIS personnel that had been there when the incident unfolded. "Agent Gibbs, your son is in recovery. We managed to successfully reinflate his left lung and the situation there is critical still, but stable. We also checked him for any internal damage before restitching the surgical wound. We have placed him in a medicated sleep to let his body get some more recuperative rest and will be keeping him sedated for the next twelve hours. The left leg will require further surgery that repair the damage once he is more stable. However, to avoid a repeat of this incident, we are only allowing yourself and Doctor Mallard into the room. We have moved him into our intensive care unit, which has a viewing room for anyone else wishing to see him."

"Will he...?" Tony asked, knowing Gibbs had struggled to ask questions earlier. "Will he be, OK? What's the prognosis?"

"I can't discuss Agent McGee's medical condition with you. Legally, I am bound by confidentiality. I can only discuss it with his Medical Proxy and Next of Kin, only." the Doc replied.

"Please." Gibbs begged. The doctor felt sympathy for the man before him. He looked physically broken and the man was the younger man's Next of Kin. "As soon as you walk away, Ducky and I are going to tell them anyway. We are all family here."

"I'd rather not speculate on Agent McGee's recovery at this time until we have clearer picture of the prognosis. I am sure you understand he has at least two follow up surgeries still to get through yet?" the doctor answered with a non-answer. "Agent Gibbs, your son is this way." Gibbs happily followed the doctor out of the waiting room and through the double doors to the left, into the Intensive Care Unit.

"Ducky, why did the doctor keep calling Timothy, Gibbs' son?" Ziva asked confused. She watched the room like a hawk, silently demanding an answer from someone.

"It is most likely that Agent McGee accidentally listed Gibbs as his father on his next of kin form." Leon Vance answered softly. "On the form at HQ in Tim's file, Tim simply scribbled out his father's name and number and filled the now blanks with Gibbs' details."

"It still doesn't explain the boss' over-reaction to McGeek being injured." Tony added, flippantly. "I mean, McGoo has been injured before on the job and Gibbs has barely given him a second glance in the past. Why now?"

"Gee, I don't know, DiNozzo. Maybe because he nearly died last time." Gibbs replied sarcastically in Tony's ear, having come back around in search of the coffee cup he had abandoned. "Or maybe it's because you've been blaming me for Tim's accident because I was here, and you were not."

Ducky looked closely at Gibbs and could see the tension his friend was carrying. He too had feared that Tony was blaming Gibbs too, not because it was the team leader's fault. But because he was here, and the agent was afloat. Simple shared geographic location. Shared proximity.

"Anthony, please curb your anger towards Jethro. It is unwarranted and unfair. He did not cause Timothy's accident." Ducky warned Tony in a low, harsh voice. "Blaming him does nothing but assuage your guilt at not being there for your friend when you were agent afloat. What you should be focussing on is that your friend is still alive."

"Can someone update me? Where are we on the case?" Gibbs asked, frustrated. He ran his hand through his silver hair in frustration. "I only have ten minutes before I am allowed to see Tim."

"Right Boss," Tony answered, his tone remorseful he had been giving Gibbs crap over Tim being in the hospital. Even before Ducky said something to him, he knew, deep down, that he had been treating Gibbs harshly and unfairly. He felt helpless and for all the reasons to be pulled from his Agent Afloat assignment, Tim being in the ICU in critical condition was not one he could have fathomed. "So, from the traffic cam footage, we seen Probie get tailgated by the blue suburban, before they rear ended him, sending him over that embankment. Abby and the FBI crime lab found that the brake lines had been tampered with. Cut to be precise, forensics showed it to have been cut with an ordinary run of the mill, Swiss army knife."

"I have something to add," Ziva rushed out, not wanting Gibbs to stalk off like had done on occasion in frustration. She had seen with her own two eyes how eager their boss had been to get back to her friend Tim. "I spoke with Sam, the ex-roommate. She and her boyfriend are expecting a baby and had asked Timothy to move out, since it was actually her apartment and he had only given up his place and moved in with her to help him out. Unfortunately, based on what we found in his car; we believe he was living in his car."

"Ziva asked me to look into Tim's internet search history, which wasn't easy. He had been looking for apartments, some as far away Laurel, Crofton and Rockville in Maryland and some as far Woodbridge, Nokesville and Gainsville. After looking through his financials, he was low on cash and even that far out of DC, those places were out of his price range." Jimmy explained to Gibbs, who looked be felled by what he had heard.

"Why didn't he come to me? Or Ducky?" Gibbs let out the question frustrated. "Was he in trouble? No, Tim wouldn't be in trouble, what am I saying? It's Tim."

"I am afraid that this is my fault, Jethro." Leon said, admitting his fault softly. "When he was sent to CCU on assignment, I forgot to ensure that he would remain at his normal JFA salary. Instead, he was paid as a CCU Probationary tech wage, barely forty percent of a JFA salary."

"Ha!" Tony said triumphantly. "You've met Probie, right? The man never seeks anyone else when something is wrong. He learnt that from you, boss."

"Perhaps now is the time to also address why Agent DiNozzo requested a meeting in the first place, then you can see Agent McGee, uninterrupted." Leon Vance suggested. He wanted Gibbs to be there when Tony learnt the truth. He had long suspected that Tony and Abby would struggle with it the most.

"Why is that?!" Gibbs snapped, keeping his voice low. He was waging a battle with himself. The doctor had sent him for a cup of coffee while they finished getting Tim settled. His gut felt anxious, he wanted to be with Tim, needed to be there, but the doctor had insisted to take ten minutes and have a coffee as there was a no food or drink policy in the ICU room where Tim had been moved to.

"We had some questions we couldn't answer, Boss." Tony began, seeing Gibbs' patience wearing thin. "Why would Tim have letters from Jenny Shepard hidden in a false bottom in an old cedar chest? They seemed to read like he was her son in one breath, but in the next it was like she wasn't sure. And they weren't actually addressed to him, if that makes any sense."

Gibbs let out a breath, he knew it was time. he was hoping to be on more solid ground with Tim when this came out. Now all he could do was hope it didn't cause more problems between him and his son. "I was assigned as executor of her estate. Did you know that, Tony?" At the negative shake of the younger three's heads, Gibbs looked at his feet. "I was tasked with finding her son. The one she unwillingly gave up for adoption when she was sixteen upon her father's orders. I asked Tim to do what he does best, take a cursory glance at the adoption agency records. We expected to find sealed records, as she was sixteen. But we didn't. We found the son, through the adopted parents. Tim knew he was adopted, he warned me against opening the can of worms with the son, but it was too late. Right there in black and white was his adoptive parent's names."

"He is Jenny's son?" Ziva asked surprised. She and the Director had been close friends for a long time, even once she moved to US. Jenny had treated her like a daughter, off the job.

"Yes, first Tim did a manual DNA comparison of their DNA by hand, something he learned how to do at JH. Then we asked Sam, his former roommate to run the DNA. She works at KGI Labs. She doesn't know Abby, so we thought that would be best. I scoured Jen's office for something that had her DNA. I found chewing gum and a hair sample." Gibbs took a deep breath and looked at Tony carefully. "I forgot that I had tossed my used gum into that bin the day before. I unknowingly bagged my own gum with Jen's hair."

"So, the gum didn't match, and the hair did?" Tony asked confused. "Wouldn't she just re-run the test?"

"Both samples matched." Gibbs whispered and looked at Tony and Ziva closer than he did at Jimmy for a reaction and held his breath for their response.

"Agent Gibbs? Your son is settled. Please follow me." The doctor ordered, reappearing in the waiting room.

Inside Tim's ICU room, Gibbs snagged the chair with his foot and pulled it closer to the bed. This chair had been more comfortable than what he had been sitting on in Tim's old room. "Let him hear your voice. He's not in a coma, it's just a medicated sleep. He could hear you." The nurse encouraged him softly, doing a final obs check before leaving the father and son alone.

When she was gone, Gibbs took Tim's hand in his. "I'm sorry son. Abby shouldn't have done what she did, but I shouldn't have sat where she could get to you." Gibbs said, deeply remorseful. His tears slipped down his face freely and he didn't bother to wipe them from his face. "I am sorry for a lot of things when it comes to her. I can't believe she almost killed you. No wait ... I can believe it." His voice sounded treacherous the more he thought about Abby and her actions, both today and in the past.

"Probie and Gibbs?" Tony asked, as soon as Gibbs had gone. "Father and Son?" before bursting out with laughter. "They're like chalk and cheese."

"Really?!" Ziva snapped at him. "Because from where I stand, they're both intensely private people, severely focused, almost to a fault. Tim tinkers with computers and electronics, Gibbs with his carpentry. Both deep thinkers. I am very sure that there is more to Gibbs than what you see on the surface, Tony. Much like McGee, too."

"Picture it. Probie and the boss, they don't even speak unless it's work related. I have more in common with Gibbs than him!" Tony laughed again, looking at the other occupants. His eyes pleading for someone, anyone yo agree with him. "Oh, come on, Autopsy Gremlin? Anyone?"

"I have seen Tim and Agent Gibbs share a meal together before, Tony." Jimmy stage-whispered, seeing that Ducky and Vance were both paying attention to him now, too. "At the Diner, about two weeks ago. The conversation seemed to flow nicely. They shared a laugh or two, they even had dessert."

"I can see that." Ziva smiled. She was thinking about a time, when she had first joined the team and Tim had had a particularly bad day after the girl he had been dumped on the phone, earlier in the day. She had seen Gibbs offer Tim an ear, if he wanted to talk.

"I can assure you, Agent DiNozzo, no one is laughing about this. I, myself have seen that Gibbs knows Agent McGee, a little better than you think." Leon reminded Tony. He figured, sicne Gibbs was pre-occupied and rightfully so, it was his job to rein Tony in. "When I couldn't find McGee after an overnight case, Gibbs knew exactly where he was."

"On the roof?" Tony guessed.

"You are incorrect, nor was he by the Barry, his other go-to spot on the yard." Vance really wanted to drive his point home before he made his next move. "Agent McGee was asleep under his desk in the CCU, curled up into a little ball. Now, on this topic I am ordering a gag. Now you know, it cannot be discussed anywhere, not even on yard. Nor can you discuss it between you. This is sensitive information, and I will not tolerate a leak of any kind. I believe that the two men in question have barely had time to process the news themselves. They need to be given the time and space to process it. Now, pull your head in and get it back on the case. Doctor Mallard, if you can spare us from here. Tony and Ziva have a driver to find, and I have an interrogation to conduct. I am trusting Mr Palmer will keep me updated on Agent McGee's condition."

"Gibbs." Tony corrected. "He is the son of Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Shouldn't that be Agent Gibbs, junior, not McGee?"

"That is a decision between Gibbs and Timothy, not for us to worry about, especially right this moment." Ducky reminded them. "Actually, Mr Palmer should continue back to the yard, also. He could help either out Tony and Ziva or assist in the lab. I am more than capable of keeping you updated, Director."

"Us too, Ducky." Ziva begged, her tone conveying her worry for Tim. "Keep us posted too."

"Of course, my dear." Ducky said as he patted the young woman's arm. "Don't fret, he is in good hands here. Come, there is an observation windows you can look at Timothy through, before you all head back."

Ducky and Jimmy led the trio of agents into the ICU, down the long corridor to suite ten. Opening the door found a small seating room, with enough seats for six people and a moderately sized window that looked into the patient's room.

Tony and Ziva immediately went to the window. They stood there and looked in. Ziva gasped when she saw Timothy lying there. She wanted to be one the other side of the glass with him. To reach out and comfort her friend.

Tony felt like whimpering, it was worse than before, even with Ducky telling them that the breathing tube in his throat was merely a precaution as he had coded in his room, earlier.

Tim was naked with a sheet covering him from the waist down. Where there once was just a couple of deep lacerations he'd together with surgical tape, some smaller ones that didn't require anything and combine pad covering a surgical wound. Now there was still all of that, plus a chest tube leading into his left lung and his skin was an array of colours showing the bruising beginning to form. A breathing tube was inserted in his mouth, prepared for if he needed the vent to open his airways and help him breath. A set of bi-nasal prongs in his nose, giving him a consistent low supply of extra oxygen so he doesn't have to work so hard to get it.

Leon and Jimmy stepped up to the window next, not as shocked at the first two, just as numb though. They saw Gibbs holding Tim's hand, he was talking to Tim, although no one could hear what he was saying to his son. Occasionally, Gibbs would let go of his hand or his fingers a gently push back the hair of Tim's face.

"That is a broken man." Tony said softly, taking a seat.

"Yes, but Ducky said he is in good hands." Ziva reassured her friend, putting her hand on his forearm.

"I meant Gibbs, Zee-vah. Although, Probie doesn't look too flash hot, either." Tony snarked back at her. "Tell me I'm going to help you interrogate that lab rat of yours, Director."

"Nope." the Director answered. "The pleasure is all mine, but if you and David are good on the ride back to the yard, I'll let you watch." Leon Vance grinned to himself. He knew that for the time being Tony had reined in his comments and joke. He was slightly disappointed by the fact that he had resorted to shock tactics to make the DFA rein himself in.