Chapter 5

"Abby, I just think this is a little extreme, even for you."

"I don't know, Tony. I think it's me." Abby looked at the blow up of the six bodies hanging from the rafters. "I only wanted to get a feel for the exact placement of the bodies. That could be very important you know. Besides, I think it's cool. Anyway, the guys are all military. Here are their photos." She brought up the images.

"Those all look quite a bit like our late lieutenant."

"You're so on today, Tony. Not only that, but they're all the same age. They come from different places, but they were all married as well."

"Residences?"

"They lived in base housing, Gibbs."

The elevator opened and Tim stepped out, unnoticed by the group. He walked into the lab... and straight into his nightmares. Looming in front of his eyes was a larger-than-life image of the bodies he had found. The fates seemed to be conspiring against him as what little color he had in his face drained away. However, this time, instead of running, he just stood frozen. The details were so much worse than even the shadowy half-light he'd had before. Suddenly, he was aware of a disturbing sensation in his stomach. He hadn't eaten anything since last night and he'd thrown it up anyway, but his stomach didn't care about that. It was rebelling in the worst possible way. There was a roaring in his ears and all he could see were those bodies.

He didn't think anyone had noticed him yet. He slowly backed away and tried to keep a grip on his sanity. He could feel his control slipping away. He made to the elevator, but it wasn't there. He had to wait. He started gasping in his effort to not start retching and to stay upright. The doors opened and he nearly fell inside. He didn't even notice when someone else stepped in with him. He sank to the floor of the elevator heaving so hard he couldn't breathe. The elevator jerked to a stop. Slowly, he became aware of a hand on his back.

"Breathe, Tim. Just breathe." He heard the voice, but he couldn't place it and in his weakness he couldn't even turn his head to find out. "Breathe."

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Abby was still giving her spiel when Gibbs turned and saw Tim frozen in horror at the sight of her new decorations. He rarely listened to anything except the final results anyway since Abby never spoke in words he could understand, and this time he figured he could just ease himself out of the room. Tony caught him moving and looked back. In his concern, he started to move as well, but Gibbs shook his head. He looked back and saw that Tim had made it to the elevator, but he might not make it much further.

As he watched Tim dry heaving in the corner, trying desperately to control himself, Gibbs saw an image of what he might have been like had he been unable to find his family's killer, if he had been a different person. There was no resolution to this kind of loss. He couldn't have let Tim sit it out, but he didn't have to make it impossible for him to function either. He noticed that Tim wasn't crying. He was probably trying so hard not to that he couldn't breathe.

"Just breathe, Tim. It'll pass."

Tim finally became aware of something beyond the twisted knot his stomach had become and the pain in his lungs as he gasped for air that never seemed like enough. He didn't know how long he knelt on the floor.

"I'm okay," he managed to whisper.

"I don't think so, McGee. Just stay put."

"I'm sorry, Boss." Tim couldn't seem to speak above a whisper. It took too much effort.

"Don't apologize, McGee. Just relax."

"It was just–I didn't expect it."

"Don't talk. Breathe."

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"So clearly, whoever our psycho is, he or she is fixated on young married navy guys. I'm personally thinking it's a guy because to be able to slit a throat so cleanly requires effort and–" Abby finally turned around. "Hey, where's Gibbs? I mean, he was here, right?"

Tony and Ziva looked at each other. "He had to slip out, but he didn't want to interrupt," Tony said.

"Why?"

"I don't know, Abby. You'll have to ask him."

"Well, great. Then, I'm going to have to explain all this to him again later. By the way, where's McGee?"

"Down with Ducky. Gibbs gave him a different assignment."

"You two look uncommonly serious right now. What's going on?" Abby looked at them suspiciously. "No one died, right? I mean, besides the corpses Ducky has right now."

"No, no one died," Ziva said. Then, she amended it to, "Not recently.

"You guys aren't telling me something. What is it?"

"Nothing."

"For being the senior and Mossad agents in this place you sure are bad liars."

Ziva finally just said, "We can't tell you. You'll have to ask Gibbs... or McGee."

"Ziva!"

Abby shoved Tony aside. "Shush, Tony! What do you mean?"

"I can't tell you any more, Abby."

"Fine. I'll find out myself." Abby stalked out past them and hit the elevator button. Then, again. Nothing. "Okay guys. What's with the elevator?"

Tony said, "I don't know. It was working before. We all came down on it." He looked over at Ziva who nodded and grimaced, then quickly schooled her expression as Abby whirled around to confront them again.

"Gibbs must be using his 'office' again," Ziva said calmly. "We'll just have to wait."

Abby stalked past them into her lab. Ziva followed while Tony lingered just a moment, staring at the elevator and wondering what was going on in there.