Gibbs schooled his features, unwilling to show his injured and now distraught agent anything but compassion. Turning around, he pocketed his phone
"Looks that way." the boss said as gently as he could.
"Because of me?" the young man asked as his tear filled eyes looked to Gibbs' own for the truth he knew he'd find there.
"No, Tim, it was not because of you." Gibbs quiet honesty had the desired effect and Tim seemed to relax from a rigidity Gibbs for once, hadn't even noticed in him until now.
"How you feelin'?" the older man asked both out of concern and out of the need to change the subject.
"Like crap." the young man said with a grimace of pain as he shifted in the bed to get more comfortable, his injuries excruciatingly protesting in the process.
"As soon as we're sure we've gotten everyone who was involved, we'll get you outta here and into a real bed, all right?"
"Okay." Tim looked decidedly less than thrilled with that idea.
"Problem?" Gibbs asked quietly.
"My bed's kinda low to the floor, Boss. And, I don't own a couch." Tim worried.
"Thought you were smart enough to figure out we wouldn't be letting you go to your apartment to recover, McGee. You're goin' to Ducky's. He's got everything you need. This way, he'll be right there to take care of whatever medical issues come up or any complications,. And, Jethro will love his yard." Gibbs shared.
"You sure Ducky won't mind?" Tim asked obviously still worrying.
"You know better than that." Gibbs reminded him calmly. "Besides, if you really thought we're gonna let you sleep on a couch with your injuries, you're seriously overdue for a head slap."
Tim silently closed his eyes and nodded as more tears escaped and slid down his face. Wordlessly, he turned his head away from his boss.
Gibbs deliberately didn't mention the young man's tears but opted to change the subject for him instead, asking calmly "You up for some company?"
"Not really." Tim's quiet answer came with unusually brutal honesty in a voice that was breaking from the strain of having to provide an answer in the midst of his current emotional storm.
It was clear to Gibbs that Tim needed some time to go ahead and let go of what he was feeling. But, first, he needed to know that he didn't have to do it alone.
"I'm here if you need to talk, Tim. I don't want you blaming yourself for any of this, you hear me?" Gibbs advised him quietly.
Tim nodded, now too choked with tears to answer.
Gibbs clamped a hand down on the young man's good shoulder and squeezed comfortingly. Tim's hand almost immediately reached up and clamped down on the hand on his shoulder, an unusual but obvious silent cry for unwavering emotional support. Underneath his hand, Gibbs felt the young man's shoulder begin to shake as the overwhelming tide of emotions rolled through his agent.
Through Tim's tears, Gibbs could only keep his grounding hand on the young man's shoulder and let him cry it out. Gibbs also couldn't help but worry and wonder how they were gonna get Tim back from this experience. It wasn't long before his agent's body and mind gave in to the exhaustion, his emotional storm had brought on. Watching the young man settle into sleep, Gibbs could only hope Tim could start to heal emotionally as well as physically, although there was no doubt, both recoveries would be a long tough road.
How had Christine found and targeted Tim? It was obvious why she hadn't pursued Tony or Gibbs; they, after all would have recognised her in a heartbeat. But, where had she gotten Tim's name from?
As the questions ran through his mind, Gibbs realized this case wasn't quite sewn up just yet. There were still unanswered questions and possibly more people involved. Hopefully, they'd find the answers soon. It wasn't looking like Tim could handle staying here much longer. Things needed to be brought back to some sort of normalcy for him, like being in a real bed in a real place to stay.
Two hours later found the entire team back in the building. As Tony and Ducky headed toward the patient's room, Gibbs headed them off out in the hallway.
"Tony, sit with him. Not one joke about any of this!" Gibbs ordered in a quiet tone mixed with something unrecognizable.
"Boss, I wouldn't!" Tony said defensively.
"Tony, He's asleep. Don't wake him." the boss said.
The tone didn't miss its' mark. Once again, Gibbs said much with what little was heard. Tony nodded and went in to sit with his teammate.
"Jethro?"
"Duck, I told Tim he'd be staying with you as soon as we're sure he's safe. Think you can handle it?"
"Of course, Jethro. It makes sense. it will certainly simplify his recovery." Ducky answered.
"Jethro, too, Duck." Gibbs warned with a slight smile.
"Not a problem, Jethro." the M.E. accepted good naturedly with a smile of his own.
"Good. Should be able to take him home with you within the next day or so." Gibbs advised with complete seriousness and that yet to be recognized edge .
"You're worried about him." Ducky observed.
"Yeah, Duck. I am. It's a fairly safe bet that you're gonna need to put that degree of yours to good use soon." Gibbs turned away and headed to the squad room
Once he reached his desk, he looked around at his team's work space, thinking how strange it was to find it empty. He hoped it wouldn't last very much longer. Wasting no time, he turned and headed to the lab.
"Whattaya got for me, Abbs?" he asked as he set her caf-pow down and kissed her cheeck.
"First, how's Timmy? I havent' seen him all day, so you gotta tell me how he's doin'!" Abby declared.
"He's sleeping." Gibbs answered her in his quiet matter of fact tone.
"Gibbs!" the Goth wasn't satisfied.
As Ziva watched silently, Gibbs looked at both of them seriously, hoping they'd get the point.
"He's hurting. Right now he's doing what's best for him, sleeping. Now, can we put this case to bed so we can let him get outta here and get some real sleep?"
"Almost. The fingerprints on the iv bag match Christina's." Abby offered.
"And the surveillence tape from the hospital lab and supply closet says she was in it on her own. She was the mystery nurse. She snuck into the supply closet for the uniform and then hit the lab for the codeine."
"So, she plots to get revenge on me by taking Tim out." Gibbs reasoned out.
"And to make sure Timmy died, she dosed his iv with an overdose of codeine." Abby supplied.
"And Simon kills her because he feels betrayed. She promised to return to him if Simon helps her kill Tim. Obviously, she had a change of heart" Ziva added.
"So, we have no reason to believe anyone else was involved." Abby reminded them.
"Yeah, we do." Gibbs said. "Unless you found a bug in any of his things. She had to have had someway of knowing when he wasn't at the yard. You trace the pictures yet?"
"Gibbs!"
"Abby, until we've gotten to the bottom of these two questions, he can't move on. Hell, he can't even leave here!" Gibbs reminded her before he turned on his heel and walked out.
"Jeez!" Abby declared in frustration.
"Abby, you must give Gibbs a break. I believe he is very upset at what this will do to McGee when McGee has had time to let it all sink in." Ziva reminded Abby calmly.
"I know, Ziva, it breaks my heart. Makes me want to unkill her so I can kill her myself!" Abby said angrily.
"Relax, Abby. Let us just find the answers to these two questions and then McGee, as Gibbs said, can go home to a real bed and some real sleep." Ziva suggested.
"Oh, but he can't go home. I mean he has those three flights of stairs and no comfortable bed that's not close to the floor and he has no couch!" Abby cried.
"Abby. Abby, I am sure that Gibbs has already thought of that." Ziva reasoned.
"Yeah, you're right. Okay, let's do this." Abby declared.
Up in the squad room, Gibbs was sitting quietly at his desk, trying to organize his thoughts and think of what needed to be done for Tim.
Down in the recovery room, Tony and Ducky were both watching Tim sleep. After a few minutes of untroubled silent sleep from his team mate, Tony took his leave and headed to the squad room.
"Hey, Boss." Tony greeted quietly.
"Tony. Go help the girls in the lab." Gibbs requested.
"On it, Boss." Tony said as he headed back out.
"Tony, as soon as you can, you and Ziva go with Duck. He's gonna need help getting his house ready for McGee. Get Abby to sit with Tim while Ducky's gone. Remind he to keep McGee calm. I don't want anyone bugging him to talk about any of this.. Make sure Palmer's on standby and that Abby knows to call him if she needs to." Gibbs requested.
"Sure thing, Boss." Tony said as he double timed his steps to the lab.
Four hours later, the final questions that surrounded Tim's safety had been answered to Gibbs' satisfaction. The bugs and gps markers Christine/Elizabeth had planted in Tim's bag and phone were found and destroyed. Nurse Johnson gave them confirmation that Christine was the 'nurse' she'd accepted the iv from.
Open and shut case that only involved Christine and Simon. Tim was out of danger on both fronts and Gibbs almost felt like smiling. Too much harm had been done, too much pain had been inflicted for that smile to get past his thoughts, though. It was entirely possible that they wouldn't get Tim back from the abyss this vengeful woman had just thrown him back into. It had taken the poor kid six months to climb out of it the first time he'd been so heartlessly thrown there. Three months after that, he had still questioned whether or not he was on solid ground.
On top of that, the question remained just what this vengeful woman had hoped to gain by going after one of Gibbs' team. How exactly it added up to payback for her losing her job was still beyond comprehension, but then again, so was Simon's twisted reasoning for helping her but then killing her because she'd done it in the first place. There was no way to wrap logic around this situation.
Twisted logic that had broken another person's heart and damn near killed him. Life was so far beneath fair it left Gibbs wanting to go crawl up under a rock somewhere and be left alone. Somehow, that sentiment was exactly what he feared they'd find if they looked deep enough into McGee's state of mind from all this. Luckily, Gibbs knew without a shadow of a doubt that everyone on this team would do their best to keep Tim from doing just that.
Gibbs was relieved that his agent would be under medical supervision as well as under the guidence of someone who was a pretty damn good listener and not to shabby with advice. There was no doubt that Tim would need every bit of the help Ducky could provide him with. Maybe, just maye, Ducky would be able to get Tim to fight his way back to standing back up on his feet.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Gibbs headed to the room where Tim was so he could help get the young man trasported to Ducky's. Adding a sleeping agent to the young man's medicinal dosage a short fifteen minutes ago, had ensured that Tim's trip would not cause him much pain. No one was willing to add that to his problems.
A mere 45 minutes later, Tim McGee was safely tucked up in Ducky's bedroom, still peacefully sleeping. Thankfully, he hadn't woken up at all during the trip. Even when the guys had worked together and literally picked him up and transferred him from the gurney to Ducky's king size bed, he didn't stir. All of them were pleased about that. Abby had provided a state of the art baby video moniter for a silent method of keeping an eye on him. With that in place, the team left the young man to his sleepp. The more undisturbed sleep he got, the better off he'd be and the quicker his healing could begin.
