Tim sat nervously in his hospital bed and waited for Tony to come and pick him up. He was still far from well but essentially all the doctors could do for him had already been done and now he just needed time to heal.

Tim felt like he might never heal from the giant gaping hole in his chest.

Gibbs still hadn't come.

Tim tried not to think about it but it seemed to consume his mind and he found himself looking at the clock on the wall every few seconds. Watching as it ticked down through the afternoon and slowly eroded away any feeling he had left in his heart.

He would get better and then he would go to Vance. No he would phone Vance. The thought of walking through the bullpen and up those familiar stairs with the eyes of everyone on him made him break out into a sweat.

Would Gibbs watch him silently from behind his desk as if nothing had happened? Or perhaps he would see him step out from the elevator and just leave? Perhaps Gibbs would go and see Ducky and allow him to clean out his desk in privacy.

The whole idea horrified him. His desk. Sitting across from Gibbs all those years. Kate's desk. Ziva's desk. Those stupid orange walls. Even the damn waste paper basket Tony threw his paper into was enough to make him choke back tears.

What if he called Vance and then cleared out his desk after hours? Surely that had to be better than Tony trying to cheer him up with awful jokes and Ziva's sad eyes and silence? Abby….well he might have to sneak out of the building. He couldn't even imagine how he would be able to say goodbye to her. She had once ruled his world and she still kept a little piece of his heart under lock and key in a box by her coffin.

"Tim?"

Gibbs carefully negotiated the wheelchair into the room and softly called Tim's name. Tim looked up and suddenly any tiny residual doubts Gibbs might have had were washed away in the sheer joy and surprise on Tim's face. He was beaming at him and Gibbs couldn't help a matching silly grin in response.

"Gibbs!" Was all Tim could muster as his heart surged painfully back to life. He blinked and tried to get his thoughts together.

"Uhhhh where's Tony?"

"I told Tony that I would take this one. Besides he's still got some reports he needs to finish up."

Tim was just nodding, barely hearing what Gibbs was saying as he wheeled the chair over to the bedside. Tim felt such relief sweep over him that he allowed his shoulders to relax for the first time in days and he suddenly felt exhausted.

He had stopped running and Gibbs had come to him.

"Are you ok to do this?"

Gibbs studied Tim's face as he asked the question. Underneath the light of joy on his face he was still pale and he looked like he had lost quite a lot of weight. It had been a bit of a shock to stand at the doorway and see him for the first time in two weeks.

Gibbs had managed to convince himself that Tim hadn't looked as bad as he had but now Gibbs realized that he looked worse. And this was after two weeks of healing. Everyone had been giving him daily reports, telling him how well Tim was doing and studiously ignoring why it was that Gibbs wasn't going to see Tim himself.

Tim nodded vigorously "Get me the hell out of here Jethro. I have never wanted to leave a place so much in my life."

Gibbs laughed at his enthusiasm. It felt good to have Tim call him Jethro again.

He watched as Tim shakily pushed back the blanket and turned on the bed dropping his legs over the side. He paused and prepared himself to stand beside the bed and then sit in the wheelchair. Gibbs gently put an arm around his waist and helped support his weight, lowering him into the chair.

"Lean on me" he whispered, feeling shocked at how frail Tim seemed to be in his supportive embrace. Those IV's were meant to put nutrients into Tim not suck them out. Hadn't he been sleeping? Why wasn't someone making him eat for god's sake?

Tim collapsed into the chair and squeezed Gibbs hand gratefully.

"Thank you for being here"

Tim's words were quiet and Gibbs knew they referred to a lot more than him simply picking Tim up from the hospital.

Gibbs made his way carefully out of the room while Tim nursed a small bag of belongings he had gathered on his lap. Then they spent another small eternity signing forms, being handed prescriptions, instructions and contact numbers for the nurses who would be visiting daily for some time to change bandages and monitor medication and make sure that Tim didn't over do anything.

And then finally they were free.

Gibbs helped Tim into the front seat of the car and then took back the wheelchair to the hospital. He hopped into the driver's seat and then paused, staring out over the steering wheel.

"Tim? I'm going to take you home with me. I think we need some time to talk about a few things. About us. About work. But mostly you need someone to give you a hand until you are at least up and walking around. I spoke to Vance and cleared it with him to take some of that leave time I never use.

Now I know you had plans and you had a roster thing worked out with Abby and Sarah and whoever but I'm going to do it. You are going to need someone to get your meals, help you bathe, get your medicine, make sure Jethro's walked. I figured you would need some help and now that I have seen you I know you do so I don't want any arguments from you about being independent and perfectly capable. Ok?"

Gibbs turned to see what Tim's reaction to essentially getting kidnapped from the hospital and having all his careful plans changed would be.

Gibbs smiled and started the car.

Tim was fast asleep with his head resting against the window as the late afternoon sun warmed the car. Gibbs thought he looked beautiful with his soft mouth slightly open and his long fair lashes curled against his cheek. His hair hadn't been cut and his long bangs fell across his forehead. Gibbs gently swept them to the side out of the way feeling Tim's soft silky hair once again under his fingers.

Tim jerked awake and then winced painfully as the car pulled to a stop at Gibbs' house. Tim blinked. What was he doing here?

Gibbs opened the front door and dropped off his bag before coming back and opening Tim's door. Tim looked at him suspiciously.

Gibbs smiled "I did a whole speech. Just for you. It wasn't my fault you slept through it"

Tim gave a small smile and nodded tiredly as he carefully climbed out of the car. He certainly wasn't going to fight about it right now. And he didn't want to have Gibbs worrying about him anymore than he already was. If he could just make it inside.

Tim looked up to see Jethro barking loudly and enthusiastically jumping and pulling against the rope he was tied to at the sight of his recently missing master. It made him smile as Jethro's tail wagged furiously and his tongue lolled out as he appeared to smile at him, his big dark brown doggy eyes adoring.

Gibbs smiled "Normally he runs around the yard but I figured you might not be up for a big greeting from a large German Shepard quite yet so I tied him up before I left."

Tim nodded and carefully negotiated the few small steps to the front door grabbing onto the porch railing.

"Was it a good speech you gave me?" Tim tried to distract Gibbs from his frustrating frailty

"Oh yeah. Great. An excellent well rounded argument with all the salient points. You would have been proud. You wouldn't have been able to argue against it even if you had heard it"

Gibbs hovered next to Tim ready to grab him at an instants notice if he collapsed. He sensed that Tim wanted to be able to walk the few steps into the house unassisted. Tim could be surprisingly stubborn about that sort of thing. Not that he had to prove himself to Gibbs anymore. Thank god the Master bedroom was on the ground floor.

Gibbs held onto Tim's elbow and led him carefully through the door and into his bedroom where Tim gratefully collapsed onto the large bed with a slight sweat beginning to form on his forehead. Gibbs bent down and slipped off Tim's shoes and pulled the blankets back while Tim carefully wiggled out of the light sweat pants he was wearing and dropped them on the floor. As Gibbs pulled the blankets up around him Tim leaned back against the soft pillows with a slight sigh and then with his eyes closed he smiled.

"What are you smiling about?" Gibbs asked curiously

"I can smell your aftershave on the pillows. It's nice."

Gibbs thought about the nights he had slept curled around Tim's old t shirt and how it had smelt of soap and sweat and aftershave and happier times. It would be nice to have Tim's scent on his pillows again.

Right now the house smelt of new paint, old coffee, large dog and change.

"I will be sleeping in the spare room for a while so I don't jostle you. You look like you could do with the sleep. I will come back in a couple of hours and bring you some dinner. Then maybe later we can talk?"

Gibbs sighed as he looked down to find Tim already blissfully asleep. Again.

He got Tim a large glass of water and placed it beside the bed, pulled the curtains closed and then gave him a soft lingering kiss on the forehead.

"It's good to have you home Timmy"