The waiting room at Bethesda was full of tension. Gibbs sat, elbows on knees, chin on fist, while Abby paced nervously back and forth. Ducky was talking quietly to Palmer, and Ziva was leaning against the wall. They'd been there for an hour already, with no word on either of the injured men other than that Tony had been stabilized enough to be taken up to surgery.
Gibbs couldn't help but replay the moment he'd seen DiNozzo…die…over and over again in his head. It was a sight he had honestly hoped never to see, but with Tony, well. He supposed it wasn't all that unexpected or shocking. That man took more risks than anyone he knew. Reminded him of himself more than anyone he knew. He rubbed a tired hand through his hair, thinking about McGee and his obvious guilt. If DiNozzo didn't make it, Tim was going to be seriously messed up.
Ziva was having much the same thoughts as Gibbs. She had nearly panicked completely upon seeing Tony in such bad shape, even now couldn't bring herself to think the word that more accurately described what exactly she'd seen -because death and Anthony DiNozzo should never be in the same sentence- and it had taken her some time to calm down. Not as long as it had taken McGee. She had never seen the agent freak out so much in the time she'd known him, and it kind of frightened her. She wasn't sure what Tim was capable of, but she did know that it was pretty much crucial –for all of them- that Tony pull another miracle survival out of his bag of tricks.
"Are you here for Agent Tim McGee?" A nurse asked, and five bodies converged on the poor nurse quickly enough that she looked slightly flustered.
"Yeah," Gibbs said tersely, clearly speaking for the small mob surrounding her. The nurse nodded, plastered on a smile that they all knew was fake, and searched for a friendly face for a second before finally settling on Palmer. She had pointedly refused to make eye contact with Abby, Gibbs, and Ziva.
"He's got a concussion- a pretty nasty one, actually- and a broken left wrist. We've set the wrist, and we're keeping him for observation. You can see him if you'd like," she said, then appeared to rethink the statement as she looked at the group of people gathered around her.
"W-Well, actually, two of you at a time can see him. I'll take you to his room if you'd like." Gibbs didn't even need to say anything to get her walking, ahead of them and without speaking, looking over her shoulder every once in a while before continuing ahead. When Ziva thought about it, she realized that they probably were a rather intimidating looking group, Gibbs and Abby especially. They reached Tim's room, looked inside at the pale man lying on the bed, staring into space, emotionless, and none of them knew what to say. Finally, Gibbs stepped inside.
"McGee." Tim didn't even turn to face him. Gibbs was torn between chewing the agent out and telling him to get his pouting ass in gear and hugging him.
"McGee." He repeated it, not entirely surprised when he got the same lack of response. "It wasn't your fault." He sounded like a broken record, knew it, didn't know what else to do. He left the room quietly.
Ziva went next, didn't like what she was in for judging by Gibbs' face, stood uncertainly when McGee didn't even acknowledge her presence. Finally, she got angry.
"Stop pouting, Tim, it's not your fault and you need to stop thinking that, damn it!" She didn't really know what else to say, found herself wanting to hit him, instead stalked out of the room, going as loudly as she could.
Abby bounced in, all energy and excitement. It was all sucked away when she saw McGee.
"Aww, Timmy," she began, reaching out to put a tentative hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault." Tim whirled.
"Don't say that to me, damn it! It was my fault, sure as hell! So stop telling me it wasn't! I stopped the car in a damn intersection! Who the hell does that? No one does that! A car came smashing through Tony's freaking door, because I stopped the damn car! A piece of metal went through Tony's side because I stopped the damn car! So don't you dare come in here all happy and bouncy and tell me that it's not me fault and pet me and act like Tony's fine, that he didn't already die once, that he's going to be okay because he's DiNozzo, because even DiNozzo can't survive everything! DiNozzo can't survive me! Damn it!" Abby was standing, stunned, tears streaming down her face and smearing her makeup, and Tim was staring at the wall again. Ducky and Palmer came in, comforted Abby, didn't speak to Tim, just turned and walked out without looking his direction, Abby breaking down into sobs now. And Tim stared at the wall, finally felt tears coming, sobbed long and hard until he felt himself drifting off to sleep.
A/N: So there was some Tim angst, more Tony next chapter. Thanks for all the sweet reviews!