Gibbs stood silently staring at the trauma room doors for almost an hour before the nurse that had spoken to him exited the room. She gave him a sad smile has she approached him, "Mr. McGee has been stabilized and being prepared for surgery. Would you like to see him before we send him in?"

Gibbs let out a deep breathe and just nodded.

"Follow me."

She led Gibbs into the trauma room and he got his first sight of Tim in too long. It disturbed him to see the young man hooked to so many machines, he was looking at the IV in his hand with a glazed look in his eyes, "Hey",the young man said looking up at him. "Are you okay?" his brow wrinkled in worry looking at the older man who meant so much to him.

"Don't worry about me, I walked away without a scratch. How are you feeling."

" It doesn't hurt so bad anymore, I feel like I'm floating.", he said with a glazed over grin.

"Yeah, they got you on the good stuff alright."

Gibbs took his hand gently making sure he didn't disturb any of the wires attached to the man, "I'll be right here waiting for you as soon as you wake up. They are going to take good care of you." Gibbs leaned over and very gently kissed him, "Take care of my heart."
"Always" Tim responded losing his battle against the drugs that were pulling him under.

The nurse that had escorted him in put a hand on his shoulder, "I'll show you to the waiting room and the doctor will be out to explain everything to you shortly."

It was a short walk to the waiting room and Gibbs was shocked when he saw the group that had gathered there while he was in the emergency room.

"Hey Boss, how is he?"DiNozzo immediately asked as he walked into the room.

"Going into surgery. The Doctor should be here shortly to update us on his condition. How's the arm."
"Cleaned, two stitches and a tetanus shot. Quickest trip to the ER I've ever had."

Vance and Ducky abruptly ended a conversation in the far corner when he entered and walked over to him, "Have you spoken to Dr. Cranston, yet" Vance asked without preamble.

"Not much to say, Leon. I wasn't the one targeted out there."

"We all need to go through a psychological debriefing after this, McGee may have been physically tortured out there but every agent on that dock went through sever mental torture."

Gibbs just raised an eyebrow and turn to face DiNozzo once again, "Were you able to get in touch with Ziva?"
"She should be on the next flight out of Israel, should be on US soil in about 36 hours, Boss."

"Jethro.", Ducky said trying to get Gibbs to acknowledge what he and Vance were saying, but Gibbs steadfastly ignored both of the men.

The doctor walk out of a nearby door just then, "Family of Timothy McGee."

Gibbs quickly walked over, "I'm his partner Jethro Gibbs.", he introduced himself.

"Dr. Nicholas Plum, I will be performing the surgery on Mr. McGee..."
"Agent McGee", Gibbs interrupted.

"Yes, Agent McGee lost a lot of blood and we just stabilized his blood pressure enough to put him under for the surgery to remove the bullet from his hip. We will also set the bones on his left leg while he is under. The two other bullets went straight through but caused significant muscle damage, we will clean the entry and exit wounds and try to repair as much damage as possible."
"How long will this take?", asked an worried Gibbs.

"He will be in surgery for two to three hours. I will send someone out to get you when he is sent to recovery. Let me warn you however, this is just the beginning due to the severity of the muscle damage and the placement of his other injuries Agent McGee is in for a long and painful recovery."

Gibbs grimaced, "He will recover, right?"

"He should, as long as he follows his after care and doesn't try to do too much too fast. This is going to be a marathon not a sprint."

Gibbs nodded, "Okay."

After the Doctor left Gibbs sat quietly by himself, lost in thoughts of his young lover and planning on how he would take care of him once he got out of the hospital. Every once and a while, however, a dark thought would cross his mind on how close he came to losing the young man.

AN:Review, review, review please. Next update Monday evening. :)