Somewhere in West Virginia, in a womens restroom, at a rest stop a burn phone rings.
"The king is dead, long live the queen.", a male voice on the other ends says.
"So everything went as planned?", the women who answered the phone asked.
"Not quite, the agent didn't die on the scene, he is at Bethesda in surgery. Should we finish him off?"
"No, hopefully he doesn't pull through and even if he does, he won't be back at work for long enough for us to cover our tracks. Just start removing all the data off the internet and make sure everyone knows not to leave any electronic footprints for now on. Keep me posted."
-NCIS-
Vance sat in the waiting room quietly talking to Dr. Mallard between fielding phone calls from the agents at both crime scenes.
"How much of a fight is he going to give us about the psychological evaluation?", Vance asked the older man.
"Once he calms down he'll do it, but just enough to get released back to the field. He won't like it but he will do it."
"Will it help him deal with what we witnessed?"
"If I had the answer to that Director, I would have broken into the steel trap that is the mind of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, something that only two people have succeeded in doing, Shannon and our very own Timothy. Our best hope lies in surgery as we speak. Timothy will get Jethro through this.", the doctor looked over to the man they were talking about and sadly shook his head. "I think it is time someone got him a decent cup of coffee.", he got up and walk to the elevator.
Not long after he left, a nurse entered the waiting room, "Family of Timothy McGee."
Gibbs was up and in front of her quicker than anyone thought was possible, "How is he?"
"He made it through fine, and is currently in recovery, as soon as he wakes he will be moved to ICU."
"When can I see him?"
"About thirty to forty-five minutes."
The glare Gibbs gave her made harden criminals spill their guts, but apparently didn't do anything to Navy nurses, "I will come get you when he is moved. Dr. Plum should be out with an update in about ten minutes.", with that she turned on her heel and left.
Vance's cell phone rang right as she left, "Vance"
"What? How is that possible? Well you better figure out a better answer than that and soon."
He slammed his phone shut, and looked up to see Gibbs staring at him looking for an answer.
Vance pulled him to the elevator and hit the button to the ground floor, "I'm sending Dr. Cranston over and she is going to do your evaluation now."
"I don't have time for that right now I want to be with Tim, I'll handle that when everything settle down." Gibbs replied impatiently.
Vance hit the emergency stop button and pulled a toothpick out of his jacket pocket, "You will do it right now or you won't be part of Tim's protection detail. That was Witness Protection on the phone, Ms Scaletti vanish on the way to a safe house in Florida, the agency sedan that DiNozzo gave them at our safe house was just pulled out of a river in Georgia, the agents are no where to be found."
"What the hell is going on, Leon?"
"I'm heading back to the yard right now to rattle a few cages and find out.", he took a deep breathe to calm himself down, "We will figure this out, Jethro. Just do what you have to do to get cleared for duty and do it fast."
Vance pushed the button to start the elevator again and continued to the hospital entrance and Gibbs rode it back up to the waiting room.
He arrived just as Dr. Plum opened the door and looked around the waiting room, "Agent Gibbs"
"How is he?"
"Everything went by the book on the table and he should be waking up soon. Let me warn you, however, he needs his rest right now be rehabilitation is going to be a long process." the doctor's serious expression gave way to a grin, "Are you ready to see him?"
"Yes", was all Gibbs said as he released a very pent up breathe.
AN: Thanks for all the wonderful feedback. Sorry about the late posting rough week at work so I still had a little work to do on this chapter, hopefully tonight will run a little smoother. As always please review they help keep me focused.