Tim had gotten settled in his room at The Adams House, and was laying on the bed thinking about the older man who had come to mean so much to him. He had a small smile on his lips and he had started to doze off when two things happened at the same time. Someone was knocking at his door and his cell phone started to ring. He picked up the phone and headed to the door, opening the phone he reached for the door to hear his lovers voice, "Tim, don't open the door..."

It was too late he already had the door partially opened and he caught a glance of a gun barrel just in time to dive out of the way of the shot, dropping his phone.

Tim didn't have his Sig with him but thanks to rule 9 he did have a knife, he reached his knife out of the sheath strapped to his leg and look up from his hiding spot behind the bed. A second shot rang out and Tim let the knife fly. Tim heard the thud of a knife burying itself in flesh as he felt a sharp pain on the side of his head and the world went black.

Gibbs was driving to The Adams House when he finally reached Tim on his cell. When Tim answered he heard a knocking over the phone and tried to warn his young lover, "Tim, don't open the door. Jennifer...",but he was too late, he heard the gunshot over the phone and floored the gas petal. He had every worst case senior running through his head, when he heard the thud of metal entering flesh and a second gunshot, then silence.

The car skidded to a stop in front of the hotel and the three agents inside were out in seconds and racing up to Tim's room followed quickly by a second sedan of agents following closely behind.

Gibbs entered the room and saw his young lover lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

He forced himself to follow protocol and check the other body in the room and while DiNozzo and David cleared the rest of the room. The second body in the room had Tim's knife sticking out of his throat, it was clear that Tim had thrown the knife across the room and landed a perfect hit. The man was dead.

Gibbs then moved to his lover and checked for a pulse and breathed a sigh a relief when he found a strong steady beat of his heart. He checked his head and found that the butterfly bandages Ducky had placed earlier hadn't broken and the blood was coming from a long gash that was about an inch above the temple and heading around to the back of his head. Tim apparently had been grazed by a bullet when he threw his knife.

An ambulance had been called to the scene and so had Ducky to collect the body. Gibbs held his young lover in his arms and let out all the emotions he had been holding in for a month and a half. Guilt, rage, fear and pain rolled off of him in waves until all that was left was the love that he held for the younger man. Finally he realized how grateful he was the Tim had survived and he would have a chance to make their relationship better. Somewhere in all the emotional upheaval he found it in himself the ability to let go of the guilt he felt over Shannon and Kelly's death as well.

By the time the EMTs arrived on the scene he was truly at peace with himself and had a clear plan for his future. He rode to the hospital with Tim and was once again holding his hand when Tim came to in the ambulance, "Jethro, you came."

"Always, Tim always.", he said with a smile.

Tim could tell that something was different with the older man but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, so he just smiled and let everything he was feeling show on his face.

"You took care of my heart.", Jethro whispered in his ear.

"Always.", was the immediate response, and both men smiled.

The next forty-eight hours flew by, the virus that was supposed to wipe out the searches on Tim's computer didn't activate thanks to the fact that the searches had been divided between Tim's and Agent Thomas' computers. Cyber crimes with Abby's help was able to back trace the virus to it's source and the pieces fell into place quickly from there. By the time Tim was released from the hospital Jennifer Scalletti and her entire operation had been rounded up and were in custody. For the first time in several months Tim was no longer in danger.

Gibbs showed up at the hospital with two weeks vacation for both men and two small boxes hidden in his jacket.

He walked into Tim's room and smiled has the doctor was giving Tim a final exam before releasing him. Tim looked up and gave Jethro the million watt smile that stop his heart every time it was sent in his direction, "Hey, you ready to take me home and take care of me again.", he said with a seductive smile.

"Down boy" Jethro said grinning.

He reached in his jacket pocket and took out one of the boxes and handed it to Tim.

"This is for me?" the younger man asked.

"No, it is for me, but I really would like for you to be the one to give it to me."
Tim gave him a puzzled look and opened the box to see a set of custom made dog-tags. The one top had two hands cupped together palms up. "It is to remind me that the tighter you grip something the more likely it is to get away."

Gibbs then showed Tim the second box, opened it and showed him another set of custom dog-tags, "This set is for you."

The top one on Tim's set showed an engraving of a tall tower, "It's the only tower I'll ever try to put on you."

Tim just smiled, but had a confused look in his eyes. "I'll explain to you tonight, after I take care of you.", the older man whispered in his ear.

Tim reached into the box in his hand to move the top tag and see the one on the bottom, it took a second but he then read out-loud "It will come when it will come."

He needed a couple of seconds before he placed the quote, "Julius Caesar?"

"It reminds me to not be afraid of the inevitable."

"You do realize that Caesar told that to his wife right before he was assassinated?"

"Yeah, Ducky explained that to me. That's why it's on both sets, you need to remember it too, especially in our line of work, you know, getting shot, poisoned, blown up just part of the job description."

Tim's smile just got brighter as he put all the pieces of the dog-tags together and what they meant for the couple.

"I love you, Jethro."

"Me too, Tim."

AN: Well that finishes it. Tell me what you think. Please review. :) stray