A/N This chapter was brilliantly written by Shelbylou.
I'd like to dedicate this chapter to her hard work and dedication on all of our stories.
A job well done!

"Tim!"
"McGee!"
"Timmy!"

Gibbs gazed over at his unconscious agent before glancing around at the surrounding buildings, his gut was churning making him feel slightly nauseous but his protective instincts had kicked in and he found himself unable to move away from Abby. He felt Abby shift beneath him and pushed down harder to make sure she kept laying low.

"Stay down Abby. Don't move! Got it?" His hissed words had the desired effect and he felt Abby stop squirming.

"Gibbs, Timmy! We've got to get to him, he needs help!"

He frowned at her hysterical tone knowing damn well that there was no way to pacify her at the moment, not with a trigger happy gun man on the loose. He felt a hand on his shoulder and whirled round sharply wielding his weapon stiffly to keep his form. He exhaled loudly and looked up to see Ziva trying to get Ducky back down.

"Damn it, Duck! I coulda' shot you!" Gibbs' heart picked up the pace again making him feel slightly breathless. "Get down! Don't any of you listen?"

"There is nothing I can do to stop him from going to McGee, Gibbs. I believe the sniper has gone now." Ziva was pretty much standing behind Ducky swinging her weapon around from building to building with a controlled precision that let everyone know she was a professional and knew what she was doing.

"Jethro, I need to get to Timothy and need you to call for help. I don't like the fact he's unconscious and may need serious medical assistance."

Gibbs' did one more sweep with Ziva and holstered his weapon to pull out his cell phone to call for the medics and backup. Once that was done he reached down to Abby and signaled for her to get up and go help Ducky whilst he made one more phone call.

"Very special agent DiNozzo."

"Tony, now's not the time. Get over to Ziva's, now!" Gibbs' no nonsense, tense voice sparked a sharp pang of worry through Tony and he couldn't help the huff off a curse that fell from his lips.

"What's goin' on Boss? Everyone ok?"

"No, Tony, we've got a serious problem and I need you over here ASAP! You got that?"

"Yeah, Boss. I'm on my way...Hey Boss?" He waited for the gruff Yeah before continuing "Everyone okay? You didn't answer before."

"McGee's been hit by a sharpshooter, DiNozzo." Gibbs heard the sharp intake of breath and the sound of a door being slammed shut.

"Boss, I'll be there in 5."

Gibbs snapped his phone shut and rushed over to where Ducky, Ziva and Abby were crouched over Tim. Ducky was holding a gauze pad to the side of Tim's head and was muttering soft words to the unconscious man. He knelt down and placed a comforting arm around Abby before addressing Ducky.

"How's he doing, Duck?"

"The vest took the bullet, Jethro but he hit his head hard on the curb when he fell. At the very least he will have bruised ribs and a concussion, at worst...." Ducky cut his sentence short when he felt Tim stir slightly under his touch. "Timothy. Come on young man open your eyes."

All four of them watched as Tim fought the darkness that had enveloped him, it was hard to watch and Abby couldn't stifle her sob when she saw Tim's brow crease with pain.

"Hey, McGee! Come on wake up for me." Gibbs' voice was firm and authoritative and seemed to have the desired effect on his agent. He watched carefully as Tim slowly opened his eyes and winced heavily as the light assaulted his fragile eyes.

"T..T..Timmy. You all right, I thought you were....Oh, Timmy!" Gibbs held Abby back as she lurched forward to envelope his agent in a bone crushing hug.

"Abbs, you heard Ducky! He might have bruised ribs or worse, how 'bout you hold off on that for now." Abby nodded her understanding and picked Tim's hand up off the ground, holding it softly to provide comfort.

"Timothy, are you tracking me, dear boy?" Ducky was busy trying to assess the level of head injury Tim had suffered and was currently trying to check to see whether Tim's pupils were blown. "Timothy, can you even hear me?"

They all watched as Tim swallowed once and turned his gaze onto his boss.

"Boss?" His tone was soft and it was obvious that even the smallest movement was causing him pain.

"Yeah, McGee, you're gonna be all right, you got that?"

"Yeah, Boss.....Why'm I gonna be all right? What happened?" Ducky exchanged a worried look with Gibbs and was about to answer when Ziva jumped in.

"Shooter, McGee, you were shot in the chest and hit your head on the way down. You know, if you wanted our attention then there are better ways to do it."

"ZIVA!" Abby's screech sent shockwaves of pain though Tim's throbbing scull and it was all he could do to try to keep the nausea at bay. It was a losing battle though and he soon found himself flailing harshly to try to roll onto his side so he could throw up.

"Oh Timothy! Jethro is there an ambulance on its way because I fear the poor boy has a severe concussion that needs to be monitored closely." Ducky was currently supporting Tim on his side though the heavy heaving, it wasn't long before Tim's stomach settled enough for him to be able to be rolled back onto his back, the movement revealing another injury that was equally as painful. He let out a pitiful groan as he was settled back and the group were relieved to hear sirens blaring down the road.

Fifteen minutes had passed and Gibbs was walking over to the ambulance that the paramedic crew had settled Tim on a gurney. He had finally won the battle to travel with his agent after making sure that Ducky, Abby and Ziva would follow in his car.

Flashback......

"Ziva, I'm gonna go with McGee, can you get Duck and Abby to the hospital. Take my car and we'll meet you there."

"Gibbs! I want to go with Timmy, I need to know how he is!"

"Abbs he's gonna be fine and the last thing the medics need is for you to lose your head in there." He knew damn well what Abby would be like and wanted the attention fully on his ailing agent.

"But Gibbs........"

"No Abby! Get in the car with Ziva and Duck and I'll meet you there. End of discussion!" With that, he stalked off towards the ambulance to see how Tim was doing.

No sooner had he stepped into the waiting bus, the paramedics closed the doors and sped off on their journey to the hospital.

The ambulance arrived at the hospital and Gibbs was left standing in the middle of the ER as Tim was whisked away, he walked over to the desk and decided to take care of the admitting paperwork for his agent before moving to the waiting area to await the arrival of his team. They didn't take long, and the small waiting room was soon filled with 4 nervous people waiting for information. They had been sat there for a solid hour without a word passing between them.

Abby had taken to sitting close to Gibbs and always made sure she had some kind of contact with him as if to leech off any shred of comfort that the older man could offer. She was currently sitting quietly with her head on his shoulder but jumped when the door cracked open to reveal a dishevelled looking Tony DiNozzo.

"Boss, what's goin' on? Ducky called me and told me you were coming to Bethesda. Any news?"

"Not yet Tony. What took you so long?" Gibbs eyed his agent warily and hoped there was a damn good excuse for him being late.

"Traffic. Then as I pulled up to Zee's I got the call and had to turn back and come here. I saw Balboa's team working the scene and thought I'd check on how they were doing. Any news yet?"

"No DiNozzo, not yet but...."

"Who's here for Timothy McGee." The small group all stood at the doctor's announcement and moved towards the tired looking ER resident.

"We are. My names Special Agent Gibbs and I'm his boss, this is Dr. Donald Mallard and he's Tim's physician."

The doctor seemed to know Ducky and smiled warmly at the M.E.

"Physician huh, Ducky? Thought you preferred it when they don't answer back?"

"Whilst that may be true my dear, someone has to look after this accident prone team." The two doctors laughed gently which acerbated Gibbs' frustration to a whole new level.

"HEY! How 'bout we get to the point here! How's my agent, Doc?"

"Of course, sorry ,. Timothy has suffered from a Grade 2 concussion and has a couple of cracked ribs where the bullet impacted his vest. He's a very lucky young man because if he hadn't been wearing Kevlar then he wouldn't have survived to tell the tale."

Gibbs nodded and shuddered slightly at the thought of the debate he'd had with Tim that morning. If I hadn't insisted he wouldn't be here, that kids damn lucky.

"Can we see him?"

"Sure, he's being moved up to a private room at the moment but once he's settled you can go in a sit with him. He's pretty much lucid now but we want to keep our eye on him overnight."

"Lucid? He wasn't before?" Ducky had been concerned about the fact that it was taking Tim longer to regain his awareness than normal.

"Not fully, he was pretty out of it for a while and his responses were slow but he stabilised fairly quickly and we were able to get a CT done. Don't worry, nothing serious showed up but he's going to have one hell of a headache and will have to be woken up every couple of hours for the obligatory tests."

Gibbs decided he liked this doctor, she was upfront, honest and somehow had a knack to making people feel at ease.

"Can you let us know what room he's in."

The doctor nodded and left the room, leaving four incredibly relieved people in her wake.

The team entered Tim's room quietly not wanting to wake their friend. They were surprised to see Tim sitting up in bed with supportive bandage wrapped around his chest to support the ribs, watching TV peacefully. They noticed the pained, pinched look on his face and moved in to fill the chairs around the room.

"Timmy, how are you feeling?"

"Like I've gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. What happened?" Tim's confused tone worried Gibbs.

"You got shot by a sharpshooter, McGee, good job you were suited up or cracked ribs and a concussion would have been the least of your worries; ours, too."

"Shooter? Boss I don't re...I don't remember being shot."

Tony huffed out a laugh and leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees.

"Apparently you had an argument with the side walk. Needless to say the sidewalk won, Probielicious. How's the head?'

"Hurts." Tim's quiet admission didn't go amiss ad Ducky soon moved closer to visually assess his young friend. He knew they had him on an IV to replenish the fluids that he had lost due to his drinking binge the night before. He had to admit that Tim didn't look too bad, a little paler than he should be, he had dark circles underneath his eyes but all in all the only obvious, tell tale sign that anything was wrong was the pinched pain look on the young man's face and the heavy, supportive bandages around his chest.

"Timothy, they can't give you anything stronger than Tylenol at the moment because of the concussion. If the pain gets too bad you must tell us though."

"Thanks Ducky, I'm okay." Not realizing the real truth was evidenced on his face, he turned his attention to what lay heaviest on his mind. " Hey, Abby, who sent you the flowers?"

"I don't know. I mean, I thought they were from you but they weren't and the chocolates and the letters and the........." Abby floundered through her explanation, unknowingly upsetting Tim more.

"Abby! Calm down!" Gibbs hurried over to Tim who had pushed himself up to get to his girl. He was currently trying his hardest to swing his legs out of bed but a wave of dizziness assaulted him.

"Timothy, you will get back in that bed immediately and calm yourself. Abigail I'm not sure this is the right time." Ducky admonished both of them.

"Ducky, I need to know!" Tim's voice was a little bit stronger and he gazed at Abby with a firm resolve. "Abbs, chocolates and letters. They weren't from me."

Abby let out a strangled sob.

"They weren't? Timmy they were love letters and I just guessed they were from you but maybe I shouldn't have because it was too early...."

"Breathe, Abby, come on don't get upset. Come here." Tim held out his arm and waited for Abby to go to him. Once he had her in his grasp he pulled her in for a light hug. "I don't know what's going on Abbs, but we'll figure it out ok?"

"You're gonna work on getting better, Probie, we'll take the slack on this. Abbs, where are those letters?" Tony ordered.

"In my bag at Ziva's, Tony, I wanted to read them again so I packed them." She was mortified, the letter hadn't been from Tim and that fact hurt. She felt Tim's grip loosen slightly and glanced down at him, it was obvious that the sheer exhaustion had finally caught up with him and he was soon sleeping peacefully.

"DiNozzo, Ziva! Get over to Ziva's apartment and get those letters. I don't think Balboa will have picked up on them and I want them processed." His two agents nodded and left leaving Ducky and Abby standing by Tim's bedside.

"Abbs I need you to...."

"I'm staying, Gibbs."

"Abbs, you need to rest."

"I'm good and I'm staying!" Her firm resolve softened Gibbs slightly and so he turned to Ducky.

"Duck, go home and sleep. I'll call you in a couple of hours.

Ducky nodded and left the room without another word. Gibbs sat down and pulled a chair close so that Abby could sit next to him and take the comfort he had to offer. They soon settled into a comfortable position and sat watching Tim as he slept. Gibbs couldn't help but think about the letter and the other gifts that Abby had received and was hit suddenly by the realisation that someone had quite literally shot at that invisible target that was attached to Tim permanently. He couldn't help the thoughts that ran through his mind, knowing damn well that the answers were just slightly out of his reach.

What the hell is going on? Who were the letters from? Damn, this runs deeper than I originally thought! Somehow, we gotta keep this from taking over this kid's life! He'll bury himself under the ramifications of this if we let him.

Gibbs watched as Abby curled up on one of the chairs, he couldn't help but smile gently at the sight of his forensic scientist curled in on herself with her hand resting lightly over Tim' Abby succumbed to her body and mind's need for sleep, Gibbs stood and gently laid a spare blanket over her before starting the first of many concussion checks that the nurses had finally agreed to let him do. He moved over to the side of the bed and gently shook Tim awake, waiting patiently for Tim to open his eyes and finally track him.

"Wha…" came the sleepy reply.

"Hey, I need to ask you a few questions. How're you feeling?"

"Hurts, Boss."

"It'll be all right, I'll be quick and you can get back to sleepin'. What's your name?"

"Timothy McGee." Tim responded quickly and lucidly which seemed to lighten the load that had descended on Gibbs' shoulders given the circumstances.

"Good, Tim, can you tell me where you were before you got hit?"

"Abb…No Ziva'. I was at Ziva's and we were going to NCIS to take something to be processed." Gibbs knew he had to steer the conversation away from that topic as soon as possible so diverted his questions elsewhere.

"Tim, what's the name and breed of your dog?"

"Jethro….German Shepherd."

Gibbs noticed the slight hesitation and confusion in one of the questions so decided to ask another just to be on the safe side.

"Tim, what car do you drive?"

"Porsche Boxter. Boss, can I go to sleep now, please?" Tim's voice was slurring dangerously signaling the need for him to sleep.

"Yeah McGee, just relax ok, but I need to wake you up in a couple of hours again."

"Huh?"

"Relax, Go back to sleep." Gibbs gentle coaxing wasn't needed as Tim had already closed his eyes and soon shifted on into a relaxed, deep sleep.

Gibbs kept his vigil; quietly waking his agent up every two hours, just enough to do the necessary question/answer session to satisfy their need to keep him lucid.

The night passed without a hitch and Tim soon found himself being woken up for yet another concussion check. This time, he actually managed to stay awake throughout the questions and then for a while after. He glanced over at Abby and scooted further up in the bed, gasping when his bruised rib's pulled painfully.

"McGee?"

"I'm ok, Boss, I just moved wrong. She all right, I mean has she been there all the time?" Tim was worried, Abby didn't look comfortable and the fact that she was sound asleep heralded the fact that she would be stiff as hell.

"Yeah she did. Damn stubborn woman got me with my own glare!" He smiled slightly as his agent chuckled, the sound playing across the room like music.

"She's good at that, Boss. Did you find out about the flowers?"

"Not yet, McGee, but Balboa's team took them to headquarters so we should be able to get some evidence off them as soon as Abby can get back to the lab."

"When? Boss I wanna find out who's behind this soon." Tim was worried, he had a headache and his ribs ached unmercifully. Every movement made him want to curl up in a ball and try to drift off into that wonderful oblivion that would take the pain away.

"Soon, Your Doc came round just before you woke up and wants to do a quick check. If everything's ok, you and Abbs are gonna stay at my house where I can keep an eye on you both."

"Uh Boss, I don't think that's a goo…"

"In separate rooms, McGee!" Gibbs really wanted to laugh, he had no idea what his agent thought he was going to let the two youngsters get up to in his house and decided to cut it dead in it's tracks.

"Thanks, Boss. Jethro would love the backyard." There was something at the back of Tim's mind that nagged relentlessly and he soon realised that Jethro had been laying across the back seat of Gibbs' car when the shooter had hit. "Crap, Boss. Jethro was in your car. Is he all right? Where is he?"

Gibbs halted the bombardment of questions by holding up his hand and grinned to try to pacify his agent.

"He's fine McGee, he's bein' pampered by Ziva and DiNozzo as we speak. Listen, I wanna talk to you about what's going on because you're keeping something from me!"

"Boss, I've told you everything I know. I wouldn't keep anything from you." Tim's distaste for keeping secrets from Gibbs was apparent in his voice.

"Everything?" Gibbs asked anyway. He knew it seemed as though he doubted Tim's honesty, but he couldn't help himself; the need to have all the facts was pushing everything else out of focus.

"If there was anything else to tell you, I would have." Tim's voice was now hard with the rising emotions that Gibbs' doubt instilled in him, heavily compounding the pain he was already feeling. Without another word, Tim laid his head back and closed his eyes in frustration with both hands clenched into fists, his fingers curling in anger and other nameless emotions that were now swirling through his tired and not so pain-free brain.

As Gibbs watched Tim's reaction to his doubt; saw the pain he was still quietly dealing with while trying to work on the case and check on Abby; saw the pain that his doubt had brought up in his Agent; he couldn't help but feel a dose of regret for causing it. With a mental note to make it up to his agent after the case was solved; Gibbs turned to go so the kid could get some sleep.

A small, sleepy voice travelled over to the two men leaving Gibbs blinking owlishly at the huddled, blanketed figure as it tried to escape the clutches of the cover; and Tim staring over at her with disbelief etched in his face as his brain processed her words.

"Not everything. Gibbs, Timmy I'm really sorry but there's more."