"ABBY!"
Tim felt adrenalin surge through his body when he saw Alex's finger tighten on the trigger and lunged forward in his bed to grab Abby and pull her out of the way of the bullet. In Alex's troubled mind, he hadn't really aimed his gun and had shot blindly...towards Abby.
He landed heavily on his back and felt the air whoosh out of his lungs at the dead weight that lay across his chest. It took him a moment to realize that Abby was slumped across him unconscious and as he lay there gasping for the breaths that were barely enough to sustain him, he placed one of his hands on her head; it wasn't soft though. It wasn't the silken hair that he knew and love; no. It was wet and when he pulled his hand away he saw the blood that coated his hand.
"No! Abby...Abbs." Somehow he managed to manoeuvre himself into a sitting position and shook Abby's limp form to try to wake her. There was no response so he placed two fingers on her neck and was relieved to find her pulse beating erratically below the pads of his fingers.
"Mon Ange Noir...No!...Mon amour... s'il vous plaît être bon. je suis désolé... je suis désolé" Alex stepped forward but stopped when he saw Tim reach over to cup Abby's face "Non! elle est le mien"
"Alex...I don...I don't speak much ...French but...she..." Tim tried to gulp in a huge breath "She isn't...yours."
"She will always be mine! If I can't have her then no one can." Alex seemed lost in his own fantasy and waved the gun around as he spoke. The fact that he wasn't paying attention to Tim, gave the agent the chance to free himself carefully from Abby and step out of the bed; leaving his girlfriend laying across the mattress uncomfortably.
"She's with me now, Alex."
"She is mine! She will always be mine! No, no, no." Alex started to shake his head. "Si je ne peux pas...If I can't have her then no one can. ELLE M'APPARTIENT!"
"You have to ... let her...go. Please...She needs...help." Tim was panting with the effort of slowly moving round the bed and knew that the only reason why he was moving in the first place was because of the adrenaline that flooded through his veins at that very moment.
"Pourquoi? Tell me. Why should I do what you say? You are weak and have succumbed to..." Alex cocked his head and Tim felt a creepy cold feeling crawl up his spine at the action. "Me!"
Tim watched with sheer, abject horror as Alex raised the gun again and pulled the trigger; only this time he didn't hear the all too familiar sound of the weapon discharging; nor did he feel the impact that he was sure to feel if the bullet had left the chamber. No, what he did hear was a hollow clicking noise that told him that the chamber was empty of the ammunition that should have been there.
"Non! Non!...I have to...This can't be...This..." Alex didn't get to tell Tim what it was and felt a body slam into him, knocking him off balance for a moment before he fell to the floor. The gun skidded away from Alex and came to rest just under the bed.
"Calm..." Tim coughed harshly . "Calm down!"
"No! Let go of me..."
Tim used every bit of strength he had to try and keep Alex pinned to the ground but he was too strong and flipped them both around. Tim was winded when a knee was pushed hard into his ribs and felt every last bit of air rush out of his lungs.
"You say you are not weak and yet here I am. I am like Hercules; I am as strong as Samson and you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO STOP ME." Alex sat up and wrapped one hand tightly round Tim's throat. Tim started to choke and between the knee that was still pressing into his chest and the constriction around his throat; he knew he was a dead man.
"You will never match me! You think you are so special because she chose you. Well she didn't. She has always wanted me and Mon Ange Noir will always have eyes for me...ME!"
Tim's vision started to grey as the pressure stopped him from drawing in the laboured breaths that he had been struggling with recently. He'd take those any day over this; now he was suffocating completely and couldn't draw in any oxygen even if he wanted to. His was startled awake when Alex relaxed his grip around his neck and could finally draw in a slight breath.
"Alex...please..." Tim used the little bit of air that he had drawn into his lungs to try to plead with the troubled young man who was hell bent on killing him right now.
"You beg? You are weak. FIGHT! DAMN IT FIGHT!" He saw red and Tim could have sworn he saw something flash through the psycho's eyes just before he delivered a haymaker punch to his ribs. It was hard and precise and Tim felt a sickening pain shoot through him as the punch finally snapped his already fragile bones.
"ALEX GREEN. BACK AWAY! BACK AWAY NOW!"
Tim opened his eyes to see Gibbs standing in the doorway with his weapon cocked and aimed at Alex's head.
"You took one in the shoulder already. This one'll is aimed right at your head. Killshot." Gibbs' voice was low and menacing as he inched forward towards his fallen agent. "Back away."
Alex was startled when he felt two hands grab his arms and pull them back in a way that he couldn't move. He was yanked up off Tim and felt his pinned arms yanked behind his back painfully before handcuffs were slapped on and tightened to the point of cutting of circulation.
"You bastard. You think you can play with my family and get away with it. You're done! You got that? Done!" Tony's voice was practically a whisper but he still managed to inject as much venom into his words as possible. "Now, you're gonna go with the nice men and hope that they don't do too much damage. Mind you, if they don't then you might want to watch your back because I will kick your arse so hard that you will be choking on my damn boot."
"Tony..." Gibbs' warning drew Tony out of the tempest of headspace that he had fallen into "He's not worth it and our people need us."
"I know." Tony glanced up and saw Ziva standing at the door with Balboa's team. "Get him out of my sight. Get him sectioned; get him...whatever! I don't care. Just get him away from Probie and Abb's." Tony shoved Alex forward and as if the mentally unstable man had only just remembered his injury, he hissed loudly.
"My shoulder..."
"Is nothing compared to what you have done to these two." Tony grasped Alex's injured shoulder and squeezed hard "This pain is nothing in comparison to what you have put McGee through and is nothing compared to what you are gonna get."
"Let's Go!." Balboa stepped forward and manhandled Alex out of the room; leaving Gibbs, Tony and Ziva completely stunned into silence for a fraction of a second. Gibbs dropped to his knees and placed His hand on Tim's face.
"McGee. Tim, look at me." Tim's face turned towards his boss' face but the slightly movement proved too much and the gasp of pain soon turned into a harsh coughing fit. "Crap...Tony go to Abby. Come on McGee, sit up...come on!"
Tony watched as Gibbs sat Tim up and grimaced at the look of pain on his Probie's face. When he turned to Abby, he watched as two nurses and a doctor got her laid down on the bed and checked her wounds. He moved towards them and placed his hand on Abby's leg.
"Doc?"
"It's not too bad and looks like a graze. The bullet didn't penetrate but she's completely out so I'm not ruling out a grade III concussion and need to get a cat scan on her to check for any swelling."
Tony nodded knowing how bad a grade III concussion could be; worst case scenario would mean his baby sister would suffer some kind of neurological damage; best case scenario...well Tony just prayed for that one. Best case scenario would be a little bit of unconsciousness followed by a complete loss of memory as to what happened and neurological checks every half hour when she woke. Add that to the mother of all headaches and he knew that Abby was going to be sick for quite a while.
"Aww, Crap...no McGee...Come on son, don't do this."
Tony whirled round at Gibbs' frantic muttering and felt sick to his stomach when he saw blood pouring out of Tim's mouth. The doctor had obviously heard the tense pleading and barked orders at the nurses before turning and crouching down beside Tim.
"Mr..."
"McGee, Tim McGee." Gibbs filled in the blank with Tim's name and shook his head. "He's got pleurisy and the onset of pneumonia as a result of previous injuries."
"Looks like they've been aggravated. Tim I need to you look at me." The doctor scrutinized Tim's face and noticed the blue tinge that started to appear around his lips "Cyanosis. Damn it, I need to intubate." At that moment two more doctors flew into the room followed by four nurses. One of the doctors and another nurse moved to help Abby whilst the other knelt on the floor.
"I need the intubation tray and can one of you contact the O.R. and tell them we've got a pneumothorax that has been caused by a broken rib." A laryngoscope was handed to him and the team watched with horror as the doctor took position at the top of Tim's head and used the instrument to push the tracheal tube down Tim's throat.
"Alright, bag him. He's not getting enough air and we need to give him as much help as possible." One of the nurses attached a bag to the end of the tube and started to rhythmically pump the bag to try to give Tim the much needed oxygen. As they were doing that, the doctors turned their attention to inserting I.V's into Tim's hands and hooked him up to the fluids that would help him.
"Doc. They gonna be okay?"
"I don't know, sir. I simply just don't know."
The team was waiting in the family room of the hospital waiting for news on their two injured friends. Ducky, who had been standing at the end of the corridor on Gibbs' orders; had seen both of his young friends whisked away for treatment and was currently pacing the small room.
"Duck. Sit down, will ya?" Gibbs ran an exhausted hand over his face and sighed heavily at the tension in the room.
"What? Oh, sorry." The M.E. sat down next to Gibbs and glanced over at Tony and Ziva. "It is good to see them getting some rest, though I don't think they will stay like that for long."
"Leave 'em be, Duck. They're bone tired and were ordered to get some sleep."
Ducky glanced at Gibbs with raised eyebrows knowing that there was more than simply ordering them to rest. Gibbs shrugged.
"Told them that it was either that or I'd have them sedated. Don't care which one as long as they're resting."
"That was harsh, Jethro. But needed." Gibb's chuckled slightly at the comment and shook his head.
"I couldn't keep McGee and Abbs safe. Least I can do is make sure my other two kids are alright." He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Damn it, Duck. I couldn't keep them safe. I failed them."
"No. You didn't. Obviously that troubled young man was brighter than what we thought."
"Who? Alex?"
"Who else? Listen to me now. There had to be someone else working alongside him, I mean there was no way he blindsided two agents at his door by injecting them both with a sedative."
"I know. I just can't figure out who. Right now Lisa Laselle looks like the prime suspect and I've spoken to Vance about getting a subpoena to ransack her office and computers. Leon had Balboa on the case and found that Abby's friend Lisa is the Doc that Greene was under at the psych hospital." Gibbs sighed sadly and shook his head "I should have made that connection."
"Jethro, right now Timothy is in surgery and Abigail has a grade III concussion and is unconscious. Now is not the time for blame. Do we know where Dr. Laselle is?"
"No. We couldn't hold her at NCIS and she disappeared off our radar. We think she's still in D.C. but we just don't know where because the name of the hotel she gave has no record."
"Is it possible that she is the one that overpowered the agents guarding Alex. I mean she would have the medical know how and depending on how busy the staff were, it is possible that they didn't blink an eyelash at her walking around; especially if she was wearing a doctors jacket." Ducky tried to piece together the events that led up to them waiting for news of their team mates.
"It's possible but unlikely. Duck, this is a naval hospital and the security is higher than average."
"Yes, but it's obviously not infallible. Security camera's?"
"Vance is on it, Duck. I can't think about this right now."
"Jethro..."
"Anyone here for Abigail Scuito?" A young, female doctor poked her head into the room and shook her head when four people shot up; two of which looking as though they had just woken up.
"Yeah. How is she?" Gibbs got straight to the point.
"She's got a grade III concussion and has just regained consciousness. There's some memory loss of the incident but her long term memory seems alright for the moment and she can remember most of what happened up until the point of being grazed by the bullet. The good news is that there's no skull fracture but she's dis-orientated and her left pupil is sluggish and slightly enlarged."
"Brain damage?" Ducky's panicked tone rang through the room.
"Early indications say no but the CT scan showed a small amount of swelling. We're not worried at the moment seeing as all the other signs are good but will be keeping an eye on it in the next couple of days." The doctor paused and looked around in case they had any questions.
"Can we see her?" Tony stood there holding Ziva's hand to offer his silent partner the support that she needed. Right now, she stood there trembling as shock set in at what she witnessed.
"Not just yet. She's going to be moved to a private room in a short while and then she is going to rest and let us do what we have to, to help her. For now, I advise that you all go home and get some sleep because we won't know anything until the morning."
Gibbs scowled at the advice and shook his head. Until he knew exactly what was going on with all his people, then there was no way in hell he was leaving this hospital.
"That's not gonna happen. We're not leaving her to think none of us are here for her." He advised her without backing down.
"Yeah, c'mon, at least let us see her for a minute so she knows we haven't left her." Tony added now that Gibbs had thrown down the gauntlet.
"Very well, Five minutes. That's all I can give you. She needs her rest. As far as someone staying with her, that's not advisable. You all need rest yourselves. And she will need someone to stay with her when she is released . You'll want to be ready to help her then. I promise you, she will recover just fine."
"And Tim McGee?"