Chapter 5

Tony parked himself by Tim and refused to move, for fear that Tim would suddenly die. He put his hand on Tim's chest again. He didn't want to have Tim go into some kind of crisis while they were waiting for rescue.

Jesse walked over.

"What are you doing?"

Tony looked at his hand and shrugged.

"I can't tell if he's breathing or anything when I just look at him...but I can feel his heartbeat. I don't want him to die on me."

Jesse nodded.

"I understand that."

"Do you?"

"Yeah."

Then, Jesse got up and walked back to Brandon. Tony watched him.

"Tim, I have the feeling we're getting off this mountain really soon. Something about that guy..."

Tony couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but he thought that Jesse was about to make a push for the helicopter to get up to them sooner rather than later.

Brandon came over and joined Tony.

"They think it's eased off enough that they can make it up here."

Tony looked around.

"Doesn't look any different to me."

Brandon smiled.

"Doesn't to me, either. ...but it did to Jesse."

"And they listened?"

"More or less."

"It's not going to be dangerous for them, is it?"

"It is, a little. There's always a risk flying in bad weather, but there's no lightning and the wind isn't too bad. Those are the most dangerous things. They're going to get up here as quickly as they can, load up and get back down. So we need to be ready for them. No delays."

"Right." Tony looked around. He couldn't see anything he needed to pack. "I'm ready."

Brandon laughed a little bit.

"Good."

In a few minutes, there was a loud roaring sound and the helicopter arrived. It landed a fair distance away because it needed the open space, but as Brandon had said, they didn't waste any time. They got a real stretcher, ran over and carefully began transferring Tim onto it. Brandon was updating them on Tim's status, and Tony noticed that Jesse was standing well back from the proceedings. He went over.

"Thanks for getting them up here," he said.

"They just needed a little urging," Jesse said. "I'll be going now."

"Going?"

"I've left my sheep alone for too long. Connall can't keep up with them all. I'm sure that there will be a few that wandered off and got lost. I can't leave them that way."

"Oh." Tony was surprised how much he regretted that Jesse was headed back alone. "You need any help?"

Jesse laughed.

"Not a bit. I'll be fine without your dead weight."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Go on and don't miss your ride. Good luck to you."

"Thank you. Really, Jesse, thank you."

Jesse just waved that away and walked over to reassemble his pack.

"Tony! Come on!"

Tony looked over and saw Brandon gesturing. He looked at the old shepherd one last time and then ran for the chopper. He got on and they took off within seconds.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Five hours later...

Tony was sitting in the waiting room at the hospital while Tim was in surgery. The doctor had told him that there was some internal bleeding, including some bleeding on the brain, causing increasing intercranial pressure. They needed to get that in hand as quickly as possible to keep from causing permanent brain damage. They'd also be fixing other internal injuries and it could take a while.

So Tony was sitting, waiting...and trying to get up the courage to call Gibbs and tell him that Tim had almost died on this great hiking trip. He had to tell Gibbs because Gibbs could, then, call Tim's family and tell them. If he'd had Tim's phone, he might have been able to have the courage to call Tim's family himself, but Tim had left his phone in the car, and the car was still in the campground parking lot.

He had told himself that he'd wait until Tim's surgery was over, but he knew that was just cowardice. This trip had been his great idea. He had convinced Tim to come along. Tim hadn't wanted to, and he had almost died.

"Just call, DiNozzo. It's not going to change."

He sighed and walked over to a pay phone. He hadn't used a pay phone in years, but with his phone broken and Tim's phone miles away, he didn't have too many choices. Actually, he was surprised that there was a pay phone in the hospital at all. It did have the convenience of accepting credit cards. Nice of the phone company to think of that.

Finally, he dialed.

"Agent Gibbs."

"Hey, Boss."

"Tony. Where are you calling from?"

"A pay phone in a hospital in the Rocky Mountains."

"What happened?"

"Tim fell off the mountain, Boss. We were getting close to the top and Tim lost his balance. He fell. He was stuck overnight while I went for help. They had to send a helicopter to get him, and now, I'm in the hospital while he's in surgery."

"He okay?"

"No. But he's not dead. Not yet, anyway." Tony took a deep breath. "It's bad, Boss."

There was a brief silence while Gibbs assimilated the information.

"Not your fault, Tony."

"Yeah."

"It's not your fault. I'll call his family. Give me the address and I'll let them know. Where's your phone?"

"Broken."

"McGee's?"

"In the car...which is at the campground where we parked."

No reply to that. No need.

"Boss...I'm not coming back until Tim is. Either until he's okay or else until he tells me that I'm driving him crazy. I'm not leaving him here, alone."

Gibbs didn't reply right away, and Tony could just imagine him raising his eyebrow in that way he had. It asked any question needing to be asked without saying a single word. Actually, Tony envied Gibbs' ability in that respect. It was impressive.

He looked over and saw the doctor coming out from the OR.

"Boss, I've got to go. The doc's here."

"Let us know."

"Will do."

Tony hung up and hurried over.

"How is he?" he asked.

The doctor smiled. "He's not completely out of the woods yet, but we got the bleeding stopped. We'll be monitoring his ICP over the next few days. We got the bones set, stitches in. We just took him out of recovery. If you'd like, you can go and sit with him. Even if he wakes up, he'll be mostly out of it, but he might take comfort in a familiar face."

"Okay."

The doctor led Tony back.

"Dr. Cutler told me that you met Jesse."

"Yeah. He's the only person I ran into while I was trying to get help."

"I'm surprised. He's not usually very friendly when people disturb his sheep. They're all that matter to him in the world."

"Well, that can't be true," Tony said, feeling defensive of him. "If they were all he cared about, he wouldn't have helped me, and he did."

"I'm not insulting the man, Mr. DiNozzo. I used to know him pretty well...before his wife died. She had cancer, and he spent over a year doing nothing but taking care of her. In the end, it wasn't enough, and after she died, he decided to spend all his time taking care of his sheep. He's up with them all summer. He pays a couple of high school kids to run food up to him, periodically. He lives in a sheep camp in the fall as he slowly gets the flock down from the mountains. Then, in the winter, he usually gets pretty socked in at his ranch. He has a couple of hands who work for him, but all he really cares about now is keeping his sheep. I'm glad that he cared enough to help you. I think it's great, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised that he did."

"He wasn't sure he believed me, at first," Tony admitted, "but as soon as I told him what had happened, he did what he could. He didn't leave until we were getting on the chopper."

"Maybe he hasn't changed as much as I thought he had. It's just too bad that he won't talk to anyone."

Tony smiled. "Maybe you shouldn't scare his sheep, then."

The doctor looked at him in surprise for a moment and then started to laugh.

"Point taken, Mr. DiNozzo. Mr. McGee is right in here. The room is empty for now, but if there's another emergency, he'll have a roommate."

"Gotcha."

Tony went into the room. Tim was lying quietly on a hospital bed. He had monitors on his head, more than one IV, a heart monitor, and a nasal cannula, but even with all that, Tony had to admit that he looked better than he had on the mountain. His face, while still badly bruised, had been cleaned up. He had some stitches on his cheek and forehead, and some back further on his head. His right arm was in a sling and his right leg was in a cast. He still looked bad, but he seemed to be in as good a state as was possible, given what had happened.

"Tim? Can you hear me?"

No response.

"Well, I'm here, and I'm not leaving until I know you're okay. Just so you're prepared for that. I'm going to hang out here until you're so sick of me that you don't ever want to see me again."

Tim didn't respond to that, either. Tony didn't really expect him to. He just sat down by the bed and prepared to wait.

But it had been a long two days, and he hadn't slept for much of the time. Eventually, he slumped down in the chair and fell asleep.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Tony?"

It was a raspy voice.

"Tony?"

His back hurt.

"Are you dead? ...am I?"

Tony opened his eyes and stretched.

"Tony?"

Third time was the charm. Tony turned and saw Tim lying on the hospital bed with his eyes open most of the way. He still wasn't looking great, but it was far and away better than before.

"Tim! You're awake!"

"I feel terrible," Tim mumbled.

His eyes had that slightly-drugged look to them. Tony was okay with that.

"You deserve it."

"What did I do, then?" Tim asked, furrowing his brow.

Tony laughed. "No, I mean that I'm not surprised that you feel terrible."

"Oh." Tim lay there for a moment. "I feel terrible."

"You want the list of what's wrong with you?"

Tim thought about that for a while.

"Sure."

"Okay. You have a broken kneecap, a broken arm. You had some internal bleeding that they stopped, and you had some pressure on your brain that, I guess, is getting better, and you probably have more bruises than a boxer after losing 18 rounds."

Tim stared at him for long enough that Tony thought he must have lost him.

"Wow. And I'm alive?"

"Yeah. Lucky you."

"I'm not sure about that. I feel terrible."

"But you're alive."

"Yeah. I guess I am."

Again, Tim drifted for a moment.

"I'm tired," he said, finally.

"I think you can go back to sleep."

"Good."

Tim's eyes closed and he seemed to be drifting off. Then, his eyes opened again.

"Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"I fell off the mountain."

"Yeah, you did."

"Thanks for not leaving me there."

"I couldn't do that, Probie. You owe me for the rental car."

Tim smiled a little and then, he fell asleep again.

Tony watched as Tim relaxed and slept. Tim had talked, had been able to understand what Tony was saying. Sure, he wasn't at full form, but that was to be expected. Having Tim awake and aware at all was more than Tony had hoped for at this point.