A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long in being published. I had a lot of things going on, including a 5 hour drive just to drop off our dogs with relatives and getting a spring cold. Anyway, here it is, and I hope you enjoy it!

After a while, Kay's crying finally abated. Fortunately, no one had come into the ladies' room while she was there. She stared at herself in the mirror, seeing her puffy, red eyes, along with the shadows from before. She couldn't get Abby's accusations out of her mind. She had been repressing her own thoughts that ran along the same lines. She knew it was her fault that Tim had been hurt.

She wanted to go back to the waiting room, back to the people who might understand. But she dreaded seeing Abby there. She knew how much Abby cared about Tim, and she knew that Tim still cared about her, possibly more than he let on.

How much did Tim care about Abby? He never expressed any love for Kay, even though she knew that he cared about her. But he often spoke of Abby, too; of the many times they had had a laugh about something, or about the times they'd worked on cases closely together.

Kay couldn't stand to think along those lines anymore. She splashed cold water on her face, then dried off. She was going back to Tim's room, whether Abby was there or not. She wasn't sure what she'd say or do if Abby was there, but she couldn't stay away forever.

When Kay reached Tim's room, she looked in quietly. There was a young woman there with Tim, holding his hand. Kay didn't recognize her, but she walked in quietly.

"Hi," said Kay.

The woman turned around. "Hi," she said. Kay knew immediately who it was.

"You're Tim's sister, aren't you?" asked Kay.

"Yes, I'm Sarah. You must be Kay, I recognize your voice from the phone ." replied Sarah.

Kay smiled. "Hi, Sarah. It's nice to meet you in person finally, even under the circumstances."

Sarah nodded. Then she asked, "Have you talked to the doctor yet? The nurse didn't tell me much."

"Last time I talked to him was early this morning. He said Tim is in stable condition, even though he's still on full life support and sedated. He didn't say how long he'll be this way; I don't think they really know yet."

Just then a man in a lab coat walked in.

"I'm Doctor Carlson," he said. "I'm the attending doctor. I'm here to check on Agent McGee."

Both women introduced themselves. The doctor moved to the monitors near the head of the bed. He made some notes on the chart he was carrying, then turned back to the women waiting anxiously.

"Well, Agent McGee is in stable condition. His blood pressure is a little high, but that's to be expected with the extra strain on his heart. From what I can see, he's not in any danger. In fact, I think that he could be taken off life support soon."

"How soon, doctor?" asked Sarah.

"You're his next of kin, correct?"

Sarah nodded.

"Well, all we need is a signed permission form from you. Of course, we'll continue to monitor him closely, just in case."

"Ok," Sarah agreed. "As long as you think it's safe, I'll sign."

The doctor nodded. "I'll be back in a few minutes with the form." He left the room.

Sarah sighed. "You think he'll be ok?" she asked Kay.

Kay didn't answer immediately. "Well, our M.E. vouches for the lead surgeon, and he says Tim will pull through, so, yeah, I think he'll be ok." she paused a moment, then said softly, "He has to be ok."

Sarah smiled at Kay. "You know, he's talked about you a lot; almost every time I've talked to him, he's mentioned you. I've never heard him talk so much about a person he's dating. You must really mean a lot to him."

Kay smiled slightly. "He means a lot to me." She almost asked if Tim had mentioned Abby as well, but she was afraid of the answer.

Just then, the doctor came back into the room with a nurse..

"Here is the form, Miss McGee. If you'll sign this, we'll go ahead and take him off life support."

Sarah took the clipboard from the doctor and signed her name.

The doctor and his assistant began by pulling the breathing tube from Tim's throat. He gagged a little as it came out, but still slept. The two continued to remove devices from Tim until all that was left were a couple of patches on Tim's chest to keep track of his heartbeat, his IV, and the blood pressure cuff. The doctor ran the machine to inflate the cuff, then nodded at the results, seemingly satisfied.

"He looks good. Blood pressure is still a little high, but not dangerously so. We'll slowly reduce the amount of sedative he's getting through the IV, so he should wake up some time this evening. I'm not positive as to how lucid he'll be for a while, but that's one of the things we'll continue to monitor."

Sarah shook hands with the doctor. "Thank you." she said. She turned back to Kay. "Will you be staying?"

"As long as you and the doctor are ok with it." Kay replied.

Sarah smiled. "I'm fine with it," she said. "I need to call my folks and let them know how Tim is doing."

Kay nodded. "I can leave the room, if you want."

"No, it's ok." Sarah said. She pulled a cell phone from her pocket and began dialing numbers.

Kay moved so that she was standing at Tim's side. She took his hand, being careful because it was the hand with the IV in it. She vaguely heard Sarah's voice, paying more attention to the sound of Tim's breathing. She laid one hand on his chest, over his heart. The steady thump, thump reassured her.

"He's going to be ok," a voice in her mind assured her, "he's going to be ok."

"No thanks to you," another voice piped up. "You're the reason he's in this shape to begin with. You weren't fast enough to stop that bastard from shooting Tim. You don't deserve him. He's not going to want to see you when he wakes up. He'll want his sister, the others, probably Abby there. Those will be the people he still trusts, the people he'll need."

Tears formed in Kay's eyes again. She couldn't stop feeling responsible, feeling guilty for what happened to Tim.

Kay had almost forgotten that Sarah was there until she spoke up.

"I'd like to talk to the others, if they're here." she said.

"They're in the waiting room," Kay replied, "I can show you the way."

"That's not necessary, just tell me how to get there." Sarah was silent for a minute. "I like knowing someone is here for Tim, even if he won't wake up for a while."

"Ok," said Kay. She gave Sarah directions to the waiting room, then resumed her silent vigil over Tim.