Chapter 7

Ducky saw the men approaching a large cabin in a clearing in the forest. He had managed to keep up with them, although it had tired him out. He was trying as hard as anything else to avoid gasping for breath. The rain had almost stopped. While there was some wind blowing, most of the noise around came from the group of men walking through the forest. Ducky had no interest in revealing himself to them by making more noise.

"Hey, wait!"

"What?"

"The light just went out inside."

"Alan's in there."

"You think they got free?"

"Maybe we should be careful going in. Do we want to take a chance?"

"No way."

Ducky heard them pull out their guns. He looked around for inspiration and his eyes fell on a convenient branch. He smiled. Branches were ready-made weapons that were too often overlooked. He'd used them more than once himself. Perhaps he could do something. It sounded like they were worried about people getting free...meaning the MCRT. If they were free, that meant that the fewer men coming at them, the better.

"You two take the back. I'll go in the basement and Chas'll take the front."

Perfect. Two alone. Ducky picked up his branch and hefted it. It had a good weight but wasn't too heavy to swing. He picked out the one headed for the basement and began to follow him. He had to make sure he stayed quiet because he had no delusions that a gun would beat a branch anytime...and a young man had a definite advantage over an old one. No, he would have to forego chivalry and just knock him out if possible.

He snuck through the trees, shadowing the man through the darkness toward the house. As he got to the house, Ducky got close enough almost to touch him...but he didn't do something nearly so nice. Instead, he thought of all that these men had likely done to Timothy, all that they might have done to the others and he brought the branch down as hard as he could on the man's head. Then, he paused, listening for someone coming over to check out the sound. The man had dropped without a cry, but the thwack Ducky had given him hadn't been silent by any means. He could only hope that the sound hadn't carried.

Was that enough? Probably not. There were others and if his friends were free and if they weren't armed, three men with guns would outnumber them. Decision made, Ducky began to creep around to the front of the house where the one named Chas had gone.

The more he could take out, the better...but he wasn't sure he could get close enough this time.

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

Tim was back in one of his semi-coherent stages, meaning that he didn't know what was going on, but he seemed to take in genuine stimuli. He stared at Jimmy.

"We...were outside," he whispered.

"Yeah, now we're inside," Jimmy said. "Sh. Quiet, Tim."

Tim started to shift around uncomfortably and seemed to be trying to find a position that didn't hurt him.

"Gotta...no..."

He was slipping away again.

"Tim, you need to stay quiet," Jimmy said. "I know it hurts and I know you're hot, but you need to shut up!"

Suddenly, Ziva was there beside them. She put her hand on Tim's forehead and looked concerned.

"His injury was an accident," she whispered. "They would not let us help him."

"Figured," Jimmy said.

"Ziva...coming...coming back...not...leave..."

Gently, Ziva covered Tim's mouth with her hand.

"We are here, McGee. You will be safe."

Then, a determined look crossed her face and Ziva crawled over to Gibbs and whispered to him. Jimmy couldn't hear what she said, but he watched as she moved away from Gibbs and vanished into the basement. The men had delayed their approach, more than likely because of the sudden darkness inside. It had given Gibbs, Tony and Ziva a chance to prepare themselves better for what was coming, but they couldn't wait forever.

Jimmy kept a hold of Tim, but his mind was wandering to Ducky and wondering what had happened to him.

As if in answer to his thoughts...

"I say, your two friends at the back didn't answer me. Could you tell me where I am?"

Ducky!

Jimmy heard a flurry of activity outside the cabin, and he was afraid that he'd hear Ducky being shot.

"Tony!" Gibbs ordered.

Tony ran for the front door while Gibbs stayed focused on the back. Jimmy's heart was in his throat.

"Freeze!" he heard Tony shout.

Then, there was a shot. Suddenly, the door at the back burst open as well and there was a lot more action. Jimmy pulled Tim into the corner, ignoring his groans and he tried to cover Tim with his own body.

A large figure loomed over Jimmy and he looked at him, thinking that, no matter what Gibbs was doing right now, he was about to die. He moved his arms to block as much of Tim from view as possible.

"If you do not stop now, you will die where you stand," a female voice hissed out of the darkness.

The man stopped where he was and his hands raised up.

"Jimmy, are you well?"

"Ziva!" Jimmy said with relief.

"Drop your gun," Ziva said.

The gun clattered to the floor.

"Get it, Jimmy."

Jimmy nodded and hurried to grab the gun.

"Gibbs?"

"We're fine over here."

"Tony?"

"He's outside still."

The lights went on, and Jimmy saw Ziva with a knife at the man's throat, Gibbs by the light switch.

"Dr. Mallard...is he okay?" Jimmy asked.

"Don't know," Gibbs said. "Stay with Tim. Ziva, cuff him...with whatever."

Ziva smiled. "Yes, Gibbs."

Gibbs went out the front door, leaving Jimmy still facing the man Ziva had restrained.

"Jimmy, go and get the chains from downstairs," she said.

Jimmy nodded and ran as fast as he could, not wanting to leave Ziva alone for long, even though he knew she was more than capable...in fact, far more capable than he himself was. Still...

He grabbed the chains and ran back upstairs. Ziva was still holding the knife on her captive.

"Chain his hands," Ziva said. "Quickly."

"Okay." Jimmy wrapped the chain around the man's wrists and then locked it securely.

Ziva forced the man to the floor.

"If you move I will shoot you," Ziva said, snatching the gun from Jimmy. "Help Tim," she added to Jimmy.

Jimmy knelt down by Tim and grimaced at the sight. It seemed like Tim had worsened dramatically just in the last few minutes. His face was almost gray. His eyes were half-open and he was shaking.

"Is Dr. Mallard out there?" Jimmy asked desperately. "Dr. Mallard!"

The door opened. Ziva lifted her gun up briefly but relaxed when Ducky, Gibbs and Tony came in with another of their former captors in tow. ...but Jimmy saw only Ducky. He was so relieved to see that Ducky was all right, and more importantly, he was there.

"Mr. Palmer," Ducky said, looking almost as happy to see Jimmy as Jimmy was to see him. "I'm glad to see that you're all right."

"Tim's not," Jimmy said.

Ducky nodded and hurried over. He knelt down beside Jimmy.

"Oh, dear," he murmured. "Jethro, we must get Timothy to a hospital. Now."

Gibbs looked around. They had two men in custody, one man seriously injured. No working phones. Tim groaned and panted.

"No...can't...go back...go back..."

"Okay. Tony, Ziva. Stay here, guard these two. Ducky, you and Jimmy will come with me in their car and take Tim to Westernport. There's got to be a hospital there and it's closest."

"Boss," Tony began.

"I'll call for help and then come back to help you. How many days has it been?"

Ducky shrugged. "I'm not sure. Mr. Palmer and I were on our way back from our conference."

"Five days. Vance must be up in arms," Gibbs said and then shook his head and focused on the situation at hand. "Jimmy, help me get Tim to the car."

Jimmy nodded. Tim was still barely conscious, but he recognized Gibbs' voice.

"Boss...I..."

"Just relax, Tim. We're going to get you to a hospital."

"...sorry..."

"You did good, McGee. Don't worry."

Gibbs bent over and lifted Tim off the ground. Jimmy hurried to help and Ducky joined them. As they left the cabin, Jimmy couldn't help feeling that this was all a bit surreal. Only a day ago, he would never have imagined any of it, and now, they were on the back end of an NCIS case...without any intent to be a part of it at all.

The car turned out to be a suburban. They flipped down the seat and lay Tim out as best they could. Ducky joined Jimmy in the back while Gibbs drove. What surprised Jimmy was that Gibbs said nothing, didn't ask questions, didn't wonder why they were there. He just focused on driving. Ducky, for his part, focused only on Tim while they were driving. ...and Tim was bad enough. He was breathing badly. What little awareness he had was focused on the pain he felt. He could be dying.

"Dr. Mallard?" Jimmy whispered.

"What, Mr. Palmer?"

"Did I make the wrong choice? I made Tim leave the cabin. I let him lead me back to that place. Should I have stayed?"

Ducky looked at Jimmy, although his face was in shadow. He patted Jimmy on the shoulder.

"No, lad. I don't think so. They would likely have found you there. Timothy was in dire straits regardless. I don't think you can take responsibility for this."

"Yes, he can," Gibbs said suddenly.

Jimmy swallowed and looked down.

"He can take responsibility for keeping McGee alive."

Jimmy looked silently at Ducky and he thought he saw an understanding smile.

"God willing, Timothy will pull through. We are now getting him to a hospital where they can do what is necessary to help him. Don't count Timothy out just yet."

Jimmy nodded.

Gibbs got them to the hospital within half an hour. He didn't linger although he was clearly concerned. He simply dropped them off, made sure they were being seen and had the information necessary and then headed to the police station to get backup for Tony and Ziva. He seemed exhausted by his time in captivity, but he wasn't about to shirk his duties.

For his part, Jimmy followed Ducky and let him do a lot of the talking as the hospital staff took Tim into the ER. After getting all the details, Jimmy and Ducky were asked to sit and wait and they'd be contacted when Tim was stabilized. With nothing to do, they walked to the waiting room and sat down.

"Mr. Palmer?"

"Yeah?"

"Well done, lad."

Jimmy tried to smile, but he felt too worried. So he just shrugged. Ducky shifted over to sit beside him and put an arm around Jimmy's shoulders.

"Really, lad. Well done. If Timothy can survive all this, it will be, in large measure, due to your care of him."

"No, Doctor. I didn't..."

"Yes, Jimmy," Ducky said firmly. "Part of life is learning when to acknowledge that you have done well. It doesn't matter whether or not you were sure of what you chose to do. Certainty is overrated in cases such as these. What matters is that you survived it...as did Timothy."

"So far," Jimmy said.

"Yes. So far." Ducky settled back. "I will choose to be optimistic. To pass the time, tell me of your side of the adventure we had during this very long night. I don't think either of us will be sleeping much."

Jimmy finally felt like smiling. "It was a lot of walking around."

"As was mine, but I think both of us can make it exciting," Ducky said with a twinkle in his eye. "You go first. Then, I will."

Jimmy smiled again and nodded. "Okay. I didn't stay in the cabin very long after you left..."