As Ziva was rushed into surgery the second they burst through the emergency receiving doors, Gibbs was just as promptly shuffled out into the waiting room under much protest.

As he entered the waiting room, he spotted Abby asleep in one of the chairs. Her head was cushioned by Bert, who was letting out a farting noise when she changed positions every so often. One corner of his mouth turned up into a small smile. At least one of them was safe and sound. He thought about waking her for a moment, but decided to let her sleep for a while longer. He'd wake her in a little while. If she was asleep, she desperately needed it.

Gibbs approached the nurse's station as calmly as possible under the circumstances. Nurse Rhonda looked up from her computer just in time to see him approach.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was hoping to get the status of a patient, Timothy McGee."

"Huh, Do you know Abby?" She asked, motioning towards sleeping Abby. "She is very concerned about Timothy."

"Yep, sure do. We work together at NCIS."

"I can't release any information to non-family members."

"I'm his medical proxy, Leroy Jethro Gibbs."

She glanced at his file on the computer, nodding in confirmation.

"There haven't been any updates as of yet. I can tell you that his is in the middle of extensive surgery, but I haven't had a doctor update us since he was admitted."

"Any idea what for?"

"No. He was rushed though as a triage, but if he's in the OR, there may have been some more extensive issues."

Gibbs ran a hand down his face in frustration.

"I know my opinion isn't the most important to you right now, but in my experience, sometimes no updates is a good thing. It means everything is going to plan."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'll let you know when I have any information, but honestly if he comes out of surgery, you'll know before I do."

He only nodded in response.

"Why don't you tell Abby you're here. I promised her I'd wake her up when the rest of your people arrived."

"Thanks for looking after her."

'It's not a problem. She was a wreck when she got here. I just got her to calm down."

"If you only knew what a feat that was," he said as he turned to walk away.

Gibbs plopped himself down next to Abby in a hard hospital chair. She looked slightly uncomfortable in her position, her neck craned back and resting on Bert. He hoped she hadn't hurt her injury leaning like that. He placed his hand on her forearm, squeezing gently, and said her name softly in her ear to rouse her awake. With no response from Abby, he shook her gently.

"Abbs, wake up."

"Gibbs?" she asked drowsily.

"Uh huh."

"GIBBS!" she exclaimed as she came into consciousness. She sat up and threw her arms around him. "You found them?! Where are they? Are they okay?"

"Tony's fine"

"What about Ziva?"

"She was rushed into surgery. They were trapped in the elevator, and one of the support beams was crushing her leg. She lost a lot of blood."

"Oh my god. It's even worse than I thought. Ziva and McGee are in surgery...and you said Tony's fine, where is he?"

"He's just getting checked out. He's got a concussion, and his wrist was broken by the look of it. They'll probably want to check his lungs, too."

"Why would they need to check his lungs?"

"All the crap in the air is affecting his breathing. Could give him pneumonia."

'Oh my god," Abby said, tearing up.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright. They're fighters. Every last one of them. They're gonna be alright."

Suddenly a doctor appeared, scrub cap still perched upon his head. Gibbs and Abby stood immediately, hoping for news about Tim or Ziva.

"Family of Timothy McGee?"

"That's us," Abby said.

He looked at them, face etched with skepticism, but continued.

"I'm Dr. Kingsley, I will be in charge of Timothy's treatment. Timothy is out of surgery. We removed several shards of glass from his skin and stitched him accordingly. Most of his injuries were superficial, but we did have some larger problems to face."

"Like what?" Abby asked.

"There was a large piece of glass that perforated his spleen. We tried to repair it, but the damage was extensive, so we removed it. We also discovered he had a subdural hematoma in his frontal lobe. We were forced to drill a hole in his skull to release the excess pressure that had built up in his brain. We caught it early, but we will be monitoring his condition for complications. There is a possibility that he will require additional surgery."

Abby had tears silently streaming down her face, overwhelmed with the true nature of McGee's condition. She clutched Gibbs' good arm in her hands almost painfully tight.

"When can we see him?" She asked through her tears.

"We're moving him to recovery now. He will be in the intensive care unit, so we'll only be able to admit one visitor at a time."

Abby turned to Gibbs quickly, silently asking permission to see McGee first.

"Go," Gibbs said "I'll track down DiNozzo."

"Okay," she said, nodding.

"Hey." he said, catching her arm before she left. "Have you called Sarah yet?"

"No."

"Make sure you do. She'll want to see him."

"Okay," she said, turning to follow Dr. Kingsley.

"If you'll just follow me."

As the clomp of Abby's boots faded into the distance, Gibbs walked back to the Nurse's Station and Nurse Rhonda.

"Can you find me the location of a recently admitted patient?" he asked.

"I can try. Who are you looking for?"

"Anthony DiNozzo."

Tony sat impatiently as he waited to be taken to x-ray. He was fidgeting, agitated. It had been over an hour since he had left the navy yard. Over an hour since he'd seen Ziva, and even longer since he'd seen Abby and McGee. His nurse, Tracy, eyed him half amused, half irritated.

"I can't clear up x-ray any more quickly whether you fidget or not."

"And logically I know that, but there has been absolutely nothing logical about this day."

'I know, but you're not doing yourself any favors moving all about," she said with the slightest southern drawl.

"Well what do you suppose I do then? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs? Oh wait! I can't! Broken wrist!"

Tracy shot him an agitated glare. "I'll go check on X-ray."

"You do that."

As she left, Gibbs entered swiftly behind her.

"You irritating nurses already, DiNozzo?"

"How's Ziva?" he asked, completely ignoring Gibbs' question.

"In surgery."

"But how is she?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. " I haven't gotten an update since we got here."

Tony sighed exasperatedly. "Where's Abbs and McGee?"

"McGee just got out of surgery. Abby's with him."

"Surgery? For what?"

"Piece of glass pierced his spleen, they took it out. And he had a blood clot in his brain, they fixed that, too. At least for now."

"Holy shit, and he's okay?"

"He's not awake yet. We'll know in a few hours when he wakes up."

"How's Abby holding up?"

"Better than I expected."

"At least that's something."

"Yup," Gibbs said shortly.

They sat in silence while Tony pondered how serious their situation truly was.

"What are we going to do, Boss?"

"About what?"

"About Dearing! How do we expect to catch this guy in casts and slings?"

"We don't. Not now. We recover first, then we worry about Dearing."

"What if he attacks in the meantime?"

"He won't."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"He's looking for a fair fight. This is about us now. He'll want us to retaliate. He won't attack again until we do."

"I didn't realize blowing up the Navy Yard counted as fair."

"To him, it does."

"You sure you're not a braingamer?"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure."

Nurse Tracy popped her head back in.

"Time to go to X-Ray." she directed her attention to Gibbs, "You can wait here if you'd like, I'm bringing him back here when I'm done."

Gbbs nodded, "I'll be here," as the nurse ushered Tony away.