Chinook
Ducky enters Abby's Lab, and finds Gibbs and Abby hovering over the McGees who were sitting in chairs side by side in the inner lab.
The door swishes open, and the gentle doctor greets Jethro, and looks at his young patient. Her hair is a mess, her clothes are dusty and rumpled, as if she put them on in a hurry, but what really breaks his heart is the desolation he can see in her eyes. It is a stark difference from the strong confident woman he had met briefly on several occasions.
"Hello, my dear," he leans over her, and studies her face, and sees clear signs of shock.
"She's been checked by the paramedics, besides some bumps and scratches, there's nothing wrong," says McGee.
"I'm cold," says Sarah in a low voice, and immediately McGee gets his coat and puts it on his sister's shoulders, and hugs her to his chest, trying to warm her up.
"Which, unfortunately, is a sign of shock," Ducky starts to examine her eyes, and looks at McGee, "I would like a moment with your sister, if I might."
McGee reluctantly releases his hold on Sarah's shoulders, but leaves his jacket around her. He kisses her forehead, and leaves with Gibbs and Abby, the door to the inner lab closing after them.
Ducky turns to his young charge, and sees her twisting her hands nervously.
"Are you in any pain, were you in any way harmed by the events today?" He takes the jacket off her shoulders, and starts to run his fingers over her ribcage and her arms, looking for any fractures. He finds none.
She shakes her head in the negative, but tears stubbornly gather in her eyes. Ducky sighs, and sits on the chair previously occupied by McGee.
"Sarah, I know you have been through a terrible trauma, but believe me, my dear, it is a blessing that you are alive. With time, you will see that there's no shame in being a survivor…"
"Uhm, what?" she turns confused eyes at him.
Ducky studies her face, and continues, "my guess is that you are presenting classical symptoms of survivor's guilt. It happens frequently to people who had been through some traumatic event," Sarah stares at him, "such as yours. It will take time until you accept the events that occurred, but time heals all wounds. You might feel a little unbalanced for a time, and prone to be scared at the littlest things, but it will pass. I have read that there are people in New York that still panic every time that an airplane flies above Manhattan."
He looks down at her hands, and sees that some nails are broken. He takes them delicately in his own, brings them closer to his eyes, and notices that the ones still there have human skin underneath. He looks at her questioningly, and he sees tears simmering in her eyes.
"He slapped me, and I attacked him," she says softly.
"Dear God, Timothy at no time informed me that you were so close to the lunatic, you must have felt terrified," says Ducky.
"Not the shooter, Matthew." Ducky freezes, unsure if he heard it correctly. He frowns, and she sees that he's doubting her, and continues, between sobs, "he held me down, and didn't let me run out of the room, and he came and started shooting the door of the classroom across the corridor, and I got scared, and I wanted so much to scream, and he didn't let me!" she sobs harder.
Ducky leans back in the chair, still holding her hands in his, and she continues, "he put his hand over my mouth, and pressed me against the floor, and he kept shooting over and over, and I thought I was losing my mind," she hiccups and Ducky feels his heart breaking for her, "I was so scared," she lowers eyes to her hands, "I scratched him in the face, in the neck, as far as I could reach but still he wouldn't let me scream, and then he lifted his hand, and slapped me." She lifts a hand to her cheek, where Ducky now can see a faint imprint of a hand on her face.
Ducky studies Sarah, who starts sobbing uncontrollably. McGee sees his sister crying through the glass walls, and runs to his sister, and kneels before her.
"What's wrong?" he asks her, then turn to Ducky, angrily "What did you do to her?" Ducky isn't surprised by McGee's reaction, as he expected his protectiveness towards his sister. He had almost quit the agency to protect her before, such was his care for her. However, he's surprised the anger in his tone of voice.
"I was so scared, Tim," she sobs, and he gathers her in his arms and lulls her again.
"I'm here, Sarah, I'm here, no one will hurt you, ok?"
He looks at Ducky, who sighs, "I've done nothing to cause her any harm, and as far as I could see no physical harm was done to her."
"Then why she is crying again?" asks Tim, confused. Ducky studies the two McGees, one crying and the other one barely holding on to his anger.
"Did she tell you what happened during the shooting?" He sees a dark cloud of anger descend on McGee, and becomes deeply worried about the future ramifications of this terrible event.
"Yes, and I don't want to talk about it, neither does Sarah." Ducky looks up at Gibbs, who is standing with Abby by the door.
"She will have to talk about it sometime, McGee," says Gibbs.
"But not now," he stands up, and helps his sister up as well, "she doesn't have to be forced to relive that nightmare again so soon," he looks pleadingly at Gibbs, "please, Boss."
Gibbs studies his junior agent, seeing the tension and the anger, still simmering underneath his green eyes. "One day, it's all I can give you, then we talk." He looks at Sarah, then back at McGee. "We ALL talk."
He throws a glance at Ducky, and leaves the lab. Abby approaches Sarah, and offers her Bert. "He always helps me feel better whenever I'm down," she says. Sarah takes the soft toy in her hand, and wipes her face with one of her hands while she uses the other to hug the hippo. It farts, and both McGee and Abby sigh, relieved, when Sarah cracks a small smile at it.
Ducky prescribes some sleeping pills, and Abby and McGee prepare the airbed for Sarah. All of them leave only after she is settled and asleep on Abby's airbed.
"Do you think she will be ok?" Abby looks, worried, from McGee to Ducky and back to McGee. She had noticed that he was particularly tense, and she also noticed the absence of his partner.
"Yes she will," says McGee with conviction, then he looks to Ducky, "thanks Ducky."
"You are welcome," he studies Tim, and he also had noticed the tension in him, "with the medication I gave her, she will sleep for some hours and surely not see the world as such a terrible place. Timothy, I have to ask you, where is our dear Agent Buchanan?"
The tension in McGee's shoulders multiplied tenthousandfold, and the anger emanating from him scared both Ducky and Abby.
"With her brother," he said through clenched teeth.
"And is he Ok?" asks Abby, worried at both Tim and also at Buchanan.
"He's fine," he walks towards the door, "just fine," and leaves the lab. Abby, scared, looks at Ducky, who frowns and follows McGee out of the Lab.
"Timothy."
"Yes, Ducky," he says tensely, without turning to look at the doctor, stubbornly staring at the doors of the elevator that is taking forever to reach the Lab floor.
"May I enquire what is going on?" McGee rolls his eyes at Ducky and keeps staring at the doors of elevator, that is taking forever to arrive.
"I don't know, where do you want me to start?" He turns to Ducky, and starts reciting the events in a very altered voice, "With the lunatic that spent three semesters studying with my sister, side by side, and suddenly decided that he did not wish to graduate so he shot down his whole class? Or with the countless bodies of my sister's friends that she might have to identify later on?" He leans over Ducky, towering, and continues, "Or, better yet, her good-for-nothing boyfriend that hit her while she was terrified for her life?"
"You don't know all the facts, Timothy," says Ducky sadly.
"I don't need to know all facts, I don't want to know all the facts, because what I know is more than enough, and it makes me mad at the entire situation," the elevator doors open, and he enters and starts pressing the bullpen floor button nervously, but Ducky stops the elevator doors with his hands.
"Don't let your anger cloud your judgment, what happened is a tragedy in itself, don't compound the suffering of those involved with your irrational anger," says Ducky.
"Irrational?" says McGee, flabbergasted. "Do you think I'm being irrational? Ducky, he hit her, nobody hits Sarah and goes unpunished."
"My dear Timothy, you only have part of the puzzle, don't make any harsh decision you might regret later," says Ducky, "or you might let this affect what you have with Buchanan."
McGee sighs, and looks up to the ceiling, trying in vain to control his fury which is still simmering in his chest.
"Just listen to me," McGee lowers his eyes, "this is a tragedy that, regardless of the events that occurred, will have lasting effects on all involved," McGee is staring at Ducky impatiently, "whether we will let the pain and anger fester into something else, it must be a conscious choice ALL of us will have to make."
Ducky shakes his head, "I agree that your sister must have all support you can give right now to her, but don't forget, Timothy," Ducky leans towards him, "she wasn't the only victim. All the pain and anger she must have felt, Matthew must have felt it too, and it must have been tenfold worse for him, as he had on his shoulders the responsibility of keeping her safe, safe for you."
Ducky let the doors close, and he sees McGee lowering his eyes to the floor in deep thought.
Ducky turns to the Lab door, where Abby is looking at him sadly, "Let us hope that those killed and wounded by that young man's hands are the only true victims of this terrible, terrible day."
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a/n: Ducky is simply brillhant sometimes.