Visible and invisible hurts

As soon as they arrived at Bethesda Hospital, Ducky and Palmer rushed to the emergency room and asked about the McGee siblings. They were told to go to the visitors lounge on the third floor. There they found a very distressed Matthew sitting in one of the hard plastic chairs.

"Matthew, any news?"

Matthew stands up, filled with nervous energy, and starts to pace up and down the small space in the visitor's lounge, "No, they refuse to let me in, they've been there for half an hour, and they won't let me see Sarah!" He punches the wall with his good hand, which elicits a glare from one passing nurse.

Ducky approaches the worried Buchanan. "Come on lad, let me see this." Matt breathes deeply, and gives his aching hand to Ducky, who gingerly touches the bruises, "I don't think you broke anything, but you have to find a more productive outlet for your anger, one that does not include broken bones and bleeding skin." Ducky points to his other hand, carefully wrapped in bandages. "Have you had that checked out?"

Matt looks at his hand, and frowns at his broken wrist. "It's not bothering me."

Ducky shakes his head. "But it bothers me, I'll call a nurse and ask her to take a look at that, it seems to be a very simple bandage, and I believe you need a cast for it."

Ducky stands up, and goes to the Nurses' station, asking for someone to come and take a proper look at Matt's wrist.

Matt breathes deeply, trying to control his anger and panic. Palmer looks around the waiting room, and sees a water cooler. He goes to get a cup of cold water and offers it to Matt.

He smiles thinly. He sits down, and sips the water. Ducky returns from the Nurses' station and sits on the chair to the left, while Palmer sits on the chair to his right.

"They will come shortly to take a look at your hand, Matthew, but before I go check with the doctors about the McGees condition, what can you tell us?" Ducky exchanges a worried glance with Palmer as they both see Matt struggling to find words to describe what he saw.

"They.. ah… well, when I got there with the Metro, Joy and Tim were… well, hugging and crying in the living room." Matt looks at Ducky, and he can see deep pain in Matt's eyes. "There were three dead men around them. I heard crying coming from Timothy's room, and…" Matt's voice fails, and he shakes in shock, "ah.. she… there were … three men in the bedroom, and …" Matt closes his eyes. "She was naked, and two men seemed to have been holding her down, while the other was fallen to the floor, without his pants."

"Oh, my goodness," says Ducky, "was she harmed in any way?" He imagines the terrible moments young Sarah had been through these last days, and the months of therapy she will need to overcome her trauma.

"No." He drains his cup and tosses it in the garbage without ever standing. "Joy killed them, all of them, before they touched her."

"Thank God," says Palmer.

Matt shakes his head, trying to banish the image from his head. Matt describes the scene he walked into to a horrified Ducky and Jimmy, who could not contain their anger at the heartlessness of the Commander, their concern for the McGees and their surprise at Joy's ruthlessness.

"I imagine that the trauma must have been tremendous for that young lady," says Ducky with a sigh, and he stands up, "I will see what I can do to get information, Mr. Palmer, you stay here with Matthew, I'll talk to their doctors."

Ducky leaves the waiting room and walks with determined steps to the new doctor who just arrived at the Nurses' station, and after some minutes of conversation, follows the doctor to where the youngest McGee is being taken care of.

Palmer and Matt stay behind at the visitor's lounge, and Palmer tries to close his jacket a little bit more. Matt looks at the state the M.E assistant is in, and can't help his curiosity. "What happened to you?"

Palmer blushes deeply, "Ah, you know… ah.. we were attacked and…"

"We?" Matt sees the young man blushing even deeper, and he turns completely to stare at him.

"Ah.. ehh.." Matt leans over Palmer, who finally sighs heavily, "Temperance and I, we were.. you know… when we were attacked."

Matt stares at Palmer for a full minute. "You and Temp were having sex when you were attacked?"

"No, we weren't." Palmer becomes pale, then blushes again. "We had already, we were asleep when… ahh…"

Matt stares at him for some moments, and Palmer blushes into an even deeper shade of red. "Ah.. Matt, I can explain."

"No need to." Matt shakes his head. "Welcome to the family." Matt squints at Jimmy, and says, totally serious, "But if you hurt her, in any way, you're dead."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Meanwhile, Ducky is led by the doctor to Sarah McGee, who was in her own room by the end of the corridor waiting for her doctor to check her out again while Timothy had been taken to have x-rays taken. He finds her sitting, forlorn and alone, on a hospital bed. She's dressed in a hospital gown and with a blanked wrapped tightly around herself. The nurses had already helped clean most of the blood that she had been soaked in when she arrived.

"Hello my dear," he says, and he is very worried at the terrified eyes that look at him. She seems even more shaken than when he examined her after the shooting. She follows his approach with her eyes, silently, biting her lip not to cry.

He grabs her chart to have a look. "Glad to see you weren't hurt in any way." He hears a sob, lifts his eyes to see her holding back her tears, her shoulders moving under the blanket.

"But," he approaches her slowly, watching her sob, "there are some wounds that cannot be seen by human eyes, the wounds to the soul." He opens his arms, and she grabs him and holds him tight. He feels her tears wet his neck as she sobs her fears away.