No good deed shall remain unpunished

It was the soft murmur of voices that woke up Joy. One speaking in a familiar cadent Scottish burr and the other in short sentences, to the point, but yet it sounded worried. She moved in the bed, and she heard the sound of a chair scraping the floor and footsteps.

She slowly opens her eyes, and she's not surprised to see the kind eyes of the resident M.E looking down at her.

"Hey, what time is it?" she croaks in a soft voice. Her throat hurts and she feels warm all over.

Ducky smiles. "It's past noon, my dear." He touches the controls of the hospital bed so her torso is lifted. It's already late morning, and the hospital bed beside her is empty.

Gibbs stands up, approaches her bed, and studies her face. She is still a little bit groggy, and her eyes are not clear when she looks at him.

"Boss?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I was run over by a truck. Several times." She leans back on the pillows, and closes her eyes.

"You collapsed out of pure exhaustion, my dear, and you also have a slight fever that the doctors are treating with antibiotics," says Ducky.

Joy suddenly opens her eyes, and grabs Ducky's arm. "Timothy, Where is he? Is he ok?"

She starts to hyperventilate, her mind starts playing tricks with her as she can't remember anything after the Commander's arrest, and the last time she saw the McGee siblings they were going to the hospital. Ducky taps her arm reassuringly, trying to calm her down.

"Timothy and Sarah are fine. Timothy was just taken to change his bandages, and Sarah is under the careful watch of your parents, who took her to eat something at the cafeteria. They will be back shortly," says the M.E., the same time he holds her hand he very sneakily checks her pulse.

"So, they're fine, really fine?" Joy stares at Ducky, trying to see if he's just trying to soothe her with empty words.

"Yes they are." Ducky glances at Gibbs, who is watching his agent with a blank face. "I'll let you two talk. I believe you two have a lot to talk about."

"Thanks Ducky." Ducky leaves. She tries to get more comfortable on the bed, but there's no way to do that when you are being watched like a bug under a microscope by Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

She looks at her boss as he slowly moves closer to her bedside. She plays a little with the light blanket covering her, and finds the blue unicorn on her bedside. "So, what's the verdict?"

"What do you think?"

She tries to smile, but her attempt falls short of a grimace.

"Considering that I admitted before the Director of NCIS, SecNav and most of the brass in the Navy and Air Force that I killed nine people in cold blood, I'm either unemployed or under suspension. That would be the least they could do to me."

Gibbs takes one of the visitor chairs, and brings it closer to her bedside, sits down, and stares at his agent. "Unpaid leave for four weeks, meanwhile you have to go through psychological counseling. You might be able to come back to desk duty if the shrinks clear you, but that's only after the final conclusions of the investigation on the shootings from yesterday."

Joy settles back on the pillow, and stares at the ceiling. "Ok."

"Ok?" Joy can feel her boss' anger burning at her blasé attitude. "They want to hang you out to dry, and all you have to say is ok?"

"How is Sarah, Boss?" Joy asks in a monotone voice.

"Terrified of her own shadow, extremely worried about her brother, but she's being cuddled and pampered by your parents, who apparently decided to take her under their wings." He stares at Joy. "But we're not talking about Sarah, we're talking about you."

"Did they…" Joy finally looks at Gibbs. "Do anything to her? Hurt her in any way?"

Gibbs takes some seconds to answer that. Even though none of the attackers had hurt Sarah physically, she was still very fragile, crying at the most simple things and jumping every time someone enters the same room she was in. Joy's parents noticed that, and were currently covering Sarah with all the care and love they could give her, as if she were one of their own children.

"Physically she's fine. Psychologically, only time will tell." Gibbs says, studying his agent.

She nods and closes her eyes, taking deep breaths. "Good."

"Aren't you worried?" Gibbs stands up, and starts pacing the small hospital room, agitated.

Joy shrugs, she knows he is pissed at her.

"They might fire you from NCIS."

"It wouldn't be the first time I'm fired. Gibbs, I don't work just because it's my duty as a Federal Agent, I work because I want to. It's my calling, that's all I've ever wanted to do, to be a profiler. But my career has never taken precedence over my family. It never will. And, as long as there is someone coming after my family or one of those I care about, I will protect them. No matter what the cost."

She feels her eyes filling with tears, and she looks away from Gibbs. "If the cost is my career, so be it. I couldn't let them hurt Tim or Sarah. Be damned the consequences."

"McGee wouldn't expect you to sacrifice yourself for his family."

"But it would destroy him to know that something happened to Sarah, something he was unable to avoid it." Joy looks again at Gibbs. "You saw him after the shooting. This could have been much worst."

Gibbs thinks for a moment. "Hope is still gathering all the evidence from her bugs and video surveillance from our places. She says that she can build a strong case with it. There are some questions being asked about why we would have unauthorized surveillance in the first place, but still, it might help."

Joy smiles. "People will never understand Hope's deep need to know everything about anyone. Most of the time, she just uses it for security purposes. Or, maybe to gather gossip intel on us, unsuspecting siblings. But in days like this, it's a lifeline. If she had placed bugs and surveillance in my place in LA, before Garnett took me the first time," Joy bites her lower lip for a second, "maybe things would have been different. They would have found me sooner. Found us much sooner. Eric wouldn't have been forced to do what he had to do, and he wouldn't have lost it and end up murdering our team."

"But we'll never know."

"We'll never know."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

One hour later, the door opens and McGee comes in the mandatory hospital wheelchair pushed by a very talkative Temperance and Palmer. Dr. Tam and Ducky follow them in.

"Hey Joy, look who we brought back to you?" Says Temp with a smile, standing besides McGee's wheelchair.

"Hey." McGee studies Joy, seeing her exhausted eyes the first time since the shootout in his apartment.

"Hey yourself," says Joy, as she studies the myriad of bruises on his face, and the brand new bandage over his nose.

"I have to say, black and blue together are not a good combination for you." Joy jokes.

Tim chuckles as he's wheeled to his own bed and helped out by Palmer and Temp to lay down.

"Don't make me laugh," he says, once he's settled down, "it hurts." He looks at her, "look who's talking, the girl who sleeps hugging a blue unicorn."

Joy snorts, "at least he doesn't snore."

McGee looks at her, outraged, "I don't snore." Joy snickers.

Joy feels McGee's Doctor studying her, and she wonders what exactly he told his doctor about her.

"So," she looks at Joy's chart, "you are the infamous Joy Buchanan. I'm Dr. Tam."

Joy looks at McGee. "What have you been telling her?"

He shrugs, and immediately grimaces as he feels his tender rib hurt. "Just the truth."

"So tell me," the doctor looks at McGee, then at Joy, "Mr. McGee here told me you had quite an eventful night."

Joy studies this petite Asian doctor for a moment, and answers, "yep, quite eventful."

Joy and Tim exchange a look full of unspoken feelings. Temp just smirks, holding one of Jimmy's hands in her own. They both feel Ducky and Gibbs watching them having a whole conversation without exchanging a single world.

"Thanks," McGee says after a while.

"You're welcome."

"So…" Dr. Tam tries to break the mood, "I'll go finish your papers, and as soon as the shift nurse comes to disconnect you from your line, and you sign your release papers, you're free to go. Dr. Mallard," she looks at the M.E. "has kindly agreed to personally do a follow up with both of you and Sarah, and ensure that you will come back to the mandatory psychological and physical check ups."

At that moment, the door opens again and hurricane Sarah enters the room. "Tim," she rushes to her brother's bedside, "I've just heard from a nurse you are being checked out, are you really ok to go?" She grabs one of his hands, and looks at his face, looking for any sign of discomfort.

Ducky approaches the Sarah and tries to calm her down. "Despite how bad he looks right now, his bruises are not life threatening. With the possible exception of his nose, which might take a little longer to heal, and his rib that we will have to be very careful with, he will slowly heal with no problems. His side will be tender for a while, but I assure you the bruises will fade in just a couple of days."

"You sure, Ducky?" Sarah looks at Ducky, uncertain.

Maggie and Joseph enter the room as well, followed by Matt, whose hand is finally in a small cast. Joy smiles when she sees her brother. "Hey."

He approaches her bed, and kisses her forehead. "How are you, Joy?"

"Ready to leave this place," She says smiling at him. She points at his cast. "Is there a story behind that?"

Matt shakes his head. "I'll tell you when we get home."

Maggie and Joseph watch their children talk. Joseph approaches her bedside and touches the small unicorn lying on her bedside. "Did he help?"

Joy touches the toy. "Doesn't he always?" She smiles at her father, and closes her eyes when he leans down to kiss her cheek.

"No matter what you've done, I'm proud of you, peanut," he whispers. When he stands up again, she can feel her eyes simmering with tears for the tender and ready acceptance from her father, regardless of the horror she has been through.

"Thanks, Dad," she murmurs.

"I still have to finish my rounds." Dr. Tam turns to Ducky. "I will be seeing you again, Dr. Mallard."

"Certainly," he answers with a smile as Dr. Tam leaves the room. Matt glances at the McGees, and remembers something very important.

"Hey Timothy." The two McGees look at him. "I think you would like to know that Jethro is fine." Sarah and Tim look at each other then at Matt, who smiles. "The Metro cop who took me to your place, as soon as he saw the dog wounded, insisted that the first patrol car to arrive at the scene after him would take the dog to a vet. He's properly medicated, the bullet just hit muscle. He'll be good as new in a couple of weeks, just like you."

"Thank God," says Sarah, her voice quivering.

"After all that happened, I had completely forgotten about him," says McGee, ashamed of completely forgetting his faithful dog.

"I'm sure you had other things on your mind at the time," says Maggie, going to Sarah's side and putting an arm around her shoulders. "Now we just have to get you ready to leave." Maggie looks at McGee, with all his bruises and broken nose. "We'll hang around for a while until you all are back on your feet."

"There's no need of it, Maggie," says Tim, and Joy sees he is deeply embarrassed at the perspective of being taken care of and pampered by Maggie Buchanan.

Maggie squints at him, and Joy simply laughs at her boyfriend. "Tim, you'd better give up while you're still ahead," she looks at her father, Gibbs and Ducky, who can barely hide their mirth, "once mom has put an idea in her head, there's no one who can change it. Sometimes it's just better to go with the flow."

McGee glares at her. He folds his arms pouting, which elicits gales of laughter of all present in the room.