He looked up, exulting silently. He'd finally cracked through the last layer of encryption on Townell's hard drive. Townell was good, but McGee was better. He suddenly realised there was quite a few people in the room. He'd been so absorbed in the laptop that he didn't hear them come in. They were preparing to take Abby to her CT scan, bed and all. He remembered Tony saying that if this scan went well, they'd move her to a regular room.
He glanced at the time, mildly disturbed to see that two hours had passed since Ducky had left. They'd let both of them be in Abby's room at the same time. He assumed it was because of Ducky being a doctor. He'd roused himself enough to chat with Ducky a little, but most of his attention had been on the laptop. Even so, he'd caught one or two of Ducky's worried looks in his direction. He supposed he probably did look pretty bad; he didn't remember the last time he'd slept. At least he'd shaved last night before coming back to the hospital.
He smiled reassuringly at Abby as they wheeled her bed out of the room. She was going to be gone for a while. He'd take the opportunity to go down to the cafeteria and find something to eat. He closed the lid of the laptop, knowing he couldn't leave it out of his sight- chain of evidence and all- and went to stand up.
He swayed on his feet for a moment as the blood rushed away from his head. Something wasn't right. Maybe he just stood up too fast? He went to take a step. Blackness overcame him, and he crumpled noiselessly to the floor.
...
This morning wasn't going as well as he'd like.
Gibbs sat at his desk, checking the few hits they'd had on the BOLO they'd put out the day before. It was mid morning, and they hadn't turned up a single solid lead. Fornell's lab geek was taking his time processing the evidence they'd taken from Townell's apartment too. He hoped that McGee had had more luck with that damned laptop.
Frustrated, he turned his attention back to the BOLO. None of the 5 hits had been exact matches; all of them were for people that matched the general description of Townell. He picked up the phone and started calling the various police departments that had generated the hits, looking for more information.
He hung up the phone after one such call, slamming the receiver down in irritation. How could some police departments hire such idiots to be dispatchers?
"Jethro" he looked up to find Ducky standing in front of his desk, looking worried "Could I have a word with you?"
"Sure, Duck. What's up?"
"I visited Abigail this morning, and Timothy was there. I must say Jethro; I'm a bit concerned about that young man. Does anyone know when the last time he went home to sleep was?"
"I made him go home last night, Duck"
"Boss" Tony interrupted "McGee came back about an hour after you left"
"Damn it Tony, why didn't you tell me?" Gibbs snapped
Tony shrugged "I didn't know you'd told him to go home, Boss"
"Well, that could be very serious, Jethro. He can't have had more than a couple of hours sleep since Abby was injured 3 days ago" Ducky broke in
Gibbs' cell phone rang. He flipped it open
"Yeah, Gibbs" He listened for a few minutes, aware that the whole team was watching him. He hung up, cursing under his breath. He stood quickly, wrenching open his desk drawer to grab his badge and weapon. Clipping the holster to his belt, he turned to Ducky
"You were right to worry, Duck. That was Bethesda; McGee's collapsed"