Thanks so much to everyone for the wonderful comments, they do make my day. To respond to a few questions that have been asked.
Sarah is indeed still his sister, she will come into play when Gibbs and the Director call his family.
Yes, some of the medical staff knows the truth about the "family", but not all of them.
More details about the grandfather are coming, mostly in the next chapter to be posted. I like to play with shades of grey in a character. Gibbs and co will never forgive him, but they may come to understand him just a bit.
Yes, I play with the variations of Tim's name quite a bit. In the case of Ziva, she has studied the original case file more than anyone else to the point she has it memorized. That is forcing her to see McGee as a person rather than just a member of the team. She may not be entirely comfortable with that yet and referring to him as Timothy allows her to keep a step back from him personally so to speak as Tim or Timmy is even more personal. Of course the fact that some of the staff thinks she is his half sister also forces her to call him by his first name.
At thirty minutes before the appointed hour, Jenny Shepard quietly slipped into McGee's hospital room, two cups of coffee in her hands. She was only slightly surprised to find DiNozzo already there handing his boss a cup of coffee. Quietly she told Gibbs she had located McGee's family on vacation on the west coast and the phone number to their cabin was available whenever he was ready. Five minutes later Abby arrived along with Ziva. Ziva was only using one crutch today, her other arm full of papers and a cup of coffee for Gibbs. Abby carried her ever present caf-pow plus a coffee for the boss.
When Ducky arrived empty handed, Gibbs was almost disappointed until he saw Palmer straggling behind him with a tray of pastries from the bakery near the yard. After everyone had checked over the still sleeping McGee they adjourned to the empty third floor lounge to bring one another up to speed. Ducky and Abby went first while Palmer struggled with the plastic lid on the pastry tray.
"We've identified the suspect as Harold Wilson. Abby found he had an entire laundry list of priors, but that probably is a bit of a mute point now."
Jenny interrupted the Medical Examiner before he could get off on a tangent. "Can we tie him to Maycap?"
"Yes we can." Ziva gleefully took over. "Wilson and Maycap were both patients in the same medical research program. They are refusing to turn over any medical records for either man so far, but the coordinator I spoke to confirmed that the two were assigned treatment beds next to each other."
"Duck, did the autopsy give you any clues as to what sort of treatment Wilson was receiving?" Gibbs finished the coffee DiNozzo had brought him and reached for the one from Jenny as Dr. Mallard shook his head.
"No, I'm afraid not, Jethro. The man was in perfect physical health which leads me to believe that whatever treatment those two monsters were receiving it was not for a condition of the body but of the mind. Abigail is running tox screens of his blood, stomach lining, and tissue samples from his liver and brain as we speak."
"How long, Abs?"
Abby knew the question was coming. "Can't rush the science, Gibbs. I should have the first results this afternoon, but remember it's medical research. Identifying the chemical markers of a drug is one thing; knowing what it does to the human body is something totally different. That is really more of a McGee thing. He's the one with the degree in Bio-Medical Engineering."
"No, I don't want any of this getting back to him. He's got enough of a job to do just recovering. Do what you can; we'll call in outside help if we need to. DiNozzo, what have you got?"
Tony was still subdued, though he didn't appear to Ziva to be as haunted as he had appeared the day before. "Grandpa McGee was one Terrance Jamison McGee III, which made Probie's twin brother the fifth generation Terrance Jamison McGee. Old Man McGee was Navy, which we knew, but Old, Old Man McGee was also Navy. According to his records, Grandpa was a POW in Vietnam and never quite was the same after that."
Abby sniffed, still angry over what the man had said to his traumatized grandson. "It still doesn't excuse what he told Timmy."
"No, it doesn't, Abs."
Tony waited for Abby and Gibbs to have their say before continuing. "After Vietnam he became obsessed with getting his son into Annapolis, and then after the twins were born he flat became obsessed with his namesake."
"Where is he now?"
"Dead, Boss, like you were hoping… The family reported him missing when Tim was about twelve. He was found dead in a snow bank outside Denver about two years later."
Ziva had a small smile on her face, the one that always made Anthony DiNozzo nervous. "So, the cold-hearted bastard froze to death. In Israel, we call that poetic justice."
"Actually, it was alcohol poisoning. Apparently he became an alcoholic after he was forced to take a medical discharge from the Navy."
"It appears that he never really left the prison camps behind." Ducky gave the others a hard look. "You may want to vilify the man, but right now we have no idea about the circumstances of what he told Timothy."
"Duck…"
"No, Jethro. For all we know, Tim may have overheard the ramblings of a drunkard. To a sensitive and traumatized child it would have been just as devastating as a direct accusation." Ducky moved to stand in front of Gibbs. "Our energy needs to be focused on helping that young man, not punishing a set of molding bones in some grave somewhere."
Even if Gibbs wasn't ready to give up on punishing quite yet, he agreed with Ducky about the team's focus. Picking up his two remaining full coffees he moved to the door. Eager to see their young teammate, the rest of the group followed.
____________________
The sensation of being watched woke McGee from his restless sleep. Blinking, he found his bed surrounded. Abby and his teammates were not a surprise. In a way, Ducky with Palmer behind him was not that much of a surprise either. The one person he was not expecting at his bedside was Director Shepard.
"Ma'am." Tim struggled to sit up, realizing quickly that at the moment he was a prisoner of his own body.
"Easy, Buddy." Tony was on the other side of the bed, his hand on Tim's chest to still his efforts. "Let me help." When McGee nodded, he used the controls to move the injured man into a more upright position.
Once settled, McGee turned back to the Director. "I heard the nurses talking about my mom and dad…"
Jenny smiled at the blushing agent. "It was my idea…" she waited for a second, "…son."
Once he was rendered speechless she moved back and Gibbs took her place. Before he could ask, McGee interrupted with a question of his own. "Are Kevin and Kyle all right? Did we get the guy? It was a copy-cat and not Maycap, right?"
Gibbs didn't try to hide his pride at the younger agent's priorities. "The boys are both fine and back home. The suspect's name was Harold Wilson and he is in a drawer in autopsy."
"Thanks to you, Probie."
"You were there too, Tony."
DiNozzo just stared at him, the silence forcing McGee to look up at him. Once he had the other man's attention, Tony continued. "You almost got yourself killed protecting them in that cave-in. You anticipated what the suspect was going to do, knew what to do about it, and how to get those scared little kids to trust you."
"You knew what to do because you had been where they were." Gibbs watched Ziva as she spoke, not sure if McGee was ready to talk about what had happened to him or sure if they were ready to hear about it. Unaware of the blue eyes watching her, she continued. "The file you had me pull gave the basic facts of what Maycap did to his victims. Connecting the dots was not…" she paused as she struggled to find the proper word, "…pretty. I know it is difficult, but can you…"
"Fill in the blanks?" It was a long time after she nodded before he began to speak.
"I just remember bits and pieces of when he had us. I remember how bad it hurt and that I passed out a few time while he was beating me. The last time I woke up in that cave, he had taped our hands together. Terry was so mad that he was crying. We were just a few feet away from the hole he had kept us in and Terry kicked him as hard as he could. Maycap lost his balance and fell in the hole. As soon as he fell, Terry started yelling at me to run. I couldn't keep up and Terry was dragging me with him." McGee took a shuddering breath before continuing.
"He should have left me behind but he couldn't because we were tied together. We almost made it to the mouth of the cave when Terry was shot. It, the bullet, hit him in the back of the head. Maycap was so strong; he picked the two of us up like it was nothing and started walking." Tim's eyes flickered around, but the others knew he was not seeing them, but the events of that day. "The next thing I remember he was standing on the edge of a cliff."
"He left you on the edge of a cliff attached to your brother's body?"
McGee looked at his boss for the first time since he had started telling them. "No, he threw us off the edge. We got caught on a tree part way down."
The phobia about heights was now clearly understood and in graphic detail.
When McGee's voice faded off Ziva filled in the next detail knowing the rest of the group needed to know what happened. "Maycap was arrested leaving the area wearing bloodstained clothing. He refused to answer any questions."
Gibbs sat on the edge of bed, resting his hand on the nearest blanket covered knee. "Did Maycap know you survived the fall?"
"Yeah. He, umm, he knew. He was laughing, and then I was alone with… Terry."
"How long were you there before you were rescued?"
Tim couldn't give the Director an exact answer. "It got dark. It was dark for a long time and then when it was light enough to see, there were maggots on Terry's, umm, what was left of his face. After the next time it was dark, they were down his arms, so I guess two, maybe two and a half days." He stopped and gave a visible shudder.
"I remember hearing a helicopter, and then men were climbing down on ropes. One of them cut me loose and carried me up to solid ground. He used his canteen and washed the maggots off of me, then wrapped me up in his NIS jacket and carried me out of there – didn't let go of me until he had me at the hospital."
"Was that Special Agent Evans?" Jenny made a mental note to personally thank the man when McGee gave an exhausted nod in return.
That was Abby's cue, so she reached past Tony and grabbed the controls for the bed. Tim was asleep before the bed was completely horizontal.
The team watched him sleep for a few minutes before Gibbs began giving orders. "Ziva, keep digging into Maycap's connection with Wilson and what this research was all about. Abs, I want you to keep trying to identify whatever medications they were giving the two of them. Have Ducky and Palmer help you if you need it." The four of them gathered their things and prepared to leave as Gibbs turned to Tony. "DiNozzo!"
"Yeah, Boss?"
"Stay here."
"Thanks, Boss." Gibbs was relieved that DiNozzo wasn't going to argue about staying at the hospital. After telling such a horrific story there was no way he wanted McGee to wake up alone. Besides, he had another motive in wanting DiNozzo to stay behind.
"See if you can get him talking about his family some more. The expression on Tony's face showed that he understood exactly what Gibbs wanted to know.
Ziva stopped in the doorway, forcing Abby, Ducky and Palmer to stop also. She turned to Gibbs. "Do you remember the dead sailor that was found in that abandoned nightclub – the body that was covered with maggots?" She looked back at their slumbering teammate. "You ordered him to collect all the maggots at the scene."
Gibbs winced at the memory. At the time it had seemed funny to assign that distasteful job to his most squeamish agent. He no longer found it amusing, but to Ziva it was even worse.
"After you left, he offered me one hundred dollars to trade jobs and I laughed. I laughed at him, Gibbs." Knowing that there was no answer possible, she continued out the door.
Gibbs looked over at DiNozzo one last time before ushering Jenny towards the door. "I think it's time we called his family."
"You ready for that?"
"Nope. Let's just get it over with."