A short chapter, but it needed to be a stand-alone. Again, thanks for all the comments.
Gibbs sat across from Director Shepard at the table in her office, the speaker phone placed between them. As the call went through, Gibbs still wasn't sure exactly what he was going to say to McGee's father. He didn't think Jenny knew either.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. McGee? This is Jenny Shepard; I'm the Director of NCIS."
"Tim's boss? Is he all right, has something happened? He's not… he's not…"
Jethro Gibbs never could handle a panicking woman and stepped in. "He was injured ma'am, but he's going to be just fine. I'm Agent Gibbs, I work with your son. Are your husband and daughter there with you? It might be better if we explain it to all of you."
"No, Terrance and Sarah are out deep sea fishing today. I don't do well in the open water and their boat won't be back for hours. What happened to Tim?"
Jenny cocked her head at her former partner and he took over the conversation. He decided to be blunt to see what kind of reaction he got. "Twin boys were kidnapped yesterday by a man trying to duplicate what Gregory Maycap had done." A gasp over the phone told him that she certainly remembered the man. "Tim was injured while rescuing the boys." There was a long pause before Tim's mother said anything in response.
"If Tim's injuries were serious, the hospital would have called. What else are you telling me, Agent Gibbs?"
Apparently nothing got past Mama McGee, but Gibbs refused to feel guilty about the lack of contact from the hospital. Jenny felt she should broach the subject rather than Gibbs. If the family were to become angry at being kept out of the loop, that responsibility fell to her as director. "Tim's knowledge about the original case saved the lives of those two boys. We were just surprised to hear about what happened to him. We had no idea that Tim had a twin, it came as a bit of a surprise."
To all of us, Director Shepard. We had no idea we were expecting twins until the delivery room."
"Really? Isn't that very unusual?
"Timmy was tucked behind his brother during my entire pregnancy. The doctors never noticed him. He was so tiny when he was born, that the doctors were amazed he had survived at all. He had to stay in the neonatal unit for over a month until he was strong enough to go home while Terry was a full size, normal baby. Even after that, he was considered medically fragile for years afterwards. I'm afraid their father never quite knew what to do with Timmy."
"So, he was closer to Terry than to Tim?"
"What does all of this have to do with Tim being hurt on the job?"
They exchanged a grimace before Jenny continued. "It doesn't, exactly. Tim is going to be fine physically, but this case obviously brought back some painful memories and we want to know the best way to help him through it."
"I see."
There was a long silence; just as they were beginning to think she had hung up, McGee's mother began to speak again.
"I'm going to have to ask you to not speak about any of this to Sarah. She doesn't know anything about her late brother. She was just a baby when it happened."
Gibbs could not believe what he was hearing. "Sarah doesn't know? Do you mean that Tim never talked about what happened to him?"
"We're not heartless, Agent Gibbs. We sent Tim to see a therapist to deal with what happened to his brother, but we saw no point in hurting Sarah over a brother she was too young to remember. We transferred to a different base as soon as the doctors let Timmy come home and he knew not to talk about it outside of his therapy sessions."
"So Terry just disappeared."
"It was very difficult on my husband when we lost Terry. The constant reminders would have been too much to bear."
They had returned to Gibbs' earlier question. "He was closer to Terry than to Tim?"
"My husband was the spitting image of his father. Terry was an exact replica of Terrance. The three of them had the same temperament, the same likes, everything. Timmy was just so different; Terrance didn't know how to relate to him, still doesn't. It doesn't make him a bad father."
Gibbs wasn't sure at that moment if he agreed with the woman or not. "You do realize that Tim is still suffering from survivor's guilt?"
"We did the best we could. As a Navy family, all of our dreams died with Terry. That is not an easy thing to live with, Agent Gibbs. Until you lose a child you will never understand what it is like."
Jenny cringed at the thoughtless words as Gibbs stood up and leaned over the speaker, his voice quieter and deadlier than she had heard in many years. "I know exactly what it is like to lose a child, Mrs. McGee. The one thing I can tell you is that if I had been lucky enough to have another child survive that night…" He swallowed hard before continuing. "Not a day would have gone by that she wouldn't have known how loved and cherished she was."