By day two of his self-imposed hiatus, Tim has thought himself into a full-blown migraine. With no medication and very little ability to maneuver himself around through the onslaught of pain and nausea, he finds himself at the unrelenting mercy of its attack. He's lying in the middle of the bathroom floor of his chosen hideaway, where he'd stumbled much earlier and fallen, unable to help himself do anything but be tossed helplessly through wave after wave of its fury.
Time marches on, having lost all meaning for the young man whose silent tears of pain have gone unseen and whose groans of agony have gone unheard. Sleep comes intermittently and is the only blessed relief to be found when it chooses to appear. He never hears his burn phone ringing. For two days, Tim hears nothing but the roaring in his ears and his own mind screaming for help.
Nobody comes because nobody hears his cries.
***NCIS***
For two days, Team Gibbs struggles to regain their footing while still carrying on with their jobs working through cold cases. Each finds themselves wishing for a new case, although sad at the thought of working one without Tim. Discontented sighs are periodically heard throughout these first few days; almost as loudly as the pained silence that rules in-between the inarticulate expressions of sorrow.
Mid-morning of the third day without Tim finds Sarah McGee being escorted up to the squad room, her face a picture of worry and fear as she's brought to stand before the Team Leader's desk.
Gibbs looks up at the young woman's approach, nodding her escort away before he's even spoken the unnecessary words. Gibbs himself speaks first, his need for the answer prevalent. "Sarah. What's wrong? Why are you here?"
"I can't reach Tim." She answers tremulously, too worried for her brother to even be concerned about how this makes her look to his boss.
"He's taking some time off – doesn't want to be disturbed." Tony answers the question he hasn't been asked, as he walks up to her from across the room.
"I'm aware that my brother doesn't want to be disturbed, Agent DiNozzo; by you or by NCIS. That doesn't apply to me. I don't hurt him or betray his trust the way all of you do" Sarah angrily retorts as she glares briefly at him.
Turning her attention back to the man she wants the answers from, she continues on." My point is he's not answering the burn phone he took with him. Something's wrong." She angrily brushes away the tears that have escaped, blinking hard as she strives to put the cap back on her emotional overload.
"How can you be certain of that?" Ziva asks gently as she now joins the group that has assembled in front of Gibbs' desk.
"Because he promised me that only two people had the number and that he would answer every time either of them called him" Sarah informs them haughtily. "He hasn't. For the past two days now, he hasn't answered the phone. I'm telling you something's wrong!"
"You are one of the two people who have this number, yes?" Ziva asks for clarification.
"Of course." The younger woman replies as if they should have already known that was the only reasonable answer to the question.
"Okay. Who's the other person?" Tony's curiosity bands together with concern and makes itself known in the tone of his question.
"Me." Vance answers as he walks up to the group with Ducky walking beside him. "And I happen to agree with Ms. McGee's assessment. This is why Dr. Mallard will be accompanying her to her brother's location and making sure nothing has happened to him."
"Thank you, Sir." Sarah answers shakily, as her emotions still seem to get the best of her.
To their credit, no one shows any further disregard for her intuitive concern, instead, their moods falling in line with her on the possibility that she's right.
"Get going. You'll want to be there before dark." Vance urges sympathetically.
"Wait, you don't want of us to go with them, make sure no foul play's involved?" Tony questions earnestly.
"I'm not in the habit of forcing my people to have their personal lives subjected to unwelcome company against their will, Agent DiNozzo. Especially in light of why Agent McGee has taken this leave in the first place!"The Director retorts angrily.
By now, Gibbs has left his desk and approached his boss, stealthily; without speaking a word. He gestures for them to move the conversation to a more private venue. As the two of them engage Gibbs' 'office', the Team Leader is quick to get to the point. "Tony's right. I'm not willing to sit here and do nothing when there's a chance McGee's in trouble and needs us."
"You really have no faith in his abilities at all, do you, Gibbs?" Vance asks in disappointment. "As soon as you hear he hasn't answered his phone for two days, you jump to the conclusion that he's done something stupid and screwed up."
"Not what I said, Leon. I know McGee. He would never go this long without answering his phone! Obviously, you've tried to call him and gotten no answer or you wouldn't be down here agreeing with Sarah or sending Ducky to check on him! Let us at least be within reach in case he is in trouble. We're nowhere close to being able to help him from here."
"And you would know this how, Gibbs?"
"You just told Ducky he had to leave now to get there before dark. That's five hours from now! You're forgetting something, too. You can't seriously consider sending Ducky into an unknown situation alone like this, Leon."
Vance thinks about it for a minute. He knows that underneath the cold exterior of the man before him, lays the heart of a father, even if the silver-haired man forces himself not to let himself admit it to those he's entrusted to look after and protect on the job. Seeing this part of him rise to the surface for the one he's formerlytreated shabbily feels like 'too little, too late' as far as Leon's concerned, but still the gut feeling of the formidable former Marine can't be ignored; especially since he's right. On both counts. It is most likely that something serious has caused Tim to go off grid. And he cannot in all good consciousness send the elderly M.E. alone into whatever that serious situation happens to be.
Without wasting any more time, Vance whips out his cell phone and makes a call. "Change of plans; going to need that plane after all. Five seats. …Okay… Thank you." Snapping his phone shut, he glares at the Team Leader. "Go. Your team damn well better stay out of the way once McGee's been located and you had better only cross his path if he needs your help. I'm placing Dr. Mallard in charge of that call. You don't speak to Agent McGee or even get close enough to him to see him, until Dr. Mallard deems it absolutely necessary and says so. Are we clear?"
"Crystal." Gibbs answers calmly without argument since, in light of the agent's adamant request for complete solitude, he agrees with Ducky that the request should be honored. He snaps the elevator back online. Almost before the doors are open, the Team Leader is out of there and barking his orders to his team. "Gear Up! Let's Go!"
"GIBBS! GIBBS! GIBBS!" Abby cries as she runs up to him from across the squad room. "I'm coming too!"
"No!" Gibbs responds quickly and firmly.
"Absolutely not." Vance argues with reinforced steel in his tone.
"Director!" Abby argues in shock. "He's my Timmy! I have to be there!"
"This some kind of a game to you, Abby?" Sarah demands angrily as she pulls away from the M.E. and advances threateningly toward the Lab Rat. "You've done nothing but humiliate him and treat him like your favorite puppy on a good day!"
Ziva reaches out and snags Sarah's arm with enough force to slow her down until she actually stops just short of invading Abby's personal space, even as her angry tirade continues as if she hasn't been interrupted.
"Your bad days are even worse; treating him like crap and letting him take the rap for your selfish decisions to break the rules! You're not going anywhere near my brother! You're the reason he's walking away from the job he busted his ass to earn and keep!"
Pulling away from Ziva, Sarah turns back toward Vance. "Can we go now? Please?"
"Certainly, my dear." Ducky finally speaks into the tense silence that has descended on them like a shrouded mist. "Jethro, we shall be waiting for you at the airport."
"Right behind you, Duck." Gibbs promises as he looks at his team and gestures for them to gear up.
Watching Ducky escort Sarah McGee to the elevator Gibbs breathes out a frustrated sigh as he returns to his desk, shuts down his workstation and puts on his own gear.
"Can't believe she just spoke to me like that." Abby fumes to no one in particular.
Gibbs steps up to her and quietly speaks in her ear. "Think you'd better start counting yourself lucky not to be on the receiving end of a written reprimand to begin with. I'd stop making so much fuss if I were you."
"What? Gibbs! YOU didn't think I'd done anything wrong! Why should anyone else?" she demands hotly.
"Not exactly objective where you're concerned, Abby. You know that. Hell, everyone knows that." Gibbs reminds her calmly. "Not so sure you wanna be poking that hornet's nest right now."
Without another word, Gibbs leads Tony and Ziva to the elevator, leaving Abby alone in the squad room, with a most unhappy Director Vance.
***NCIS***
The plane ride to the private airstrip is conducted in a very uncomfortable silence. It hadn't take a genius to realize that Sarah McGee remains extremely pissed that Team Gibbs has been given permission and the resources to invade her brother's vacation. Being sensitive to her point of view and her feelings, no one on the team attempts to force her into a conversation with them, choosing instead to maintain their thoughtful silence.
Within three hours since leaving NCIS, the group, splitting into two rental cars, is racing towards a secluded South Carolina beach house towards their brother and former teammate, who has inexplicably fallen off the grid. With Ziva driving Ducky and Sarah in the lead sedan, they pull into the private driveway of the house Tim is renting.
As Ziva turns the ignition off, she looks at the younger woman in the car. "Sarah, do you know if this house has a back door?"
"Yes it does."
"Very well, please wait here until we clear the house."
"Until you do what? This is our family's vacation home. You don't need to do your 'special agent' thing here!"
"Sarah, in our work, when we arrive at a building, where something may have happened, no matter how, 'secure' it seems, when we do not know what has occurred, we search it before anything else, making sure there is no one hiding or hurt or no damage has been done. We call it 'clearing' a building. We need to do that now; it is why we have come with you. It is the only reason we are here. And it is necessary before we can allow you and Dr. Mallard in."
"I don't like this. You can't go in there unannounced like Tim's a criminal!" Sarah tells her in complete disagreement.
"That is not what we are doing, Sarah. We need to be sure the house is secure, that nothing… bad has happened. You, yourself are concerned that something has happened to your brother, yes?" Ziva gently explains as she gears up as if preparing to go out in the field. "We need to locate your brother and we cannot allow you or Doctor Mallard to go in without knowing for certain the house is safe."
"Oh." Sarah sits back in defeat. "Well, I hope Tim doesn't see you and gets upset because he doesn't get why you're here like this."
"Gonna have to risk it." Gibbs reinforces, as he and Tony both come to stand beside Ziva, ready to start a perimeter search. Knowing that in all likelihood, the one Tim is least upset with is Ziva, he instructsTony to back her up going in the front door while he, himself prepares to handle the back of the house.
Left behind in the car, Ducky tries to reassure Sarah, that although this 'invasion' is exactly what Tim would not want, it is an absolutely necessary order of steps to follow in order to insure that nothing bad has happened to him. "Do relax, my dear. We'll know very soon, don't panic. This is our standard operating procedure and I'm quite sure your brother would insist upon it if he knew. He would never forgive us for putting you at risk."
"I guess…"
They will not invade your brother's space any more than absolutely necessary. What you can do, my dear, is wait until the team is at the door and then call his burn phone. If they hear it ring inside, that might give them some idea of where in the house to look for Timothy. Then Ziva will open the door and they will make sure the house is safe. Once they know that, they will exit and you can go in."
"All right, Dr. Mallard, I've seen Tim do that in his apartment. When that gang found out where he lived, he wouldn't let me be there without him there and one time when we arrived together, he cleared the apartment before he would let me get out of my car."
"There, you see? I'm sure he explained this all to you then, didn't he?" Ducky reminds her soothingly.
"Yeah. I know you're right. I just hope Tim doesn't freak out. "
"I believe, as you do, that it is a good thing his team is here to check on him."
"Meaning, you think something's happened to him, too."
Ducky remains silent at the voiced sentiment he hasn't been able to shake since this all came to light.
"When they tell us we can go in, you'll come with me, right, Dr. Mallard?" Sarah interrupts his thoughts to ask.
"I feel it necessary to advise you, my dear that Timothy is just as angry with me right now as he is with the others." Ducky warns her.
"That may be, but, if he's hurt, he'll need your help. That's why you're here, right?" She insists as her attention remains locked on what Ziva is doing. "Why are they not going in? What's she doing?"
Ducky looks out to see Ziva, pulling her lock picking tool from her pocket and getting to work on the door.
"She's going to pick the lock. Apparently, your brother's door is locked.
.
***NCIS***
Gibbs heads to the back door. Ziva picks the lock on the front door, Tony standing to the side with his weapon drawn. She knows this will scare Sarah, but they need to follow procedure. Nodding at Ducky, Ziva sees him speak to Sarah and the young woman raises her cell phone to her ear.
Hearing a ring tone, Ziva and Tony enter with weapons drawn; both of them hearing Gibbs enter the back; each of the three call out as they clear the house, moving toward the bathroom, the general direction from where they'd heard the phone ringing. The team scours the house, all of them casting their eyes carefully around each room they walk through.
It's Gibbs who finds his seemingly lifeless former agent strewn on the floor of the small bathroom floor; his heart jumping up in his throat at the sight before him now. "Tim!"
Immediately he bends down on one knee and sends his fingers to the young man's neck for a pulse. It's with a huge sigh of relief that he feels the normal, steady beat under his shaking finger; immediately whipping out his cell phone to call the waiting M.E.
"Duck, McGee's collapsed inside the bathroom doorway. Can we go ahead and move him?"
"Oh, dear heavens! Do not move him yet, Jethro. Let me check him over first."
"Got it." Gibbs snaps his phone shut.
"Boss?" Tony asks worriedly as he comes to a standstill behind him.
"Can't move him til Ducky looks him over."Gibbs instructs as he stands up straight once more.
"UGH! That smell! Probie must have gotten sick. Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick myself!" Tony reacts badly.
***Thwack***
"Sorry, Boss. I just need a second." Tony takes himself to the kitchen.
"Do you think he has been there all this time?" Ziva wonders sadly as she joins them there.
"Pretty safe bet since he hasn't answered his phone all this time." Gibbs breaths out as he forces himself to refocus on what still needs to be done. "Check the call list on his phone when you find it, then search the house more closely for any signs of trouble while Tony and I help Ducky get him off the floor."
She quickly disappears to check through the house, making sure they haven't missed any signs of trouble, just to be sure. She can't get to the phone until they move their co-worker, as it is.
****NCIS****
Ducky closes his phone even as he reaches for the door handle. "Come, Sarah, your brother has fallen and is possibly injured."
"Fallen? Where?" Sarah asks in what can only be an oncoming brush with panic.
"In the restroom, I'm afraid." The elderly man keeps his voice soothing in an effort to calm her down. Come, let's get to him."
Silence descends as together they walk to the house, their steps as hurried as they can be without running. Sarah and Ducky head straight for the bathroom where Gibbs found Tim. The first sight of him causes them to draw sharp breaths, their heartfelt cries almost in tandem.
Ziva hasn't been gone long when Ducky and Sarah arrive on the scene, heralded by Sarah's pained gasp. "Oh, God! Tim!"
And Ducky's, "Oh, Timothy!"
Ziva appears from the back of the house, making a beeline for Sarah. "Sarah. Call his phone again so we can locate it's exact location, please?"
"Uhm, sure." Tim's sister murmurs while stepping towards the Israeli woman even though her eyes can't seem to leave her brother's inert form.
Seeing the same still figure as Gibbs had before him, Ducky reaches out to Tim's neck, needing to feel for himself that sign of life and sighs with relief when finding the pulse.
Tony watches silently as he arrives back in the doorway behind Sarah.
In complete silence, the M.E. proceeds to check the fallen man's blood pressure and temperature before putting his instruments back into the bag he's brought with him and taking the time to run his hands up and down limbs and rib section, checking for obvious breaks.
Finding none, he rises back to his feet with Gibbs' assistance and looks at his long-time friend.
"Jethro, I will need your assistance in moving him to the bed where he can be better looked after. "
"Tony and I will move him, Duck." The Team Leader reassures him. There's no way he'll let the older man strain himself when there are plenty of younger strong hands to do the heavy lifting.
Even with obvious signs he's splashed his own face with water, Tony's eyes focus on that of his teammate's face as he moves in to help lift him up off the floor. "Why is he so white?"
Ziva, who has now returned from her task, looks down at Tim at Tony's question, taking in Tim's chalk white face, almost as if he were dead. "Ducky, he is alive, yes?" Ziva questions loudly as her heart hammers in her chest.
"Yes, my dear. Timothy is merely sleeping that of an exhausted man. I'm afraid whatever brought him to this state also robbed him of any strength to help himself, which has left him without any resources to keep up his normal strength. He has no broken bones that I can tell and his blood pressure is normal, so it is safe to move him, as soon as we can locate the bedroom."
"Uhm, the bedroom's right next door, Dr. Mallard. It's a queen size bed so there's plenty of room for you to lay him down." Sarah volunteered quietly while her eyes remained fixed on her phone as she pushed the button to dial her brother's phone
The somewhat muffled ringing of the still un-located cell phone from somewhere close startles them all. Evidently, it has been that close to him all this time and he hadn't been able to answer.
Sarah points to the cabinet under the sink just a foot away from Tim's head."Sounds like it's coming from there."
"Why would he put his cell phone in the cupboard?" Ziva questions in confusion.
"Probably hurt his head hearing it ring." Sarah advises quietly. "I'm surprised he didn't turn it off."
"Is your brother prone to migraines, my dear?" Ducky asks as he looked at her.
"Once in a blue moon." She replies. "He's got a prescription for them, but rarely takes it since he stopped getting them with any regularity a while back."
"Why isn't this in his records?" Ducky inquires.
"I'm not sure. I thought it was." The young woman replies with surprise.
Gibbs looks at Ziva and nods towards her phone.
"I will call Vance and inform him of what we have discovered." Ziva provides her understanding of his silent instruction.
"Ask h…" The boss begins to instruct her, only to be interrupted before he's done.
"If this migraine situation is in McGee's records."Ziva smiles softly as she steps outside to make the call.
Sarah takes herself to the kitchen and begins making coffee. She doesn't have to look to find where things are; she knows because she and Tim have been to this place a dozen times in their lives; actually co-own it now; thanks to their maternal grandparents who'd left it to the siblings in their will. Keeping her hands busy making coffee and setting up the mugs and sugar, Sarah's mind runs full-steam ahead.
Tim will be extremely pissed to find his personal need for complete space away from NCIS and all the people there who have hurt him and betrayed his trust, invaded by those very same people. Still, she couldn't have gotten him up off the floor like the men are doing now and she couldn't have medically helped him come back from the intense migraine that had obviously taken him down, as Dr. Mallard is now doing.
While she's still extremely pissed at them all, most especially Abby and Agent DiNozzo, she can't help but feel grateful for at least Dr. Mallard. Agent Gibbs is still as bad as Abby, in her book, but Agent Da'vid is barely an irritant to her and she is quickly losing all anger she has felt towards the other woman, watching her do what she can to be helpful, despite Sarah's obvious displeasure with her presence here. Maybe, just maybe, she can talk Tim into seeing things a little less negatively. But there'll be time for that later. Right now, the only thing that matters is making sure Tim recovers from the migraine.
Blinking hard, she comes back from her musings and realizes her brother will need some water to drink. Knowing Tim will have stocked the refrigerator with whatever food and drinks he'd need while he was here, she has no doubt she'll find the bottled water he prefers to drink in the refrigerator. Sure enough, she finds plenty and takes one before heading back to the bedroom. Walking into the room, she's surprised to find Dr. Mallard the only one there. "Where did the others go?" She asks.
"They have done what was needed for Timothy. Since there is nothing further they can do for his medical situation and have no other reason to stay uninvited, they have started back to D.C."
"They're driving back?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes, my dear. They are." Ducky admitted to her quietly. "As for myself, I shall stay here until I am certain that Timothy is completely on his way to being all right again."
"And Agent Da'vid?" Sarah questioned.
"She too has returned with her teammates."
"So, they just left us here?"
"They are as unwilling to violate Timothy's request to be left alone as Director Vance was. Even I do not wish to go against his wishes in this way. Only the need to insure his well-being has prevented me from leaving. Well, that and the realization that you, my dear, shall also need transportation back to D.C." Ducky gently admonishes her.
"Oh. I guess that makes sense. I guess I just didn't think they'd just come out here to check on him and then leave so soon." Her reply is quiet and full of disappointment,
"My dear, we were all under the distinct impression that you were most unhappy with their presence here to begin with. I'm afraid I do not understand your disappointment."
Sarah huffs out a deep breath, "Me neither, Dr. Mallard. Me neither. Have you gotten Tim to wake up at all? Is he really okay?"
"Timothy is simply sleeping deeply, as his body obviously has allowed him to do. Since his vital signs are well within normal range and he is not running a fever, I do not wish to disturb his rest. I do, however, believe we should wake him in an hour or so and get him to eat something and drink at least one of those bottles of water."
"So, he's really okay."
"I promise you, your brother is fine now. Why don't we adjourn to the living room and allow him to sleep?"
"I'm gonna go clean up the mess." She supplies as she heads toward the bathroom and the overturned trashcan as well as the messy puddle where Tim had obviously gotten sick once or twice.
"Allow me to help, my dear." Ducky insists. As they labor, the silence grows with an uncomfortable feel and the M.E. is soon once again trying to reach out to Sarah and explain where at least he has gone wrong with her brother.
"Sarah. We on Team Gibbs are all guilty, at some point or another, of dis-regarding your brother's safety and well-being, I'm afraid. However, that does not mean we do not care deeply about him. It simply means we are human and have succumbed to bad decisions with little thought where there should have been much more."
"So, you think Tim should just forgive and forget?" Sarah asks as she leads the way back out to the kitchen.
"Oh, I do not presume to tell anyone how to feel, my dear." Ducky contradicts. "I'm simply asking that you allow Timothy to handle this in his way instead of subjecting him to the added burden of your anger as well."
"Hmmm." Sarah replies as she turned her attention to fixing them some dinner. "I guess I can work on that."
***NCIS***
Droning voices wake him, dragging him from the depths of fuzzy nothingness that had swept him away from the relentless pain he'd been chained to the last time he was conscious and cognizant, he looks around as he opens his eyes. Even in the dimly lit room with the shades down, Tim realizes he's in his grandparents' bedroom at the cottage.
With that realization comes questions. How had he gotten to the bedroom? Whose voices is he hearing? How long has he been sleeping?
Almost as if reading his mind and before he can blink, the voices stop outside his bedroom door and almost immediately, the wonderfully familiar sound of his sister's voice quietly fills the air as Sarah walks into the room. carrying a tray with glasses and a tea kettle.
"Alright, big brother, rise and shine. Ducky says you've slept enough and now you need to eat."