a/n - Thank you for all your wonderful reviews. You like the idea of another level hidden underneath the building? Our guys had to have something cool that they FBI doesn't have.
It took more effort than it should have for DiNozzo to turn and look at Sacks. "Shouldn't you be in the hospital?" Ron made a big show of looking around the small room packed with medical equipment and McGee's bed.
"Gee, I could have sworn this was a hospital."
Tony couldn't stop the smile that was creeping across his face. "You know what I mean." He watched as Sacks moved carefully across the room and turned serious. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, got a hard head." He reached the foot of the bed and watched the sleeping man.
"Almost as hard as yours, DiNozzo."
"Probie, you're awake." Tony and Ron both leaned closer as Tim's eyes slowly opened.
The voice was soft, but steady. "See, Ron, told you he's a pretty good investigator."
Even from the doorway, Myers had to smile, but the two FBI agents let DiNozzo be the one to carry on a conversation with the youngest agent. "How are you feeling? Are you hurting anywhere?" A nurse moved closer to hear, but didn't interrupt.
"I'm okay, kinda fuzzy." McGee tried to reach up to rub at his face, but Tony caught his hand and held it down to the mattress.
"You've got stuff attached to both arms right now, so let's not do that." That got Tim's attention and he opened his eyes more to notice the blood oxygen meter attached to the hand he had tried to lift. Two IV's ran into his other arm.
"What have they got me on?" Tim stared at the bags hanging over him, trying to focus on the labels. "Can't lie here, I've got to get back to work on the encryption."
"Oh, no, you are going to stay right here until the doctors say otherwise, McGee. In case it's escaped your attention, you're in intensive care. To be more specific, the cardiac intensive care. This case of yours is a heartbreaker, literally."
"What?" Tim instinctively reached for his chest and Tony grabbed his hand.
"There's still a catheter in your chest, Tim. I don't think you want to be messing with that."
A group of doctors and nurses moved down the hallway towards McGee's room and were intercepted by Myers who cleared them against the list of background checks they had run on the personnel. Once they had passed inspection, Tony and Ron had to leave to allow them to examine Tim in private.
Fornell, Gibbs, Ducky and Palmer all arrived at the cardiac wing just as the two agents left McGee's room.
"Hey, Boss."
"DiNozzo, what's happening?"
Tony grinned at his boss and the rest of the new arrivals. "He's awake and they're checking him over right now." That was Ducky's cue and he and Palmer made their way into the room. The remaining men moved to an empty waiting room as Fornell looked carefully at Sacks.
"Shouldn't you be home resting?"
"I needed to see for myself that the kid was going to be all right."
Fornell understood the sentiment. "Now that you've seen him, I want you to go home and get some rest. We're back at it again tomorrow, so if you're up to it, we could use you with us. The operation is being moved to the Yard for better security." DiNozzo looked pleased at that.
Myers frowned at the implication. "Is NCIS taking over the case? This is too big for…"
"No," Fornell interrupted before Myers could get into a pissing match with DiNozzo. "It's a joint operation, like it's always been. You'll see when we get there why the move was necessary. For now, Mallard and Palmer are the next shift here, so you guys are going back to the yard while Gibbs and I take care of other things."
"Call Vance as soon as you get to the Yard, he'll have to authorize your new security level." DiNozzo stared at Gibbs, not sure what was going on.
"Boss?"
While Gibbs and DiNozzo were talking, Fornell mentally counted how many computer towers and extra hard drives had to be removed from the apartment they had used as both a base of operations and a safe house. Suddenly the extra manpower was more important that he slight head start sending them to the Yard would accomplish. "Change of plans, everyone is going to the apartment, then we go to the Yard." Gibbs stared at Fornell, surprised at the change of plans, while Myers started laughing.
"We're been reduced to grunt labor, DiNozzo."
Gibbs had a slight smile at that before he added his own stipulation. "After we see McGee." Several doctors were leaving McGee's room, including Ducky, and Gibbs headed towards him.
Ducky greeted Gibbs with a smile, which he extended to the agents that joined them seconds later. "Timothy is doing remarkably well under the circumstances. If nothing unforeseen happens, he should be ready to be moved right on schedule." Only he and the two team leaders knew that Ducky meant moving him to NCIS, but that was a conversation for a more secure location than this busy hallway.
Both Gibbs and Fornell headed for the door into McGee's room and the others anticipated a problem as the two men were shoulder to shoulder. As they reached the doorway, Fornell fell back slightly, allowing Gibbs to be the first to enter.
Tim heard footsteps and struggled to open his eyes. "B'ss, zzat you? Don't… know whaz they… giv'n me, can't stay… w'ke."
"Then sleep, kiddo." Gibbs rested his hand on Tim's head, stroking his thumb across the pale forehead. "They're giving you those drugs for a reason." It had been many years, but the rhythmic thumb was as successful now as it had been all those years ago when Kelly fought sleep, and within moments, Tim was sound asleep. On the other side of the bed, Tobias watched in amusement. The 'daddy thumb of sleep' was something that had put Emily to sleep many times when she was younger. Finally convinced the young man was down for the count, the two agents were ready to get back to work.
---NCIS---
"How's it going?" Ziva looked up briefly at Vance's question, and then returned to her study of the readouts, worried that she would lose her place in the list of numbers and scientific names. He continued into the room and sat at the table with a cup of coffee.
"Slow," she finished with the row she was working on and now felt comfortable stopping. "I do not understand the science behind all of this, but I am marking it as Fornell showed us. I will be glad when McGee is well enough to return to make heads or feet of it all."
"Tails, Officer David, it's heads or tails." Vance knew better than to smile at the Israeli woman's mistake, but he secretly enjoyed her mixed up idioms as much as her team did. "I think we'll all be glad when McGee is back here. The more I read Fornell's report on what they've uncovered, the less I like having McGee in that hospital."
Ziva set the papers down and moved over to sit across from Vance. "Has there been a breach in the security?
"Not yet there hasn't." Vance leaned back slightly in the chair and looked at the lists of victims now pinned up on the walls and waved his hands at the pages. "It's not hard to imagine how far they would go to stop us. Until we get McGee back here, we can't fully lock this place down."
---NCIS---
DiNozzo whistled as he took a look at the network of computers McGee had set up at the safe house. "Man, McGeek must have been in heaven here. Do any of these monitors get ESPN?"
*Whack.*
"Thanks, Boss."
Fornell smirked at the exchange. DiNozzo-smacking was his favorite spectator sport, but duty called. "Jason, start breaking things down, and keep track of what went where. I'm sure McGee had a certain order to it." DiNozzo found a roll of masking tape and started labeling the equipment as Myers unplugged it. After watching to see if they had it under control, Fornell moved into the bedroom and Gibbs followed.
Gibbs opened the closet and started pulling out clothes. "Why did you move him in here?"
"Officially, it was because we were afraid Moore had discovered we'd exhumed his father's body." Fornell had the suitcases opened on the bed and was emptying the dresser drawers.
"And unofficially?"
Tobias found the letter Tim's father had written and sunk down on the bed, holding it. "I was worried about him, Jethro. He was trying so hard to be strong for everyone, pushing so hard to find out why they killed his dad, holding it all in. My team's been together a long time and they're a close bunch. I knew they'd take him in under their wings. Between all of us, he hasn't had to face any of this alone. When this came," he waved the letter towards Gibbs, "I knew I was right."
"What is it?" Gibbs held out his hand and Fornell handed him the envelope.
"It's a letter his dad wrote to him when he first got sick. Apparently, he wrote a whole stack of them, one for each milestone of Tim's life over the years." Fornell shook his head slightly and looked up at Gibbs. "This one was for when his dad died."
Gibbs didn't say a word as he read the letter and then handed it back. Rubbing his eyes, he returned to the task of packing McGee's personal effects. It wasn't until they were finished that he asked the question he'd been haunted by for weeks.
"What was wrong with his father?"
"Jethro…" In all honesty, McGee didn't know that Fornell knew; that he'd seen the copy of his father's medical charts sent to Mildred at the lab. Gibbs misunderstood his hesitation and he let him.
"I don't want you to break a confidence, just tell me – was it neurological?"
"Yes."
Gibbs remembered what the woman on the phone had said. "Is it hereditary?"
"Yes."
"Does he… does Tim…"
"I don't know."