Chapter 6

Tony woke up after having slept a lot longer than he had initially planned, but man, that had felt good. He didn't think he'd slept so soundly in more than a month. He got up and stretched. Then, he looked at his watch. It'd be dinnertime soon. He wondered if it would be okay to give Tim something more substantial than oatmeal. He just didn't want to mess things up because he jumped the gun.

"Tony?"

Tony turned away from the kitchen and looked at Tim.

"Hey, sorry I slept so long, Tim. The day's almost over."

Tim's brow was furrowed and he started trying to sit up. Since it was obviously hurting him, Tony walked over and helped him.

"Thanks," Tim said.

"No problem. You ready for dinner?"

"Tony, what happened?" Tim asked.

Tony tried to quash the instant frustration that question evoked.

"I told you, Tim. I don't know."

Tim shook his head, but stopped doing that very quickly. He closed his eyes and winced.

"No. For you. What happened to...get you here?"

"Oh."

"Please. Tell me." Tim opened his eyes again and looked at Tony earnestly. "Maybe...it will help."

"I don't know anything, Tim," Tony said. "I wasn't in on anything that might have contributed to this."

"But you're...here," Tim said. "Tell me. Then...dinner."

Tony smiled. "Okay. Fine."

He settled down on the end of Tim's bed.

"This is going back to over a month ago, okay?"

Tim looked a little distressed at the time, but he just nodded...which he quickly stopped himself from doing again.

"All I knew was that you and Gibbs were going to some conference. Vance called you both up to MTAC, but not me. When you came back, you said that Vance wanted you and Gibbs to go to some technology conference. He wanted you there because you could translate the stuff into something Gibbs would understand."

"That's a lie," Tim said, but he smiled a little. "I almost never could do that."

Tony laughed, even as he tried not to be disappointed that Tim's statement was just a joke, not a comment on Vance's instruction.

"Well, it was going to be a few days. Neither of you looked very happy about going, but you didn't say anything about it being something else. You both went and I was left behind. Vance had me doing some work on a couple of cold case files while Bishop was out of town. It was simple stuff and I was home at a normal time every night. I tried to call you once, but it went straight to voice mail. I figured you were in meetings."

Tim was listening, but there was no expression on his face. Tony had no idea if this was actually helping or not. He just kept going.

"It wasn't late, but I was home, and I got a call. It was a guy from New York saying that you had asked him to call me and get me to come up there, but that it was important that I not tell anyone."

"I said all that?" Tim asked.

"I guess so. You sure weren't talking when I got to the hospital."

Tim's brow furrowed again, but he gestured for Tony to continue.

"Well, I did call Vance. I told him that something had happened and I'd be gone." Tony paused and his own brow furrowed.

"What?"

"I didn't think about it until just now, but Vance didn't ask any questions. He didn't say anything about when I should be back or that I should tell him about it later. He just told me to go. So maybe he knew more than I was thinking he did."

"Maybe," Tim repeated.

"Anyway, I drove up. It took a long time, and it was about four in the morning when I got there. The only reason I wasn't falling asleep was because I was worried about what was going on. When I got to the hospital, the doctor said that the only thing you'd said to him was that you couldn't go back. So somewhere between the guy that called me and the hospital, you stopped saying much. And I gotta say, Tim...I was amazed you were even alive with how you looked. Your eyes were swollen shut. They'd had to do stitches on your head and surgery to stop some internal bleeding. They said there was some minor swelling in your brain but that it might go down on its own and it would just take time. Looks like they were right because you're so much more coherent now than you were..."

Tim shrugged uncomfortably. Tony wasn't sure that telling Tim how bad off he'd been was a good idea, but he kept at it.

"But the doctor asked me why you couldn't go back, and I had no idea, but I figured that I'd wait until you woke up to ask you what was going on. I was ready to wait for a few days if I needed to. I tried calling Gibbs once, but when his phone went directly to voice mail, I figured it wasn't a good idea to keep trying. But then..."

"What?" Tim asked.

Tony took a deep breath and let it out.

"The reason we're in this dumpy apartment and not the hospital is because of what happened after all that. It had been a couple of days. You were still out and I was spending most of my time with you in the hospital, but I'd got a hotel room nearby. I still don't know why I went back to the hospital when I did. It seemed strange, but I just felt like I should drop by one more time before I went to bed, to see if you were finally awake." Another deep breath. "There was a man in your room. He had a knife and he was getting ready to kill you. I fought him off, but he got away from me. That's when I realized that this was a lot more serious than I'd been thinking it was. I found an apartment and then I kind of snuck you out of the hospital."

"Kind of?"

"Your doctor caught me when I was wheeling you out, but he understood the problem and he just gave me some instructions on taking care of you and told me to be careful. He said that he'd take care of the records there. So I brought you here in the middle of the night so that no one would see me carrying an unconscious guy into the place. And we've been here ever since. I don't know if Vance is in on whatever was going on and isn't worrying. I don't know about Gibbs, where he is or what he's doing. I don't know if I'm making a big mistake by not calling someone, but I'm trusting what you said, and if you didn't think that we should call anyone or that we should go back to DC, I'm willing to wait...but it's definitely not the most interesting period of my life."

There was a silence.

"So...did that help?"

Tim sighed. "I don't know," he whispered. "I don't know, Tony. I'm so sorry."

"For what?"

"I dragged you into something. I don't even know what it was. Why don't I remember?" Tim asked, getting a little agitated. "I remember you. I remember me. I remember a lot of things, but not what got me into this situation! I don't remember! Why?" He closed his eyes and breathed shakily.

Tony leaned over and grabbed Tim gently by the shoulders.

"Hey, it's okay, Tim. It really is. You don't have to apologize for that. I'm flattered that you thought I was a good choice. Yes, it's frustrating and I wish this wasn't happening, but it's okay. As for why you can't remember, I don't know. I'm not Ducky, but... whatever happened was probably really bad, and maybe your mind is trying to forget the trauma or something like that. Maybe it's just that you got hit on the head really hard and it'll come back to you later. But right now... what do you want for dinner?"

Tim's eyes opened.

"What?" he asked.

"Dinner. What do you want?"

"Oh. I don't care."

That was probably true, Tony knew. With everything that was going on, all the pain that Tim still seemed to be feeling, he probably really didn't care about what he had for dinner.

"How does canned soup sound, then?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay. With that rousing endorsement, I'll go get it ready. Will you want to be eating at the table?"

Tim nodded.

"Tim, it's going to be okay. I know you might not be able to tell, but you're getting better and better every day."

It was true, even if Tony himself didn't feel like it was enough just yet, but Tim didn't need to know that part. He just needed to know that he wasn't stuck like he was.

Tim nodded, and Tony got up to get dinner. He'd bought some chicken noodle soup and while it wouldn't be exciting, it would be something better than oatmeal, and it would get Tim on the road to eating real food again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim sat where he was and watched as Tony went about getting dinner. He didn't want to get up again. That had hurt a lot the last time, but he also didn't want to have to stay in this bed without moving simply because he was too wimpy to deal with the pain.

Besides, eating soup on a bed sounded like a recipe for disaster when he felt so weak.

Had all that Tony said helped anything? Maybe a little. Vance being involved wasn't a surprise to him.

"Why me, Director? I mean, I get Gibbs being a part of this, but why not Tony?"

"Agent DiNozzo isn't going to be able to get into the computers and follow the trail if that opportunity presents itself, Agent McGee. You are fully qualified to do this."

The memory flashed through his mind so quickly that he almost didn't realize that he'd remembered it.

He thought about it again, straining to remember some kind of detail, not just his own words and Vance's response.

"What's this really about, Leon?"

"Maybe Agent Fornell should be the one to explain it. This is your idea, after all. Isn't it, Agent Fornell?"

Gradually, the image in his mind spread out to include Vance, Gibbs, and, surprisingly, Tobias Fornell. They were all in Vance's office. It was extra early in the morning, long before anyone else was there, including Tony and Ellie.

"Tim?"

It was a secret meeting, Tim was sure of it.

"Tim, can you hear me?"

And it was long before the time Tony had told him about, where he and Gibbs had been supposedly going to a conference.

"Tim, please, don't fall back into oblivion. I'm not sure I could take it."

"FBI," Tim said, focusing on Tony who was now hovering in front of him. "It wasn't about NCIS. It was the FBI."

Tony's eyes widened in surprise.

"What? Why?"

"I don't..."

"Okay, Tobias. What is it?"

Fornell actually looked uncomfortable.

"What I'm requesting isn't exactly sanctioned."

Even Vance looked surprised by that.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know how far this goes."

"Fornell...he asked for our help."

"With what?"

The memory was coming in dribs and drabs and it was hard to get at it. Tim was straining his brain, trying to remember this conversation. He closed his eyes, trying to get rid of the constant input of Tony and get his mind back to that time.

"I've found evidence of a widespread infiltration of the FBI. There have been too many times that we've almost got a hold of some criminal and he got away at the last minute. I've traced a lot of the activity to the Buffalo Field Office, but that involves a lot of cases that bleed over into other areas, and I think there may be people here in DC as well."

"So what do you want us to do about it?" Gibbs asked.

"I'm here asking for the aid of another federal agency because I don't trust that an FBI internal investigation will turn up anything," Fornell said, seriously.

"Because they'll be watching for something like that," Tim said.

"Exactly."

"But why me? This really sounds like it's more up Tony's alley."

Fornell shook his head. "No. A lot of this has been done by deleting digital evidence and accessing confidential files. These are people who are in the computers. I need someone like you, Agent McGee. If this were just about organized crime or undercover work, you're right, DiNozzo would be better, but he can't do what you can do in this case."

"And how do you want us to proceed, Tobias?"

"I'm leaving that open to you, but as quietly as possible. Don't talk about it to anyone, except me."

"Not even Sacks?" Gibbs asked.

"Not even Sacks. I don't think he's part of it, but I'm playing the paranoid card. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm wrong."

"Fornell wanted us to to investigate," Tim said.

"Investigate what?" Tony asked, sounding a little impatient.

"We were... It started months ago."

"Months? And you never said a word to me? How did you keep that from me?"

Tim kept his eyes closed and tried to think. Thinking through his omnipresent headache was really hard.

"Boss, I know Fornell didn't want us to tell anyone, but I'd feel better about this if we had Tony as backup."

"Me, too, but we don't make that call."

"We're the ones who could be in danger."

"Doesn't matter. Not our call."

Tim opened his eyes.

"Dinner?" he asked.

He could see Tony's disappointment, but it was so hard to think and the pain in his head was worsening the more he tried.

"Yeah, sure. It's ready. Are you ready to get up again?"

Tim nodded, even though he wasn't.

Tony put an arm around Tim's waist and lifted him. It hurt, and his head spun unpleasantly. Then, to his relief, he was sitting. It still hurt. He was still dizzy, but at least he wasn't moving. He focused on getting through the pain and being stable enough to eat something.

After a few minutes, Tim felt like he might be able to sit up. He pushed on the table and saw Tony watching him with concern. He thought about smiling but decided that would be too hard.

"I'm ready," he whispered.

"Are you sure?"

Tim nodded only once and waited. A bowl of soup slid in front of him and he began the painstaking process of feeding himself. It was harder than it should be. It hurt to be using muscles that apparently had been extremely abused. The one thing that helped was that the soup tasted good. It actually reminded Tim that he was genuinely hungry. It kept him pushing to finish the whole bowl, even as his hand started shaking with exhaustion. It was so hard to eat, but he was determined. He would not be defeated by a bowl of soup.

Finally, all that was left was some broth. Tim was relieved. He had eaten his fill and he had reached the limits of his energy. It felt like his whole body was throbbing. He slumped down in the chair and was glad when he felt Tony supporting him.

"I've got you, Tim. Ready for bed?"

Another exhausted nod was all Tim could manage. More pain as Tony lifted him up and helped him back to the bed. Tim was relieved to be lying down. He lay there, breathing, willing the pain to ebb. Tony didn't say anything, or else the roaring in Tim's ears drowned out anything Tony might have said.

After unknown minutes, Tim opened his eyes and looked over. Tony was there.

"Any better?" he asked.

"Not worse," Tim said, in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Well, that's something anyway. We've got to talk about tomorrow."

Tim's brow furrowed. "Why?"

"Because..." Tony looked more than a little uncomfortable and Tim wondered what in the world was going on. "Because...I don't know how much of the last few weeks you actually remember..."

"Almost nothing," Tim said.

"Good. Actually, I'm glad. But one of the things that the doctor said was that it was really important to keep you clean."

"Clean?" Tim repeated, vaguely.

Tony let out a quick breath. "I've been giving you sponge baths for the last few weeks, Tim. I would take off your clothes, take off the bandages, give you a bath and put on more bandages and put on new clothes. Believe me. It's not something I was enjoying doing. In fact, I really didn't enjoy it, but it's necessary. You've got enough problems without adding infection to the mix. Tomorrow is...bath day, and...you're a lot more awake, now. It'll be a lot more awkward."

"Oh."

Tim had no idea what to say to that. The idea of Tony giving him a bath was bizarre. At best.

"What I was thinking, though, was that, if you feel up to it, I could put a chair in the bathtub and you could shower sitting down. I'd help you with what you needed, but then, you'd be doing most of it yourself and it wouldn't be ...so weird."

Tim still didn't know what to say about it.

"...but no matter what, you need to get clean tomorrow. The more you move around and stuff, the more important it is. There aren't as many bandages as there were, which is good, but we still don't want infection. And as much as I hate doing it, I'd rather give you another bath than risk anything worse happening."

"Oh."

"So what do you think?"

"I...don't know."

Tony laughed a little. "Okay. I'll ask you again tomorrow."

"Okay."

Tim closed his eyes again. He was exhausted from the effort of eating. Now that the pain had ebbed, he was tired and ready to sleep. He took comfort in knowing that Tony was there and fell asleep quickly.