"We're here."
Tim looked up in surprise. He was concentrating so much on moving his feet forward, he nearly ran into Gibbs when he suddenly stopped.
"What?"
Gibbs turned around. "We're here, McGee."
"Here?" Tim turned around as well and surveyed Gibbs' sudden stopping point. There was nothing that changed since they lost out here. It was the same rocks, shrubs and desolate sand.
It was all the same.
"Here where?"
That's when he heard it.
The loud rumble of thunder.
He turned around fast enough that his feet couldn't catch up with him and his knees fell hard against the sand. The painful bite of the sand was nothing compared to the horrid, stabbing pain he felt in his stomach as he saw the dark clouds coming up behind Gibbs.
"What? Gibbs, what-" The words came gasping out, but even he could barely hear them over the pounding in his chest.
Gibbs calmly knelt down into the sand with him and firmly placed his hands on Tim's shoulders. Tim's hands instantly went to Gibbs' grip in order to steady himself against the physical and mental pain rolling over him.
"McGee, I made you a promise. I gave you my word I would get you out of here."
"I-I heard you," Tim stuttered out. "But we- we're not out. We're still here!"
"You're here. And not for long."
"I don't-"
"Yes, you do understand."
The cactus on his left was familiar. The rock behind Gibbs was so close to the edge of his memories, he nearly cried out in pain at the familiarity of it.
"Our job was to keep you alive. Me, Abby, Tony, Ziva, Ducky, even Palmer and Kate. All of us were with you to keep you moving."
"This isn't real," Tim stated. It was the only explanation. It had to be the only explanation.
"No, this is real. This is very real. Survival is all mental, Tim. You needed to protect your mind from the heat, so you created us to guide you. We gave you rules, we gave you purpose and we kept you sane though it."
Gibbs must have let go at some point because Tim felt the rest of his body moving towards the ground. His whole body immersed with the sand beneath him.
"I don't feel very sane right now, Gibbs," he whispered into the sand.
"Your ride's here, Tim. You don't have to be sane anymore."
Tim pushed himself to roll over onto his back so he could see the grey clouds rolling in above him. Gibbs wasn't around anymore and Tim just didn't have the energy to care. Not anymore.
Instead, he closed his eyes and waited for the rain; whether it was three days, ten years, or a lifetime away.
He flinched at the first drop on his face. After that, it was simple to let the grief overtake him. Life as Special Agent Timothy McGee was over.
The end was raw, it was harsh, and it was washed in drops of rain and tears.
The thundercloud's low rumbles turned into the distant thumping of helicopter blades.