A/N: So I know some of you are ready to shoot me for the cliffhanger I gave you last chapter - and I'm going to warn you up front that it's not resolved in this chapter. Abby's not in this chapter at all really. But I do give you something else you've all been waiting for: Tim wakes up! So put down those sharp objects and enjoy the chapter - Abby and Mawher will be back next time.

"No matter what gets in my way
As long as there's still life in me
No matter what, remember you know I'll always come for you.
Yes I'd come for you, no one but you."

-Nickelback

Grayed out scene: Tim's hospital room

Thursday, 5:40 P.M.

"You've got to allow McGee to have visitors."

Dr. Hart glared at Agent Gibbs. "I don't have to do anything. This is a hospital, not a navy base, and I'm not under your command. I'm going to do what's best for my patient-"

Gibbs snorted. "What's best for your patient? There's been no change in Tim's status – in fact, I happen to know that he's not responding to the treatment-"

Dr. Hart puffed up indignantly. "And just how do you know that? Has your Dr. Mallard been planting spies among my staff?"

Gibbs grinned but remained silent.

Dr Hart frowned. "It's true that Mr. McGee hasn't shown as much improvement as I'd like-"

The office door opened and Ducky poked his head in, his face alight with excitement. "Dr. Hart, Jethro – come quickly. Timothy's waking up."

"Tim, help me!"

"Abby, where are you?" I screamed as I banged against the door in frustration.

Mawher's laughter echoed through the room. "You'll never find her, secret agent man."

I whirled around the room, trying to find the hidden speakers in the darkness. "You sick bastard! Let her go – she doesn't want to be with you!"

"And she wants to be with you?" Mawher taunted back.

I swallowed the doubts that rose in my mind. "Yes."

Mawher laughed again. "Now who's delusional?"

"She doesn't want you, Mawher."

"She will. I can change her mind – I've got time. That's something you're running out of."

Pain shot through my chest and I cried out as I doubled over. When I caught my breath, and could stand up straight, my hand came away covered in blood.

"Tim, help!"

"Hold on, Abby. I'm coming for you – I'll find you."

The pain in my chest intensified and my eyes fluttered shut as I fell to my knees.

5:45 P.M.

"I thought you were an expert at this by now."

"I am but you are distracting me."

"I swear, Sweet Cheeks, it's my knee."

Ziva stopped picking the lock long enough to elbow her partner in the stomach, causing him to take a step back. "That was not your knee!"

Tony laughed. "Ok, ok! I confess, seeing you bent over like this is giving me ideas-"

"Not NOW, Tony. And I hope you are thinking of what we are going to do if we find something since we do not have a search warrant."

"There's an arrest warrant out on this guy so I think we're good-"

"Somehow, I do not think his lawyer would agree."

"Ziva, the guy is certifiable! He's never going to see a trial by jury – he's going straight to the nuthouse-" the words died on his lips as Ziva finally got the lock undone and the door popped open. "Holy shit!" he muttered.

"I think we have hit the mother lode, yes?"

He frowned at her.

"What? Did I not get that one right?"

He nodded.

"Then why are you looking so scrunchy?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Because with just the two of us, we're going to be here til midnight."

Ziva shrugged. "Well, we do not have anything better to do, do we?"

He sighed. "No, I guess not."

6:35 P.M.

Tim's eyes fluttered open and he looked in confusion at the masked face peering down into his. He tried to open his mouth to speak, but something prevented him. His body felt heavy and weak – something had happened. He had just been in that dark room, being taunted by Mawher and trying to get to Abby and now he was waking up in a hospital? What had happened? Where was Abby? What was going on?"

"Mr. McGee, just try and relax," the masked man spoke soothingly.

Tim frowned at being addressed so formally and again tried to speak. He reached up a hand to see what prevented him and when his hand found the tubes coming out of his mouth, he began to panic and pull on them.

Hands came up and stilled the movements. "Timothy, stop. You're only going to hurt yourself."

Tim calmed at the familiar voice and touch. His eyes swung to the right and found a pair of comforting eyes looking at him over the mask – Ducky.

"You're in the hospital, my boy. The tube is there to help you breath – do you remember what happened?"

Tim's head was swimming. All he could remember was the dark room with Mawher's voice and Abby's cries. How had he ended up in the hospital? He kept his gaze locked on Ducky as he shook his head.

Ducky patted his shoulder. "It's perfectly natural after the trauma you've been through. It will come back to you in bits and pieces, like remembering a dream. For now, just rest, dear boy, and let the good doctor check you out."

Tim blinked. A dream – is that what he was remembering? Was Abby safe?

Ducky felt Tim's hand on his wrist and he looked down in surprise. "What is it?"

Tim pantomimed writing and Ducky pulled out a small notepad from his breast pocket, along with a pen. He handed these items to McGee while Dr. Hart looked on, frowning.

It took Tim a minute to get his hand to stop shaking. Finally, Ducky steadied his hand long enough for him to write: ABBY?

Ducky smiled. "She's fine, Timothy. She's been terribly worried about you, of course-"

Tim shook his head violently and his heart monitor began to beat faster as he underlined her name and shakily wrote another word: SAFE.

Ducky couldn't believe it. McGee may not have his memory back yet but on a subconscious level, he knew enough to be worried about Abby. The link between these two truly was remarkable. Ducky patted the young agent's shoulder again. "Abby is safe. She has a security detail with her at all times – Gibbs' orders."

Ducky's words were the reassurance that Tim was looking for. His heart rate slowed, and his fingers relaxed their death grip on the notepad. Dr. Hart leaned forward to take the paper but McGee shook his head and slipped it under the covers, hiding it from the doctor.

Ducky laughed as Dr. Hart frowned. "If you wouldn't mind stepping outside so I can examine my patient-"

"Of course not – I need to call Abby and let her know. Now that Timothy's awake, he's going to want to see her."

Dr. Hart grunted. "One step at a time, doctor. And he's not awake at the moment." He nodded back to McGee who had slipped back into unconsciousness.

"How is he, Duck?"

"Confused, but that's to be expected after the trauma he's been through."

"Does he remember anything?"

"Not yet."

Gibbs sighed and took a long sip of coffee to hide his annoyance. "Do you think his memory will return?"

"I'm almost sure of it."

Gibbs looked at his old friend in surprise. "You're usually not this positive – what's different this time?"

"He asked if Abby was safe."

Gibbs fought the smile that threatened to emerge. "Really."

"Yes – I found that interesting as well. It seems that even if consciously he doesn't remember that it was Mawher who shot him, his unconscious mind remembers clearly and eventually, all the pieces will fall into place."

"We don't have time for him to remember slowly, Duck. The clock's ticking – this bastard's going to make a move soon."

Ducky's eyebrows rose. "The famous Gibbs gut again?"

Gibbs nodded. "I've got to go. I hate being here because they make you turn off your phone and that violates rule number three."

"Never be unreachable – but surely Tony knows where you are."

"He does – but I need to see if they found Mawher's second apartment and check in with metro to see if they've issued a warrant for Mawher yet. Have you had time to read through Cassie's diaries?"

"You only got them to me this morning!"

"I know but-"

"The clock's ticking. I've gotten through high school and most of college."

"Duck, I told you to focus on the past couple of years-"

"Jethro, I don't tell you how to conduct an investigation. Please don't tell me how to perform an autopsy or a psychological profile."

Gibbs grinned and saluted him with his coffee. "I stand corrected."

7:30 P.M.

"Abby, who are you-" Watkins was unbuckling his seatbelt the moment he heard Abby talking to someone out of sight behind the car. The gun was in his hand as he heard her scream and he rounded the back of the vehicle to see Mawher bending over an unconscious Abby.

"Drop the weapon, Secret Agent man, before I go and do something we'll both regret."

Watkins' gaze darted down to the bulge in the pocket of Mawher's mechanic's jumpsuit."You won't shoot her, not after you've gone to all this trouble to be with her."

Mikel cocked his head to the side, his eyes wide. "Oh, I don't know. At least then I'd know she won't be with anyone else."

"You're insane."

Mikel shifted the bulge and now Watkins could definitely tell it was a gun. "Drop your weapon."

Watkins dropped it in the gravel and Mikel kicked it into the bushes.

"Now what?"

"Give me your cell and any other weapons you're carrying."

Watkins gritted his teeth and looked out at the highway, wondering what all the people sitting in bumper to bumper traffic were thinking. Why hadn't anyone gotten out to help?

"Hey buddy? Do you need help?"

Mawher flashed a smile at the motorist leaning out his car window. "No, thanks, we got it covered. This guy couldn't find the jack so I stopped to help him out."

The motorist waved at Abby. "What about her – she looks hurt."

Mawher shrugged. "His girlfriend tried to help – she slipped and fell."

Cars behind the motorist laid on their horns as the traffic had begun to move again. "Well, if everything's ok-"

Mawher looked at Watkins who gritted out a reply between clenched teeth. "Everything's fine."

They waited until the nosy motorist was out of sight before Mawher motioned Watkins over to the trunk. "Now, you're going to help me get that spare tire on so you can drive out of here."

Watkins knew that Mawher was lying. He knew that his time was short if he was going to help Abby and so when they got close to the car, he launched himself at Mawher with everything he had, trying to wrestle his hands up and over his head, away from the possible gun in his pocket. But fear and adrenaline made Mawher nearly invincible and with a mad roar he pushed Watkins into the trunk and shot him in the gut, never taking the gun from the pocket of his jumpsuit. Mawher slammed the trunk shut and scooped Abby up into his arms, trying not to jostle her too much as he ran to his truck that he had concealed in the bushes.

I was slipping on a pair of my favorite jeans when someone knocked on the door. Jethro raised his head lazily from his dog bed in the corner and gave a short, sharp bark but didn't move.

"Hush, boy. I'm sure it's just Abby," I soothed and Jethro laid his head back down on his paws. "Some guard dog you are." I contemplated putting a shirt on but since I was fairly sure it was only Abby, I decided I was decent enough and hurried to answer the door.

"Abs, I told you to just use your key," I admonished, swinging open the door to reveal a FedEx delivery person. Suddenly very aware of how underdressed I was, I crossed my arms over my chest. "Yes?"

"I have a package here for Timothy McGee from Sarah."

"Really?" I asked, reaching for the small brown parcel. "That's funny – she didn't say anything about sending me something when I was talking to her this morning," I murmured as I turned to set it on the couch as Jethro came out of the bedroom, his tail wagging. "Sorry, boy, false alarm, it's not Abby."

Jethro sat just outside the bedroom doorway, cocked his head and looked at the FedEx employee.

"Sir, I need a signature."

"Oh, of course." I turned back just as Jethro let out a low growl of warning.

"She's mine, Agent McGee."

"What are you-" my words broke off as I met the employee's eyes for the first time. "Mawher."

Jethro barked at my tone and I saw Mawher's gun a split second before I felt the pain in my upper chest.

Just before everything went black, I saw Jethro lunging for Mawher and I hoped to God he got a bigger bite out of him then he did at his first meeting with me.

Thursday, 8:30 P.M.

Tim's eyes flew open. "Abby!" he groaned, his gaze darting madly around the room.

Ducky placed the journal he had been reading down on the rolling table and bent over McGee. "Welcome back, Timothy. You're in the hospital, remember? I convinced Dr. Hart to remove the tube and you've been breathing just fine on your own for the last two hours. Do you remember anything?"

Tim took a couple of deep breaths and relished the fact that he could move his mouth and swallow without that horrible thing in the way anymore. He locked his gaze on Ducky and nodded. "I remember getting shot," he whispered hoarsely. "It was Mawher."

"That's excellent," Ducky nodded. "I'm sure Gibbs will want a full statement when you're feeling up to it."

"Want to do it now."

Ducky chuckled. "There's no rush-"

McGee shook his head. "Abby – he's coming for her-"

"You sound like Gibbs. He's convinced that we're running out of time."

"He's right. Where is she? I want to see her."

Ducky averted his gaze. "I called her to let her know you were awake-"

Tim's heart monitor began to beep faster. "What is it?"

"Her phone went straight to voicemail. But don't worry – I left a message and as soon as she gets it-"

Tim shook his head as he pulled at his bedcovers. "Something's wrong-"

"And where do you think you're going? You've had open heart surgery and double pneumonia! I'm afraid you're going to be in this bed for quite awhile yet!"

Tim groaned. "I have to help her!"

"Let me try calling her again and then I'll call Gibbs. I'm sure he'll have more information than I do. But you have to promise me you'll rest." Ducky shook his finger at him.

Tim shrugged. "I don't have the energy for much else."

9:00 P.M.

"Did someone here order a pizza?"

"Boss, you read my mind! A few hours late – but you never cease to amaze me." Tony grinned as he strode across the floor to take the extra large pie from Gibbs' hands.

"So, this was definitely Mawher's base of operations?"

Ziva nodded, not bothering to look up from the desk where she was cataloging the enormous number of pictures Mawher had taken of Abby. Tony had just finished going through his computer files – a job that had taken the entire three hours they had been in the tiny space.

Gibbs shared the good news that McGee was awake and though he was still a little fuzzy about details, looked to make a full recovery. Ziva murmured a prayer of thanks under her breath and gave them dazzling smile – one that hadn't been seen on her face in over a week. The sight made Tony weak in the knees and made him glad that he was sitting cross legged on the floor, otherwise he might have fallen over. She knew what those smiles of hers did to him. . . .

"DiNozzo!"

"Sorry, boss. I'm weak with exhaustion and hunger over here. That's great news – now once we have this sick bastard behind bars and we all get about forty-eight hours sleep-" He broke off as he caught the look from Gibbs. "Right, well, except for tons of poetry written for his dark angel, and I'm thinking you can guess who that is, I didn't find a master plan on Mawher's computer. Plenty of incriminating evidence for stalking, breaking and entering, etc. but nothing that's going to tell us where he is or what his next move is going to be."

"Well then you better look harder, Tony."

"Hey, Abby and McGee are the computer geeks."

"I know but McGee's in the hospital and Abby's got enough on her plate-" Gibbs stopped as his cell rang. "Hello? Hey, I've been trying to get- what? WHAT? Where? DiNozzo and I will meet you there."

"Boss, what is it?" Tony scrambled to his feet, pizza forgotten.

"That was your friend Brad from Metro Homicide. They just found an abandoned car with a body in the trunk on I-5. It's been identified as Neal Watkins."

Tony clenched his jaw as the pizza he had just eaten threatened to come back up. Ziva gasped and dropped the picture she was holding.

"No," she whispered. "Abby – where's Abby?"

"There was no sign of her – but they found blood and her cell phone at the scene."

Thursday, 11:30 P.M.

"I can't believe it – Cassie was Mawher's sister? He was her brother?"

Ducky nodded his head as Tim shook his. Cassie had spoken so lovingly of her brother – in her eyes, he could do no wrong. To know now that Mawher had graduated from stalking to murder made McGee's blood run cold. And not only had he killed strangers, he had killed his own flesh and blood. How safe could Abby really be, even if she was his obsession? Mawher was tipping over into madness and soon there would be no reasoning with him.

"We've got to find her fast, Ducky."

"Gibbs is doing everything he can but Mawher has covered his tracks well. He's ditched the truck he was driving when he first picked her up. Witnesses remembered enough of the license plate for metro to put out an APB but they found it an hour ago abandoned on a private road."

"To where?"

"The road dead ended. Tony was able to lift some tire tracks that belonged to another vehicle but he said they are a popular brand and there's no way to tell how long they've been there since we haven't had rain in about a week."

"The road can't be used that much."

"Unfortunately it's a common turn around spot."

McGee groaned.

"Don't give up yet. She hasn't been gone long. I've been reading Cassie's diaries – seeing if there's a clue in there somewhere that might help. Gibbs also wants you to think about all the time you spent with her, the conversations you had about her brother."

McGee grimaced. "She loved him."

"I know – it's evident from reading her journals that the two of them were very close. They went on family vacations together – what is it?"

"I don't know, just when you said the word 'vacations', it sparked something. It seems like Cassie mentioned something about a cabin-" Tim frowned. "It's gone."

"Don't force it. It'll pop into your head if you don't focus on it. I'll keep reading her journals and you try and relax."

"With Abby at Mawher's mercy? Not likely, Ducky."

Friday morning, 8 A.M.

"Agent Gibbs, I can't just allow you to come into this hospital, upsetting my patient and-"

"Hi, boss."

"Does he look upset to you?" Gibbs waved a hand at McGee who was sitting up for the first time in nearly a week.

"Please, Dr. Hart, I've got to talk to my boss," McGee spoke hoarsely.

"Fine. But I'll be right outside and if you start to get upset, this visit is over," Dr. Hart threatened as he left.

"How are you, Tim?" Gibbs asked as he lowered himself into the chair by the bed.

"Frustrated – what do you know?"

"Mawher called Abby last night, pretending to be Dr. Hart. She left a note on my desk saying she was on her way here to the hospital but never made it. Mawher ambushed them on the way, shot Watkins and took Abby."

"Watkins is dead?"

Gibbs nodded and Tim averted his gaze. "That could have been me."

"But it's not – you're still here."

"I should have figured it out. I knew something was up – my gut was trying to tell me – this is my fault-" He flinched as Gibbs slapped the back of his head. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Look, Tim, you're not to blame for this any more than Abby. She feels horrible that you got shot – like it's her fault-"

"That's ridiculous-" he sputtered.

Gibbs gave his young agent the look.

"I know, point taken."

"Good – now, what can you tell me about where Mawher might have taken Abby?"

McGee frowned. "I wish I had something but-"

Ducky burst into the room. "Jethro, I may have something. I've been up all night reading Cassie's journals and in them she frequently mentions going to 'the fishing cabin' with her brother and dad-"

"Yes!" Tim exclaimed. "She told me a funny story about how she was squeamish to bait the hook with a live worm and how her brother Mikey always did it for her until he bought her a fancy set of flies for her birthday one year."

"What kind of fishing, McGee?" Ducky asked.

"Trout, I think."

"Close your eyes and visualize Cassie telling the story," Ducky encouraged. "Remember every detail. Did she say where the cabin was?"

McGee frowned in concentration and Gibbs leaned over to Ducky. "I don't think this is helping," he whispered.

Suddenly McGee's eyes snapped open. "Babcock State Park."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure, boss."

Gibbs grinned. "That's good work, McGee."

A/N: Tim to the rescue! In case y'all haven't figured it out yet, Tim is my favorite. Don't get me wrong - I love Gibbs, but Tim's the best! Coming up: Can Team Gibbs rescue Abby before Mawher snaps? Reviews are L-O-V-E!