A/N: This chapter is short but critical.
Thanks goes to Trina109, for betaing 2 chapters so close together. F.
The distance to the base hospital wasn't far; still, the ambulance carrying McGee made it faster than Gibbs thought was possible for such an unwieldy vehicle. They reached the emergency entrance just as Abby was being unloaded. She'd been loaded into an ambulance a full 5 minutes earlier than McGee had; the fact that McGee's ambulance had made it so quickly struck Gibbs as ominous.
But he didn't have time to dwell on that. It seemed like they'd barely even stopped when the back doors were yanked open and the paramedics started the process of transferring his agent into the care of the hospital staff. He tried to keep up with the rapid fire summation of McGee's condition, but the complex medical terms seemed to run into each other, becoming gibberish. It was all he could do to keep up with the rapidly moving gurney, as more medical personnel gathered around McGee.
One of them, a nurse he presumed, turned at one point and stopped him, politely but in no uncertain terms.
"You can't come back here, sir."
As quickly as they'd arrived, they were gone, taking McGee somewhere into the depths of the hospital corridors.
He looked around, trying to find where they'd taken Abby, but was firmly escorted to the waiting room, the orderly telling him that they'd let him know as soon as they had news on either of them.
And so he waited, joined quickly by Ducky, Tony and Ziva. He tried to insist that Ducky get his head, and Tony his hand, tended to, but they were resolute in refusing. He understood; if they were taken somewhere into the back, there was the possibility that they'd miss hearing news of Tim and Abby.
...
The nurse that had stopped him reappeared a bare ten minutes after he'd been joined by the rest of his team. Accustomed to the long waiting times in hospital emergency rooms, the speed of her reappearance took Gibbs by surprise.
She spotted him and made her way over to where he and his team sat. As she got closer, Gibbs stood up.
"Family of Timothy McGee?"
"Something like that" Gibbs admitted.
She paused. "Are you Mr McGee's next of kin?"
"Agent McGee" Gibbs emphasised his title. "I'm Special Agent Gibbs; I'm his team leader. I came in with him."
He could see the doubtful look on her face and knew she wasn't going to give him any information. He opened his mouth to try and persuade her; beside him, Ducky stood up.
"Excuse me, my dear."
The nurse turned towards him. "Yes, sir?"
"I'm Doctor Donald Mallard. I'm Agent McGee's personal physician. Can you tell me what his condition is?"
She glanced at Gibbs, Tony and Ziva, then motioned for Ducky to step away with her. They conversed in tones too low for Gibbs to overhear, but he could see the look of Ducky's face grow more and more grave. In a few minutes, she turned and made her way back across the waiting room and Ducky rejoined the group.
"What's the word, Duck?"
"Timothy's injuries are severe... dislocated thumbs, a broken wrist, broken ribs, a lot of bruising and some internal bleeding. But the big problem is the head injury. They're not equipped to treat it here. They're airlifting him to Bethesda."