WARNING: Shocking scene, you have been warned.

"Mrs McGee," Abby watched as Tims mom came into her room.

"Abigail, how are you feeling?" Alice McGee had visited many people in hospital, often with the wives of the men under her husbands command, and on occasion, husbands visiting wives. She knew how Abby Scuito was feeling.

"I'm OK, how's Sarah? And you? He got you, didn't he?" Abby talked quickly, hating herself for what she done.

"We are both fine. He didn't hurt us in the physical sense. Sarah and I will probably have nightmares for a few weeks, but we will be fine. You should worry about yourself." Alice knew the young woman had been tortured.

"It's all my fault, though."

"How do you come to that? Did you willingly tell him everything?" Alice asked.

"What?! No!" Abby exclaimed. "I would never do that!"

"Abby, I was told he tortured you." Alice saw the woman nod. "You are not a soldier, and even the best soldiers cannot hold out under torture. You have survived, physically at least. Let me tell you some secrets about getting over this." She had seen many soldiers and sailors lying in bed, their bodies mutilated, their souls destroyed by torture. "It takes time. There is no cure, it is a disease you will suffer for the rest of your life. But, like many illnesses, it can be controlled. Therapy and good friends are the best treatment." Alice watched the tears slide down Abbys face. "I tell you this as a woman who has seen men and women suffer what you have gone through. Anything you told that man, true or not, I do not blame you. Either way, he would have got what he wanted. He is to blame, not you."

"But what I did was unforgivable!" Abby shouted.

"If you had done it willingly, yes, but you did not. He forced it out of you, it takes someone with enormous self control and willpower not to succumb to torture, and these people are few and far between. There is nothing to forgive, Abby." Alice McGee knew there was nothing she could say to Abby to get her to forgive herself. "Get some rest. Talk to your friends and family, they will help you more than you know. I'll let you sleep, trust me, you will sleep for a while." Alice got up from the chair, moving towards the door. "Abby, it will take time, but you will begin to feel normal, you will never be the same as you were before, but your old self will come back." Alice watched the woman lie back down, the tears falling onto the pillow. She hoped that Sarah and Tim never went through what Abby had.

"Tim."

"Leon, what are you doing here? You should still be under protection." Tim was amazed Ben Oswold had allowed him to return.

"With Chapman and DeLa Tour dead, and no more bombs, the President has allowed me to return, but she is keeping my family under protection, along with the lockdown." Vance had been relieved to get back to work. "What has your team been up to?"

"Tracking how the two traitors got as far as they did. We took pictures and tried to get facial recognition on them. They had both altered their facial structures using implants in the mouth." Tim had been astonished. "As long as they didn't talk, if they were caught on CCTV we couldn't match them to the wanted list. We put in their new details, and the whole system flashed up. It seems they were in Somalia around the time the Adala Brothers showed up."

"Why were they there? They selling them information?" Vance was now very worried.

"No, Sam Stevens has been interrogating the prisoners. One of them has started talking. The traitors set up the training camps, and gave the ideas to get to America, how to avoid satellites, just enough so we couldn't track them all the time, but not enough to have everything transfered to the CIA. He wanted us watching the AMI so we weren't focusing on him here. They kept us distracted long enough to wreck havoc here." Tim knew this was DeLa Tours revenge, or part of it anyway. "Him and Chapman had this planned for a long time. My guess is it was their backup plan, if either of them were captured. Create a fake terrorist cell, generate a few threats. But I think targeting the Director was an addition to their plan. They could have gone after me without threatening you and Jenny, but Chapman wanted to kill her, while that traitor went after me."

"Thanks to you, they can never hurt any again. Tim, why did you bring in Gibbs and DiNozzo? I thought they would be the last two people you would trust with this." Vance wanted answers to this puzzle.

"That's why it had to be them. They would have expected agents or DoN security turning up, but not two people I no longer talk to. When I was in the CTOC, the traitor knew about what happened, he knew I no longer talked to them." Tim had told him about it when he had him and Kei over for dinner one night. "He had been watching me, probably saw me and Gibbs argue, saw we weren't friends. He wasn't counting on me not bringing anyone, just me bringing anyone but those two. Gibbs was a marine sniper, he had to protect Jen, and DiNozzo can move quickly and quietly, he can blend in anywhere. That's why he was my backup. He saved my family, and for that, he will always have my gratitude."

"Tim, he still won't be able to get a job here, though. He'll ask for it." Vance knew DiNozzos type, always thought they could get whatever they wanted.

"He can ask, but it's not my decision. That will be Jens decision when she gets back. Have you heard anything from Bethesda?" Tim knew who was still there.

"Your mother and sister have been released, already. Miss Scuito will be staying for a few days, they want to make sure there is no lasting damage. The Director is still in surgery, last I heard, it wasn't good." Vance was dreading a phone call saying she had died.

It had been three hours since Jenny Shepard had been brought into Bethesda Naval Hospital, and Connie Beecham was now out of surgery. She had repaired three different internal injuries, all of which had taken a massive toll on her patient. She had crashed four times in theatre while Connie was repairing the damage. She now had to make a phone call to the womans next of kin. Sitting in the Doctors shared office, she opened her patients file, dialing a number for the Secretary of the United States Navy. It rang only once.

"Davenport," came the brusque voice answering the telephone.

"Mr Secretary, this is Connie Beecham, Director Shepards doctor at Bethesda." Connie was shaking, from exhaustion and adrenaline withdrawal.

"How is she, Doctor?" Philip Davenport cared for Shepard more than he had any other NCIS employee, except for Tim McGee.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but Director Shepard died while in surgery." Connie hated this part of her job. She say in silence, waiting for the Secretary to speak. Almost a minute passed before he spoke again.

"What happened?" Philip Davenport was in shock, knowing Shepard had survived the femoral rupture in her leg, as well as numerous injuries throughout her career.

"The knife that had penetrated her kidney, had also torn her stomach. She had damage to the spleen from the explosion, when she impacted the wall. These injuries were too much, she had lost too much blood." Connie knew there would be an autopsy, carried out at NCIS. "We transfused more than ten units into her, but she kept crashing. We resuscitated her seven times since she was brought in. Her heart couldn't take any more. I am sorry, Sir, but there was nothing more we could do for her." Connie truly hated having to tell people this sort of news.

"Thank you, Doctor, for you efforts today. Please, prepare the Director for transfer to NCIS. An autopsy will need to be carried out." With that, Philip Davenport ended the call, giving in to his grief.

Connie Beecham sat in her office, tears coming down her face. She had watched as Jennifer Shepard kept coming back, as if she was fighting Death herself. As a Doctor, Connie knew Death came for everyone, and always won, but Jenny Shepard had put up one heck of a fight. She reached once again for the telephone, needing to make arrangements for the Directors transfer.