Again I would like to thank gottahavemyncis for her support, encouragement and for being my beta!
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters.
Chapter 8
Ziva David was becoming increasingly concerned, not only had the journey to the hospital been done in total silence after the phone call to his father, she noticed that Gibbs had taken a moment to school his features upon seeing the young woman who was with Anthony DiNozzo in the waiting room.
"Hey boss." Anthony DiNozzo greeted, as he indicated the young woman. "Look at who has just arrived."
"Sarah." Gibbs acknowledged knowingly, allowing her to slip into a comfortable embrace.
Having travelled separately, Ducky's timely arrival stopped any questions that were about to be asked by either Sarah, Tony or Ziva.
Receiving a telling tilt of the head from Gibbs, Ducky made a tactful request, "Jethro, I'm going to go find out what's happening with young Timothy, would you care to join me?"
"Yeah, Duck I would." Gibbs replied as he released Sarah before nodding towards DiNozzo, giving him the look that told the senior field agent exactly what he was expected to do: 'stay here and look after Sarah.' Seeing DiNozzo's understanding, he quickly followed Ducky out of the waiting area and down the hall.
NCIS
"Really, Jethro I understand your concern but rushing here just because young Timothy has gone back into theatre isn't the answer." Ducky stated the moment the door to the waiting room closed.
"Not the reason I called you down here Ducky." Gibbs replied, handing over a piece of paper. The whole journey from headquarters, Gibbs had been trying to work out how this scenario had come about, yet alone how he was going to tell everyone about it, especially his father.
Admittedly, at first he had been confused and angered by what he had learnt. However the more he thought about it the more he realised from knowing his father way he did, that there was no possible way that Jackson knew anything about Tim being his son.
Knowing the gravity of the situation regarding his youngest agent's not… correction's brother's condition, Gibbs had decided it was best to inform Ducky first; after all his father would not arrive for a couple more hours.
Ducky studied the information on the piece of paper handed to him before he looked up at Gibbs in shock. "Oh my word…."
"Yeah." Gibbs replied obviously lost in thought.
Watching Gibbs for a moment Ducky realised that Gibbs was still in shock, and decided to take control of the situation on behalf of his long-term friend and colleague.
NCIS
"Okay, that was weird!" Tony DiNozzo stated the moment Gibbs and Ducky had vanished from the waiting room, leaving the director and his escorts' arrival to go unnoticed.
"Agreed." Ziva replied. "Gibbs did not say a word one word on the way here."
"He's a man of few words, Ziva. Surely you realise this, by now." Tony responded in jest; however Ziva did not appreciate Tony's attempt to lighten the mood.
"Something is seriously wrong, Tony!" Ziva retorted.
"Hey, why don't you try telling me something I don't already know?!" Tony snapped back
"How about that Gibbs' practically summoned his father here; I haven't heard him speak that way to Jackson since the first time we met him." Ziva answered, nonplussed by the raising anger she heard from her partner.
Completely thrown by Ziva's comment it took a moment for Tony answer back "Why would he send for Jackson?"
"Right, that's enough, you two." Vance stated with authority, causing the two agents to jump before they turned their attention to him. With Sarah McGee present it wasn't the time to go into detail about what had been discovered especially since they didn't know how much she knew. There was also the fact that he didn't want to be the one to tell them, so he decided to put an end to the discussion before it got started. "This is not how I expect my agents to behave."
"Apologies Director." Ziva acknowledged with a tilt of her head.
"Sorry, sir." DiNozzo responded before he realised that the Director and the woman they thought of as Tim's sister had never been officially introduced. "Sarah, let me introduce you to Leon Vance, director of NCIS."
NCIS
"How can this be, Ducky?" Gibbs questioned distractedly.
"Really Jethro, I'm sure you do not need me to draw you a diagram." Ducky smirked.
"Not exactly what I meant and you know it." Gibbs stated as he shook his head trying to concentrate which he was finding hard to do with so many questions running through his head.
"Well I guess that would be a discussion for you and Jackson, when he arrives, Jethro." Ducky replied.
"I know for a fact that neither Jackson nor I have this rare blood type Duck, McGee….Tim has." Gibbs informed, correcting himself over the use of the young man's given name.
"Well then Jethro it may have come from his mother's side of the family, or skipped a couple of generations in your own family, but for the moment at least you are the closest male relative we have."
"Uh-huh." Gibbs responded, obviously back in deep thought.
Ducky shook his head before guiding Gibbs further down the corridor, he had only seen the man in this kind of state once before, but right now they had no time to lose if they were going to be able to help Timothy.
NCIS
Jimmy Palmer walked into the lab, having gone looking for anyone who could explain to him where his mentor had suddenly disappeared to. Admittedly the lab was a last resort, normally when Abby was around it was always his first port of call, but as he had been unable to find anyone in the bullpen that knew what was going on, he had absentmindedly wondered down there.
"Oh…..err… hi… err….Delilah, right?" Jimmy stumbled.
"That's me, can I help you with something?" Delia asked as she turned to face him, plastering on a fake smile.
"Maybe…. You wouldn't know where everyone's…. gone…. would you?" Jimmy question before he noticed the state Delilah was in. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine" Delilah lied
"No you're not." Jimmy replied as he stepped forward. "What's wrong?"
"I don't think the Director's very happy with something I had to tell him and I'm worried about the effect it's going to have." Delilah informed.
"What did you tell him?"
NCIS
Before he could really register what was going on, Leroy Jethro Gibbs found himself alone in a small room just off to one side of the ICU unit, sitting in a chair with a needle embedded in his arm.
"Ah Jethro, are you back with us?" Ducky questioned as he walked back in to the room carrying two large steaming mugs.
"Yeah, Duck, sorry must have spaced out for a moment." Gibbs replied.
"Perfectly understandable, my friend, you've had quite a shock." Ducky reasoned as he handed over a cup.
"That's an understatement." Gibbs responded flippantly.
"Yes, well, the real question is what you are going to do about it?" Ducky enquired.
"Looks like you've already made that decision for me, Duck." Gibbs retorted, indicating towards the needle, careful not to spill his coffee.
"Unfortunately, at the moment time is of the essence Jethro." Ducky reminded. "I've managed to have a quick conversation with Brad; it appears Timothy spleen had a slow bleed that was missed in all the mess caused to his intestines, they managed to repair it and he'll be back in his room shortly."
Gibb nodded, before he indicated to the needle again and the bag of blood being collected. "Is this really going to help?"
"Hopefully yes Jethro, however as I explained yesterday little is known with regard to this. But as you have a familial match Timothy shouldn't reject it. Once we've extracted the blood we will put it through Plasmapheresis and then inject the extracted plasma into Timothy." Ducky informed.
Both men went quiet for a while, taking their time to enjoy their favoured beverage, after a few minutes Ducky tried again "So any thoughts on what you are going to do, Jethro?"
"About what Ducky?"
"What I meant, as you well know, is what you are going to do after the current situation with young Timothy has been resolved." Ducky replied knowingly.
"Honestly, not a clue." Gibbs replied, "Out of all of the team, he's never needed me. Hell I can't explain it; Tony, Ziva and Abby are open books, their family issues were obvious. It felt different with Tim, like he didn't require that kind of attention from me."
"And yet you still felt the need to protect him." Ducky reflected.
"You noticed that huh?" Gibbs smirked.
"Hard not to Jethro, what with Timothy being the one you seemed to constantly leave behind, though with this news…" Ducky's voice drifted off.
"Yeah, that's how everyone's going to see this, isn't it? Hell in a few weeks it won't matter that we didn't know, everyone will see it as favouritism."
"Strange considering that's the one thing you have never shown towards Timothy." Ducky stated.
"What the hell is that supposed, to mean!" Gibbs growled.
"Young Timothy may never have needed you like the others Jethro, but it is obvious to anyone who takes the time to look that that young man idolises you, exactly the way a younger sibling would look at an older brother and yet despite everything he has accomplished he's always been the last one you gave any thought too."
NCIS
Once the introductions were over Leon Vance got straight to the point, keeping up the pretence that they didn't know differently. "Sarah, we need to contact your parents; could you give me a contact number? For some reason Tim's file only has your contact details."
"Not really much point, they won't come anyway." Sarah informed sadly.