Chapter 2
It was coming after him. He was running away, but it was always there. Everywhere he ran, it was there, reaching out to take him, to take control. The hand was mottled and covered in scales. He ran, trying to escape.
The hand grabbed him and he started screaming, trying to escape from the hand. Another hand grabbed his other arm. He was being drawn inexorably backward to... what? What was it?
He didn't want to know. Still screaming and fighting to escape, his struggles became more and more panicked.
The hands moved sinuously up his arms to his neck and then up to his head. Somehow, he couldn't move at all. He was frozen in place and the scaly fingers stabbed into his brain, causing him to shriek even more. His brain was on fire. He could feel every neuron firing and then melting down into nothing.
"Calm down, McGee!"
The fingers began dancing around in the fiery, melted puddle of his brain. He screamed and screamed.
"Come on, Tim. Snap out of it."
He was lost. His brain was gone. The fingers withdrew from his head.
And there was a cool hand on his forehead, calming the fire.
He opened his eyes a little bit. Everything around him was dim and blurry, but there were shapes close to him. People? His eyelids were very heavy and they drooped closed again.
"Tim, can you hear me? It's Kate."
He mumbled something like an assent.
"Good. Can you open your eyes again?"
He tried. He really did, but his melted-puddle brain wasn't really up to that kind of task. The most he was able to do was cause his eyelids to flutter a little bit.
"Close enough. Now, we're here with you. You just need to relax and stay calm. Everything is going to be all right."
"Or it will once the power comes back on. They had a crazy power surge and the power company is trying to get them back online. They only have backup generators for emergency situations and light in your room isn't an emergency."
He mumbled something else. He wasn't sure what he was trying to say, but he did successfully make some noise.
"That's very eloquent, Probie."
"Give him a break, Tony. He's not at his best."
"Hey, I'll take this over the way he was before."
He mumbled unintelligibly again.
"Don't worry, Tim. You're going to be just fine."
"Dark," he mumbled.
"Yeah. The lights are off, McGee."
He lay there for an unknown time and it was silent. He started to relax.
The hands were back on his arms. He started to panic. The hands slowly moved back up his arms, caressing his neck and then the fingers stabbed back into his brain, setting it on fire yet again, and he started screaming. He couldn't move! He kept screaming, wanting to escape from the fingers stabbing into his brain.
"Calm down, McGee! Nothing is happening!"
He had to escape. He had to get away from those scaly hands before they melted his brain back into a puddle.
Then, he was falling forever and the fingers disappeared.
"Tim, are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere? Get someone in here, Tony!"
He couldn't seem to say anything about the fingers setting his brain on fire. All he could do was try to escape them.
"Tim!"
"What happened?"
"He got out of the restraints and fell off the bed. I don't even know how. They seemed secure but then, they just were loose."
"Let's get him back up on the bed."
He was flying. He didn't get to fly for very long, but it was a strange sensation. However, if there were no fingers melting his brain, then, he wouldn't complain.
"Agent McGee, can you hear me? I'm Dr. Grayson. You're going to see a flash of light."
He did see the light.
"Good. His pupils are reacting. A little slow, but they're reacting. And it looks like his pulse is slowing down. That's good. Agent McGee, can you respond?"
He tried to open his eyes again. For just a moment, he saw something and then his lids drooped back down. He felt someone touching his hand. There were no scales so it must be a human being and not a monster.
"Tim, if you can hear and understand me, squeeze my hand twice."
For a long moment, he couldn't really understand what he was supposed to do. Then, he tried to do as he was asked.
"Great, Tim! He did squeeze my hand twice."
"Good."
"Do you have to put him back in the restraints? He really doesn't seem to like it and he's pretty calm right now."
"Right now. There's no guarantee that will last."
"What if someone stayed here with him?"
"Tony, are you suggesting that you stay here overnight?"
"Yeah. I... I don't like seeing him tied up. Yeah, yeah, I know that's not what it is, but I don't like it. And if he's calm without the restraints, then, tying him up is only going to make him panic again."
He managed to open his eyes a little bit again. He looked around at the blurry shapes that were probably people.
"Don't worry, Tim. Someone is going to be here with you. You're not alone. You're safe here with us."
He let his eyes close again, and he was really tired after having his brain melted down twice.
He slept.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Tony didn't sleep a wink through the night. He was watching Tim, wondering whether or not he would start freaking out again. He seemed to be asleep, although he didn't look very relaxed. He was still breathing somewhat irregularly. But he hadn't started screaming again.
"Man, McGee, I knew you were weird, but this is beyond weird. What in the world happened to you?" Tony said softly.
Around six, the door to Tim's room opened and Ducky came in.
"Hey, Ducky. What's up?" Tony asked still keeping his voice low.
"I'm here to relieve you if you are all right with that. Jethro mentioned that you had chosen to stay the night after Timothy's last frenzy."
"He's been quiet so far. The lights came back on about an hour ago."
Ducky sat down beside the bed.
"I must say that this is quite odd. I wouldn't claim to know Timothy very well. He's been rather reserved thus far, but this doesn't seem like him at all."
"No. It doesn't. Well, if you're okay with staying, I'll head home and get some sleep."
"Absolutely. Go on home. I'm sure you're tired."
"Thanks, Ducky. I'm guessing that we'll start seeing if we can figure out what happened, but it would be nice if McGee would just wake up and tell us."
Ducky smiled.
"I would be surprised if it was that simple."
"So would I."
Tony stood and stretched and then left the room, glad to get away from it for a while. Nothing about this made sense and he didn't like it when things didn't make sense. There had to be an explanation for what happened, but they sure hadn't found it yet.
However, this was his chance to escape, even just for a few hours, and he wasn't going to pass it up.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"It's all right, Timothy. Just relax and open your eyes."
The voice was not what he had expected. There was another voice, not so friendly, that he had been expecting. Whose voice was that?
"Take a deep breath and relax."
He could hear strange sounds. There were hands on his arms, but they were gentle. They didn't feel like the scaly ones that set his brain on fire.
"Just one deep breath in, Timothy."
Did the voice mean him? It was worth a try. He took a deep breath. The strange sounds stopped.
"Good. Now, let it out slowly. Can you do that?"
He did that.
"Very good. Now, can you open your eyes?"
That was a whole different thing. Someone had obviously glued his eyes shut and he didn't think he could lift his eyelids.
"Just give it a try."
He decided to try it. It worked. His eyes opened. Everything was blurry around him.
"Very, very good, Timothy. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if you were having trouble seeing, but just keep working at it and I think your vision will clear."
He blinked a few times and, after an unknown time, he was actually able to resolve the blurry shape into a human shape. It was someone he knew. He would swear it.
"Know... you..." he mumbled.
"Yes, you should know me. Can you think of my name?"
He let his head fall back and loll around, his eyes falling closed again as he tried to think. His brain had been melted twice and it wasn't working very well.
There was a bird. That was right. A bird. Which one? He tried to think. It was really hard, but he kept trying and trying. Thinking harder and harder, trying to make his congealed brain function.
Then, suddenly, it was as if he'd been electrocuted. Energy surged through him and his eyes opened wide and he was staring at the ceiling. He started breathing erratically and he could hear something beeping. The beeping was piercing into his brain. He really didn't like that beeping sound. He really wanted that beeping sound to stop.
The bird person came into view.
"It's all right, Timothy. Calm down. I've called for the doctor. He'll be here soon. Calm down. Just try to breathe slowly."
The beeping sound vanished. Thank goodness.
"He's awake?"
"Yes. He was very slow and sluggish, but then, he suddenly started acting like this."
There was another face in his view.
"Hello, Agent McGee. It's Dr. Grayson again. I'm just going to check your pupils. You're going to see a brief flash of light."
There was a flash of light and he jerked away from it. He didn't like that. It happened again. He really didn't like that.
The face disappeared from his view.
"Are you all right, Dr. Grayson?"
"Butter fingers this morning, I guess. At least I didn't drop it on him. Now, Agent McGee, try to take a deep breath and let it out slowly."
He tried to listen and do as he was told. The surge of energy began to dissipate.
"Good. You're doing just fine."
There was a hand on his wrist.
"I'll have to get someone in here to check the monitors. Maybe the power surge last night shorted them out."
"They were working before."
"I don't know, but his heart rate is coming down. Good."
He managed to move his head and he looked to the side. The bird person was there. He knew the name.
"Ducky..." he whispered.
"Yes, Timothy. That's right."
The surge of energy faded and he was left exhausted, perhaps not as exhausted as the last time.
"Where..." he looked around. "Where is... this?"
"A hospital in Fredericksburg. In Virginia."
There was something about that. He didn't know what, but something. He looked around again.
"Something... not... right..."
"We'll figure that out. Just relax for now. Try to keep yourself calm."
His head felt really heavy and he let it fall back to the pillow again.
"Are you tired, Timothy?"
He was, but he didn't want to sleep again.
"Fingers... in my brain... stabbing... no... no sleep..."
"Don't worry, Timothy. I'll keep them away. You can safely sleep."
He wasn't sure that was true, but he was so tired.
"Relax, Timothy. All will be well."
He didn't believe that for a second, but he was still tired. His eyes flickered closed. His hand flailed around, looking for something to keep him safe while he slept.
Ducky took his hand.
"I'm right here, lad. Just relax."
Better than nothing. He held tightly to Ducky's hand and fell asleep.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Ducky brushed the hair off Tim's forehead with his free hand. Then, he looked at Dr. Grayson.
"The blood tests came back negative for every drug we could think of testing for. Something is definitely affecting him. We're going to do an MRI once we get the machine up and running again. Maybe we'll find something there."
Ducky nodded and then watched as Dr. Grayson pushed some buttons on the monitor. Nothing. It was definitely not functioning.
"I'll see if I can get maintenance in to check that. Not sure what would cause it to short out like that. But we've had a run of bad luck the last couple of days. That power surge last night is only the most prominent." Dr. Grayson smiled slightly and held up his penlight. "And it's culminated in me dropping my light and breaking it."
Ducky smiled in return. "I'm not certain those two things are on the same level of severity."
Dr. Grayson chuckled and shook his head.
"No, that's true. Well, he does seem to be somewhat more rational than he was. So it may be that he's going to come out of this on his own."
"I hope so."
Ducky looked at Tim again. Although he appeared to be asleep, Tim was still holding very tightly to his hand. He was not relaxed at all. But he was sleeping. He had managed to communicate, even at a very low level. So Dr. Grayson could be right.
He would try to be optimistic.