Chapter 13

Tim hated this. He stared at the glass intently, trying to do something that would prove useful rather than destructive. He hated everything about this situation. He couldn't see anything good in what had happened. He couldn't even do anything without causing damage. As he stared at the glass, all he could really see was that he was failing. If he couldn't help anyone, then, what was the point in having this ability?

Gibbs had left the room a few minutes before. Tim assumed that he was just fed up with his newest agent, regretting that he had ever decided to give Tim a chance.

After a few more minutes of failure, Ducky patted him encouragingly on the shoulder.

"I'll be right back, lad. Just keep at it."

Tim didn't even bother to look up, but he had a feeling that there was more to Ducky's departure than he was saying. As soon as the door closed, he looked away from the glass. The pressure started building up in his head and he suddenly realized that he could hear Ducky and Gibbs speaking.

How am I doing this? he wondered.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Gibbs glared at his phone. He'd tried calling both Tony and Kate three times each and there was no answer. He didn't like that. They had said they'd call back later, but there had been no call and they weren't answering his call. The question was whether he should be worried or irritated. Although he didn't want to, he was leaning toward worried. He hated when he had to be worried about more than one thing at the same time.

They had decided to bring Tim back to Gibbs' house rather than to NCIS. With everything that had happened thus far, Gibbs had figured that he already had plenty of damage to his home. If Tim lost it again, it would be best to confine the damage as much as possible. However, at the moment, it didn't seem like that was a risk. Tim had been at it for more than an hour without doing anything. He just didn't know what he needed to do. Nearly everything he'd done had been an involuntary reflex, a reaction to an intense emotional surge. In whatever time they had, Gibbs wasn't sure whether or not Tim could actually learn to control it in any meaningful way. Plus, there was the concern Dr. Jessop had about causing possibly fatal damage if the energy surge was too much. How much was too much? Could Tim even do too much? Whatever that might be?

He sighed and then looked over as Ducky came into the living room.

"What is it, Jethro?" Ducky asked softly with a side glance back toward the kitchen.

"They're not answering."

"Oh, dear," Ducky said, looking very concerned. "What if the same people who did this to Timothy have discovered their investigation? We have seen how little they value human life in what they've done thus far. I shudder to think what they might do if someone threatened whatever they intended with this ghastly experiment."

Gibbs nodded.

"I'm going to head down there. Keep at it with McGee. I don't want him to know what's going on."

Ducky nodded in agreement. "Yes, I don't think that this would do any good to his state of mind."

Gibbs doubted whether anything would be good for Tim's state of mind at the moment.

Then, he paused and looked at Ducky. That pressure that he had come to associate with Tim using his ability was suddenly present. Ducky looked back at him with rising worry. He'd obviously felt it as well.

There was a shout from the kitchen, but it wasn't Tim's same shout of fear or surprise. This was one full of anger.

"Do you think he heard us?" Ducky murmured.

"Don't know," Gibbs said and then started for the kitchen.

He only made it two steps. A burst of energy blew the kitchen door off its hinges. Gibbs jumped to the side and pulled Ducky with him. They toppled to the floor as the door flew past them and then shattered into pieces against the wall. That strange pressure increased and Gibbs felt like he was being restrained by the air itself. He tried to stand up, but the pressure continued to increase until it was a genuine weight on him. Then, in the midst of that, Tim ran into the room and out the front door. He didn't make a sound. He didn't even pause when Ducky called out to him.

A car engine roared to life, but Gibbs still couldn't get up. Then, as the car squealed out of the driveway and down the road, the pressure vanished.

Gibbs got to his feet and helped Ducky stand.

"That was..." Ducky couldn't even finish.

Gibbs just nodded grimly.

"Let's go."

"Where, though?"

"We'll head for the power plant if we can't catch up."

They hurried out of the house, hoping that they wouldn't be too late.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

They were going to hurt Tony and Kate. Tim knew they were. His mind was on fire and it was roaring hotter than he'd ever felt before. He was trying to hold it back for the moment. He had to get down to that power plant he'd heard them talking about. He wasn't sure he remembered it, but he had to get there before his brain melted down again. He wasn't going to let his new teammates be harmed because of him. No, he would never let anyone get hurt because of him. He couldn't handle it. He wouldn't tolerate it.

He didn't even really see the road as he was driving. The anger and fear raging inside him were blinding in their intensity. He just drove, hoping that he wouldn't cause an accident and hoping that no one would try to stop him because there was no way that he would stop until he got to where Tony and Kate were. He didn't even think that he could stop.

His phone started ringing when he was halfway there, but he couldn't answer it. He was barely functioning in any rational way and there was no chance that he could continue driving if he tried to answer it.

He could hear his own breathing harsh in his ears as he tried to keep himself in control.

Almost there. Almost there. Almost there.

He would make it. He wouldn't be too late to stop them. He wouldn't let the people who did this to him do it to anyone else.

No matter the cost.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Any progress?" Kate said softly, staring at their captor.

"If I could look at it, I would be done already," Tony said. "I just can't get the angle right."

"Want me to try yours?" she asked.

"Sure, but if you get them off, it's because I loosened them first."

Kate rolled her eyes and shifted just slightly so that she could start feeling the zip ties around Tony's wrists.

Then, the door opened and the one in charge came back. He looked at them.

"Get up," he said.

Kate glanced at Tony. Was this good or bad? Could it possibly be good?

Having no other option, they walked over to their captors with their hands still bound.

"Let's go," the lead captor said.

"Where?" Kate asked.

"Out."

Their guard moved behind them and pushed them both toward the door. Kate glanced at Tony worriedly. This was unlikely to be the first step toward releasing them. However, they would be better able to do something when they were out in the open as opposed to confined in an unfamiliar room, especially when they were unarmed. Kate tensed as they walked toward the door.

Another shove and they stumbled out the door. They walked toward a car but Tony deliberately slowed, causing the guard to walk closer to him, and then jerked his head back and hit him in the nose. The guard's head snapped back and he cried out, grabbing at his nose. Kate made a run for the trees, hoping that Tony was running as well. She got to the trees and didn't hear Tony behind her. She looked back.

"Don't come out, Kate!" Tony shouted.

"If you don't come out, I'll kill him now."

Kate froze. She stayed in the trees but moved so that she could see back. Tony was on his knees with a gun to his head. The guard was getting back to his feet, but their captor had Tony at his mercy. Coming out might delay death, but it wouldn't stop it because she was unarmed and still restrained. But could she just stand here and let Tony get killed?

No.

She came out of the trees. Their guard pointed his gun at her, while still trying to stem the flow of blood from his nose.

"I told you if you tried to escape you'd make my decision for me," their captor said.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim floored the gas, prepared to ram the gate, but it burst open before he reached it. As he got closer, his memory was bringing back more and more of what had happened and it only increased the pressure and fire in his brain.

He came around a corner and he saw a distressing tableau. Kate was standing, her hands restrained behind her while Tony was kneeling on the ground with a gun to his head. He was furious at the two men threatening them and that blinding rage took over his entire brain. His normal worries about doing things right vanished under the out-of-control emotions that overwhelmed him.

He slammed on the brakes, threw open the door and looked at the man who he now remembered had come to his apartment the night he had been getting ready to leave on his vacation. The pressure soared still higher and he had to get rid of the raging inferno in his brain. As he had earlier, he tried to focus on the man pointing a gun at Kate. After a moment, the man flew back against the building, his gun flying from his hand. He hit the wall hard and then fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.

The other man looked at him with a sneering smile.

"Do you think you can stop a bullet? Should we try?"

He looked back at Tony, clearly prepared to kill him. Kate shouted out in dismay. Time seemed to come to a stop. Tim felt his brain beginning to melt. He was terrified but the rage at what had been done to him, that he had fallen for their ploy, that this was even possible was far stronger than his fear. The fire roared hotter and hotter until it was engulfing him.

He started screaming from the fire in his brain. He closed his eyes and pressed his hands to his head.

There was a roar of sound and then more screaming and the fire completed enveloped him. He tried to get it out of his brain, but it was too much. He fell to the ground still screaming and then blackness swept over him and he faded away.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The pressure that had held Kate in place when Tim had arrived suddenly vanished and she ran forward. Her bands had exploded off her wrists when gun had suddenly melted in their captor's hand, causing him to scream in pain, but that had only lasted for a second or two because he had then been flung into the air and then landed partially on Tony. Tony was now picking himself up off the ground, pulling himself out from under their captor who was either dead or unconscious (depending on what had happened to him). He hurried over to join Kate where Tim had collapsed.

He was lying on the ground, unmoving. Kate knelt down beside him. Tim didn't have a mark on him, but something was definitely wrong. She touched his wrist. His pulse was racing and he was breathing irregularly.

"Tim, it's okay," Kate said. "It's all right. We're all safe."

Suddenly, Tim screamed again, but this time there were words.

"Get it out! Get it out! Get it out!" he screamed.

And the building behind them burst into flames. It wasn't just a little fire here and there. It was an instant raging inferno that threatened to destroy the entire building. Kate and Tony both fell back with their own shouts of surprise.

Tim was still screaming and his back arched, his body rigid. With each scream, the fire seemed to get hotter.

Kate looked at Tim and then up at Tony who met her gaze with wide eyes. How could Tim be doing this?

...but how could he not be?

Another car barreled up the road and Tony stepped in front of Kate and Tim, ready to do something to stop another attack, but to Kate's relief, it was Gibbs and Ducky.

Then, Tim screamed once more, the doors and windows on the building blew out all at once, and Tim went completely limp. All the color drained from his face. Kate felt for a pulse again and felt nothing. No breath, no pulse.

"Ducky! He's not breathing!" Kate said urgently.

Ducky hurried over and knelt down.

"I can't feel a pulse, either," she said.

Instantly, Ducky started CPR.

"Prepare to breathe for him, Caitlin," he said.

Kate nodded and tilted Tim's head back as Ducky performed the chest compressions.

"Now," Ducky said.

Kate leaned over and gave two breaths. Then, Ducky resumed chest compressions. At the same time, Gibbs and Tony approached the burning building and pulled the two men away, checking on them both. Kate didn't spare much attention for them. She wouldn't mind if they were dead.

"Again," Ducky said.

Two more breaths.

Gibbs called 911 to report the injuries as well as the fire.

"Again," Ducky said. "Come on, lad. Don't let them win this one."

He resumed the chest compressions. Tim was still disturbingly limp. He seemed empty.

"Again."

"Ducky, I'll trade you," Tony said.

Ducky nodded and quickly moved out of the way while Kate gave two more breaths. Tony kept going with the chest compressions.

Tim was still completely unresponsive when the ambulances arrived. The EMTs quickly joined them with an AED. They took over and after two shocks with the defibrillator, Tim's heart was beating again, but he was still unconscious. They quickly loaded him into the ambulance and sped away. The other EMTs evaluated the two men, and carted them away as well. At the same time, the fire department arrived and began working to put out the fire in the building.

In the midst of the chaos, before anyone came and talked to them, Kate and Tony stood by Gibbs and Ducky, watching the burning building.

"Gibbs... Tim... he... he started this fire," Kate said. "I don't know how, but..."

"I know," Gibbs said.

"You know?" Tony repeated.

"Yeah."

"How?" Kate asked. "How is this possible?"

"We don't know exactly," Ducky said, "but those two men were involved in implanting a device in Timothy's brain that seems to have given him the power of telekinesis. I only hope that he is able to survive what's happened here."

"His heart was beating when they took him away," Kate said.

"But his brain may be damaged beyond repair. The doctor who examined him today said that it could be that the overuse of this power might be too much for him to survive."

"Did he know that?" Tony asked.

"I'm not sure if he was aware of the danger or not, but he definitely knew of the pain he felt," Ducky said.

"He did that for us," Kate said softly.

"Yes, he did."

The fire began to die down until the torrents of water from the fire hose put it out completely, but what was left behind was meager indeed. It would likely be impossible to get anything out of the remains that could tell them what these people had done.

"What now?" Tony asked. "How can we report this?"

"We'll figure it out," Gibbs said.

"But perhaps for now, we should do what needs to be done and then go to the hospital," Ducky said.

They all nodded and tried to focus on the necessary tasks, but their minds were only half on the job.

Mostly, they were wondering whether or not Tim would survive.