Disclaimer: NCIS and its characters are owned by people with a whole lot more money than myself. I just borrow them for my own amusement.


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Close Calls and Near Misses

By Mamapranayama

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This was new.

But not new in a good way.

Over the years Tim had had plenty of close calls and near misses and he had been in many dangerous situations since he became a field agent, but he had never actually been badly hurt before. However, lying on the cold ground with his life's blood pouring out between his fingers through the gunshot wound in his abdomen, was so far out of his scope of experience that he wasn't sure how to react.

So he laughed.

Not that it was funny, but he supposed it was only a matter of time before his luck ran out and now it had.

“McGee!” Tony came running and crashed to his knees beside him, breathing heavily. “Shit....Probie.” Seeing the blood, Tony stripped off his jacket and pressed it into the wound. Tim's previous laughter gave way as the fire in his belly intensified.

Breathing shallowly, he found it hard to take a breath while his heart pounded and he fought against the icy prickles of fear that came over him, threatening to take over.

“Hey...” Tony's voice cut through the haze of panic sweeping over him as the senior agent lightly tapped his face, snapping him out of his approaching anxiety attack.

“Deep breaths, McGee.” Tim pried open his eyes and stared up into Tony's face. “Don't you dare stop either, 'cause I'm not kissing you.” He admonished with a pointed finger then pulled out his phone a second later, calling for an ambulance. After that, Tony took a moment to lift up Tim's shirt and examine the wound underneath.

“You're gonna be just fine... 'tis but a flesh wound.” He pronounced in a terrible British accent and a grin. Somehow the casual attitude Tony was taking, which normally drove him up a wall, brought a hint of comfort and he forgot his previous fear, replacing it with pseudo-irritation.

“Tony, I've just been shot. Do you really think now is the time for Monty Python? Can't you ever take anything seriously?”

“There's never a bad time for Monty Python, Probie. Have I taught you nothing?”

“Yeah, That pretty much sums up all you've taught me: Monty Python, James Bond, Magnum....” Tim ground out, a little put out now by Tony's flippancy while he lay bleeding all over the place, even though he knew that he was doing it just to put him at ease. Then again, usually the more inappropriate the behavior from Tony that meant that things were pretty serious, the man just had no other way of coping with situations like these except with humor.

Tim was beginning to swim a little in his head, a lightness overcoming him. Oh crap! I'm going into shock....I'm gonna...

“Hey....Look at me, Probie.” Tony ordered, interrupting his new wave of fear. “Don't go passing out now.”

“Easy for you to say.” Tim replied weakly. “DiNozzo's may not pass out, but McGee's don't live under such restraints...ow!” He felt Tony press harder into his wound and he groaned, closing his eyes.

“Hey, stay with me here....Talk to me...” Tony demanded of Tim, who knew he was doing it just to distract him. “You must have some interesting stories...Then again, this is you we're talking about....” He chuckled.

“Tony....” Tim sighed .

“Okay, tell you what... You tell me something about yourself that I wouldn't guess about you.” Suggested the senior agent.

“Tony.... That's just stupid....” Tim complained.

“C'mon, McGee. There's got to be something...surprise me.”

McGee actually thought about it for a moment. It would be nice to show Tony that he wasn't just a geek, that there had been a time in his life when he had lived on the edge a little.

“I never went to my senior prom.” Tim began.

“I thought I told you to tell me something that I didn't know about you.”

“You didn't hear the whole story....” He didn't feel much like going on, he was tired and just wanted to sleep a little but another round of face slapping snapped him back to alertness.

“Well c'mon, what's the whole story then?” Tony demanded to know, trying to keep him awake.

“Okay...I was supposed to go with this girl named Alicia. I was surprised she actually said yes, since she was really pretty and I... was a bit of a nerd.” Tim began to drift a little before Tony's snort brought him back around.

“A bit?...” Tony laughed then stopped, seeing the pissed look Tim gave him. “Sorry. Keep going, Probie....So, was she hot?”

“Yeah.” Tim smiled faintly at the memory of the pretty blond girl.

“Then why didn't you go, you goober?”

Tim grinned, knowing this would take Tony unawares.

“I was arrested.” He told him matter-of-factly.

“What? You?.....You were arrested?” Tony shook his head in disbelief. “Wow...okay now there's something I never would have guessed.”

“Yeah, I tried to use a fake ID to buy some wine for my date.... Long story short...Got caught, missed the prom, my parents had to bail me out and I ended up doing twenty hours of community service picking up trash along the highway.” McGee smiled seeing Tony's jaw drop, his pain momentarily forgotten.

“No way.”

“Way.”

“So what about Alicia?” Tony had to ask and Tim frowned.

“Oh, she ended up going stag with her friends and meeting her future husband at the dance instead. Last I heard, she had three kids with him....”

“Man....” Tony's face grew serious. “That was a close.”

“What do you mean 'close'?”

“Think about it, McGoo. Knowing you, you probably would've fallen madly in love with her, then you'd be the one married with the three kids. You'd probably be driving a minivan too, so you could just kiss that Porsche of yours goodbye...I'd say you're pretty damn lucky you didn't go.”

Tim felt Tony's hand clasp his shoulder warmly and he couldn't help but laugh a little despite the stab of pain it caused. Hearing the distant wails the ambulance approaching, he guessed his luck was holding up after all.

The End