"Sarah, I'm home." Tim tossed his keys on the counter before carefully setting the pastry box down. There was only silence in response. "Sarah?" Resting his hand on the butt of his SIG, McGee began to carefully check the apartment. Nothing seemed out of place in the main room, so he moved to the doorway into his bedroom. "Sarah, what's wrong, where are you?"
Something was wadded up on the floor in front of his closet and he bent down to pick it up. Still squatting down, he unfolded the cardboard and found himself looking at the box Dr. Turner had given Sarah at her last appointment, the box she had opened and used that morning, the box that seemed to have given her relief. "Sarah?"
The faintest of sound came to him. He reached out and grasped the handle of the sliding door, pulling it open. She was slumped in the corner, her hair covering her face. "Sarah, what's wrong? Did something scare you?" She didn't respond, but her breathing was too slow and shallow for this to be a panic attack. He reached out and touched her arm. It limply fell to the side, an empty plastic bottle rolling out of her hand and across to rest at his knee.
"No, no, no, God, no!" Tim reached in and pulled her close, slapping at her face, trying to rouse her. When she started to struggle he grabbed the waste basket next to the bed and shoved it close as he forced his fingers down her throat. When she stopped vomiting and fell back against him, he ignored his own nausea as he counted the intact capsules while he dialed 911. By the time the apartment was filled with emergency personnel he was able to tell them exactly what she had taken and how much was still in her system.
The paramedics needed the room and Tim needed his car, so he followed behind the ambulance as it wound its way to a nearby hospital. Forcing himself to remain calm, he called Detective Jeffries.
Yeah, Jeffries.
"It's McGee. We're on our way to the hospital. Sarah tried to kill herself."
Oh, God, is she going to be all right?
"I don't know yet. How much longer..."
We're still pulling together surveillance footage from around the locations of each attack and the District Attorney is reviewing everything we have so far to determine if we can get an arrest warrant. Just hang on for another day.
"No, this needs to end now. I have to know if she's involved with what happened to my sister.
A couple of hours, then. Give us that long.
Tim didn't answer, just disconnected the call as the two vehicles pulled into the emergency entrance. The next few hours were a blur as he waited for them to stabilize Sarah. At one point Dr. Turner arrived and rushed into the exam room. Tim immediately felt better, Dr. Turner had been Sarah's doctor since she had arrived in DC to attend college and she trusted him.
An hour after Sarah was moved into a room, her friend, Lisa, showed up in the waiting room. "I went to your apartment to bring Sarah her schoolbooks and your neighbor told me she had been taken in an ambulance. Is she all right?"
Tim nodded slowly, looking towards the room his sister was sleeping in. "Yeah, she'll be all right. Can you stay here for a little while?" He looked back at the young woman. "I'm going to take an emergency leave from work for a while, but it will be easier if I do it in person."
"Sure." Lisa's curls bounced as she agreed. "My next class isn't for a couple of hours." She waited until McGee was out of the building before digging her cell phone out of her purse. She scrolled through the M's until she found the number she was looking for and pressed 'send'. "Mrs. McGee? This is Lisa, a friend of Sarah's. She doesn't want you to know that she's in the hospital, but I think you you should know what's going on..."
---NCIS---
McGee drove carefully and just under the speed limit as he struggled to control his emotions. If it wasn't for the fact that Director Vance would insist that he personally sign his paperwork before his emergency leave could start, nothing could get him in the building right now. He turned his phone back on, after having it off while in the emergency room with Sarah. He had missed two calls from Abby and was ignoring the voice mail alert for now.
---NCIS---
"Did you speak to McGee?" Ziva looked up as Tony came into the squad room and tossed his backpack under his desk.
"I would if I could find him." Tony threw himself into his chair and booted up his computer by habit more than awareness. "I was at his place early this morning. His car was there, but he wasn't. Then when I came out of his place, his car was gone. I've been everyplace I can think of and no sign of him."
Ziva frowned as she tried to keep up with the angry rambles. "You were in his apartment, but he wasn't there? You picked the lock?
"Well, yeah, he didn't answer the door. He's not answering his phone either. It's going straight to voice mail."
That surprised Ziva. "He has his phone off? Gibbs will have his skin for that."
"Hide, Ziva. The expression is Gibbs will have his hide, but that's the least of Probie's problems right now. There was an empty box for a pregnancy test in his bathroom. Since he's not dating anyone at the moment, and he and Abby are fighting..."
"You think McGee has gotten Abby pregnant?"
"Yeah, and if he doesn't have a ring on her finger before Gibbs finds out about it, he's a dead man."
Ziva shook her head. "Abby is a grown woman, not a child. If she is pregnant with McGee's child, then she has to take some of the responsibility."
Tony realized that Gibbs had to be around someplace and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Yeah, you want to be the one to explain that to Gibbs? You know how he is about Abby; she's the favorite that can do no wrong. If McGee knocked Abby up, then he'd better be doing what Gibbs thinks is the right thing, no matter how old fashioned it is."
Gibbs was coming around the corner after a run to his favorite coffee shop when hissed words from DiNozzo caught his attention. He bit back his anger, believing that if what Tony was saying was true, then McGee would do the right thing. Before he could circle the partition behind DiNozzo's desk, the ding of the elevator caught his attention.
---NCIS---
Abby was coming back from an early lunch when she spotted McGee coming into the building. Determined to get answers, she slipped into the elevator with him just as the doors closed, trapping him in with her. "What is your problem, McGee?"
Frustrated and distracted, McGee hit the button for the squad room level rather than the one for the Director's office. "Just leave me alone, Abby. Just stay away from me." He shifted his body so she couldn't reach the emergency stop.
"I spent a lot of money on that pack of tickets so the four of us could go. Are you going to pay me for your share?"
The elevator stopped on the requested floor, and McGee didn't even wait for the doors to fully open before he was squeezing his way out, away from her. "Forget it, Abby."
"What do you want me to do with them?"
Furious, he turned, yelling at her. "I don't care what you do. It's your problem, not mine, just get rid of 'em. Now leave me the hell alone." Storming through the bullpen on his way upstairs to see Vance, McGee didn't even register that he walked past Gibbs, until he was grabbed by the pissed off man and slammed face first into the nearest wall.
"What kind of man throws away his own kid, McGee, what kind of man?" He twisted McGee's arm up behind him and pressed him harder against the wall, forcing McGee up onto his toes.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Boss." Instinctively, he fought back. Gibbs released the pressure against him, only to spin him around and toss him back against the wall.
"You're saying that Abby isn't pregnant?"
McGee used the back of his hand to wipe the blood from his mouth. "I don't know what she's turning into, but I do know that she sure the hell isn't pregnant by me."
Gibbs looked at the stunned woman in question still standing by the elevator before glaring at DiNozzo. Tony wasn't convinced yet that he was totally wrong. "Then who did you get pregnant?"
"What are you talking about?" McGee shook his head, trying to clear it. No one was making any sense, and he didn't have the time or the energy to care about their problems right now.
"The box from a home pregnancy test was in your bathroom."
The pieces fell into place. "You broke into my home? You son of a Bitch, do you have any idea what you've done?" He tried to charge the other man, but Gibbs still had a hold on him and wasn't letting go.
"What in the hell is going on down there?" The thundering voice of Leon Vance brought the argument to a standstill. Before any of them could give him the answers he wanted, the elevator doors opened again, delivering an MP escorting Detectives Jeffries and Thompson.
Jeffries had a pretty good idea what the situation was about and didn't waste any time as he held up his badge. "We're here for Miss Sciuto."
"For what?" Gibbs let go of McGee and stepped closer to Abby. Jeffries put himself between Abby and Gibbs while Thompson pulled out her handcuffs and explained.
"We're going to interview her for now, the DA is still determining charges. Of course, if Miss Sciuto is unwilling to cooperate, then we will go ahead and arrest her right now."
"Charges? What is she accused of doing?" For one of the few times in his life, Gibbs realizes he's made a horrible error in judgment. "Tim?" He turned back to McGee and reached out for him. Tim flinched away from him without a word.
By now Vance was down the stairs. "Nobody is going anywhere until I know whats going on. Detectives, you can use one of our interrogation rooms to interview Miss Sciuto. The MP will escort you." He gave the man a hard look and the corporal took the police officers and Abby to the back elevator. DiNozzo and David started to follow, until Vance barked more orders. "You three take the stairs down. Use the time to cool off. McGee, you're with me." Vance went straight for the main elevator, knowing that McGee would be at his heels.
The elevator had barely moved before Vance threw the emergency stop. "Don't tell Gibbs I'm using his office." He'd hoped the slight joke would help relax McGee. When it didn't, he knew just how bad it was. "All right, McGee, tell me exactly what is going on, from the beginning. You've got five minutes."
It only took three minutes, but it left the other man stunned. "McGee... Tim, I am so sorry that this happened to your sister."
"Yeah."
The tone and the stiff posture told Vance that McGee expected him to side with Abby. All he had to do was to think of his own daughter to give McGee the answer he so desperately needed. "I give you my word, we will not impede the investigation at all. If the evidence is there, Abby will be turned over the Metro PD."
Author's Chapter Notes:
When McGee finds it necessary to protect his sister from people he though were his friends, the consequences are far reaching.