As soon as the two McGee stopped smiling. He knew it wasn't his fault but he couldn't help feel guilty over what was happening. Gibbs had left and he hadn't helped with finding a new agent. He had worried Abby and knew that she was upset, along with his friends from MIT and other social situations he would occasionally partake in. He felt guilty because he was sick whilst the rest of the team was working as hard as they could- having to make up his share of the work, worry about him and of finding a new agent.
But worst was the guilt he felt over the state of Tony. Looking at his new boss he could clearly see that he had had very little sleep. He was pale and had bags under his eyes. Tim knew that he had been stressed over becoming the boss, filling Gibb's shoes, but his added health probably hadn't helped.
"Tony, I'm sorry." he murmured. Tony's head shot up from his hands and he looked at McGee.
"What?" he asked, utterly perplexed.
"I-I'm sorry." Tim muttered again, not daring to look at Tony but rather at his hands in his lap. Tony sighed, realising how hard this must be of McGee, how hard he must have been on McGee in the past.
"Tim, it's fine. You couldn't have stopped this from happening. Just- just get better."
"sure boss." McGee joked as he felt his eyes close. The doctors warned him that he would be sleeping a lot but he never knew that it would be this much.
They had been to see him the day before telling him that he would have to go through months of chemo, harsher than normal because they had picked it up at a late stage, but the other scans they had run showed up clear, telling them it was only the brain they had to worry about. He had already cleared the paper work for a year off, and his work insurance was covering for most of the payment but Tim still felt lost. If chemo didn't work there was little hope for him and he didn't know what to do if it worked but couldn't go back to work. No matter how annoying Tony was, he still loved it.
"I'll see you later Probie." Tony whispered as his eyes slid shut.
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Six months after Gibbs had left and McGee was still enjoying his freedom form the restrictive hospital rules. Although he had been let out over a month ago and still had to go back daily for treatment he liked to be in his own place, with his own things, and he thanked God that he had very few white things in his home.
He had halved in size and all his hair had fallen out because of the treatment and he rarely left the house without his hand-carved walking stick that Abby had had made specially for him. But he was still free. And he loved that. His skin was now pasty and he slept a lot of the time, yet initial reports were ‘attentively positive' and he only had another two months to go before the chemo stopped to see if the tumour would come back.
Hearing a knocking at his door McGee sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get up without immense frustration and pain.
"It's open." he called out as he glanced at the clock. 14.00, right on time.
"And how is my favourite little invalid today?" Abby asked as she walked through the door, closely followed by Nick, one of his friends from his old job at Norfolk. Over the previous months Tim's work and private life and harshly collided and some of it good, some of it bad. Many of his friends had gotten on with Abby, not so much Tony and Ziva though, finding the former to cocky and the latter just a little bit too intimidating.
"Hmm. Okay, I just want to get it out of the way. Can we get going now?"
"Sure thing. The car is down stairs. I'll just get your stuff and we'll go."
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Chapter End Notes:
Sorrt it took so long, writer's block is a bitch.