Almost Too Late

Rating: Teen for violence, language, and suggested themes

Summary:Tim tells Abby about his mission and things take a turn for the worse in their friendship. But will the fight bring them closer than ever before when Abby figures out she can't live without Tim?

Note: I just noticed after i wrote this chapter that the drug lord's name is the same name as the directors name in NCIS. I just want you to know that it isn't Leon Vance i am talking about!

Spoilers:Season 3-8

Chapter 3: A Horrible Week

Abby had really done it this time. Tim barley could control his anger in the elevator. He had hit the floor number button so harshly, he practically jammed his finger. Even Agent Liens didn't dare talk to him, his expression and actions told her that he wasn't in a mood to talk.

The second he started feeling regret for how harshly his last sentence had been to Abby, memories of all the bullshit he had been put through by her came crashing back to him.

Tim knew that when Gibbs found Abby in her lab distraught he would probably take the first chance he got to get a hold of Tim and start yelling at him. But Tim found himself not caring.

He believed that Abby had absolutely no reason to act that harshly toward him. He knew it wasn't going to be pleasant news to her just because she had lost so many people but she didn't have to act like she hated him. Or maybe she did actually hate him.

Well he was absolutely done letting her make him feel like crap. From now on, he wasn't going to let Abigail Scuito treat him like shit without him standing up for himself.

Abby didn't know when she stopped crying. All she knew was that Tim didn't stop and run back to her. He didn't come back and comfort her and say he was sorry or say that he wasn't going. He just left.

She sniffled and took a deep breath. Had she gone too far? She shook her head for asking herself such a dumb question. She basically ruined their 8 year friendship over a 2 week undercover mission.

When Abby got up she stared through her door at the closed elevator ones. She had really upset Tim, this time. She had made him cry, for go sakes!

Abby was about to start crying again but she didn't. Instead, she got angry.

'Well what do you expect McGee. You tell me you're going on an undercover mission for two weeks and you expect me to be all fine and dandy with it? God, sometimes he pisses me off.'

Her thinking to herself mean thoughts about Tim wasn't doing the trick because then she flashed back to all the mean things she had said to him.

She started to pace back and forth in her office.

'How could I have said McGee wasn't my friend? Hell, he's my best-est best friend in the whole wide world. He's never judged, never insulted her, never done anything really mean to upset her. And if it was on accident he would always try to fix it. Why am I so stupid!'

She decided to call him.

It rang… and rang… and rang.

All through the week.

Abby would call every morning, afternoon, and night. She could barely think of anything else. Every time she called she'd hope to hear Tim's voice on the other side. But that never happened.

Gibbs knew something was wrong but every time he asked she would just put on a smile and say "Nothing, just missing, McGee."

Gibbs knew it was something else but he didn't want to push Abby. She would tell him if she wanted too.

At night some times Abby would cry. her thinking Tim hated her clawed her up from the inside. She would think of all the special and fun times they had together. And then she would think about the times when she had been mean to him.

Tim was sitting in a booth right in front of the lead drug lord. The photo he had been given wasn't of the best quality but he could tell that this was his guy. His name was Leon Ravone.

Tim's objective was the norm. Become "business partners" with Leon and make sure he trusted him. Get Leon to show where his stash was. Call authorities. And he was absolutely home free. But he had a week to do just that. It had taken him about 5 days to find a good enough picture to ID Leon and about 2 to actually track him down. By the end of these two weeks Leon and his crew would have cleared out by now. He needed to act quickly and smart.

Right when he was about to make his move, his phone started vibrating. Tim growled and frowned at his pocket. He pulled out his phone and then his anger subsided a little. It was Abby. All this week she had tried to get in touch with him. He couldn't talk to her then and he definitely couldn't talk to her now.

After the phone call went to voicemail he turned his phone all the way off. He stared at it for a minute. Why was she calling him? She made it pretty clear the way she felt about him. The reason he hadn't taken any of her phone calls? He wasn't ready to talk about what went down between them. He hated fighting with Abby but he wasn't gonna let her get away with all the last bad things she had said to him before he left. Those wounds just opened old ones back up.

Wound #1 Abby yelling at Tim for shooting a dog (a German shepherd she named Jethro that now was his) that would have killed him if he hadn't. Abby had acted like she cared for a dog living more than she cared about him living.

Wound #2 Tim pouring his heart out to Abby while the psycho killer had her at gun point and saying that if he killed her he would be killing the only woman Tim ever loved. Sure he said it as if it was in his book but he still meant every word in real life. Then, after saving her life, she practically broke his heart by saying that it was all wrong and then McGregor and Amy were completely wrong for each other.

Wound #3 Abby being absolutely against Tim protecting her from her psycho ex, Mikel, at his house and her not listening to him while she was over. Which had nearly gotten her possibly killed if, once again, Tim hadn't been there to save her.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he remembered that he was on a mission and mentally slapped himself on the back of his head.

He made his move.

Through the days, Tim and Leon got to be quite the partners. Tim would tell him where the best places to hit were and Leon would get closer and closer to telling him where the stash of drugs was.

On the last day he decided if Abby called he would talk to her. On his way with his "girlfriend", Agent Liens, to the bar Tim and Leon usually talked.

He suddenly was distracted by a police car chasing down another car that was firing a 9 mm handgun right at the police car. When they swerved around the corner, Liens went down with a bullet wound to the head. She was killed instantly, he could tell by the entry wound. Tim jumped behind the wall of a building but not quick enough to steal a glance at Agent Liens. The scene of her lifeless body on the ground with a bullet wound to the head reminded him of Kate. Forcing himself to snap out of it in a split second he brought his gun up, ready to return fire

Then he felt it.

It didn't hurt at first. But what he did feel was the blood trickling down his fingers as he found the bullet's entry wound around his abdomen. He fell to both knees. He tasted what he thought to be bile but came out as blood as he coughed. He toppled to the floor slowly fading into darkness.

A man carrying a suitcase had seen the whole thing and raced over to Tim. Tim was fading in and out so he couldn't quite see or hear the man correctly. It wasn't until the man had Tim's NCIS ID out that Tim completely blacked out.