Chapter 1- Late

He lay on his death bed, shallow breaths fading into the warm air, his condition worsening, the faces of the ones he loved watched over him, as he took his dying breaths. He reached out his hand, hoping to connect with the love of his life for one last time.

"Abby," he whispered, "I love you…" Mere seconds after this declaration of his love for her, the darkness engulfed him, carrying him away from the life, which had been so unkind to him, it was over.

Timothy McGee was late, very late, for the first time in his life.

"Damn it! Gibbs is going to kill me" he sighed, as he scuffed on his other shoe, and headed for his car. He glanced at his watch,

"I'll have to drive like Ziva unless I want to be fired." Dead or fired, he thought. He decided that although his life was fairly important to him, if Gibbs found him this late, he'd be more than dead. The minutes flew by, unlike the traffic, what the hell was going on. He pulled over onto a patch of grass, bumping his head on the roof of his car, could today get any worse. He jogged up the side of the road, and there stood a man. He was distraught, his eyes bloodshot, probably alcohol, or drugs, or something. Tim sprinted back to his car, carrying his id, and strapping his gun into the holster.

"Sir!" Yelled, the now serious Special Agent McGee.

"Excuse me! You're blocking the road sir!" He yelled again. The man looked up,

"What agency are you? I need NCIS!" Now this was strange, most people had never even heard of NCIS, let alone block the traffic to find someone who belonged to the agency.

"I need you to investigate a murder!" The man yelled intently,

"Whose?" Tim asked, becoming more confused by the minute.

"Mine…" The man muttered quietly.

"Come with me sir, I will take you to my boss." McGee told him, Gibbs will know what to do, he always does.

At least Tim had a reason for being late now, and his name was Lieutenant Roy Sanders. Tim helped Roy to stumble through the building, and into the elevator. He was right, the man was definitely ill, he was coughing and sputtering all over him, this better not be contagious he thought to himself. The satisfying 'ding' of the elevator rang through his ears,

"Finally!" Thought Tim. "Come on Roy, I will introduce you to my boss, he should be able to help you," Roy nodded, and shuffled slowly into the bullpen. Tony, and Gibbs looked confused, yet Ziva's face showed enchantment, like a child on Christmas morning.

"This is…" McGee was cut off by Roy,

"Lieutenant Roy Sanders, Special Agent…"

"Gibbs" Gibbs replied sternly.

"I need you to investigate my murder." Roy proclaimed, and pulled out a small chunk of hair from his head. Gibbs eyebrows raised somewhere beyond his hairline. He stood slowly from his desk, and gestured for Roy to accompany him.

"Who's that McTardy?" "Actually, I'm not too sure… but he got me off the hook with Gibbs at least,"

"Abby was worried about you McGee," Ziva giggled, "First time you've ever been late.

" She continued. "Ooooh Timmy!" shouted Abby from across the room, and gave him a hug.

"Bad news Timmy, I have to take your clothes off." Abby said, oblivious to the connotation she had just made. Tony grinned widely,

"Enjoy Probielicious!" Tim felt the charismatic smirk of Tony on his back, who was now glaring at Abby.

"Oh! I have to test his clothes for radiation," Tony's mouth shaped into an 'o', and Abby dragged Tim from the room.

"Radiation? How?" Tim questioned, he always reacted badly to things he couldn't control.

"That dude you brought in here, he has radiation poisoning, and he coughed all over you, didn't he. Rolling his eyes, Tim followed Abby into the spare room of Abby's lab. Her normally loud music was quiet, and depressing.

"Take your clothes off," she said calmly;

"It's been a while since you've said that to me Abbs," Tim chuckled.

"Only this time, I'm not staying." She smiled, and skipped out of the room.

This was definitely not what Tim was expecting of his day at work, standing almost naked in a cold room, waiting for his ex-girlfriend to analyse his clothes for radioactive materials. He was feeling self conscious enough already, considering that the door does not lock, and at anytime, anyone could enter the room, putting Tim through even more stress than he had already endured. He was sitting on the ground, with his back against the wall, when he heard the door creak open. Oh crap, it was Gibbs… with Abby.

"What the hell are you doin'?"

"Aaah, Abby, she… she umm…"

"Can you construct a sentence Agent McGee?"

"Yes Boss, Abby needed to test my clothes for radiation."

"Well I'm going to leave you to… whatever it is you're doing." Abby burst out laughing as soon as she heard the elevator, Gibbs was gone.

"You knew!" Tim laughed,

"You nearly got me fired!" Abby's laughter was uncontrollable,

"You still haven't taken all your clothes off Timmy." She giggled.

"WHAT! You need… these too!" Abby nodded profusely, her laughter was finally beginning to subside.

"You're going to stay aren't you?" She nodded again, and Tim pulled off his boxers, and added them to the pile of clothes beside him.

"Happy?", he sighed, "Very!" she laughed, and picked up his clothes, his dignity with them. So there he stood, naked and imprisoned… in Abby's lab.

After what felt like decades, Abby finally returned… but without his clothes. Instead, she was holding a set of hospital clothes.

"Here you are!" she said sweetly, and handed them through the door.

"Abby! Where the hell are my clothes?"

"Still being processed Tim, but Gibbs wanted you back, and I can't really send you back naked can I." Tim was contemplating what would be worse. After dressed, he looked into a full body mirror and laughed,

"Tony is going to love this." He shuffled into the bullpen, and rolled his eyes as Tony and Ziva immediately began thinking of jibes. Tony made the first move,

"They say the clothes make the man, what does this make McGee?"

"Umm gay…" giggled Ziva.

"No Ziva. Aquasmurf," Even McGee laughed at that one, Tony was like an X rated Peter Pan.

"Gibbs is doing interrogation, come on, this is sure to brighten your day." Watching Gibbs interrogate a suspect was scary enough behind the glass, he had never even concerned himself with being the one opposite him.

"I swear Gibbs enjoys this more than sex." Tony laughed, admittedly it would explain a lot about him. A sudden feeling of nausea sent Tim looking hurriedly around the room for a bin. He thankfully found a bin, and was violently sick, Tony and Ziva watching on, worried, and completely confused.

"Yeah, I felt like that the first time I imagined Gibbs having 'relations'." Laughed Tony. He wiped his mouth, and attempted to stand up, however only a few minutes from the initial nausea, he began to feel light-headed, eventually collapsing on the hard flooring of the interrogation viewing room. Ziva's always steady hands shook slightly, making dialling the hospital much more difficult than imagined. The rule was well known, 'never interrupt Gibbs during interrogration.

"What have I told you DiNozzo!" scolded Gibbs through gritted teeth. "McGee collapsed Boss." Gibbs kicked the door open, and stormed out past Tony. Luckily, the medical team had arrived, and were pulling Tim onto a stretcher.

Tony had called Abby, as he well knew; Abby and Tim had deeper, unexpressed feelings towards each other. Abby was frantically pacing outside the NCIS office building, finally slowing, and leaning against the door panel of the ambulance. As she saw Tim's face, she knew, something dreadful was going to happen, was she going to lose the one she loved, the one she always counted on. It could be worse, she thought to herself. It could have been a body bag. The thought of Tim dying brought tears to her eyes, it was as if time itself had slowed down. Tim was loaded into the ambulance, and her pleading with the paramedics to let her stay with Tim. The paramedics must have decided that arguing with Abby at this time was pointless, she would run along behind them if need be.