I'm in Love with My Stalker

By: Don David and Sasha Cartwright

A/N Sorry that it took longer than expected but here it is. The final chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 13

As Gibbs stalked down the hallway, he allowed his concern for Tony to slide to the backburner and his rage to take top priority.

Under any other circumstance, he would have just disassembled McGee and been done with it, but since his whole field of focus had been on finding Tony, now was the first time he had been able to address the issue head on.

As Gibbs walked back into the waiting room, he was greeted by the anxious faces of his team.

McGee stood from his chair, but seeing the look on his boss' face, the younger man's expectant smile melted into a worried frown as he sunk back down into his chair.

Abby, missing the interaction entirely, rushed over to Gibbs, fear gracing her face.

"How is he?" asked she wondered, her eyes full of worry.

"He's hurting a lot right now," explained Gibbs, a sharpness in his voice aimed directly at McGee, "but he'll be all right."

They all breathed heavily, like the weight of the world was taken off their shoulders.

"Why don't you get something to eat," suggested Gibbs to Abby and Ziva. "He's going to be asleep for a while yet."

"But, Bossman!" exclaimed Abby, horrified by the idea, "We can't just leave him. What if he wakes up and he's all alone? "

"He won't be alone," promised Gibbs. "I'm staying with him."

"You'd better, Bossman," scolded Abby seriously, but heading towards the door. "Tony's been through enough today."

As Abby disappeared out the doorway, Ziva approached Gibbs.

"If you are here, so am I," replied Ziva, her tone expressing that no one could change her mind, other than Gibbs, that is.

"He'll still be here when you get back," assured Gibbs. "He's not going anywhere any time soon."

"It does not matter if he is here today, next week, or next month," replied Ziva, not budging. "Tony has been there for me and been my partner for two years now-"

Through with arguing, Gibbs growled, "David, it wasn't a suggestion! You and Abby go get something to eat and don't come back until you do!"

Realizing that now was not the time to argue with her boss, Ziva answered, "Yes, Gibbs."

As she turned and followed Abby from the room, Gibbs cleared the distance between him and McGee in three quick strides.

Looking the younger man dead in the eyes, the ex-marine questioned, his voice deadly serious, "Give me one good reason to not fire you right now and make sure that you're stuffed into a dark cubicle and forgotten?"

"Boss," replied McGee, not sure if he could spit his apology out fast enough, "I'm so, so sorry that this happened. I promise you, nothing like this will ever, ever happen again."

The older man said nothing, but fluidly crossed his arms in front of his chest, his piercing blue eyes never leaving the younger agent's.

"You didn't answer my question," noted Gibbs, his voice remaining surprisingly calm while his stare hardened into a glare.

"Well, um, ah," stumbled McGee, not at all sure of what he should say to his boss to beg forgiveness for such an innocent thing that went so horribly wrong.

"You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you don't want to be fixing printers at Best Buy, Agent McGee," warned Gibbs, his voice gaining a fierce bite.

At this, McGee stopped sputtering, fear filling his eyes, completely at a loss for what he could say.

Seeing this, Gibbs relaxed his glare ever so slightly.

"All right, let's start with how all of this got started," Gibbs offered, giving the younger man the rare luxury of explaining himself.

Finding his voice again after quite a while, McGee recalled the tale.

"Well, when Anna first started talking to me, we got along great, but said she wanted to meet me, I became, um, ashamed at who I really was," explained the younger man. "That's when I took a picture of Tony on my phone and sent it to her. I thought that, if she thought I looked like Tony, she'd like me better."

"And all of this," Gibbs questioned, "happened because you sent her a picture of Tony on your phone?"

McGee nodded sadly.

"Boss, I promise, if I had known that she would do anything like this, I would have never given her the picture. When she started to act, well, crazy, I tried to break it off," explained McGee. "It was after I broke up with her that she kidnapped Tony."

"I figured if she saw me for who I really am, she would not only make a laughing stock of me to her and all of her friends, but of anyone who I would have ever had a shot at having a decent relationship with," replied McGee, his eyes dropping to the floor so that he wouldn't have to look his boss in the eyes.

Hearing this, Gibbs gave a heavy sigh.

Hearing the explanation, his anger began to dissipate, but he knew he needed to talk some sense into his junior field agent.

"If any woman does not like you, Tim McGee, for who you are as a person, then she is not worth your time," said Gibbs, "learned that from wives numbers two and three."

"Wow, thanks boss," said McGee, feeling surprisingly better.

"And if you have a problem, like this or anything else," the former marine continued, praying that they would never have to have a repeat of the nightmare they had just experienced. "Ask us for help. Don't try to solve it yourself with some harebrained idea like using DiNozzo's picture as yours, all right?"

"Of course, Boss," answered McGee with a firm nod, understanding completely and vowing to NEVER do something that stupid again.

"Good," nodded Gibbs, allowing his palm to connect roughly with the back of the younger man's head.

McGee thought to complain, but, considering his less than intelligent decisions as of late, he figured he'd earned it.

"Thanks, Boss," said McGee, massaging the now sore back of his head.

"Anytime McGee, but pull a stunt like this again, I'll kill ya myself," answered Gibbs, his tone showing exactly how serious he was about exacting his threat.

"Yes, Boss," replied McGee, knowing that, if he were to repeat his blunder, Gibbs would be more than willing to carry out his promise.

"Thanks, Boss," McGee stated, beyond relieved that his boss hadn't murdered him right there in the waiting room, "for being so…understanding."

"I'm not the only one you need to be explaining to, McGee," reminded Gibbs, roughly, but not unkindly, "I'm not the one in the hospital."

At that, McGee's face fell.

"Yeah," he conceded, "I'll do whatever it takes to make this up to Tony."

"You'd better," warned Gibbs, all of his usual seriousness returning with a vengeance, "or losing your job will be the least of your worries."

Just then, Abby and Ziva walked out into the waiting area, carrying several bags of food.

"We thought that you might be hungry too," explained Abby, handing Gibbs and McGee each a bag, completely oblivious to the interaction that had just taken place.

"Thanks, Abs," thanked McGee, by talking around the mouth full of food he had devoured.

Just then, a nurse entered the waiting area.

"Tony DiNozzo Family," she called.

Gibbs turned, followed by McGee, Ziva, and Abby.

"Wow, big family," she noted.

"Is he ok?" asked Gibbs, hoping that nothing else had gone wrong with his senior field agent.

"Yes, he should be ok for now," explained the nurse. "It might take a long road to recovery but he will be fine."

"Has he said anything?" wondered McGee, hoping that Anna and Michael were becoming a distance memory, despite the slim chance of that.

"Not really," the nurse replied after a few moments.

"But he has been asking for his daddy," she answered, thinking nothing of the odd request of the sick man.

"DADDY?" exclaimed McGee, Ziva, and Abby simultaneously, not believing what they had been told.

"It must be the drugs," reasoned Gibbs, though he was biting back a content smile.

Gibbs walked with the nurse to Tony's room, quickly followed by a very curious McGee, Abby, and Ziva.

"Hey, Tony," greeted Gibbs, gently running his fingers through Tony's hair.

"Hey, Boss," the younger man replied, "you were here."

"I promised you I'd be here," reasoned Gibbs, not ceasing, "although I am curious. The nurse said you asked for your daddy."

"It must be the drugs. I never said such things," denied DiNozzo, but as he remembered the story of his "family" to Anna and Michael, a small grin spread across his face.

"Not so fast, Dinozzo, you might have a point. We are a family, dysfunctional, but a family. You are the oldest son who attracts trouble like a bear to honey, McGee the youngest boy would is constantly the brunt of his older brother's pranks and jokes," assessed Gibbs, his eyes falling on a sheepish McGee and a contently grinning Tony.

"Abby is the youngest daughter that plays the mediator and keeps us all sane," continued Gibbs.

"Ah, thanks, Gibbs," Abby said, planting a kiss on her boss' cheek.

"What about Ziva?" asked Tony, wanting to know where their ninja fell in this family.

"Ziva is the older daughter who's just as dangerous fighting her family as she is defending them," explained Gibbs.

"And where does that leave you?" asked Tony, wanting to hear Gibbs say it more than anything.

"Where do you think, Knucklehead?" questioned Gibbs, teasing his "son" good naturedly.

"You are the infamous Papa Gibbs," reasoned Tony with a smirk that the others couldn't explain.

"You bet your life I am," assured Gibbs, "always there to protect my kids."

"Good to know, Boss," said Tony with a warm smile.

They started to laugh as they were remembering the events that lead them all here to the hospital, how strange it was for them to be laughing after everything that had happened, but then, they were a strange family.

As the memory of what had happened returned to McGee, he turned to Tony with a solemn look on his face.

"Ah, Tony, I'm really sorry for all of this," he explained, the guilt returning once again. "The reason Anna went after you was because she wanted to see what I looked like and I sent her a picture of you thinking that she would like me better if I looked like you."

"Really?" Tony wondered, barely believing what he'd been told.

McGee gave a solemn nod.

"A woman went that crazy over a picture of me?" questioned Tony, somewhat baiting his younger friend.

Hearing this, Gibbs rolled his eyes, while Ziva groaned.

"Just stop, McGee," she warned. "His confidence doesn't need THAT much of a boost."

"Either way," McGee finished, putting a gentle hand on Tony's bandaged shoulder. "I'm sorry that all of this happened because of me."

"Don't worry, Probalicious," assured Tony, knowing that McGee hadn't meant for things to turn out the way they had, "but when I get back to work, McSnapshot, it is on."

As McGee's eyes filled with fear, Tony let out a colossal yawn and then a wince when it caused pain to tear through his marred chest.

"All right, Tony," said Gibbs, knowing that Tony desperately needed his rest.

"But, Dad!" whined Tony good naturedly.

"No buts," stated Gibbs sounding very much like a father.

As the team turned to leave, they said their goodbyes to Tony and Gibbs.

"I'm glad you're safe," said Abby, kissing Tony on the cheek.

"Night Abs, I mean sis," replied Tony with a tired smile.

"Ah, night Tony," bid McGee, not really sure what to say, but glad that their nightmare was over.

"Night, McFlowerPower," answered Tony.

"Shalom, DiNozzo," stated Ziva, gently smoothing her "brother's" hair and planting a soft kiss on his forehead. "If you should have another crazed woman after you, just remember that my paperclip and I have your six."

"Night to you too, my little ninja," yawned Tony, taking comfort in her words.

As the team filed from the room and Tony fell into a restful sleep, Gibbs whispered, "Night, kids."

The End

A/N And Finis! We really hope that you enjoyed the story. Remember, any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to let us know. Thank you all so much for all of your love and support. We really appreciate it.

PS As a shameless plug, for Don and me, we wanted to let you know that we have another project that we are working on that you might be interested in. It will be a series of five stories with a variety of genres and plotlines, the first of which is titled "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Kehlani?". Do to an aggressive shortage of time, updates will be varied and difficult to predict. We will appreciate your patience in this area. We hope to hear from you in the future. As always, thank you for your support. We couldn't have done it without you.