Chapter Eight
I opened my eyes to cool air and the sun shining bright on my face. I got up, and there was lush grass under my bare feet. I was wearing my favorite clothes: My MIT shirt and my favorite pair of pants; they were just some old jeans I’d had since I started working at Norfolk…
“Lisa?”
“Over here Tim!”
I walked in the direction of Lisa’s voice; I wasn’t in a hurry. It was lovely here. Birds were singing, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky but it wasn’t hot. Trees grew tall all around, full of fruit and wildlife.
“Did you fall asleep again?” Lisa laughed and came from behind a large tree. She looked like a little girl, holding the bottom of her shirt with both hands. It was full of fruit.
“I guess I did.” I laughed, took and apple from her, and bit into it. It was perfect. She smiled up at me, her eyes as bright as I’d ever seen them, her hair almost all the way down her back.
“Come on, we have to meet Rachel and Ava!”
“Rachel and Ava?” Then I realized: I was…dead? The thought didn’t really faze me much. I was quite peaceful, and light. Did that mean…Lisa too?
“That’s why we were picking fruit, until you dozed off in the grass. I got enough though.” Lisa interrupted my fleeting thoughts, smiled again, and began to walk away. I followed curiously.
Lisa and I got to a large house after walking for a few minutes. There weren’t any cars, or other buildings, just this house; regal and old. It reminded me of the summer house I used to go to with my parents on the Jersey Shore. Rachel and Ava met us at the door.
“That fruit looks amazing, Lisa!” Rachel had a basket waiting and Lisa dropped the fruit inside.
“Tim, come help me set the table.” Ava reached out her hand and I took it.
The house was filled with the aroma of food, and there were many people walking around inside. Everyone was talking, laughing, hugging, and eating. Children ran around me, chasing one another around the furniture. Older men and women played cards in the parlor. Somehow they all seemed very familiar. I was overcome with a warm happiness, and it was the best feeling I’d ever had.
Ava and I began to set a giant table in the backyard. I must’ve set 200 plates and 400 forks and spoons before I stopped counting. Ava had set even more than me!
“Lunch is ready!” I called into the house. Somehow I knew.
People began to congregate in the backyard, and then I saw her: Caitlin Todd walked my way. She was even more beautiful then I’d remembered. Her hair was longer, and she had a sort of happy glow about her. I had never seen her wear anything too casual but she was wearing a sundress, with a large white hat. I laughed to myself. She looked like a classy woman going to the Kentucky Derby!
“Hi, McGee. Miss me?” She smiled coyly, like I remembered.
“Kate… You look beautiful.” It was the first time I had given a woman a compliment without stuttering.
“Thanks McGee, you clean up nice yourself.”
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I dropped the dishes I was holding and collapsed into the grass. Kate stood over me and smiled.
“I’ve seen you in that position before, only you were under my old desk.”
Rachel ran to my side. I tried to get up, but she pushed me back down.
“No, Tim, it’s okay, you can go back.”
“Go back, where?”
I felt that happiness leaving, and worry hit me like a slap in the face. I felt another sharp pain, this time in my side, and more people began to gather. They had serene looks on their faces.
“Bye, Tim…” Rachel smiled.
“See ya, McGee, but not too soon. Punch Tony for me.”
“Bye? What? Rachel…” She and Kate, and everyone else watching began to fade.
“I know you did what you could for me, and I’m happy now, happier than I ever was. I have you to thank for that.”
Before I could say anything, everything disappeared.
---------------------------------------------------------
“We’ve got him back, Doctor.”
I took in a deep breath and tried to sit up.
“No, hold him down!” I heard someone shout.
I felt hands on my chest, and I was pushed back onto a gurney. I looked to my right and saw a nurse pulling away a defibrillator. There was an IV in my arm and I looked up at it: ‘AB negative’. I was overwhelmed by all the hands on me, gauze by the yard, both fresh and bloodied, the needles and the medication, the blood in a bag. I could still feel an excruciating pain in my side. The cold, bright room was getting smaller as the nurse count went up. I panicked.
“GIBBS!”
“Sir, you have to calm down.” A nurse tried to plead with me.
“Where’s Lisa?!”
“SIR, you should really calm down, we’re trying to help you.”
Gibbs and Tony showed up in the room. I was glad they had missed seeing me…dead. Had I really been dead, or was it a dream? It felt so real…the sun, the apple… Kate, and Ava and Rachel…and Lisa. Oh God, not Lisa.
“No one but family and authorized personnel are allowed back here.” A nurse stood in front of the door.
“I’m his father.” I heard Gibbs as he stepped in. He gave the nurse stopping him a look, and she stepped aside.
“Oh, right, good plan Boss...I’m his half-brother,” Tony added, and followed right behind Gibbs.
They came up to the side of the bed that the nurses weren’t around.
“Tim, you will be fine. I know the surgeon.” Gibbs spoke first.
“Surgeon?!” I tried to get up again, and it was Gibbs that put his hand on me this time.
“Calm down, you’re tougher than this, McGoo!” Tony looked worried. Tony never looks worried. I knew it was bad.
“I don’t think I am.” There was a knife in my side, for God’s sake!
Gibbs gave me the same look he gave to the nurse.
“Where’s Lisa?” I looked at Gibbs and then Tony questioningly.
Gibbs looked down.
“Is she…dead?” My voice cracked.
“She’s in a coma…” He looked up.
Tony piped in. “It’s drug induced. She’s banged up pretty bad. According to the doctor her airway was blocked off long enough where she might have brain damage…the hit to the back of the head added to that chance…” Tony trailed off as he saw the look on my face.
I saw Lisa in my mind, Silvers’ hands around her throat…her head hitting the oven, and then her limp body sliding into the floor.
“And Silvers?”
Tony continued. “Oh, he’s dead. Ducky’s got him now. But the double tap to his chest is the pretty obvious cause of death…”
Gibbs head slapped Tony. “Shutting up, Boss.”
“Ziva?” She would have been here…
Gibbs saw the worry on my face, too. “She’s got Blythe in interrogation. He had something to do with all this.”
“Abby?”
I got a head slap this time.
“Do ya even have to ask McGee? She’s in the waiting room!”
“She just didn’t want to see you like this…” Tony looked around the room. I had a feeling Gibbs and Tony didn’t want to see me like this either. I’m glad they’re here. And Abby, too.
A machine hooked up to me began to beep. I felt light-headed.
“His heart rate is dropping.” A nurse put something into another IV I hadn’t noticed until just then.
“You really need to leave now.” A nurse walked over to Gibbs.
“I’m staying.”
“Sir, you have to…”
“Just let them stay, Nancy.” An older masked surgeon walked in. The nurse backed off.
“Only a few more minutes, Gibbs.” The masked surgeon looked at Gibbs. Gibbs nodded.
“Nancy, go ahead and give Agent McGee the Methohexitone.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Agent McGee, I’m Frank Lavender, I’m going to be your surgeon. We’re going to get that knife out of you, alright?”
I nodded. Whatever they gave me was working quickly. I was getting really sleepy. An eerie calm fell over me. I looked up at a worried Gibbs and Tony and thought about how Gibbs knew this grey-haired surgeon before surrendering to a deep sleep.