The lieutenant was pacing the small room, mumbling to himself. “How did they find out? My cover was supposed to be unbreakable.” He dropped down onto a chair, drumming his fingers on his leg. “Navy cops,” he chided. “I’ve been worried about Interpol and the CIA and its two Navy cops that caught on to the plan. Navy cops! I was so careful.”

He looked out the window not surprised to see several MP’s patrolling the area. Well, he was safe where he was, at least for the moment. He wished he had been able to bring something to drink or eat, but he had left the com building too quickly to think about such things. He didn’t know how long he would be able to stay where he was.

Well, there was no sense in worrying about it now. He was stuck where he was at least for the next few hours then he would have to figure out how to get to the two people who could cause the most trouble for him. “Damn Navy cops,” he murmured and took a swipe at the items on the small bookcase under the window. The sound of the falling objects made a loud noise and he gritted his teeth at his stupidity. He peeked out of the window but no one seemed to be close enough to have heard the noise. He quickly brushed the broken objects into a corner and sat on the bed. At least he could get a little rest.
 

**
 

Ziva maintained her vigil at the OR door. She had been keeping a close eye on the people wandering around, but the lieutenant wasn’t one of them. One of the MP’s came by not too long ago and told her there has been no sign of Jasper. She nodded, wondering where he had gone off to and what he was planning now that he had been found out.

Suddenly the doors opened and McGee was wheeled out of the operating room followed by two men, probably doctors. Ziva gave each one a quick look. One was tall with graying hair and the other was shorter with a stocky build. Then her attention was solely on McGee. She noticed Tim’s pale skin, the oxygen mask over his face and two IV’s running along with a unit of blood. She followed the gurney to a space a short way down the hall that she assumed was used for recovery.

Once he was settled there and the nurse assigned to him had finished taking his vitals and making sure everything was okay, waved her hand indicating Ziva could come and sit by his bed.

“I’m Lt. Sheila Lofton. I’ll be taking care of Agent McGee while he’s in recovery. You may sit with him. I’ll bring a chair over for you.” Ziva thanked her and went to stand by McGee’s bed.

The taller man with graying hair finished his exam then turned to Ziva. “I’m Dr. Bridges. We didn’t get a chance to meet earlier. Your friend is doing well, Agent. His B.P. and heart rate are good. We’ll keep an eye on him, but as the nurse said, you may stay here if you wish.”

“Thank you, Doctor. I would like to stay with him until he wakes up and I am sure he is doing alright.” With that, she pulled up the chair that had been brought to her and sat by McGee’s bedside, taking his hand in hers. She was surprised at how cool it was.

“Tim,” she said softly. “I am here with you. I promised Tony I would see to it that you were safe. I have not done a very good job of it so far, McGee. I am sorry.” She stopped. “I know, you are going to say that I am not to blame. That is just like you. Maybe I am not to blame. You were about to tell me who is though. It is Lt. Jasper, is it not?” McGee’s only answer was his steady breathing under the oxygen mask.

It seemed like the nurse was there checking his vitals every few minutes.

“Is something wrong? You have checked his blood pressure many times.”

“It’s routine while in post-op recovery. He’s doing fine, Agent David.” Just then, McGee started to moan. “Agent McGee, I need you to wake up for me. Open your eyes.”

All he knew was that he hurt; pain like he’d never felt before. There was that car accident when he was sixteen; sure he hurt then, but not like this. What happened? He felt cold, like the bodies he’d seen on the cold, hard tables in Ducky’s autopsy room. Am I dead? No, no, that can’t be right. If I were dead, would I be feeling this much pain?

Tony? Was Tony here, too? Was he cold, too? Was he in pain? God, he hoped not. He didn’t want to think of his Sugarplum being cold and in pain. No, that wasn’t happening. Tony, he had to find Tony. He had to know that he was okay. He tried to form the words, but he couldn’t. He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were too heavy.

He felt a strong hand and fingers curling around his own hand but realized it was too soft and small to be Tony’s. But he sensed tenderness there, so he let the hand stay. The voice certainly wasn’t Tony’s. It was too soft, too high and had a strange, or maybe not so strange, sound. It sounded concerned, but he couldn’t quite place where he’d heard it before.

He let the voice guide him back through the pain and confusion.

Ziva watched as he opened his eyes and moved his head.

“To…ny?” Another moan slipped from his mouth, slightly muffled by the oxygen mask.

“Tim, it is Ziva. You are doing just fine. I will see if you can have something for pain.” She felt him squeeze her hand. She looked towards the nurse. “Can you give him something for the pain?”

The nurse picked up the chart and checked his orders. “He has something ordered. I’ll just go get it. Be back in a few minutes.” She hurried to a small alcove not too far from where Ziva sat. True to her word, she was back quickly and injected the pain med into the I.V. line. It only took a few seconds for McGee to settle down and for Ziva, although keeping a close watch over her friend and what was going on around them, to relax back in the chair.

Despite the effects of the pain medication, Tim kept a tight grip on her hand and every once in a while the name “Tony” was softly murmured.

Sheila was standing by the desk when her supervisor approached. “Sheila, why don’t you go and get something to eat and put your feet up for a few minutes. I can watch over your patients.” Sheila smiled at the offer, finished her note and gave an updated report on Tim and her other patient.

As she left the hospital an MP stopped her and asked if she’d seen Lt. Jasper. She told him she had not and that she had been on duty in the hospital all day. She asked what was wrong and was told that if she did see him, she was to tell the MPs or security people immediately.

She assured the young soldier that she would do as he requested should she see him. She walked a few steps away then turned and glanced back at the MP, watching him check another building. Her curiosity was piqued, but she continued on her way over to the ‘food court’ as it was dubbed; a little bit of home for the military. She debated between pizza and her favorite, being from Philadelphia, a cheese steak. Remembering the upcoming physical fitness test, she quickly passed on both and opted for a turkey sandwich on wheat but did splurge on a bag of chips. She ordered a large iced tea to go with the sandwich and carrying the paper plate, cup and several napkins, she went back to her room where it was a little cooler than sitting in the open air.

Back in the darkened room, Lt. Jasper was keeping an eye out for anyone coming close to his hiding place on the floor next to her bed, but he had been left undisturbed for several hours. He had just dozed off when he heard the door handle jiggle and quickly rolled off the bed on the far side. The door opened, letting in some light and then quickly closed again. Footsteps walked over to the small table by the bed and he could hear something being set down. His stomach growled at the sound of the ice clinking in the cup as it was set on the table. He knew there had to be food with it.

“Did you bring me anything?” he asked as he quickly sat up next to the bed.

Sheila jumped, almost dropping the wrapped sandwich she still held. “What are you doing hiding down there?” she said loudly. “You scared me to death.”

“Shhh,” he said putting a finger to his lips. Giving her his puppy dog eyes and casually falling onto the bed he looked at the sandwich in her hand. “I really am hungry, though.” He reached for the sandwich but Sheila pulled it out of his reach and glared at him.

“An MP stopped me as I left the hospital and asked if I knew where you were. He didn’t say why he wanted to know, but there are MPs all over the place out there.” She stared at the man for a moment trying to see if she could figure out what had happened. He gave nothing away. “What have you done, Malcolm?”

“Food first, okay; I haven’t had anything to eat since this morning.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve been in here since this morning.”

“Alright, I won’t. Does the army know you wear Victoria’s Secret under your fatigues? Why haven’t I seen you in that red set you have hidden in the top drawer over there?”

“Get out.”

“I can’t. I’m wanted, remember? And I don’t think you want me to get caught either, do you?”

“Are you threatening me?”

He eyed the sandwich one more time and when it was evident that she wasn’t going to offer it to him, he grabbed the small package and unwrapped it. “Turkey? You could have at least brought me a few slices of pepperoni pizza.”

“I wasn’t planning on feeding you!”

A few minutes later, sandwich gone, he grabbed the tea from the table and took a big swallow through the straw. When he had his fill, he offered the cup back to her.

He stood up, towering over her sitting figure. “Not a threat, babe. I have a job to do, just like you.”

“You sent those agents out knowing something was going to happen.” She paused for a moment, and then opened her eyes wide. “You made sure something would happen, didn’t you? You knew from the beginning that there were going to be casualties. Don’t start playing innocent now.”

His response was to pull the nurse down with him as he lay back on the bed. “If you must know, I didn’t expect those Navy cops to come back alive. Guess I misjudged their expertise.”

She was able to push him away and scramble off of the bed. She ran her fingers through her hair trying to calm herself. “I have to get back; there were several patients in recovery when I left.”

“One of them wouldn’t happen to be Agent McGee, now would it?” He noticed the slight change in her facial expression. “So, he’s out of surgery. And just how is he doing?”

“I won’t talk about my patients, especially him, to you.”

“He’ll live, I presume? You know it wouldn’t take much for you to help me, don’t you. A little too much pain medication; perhaps accidentally giving him something he’s allergic to.” He stood, his taller, bulkier frame looming over her.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to harm him. Now get out!” She raised her arm, ready to push him out if she had to.

He grabbed her wrist and held tightly to it. “Listen, it’s your life as well as mine. You may not have known about what I had planned, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make it look like you were part of it. This is bigger than both of us, babe.”

“I’m not your “babe” and even if Agent McGee were to die, what about the other agent and all the agents who will come after them? You can’t make them all go away, Lieutenant, you can’t. And I won’t help you.”

He managed to twist her arm behind her but she was able to kick at his shin. “You’re no match for my strength, babe. I have more to lose than you do. That makes me a greater threat to you.”

“Stop it,” she said through gritted teeth.

He loosened his hold but kept his hand around her upper arm guiding her out of the relative coolness of her room into the hot, sunlit day. They ducked around to the back of the row of buildings and headed for the hospital. Whether he was lucky or she was unlucky, they didn’t see any MP’s or security people on their journey.

“Looks like no one’s looking for me anymore; I bet they think I got away from the base by now. You think they’ll start searching the mountains next? It would be easy to get lost out there.”

“You won’t get away. Even if you managed to leave the base they’d find you. No one would stop until you were safely put away at Gitmo or, my personal preference, dead. You think too much of yourself.”

“Nobody’s caught me for all these years, so there’s no reason to think they will now. Just do your part and I might let you live.” He squeezed her arm just a little harder to make sure he got his point across. “Course, that’s up to you.”

“Kill me then because I wouldn’t even spit on you if you were on fire.”

He didn’t respond because they were near the hospital and more people were milling about. Still apparently unnoticed, they entered through the back door, heading toward recovery. What he didn’t see was an MP rounding a corner of the building behind them. He was too far away to do anything right then but saw them enter the hospital. He called for assistance and quickly moved closer to the door they had just gone into.

It took only a few moments for help to arrive and the MP explained what he saw.

“Specialist Silenko, did it look like the nurse was a willing participant?”

“No sir. He was holding her arm tightly and seemed to be pulling her along. I don’t think she wanted to be with him.”

“Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. I want those civilians in one piece, remember that.” He sent half of the men assembled there to the front of the hospital and told them to wait for his orders before they did anything and to report to him if Lt. Jasper tried to leave that way.”

Meanwhile, inside, Lt. Jasper ducked into a small supply closet, pulling Sheila in after him. “Listen to me; one word to anyone about me being here and I will kill you.” He grabbed at a package on the shelf and put it in her hand. “Now get out there and make them go away.”

The nurse walked slowly out of the closet carrying the box of syringes.

“There you are,” Diana said when she saw her friend. “I thought maybe you fell asleep and I was going to have to send someone to get you.”

Sheila gave a little smile. “No such luck. How’s Agent McGee doing?”

“Good. Woke up about fifteen minutes ago, long enough to have a short conversation with that female agent.”

“Why don’t you go eat; I’ve got him now.” Diana left with a short wave and Sheila walked over to the agent’s bedside. She greeted Ziva and seeing that McGee was sleeping picked up his chart, putting a new sheet of paper on it. “It’s been a while since he’s had any medication. Diana said he woke up and was able to talk to you. Did he make sense?”

“Oh, yes. He was quite alert but it did not last very long. He is not a big talker anyway unless it has to do with computers or technology of some kind. I think he drives our boss crazy at times.”

“One of those, huh? I know what you mean. Look, I’ll be here, why don’t you go get something to eat or just stretch your legs. There’s actually a pretty good choice of foods at the food court across the compound. You’ve been sitting here for quite a while.” As she talked, she had been writing on the paper she added to the chart.

Everything had been quiet for several hours and with all the people around, she didn’t think it would hurt to take a five minute break. Some cold water sounded good. “Maybe I will. Thank you.” She looked at her watch. “I shall return in ten minutes.” She gave McGee’s hand a squeeze and was pleased to receive a response, although weak, in return. “McGee, you behave yourself for the nurse while I am gone.”

Sheila held out her hand as if to shake Ziva’s hand. “The turkey sandwich is really good. You should eat something, too.” Ziva took her hand and felt a folded piece of paper in the palm of her hand. Sheila nodded.

Ziva left quickly, anxious to see what was on the paper but knowing that since it was given to her in such a furtive way it was not meant for anyone else to know about.

Sheila waited a few minutes then walked over to the drug cabinet to get some Morphine to ease McGee’s pain.

Lt. Jasper, seeing that the female agent had left, quietly walked out of the supply room. He was now wearing a scrub top over his BDU pants just like everyone else in the hospital and no one paid any attention to him as he headed for the drug area.
 

***
 

Ziva opened the folded piece of paper as soon as she exited the medical building.

Jasper here, all in danger.

tbc