Chapter 5: We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Hoooooo!"

Tim, dozing, one hand on a book which lay open and abandoned on his chest, was brutally started awake.

He couldn't help it when his body seized up at...Santa Claus' sudden and rather booming presence, the book clattering to the floor.

Good God! His poor heart!

Tim looked up briefly before closing his eyes again to pinch his nose, trying to regain his composure.

Santa waited a little and then gleefully rang his bell.

"Excuse me, but I think you're on the wrong ward, Santa. The pediatric ward is..."

"Santa's here with some Christmas presents for you, so you'd better behave and better not pout," Santa announced cheerfully.

A little too cheerful, Tim thought. Still, if he was to be honest, he had to admit he appreciated Tony's efforts.

Christmas during a spell at a hospital wasn't much of a Christmas, even if he realized full well so many others were worse off than him.

"What!" Unfortunately, that came out a little more snappy than he'd intended.

Luckily, Tony was quite unfazed and with a chuckle and a smile towards Ziva, who'd joined him into the hospital room, he waved a brightly decorated parcel.

"Tony..." Tim's eyes widened when recognized Ziva as Santa's Elf.

"How did you know it was me?" The Senior Agent asked, a little disappointed.

Tim rolled his eyes as he relaxed against his pillow again.

"Never mind, Tim. Here's your present anyway...because Santa enjoys seeing you pout," and he continued, shaking his index finger when he noticed Tim's telltale glare. "Ah-ah-ah! I didn't say "glare"!"

"Oh give him the parcel, DiNozzo," Gibbs said from his position at the door where he leaned casually against the jamb. Pushing himself off, he calmly walked inside. After submitting his youngest agent to a once-over and, satisfied, he set one of the two coffees he'd brought over on the bedside table. "Thought you could do with one… Hospital coffee sucks." Then he grabbed a chair and sat down at the table by the window from where he could watch his team, relishing the fact they were still together, even if one was a little battered after the past days' events.

"Come on, Timmy!" Abby positively hopped, pretty much like a bunny about to sit down to a feast of the most succulent carrots. She never was one to show even the smallest amount of a patience. "Open it! There's more!"

As he unwrapped the parcel, Elf Ziva passed out snacks to all present with an extra big bag of more of Tim's favorite goodies for her partner.

Tony continued unloading presents and adding them to the growing mountain on Tim's bed.

Jimmy uncorked a bottle of champagne whilst Ducky arranged some plastic flutes on the table. They had, of course, asked permission from the medical staff to do all this. After all, it was Christmas and one of their own was so unfortunate to be confined to a hospital bed. It stood to reason he was more than a little entitled to enjoy this Holy Night, too, spending it with his friends.

Finally, his fingers had extracted the presents from their wrappings and his face lit up like a child's.

"I…I'm…" He swallowed. "I don't know what to say." Some of the items, the vintage comic books, were more than welcome. He knew he would also geek about the two action DVD's and a computer game. He'd caught Tony's anxious glance - and then relief - towards the Mass Effect 3 Special Edition game box Maxine had brought him, earlier today.

As for the other presents…like the Captain America shield and Spiderman figurine… Well… He didn't quite know how to react to those. What was he to do with...toys?

"We thought you might like this," Tony grinned. He reached over towards the tray with sweet delights perched on the bed beside Tim, selected a slice of stollen and stuck it in his mouth.

"Mmm... These are sooooo GOOD! Should try one, Tim."

Tim beamed as he held up some comics.

"Thor? "Trial of the Gods" and "The Fate of Balder"? And the special 350th! How…"

"With a little help from Jimmy, of course," Ziva added.

"What geekier surprise could there be?" Abby laughed and bent over for a kiss on his forehead, at the same time lovingly stroking his now bright pink cheek.

Tim skimmed through the pages, shaking his head as he marveled at the pains his friends had taken to find him such special gifts.

"I missed those in my collection…" He chuckled a little. "Not that I'll ever have the complete collection, anyway. Thanks, guys!"

He then turned over the shield in his hands with a doubtful look, and, furrowing his brow, he mutely demanded an explanation.

"The shield's for protection against the baddies and I'm sure you wished you were Spiderman when you went so…ungraciously over the balustrade." Jimmy explained, his cheeks turning slightly red as well.

Tim looked at every single one of them. He was moved. Very deeply so.

"Thank you. Thank you all."

He took a sip of his coffee. Mmmmm… His favorite: a double half-cap Sumatra blend with a twist of , he peered up at Santa Tony and with a little nod, he pointed to Tony's outfit.

"And…what's the story behind this?"

"That's because he lost the bet," Gibbs obliged, dumping his empty cup in the trash.

"What bet?"

"The one about you pulling off this assignment or not. If you did, Tony would have to dress up as Santa. Of course, we hadn't planned on you staying in a hospital this Christmas."

"And since we already knew none of us would be spending Christmas at home with the family, anyway…" Tony shrugged.

"Except for Director Vance…" Ziva went on.

"…his wife, Jackie… Let's say she's given him an ultimatum," Tony concluded with a wink.

They all laughed, including Tim who couldn't quite suppress a wince.

He looked at his friends as the banter went on. He had been genuinely happy when they had surprised him with gifts at his bedside. It felt good to be surrounded by friends on this night.

His gaze traveled over to the window sill on which Abby had decorated a small, artificial Christmas tree. "Christmas just can't be Christmas without a Christmas tree, Timmy."

So all the team had stayed with him, passing an enjoyable and entertaining evening with Christmas caroling and reminiscing about some rather amusing cases from the past until they all, except for the by now flagging Tim, got kicked out long after visiting hours.

On the nightstand, there was one very special item, one of the presents: a large, framed photo of Tim as Santa kicking the "Snowman's" butt and a newspaper clipping, hailing Father Christmas of his heroic act.

Outside, snow was falling.

A white Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

This was the final chapter. I thank my loyal reviewers as well as all who have followed/favorited this story.
There'll be another SeSa 2012 story coming up soon: "From Victim to Survivor".

After that... We'll see what the future brings.
I've been blessed with some loyal readers/reviewers/friends here on : gottahavemyncis, JazzieG, stareagle, alix33, Gunner'sDream, Corala, Optimisticat, DS2010. Please forgive me if I left anyone out. Thanks for your support and kind words!