Gibbs had just stepped out of DiNozzo's room when his phone rang. It was the Director's personal number, obviously she wanted an update. "Gibbs."

~Jethro, how is Agent McGee? Was there any additional damage to his arm?~

"The water loosened everything up so they had to remove and replace the maggots early, but..."

~Is there another word we can use, Jethro?~

Snorting to himself, Gibbs continued on. "It looks like his little friends are doing their job even better than we'd hoped. Doc's really pleased with his progress already."

~And his leg?~

"So far, no worse. They're going to replace the immobilizer since that one is soaked. We should be able to leave here in a bit, but take my team out of the rotation, Jen. DiNozzo's having a little trouble with this. They had to give him a shot to calm his stomach down."

~Did he see the...~

"The escape? Oh, yeah, so did Abby. She handled it better, though."

~No surprise there, Jethro. Ziva's going to have questions, what do you want me to tell her?~

The cat was well out of the bag now, so Gibbs gave her the go-ahead. "Tell her everything, but if you don't want that expensive lunch to go to waste, you might wait a bit."

~Funny, Jethro.~

Gibbs heard the dial tone and snickered to himself as he closed his phone. Inside the tough as nails Director was still the Probie that hurled all over Ducky's shoes. He stepped inside McGee's room to find his agent quietly sleeping. Abby was sitting close to his head, gently stroking his hair as she wiped at her face with her other hand. Gibbs was instantly concerned.

"Abby, everything okay now?"

She nodded before wiping the back of her hand under her nose. "He's more of a friend than I deserve sometimes."

While part of him always hated to see her upset, he was glad to see the understanding. "You're the only one that can change that, Abs."

"I know." She thought back to the day he'd been attacked and how she'd immediately turned on him when she saw the injured dog. How her anger had set the mood for the way the rest of the team treated McGee for weeks afterward. Seeing the photographic evidence hadn't been enough, it wasn't until she'd seen the wiggling mass of maggots tumbling out of her friend's torn skin that she'd fully understood how horrific the injury had been.

Gibbs always told people that the buck stopped with him, but he relied on Abby's mind and her lab to give him the answers he needed. A mind and a lab that hadn't bothered to look at the drugs and contaminates in the dog's mouth, had dismissed McGee's troubles when early treatment would have made such a difference. Tim's easy forgiveness and desire to forget made her feel even more ashamed. She finally looked up at Gibbs. "I know, I get it now."

-NCIS-

Even though the nurse had told him everything was done, Tony cautiously opened the door while staying put in the hallway. "Everybody all tucked away? No stragglers wandering around?"

"Get in here, DiNozzo." There wasn't much bite to Gibbs' growl , nor was there much spark behind the grin on Tony's face.

"Hey, Probie, sorry I bailed on you." Still embarrassed, Tony edged slowly towards McGee.

After forgiving Abby, Tony was easy. "That's okay. If the tables ever turn, I'll reserve the right to hide in a corner and puke."

Tim was expecting a typical DiNozzo comeback, but Tony was deadly serious. "Not so sure I'd be brave enough to handle what you're dealing with." Finally close enough, he reached out and laid his hand on McGee's uninjured arm. "You doing all right?"

"Yeah, the doctors say it's working. I can put up with a lot if I get to keep my arm."

Tony didn't know what to say to that, so he settled for another squeeze of McGee's arm, using the return of the doctor as an excuse for his silence.

"All right, Agent McGee, I just looked at the latest scan of your leg and it confirmed no additional damage. We'll finish getting you cleaned up and out of here."

-NCIS-

"I'm afraid that's all I know, Ziva, but perhaps Ducky could answer any questions."

Ziva didn't wait for an official dismissal as she rushed out of the Director's office and headed for the stairs. She was running by the time she hit the Autopsy doors. "Ducky... McGee... maggots? They filled his arm with maggots? Why would they do that? For someone like McGee, that had to be torture rather than medicine."

Jenny had called down, warning him that Ziva was on her way, confessing how little detail she'd given the Israeli woman. Unfortunately, Jimmy was next to him and heard the entire rant.

"Maggots? In McGee's arm? Who put maggots inside him?"

Sighing, Ducky gave up any hopes of a productive afternoon and steered them both to his desk. "Let us have a cup of tea and I will tell you both all about it."

-NCIS-

McGee looked exhausted as he struggled up the front porch steps, Gibbs at his side, DiNozzo hovering behind him as Abby rushed ahead to open the door. Dressed in scrubs from the hospital, his sling and immobilizer replaced with dry ones, he went straight to the sofa. Gibbs and Tony helped get him comfortable while Abby fetched a blanket and several pillows.

"Thanks, guys."

Tony watched his friend for a moment, then glanced at the time. He couldn't remember how much McGee had eaten before everything went sideways, but it was already well past 18.00. He touched Gibbs' arm. "I'm going to go grab some food for everybody, arrange to get our cars here."

A nod was his only answer as Gibbs watched Abby settle on the floor next to McGee's head.

Still feeling guilty, Abby carefully straightened the strap on McGee's sling, making sure it wasn't digging into his neck. She pulled her hand back, hovering over his arm. "Does it still hurt?"

"Not really. Between the pain pills and the fact that the infection is finally starting to clear, it's down to a dull ache – unless I get bumped."

Abby took it as a warning and shifted around very carefully until she was leaning against the sofa. Gibbs watched, knowing that eventually her curiosity would battle her feelings of guilt. It actually took longer than he was expecting.

"Can you feel them?"

McGee made a face. "I'm trying not to."

She was immediately contrite. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault, Abby."

"Yeah, it is."

Tim rolled his head enough to look at her. "You didn't bite me, Abs."

"No, but I put the dog first and that's even worse. She laid her cheek against his head and fell silent again, letting Tim doze next to her.

It was still quiet when Tony returned with Ziva, both of them heavily laden with dinner, snacks and movies to watch. As Tony attached his DVD player to Gibbs' old television, Ziva moved over to watch McGee.

Ducky had explained in detail about the strange medical procedure McGee was enduring, but it was Tony's honest reaction that had shaken Ziva the most. Watching the expression on his face as he suddenly walked out of their usual Chinese restaurant, unable to face a bowl of white rice told her everything she needed to know. She dropped to her knees and touched Abby's shoulder, keeping her voice low. "How is he?"

"They say it's better." Abby shrugged as she chewed on her lip. "The pictures were minor in comparison to the real thing and then to see all of the..." She shuddered and shook her head, unable to continue.

The voices didn't wake McGee, but the smell of the fried chicken, potatoes and gravy had him breathing deeper and just as the last plate was filled, he opened his eyes.

"Hey, feeling better? Ready to eat something?" When he got a nod, Gibbs helped Tim sit up as Tony brought a kitchen chair in to rest his leg on.

Dinner was unusually quiet with McGee concentrating on not spilling as he ate right-handed and the team carefully watching, trying to anticipate any need he might have. Things didn't start getting close to normal until plates were cleared and Tony picked up the stack of movies he'd picked up.

"Well, since the next Harry Potter movie comes out in a few weeks, I thought you might like to watch the first four."

"Really?"

"Yes, McGee." Ziva spoke up with a smile. "I remembered that you enjoyed the books so Tony and I thought it might be nice to see exactly what all the excitement is all about."

Abby was smiling and even Gibbs gave a slight shrug as they settled in to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

-NCIS-

Staying out of the field meant paperwork for the day and Cynthia brought down enough files to keep them busy for at least a week. Neither Tony nor Ziva uttered a complaint about being grounded, but Tony was in fine form, making it his personal mission to keep McGee from thinking about his arm.

"Just think if magic were real, Probie." Tony rolled up a piece of paper and started waving it around as his makeshift wand. "No more typing up reports, just wave your wand and it's done. How about – ypetay eportray?"

McGee was laughing. "Tony, that's Pig Latin, not magic."

"No, no, it could work. Let me think of another one. Oh, I know. Arrestway ethay uspectsay."

Gibbs came around the corner, coffee in hand, followed by Abby, as Tony waved his wand and shouted. Gibbs didn't bat an eye, just pointed at DiNozzo. "Silencio." All three agents on his team were stunned into silence.

Behind him, Abby's eyes widened. "Wow, it worked. You really are magic, Gibbs." He smirked and continued on up to the Director's office while Abby stopped at McGee's desk.

"Here, I brought you some lunch." She started laying out the elaborate meal. "Here's an orange salad because vitamin C helps repair tissue and vitamin E can improve your immune system. All the greens have lots of vitamin A which promotes new cell growth. The steak is because you need a lot of protein to rebuild the damaged muscle, McGee. For dessert you have yogurt to keep the good bacteria in your gut from being destroyed by all the antibiotics you've had to take. There's wheat germ sprinkled on top because if you don't have enough Zinc in your diet, it can suppress your immune system."

Her words were coming faster and faster as the guilt bubbled back up. Tim reached out and laid his hand on her arm, trying to calm her down. "Thanks, Abs. This means a lot and I'm sure it will help."

Still struggling with her guilt, Abby brought a chair over and sat, carefully cutting the meat for McGee. Tony and Ziva left for their own lunch, so Tim leaned closer to Abby, keeping his voice down. "Did you tell Gibbs that spell?"

"No, why?" Abby snuck a blueberry that she was convinced was about to fall out of the yogurt.

Tim glanced around before leaning even closer. "Because that spell is from one of the later books, it wasn't in any of the movies we watched last night."

"Are you sure?" When McGee gave her 'that' look, she just grinned. "Like I said, Gibbs is magic."

-NCIS-

One week later

"Guys, are you sure about this? You really don't have to do this." It was time to remove the last batch of maggots and a car load of his friends had tagged along when Gibbs took him to the hospital.

"Hey, you've had to deal with them every day since this started. We can handle a few minutes." When McGee just stared at him, Tony admitted his plan. "Okay, we may not actually look at them, but at least we'll be in the same room as you while they do it."

"Thanks, Tony."

True to his word, Tony looked at just about everything except the last small batch of maggots as they were flushed out of the remaining wounds. Palmer watched through his fingers, while Ziva lasted about ten seconds before she had to look away. Abby handled it by helping the nurse sort and count the removed maggots while Gibbs had perfected the art of not quite looking. Ducky had barely started on a rambling story about an encounter one of his mentors had with a maggot infestation when everyone, including several nurses, implored him to stop. Only Gibbs saw the grin when Ducky turned away.

Once Dr. Tullis had the last one removed, everybody moved closer to peer over his shoulder. He smiled, his smile widening as he bumped into someone as he straightened. "Well, Agent McGee, we're now looking at healthy, viable tissue with no sign of infection."

After so long, Tim had been afraid to hope. "You're saying that I won't lose my arm?"

"I'm saying that with some serious work, it's entirely possible that you won't even lose any function." Tullis waited a minute until the shouts and cheering died down. "In fact, I'm going to order your first sessions with a physical therapist right now. No fine motor exercises for a few more weeks until the skin is completely healed over, but we can get started on rebuilding your strength and flexibility in your arm now. With any luck, that part of your PT will be done by the time you start rehabbing your leg."

Dr. Tullis patted Tim's shoulder before standing to let the nurse in to start bandaging his arm.

"Timothy, I am so glad for you, young man."

"Way to go, Buddy, I knew you'd beat this thing."

"Oh, Timmy..."

"Bet you're glad that's over."

"I, too, am pleased, McGee."

Tim let all the words wash over him as he looked to the man whose silent strength had gotten him through the entire ordeal. Gibbs gave him a soft smile and a nod, words were unnecessary between them now, but he did lean close after Tony herded the rest of the group out the door. "Proud of ya' McGee. I knew you could do it, son."

a/n - Thank you all for your support and wonderful reviews, you're the best. I'm still fighting the flu from hell, but I should be back soon with something. Maybe something short until I get back on my feet and can think again.