Chapter 2
Muted sunlight streaming though the closed curtains was enough to bring Tony away from his dreams and back into reality, but in all truthfulness, he really would have liked to stay in that dream-like state a little longer.
It wasn't so much the light that woke him, it was actually quite dim in the room, but the pain was enough to drive him from his state of bliss and he groaned, opening his eyes a crack.
His mind had figured it out already that he was in a hospital. Obviously he had been injured somehow or he wouldn't be feeling like he had been hit by a truck. Was he hit by a truck? He couldn't remember. It would explain why he was certain his head was going to explode and why his leg, chest and oh hell, his entire body was throbbing.
He glanced about the room, the monitors beside him silently recording his vital signs and twin IV bags hung beside his bed. He tried to move his head, but found that he couldn't. That's when he realized he couldn't move much of anything and a panicky feeling sneeked up on him. God....was he paralyzed?
Feeling his heart rate shoot up, he tried to breathe through the fear and the pain, but it was all becoming a little too overwhelming. All he wanted to do was move.
“Hello?” He croaked out weakly, his throat raw. “Anyone?.....Please....” hoping someone would hear his soft plea for help in his voice. He nearly cried in frustration when all he heard was silence in return.
The pain in his chest grew exponentially and it was becoming hard to breathe as fear clutched at him, he struggled to even so much as wiggle, but nothing happened.
He squeezed his eyes shut, wishing that all of this was just a horrible nightmare, that at any moment he would wake up in his bed at home whole and hearty, but it was no dream. On the verge of crying, he battled for control over his emotions. If he was paralyzed, he knew that there was no way he could cope. He would rather be dead than live his life like that.
Just as he thought for certain that his world was coming to an end, he heard a door open and felt a hand touch his shoulder.
“Tony?”
Gibbs?
He stopped struggling for breath and opened his eyes a crack. Somehow the sound of Gibbs' voice had drawn him back to some semblance of normalcy and he found himself relaxing unconsciously. Even though on most days Gibbs scared the living daylights out of him, right at the moment, having the older man there was a comfort he was not expecting.
“You awake?” Gibbs asked.
“Boss?” Tony asked opening his eyes all of the way. Maybe he was just seeing things, but that was definitely Gibbs' face, even if things were a little fuzzy in his brain.
“You in pain, DiNozzo?”
“Agony... I think.... the better term here.” He gasped out as he saw his boss walk up to the head of his bed and take a seat before calmly reaching for a switch on his IV pump and pressed a button.
“Morphine pump. Just press it when you need more.” Tony could feel the effect of the drug already as it raced into his bloodstream and he was grateful for its relief, sighing and letting his heart rate come down to a more manageable level. However, being unable to move was still a cause for alarm.
“I can't move.” He told Gibbs, feeling the panic return again, but there was no way he was going to lose his cool in front of his boss. “m'I paralyzed?”
“No, Tony. But you do have on a neck and back brace and your legs are in traction. Plus you've had enough drugs in your system the last couple of days to bring down a small elephant. You can't move for a reason.”
“Oh...” Tony finally realized that Gibbs was right and could feel the hard plastic around his neck and around his chest and back. He tried to look, but could only pick up his head enough to see the tops of his feet as he gave his toes a wiggle, just to be certain they still worked. Good. Not paralyzed. He sighed and laid his head back down on the pillow in relief.
Thank God. He was only horribly injured. He could deal with that
“Wha' happened?” He asked, the medicine mellowing him far faster than he anticipated and slurring his speech.
“You fell three stories trying to take on a man twice your size.” Gibbs informed him smoothly as he took a sip of coffee. “You remember any of that?”
“No. Last thing I remember was telling Ziva she needed to see Dr. No. and work on her Sean Connery impression.” Tony stated, confused at not being able to remember anthing. Three stories? That was something new. Taking on someone twice his size though? Been there, done that.
“Did I win?” Tony had to ask.
“What do you think?” Gibbs grinned for half a second before turning serious again “Lucky you didn't get yourself killed.”
“Wha's the damages?” Tony had to ask taking a good look at all of the tubing, hardware, wires and machines connected to him.
“Five broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken ankle and compound fracture of the femur of one leg, broken tibia on the other, grade three concussion, not to mention the fractured vertebae that had to be fused and the internal injuries they had to patch up.”
“Does the list end somewhere?” Tony asked, grinning, almost joking. It really wasn't all that funny, but that morphine was really great stuff.
“Let's just say you're gonna be here a while, DiNozzo.”
“How long?” He asked, feeling the pull of sleep dragging him down again.
“Hard to say....Until you're better.”
“A week?” Tony yawned.
“Probably more.”
“Week and a half?”
“It's not a car deal, Tony.” Gibbs sighed. “No negotiations. You stay as long as the doctors want you to stay and you do not leave a moment sooner, understood?”
“Sure, Boss.” Tony's tenuous hold on the waking world was slipping and his eyes slid closed.
“Go back to sleep, Tony.”
“Can do.”
OOOOOOOOOO
Gibbs slipped out of Tony's room, closing the door as quietly as possible. Three days of watching and waiting for his senior field agent to come around from a light coma had been tiring to say the least, but couple that on top of the investigation into Lt. McGraw and his murdered CO and he was nearly dead on his feet.
Definitely time for more coffee.
At least it seemed that Tony was going to be alright. The first night had been pretty touch and go as Tony's internal injuries caused severe bleeding and he was in surgery for more hours than Gibbs could keep track of as the doctors tried to piece his broken body back together. Then he had been placed in a medically induced coma to give his body time to heal and Gibbs had gone back and forth between the Navy Yard and the Hospital hoping to keep a close eye on his agent while getting to the bottom of what made Lt. McGraw attack.
Thankfully, now that Tony was at least conscious again, he could breathe a little easier. However, he was due back at the office in thirty minutes for a meeting with Director Vance he would rather not attend. He had a sinking feeling that he knew what Vance wanted to speak to him about.
Stopping by his normal coffee shop on the way in, Gibbs and his coffee traveled across town to the Navy Yard where he carried his cup from the parking garage, up the elevator, past Ziva and McGee in the bullpen and up the stairs to the Directors office all before his drink could grow cold.
Casually striding into the office where Vance sat at his desk, chewing another one of his damn toothpicks, Gibbs took a sip of his coffee and waited for the director to address him, his patience growing thinner each time Vance pulled the pick from one side of his mouth and transferred it to the other. Without looking up from his paperwork, the Director finally began to speak.
“Everything wrapped up with the McGraw case?” He asked.
“Just about, only need to file the paperwork.” Gibbs responded.
“looking forward to reading it, especially Officer David's report. Like to hear what she has to say about how she and agent DiNozzo were caught by surprise by Lt. McGraw and why she decided to put three bullets into him.” Vance finally glanced up, his toothpick raising with his eyes. “I don't need to remind you that she killed a naval officer.”
“She did what she's trained to do.”
“You mean what Mossad has trained her to do; shoot first and ask questions later.”
“She defended herself and her partner from a naval officer that killed his CO with his bare hands when he couldn't get leave to attend a weight lifting competition and the same naval officer who happened to be on three different kinds of steroids and cocaine when he tried to kill DiNozzo. Ducky explains it all in his report if you ever get around to reading it, there's no way Ziva could have taken him down with anything other than lethal action.”
Vance narrowed his eyes towards Gibbs and the two engaged in a silent war of the wills.
“How is agent DiNozzo, by the way?” Vance Began, his eyes still leveled on the older man.
“He's out of the coma they put him in. He's going to live and hopefully he will be back in a couple of months.”
“That's rather optimistic thinking on your part, don't you think, Agent Gibbs?”
Gibbs stiffened.
“I've been reading the doctor's reports, you know as well as I do that there is a good possibility that Agent DiNozzo may never be able to pass the physical requirements for a field agent again with the kind of injuries he has sustained.”
“He will.” Gibbs stated curtly and with certainty. “You can count on that.”
“We'll just have to wait and see, now won't we?” Vance looked down again to the file open before him. “In the mean time, You're down a man.”
Vance closed the file he had been reviewing and flopped it across his desk to Gibbs. The seasoned agent merely glanced at it, not wanting to pick it up.
“I've got a T.A.D. agent for you. He's only a few months out of FLETC where he graduated top of his class and he just completed his first assignment as agent afloat on the USS Nimitz. He's good, Gibbs. Sharp as a tack-”
“I sense a 'but' coming up.” Gibbs ground out.
“But he needs practical field experience. Something he'll get in abundance on your team.”
“Let me guess, this is the part where you tell me he's already here and I have no choice.” Gibbs crossed his arms, his coffee still attached to his right hand.
“He's already here, you have no choice and he's on you team as of this afternoon. Agent McGee will have to fill in as your senior field agent.”
Gibbs reluctantly uncrossed his arms snatched the file off the desk, narrowing his level gaze with Vance's.
“It's only a temporary assignment, Gibbs. Like you said, it's only for a couple of months.”
Without any further comment, Gibbs headed for the door. He was too angry to speak, yet somehow he knew Vance would do this. He also sensed that this was Vance's way of expressing his authority over Gibbs again. He knew Vance never liked Tony and thought of him more as a screwball than as the competent federal agent that Gibbs knew he was. Even though it had been many months since Jenny's death, he could practically feel the animosity the director exuded towards his senior field agent when he believed Tony had screwed the pooch big time in L.A. He had just been biding his time to find any excuse to see Tony off of Gibbs' team and now here it was.
All of this only made Gibbs more determined than ever to make sure that Tony made it back to his team where he belonged. He would have to push Tony, both physically and mentally, but he would make damn sure that Vance wouldn't win this one. Tony was coming back.
Just as Gibbs reached for the door handle Vance called across the room.
“Tell agent DiNozzo to get better soon.”
“Why don't you tell him yourself, Leon?” With a sharp look thrown back at the director, Gibbs left the office, nearly slamming the door on his way out.
TBC...
The T.A.D. by Angie