Gibbs remained by his senior field agent’s side for the next few hours until he finally started to awaken. While he waited, nurses came in periodically to check on their patient and take note of his vital signs. Thankfully, they also provided Gibbs with a steady supply of coffee.
When he heard Tony moan just before midnight, Gibbs was immediately on his feet. He brushed the hair back from Tony’s forehead and said, “Hey, you finally with me, DiNozzo?”
Tony tried to speak, but Gibbs couldn’t understand what he said, so Gibbs got the cup of water from the nightstand and directed the straw into Tony’s mouth. Once Tony had taken a few sips, Gibbs took it away and put it back on the nightstand. The nurses had warned him that too much could make Tony nauseous.
“Wanna try that again?” Gibbs asked.
Tony cleared his throat and asked, “Are McGee and Ziva okay?” His voice was hoarse, but his words were understandable now.
It didn’t surprise Gibbs in the least that Tony’s first concern was for his partners. Considering McGee and Ziva’s behavior in the bullpen earlier, it seemed that concern was decidedly one-sided.
“They’re fine, Tony. You just worry about getting better,” Gibbs replied as he pushed the call button. The nurses had wanted to know when Tony woke up. Gibbs had been informed that unless a complication arose, the surgeon wouldn’t be in to see Tony until the following day during his regular patient rounds.
Gibbs decided this might be a good time to ask Tony about what happened. “Tony, what happened out there earlier? Did you see who shot you?”
Tony licked his lips and asked, “Can I have some more water?”
Gibbs held the glass up to Tony’s lips and he took a few sips. Once Tony dropped the straw from his mouth, Gibbs put the cup of water back on the nightstand.
Gibbs asked again, “So, did you see who shot you?”
“No, I didn’t see anything,” Tony replied. “I was leaving one house and headed to the next when it happened. It should be in my notes which house I just left.”
“Abby has your notes. She’ll figure it out.” Gibbs had thought it was likely that Tony hadn’t seen anything, as he’d been shot from behind.
“What about the case?” Tony asked.
“I had Vance hand it over to another team. Can’t work it with a man down.”
“You can go to work if you have to, Boss,” Tony said. “You don’t have to stay here. I don’t need someone to hold my hand or coddle me.”
“I’m not going anywhere, so get used to my company. And giving you sips of water after you’ve just been shot isn’t coddling, DiNozzo,” Gibbs said. “Besides, can you honestly tell me you don’t want any company?”
“It’s great that you’re here, Boss,” Tony said. “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful or anything. You’re right; I don’t really want to be alone.”
Tony’s eyes widened in horror as he finally remembered where he’d been shot. He moaned, “Oh, crap.”
Gibbs was alarmed by the look on Tony’s face and asked with concern, “What is it? Is something wrong?”
“Only the fact that I got shot in the ass,” Tony replied miserably. “How embarrassing is that? I’m never gonna be able to show my face at the Navy Yard again. Ziva and McGee are gonna have a field day with this. I’m never gonna hear the end of it. Whoever shot me should have just shot me in the head.”
Gibbs cupped Tony’s cheek and leaned in close and said seriously, “You listen to me, Tony. Don’t you dare talk like that, even as a joke. You were shot and seriously hurt. There’s nothing embarrassing about where you were shot. Only someone who’s never been shot would tease you about it.”
Tony, surprisingly, didn’t look very convinced.
A nurse entered the room and walked over to stand next to Gibbs. She said, addressing her patient, “Hi, I’m Carol. I’ll be your nurse until shift change at seven a.m. I see you’re finally awake.”
Gibbs said, “He just woke up a few minutes ago.”
“Agent DiNozzo, I need you to rate your pain for me. On a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain and ten being the worst pain you’ve ever experienced, can you give me a number?”
Tony thought a minute, then said, “I don’t know, five or six, I guess.”
“The local anesthetic the surgeon injected into your incision has probably worn off,” Carol explained.
“Incision?” Tony asked, confused.
“Yes, you had to have your hip surgically repaired,” Carol replied.
“You mean hip pinning surgery like old people have when they break their hip?” Tony asked.
“I mean surgery anyone has when they break their hip, no matter their age,” Carol replied. “Now, let me instruct you on the use of the PCA pump the doctor has ordered for you.”
Gibbs asked, “What’s a PCA pump?”
The nurse explained, “PCA stands for patient-controlled analgesia.” She reached for a device hanging from the IV pole near Tony’s bed that looked similar to the nurse call button and placed it in Tony’s hand. “If you need pain relief, you just press this button and the machine will deliver pain medication through your IV. It’s set up so it’s impossible for you to overdose.” The nurse considered her patient. He seemed like most of the other macho federal agent and military types that she’d had as patients in the past, so she elaborated, “It’s very important that you give yourself the medication when you need it. It’s a lot easier to relieve mild pain than it is to relieve severe pain, so it’s best to head it off at the pass, so to speak.”
Tony’s pain was severe enough at that moment that he didn’t argue like he usually did about receiving pain medication. He pressed the button and then sighed in relief as he felt the medication start to take effect. “That stuff really works.”
Carol smiled. “They ordered the good stuff for you. Now, is there anything you need before I go?”
“How often can I press this button?” Tony asked.
“As often as you need to. When you’ve reached your maximum allowed amount of medication, it won’t deliver any more, no matter how often you press the button. Like I said, it’s impossible to overdose. If you need more pain relief than the PCA provides, then press your call button, and we’ll give you an injection.”
“Okay, thanks,” Tony said.
The nurse asked, “Do you have any other questions?”
Tony replied, “No, I’m good. Thanks.”
“Just use the call button if you need anything, and someone will be right in,” Carol said as she left the room.
Once they were alone, Tony asked, “I totally forgot that my hip was broken. I think they explained it to me in the ER, but I was sort of out of it.”
“I know how out of it you were. I was there.” Pain, fear and blood loss could do that to a person, Gibbs added to himself.
“Thanks for coming to help, Boss.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Tony. I have your six, like you always have mine; sometimes even when I don’t want you to have it.”
After a few minutes of silence, Tony asked, “Where is everybody?”
“Ducky and Abby were here earlier, but they had to go back to work. Ducky has bodies and Abby’s trying to figure out who shot you and running some other tests.”
“What about Ziva and McGee?” Tony asked.
Gibbs had been hoping to avoid this conversation for a day or two, but he should have known better. “They’re fine,” He said evasively.
“If they’re fine, then where were they when I called for help earlier? Was the mike not working or something?”
“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” Gibbs asked. “You need to rest.”
“We can talk about it now. I’ve been sleeping most the day. I’m wide awake, and thanks to this nice PCA pump, I’m feeling no pain.”
“Okay, but you have to promise me you won’t get upset.”
“Quit stalling already and just tell me why my partners, who are just fine, didn’t come when I called,” Tony insisted.
Gibbs reluctantly answered, “It seems they turned the sound off.”
“I don’t believe that, Boss,” Tony exclaimed, obviously shocked by that information. “There has to be some mistake. They would never-”
“They told me themselves, Tony,” Gibbs interrupted. “They said they were tired of listening to your voice, so they turned the sound off.”
“They were tired of listening to my voice?” Tony repeated.
“That’s what they said.”
“I was doing my damn job trying to find a terrorist,” Tony exclaimed. “We needed those recordings.”
“I know, Tony,” Gibbs agreed. “You’re preaching to the choir.”
Tony was quiet for a while, processing what Gibbs had just told him. He finally said, “I have to quit. If I ask Vance for a transfer, he’s likely to send me afloat again, and I couldn’t take that. If I can’t trust Ziva and McGee to watch my back, I can’t keep working with them.”
Somehow, it didn’t surprise Gibbs that Tony didn’t expect that anyone would stick up for him in this situation, automatically assuming that he’d have to be the one to leave the team. Being such a good NCIS agent didn’t negate his insecurities much.
“That’s not gonna be necessary, Tony.”
Tony kept speaking like he hadn’t heard his boss, “They’re my partners and I thought they were my friends. How could they do something like that? I’ve never left them without backup. I guess saving their lives more than once doesn’t get me any special privileges either. It’s gotta be something about me. They never would have done anything like that to you, or any other agent for that matter. I’d like to know what I ever did that was bad enough for them to leave me twisting in the wind like that.”
Gibbs was tempted to headslap Tony to get him to shut up, but he didn’t think it was appropriate under the circumstances, so he interrupted instead, “I told you, you don’t have to quit.”
“Yeah, I do,” Tony insisted. “Vance is never gonna do anything about it. He hates me for some reason that I’ve never been able to figure out. Ziva’s his friend’s daughter and McGee’s his golden boy. They can’t do anything wrong in his eyes.”
“Tony,” Gibbs interrupted again. “I fired them both. There’s no need for you to quit, and I don’t want you to quit.”
“But it’s just me they can’t stand,” Tony said. “Besides treating me like shit, they’re both pretty good agents. Why should they lose their jobs because of me?”
Gibbs explained, “Tony, when Ziva and McGee failed to have your six, they not only let you and me down; they let every other NCIS agent down. Once word gets around, no one is gonna want to work with them. Even if I hadn’t fired them, they’d more than likely be forced to quit.”
Tony said incredulously, “I can’t believe you fired them.” He shifted in his bed a little and grimaced at the pain the small movement caused in his hip.
“They deserved it,” Gibbs said. “Besides, even if you haven’t figured it out yet, DiNozzo, I would do just about anything for you. Now push your pump thingy again and get some sleep.”
Chapter End Notes:
Thanks again for all the reviews and alerts, and thanks to little_janie for finding that little boo-boo. Now on with the story!