Chapter 8
After Gibbs’ phone call, Jenny called Ziva and instructed her to bring McGee and meet her in the lab. Then she called Ducky and told him to meet her there as well. She waited a few minutes to give them all time to get to the lab before she went down there. She didn’t want to get to the lab first and have to wait for the others to arrive, because she didn’t want face Abby’s questions about Tony. The Goth had cornered her several times already over the last few days and had grilled her relentlessly.
She found Abby, Ducky, McGee and Ziva in the lab when she got there. They were talking with each other, wondering why the director had asked them to meet her there.
Jenny cleared her throat to get their attention. They all turned and looked at her expectantly. “I have some news.”
Abby immediately began to bombard the director with questions. “Is it about Tony? Is he okay? Can we go see-”
“Abby, calm down,” Jenny interrupted. “If you’ll just give me a moment, I’ll tell you what I know.”
“Okay, I’m calm,” Abby said. “Go ahead.”
“Jethro called me a little while ago,” Jenny told them. “Tony woke up this morning.”
“Were they able to wean him from the ventilator?” Ducky asked.
“According to Jethro, he’s off the ventilator and breathing on his own,” Jenny replied.
“What about brain damage?” Ziva inquired. “You said the other day that the doctors were certain if Tony ever woke up, he’d be impaired in some way.”
“Jethro said he’s fine; no brain damage at all,” Jenny said. “The doctor doesn’t believe it. They said it’s like a miracle.”
Abby began jumping up and down in excitement. “That’s great! Tony’s gonna be okay!”
“Can we go see him now?” McGee asked.
“Jethro still says no,” Jenny replied. “He still sounded angry when I asked him about it.”
“Now that Tony’s awake and okay, Gibbs can’t keep us away anymore,” Abby protested. “Tony can make up his own mind.”
“Well, once Tony realizes that none of you have been to see him, I’m sure he’ll talk Gibbs around,” Jenny said.
“I believe Jethro is suffering from a form of displacement,” Ducky said.
“What is that?” Ziva asked.
“He could be angry with himself for being the cause of the situation which caused harm to Anthony, but he will not or cannot admit it to himself, so he directs that anger towards other people,” Ducky explained. “Although, I feel his anger towards me is more than justified, the rest of you are virtually blameless.”
“Ducky, I tried to tell Gibbs that none of you knew everything that happened at the dock that day,” Jenny stated. “But he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“I’m afraid that’s not all Jethro is angry with me about,” Ducky said. “He is particularly upset that I had him sedated without his consent.”
“But, Ducky, you did that for his own good,” Abby consoled. “We didn’t know what he was trying to tell us.”
“I never should have assumed he was only worried about Maddie Tylor. I should have let him talk to us before having him sedated.”
“Maybe you should have, but what’s done is done and can’t be changed,” Jenny said. “We have to move past it.”
“We need to do something,” Abby said. “I feel like the family’s all broken up.”
“Tony’s going to be released in a couple of days,” Jenny stated. “I think we should just give him some time. He’ll realize what’s going on soon enough and he’ll talk to Jethro. I’m sure of it.”
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The next morning Tony was moved to a regular room. The doctor decided to keep him for yet another day in order to advance his diet and so he could regain some strength. Even though he’d been given a clean bill of health, he had spent the last five days in bed and was somewhat weak.
Tony didn’t really see a reason why he had to stay in the hospital, since he thought he could do that kind of recovery at home, but he suspected that the doctor was convinced his miraculous recovery was temporary and he would relapse any minute. And Gibbs, being Gibbs, wouldn’t hear of Tony leaving the hospital until the doctor said he could.
Things had finally settled down after the move. Tony was watching TV with the volume down low and Gibbs was working on a crossword puzzle, occasionally calling out clues to get Tony’s input.
With the all the excitement of the previous day, Tony hadn’t had much time to think, but now that things were quiet, he felt that something was missing. Then it hit him.
“Gibbs, why hasn’t anyone from the team been by to see me?”
Gibbs shifted uncomfortably in his chair and refused to meet Tony’s eyes. “They’re at work.”
“Well, sure, they are right now, but what about last night? Do I have cooties or something? I know a couple of them are still a little pissed off about that undercover assignment, but I was at death’s door. You’d think they’d come visit me in the hospital. At the very least, Abby and Ducky would be here.”
Gibbs couldn’t let Tony think that the team was angry at him. “It’s nothing you did.”
“Well, why then?”
Gibbs looked at the floor. “I sort of kicked ‘em out of the hospital the morning you were brought in.”
“Why would you do that?”
Gibbs explained to Tony what happened that day and how angry he was that no one from the team had checked to make sure Tony was all right the night he’d gotten sick.
“So, let me get this straight,” Tony said. “No one from the team called me or realized I needed help, so you banned them from the hospital?”
“It’s not quite that simple, Tony. You nearly died, and they didn’t give you a thought.”
“They didn’t know what happened at the dock. I didn’t get a chance to tell them. We were too busy at the time working the scene.”
“Well, they could have at least checked in with you to make sure you were all right when you didn’t show up at the hospital.”
“Jethro, they’re not mind readers and they were preoccupied because they were worried about you.”
“They shouldn’t have been so worried about me that they completely forgot about you.”
“Haven’t you ever been preoccupied by something and forgotten about something else that was just as important?”
Gibbs looked at the floor as he thought about that. “Not that I can think of.”
“Am I important to you?”
Gibbs looked back up at Tony at his quiet words. “What kind of question is that?” He asked indignantly. “Of course, you are. You’ve always been very important to me.”
“Remember when I came back to work after having the plague?”
“Yeah. I remember you came back too early and you looked like crap.”
“Right after Kate… died.” Tony swallowed thickly. Even after all this time, he still had a hard time talking about what happened to her. “Do you remember what you had me do?”
Gibbs was silent for a minute while he tried to remember. “After we cleared the scene and Ducky removed the… ” Gibbs stopped that thought and then continued to answer Tony’s question. “Anyway, I sent you and McGee look for the sniper’s nest…” His eyes widened as he realized the implications of that. It had been raining that night and it had taken the two young men hours to find the nest. He rubbed his face in frustration. “I wasn’t thinking, Tony. I never should’ve had you to do that. Why didn’t you say something?”
“If I didn’t want to do it at the time, believe me, I would’ve said something, but I wanted to find Ari and make him pay just as badly as you did. I’m just saying, getting preoccupied happens to everybody, even you, and you should cut ‘em some slack.”
Gibbs gave Tony his most stubborn look. “This is different.”
“How so?”
Gibbs looked at the floor again. “I don’t know. It just is.”
TBC
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