Chapter 8
Ziva had stood there so long, she had lost track of time. She had planned things out so carefully. She planned her visit for a time when Gibbs would not be there. She had waited until shift change. She had even donned a pair of nurse's scrubs so that she would not be 'noticed.' That had been the embarrassingly easy part.
She now, however, was fast losing her nerve. Even a couple of years ago this would not have been as big of a problem. It was a mission, a job, and she followed orders. She had had to look at it as a mission. She couldn't let herself become 'involved.' That was just how it had to be. The thought actually scared her a little. She had changed so much since she had come to NCIS; since she had found acceptance with this group of people. But that part, the assassin part…it seemed, had just been tamped down, not gone. She had just restrained it, managed it. But it was still there, the thing that made her a robotic-killing machine, nothing even close to human.
She moved around Tony's bed. She made up her mind. She had to do it. She had to preserve this lifestyle. This way of life she had created. She pushed her thoughts of friendship aside. She had to carry out her mission. She had researched and discovered how to turn off and unplug the respirator without the alarm going off. She calmly and quickly opened the appropriate panel, removed and replaced the computer chip. She then turned off the machine. Her last act was to pull the plug from the wall. She didn't spare a look back at Tony as she left the room. She did, however, pause just briefly at the door before she left. When she didn't hear Tony breathing on his own, she quickly left the room. She walked into the nearest supply closet and changed clothes. She threw her scrubs into one of the many hampers in the hallway. She didn't stop until she was out the hospital. She again paused for just a second before she got into her car and drove away.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Something was different when Gibbs walked into the room. He couldn't put his finger on it. That was, until he walked up to Tony's bed. He realized he was not hearing the respirator. Gibbs could see Tony was not breathing. He then felt for a pulse, nothing. He hit the nurses' call button. He then began CPR. Seconds later, the first nurse appeared in Tony's doorway. She rushed around the bed to check the machines. In seconds a code blue was called. Gibbs was ushered out of the room as it quickly filled with a large number of nurses and doctors. Gibbs told the nurse about not hearing the sound of the respirator as he left. Gibbs had, as it happened, returned to Tony's room, from his coffee run, just moments after Ziva left.
Gibbs was still pacing in the ICU waiting room when Ducky and Abby showed up. They had finished work for the day and were dropping by before going home. They noticed the tension in the room and questioned Gibbs.
Gibbs could only shake his head. He told them what he did know. He had gone into Tony's room and discovered the respirator was not running. That Tony was not breathing. Gibbs had gone to the nurses' station directly from Tony's room, his investigative mind in hyper drive. But there were only two nurses manning the station. All the others were in Tony's room. The nurses at the desk had only seen other nurses in the halls before he had returned to Tony's room.
What had happened? Gibbs knew there were no cameras in the hallways outside Tony's room. He had walked those halls enough to see everything that was out there. The nurses' station had monitors for the machines in the patients' rooms. And cutting off a machine, unplugging it, anything like that should have set off alarms. But no one had known anything until Gibbs had rang the station. He had told them when the nurse called back over the intercom that Tony was not breathing. The nurse had immediately called the code and the other nurses had run to Tony's room. Gibb s kept looking into Tony's room.
"Agent Gibbs?" The doctor left Tony's room and walked into the waiting room. "Agent Gibbs…Tony is stable now. He is back on a respirator. He...we'll be running some tests to check his brain function. To make sure he doesn't have any brain damage. He's…things are looking good for him though. I don't think he was without oxygen for very long at all. He recovered; we brought him back too quickly."
Gibbs nodded, though his mind was spinning and his gut was churning. He asked the question. "Doctor, when I went into Tony's room I didn't hear the respirator. How could it be turned off, and the alarm not sound?"
The doctor shook his head. "The nurse told me. I thought I had misunderstood her." He paused. "And to be honest, I don't see how it's possible. If the machine is simply turned off or unplugged the alarms sound. If someone tries to reprogram it, without the correct code, it will alarm. I…I thought it was tamper proof. I am not an expert by any means. But I would think it would have to be done by messing with the computer. The access panel is in the back. I've never removed it. We have technicians for that."
"Is that the machine Tony was on?" Gibbs asked as he was a machine being removed from Tony's room.
The doctor nodded.
"We need it." Gibbs stated.
Abby shook her head. "I don't…."
"Can you get one of your techs up here to check it out? See if it's been messed with, as soon as possible"
The doctor nodded and had one the nurses call a tech to the floor. He arrived in minutes. He removed the back panel form the machine. Gibbs supervised. He had the tech wear gloves to preserve evidence. And Abby took the opportunity to look inside as the tech explained the inner workings to her. The tech then spotted the anomaly. Gibbs stepped in and bagged the evidence; it looked, to Gibbs, to be a computer chip.
"That…" The tech said. "…is not original to this machine. And as long as I have worked on these things, I have never replaced a chip."
It all just confirmed Gibbs worst fear. Someone was after one of his people.
TBC
Chapter End Notes:
AN: WARNING: Ziva is NOT a nice girl in this chapter.
The stuff about the respirator is entirely BS'd by me. I HOPE this life-saving equipment is not so easily manipulated. I don't know how I forgot this, but I didn't mention the first story I ever wrote about the Dead Air episode. 'I Had Your Six?' I don't understand how I could have forgotten it, but there it is.
The stuff about the respirator is entirely BS'd by me. I HOPE this life-saving equipment is not so easily manipulated. I don't know how I forgot this, but I didn't mention the first story I ever wrote about the Dead Air episode. 'I Had Your Six?' I don't understand how I could have forgotten it, but there it is.