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When she'd been certain that Tony and Gibbs would be alright, Ziva had gone to take care of the director on her own, knowing that none of them were likely to want to watch how she did that. She left Gibbs asleep in the chair beside Tony's bed, and McGee was in the hall nodding off as well when she left. That had been a good three hours ago.

It was only now that Tony sucked in a deep breath, his eyes starting to flutter open slowly. The first thing that he noticed was the lack of pain and the steady beeps that filled the room. Immediately, he knew that he was in a hospital, and he turned his head to the side, expecting to see Abby only inches from his face, fretting over his well-being. He was surprised to find Gibbs with his shoulder bandaged, slouched down in the chair beside the bed, his chest rising and falling with even breaths, obviously asleep. He debated waking him for a moment, but decided that this was Gibbs, and he was likely to be more upset about not being woken up in a situation like this.

"Boss," he spoke, finding his voice to be gravelly and not very loud at all. He cleared his throat, wincing at the slight pain he felt from it, even with the medicine, and tried again, louder. "Boss."

Blinking awake, Gibbs' eyes found Tony's and he shifted, leaning towards him almost as if he hadn't been sleeping at all. "How are you feeling?" Gibbs asked him, stretching with a crack of old bones, the chair having not been the best place to sleep.

"Never been better, Boss," Tony lied, although whatever they'd put in his IV was working wonders. He at least couldn't feel it when he wasn't moving, and that was definitely an improvement. "What brings you back to D.C.?"

Instead of answering, Gibbs reached out and smacked him upside the head, glaring at him. "I had to clean up your mess again, DiNozzo," he told him gruffly. "Why the hell did you go alone?" he asked him. "You know you should have taken McGee, or Ziva, hell I would have taken the both of them!"

"Ow," Tony hissed, wincing when he reached up to rub the back of his head. "Don't you think I've been through enough without you abusing me too?" he asked, trying to milk the situation a bit. He wouldn't look for real sympathy, though, that wasn't his style. "I didn't expect things to get so... out of hand," he told Gibbs honestly, but he didn't elaborate on how out of hand it had gotten. There was plenty of physical damage that Gibbs could assume enough of what had happened.

"You should always expect the unexpected DiNozzo," Gibbs said pointedly. Now that Gibbs knew that Tony was all right he didn't feel the need to hang around, he had McGee for that. "You should get some sleep, you're going to need it," he told him as he stood up, stretching and walking around the bed, glancing out the door at McGee, seeing him asleep and he gave the chair a kick, almost sending Tim to his feet in fright.

"You make sure no one gets in here without my say," he told McGee, turning his eyes back to DiNozzo. "We'll talk in the morning, Tony."

"Not going to hang around, Boss?" DiNozzo asked, wincing and grunting as he tried to sit up. He trusted that Gibbs would be around in the morning, but he wasn't sure how long he would be around. He didn't want him to go yet.

Pausing in the doorway, Gibbs turned and looked at Tony with disbelief. "It's three am, DiNozzo," he told him, but the corners of his mouth curled up. He didn't make anymore of an attempt to leave, though, just watching as McGee scrambled into the room.

"Tony, you're awake," McGee looked relieved, but tried not to show it too much, knowing Tony would just give him hell about it, Boss or not.

"See you in the morning, Boss," Tony told Gibbs with a nod, not having realized how late it was. No longer worried about the older man, he turned his attention to McGee, eyebrows raised. "If I didn't know any better, Probie, I'd say you missed me," he told his co-worker with an amused tone. "If you're that worried about me, you can go find me something edible, and maybe one of those jello cups. I feel like I haven't eaten in a week. How long was I gone, anyway?" he asked curiously.

"About... twenty-one hours by the time we got to you," McGee told him after a moment of thinking about it.

"Twenty-one hours?" DiNozzo asked, surprised, and sounding almost disappointed. Not that he'd wanted to be there any longer, but it felt like he had been there a lot longer than he had, and it disappointed him that he had been ready to crack so early on. "Nevermind. I want a steak, medium well, and mashed potatoes."

Gibbs chuckled at the look on Tim's face and he nodded at Tony before he was quietly leaving, digging into his pocket for his painkillers, popping a couple into his palm and throwing them back, thinking about getting himself a good cup of coffee and a much needed sleep.
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