Heroes and Their Battle Wounds
Disclaimer: I do not own or am any way affiliated with those that own NCIS, nor am I connected in to the show's cast and crew. This is written out of enjoyment and I am not making any money off of it. So please do not sue.
Summary: Everyone has scars, some mar the body, others are deeper and cannot be seen. Tony and Gibbs have a talk while in the hospital and come to a new understanding. Post Requiem.
Spoilers: Season 5 episode 'Requiem'
A/N 1: This is another one of those slightly odd fics I write (like If You Push The Wrong Way) that was inspired by something random I happened to notice that wasn't in any way, shape or form related to NCIS but thought it would make an interesting fic.
A/N 2: Yes yes I know I haven't updated One Step At A Time since February, I am trying to work on that at the moment but have been blocked... despite having the rest of the fic planned out. I promise I will try and get it up soon, also I have started work on chapter 7 of New World (Dis)Order.
A/N 3: This fic has been sitting on my phone for a while completed along with a bunch of others, hopefully I will get back into the swing of writing and posting more often.
A/N 4: This is un-beta'd but I did go over it a half dozen times, however any mistakes are fully mine. I had planned to send this out to one of my twitter friends but I am not sure if I ever did and now I can't remember who it was... I apologise to the person if I did send it out.
Heroes and Their Battle Wounds
As Tony slowly and carefully limped into the too white hospital room, the sound of squeaking from the wheels of the portable O2 canister he dragged along mixing with the sound of rushing from the much needed oxygen which went straight to his overtaxed lungs. He could tell that the patient occupying the sole bed was only feigning sleep, most likely to hide from the cantankerous old nurse he had been forced to sneak past for his rule breaking visit. Tony wasn't too surprised then, when the man spoke just as the senior field agent was lowering himself, just as carefully as he had walked from his room to the other, into the chair placed at the head of the bed.
"Shouldn't you be in a bed of your own DiNozzo?" what also wasn't shocking was the fact that Gibbs didn't even need to bother to open his eyes to know whom it was that had entered the room.
Taking a few deep breaths, hoping to make it through his reply without stopping for more oxygen, DiNozzo replied in his typical manner, though it lacked his normal enthusiasm and energy. "I'm fine boss, you're the one that almost died..."
It wasn't the younger man's words that had the senior agent cracking open a lone blue eye, he knew without a doubt Tony would be rattled by the events of that day, even if the stubborn Italian refused to admit it out loud; no, it wasn't what he heard but what he felt. Gibbs was confused when a sudden weight on the bed caused the mattress to sink and shift. He knew Tony was already seated, he'd heard the creaking and scraping of the uncomfortable fake, red leather chair, and the added pressure hadn't been enough to be the full weight of the athletically built agent. As the blurriness of sleep and too much time in grimy water cleared, Gibbs noticed the two sized twelve, bare feet resting beside his own blanket hidden feet.
Opening his other eye he realised that the reason Tony had placed his legs on the bed was more than likely due to the heavily bandaged, suspiciously swollen knees. The ex marine couldn't help but flinch when he saw that blood was already starting to soak through to the last layer of white wrapping.
"Something you forgot to mention DiNozzo?" indicating to the obviously battered knees with his head.
"It's nothing boss, just a couple of scratches..."
"Couple of scratches my ass! You're bleeding a hell of a lot to just be some grazes." Gibbs raised the head of the bed so he was sitting upright, ignoring the ache of his protesting muscles "here let me have a look at that."
Without waiting for a reply, he brought the closest of the two legs onto his lap and began to carefully unwind the soiled material. With each layer the splotch of crimson blood grew; and as he carefully removed the final layer that had glued itself to the skin he saw the cause "Let me guess, you didn't listen when the doctor told you to keep off of them and ripped a couple of stitches making the trip from wherever the hell your room is to here?"
On the right knee alone the ex marine had uncovered two pretty nasty gashes, each missing at least two of the fifteen plus tight, black stitches. Gibbs ignored the blood that dribbled from the reopened wounds onto his crisp white sheets, opting instead to examine the older scars on his agent's knee that had become taught and pink due to the swelling and smearing of the blood.
"Looks like you're gonna have a couple of new scars to add to these. How'd ya get them anyway?"
"Banged them up a little going through the windshield; didn't realise that there were a couple of metal shards sticking up, didn't hurt until I arrived here and actually noticed they were injured." Tony knew that Gibbs hadn't just been asking about the new wounds that graced his knee, the skin that covered the joint looked like a poorly constructed patchwork, countless scars of different shapes, sizes and ages told a story of the man.
There was one or two of the marks which Gibbs could guess what they were from, the others however, remained as much a mystery as the ex-cop himself.
"What about the others? At least one of them would've been from the re-constructive surgery you had in college wouldn't it?"
Tony sighed, he didn't particularly want to talk about the stories of his old 'war' wounds but Gibbs so rarely asked anything of a personal nature that he thought he should at least give him this one time opportunity.
Adjusting himself so that he sat higher in his seat, mindful of the tubing that ran from his face to the oxygen tank beside him, keeping his legs on his boss' lap but allowing himself to see their topic of discussion. Gibbs kept one hand on the knee to put pressure on the bleeding cut while Tony used an index finger to point out a particularly long scar that curved around the base of his knee cap.
"This one here, is from the surgery after a certain doctor almost completely smashed the bone."
Tony paused for a second to clear his slightly congested lungs; his boss wondered if it was all a bit too much for his agent to be dealing with at that moment. It was bad enough that he had been injured because of Gibbs' mistake, but for the man whom DiNozzo risked his life, and possibly his career, to save to go ahead and bring up what must have been painful memories only a few hours later was bordering on cruel.
He was actually a bit stunned when the other man continued, a small smile gracing his pale face.
"See this little scar above it? That's where a section of the broken knee punctured during the fall. You think that would have hurt the most but the surgery and rehab after was the worst physical pain I have ever been through." he gave a slight chuckle that brought on a rather nasty cough "well maybe not as much pain as having the plague but it was pretty damn close! Doctors at the time said I would probably never walk properly again, would always have a limp, but I was determined to show them. Guess you know what that's like huh boss? After all you were injured in desert stor..." Tony paused for a second his face reddening as he blushed "Sorry boss, didn't mean to... well you know..."
Tony felt immensely guilty. The day had been full of reminders of the past for Gibbs and now he had just thrown it all back in his face again. Gibbs knew Tony hadn't meant anything by it, he couldn't fault the man for being curious and wanting answers when he was doing the same thing. Still Gibbs kept his eyes on his partner's knee and focused all his emotions on his hand closing the wound, if the added pressure caused Tony any pain he didn't show it.
"Yeah, got one similar on my right knee... you seem oddly proud of the scars that ended your chances of going pro, though." Gibbs did make eye contact with Tony at that point, he needed to see the Italian's reaction.
What he was rewarded with was a famous DiNozzo megawatt grin "Way I see it boss, wasn't that it ended my chances of going pro but led me to a career I love, I would've only had a few good years of the high life and that really wasn't for me. It's also a reminder that doctors are idiots and that no matter what anybody said, I was going to walk again."
Tony's expression got serious for a moment as he inhaled deeply, as his eyes drifted shut Gibbs had thought the younger man had fallen asleep, that was until he started to speak again.
"There is another reason why I don't mind it now... It's the only scar I can see without an x-ray that reminds me of what that Wolverine grew up to be. Brad didn't intentionally set out to hurt me that day, and even if he did, he more than made up for it." Tony gently rubbed a finger across the scar, proudly wiping away the blood that covered it.
"Not the only scar on your knee DiNozzo..." Gibbs took a moment to look over the knee and point out a particularly jagged scar that was cut off by his new marks "What about this one?" He knew he had said something wrong when the knee tensed under his palm and Tony's jaw tightened painfully.
Ignoring the question, Tony pointed out a bunch of tiny scars that seemed to spread across the entirety of the knee "See these scars boss? Got 'em when I was almost six, playing in the yard at school. Fell over on some gravel, had cuts up and down both my legs, pretty much shredded a couple of layers of skin! There was blood dripping down my legs, left a trail of it from the playground to the nurses office, looked like one of our crime scenes! You would've been proud of me boss, didn't shed a single tear, even though it hurt like hell!"
The almost childish enthusiasm made the silver haired man grin. He could remember when he was the age Tony was in his story and he slipped on some rocks, skidding and grazing his knee. He had gone home crying to his mother who had cleaned the wounds and made him a fresh batch of cookies to cheer him up. Even his father had comforted him, putting an arm around him in a firm, but masculine, hug. Gibbs doubted that even if Tony had cried his little heart out until he was blue in the face he wouldn't have been comforted the way any other child would have.
From the few things DiNozzo had let slip about his childhood, it wasn't the most nurturing environment to be raised in.
When the normally fun loving man's expression turned dark again, he knew his train of thought must have been right.
Indicating to the scar Gibbs had questioned him about earlier DiNozzo hesitantly continued "Got this one the same day, father was furious when he found out I had destroyed my best school pants... when I told him I didn't cry as I was reporting during cocktail hour he threw his glass down on the floor of his study... he pushed me down on the shards of broken glass... held me there with one hand on my shoulder while I squirmed. Said he would give me something to cry about..." his voice trailed off and Gibbs was left furious, wondering how anybody could do that to a small child, let alone their own flesh and blood.
What made Gibbs' anger intensify was that he was now at fault for adding to the man's ever growing collection of scars, maybe he hadn't held a child down on broken glass but his own bastard ways had left their marks on Tony.
Both men were pulled out of the awkward and uncomfortable silence that followed DiNozzo's revelation by a furious and familiar voice calling from the doorway "Anthony Dominic DiNozzo what on earth are you doing out of bed?"
Giving his boss a quick and slightly forced smirk, Tony flinched when he saw the anger in the Scottish ME's face.
"You were under strict orders Anthony not to move from that bed! You had the nurses in a right royal state, panicking because they thought they had lost you. I had a feeling you would be here though..." For the first time Ducky seemed to notice tube connected to Tony's nose, the other two men in the room watched and the older man followed the line down to the tank placed on the other side of Tony's seat "Anthony where did you get that oxygen tank from?" the bow-tied doctor looked so bewildered that Tony's forced smirk became a real face splitting, ear to ear smile that Gibbs couldn't help but chuckle at.
Knowing his senior field agent as well as he did Gibbs answered for him "You might want to see about putting all male nurses on DiNozzo while he is in here Duck."
"Dear boy please do not tell me you used that infectious charm of yours to seduce some poor girl into putting her job on the line just so you could check on Jethro here?" Even though Ducky would have preferred the younger man to have stayed in his bed, he had to applaud the boy's ingenuity and was glad that he seemed well enough to pull one of his normal stunts, it had never been a good sign when the man's creativity, flirting and humour had disappeared. "At least tell me you were wise enough to also acquire a wheelchair for your great escape?"
Tony had the decency to look guilty and Gibbs had to resist the urge to head slap him "No such luck Duck... think you might need to pull out your sewing kit and patch up my senior field agent here."
Clicking his tongue at the sight of Tony's unbandaged knee, Ducky left the room and quickly returned having found the necessary items to suture Tony's injuries back up.
While Ducky did what came as second nature to a man of his profession, he regaled the two agents with one of his long winded stories that the current situation reminded him of while both Gibbs and Tony only half listened while locked in an unspoken discussion of their own, green eyes staring deeply into blue ones that stared back in a new found understanding with an underlying hint of guilt. Tony and Gibbs had worked with each other long enough to not need words, or even head slaps, to communicate. Which was lucky for Tony given his boss wasn't usually one for words.
When the Italian's unofficial doctor had finished he patted the knee he had just stitched back up gently, breaking the silent discussion "Now Anthony, you stay here and say your goodbyes to Jethro while I go find a wheelchair to take you back to your room."
Seeing his patient about to argue Ducky kept going, not allowing Tony a chance to speak "I don't want to hear a single word out of you young man! You are going back to bed and you will stay there this time until your doctor or myself say otherwise, if you even think about moving I will have them strap you to the bed, do you hear me?" seeing the small nod of understanding Ducky continued "Good boy. Now if you are lucky I will see if I can arrange a double room for you and Jethro, maybe then we won't have you going walk about and tearing your stitches again."
The room was left I silence as the aging man exited. Neither man said a single word for a couple of minutes, both letting the events of the day and Tony's revelation sink in.
Both were shocked when it was Tony who spoke first "You know boss, these new scars aren't going to fall into the category of the ones my father gave me... They're going to be up there with the ones from Brad as joint favourites. They're not going to represent the day you almost died, they're going to be a reminder that you survived."
Gibbs didn't have time to reply before Ducky came back into the room, male nurse and wheelchair in tow. As they helped DiNozzo into the chair Gibbs leant forward just enough to give Tony one of his patented head slaps.
"Ow! What was that for?" the confused agent responded as he rubbed his head, more out of habit than pain.
"That's for bribing a nurse and not listening to doctors orders!" The cheeky grin he was rewarded with brought a smile to his own face. "You did good today Anthony, you made me proud."
The second in command was honestly stunned and as Ducky wheeled him out of the room both Tony and Gibbs ignored the moisture that welled up in the green eyes.
Gibbs knew he couldn't erase the physical or emotional scars that already marked the younger man, but he could try his damned hardest not to add to them.
A/N: Hope the ending wasn't too fluffy for you all, was a bit lost on how it should finished but I think it is ok the way it is.
The story Tony tells Gibbs about when he was six and he fell actually happened to me, I was six and it was the day after I spent the night away from home for the first time, my brother was in hospital after an asthma attack and I had been wearing a dress. Still one of my proudest moments lol :D however the part with the glass and Tony's father... NEVER happened to me, just a disturbing little bit I added for Tony whumps, Though it is loosely based on a scar my mother has from where she fell on a broken bottle (no child abuse there either).
That story about my scar is actually the inspiration for this fic, I was twittering a while ago and saw the scars on my knee and boom! Plot Bunny attack! Though it was only at the end of last year/start of this year that I realised what had caused those scars. Happened way back in 1993 lol.
End totally unrelated Ducky reminiscent story ;D
Thoughts?