I toyed with the idea of starting this story as I have several in the works now… unfortunately my muse is a totally random beastie who likes to flood me with ideas and stories at random times. Hence this one.

I promise that this one is going to be a very steady work as I have a good map in place of where it's going… I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Standard disclaimers – NCIS is just a toy I like to play with now and again. ~ Ozzyols

*NCIS*NCIS*

It was just a dumb ass accident. No acts of life saving heroism, or other possibly spectacular ways for the injury to occur… just a dumb accident. Not even note worthy in the annals of NCIS history, a confluence of events that just put an agent in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have happened to any one of them… but of course it had to happen to Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.

The call came just after 1500 on a Friday afternoon. It had been a slow week, a very, slow week that had seen the MCRT relegated to a backlog of paperwork and cold case files, thoroughly mind numbing stuff.

McGee had all but given up on the tower of files that were stacked on and around his desk, periodically sneering at them disdainfully as if their mere physicality offended his cyber-biased world. Ziva's fingers flew over the keys of her computer, her eyes flicking back and forth between case notes and the screen. With a concerted effort she would have her reports up to date and finalised within the hour.

"Tony, do you…" the question had started automatically before the Israeli beauty had remembered that Tony' wasn't there. Tony was at the dentist.

Tony had left the office just after lunch when the temporary crown he'd had put in some three weeks before shattered with an alarmingly loud crack, heard by the rest of his team.

It had been a little over a month since the Benoit case had been resolved… in a matter of speaking. Rene Benoit had dropped off the face of the earth overnight, a record beaten only by his daughter Jeanne. Which meant it had been just over three weeks earlier that Gibbs had stared down Tony when the Senior Field Agent had made an abortive mad dash to a daytime dentists appointment. Afterward Tony had been whinging about having to get work done of a Saturday and the work would only a stopgap measure at best.

Cradling his jaw with his left hand and glancing in his Boss's direction, Tony had waited for approval. Gibbs had merely rolled his eyes at his Senior Field Agent and told him to get back Asap.

So when a call had come through from Mulroney in dispatch Gibbs didn't even blink.

"Gibbs?" The Texan accent drawled. "You might wanna get yourself down to GW?"

"Body?" Gibbs asked

"Not exactly…" The dispatcher paused clearing his throat. "Accident at 7th and Pennsylvania, lights were out, city dump truck collided with a car… rolled it"

"Yeah… so?"

"The registration they gave of the car that was hit… it was DiNozzo's"

Gibbs froze, momentarily disbelieving what he had just heard. "Say again?" he finally responded falling back on his Marine training.

"The accident was flagged to us because he was in an agency car. Metro dispatch confirmed ID of accident victim was one Anthony D DiNozzo Jnr."

"What's his status?" Gibbs focused his mind on getting details rather than making assumptions.

Across the bullpen, the phone on Tony's desk rang as it had been ringing on and off for the past thirty minutes.

Ziva had jokingly commented earlier that "whomever was after Tony was certainly like a dog with a leg".

Gibbs had hidden a smile as McGee patiently corrected her "Bone Ziva, bone. A dog with a leg is… well…" The younger man paused. "Actually now you come to think of it…" he'd left the comment hanging with a grin playing across his boyish face.

Now, the phone could mean something else. Still focused on what sketchy details Mulroney could give, Gibbs snapped his fingers at his two other agents and hissed. "One of you get that will ya!"

The vehemence of Gibbs command, made both agents jump into action, Ziva reaching Tony's desk a shade faster than her partner and grabbing the receiver from its cradle.

"…details are hard to come by at the moment Gibbs. All I know is what I've told you…" a beeping in his ear alerted Gibbs to a second incoming call. "Mulroney; hang on." Gibbs gritted his teeth, he when it came to technology Gibbs openly admitted to himself that he wasn't so much a neophyte as a troglodyte and now wasn't the time to be messing around with trying to better himself. "McGee!" he snapped. "Get this other line up."

Tim jumped at his Boss's sudden demand. Something was seriously up and he obviously wasn't in the mood to discuss it. Scampering over to Gibbs desk, Tim eased himself past his seething Boss.

"Uh, sorry Boss…" McGee apologised as he punched the correct combination of buttons to access the second line and ducked back out of his way.

"Gibbs." The Team Leader said without preamble.

"Mr Leroy Jethro Gibbs?" a young male voice asked.

"Yes."

"Mr Gibbs, my name is Derek, I am an admissions clerk at George Washington Hospital. You are listed as next of kin for a Mr Anthony DiNozzo Jnr is that correct."

"How bad is he?" Gibbs jumped to the end of the conversation.

The Lead Agents cut through the preamble caught the young man off balance. "Uh… Mr DiNozzo was brought in about thirty-five minutes ago after sustaining head and brain injuries in a car crash. They have stabilised him and are running some tests and moving to Intensive Care within the next fifteen minutes."

"I'll be there in ten." Gibbs slapped his hand down on the phone hook to disconnect the call then released it. "Mulroney?" he asked hoping that the dispatcher was still there.

"Yeah Gibbs, still here."

"It's confirmed. I'm heading out now. Inform Director Shepherd." Gibbs jammed the receiver back into place.

"Gibbs?" Genuine concern touched Ziva's voice as she stood behind Tony's desk, the handset still clutched in her left hand. "That was Tony's dentist, the were asking if he was going to reschedule as he did not go to his appointment."

The look Gibbs gave both Agents set a small ball of fear plummeting into the stomachs of team members. They watched in silence as Gibbs briskly opened his draw and pulled out his ID, Sig and wallet in a fluid move, before storming past both of them on his way to the elevator.

"DiNozzo won't be makin' any appointments. He's at GW, rolled his car."

McGee and Ziva stood like two deer in headlights, the slap of the news catching them both off side. Neither moved as the ding of the Elevator door indicated the arrival at their floor.

"You two comin' or what?" Gibbs barked standing one foot in the door propping it open. In normal circumstances Gibbs would have just entered the car and let them catch up with him. But here and now, he didn't have the heart to not wait. To their credit, Gibbs had never seen his agents move so fast, his question snapping them into action.

As Ziva slid into the elevator car next to McGee and Gibbs, the Team Leader wondered just what was waiting for them at George Washington University Hospital.