A/N: This is happening sometime after 11x16. So, there might be some spoilers there; but not too many.

OK, fair warning, if you're a fan of DiNozzo Senior, then you shouldn't read this one. The thing is I can't see him as the caring and loving father they're trying to show. Not after everything that we've heard about him during the first few seasons. I can't go with him being suddenly the father of the year and all! And besides, with him in the picture, we are seeing less and less of that father-son relationship between Gibbs and Tony and I kinda miss it. Don't you?!

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. What Is And What Will Never Be .

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Tony had a bad feeling all morning. No, scratch that; he had a crappy feeling in his stomach; not the type of crappy when you eat something awful; no, it was the kind of crappy feeling when you know something terrible is going to happen and you don't even know what it is to prevent it. And with the job they had, it was almost impossible to stop crappy thing from happening.

'Almost' was the keyword there and Tony absently realized that he'd never loved that word more than the moment things started to go to hell. The moment Gibbs...

Let's start from the beginning.

They had been working on an annoying case which didn't seem to be anywhere near getting closed by the 11th day and everyone on the team was on edge as they all knew that a few more days and they had to call the case cold and put it away which was not fair to the Marine and his family who'd been killed violently in their home.

So, when they finally heard a word about one of their main suspects on the 12th day, they rushed into the old warehouse that they'd heard about and that was the day that Tony had that crappy feeling in his gut. The tip they'd received was right and fortunately they'd been able to find their suspect, but as Tim and their newest Probie, Ellie, were cuffing him, Tony and Gibbs started to take a look around and at the last moment, Tony noticed a creepy smirk on the criminal's face as the guy eyed Gibbs and his movements.

Glancing back at Gibbs, Tony saw that the older man was taking off the lid of a big box and the feeling in his gut intensified tenfold and he knew the smirk on the other man's face and what was going to happen to Gibbs in the next few seconds were very much related to the churning of his gut.

Yelling his boss' name, Tony hoped that he'd warned the older agent soon enough, but he was wrong and the lid was almost off; so before anyone could do anything or react in any way, Tony leaped towards his boss and pushed him out of the way as the box exploded into pieces, sending Tony a few feet backwards.

The explosion wasn't a big one at that, but it would've killed Gibbs had he been still standing that close to the box.

It took a few moments for Gibbs to fathom what had just happened but when he did, he was on his feet, rushing to Tony's side, ignoring the pain in his back where he had hit the ground.

The younger man was lying on his back and was clearly out for the count. There were signs of burns on his lower abdomen and left arm, but it seemed like his thighs had borne the brunt of the explosion as they were bloody and the fiber of his jeans had melted away, showing blisters already forming on the younger man's legs. His right leg seemed better as his left side had been facing the box when he'd pushed Gibbs out of the way, but that was no consolation as Gibbs was unable to rouse Tony.

It took Tim and Bishop a little longer than Gibbs to snap out of their hazes, but they hadn't let go of Carlson who was now laughing mischievously. Angrily, Tim pushed the man against the wall, not caring when his head hit the hard surface hard and bounced back. The laughter instantly died in the other man's throat.

"You bastard." Tim growled and grabbed his own set of cuffs to lock the man to the pipe that was attached to the wall. Once he was done, he once again pushed the dirtbag harshly and ran towards his fallen teammate, phone already out in his hand as he called for an ambulance.

"Boss?" He knelt beside them, silently asking if there was anything he could do.

"DiNozzo? Tony." Gibbs ignored Tim as Tony seemed to be coming around. "Hey, hey, easy. You got hurt; stay still." The older man instructed.

After a few seconds, Tony nodded his head and finally opened his eyes. "Wha-" he coughed wetly. "Happen'?"

Gibbs inwardly winced at the sound of Tony's cough and then a look of fear washed over both his and Tim's feature. There was blood on Tony's lips. He was coughing up blood, which meant he had either a broken rib puncturing his lung, or a piece of shrapnel doing that for him. Both options were bad, especially for someone with Tony's history.

Tony, who was oblivious of their thoughts, looked around with confusion until his eyes landed on Ellie who was standing a few feet away and looked like she was going to faint at any moment.

"Tim." Tony said hoarsely. "Get Bishop out."

Tim looked up and just saw how pale Ellie looked and realized that she'd never seen one of her teammates getting hurt and this was practically her first experience with something this severe. He also remembered another time when he, himself, had to go through the same thing when Gibbs had been blown up in that ship and back then, just like now, Tony had shielded him from the gory scene as much as he could. It was just like Tony to be worried about the Probie when he was lying on the ground, bloody and burned.

Nodding his head tersely, he jumped to his feet and went to Ellie, ushering her outside.

"No... No." Ellie tried to resist, but she wasn't very strong at that moment. "Tony-" she looked back with tears in her eyes.

"He's gonna be alright." Tim grabbed her shoulders and stood in front of her. "Stay here and wait for the ambulance. Alright? Tony knows what he's doing and believe me, I've been where you are now. Tony did the same for me. Stay here."

He didn't wait for an answer as he hurried back inside.

Tony was once again unconscious and he remained that way when the paramedics arrived and the whole ride to the hospital and during the quick examination in the ER before they rushed him to the OR after bunch of scans and tests.

Gibbs had gone to the hospital with them and ordered Tim and Bishop to get the criminal to the Navy Yard since another team had arrived to help them with the crime scene; so, Gibbs just called Vance to let him know what had happened exactly.

It was couple of hours later when Vance showed up at the hospital, followed by McGee and a clearly shaken Bishop.

"Any news?" Vance asked.

"He's still in the surgery." Gibbs replied curtly as he stood behind the closed doors of the operating room, thinking about the last few hours. He couldn't help blaming himself and thinking that it should've been him on that operating table, not Tony. He'd been careless and Tony was paying the price for it.

"The case is closed." Vance informed him, trying to distract his oldest agent, even for a few minutes. "I got the confession from that bastard."

Gibbs' only reaction was a nod.

"It wasn't your fault, Gibbs."

"You weren't there."

"I watched the tapes." Vance pointed out.

"Then you should know better."

"DiNozzo saved your life; you would've died if he hadn't pushed you out of the way. You were much closer to the box."

"And now he might die."

"Didn't think you'd give up just like that." Vance said, knowing his jab would make Gibbs angry, but it was better than watching the seasoned agent second-guessing himself and wallowing in self-hatred.

"Dammit, Leon." Gibbs growled angrily and for the first time looked the other man in the eyes. "He shouldn't be there fighting for his life. He tried to warn me. He'd noticed something was wrong before I could touch that box."

"It's not surprising. You've said yourself multiple times that he's the best agent you've worked with." Vance said calmly, not affected by Gibbs' angry roar. He knew perfectly well how Gibbs must be feeling at that moment. "Don't dishonor his heroic action."

His words deflated the anger in Gibbs' eyes and the older man closed his eyes and sighed.

"He'll pull through." Vance patted his shoulder. "Now I have to get back to the Navy Yard, but I want an update every two hours."

Gibbs nodded his head and let the director walk away.

Looking at the other side of the room, he saw both Tim and Ellie leaning against the wall and felt bad for them. Tim had recently been there for his girlfriend and this must be really hard for the younger man and as for Ellie... Well, this was the first close call she had witnessed and he knew she must be shaken.

Walking towards them, he decided to be strong for his team. "Tim, go get us some coffee, please."

The use of his first name and the word 'please' didn't go unnoticed by McGee, but he wisely kept quiet and walked away. He knew his boss well enough to know he was worried about Tony and that he always got like that when he was really sad or worried for one of them.

"How you holding up, Ellie?" Gibbs stood in front of her.

She just shrugged and was a little disconcerted as Gibbs called her Ellie and sounded so mellow. "He... Gibbs... He-"

"I know." Gibbs said quietly and pulled her into a hug and no sooner than that, she burst into tears.

Some minutes later, she finally pulled back and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about. You care about your teammate and that's a good thing."

"What if..." she trailed off. "I mean without Tony-" her bottom lip trembled again and she looked away. She really liked Tony and was learning a lot from him, he had this strange way of teaching her stuff, but it was actually interesting and she enjoyed working with him. His insight and way of thinking was quiet unique and she could see what a seasoned agent he was. Besides, he was an expert in Gibbs' language and she knew she could count on him whenever she felt lost or fed up. And even though she'd come to trust her new teammates completely, now she knew that Tony would literally take a bullet for them which made her be both scared and thankful for Tony.

Gibbs smiled tiredly. "He's not going anywhere. You still don't know him that well."

"But-"

"The Boss is right." Tim said as he came back with three cups of coffee and handed them to his teammates. "You know now that he survived the plague. That must tell you a lot about him." he wasn't sure who he was trying to convince more, but it felt good to comfort someone else; it was, in a way, giving him some much needed strength.

"Where's Abby?" Gibbs asked.

"She'll be here shortly with Ducky and Palmer. She had to finish a few more tests because she didn't want Carlson to get away with hurting Tony or with his other crimes. Ducky stayed there to make sure she was alright."

Gibbs nodded his understanding and suddenly remembered that there was another person who'd want to know about Tony being in the hospital.

Grabbing his phone, he headed out. "I'll be outside; one of you come get me if there's any news."

"Where did he go?" Ellie asked as she sipped her coffee.

"To call someone, clearly." Tim looked at their Boss' retreating back. "Tony's father, I'd say." He added after thinking about possible options.

Ellie's eyes widened. "Oh, poor man. He just got married."

"Again." Tim couldn't help it.

"Still. He just did and hearing that his son is hurt and in the hospital must be really hard."

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... TBC ...


A/N: I'd love to know what you think.

All mistakes are mine.

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