A/N: I've seen a small number of others have written fics based on 'What happens when Jeanne and Tony run into each other again, years later?', but none seemed to make use of the obvious fact that she's a doctor and he works in a dangerous occupation. So I had to write this.

SPOILERS: for Bury Your Dead and Internal Affairs (Season 5).

WARNINGS: nothing unless fairly mild descriptions of burns injuries are enough to make you queasy.

This story is set several years after we last see Jeanne in Internal Affairs (season 5) and is entirely in her POV, except for the prologue (which is confusingly the last chapter: see the note on that page). Jeanne has recently returned to the States to take a temporary position at Bethesda Naval Hospital for a few months.

The call about the bomb blast had come in minutes ago and the emergency team at Bethesda was waiting when the ambulance arrived. Dr Jeanne Benoit listened as the paramedics rattled off details of the first patient's injuries even as he was wheeled unconscious into the building. The major concerns were severe burns across the back and arms caused by his clothing catching fire, a clearly broken arm and signs of concussion. There was also the possibility of other skeletal or internal damage from the blast, and his blood pressure had started to drop as they were arriving, so he was probably going into shock.

Dr Benoit took charge, ordering an IV to help get his blood pressure back up and sending someone ahead to prep the X-ray department -the sooner they could check for any invisible damage the better. She ensured others were sent to fetch a solution to be placed on the burns. It was only as she started to help remove the oxygen mask and replace it with a nasal cannula that she saw the man's face properly, and stopped.

"Doctor?" asked one of the nurses. "Everything alright?"

She mentally shook herself. "Yes, yes of course. Let's see if we can wake him up." She finished attaching the nasal cannula and noted some minor burns across his forehead and cheek. "Tony! Tony! Can you hear me? We need you to wake up. Can you open your eyes for me?" No response.

"Blood pressure stabilising," observed one of the nurses.

Jeanne gave Tony a few firm taps on the unburned cheek. "Tony!"

Tony groaned and tried to move his head away. Some response was better than nothing, even if he didn't properly wake up. Another nurse returned and advised that X-Ray had been cleared for the patient, and since Tony seemed stable, Jeanne sent him straight away. She stopped outside the room, letting the department staff take over for the moment.

"Dr Benoit?"

She turned. "Yes, Michelle?"

"You know that guy?"

She paused. "In a manner of speaking." She saw the confused look on the nurse's face and tried to figure out the simplest way of putting it. "I guess you could say he's an old boyfriend."

"Bad breakup?"

"You have no idea."

Michelle wisely chose not to pursue the subject any further. They headed back to emergency where a second ambulance was pulling up, much more sedately. The paramedics brought out a small boy and reported that he had minor burns. A woman hovering over him was clearly his mother. Jeanne looked him over and gave instructions to the nurses, but the boy's burns were minor and he had no other injuries.

As she was finishing up, a girl dressed all in black with knee-high boots came hurrying in and approached the first person she saw.

"Oh my god, where's Tony? Is he ok? Please tell me he's ok!"

Jeanne walked over and stepped in for the stunned nurse. "You're looking for Tony DiNozzo?"

"Yes, where is he? I have to see him!"

"He's in X-Ray. Are you his, uh, girlfriend?" Jeanne couldn't believe the goth standing in front of her could be, but then she never knew the real Tony, did she?

"What, me?" Abby laughed. "No, I love him, but Tony's like my brother. So he's ok, right?"

Jeanne sighed. They always expected you to have all the answers on the spot. "We don't really know yet. Are you family? Because I'm not permitted to tell you anything if you're not."

Abby's face fell. "Well, no. Although, you probably won't be able to get hold of his father. And Gibbs is his medical proxy, but I think he's going to be busy down at the crime scene for a long while yet."

Gibbs? Tony's boss was his medical proxy? "Well I'm afraid until either a member of his family or his proxy gets here, you'll have to wait in the visitor's room like everyone else. If you can get one of them here you'll be able to hear the news a lot sooner, since I'll be able to fill them in."

For a moment it looked like the gothic girl was going to argue, but then her shoulders dropped. "Fine. I'll tell Gibbs you're holding out on me." She turned and moodily walked away. Jeanne watched her go then returned to X-ray in time to meet the radiologist.

"What are we looking at, Dr Michaels?"

"The arm is badly broken, definitely needs surgery, possibly a couple of pins. We've taken scans of his whole body, and I'm going to have to go over them with a fine tooth comb to be sure there aren't any fractures I've missed, but there are no other major breaks and no signs of internal bleeding. However, there's an awful lot of old scars. Looks like he makes a habit of breaking bones. Did I hear right -you know this man?"

She shook her head. "Not well enough to know his medical history."

"Right, well you might want to look it up," Dr Michaels advised. "Particularly check for any history of respiratory illness -his lungs are more scarred than a lifetime smoker's."

Jeanne wasn't sure what to make of that, as she joined the nurses wheeling Tony back out to trauma. She'd never known Tony to smoke. She checked his vitals and made some notes on the chart before sending one of the nurses to schedule him for surgery on his arm. Then she moved to his side again.

"Tony, we need to you wake up now. Enough sleep. Come on, wake up for me." The red marks on his face were becoming more defined now. She sent another nurse to fetch some more burns cream, then leaned over to tap his face again. "Tony! Wake up!"

She was taken by surprise when he did jolt awake. "Sorry Boss! I wasn't sleeping!" She almost laughed at the look on his face when he realised he wasn't at work. He was having trouble focussing though, and couldn't see her properly.

"Tony, do you know where you are?"

He groaned. "Hospital, probably Bethesda. Oh god, what happened to Jonah? Where is he? Is he okay?"

"Jonah?" she asked.

"The little boy that came in just after him," the nurse beside her filled in.

"Oh, he's fine. Some minor burns, we'll send him home with some cream."

Tony relaxed with a sigh, then seemed to pause in his thoughts. He squinted at her.

"Jeanne?"

"That's Dr Benoit to you," she said shortly. "I'm going to shine a light in your eyes now, Tony."

"I thought you were in Europe," said Tony lazily. "I wouldn't worry -the concussion is only mild." The morphine in his IV drip is obviously having an effect, Jeanne thought.

"You're an expert, are you?"

"Yep," he grinned, closing his eyes again as soon as she finished. "I hold the records -most concussions total, most concussions in a single case -you obviously haven't seen my file yet."

"Not yet," she admitted. "What's up with your lungs?"

Tony frowned and took a deep breath. "Nothing, they feel fine."

"They're scarred."

"Oh, that. I'm over that. You can read about it in my file if you want." Tony was drifting off to sleep again. The nurse beside Jeanne moved to wake him back up, but then Michelle approached, reporting that the surgeon would be available to fix Tony's arm in ten minutes. Jeanne nodded and asked them to prep him, and went to find Tony's file.

She spent nearly half an hour flicking through Tony's considerable medical file. It was a wonder he didn't know all the emergency staff by name. He'd been blown up, shot, cut and injured in a multitude of ways on a regular basis for years. She'd read about the biological attack and his encounter with the pneumonic plague -and shuddered at even the clinical descriptions of what it had done to him. It had to have been a type of living hell, and Tony had never even hinted at lung problems the whole time she'd been with him. She even knew for a fact that he liked to go for a run most mornings. It must have taken a lot of hard work and dedication to reach that point again after beating such severe respiratory illness.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a nurse leading Gibbs over.

"You're treating DiNozzo?" he asked. Then realised who she was. "Jeanne Benoit? Last we heard, you were overseas." He appeared to be studying her.

Jeanne scowled. Was everyone keeping tabs on her? She decided to be professional and not get bogged down in history. "Tony's in surgery right now. Badly broken arm, possibly needs to be pinned; the surgeon will let us know when he's done. Second degree burns over most of his back -I'm told his clothes caught fire. Minor burns elsewhere, including his face, and a mild concussion."

"And the child?"

"Is fine -just some minor burns, we won't even keep him overnight."

Gibbs nodded. "When can we see DiNozzo?"

"As soon as he's out of surgery, you as his proxy and any family members can visit him in the recovery room. Other visitors will have to wait until he's been assigned a room in a ward."

"Just me then," said Gibbs. "Tony doesn't have close family." Jeanne was surprised at that -the Tony DiNardo she'd known hadn't had any family either, but she'd since assumed that was just a part of his false identity.

"His file says his father's still alive," she commented.

"Yeah, but he's rarely around." Gibbs stepped back. "I'd better go let everyone know how he is -I'll be waiting in the visitor's room when he gets out."

Jeanne watched as he walked away. If Gibbs -knowing the full history between herself and Tony as he seemed to, had any doubts about Jeanne treating him, he didn't show it. After a minute, curiosity got the better of her. If Tony had no close family, then who was the 'everyone' that Gibbs needed to speak to? She made her way down the hall to the visitors waiting room, arriving in time to see Gibbs reach a group of people waiting on the far side. The goth girl she'd met earlier jumped up from her seat and enveloped Gibbs in a hug. Another woman and three other men stood also. The woman looked vaguely familiar -Jeanne suspected it was probably the same woman she had briefly seen with Tony at his work, the last time she'd ever seen him. She was wearing the same black NCIS jacket as Gibbs, and so was a third man -more of Tony's fellow agents, she assumed. The other two men -one fairly young, one much older, were in plain clothes.

The group huddled around. She couldn't hear the words but they were obviously worried and eager to hear any news. The older man asked some questions, and from Gibb's body language, they were questions he didn't know the answers to. Jeanne observed them a moment longer before heading back to her work. When Tony got out of surgery, she'd assign him to a ward, and then he'd be out of her hands.