Title: Broken Leg
Author: SplishySplash
Characters: Tony/Ziva/Gibbs
Pairing: Tony/Ziva
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Summary: Ziva has to play nurse maid to Tony who broke his leg.
A knock on the door made her look up from her place on the sofa.
With her feet bare she wandered over to the large oak door and out of careful habit she peeked through the peep hole to see the silhouette of her boss standing in the hallway. She opened the door and was greeted with his stony smile. "How is he doing?" He asked as Ziva shut the door behind him.
"He is sleeping." She said as Gibbs turned took notice of the familiar living room, which was spotless save for the throw resting in a heap at the end of the couch and an upturned book on the coffee table. He turned around and took notice of her clothing which consisted of her black t-shirt and white basketball shorts that were rolled up to keep them on her waist, that were clearly not her.
Gibbs nodded and followed her down the hall with a small smile as her bare feet padded lightly down the hallway to Tony's tidy bedroom. She pushed the door open slightly for him to step in to see crutches resting in the corner near the bed as the TV played a movie from its place on the wall and even Gibbs recognized it as Star Wars episode V. Tony was asleep on his back with his left leg elevated on spare blankets and pillows, splinted to keep it in place. She brushed past Gibbs to put a fallen ice pack that rested on the floor back on his leg before covering his uninjured one with the blanket. She turned the TV off as the credits began to roll and joined Gibbs back at the door.
Tony sighed and turned his head, but remained unconscious and to Gibbs he looked content under the layer of blankets, despite his leg being recently broken. They stepped out of the bedroom and she pulled the door by before leaning against the door frame. "Has he been asleep long?" Gibbs asked, folding his arms.
She pulled her phone from the waistband of her shorts and checked the time. "He took another dose of pain medication almost five hours ago and has been asleep since." She commented as she placed the phone back in its spot. "I am going to make him something to eat, if you would like to wait . . ."
He shook his head and he opened the door. "I am going to go finish the paperwork. I just came over to make sure you both are okay." He declined almost tiredly and he realized that he needed some coffee before both McGee and him caught up on the paperwork that they were missing out on. "Call if you need anything."
She smiled warmly. "I will be fine." She answered, leaning her head on the door gaining a disbelieving look from her boss. "Tony will be fine."
"You know how DiNozzo gets when he is on pain medications. . ." He said and her smile grew brighter, he was playing protective father. It was not a side that one saw all too often of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, but under his stoic stance he cared for his teammates.
Her hand squeezed his arm. "It is nothing I cannot handle." He opened his mouth to retort when she interrupted with another smile. "I promise not to hurt him if he becomes. . ." She could not remember the word to use. Tony was more of a flirt when he was under the influence of drugs and soon after that stage his hands were a magnet to her.
"A handful?" Gibbs asked, filling the blank for her.
She let out a laugh. "He has not really been coherent, so I do not think he will be much of a problem." She said as he started to walk backwards down the hallway slowly and Gibbs gave her that paternal look, the one that made her do whatever he wanted even if she didn't want too. "I will call if I need anything." He raised his eyebrows like he caught her in a lie. "I promise."
"Good night." He said as he turned to hit the elevator button.
She wished him a good night and shut the door lightly before she padded over into the freshly scrubbed kitchen. She had spent the better part of Tony's drug induced sleep picking up his apartment by picking up discarded clothing around his bedroom, so that he would not trip on the way to the bathroom. The bathroom was her next project, which led her to the sitting room and it was covered with years of dust and displaced DVD's sitting among a week's worth of soda and beer bottles. Her next task was the kitchen, which seemed almost abandoned compared to the rest of the apartment and just needed a good scrub down to look almost new. She had just finished and picked up a book from his small library of mystery and entertainment books and sat down when Gibbs had stopped by.
She used the remote to turn on his stereo system to a quiet medley of music that they both enjoyed and turned to the fridge to pull out the ingredients to make him a simple dinner.
When he awoke, he was completely disorientated.
His brain was fuzzy and his mouth was dry, but he did recognize his own bedroom through the shadows. He also noticed that his left was elevated and splinted, suddenly it was a flash back to a movie like scene when he broke it pushing a small child out of the way of a vehicle after he escaped from the confines of the stroller. The truck didn't have a chance at slowing down and it clipped his ankle, which was the only part of his body that didn't make it out of the way as he hit the asphalt, leaving scrapes along the opposite side of his body.
But he after that was fuzzier. He remember Ziva there and maybe even Gibbs somewhere in the mix, he remembered the ambulance ride and Ziva arguing with the paramedics, winning the argument and holding his hand on the way to the hospital, but after that it blank.
Voices outside his room made him realize that he wasn't alone, but he couldn't make out what they were saying through his drug haze. The haze made it so that he didn't care who was currently in his apartment listening to his . . . stereo? As long as they didn't mess with the precise organization of his DVD collection, he didn't care.
The voices stop and the playlist hummed lightly in the background before he heard light footsteps towards the bedroom. The door opened slightly and Ziva padded over barefoot with a plate in her hand. "How are you feeling?" She asked quietly as she sat the plate down on his dresser. He tried to sit up, but his muscles screamed in protest and he groaned. Ziva was at his side in the blink of an eye and she pulled him up so that his back was against the headboard with his leg still elevated on the mountain of pillows. "Is this better?"
He nodded. "Much better." He answered hoarsely as she reached for the bottle of water on his bedside table and took a seat next to him on the small space between him and the edge of the bed. He drank quickly as if he hadn't had any water in weeks. "Thank you."
"How are you feeling?" She asked again tenderly, checking his bandages for blood.
He shrugged and immediately regretted it. "Fine." Tony answered shortly with a wince as she poked one of his bandages. "Okay that's a lie, the pills are wearing off."
Ziva finished cataloguing his abrasions and she got up. "We need to change the bandages and then you can have some more." She said as she disappeared into his adjoining bathroom to return with a melee of first aid supplies before she stopped at his dresser and grabbed a clean shirt.
She sat the first aid supplies on the bed and moved to the hem of his shirt, with ease she gently pulled it off his head to prevent any strain on his aching muscles. Her next task was to pull off all the tape that littered the side of his body which made his hiss as the adhesive caught his chest, arm or leg hair, but the antibiotic cream that went on next was soothing and Tony couldn't take his eyes off her as she concentrated on patching him up.
He still had some of the Vicodin in his system and he could still fill the affects of it as he fought to remain in control of his actions around her, he had heard from his coworkers about his handsy nature while under the influence and god forbid he did not want his arm broken or worse, Gibbs to be his nurse. He swallowed hard as her hair fanned just enough so that he couldn't read her face leaving him to reach over and brush it back behind her ears with a 'screw it' attitude, maybe she would break his left arm. But he only gained a glance before she returned her attention to the rash on his skin. She was tender and almost maternal in her touch, but before he knew it she was finished and she fed his head through the hole of the shirt, followed by each arm and he was surprised that it didn't hurt at all.
She got up and he missed the warmth that her small body gave at his side to cross the room, grabbing the plate and pill bottles. "Would you like your pills now or later?" She asked as she shook them lightly. Tony frowned, he also knew that the pain medication would knock him out after awhile and he didn't want to sleep. "I am giving you a choice, because if you turn them down I will force them down your throat later."
"I will take them now then." He conceded and she sat the plate on his lap before opening both pill bottles with ease. The white oblong pill and two yellow circle one found their way into his hand followed by a bottle of water and he put them on his tongue, knowing full well if she suspected that he was faking in any way, she would check and then things would get ugly.
They went down and he eyeballed the sandwich on his lap, it was made just the way that he liked it: turkey, mayonnaise, lettuce and provolone cheese cut diagonal. He took the right slice and ate it contently. "Would you like to watch a movie?" Ziva asked, breaking the silence briefly. He nodded and she got up to pick one from the stash next to his TV, which was just an abbreviated version of the one in the sitting room and Tony watched her long fingers skim the titles. She settled for a Tom Cruise classic from the position of the case that she slipped from its place and she put the disk in the player. Jerry McGuire, a personal favorite.
As she walked back to him, he had finished both halves of the sandwich in record time. Wish a surprised glance, she took the plate from him and handed him the remote before walking out of the room and down the hall.
He didn't know how long it was until she returned, the medication started to kick in. Ziva adjusted the mountain of pillows and traded out the ice pack for a heat pack, before tucking the blanket around him securely. As she turned to leave the room, he caught her hand. "Where are you going?" He asked sleepily.
"I will be on the couch if you need anything." She said tenderly, patting his hand with her free one.
He frowned. "Stay?" He asked and it seemed as if his ability to form complete sentences had disappeared. She rolled her eyes with a smile as she walked around the bed, throwing back the covers and climbing in into the free side of the bed. With her back against the headboard she glanced at him with an expectant look. "Thank you."
She nodded as her eyes turned to the movie and Tony's attention turned to her. Before he knew it, his fingers were tracing patterns on her arm slowly drawing response from her swatting his hand away gently. She glanced up at him with a smile, when his hand continued for the second time. "Yes?"
"Your skin is so soft." He slurred with a cocky smile.
"You are high." She answered, turning her attention back to Tom Cruise.
His attention didn't falter and his hand left her arm to free her hair from its confines of the pony tail, freeing her curls to rest on her shoulders. She glanced over to him and shook her head, choosing to ignore him rather that deal with him. "I know I don't tell you enough, but you are beautiful." She turned to look at him again and his hand traced down her jaw.
His balance was thwarted by the drugs that made him feel heavy, so instead of being the romantic that he thought he was, he ended up in her lap with a yelp of pain has his thickly bandaged leg barely gave way to the awkward movement.
She gave a laugh as she pushed him back up to a seated position. "I think it is time for you to go back to sleep." She said lightly as she got up to adjust the pillows and gently helped him slide down, despite his protests.
"I don't want to sleep." He whined as she crawled back into bed with him and pulled the blanket higher onto his chest, he took advantage of her reaching over him by grabbing her arms, giving her a small yank so that she lost her balance and with the grace of a dancer she straddled his waist as to not hurt his injured leg or scrapes.
She rolled her eyes and pushed herself up, leaning over enough to allow her hair to fan from her shoulders onto his chest and his hands went to her waist. "I do not think you are up to this kind of activity Tony." She said playfully.
His gaze grew dark as he pushed the hair back behind her ear, trailing his fingers on the curve of her neck and bringing a shiver from her as he pulled her close to him allowing his hands to trace down her back in the process. "As I recall, you like it on top." He said with a growl.
She laughed again as she climbed off of him, before lying on her back next to him. "It is not going to happen, Tony." She answered and instead of an argument, silence filled his side of the bed and so she rolled her head to glance at him to see that he was snoring lightly.
He had fallen asleep.
With the mother of all eye rolls, she rolled onto her side and reached for the remote that was currently on Tony's opposite side and shut off the movie. With a sigh she fell back into place on the bed, too worked up to sleep.
She turned to look at him with a sigh and watched him breathe, in and out, until it lulled her into a soft slumber.
When Tony woke some time near 0300 am, he was surprised to see a dark haired mass curled into his side. Even in her sleep she was gentle as her head rested on his chest, her arm across his waist mindful of his scrapes. He brushed his hand through her hair, tucking it behind her ear and resting it on her waist before dozing off again. He was glad that Ziva had volunteered to play his nurse because if it was Gibbs, this position might've been awkward.
