Beep….Beep…Beep…
Tony's alarm clock sounded very wrong; too slow and muted, as if it were coming from under a pillow or was drowned in the bath tub or something. And if he wasn't mistaken, it had been going off for about an hour. That was wrong.
The sight that greeted his opening eyes was even more disorienting that a randomly water-logged alarm clock would have been. His own dark, cozy bedroom had been replaced with a smaller, colder, more sterile looking white one. There was medical looking tubing sticking out of his arm. An IV. The beeping was coming from somewhere above and to the right of his head. He was pretty sure that it was beeping in time to his heart, since once it dawned on him that he was once again hospitalized, the rhythm of the metronome sped considerably. The scratchy hospital sheets were pulled up to his chest and he was reasonably sure that had he wanted to bound out of bed and take a piss of his own accord, there would be a fairly embarrassing urinary catheter in the way. He really couldn't remember what had happened, but he was pretty sure that it had sucked.
He tried to take a physical inventory without moving, and failing that, he pushed himself up on the non-perforated hand and tried to figure out what he had been doing before he… what? Got shot? Got knocked out? Passed out drunk? Nothing hurt, exactly. His neck was a little stiff, as if he had laid on it wrong, and there was a dull ache in his back, but nothing really that would justify the hospital setting. He was turned around at the waist, trying in vain to look behind him for some sign of a physical injury, but only succeeded in discovering that the hospital gown he was wearing had no back to it and his undergarments hadn't survived with him.
Why is it that the first thing that hospitals do before they poke, and prod and humiliate you, is get you naked?
And where was everybody? Shouldn't there be someone here with him? If he had been injured in the line of duty, (and what else could it be?) shouldn't one of his coworkers be here to explain everything to him when he awoke, congratulate him on surviving, and thank him for taking one for the team? He was just settling in to what he thought was a well deserved sulk, when the door opened and a tall dark haired nurse came into the room.
"Oh good. You're awake. Didn't take you as long as they thought, did it hun?" She was probably at least three or four years younger than him, so the "hun" annoyed him. But, trading pride for information, he sat up a little straighter and gave her "the look". The look was one that he had had Gibbs use on him at least daily since he had joined NCIS and he had been practicing. It wasn't perfect yet, (as Abby would tell him over and over), but it go the desired result from the nurse.
"If you give me just a second to get your vital signs, I will go and let the doctor know you are awake. And there are some people here to see you too, just as soon as Dr. Chase gives me the ok."
See? His team was there to see him after all. Abby was probably out there, bouncing around, worried sick and driving everyone nuts, McGee would be pacing back and forth alternating between trying not to be sick and trying to calm Abby down, Gibbs would be all quietly stoic and pissed looking, and Ziva would be confusing herself trying to figure out how to butcher the American idiom of "Get well soon." But hopefully one of them would be able to get it together long enough to fill him in on what the hell was going on.
He settled himself back against the pillows the nurse had just fluffed, and tried to look stoic. The nurse gave one last look at one of the monitors on the wall and booked it from the room.
The door opened again, probably no more than 5 minutes later, this time admitting a male doctor. He was blonde, tall, young and immediately got on Tony's nerves. He was definitely going to be cramping Tony's style.
"What's up, Doc?" earned Tony a raised eyebrow.
"Well, firstly, I'm Dr. Chase. I was your admitting doctor in E.R." He had a very strong Australian accent. Even worse. God forbid Ziva should get anywhere near this guy. He'd never get her attention back after the two of them got to laughing about "Americans" and went out to "throw some shrimp on the barby." He had been internalizing so thoroughly that he had completely missed what the doctor had said.
"I'm sorry…what?" Brilliant.
"Tony, are you having trouble with concentration? Or focus? Its important for you to tell me these things if we are going to figure out what's wrong here."
Figure out what's wrong here? Well that wasn't good.
A/N Ok, first, I apologize for whatever that was. And I am still not sure why Dr. Chase made his way into this story, but he fits. And well, lets face it, he's hot. Any how, also wanted to tell you that I am sorry that the first few chapters are kinda short… the middle of the story is the part that came spilling out of my brain like overcooked dehydrated Japanese noodles at 3 in the morning and so that is written already…but I am finding the lead in to those chapters to be kind of difficult. Anywho, it will get longer… and better… but what do you think?