AN: Thank you for the reviews, follows, and favorites! Sorry it took so long to update, life has been crazy. I do not own NCIS.

Three Weeks Later

Tony slowly opened his eyes but then immediately squeezed them shut again when harsh, white light disturbed his sensitive eyes.

"Tony, you have to open your eyes," a voice belonging to Gibbs informed him kindly from his bedside. Tony attempted to do as he was told, so following considerable effort, blinking, and failed attempts, he found himself looking into the blue eye's of Jethro.

"Where am I?" Tony asked causing his voice to scratch at his throat painfully and he cleared it several times without much relief. His setting was unfamiliar and baffled him. Wasn't it supposed to be the weekend?

"The hospital."

"What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that, Anthony." This came from Ducky, who entered through an open doorway subsequent to when he spoke. "We found you in a warehouse two days ago with a grade three concussion and a quite painful looking knot on the back of your head, but without any further injuries. We did many scans, and it appears, Anthony, that you were sedated for many days with chloroform. That was rather hard on your lungs, which is why you might notice you currently have a nasal cannula in."

Tony had not noticed that he had a nasal cannula, but he was more focused on analyzing Ducky's face. He had a look of which those who he interrogate often wore, and Tony immediately deduced that Ducky was not telling him everything.

"Just tell me, Ducky." Tony said wearily. He thought he might of noticed Gibbs smile slightly proudly, but he couldn't be sure because that seemed un-Gibbs like.

"Well, Anthony, do you remember how long you were unconscious?" Tony thought about this and based his estimate of how much the light had hurt his eyes when he had awoken.

"Maybe a few days?" Gibbs and Ducky shared a look that Tony found that he did not particularly like.

"You were gone for three weeks." DiNozzo's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the new development in his information. He could not yet comprehend that he had been unconscious for nearly an entire month that he would never get back.

Determined to continue acting like himself he asked, "Aww, Boss, did you miss me?"

"Nope, but there was a lot of paperwork to replace you." Gibbs retorted without missing a beat knowing that Tony playing it casual was his own way of coping.

"You replaced me?" Tony queried while making a face.

"Oh, yeah." At first the SFA was offended, but then his face broke out into a huge smile. Gibbs didn't even try to brag about the replacement's abilities, which meant that Gibbs had not liked the most likely newbie.

"You hated him didn't you?" Tony's question was met with a small lopsided smirk. "I knew it!"

"We have more important things to do, DiNozzo." Gibbs changed the subject easily.

"Ugh, you're no fun."

"Do you remember what happened on Friday?" Tony's attitude sombered and his brow furrowed deeply as he tried to remember what had happened. At first he was met with a blank, but after another seven minutes of deep focus, the memories came flooding in.

"I was leaving around midnight; I was in the parking garage," he paused and then recollected something. "Didn't you see this on the security cameras?"

"They were hacked and disabled. McGee couldn't trace it back to find out who did it."

"Oh. Well I got to my car and I saw that I didn't have my keys. I went back to the elevator, but it wasn't working," Gibbs nodded and he continued. "So I went to the stairs. I was walking over there when I felt this weird sense like I was being watched. I just sort of knew there was more than one person and I didn't have my gun. Sorry, boss." Gibbs glared, but remained silent. "I walked into view of a camera, but then I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder. I turned around… I can't remember anything else. I'm sorry."

"Rule six, DiNozzo."

"Right, boss."

"You are certain you cannot remember how the head wound was inflicted?" Ducky commented after a long time of being quite.

"No, that's all I can remember," Tony spoke clearly sounding dejected.

"Well do not worry, short term memory loss is common in those with head injuries. We think it could have been a shovel, or some other piece of metal, that was applied with immense force to the back of your head. You know this reminds me of a case long ago..." Tony rubbed the back of his neck while pondering the new information. Unfortunately, though, it did not spark any new memories like he had hoped.

Ducky accidentally misinterpreted Tony's deep thinking for exhaustion and made a move for the door. "My boy, you should get some sleep," the doctor suggested quietly. Ducky was rightfully surprised when Tony didn't even fully react, much less protest. In fact, his only sign of recognition was a slow nod while he continued to stare at a nonexistent dot on the wall. Ducky did not comment on the lack of complaint, instead holding open the door for Jethro, and then quietly closed it behind them. Now alone, Mallard and Jethro immediately turned towards each other prepared to converse.

"Are you worried about him, Jethro?" Ducky asked while the profiler in him closely examined the opposite face on instinct.

"No," he replied too quickly to be completely true. "I just don't know how he could come unscathed after three weeks of being gone. I mean, you've seen his luck."

"I share your thoughts. What is your gut telling you?"

"That this is sure as heck not over," Gibbs said rather dramatically before leaving the hallway. Ducky remained standing there feeling rather stupid and as if he had been left in the dust of Leroy Jethro. He had seen the look on Gibbs before, and its result could be extremely dangerous.

Duck decided to speak to the team and give them an update on Tony's condition. He was certain they were all worried, despite his attempts to reassure them. When Ducky had called them to inform the of Tony's discovery, they had all rushed to the hospital. Currently only Ziva and McGee remained seeing as how Ducky had urged the rest of them to leave. Tony had not awoken immediately so he had not see a reason to keep them there, waiting on an unconscious agent. However, while knowing this, Ducky also knew not to even bother to ask either one of Tony's teammates to leave. While it was against his better judgment for them to sleep in those uncomfortable chairs, he know any recommendations of vacating would be futile. Even other doctors had done everything short from dragging them out of the building but they had not budged. Ducky sighed at their persistence and turned down the last hallway until he reached the waiting room. He took a minute to collect himself and take deep breaths before he entered the line of sight of any occupants of the following room. He was instantly bombarded with questions that were placed too quickly for him to even have a remote chance of answering.

"Is he okay?"

"Can we see him?"

"Is he hurt?"

"Where's Gibbs?"

"Please, slow down. I cannot possibly answer all of these questions!" Ducky cried over their voices. They all shut up and Ducky regained the brain power to notice that Abby had joined them in the stiff plastic chairs. While he was upset that she had not gotten some much needed rest, Ducky was not surprised. He had not thought that she could leave Tony alone in the first place. "Well, Tony has a grade three concussion, but is otherwise unharmed. He can't remember what caused the head wound, and he was most likely kept unconscious the entire time he was held captive. Do you have any questions?" Abby quickly shot her up and waved it wildly in the air. Ducky shook his head with dry humor; he should have known that of course she would be the one to have a question. "Yes, Abigail?"

"Can we see him now?" she asked with a desperate pleading in her wide eyes. Knowing that an emotional Abby was a difficult Abby, he smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, my dear, but he is currently asleep. Keep in my mind that he has not been awake for three weeks, making it tiring for him to do so now."

"When can we see him?" Abby pressed persistently.

"We are still unsure. There was quite a bit of drugs in his system that still need to be flushed out before he can remain awake long enough to have visitors." Ducky felt slightly bad as he knew he was pushing the truth, but he also knew Tony couldn't handle visitors yet though he would never admit it. Doctor Mallard wanted Tony to receive copious amounts of rest while Ducky wanted to surround him with friends, which created a terrible inner debate. Eventually the doctor that he had spent more time being overruled which allowed him to hold firm to his previous decision. McGee interrupted his thoughts when he asked,"Will there be any lasting effects from the drugs?"

"As far as we can tell, no." Ducky informed him steadily.

"Is 'we' you and the other doctors?" Ziva queried curiously.

"Yes."

"When can he leave?" Abby asked who looked like she was on the brink of tears.

"Not very soon, I'm afraid," Ducky began very gently. "He will need to be in the hospital for an uncertain but rather long time before he can be released into someone else's care. There is many precautions that must be followed to be sure that there is no lasting side effects. It is very hard to be sedated for that long, especially if some of the time chloroform was used."

"Chloroform was used?" Abby gasped with disbelief. At this point she had given up any pretense of not crying and was red-eyed with dripping mascara making her look like a raccoon.

"Only at first. Then they switched to a more safe unnamed drug. Still, I must warn you, it affected his breathing and his has a nasal cannula." His words were met with a heavy silence and he concluded they must have finally ran out of questions. Realizing he was no longer needed, he quietly excused himself to find Jethro. He craved to know what was not over and why. He did not question Gibbs foretelling though; his own gut agreed. Tony had only been the start.

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