Golden Child

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Chapter 2

Tony tried not to think about his hand as he was transported to hospital. His head was still spinning at the sudden change in direction the day had taken. He kept re-playing the moment he came across the guy with the gun trained on McGee. His gut had told him that McGee was in trouble, but maybe he'd acted too hastily. Maybe he should have just waited until McGee had handed over the keys. If the guy had simply taken the keys and the car, the worst thing he'd be dealing with would be a grumpy McGee, and Gibbs would still be enjoying his day off. Tony also remembered that he was due in court to represent NCIS regarding a couple of prosecutions the following day. He'd have to kiss that gig goodbye. Gibbs was going to be extra pissed. And Vance? Well, this was just about going to be the final nail in Tony's coffin as far as the director's opinion of him went. Tony gave an involuntary groan as the full list of implications of his injury began to sink in.

'Your hand is going to be fine, Sir,' the paramedic who was riding with him assured him, obviously assuming the groan was the result of physical discomfort. Tony nodded his appreciation of the support, but inwardly cringed. His hand might end up being fine but his ass was cooked. And there was nothing the finest doctor in the land could do about that.

……………………………………………….

Gibbs tossed the evidence bag onto the passenger seat, slammed the car door and began the drive to NCIS. Once in traffic, he pressed speed dial.

'Jethro! Enjoying your day off?' came Ducky's surprised and jovial voice.

'I need you to get to Bethesda,' Gibbs told him.

'You're not sick, are you?' asked Ducky, his tone instantly worried. If Gibbs was taking himself to hospital, he must surely be at death's door!

'It's Dinozzo,' said Gibbs. 'Busted some fingers.'

'I'm on my way,' said Ducky.

Gibbs terminated the call and pressed his foot down harder on the accelerator. He dearly wanted to head straight to the hospital himself, but he hadn't pulled rank to gain custody of the evidence to have it go unprocessed for what could be several hours while he waited for Tony to be patched up. Besides, Ducky would make sure some green, trainee med student didn't gloss over details where Tony's health was concerned.

Once the assailant's gun had been located under the lockers where Tony had kicked it, Gibbs had asserted himself by reminding the cops who had attended the scene that the perp had committed attempted robbery against and assaulted a federal NCIS agent. The gun had been signed over to him, and Gibbs had whisked McGee out of there before they could change their minds. Outside, Gibbs had told McGee to go home. The younger agent had tried to argue the point but Gibbs had cut him off with a direct order.

Once he reached NCIS, Gibbs sped straight into the lab. Abby turned around the second her 'music' was terminated and clapped her hands with glee.

'Gibbs!' she exclaimed. 'A social visit on your day off!'

'Sorry Abs,' said Gibbs, breaking one of his own rules. He passed her the evidence bag which she eagerly opened.

'I need it dusted for prints and I want to know everything you can find out about it and the person who used it last,' Gibbs told her.

Abby looked from the gun to Gibbs, back to the gun and back to Gibbs again. There was something more than hinky about Gibbs coming into the lab in his civvys and handing her a gun in a non-NCIS standard issue evidence bag, but his expression told her that he had no time to tell her the details right at that point. He needed her to do her job and keep her questions for later.

'On it,' Abby told him, saluting him for good measure. 'Just tell me that everything's okay.'

Gibbs leaned towards her and planted a light kiss on Abby's forehead.

'Everything's okay,' he told her before turning to rush out.

'Mmmm,' mused Abby as she began inspecting the gun. 'Let's see if you can tell me what Gibbs isn't telling me.'

………………………………….

X-rays done and a rather painful manual inspection of his hand over with, Tony sat back and tried to relax while the plaster was applied. Of great help, he had to admit, was Ducky. The old M.E. had appeared, as if by magic, not long after Tony had arrived at the hospital. Tony had no doubts that the conjurer had been Gibbs. He was quite touched that Gibbs had summoned Ducky, but he also realized that Gibbs trusted Ducky to be his eyes and ears – a kindly informant who would promptly report any downplaying of injury. Ducky had waltzed in, introduced himself to the attending doctor, set Tony at ease, inspected the injury, accompanied him to X-ray, approved the diagnosis and proposed treatment, and was now carefully observing the plastering – all without prodding Tony about how he happened to have his hand mangled by another man. He was currently describing the origins of plaster of paris, which Tony was finding to be a welcome distraction. He could have done with Ducky's presence some twenty years ago when he'd broken his leg, and ten years before than when he'd had broken bones attended to. The pain killers they'd made him take a little while before were starting to take effect. He began to superimpose Ducky over memories of past visits to the hospital. The result made him smile as Ducky moved onto a story about one of his mother's corgi's who had all four legs plastered.

……………………………………

As Gibbs arrived at hospital reception, eager to see Tony, he encountered McGee.

'What part of go home didn't you understand?' asked Gibbs, his voice hard.

'I wanted to see how Tony is,' said McGee. 'I couldn't just go home without knowing how bad it is.'

Gibbs pondered McGee's staunch reply for a moment. If he had been in McGee's position, mused Gibbs, he would want to see Tony, except that Gibbs couldn't imagine himself ever just sitting there watching and not acting while someone mangled Tony's hand.

Saying nothing to McGee, Gibbs extracted directions from the receptionist and stalked off to find his injured agent with McGee hot on his heels.

Ducky looked up to see Gibbs and McGee enter the room just as the plastering of Tony's hand was completed. Gibbs noted immediately that Dinozzo still looked pale, but not as deathly white as he had when he last saw him. Someone had draped a blanket across his shoulders, and Ducky kept one hand lightly on Tony's back.

'I believe you have some visitors,' Ducky told Tony. Tony looked straight at the pair and his face slowly broke into a wide, lazy grin.

'It's like a party in here,' he announced.

'What's the story?' asked Gibbs, ignoring Tony for the moment. For Gibbs, there was great irony in that Tony had frequent need for painkillers yet was so peculiarly affected by them.

'Anthony is very, very lucky,' Ducky told him. 'He has three broken fingers, but no ligament damage. There was no need for surgery. He'll need to keep the plaster on for six weeks, and he'll have no use of his hand for that time, but there's unlikely to be any residual damage or loss of function once the plaster is off.'

While Gibbs simultaneously fumed at the fact that one of his agents was temporarily incapacitated and felt relief that Tony had not been permanently disabled, McGee shook his head. Lucky? Ducky clearly knew a different definition of that word!

'Hey Boss,' said Tony, holding up his plastered hand which looked more like a solid, white mitten than a hand. 'This is like the bad guy in one of the Bond films. He had a lump of gold instead of a hand. Made him pretty lethal – and clumsy! Glad it's you that does the head slapping around the office. If it was me, I'd be giving people concussion!'

Tony giggled a little at the thought, and laughed out aloud when he saw McGee's face.

'Oh, come on, McGlum! Lighten up!' he told him.

'The pain killers will start wearing off in about an hour,' Ducky told Gibbs in a quiet voice. 'I'm afraid he's probably not quite come to terms with the situation as yet.'

'Ya think, Duck?' asked Gibbs, sarcastically.

'You just need to sign the discharge papers and then we can go,' said Ducky.

'Let's go, Dinozzo,' said Gibbs, firmly helping him to his feet.

'Where're we going, Boss?' asked Tony cheerfully.

'We're gonna see a girl about a gun,' Gibbs told him.