Disclaimer: Not mine. Maybe I should make a wishlist though...
A/N: Wow, thanks for the reviews guys! I must admit, this was the hardest chapter to write so far, and I'm not completely happy about it, but it will have to do.
mafiaprincessa.k.a. alisa and annsan: the reason I skipped 3 months of hospital is easy: it just wasn't interesting. He comes out in a wheelchair, that mattered the most right now.
Go away!
At Tony's place they sat around the dinner table, eating pizza. They talked about everything, from movies up to old cases, but they avoided one subject: Tony's condition. At a certain point, they needed refills. Tony was still laughing at a joke that McGee made.
'I'll get them,' he said, and he wanted to get up out of his chair. Halfway mid-air he stopped moving, remembering that he couldn't walk. He sat back, and refused to look up, gripping the arm rest so hard that his knuckles turned white. He took a deep breath, relaxed his muscles and put a smile on his face.
'It's been fun and all, but I'm kind of tired. I hope you won't mind?' He wheeled himself away from the table, to the window. He sat there until the soft sounds of cleaning and leaving where gone. He looked down at his legs. His useless, good for nothing, unreliable, stupid legs. He had hated every single minute of being in the hospital.
'Mister DiNozzo? I'm doctor Black. I'm afraid we have bad news,' the doctor looked serious at him. Tony wasn't sure if he even wanted to hear what he had to say. He had figured out a view things on his own already.
'You've got paraplegia. The bullet that hit you in the back shattered a bone, and some bone fragments severed your spinal cord. This causes that you may be not be able to walk again,' the doctor explained.
Well, okay, they didn't use those words exactly. They talked about trauma and lumbar and stuff like that. But it was all the same in the end: only with a lot of training there was a chance he could walk again. Surgery wasn't an option at this stage because the bone fragments where too close to some nerves or blood vessels or something. He didn't really remembered, he only remembered that he couldn't walk anymore. Nothing else mattered than that.
'I thought I asked you to go home,' he suddenly said. Turning around, looking at Ziva, who sat on his couch.
'How did you know I didn't leave?'
'I wish I could say it was because of my sudden grown ability to feel a person's appearance, or because I suddenly can hear a lot better. But I'm afraid it's just because the window reflected it you,' he plastered a smile on his face. Ziva grinned back a bit, but her smile faded away.
'How are you doing Tony?'
'I'm fine,'
Ziva raised her eyebrows. The entire time in the hospital he had made jokes, he entertained them at visiting hours, he entertained the nurses and doctors. Apparently he had entertained other patients and their visitors as well. But she had seen tiny bits of his true feelings. The look of pain in his eyes when he thought no one was watching. His eyes didn't sparkle when he smiled, like they used to do. And earlier, when he wanted to get up and becoming aware of his inability. He was hiding his pain, not willing to accept it.
'If you say so. But if you ever think you are ready to talk, just call me, yes?'
'You still didn't say why you didn't leave,' he avoided a direct answer.
'The doctors said you shouldn't be alone so soon, so I'm staying,' she smiled. Tony looked as if he was going to throw her out.
'Don't even think about it. I don't care if you are in that chair or not, I will hurt you if you're throwing me out,'
'Fine, stay. I'm going to sleep,' he grumbled. 'And no, I don't need help in my bedroom,' he said when Ziva opened her mouth.
Would he ever learn? Ziva sighed, and lay down on the couch. She listened intently to the noises that came from after the closed bedroom door. She heard some stumbling and cursing. It became quiet, and she closed her eyes – till a big crash made her sit up straight. She should go check on him. No, he would be really pissed. But what if he was hurt? She couldn't just let him . . . Quietly she went on her feet, moved to his bedroom door and pushed it open carefully.
Tony was lying on the floor, his head on his arms, softly cursing. The wheelchair lay on the floor next to him, on one side with the wheel still spinning. Ziva walked in the room and kneeled by his side.
'Go away!'
'Do you remember when we were in that warehouse, and that there was a bomb. Gibbs ordered us to leave, so the bomb squad could disarm it. I ignored Gibbs' orders, and dismantled the bomb – and you stayed with me. You didn't leave my side than. Why?'
'Because you're my partner,' Tony grumbled, while Ziva helped him up.
'And that's the reason I won't leave you alone,' with one arm on his back, the other on his chest, she pushed herself up and landed with Tony in her arms on his bed. He started to laugh.
'What?'
'Well, I always thought we would end up in one bed at some point, I just never figured it was because I couldn't walk and was stupid enough to fall out of that chair,' Ziva hit him in his stomach, but couldn't help laughing either. Tony sighed, and started to get in his bed properly. Ziva got up and set up his wheelchair.
'Why do you act so . . . easy about it?' she asked carefully. Tony stayed silent. 'Tony?'
'I heard you Ziva. It's just . . . this is something that is so huge, that I just can't get my head around it. So I keep reminding myself that this isn't the end of the world. I mean, there are so much worse things that could happen to me. If three months of rehab, four hours a day, doesn't work, than what good would it do to keep trying?'
'You shouldn't give up that easily. And that it could have been worse, doesn't mean you shouldn't deal with it,' she answered soft.
'When it's time to yell and scream and to break things, you'll be the first to know, okay?'
'Okay. If you need me, just call alright? I'll be here,' Tony nodded, and watched Ziva leaving his bedroom. He lay down, placed his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. He expected another sleepless night, but to his surprise he felt himself dozing away.
