That night turned out to be one of the longest nights of Gibbs' life. He had nothing to work on; he was angry and ashamed and he was worried as hell; but the only things he was showing on the outside were anger and impatience, and even that was confined to growls and glares, because how else could he release his anger in a hospital room?

Tony's surgery took longer than even Ducky was comfortable with and nobody bothered giving them an update until the operation was over.

Finally, after hours of having nothing to do but wait, Gibbs saw a doctor, who he assumed was Doctor Spenser, coming towards them to inform them about Tony's condition .

True to their first estimation, the stab wound to Tony's chest hadn't done much damage. But the two to his abdomen were bad. Doctor Spenser told them that they had been left with no other option but to perform partial splenectomy -that is removal of a small portion of spleen, he'd explained later- which with Tony's immune system already a bit affected by the plague, wasn't good news for the younger agent. The other stab wound had been easier to treat, but Tony still had to be careful for a while since it'd indeed nicked his small intestine.

The fractures to his forearm and the dislocated shoulder had been successfully repaired and set in the operating room.

So far, it seemed like Tony was going to be just fine, but that didn't mean his first night in the hospital had been uneventful.

Gibbs had spent the night in the ICU room with him and had witnessed how serious his condition was as the younger man was in too much pain to be able to concentrate on Gibbs or his questions and his body fought a high fever. It'd been around seven in the morning when his fever finally started to reduce, letting the younger agent to fall into a fitful sleep.

Gibbs left his side long enough to get a cup of coffee and then called Ducky to give him an update; he'd sent the old ME home earlier that night since two visitors couldn't stay at the same time in the ICU room.

An hour or so later, his phone started to vibrate and he once again walked outside Tony's room to answer it.

"Tell me you've got something, Abs." He couldn't help sounding a little hopeful.

The silence on the other end wasn't what he expected to receive and for a moment he feared that something had happened to Abby, too. And then the train of dreadful thoughts invaded his brain. 'What if this was another 'Ari'? What if the whole team was once again targeted? What if Abby had been hurt, too?'

The only consolation was that everyone had spent the night in the Navy Yard.

"Abby?"

"I don't have anything. You said 'tell me you've got something' and I don't have anything." She sounded broken, but despite the lack of good news, Gibbs felt relieved. At least she was fine.

"Gibbs, there's nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not on his clothes, or his stuff or the other evidence. And Ducky told me Tony's still unconscious and he's hurt again and now he's lost part of his spleen as well, like it wasn't bad enough that his lungs were scarred and then there's Director Vance who's found out about Tim and Ziva not answering their phones when Tony'd called them and Tim told me he'd been really mad at them and-"

"Abby." Gibbs finally cut her off, feeling the room spinning around his head. Vance knew? And only about Ziva and McGee? Damn, he'd probably add it to their personnel files. Not that he was against it, because they'd made a huge mistake and had to pay for it. But now he had to tell the Director about his part in this mess, as well. Because he couldn't deny that he'd been at fault just as much. If not more. Because let's face it, if he'd answered Tony's call the first time around, the younger man wouldn't have felt the need to call everyone else only to be turned down. And the younger man wouldn't have to suffer longer than necessary and worry about him on top of it.

"Gibbs, can you tell me that he's going to be fine now?" She pleaded.

"He's going to be just fine, Abby." Gibbs reassured. 'Physically, at least.' He added silently.

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Awareness came before consciousness. And the first thing he became aware of was the pain in his side and then the throbbing arm and head. Finally, he became aware of the fact that he was in a hospital room and apparently alone, if the lack of sound in the room was anything to go by.

But then again, Gibbs could be there. The silence didn't mean the ex-marine couldn't be in the room with him.

But then a memory rushed through Tony's head and finally the events of the previous night came back to him. And clearer than anything else, he could remember that Gibbs hadn't answered his calls. Well, nobody had, but what hurt the most was Gibbs' lack of action. Because the older agent had once again gone against his own rule, and funny those things mostly happened when Tony was involved. Besides, he'd been worried to death by the lack of response from Gibbs and he could remember that when later in the ER he'd seen Gibbs, he couldn't believe that he'd been simply ignored.

Those things meant that the silence in the room probably was an indication of an empty room.

Finally his other senses started to wake up, too and he tiredly blinked his eyes opened and looked around the room.

Yes, it was empty. Just as he'd thought.

Later, he'd blame the drug in his system for the hurt feeling that'd washed over him over the other night's events and being alone in his hospital room; but at that moment, he didn't feel like thinking logically or like a grown-up. He was hurt and he wanted to cling to it because it felt good to acknowledge what he was actually feeling, for a change.

The wound was older than the latest incident, almost as old as he was. He'd always gotten the same thing from his father when he was a kid; his old man had never been there for him and while growing up, he'd promised himself not to rely on anyone like that again. Of course, he'd forgotten that promise when he'd become a cop and that had hurt him more than once. First it'd been his partner in Baltimore and later his team at NCIS. This last incident was just the tip of the iceberg. And probably the worst they'd done to him.

The look of hurt was still in Tony's eyes when Gibbs walked into the room after his talk with Abby.

Tony frowned and instantly put his mask on. There was no need for Gibbs to know how much he'd succeeded in hurting Tony.

"Hey." Tony croaked and visibly winced at the sound that left his mouth.

Stepping outside for a moment, Gibbs addressed a nurse. "Can I have a cup of ice chips?" And then he went back to the room and smiled slightly down at his agent. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I've swallowed a frog." Seriously, he did sound that bad.

Gibbs smirked. "Other than that?"

"Sore." Tony replied honestly which caught Gibbs by surprise.

Tony, unaware of Gibbs' shock over his frankness, frowned and tried to remember more about the other night's events and suddenly his eyes widened. "Shit." He pushed himself up and yelped when his stomach flared up with pain.

"Dammit, DiNozzo." Gibbs grabbed his good shoulder and held him down, watching as a nurse rushed inside, put the glass of ice chips on the night stand and injected something into Tony's IV.

A couple of minutes later, Tony's breathing calmed down and the low moaning, that he most definitely was unaware that he was producing, stopped.

"You better?" Gibbs asked when Tony started to relax under his hand.

The nod he got was his only answer as Tony tried to make a mental note not to move again for the next two weeks.

"What the hell were you thinking jumping up like that?" Gibbs growled as he helped Tony with some ice chips.

Moving the ice around in his mouth, Tony let it sooth his sore throat before he started to talk. "Don't know really. Wanted to get to work."

"Get to work?"

"Yeah," Tony shrugged and winced. "I know who did this to me."

Gibbs's eyes widened slightly. That had been what he'd wanted to ask Tony the whole night. "You saw him?"

"I saw three guys. But they were hired goons."

"How do you know that?"

"Because one of them told me that 'Aron Simmons' had said 'hi'!" Tony looked Gibbs in the eyes and watched as his words sank in.

"That bastard." Gibbs blurted out.

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"Umm, who's Aron Simmons, Boss?" McGee asked with confusion when later Gibbs strode into the bullpen and barked the name.

"I want that bastard here yesterday."

"Gibbs?" Vance called as he walked down the stairs. "Care to explain?"

Gibbs went to Tony's desk, opened one of the cabinets behind the desk and pulled out a case file from under some other files. Opening it, he dropped the case on the top of Tony's desk. "Aron Simmons." He pointed to the file. "He was the head of an arm dealing gang back when DiNozzo and I were a two man team. We sent Tony in and busted his ring, but the bastard got away and fled the country."

"And he's back now?" Vance asked as he studied the file.

"Seems so. He's the one who's hired those goons to attack DiNozzo."

"Tony told you that? He's awake?" McGee asked with hopeful eyes.

Gibbs ignored him and continued his tirade. "But even if he's not back in the country, I want him found and brought in."

"Why did they not kill Tony when they had the chance?" Ziva asked and when everyone's shocked eyes turned to her, she quickly corrected herself. "No. Not that I want him dead. I am just trying to understand what his plans are."

"He wants us to suffer." Gibbs growled.

"Who's with DiNozzo right now?" asked the Director.

"Ducky and another agent."

"Go back to the hospital." Vance ordered, knowing that no one like Gibbs could protect his SFA. "We'll let you know when we have something; there's nothing for you to do here."

"This won't be easy. The dirtbag has sent his goons, telling them to reveal his name and then let Tony live to mock us. He thinks he can get to Tony whenever he wants."

"And what do you think?"

The silence that followed and the anguish in Gibbs' eyes spoke volume.

"He's that good?" That was actually a disturbing thought.

"I won't let him get to Tony. But you know DiNozzo, the moment he can move around, he won't sit tight."

"I doubt he'd sit tight even before that." Vance sighed. Gibbs had never been able to really bench his SFA. Sometimes the younger man was worse than Gibbs; he definitely was as pig-headed. "Go back to the hospital and take a laptop with you. He might be able to help you somehow."

Gibbs frowned. "You saying I need his help to use a laptop?"

Vance rolled his eyes. "He might not be a computer genius, but I've come to the conclusion that he's not a novice and he's definitely better than you when it comes to technology." With that he grabbed Simmon's file and walked out of the bullpen. He'd meant it when he said no one would get away with hurting one of his agents.

They were going to bring that scumbag to justice and they'd do it before he could hurt anyone else; certainly before he could once again get his hands on Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.

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... TBC ...

Thanks for all your support. Let me know what you think. :)

Shout out to the amazing XX-Samantha-XX for looking over this chapter.

Next chapter, Gibbs stays with Tony and will finally address the elephant in the room! ;)

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All mistakes are mine.

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