Brad took up his post next to Tony's bed with a stack of paper work to keep him busy. He faithfully took Tony's temperature and other vitals every half hour or so. He took some blood every 3 hours to monitor his white blood cell counts to check for increase infection. Right before sun up he was startled by alarms from a room a few doors down. Nurses went running while Brad cautiously watched at the door to Tony's room.
The alarms kept blaring and after about 5 minutes of the nurses came running over to Dr. Pitt. "Dr. Pitt, come quick we need you the patient in room 315 lost his airway and he needs a trach done now. We don't have time to wait for the on-call to come."
Dr. Pitt took a quick look back at Tony and he was sleeping peacefully so he ran to help the patient in 315. Meanwhile at casa Gibbs Jethro was sitting at his kitchen table enjoying the 2nd cup of coffee of the morning trying to shake the bad feeling he had. He knew Dr. Pitt was sitting with Tony and he wasn't expecting him back till lunch but he just couldn't shake the feeling that Tony needed him, so he got dressed and got a big thermos of coffee and made his way back to the hospital.
Dr. Pitt successfully placed the trach in the patient in 315 and made his way back to Tony's room. Tony was no longer sleeping peacefully. Tony was rolling his head back and forth and making these weird gurgling sounds. Dr. Pitt rushed over and held Tony's head still and was trying to calm him down but he couldn't get through to him. Dr. Pitt yelled for the nurses to call the neurologist and to bring a sedative. The nurses were running into Tony's room with the syringe of medication and almost ran into a very agitated Jethro Gibbs.
With no thought to tact Jethro bellowed, "What the hell is going on and what are you giving Tony?"
The poor nurse was stunned silent. Dr. Pitt uncharacteristically nervous told Jethro if they didn't calm Tony down soon he would dislodge his breathing tube and IV and he would hurt himself.
Jethro marched over to Tony's bed, "DiNozzo stand down!" almost immediately Tony stilled. Dr. Pitt just shook his head and smiled. He looked over to the nurse who was the same one he spoke to last night and laughed, "I bet you thought I was lying to you last night didn't you." The once stunned silent nurse smiled at Jethro, "You ever get tired of being a fed you can come work with me, I would kill to be able to calm my patients like that."
Jethro smiled, "Tony isn't just any patient, I am not sure that tactic would work on everyone." The nurse just patted his shoulder and left the room.
Dr. Pitt was checking all the equipment that Tony was hooked up too and then looked at Jethro, "I wasn't expecting you till later this afternoon but I am grateful you decided to come in early. I really didn't want to give him anymore sedation."
"Yeah Doc about that, you want to tell me what the hell was going on in here?"
"I had to step out of the room for about 30 minutes and when I got back Tony was rolling his head back and forth and was highly agitated. That is when you came in. He had a quiet night up until I left."
"Well yeah Doc Tony hates hospitals with a passion. There is a reason I never leave him alone while he is in the hospital he is petrified of them. He spent a lot of his childhood in hospitals all alone. Damn it Doc if you needed to leave you should have called me."
"There was a patient down the hall who had an emergency and there was not time to call the regular doc up Tony was in no danger I was right down the hall the whole time."
"Didn't you hear me just now Doc he is petrified to be alone when he is in the hospital. In the past if I left him alone he would escape and we would have to chase him down. When you took more than the time to go to the bathroom then he got scared. I know he is sedated but trust me when I tell you this fear of his runs pretty deep."
Brad hung his head low, "You are right Jethro, I am sorry I was tired and the emergency I should have asked a nurse to come in. I apologize."
"Thank you Doc and it wont matter I won't leave him again."
Shaking his head in understanding, "You will be glad to know that Tony had a really good night. I think those antibiotics did the trick in holding the pneumonia off. If his scans later today look as good as I think they will be we will extubate him and as far as I am concerned he can go home with a script for a course of antibiotics."
Jethro took his seat next to Tony and patted his hand, "That's good Doc. Thanks for letting me know. You can leave and get some rest I will sit with him now."
Leaving the room and dropping the file off at the nurse's desk, the nurse from earlier looked a little put out. "That was spectacular how he was able to calm him down but who does he think he is talking to you like that. You are the Chief of infectious diseases at a major military hospital who volunteered to sit with his son and heaven forbid you leave him for 30 minutes to help save a life of a combat veteran. I am sorry his son got agitated for being alone but really. Agent DiNozzo is a federal agent I think that qualifies him as a big boy who doesn't need his hand held every minute of every day."
"Okay calm down there Nurse Feisty Pants, I know Tony's history and why he is the way he is. Jethro went home because I said someone would be with him. It would have taken nothing for me to ask someone to sit with him while I helped the other patient. I didn't think to do that and I should have. Jethro would give his life to help you or me so I know me leaving to help someone is not the problem. Tony is as you call it a big boy. He has faced death more times than I can count and he defeated the Pneumonic Plague after surviving a childhood of abuse and neglect. So NURSE if the need for him to have someone with him in the hospital is his only take away from all the bad he has overcome than I think he is doing pretty damn good don't you?"
The nurse realized her error and simply answered yes doctor and went back to work.
Later that afternoon after another round of scans came back good Tony was taken off the breathing tube and all sedation was lifted and it didn't take him long to wake up. Jethro greeted the groggy younger man with an uncharacteristic smile, "Hey sleepy head, nice of you to join the rest of us. How you feeling?"
Tony thought for a minute, "Throat and tongue hurt but other than that ok. Did I have another seizure?"
Jethro ran his fingers through his hair, "Uh yeah, you had a Grand Mal seizure it was pretty bad you bit your tongue and aspirated some food. Basically scared the hell out of all of us. But you are better now and I think they will let you come home tomorrow which is good because Ducky and his Lady friend have someone they want you to meet."
Tony's eyes shot up excitedly, "They have a dog ready for me?"
"Well they think that this dog will work for you. The dog is 3 years old and he is trained since a puppy to be a seizure dog and she is a black lab like you wanted. They want to bring her by to meet you tomorrow."
"Girl dog huh? Guess the name Butch wont work how about Aster after Mary Astor who starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon. That was one of my favorite movies growing up and that Mary Astor was a looker."
Jethro gave him a half smile, "Astor sounds like a good name for a dog."