Chapter Six: Carry You Over

Dedication: Jen, yeah, we both know why. Whilst angst can't be rushed the competition is certainly doing it's best to try!

Continuation of possibly the longest OneShot in history. How delightful!

Gibbs had prowled back into the family room after his brief phone conversation. Nurse Amelia Maughan sat back in one of the vacant swivel chairs resting the folders of still unsigned medical forms on the white topped desk in front of her.

"Find out what happened?" Laura asked, pushing her own wheeled chair over, her eyes expectant.

"About what?"

"Oh, come on, Amy! About what happened! What happened to the patient!"

"You already know…we see if far too often." Amy sighed, running a hand over her pony-tail.

"I knew it, child abuse! I'll call 911. I knew that man was an animal the minute he came into the ER!" Laura had already picked up the phone as she continued to rant.

"Wait…what? No, no, that man isn't his father, he's going to adopt him." Laura almost dropped the phone.

"Oh that's even worse! Yes, worse! He's trying to pin this abuse on his father when it was actually him! What if his real father can't fight back? Maybe he's dead! See, see! He's a monster-."

"Uhm, Laura?"

"No, Amy! You always get too involved; you need to see things like they are. He brought him in so it would look like he's saving him. Some actor isn't he! And that phone call too, I watched him dial, that wasn't a New York number. Maybe this 'Shannon' is his partner in crime, or maybe-."

"Or maybe Shannon is his wife." A cool voice came from right behind Laura. The nurse gasped, spinning around to face the cold blue eyes. Amy watched the marine warily for a moment as he stood trying to hide the obvious anger in those expressive blue eyes.

"You're wife's your partner in this? That's sick, you're sick. He's just a boy, why would you do that?" Laura turned back to the dial pad of the phone, managing to type in 9-1 before the dial tone tore through her ear.

Looking up she saw the marine had moved in front of her, one hand pressing down the end-call button. Gibbs leaned down, palms pressed into the white work top.

"For once in your life, I suggest you listen." His voice was soft, eyes blazing with untold irate anger. "That boy in there is my son. It might not say it on paper, but he is mine. His biological father did this to him and he ran, he got out of there. I love that boy and my wife, my apparent partner, she does as well. I would never lay a hand on him."

Laura stared at the marine, no the father in front of him, swallowing thickly. Amy had even had a hand hovering over the 'Security', but the tone stayed her hand. It wasn't as much the words as the direct, loving tone. No, it was the sincerity. It seemed like the whole floor had dissolved into silence, watching the scene play out with stunned expressions from the crafted words. Words which came from the heart, not the mind.

Laura replaced the phone onto the cradle, looking down slightly.

"When my son is out of surgery, tell me." Gibbs straightened, directing the statement towards Amy. She nodded briefly, still stunned out vocally.

"Thank-you." Gibbs left the silent nurses station, running a hand through his dark hair.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

The bed was wheeled slowly into the small, calmly winter-sunlit room. Whitewashed walls made the room appear roomy and spaced out, even with its medical contraptions and softly beeping equipment. The bed seemed to take up most of the room, but left enough space for the curved plastic chairs all hospitals appeared to have.

Shannon gasped quietly, one hand resting upon the pale blue sheet covering the bed. The warm presence of her husband behind her helped to ground the teacher.

"He's bad, Shan." Gibbs had murmured into her hair after the initial exclamation of names.

"How bad?"

Gibbs swallowed. "Real bad, they won't tell me."

"He'll be okay, Jethro, we'll find something to do."

"What, Shannon? We can't send him back-."

"No."

"We can't give him over to foster, no-one'll foster a twelve year old."

"No-one?"

"Everyone wants young kids, make them their own. I don't know Shan. I need to find something for him, he deserves it. Hell, Shannon, he saved Kelly, didn't even know her, didn't ask for anything, injured himself doin' it and didn't expect anything." Gibbs ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Wait a second, blue eyes turned back down onto his wife. Shannon smiled softly.

"No-one?" Gibbs repeated softly.

"I know you too well. I've told you time and again, you can't save everything…but…" Shannon paused for a minute. Four hours in a car on the way to New York had given her a lot of time to think, but somehow a few seconds more helped. "But, you can save him."

He could save him. He could. Gibbs sighed, swallowing. "Where's Kelly?" He muttered after a moment, he wasn't worried, there was no way his beloved wife would let anything happen to their daughter.

"Staying with Maddie across the road. I told them one of us'll be back tonight." Shannon explained briefly.

"Mr. Gibbs?" The masculine voice interrupted the intimate moment. Gibbs turned, nodding at the middle aged doctor who was resting one hand in the pocket of his white coat, the other holding a clipboard.

"Anthony made it through surgery without any complications, we are closely monitoring his temperature which is abnormally high but not yet dangerously so. Surgery set the breaks in his ribs and he was incredibly lucky to have no major internal bleeding. We are also going to monitor him carefully due to the fact that we believe he has suffered a concussion. Do you have any questions?"

That was a lot of information. No questions. "He's been assigned a room, I can show you there if you like, he will be brought in due course."

Gibbs' head drooped slightly as the day drew on, the sky outside a bleak, neutral grey. He jerked as his chin bumped against his chest for the third time in half an hour. Shannon had been sitting slightly closer to the bed, watching the sedated – or was he just sleeping – figure and her husband in turn.

"Coffee." She murmured after watching him attempt once more or keep his head straight on his neck.

"Hmn?"

"Get yourself some coffee, Jethro. You're dead on your feet, I'll find you if anything changes." Gibbs sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. It was still mid morning, Shannon having arrived an hour or so ago. He felt like he'd been there for days, same place, and same predicament. But, coffee did seem like a good alternative right now. He hauled himself out of the chair, pausing only to kiss Shannon on the cheek.

Shannon followed him with her gaze for a moment before switching back to the prone, thin figure on the bed, the covers pulled up around his chest, wires snaking around and around.

Minutes passed in light succession, the only indication of this the deep clunk of the clock in the hallways, clacking away the morning into the day, the soft bustle of the hospital oblivious in the sunlit room.

Shannon had been grasping the small, delicate fingers for a while when she felt the slight twinge. She'd been drifting off herself, hr mind spinning with the facts, what she'd just agreed to do. She loved her daughter, of course she did, there was no buts about it! She was, however, growing up. Asking questions; asking why her daddy left, why he wasn't there for her birthday, his birthday, Christmas. Shannon had told her, told her he was off saving the world, but it was only a matter of time before she asked why the world was more important than she was.

And with two children? With this sweet, young child who had attached himself to her husband, felt safe in his presence. How would he adjust to a military brat's lifestyle? Would he be strong enough? Would she be strong enough, could she do it? She could deal with six year old, could deal with Kelly, but she had no experience with older children, this was different, so different.

But, the twinge in his fingers, the twitch against her palm, that had brought her back to the present. The pale eyelids were flickering, eyes moving back and forth. Shannon moved a hand up, brushing the soft hair back from the gently fevered forehead.

"Hey there, sweetheart," Shannon's soft greeting was replied to with the slightest peek of emerald, blurry and unfocused. His eyes roamed. Well, one eye did, the other stayed stubbornly swollen shut.

The boy mumbled something, causing Shannon to lean forward, eyes staring into the deep, confused pools of green.

"W-where?" Was the only word Shannon could make out.

"You're in a hospital, honey, you're safe now." She assured the young boy, but even her gentle hand didn't still the pained gaze, eyes widening in fear of the word 'hospital'?

"My…my f-father?" he stumbled over his words, his brain muddled by so many things. The murmur was almost lost with the groan of undisguised pain as his ribs were jostled.

"You're father's not here, Tony, he'll never be here." The voice was a calming balm spreading out across the room, Shannon didn't need to look up, the voice was one she cherished. "Don't worry at all about your father." Tony moved his head slowly on the pillow, watching Gibbs appearing in the doorway with two cups of coffee, one which Shannon accepted gratefully, one hand still curved over Tony's.

"Gibbs!" The voice was less than a whisper, but the boy still tried to push himself up onto his elbows, to sit up. He moaned, the pain assaulting him in the delayed reaction of his sluggish brain. Gibbs was by the bed in a moment, the coffee on the sideboard.

"Hey, hey, calm down, son. Calm down." His voice was gentle, urgent as he lowered Tony back onto the soft pillows.

"You…you came to get me?" Tony mumbled, his eyes staring down at the sheets as his memories fastened together like some sort of impossible puzzle. His brow furrowed slightly, the pain medication hazing his view.

"Yeah, I did, and I'd do it again, you got that?"

Green eyes met the deep cerulean. Trust, pure, utter trust. Just trust.

Those same green eyes drooped, the eyelids becoming so heavy.

"Sleep now, Tony." Shannon's smooth voice advised, her hand resting on his cheek. Tony almost obediently lent into the touch as his eyelids lost their battle with gravity.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

With the concussion watch, doctors slid in and out of the room on the tick of the hour, letting the parents wake the boy after the first time. That doctor hadn't come back after the twin glares and the almost growl from the father. No, it was safer for one and all if the parents did it.

By three in the afternoon, the next doctor had appeared for the next round. This time, however, he was in luck. He didn't have to ask the rather intimidating Gibbses to wake their boy, he seemed to be just coming round with his light slumber, brow furrowed in the light pain the meds weren't counteracting.

"Everything's fine here." The doctor announced carefully, although keeping his voice low so not to agitate the boy's headache. Although his voice was more or less neutral all the time, so it wasn't too hard. Neither Shannon nor Gibbs had really taken to Doctor Peters. He was just leaving when another figure appeared at the door. Now, Doctor Peters might have the bedside manner of a Rhino, but he was polite enough to hold the door open.

"Hi!" A cheerful voice announced herself as the women in a smart grey dress suit stepped into the room, the door closing behind her. "I'm Sarah Warner, I'm from Social Services."

With the introduction Gibbs stood up quickly, his chair scraping against the floor. The woman continued unperturbed.

"I was wondering if I could talk to Anthony alone." Gibbs was about to answer in the negative when Shannon laid a hand on his chest, standing up somewhat more delicately herself.

"It's okay, Jethro, I know what it's about, it's procedure, Tony'll be fine." She turned her room-warming smile on the very apprehensive boy curled up in his bed. "We'll be just outside, honey, okay? There's nothing to be scared about." She kissed the hand she'd been holding, laying it gently back on the bed as the sleepy child watched her leave. Gibbs ran a hand over the boy's hair, leaving a soft kiss on his forehead, avoiding the suture tape carefully before leaving after his wife.

"Hi there, Anthony, can I call you Anthony, or do you prefer something else?" Sarah asked brightly, taking one of the newly vacated chairs.

"Um…I prefer Tony?"

"Okay! Now, Tony, I have something very serious to ask you. There's a big choice you have to make, d'you think you can do that for me?"

Tony blinked owlishly at her, one hand crumpling the sheets between his fingers. "I'll try ma'am." His voice was quiet.

"Brilliant, I'll start at the beginning, shall I?"

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Oooh, well, interesting. I don't know, I'm just a little crazy sometimes…okay most of the time. We'll see what happens in the next chapter. You guys are awesome, you really are. You light up my day and make my fingers fly faster. Which is good with three stories on the hop (tell me I'm not crazy…no, I just admitted I am, it's all good). Hope you're liking this one, next chapter up'll be for Down The Other Road and hopefully will be up soon. Thanks for tuning in and hope you're having as enjoyable a time as I am!

Eryn [Soul Music]