Three days... It'd been three whole days since they'd landed home, and three grueling days without Tony regaining consciousness. Three heart-wrenching, restless days and nights that Gibbs' team spent wondering if he ever would...

One new case since they'd returned, causing the team to go about their jobs without their teammate. It was Ziva who had commented on the idea, the analogy, that the team was a body, trying to function without its heart. McGee, of course, being the analytical person he was, had begun to take the analogy literally, and started to suggest the impossibility of that statement. After the first few moments of his ramblings, Ziva stopped him. In turn, he'd apologized.

Gibbs had overheard the small conversation from where he'd been interviewing a witness. He'd smirked for a mere moment before the grim feeling returned and wiped it from his face. After they were done for the day, once he'd showered and changed, he returned to the hospital, like every night since they'd been back.

And like every other night, Ziva and McGee had stopped in to see Tony after work; leaving once Gibbs arrived. Soon after, Abby and Ducky would come, offering to stay the night so Gibbs could go home and sleep. But like the past few nights, he refused. This time, however, they'd expected it. And Abby had been sure to stop and pick him up something to eat before arriving at the hospital. She'd also brought yet another 'get well' balloon to go with the one she'd brought the previous night. Really, it was just a red balloon decorated with black and white skulls, in which she wrote the words 'get well', and it matched the black balloon with red and white skulls she'd brought the night before. This, along with a few lab-made cottonball bouquets, were scattered about the room.

Upon his acceptance of the white paper bag of dinner, Abby gave him a quick hug before she began to follow Ducky out of the room. But they stopped suddenly, after hearing a small sound coming from Tony's direction. The three of them turned their attention to the ailing agent as his head began to lull to one side; a pained expression washing his features.

"I'll get the doctor," Ducky said as Gibbs and Abby went to Tony's bedside.

"Tony?" Abby called softly as she reached out to take his hand. They were rewarded with a small grunt. It made her smile, until the pained expression on his face only seemed to worsen. "Tony, are you hurting?"

Gibbs watched the familiar nod his agent gave, reminding him of the immense pain he'd woken up with in Djibouti. Abby glanced up at Gibbs before turning to go find Ducky. Then Gibbs stood in her place, glancing at the monitors as they began to sound quiet alarms. "Tony," Gibbs watched the man roll onto his side, curling himself as much as he could on that bed. "Breathe," he told him as he placed a hand on his arm. "Docs are comin'. You're gonna be okay."

"Good god, who lowered his morphine drip this much?" Ducky exclaimed as he reentered the room, followed by a nurse and neurologist.

"I wanted to see if it would assist in pulling him out of the comatose state," the neurologist explained.

"By causing him pain?" Gibbs glared at the man, who seemingly ignored the remark as he walked past him to Tony's side.

"You can raise it up again," he told the nurse. "Agent DiNozzo, can you hear me?" Tony nodded. "Can you squeeze my hand?" he asked he placed it in his. After a moment, Tony squeezed. The neurologist looked at the nurse who nodded, signaling the morphine had been kicked up. "When you start feeling a bit better, I want you to try and open your eyes for me, okay?" His pager started to beep and he checked it where it was attached to the waist of his pants. "Damn...I have to go; there's an emergency. I'll be back," he said as he rushed out.

"Dr. Foreman can be a bit extreme," the nurse told them once he'd left the room. "I apologize if he seemed heartless. But he is very good at what he does."

"Sounds like...someone I know," Tony rasped as he rolled slowly onto his back.

"I'll be right down the hall if you need me," the nurse told them before turning to leave.

"Are you feeling better now, Anthony?" Ducky asked.

"A little," he replied, attempting to open his eyes.

"You had us all so worried," Abby told him as she took his hand again.

"Hey, Abs," he said once his eyes focused. She smiled at him and his eyes shifted to Doctor Mallard who stood closer to his head.

He pulled out a small flashlight from his suit coat pocket, "Allow me to check your pupil response," he said before leaning over and administering the test the neurologist had, no doubt, been about to do.

"What are ya doin', Ducky?" Tony flinched as the doctor flashed the light into each eye. "My eyes are fine..."

"Yes, you seem to be quite well," Ducky said as he put the device back into his pocket.

Tony threw a confused glance around the room, settling on Gibbs who was at his other side. "Boss... Why's everyone look so surprised to see me?" he flashed a nervous grin.

"You've been out since we got back," Gibbs told him.

Tony blinked, still a bit confused. "How long?"

"Three days," Ducky told him. "You're body had been through a lot, Tony. You needed the rest."

"Tony, I'm so glad you're okay!" she'd looked like she could hardly contain herself any longer, before leaning down to hug him; careful not to graze near his wound. He brought his free arm up to hug her in return. "We've been so worried about you... Ziva's been extra grouchy and McGee...well he's been extra quiet, and you know something's wrong when he's so quiet," she rambled as she pulled gently away. "Gibbs has been here every night, watching over you like a mother hen-"

"Abby..." Gibbs warned.

"Well, the point is, we've all been super worried. I'm so glad you're awake!"

Tony seemed to relax a bit and gave her a small smile as he noticed the get-well gifts she'd left him. "Thanks, Abby," he told her in a quiet voice. "So how long am I in for, Duck?"

"That, I'll have to discuss with your neurologist. It seems they've gotten your fever under control. From this point out, you'll simply be recovering from both your wound and the after-effects of the Dengue Fever."

"So that's what I had, after all, huh?" he smirked.

"I'm afraid so. Look at the bright side, though: you nearly slept through the worst of it."

"I've been sleeping for three straight days...you'd think I wouldn't be so tired still," Tony said before entering into a yawn.

Gibbs looked over at Abby and Ducky, "You should go home and get some sleep," he told them.

"But Gibbs!" Abby protested.

"Now, Abigail," Ducky took her arm, "We do need to work in the morning and it's getting late. Jethro will keep a good eye on Tony." The sleepy goth gave in with little fight.

After saying their goodbyes, they exited the room, leaving Tony and Gibbs alone. Gibbs sank down into the chair beside the bed as Tony's head rolled to look over at him. "You don't have to stay, Boss," he told him. "I'm okay."

"You've been awake ten minutes," he cocked his head. "I'm not sure you're qualified to make that call, DiNozzo."

"Seriously though, as long as we get to bring this morphine with us, we could just split this joint-"

"Tony..." he warned.

"Right, Boss... I'll just...wait and see what the doc says." Gibbs couldn't help but smirk.

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Super short, I know. Shoulda posted this last night, but didn't think it was long enough. Now, however, I feel like enough time has passed that SOMETHING needs to be up lol. I'll try and get a couple more pages done and posted tonight, but no promises.