Chapter 10

Tim was so happy at this very moment that he just wanted to hold her in his arms for a couple of minutes, but Delilah did have a long road of recovery ahead of her so he needed to hold back his excitement for a little while. Of course she didn't want to ruin the nice atmosphere between them but she just had that enormous urge to ask him about the details on the explosion since she had finally woken up out of the coma: "That bastard Parsa did this right, how many people died?"

Tim really didn't know at first, if he should answer that question because he didn't want to upset her but as he saw that kind of pleading look in her eyes he just couldn't deny her an answer.

"Medical Personnel on the scene has confirmed six dead and twenty two people injured." He gently kissed her on the forehead, kept holding on to her hand the entire time hoping that this bad news didn't have any bad influence on her condition because that was clearly the last thing that he wanted to happen. It took her some time to digest all of this, of course she was upset that Parsa had once again succeeded in delivering a large blow to them in this war: *We can't let him win!* The heart rate on the EEG now started fluctuate a little bit, Tim now getting a little scared as he saw that the first number now was almost at a dangerous level. He squeezed her hand a little more trying his best to soothe her with his words: "Please calm down, because the doctor says that you are still in a vulnerable state and I promise that we will get Parsa one way or another." She finally took two deep breaths, finally starting to relax under the soft touch of him and said: "

"I guess you're right about that Tim, do my parents know yet what happened?" She replied and deep down she wished, that she was out there helping to find Parsa but maybe she really needed to be more concerned about her own physical well-being. Mc Gee was definitely happy that she had decided to not let that attack upset her so much right now, because of her vulnerable medical state she was in and finally answered: "Yes they are probably still on their way here, I didn't have the opportunity to ask them when they would arrive in DC."

Meanwhile the rest of Gibbs team had arrived at the alley, where the mysterious driver had waited for Benham Parsa and Gibbs had been able to hit the right shoulder of the guy behind the wheel with one bullet. Jethro tried to set his thoughts back on this one situation, figuring out at first where the car had stood and then triangulating the point where his bullet had landed after firing it at the driver. As he found the exact position where he stood last night, he had Bishop stand there handing her the laser pointer and as she switched it on they finally got what they searched for: the bullet. *The bullet went straight through his right shoulder and because of that Abby will find some DNA on it for sure.*

As Tony had bagged this very important evidence, he wondered how Delilah was doing because he hadn't heard from Mc Gee since he had to rush back to the office. After he had secured the evidence bag with the bullet in it he got out his cell phone and typed a short message: *How is Delilah doing right now?* Then he finally got back into the NCIS van as the last of the team shortly after Bishop. He surely hoped that she had survived the explosion without any permanent damage to her body and deep down he knew one thing for sure: Tim loved her with all his heart and no matter what would happen, he would stay by her side to support her through this probably long road of recovery.

Back at the hospital Doctor Parker finally arrived to do her usual round: "Miss Fielding it's nice to see you being awake again, how do you feel?"

"I feel like being hit by a train, my legs hurt a little when I bend both of them is that normal?"

"Your body has lost a lot of blood, but I assure you that this is not permanent your legs will definitely feel better when you can finally begin to start rehab. " Doctor Parker said and was really glad that the operation had gone that well, because it surely had been one with a lot of risk involved.

She made some notes on the notepad she carried with her like on every round through all her current patients before she said: "But before you can start with rehab, we have to make sure that there's no relapse in your medical condition because I clearly don't want to experience any unpleasant surprises and because of that we have to run a couple of tests in the next forty eight ours to keep an very close eye on any changes in your condition."

Delilah took a moment to digest all of this before she replied: "Thanks for the update Doctor." Shortly after Doctor Parker had left the room, a nurse finally brought Delilah her breakfast with something to drink of course. Mc Gee didn't want that Delilah struggled too much with smearing the bread, he did that for her and that made her smile for a moment as she thought: *I certainly had my doubts about this relationship after this whole gala thing but now I truly now, that is going to be something that lasts.* He poured some water into the plastic glass on the table, putting the straw into the it to be safe and asked: "Are you thirsty right now?"

She just nodded, carefully handed her the cup and watched very closely she slowly but surely began to sip on it maybe fearing that it might fall out of her hands because of her weakened state.

AN: Thanks to- gracfully for reviewing this story, adding it to her/his favorite stories list, Thanks to- Slywia Uni for adding this story to her story alert list. Please read and review