A/N: Yay, my practical training is finally over and not only did I survive it, so did my patients so I'd say it went pretty well. I can't tell you when the next chapter will be up because i'm having some real life issues, I'm hoping i'll get my life sorted this week so that maybe i can start sleeping again properly and will have the energy and time to actually write more. Anyways i hope you enjoy this chapter and i'm trying my hardest to get the next chapter written and to my beta as soon as i can.
It hadn't taken him much effort to find out in which hospital Tony's mother was, after all he had a number of contacts in high enough places to be useful in a situation like this. Well in all honesty Gibbs just called Ducky when he realized he had no idea where to go and asked the ME to work his Scottish charm to get the name of the hospital from one of his colleagues in New York.
The difficult thing was getting there.
New York was too big and chaotic for him to ever have fancied staying there for a longer period of time. So he had no idea where to find anything in the huge city and renting a car and driving with all the crazy people out there seemed like a suicide mission, even for him.
So he'd gotten a cab, which again proved to be more difficult than he would have thought and once he'd actually gotten into the taxi and the journey towards the hospital had started, he'd started to wonder perhaps renting a car might have been less suicidal after all, seeing as he at least knew the rules to abide while driving, he just ignored them a lot. The cab driver seemed unaware that there were such things as rules and traffic laws.
Once Gibbs stood on the sidewalk in front of the hospital and watched the cab speed away he couldn't help but smile since some of that speed might have been due to the ass ripping he had given the driver after his near miss with a school bus a half an mile before the hospital.
The smile faded as he took in the building standing only a short walkway away from him. The hospital looked old and gray with its worn walls and the whole place seemed to have an air of sadness over it.
But he didn't have long to wallow on the look of the place because he noticed the figure sitting on a bench not far from the main entrance. He recognized Tony almost immediately and though he was glad to see his young lover, his pose sitting there with his head in his hands was so dejected, it made his own heart ache.
He just stood there for a minute and made a visual assessment of the younger man, he took note of the slumped shoulders and the paleness of what little he could see of his face buried as they were in his hands.
Just as Gibbs started to walk closer to the other man, Tony got up and started to walk towards the park right next to the hospital. The older man went after him and with long strides gained on the other man. He called the Italian's name and when Tony didn't seem to hear him he picked up his pace and when he was in a touching range he reached a hand out to grab his shoulder.
The reaction he got was nothing like he expected.
The punch to his chest surprised him but he recovered quickly, in a few efficient movements he had the younger man trapped with his back to a tree and hands held over his head with both of his. Jethro winced as Tony's head collided with the trunk of the tree but the younger man didn't seem to notice.
"Tony?" Gibbs called as he tried to get the now struggling man's attention, his worry mounting when the man in his hold just kept fighting, the familiarity of the voice lost on the man who had closed his eyes at some point and refused to open them, pain lines around the tightly closed lids.
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs tried again with a bit more force this time and to his immense relief it seemed to do the trick.
"Boss?" The younger man whispered with a surprised voice, opening one eye to look at the man still pinning him to the trunk.
"Yeah it's me Tony." The older man assured as he loosened his hold on the hands he's held pressed to the tree. For the first time he looked around and realized that there were people watching them and some people looked ready to intervene. Doing what came almost naturally to him, Gibbs pulled out his badge and flashed it to the spectators.
"Federal Agent, move along people!" The bark did the trick and after a few more dubious glances the people started to scatter one by one.
Jethro turned his attention back to his lover who had buried his face in his neck and was shaking, due to what he didn't know.
"What's wrong Tony?" Jethro asked as he hugged the other man close and without breaking contact led Tony carefully to the bench Tony had been occupying earlier. He coaxed the younger man to sit down with him so that they were sitting side by side but the younger man was still in his lover's arms.
"Hurts," The younger man whispered and turned his head and squinted in order to really make out the older man's face in the bright sunlight, "You really here?"
Gibbs didn't know whether to be relieved that the younger man was talking or to be out of his mind with worry at the admission of pain. But unlike most men, Gibbs knew how to multitask and do both.
"Yeah I'm really here, where does it hurt?" He would have smiled at the way Tony turned his head back to his neck and seemed to try to burrow into him if it wasn't for his mounting concern for the younger man.
"m' Head," the younger man mumbled, the barrier Gibbs provided from the light helped to ease the ache, but since the adrenaline that had rushed his system had started to disappear he'd started to generally feel like crap. The headache was just the base that had all other kinds of negative things stacked on it, like exhaustion and nausea and all other kinds of not fun things.
Gibbs for his part didn't seem to mind providing DiNozzo protection from the too bright sunlight as he was too busy berating himself for forgetting the concussion the younger man had suffered just the day before and the new knock he took to his hard head. He carefully probed the back of Tony's head and when his fingers came back bloody he let out a curse.
"Jethro?" Tony questioned upon hearing the curse, he was feeling sleepy and getting some sleep now that Gibbs was there to take care of everything sounded like a wonderful idea.
"C'mon Tony, we need to get your head checked out again." Gibbs stood up slowly, pulling Tony to stand with him. He waited for a minute so the younger man could get his balance and started to lead them towards the entrance to the hospital, which proved to be a tad difficult with the way the Italian was still trying to keep his face buried in the older man's neck.
"Don't need a hospital," He protested when he heard the whoosh of the automatic doors and felt himself being guided inside.
"Tough luck seeing as I think you definitely needs one." Gibbs steered his protesting lover over to the ER where he used his badge and the fact that Tony had originally been injured in the line of duty to make sure they would be seen to as soon as possible.
It took less than five minutes for a nurse to come and show them into an examination cubicle. Soon after, a doctor came by to do the examination, frowning when Tony still wasn't willing to remove his face from its cozy hiding place.
"Agent DiNozzo, from what your boss here told me, you have a concussion and I need to check your pupil reaction," Reluctantly Tony turned his face towards the doctor, mostly because Gibbs had played dirty and pinched his arm to make him do as he was told.
He rubbed the now sore arm and glared at his lover through narrowed eyes as the light still hurt his eyes, before turning his attention back to the young doctor.
"That's better," The doctor said as he did the necessary test and checked the stitches on the younger man's head.
"One of the stitches has ripped and I need to redo that, there's also a risk of hemorrhaging or swelling of the brain, especially as your symptoms have gotten worse so as soon as I'm done with the stitching I'm going to send you to a CT scan." Tony tried to groan out a protest but it was cut off by a glare from Gibbs.
"Fine," The Italian huffed. His head was again killing him after the nice doctor shone a penlight in his eyes and in reality he thought it might be better to be safe than sorry if there was something wrong.
"Good," The doctor said as he asked a nurse to bring the suture kit and other equipment he would need along with pain killers for his patient.
After ten minutes the sutures were cleaned and the one ripped one had been replaced and a new bandage placed on the wound. Tony had reluctantly taken the pills given to him and now he was lying on the gurney waiting with Gibbs to be taken to the scan.
"I need to tell Chris where I am." Tony said suddenly as he quickly sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the gurney, ignoring the dizziness the movement caused.
"Hey, you lie down and don't move!" Gibbs barked as he took hold of his lover's legs and swung them back on the bed and pushed him to lie down. "I'll go and see him while you're in the scan okay?"
Tony thought about it for a minute before nodding carefully. The painkillers he'd gotten were obviously the good stuff as his headache had dulled and he was feeling like his eyelids would soon shut on their own accord.
"Okay, thanks Jethro." Tony murmured as his eyes closed and he gave into the exhaustion he'd been feeling.
"Anytime," Gibbs whispered as he bent to place a kiss on his lover' brow. He saw the nurse come in and knew she was there to take the younger man to the scan.
"You gonna bring him to this cubicle afterwards?" He demanded to know.
"Yes, the scan will take around twenty minutes and after that we'll be back here." the young nurse said with a smile, not at all affected by the man's gruff tone.
Gibbs nodded.
"I need to take care of some things but I'll be back by the time you're done," He didn't' wait for a response but with one last look at his sleeping lover he made his way out of the cubicle and towards the information desk to find out where Tony's mother was, confident that he would find Chris there as well.
The older of the DiNozzo brothers were pacing the floor in front of his mother's ICU room. He was getting worried, it had been a long time since Tony left to go get something to eat and it wasn't like him to take so long when all he had previously wanted to do was to be there for their mother and father.
He stopped his pacing when two nurses walked by and gave him a weird look but as soon as they disappeared behind the corner, he started again.
Chris looked up when he heard the swoosh of the ICU doors and his eyes widened as he recognized his brother's boss/lover walking towards him. He quickly made his way over to the other man and shook the ex-marines hand. "Gibbs, it's good to see you, though I wish it was under better circumstances."
"Yeah me too."
Gibbs motioned with his head towards the direction the other man had come from. "How are they?"
Chris shook his head sadly. "No change," He said, assuming that Tony had given the details of their parent's condition. "Tony went to grab a bit to eat," The Italian continued but upon seeing the look on the older man's face he added.
"But you might know more about that than I do." There was a suspicious look in his eyes and Gibbs couldn't do anything but nod in agreement.
He told his lover's brother what had happened the previous day and about the concussion and not to mention the added bump the man had gotten outside. He finished by informing the man that his brother was in a CT scan at the moment and would be fine.
"Christ," Chris breathed as he ran a hand though his hair. "That idiot. Hasn't our family suffered enough without him doing stupid stuff like this," There was no anger in his tone, merely resignation and exasperation. He shook his head before focusing his attention back to the NCIS agent. "I'm glad you're here for him Gibbs."
"He does seem to need a constant supervision," Gibbs joked slightly, which caused a small grin appear on Chris' face.
"Amen to that."
The two men stood there for a moment before the younger of the two cleared his throat.
"I need to tell my wife and dad what's happening. I think it might be best if you wait here while I go tell them what happened and who you are." He held his breath as he waited for the agent's answer and he sighed in relief when the man just nodded his agreement, not making a move to question or argue the logic behind that.
Gibbs stood outside the room and watched via the big windows the conversation going on between Chris and his father. From the wildly flailing hands and rapid movement of both men, he figured things were getting more heated by the moment.
He looked at his clock and wished the DiNozzo men would hurry up their conversation so they could get on with it and he'd be able to get back to the ER before Tony got through the scan.
Just as he was about to check the time again the door to the room opened and the Senior DiNozzo came out with his arm in a sling and a furious expression on his face. Chris came out after him but the older DiNozzo didn't look back as he made his way to Gibbs.
"So, you're the man my son is involved with?" The words were said with forced calmness, but Gibbs wasn't fooled by it.
"Yes sir."
"And tell me Gibbs, that's your name isn't it?" At the other man's nod he continued. "So Gibbs, I've heard about you and I understand you're Anthony's boss. Now tell me do you show this kind of support to all your subordinates? Fly to other cities to be there for them should their wealthy parent kick the bucket."
The words were now dripping venom and Gibbs' own anger was rising. How dare this man talk to him like that and what really angered him was the fact that senior hadn't asked about his son's condition once.
"Mr. DiNozzo-"
"No. You listen to me. You can tell Anthony that if he wants to be there for his family, he'd better send his sugar daddy home and grow up. I can't deal with this right now and neither can my wife. He should have at least been a man enough to come here himself and not sent his boss to take the fall."
Chris had been silently watching the exchange as had his wife from the doorway, but at those words they both gasped and looked at Anthony as if he had grown horns.
By that time Gibbs had had enough and he stepped forwards so that he was completely invading the other man's personal space as he leaned closer and growled dangerously.
"Now you listen to me. I love Tony and I'm here for him as whatever he needs me to be. He isn't here because he's downstairs getting a freaking brain scan to see if there's something more wrong with him than a serious concussion, but obviously you don't care about that! Seeing as you haven't even asked how he's doing tells me all I need to know. You go and take care of your wife and I'll take care of my agent who is also my partner. I'll Save you the trouble of actually caring for your son."
With that Gibbs turned on his heel to walk out of the ICU and go back to the ER to wait for Tony. Not looking back at the shocked people left standing behind.
TBC...
