Chapter 14
Tuesday
The following morning they both woke with a start when they heard a loud bang outside the room. Gibbs quickly hurried outside to find out what was going on. He found an over turned breakfast tray lying on the ground and one of the candy stripers cleaning it up. He quickly returned to the room and told Tony what happened. A few minutes later the same candy striper entered with two trays of food.
"That better not be the one that fell on the ground." Tony joked.
"It's not." The girl replied angrily.
"I was only kidding." Tony replied "So what's your name."
"Janet." The girl huffed and quickly hurried out of the room.
"Not a people person." Tony said as he pulled the tray closer. "I think the food is getting worse again."
"Yeah." Gibbs replied as he hit his rock hard slice of toast off the edge of the tray.
"I'll go get something edible."
"Thanks boss." Tony replied.
Gibbs hurried to get breakfast and returned quickly with pancakes for both of them.
Tony ate all of his pancakes but didn't touch the hospital breakfast. Janet returned a short while later and removed the trays.
"Why do I waste my time bringing them in." she mumbled quietly when she saw the food hadn't been touched.
"You try eating that." Tony huffed.
"Sorry." Janet replied "I didn't mean for you to hear me."
"It's fine." Tony replied
"I'll be back in a few minutes." Gibbs said and left the room.
"My dad's grumpy." Tony said. "He hates hospitals."
"Yeah me too." Janet replied.
"Why do you volunteer here then?"
"I have to or I'll be expelled from school." She sighed.
"Wow that sucks. I got expelled from school.....when I was 12 and got sent to Military school."
"My father has threatened to send me to military school if anything else happens at school, which is why I'm stuck here. I really don't want to go to Military school. I didn't even know girls could go to military school."
"Oh yeah they have a load of them now." Tony said "And believe….me you don't want to go there."
"Yeah I know and I keep screwing up here and I really don't want to be fired."
"In what way do you screw up?"
"Like earlier, dropping the tray and muttering under my breath and I'm not really good with patients."
"Ah I see. Well if something happens just count to 10…. before you react. It normally works for me but sometimes……I still want to kill someone."
"Yeah I know what you mean. My father got really mad last night and I just wanted to punch him."
"Why'd he get mad?"
"2 Feds came by to question me about the 2 murders here and he thought at first they were there about something else. He has a short temper."
"What murders?" Tony asked with a panicked look.
"Oh sorry I thought everyone knew."
"I was only moved here on Saturday and I've been pretty drugged up."
"Oh well I probably shouldn't tell you but there were 2 patients murdered here. One last week and one, just yesterday."
"Oh my God." Tony gasped. "Have they caught the guy?"
"No, I don't think they have a clue. I mean they were asking candy stripers about it. I mean, we wouldn't kill anyone."
"Well I sure hope not." Tony joked. "I really don't want to die."
"So what are you in for?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh I ah, broke my back." Tony replied with a small smile. "I'm getting some feeling back but I still can't move."
"Wow that sucks." Janet said as she looked him over. "So why are you on oxygen?"
"I have problems with my lungs, and having surgery made it worse. I can't breathe without the oxygen."
"That's too bad." Janet replied with a sad smile. "Anyway I'd better get going if I want to keep my job."
"Ok see you later." Tony replied as she hurried out the door.
Gibbs returned a few minutes later with a cup of coffee for himself and a cartoon of juice for Tony. "So do you think it could be her?"
"Hard to say." Tony replied "She does harbour a bit of aggression towards her father. Typical teen stuff, but she did seem surprised that the candy stripers are suspects."
"We'll keep an eye on her." Gibbs replied. "Brad is on his way to do your breathing and coughing treatments."
"Oh goody." Tony muttered just as Brad arrived in.
The rest of the morning was spent on breathing treatment and doing physio. After lunch Tony was exhausted and quickly fell asleep. Tony woke again when his dinner was brought in by who he assumed was Angela. He looked around and didn't see Gibbs.
"Your father went to get some dinner for himself." Angela said as she laid down the tray.
"Oh ok thanks." Tony replied as he looked at the food in front of him. "Wish I could go get something else to eat."
"Hey I don't cook it." Angela said angrily. "If you don't want to eat it then don't."
"I won't." Tony growled. "Your bedside manner could do with some work."
"Yeah well." She mumbled and hurried out of the room.
Tony sighed and pushed the tray away from him. Gibbs returned a few minutes later and laid out some food for both of them.
"Thanks boss. I really didn't want to eat that crap." Tony grinned as he started eating the food. "I met Angela, she wasn't very nice."
"What did you say to her?"
"Nothing, she told me you had gone for dinner and I said that I wished I could go out for dinner. Then she got mad and told me not to eat the food."
"We don't want them to want to kill you Tony." Gibbs replied with a smile.
"I'm just being a typical patient, besides I don't think they'd kill someone for not liking the food. If that was the case they would have killed me age's ago."
"That's true." Gibbs replied and they continued eating.
A half an hour later Angela returned to collect the tray. She quickly grabbed it and stormed out of the room.
"See, she really needs to work on her bedside manner." Tony said with a grin.
"How about we do a crossword." Gibbs suggested as he pulled out a puzzle book.
They had just started when Ducky and Palmer came into the room.
"Hello Anthony, how are you feeling?"
"Not too bad." Tony replied with a grin. "How are you, anything going on at work?"
"No it is very quite." Ducky replied.
"There have been very few cases." Palmer added. "We are catching up on paper work."
"Oh joy." Tony replied "I do not miss paper work."
"Yes well it has to be done." Jimmy sighed.
"Ducky, do you want to get some coffee." Gibbs said as he stood up.
"Oh yes Jethro that would be very nice." Ducky replied "I haven't had a cup all day."
The two older men continued talking as they left the room.
"So how's Michelle?" Tony asked Jimmy.
"Oh um ah, she's fine." Jimmy replied "She was asking for you today."
"That's nice" Tony replied. "So how are things going between you two?"
"Oh well um, I'm not sure." He replied hesitantly. "I get the feeling she is using me but I don't know why."
"Maybe she is using you for sex." Tony said.
"No I don't think that's it although there is a lot of sex involved."
"That's my boy." Tony grinned. "So is there anything .......more than sex involved."
"I thought so at first, but now I'm not really sure. I'm thinking of breaking up with her."
"Well at the end of the day, you have to do what's best……for you."
"Yeah, you're right Tony." Jimmy agreed. "I think I'll have to break up with her."
"I'm sorry man." Tony said sadly "But if you think it's for the best then……that's what you have to do. Besides that doctor I introduced you to, seems to like you."
"Thanks Tony." Jimmy replied with a smile. "So what have you been getting up to here?"
"Not much." Tony sighed. "Lots of medicine, lots of physical therapy and lots of sleep."
"You'll be back on your feet in no time." Jimmy smiled.
The two continued chatting until Ducky and Gibbs returned.
"Well we had better get going." Ducky said. "You keep out of trouble now."
"We will." Tony assured and soon it was just he and Gibbs left again.
"We need to find this killer Tony." Gibbs said after a while. "Tomorrow I want you to be as annoying as you can with both girls. If they are rude, threaten to have them fired. Do anything you can to get them to want to kill you."
"Ah boss, what if they really do want to kill me. I can't exactly defend myself."
"I'll be with you most of the time and Ziva or McGee will be hiding in the closet or in the bathroom whenever I am not here." Gibbs assured, "Don't worry we've got your six."
"That's good to know." Tony replied.
Tony had another steroid treatment that evening and then they spent the rest of the time deciding on what way Tony would act the following day.
That night Tony woke a few time calling Jeanne's name but again Gibbs soothed him and helped him go back to sleep. The morning finally arrived and they put their plan into action.
A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews and alerts. Hope you enjoyed this chapter