Death Of A Conspiracy
AN: Thankyou for all the reviews! I really appreciate them!
Also, a huge thankyou to Kate for her help and support!
And more of the good stuff...
The team spent the night in the waiting room, eager to hear anything more about Gibbs's condition. They spent most of that time filling Kate in on what she'd missed since she'd been away, but found that she knew most of it anyway as she'd been receiving regular updates through the FBI.
Just after midnight, the doors to surgery opened once again and just as every time before, everybody on the team looked at the surgeon who walked through. The surgeon glanced around the room before spotting Ducky and walking towards him.
"Doctor Mallard," the surgeon approached him, as the rest of the team stood up
"How is he? Can we go see him? Is he okay? – " Abby asked anxiously
"Abs," Tony said loudly, interrupting Abby's flow of words as he put his hands on her shoulders
The surgeon looked at the rest of the team, "And you must be here for Agent Gibbs,"
"Is he out of surgery?" Tony asked
"We've just taken him to intensive care," the surgeon replied, "He has quite a few injuries and his condition… could be better. On top of that, he lost a lot of fluids and was drugged, so – "
"What drugs?" Abby interrupted
"We haven't got the results back yet and – " the surgeon replied
"Why not? The lab shouldn't take that long to return them…doesn't that mean you can't give him anything until you know?" Abby interrupted again
The surgeon paused for a moment as if to gather his thoughts, "Yes, you are correct. If he wakes before we know, we won't be able to give him any pain killers. He is on antibiotics – as expected – they won't react with any of the drugs he was likely given,"
Abby huffed as Kate asked, "Can we see him?"
"You can but your stay will have to be short, he's still not out of the woods yet. He's in a critical condition, the next 24-48 hours will be crucial for his recovery," the surgeon told them
"Is he stable?" Ducky asked
The surgeon grimaced briefly, "I don't like using the term 'stable' in these situations. His condition fluctuates quite a bit as you saw during surgery. At the moment, we're expecting anything,"
"I see," Ducky said quietly, then louder, "Well, let's go see him,"
"Okay, right this way," the surgeon told them, walking towards another set of doors. He led them down several corridors before going up two levels in an elevator.
As they were passing down another corridor, the surgeon's pager beeped. The surgeon sighed and looked at the group apologetically, "Sorry, I have to take this. ICU is the ward after the next, Agent Gibbs is room 5,"
Abby watched the surgeon go, then sighed as they turned to go into the next ward, "We should get pagers, I want a pager,"
"No, you don't. They drive you nuts," Tony responded
"How would you know?" Kate asked, more out of something to talk about than a real desire to know
"We had them in Philly. Sometimes, when you're really tired – although sometimes when I wasn't that tired at all – when the pager goes off, you have no idea what it is. I remember once, trying to answer my phone, but the noise didn't stop, so I tried hitting the alarm clock, I think I ended up breaking my bedside light," Tony paused, thinking
"You're light, Anthony?" Ducky asked
"Ah, yeah. It was getting really annoying – the pager that is – and I couldn't figure out what it was," Tony scoffed, "I even tried smothering my watch, thinking it was that. Anyway, I tried putting the light on so I could figure it out, but reached too far and knocked it off the table,"
"Did you turn the pager off?" Abby asked in amusement
"Nope, think I ended up cuddling it," Tony responded
Kate smirked and shook her head as Abby and Ducky shared a chuckle.
"We're here," Tony told them as they entered ICU
"He said room 5, didn't he?" Kate asked
Kate's question was met with silence as the team walked to Gibbs' room.
"Oh god," Kate gasped as she saw Gibbs laying prone on the bed
Tony exhaled slowly through clenched teeth as he heard Ducky mutter, "Oh dear, Jethro,"
"Boss-man," Abby sniffed
Gibbs was laying on his back with an oxygen tube coming from his mouth that was breathing for him. There were what looked like dozens of tubes and wires attached all over his body.
"He looks so pale and … so un-Gibbs," Abby commented
Kate approached the bed and took Gibbs's hand in hers and gasped, "His hand is so cold,"
"Must be the hypothermia," Tony commented, moving closer to the bed, glancing at the monitors and the IV solution and unit of blood hanging next to it. Tony sighed, briefly touching the IV line and noting it was warm, "He'll pull through…right Duck?"
Ducky glanced up from the end of the bed where he was reading Gibbs's charts. Ducky paused for a moment before replying, "Jethro is a strong man, he's pulled out of any and every physical injury he's had. But this is unlike any injury he's had before, it's not even on the same scale,"
"What are you saying Ducky?" Kate asked, her eyes tearing up
Ducky sighed, "I think we should wait until we know more. Jumping to conclusions is not going to help us,"
"Hope we don't have to wait long," Abby remarked
"Well, Jethro was never the patient type," Ducky responded
"Perhaps we should – " Tony was interrupted by a noise at the bed
The team turned to see Gibbs's limbs jerking and shaking and the heart monitor scream.
"Gibbs!" Kate gasped, moving to help lessen his movements
"Kate!" Ducky called, pulling her back and leading her and the rest of the team out of the room, "He's having a seizure," Ducky told them as a herd of nurses and doctors came running into the room
The team looked on into the room with dismay as Gibbs's body continued moving uncontrollably.
Cool bananas. That's it for chapter 21! The next ch shouldn't be too long away, or at least won't be as long as you had to wait before...Hope you liked it! Please review!