Chapter 25: Gibbs The Protector
A/N – Okay as always I'm sorry for long delay between updates. I finally lost my job that I hated anyway so even with no job I am happier! But then I got sick for 10 days w a cold virus that kicked my a** like I've never had a cold do in over 10 years. This chapter I struggled with, rewriting it, changing it, having to re-do entire sections because I got it mixed up with one of my other NCIS fics. So I hope you like the final outcome and pls just send me a PM if you catch a major error – rather than telling me in a review. I like to leave reviews for story content reviews only (good or bad) – not grammar or error notifications. But on that note - THANK YOU – I love you all for your awesome and consistent reviews. This is a super long chapter to make up for your having to wait so long.
~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~
Previously On The Long Flight Home:
"Okay Tony that's probably enough." Gibbs said as he forced the cup away from his agent and set it on the bedside table, after easing Tony's head and shoulders all the way back down onto the pillows.
"You need to take it easy on the water right now, I've been in your shoes before DiNozzo and too much so soon after vent removal, will only make you nauseous as hell!"
But his words fell to deaf ears as he realized Tony's eyes had closed and stayed that way. He remembered how exhausted he had been after his own vent was removed when he was badly injured in the explosion on the ship, so he was happy to see that Tony had listened to his body for once and allowed himself to sleep. After staring at him for a while, just being thankful that he was out of the woods, Gibbs pulled up his chair and allowed himself a small catnap as well.
~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~
The Long Flight Home
Chapter XXV
ICU Waiting Room, Baltimore Hospital . . .
The somewhat exhausted group in the waiting room consisting of Tim, Ducky and Abby and Ziva, continued to make progress while they waited to see their friend again as they put together what evidence they had so far on the case of the sabotaged plane. They also enlisted the help of Tony's former partner Daniel and Ziva's own former partner Amit and their work progressed much faster once they knew that that Gibbs and Tony were both okay - with Tony improving more with every update they were given.
They had just about finished putting together the approximate time line of the events starting from the very first command Director David gave to Amit Hadar ordering him to have the maintenance crew to install charges on the large US Military cargo plane, to the near disastrous ending on the Annapolis runway.
Amit and Ziva were critical in helping McGee determine what transpired at the airfield shortly before the plane took off – since McGee wasn't there he would most likely never have been able to fill in some of those missing pieces on his own, so their assistance was invaluable to the case. Although when they first started trying to work together after they first received word that Tony was going to make it, things got off to a rather rocky start due to McGee's ambivalence to accept that Hadar was on the right side – their side.
McGee's skepticism increased when he heard that the now AWOL Mossad officer had actually been the one who carried out the first part of the Director's devious plan by ordering the shady mechanics to plant the explosive devices on various parts of the plane, Upon hearing that part of Amit's story, Tim had stood up rather dramatically from his chair considering his personality was usually much more passive than aggressive, he was immediately ready to decline Hadar's help - and maybe even tell him off while he was at it for nearly taking his best friend and the only Brother figure he had – away from him, away from all of them.
But it was Amit whom had surprised him along with everyone else when he stood up as well and after calmly listening as Tim vocalized some of his anger and doubts, Amit took it all on the chin, he understood what the young agent in front of him was feeling and knew that he would feel the same way if the roles were reversed and McGee had played a significant part in the near death of Ziva or any of his own former partners/friends.
Ducky, Abby, Ziva and Daniel all waited patiently for the two men to resolve the issue and hopefully in short order so they could move on and focus on what they really needed to focus on – somehow getting a step ahead of Eli and Mossad so that no one else was hurt or killed and they could end this nightmare once and for all.
Finally Tim sat back down after Amit politely asked for the chance to explain, assuring McGee that there was more to the story that would hopefully shed more light on why he did what he did by following that last event altering order before defiantly pushing back and standing up to his Director and boss.
Hadar's explanation began with him confessing that he knew now just how wrong he had been when he followed through on delivering Eli's orders and that it had gone against his better judgment.
"Look, I know that I don't have the right to ask for your forgiveness - what I did is inexcusable and I know that. But at the time that was business as usual for Mossad, that was not an unusual request . . . or rather, order from Director David by any means. But at the time I had my own family to worry about and unfortunately, though I was genuinely fond of Agent Gibbs, DiNozzo and Director Vance, they were not my family and I owed them nothing. At the time my choice was clear – do as I was told or suffer the consequences . . . and anyone who knew Director Eli David -" he paused looking towards Ziva as if suddenly remembering she was there. Ziva nodded in silent reply letting him know that it was okay for him to continue.
". . . Anyone who knew him, knew that it was not an idle threat. David knew that the best way to keep his officers in line was to threaten to bring harm to their closest family members should they disobey him. I fooled myself into believing that no one would get hurt by the charges, I fooled myself into believing that the Director really did only intend to startle the small group aboard the flight as a warning – rather than bringing the plane down. But none of us had anyway of being able to foresee that mechanic murdering the co-pilot just to steal his identity and hence his place on that flight!"
He then explained to them that it had been almost immediately after he had relayed the order to the mechanics that he realized he was done – he no longer wanted to play a part in the Director's personal games or secret agenda's anymore. Then he paused, reflecting back to the moment when he first made his decision to get out, but these thoughts stayed inside his head as he did not want to say them out loud and put Ziva through anymore painful heartache by being forced to listen to just what a monster her Father had become. But at the time, Amit had also finally realized that the longer he stayed working directly under Eli, the more he risked becoming more and more like the evil man and certainly didn't want to see his relationship with his own daughters end up turning into something as cold and detached as Eli had eventually become towards Ziva.
By the time Hadar had finished with his run down of his part in the dangerous plan - good and bad, McGee, Ducky, Abby and even Daniel found themselves starting to empathize with the Israeli Officer sensing that for him, any harm that were to come to his family would have been the end of his own life even if he remained physically alive. They all stayed quiet while Amit finished his story – he explained that after his run in with Ziva at Mossad headquarters where he filled her in on his fears of what the Director might do to harm his family and warned her about the orders he was forced to fulfill in regard to messing with the cargo plane. Once she had recovered from her initial anger with him, delivering a few well placed punches in the process, she then calmed down and eventually helped him get his family safely out of Tel-Aviv to an undisclosed location where they would be safe and staying with the family of an old retired Mossad operative until things blew over. The elder ex-operative had acted as a mentor to both Ziva and Amit at various points of their careers, he was a person they both trusted wholeheartedly to protect the Hadar family so that they could do what they had to do and try to stop a possible catastrophe.
They then put Amit's initial involvement behind them and started to get back to work. They reviewed the data that McGee had acquired when he had hacked into the computer network of the Tel-Aviv Air Control Tower, this helped them confirm how long the plane had been left alone in the hangar, what time the plane had taken off and what maintenance had been done during that time, and by whom. The group then compiled that information with the information that Ziva and Amit had supplied from what happened in Tel-Aviv from the initial tampering of the plane, to take off. Then taking the time line that McGee, Abby and Ducky provided them as far as what happened on the plane from after takeoff, to the luckily safe landing in Annapolis. This combined data helped gave them an all inclusive time line of the plane and events from beginning to end.
They still had to get the plane's flight data recorder, or black box as it was more commonly known as, but the FTSB had not released that to them yet. So for now all they had in regard to what actually happened on the plane during the flight, was what Ducky provided based on his conversations with Gibbs and Vance on the satellite phone. Finally after two hours had passed they decided to divide and conquer.
Abby left to head to the hospital's large lab so that she could document her findings and started analyzing what evidence they had from the plane. She was beside herself when she walked through the doors into one of the most well equipped labs she had ever had the privilege to work in, since it doubled as a training laboratory for a nearby University, it was equipped with just about the best tools and most modern machines that money could buy and that any scientist would kill to have access to. Daniel had been sent along with her to assist as needed after offering to get her any additional testing equipment or supplies she may need – from the Baltimore PD's own crime lab. He knew that the hospital lab wouldn't have some of the things that a crime lab would carry.
Ducky headed down to the basement level of the hospital after they finally received the corpse of the mechanic whom had posed as the co-pilot so he could now do what he did best. He immediately got prepped to begin the autopsy of the body and the painstaking process of gathering any and all trace evidence on the killer's clothing and body, knowing there wasn't so much as a speck that could be overlooked and they could not afford any mistakes. He owed it to Tony to be as thorough as he could to ensure that anyone and everyone responsible for causing their Senior Agent's injuries and health to deteriorate so rapidly, knowing that even though some of his injuries were already worsening before the flight even took off, were definitely made worse by the jarring explosions that took place during the long and dangerous flight.
Back In Tony's Room . . .
One hour and forty minutes had passed since Gibbs himself had fallen asleep, he had easily fallen into a semi-deep slumber now that he had the relief in knowing that since Tony had stabilized enough to be taken off the ventilator and was well on his way to a full recovery. But he wasn't sleeping as deeply as he appeared to the outside viewer because as long as that crazy sonofabitch Ari was still out there somewhere – threatening and taunting them, Gibbs' main priority was to protect his team and especially Tony - whom was the most vulnerable and unable to protect himself at the moment.
No matter how relieved, exhausted or injured Gibbs was himself – he had no intention of allowing himself the luxury of sleeping too deeply since he still had to remain aware of what was going on around him - no - matter - what.
If anyone could accomplish a feat like that it was Gibbs - although no one on his team could figure out how he was able to do it – Gibbs had two different kinds of training that enabled him the ability to sleep while still being aware of his surrounds. One was his Marine training of course. But another reason was his training as a Father. From the time Kelly was born Gibbs and Shannon both slept light enough to never miss the slightest sound coming from their Daughter's room – even something as mild as a quiet whimper made during a bad dream.
But Gibbs had yet a third reason for making sure he watched his unconscious agent's six, while it was a duty he took very seriously in general - no matter who's six he was sidled with – it was even more serious when it was Tony's six that he was watching. But his determination to protect Tony at all costs was not for the reason everyone suspected. It wasn't unlike the way he was always aware of Kelly's wellbeing at all times – his relationship with Tony definitely had a Father/Son type of quality making him just as aware of his well being as he was of Kelly's.
Secretly Gibbs could add one more reason for his need to watch over Tony more so than anyone else – this reason was something he never shared with anyone, not Ducky. . . not Tony - no one.
No one knew about the guilt that Gibbs had been carrying with him ever since Tony nearly died from the plague. While Gibbs was responsible for getting his team focused enough find & stop the person responsible for sending the lethal powder that nearly killed Tony, he felt tremendous guilt over not stopping his senior agent from opening the unaddressed letter in the first place. He should have known better than to allow anyone to open an envelope like that, one that was not addressed to any agent or any NCIS employee in particular.
Gibbs had felt something stir deep within his gut at the time, while half-ass listening to McGee describing the suspicious and ominous envelope out loud. He should have stopped Tim from allowing Tony to grab the letter - taking ownership of it based merely on the SWAK imprint over the seal. He lost many nights of sleep due to this burden of guilt - who had Tony's six then?
How could he have failed his loyal Saint Bernard whom risked life and limb to protect his bosses' six many times at the risk of his own life and well being. Gibbs vowed to himself from the plague incident on, that when Tony's six was in need of protection – no one would get to him unless they took Gibbs out first!
Seeing Tony on the ventilator earlier just like when he was fighting to survive the plague, it caused him to think back on that time even more – and only intensifying his feelings of guilt. So there he sat, hanging on somewhere between being full wakefulness and deep sleep until he heard a slight noise as Tony started stirring and the barely noticeable sound of rustled sheets was all it took to cause him to wake up all the way and nearly shoot out of his chair while grabbing for the missing gun on his hip at the same time out of sheer reflex.
Looking immediately towards Tony's bed he spotted his agent attempting to move or sit up again like he had tried before. Thankfully his attempt was made more difficult by having his broken arm strapped to his chest to keep it immobile after re-injuring the limb during the rough flight straining the ligaments and tendons around the break, even worse.
By the time Gibbs was out of his chair and over to Tony's side, he got there just in time to catch his semi-conscious agent, whose eyes were still closed before he groggily found a way to pull himself up to a seated position. Thankfully for Gibbs, having only one usable arm that was sporting an IV needle, combined with his semi-conscious condition and drugs still in his system, Tony's attempt was so sluggish and weak that his attempt to grab the offending tube had been a near miss.
Gibbs reacted quickly by pressing and holding Tony's good shoulder down – but gently so as not to startle his agent. "Tony, take it easy, don't try to get up because trust me, it won't feel good!" Gibbs spoke in a quiet soothing tone of voice. He himself let out a deep breath when it seemed that Tony had settled back down and wasn't going to try to sit up much less move around very much. Gibbs knew that Tony would have had to have felt pain in his gut and arm just from the slight amount of movement he had already managed to make – but just in case, Gibbs kept a light but firm hold on his shoulder just in case while he silently hoped Tony would open his eyes and awaken the rest of the way.
One thing he couldn't help but notice was how bony Tony's shoulder felt obviously from not eating much since his initial fight with Rivkin. Gibbs could have kicked himself for again not noticing that factor well before now. How could he not notice that his best agent was in more pain than he had been letting on – not only at the emergency room where Gibbs first spoke to him – but even the following day when his pain and soreness would have been even worse.
Why did he take Tony for his word at the Hospital when usually he knew better and would double check with the physician who treated him! He could only assume it was his concern for Ziva as well since she had also been through a traumatic experience. If only he had known then what he knew now regarding Ziva's horrid treatment of Tony and the flat out lies she had told all of them when she kept what she did know about Rivkin – to herself.
Gibbs focus was brought back to Tony's face as he felt the shoulder underneath his hand starting to squirm again. Tony started rolling his head slowly side to side while keeping his eyes tightly closed, but his movements were still slow and sluggish as if he was trying to shake off his drugged weariness and fatigue in order to fully wake up.
Then to Gibbs relief , Tony's head quickly came back to rest dead center causing Gibbs to lean in a little further, watching closely as Tony's eyes first scrunched together tightly but then relaxed into a few fast blinks as he worked his way out of the fog of slumber towards becoming fully awake.
As sick and groggy as he felt, Tony still didn't miss the deep lines of worry that were etched all over his bosses' face when he first opened his eyes and saw his boss staring down at him, so Tony forced himself to smile as best he could while being in pain and starting to feel very nauseous, but it was worth the effort when he watched the tense lines of worry and concern that had all but taken over his bosses' features, disappeared in an instant upon seeing him smile.
Gibbs was more in tune with his second in command than he was to anyone, he smiled back at Tony but he wasn't fooled for a second. He knew that the smile was Tony's instinctive reaction whenever he thought he was responsible for causing someone else pain or worry, the fact that the sarcastic agent never attempted his usual methods of distraction such as; making some wisecrack or movie reference to shift the focus off of himself, that fact alone made it even more obvious to Gibbs that Tony had to be feeling pretty awful.
"Welcome back a-gain DiNozzo. Stay still while I page for a nurse." Tony let his eyes close again just to rest them for a minute while he could sense his boss reaching over him for the call button located on the wall. There was usually also some remote device that could server that same purpose but at the moment Tony couldn't care less where that was.
Within minutes nurse Anna entered and quickly went to stand next to Tony's bed on the opposite side of Agent Gibbs and immediately started to check on their good looking patient. Seeing his eyes closed again she turned towards Gibbs with some questions.
"How long ago did he wake up Agent Gibbs and how did he seem?"
"About 5 to 10 minutes ago, but I could tell he wasn't feeling well – whether it was pain or nausea – or both – is hard to say."
Before she could thank him or do anything else, a groan of misery came from the patient whose eyes were now open once again but squinting in pain just as they were the last time he had awoken in recovery. Gibbs patience was wearing thin as were his nerves, most likely due to being so fatigued himself and managing his own throbbing stab wound.
"Look! You can clearly see he is suffering again!" Gibbs ranted while pointing towards Tony's face, directing her attention to the scrunched lines around his agent's eyes and tiny beads of sweat on his forehead and upper lip from the tremendous strain the discomfort was obviously causing him.
"Now - can't you do something for him or does he have to wait for the damn doctor? Who knows how long it could take for her to get here!"
Tony cringed at the raised sound of his bosses' voice. 'Uh-oh, gruff Gibbs is back.' he thought to himself, closing his eyes again as if trying to escape the wrath but also to avoid seeing the look of fear that the young nurse most likely had on her face, he wished he could come to her defense by cracking a joke which was his habitual technique to help diffuse a stressful situation.
But he knew if he even attempted to open his mouth, his nausea would get the better of him and they would all be sorry. On the flip side he had to admit that it warmed his heart to hear how protective his boss had sounded! He knew how it was rare for Gibbs to be so obvious with his concern.
The now nervous nurse replied in a small and shaky voice, " Uhm yes sir. Well, he is probably still feeling nauseas from the remnants of anesthesia still in his system – it's natural for the body to try and repel or reject the foreign substance. I will get some Compazine, it works fast." And for the pain, I – I can increase his morphine now that he's more awake this time – but since opiates tend to depress the respiratory system when used in higher dosages – I'm afraid he will have to endure a little of the pain until the rest of the anesthesia is completely out of system and then we can give him something stronger."
Gibbs softened his entire demeanor, "Thank you."
"Sure, of course." she relaxed as well and smiled back at him.
Tony looked up at her, his eyes now starting to water from the pain and the sick feeling rising further up his throat from his stomach. His mouth was starting to water if he might throw up even without speaking. The nurse had seen that look before and knew she's better get moving or they'd have a new emergency on their hands if he started to throw up.
Tony nodded in reply to the eager nurse – then closed his eyes as the wave of nausea continued to wash over him – he had to focus all his energy on not puking, wishing she would just hurry and give him that drug she mentioned. He then tried to lick his dry chapped lips but didn't have enough moisture to get the job done, he felt like he had the worst case of cotton mouth as even his worst hangover had ever caused.
Suddenly Gibbs saw the nurse move faster than she had all day as she grabbed a small odd shaped container and rushed to get it near Tony's mouth. She made fast work of raising the bed slightly and removing his nasal cannula just in time for Tony to lose his battle with the nausea throwing up nothing but watery bile since it had been at least a couple of days since he had eaten any solid food.
The nurse got rid of the container and came back with a moist towlette that she used to wipe down Tony's mouth and face. Then she turned and grabbed a syringe and some medication from a nearby wheeled stand against one of the walls. Once she prepared the medication she quickly administered the Compazine directly into one of Tony's IV ports and reached up and changed the drip level on one of the other bags of medication.
She explained that she had given him the Compazine that would rid him of his nausea almost instantly and that she had also slightly increased the level of morphine being given to him. She also explained that the morphine was attached to a pump which would deliver the strong pain medication through a small tube that the surgeons had inserted via a small secondary incision located near his main surgical site.
The morphine tube could be easily removed about 7 to 10 days following the surgery. Now that he was awake she told Gibbs that they could give Tony a hand held control for the morphine pump so if he were in need of an additional small dose of the morphine in between the frequent checkups from the nurses, he could do it himself. But the device would only allowed the patient a predetermined amount of the drug every 30 minutes so as not to allow him to accidentally overdose himself.
Then she looked back down at Tony, patted his leg lightly, "Hang in there for just a few more minutes Agent DiNozzo, this stuff works pretty fast and you should be feeling much better!"
Tony still had his eyes closed as he waited for his stomach to settle when he felt something slide across his lips causing his eyes to shoot open!
"Oh - sorry I startled you Agent DiNozzo, I was just applying some Vaseline to your lips – it will help with the dryness since oxygen masks, ventilator's and meds can cause some wicked chapped lips!" she smiled brightly down at him and he had an urge to tell her he loved her solely based on how much better his lips felt from what she had just done.
Anna left just minutes later promising someone would bring the ice chips and that Dr. Archer should be in shortly as well. Then just as promised only minutes after she left, a nurse they hadn't seen before came in with two cups of ice chips and naturally started to approach the patient to feed him some soothing spoonfuls when the silver haired man standing near the bed reached out to take one of the cups out of her hand.
"Here, I'm sure you have enough to do - I can give it to him." He said as he took one of the cups from her hand. She smiled and gratefully handed him the cup of ice chips and turned to place the 2nd one on the nearby tray table before thanking him and leaving the room.
Since Tony had his eyes closed temporarily as he waited for the pain and nausea to taper off, he was shocked by what he thought he just heard. 'Did Gibbs just volunteer to feed me something?' Opening his eyes he confirmed that he had indeed heard correctly as he saw Gibbs hand coming at him with a spoonful of ice chips.
'Oh great,' Tony thought, 'Just what I need, my boss having to feed me like a 2 year old!
But being almost too shocked to do anything else, Tony opened his mouth, accepting the cool chips, closing his eyes yet again while relishing in the moisture they provided his dry mouth! When he opened his eyes again he saw another spoonful coming at him. He completely avoided making any eye contact whatsoever with his boss. This was just too abnormal and awkward to say the least.
It only took a few minutes before he heard Gibbs say that was probably enough for now. "Don't want'cha gettin' sick again DiNozzo." He had explained.
"K Gibbs, thanksss." Tony slurred slightly.
Tony hadn't thought about it before but he really had no choice but to let his boss feed him the ice. What with having one arm strapped to his chest and the other arm having to lay flat or have the IV monitors sound off. He had no choice but to accept help from Gibbs.
Finally feeling satisfied having ingested enough ice chips to sooth him for the time being, his eyes slipped closed again for a second
Only 5 minutes went by and Dr. Archer entered the room. Gibbs didn't miss how she always seemed to exude a positive energy whenever she entered. After thanking her best nurse who quickly brought her up to speed on how the patient was doing so far, Dr. Archer dismissed nurse Anna and then turned to look at the portable electronic medical chart where she could see the latest updates on Tony's monitor readings and vital signs. The hospital had gone green a while back, doing away with the old paper medical charts in lieu of more modern technology.
Moving over to stand by the bed in the same where Anna previously stood she looked at Gibbs and then down to Tony.
"Okay gentlemen, let's see how things are looking. Agent DiNozzo, I'm Dr. Archer in case you don't remember me from earlier. You definitely seem much calmer and more alert than last time I saw you, how are you feeling?" she asked Tony as she flashed him her soothing smile.
"M thir-ssty." Tony replied, his mouth even more dry after getting sick to his stomach.
"Yes, unfortunately that is one worst side effects of anesthesia but people can't immediately tolerate actual water until the anesthesia has completely dissipated. But I'll send someone in with some ice chips for you right away - then once we see how you handle the ice chips then we can look at letting you graduate to water and then perhaps even some nice chicken broth."
Tony licked his dry lips at the mention of all of the thirst quenching fluids, all of the things she mentioned sounded like the best things he'd ever heard of.
"Th-anks."
"Of course! Now you need to promise me that you will press this call button . . ." She said as she found the remote call button and placed it hear his semi-free hand. ". . .if you feel your nausea or pain levels rising again before the next scheduled rounds. It's important that you don't try to be the tough guy on this – you let someone know right away if you start feeling poorly – at any time day or night okay?" This time his only response was to nod silently until he felt a light tap on his forehead, opening his eyes in surprise he saw Gibbs looking at him with a fierce glare.
"And DiNozzo, if you don't do exactly what she just told you to do, it'll be ME that you answer to – and don't think you can fool me either, I think you already know better than to assume that you can!"
"'I – I Gotcha boss." Tony weakly replied.
She proceeded to check the drainage and chest tubes, his IV's, medication levels, forced him to open his eyes so she could check them with her penlight, then listened to his chest through her stethoscope looking for signs of any clots or blockage and checking his lungs and airway.
Happy with the results thus far she then took a look at the light dressing that has been taped over the small wound at the back of his head. No infection seemed present which was excellent. But unfortunately that wasn't the case when she lowered the blanket and peeled back the thick packing over his sutured surgical incision. That area was definitely more red and inflamed that she would have liked, she also couldn't help but notice how much worse the bruised area on his ribcage was since it was not far from the incision. Satisfied for now, she put his surgical packing's back in place and briefly but carefully checked to make sure his strapped shoulder and arm were not too tight, while at the same time – not too loose to where he could move it and cause himself more damage, not to mention pain. Tying his gown back together loosely in front she pulled the covers back up knowing that he needed to be kept warm.
"Well I'm very pleased at what I see Agent DiNozzo, you are healing quite nicely considering all that you have been through and how many different injuries you endured. After finishing a very quick exam she promised to be back in to check on both of them in a half an hour or so, knowing that she needed to also take a peek at the stab wound on the lead agent's arm and secretly hoping to get to know the man a little more at the same time!
By this time Tony's eyes had slid closed again, obviously it wasn't just the drugs pulling him under but also the challenge of remaining awake for the longest period of time since he slid into consciousness on the plane after stabbing the killer co-pilot.
The doctor spoke to Gibbs without looking up from her exam, "Agent Gibbs, can you shed some light on some of this additional bruising? I know we already noticed it when he was brought into Trauma One but now that some time has passed I can tell that some of these injuries are obviously 2-3 days old – that time frame is well before the flight that caused the newer injuries – they are obviously healing at the different rate than the fresh injuries he obtained from the flight." she lowered her voice a little trying not to disturb her still sleeping patient.
"Wow observant. Okay, well – you're right." Gibbs responded just as quietly. "He was involved in a violent fight while apprehending a suspect a couple a days before the hijacked flight. You've already seen the damage from that fight – the bruising on his upper torso, ribs that were cracked during the fight but broken after an attack by his former partner in Tel-Aviv,his arm was broken in the fight but definitely worsened during the flight.
It was easy for the doctor to pick it up from there, "Okay so I can assume that the freshest wounds such as to the back of his head and the ruptured spleen were all a result of the problems you had aboard the plane – which also caused his previous injuries to become worse as well – do I have it right?" she asked, finally looking towards Gibbs.
"Yes, I'm impressed – ya know if this doctor thing doesn't work out, you just might make a good detective." he teased, finally loosening up a little.
"Uhm – I hate to interrupt but - I am right ya know." Tony had grown tired of being left out of a conversation about damage that he sustained to his own body! He finally decided to add his two cents while glaring back and forth at the duo. Then with both eyes closed again he added, "If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather we don't talk about any of it right now. Listenin' to you two, ya make me sound like I'm some kind of brawling gang member fer cryin' out loud." the doctor looked towards Gibbs and chuckled while Tony's eyes slid shut as if exhausted by merely speaking. Yet while keeping his eyes closed he added one final comment.
"Can ya you just finish this exam already doc so I can sleep?"
Gibbs nodded to the doctor that it was okay to continue, she knew he would fill her in more later in the hallway once Tony had gone back to sleep.
Clearing her throat the kind doctor finally replied, "Okay point taken Agent DiNozzo. Bear with more for just a few more minutes. I need to take one more look at your stomach. There was some slight redness that wasn't related to your incision that I just want to take another quick look at." she explained while sliding his blankets back down and exposing his torso once again. "Now, you're going to feel a little pressure applied to your abdomen while I check to make sure that we didn't miss any other internal bleeding." Tony's eyes shot open with that last comment.
"Missany? Weren't you just inside there a while ago? Shouldn't you have checked that while you were in there? Ne-evver miind – jus' getitover with." he gave in, closing his eyes. He was really exhausted at this point and feeling crankier by the minute, at this point he just wanted everyone to leave him alone. She ignored his pissy mood since it was understandable and even expected under these circumstance. Anesthesia was also known to mess with people's moods for a number of days following surgery of any kind. She proceeded to press down on the only area of his abdomen that was not inflamed, just barely outside of the area that was affected by redness. She needed to make sure there wasn't some kind of staph infection starting to set in. "Is this area tender at all Agent DiNozzo?"
"Nope. Not really" Tony relaxed. 'Heck this ain't so bad!' he thought to himself.
"Okay, what about here?" she asked just before pressing somewhat gently on the oddly inflamed area that was on the opposite side from where his spleen had been removed but not close enough to his bruised and broken ribs to be caused by those injuries either. It was already turning an angrier shade of red than before. She took special care to make sure she avoided bumping any of the spectacular bruises that also adorned parts of his body. She needed to try to determine if any of his current injuries might be the source of the infection - or if it was something completely unrelated.
"OWW! What the -!" he griped through clenched teeth while his heart monitor started beeping faster from a surge in his blood pressure provoked by the pain.
He closed his eyes, breathing through the pain. The yell caused Gibbs move even closer tto monitor the situation. When he got closer he saw Tony's eye's screwed shut tightly while a light sheen of sweat started to break out all over his face and neck again. But then Tony opened his eyes after the newly agitated pain had subsided a little and looked up at his doctor. Gibbs didn't miss how tired his voice sounded when he spoke again – it wasn't anywhere near the usual decibel's that Tony typically reached when he was angry – and healthy.
"There! Ya see? . . . that's why . . . I - hate -hospitals! . . ." he complained after he let out the deep breath he had sucked in when she first pressed into the painful area on the side of his abdomen. His energy was almost entirely depleted now, made more obvious by the way his speech was slowing down more and more. You doctors are all alike, I swear you take pleasure in the 'poking n prodding' part! Pleeease - at least … call me T-Tony if yer gonna continue . . . t' torture me like that."
Gibbs gut twisted when he spotted the look of concern that briefly flashed over the doctor's features. But he planned to wait and talk to her in the hallway rather than risk alarming Tony.
"Okay . . . Tony – I'll cut you some slack. You go ahead and get some rest and I'll make sure no one comes in to check on you again for a couple of hours unless any of your monitor alarms go off for any reason. " She collected her things and glanced towards Gibbs, nodding her head towards to door to let him know she would be waiting in the hall to speak with him. Once she was gone Gibbs heard Tony's voice and looked back down at him. His eyes were still closed as if he had no energy to even hold them half way open.
"You stayin' boss?" he had no way of seeing the gesture from the doctor asking Gibbs to step outside.
Patting Tony's leg since he figured his upper body had been through enough Gibbs reassured him. "Yeah Tony, nowhere else I need to be. I got your six so just go to sleep already." then he felt a wave of emotion come over him as he watched a goofy, most likely drug fueled smile appear on his agent's face. Gibbs decided to wait until his underling had fallen asleep again before stepping out for a minute. He knew it would only take seconds before he succumbed to a pain free drug induced slumber which would allow Gibbs a few minutes to step out and finish his conversation with the stunning physician and perhaps do a little detective work of his own to find out if she was seeing anyone.
To Be Continued . . .
No cliffie really – well okay except for what's causing the unusual inflammation. Stay tuned! Pls review.