Chapter 29

Gibbs found himself wondering where the hell his agent had run off to.

McGee had been doing good, making more headway than any of them expected and then he suddenly just walked out of the room.

"Call me when he gets back." Gibbs told Abby as he left the observation room and went in search of coffee. There wasn't much to do until McGee got back from wherever he had gone.

He found McGee as he passed through the squad room. Tim was speaking with a few of the local officers over a small photo book, rearranging the pictures of bearded men on several pages.

"Going to get coffee, McGee. You need some?"

He watched as Tim glanced at a clock on the wall of the squad room, apparently surprised to see it was nearing five in the morning. Gibbs saw him nod slightly before ducking back to the task at hand.

Gibbs headed out of the precinct. He had already mapped his route to the coffee stand several blocks away having spotted it on the way in. Normally he wouldn't go so long between cups, but it had been a hell of a night and he hadn't had a chance to pull himself away.

The crisp clear air of the early morning worked wonders on loosening the thoughts that he'd held back all night.

As he took long purposeful strides he worried over his three agents. Wondered on the future of their team. Not just the future as it pertains to whether Tony and Ziva would be able to come back to work. Nothing to do with how long the three of them would be out on medical leave and he would be without a team.

His concern for their future centered around his own worth as a member of the team.

He hadn't done a thing to track these kids down, he was too old to learn new trick, too old to figure out all the advances in technology.

He hadn't been much help in the cabin, Tim had been a one man SWAT team.

He hadn't been helpful in the hospital, not that there was anything he could do to help, really, but he didn't need to start a fight with Tony. He shouldn't have gone in ranting and he shouldn't have lost his temper.

What's done was done, hopefully he hadn't burned the bridge entirely.

Knowing his senior field agent as well as he did, he wouldn't be surprised if Tony had finally had enough of his constant mood swings. If this was just the thing that pushed him to where he finally moved on. Tony would take on his own team or skip town and move to some other city to start over again.

They had built a good friendship, granted one that was built almost entirely on sharing space without verbal communication on his part. Tony would do most of the talking while Gibbs toiled in the basement or grilled up some steaks that DiNozzo had brought over.

He had probably just thrown a match on the trust he had built with his Agent.

Gibbs stepped into the Coffee shop and by the time he was back out with a tray of drinks the sun was starting to rise over the horizon.

As he made his way back to the precinct he had a little smile on his face as he took in the soft orange rays of morning. His dark mood seemed to have disappeared with the deep blue of the predawn.

Perhaps it was the blossoming day, perhaps it was the coffee he had started consuming the moment it was handed to him, but he suspected it had more to do with a thought that occurred to him while he waited for his coffee order.

If Tony was really pissed at him, or bothered by his actions, or contemplating an existence anywhere other than with their team, he would have been cracking a lot more jokes.

His senior field agent had been sincere and talkative.

It's not that he hadn't made jokes, that would have been entirely odd, but he hadn't been making self deprecating jokes or scathing remarks hidden in humor that were just hurtful. Two of his favorite ways to push people away before they could push him.

No, there was no real likelihood that Tony was going anywhere.

At least, not if he could help it.

As Gibbs made his way back up to the squad room the dark cloud returned with the thought that Tony or Ziva might not be able to come back. Where would they be without one or both of them?

He shook the thoughts off as he delivered a coffee to McGee who was still in the squad room.

"Got ya a Mocha." Gibbs said as he passed Tim a few sugar packets, "Wasn't sure if you'd need these, too."

Gibbs rolled his eyes as McGee sipped it, made a face and dumped all the packets in his cup.

"Ready?" Tim asked after he'd stirred his coffee and taken a drink.

"That's your call."

McGee nodded, grabbed the little book of mug shots from the desk top he had been leaning against. "Let's finish this."

xoxo

Tony and Ziva managed to avoid any further topics of a personal nature. Tony regaled her with stories of his basketball days and championship wins. She told him about less dangerous missions, some fun she had traveling the world.

They talked and joked until there was a quiet knock at the door and it opened.

A short woman in her late forties came into the room pushing a large cart in front of her. She greeted them with a smile, "Hi, I'm Lisa."

They greeted her and exchanged pleasantries as she set up her equipment next to Tony's bed.

"I can leave your beds here, but just in case anything happens I'm going to need that rail up on the other side." she gave them a kind smile as they disentangled their hands and she reached over Tony to bring the rail up and lock it in place.

They both shifted over to lie on their backs and Ziva reached through the railing on Tony's bed with her right hand to grasp his left giving him a reassuring squeeze.

"OK," the technician said as she started tearing small pieces of medical tape off and laying them out across the side of her little cart ready to use. "So once I get these attached we'll get a few readings and then I'm going to need you to relax and go to sleep."

Ziva was examining her cart as the woman moved deftly around the equipment. There was a laptop on one side, but the rest of the space was taken up with tiny wires of all colors attached on one end to various little metal posts across the entire top. The other ends were dangling in all directions over the sides of the cart.

Once the woman had laid out what had to be fifty or more tiny pieces of tape she grabbed a jar of a clear viscous gel-like substance. And started applying it to the metal tips on the loose ends of the colored wires.

Lisa chatted easily, not really seeming to notice that neither of them was being very responsive as she dabbed the gel on the tips, applied tape and started attaching each tiny wire to Tony's scalp.

After a few minutes, Tony chuckled nervously, "How's my hair?"

Ziva glanced up to where more than a dozen wires were adhered to his head with medical tape and excess globs of the gel seeping from under the sensors attached across one side of his head. "I think you have less gel in your hair now than you normally do." she said with a straight face.

"Ha ha, very funny." he remarked dryly, rolling his eyes at her.

She was not about to tell him how much he actually resembled the explosive that had landed them in this hospital in the first place. The myriad of wires attached to his head continued to increase until it seemed that every square inch had a little wire poking out from it.

Lisa moved from his scalp to the edges of his face applying several sensors across his forehead and temple, behind his ear, his throat. She had to pull the gown away from his chest to apply a couple of sensors near his heart.

When Lisa was finished she grabbed a large roll of gauze and had Tony lift his head off the bed so she could wrap it around the sensors there. She made sure all the little wires wouldn't get jostled if he moved or thrashed around at all.

He was left with what looked like a large puffy white headband with so many tiny wires sticking out of the top that if he could see himself she was sure he would start talking about some robot movie.

"Will he be able to take some pain medication before he falls asleep?" Ziva asked and Tony perked up.

Lisa gave them both a sympathetic smile, "It would be best if he waited until we were done so we could get the most accurate results possible."

He nodded slightly, almost imperceptibly, "It's fine. I've made it the last 7 hours, I think I can make it a while longer." he took a breath as if bracing for something as he turned back to Ziva, "You should take something, though, Ziva."

"I will." she waited for the recrimination she knew was coming, but he just raised an eyebrow at her, so she added "As soon as you're asleep."

He shrugged and turned back to Lisa, "She's stubborn." he explained.

Lisa just smiled at him, "I don't think there is a single person on the staff of this hospital that doesn't know how true that is."

Tony gave her a quizzical look as Ziva groaned out her frustration next to him.

"I guess she's stubborn and humble." Lisa began typing on her computer and continued speaking despite the fact that Ziva was glaring at her.

Apparently she was unable to see over the computer screen. "She stood at your bedside for nearly three hours with a collapsed lung. Guess that's why they let you have a room together, so she didn't do anything else that crazy." She smiled at them and was right back to her computer in a flash. "Not that I'm calling you crazy, and I'm not saying it wasn't admirable, but from a medical perspective. . ."

She felt Tony's hand tighten on hers and thought he was pulling his away from her, but when he continued gently tugging she finally looked up to meet his eyes.

As Lisa continued chatting about how courageous and selfless Ziva was, she droned out the woman's voice as she tried to figure out if there was more wonder or reproach in her partner's eyes. She shrugged, nothing to say in her defense, and she looked away again.

She was tempted to take her hand back. He really didn't need her reassurance, but she fought the urge to pull back inside herself.

She had no doubt that once they were out of this hospital things would go back to normal, but while they were here it was nice to have someone to rely on. Someone who seemed to be relying on her in return.

Still, she felt herself wondering if this was just setting them up of an uncomfortable work environment when they got back. Setting them up for a fall that neither of them needed.

He tightened his grip on her hand as if aware she was thinking about pulling away. She gave him a weak smile to let him know she wasn't going anywhere and he relaxed.

"Alright, so we've got everything all hooked up." Lisa glanced up from her computer and started adjusting a light that was attached to a stand on one corner of her cart.

She angled the light so it was shining directly towards Tony. "I'm going to get the lights."

Once Lisa dimmed the lights considerably she felt Tony's hand twitch in hers.

She knew this was the part he was worried about. He was concerned that something would happen once they started the tests. Something that jeopardized his career and his calling.

"It is going to be fine." she said on a whisper, not sure whether she was trying to reassure him or herself. It was selfish, but as he lay here waiting to hear his fate she couldn't help thinking of her own.

If he didn't come out of this, if he wasn't alright and couldn't come back to work would she be able to trust whoever they got to replace him? She knew he couldn't be replaced, not actually, but whoever took his place would have some big shoes to fill and she found herself thinking that it wouldn't be possible.

How much did she want either of them to rely on each other in the moments to come if everything was going to end. She felt the urge to pull away again, hide from a truth she didn't want to face that could be just a few moments away.

Her eyes fell on the monitor next to Tony's bed, his pulse had escalated and she could hear his breathing pick up.

Pushing her selfish thoughts aside she rolled gently onto her right side and slipped her other hand through the railing to run gently over his arm.

A comforting motion from the crook of his elbow to his wrist and back up. She wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do or if it was even helping him. It took a few minutes for his heart to start slowly settling down.

When Lisa stopped typing something into her computer she reached for a switch on the light pole.

It began rapidly flashing a bright white light.

Ziva's breath caught in her throat as she watched Tony's heart monitor suddenly spike, his arm tensed under her touch and she felt his hand contract almost painfully around her fingers.

xoxo