"Jack?" Tony asked softly, scared of shocking him in his present state. It was clear that he wasn't going to be able to go back down in Mexico right away, he was going to be set back for a while. When the doctors had first told him the state of his injuries, he had shrugged them off, as anyone did when it was Jack. Jack didn't exactly let injuries slow him down, but now he could tell this was going to be very different; and for Jack, very hard.
Jack didn't reply to the person calling his name at first, instead he tried to open his eyes, and fought to stop them form slumping back down again. "Tony?" He grasped, his voice quiet, but still harsh. He sounded confused, as Tony had expected.
"Hey, how you feeling?" He asked, genuinely concerned. He was thinking about calling the doctor back in to give him some morphine, after all, he would wait if he had to.
"What are you doing here?" He asked quickly, as his eyes scanned the empty room.
"Always business with you." Tony said sarcastically before letting a small chuckle escape him. "I came here when we found out that it was your body found by the side of a road in Mexico."
As he said the words Jack tried to remember just what had happened. It hit him suddenly, as he remembered hitting Hector, and then he remembered Claudia on the floor, unconscious. At once he pushed himself up, he had to go find her, he had to make sure she was okay. Jacks efforts were met with excruciating white hot pain throughout himself, and he couldn't help but let out a yelp of pain, showing Tony the agony he was in. Seconds after his attempt to move he slumped back down, out of breath. Tony was already by his side, telling him he shouldn't move. He didn't have to, Jack thought. Their was no way he was going to invite that kind of pain in again. He silently wondered why it was hurting so much, whatever was wrong with him, it didn't normally feel so intense.
"I should apologise." Tony said sheepishly. "I had the doctor cut of your morphine supply so I could speak to you. Its important, its about the mission."
Jack nodded, which told him he accepted what he had done, and he wanted to hear what he had to say.
"Division is giving you a deadline to complete this thing." Jack went to interrupt but Tony held up a hand silencing him. "At first when we learned about your condition we were going to take you back to the U.S. Its going to take a long time for you to recover Jack. But then they rang me earlier, they are still giving you an ultimate deadline as they were planning, but they aren't allowing for this 'incident'," he made speech mark notions with his hands as he said this. "They are giving you three months to get us everything we need, then they're coming in."
Jack sat in silence taking it all in. Finally, he spoke. "What's wrong with me, I remember starting a fight with Hector Salazar, but that's about it. How long do they estimate I'm going to be out for?" He seemed more interested than concerned about himself.
"Erm, the main damage was a head wound, but I think that's almost healed. But their are broken ribs which will cause you problems, and a shattered hip." Tony paused, trying to recall what the doctor had told him, while Jack was thinking, 'shit.' He knew the hip was going to be a major problem, he was not going to be able to walk for a while. "That's the main thing, I think, but the doctor made it very clear that recover is going to be a long process of physio."
"Okay." He said, thinking aloud. It was taking his mind longer to process his thoughts, the pain slowing him down mentally; he was scared of it coming back as vicious as it had moments ago.
"I'm going to be pretty useless for a while, I don't know if Ramon is going to want me back, especially after my fight with Hector."
"Division also thought about this, and decided that of you are too badly injured to go back they would call the operation off."
"Call the operation off, after how much work?" Jack snapped angrily.
"I know, but you've got enough to bring Salazar in, haven't you?"
"Yes, but...." He trailed off, thinking about this weapon that had Ramon so confused. "Their may be something big going down. I don't remember much, but it was definitely related to terrorism, I have to go back." As he spoke he knew his words were final, he would find some use of himself for the brothers, whether he was walking or not, he would stay.
Tony nodded, "I'll go update Division," he lied. He left the room and found the young doctor he had become familiar with of over the past few days.
"Hi. Erm, Iv finished with your patient, you can continue as usual."
The doctor nodded and went straight in to give his patient the morphine he knew would be needing.