A/N: In this story, Kate is alive. Essentially, it's pre-Twilight, since I accept the changes that have been made in the show… so far. Time will tell how I feel about the new characters. Many thanks to Rinne, for fixing the punctuation and giving me suggestions when the action wasn't clear.
Present day
Doctor "Ducky" Mallard pushed the wheelchair of his good friend and boss, followed closely by an armed security guard. Despite the fact that Gibbs had a broken leg and still couldn't sit up for long, the police had insisted that he be watched closely while he was uncuffed.
Gibbs didn't complain, grateful that they had allowed him to see Tony. He kept his tongue, though silently willing the older gentlemen to walk a bit more quickly. At the entrance to the ICU they were met by Kate Todd. She had been staying with her partner while he lay in a coma, reading and talking to him in an effort to draw him back to the conscious world.
"Hey, Gibbs," she greeted somberly. "I just wanted to warn you that Tony doesn't look very good."
Gibbs nodded. "Do they still think he might not make it?"
Kate nodded, her eyes filling with tears.
Ducky wheeled Gibbs into the private room. Gibbs steeled himself, but was still shocked by what he saw. Tony, eerily still, was almost unrecognizable. His face had been beaten badly, both eyes were swollen shut, the right side of his jaw bruised and cut up. An airway was taped in place, not quite obscuring the cut lip. Numerous electronic leads disappeared under the blanket, bags of saline and blood were being pumped into two IV sites. The beeping of the monitor and the whooshing of the respirator seemed deafening.
"My god," breathed Gibbs. "Tony…"
Ducky pushed the wheelchair to the side of the bed. "Talk to him Jethro," he murmured. "I'm sure he'd be happy to hear your voice."
"I don't think so." Gibbs sounded distraught, but he reached out and took one of Tony's hands in his, careful not to disturb the IV needle.
"Hey, DiNozzo," he whispered, suddenly at a loss for words. Kate and Ducky moved discreetly back a few steps, the guard remained at the doorway.
Clearing his throat, Gibbs forced himself to look at Tony's battered face. "You know, there are easier ways of trying to prove I'm wrong. You shouldn't go rushing off somewhere without backup. I guess you weren't expecting me to do something like this to you, no matter how angry I was."
Sighing, he stroked the back of Tony's hand absently. "I don't remember anything about that night, but I know I couldn't have done this to you. I said something I shouldn't have , something I really didn't mean. I've never been sorry I brought you on to the team. You're the best agent I've had the honor to work with, and I'm proud to have you as my senior field agent. I know I don't tell you that often enough, but you know what the second 'b' is for."
Gibbs was starting to feel the strain of being out of bed, but he didn't want to leave the stricken agent's bedside. Ducky noticed the sheen of perspiration that had formed on the senior agent's face and moved forward.
"You should go back to your room now, Jethro," he murmured. "You can come back tomorrow for a little while."
Staring disconsolately at Tony's face, Gibbs voice cracked, "What if he doesn't make it to tomorrow?"
Pushing him out of the room Ducky replied firmly, "We're not even going to consider that. Anthony is a strong, healthy young man, despite his diet. He's as stubborn as you are, Jethro, he's not going to give up so easily, especially since he knows what really happened. He wouldn't let you down."
Gibbs closed his eyes in pain, knowing that Ducky was right about Tony's loyalty, and remembered the last hurtful remark he had made to him.
As they left Tony's room, Kate stopped Ducky and said, "Ducky, I need you to explain some of the medical information they gave me on Tony, could you stay here for a few minutes."
Ducky looked down at Gibbs, who was lost in his guilty thoughts and didn't notice anything. "I'm sure the guard will get Gibbs back to his room safely," he agreed.
"Jethro, the guard will return you to your room, I need to speak to Kate for a few minutes." He shook his head sadly as Gibbs barely acknowledged his words. The guard moved behind the chair and wheeled it out of the ward.
Kate and Ducky moved down the hall to discuss Tony's condition, speaking in hushed tones, Kate's expression worried, her voice shaky. Fifteen minutes later an alarm sounded. Kate looked up to see the nurse at the nursing station pick up a phone and say, "Code blue, ICU - Room E."
"Room E? That's Tony's room!" Kate and Ducky rushed back to find the room abuzz with activity.
Someone had pulled the pillow from under Tony's head and lowered the head of the bed so he was lying flat. The respirator had been disconnected and replaced with a hand respirator, a board had been placed under his back.
Kelly, the charge nurse, was compressing Tony's chest while another nurse pumped air into his lungs after every five compressions. The EKG hadn't gone flat, but was showing erratic rhythm, blaring loudly.
Doctor Bradley rushed in, followed by another nurse. "What the hell happened?"
"I don't know," answered Kelly. "He was stable half an hour ago, then his heart started throwing off PVC's.
Blood was drawn and sent down to the lab, marked STAT. The doctor took out his penlight and checked Tony's eyes. "Pupils are still equal and reactive," he reported. "Get me 1 mg of Lidocaine, and 30 mgs of Amiodarone."
Bradley took over the compressions to relieve the tired nurse.
"Charge to 200," he ordered, halting the compressions when the charged paddles were handed to him. Placing one paddle in the middle of Tony's chest, and the other to the side, he yelled, "Clear!"
Removing the respirator the second nurse moved back. Bradley released the 200 volts of electricity into Tony's chest.
Kate put her hand over her mouth to stifle her scream, her eyes filled with tears as she watched Tony's body jerk in response to the shock.
Anxiously watching the monitor and seeing no change, Bradley ordered the paddles to be charged again and repeated the procedure. There was still no response. Swearing softly to himself, the doctor took the syringe of Lidocaine that had been brought up and administered it through the IV.
Resuming compressions he yelled, "Where are those test results?"
Kelly got off the phone and reported, "Doctor, his potassium level is 7.2."
"What? How the hell did that happen? Get that IV out of there, get me a fresh bag of saline, some dextrose and 15 mgs of insulin, STAT!"
"What's going on?" Kate asked Ducky worriedly.
"Tony has a dangerous amount of potassium in his system. Too much potassium can cause the heart to shut down," he whispered.
"How could that happen?"
"In a relatively healthy person like Tony, it would have to be administered," replied Ducky grimly.
"Someone tried to kill him?"
"Someone tried to kill him again," corrected the ME, "and may have succeeded this time, if they can't reverse the effects." The two watched anxiously as the dextrose and insulin were brought up and administered.
Pausing in his compressions, Bradley watched the monitor intently. After a few tense moments the monitor indicated the heart had resumed a normal rhythm. Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief, visibly relaxing.
Kate stepped forward as a nurse started to pick up the discarded bag of saline. "Don't touch that, that's evidence. I want it checked for prints and I want everyone who's had access to this room to be fingerprinted. There are security cameras here, aren't there?"
Kelly answered, "Just in the corridor and at the nurse's station."
"I need to get copies of those tapes. I want to know everyone who has had access to this room in the last few hours. I want a guard put on this room, no one goes in without clearance. Ducky, can you stay with him to make sure no one tries to inject him with anything else?"
"Yes, of course, but Kate, you can't do this, it's not our case," Ducky objected.
"It is now, I'm taking over," she replied firmly. "This is proof Gibbs was framed. Tony is the only witness, someone doesn't want him waking up and telling us who stabbed Murphy and him. I'll go to Director Morrow and tell him everything, then get McGee and Abby working on this."
Ducky put a hand on her shoulder. "You should tell Jethro, he needs to know about this."
"I will, as soon as I talk to Morrow and get the team started. I'll need to talk to Paula and Cassie too, see what they've got."
Giving Ducky a determined smile, Kate turned and left the room to find the person or persons who tried to kill her partner and frame her boss.