AN: Here you be Chapter twenty six. I was a little busy this weekend so this was delayed in writing but here you go. Hope its up to par. Thank you to everyone who is reading and of course huge thanks to those of you who voice your opinons! dark rolling sea.
Chapter Twenty Six
Gibbs was still awake even after Donovan found a place to crash for the night. He sat at the table and tried to clear his mind. He finally gave up and went in to check on Hunter. He found Kate in the same bed, with Hunter curled into her side. He stood in the doorway leaning against the jamb watching.
He stood there for a while before he saw Kate stir. She picked her head up slightly and gazed at him still half asleep. He smiled at her and she yawned. She glanced down at Hunter then at the clock. It was four in the morning. She knew Gibbs had gotten little sleep in the last two weeks.
"Come lie down," Kate mumbled to Gibbs. He shook his head. "That wasn't a request."
"Giving me orders now?" Gibbs replied with a smile. She only nodded sleepily. She then patted the bed gently on the other side of Hunter. Gibbs took a deep breath and then nodded. He climbed into the bed as softly as he could so not to disturb Hunter and then snuggled up to Kate with Hunter between them. He still didn't sleep but it helped him to relax as he watched the two of them sleep.
Before he knew it he heard an alarm going off in the other part of the house. Jeb had set his cell phone alarm. Gibbs gently removed himself from the bed and walked out into the living room. Jeb was sitting up staring at the floor.
"Time to get ready," Gibbs said quietly. Jeb looked up at him and only nodded. Gibbs could see the fear in his eyes. No one else was awake yet and Gibbs went and squatted down in front of Jeb. "Things will be ok. Today is the day we fix your head."
"Good luck," Jeb said with a crooked smile. Gibbs returned the smile and pulled his son to him. Jeb returned the gesture. They finally broke apart. "Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't say this enough, but I do love you."
"I know. And I love you too, son," Gibbs replied as he bit back the tears.
Jeb nodded, and then looked around, "Time to wake these people up."
"Yeah. You take this room; I'll get the back rooms."
"Deal."
After everyone was awake they made their way to the hospital. The doctor explained the procedure one more time for everyone and then they started to prep Jeb for surgery. He was going under the anesthesia when Ann and Hunter saw him last.
"Hang tough, Buddy, I'll see you in a few hours," Jeb said with a smile and squeezed Hunter's shoulder. The boy only nodded. Jeb looked up at his mother, "I love you, mom, and I promise it will all be ok in a few hours."
"I love you too, Jeb," Ann replied while the tears slid down her cheeks. They were asked to leave then and joined the others in the waiting room. The longest period of their life was about to begin as the stood in the waiting room. Gibbs was pacing again and suddenly looked up.
"I'm going for coffee, anyone else want one?" Gibbs said to the room. Donovan and Kate both agreed, but Ann said she was fine. He nodded and headed for the cafeteria. He knew it wouldn't be the best coffee but it would do the job for now. He purchased four cups and had the first one drained before he reached the waiting room. He handed one of the cups to Kate and then another one to Donovan and kept the fourth one for himself.
They were all silent for a while. Ann was sitting attempting to read a magazine that was provided. Donovan was sitting staring at the floor. Kate was keeping an eye on Hunter, who was drawing with some crayons that were provided. Gibbs was pacing the area behind the seats. Kate kept looking up at him and seeing the fatigue and stress in him and worrying. She knew he couldn't hold out much longer before his body simply gave into exhaustion.
Hunter had finished his drawing and was simply staring at it when Kate returned her attention to him. She tried to peer around him to see what he had drawn but he was blocking her view. He continued to stare at it with a determined look on his face. She slid from her chair and kneeled down next to him.
"What's the matter?" Kate asked.
"It's missing something," Hunter replied. Kate then took the time to study his drawing. He had drawn the scene from last year when Gibbs had saved her and Hunter after being kidnapped. Kate looked at the drawing and didn't see anything else that could be added. She glanced up at Gibbs and caught his attention. He gave her a questioning look. She only glanced back down at Hunter's drawing. It got Gibb's curiosity and he walked over and stood above them.
"What are you drawing, buddy?"
"It's missing something, Papa, but I don't know what." Gibbs looked closely at the drawing and saw the scene it depicted. He didn't know what was missing either but it unnerved him a bit that Hunter was drawing this. He squatted down next to his grandson and draped an arm over the boy's shoulders.
"I think it's pretty good," Gibbs said reassuringly.
"I know," Hunter said quietly and then he drew another badge on himself. He was the only one, aside from the bad guy, who didn't have a badge. When he was finished he looked up at Gibbs. Gibbs wet his lips and then smiled. Hunter smiled and then stared at his drawing again. Gibbs looked over at Kate and shook his head. Kate just smiled in return.
They both got up and moved to the chairs, leaving Hunter alone to work on another drawing. Gibbs sat down heavily and sipped some more of the coffee. Kate slipped her hand into his and leaned her head against his shoulder.
The first hour crept by. This was going to be a long wait Gibbs thought. Donovan was still sitting in the chair staring at the floor. He hadn't said anything since saying he wanted coffee. Ann was sitting with Hunter now and they were both drawing. Gibbs was happy that Hunter was distracted.
Gibbs stood up with his back starting to ache from sitting in the plastic chair for so long. Kate let their hands slip apart and Gibbs went back to pacing. Kate watched him as he moved back and forth. She then glanced over at Donovan. She got up and walked over to him. She dropped a hand on his shoulder and then took a seat next to him. He looked up at her and forced a smile.
"You doing ok?" Kate asked.
"Yeah. Just thinking. I was remembering the first time I met Jake. The boys decided to pull a trick on me. I know you never met Jake, and I don't know if you've seen pictures but man those two, talk about identical. You couldn't tell them apart. And this was before the accident obviously so there were no visible scars or anything to tell them apart. Anyway. They came up to me in uniform and of course I immediately thought, shit if they weren't in uniforms from different branches I'd never tell them apart.
"So of course thinking the one in the marine green was Jeb I started talking to him. And the bastards played along for a minute. But then Jeb answered me and he was wearing the Army Rangers uniform. They both had stupid grins on their faces and I couldn't help but laugh. They pulled that stunt on so many people."
"I can see Jeb doing that."
"And Jake was cut of the same cloth."
"What's on your mind?"
"Just thinking about what the doctor said about his past injuries."
"It's a risk."
"Yeah. He was more worried than he let on though I think."
"All we can do is wait. And pray," Kate added softly and she put her hand on top of his. He looked at her and then his eyes drifted to her cross. He smiled then fished inside his own shirt pulling out a small Celtic cross of his own.
"I've been since I heard the news," he said with a smile.
Kate nodded and they sat for a moment in silence. Gibbs was still pacing and they both seemed to look up at him at the same time. Donovan seemed to contemplate something and the looked over at Kate.
"What?" she asked.
"I'll be back, Kate," he replied before getting up and walking over to Gibbs. Gibbs stopped his pacing when he came up to Donovan and looked the younger man in the eyes.
"Yes?"
"Hey, gunny, you look a little tired. Maybe you should sit for a while."
"I sat. Now my back hurts. I'll walk thanks."
"Ok. I know you're worried. I'm worried too, but Kate's right. All we can do is wait, and pray."
"Colonel…"
"I know you don't believe in this stuff, Gunny, I know you think it's a waste of time, but both Kate and I believe. I'll pray for you too, Gunny," he said softly then went over and sat down again. Kate got up and moved closer to Gibbs.
"How long has he been in there?" Gibbs asked. Kate glanced at her watch.
"Almost two hours," Kate said as she stood next to him. He looked at her and nodded.
"Longest two hours of my life," he said under his breath but Kate still heard him. She wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you for being here," he whispered.
Kate looked up at him and felt the tears come to her eyes, "I wouldn't be anywhere else, Jethro, ever."
He nodded and then took a deep breath. He was starting to feel unnerved and he didn't like it. This was worse than he thought it would be. No word on any progress. It was heart wringing painful and he didn't like it. He didn't like not being in control, although he was learning to not be so controlling with Kate in his life. He didn't like being in the dark. But time would tell. Time would soon be over.
In The Operating Room
"Keep an eye on that heart monitor; I don't like it flocculating like that. Let me know if it continues," Dr. Youngblood said. He was working as quickly and concisely as he could.
He had most of the tumor removed already and he was working on cleaning up the area around the eye. It took painstaking patience and control so not to damage the optical nerve. He continued to work as fast as he could without compromising his carefulness.
"Doctor, his heart is still flocculating."
"I'm almost done; try to keep it in rhythm," he replied as he cleaned up the last of the tumor. "All right that's done. Time to close."
As they went to work closing up the wound they had created to remove the mass, he heard the monitor start to scream. Dr. Youngblood glanced up quickly at the monitor to see that the patient's heart had spiked up to 120 beats a minute.
"Doctor, we have a problem," the tech screeched at him.
"I can see that," Youngblood replied through clenched teeth as he watched the monitor squeal again as the heart rate dropped off significantly almost at once. Then all hell broke lose as the patient's heart stopped.
"Doctor!"
"Get the paddles," he yelled.
The monitor showed no heart activity as Dr. Youngblood charged the paddles. He waited as every second seemed like an hour as the alarm screamed. Finally he heard the ding and put the paddles to the chest of his patient.
"Clear!"
TBC…
YES! you can hate me! I promise it will not be long before the next chapter is posted! I promise for real this time because I know in the past i've said things like this and not followed through...but this is too cruel not to follow through on. and yeah I'm cool if you're angry :-) dark rolling sea.
PS...hope you're still enjoying the ride