Tropical Nightmare- Chapter 17: Angel (Gibbs´POV)
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!
Summary: Tony and Kate are sent to Argentina for an undercover mission, but they have to take a detour.They are bound to find out that atropical island can be a real nightmare -at least if you´re on your own out there...
Additional note: I usually don´t write 1st-person narrator, but it seemed to fit rather well for this little story as the POV changes with each chapter.Also, the use of present-tense is wanted here, eventhough it may seem a bit odd. I hope it´s still readable.
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It´s the 3rd week since they brought her to Bethesda. The 3rd week we are waiting for some news. Tony is running the investigations on a murder, it´s a good chance for him to prove himself. I´ve been at the office every day, checking on their work, but everything seems to go well. They are still silent most the time, you can feel that someone is missing there. I´ve been sitting next to her bed for two hours now. It´s the same as every day. I keep talking to her, telling her about what´s going on at NCIS, telling her I miss her. I would give my left arm to have her back, but I know I don´t have the power to decide that.
She´s a bit agitated today. Her EEG and heartbeat are changing once in a while. I don´t know what´s going on with her, but the doctors say, it´s normal. I´m going to ask Ducky about it when he gets here, but it´s another three hours before he gets off from work. He told me last night that I changed since this happened. I don´t know if I did. Maybe, I just realized how fragile a life can be and how easy it is to destroy one. I take a cloth and dab the sweat from her face. She looks like she´s fighting. Maybe I just hope she is, but knowing Kate, I wonder what she feels right now.
"We miss you, Kate." I tell her and hesitate for a moment. "I miss you." I put my hand on her forehead and smile at her. I don´t know if she hears or feels me, nobody does. I just don´t want her to be alone. Her breathing is deeper all the sudden and her heartbeat is jumping up to almost 80 again. The alert won´t go off until it goes up to 100, but it hasn´t done so yet. I keep my hand on her head. Her eyes seem to flutter, but I´ve seen that happen a couple of times already.
I keep watching her closely. The signals on the monitors seem much stronger, but I´m no doctor to interpret them. Suddenly, there´s a sound. A sound I can´t sort into a category at first, but then, I can feel my blood freeze. "Gibbs..." It´s her voice. For a moment, I think I must be hallucinating, but when I look at her, I meet her dark eyes.
"Kate." I stroke her head while my other hand hits the call button. She is still looking at me, smiles weakly. The door bursts open and the doctor comes in. He takes a quick look at her, she stayed awake long enough so he could see her awake, but then her eyes close again. I am ordered out of the room, but I can watch them through the window. They are drawing blood again, printing out something from the machines.
My hands tighten into fists. "You can do it, Kate. Don´t give up." I whisper to myself, but I can´t take my eyes off her. Maybe I should call Ducky, but I want to know first. They are taking long today, but I can wait. I have waited so long. If there are angels somewhere, I´m sure at least one has watched over her all the time. There´s no other explanation for what´s happening. I´m a bit surprised by that thought. I´ve never been very religious or something.
The doctor finally comes out, there seems to be a smile on his face, but you can never really tell. "As far as I can tell, she´s awake again. I can´t explain how this could happen, but she´s merely asleep now. You may go back inside, if you want to. Just don´t wake her up, she needs to rest. Although I have to wait for the lab results, I think that she will recover, maybe even completely. The EEG shows no signs of permanent damage." He says and I feel relieved. I thank him and then head down the corridor until I´m standing in front of a window.
I pull out my cell phone and switch it on again. I can´t leave it on when I´m in her room, there are too many machines. It seems to take hours until I get into the menu. I ponder how I should tell them, then decide to call Ducky. It rings twice. "NCIS, Mallard." He answers the phone and I know he´s using the one down in autopsy that doesn´t have a caller ID.
"Duck, it´s Gibbs. Get the rest and come over here. Now." I tell him, hiding the excitement in my voice. I can almost picture what´s going on over there right now. As I know Ducky, he will be fearing the worst. He´s going to usher them into the truck and break at least 20 laws on the drive. Calculating the distance to headquarters, I decide that there´s enough room for a cup of coffee.
I finish up the coffee I got from a nurse and walk up to the entrance of the ICU. I can´t go out without changing into normal clothes, but for now, I decide to stay in the protective clothing. Just as I am thinking about that, there are four people running out of the elevator. I have to smile when I look at them. Abby still has her lab coat on, so does Ducky. Tony has his backpack with him, but no jacket and McGee is still holding a file in his hand. They´re a wonderful bunch and I´m proud to be their boss. I motion them to get changed and wait outside the changing room.
Abby is done first and almost crashes into me when she bursts out of the room. "What´s wrong?" She asks immediately, but I´m waiting for all of them.
Ducky and Tony are done next, McGee is just a few seconds after them. For someone looking at us, we must be a weird looking group. All dressed in green protective clothing, hairnets on and wearing gloves. I lead them into the waiting room at the end of the corridor and sit down. They are looking at me as if I´m going to hand out christmas presents. I wonder, if I should just tell them, but I decide to let them hang in there a little longer. "Ducky, can I talk to you for a moment?" I ask and he gets up right away. We walk out into the corridor and I take him to Kate´s room.
"Jethro, what is this all about? Is something wrong with Caitlin?" He asks and I note the concern in his voice. He gives me a questioning look as we walk into the room. I´m not going to wake her up, but the doc told me that she wouldn´t sleep very long at once anyway. Ducky walks up to her bed and takes her hand, like he always did. "Hello, Caitlin. It´s good to see you today." He says, his normal greeting for her, but then his eyes widen as her eyes open slowly.
"Ducky." She´s smiling again, very weak, but still smiling. Her eyes are full with questions, but she knows that she has to wait before she can ask them.
I´m standing at the end of the bed, smiling at the scene in front of me. Ducky puts her hand back onto the blanket and pulls me out into the corridor. "Jethro, when did she wake up?" He asks, completely overwhelmed as it seems. I tell him what happened and ask him not to tell the rest. He´s a bit upset with me for pulling this on them, but agrees. He knows me better than to object.