The Bracelet

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: What is the meaning of the bracelet Gibbs is wearing? Ducky knows, but is not telling.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

6- Disobeying orders

Mallard lead them into the waiting room again. His eyes didn´t give away what he was feeling. He knew he had woken them after a mere two or three hours of sleep. All of them looked worn out and ready to collapse on the spot. "He´s still unconscious and and I´m not going to lie to you. It is not certain if he will make it through the night. You need to be prepared for that." He finally told them. Both Abby and Kate started to cry again and flung themselves at their male colleagues. McGee had tears in his eyes too and even Tony seemed very shocked.

"No..." Kate whispered, but she wasn´t really sure it was her voice. Everything seemed so unreal. This couldn´t be happening. She felt Tony´s arms around her and felt his head on top of hers, but still she hoped that this was just a dream.

"I will go and ask if you can see him. It may take a moment, so please have a seat." Ducky said and disappeared again. The four of them settled down and waited for him to return, but an hour passed and nothing happened. Kate and Abby fell asleep again quickly, even McGee was on the edge to fall asleep after a few minutes. Only Tony felt wide awake. The shock had mobilized his last energy reserves, but at the same time he felt empty somehow. Gibbs might have been a bastard and everyone sometimes complained about his mood, but at the same kind, he was their boss. He had pushed them to perform at the best of their abilities, no matter how complicated a case seemed or how strenous investigation was. He had made them what they really where now -the best team around NCIS and a group of very close friends. At some point, he dozed off as well, not seeing the smile that flashed across Ducky´s face as he came back almost two hours later.

It was an odd sight that met him in the waiting room. Donald Mallard had known these four people for a long time, but he had never seen them as close before. He contemplated to wake them up, but then decided to let them sleep for a little while. All of them wouldn´t be much use if he woke them yet again after such a short time. The situation had changed now and he knew that it wasn´t a matter of just a few hours anymore. With a smile, Ducky returned into the emergency room and pulled his gown off. Exhaustion was claiming its toll on him now and he retired to a small intern´s room at the end of the corridor. The alarmclock would wake him three hours later, just in time for a nice breakfast.

Around 6 am he was up again and walked back into the waiting room with a tray of coffee. Ducky cleared his throat, watching Kate shooting up from the sound. She lost her balance and dropped onto the floor, moaningin pain when her elbow made contact with the hard ground. The others shot up as well a moment later. They accepted the coffee from him and just looked at him with questioning looks on their faces. Ducky watched them rise for a few seconds, realizing that they looked more dead than alive at the moment. "When you have finished your coffee, I will take you to see him for a moment." He said, wisely hiding the smile that had been on his face for a while now.

As if on cue, all fourput their cups onto the table and jumped up. They were eager to see their boss, no matter how bad the news were. Ducky smiled as he lead the way. Gibbs had a wonderful team there. He stopped in front of a simple wooden door. "Just for a few minutes though." He opened it and let them enter.

Tony forced Kate into the room, his hands still on her shoulders. He felt her tensing up and knew that she would run out again if he let go of her. McGee and Abby were right behind him. The shades were drawn and there wasn´t much light in the room. He had expected more machines around the bed, but there were just very few. A rhythmic beeping filled the room, telling that the person in the bed was alive. Tony had expected a respirator, but there was none, only two IV lines connecting with Gibbs´ arm and a monitor for his heartbeat.

Kate choked back the tears that were rising into her eyes again. She was standing next to the bed now, but didn´t dare to move or say anything. A part of her wanted to reach out and make sure that he was really alive. Ducky walked up to the other side of the bed and looked at the monitor above the bed. "Did you bring me some coffee, Duck?"A raspy voice from the bed suddenly asked. He sounded tired, but Kate realized with a start that his breathing seemed just fine.

He turned his head to look at them, his blue eyes flashing. "Did anyonesee the license plate of the truck that hit me?" He asked and moaned when both Kate and Abby threw themselves at him to hug him. "Careful with my ribs, okay?" He said and pulled a face when the backed up again.

Tony looked startled and shot a questioning look at Ducky. "My fears were not confirmed, which is very very lucky in this case. They found two fractured ribs that had pierced his lung.. That was what made it look so bad. I´m sorry for worrying you." Mallard told them with a huge smile on his face.

Kate put her hand over her mouth as tears started to trickle down her face. She felt a hand touching her arm and looked at him. "Thanks for reacting so quickly, Kate." Gibbs told her and smiled one of his rare smiles. His gaze returned to the rest of them. "By the way, you look like hell. All of you." He said and was rewarded by four darting looks for this. "Get out of here." He ordered them and it almost sounded like his normal self.

They were immensly relieved and returned to the office. Nobody actually thought about going home to sleep. There were reports waiting to be finished and it was a normal weekday after all. McGee went down to Starbuck´s and brought some extra strong coffee up to keep going. Kate got some sandwiches from another store and they continued their work where they had left off almost two days ago. The point of being tired lay far behind them, which was not healthy of course, but they didn´t really care.

It was around 5 pm and most of the staff had left the building when the elevator opened and two men stepped out. "Jethro, I must insist that you go home and get some rest. I believe that you should have stayed at the hospital for the time being. You will need several days to recover and your ribs need at least three weeks to heal." Ducky said, but as usually his concerns were ignored. He stayed in the elevator to go down to the morgue, knowing that any further discussion would not lead to anything.

"I know very well what I can do and what I can´t do. And I can´t stay at that hospital for a minute longer -nor can I stay at home. You know me, Duck." Gibbs replied as he walked up to his desk and stopped dead in his tracks. The other desks were not deserted like they should be. Their three occupants were sound asleep. Tony was actually drooling over a file and McGee was sleep talking. Kate was curled up under her desk, her head resting on her purse.