When Gibbs entered the cabin after dinner he was pleased to find that the room looked and smelt like new again. There was no way he could have slept in that house of horrors. Tony was wearing the headset and bashing his head on the desk.
"Anything?"
Tony looked up suddenly and ripped the headset from his ears. "I hope Abby has some damn good noise suppression software", he growled, "There's a lot going on down there but I can't hear most of it over McGee's snoring!"
Gibbs chuckled briefly; Ahh the challenges of the field, "I'll pay him a little visit and see if I can shift it", he offered.
Gibbs was surprised when the door to sickbay opened and he came face to face with the Captain of the ship. He was old, clearly approaching retirement and did not seem to suffer NCIS agents gladly.
"You are not to harass my medical staff, Special Agent Gibbs", he warned, "They are under enough stress as it is."
"Came to see my agent", said Gibbs shortly, pushing past him.
The Captain positively harrumphed at Gibbs and turned back to the nurse, "I'll come back" he called.
He left, slamming the dorr unceremoniously behind him.
Gibbs eyes scanned the room; it was fairly quiet now with just the odd retch every now and again. The doctor was nowhere in sight. He spotted McGee sound asleep in a corner of the room with a drip in his arm.
The nurse drew up alongside him.
"How is he", he asked soberly.
"Well, the good news is the nausea and de-hydration are under control", she started.
"And the bad news?" Gibbs prompted.
"He reacted rather strongly to the anti-nausea medication, nothing life threatening but it knocked him out for a while".
"When can I have him back?"
"The doctor would like to keep him in over night, just for observation."
"Can I talk to him?"
"You can try, but he probably won't answer."
The nurse left to attend to another patent, leaving Gibbs to approach McGee unsupervised.
"McGee", he rasped.
No response.
Sighing, Gibbs carefully undid McGee's tie, removed it, rolled it up and placed it in his pocket. Then he carefully felt around for the planted microphone hidden under his collar and shuffled it further down to his waistline.
"Better, DiNozzo?" he whispered. He didn't expect an answer.
McGee roused a little, "Boss?" he said drowsily.
"Good job, McGee", Gibbs patted him on the shoulder.
McGee gave a contented sigh and went back to sleep.
"Better?" Gibbs asked Tony on his return to the cabin.
Tony glared at him and passed over the headset.
"What the hell is that?" said Gibbs, "Whale noises?"
"You put it near his stomach", Tony was exasperated.
"But is it better?"
Tony considered, "Yes", he finally conceded, "Now I can hear voices in the background just beyond old Moby Dick. Can't actually work out what they're saying, mind you, but they are there. I hope Abby's up to it."
"Of course she's up to it, DiNozzo", said Gibbs, taking up the headset and urging Tony off the chair, "hit the bed, "you relieve me at 2 am".
Tony started at 7 am when Gibbs tapped him on the shoulder.
"Learn anything?"
"Yeah", said Tony, lifting one ear piece, "McGee can aim into a bottle while lying in a bed. We might want to edit that bit out."
"At least he's re-hydrated"
"Oh, yeah", Tony agreed, "And then some. I think he's up now, the snoring has stopped and he might even be eating something. There should be a knock on the door in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1".
There was a sharp rap on the door which brought both their heads up. Tony hurriedly shut the box containing the listening device and managed to snag the chord of the head phones in the process, dragging his head down to lie on the top of the closed lid.
"Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo?"
"Yo", called Gibbs as Tony struggled to untangle himself from the headset, open the lid, toss the headset in the case and shut it again.
"Captain wants to see you in the sick bay ASAP"
"Be right there", Gibbs called out. He shot Tony an exasperated look. Tony shrugged.
"Let's go", said Gibbs gruffly.
"So do we admit we bugged him or let him take the blame?" Tony asked expectantly.
"Never assume, DiNozzo"