September 22, 2005 – Gotta Love Tony! Challenge
"In fewer than 1,000 words, write a story where Tony tells someone about a scene from a movie under unusual circumstances. Deadline: Midnight, June 24, 2005."
That was almost three months ago, and folks are still discovering this small story that wasn't going to do anything more than respond to the Challenge I set.
This chapter is longer than the first and came about because of the warm reception the story continues to receive. I'm sorry I took so long. Hec, someone even offered me a cookie to write more… :)
This is only my second venture into NCIS fiction. I still haven't seen all the episodes, and as this was an itty-bitty challenge, it was agreed that Betaing wasn't required. I continue to write based on that, so any errors in continuity et cetera are my own. I don't own these characters, just having fun with their universe.
Since it was initially going to be a short one-shot, there was only the barest of continuity concerns: It takes place after 'Twilight'. Now that I've done another chapter, that still applies, of course, but I hope I don't contradict anything established by the show as I follow Tony on his journey…
Enjoy!
Tin Star
Chapter Two
By Mouse/lilmouse/same person :)
"Don't try to be a hero! You don't have to be a hero, not for me!"
-Amy Fowler Kane (Grace Kelly), 'High Noon', 1952
Special Agent Tony Dinozzo lies in a plain, brutally sterile environment, white sheets slightly worn from frequent washings and walls scrubbed of colour to protect against contamination.
He might compare the state of the semi-private room with prison décor, only there isn't enough grey. He might lean to the curtain separating him from an elderly man in for a triple by-pass and joke about having a file baked into a cake, so they can both make a break for freedom. He might flirt with the nurses and tell them he doesn't need his pain medication to keep him happy because their smiles are sufficient.
He isn't saying anything right now, however.
He is unconscious from the various drugs that are helping him sleep and heal. He has a bruise on his face and his jaw is probably very sore from where it impacted with the ground when he fell. The bandage over the left side of his skull is testament to how difficult it is to shoot a falling target with a rifle. His head took quite the jarring when it hit the ground, resulting in a concussion. The IV stand beside him carefully controls and monitors his saline and medication, keeping him hydrated and dousing his body with chemical heaven so he isn't screaming.
Another bandage covers the right side of his posterior. A bullet from a Glock went there and he required surgery to have it removed.
There are bruises on his lower back where the shotgun slugs flattened against his protective vest, small knots of fading colour that will leave him sore and aching for a while. It's to the left and down of T12, alarmingly close to his spine, missing it by the sheer luck of him twisting as he dropped. He's had bruises before. His kidney bears the bulk of the pain for this injury. Of course, he doesn't know this yet, doesn't know he's anywhere but oblivion.
It seems the Irish don't have the market cornered when it comes to luck.
When Tony finally opens his eyes, he stares at the white ceiling and smells the disinfectant and knows he could be alive or dead and in Hell. He hates hospitals. Not as much as Gibbs seems to - there is the female staff to consider as a plus - but this isn't his favourite place. He's drifting, knows he must be on pretty good shit, and it takes him a moment to focus on the woman sitting in a visitor's chair at the foot of his bed.
Grace Kelly looks beautiful even in the plain pioneer dress she wore in 'High Noon'.
Tony fell in love with her when he was a teen and first discovered the lovely actress in Hitchcock's 'Rear Window'. The dim hospital lighting doesn't tarnish her golden hair and her eyes are the bluest shade of the summer sky. Her skin is porcelain perfection. She smiles gently, as if uncertain of his reaction, looking vulnerable but strong simultaneously. It is no wonder he has a thing for blondes.
"You're not real… are you?" he whispers. His voice is hoarse and it hurts a little to speak. He licks his lips and swallows a few times, hoping to ease the ache in his throat.
She shakes her head once. "No." Her voice is like an echo heard from down a long, empty corridor. There is a substantial pause as he wonders what to say.
"I loved you in 'High Society'," he finally manages.
"Thank you."
"What're you doin' here?" His voice slurs a bit from the drugs.
She shrugs. "You wanted me here." When her face starts to slip backwards, as if she is moving rapidly down a tunnel, he closes his eyes quickly and swallows, fighting the disorientation, fighting sleep.
"Is Katie okay?" He realizes they've just established that he is hallucinating, but he has to ask someone about the little girl. His last memories of Katie Garvey involve pinning her to the ground with his body and listening to her terrified screams as he protected her from harm. Then she was somehow looking down at him while kneeling beside two of the women he admires. He has to know her fate, and Grace Kelly is sitting right there.
"She's fine, Tony," another female voice assures him, and he opens his eyes again very slowly, daring to hope this part is real.
Caitlin Todd relaxes in the chair where Grace Kelly sat seconds before. She is wearing one of her casual suits, cream with a deep green top underneath. She looks fresh and elegant and alive.
"You're a hero," she continues, her voice lacking the echo quality of his previous visitor. "Maybe they'll give you a medal for bravery in the line of duty."
Tony can suddenly feel her blood on his face, sharp and hot, and he can smell it, too. He holds his breath so he won't smell it anymore. It contradicts what he's seeing.
"Breathe, Tony, or you'll turn blue," she teases, and smiles.
There is no bullet hole in her forehead and her hair is immaculate.
His next breath comes out reluctantly and he says in a rush, "You're not real either, are you, Kate?"
Her smile fades. "No." She finds something, some thread or speck of lint to pluck from her slacks that distracts her. "I wish I was, but they've got you on some good drugs, Dinozzo, and you're having quite the trip." She leans forward and whispers, as if she has confidential information and someone might hear her. "Did you know one of the bullets went into your butt?"
He unexpectedly finds himself smiling. It's a slow smile and his skin feels tight, but he can't not smile at her. "I did not know that."
God, how I miss you…Kate laughs. "They had to do surgery. And you're lucky you didn't blow out your spine on this case." She shakes her head. Tony squints at her, trying to memorize every detail. "You're going to be sore for a while."
"I'll live."
It's automatic, swapping quips with her, that it isn't until she looks down and bites her bottom lip that Tony realizes what he just said.
"Kate, god, I'm so sorry - I didn't mean -"
"I know," she replies softly.
And she stills, hands folded in her lap and meets his gaze again. Her eyes are huge.
"If you're not really here," Tony begins, trying to focus on her face. Beside him, the IV unit methodically pumps the dosage as set by his doctor. "An'… I've been out of it… how can I be tellin' myself this stuff?"
Kate Who Isn't There tilts her head to one side, frowning slightly. "What 'stuff'?"
"My… medical status." It takes a lot of effort to say that. He can feel himself slipping under again.
She looks at a spot on the wall behind his head and appears to consider the question seriously. "Maybe you came close enough to consciousness at some point to register the information being discussed by the interns, at a subliminal level."
His mind goggles at the idea. "Wha'?"
She laughs. It's a sound he hopes he'll never forget, though there are times since her death where he finds himself stopping whatever he's doing because he thinks of her and realizes he can't remember what her voice sounded like. It terrifies him.
"Go to sleep, Tony."
"No… don' wan' to…"
She raises one eyebrow and grins. "I don't think you have a choice, 'Sex Machine'."
"You're… You're jus' sayin' tha' to make me feel better…"
"Nighty-night, Tony."
"No." He lifts a hand to reach for her. "Don' go, please…"
I'm not a hero. I couldn't save you. Let me save you now…She looks sad. "I can't stay, Tony. And you need your rest."
He realizes with some alarm that he can see through her to the back of the chair. She is fading, like the stars at dawn.
Sweet Kate, Bonnie Kate…"No…" He shifts enough of his upper body and moves his arm to push himself upright. The lines going into his wrist tug and hurt. He's moved too suddenly, feels dizzy, and he grabs for the IV stand to stop himself from falling out of bed. The stand topples to the linoleum floor with a terrific crash that shatters the monastery silence.
Kate gasps. "Tony!" He looks up in time to see her concerned expression before she disappears completely.
Someone has pulled the nurse's bell because a tinny, disembodied voice asks, "Can I help you?"
"The young man beside me," a quavering voice says. "Something's wrong, something's fallen over. Please come!"
The intercom clicks off and Tony can hear the sound of several people running, closing in on his location. He knows he is sliding and he doesn't have the strength to stop himself. His body is shaking as he keeps one hand gripping the bedrail in a desperate attempt to stay on the bed.
Gibbs makes it through the door before the medical staff and quickly assesses the situation. He jumps the IV stand and grabs Tony by the shoulders, carefully lifting him back onto the mattress. Tony lies there, fighting his own panic and the pain that surges through his body. His muscles have seized from disuse and even the medication can't prevent a spike of awareness of just how much damage he has endured. Nurses cluck over the mess and right the stand, silence the beeping alarm it started when it landed and check bags for punctures. One of them leaves, presumably to get a doctor. The other two are talking to one another regarding his status and the IV.
Tony looks up at Gibbs, who hasn't left his side.
"Hey," he says.
"You've been unresponsive for six days and all you can say is 'Hey?'"
"Huh?"
"That isn't much better, Dinozzo. What did you think you were doing? Going home?"
"No." How does he make Gibbs understand when he doesn't fully understand it himself? "Kate was…" He makes a feeble gesture with his right hand towards the chair. A nurse grabs it before it drops back to the mattress and checks his wrist to adjust the needles. "She said she had to go. I… I tried to stop her, boss…"
Gibbs watches him closely, a muscle twitching once in his jaw. "It's okay, Tony," he says quietly. "You have to let her go."
Tony struggles to find the energy to reign in his emotions, find his bravado, and pull something smug from his vocabulary to cover the awkwardness. Tries to find the mask he wears so no one will see his grief.
All his coping mechanisms elude him.
Later, he will blame the drugs. For now, he sobs, chest heaving in waves of guilt and despair as his boss holds his shoulders steady. The nurses consult in quiet murmurs. A doctor, obviously summoned and aware of the circumstances, enters calmly and injects something into Tony's IV. She departs with a nod to Gibbs. The others decide to return in about fifteen minutes when a pair of glaring blue eyes silently demands some privacy.
Gibbs doesn't care about the condition of his jacket as Tony clenches the sleeves with his fists. He holds his agent, his friend, until the younger man finally cries himself into exhaustion and succumbs to the effects of the Nembutal.
To be continued? Please let me know. :)
