Chapter 22

Having given Ziva her marching orders, Gibbs headed back up to DiNozzo's room. It was empty, so he went over to the nurse's station. "Where's DiNozzo?"

The nurse didn't even look up. "Radiology," she said.

"Alone?" Gibbs asked.

She lifted her eyes to his. "I took him over and left him, but his mother went to join him."

"His mother?" Gibbs repeated, raising his eyebrows.

She nodded. "That blonde who's been visiting with you and the others."

Relieved that she had simply gotten the relationship wrong and that there wasn't an unknown woman wandering the hospital, Gibbs gave her a nod of thanks and headed towards radiology.

Peter walked towards Tony, a slight smile on his face. "We'll have to wait a few minutes before we go, but that won't matter to you, will it?" He went down on his knees in front of Tony and put his hand under Tony's chin. "I suspect you'd rather wait."

Tony stared at him helplessly. He tried to move his arms to push the bastard away, but he didn't even twitch.

Peter chuckled. "Don't worry, it will wear off in a few hours. In the meantime, since we've got a bit of enforced privacy, I think I'll take advantage of my opportunity." Tony's heart rate picked up again as Peter stroked his check and then down his chest. He leaned closer still, Tony could feel the pressure of his body against his knees. Peter put a hand behind Tony's head, his other thumb caressing Tony's lips. "I've been to a doctor," Peter murmured thoughtfully. "I have a clean bill of health."

Peter's hand tilted Tony's head back so that his eyes were pointed at the ceiling, but he peered down his face towards the little man. Peter pressed his lips to Tony's, his tongue slipping into Tony's mouth. Tony's mind was shrieking, but he had no way to resist. His breathing quickened, and he could feel an ache in his chest as he overworked his exhausted lungs.

"Get away from him!" snarled a female voice, and Peter shifted backwards abruptly, letting Tony's head fall against the handle of the wheelchair. In this position he could see the door, and he stared in shock at Joyce – his stepmother – holding a gun exactly like she knew how to use it.

Peter didn't move immediately. Still kneeling in front of Tony, he'd turned just far enough to see Joyce and her gun. "You're not going to use that," he said in a soft voice.

"Try me," she snapped. "Stand up and move away from my stepson."

"Now why would I do that?" Peter asked in a reasonable voice. "If you shoot me here, there's a good chance the bullet will hit Tony instead of me. You won't do it."

Without taking her eyes off Peter, she reached into her pocket with her free hand and pulled out her phone. She pressed two buttons with her thumb, then put the phone to her ear. "Agent Gibbs? I'm in what appears to be a storeroom, holding a gun on someone who looks startlingly like Peter MacNicol." Tony could hear a voice issuing from the phone, but he couldn't understand any words. "He's right next to him, but he looks . . . I think he's done something to him." Untangling the pronouns wasn't difficult, and Tony was glad to see she had her eye on essentials. "We're on the fourth floor, the door said 4B39, and it's in the hallway opposite the elevators." She smiled at Peter, and it was not a friendly expression. "No, Agent Gibbs, he's not going anywhere."

"Mrs. DiNozzo –"

"Shut up and get away from him," she ordered.

Peter got to his feet and backed away. Unfortunately, this put him where Tony couldn't see him. "I am impressed, Mrs. DiNozzo," he said. "Not a hair out of place."

"If you cannot cease being smarmy, be silent."

"Smarmy!" Peter exclaimed. "Smarmy? I'm offended, really."

"That's perfectly all right, just do it silently." Her eyes were fixed on him. "No, keep your hands out of your pockets."

"Tony looks very uncomfortable," Peter observed. Abruptly, Tony felt his head raised and shifted slightly so that his neck wasn't at such a sharp angle.

"Don't touch him."

"I'm not hurting him," Peter said, stroking Tony's hair gently, like he was a pet. "I have no intention of doing so."

The door behind her slammed open, and Gibbs barreled in, gun out and ready. Peter moved away instantly. "Hands on your head and turn around," Gibbs ordered. Tony couldn't see, but he assumed that Peter did as he was told. Gibbs didn't reissue the order, and he also didn't shoot. Tony heard cuffs ratcheting closed and began to feel a little disconnected.

Gibbs came into his field of vision again. "DiNozzo? DiNozzo, can you hear me?" Yes, Tony thought, but he just looked blankly up at his boss. "Can you speak?"

"I gave him a paralytic," Peter said.

Hospital security arrived suddenly and took over the scene. Tony lost track of Joyce and Peter in the chaos, but Gibbs stayed right next to him. He gave orders as to the disposition of his prisoner, but he did not accompany him when they took him away.

Following the wave of security came a wave of medical personnel. They pulled Tony out of the storeroom and got him on a gurney, hurrying him to a treatment room. Even so, Tony remained aware of Gibbs' presence, jogging along beside the gurney. While the doctors and nurses examined him for injuries, he heard Gibbs giving orders, heard McGee's and Ziva's voices responding. They found the patch on his neck and sent it off for testing.

A doctor checked Tony's tracking by waving a finger back and forth in front of his eyes. "Agent DiNozzo, if you can understand me, blink twice." Tony blinked twice. "He's conscious." There followed many yes or no questions about his level of pain, his breathing and his emotional state. Tony got very tired of blinking. Eventually, someone got the bright idea of asking him if he'd like to sleep off the paralysis, and he blinked yes with earnest gratitude. As they prepared to administer the shot, a thought occurred to him, and he started blinking rapidly, hoping someone would notice.

"I think something's wrong, Dr. Chase," said one of the corpsmen.

"Agent DiNozzo, I . . ." He trailed off, obviously not sure how to ask what Tony wanted. Tony turned his eyes as far towards Gibbs as they would go. The men and women around him talked anxiously, and then Dr. Chase raised his voice. "Agent Gibbs, Agent DiNozzo seems to want something, we're not sure what."

Gibbs walked over and looked down at Tony. There was no easy way to communicate, but then he got an idea. He started blinking again.

"Is he all right?" asked the corpsman. "Is he having a seizure?" Tony broke off and glared in the corpsman's direction.

"He's fine," Gibbs said. "He's blinking in Morse code."

"Blinking in . . ." Chase shook his head. "People only do things like that in the movies."

Gibbs let out a chuckle, but he didn't address the remark that had made him laugh. Instead, he responded to Tony's one-word plea. "Yeah, DiNozzo, I'll stay."