Chapter 24

Kate was startled when she walked into Tony's room to find Gibbs and Ducky both still there. Gibbs was asleep on a recliner and Ducky appeared to be doing a crossword. He looked up at her and put his finger to his lips to hush her, not that she needed the admonition. She walked on quiet feet over to the side of the bed and looked down. Tony looked pale and vulnerable, his bruises dark against his ashen skin.

She walked over to Ducky and bent down close to his ear. "What's wrong with him?"

"Subdural hematoma," Ducky said. "We just have to keep him quiet for a few days and he'll recover."

"Oh, that should be fun," she said.

"How is young Mr. Webber?" Ducky asked.

"Restive," she said. "The doctors want him to stay in bed, but he wants to come check on Tony."

"Nothing to see at the moment. You should return to him and report." Kate bit her lip and gazed at Tony. "He will still be here when you come back."

"I know, it's just . . ." Ducky nodded when she trailed off. "How about him?" she asked, jerking her head towards Gibbs.

"He is resting, finally," Ducky said. "Go. Talk to Mr. Webber and reassure him as to Anthony's condition."

"Right," Kate replied. She straightened up and looked again at Tony, then at Gibbs. Sighing, she went back outside. The trip to back to Michael's room wasn't a long one, and she found him looking irritably at the television.

He looked up as she entered and gave her a nod of welcome. "There isn't a damn thing on TV." He clicked the remote to turn it off. "I take it you didn't make it to see Tony?"

"No, I saw him. He's asleep and so is Agent Gibbs."

"He's okay?"

"He will be," Kate said with a smile, sitting down in chair she'd only just vacated. "Ducky is with him."

Michael's brows knit. "Ducky?" he said. "Isn't that the medical examiner?" Kate nodded. "Somehow that isn't as reassuring as I think you meant it to be."

Kate blinked, only then realizing how that could sound. "He's Tony's doctor," she said. "And he's a friend. Gibbs is there, too, but as I said, he's asleep." She leaned forward. "You should probably be asleep, too," she said, putting hand on his arm.

"It's been a really weird day," Michael said, giving her a pathetic look.

"Yes, it has," Kate said reflecting on the past twenty-four hours. Shaking her head, she grimaced ruefully at him. "Actually, it's been a weird week."

"Yeah, Tony mentioned an undercover op. He was going to give me the details but . . ." He shook his head. "I can't believe my father's dead."

This was the first time he'd said anything at all about his father. Kate took his hand and breathed in deeply, trying to think how to handle the situation. "Should I offer sympathy?"

"I hardly know," Michael said, and she squeezed his hand. "I was planning to get him put in jail for a long, long time, but dead . . . that ends things completely. No need for a public trial. It will be swept under the rug like always."

"But you cared about him, right?" Kate gazed into his eyes. "I mean, he was your father."

Michael shook his head. "He was a perverse bastard who used me as a procurer till I figured out what he was doing." Kate bit her lip. "He would have turned Tony inside out and had fun doing it." He lay back in the bed and sighed. "Any good feelings I had left for him were gone a long time ago."

"I'm sorry about that, then," Kate said squeezing his hand with both of hers. In a situation like this one, grief could be unbearably complicated, loss combined with guilt. "I can't imagine what that has to have been like for you."

He gazed at her for a long moment. "Tony said you could be really girly, but I hadn't seen any sign of it so far. Not till now."

Kate rolled her eyes and laughed dryly. "That sounds like Tony. Never has a nice thing to say about me."

"He likes you," Michael said, raising his eyebrows. She gave him a dubious look. "Think about it. How does he treat the people he doesn't like?" Kate shrugged. "He was always extremely polite to my father, called him 'sir' and shook hands. My mother he teased and charmed and flirted with."

"He doesn't flirt with me, and he doesn't charm me," Kate replied. "Teasing, yeah, I get a lot of that."

"You aren't a mother figure, and you aren't a romantic target. You're his partner. It's different. I'd lay you odds that if you got another team member, they'd get much the same treatment."

Kate snorted, reflecting on the way Tony behaved with McGee. "Maybe you're right."

"I know I'm right. You should have heard him talk about your predecessor."

"Agent Blackadder?"

"Yeah, her. He didn't think much of her. Not so much of her personally, but her as an investigator."

Kate glanced at the clock and sighed. "It's almost seven and you've been awake all night. You need to get some sleep. Now."

"You're a stern taskmistress, Kate. Go away and I'll try."

"Good," she said, smiling. "And I'll be by to see you later."

"Just keep Tony out of trouble."

Kate nodded as she rose, though she thought that was a pretty tough task. She left the room after pulling his curtain partway shut to block out the light from the hall. McGee was sort of wandering, looking lost, so she sent him to Abby. She found a seat in the waiting area nearest Tony's room and sat down to read a magazine. It was slightly difficult to be interested in the likes of Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie with Tony in bed with a subdural hematoma. She barely knew what that was.


Gibbs sat by the bed with a crossword puzzle book, listening while Dr. Bettencourt asked Tony the standard orientation questions. Tony looked up at her with attention and a hint of flattering interest. This might have been a heartening sign in most men, but for DiNozzo it was automatic. "What do you do for a living?" Dr. Bettencourt asked.

"I am Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo," he replied with a faint grin. "NCIS."

"Good," Bettencourt said. "What year is it?"

Tony blinked for a moment and then said, "2004." Not a good sign that he had to think about it, Gibbs thought.

"Who's the president?"

Tony grinned broadly. "Howdy Doody," he replied without a pause.

Bettencourt blinked at him, looking alarmed. She started to speak, but Gibbs interrupted her. "DiNozzo, tell her who the president is," he ordered.

DiNozzo looked briefly chastened, but then he shrugged. "Howdy Doody should be president. I voted for him, but that G.W. Bush guy won."

"Okay," Dr. Bettencourt said, frowning at him. "Look, please, no jokes. This is really important, Agent DiNozzo. I –"

"Call me Tony," DiNozzo interrupted.

Gibbs caught the doctor's eye and gestured towards the door with his head. She rose and followed him to the edge of the tiny cubicle. "What, Agent Gibbs?"

"Ask him who the Secretary of the Navy is."

She stared at him for a moment, then nodded. Going back to DiNozzo's bed, she considered for a moment, then said, "Where do you live?"

"Washington DC." He waggled his eyebrows and added, "Do you want my address, too?" The effect was somewhat spoiled by the slight vagueness in DiNozzo's eyes.

"No, that's fine. Who is the Secretary of the Navy?"

Tony blinked at her. "Tom Morrow," he said, and then he stopped for a moment, looking confused. "No. I mean . . ."

"Don't worry about it, Agent DiNozzo," she said. "Get some rest." She glanced at Gibbs and he followed her out of the room. "We're going to want to keep him a couple of days more, Agent Gibbs. You should probably go home and get some rest yourself."

Gibbs shrugged. "Not gonna happen." He turned around and went back into DiNozzo's room. "Gordon England," he declared. "Tell her it's Gordon England."

"It doesn't matter, DiNozzo."

"But I do know the answer, Boss," DiNozzo said earnestly. "I can't fail the test."

Gibbs sighed. "It really doesn't matter, DiNozzo. It wasn't that kind of test."

"I want to go home, Boss," DiNozzo moaned.

Gibbs reached out and ruffled his agent's hair. "You will, soon as you're ready."

Tony closed his eyes, and Gibbs hoped he would be able to sleep.


Gibbs noticed immediately when Tony started slowly down the stairs. He was sanding the ribs of his boat, and one might think his focus was solid, but the minute Tony walked through the door – the open door – from the kitchen, Gibbs glanced up and then returned his attention to the task at hand. Tony was carrying a paper bag with four bottles of beer, a couple of sandwiches, some paper plates and a bag of chips. He couldn't handle it all and grab the rail, and he was still a little less than sure on his feet.

Despite his fears, staying with Gibbs hadn't proven to be all boredom and boats. Without bothering to ask permission, Abby had installed a DVD player on the upstairs TV, and she'd gone to Tony's apartment and collected a selection of his movies. Gibbs had grumbled, but it had seemed obligatory.

The thing that had Tony worried was the fact that Gibbs hadn't been to work in days. He'd been with Tony every day in the hospital, and since they'd come here, he'd been home except for periodic, brief, shopping runs. And when Tony asked him about it, he deflected like crazy.

Tony was determined to have an answer, so he was bearding the lion in his den. Gibbs hadn't been upstairs since breakfast, so unless he had snacks down here, he hadn't eaten since then. When Tony reached the bottom of the stairs, he walked across to Gibbs' workbench and cleared some space with extreme care, not wanting to damage, jostle or otherwise fold, spindle or mutilate any of Gibbs' projects. Then he put the bag down and began removing its contents.

"What's with the picnic, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked when he saw what Tony had brought.

"Just thought you could use some lunch." Tony cleared a little more space on the workbench and hopped up onto it.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows and picked up one of the sandwiches. "Roast beef, huh? Leftovers from last night?"

"Hope you don't mind," Tony said.

Gibbs shook his head, took a paper plate and opened the bag of chips. "You got something on your mind, DiNozzo?"

"Yeah, I do," Tony said. He made up his own plate and popped the top off one of the beers. "And you know what it is, or you wouldn't be avoiding it so carefully every time I ask."

Gibbs sighed and sat down in the single chair that was down here. It seemed like a subtle hint against guests, but Tony knew when to ignore subtle hints. Gibbs didn't respond, but he also didn't make any attempt to deflect the conversation. He just started to eat his sandwich. Tony took a couple of bites himself and tried to figure out the best tac to take.

Gibbs spoke before he had a chance to think of a good starter. "I shot a sitting United States senator," he said bluntly, and Tony swallowed hard. He'd been trying not to think about Senator Webber. "I'm suspended with pay pending the investigation."

Tony's jaw dropped. "They suspended you for this?" he exclaimed.

"I shot and killed a U.S. senator, DiNozzo," Gibbs said flatly. "Of course they suspended me."

"But you were right," Tony said. "You saved my life."

Gibbs shook his head. "Think of it as temporarily relieved of duty."

"Is Fornell suspended?" Tony demanded.

"Yup."

Tony deflated slightly. So it wasn't an attack on Gibbs. "What about Kate?"

"What about Kate?"

"She was there, too," Tony said. "Wasn't she?" His memories of that night were mercifully fragmentary. He knew that he'd been assaulted, but he didn't really remember anything specific.

"She didn't fire her weapon," Gibbs said. He gave Tony an amused look. "You discouraged her."

"I did?" Tony asked. He couldn't guess why he'd have done something like that.

"All you said was PDA."

Tony's eyes widened. "I didn't."

"You did."

"She is never going to let me hear the end of this," he said.

Gibbs snorted. "Nope."

"Of course, I could always remind her that she destroyed the PDA."

"If you want to, I suppose you could," Gibbs said. "Not sure I would."

Tony shrugged and looked down at his half-eaten sandwich. His appetite still wasn't the best. He took another bite and washed it down with a swig of beer. They ate in a silence Kate wouldn't believe possible for several minutes. Finally, Tony cleared his throat. "So, do I have to see another psychologist before I can go back to work?"

"'Fraid so." Gibbs looked up at him. "It won't be that idiot. I made sure of that."

"Good." Tony grimaced. "Why do they always want us to go over the whole experience again? I mean, how is that supposed to help?" Gibbs shrugged and snorted. "Did McGee go back to Norfolk after his last visit?" The younger agent had come by the hospital for a short visit, but it had been awkward with McGee all tongue-tied and Tony feeling less than stellar.

"Nope. He's helping Kate with some project for the director. Staying with Abby, I think."

"You know he has kind of a thing for our little girl, don't you?" Tony asked.

Gibbs shrugged. "Abby can take care of herself," he said.

Tony put his sandwich aside and took another swallow of beer. He probably shouldn't be having too much alcohol right now. After all, he'd only been out of the hospital for a couple of days after three days in intensive care. There were some conversations that really required alcohol, however. "Where's Sullivan?"

"Hazleton," Gibbs said, and Tony was relieved to know that he was no longer being held at NCIS. He hoped it didn't show too obviously. "Everyone's clamoring for a piece of him, so he'll be busy for a while."

Something struck Tony abruptly. "At least Webber's gone. With him in their sights, the CIA or the FBI might have traded testimony for leniency in Sullivan's case." He shuddered slightly, and he could tell from Gibbs' expression that the idea wasn't new to him. Knowing his boss, it had probably occurred to him the moment Webber's name had come up. Tony could only plead temporary insanity for the fact that he hadn't yet thought of it.

Gibbs finished his beer in a long gulp and reached out for the other one. Tony handed it to him and sat back. "So, you going to have any trouble calling me boss after this?"

Tony blinked at him, surprised by the question. "No, why would I?"

Gibbs shrugged. "Just asking."

Tony thought about the last couple of weeks. "Just, Boss?" he said, and Gibbs looked up, eyes questioning. "Just don't call me boy."

"When have I ever –"

"Not good boy, not bad boy, just nothing with boy."

Gibbs nodded. "Sure, DiNozzo." DiNozzo's eyes went sort of distant, and Gibbs knew the younger man had to be caught in less than pleasant memories of the op. He cast his mind around for something to distract him. Shrugging, he asked, "Can I call you bird dog?" DiNozzo's eyes widened, and for a second Gibbs thought he'd chosen the wrong distraction. When he started laughing hysterically, it was a real relief.

Tony's head exploded. Clutching at his head, he gave Gibbs a mock-glare. "Don't make me laugh, Boss. That's just mean."

Gibbs grinned at him, and said, "Never said I was nice, DiNozzo."

Tony snorted and leaned back again.

Finis


Next week, I will start posting a new story, Once a Cop, my Supernatural/NCIS crossover. Please go read it. :)