Chapter 15.
Gibbs didn't really sleep that well that night. He woke up every time a nurse came into the room to check on Tony. Early in the morning he woke up and it was not only a nurse there, but also a doctor. Gibbs sat up on his bed, wondering why they were there. They noticed him sitting up and the doctor turned to face him.
"I'm sorry we woke you, sir." He said with a smile.
"It's okay. What's going on?"
"Well, hopefully nothing, but Tony's values are a bit concerning at the moment so I'm here to observe him further. Hopefully it is nothing to worry about."
Gibbs nodded and observed the doctors work. Amazingly Tony didn't wake up, which personally Gibbs thought was reason for concern. The doctor and the nurse left shortly after, but assured Gibbs that they would be back later. Gibbs didn't go back to sleep after that. Tony stirred on the bed once a while. Gibbs stepped over next to him on the bed, to take a closer look at his agent. Tony's cheeks was flushed and he was sweating.
Two hours later he woke up. He groaned a bit and opened his eyes. He blinked and looked around the room with a confused look. He smiled a bit when he saw Gibbs.
"Hi boss!" he said. "You are here."
"Yes DiNozzo. You okay?"
"I think… I think so." He was panting a bit.
"Really?"
"I don't know, boss. It is a bit hard to breathe." He sounded surprised.
Gibbs nodded and stepped forward and pressed the button for the nurse. In just a minute a nurse stepped into the room and started examining Tony and asked him a bunch of question.
"I will be back with the doctor shorty." She said and was out of the room with a quick step.
They looked at each other. Tony coughed a bit. "She was in a hurry." He said and looked at the door where she had disappeared out of.
"I'm hungry." He continued, and made a weak attempt of sitting up a bit more in the bed. "You think she will come back with breakfast."
"You can always hope DiNozzo."
A few minutes later a doctor came into the room followed by the nurse.
"Good morning Tony. How are you feeling?"
"Okay I guess."
"How is your breathing?" He started listening to Tony's chest.
"It feels a bit strange." Tony answered.
"Do you feel any pain in your chest?"
"Not much."
"DiNozzo." Gibbs warned him.
"Yeah, it hurts."
"I'm a bit worried about that, and what I'm hearing here. We are going to do a few test and see what is going on over here."
"Okay…"
"Hopefully it is nothing to worry about. We will get start with that right away."
True to those words a few hectic hours of different test and examinations followed after that. Gibbs kept as close to DiNozzo as he could. He sensed that something was wrong, from the way the doctors and nurses looked at each other. They wouldn't tell them much, even though Tony kept asking. Gibbs could see that he was worried, and frankly he was worried as well. Tony did have trouble breathing, it didn't seem like he was getting better and he was put on a nasal cannula, to which he protested until Gibbs told him to stop. It also seemed to Gibbs that something was wrong with Tony's entire body, he seemed weak, and he had to be helped to the different examinations and to the bathroom. He was led back to the bed after a trip to the bathroom by a nurse after the last test. He was panting as he settled back against the pillows.
He looked over at Gibbs how was standing leaning against the wall. His face was pale and his cheeks were flushed. He looked exhausted.
"Still no breakfast." He said. Gibbs had to laugh at that. He then went over to his agent and sat down on a chair.
"Apparently you have to wait a little bit longer."
"Shit…" DiNozzo sighed. "I don't know what's going on Boss."
Gibbs just nodded.
"I mean I thought I was getting better, but I'm not. I don't feel so good."
"You'll be fine."
It was Tony's turn to nod. "I hope so." He drew a few deep breaths and grimaced, when he found it difficult. "Do you mind if I shut my eyes for a minute boss?" He then asked.
"Go ahead DiNozzo."
He was asleep a couple of minutes later. Gibbs decided that it was time to update the others. He stood up and looked at Tony for a few moments before he stepped outside to make a few phone calls. He stopped just outside the door, just in case Tony would wake up and need him.
He called Tim first and explained the situation and said that he wouldn't be at the office today. Tim would pass the message along to Ziva. He also said that they would drop by later that evening. He also called Abby that insisted that she should come right away. He managed to convince her to at least wait a few hours, so that Tony would get some sleep. He was pretty reluctant to waiting, but agreed. He also placed a call to the director, which let him know that they could take all the time they needed, and that he hoped that DiNozzo would get better soon.
His last call was to Ducky. He answered on the second ring, and when Gibbs explained what was going on he sounded really worried. He asked Gibbs a lot of questions about Tony's condition to which he only could answer a handful of. He said that he would come to the hospital together with Abby later.
After the phone calls Gibbs went back inside Tony's room and a few hours of just waiting around came after that. Tony didn't wake at all during all that time. Ducky and Abby arrived at lunchtime and they tried to get information out of Gibbs, but he really didn't know much, other than that Tony wasn't feeling well and had trouble breathing. Luckily a doctor came, and Ducky started to question him instead. Abby was really worried, and Gibbs had had to stop her from going to hug Tony.
- NCIS -
When Tony woke up again the room was kind of full with people. It was a doctor and a nurse there. The doctor was involved in a discussion with Ducky, and Abby was talking to the nurse. Gibbs was standing on his usual spot by the wall, and he was the first one to notice that Tony was awake. He nodded a bit to him, and Tony thought that he nodded back. He wasn't entirely sure. His head felt kind of heavy, as did the rest of his body. At least he wasn't in any kind of pain. He guessed that was because they had drugged him with something. It felt like that. He had an IV as well. Something was going on there. He also felt so tired, and he contemplated on just going back to sleep again. But that was not going to happen apparently.
"Tony! Tony you are awake!" Abby yelled and left the nurse midsentence and ran up to him. She stopped herself in front of him and hesitated. He lifted an arm and waved her towards him, she gave him a hard and long hug, that didn't stop until Gibbs laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Let him breath Abby." He said.
"Oh yeah! Oh my god, I'm so sorry Tony. Did I hurt you? I just needed to hug you to make sure you were still alive. I mean I know you are alive I just..."
"Our patient is awake I see." Ducky said and smiled at him. "How are you feeling my dear boy?" They all quieted and watched him expectantly. Tony felt a little uncomfortable with all of them staring at him, while he had to really concentrate on not falling asleep again.
"I'm okay, Ducky." He said, which earned him a punch on the arm from Abby.
"You are not okay Mister." She said. "You were drugged and are in the hospital. That's not okay."
"Ow Abby. Don't hit a sick person."
"I though you said you were fine?" she smirked at him. But immediately got worried again. "Can you breathe all right?" she asked. "They said that you had trouble with your breathing."
Tony just nodded a bit. He was so tired. Abby seemed to notice that he was struggling, because she worriedly grabbed his arm.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked someone else. Someone behind her.
"Well, if you let me get over to my patient I would like to discuss that." The doctor said. He came up on the opposite side of the bed.
"How is your breathing Tony?" He asked. "Is it any better?"
Tony shrugged his shoulder. He didn't know. He felt confused and groggy.
"Tony?" Abby asked and took his hand in hers. He wanted to answer her, reassure her.
"Yeah…" was all he managed.
"What's wrong with him?!" Abby shouted next his ear. She was so loud. He groaned a bit. He wished they would calm down.
"At the moment I'm afraid that we don't know. We are still waiting for all the test results." The doctor said. That did not sit well with Abby because she started to ask a bunch of questions accusing the hospital to be incompetent. Tony just wanted her to be quiet. He pressed her hand in his to get her to do so. She immediately stopped and turned all her attention to him again.
"What is it Tony?" she whispered and leaned closer to him.
"I do believe things are a bit much for our friend here." Ducky said, and Tony felt so grateful for him. He understood. He smiled in Ducky's direction.
"Yeah. You are so loud." He whispered.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Abby exclaimed, and then continued in a more quiet voice. "Don't worry Tony. You are going to be okay. I'll make sure of it, and Ducky too." She glared at the doctor across the bed.
"What we do know so far is that the drug you were exposed to Tony, has left some traces in you and are still effecting you. We are going to keep you under close observation. It seems like you are experiencing some difficulties with your breathing as well as your heart. That is cause for concern, but for now you are stable." The doctor then added. "Do you understand, Tony?"
"Yeah. I understand."
"That's good. I will come back a bit later to talk to you some more. As for now I would like you to get some rest. There is a lot going on in here at the moment."
"Well, we are not leaving." Abby said. "Right Gibbs?"
"DiNozzo needs his rest Abby." Gibbs answered her. This got Tony a bit worried. He felt his heart starting to beat a bit harder in his chest. He didn't want them to leave. He blinked hard a few times and made an attempt to sit a bit straighter up in bed. He failed. He then held on harder to Abby's hand. She had stood up. He looked up at her, and felt his breaths coming out faster. He pressed harder. She took his hand in her other hand as well. She then leaned down over him.
"We are staying Tony." She said quietly to him. "All of us. Right Gibbs?" He watched as she turned to face Gibbs and let go of his hand with one of hers. She was signing something to him.
"Sure we are." He heard Gibbs say.
"Well, I really must insist that you let him rest." The doctor said.
"Oh he will. No worries." Ducky said. He followed the doctor out of the room while talking to him. Tony was alone with Abby and Gibbs.
"You can go back to sleep now." Abby whispered. "Don't worry." He apparently looked worried anyway, because Gibbs came up behind Abby, and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it a bit. He trusted them. He closed his eyes, and didn't even notice when Abby tucked him in with the blanket, before she took his hand in hers again.
- NCIS -
"Oh my god Gibbs." Abby whispered as soon as she was sure that Tony was sleeping. "What is wrong with him? Tears came to her eyes. She was so worried about her friend. She had never seen Tony like this before. One minute it looked like he wasn't really aware of what was going on around him, and the next he was trying to break her hand. He had pressed it so hard it almost hurt her. Not that she would ever mention it to him or anyone. He was clearly struggling. The scary part was that they didn't know what was going on with him. She wished that she could do more for him, but she didn't want to leave him now. No way!
Gibbs sat down on a chair next to hers. "It is going to be fine Abby, he said. "You know that. It is DiNozzo we are talking about. He is always fine."
"He always acts like he is fine you mean." She said. That was what Tony did. He acted. Sometimes she wished that he wouldn't. But it was just who he was. "What if it is something really bad that is going on with him?"
"Then we deal with that."
"He doesn't want us to go."
"We won't. You said it yourself."
"Yeah."
"He looked scared." She said after a while.
"Maybe he is, Abby. He had a pretty bad night. Was scared then."
"Oh my god… We need to help him."
"We are Abby. We are."
She took Gibbs hand in her other. They sat like that for a while until Ducky came back into the room. He told them that the doctor thought that they would have the test results back in a few hours, until then it was not so much that they could do, except to wait and monitor Tony's condition so that it didn't worsened.
They didn't talk that much after that. Abby kept her hand on Tony's. She would stroke the back side of it. He slept on without as much as a movement. His hand felt clammy in hers. When she touched his cheek she was convinced that he had a fever. His pulse was pretty high.
It was frustrating just to sit there and wait. She wanted to know what was going on, so that it could be fixed. Ducky started to tell them a story about when he was in his thirties and started to work at some hospital. They once had a case of a young woman with a strange disease that none of them could figure out what is was. It caused the woman's husband to become so frustrated with the medical personal that he started to sabotage all their coffee machines. It was an entertaining story and Abby though that Tony would have enjoyed it as well. He always took the time to listen to Ducky's stories. However Ducky was reluctant to tell them the ending of the story, saying it wasn't really appropriate. Abby suspected it didn't end well.
Tony scared all of them when he suddenly woke up with a groan. He looked around in the room and stared at them with a confused look.
"What's going on?" He asked, and removed his hands from Abby's.
"What do you mean?" Abby asked him smiling at him. "Are you okay?" She said as he didn't answer right away, just looked at her with glassy eyes.
"Where are we?" he then asked her. The question made her stomach twist in fear. What was going on with him?
"We are at the hospital Tony, my boy." Ducky said. "You know that, don't you?"
He looked around again, taking in the IV in his arm and fingering on the nasal cannula, but leaving it alone after that. "Yeah. I know." And wiped his forehead. "I'm sick."
"Yes you are." Ducky said. "But no worries. How are you feeling Anthony? Are you in pain?"
Tony shook his head at that. "No, I don't think so. I feel weird though." He said.
"Weird how?" Abby asked him. He stared at her for a second.
"Just weird. It's heavy."
"What do you mean Tony?"
"Heavy." He said again and gestured towards his chest. Abby looked up at Ducky with a scared look. "What's he talking about?" He asked, but Ducky just shook his head and turned his attention back to Tony.
"What is it that feels heavy Anthony?"
It took a while for Tony to focus on him, and Ducky had to ask the question again.
"Here Ducky." He said then and pointed at his chest.
"All right. I understand." Ducky said calmly and smiled down at him. He then reached up and pressed the button for the nurse's station. "It is going to be all right, my dear boy."
That was when Tony passed out.
- NCIS -
I thought it was time for an other chapter of this story. I have been thinking of ending it soon, but I got some more inspiration, so now I don't know. A few more chapters maybe. I'm sorry for the long time between updates as well. Hope you enjoy!