Just so you're prepared this chapter is from Gibbs's P.O.V.
Gibbs's mind raced ahead of itself as his foot pressed down hard on the accelerator, he had McGee constantly trying Jen's cell but she still hadn't answered, that wasn't like her, she always answered her phone. His stomach churned as he thought about how distracted she would have been because of him, her guard would have been down, she would have been an easy target. As he weaved through the traffic, ignoring the horns that blared at him, his team stayed silent, knowing better than to even wince at the sharp corners. Even if they had complained Gibbs wouldn't have heard them, his mind was totally focused on Jenny, he needed to get to her, this was his fault. Pulling into Acker Street he screeched to a halt and was out the car before the other's had even had the chance to unclip their seatbelts.
The sharp ring of Jenny's cell phone was still going and he could hear the approaching sirens as he raced down the alleyway. Gibbs had known from the minute she had cried out on the phone that something was wrong, but nothing could have prepared him for what he found. Jenny was lying pale and lifeless in a pool of blood, the crimson stained her entire front, her eyes were tightly closed. Kneeling down to feel for a pulse he heard his teams shocked gasps behind him, relief flooded through him as he felt Jenny's very faint pulse. Trying to find the source of the bleed he yelled out, 'McGee go and look out for the ambulance, Ziva I need your help trying to find the bleed.
Ziva nodded, she couldn't look at Jenny's face, she just couldn't, she had lost so many people in her line of work but with Jenny it would be different, she relied on her, she was the only person she had ever opened up to. Getting onto her knees she watched as Gibbs's fingers fumbled at the buttons on Jenny's shirt, starting with the bottom ones he moved upwards, stopping when he got to the bottom of her ribcage. She could see one of the wounds and placed her hands on Jenny's stomach, pressing down trying to stem the bleeding, as the blood continued to seep through Ziva's fingers she wanted to cry, she was failing, she was failing her friend.
Gibbs meanwhile had his hand pressing down on the wound just below Jenny's ribcage, he looked up at her anxiously, her breathing was ragged, she was obviously struggling. He looked over at Ziva, the younger woman was close to tears as she tried to help but couldn't, her face was white, her lips pursed. Turning his attention back to Jen, Gibbs leaned forward on his knees so he could look into her face, without moving his hands he whispered to her, 'Don't do this to me Jen, you can't leave me, not like this. The ambulance is on it's way just hold on for me ok?'
Tony anxiously paced at the top of the alleyway, where the hell was the ambulance, he could hear the sirens but he couldn't see the damn thing. He glanced down the alleyway before looking at a petrified McGee who asked him, 'She'll be ok, won't she'
Knowing the younger man needed reassurance right now Tony made himself sound a lot more confident than he felt, 'Of course she will Probie, she's strong she'll pull through'
McGee just nodded, his head jerking up as the ambulance pulled into the street, darting past Dinozzo he waved at them to stop, he'd never been so relieved to see them before in his life.
Sitting in the waiting room Gibbs nursed a cup of coffee that Dinozzo had handed to him a few minutes ago, he had yet to try it, for once he just didn't want coffee. The team had just left, they had decided they had wanted to take over the investigation into Jenny's mugging, they had all looked at him, expecting him to jump to his feet and take over, he couldn't though, as much as he wanted this guy he couldn't leave her on her own. He looked towards the nurses station, willing one of them to walk over and tell him something, anything. Jenny had been in surgery for almost an hour now and he hadn't heard anything. There was a slow steady pace of footsteps approaching from behind him, he already knew who it was so didn't look up, not even when his oldest friend sat down next to him. Ducky placed a hand on his shoulder as he asked, 'How is she?'
'Still in theatre, it'll be at least a couple of hours yet'
'Have they said anything about her chances'
Gibbs flinched slightly, the memory of the doctor's words assailing him, his voice cracked slightly as he answered, 'From what they could tell her injuries are bad, she lost a lot of blood and one of her lungs was pierced causing it to collapse so they had to put in a chest drain. They don't think she'll make it out of surgery, they think she's suffered to much trauma to survive'
Ducky's grip on Gibbs's shoulder tightened slightly, 'She's a fighter Jethro, if anyone can come through this it's her'
Gibbs shook his head, 'It was all my fault Duck, I was winding her up, she was distracted because of me, if it wasn't for me he wouldn't have been able to sneak up on her, she might have stood a chance of fighting him off'
'You can't blame yourself for this Jethro, some things cannot be prevented, no one could have seen this coming'
Staring at the wall Gibbs asked his friend, 'What do I do if she doesn't come through this? I lost her once before but at least I knew she was ok, you know I used to check her file every couple of months, check to see if she'd been injured, make sure she was ok'
'You still love her', It wasn't a question, just a statement of the facts. Gibbs answered regardless though,
'Yeah I do, always have'
'She will pull through', Gibbs sighed, his old friend was trying but he still didn't sound very sure.
The hours seemed to crawl by, Gibbs was going crazy, he kept trying to tell himself that no news was good news but it wasn't helping. Finally in the early hours of the morning the surgeon approached them, Gibbs jumped to his feet, Ducky followed, albeit at a slower pace.
Taking in the obviously anxious and slightly intimidating man in front of him the surgeon took a steadying breath before speaking, 'I'm pleased to inform you that Director Sheppard came through the surgery. Unfortunately there were some complications. As you know she had lost a lot of blood and we had to give her multiple transfusions during the procedure. The knife pierced her liver but thankfully we were able to repair it and there will be no lasting damage. However Director Sheppard went into cardiac arrest on the table and the strain caused her other lung to collapse so we had to insert another chest drain. We have moved her into the IC.U. and she will have to remain fully ventilated and sedated for the next few days to give her a chance to recover. Unfortunately we're not sure if there was any brain damage from her arrest and we won't know until she wakes up, if she does in fact wake up. I am sorry I wish I could give you better news'
Gibbs struggled to take in everything he was hearing, he managed to force out, 'Can I see her?'
'Of course I'll have the nurse escort you through', the surgeon walked away and Gibbs just stared after him, not saying a word, not even when a nurse appeared and led him into the overly silent room, he noticed that Ducky didn't follow. He stood for a moment by the bed, just looking at her, she looked so small in that bed with tubes and wires trailing from almost every part of her. Eventually he sat down in the chair next to her and reached out for her hand, still he didn't say a word, he just stroked at the smooth skin there and willed her to wake up for him.
They had caught the man responsible pretty quickly, it turned out to be a drug addict who wanted money for his next fix. He had pleaded guilty but had been unrepentant, somehow his shoulder managed to dislocate while he was being transferred to jail, although there had funnily enough been no witnesses. Although he was glad the bastard had been caught Gibbs would have preferred that his team had shot him on sight.
Over the next few days Gibbs barely strayed from Jenny's side, although the strain was beginning to show, his eyes were red from lack of sleep and he hadn't shaved in days. He couldn't bring himself to leave her for too long though, only going to shower and even then he used the shower next door, having got Ducky to grab him some clothes. On the second day he made the mistake of going for coffee, he had only been gone ten minutes but when he came back he had found her room filled with medical staff. Jenny had taken a turn for the worse, it turned out that the knife had also nicked her spleen causing a slow bleed that had been missed during the original operation. Once again he found himself being told to prepare for the worst and once again Jenny had proved them all wrong and had made it out of surgery. After that he had continued to sit by her bed, still unable to find the words to say to her. Just the day before, four days after the attack they had taken her off the ventilator, removed her chest drains and gradually reduced her sedation, now he just had to wait for her to wake up, if she did wake up.
His team had all been in, Ziva came in the most and Gibbs seeing the look in her eyes stood at the window for her visits, watching her talk to Jenny, he knew how close they were and he knew how much this was affecting her. The rest of the team hadn't been much better, they just sort of stood at the bottom of the bed unsure of what to say, instead letting Abby rattle off the latest tales at the speed of light. Even Cynthia and Jen's security had been in, everyone waiting with bated breath to see if she would be ok.
On the fifth day Gibbs finally broke, he couldn't stand it, she should be awake by now and he just couldn't sit and watch her anymore. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to hold back tears, 'Jenny you need to wake up for me now, I just can't do this anymore, I need you to wake up and yell at me for something, anything.' His thumb ran over the back of her palm, 'I should have told you on the first day you came back, I love you Jen, I always have and I always will. You have to be the most stubborn, infuriating woman I have ever met but you're also smart, funny, warm and drop dead gorgeous. If you wake up I promise you that I will make up for all the time we've spent apart, I just need you to open your eyes, please Jen'
He watched her, her eyes didn't even flicker. Gibbs slumped back in his chair and let one tear fall, she wasn't coming back to him.
Author's Note: Ok don't lynch me for the ending or I can't finish the story lol.
Anyway for anyone who had been reading Tangled Web it has now been removed, it will go back up at some point but it will have a new plot. I just wasn't happy with it the way it was and it was tormenting me. Also I want to know if anyone is interested in an Angsty Baby fic I have in mind, not sure when I would start it, it would probably be once my two current stories are finished, anyway let me know :)
Oh and Thanks for all the reviews so far
xxxx
