"Fine, I'll get home sooner. But he's not going anywhere." Gibbs growled.
"Good to know." Ducky smirked and patted his friend's shoulder. "Give me a call when Anthony wakes up, will you?"
"Sure."
Gibbs had meant it when he said he'd go home sooner, but when Tony started to finally come around, he completely forgot about it, or so he pretended.
"DiNozzo? Hey, can you hear me?"
Tony had trouble focusing on Gibbs' face or voice and he wasn't sure where he was or what had happened.
"Tony?" There was a hint of concern in his Boss' voice.
"I see you've finally decided to join the rest of us. Nice of you." Doctor Wilson entered the room, followed by the nurse who'd informed him about the changes in Tony's vitals.
Tony blinked slowly, turned his gaze towards the door and frowned.
"Headache, huh? Well, you have a severe concussion, so that's to be expected."
Tony swallowed and turned green when that simple action triggered heavy nausea. Before he could ask for help or turn around, hands were helping him up and a basin appeared in front of his face.
When he was done throwing up his gut, he fell bonelessly against the extra pillow that once again had appeared behind him.
"Rinse your mouth. Don't swallow just now." The nurse came to his side with a cup of water and helped him rinse his mouth.
"Feeling any better?"
Tony looked up and realized the question had come from the doctor, so he just nodded.
"Good. Now let's get back to the routine. Welcome aboard, I'm Doctor Wilson and I'll be your attending physician during your stay with us." He smiled.
Tony opened his mouth, but nothing left it, so the nurse gave him some water.
Wilson grinned. "It's OK, I know who you are and I know that you're glad to see me."
"Not really." Tony forced the words out and tried to give the man a shadow of his smirk.
"And they say the doctors are heartless." The doctor feigned being hurt and disappointed. "So, do you even want to know what the verdict is?"
Tony looked around and found his boss, standing in a corner, staring at him with a smirk at the corner of his mouth.
"I'd rather know why I'm here." He croaked.
Gibbs frowned. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"I... I'm not-" Tony swallowed. "Not sure."
Gibbs looked at the strangers in the room and decided to wait. "We'll talk about it later. Answer your doctor's question, first."
"Thank you." The doctor was clearly enjoying himself. He was like Tony in so many ways. "You've had two broken ribs but we wired the bones back together before they could puncture your lung. Also you have a heavily bruised lung and two other cracked and bruised ribs. Other than that you have some bruising around your navel which is clearly caused by being kicked."
Tony frowned. 'Kicked? Just what kind of case were we working on?' He didn't say anything, though. From the expression on Gibbs' face, it wasn't something good and he knew his boss well enough to know that if the older man wanted to keep something between them, he must've had a damn good reason.
"Now that we're done with all the other injuries we can get to your head trauma. So, can you tell me your and that guy's name?"
'Shouldn't that be your main concern and first question?' Tony wanted to ask, but realized that he didn't really care about the answer. So, he answered the question instead, "Anthony DiNozzo. And that's Leroy Jethro Gibbs."
"Good, do you know where you are?"
"Even if I had lost my memory, I could tell that I was in a hospital. What kind of question is that?"
"Fair enough. Well, Blood loss and severe concussion had us worried for a while. We need to run a few more tests and scans, but if everything goes well, you could be released in a couple of days. We'll talk later about when you can get back to work, though."
Tony nodded absently. "Good, can that wait? The scans, I mean. I need to talk to my boss, first."
"Of course. Tell the nurse when you're ready."
Wilson and the nurse left the room after that to let Tony and Gibbs talk.
"So, what happened? Was it another undercover op?"
"No. You still can't remember anything?"
Tony rubbed his forehead. It was hurting badly, but he needed to remember; something was telling him that this was important. He finally shook his head. "The last thing I remember is leaving the office and I'm pretty sure I wasn't involved in any kind of mission."
"You had a visitor last night." Gibbs hinted, not wanting to shock Tony with what he knew and the younger man had forgotten. There was a possibility that the memory loss was more of a psychological reaction than a physical problem due to the actual head trauma. Nobody would react well to being hit by their drunken father, after all.
"Visi-" Tony's eyes widened. "Oh God. My father was there. Is he alright? He's dead, isn't he? Somebody must've entered my apartment to get back at me for something I did and my father was-"
"DiNozzo." Gibbs growled.
He couldn't believe it; Tony was actually worried for his father; the same man who'd beaten the hell out of him. Apparently, he could remember that his father was there, but instead of remembering what the man had done to him, he was worried for his well-being. That bastard didn't deserve a son like Tony. It wasn't fair.
"Your father is alright. At least he was the last time I saw him which was last night around 0400. He showed up at my place and his hands were covered in blood. Your blood." Gibbs explained, still hoping that his agent could remember the rest on his own.
How in the hell was he supposed to tell his friend that he'd been hit by his father? Tony had just started to rebuild his relationship with his old man; it'd be too hard for him.
Tony stared at him for a good two minutes and little by little his demeanor turned dark, letting Gibbs know that he was remembering things that his mind had blocked. "Where's he?" He asked somberly.
"At my place."
Tony frowned, "Wha-"
"Cuffed to a pipe. I wanted to let you decide about him. He should be charged for what he did, but-"
"Let him go." Tony cut him off.
"Tony-"
"No." Tony slowly shook his head. "Thanks for keeping it quiet; I really don't need everyone else's pity. But let him go, he was just drunk."
"They won't pity you, but that's your call and that's why I didn't tell the team. Vance knows, though and before you say anything, it's for the best."
Tony sighed and closed his eyes. "Yeah, you're probably right. But if it was up to me, I... I-"
"I understand." Gibbs reassured him. "But right now, it's just me, Ducky and Vance. The others will bombard you with questions, but I told them that you were mugged and that's all they need to know if you want it to stay a secret."
Tony sighed and nodded. "Thanks."
"You can't just let him go." Gibbs tried again; even though he knew that pressing charges against Senior meant for Tony to tell everyone what had happened to him.
"Gibbs, I won't press charges against him. He's my father; I don't wanna see him ever again and I'll tell him that, but I won't put him in jail. Besides, I can't have everyone talking about me being hit by my father like a little helpless kid."
Gibbs rolled his eyes. "You didn't expect him to do that; it doesn't make you a kid. What happened?"
Tony was silent for a few seconds, thinking about the other night. "I'm still not sure what we were arguing about, but he'd shown up around 0130 and I was already in a bad mood for being woken up that early and he was being ridiculous again and... I don't know really. Don't think he can remember anything either. I knew he was drunk, but I really didn't expect him to do what he did. He'd never done such a thing before. One second we were talking, or shouting at each other, whatever, and the next..." he fell silent. "I don't remember the next."
"It's OK. I think he was pretty shocked himself. He thought you were dead."
"Geez; and he showed up at your place telling you that?" Tony grimaced. "Boss, I'm sorry."
"Not your fault that your father is a jerk." Gibbs shook his head. "You sure you don't want him in jail?"
"Positive." Tony looked away.
"I'll make sure he'd never bother you again." The older agent said the only thing he could to reassure his friend.
"Thanks." Tony sighed. "For everything."
"I'll always have your six." Gibbs squeezed his shoulder. "Get some rest. Abby will be here before it gets dark."
Tony smiled. "Thanks for the heads-up. And... Umm, if my father's done anything to your place, I'll fix it. I promise."
"I'll make him clean his mess before throwing him out. Don't worry about it." The ex-marine smirked. "By the way, you open your place's door to anyone other than the team members later than 2300 and I'll kick your ass."
"You saying that you were worried?" Tony gave him a real grin for the first time that day.
"No, I was having a party on the inside thinking that you might be dead." Gibbs deadpanned. "I'll see you later tonight and will let you know what I did to your father."
"As long as you don't kill him." Tony forced a smile. "He's not worth it."
"You are."
"Umm... Thanks." Tony's voice was so quiet and shaky that Gibbs barely heard him; he smiled in return and left the room to take care of the more important business at hand.
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... TBC ...
A/N: I'd love to know what you think.
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Also it's good to know that you all approved of Gibbs hiding the truth from his team. I was a bit worried about that, thinking you might believe he should tell them the truth since they're a team and everything! It's really great to know we see eye to eye on that issue! ;)
Sorry for any mistakes and thanks for your support. :)
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By the way, stay with me and you'll realize why I let DiNozzo Sr. go for now! ;) -Tony has good reasons, but you have to stay tuned to see what happens next! This story is far from being over!-
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