When Gibbs checked his watch and saw that it was a few minutes past 9, he started to get worried. Grabbing his badge and gun he left the office to get to Tony's place.

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Something was wrong!

Gibbs could tell it as soon as he stepped behind the closed door of Tony's flat.

Not wanting to waste his time with knocking and waiting for the door to be open, Gibbs easily picked the lock and entered the quiet apartment. What he saw shocked him but he guessed it was better than what he'd imagined he'd see.

Right there, in the living room, was Tony. sitting on his couch, staring into space blankly and lost in his thoughts. What bothered Gibbs the most, though, was that Tony was still in his last night's clothing.

So much for getting rest!

The younger man had spent another sleepless night!

"Tony?" Gibbs asked tentatively but received no reaction from him, as if the younger man hadn't even noticed he was there.

The expression on his face was like nothing Gibbs had ever seen on that usually bright-with-grin face. It felt like the Tony he knew was replaced by a poor clone. This guy looked just like Tony, but other than that he didn't seem to have anything in common with his SFA.

Even his eyes were different; they were dull and lifeless.

Gibbs cursed under his breath. Due to difficult circumstances they all had forgotten that Tony didn't really have anyone to talk to, or any way to deal with his demons when things got too out of hand.

He'd failed to see how hard Tony was trying to keep up his old facade; he'd just bark at him and push him away when the younger man would reach out for help. Figuratively.

"Just because you knew the guy, doesn't mean you're responsible for his death." Gibbs sat down beside him on the couch and was sure that Tony still hadn't heard him until Tony reached out and pressed a button on the phone on the coffee table.

A recorded message started to fill the air.

At first Gibbs was confused, but by the end of the message Gibbs knew what exactly had been the last straw.

"He's in the hospital." Tony repeated icily what he'd heard on the message. His face was still void of emotion and empty. "I'm his next of kin." He murmured.

Gibbs held back the urge to curse Senior out loud; the bastard had hurt Tony over and over again and he still had the guts to get the hospital to call Tony when he needed his dutiful son.

"I'll go with you if you need to go." Instead of cursing, he tried to show some support.

That finally got Tony's attention as he turned his gaze and for the first time looked at his boss. "I don't know what's wrong with him; I'm not even sure if I wanna go." His eyes were filled with pain; it was one of those rare moments when Tony would let you take a look behind his many masks.

"You don't have to."

"Apparently I do." Tony sighed.

"You should've called me last night." It was clear to Gibbs that Tony had heard the message last night, just when he'd arrived home.

There was no response.

"When should you leave?" The older agent didn't want to push.

"Not now. We're in the middle of a case." It seemed like Tony had started to, once again, set up his defenses. At least he was trying again.

"We can always pass it to another team."

"No." Tony's head snapped up. "This is more important."

"Okay." Gibbs accepted easily. 'Even better.' He thought and didn't even feel guilty about it. Senior had to understand that he couldn't demand and get whatever he wished whenever he wished.

The man sure could wait; the nurse who'd left the message hadn't said anything about a critical situation; in fact she's said that she was calling Tony only because the older DiNozzo wanted his son by his side. It was past the time that DiNozzo Sr. realized Tony was a grown man who had a life and a very important job on top of it and couldn't just drop everything to rush to his aid whenever he messed up.

The man, himself, wouldn't show up even if his son was dying and he never had anything that important, really; and let's not mention how badly he'd hurt his son recently.

Tony shook his head and rubbed his temple, a clear sign of the headache he was trying to hide.

"You need some rest."

"I'm fine." Tony got up from the couch that he'd been sitting on for the past 12 hours and his eyes widened in shock when his eyes fell on the clock on the wall and realized that he hadn't moved from his spot since last night. He'd wondered why Gibbs was there for a second, but couldn't bring himself to ask. He now knew why his boss was there.

"DiNo-"

"Boss, I'm fine. I just need to take a shower." He chose not to ponder what sitting on a couch for more then 12 hours and losing so many hours meant. "It won't take long. You go back to the Yard; I'll be right behind you."

"I'll wait here." Gibbs gave in. He could understand that Tony needed to keep his mind busy; besides, he himself would've been just as determined to solve the case if he knew the victim, too.

And he knew that it'd be better if he could keep Tony around and have an eye on him. The fact that the younger man hadn't moved from his spot on the couch for more than 12 hours was showing how bad things were.

Less than 30 minutes later, Tony was out of the shower and ready to go and didn't even protest when Gibbs led him to his own car.

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There was nothing on the victims' corpses that could lead them to anything, but by noon things were looking better.

Through one of his old contacts Tony had managed to find a friend of Adam's who'd been hiding the whole time but wanted the bastard who'd killed his friend dead. The man had given Tony some information and with that and everything else that McGee and Ziva had found they were sure that Pedro Adriano, their principal suspect, was responsible for the murderers.

They just needed some solid evidence!

Their suspect was Hispanic, dealing drugs and weapons; but he was a low grade dealer and hopefully with a simple undercover operation they could catch him.

Gibbs decided to send Tony and McGee inside as two dealers. Tony would handle the operation while McGee would act as the computer boy, dealing with accounts and money transfers. Apparently Pedro liked to deal with people who had a geek boy around.

As their main backups, Gibbs and Ziva stayed behind and monitored everything.

With the help of Adam's friend they found their way inside pretty easily.

Tony was sure they could finish everything and close the case soon and then he could go to New York and see what was wrong with his father. Although he was still angry with his old man, he couldn't leave him when he needed someone. He'd promised himself long time ago that he'd never act like his father and if he turned his back on him now, he'd just, as well, admit that he was becoming like the older man.

Everything was going as they had planned, but, although the dealers weren't professional, they weren't stupid at all and sure weren't deaf. So, when McGee slipped and didn't used Tony's fake name and called him Tony instead of Gino, which Adam's friend had come up with, without consulting anyone, they got suspicious and started to gather their stuff to get away.

It was already too late, though. They had gathered enough evidence against Pedro and his men and Tony had managed to talk about Adam with one of Pedro's man and so they knew how to get them to confess when they had them under arrest.

Gibbs ordered everyone in, but Pedro was so desperate to get away that he started to shoot wildly in every directions.

One of the bullets hit Tony in the chest but he got lucky and the pen in his breast pocket stopped it from entering his body. His luck ended there, though; the bullet shattered from the impact and a fragment hit Tony in the head right above his left eye while another one penetrated into the side of his neck.

Before he knew what had happened to him, he was on the ground and every other sound had faded away.

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"How's he?" Gibbs stopped pacing as soon as he saw the doctor coming out of the operating room that held Tony inside.

"Don't get me wrong, but I really wish we wouldn't meet so soon again." Doctor Wilson greeted Gibbs.

"Likewise. How's he?" He asked again.

"He's stable. No broken ribs, but one hell of a bruise there. His neck wound wasn't serious, it needed 6 stitches, but it'll heal nicely."

"And the head wound?"

"We got the bullet fragment out; luckily it hadn't gone far inside. We made a small incision on his forehead and get it out. It hadn't done any harm to his brain as far as the scans show; but he's got a severe concussion again and it's not good that it hasn't been even one month since his last one."

Gibbs frowned; everyone knew that head traumas weren't good in general and two severe concussions within a very short time of each other? It was more than bad news. "What's the verdict?"

"Can't be sure at this moment. We'll wait for him to wake up and will decide what to do from there."

Nodding his head, Gibbs let the doctor walk away and he, himself, left the hospital to find a cafe to get a decent coffee. He wasn't about to leave Tony's side until he was sure that the younger man was going to be alright and with their case closed and the confessions added to the case, there was nothing to do in the office.

It hadn't taken him long to get confession from Pedro's men and with Pedro's body on one of Ducky's table Gibbs was satisfied enough to leave things behind and stay at the hospital.

He'd given McGee a verbal reprimand and a tongue lashing for his carelessness but that was it, since it was a pure mistake on his side and everyone knew that they couldn't expect Tim to control his stress and be good at that kind of things. It wasn't his territory, after all and the younger agent was blaming himself enough already.

Finding his way back to the hospital, Gibbs decided to give Tony's father a call and make sure that he was fine; because knowing Tony, his first question would be about his father when he woke up. Or maybe his second question, right after he was reassured that everyone else on the team was safe and sound and the case had been closed successfully.

And Tony didn't disappoint Gibbs. Just like Gibbs had expected, Tony's first question had been about team and the case. Annoyingly, the ex-cop looked relieved when he found out that he'd been the only one injured on their side.

He was slurring a bit, but that was expected considering the amount of pain he was in and after a second severe concussion so close to the first one. Doctor Wilson told him about a series of scans but didn't seem too worried after examining Tony.

Tony protested, though. Telling them that he was fine and he was needed in New York where his father was in another hospital. At that moment Gibbs was glad that he'd called the hospital and knew exactly how Senior was doing.

"Your father is alright, DiNozzo. Your condition is worse and you'll stay here until you're clear."

"With all due respect, Boss, you can't make me stay. I need to go."

"I called the hospital, OK? He's doing fine. He's had a heart attack but they're keeping him in the hospital merely for precaution. You need to take care of yourself first, Tony." Gibbs added softly.

Tony took a deep breath and grimaced when it hurt his chest and neck, but nodded at the end. He didn't really look forward to meeting his father; he just wanted to be a good dutiful son and make sure that the man was fine, but this was a good excuse to stay away. He could only take so much!

So he gave up and let the nurses do their things and fell asleep afterward.

...

"Tony? Can you hear me?" Abby jumped from her seat when she saw Tony started to stir; he'd been out of it for the last 16 hours and even the nurses and doctors had started to worry.

Slowly Tony opened his eyes and after a few minutes he finally was able to keep his eyes open and focused.

"O my God, Tony. Don't ever do this to me again." Abby had tears in her eyes as she bent down and gave Tony a gentle hug. "You have no idea how worried everyone is. If you need to sleep that bad, let us know first, would you? I mean I know that you haven't had enough rest lately and you totally did need some good sleep, but that's not cool when you're concussed and it's severe and then you wake up and go back to sleep and won't wake up for more than 16 hours. Alright, that's not completely true, because you did wake up, but those times don't count since you weren't coherent and were out of it less than a minute after waking up. Everyone's stopped by to see you. But they had to get back to work; I stayed here and promised them that I'd give them a call as soon as you woke up, so I'm gonna go call Gibbs and tell them the good news. Do you need anything?" She smiled happily, but the smile fell off her face when she saw the pained confused look on Tony's face.

"Umm, are you alright, Tony? I know that it's a stupid question, because you wouldn't be here if you were alright, but relatively, do you feel OK?"

Tony remained silent and took a look around before his gaze fell on Abby again.

"Tony?"

When he finally opened his mouth, it wasn't an answer to Abby's question and it was nothing she needed to hear ever. Tiredly, he asked, "Where am I?"

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... TBC ...


A/N: Uh-oh! Another cliffhanger!You don't mind, right? ! :D

Let me know what you think. :)

As I've always said, I try to be as accurate as possible when it comes to medical or legal details, but I also had to take some liberties to write the story.

Sorry for any mistakes!

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