Chapter 3

Gibbs walked into the parking garage and automatically knew something was wrong. "Hello?" he called in to the seemingly empty space. When he didn't get a response he got worried. Hadn't Tony been heading in this direction only a few minutes earlier? With that thought in mind he headed towards Tony's parking spot and what he found caused him to almost throw up. There was Tony on the ground blood gushing from a blunt force trauma to his head. Gibbs was surprised that he could hear Tony moaning and bent down to check on his second in command and best friend.

"Tony…"

Tony opened his eyes painfully, "Hi Boss."

Gibbs let out a sigh of relief. "Just hold on, I'll call 911."

"O…okay." Tony whispered, closing his eyes again.

Gibbs got an ambulance on the way and then spent the time talking to Tony to keep him conscience. "Who did this to you?" he questioned, mostly to keep the younger man talking.

Tony knew EXACTLY who did it but shrugged his shoulders in response.

Gibbs found this hard to believe but didn't pry. For some reason he felt like questioning him would only make things worse.

"H…how bad…is…it." Tony managed to ask as he felt himself trying to slip out of consciousness.

"You're going to be fine." Gibbs said and when he did he realized Tony had passed out in his arms.

Tony blinked his eyes open and groaned at how bright the lights were in the room. "Lights…off." He said to the person he sensed in the room with him. After a few seconds he could tell the lights were turned down so he tried opening his eyes again. This time he was able to keep them open and he looked around the room. He could tell he was in your basic hospital room and recognized the person standing by the door to be Gibbs. "What…time is it?"

"Around 5:30." Gibbs replied as he walked away from the light switch and over to his spot next to Tony's bed. "You gave us quite a scare."

"Us?" Tony questioned looking around the room and then spotted what looked like Becca's coat. He tried to keep his breathing normal and not panic. There was NO way anybody could ever find out that she was the one that had hurt him…no way at all.

Just then the door opened and Becca walked into the room. She was confused at the lighting difference at first but then when she saw that her husband was awake she smiled big. "You're awake." She said going over and placing a kiss gently to his forehead.

"Yeah." Tony replied and leaned back into his pillow, trying to keep his distance from the psychopath in front of him without being obvious.

Becca got the hint and glared at Tony for a second. A glare that said 'Don't you DARE'.

Gibbs smiled, "Well I will leave you two alone and go call the rest of the team to tell them what is going on."

"Maybe you should call in the doctor?" Tony said which confused Gibbs. "I mean shouldn't they know I'm awake or something?"

"Um, right." Gibbs said. "I will go talk to your nurse." He said before leaving the room.

Both Tony and Becca were quiet for a few seconds before he spoke up. "I thought you would be long gone. It's obvious you want nothing to do with me."

"Tony, baby I don't know what you're talking about." Becca said as she tried to take his hand in hers but he pulled it away. "Tony…"

"You act like you don't know what happened." Tony spat, glaring at her even though the glaring process hurt his head.

Becca continued to look confused. "I don't understand…you were found at NCIS. Gibbs thinks it has something to do with your current case." She sighed. "I've always hated the fact that you could get hurt so easily out in the field, but I didn't realize it would be so easy to get hurt on NCIS soil."

Tony couldn't believe what he was hearing, did she really think he was that stupid. "Shut up." He said which caused her to raise her eyebrows in shock.

"What?"

"I said to shut…up."

"Tony what is wrong with you…you are acting weird." Becca backed up from the bed in fear.

Just then the door opened and Tony's doctor and nurse came walking into the room with Gibbs holding up the rear.

"Hello Tony my name is Doctor Shmeegle and this is Harold." The young male doctor said as he pulled out a light pen and started shining it in Tony's eyes. "You've got yourself a pretty awful bash on the head which led to…"

"A concussion." Tony said already understanding the drill. He had dealt with head injuries over the years. "When can I go home?"

Doctor Shmeegle smiled, "Well since you seem pretty alert I would say tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

The doctor nodded, "Yeah we still need to watch you for at least 24 hours and make sure you'll have somebody to watch you when you get home. Which I am sure your wife will be able to do."

"Actually I am scheduled to leave town…" Becca spoke up and this was confusing to Tony. When had Becca decided to leave town? Not that he really minded.

Becca saw Tony's confused expression. "My friend Kristie just had a baby, I am going to go to Ohio for a week to be with her."

"Oh." Tony said and couldn't help but feel himself relax a bit more knowing he didn't need to go home with a psychopath and make up a reason not to.

"He can come home with me." Gibbs said with a shrug. "That is unless you want to go home with one of your other teammates.

Tony smiled a little, "Your place is fine Boss."

"Well it's settled then. You can go home tomorrow evening as long as your boss here is ready to take you on." Doctor Shmeegle said still all smiles.

Harold the nurse typed all this into the computer and then walked out of the room with the doctor.

Around dinner time that evening Tony finally convinced the doctor that he was ready to go home, especially with Gibbs looking after him for the next few days.

"So we'll go to your place and pick up some stuff." Gibbs said as he and Tony climbed in his car and they backed out of the parking space.

"Thanks," Tony said looking at his boss and friend with a smile. "You sure you are okay with me staying for a few days?"

Gibbs nodded his head, "Completely."

Tony smirked playfully, "I won't be cramping your style?"

"Tony I haven't had a 'style' to cramp in a while, you know that." Gibbs said as he drove towards Tony and Becca's apartment. "Not since Brian."

Tony's smirk to turned to a look of disgust nobody on the team had been very fond of Gibbs' last boyfriend Brian Holland.

"Oh don't look like that, he wasn't that bad." Gibbs said rolling his eyes. "He just didn't understand what it meant to have a boyfriend who worked for the Federal Government."

'I know how that goes.' Tony thought to himself and was quiet the rest of the way to his apartment. When they got there he tried to get Gibbs to stay outside but he insisted on helping.

"I'm not going to fall down or something." Tony told Gibbs.

"You very easily could." Gibbs huffed as he got out of the car and followed Tony into the building and onto the elevator.

Tony leaned against the back of the elevator with his arms crossed over his chest. "I still say I could do it myself."

Gibbs sighed, "Less than 24 hours ago you were lying on the floor of the NCIS parking garage. You have a rather awful concussion to the point that you are coming to stay at my house for a few days. Now come on let's get your stuff." He said as the elevator stopped and they went to Tony's apartment.

While Tony grabbed a rolling suitcase full of items, Gibbs took the time to look over the apartment. He hadn't spent much time there since the couple had got married and that had been years ago now. In his 'snooping' Gibbs noticed something and laughed. "You still have a goldfish?"

"Of course I do," Tony said from the bedroom. "That's Bob."

"Bob the fish."

"Why not…it's as good of a name as any." Tony said as he rolled his items out into the living room and looked at Bob. "I guess I have to bring him too."

"Guess so."

While Gibbs held Bob, Tony rolled his now full suitcase out the door and back down to Gibbs' car. It was only a matter of twenty minutes or so before they were pulling into Gibbs' driveway.

"Thanks again for doing this Boss." Tony said as they carried his things into the house.

Gibbs rolled his eyes, "Stop thanking me, this is what friends do." He eyed Tony who looked about ready to fall over. "Why don't you take a seat in the living room and I'll get us some ice waters." He was going to say beers but realized beer and pain killers would not mix.

Tony nodded and flopped onto the old threadbare couch. Gibbs' house was much different than his own. His house was full of brand-new furniture (well within the last few years) and most of it was contemporary in style. Gibbs' house was full of furniture that was decades old. The only things that were new in the living room that Tony could tell was the new TV set he had bought the older man a few months back and the laptop computer that sat closed on the coffee table. It looked like it was collecting dust so it was rarely used but at least he didn't have some archaic contraption anymore.

"Here go." Gibbs said handed Tony a cup of ice water before sitting down in a chair across from his SFA and friend. "So care to tell me what happened?"

When Tony looked confused Gibbs shook his head in disbelief. "I know it was HER."

"Her?"

"Rebecca."