Spoilers: 7x21 'Obsession'
Tony was not thoroughly surprised to see Jimmy waiting by the hospital entrance. "What are you doing here?" he asked as he slid into the passenger side.
"Thought that you wouldn't want to take a cab back to NCIS," Jimmy replied with a shrug, the company car that Tony had used to drop both himself and Dana off at the hospital had been picked up by another agent hours ago.
"Thanks," Tony said with a small smile before looking out the window, too lost in thought to notice Jimmy observing him out of the corner of his eye. When they were halfway to the Navy Yard Jimmy spied a small park, pulled into the parking lot and killed the engine.
"Want to talk about it?" he asked turning to Tony.
"I always said that I wouldn't get too involved after what happened in Philly and then to Carla in Baltimore, I didn't need any more reminders of what could go wrong and a cop gets too close," Tony said as he continued to look out the passenger side window absentmindedly.
"Hey, Carla," Tony said from where he hovered uncertainly in the hospital room doorway.
"Tony, hi," she greeted warmly and he took it as his cue that she would not mind his company. As he took a seat gingerly next to the head of her bed her eyes landed on the stitches above his right eye socket and his left shoulder immobilized by the sling and she internally cringed. God, she was so stupid, she let herself get too close to the case and she placed herself and her partner in danger due to her obsession and ensuing tunnel vision. Not to mention the unpleasant memories from Philadelphia this whole ordeal would have brought up, yes, she was definitely an idiot.
"How are you feeling?" he asked uncertainly. He and Carla had been partners for almost a year now, she was a great partner. She knew all about Philadelphia, it was only fair after all, he did not want her walking into this thing blind, the captain had agreed and when most people would have asked for another partner she had taken it all in stride and for that he would always be grateful.
"I'm fine, Tony," she said waving off his concern. "How are you doing?" she asked him seriously.
Tony had a glib reply at the ready but her serious expression stopped him short. Carla would know that he was lying anyway and had no problems calling him out on his bullshit and besides, this was not a time to be lying anyway.
"God, Carla, promise me that you won't ever scare me like that again," he practically pleaded with her. When he had heard that she had gone the dirt bag on her own he had been so worried but it was nothing compared to what he felt when he saw her there lying motionless on the floor of the abandoned factory. "I thought you were dead," he said honestly.
"Then why did you?" Jimmy asked. He was not trying to be confrontational, he was just honestly curious. Sometimes Tony would get wrapped up in a case, particularly when it involved kids, murdered and/or missing young women or people who would not be winning a 'Parent of the Year' award but rarely had Jimmy seen him latch on like he had with the Jeff and Dana Hutton case.
"I don't know," he replied honestly. "There was just something about her. She was nice, don't you think, Jimmy?" he asked and Jimmy could not help but sigh internally, he would not be getting a straight answer, at least not tonight.
Jimmy nodded in agreement with Tony's assessment of Dana, he and Doctor Mallard had briefly met Dana when she had come to NCIS to formally identify her brother's body and make arrangements for his military burial. Thankfully her brother had set up a living will when he was alive so it was fairly straightforward. The whole incident had been tinged with bitter irony since here she was making the necessary arrangements for a funeral for her brother that she would never get to see because she herself would be dead before it happened.
"Yeah, Tony, she was."
"And now she's dead and I'm reminded, once again, why rule ten exists," Tony said bitterly.
Jimmy let silence reign after that because really, what does one after that? Nothing he could say would bring Dana or her brother back; nothing would change the fact that they were killed for really no reason other than greed. If Charlie Bascomb had not died in that car accident both Dana and her brother could have gone on living their lives oblivious to the fact that that her close friend had been a deep cover Russian spy during the Cold War era. After they had been sitting there in silence Jimmy started the car again.
"So, still want to go pick up your car?" asked Jimmy as they reached the exit of the parking lot for the park, it was late but it was not so late as to raise eyebrows.
"Yeah," Tony said before shutting up and not talking for the rest of the ride. "Thanks for the ride, Palmer," Tony said once they got to the Navy Yard and Tony's car.
"Hey, Tony," Jimmy said stopping his friend right before he got out of the car. Tony turned around and looked at Jimmy questioningly. "Want to hang out on Saturday?"
"I thought that you had a date with Breena then."
"Yeah, but that's at night. We can get breakfast or lunch and maybe play some basketball or something, it doesn't matter what," he said hoping that Tony would say yes.
"Sure, that'd be great, Jimmy," Tony replied with a small genuine smile. "I'll call you, okay?"
"I'm holding you to that," Jimmy said before driving off.