Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing.

A/N: Again many thanks to my beta-reader NcisRulez, who made this chapter readable ;)

Enjoy reading, and don't hesitate to leave a review!

Solution

A few hours later Gibbs, Ziva and McGee returned from their murder scene. They looked dirty, with mud on their clothes, Ziva had leaves in her hair and black sweeps across her face. McGee's pants were soaked beyond recognition, even Gibbs looked ruffled.

'Where are you going?' Gibbs threw his jack behind his desk. McGee had a pair of dry pants in his hands.

'Ehm, going to change Boss,' he answered.

'No you don't. You and Ziva show everything to Tony, update him on the things you found and he does the same to you. When you're done then you can go and change,'

'But . . .' McGee started. Gibbs smacked his head while he passed him. 'Yes Boss,' McGee murmured. He walked back, and started to show the photos of the crime scene on the plasma. A few minutes later they were completely focused on the case.

Gibbs stood on the balcony before MTAC, in his hands a large cup of coffee, and looked down at his team. Ziva was sitting on the edge of Tony's desk, McGee was busy with doing some stuff on his computer, while talking to Tony, who was sitting in front of the plasma screen and pointing things out that had his interest. Sometimes office supplies flew through the bullpen, and at one point Ziva held her knife in front of Tony – Gibbs guessed she threatened to stab him if he didn't quit with whatever he was doing to annoy her. For a moment, it felt if things were like they used to be. If only he could get Tony to talk about the things that had happened. Getting him into the office was working to a certain point, but he had heard how he had rambled to Jenny. They shared the same thought: Tony didn't allow himself to show his weaknesses. It was as if he thought he wasn't important enough, that his pain didn't count. So he tried to cheer everyone up, except himself. It explained the way he had acted during visiting hours. He had joked around, cheered Abby up when she was in tears because of the news he needed a wheelchair. He had flirted with the nurses when they came in to check his vitals. He had made jokes about binding rockets onto his chair so he could capture running suspects, because they never stood still when they were asked to. But he had seen it; the dark, haunted look in his eyes when he thought no one was looking at him. Gibbs knew Ziva had seen it too, because when she thought no one noticed her, she looked worried. And even though maybe that haunted look had disappeared somewhere in the afternoon that he was back at his desk, Gibbs knew it wasn't over yet. Maybe things hadn't even started yet. He took the last sip of his coffee, and walked down the stairs to his team.

They went over the case until it was late in the evening, and they were the only ones who were still working. When they were completely sure that they knew everything they could possible know to this point, Gibbs decided to send them home.

'McGee, can you give DiNozzo a ride?' he asked, when Tony and Ziva were down to the lab. He didn't want to ask this while he was in the bullpen, because he didn't want to make Tony feel as if he was a burden. When did you became soft, Gunny? Flashed through his brain.

'Uhm . . . Can't you do it Boss?' McGee asked after a silence. He had turned his computer off, his wet pants had disappeared in a plastic bag, and he was ready to leave.

'If I could, I wouldn't ask you,' Gibbs said. 'Got plans?'

'Well . . . no . . . not exactly, it's just . . . I can't do it,' McGee said. Gibbs raised his eyebrows and looked at McGee more intently. There was something McGee wasn't telling him.

'Is it because of the wheels?' he asked bluntly. The red glow on McGee's face said enough. 'It's still the same old 'very' Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, McGee, even if he can't walk yet,'

'I know,' McGee nodded, still blushing, but relieved that Gibbs didn't yell at him.

'So what's the problem?'

'Because I don't want to be larger than he is,' McGee said after a long silence. Gibbs felt that he didn't just meant larger as in length, but larger as in the better agent.

'You are an excellent agent, McGee,' he said – still somewhere wondering why he didn't just smack him on the head.

'But Tony is the better field agent,' McGee answered. 'And I know that. I don't mind that. But . . .' he stopped talking when he heard the elevator bell, announcing Tony and Ziva back. Knowing that they were off duty anyway, he quickly gathered his things and with a last goodbye he hurriedly left the bull pen, before Gibbs could call him back. Instead of calling him back, Gibbs rubbed his face with his hands.

'Ziva,' he started.

'Yes?'

'Can you give Tony a ride? I am not done yet and I don't want him to become me. Not yet at least,' he smirked.

'Sure, no problem,' Ziva smiled. 'I am not sure if Tony will like it, yes?' she grinned at Tony, who turned a little pale.

'Boss, you know her way of driving! Is there no other option?' Gibbs looked up thoughtfully.

'Well, you could always wheel yourself,' he offered. 'But don't worry, Ziva's driving has improved lately,' he smiled when Tony was openly relieved. He waited until they were in the elevator. 'A bit,' he added laughing.

'How the hell will this fit?' Tony asked friendly at Ziva. They were standing at Ziva's Mini Cooper, the trunk open. He thought it didn't look big. It looked small. Too small.

'Why don't you get in the car, I will work it out,' Ziva said.

'Fine by me,' he said, and he moved his wheelchair around.

'Need help?' Ziva offered, suddenly remembering that maybe he had trouble getting into the car. She looked around the car, to see if he could manage.

'I'm good,' Tony opened the door, placed himself next to the seat, set his brakes on the chair and leant with one arm on the chair. With the other he heaved himself up, and swung himself in the car. Ziva took his wheelchair, and after some hustling she managed to fold it in, and placed it in her trunk. Five minutes later they left the gates.

'What's wrong Tony?' Ziva asked after a few minutes. She looked at Tony, who looked somberly out of the window. He didn't even wince when she passed a car and swayed back to the lane when a car approached quickly.

'Did McGee have plans tonight?' he asked casually.

'Not that I know of,' Ziva answered. 'Why?' She gave another look in his direction and now he did wince.

'Keep your eyes on the road!' he insisted with a hint of panic in his voice. Ziva laughed, and passed three cars at once. Tony sighed, closed his eyes and held on tight to the door handle. 'It's nothing, I guess,' he answered.

'Okay, then it's nothing,' Ziva smiled, she turned sharply to the right, ignored the red traffic lights and drove on. Tony had peeked through one eye, and saw the world almost going upside down.

'They have rules for a reason, you know!'

'I like to see them more as guidelines than as rules,' Ziva said happily, speeding up a bit more. Tony looked at her, and saw the glittering in her eyes.

'Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl. Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, who was nominated for an Oscar. He should have got it. Nice reference by the way,' he added. Ziva turned left, cutting the turn by driving in the wrong lane.

'But why did you asked about McGee's plans?'

'Well. I've just had a feeling that he didn't want to drive me home. He looked strange when he left, and Gibbs didn't say anything earlier about bringing me home, to you, so I figure he asked McGee. But if he didn't have plans, why wouldn't he drive me home? I mean . . . I know it sucks to have me around right now, but is it that bad?'

Ziva snapped her head in his direction, forgetting that she was driving, and the car almost hit the car that was driving next to them before she corrected the steering wheel.

'We are glad you are out of the hospital! Do you really think we don't want you around?'

'Well . . . McGee acted weird when I was released from the hospital,' he mocked.

'Don't you see it Tony? He hates it that you can't walk. He looks up to you, and now he suddenly he has to see that you aren't invincible, and that it isn't just a battle between life and death when we are out in the field. It scares him Tony!' She made another turn, cut in front of a truck, and drove through the last streets towards Tony's apartment.

'That's just stupid. I will tell him tomorrow that he should stop acting as a prick,' Tony decided angrily.

'No you won't. You have an appointment in the hospital tomorrow for a check-up,' Ziva parked in front of the building where Tony lived.

'No I don't,' he huffed. Actually he did, but he didn't feel like going.

'Are you going to tell that to Gibbs? He said he would take you,' Ziva opened the door, and walked to her trunk, where she pulled out the wheelchair. 'We can watch it, if you feel like it?'

'Watch what? Me being mishandled by some doctor who will say once again I won't be walking around anytimesoon?' Tony grumbled, getting himself in his wheelchair.

'Watching Pirates of the Caribbean I mean,'

'Oh. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not really in the mood,' Tony answered. Ziva's eyes turned darker for a second. It was about the tenth time she had asked him if he wanted to watch a movie, and again he had turned her down. She watched Tony when he got out the car, in his wheelchair. With one last wave he wheeled to his apartment.

Tony sat in his kitchen, a deep frown on his head. He looked up at the cabinets above him.

'And why do you want to make lasagna DiNozzo? It's late, you should be sleeping, but noooo you are hungry,' he muttered. In the cabinets lay sauce. He wanted sauce. It was good sauce, it made the lasagna taste better than any other sauce. But of course he couldn't reach the cabinet. Because it was too damn high and he couldn't stand. Wait. He'dnever really tried it after he left the hospital. Maybe . . .

He rolled closer to the counter. The chair on brakes – you never knew – his hands on the countertop. Slowly he pulled himself up. He felt his muscles tremble slightly, but he didn't move faster. Finally, he stood up straight, still leaning heavily on his arms. So. That was the easy part. And the second part was the part he hadn't thought through. How could he let himself go? What if he fell? On the other side, it wasn't that he would feel pain or something. Tony took a deep breath. One. Two. Three!

He forced his muscles to relax and gave himself one little push away from the counter. He balanced for a second on his feet. A burst of hope flooded through is body. Was it possible?! Could it be that they where wro. . . With a loud crash he landed on the floor, missing his wheelchair by inches. Nope. They were right.

He lay there without knowing how long. Just laying, without trying to get up, not even trying to move. He just didn't have the willpower to do so. Why had he even tried? Why didn't he believe the doctors? Why did he always have to be so stubborn, that everything in his world collapsed? He could have known. No, he should have known. Because that was had happened when he fell in love with Jeanne. He knew he shouldn't have done it. He knew she was 'just a mission'. But he couldn't help himself. And it collapsed. He knew in the back of his mind that trying to stand was stupid. But he couldn't help himself. It was as if every time someone said that he shouldn't touch the fire, he did touch it because he wanted to feel the heat for himself.

Somewhere in the night, shivers running down his back, he decided that his bed was better than the cold floor. He grabbed his chair, and tried to get into it. A sudden pain flashed through his lower back. Tony gasped, and managed to get in his chair before he fell down onto the floor again. Where the hell did that pain come from! The pain disappeared as sudden as it had come. Maybe he was just too tired, and was imagining things. He left his kitchen, not even botheringtoclean it up. What was the use? Tomorrow it would still be there.

'What's the matter?'

'I don't want to go in,'

'They won't kill you,'

'They won't make me better,'

Tony and Gibbs were standing in front of the hospital. The sun shined, people were walking in and out the sliding doors and the benches in front of the hospital were taken by people who were apparently visiting patients. Gibbs took a sip from his coffee, one hand in his pocket.

'Do I need to push you again?' He finally asked. Tony sighed, and wheeled through the entrance.

They went through the hallways; an occasional nurse greeted Tony with a grin or a wave. After waiting about fifteen minutes in an abandoned waiting area, the doctor led them to his office.

'Good to see you Tony, how are you feeling today?'

'Besides the not-walking part, I'm okay,' Tony answered.

'That's good to know. We want to make a few x-rays if that's okay with you, so we can see if anything has changed,'

Well if that was the only thing they would do today, he couldn't care less.

'Anything unusual happened lately?' the doctor asked. He stood up, and gestured that Gibbs and Tony should follow him. Tony remembered the flash of pain he felt that night, but decided that it really was something he had just imagined. Gibbs however, saw the flash of surprised memory on his face.

'Tell him DiNozzo,' Tony looked up even more surprised. He took his space in the elevator between Gibbs and the doctor.

'It's nothing, really,' he insisted. Gibbs just glared at him. 'Fine, but I assure you it's nothing. Just my imagination. I thought I felt pain in my lower back last night, but I was tired and am sure it was just my mind playing tricks on me,'

'What were you doing when you felt the pain?' the doctor inquired. The left the elevator, and walked again to the hallways of the hospital. Tony remembered when he got lost the first few times he was in it. He knew the shortcuts by heart already; he really got into the hospital too much.

'Nothing much really,' the doctor gave him an incredulous look. 'I was hungry, so I tried to make lasagna. The sauce was in a cabinet I couldn't reach while I sat, so I pushed myself up by holding the counter. I lost balance, fell, and when I tried to get into my chair I thought I had a flash of pain, that's all,' Tony thought it wouldn't be wise to tell his doctor and his boss that he had tried to stand. His doctor would probably poke him around some more than really necessary and Gibbs would smack his head.

'Well, if anything has changed we will see it on the x-rays soon enough,' the doctor smiled. 'If you go in there and change, I'll prepare the equipment,' he disappeared through a door on his right. Gibbs and Tony took the other one, more to the left. He started to undress and getting into the hospital scrubs, when he saw Gibbs staring at him.

'What?'

'You know you can't stand up. Why did you try?'

'I had my chair parked right behind me! Wait. How did you know?'

'I didn't, you just told me. Did it hurt?'

Before Tony could deny it, a nurse walked in to get him to get his x-rays done.

Half hour later they sat again in the doctor's office.

'Well, Tony, we may have some good news here,' he started. 'Your imaginary pain apparently wasn't imaginary. The bone fragments that made it impossible to operate moved to a place where we can operate on you without any risks,' He turned on the lights, to show the x-rays that had been made of Tony's back. 'We can remove them, and at the same time we can try to connect the nerves in your spinal cord. That combined with a lot of rehabilitation sessions, means you can be back on your feet in a few months,' he pointed out the bone fragments that had caused him enough pain to last a lifetime.

Tony sat silent for a few moments. Did he really hear that right? He would be walking again? He would be able to kick his wheelchair out of his life? Or was he dreaming?

'Tony,' Gibbs said. He looked at the younger agent who just sat there and stared. 'You alright?'

Tony blinked a few times, and suddenly his face split in half, his eyes sparkled with pleasure, his whole posture seemed to shine with joy.

'I'm great! When can you do that surgery?'

'There is a waiting list, but I'll try to push you in front a bit. Give me a month,' the doctor smiled. He was glad he could finally deliver some good news, after months of misery.

They left the hospital again, and Gibbs noticed the huge difference in Tony's appearance. Finally there was some of the old DiNozzo back. He smiled, he laughed, he whistled when he saw a good-looking nurse, he talked suddenly about a movie that his condition reminded him of. And instead of shutting him up, like he used to do, Gibbs let Tony talk and babble and joke around. Because he had missed it.

They drove to NCIS headquarters, taking treats with them, on Tony's request. It took them over three hours, but after that Tony's lap was filled with everything he knew his teammates loved. When they entered the NCIS building, Tony asked if Gibbs could get Abby and Ducky, and he wheeled to the bullpen. Ziva and McGee were busy with investigating the girlfriend of their dead sailor when he came in.

'Hey Probie! Here, weren't this your favorites?' He tossed a box filled with caramel fudge to McGee, who barely caught it. Tony turned to Ziva and handed her another box with a big grin.

'What's this?' She informed, looking at it skeptically. She placed it on her desk, in front of her computer, and started to unwrap it.

'Just go see for yourself,' Tony laughed. He saw Ducky and Abby walking in, followed by Gibbs, and searched the contents of his lap quickly. He emerged a bowl painted with skulls from it, filled with black-and-white skeleton-sweets.

'Abby! This one is for you! And Ducky! I've got something good, I know you'll love it,' he handed Ducky a big basket filled with almost twenty flavors of English tea. He looked happily at his teammates, who looked back smiling, but a little confused.

'Tony. . . how did you get this?' Ziva asked, without taking her eyes off the contents of her box.

'Do you like it? I wasn't sure if it was the right stuff,' Tony asked, a hint of insecurity in his voice.

'No, it's perfect! I love halvah! I love chocolate halvah! How did you get it?'

'Doesn't matter. Oh, Gibbs, I've got something for you to,' he took the last package from his lap. It was small, square and tightly wrapped.

'What's this?' Gibbs asked in rough tone. How the hell did he found a way to buy him something without him noticing? He sat down on the edge of his desk, the package in his hand.

'Apparently the best coffee in the world,' Tony smiled. He couldn't help it, it was impossible not to laugh at the moment.

'Why are you getting us stuff Tony?' Abby asked, chewing on the leg of a skeleton. 'I mean, not that I don't like it, this is some fine candy, but you never was the sharing kind of guy,' she winked at him.

'The doctors had some good news. The bone fragments moved, and now they can perform surgery. I will walk again!'

The bullpen fell silent for a minute. Then Abby dropped her bowl on the floor, the skeletons scattered around, and gave him one of the biggest hugs she ever gave him. McGee started to laugh, left his desk and walked over to Tony. He grabbed a hand, and shook it fiercely. Moments later Ziva joined Abby in the hug – which was really not something she did often. Gibbs and Ducky just looked at each other. Ducky nodded, a content look on his face, and the corner of Gibbs' mouth went up a little. Yes. It was definitely good to have DiNozzo back. He looked at the package in his hand, and unwrapped it. Kopi Luwak the small box read. Well, maybe it wasn't all that good.

In the weeks that followed, it seemed to Tony as if the world had gained more colors. He couldn't remember being down, he even looked forward to getting through surgery. He did his exercises with more effort than before; he had cleaned his apartment out, with help from Abby, because he couldn't reach everything. They solved the case of the murdered sailor, who had pissed off his two girlfriends because of cheating. One had lured him into the woods, the other had shot him. The ladies hadn't resisted arrest when they wore caught, they just yelled at each other for being stupid, dumb and useless.

It was still two weeks before the surgery, when Tony was showing Abby some tricks with his wheelchair in her lab. She had begged him to let her ride for a while, but just when he was about to cave Gibbs walked in.

'Don't even think about it,' he warned glaring at the two, who were looking busted and eyed sneakily to each other. Tony grinned and made a wheelie through the lab. Ever since he found out his wheelchair would be temporarily, he decided to invent some tricks in it.

'Quit it Tony. The hospital called. They want to operate you earlier,'

'When?'

'Tomorrow,'

A/N: Halvah is a Israeli sort of candy.

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world. It's coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (according to Wikipedia). So basically it's coffee made of the crap of an animal.