Disclaimer: Not mine. I gave up on the thought of owning them, so now I'm trying to build a time machine so that September comes early ;)

A/N: Okay, maybe I've should said this earlier, but better late than never: I don't know much about hospital/surgery procedures. I've been in the hospital once for a knee surgery, and that was in and out the same day. If you come across mistakes: just remember it's fiction :P

Any grammar/spelling mistakes that are left in this chapter are mine too by the way, I've rewritten some stuff after being beta'd - and about beta-reading: I want to thank NcisRulz for doing it, you've been a great help :)

Doing a happy dance

Ziva sat in an uncomfortable plastic seat, her head leaning against the wall, her eyes closed. Someone who didn't know her would think she was at ease, but she was paler than usual. On her left sat McGee, once in a while readjusting in his chair, unable to get comfortable or relaxed. Next to McGee sat Ducky, who just sat and looked at the other two people in the small square room. Abby was pacing up and down, with Bert in her arms. She squeezed it every time a nurse or doctor walked by, but they never stopped to talk to them. Gibbs stood in front of the window in the corner of the waiting room. He looked calm and undisturbed, but Ducky saw how he had his fists clenched together behind his back. He was as anxious as they all were.

It had been three hours since they waved to Tony for the last time. They all had given him their best wishes. He had smiled, with his thumbs up and was taken out of sight by the nurses. They hadn't had an update since. Another thirty minutes went by, and finally the attending surgeon appeared in the door. He looked at the five faces that were filled with anticipation.

'Are you family of Anthony DiNozzo?' he asked.

'Not technical, but we're the closest thing he has to a family,' Gibbs answered.

'Well, okay then . . .' his hesitation almost got the better of Ziva, who reached her hand behind her back to get her knife. Ducky, who was standing next to her, saw her movement and grabbed her arm.

'At least wait until we get the results,' he murmured with a small smile.

'The surgery went smoothly. We were able to remove all the bone fragments, and we reconnect some nerves in his spinal cord. So I can say that, with a lot of rehabilitation, of course, he will be able to get back on his feet again. He is in a recovery room right now, and should be waking up within the hour, after that someone will show you where his room is, if you have any. . .' his pager beeped frantically and he gave it a quick look. 'Sorry, I've got to go,' and he walked quickly out the waiting room, leaving a very relieved team behind.

Tony had his eyes closed when he heard them enter. He had slept almost all day after the surgery, and when he had seen them, he was groggy from anesthesia. But now it was visiting hour, the day after the surgery. He heard them whisper something, and he tried to suppress a smile.

'Please tell me you've got pizza,' he said. 'I haven't had a decent meal since yesterday, 'cause I wasn't allowed to eat before surgery. And that hospital food just doesn't cut it. I'm starving!' he opened his eyes, and laughed at his teammates, who were looking at him as if he could break or something. He grunted. 'No pizza? Come on guys, I thought I had taught you better than that,' A moment later Gibbs appeared behind them. He held his hands up high, carrying a big, flat, square pizza box. Ducky pushed Ziva and McGee in to the room, so that Gibbs could get true.

'Thank you Boss! You know what a DiNozzo needs after surgery!' He opened the box eagerly, and shoved a slice in his mouth. He gestured with his hands that they should get some too, and the pizza box was soon empty.

'When will your exercises start?' Ziva asked after a silence. She sat on his bed, her legs crossed.

'Don't know yet, they want to get my back healed before I can do them,' Tony took another bite.

'You know we will help you again, right?' Abby smiled happily from the window still. She had placed Bert on the bedside table, right next to her pitch-black roses and a bunch of 'Get Well Soon' cards.

'Knowing you guys, it wouldn't help if I refused right?' Tony grinned. Suddenly he grabbed the pizza box and stuffed it under his bed. The others looked up, and saw a nurse walking in.

'I did see that,' she said with a stern voice but a smile on her lips.

'Sorry Marla, won't happen again,' Tony gave her his best 'You know you love me' smile.

'Why do I have a hard time believing that? I'm here to check on you,' she looked around at his guests, and gave Tony a look.

'They can stay,' he assured her.

'Fine by me,' she murmured. She took his file, and looked through it. 'Okay, I need to check your back, so I will bend you over a bit,' Marla carefully helped Tony up, who grimaced at the movement. She pulled up his scrubs, and attended his bandages quickly and skillfully.

'It's looking good so far. How about testing if they connected the nerves correctly?'

'Isn't that a bit soon?' Tony hesitated, leaning back. Suddenly he was afraid. What if the surgery hadn't worked out? He didn't want his friends to see his failure. It was painful enough that they saw him in a wheelchair every day.

'Don't worry about that, it may take some days before your body responds to the connections,' Marla reassured him. 'Okay, you know the routine. Close your eyes, and just tell me what you feel,' Tony obeyed, closed his eyes and laid his head back.

Marla took a pen out of her jacket, and with the top she pressed hard in his heels. Immediate Tony pulled is feet back. He sat up straight, not sure what had happened. Marla smiled satisfied, and placed the pen back in her pocket.

'Just be sure to take it easy and to complete your rehabilitation. But I think you'll be fine,' she said, and she left the room, leaving Tony behind with a smile that could light up a room. He didn't hear how Ziva and McGee and Abby were laughing and cheering, he didn't see the smile on Ducky's face. He only saw Gibbs, the nod, the reassurance, the smile that was only there in his eyes. He had made it. Now it was time to learn how to walk again.

So he trained again. He went in rehabilitation every day, practicing and practicing. The doctors ordered him to take it slow, but Tony didn't want to take it slow. He had only one thing in his mind, and nothing could get that thing out of his head. When he wasn't in rehab, he was in his room and trained the muscles in his legs. He had every day his personal assistant to train him, only it was always a surprise who it would be. Tony liked it when Ziva came over. She was fun to have around; he teased her with her idioms – or idiots, like she had started to call them. And he had to admit, some of the idioms where pretty idiotic. But the best part of having Ziva around was that she always found ways to push him in doing his exercises, even if he didn't want to.

The days that McGee came over weren't the best days. McGee really tried, but they always ended up doing other stuff than training. Like trying to talk nurses into a date, or sneaking in pizza again. And somehow, Tony ended always up with laughing so hard he almost choked, because he had tricked McGee in doing something stupid, again.

When Ducky was the one on duty, Tony sometimes felt himself slide away in some state between dreaming and being awake. It was the only way to go on with training his muscles and not listening to the stories the ME told. Sometimes they were pretty good, but when he started talking about cricket, Tony just shut his ears and ignored the talking. It wasn't very nice, but at least he didn't start snoring. It wasn't that he didn't liked cricket. After all, he had played it one semester at college. But after two hours cricket-talk he really was tired of it.

Abby really was just terrible at helping him train. She couldn't help it, she just was too much. She moved around too quick, talked too much, was too afraid to push him. After the first week, Gibbs decided that she wasn't allowed to help him, so she just came by to visit.

But after all was said and done, it was Gibbs with whom Tony gained the most progress. Somehow he knew exactly the right words to say when Tony was tired of working out. It was mostly a mix between humor, threats, and encouragement.

'I won't let Abby install rockets on your chair DiNozzo,'

'Maybe I just should toss your chair out of the window?'

'The doctors say you can. Abby, McGee, and Ziva believe you can. I know you can. Just do it DiNozzo!'

Besides that, Gibbs was the only one who could convince Tony that he needed to take it easy.

'What's the use! I want to walk out of this hospital, I'm sick and tired of those wheels!'

'Believe me DiNozzo, you're not the only one. But if you don't take your time to recover, then I am forced to learn to work with some moron the director picked. It's not that she doesn't know any good field agents, but I don't look forward to train a new one if I got one who is perfectly capable of doing the job. So you will take it easy, or you will have desk duty for three months,' Gibbs saw that Tony wanted to say something. 'And that will be three months after your recovery DiNozzo, so you better listen!'

Even after that talk – which Tony did took serious enough - it took them four weeks, which was less than half the time the doctors had estimated, to complete the whole list of required workouts that the doctors had ordered. It was a sunny Thursday afternoon that he was brought to the rehabilitation centre once again. His doctor, Ducky and Gibbs where waiting for him.

'What's up Doc?' Tony asked, sounding like Bugs Bunny. His doctor smiled.

'We think you might be ready to try the next level. The only question is if you are ready?' Tony felt his heartbeat increasing, adrenaline started to rush.

'Let's do this thing,' he nodded, his voice more convincing than he felt himself.

'Just take it easy, remember that you legs still are quite weak,' the doctor instructed. They went over to the wall, where there were two bars placed next to each other. They could be moved up and down, depending on the height of the patient.

'Your wheelchair will fit exactly between those bars. The nurse will help you up, you lean on the bars, and when you think you are ready you put more weight on your feet. If you think you can't manage, you can sit back down immediately. Any questions?'

'No, not really,' Tony rolled to the bars, and with the help from the nurse he worked himself up. Gibbs followed his movements carefully, his eyes not leaving his agent. Somehow he had a bad feeling about this. It was as if it had gone too easy. With DiNozzo you never could predict the events, but you knew one thing for sure: it never, ever, went down easy. Ducky was talking softly with the doctor about the progress Tony had made.

Tony was leaning on the bars on his own now. He closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about the night he tried to stand up. He had failed miserably. Don't think about it Tony. That was before the surgery. This will be different. This has to be different. Easy now. Your feet are on the ground, you are in the freaking hospital, and there is nothing that can go wrong. Just breathe. In. Out. Question: beneath which plant you can't sit for more than two minutes before you're dead? Oh come on Anthony, not the time for jokes. It's a water lily of course. Haha. Now, where were you? Right. Walking. No, first standing, and then walking.

Slowly he put more weight on his feet. Finally his feet were flat on the ground. He actual could feel the carpet beneath his feet. He hadn't noticed at first, but suddenly he felt the soft tickling of dust at his feet. He looked up, and flashed a 10,000 watt smile at his audience.

'I can feel it! I can feel the rug that's here!' He had never been happier with just feeling something as simple as that. He knew he sounded like a little kid, but he couldn't help himself. If he could he would do a happy-dance.

'That's a good sign, Tony,' his doctor nodded content. 'Can you now try to stand without holding the bars?' Gibbs looked at the doctor with a hint of a glare in his eyes.

'Is that wise?'

'Well, if we don't try it now, we can practically wait forever. He has to try it sometime,' the doctor said.

'The doctor has a point, Jethro. It is the only way to know for sure if Anthony is able to walk again,' Ducky added.

'Okay, here we go,' Tony mumbled. He felt how he stood on the carpet. He felt the weight on his feet, he tensed his muscles slightly. After taking in one deep breath, he looked up again, his eyes fixated at Gibbs. And he let go.