"One of you can ride with us but we need to move now. He's losing too much blood" the blond paramedic urged.
Gibbs swung into the rig. "Ziva, call the director and get another team on this. Call Ducky. Tell him to meet me at Bethesda"
Ziva nodded and she and McGee stood in the middle of the road, watching as the ambulance pulled away.
Ziva and McGee lost no time in notifying the director, securing the scene and enlisting another team before making a rush to the hospital taking both cars. They arrived at the hospital an hour after the ambulance had left them. Ziva cursed the traffic as she pulled into the car park and got out of the car.
"You know, in Israel it is not like this. We do not have all these maniac drivers that do not know the meaning of a horn!" she stormed, walking as fast as she could without running. McGee jogged alongside her as they entered through the glass doors.
"Ziva, McGee" Ducky called to them from the far corner of the waiting room where he was sitting and Gibbs was pacing.
"Boss, any word on Tony?"
Gibbs angrily shook his head. "They think the bullet nicked his subclavian artery. He's still in surgery"
He suddenly spun and stalked away. Ducky sighed.
"He's beating himself up about it. He thinks he should have gone up first and been the one shot" Ducky told Ziva and McGee's astonished faces.
"He should know that it could have been any of us Ducky" McGee sank into one of the available chairs. "Tony took the lead and we let him. It could just have easily been Gibbs or Ziva or me"
Ziva made a sound in the back of her throat that sounded like an agreement as she took up pacing back and forth in the space Gibbs had left.
Seconds became minutes and minutes became hours as they waited for news. Abby turned up not ten minutes after Ziva and McGee had walked through the doors in a frenzy. It took both Ducky, McGee and Ziva to assure her that Tony would be okay. Finally, five hours after Tony had gone into surgery a surgeon dressed in blue scrubs and carrying a see thorough plastic bag turned up at the waiting room. He spotted the odd looking group instantly in the empty room. Gibbs had returned and was nursing this third coffee, Ducky was scanning the pages of an old medical magazine he had asked for from reception, McGee had passed out in one of the waiting room chairs and Ziva was methodically taking apart and re assembling her gun.
"Tony DiNozzo?" he inquired.
Gibbs leapt to his feet. "You his surgeon?"
The surgeon nodded. "I can only talk to his next of kin. I'm sorry"
"I'm his next of kin. Duck's his doctor. I allow these three to hear what you have to say" Gibbs quickly spieled off.
"Right. Well as I'm sure you know Agent DiNozzo's subclavian artery was nicked as the bullet penetrated his shoulder. It also broke his clavicle and fractured his scapula. We managed to staunch the bleeding though and he is expected to make a full recovery. He's been given blood transfusions and will receive another two consecutively" The doctor explained, before handing the bad he was holding to Gibbs.
"These are Agent DiNozzo's personal effects that were bought in with him. You might want to check his phone. It's rung several times"
"Can we see him now Doc?" Gibbs asked impatiently, taking the bag.
"He's just been placed in his room. I'm off shift now so I can show you the way"
The surgeon led them down a maze of corridors until they came to a room on the south side.
"He's still groggy from the anaesthesia and will sleep for most of the night but when he wakes he will be in a considerable amount of pain. There's a morphine pump so make sure he uses it"
Gibbs ignored the surgeons hand but instead entered Tony's room closely followed by Abby. "Thank you" Ducky said in his thick Scottish accent, gently touching the man on his arm.
Ziva, McGee and Ducky waited outside for a couple of minutes before entering.
Tony lay in the hospital bed, bandages encasing his left shoulder. The arm was held firmly in place with a sling. A clear oxygen cannula lay across his pale skin, assisting with his breathing. A heart rate monitor and pulse ox were also connected. A tube of red snaked from the bag of blood in the IV stand to the catheter along with the usual bag of fluids
"Boss?" a quiet slurred voice.
"DiNozzo! How ya feel?"
"Like I got shot" he murmured. In the dim light of the room the team grinned to themselves.
"That's probably because you were shot Tony" Ziva said, coming to stand next to his good arm.
"At least I didn't die Zee-vah!" Tony tried to shift up the bed but was greeted with a wave of rolling pain.
"Son of a Bitch!" he groaned, tears coming to his eyes.
"Tony! Don't move" Abby scolded him, tears coming to her eyes when she realised he was in pain.
"Take it easy Tony. You've only been out of surgery for half an hour. It's bound to painful" Ducky reassured.
"Pain meds on your right DiNozzo" Gibbs told him.
"I would but they give me this fuzzy feeling and I don't think…"
"DiNozzo, just take the dam meds and stop being so pig headed" Gibbs growled.
"They're put there so I can decide if I want them Boss" Tony said in-between holding his breath to reduce movement of his chest, not realising that Ziva was inching closer to the Morphine pump. With lightning fast movement she pushed the button.
"Ziva, don't!" Tony groaned but the hot feeling was already moving up his arm. Abby leaned in for a one armed hug as she realised they would be leaving.
"Get some sleep Tony. I'll stay the night" Gibbs ordered, settling in the chair next to Tony's bed.
"I'm pretty sure that was illegal" Tony said sleepily as the team filed out.
Watching Tony drift off to sleep Gibbs pulled Tony's phone out of the bag of belongings he surgeon had given him. Flipping up the lid he saw that there were eight missed calls. He pulled out his own phone, ready to ring Abby to run a trace when the screen lit up and it started vibrating.
"Hello?" he answered, ducking into the bathroom.
"Tony?" Alex's voice came flooding down the line.
"Alex? It's Gibbs"
"Gibbs? Why do you have Tony's phone. Where is he? I tried him so many times and he didn't answer"
"I know. He's in the hospital. Bust didn't go down as planned"
He heard her gasp in. "Is he okay? Please say he's okay"
"He's fine. Broken collar bone and shoulder blade"
There was silence on the other end of the phone then Gibbs heard a small whimper.
"I'm scared Agent Gibbs. I ran away because I thought I could live like before but Pops isn't here anymore and I don't know where he went. I tried asking round but no one's seen him. And I didn't have any clothes with me. What are Max and I supposed to do. You said I could always count on Tony"
"Where are you?"
"Where Pops was the time I took you to him"
Gibbs had already grabbed his keys and coat. "Stay there Alex. I'm gonna come pick you up"