The response to the first chapter of this story has been amazing, I am truly humbled and gratified that you have liked what you have read so far.
I am suffering from holiday insomnia that's going to hit me like a tonne of bricks when I have to go back to work on Friday, so I am making the most of my opportunities, here is the next chapter for your enjoyment ~ Ozzyols
*NCIS*NCIS*
As one the team walked through the hospital like a well-practiced fighter wing, Gibbs taking point with McGee and Ziva adopting subordinate flanking positions.
Manoeuvring down the long corridor, their shoes clacking softly on the linoleum floor beneath them the three agents passed room after room, the occasional beep of a monitoring machine echoing in their ears. Above their heads signs hung from the false ceiling directing them towards the Intensive Care Unit of GW.
The three turned a corner and came face to face with another set of automatic doors heralding their arrival at ICU which failed to yield as their approached. Reaching over Gibbs stabbed at the large intercom button located on the wall.
ICU how can I help you? A pleasant, yet slightly tinny, female voice answered.
"Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, I'm here for Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo he was brought in about an hour ago." Gibbs stated.
Oh, yes… please come through. There was a harsh metallic buzzing as the lock disengaged as the door slid open.
The corridor beyond the door was dimly lit, save for a soft glow issuing from the far end. The silhouette of a nurse's figure moved down the corridor towards them, her distorted shadow preceding her on the shiny floor.
"Special Agent Gibbs?" The young blonde woman asked stepping out of the semi shadow. She appeared to be no more than her early twenties, her long hair pulled neatly back into a functional ponytail her fresh face scrubbed clean of any make up. "My name is Anna; I'm the duty nurse today."
"What can you tell us?" Gibbs asked.
The nurse glanced from Gibbs to his two junior agents. "Ah, if you would like to follow me, I can show you to our waiting room."
"You can show me to where DiNozzo is first." Gibbs growled.
"I think it would be better if we went to the waiting room first." Anna replied calmly. Antagonising family and friends of patients did little for the situation. When the agent opened his mouth to protest, Anna fixed him an authoritative glare. "Agent Gibbs, I know that you are listed as Agent DiNozzo's next of kin, but Tony was only transferred up from trauma about fifteen minutes ago and is currently being settled in, until the doctors are done there is nothing you can do, unless you have his medical insurance details with you?"
Ziva and McGee held their collective breaths. If they'd spoken to Gibbs like that their eyeballs would still be spinning around like a slot machine.
Gibbs responded to Anna's glare with one of his own, only to find it matched with the arch of a meticulously shaped eyebrow. The young nurse was not about to back down. Gibbs nodded his mute accent.
"Good" Anna said matter-of-factly. "If you would all like to follow me.
The three agents fell into step as the walked down the short corridor of intensive care. On either side of them drawn curtains partitioned off the individual beds. Ziva reflected how behind every one someone elses life story hung in the balance. As if by some sick cosmic joke, the faint bleep bleep bleeping of a heart monitor steadied into a single long noise only to be replaced by the quiet keen of woman's voice and a man's low sobs.
Anna's face grew tight in the muted light. "What a tragedy." She sighed as she opened the waiting room door for them. "three days ago, that couples 16 year old son got his licence. He decided to celebrate by taking his first solo drive in the family car by taking his two younger siblings out for ice cream. A drunk driver ran the light on M street and severed their car in half. The kid was killed instantly, as was his nine-year-old sister. Eddie, his six-year-old brother, was brought in with massive internal injuries. The doctors did everything they could." Anna's eyes glazed over slightly a she looked past her audience. "They chose to turn off his life support today." There was no mistaking the sadness in the young nurse's voice.
Ziva swallowed back her own emotional response. Too many of her friends and family had suffered the same agonizing choice. It was one she never wanted to make. It was one she hoped Gibbs was not going to have to make.
"If you all want to take a seat, I'll be back with the forms." Anna gestured. "There's a coffee machine in the corner, and the restrooms are just down the hall to the left." With a polite by warm smile the young duty nurse left the room.
McGee looked around the waiting room casually. It was obviously a room that had been designed to offer some sort of comfort for families on the edge of potential disaster. The stock standard hospital issue chairs had been replaced with couches and easy chairs. A small pile of hospital issue blankets and pillows were stacked neatly in one corner waiting for people to use. The walls had been painted a soft beige removing the clinical stark white that usually accompanied a hospital, a small jar of oil stood in one corner of the room, a half dozen rod like reeds rising up out of the jar. Tim inhaled, jasmine and lavender he thought. Not enough to be overpowering, but enough to take away the immediate clinical smell of the room. The whole furnishing of the room looked more like a reception area of a middle of the road hotel than a hospital waiting room.
"No windows." Ziva said absently as she started to pace. In lazy circled around the furniture.
Minutes passed and the nurse still hadn't returned.
McGee was at a loss what to do, he'd had a cup of water, he'd sat down, he'd stood up, he'd read the 'in case of emergency' drill stuck on the wall three times. Still nothing. Ziva maintained her quiet circling, like a shark swimming around a school of fish. Tony had been in a car accident? The concept hadn't truly settled in. He'd only seen him a couple of hours ago, now he was lying somewhere out there, in a corridor of partitioned off bays in who knew what condition. Nervously Tim stole a glance across to where Gibbs was standing. The Boss hadn't moved a muscle since the young nurse had left. He was just standing there, staring out the door of the waiting room, like a faithful dog waiting for his master to return. What the hell? Where had that come from? McGee shook the images from his mind Ziva a shark and Gibbs a faithful pooch? Gibbs was about as far from a faithful obedient family pet as he was from being Mr February of an all male review!
Flopping back down on the couch nearest to him, McGee wished he had more than his smartphone with him. He needed to be doing something with his hands. He needed to be looking things up. He needed to be doing what came naturally to him. And then it struck him, Ziva's pacing, Gibbs' stillness… they were already doing what came naturally. Ziva's life in Israel and her training as a Mossad officer had always driven her to be alert, ready to go at a moments notice. Her movements now seemed an outwards manifestation of that tenacity, while Gibbs on the other hand had spent a large portion of his military career as a sniper; the ultimate masters of sit and wait patiently.
Tim felt a little foolish. It had only taken him what… five minutes to work it out. He glanced back at his watch, five minutes? What, really, only five minutes since the nurse left?
The door to the waiting room opened, and Anna stepped back inside. "Sorry about the delay Agent Gibbs, someone didn't refill the blank forms file, I had to make some copies." The recrimination in her voice as she shot an all-purpose glare back out into the hall spoke volumes.
"No problem." Gibbs replied blandly as Anna handed the clipboard over. Moving over to perch on the arm of a chair, Gibbs fished his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a small laminated card and set to work writing.
"Agent DiNozzo has been settled in, and as soon as you've finished that I'll take you to him." Anna told Gibbs. Turning her attention to the other two Agents her face took on a firm but understanding expression. "At present, we are only allowing next of kin to see Agent DiNozzo, we will assess the situation as the afternoon develops and when and if the Doctors and Agent Gibbs gives the all clear, then we would consider other visitors. I hope you understand."
"Of course." Ziva replied as McGee nodded his understanding.
"Please however feel free to wait in here if you wish." Anna glanced back to Gibbs as he handed the completed form back to her. The duty nurse scanned the three pages as Gibbs returned the card and his wallet to their former places. "This seems to be in order. I'll get it down to admissions ASAP. Now, if you would like to come with me." She held the door open for the Lead Agent.
"Boss?" McGee called. "What do you want us to do?"
Gibbs turned to face his Agent, the fear of the situation clear on his face. "Don't know yet McGee, you'll think of somethin'."
Anna escorted Gibbs past a more curtained off bays until they stopped outside the second last one before placing a gentle hand on Gibbs forearm, a silent request for him to wait a moment longer. The hiss of the curtain being pushed aside, and quiet conversation from the other side had Gibbs heart jump into his throat. Could Tony be awake already? Hope died almost in the instant that it lived as he realised the other voice was female too.
"Sure, send him in." a deeper, more mature woman's voice said.
The curtain slid back once more and Anna stepped out into the corridor. "You can go in now Agent Gibbs" she smiled standing to one side.
Gibbs braced himself for the worst, cursing the District for not maintaining their traffic signals, cursing the DC police for not manning 7th and Penn when they new it was such a dangerous intersection, cursing himself for letting DiNozzo make that damn dentist appointment during work time and mostly cursing himself for not letting DiNozzo go to the appointment when he first needed it during the middle of the Munoz/Nelson case.
Stepping through the hole in the curtain made by Anna, Gibbs got his first look at his injured agent. The cubicle was almost dark, the only light came from the diffused white neon light set into the wall behind the bed, and a single table lamp stationed at a desk at the foot of his bed.
Tony lay motionless in the middle of the hospital bed; the crisp white linen and pale cream waffle weave blanket tuck meticulously around him, his arms neatly lying down by his sides.
A memory triggered deep in the recesses of Leroy Jethro Gibbs mind. It was Christmas night, the last he had celebrated with Shannon and Kelly before being deployed to Iraq. Kelly had been given a Western Fun Barbie and Ken for whom Gibbs had made a hand carved wooden bed. At one point in the evening Gibbs had noticed how Kelly had "tucked" Ken into the new bed, the bedding regulation neat, his arms lying out above the covers, a total stillness about the small plastic man. Now sixteen years later Gibbs couldn't help but draw an analogy between the two.
Of course, Kelly's Ken doll didn't have the medical paraphernalia that had sprung up all over Tony.
The doctors had attached the Senior Field Agent to a ventilator pumping air into his lungs, the ventilator secured directly to the endotracheal tube held in place with a bandage wrapped around his head. Gibbs felt an involuntary shudder as the memory of waking to find his own throat blocked by an intubation tube. Above the bed two banks of drips flowed steadily down through their flow rate metres down the length of tubing into Tony's waiting arms. A veritable spider's web of wires and electrodes covered Tony's head and upper body. The right side of his face was an oddly yellow patchwork of bruising which was nothing compared to the deep crimson mass that had been his right eyelid. The force of the impact had swollen the tissue around the eye socket to four times its usual size.
Gibbs could accept the entire catalogue of injuries he could see on his agent bar one. A bizarre lump about the size of his fist had developed on Tony's forehead and seemed to be growing the longer he looked at it. Gibb's didn't know medicine, but he knew enough to know that wasn't good.
"Agent Gibbs." Anna said quietly, interrupting his train of thought. "This is Veronica. She's Tony's nurse for today. You can ask her any questions."
Gibbs glanced to his left and saw the owner of the voice he had heard earlier. About his age with salt and pepper greying hair, Veronica looked like you would expect a nurse to look. Dressed in her scrubs, her hair cropped short and functional, she had an air about her that was two parts compassion, one part I'll-kick-your-ass-if-you-mess-with-me. She was seated at the end of Tony's bed behind a slanted desk that looked more like a gigantic clip board with what Gibbs assumed was the records and readouts of Tony's tests.
"You're Agent Gibbs?" Veronica asked simply smiling up at the lead agent her voice belying her north-eastern roots. When Gibbs nodded Veronica stood and held her hand out. "Call me Ronnie."
"How is he?" Gibbs asked as he let his eyes examine every part of Tony's face.
"As good as we can expect right now." Ronnie replied
From the description of the accident, he'd half been expecting to find his Senior Field Agent looking like his face had gone ten rounds with a grater, but aside from the strange yellow-green colour that you would normally find around the edge of a good bruise and the swelling of his eye, and what looked like bandages for superficial cuts to his arms, Tony looked perfectly normal.
"What's with the bruising, expected it more… blue…" Gibbs queried.
"We're watching that. With that type of bruise where phagocytosis has started degrading the haemoglobin to biliverdin or bilirubin we need to make sure the patient doesn't run into complications."
Gibbs scowled, this was worse that trying to pry information out of McGee that didn't have to come with its own translation guide.
"I'm sorry, force of habit." Ronnie winced obviously reading Gibbs annoyed confusion. "A bruise like that with a head trauma can mean be indicative of more dangerous bruising inside the skull. We'll watch him closely." She shrugged. "I keep forgetting that not everyone has a medical background. Especially when they look like you."
"They look like me?" Gibbs arched an eyebrow
"Sure… you just ooze authority." Ronnie grinned before looking back over the vast array of information on the table in front of her. "Agent DiNozzo's not due for obs for another few minutes, I was just gonna get myself a coffee. You want one?"
Gibbs adrenal system screamed at the mention of the word, he could really use a coffee, but he didn't want to leave Tony until he had some definitive answers about his condition.
Ronnie had seen the expression that played across the NCIS Agents face all too often on innumerable other faces over the years. Getting a call to tell you someone close was in ICU burned a lot of energy. Ronnie smiled. "Go sit with your boy. Just tell me what you like in it."
"Coffee." Gibbs half shrugged.
Ronnie barked a sharp laugh. "And if you can stand your stirrer in it even better huh?" She grinned wider. "I gotcha! Back in a mo."
Ronnie slid the curtain closed once more and Gibbs was finally alone with Tony.
He was still, dead still. Not a flicker of life. It was obscene that this man who, even in the depths of sleep, found the energy to be animated in some form or another should be lying there attached to a machine that provided the only movement in the room as the ventilator bag deflated and then filled again.
If the small green blip on the ECG registering life beating through Tony's body hadn't been there, it would be easy to believe he was in fact dead. Gibbs swallowed and mentally shoved the fear that was rising in his chest back down. He knew that there was a chance that it was only the ventilator that was keeping that comforting blip on the screen alive. But he refused to believe that was the only option.
Leaning forward Gibbs lowered his head down to Tony's ear. "Told you before DiNozzo; you don't have permission to die. Don't make me kick your butt." Gibbs searched Tony's face intently looking for any indication that his senior agent had heard him, anything a twitch, something to let him know that he wasn't just talking to the husk of Tony DiNozzo.
Gibbs didn't need doctors to tell him the worst-case prognosis for his wayward second in command. He'd seen too many marines fall victim to accidents and head traumas not to know that it was infinitely possible that what made Tony – Tony was gone. But this was not a premise that Gibbs was willing to accept. Standing there looking down on DiNozzo's strangely youthful looking face, Gibbs knew with unfaltering certainty that buried deep within the husk of humanity lying on that bed that the irrepressible spirit of Anthony DiNozzo Jnr was there… exhausted, lost in dreamscapes unknown to man, but still there… dormant… not dead… and all Gibbs had to do was wait.