A/N – I hope you enjoy this latest update. THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL FOR YOUR AWESOME REVIEWS! :-)

Previously on "A Matter Of Life Or Death" . . .

Before anyone had time to react, Tony had pushed the blankets around his shoulders off, standing up with more exuberance than his concussed head and battered torso were quite ready for. All of the blood seemed to drain from his head as he completely blacked out and fell forward. No one was able to get into position to be able to catch him before he fell straight down onto the hard ground of the paved roadway. Landing in a heap at the feet of three shocked and concerned men, as they all scrambled to get to him and make sure nothing else had been damaged in this most recent tumble.

A Matter Of Life Or Death

Part III

"Don't move him much – we need to check his abdomen again before we do move him, just in case!" yelled the Senior of the two of the EMT's as he attempted to stop the Medical Examiner and his own partner, from doing anything rash like rolling the fallen man over without taking necessary precautions. Rick, the Senior EMT, knew that his partner Jason, had obviously had the same kind of training as he did in order to become an EMT, however his partner had only been an EMT for about 6 months, whereas he himself had been one for over 7 years. He had seen it more times that he cared to mention, when a seemingly well patient whom had just been involved in a traumatic accident or incident, had suddenly dropped to the ground unconscious from internal bleeding or from hidden complications from a head injury. It was known as the 'walking wounded' and was usually due to severe shock that kept the person moving and functioning – but fooled everyone into believing that the person was not badly injured. Nick knew that his partner had not worked in the field long enough to be able to detect the signs as quickly and as accurately, as Rick was able to.

"Jason! Go get the back board – quickly!" he hollered to his partner. He was now kicking himself for not forcing the stubborn agent over to the gurney, since when did he let the patients run the show? He had to admit the unconscious man on the ground in front of him, was good. In order to be able to cover not only the signs of severe shock that in hindsight they now knew he had clearly been in - but also to be able to trick them all into believing he was well enough to sit upright through the examination, rather than laying down. Usually Rick could see right through the charade when other patients had tried to convince him that they were fine. Fine - fine - fine – why was that always the word of choice when someone who wasn't 'fine'– wanted everyone to think that they were?

He wished that the dictionaries would just call a spade a spade and just change the definition of the word 'Fine' to what it really seemed to mean, which was apparently the complete opposite! After 7 years of doing this kind of work, now when someone uttered the word 'fine' - he heard what patient was really saying: in some cases it meant 'awful' – and in others it meant 'absolute agony' – yet in some cases it took on a dual meaning of 'sick and lightheaded'!

As the ME stepped back to allow the younger EMT to bring the backboard over to his partner, he observed from above them as the two worked in perfect unison to assess Tony's condition – again - and prepare to re-position him onto the board and stabilize his neck and back as they probably would have done had Anthony not convinced all of them that at the moment, he was doing okay.

After sensing a familiar churning in his gut – something was telling Gibbs to head topside and check on Tony – or at least make sure Ducky had taken him back to NCIS or to the hospital.

As he came up over the side of the hill, his eyes were immediately drawn to the prone form of his Agent – laying on the ground once again and being tended to by two very quick moving EMT's and spotting his ME right next to them. "What the hell happened here? Gibbs hollered, this time not even bothering to tone it down for Tony's sake. As he hurried over to the men he turned to Ducky for answers since the EMT's were otherwise engaged. "Duck? I thought he was doing okay?"

"Now, now Jethro hold on there. He was doing okay . . . at the time you were last with us anyway. But he had started to experience more pain in his abdomen where the worst of the bruises were located. The EMT's noticed that when they palpitated his abdominal region, he had begun to experience some rebounding tenderness and just before they had arrived, I had also noticed some barely detectable rigidity – "

"Ducky!"

"Oh, sorry Jethro – what I am trying to say is – we fear Tony may be suffering from some internal bleeding."

Gibbs face lost all color and expression, his eyes immediately darted back to Tony as he listened to Ducky finish bringing him up to speed.

"Tony's deep bruising may be more serious than his symptoms had initially led us to believe. It was becoming more apparent in the last few minutes that his injuries may very well have left him with some possible internal bleeding. While it does appear to be a small and slow bleed based on the fact that it has taken over the twenty five minutes for his abdomen to go from giving him a normal amount of pain and discomfort when he first crawled up that hill – to becoming more inflamed and quite tender to the touch as of five minutes ago. He was still quite coherent and alert though and he did not seem to be faltering But we did manage to convince him that he needed to go to the hospital for further tests and – "

"Convince him? What the hell do you mean – convince him? I tell you Ducky when he regains consciousness I swear to you – you're gonna have to hold my hand back because I am going to want to head slap him into next week! You shouldn't have had to 'convince' him of anything! I TOLD him to do whatever you said - period! It sounds to me as though he disobeyed my direct order?" Gibbs face was red with anger as he thought about the aspect of possibly losing Tony – only 2 weeks after he had almost lost him to the plague. Concern in Gibbs' case always came out in the form of anger. Especially since he was too much of a tough guy to admit to being scared and worried about the man whom had become so much like a Son to him – possibly even more so than if he had been his biological Son.

Before Ducky could even begin to reassure Gibbs and get him to calm down, their attention was diverted back to the EMT's as they had eased the still unconscious Tony over onto the backboard, while Jason finished affixing him to the board with buckled straps and tape, Nick had pulled Tony's still unbuttoned black shirt open to assess his torso again. Everyone's eyes widened in surprise at how much worse his bruising had becoming in just under a half an hour since Ducky had assessed his condition the first time.

"Sir, we have to get him to the hospital – fast! I can say with absolute certainty that his man is going to need surgery – and time is of the essence."

Upon hearing those words Gibbs stepped forward, squatting down to grab a hold of one of the handles on the backboard that his agent was now completely affixed to, his neck sporting a neck brace as an added precaution to the trauma his body had obviously received in the explosion. Gibbs was shocked at how fast Tony had declined since he had left him to get back to work the scene. He was now mentally berating himself for having felt that a damn crime scene had been more important than making sure that one of his team was taken care of. Sure, he had the utmost faith and trust in Ducky's abilities, but he felt like he had somehow let Tony down by making him feel that processing a blown up car, was more worthy of his attention.

"On three," Nick instructed his Partner and Gibbs, "1, 2, 3." Within seconds, they had Tony lifted backboard and all, and transferred onto the gurney. While Jason quickly inserted an IV into the back of his hand and then taped his entire arm against the back board, Nick had begun to pack up the rest of their stuff for transport.

Gibbs was standing silently nearby observing the flurry of activity, his eyes never leaving Tony's face that had now taken on somewhat of a gray appearance, almost as colorless as one of the corpses that Ducky worked on each day. He had been so intent on watching Tony and make sure he kept breathing - just as he had done many times while Tony stayed with him for a while when he was first released from the hospital recovering from the plague, that he hadn't heard Tim and Ziva as they approached him from behind.

Gibbs not noticing his surroundings, spoke volumes about the level of worry he held in his mind. Nonetheless, he still never flinched when he suddenly heard Tim's somber voice in his ear.

"Boss? What happened? I thought Tony was okay – we've only been away from him for like, fifteen minutes." He pointed out. Kate reached up one of her now un-gloved fingers and quickly wiped away a telling tear that has escaped from the corner of her eye. She'd be damned if she would let anyone see her this upset over someone she constantly complained about. Though she never told anyone about it, she had been unable to shake the awful fear that seized her heart when she first witnessed Tony almost die a couple of times in the hospital recently. That same fear now had an even tighter hold on her heart as she looked at his unnaturally still body.

Without taking his eyes off his Senior Agent as he was now loaded into the ambulance, Gibbs answered McGee's question, oblivious to Kate's internal battle. "Yeah, well McGee – he's not. He's not okay and dammit - I should have known better!" and with that, Jethro reached down to the ground and roughly picked up a clipboard that the Fire Chief had given him at the bottom of the hill – it contained information about the possible types of bombing devices that may have been used, he took it and slapped it against McGee's chest.

As McGee fumbled and barely caught the offending plastic, he looked at his boss with confusion and fear.

"McGee" Gibbs said as he was about to yell his instructions to the obviously nervous man beside him, but then he caught himself just as quickly and softened his tone. Looking away from the awaiting ambulance, Gibbs turned to look his Junior agent directly in the eyes.

"Tim – " he said, changing to a first name basis, "I need you and Kate to take over here, I am required to be at the hospital to sign any release forms if he . . .. if he needs surgery."

They were both taken aback by how 'un-Gibbs like' their boss was behaving. Kate turned to Tim, "Since when is Gibbs listed as Tony's next of kin?" she asked in surprise. Then her jaw dropped in shock when instead of McGee answering her question, she heard her boss yelling back an answer as he was climbing into the ambulance. Kate could have kicked herself as she had completely forgotten how remarkably sharp his hearing was!

"Ever since that bastard of a Father of his - didn't so much as CALL him last month when he was fighting for life!"

With that, McGee and Kate stood side by side in silence as they watched the ambulance, with sirens now blaring, as it took off - leaving them, along with Ducky and Palmer, all watching as it disappeared down the road - leaving nothing but a trail of dust and taking their friend along with it.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

I really hope you are all still liking this fic! I know everyone has ideas on how they would have liked to see this episode pan out – and since I can't cover everyone's wishes, I can only hope that my own version is close enough to please everyone! Thanks for reading AND reviewing!