Hi there all you awesome readers :-) Sorry for the delay in updating this fic – as some of you know I have been rather obsessed with another 'NCIS' fic I am wrting as well as one 'Bones' fic. I will also be updating my "Consequences For The Truth" story next! So pls keep reading and reviewing and thank you all for your patience and awesome reviews!! Enjoy.

~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~

Previously on: A Matter Of Life & Death –

But this time, he thought, this time I'll be damned if he is coming back to work even one DAY before his medical leave is up! Gibbs thought as he shook Dr. Reynold's hand after the man promised that he would not be kept out of the loop from that moment on.

He had told Gibbs that the surgery would hopefully only take about an hour and a half but that tfhey would make sure to let him know when it was over, and when he could finally be allowed in to be by his Agent's side before he awoke in recovery.

~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~

A Matter Of Life Or Death

Part V

Bethesda Medical Center . . .

A dusty and tired looking Kate and McGee came rushing through the door of the waiting room that was located near the Surgical Unit. Kate was carrying something black in her hands. twisting it into various shapes to calm her nervous hands. - it was Tony's NCIS hat they had found laying in the roadway. She knew how protective he was of his hats after he had broken them in to the point that they fit like a glove so to speak. she was so distraught that hadn't even realized that she was wringing it.

They immediately approached their boss and without speaking and he knew they were in need of an update on their friend. This time it wasn't the infamous 'Gibbs' Gut' telling him this, this time it was obvious to anyone looking at the worried expressions they wore on their faces.

Before speaking, Gibbs reached over and grabbed the innocent hat from the mangling grip of Kate's fingers, "Kate." he said as he reached out and squeezed one of her hands after taking the hat away. He looked her right in the eyes and in the 'nice Gibbs' voice that made them all nervous – especially Tony, he added a light hearted comment purposely hoping to keep Tony's spirit alive by getting everyone to focus on something humorous rather than tragic. A goal that his Senior Field Agent had become quite adept at and that the entire team had unknowingly started to seek and crave at times of intense danger, raw emotions or high stress.

"Kate please, none of us will be able to tolerate Tony later if we have to listen to him whining endlessly about his ruined hat!" and then he just smiled at her, not a full out smile but the half grin that he used whenever he was awkwardly showing any affection or concern.

Kate smiled back, giving her bosses' hand a quick squeeze in return as she then clasped her fingers together to give them company since they now had nothing else to grab onto. She knew what he was doing, Gibbs was making sure to talk about Tony in the future, mainly to imply that he would have one! They all knew that Tony would never disappoint Gibbs so, if Gibbs said Tony would make it, then that was all the reassurance that Kate needed.

Gibbs had been intentional with his words, wanting to reassure Kate that her partner would survive this. In light of all that he had been through lately, this incident was mild in comparison.

Okay both of you - sit down for a minute and catch your breath – Tony will be okay – ya got that?! You two on the other hand - look like you should be patients here yourself! If I were to guess, I'd bet money you two probably haven't even eaten today have you?" Gibbs asked them, just as concerned for the two devoted members of his team standing before him, as he was for his Senior Field Agent. As the concerned duo numbly dragged themselves over to a couple of nearby chairs, they continued their silent stare and waited for more details that they knew would come most likely from Ducky since everyone knew Gibbs didn't have the patience to explain anything that was more of a medical nature.

Neither one of the weary agents had the guts to point out that Gibbs himself had ingested nothing more all day than his usual endless stream of coffee, meaning they were not alone in their lack of appetite and determination to find the person responsible for bringing harm to their friend, and nearly killing all of them in the process.

Ducky took the silence in the air as his cue to speak since he knew that Gibbs was too distraught over Tony, not to mention seething with anger over the mysterious killer whom had apparently targeted his entire team. He was determined to figure out more about what kind of person would do that and what would they stand to gain by doing so. Gibbs also realized that the killer may only be targeting ONE of them but in harming several members of the team, perhaps the perpetrator hoped it would throw off suspicions. It could also be that they just didn't care if others were killed during their pursuit of their primary target.

As Gibbs stood up and started pacing the room, Ducky filled them in. "Timothy, Kaitlin, our dear Anthony is in surgery at the moment but first I want to tell you that you can be rest assured he is in quite good hands. You needn't worry that his surgery will be anything less than successful and seeing as he has been 'under the knife' as they say, for the better part of an hour, I do anticipate getting an update at any moment."

Tim spoke up first, asking what he knew Kate was also wondering, "Ducky, why did Tony require surgery in the first place? What's wrong with him?" as he asked the question, the ME reached over and patted him on the back of his shoulder in compassion and understanding.

"Yes, well Timothy, just as his Doctor and I initially suspected, he was suffering from some internal bleeding and that in and of itself can be life threatening. The Doctor was able to confirm through scans and what is called a Peritoneal Lavage, that Tony's liver was lacerated as well as quite possibly one of his kidney's. The surgery he is currently undergoing is to repair that damage.

The Physician is concerned about Anthony's kidneys since he only just recovered from the Plague merely two short weeks ago as you are all aware, an illness that already put quite a strain on his liver and kidneys due to all of the drugs that his treatment required. We all agree that the explosion most likely propelled Tony, with extreme force I might add, into either the ground or into the nearby hillside and according to the chest and rib X-rays that were taken, that significant trauma resulted in Tony's 9th rib being fractured and his 8th rib being full out broken. They suspect the broken rib or perhaps just the blunt force trauma by itself, is responsible for the small laceration of his liver."

McGee and Kate both looked slightly pale after hearing the diagnosis, they simply stared at the ME as if still trying to absorb his words. Finally they looked over at each other, mouth's hanging open, guilt of their early morning rude treatment towards their still healing partner evident in their glassy eyes.

Gibbs as usual, didn't miss their guilty glance and decided to say what he had been waiting to say all day, without even bothering to give them the respect of looking at them as he spoke, "Ya feel a little bad now that you completely dismissed Tony this morning when he came back to work – and yet he still stuck his own neck out just to save your lives?" he then gulped down some of the coffee he had gotten from the vending machine in the hallway, while just staring straight ahead at the waiting room entrance anxiously waiting for news. Both McGee and Kate made the wise decision to just remain silent, knowing that Gibbs wasn't really looking for, or expecting an answer, but that he merely wanted to get his point across and alert them to the fact that he had not missed a moment of the rude way they had addressed their partner – a generous and positive human being whom they had all come so close to losing only two weeks prior.

Thankfully the uncomfortable tension in the room was interrupted by a Surgeon in blue scrubs. Scrubs that were peppered in spots of blood here and there, Tony's blood. "Family of Anthony DiNozzo?" the Doctor asked.

Gibbs was at the man's side in a flash, worry lines so evident on his seasoned face. "Yeah Doc, we all are. How's he doing?"

The Surgeon looked around at the four teammates and how there was no way they were all blood relatives to his patient – then decided to forgo the usual policy since they were clearly a team and were probably closer than many of the real families he dealt with now and then.

"Yes, I apologize for how long you have waited without an update, I did not want to step out until I knew we had the worst of his injuries repaired. My associate and assistant Surgeon, Dr. Stanley Otterman, was sealing the laceration of Tony's liver using a laser soldering technique and when I get back in there we will make one more search to detect any more miniscule bleeds and take all the precautions to help prevent any infection or septicemia before we close him up."

"SOLDERING?!! As in like, WELDING?!! You are WELDING Tony's LIVER?!!"

Abby.

She couldn't contain her outburst as she barged in through the waiting room door. She had been outside the door long enough to hear words the Doctor had just uttered after having raced to the Hospital straight from the Courthouse. She was dressed in her most hated choice of clothing, a tailored dress suit, having been in court all morning after being subpoenaed for a case where she had to act as an expert witness and describe the processes she had used in order to decipher some critical evidence during a recent murder case.

Abby's shiny black hair flowed flowing neatly and freely, not in her usual trademark pigtails or braids. Even though she hated how she looked, she received stares of admiration from everyone in her path, men and women, because of her unique beauty and tall stature. She arrived at Bethesda along with Jenny Shepard whom had accompanied her to the Courthouse since she had a couple of meetings of her own to attend inside the massive courthouse. Every eye in the small waiting room turned towards the whirlwind that had just blown in. Gibbs was not in the mood to deal with Abby's intrusive and untimely interruption, "Abby – stop. Let the man finish, now is not the time."

His statement short and to the point, causing Abby to blush slightly as she was now starting to regret her own actions hadn't realized yet that Tony was still in surgery. She had not taken the time to stop and think about just what the Surgeon's words really meant, that Tony was still in surgery. The only information that she and Director Shepard had received, was a very brief voice message from Ducky, informing then that Tony had been taken to Bethesda following an unfortunate incident at a crime scene and that they should come as soon as possible.

Gibbs didn't miss a beat, he looked back towards the Doctor, "Sorry Doctor, continue."

The talented Surgeon had seen it all over the years so he was accustomed to interruptions like that, even some that were far more shocking than Abby's display. He knew deep down that the woman was deflecting her own fears concerning her injured friend and transfixing her attention on trivial things such as the term laser 'soldering' in an effort to intentionally shift her focus. This was also caused by what they called; a coping mechanism.

"Well, let me first try to put everyone's mind at ease if I can, all in all your Agent has been doing remarkably well and holding his own which we can all be grateful for considering his close proximity to that blast and the fact that he is essentially still recovering from the plague. However, the lung damage he was left with as a result of that recent illness, now combined with internal bleeding and his other injuries – are taking quite a toll on the young man. Agent DiNozzo is also suffering from what we refer to as 'Flail chest' and in layman's terms – that is where the chest wall literally separates itself from the upper ribcage. This is a common injury when blunt force trauma to the chest occurs such as in this case.

The trauma to his chest has also resulted in a pulmonary contusion of his left lung, which combined with the flail chest injury, your man is going to be in a significant amount of pain when he does regain consciousness. That is why I would like to get your consent to perform a procedure that would help us to better control that pain - it's called an 'epidural infusion' which would allow us to pump a constant flow of heavy duty analgesics directly into the area, his thoracic region extending into his intercostal nerves. Now, this would render him partially paralyzed but only for short term until the worst of the pain has passed – typically 3-4 days.

Do I have your permission to do that Agent Gibbs? You are still his medical proxy and next of kin, are you not?"

Gibbs was nodding before the Physician had finished his question, "Yes, yes of course – anything you can do to help him, I will authorize. But I suppose I should ask if there are any risks or long term affects to that procedure that I should know about."

"Yes, there are risks that we must inform you of – the most severe being ongoing residual numbness, tingling , or even permanent nerve damage and/or partial paralysis. But I can add that in my 32 years of performing this and similar procedures, I have not had anyone whom any cases that were left with long term damage, plus I have gotten quite good at getting the needle where it needs to go."

"Okay – do it." Gibbs commanded.

"Alright then, thank you – I will have a Nurse bring you in the form along with a description of the procedure and all associated risks. I anticipate about another hour to an hour and a half before he is moved to recovery and then I will allow you to see him but just two at a time and for very limited visits. Now unless you have any questions I had best get back to our patient. Oh, he also does appear to have a concussion from the impact he endured but we can't begin to monitor that and run the usual tests to determine it's severity, until after he wakes up in recovery."

Ducky and Gibbs both thanked him as they all watched the man disappear. All 5 members of the NCIS team stood in place, their eyes still transfixed on the now closed door where the Surgeon had just gone through. No one moved, no one spoke.

The sound of sobs finally seemed to break the spell as all eyes turned towards the new sound. Abby had dropped down into a nearby chair and had started to cry over her friend and what he was going through. She wasn't a tough and trained agent like the rest of the group. She made no attempts to control her emotion – ever. Whether it be jealousy, anger or fear – Abby wore her heart on her sleeve like no one did. Gibbs was by her side in seconds, seating himself in the chair to her right, he leaned forward and pulled her head towards his chest where he just held her there, remaining silent since he knew she would speak when she was ready. "*sniff* sniff* - Gibbs why Tony? Huh? Why does it have to be him all the time?" she questioned, her face now wet from her tears.

"I don't know Abs, I don't know." he tenderly responded. "But who always comes through in the end and turns out to be fine? Huh?" he added, lifting her chin up so he could look into her eyes and reassure her, also hoping to pass off some of his own strength to her in a sense.

"T- To-ny?" she said in her childlike voice and with the slightest of grins starting to blossom on her face.

"Yup – Tony."

That was the extent of their conversation as Gibbs just let Abby rest her head on his shoulder while holding onto her hand – and there they remained while they all silently prayed that Tony would stay strong enough to come back to them. The team would never be the same without him and his lengthy time off for the plague, was all they needed to endure in order to finally see that they all needed him. Tony was definitely irreplaceable just as Gibbs had actually told him once to his face, shocking his partner Kate.

Yes, they all needed him so they all pulled together and waited to receive more news and hopefully visit him soon and show him how much he means to each and every one of them because if something should go wrong – they would never – get – another chance!

To Be Continued . . .

This is NOT the end – even though it seems like it could end here. I still plan to have Kate possible get shot (not killed) and have Ziva arrive to NCIS as well. STAY TUNED and pls keep those reviews coming! THANKS! AUTHOR'S NOTE: The term Laser Soldering is actually something that they do to seal off the section of the liver, that has been damaged or - lacerated in Tony's situation.