A/N – Sorry this chapter is REALLY long. I know that can be a good thing but even I think this one may be too long. I hope you enjoy and sorry if the story is moving slowly (I think it is ha). I also apologize for not updating in a while on all of my fics. I will try hard to make it up to all of you. Pls keep the reviews coming cuz they mean a LOT! Love you all.

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Previously on: A Matter Of Life & Death –

Tony's main physician had arrived only moments before, at the Nurses' station just outside his room. She had been doing her rounds and had specifically allotted extra time on her busy rounds' schedule to check in on her most critical patients more frequently, one of them being one very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo in recovery room B-3.

But the sound of the alarms that seemed to be coming from that very direction, but that were also blaring in an equally annoying squeal from behind the Nurses' station where they had their own group of monitors for each of the rooms, Dr. Bianchi yelled to two of the nurses closest to her, to grab a crash cart just in case as they raced towards Tony's room.

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A Matter Of Life Or Death

Part IX

Bethesda Hospital – ICU Room B-3 . . .

Tony's weak body - now wracked in pain, fell limply onto his bed after having exerted all of what little energy he had been able to muster in his wasted efforts of trying to find the call button. Gone was the adrenaline surge that had overcome him from the sudden panic he felt when he first realized it was Gibbs whom had fallen and knowing that it was up to him to watch his bosses' six since no one else was around – 'I have to get help!' he had thought at that moment, 'What if I am already too late?' were the words that were haunting him as he tried to get his mind to forge through the cloudy veil that the drugs seemed to have coated his brain - and get his body to move regardless of all the various contraptions trapping him in place on the bed. Pain had been the last thing on his mind since the adrenaline had caused his endorphins to soar temporarily blocking his pain transmitters. Yet he still felt like he had failed having not been able to get to his mentor, his boss and the closest thing he had to a loving Father.

Dr. Bianchi entered the darkened room that was only being lit up by the red and blue lights flashing from the various monitors, as well as some of the lighting from the hallway as it filtered in through the closed curtains covering most of the all glass walls that each of the ICU rooms were lined with.

At first her eyes automatically went to check on her patient since she had assumed that he was in some kind of distress or crashing. But she was able to breathe in a sigh of relief upon seeing that his heart monitor was not showing any evidence that he was crashing – although beating much higher than it should be – it wasn't life threatening. Her head quickly turned when she then heard a low moan coming from the direction of the floor her eyes quickly diverted downward and the shock of seeing the handsome lead agent now laying unconscious on the linoleum floor nearly caused her to stumble.

"Grace – I need you to check on the patient!" she ordered one of the nurses as she herself rushed over and knelt down next to the man on the floor. She was surprised to see that it was her patient's boss - Agent Gibbs. He was just starting to move his head from side to side though moving very sluggishly as if trying to shake his mind free of something. She knew that he hadn't simply passed out or he would have already become fully conscious again only seconds after falling to the ground since usually fainting was usually resolved once the person was laid out flat hence allowing the blood flow within the body to stabilize. "Agent Gibbs? Agent Gibbs can you hear me?" she asked him as she gently pulled open one of his eyes and flashed her penlight into one of them, testing the reaction of his pupils, not happy with their sluggish response.

The agent moaned again lightly and started blinking as if coming back out of whatever trance he was in. She knew from looking in his eyes and from her years of experience, that the man seemed to have been drugged somehow. Then she noticed how wet her fingers felt after checking out his eyes, turning her penlight towards the rest of his face it was clear to her now that there appeared to be a light sheen covering his face, it was too dense to be sweat and almost looked like a mist of oily water had been sprayed onto the skin.

"Grace, report!" she hollered over to her lead nurse, demanding an update on the patient.

When Grace had arrived at their patient's bed side she found him struggling against not only the drugs that still threatened to pull him back into slumber land – but also physically fighting against her while attempting to sit up to get to his boss but getting frustrated with all of the cumbersome tubes and bulky ventilator that prevented his every move. Graces' eyes widened when she spotted the dark red blood that was now seeping through the gauze that covered his torso. He appeared to be bleeding again from two different places most like from either dislodged tubing, ripped out stitches – or both.

"Uh . . . Doctor he's bleeding a little in a couple of places and he's still fighting to get up and move. He probably wants to help his boss." she commented not realizing she had said it out loud.

"Okay, okay, administer 2 mgs of diazepam into his IV port stat, we have got to get him settled down before he does any more damage. Oh - and try to tell him his boss is going to be fine!"

"Is he Doctor?" Grace couldn't help asking. "Is he going to be okay?" But after seeing the look of anger coming from her superior, she realized she just wanted her to say that regardless of whether it was true, just to keep their primary patient from causing himself any further harm. She immediately did as she was told and while injecting the prescribed medication into his IV, she quietly whispered to the agent with the striking good looks, that his boss was going to be okay and that he needed to rest now so he could see him later.

Tony understood her words of comfort and relaxed. He would have like to have seen for himself how Gibbs was doing but knowing that was impossible, he had to take her for her word. Within less than a minute he was completely out once again as the sedatives took their hold causing his body to fall completely limp against the mattress.

Meanwhile on the floor , Gibbs blue eyes opened slightly and he started to blink rapidly as if to clear them while he struggled to get them to focus on the face in front of him, she smiled "Yes that's it Agent Gibbs, just take your time and try to remain still. I need to assess you further so we can figure out what happened to you." She explained sweetly.

"Ryan " the doctor yelled to the other nurse whom had entered the room with her – "I need you to bring me some cotton swabs and either a sealed vial to put them in, or a zip lock baggie – I don't care which just get me anything - STAT! We need to get these samples so I can wipe this from his skin immediately before it continues seeping into his system through the skin." Dr. Bianchi yelled to the male nurse waiting in the background near the thankfully abandoned crash cart.

Once he returned with the items she proceeded to gently swab some of the wet mist from the still only barely conscious agent's face as his blue eyes just stared at her while he kept trying to gather his senses and figure out what had happened. After sealing the samples up tightly she had Ryan rush them to the lab for full analysis and then proceeded to wipe away all of the ominous liquid so that his face was wiped clean.

Then after yelling out a few more orders to her anxious but well trained staff, they soon had a gurney wheeled in and she explained to Gibbs that they were going to just take him to an exam room to do a more thorough exam and see if there were any other detectable injuries besides having been drugged by most likely whatever liquid was on his face she concluded. Had Gibbs been alert enough and privy to her thoughts, he would have admired her own talented and quick investigative skills. The Doctor was stunned when she noted fear in the lead agent's eyes and she could tell he was trying to protest her wanting to move him elsewhere – she could see that was struggling with all his might just to be able to speak. It seemed that whatever had been done to him, or given him – may have paralyzed him somewhat including his ability to move his tongue and talk.

Gibbs felt like he was thrashing around and moving with all his might as he tried so hard to move to check on Tony. When that didn't seem to be working, he tried to at least speak so he could demand that he be examined HERE in Tony's room where he could make sure Ari wasn't coming back to finish the job. But even though he felt himself struggling physically – from the view of everyone else in the room his body was barely even flinching and his mouth remained firmly closed albeit twitching slightly like the rest of him. His brain was willing him to move and to speak yet his muscles didn't seem to be getting the signals. He felt rather trapped and he didn't like the feeling one bit.

The Doctor could tell without even checking, that his BP was rising as well as his heart rate. She knew the visible signs without needing the exact numbers and it didn't take her long to realize he was fighting to stay near his agent. Whatever had taken place in here had definitely not been good and she knew it meant that someone was still gunning for the agents for whatever reason. But without knowing what exactly had gone down – until she could get Gibbs to tell her – she was unable to take any action or get security involved because she not only had no description of any perpetrator – but she wasn't even sure if there was one. She just had too little information to go on.

"Okay it's alright Agent Gibbs, calm down I won't take you out of here. Okay can you hear me? Nod once if you can."

Then after seeing the barely detectable up and down motion of his head, she sighed in relief. "Okay good, now It's obvious something happened here and I can only assume that somehow, someone was able to gain access to this room and bring harm to you and Agent DiNozzo." She explained to him mainly to ease his mind by letting him know she was aware of the seriousness of the incident. 'Now I need you to try to relax and let me check you out some more, you have my word we will stay in this room at least until one of your other agents can be brought in here to guard your Agent DiNozzo." She smiled sweetly as she brushed back some of his now damp hair that had fallen onto his forehead.

Gibbs was nearly ecstatic when he found himself able to give her that small nod of understanding. Whatever Ari had sprayed on him seemed to be starting to wear off somewhat, 'it must have been a short term paralytic' he determined.

"Okay Grace, I need you to go page Doctor Otterman and get him in here to check on Mr. DiNozzo's surgical incisions and drainage tubes. Ryan, go into the waiting room and discreetly ask if one of them can come with you for a minute and just explain that it's nothing serious. No sense in alarming everyone until we know just what happened here." Ryan and Grace were gone in seconds.

Turning back to her newest patient, the doctor could see a little move movement going on, it did seem as though the drugs were not long acting which she was truly grateful for. Gibbs heard her yell the commands to her staff and fought hard to get his mouth to cooperate. He was rewarded this time when he was finally able to eek out his first words since the offensive spray first hit him. "Aa – age- nt . .D-noze . . . . . T–to-ny?"

"Oh." She whispered, finally understanding what he had just mumbled, "Yes Tony. Don't worry about him Agent Gibbs – really he's going to be just fine – I promise. It just looks as though he may have dislodged one of the drainage tubes and busted a couple of stitches. It's nothing that will cause him any harm, and none of which can't be easily rectified. Okay? Now let's get you checked out a little better because I am sure your team will be just as eager to hear that you are equally okay. First, I want to check your head to make sure you didn't hit it on the bed frame or the floor when you went down."

Gibbs finally allowed himself to lay back and let the Doctor do her job, his mind was satisfied and calmed by the fact that Ari hadn't gotten to Tony and that his agent was fine other than some minor damage caused by trying to help him. He didn't care as much about his own slight paralysis that was thankfully diminishing rather quickly and burning in his eyes - as he did about his team and especially his senior agent.

Waiting Room not far from ICU . . .

Nurse Ryan entered the quiet waiting room and knew immediately which group was with the Federal Agents since he spotted a small group of people that were looking through some manila folders and one of them seemed to have brought in a laptop to work from. All of their heads had immediately turned towards him as he came through the door and headed in their direction. It struck Ryan funny how they all stood up from their seats in complete unison, obviously eager to find out what news he brought with him.

"I assume you are the group that is here for Agent DiNozzo?" he asked.

"Yes, we are. What can you tell us? Is he still doing okay?" Kate was the first one to speak and answer him.

"Yes he is okay, I was just sent in here by his physician and your Agent Gibbs – they requested one of you to come back with me. It's nothing urgent, it's just something they requested and - I'm sorry I don't have any information other than that."

Kate, Ducky, McGee and Abby all looked back and forth at each other. Director Sheppard had left only moments earlier since she had so many important responsibilities that went with her title. As much as she wanted to stay, she couldn't afford the luxury of waiting with all of them in hopes to visit Tony. She assured them all that she would return in a couple of hours and that she would work something out to get some additional agents to help with the protection detail that would be needed to assure the team's safety until whomever was trying to kill one or all of them – was apprehended.

The remaining four were curious as to what may be behind their bosses surprise request, while also trying to determine who should go. It was decided that it should be Kate since she was next in line when Tony was out of commission and it was most likely something to do with the investigation that Gibbs wanted to see her about.

As soon as she and Ryan were in the hallway, Ryan had been told by Dr. Bianchi that he should at least forewarn whomever he brought back, alerting them to the fact that there had been a small incident that Agent Gibbs wanted to keep on the down low for now.

"Um, Miss?"

"Oh, just call me Kate." she told the nervous nurse.

"Okay, Kate – the Doctor wanted me to tell you before we arrive at Agent DiNozzo's room, that there has been a slight incident involving your boss and Mr. DiNozzo but both of them seem to be okay for the most part. Your boss is being checked out right now but he refused to leave your associate's room until one of you came in to keep an eye on things and protect him in case the intruder returns."

Kate immediately picked up her pace, walking so fast that the nurse had to job to catch up to her as she took off at a faster pace. "What exactly was the incident? You mentioned an intruder – we should have been alerted in time to seal off every exit to this entire hospital! This is completely against protocol. Just how badly was Agent Gibbs hurt? He would have known the proper protocol so I am left wondering why the hell no one ordered the security lock down! Gibbs would have had to have been unconscious not to have immediately ordered that . . ." it only took her three seconds to let her own words sink in. "Oh my God! Is he -?""

The nurse was speechless. He had not at all been prepared for the outburst and had no idea how to answer all of her rapid fire streak of questions. Meanwhile Kate felt as though she were back in the Secret Service where attempts were made on occasion, on not only the President's life – but other top officials – and this kind of haphazard way of handling an attempt on someone's life, would have been grounds for several people to be fired on the spot. She still struggled at times to get used to the much more . . . informal methods that Gibbs preferred to use when he was trying to capture a suspect.

The nurse finally stuttered through an answer as they arrived in the hallway near Tony's room. "Uhm, well M'aam I am sure the doctor can fill you in a lot better than I can and don't worry – Agent Gibbs is going to be okay from what I could tell. Here, let's get in there so you can be brought up to speed." He said as he gently directed her through the door to Tony's room.

He was quickly dismissed by Dr. Bianchi as she ordered him to go to the lab and await the results of the samples she took from Gibbs' face. When Kate walked in the first thing she noticed was her boss lying on a gurney, eyes open but still blinking frequently as if trying to clear his head but he still looked very out of it and slightly dazed.. A female nurse had just finished taking some of his blood and unbeknown to Kate – it was taken so they could get it to the lab and see what showed up in his system since the doctor was thoroughly convinced based on his symptoms and reactions, that he was indeed drugged with something.

"Doctor, what happened here? If I were to venture a guess it looks to me like someone attacked Agent Gibbs and that no one alerted the hospital security to seal off the exits which is what should have happened. Can you shed some light on that for me?" she asked in her most demanding tone of voice.

"Now hold on Miss . . .?"

"Kate is fine."

"Kate – By the time we even knew something had happened in here there was just no time to waste and I guarantee the person was long gone. My first priority was taking care of these two men whom were both in tough shape when I arrived. It appears as though something may have been sprayed into your bosses' face – some kind of drug that dropped him immediately from what I can gather and your other friend here was trying to play hero and ended up aggravating his surgical incisions among other things."

"KATE! D-donn't . . . be – so . . hard . . . on Dct'r hee-re." Gibbs finally surprised both women by interrupting as he finally had gained even more control of his body and vocal cords as the drugs in his system further dissipated.

"Gibbs! You shouldn't talk, don't push yourself until we know what is wrong with you and what kind of drugs are in your system. " Kate begged him, worried by the pale tone to his skin and his pupils that were clearly dilated from whatever was in his system.

"No - m'fine . . . I know who – did this K't . . . it was . . . Ari." He said this while attempting to pull himself upright while at the same time looking over towards Tony's bed to check on his agent.

"WHAT? That arrogant bastard! Leave it to him to just waltz into a major medical facility and then simply waltz back out!" Kate complained - she was fuming! "Gibbs what are you doing, you need to stay still!"

"Doc . . . how's Tony?" Gibbs completely ignored Kate's request. "He looks . . . like hell."

"Whoa slow down, you are not going anywhere just yet." The doctor warned him as she gently pushed his shoulders down so he was lying back against the pillow again. "He's fine Agent Gibbs and I hope you have learned by now that I am a straight shooter, I would not tell you he was okay unless I meant it. Dr. Otterman is on his way to just mend a few busted stitches and check him out further. He's asleep right now. We had to sedate him because he kept trying to get up to help you. You two are one and the same I swear - both stubborn and obviously unaware of your own limitations!" she teased.

"Well we are . . . what- we- are I guess." Gibbs stated flatly – worry lines still etched deeply in his forehead. Turning to Kate he switched back to leader of the team as he started to feel more and more in control of his speech and knew the drugs were wearing off, "Kate, I need you to get an updated BOLO out on Ari – so . . . f-ffirst I need you to create a new ss-sketch of him - his hair is longer n-now . . . it's a couple of inches-ss above his sh-shoulders." He was still slightly slurring a word now and then and he felt tired and sluggish in his movements as well. He was relieved to notice the effects were continuing to disappear quickly but was still frustrated because it still wasn't fast enough for his increasing impatience.

"He also has-ss more of a five o'clock shadow g-going on than he did before – he looks . . . scruffier."

Just then Dr. Otterman finally arrived and walked quickly over to Tony's bedside. He began to assess the patient while Dr. Bianchi moved next to him leaving Gibbs to talk to his agent in private. She quietly explained what damage Tony had done while trying to rescue his boss.

"Okay Gibbs, what else do you need us to do?" Kate asked, " You really should listen to the doctor here and rest. Tony is going to need you and you won't be any good to him if you have a set back later." The motherly side of Kate came out all the while knowing he would never heed her advice.

"Kate – sketch then BOLO. Got it?"

"Got it." She replied feeling defeated. She couldn't help looking over towards Tony, watching the doctors faces for a second and trying to see if she could detect any looks of concern or signs of any new problems. Her focus was brought abruptly back to her bosses' direction when he yelled out a warning, "You waiting for a written invitation Agent Todd? Or - until Ari gets completely out of the Country?"

"Oh, sorry Gibbs. Oh, and what should I tell the others?"

"Aww dammit! I forgot about them. Well, they need to know, Ari's after all of us now so – everyone needs to be on full alert at all times and I will talk to the Director about adding some extra security and protection. Oh, and send Ducky back here."

With that Kate disappeared out into the hallway to follow through on her instructions.

Gibbs was starting to feel more and more clear headed, he immediately turned his attention towards his agent's bed where the two doctor's were still busy repositioning his ventilator and other various tubes, then peeling back gauze to check on sutures and surgical staples so they could determine what kind of repairs would be needed.

"How does he look?" Gibbs finally asked.

Dr. Otterman answered, "Not too much worse for wear actually. I will just need to re-suture a couple of areas and we will clean him up and re-bandage everything. We need to take extra precautions to ensure that no germs get into his wounds in order to prevent infection from setting in since he is going to be more susceptible while his body adapts to no longer having a spleen. And how are you feeling?"

"Oh, no need to be concerned about me, I am fine – getting better by the minute." He said as he sat up on the gurney and slowly swung his feet over the side. Just then Ducky entered the ICU room looking very much in a hurry after obviously having been told by Kate just what had happened in this very room only 40 minutes prior. "Jethro, I came as soon as I could. Now what happened here exactly?"

Dr. Mallard was evaluating every inch of his long time friend's face while speaking, hoping to see for himself just how the man was doing. "Actually Dr. Mallard, I am glad you are here – perhaps you can persuade Agent Gibbs here to allow us to admit him just for observation." Dr. Bianchi pleaded while she moved over next to the gurney. Gibbs answered before Ducky could even open his mouth to speak.

"Save your breath – all of you! I'll be damned if I am going to lie around here - or anywhere for that matter, while my team is in danger. In case you have forgotten, we have a killer out there still on the loose and his only goal at the moment is to wreak havoc on my team just to torture me." With that he carefully slid off of the gurney, paying no attention to the strong hand that now gripped his elbow as Ducky reached out to help steady him on his feet.

"Doctor, I trust you will make sure that my Forensic Scientist, Abby Sciuto, gets a sample of whatever concoction that was sprayed in my face? Once you have that just let me know if there are any other side effects that I might need to watch out for."

"Well now Jethro - while whatever it was does seem to have only affected you for a very short period of time - you know as well as I so that Ari would not hesitate to throw you a curve ball by also adding some kind of slow acting poison. You really should be under observation." Ducky warned him mainly out of concern for his friend's well being.

"Yeah Duck, well we could "what if" all day long. I refuse to worry about something until I have a concrete reason to. Right now, we have a case, I have an agent in ICU and I have a wanted criminal on the loose so – if you two will excuse me, I need to go talk to the team while DiNozzo's going to be out for at least another hour or two." He then left the room, leaving all three doctor's staring at each other in obvious frustration.

Once Gibbs left, the doctors and staff made quick work of getting Tony's broken stitches repaired and within an hour he was all cleaned up and re-bandaged. Looking at him now one would never know there had been any commotion at all not that long ago. All the while he was being tended to, Tony had remained asleep largely due to the effects of the earlier sedatives - combined with morphine and his body's own struggle to heal itself.

To Be Continued . . .

NOTE: I did so a little research re: some of the medical info in this chapter – so please don't correct anything that you think is NOT factual because it worked for the story and I didn't take any huge liberties or say anything that doesn't sound realistic. thanks!

Possible drugs included in the spray Ari used: neuroleptics haloperidol and chlorpromazine meprobamate (Miltown), chlordiazepoxide (Librium), Rohypnol – many of which depress the central nervous system. The Dr. and Abby will provide this specific info in the next chapter

As for Gibbs reaction to the drugs: My description of how he felt when temporarily paralyzed by the drugs - well unfortunately this is factual. I pulled this from my own personal experience since a few years back I had become the unwilling victim of a similar paralytic kind of drug similar to (if not THE) "date rape drug". Lucky for me, a pregnant friend at the party had witnessed the creepy guy all over me in the corner of the living room or somewhere (I don't recall that part at all) but she thankfully and quickly alerted my friends. I later did recall a little bit of that part though – mainly him trying to kiss me and such and he even had admitted he put something in my drink after I said I was feeling unusually dizzy. Anyhoo - I better not see any reviews saying that I didn't describe the drugged Gibbs scene right. Ha