A/N – Since so many of my NCIS fics just happen to have Tony in the hospital now simultaneously – I know it's easy to forget which story you are reading and which injuries he's suffering from, etc. Plus is this a Ziva on the team story – or Kate – or both. I thought since we are more than half way through most of my stories I would remind everyone at the start the very next update – some of the facts of the story so you can read it with the right one in mind. Starting with this story/update..

Matter Of Life Or DeathRecap: Set during the "Twilight" epi. Jenny's the Director, Kate is alive having not been killed by Ari yet. Maybe she still will – maybe she won't be in my version (I am leaning towards not). Ziva just arrived so we'll soon get to see she and Kate interact together and with Tony so that will be fun. Tony's injuries: Lungs not recovered fully from plague, pulmonary contusion on his left lung, lacerated liver, cracked lungs from force of the car explosions propelling him into the side of the hill, possible worsening infection due to tearing some of the interior sutures (that are made to dissolve gradually) when he tried to help Gibbs. ~ Now read on and enjoy. I hope that helps. ~

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

Previously on: "A Matter Of Life And Death" . . .

Both of their heads turned towards Tony's bed as they realized they had woken him up. Both of them felt like head slapping each other for not taking their selfish and petty argument elsewhere. Even drugged stupid and slurring like he'd been on an all night binger – Tony still managed to be funny, purposely attempting to put everyone else at ease as usual, knowing his boss and his bosses' boss would feel bad for waking him up.

Smiling Jenny glanced guiltily over towards Gibbs before responding. "Oh, sorry Tony. Look – I'll leave now and you have my word - this won't happen again." Jenny promised him while walking over to his bedside where she reached down and gently squeezed his hand, noticing that he still hadn't opened his eyes and seemed close to falling back under. In just a few seconds his face became completely lax letting the bickering agents know that he was safe in the of arms of slumber once again though his face still bore the hint of a smile..

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

A Matter Of Life Or Death

Part XV

Gibbs rubbed his hands across his weary face as he stood there next to Tony's bed, staring down at his battered agent for the umpteenth time in that last several hours. His mind wandered as he thought about what Jenny had done.

'What was all of this crap about another agent on his team? Hell, not even a full fledged agent for Pete's sake!' He couldn't help thinking that Jenny took advantage of her position and did things like hiring this Mossad Officer just to show him she had the power to do things without his involvement or his say.

He finally resigned himself to the fact that he would have to give the Israeli woman a chance and hope that deep down Jenny still had his six. He really couldn't imagine that she would throw someone onto his team who wasn't capable and an expert in her own right. He wondered how Kate was going to like having another female to help even out the ratio of men vs women on the team a little better.

Elsewhere In The Hospital – Same Floor As ICU . . .

"Well they're definitely taking your threats seriously Sir." The whispering voice was coming from a small storage room where boxes of supplies such as extra medical scrubs, doctor's masks, empty hypodermic needles, Hydrogen Peroxide – any substance or supply that was not considered narcotic or dangerous was kept in the unlocked room and there was one on every floor for the on duty medical staff and interns to access in order to stock up on any items they were running low on in their stations, patient exam rooms and radiology testing rooms. It was a male voice coming from the back of the room, he was speaking quietly into a disposable cell phone to someone he was obviously paid to report to.

"Why? What did you see that makes you think that?" came the voice of Ari on the other end of the call.

"Well, they now have TWO guards posted outside that agent's room in ICU for one thing - but there was a little altercation in the hallway when the female guard arrived. Seems no one informed that Agent Gibbs of the added security. I didn't hear it myself, I overheard a couple of the on duty nurses talking about it."

"Good, I am glad they are adding more security, it will make this more interesting. Did you catch any names of the guards? You said one was a female?"

"No, sorry I didn't. But I will try to find out. She isn't dressed like the other officer at the door, I dunno - she must be an undercover agent or something."

"Okay well, good job so far. Keep it up and I'll see to it that the rest of your compensation is more than worth it. Now do you have what you need for the rest of the next stage of the plan.?" Ari asked with excitement in his voice.

"Yes sir, everything. You just text me when it's a go."

With that Ari ended the call. He placed his own disposable cell phone down, leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his back to hold his head while he relaxed back into it – a smile spreading on his face from ear to ear.

"Well well Agent Gibbs." he said out loud to no one. "I guess we'll see just how good your security is now won't we." he then burst out in a creepy and very maniacal laugh as he imagined how angered his favorite nemesis would be when all was said and done. Ari's hatred over Gibbs was building and if he had to, he didn't think he would be able to explain just why – what was it about the man that instilled such rage deep down within him? Was it the former Marine's quiet and almost arrogant cockiness and self assurance? Was it the fact that he had been such a challenging match to Ari's tactics wit for wit when the rogue Mossad officer first smuggled himself into the NCIS autopsy room? He finally gave up on trying to even figure it out.

Tony's Room ~ ICU . . .

Tony slowly came back around after sleeping for another couple of hours. He still felt like he hadn't slept for days and that he could easily sleep for twenty more but, something about being stuck in a hospital and especially ICU which was never good, always made him more restless than usual no matter how drugged up and drowsy or exhausted he was. Looking around to take in his surroundings now that he felt more alert than he had any of the previous times he had come around, he saw all of the equipment connecting tubes that disappeared behind bandages on various parts of his body. He saw the glass walls that reminded him of his time in the isolation chamber just a few weeks prior to this but this room was private and vertical blinds that had all been pulled to a closed position giving him privacy that he and Kate didn't really have when he was fighting the black death, mainly because Nurse Emma had to constantly monitor the two agents.

Then after hearing a slight rustle of material he turned his head to the left to find his boss in his usual spot dozing deeply as he did, able to tune out everything unless he sensed something bad might be going down and he always seemed to awaken just moments before the incident had even occurred. That was just another talent on a list of many that his boss possessed that Tony knew would remain a mystery forever.

Now that he was becoming more fully awake, his body decided to make it's presence known and remind him of every pain inducing injury; every stitch, cracked rib, headache from his concussed noggin, and worst of all was the slowly increasing pressure and pain he felt deep within his chest and lungs although it wasn't any where near as bad as it had been the previous times he had awoken. Suddenly it felt as if he had barely any pain medication left in his system – or at least it had worn off to a level too low to do much good. Even trying to take in a full deep breath was simply not gonna happen due to the sharp and almost burning pains that even a shallow breath had caused.

"Mmohhh" he moaned, unable to stop himself. He tensed up as his eyes darted back towards his boss checking to see if his groan had woken up the bear so to speak.

Gibbs didn't move, his eyes remained closed – his chest still evenly rising and falling with steady and slow breaths. Based on all appearances he seemed as deeply asleep as he had before Tony even made any noise. Tony very cautiously let out the breath he had been holding in – which wasn't much - and allowed himself to relax back down into the mattress. Then just as he started to focus on steadying his own breathing in order to try and handle his increasing pain, he heard the familiar gruffness of his bosses' voice.

"Ya seriously think I wouldn't wake up when I hear my best agent moaning in pain like that DiNoxzzo?" even while speaking Gibbs still maintained his same exact position with his eyes still closed and his breathing still as steady and even as it was when he slept. Tony's head jerked up off the pillow a couple of inches, startled by the voice of the man he really believed had been still sleeping! Turning his head towards the direction of his boss while cringing at the same time – Tony's eyes squinted into a frown. 'How does he do that?!' he couldn't help but wonder. 'Dammit!' he added under his breath – or so he thought, as he realized he wasn't doing a very good job of hiding his pain at all.

"Yeah Tony – dammit is right! Why the hell don't you do us both a favor and press the button for the morphine pump I gave ya? It's still in yer damn hand." Gibbs said after sitting up, letting his feet drop from the bed back down to the floor and glancing at Tony's right hand where the pump was still held tightly in his grip. It always made Gibbs angry seeing someone he cared about suffering or in danger, and he was even worse when that someone was Tony.

"Uh . . . oh. I'll be darned – lookit that. There it is - right there - in my hand. Hmmm I guess I just - forgot." Tony stuttered right before he pressed the button three times in a row as if to make up for lost time.

"Thing's got a limit DiNozzo. Ya can't get more than a certain amount no matter how many times – or how hard ya press it." Gibbs explain in his usual calm, borderline monotone way of speaking.

"Oh . . . uh, good t' know boss." Tony let his head fall wearily back down onto the pillows again as if the simple action of speaking combined with pressing the tiny button was all it took to wear him out – and it had been.

"Well, you seem more coherent than you have been so far. How you feelin' aside from the pain?"

Tony knew his boss was referring to his mental alertness and emotional state of mind in general. But he also knew he wasn't interested in hearing any specifics. "I can definitely tell that most of the anesthesia is finally out of my system now. As for how I feel about everything that happened – well, can't seem to remember half of it. Then again maybe that's a good thing."

"Yeah. Ya remember Ari comin in here earlier? Came to deliver a message basically, the hard way of course." Gibbs tested Tony's recollection of their earlier discussion where he had told him about his heroic attempt to try and get to Ari even while hooked up to IV's, pumps and monitors.

"Yeah, it's a little foggy but I remember the gist of it. What's that bastard up to now? Better yet, what are ya planning to do about it?" Tony was feeling much better as far as the pain scale went now that the morphine seemed to be doing it's job but he also knew that he was getting drowsy again because of it and that it wouldn't be long before he would be succumbing to it's effects.

"Al-right." Gibbs said after pausing for several moments while he decided if Tony was up to talking about the case. Finally relenting since after all, Tony was the one who had been affected the most by Ari's recent actions.

"So far here's where we're at, after the hospital gave Abby full use of their lab so I could keep an eye on all of you, she's already been able to detect some of the more rare components of that damn spray that Ari doused me with. Kate and McGee did some digging and found that the only way to obtain a couple of the more rare components, is though underground channels. Once they track down who sold or purchased some of the rare components recently - we can make some arrests and force them to lead us to Ari. I will use them as bait if I have to!"

"Wow, that's . . . that's pretty good progress boss." Gibbs instantly detected the hesitancy in Tony's voice and the shadows of doubt clouding his face. Either he was just down because he wasn't able to help more with the case or he didn't believe this was enough of a lead to track down someone as cunning as Ari. He decided to continue, vowing he would figure out the real reason for his injured agent's dire mood later.

"Yeah well, you know and I know - Ari's not stupid - so I highly doubt he would be that sloppy when it comes to leaving any kind of trail or falling for that kind of bait. We need more time to think this through but unfortunately, we don't have time. It's not a question of whether or not Ari will make another attempt to bring harm to one of us - it's a given."

To Be Continued . . .

A/N – Hope you liked this update! It's not the longest chapter but not the shortest and it had lot's to Tony/Gibbs time so hopefully that made up for it.

Preview Of Upcoming Chapters: Get ready for the next couple of chapters when all hell will break loose again with more of Ari's shenanigans that will put at least two more member of Gibbs team in danger and possibly Tony again as well! :-) Please review!