Hey everyone, I'm really sorry about the wait on this chapter. I've had a pounding headache for the past two days and all the Tylenol and caffeine isn't doing a thing to help. Because of that, this chapter hasn't really been proofread or gone over as much as I'd like. Please forgive any mistakes and the length, I'd like this chapter to be longer but I just can't keep my focus.
I hope you all still enjoy and pretty please review, it really means a lot.
~Renee.

Three hours.

One hundred and eighty minutes.

Ten thousand eight hundred seconds.

In three hours you can drive to the store, buy a cake mix, bake, eat, and laugh over a ruined chocolate cake, watching cake batter drip off a child's forehead and glob on his nose, and wonder how just he managed to get flour in his ear, not to mention when you became the kind of man to even be talked into making a chocolate cake.

In one hundred and eighty minutes you can watch two classic Disney movies, hearing your own laughter echo around a house that hasn't felt this complete in years. You look down and see green eyes, brimming with life, sparking with joy and dancing with the knowledge that he is safe next to you and you realize that finally finally you are living again.

In ten thousand eight seconds you can pace a waiting room, your heart in your throat, cursing the world and realizing that each second that passes by is another piece of your sanity that is being chipped away as the silence stretches on, waiting for doors to open, for news to be brought, for green eyes to open.
Waiting.

...

The waiting room was full of family, though the members were as diverse as they could be.

McGee and Kate sat back to back on the floor under a window, both staring at opposite walls, their thoughts brimming with what they had seen. Unable to get away from the images left behind at the crime scenes.

It wasn't an anonymous victim anymore.

An almost disaster.

A potential heartache.

It was Tony.

And they couldn't get away from that.

So they stared.

Ducky sat on one of the couches, his arms full of a dark haired young woman, still dressed in vampire pajamas even down to the bat slippers on her feet. Her hair was mussed and her eyes were red and she hung on to the older man's conservative shirt as if her life depended on it. She was whispering to herself and once Ducky was able to decipher what she was saying, he shook his head and sighed.

But didn't make her be quiet.

As opposed as he was to violence, listening to the various ways she planned to dispatch DiNozzo Sr. was somewhat comforting.

He personally was a fan of her idea to castrate him then bury him alive.

He brushed his hand through her hair and held her hand as she cried into his shoulder.

Jimmy Palmer sat in the corner.

His knees were drawn to his chest and his forehead rested on them, his arms covering his head, trying to make himself as small as possible.

Maybe if he closed his eyes tighter he would forget the way Tony's eyes brightened with pain, how he paled and clung to Gibbs like he was all there was in the world before passing out.

Working with Doctor Mallard he had gotten used to working with the dead.

With people who were past helping.

Past feeling pain.

He curled in tighter.

Two men sat on a couch, forgotten against the wall. Their knees pressed close together and their heads bowed, holding on to each other's hands as they prayed.

One voice murmured in Spanish, a plea for healing, to guide the soul back to its loved ones.

The other listened, tears slipping down his lined face as he thought back to his every past decision.

Could he have done something different, anything to keep them from this?

Taken him away, hidden him from the world, stolen him before the nightmare even started?
He squeezed his friends' hands tighter and tried to lose himself in the whispered words.

Gibbs stood on the opposite side of the room, his arms crossed tight against him, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

But his ears were sharp.

He could hear the barely audible whimper from Palmer.

The sorrow fueled rage from Abby.

The abnormal silence from McGee and Kate.

The Spanish murmur drifting from Miguel and Mayer.

And the footsteps approaching him.

He opened his eyes.

"Agent Gibbs."

"Director."

"Any news."

Any news?

No.

There was no news.

Three hours.

Three d*mn hours of standing in this room and there had been nothing.

Three hours since they had rushed his son through those double doors, pushing him back and away.

Separating him from his child.

Again.

"No. No news."

The director sighed and leaned on the wall next to him.

"DiNozzo?"

Gibbs' tone went hard but satisfied.

"Floor below us. Fornell and Franks are with him."

Morrow raised an eyebrow.

"He's in the hospital? What did you do to him?"

Gibbs' shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Not enough."

Morrow made an intelligible sound before looking away and speaking quietly.

"Hmm...To be honest I was kind of hoping you'd shoot him."

Gibbs smirked and glanced at the man from the corner of his eye.

He had never been very fond of the director.

Really he had a problem with authority in general.

Well that's not true.

He had a problem when authority tried to tell him how to do his job.

And he had never been Morrow's biggest fan, but he had been one of his staunchest supporters through all of this.

Taking measures to get the case in their jurisdiction.

Working to get the adoption papers rushed through the court.

Right down to befriending his son to the point of football games and first names.

And right now he looked nothing like the director of NCIS.

He looked like a man who was worried about a child.

Gibbs turned towards him and offered a hand.

"Tom...thanks."

Morrow looked at him in confusion for a moment and then shook the hand, his brow clearing.

"Anytime."

The two turned back and faced the room, lapsing into silence.

And they waited.

…

Tobias and Mike stepped into the room and studied its' occupants with shadowed eyes.

Judging by the silence and the palpable tension radiating off of Gibbs, it wasn't hard to figure there hadn't been any news.

They moved towards Gibbs who elbowed the director.

The two spoke quietly and then Gibbs stepped forward, pulling the two men to the hall.

"Gettin cozy with the director probie?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes and Tobias spoke up in his defense.

"Any friend of Tony's..."

Gibbs crossed his arms and glared at Mike.

"Do you have something for me, or should I head back in there and keep staring at the doors?"

Mike smirked and stretched, his back popping.

"Relax probie, I'm just jackin with you. Got to burn off some steam. Heard anything on the kid?"

Gibbs pursed his lips and shook his head.

Tobias sighed.

"Right. Well doctor just got back to us about DiNozzo. The man has a severe concussion, two cracked ribs and a dislocated shoulder. Not to mention enough bruises to ensure that he isn't going to be moving for a while. You really worked him over Jethro."

Mike bit out a smile.

"Nothing that b*st*rd didn't deserve."

Gibbs grunted.

"Still not enough. He should rot for what he did."

Mike nodded in agreement.

"He will. There's a guard at his door and he's handcuffed to the d*mn bed. He's going nowhere. The man's going to prison for a long time."

Tobias agreed.

"Fraud, embezzlement, the bringing in of illegal aliens, multiple accounts of child abuse, kidnapping, attempted murder. He's not going to see the sun again."

...

Gibbs was going to kill someone.

And it was more than likely going to be the man handcuffed to the bed downstairs if he didn't get some news soon.

He growled and turned, pacing the length of the waiting room yet again.

Ducky looked up at the man and spoke quietly.

"Jethro, snarling like a bear will not make them come any faster. Please sit down."

Gibbs turned and was about to unleash his rage on his old friend but the doors opened the same instant his mouth did.

"Anthony DiNozzo Jr.?"

Gibbs winced at the name and turned slowly to the doctor.

That's going to be fixed. Soon.

"Tony."

Hearing the bite in his words the doctor blinked and paused.

"Tony then. My name is Doctor Michelson. I take it you're the family?"

Ducky moved Abby off his lap where she was still curled and stood.

"I'm Doctor Mallard, Tony's physician. This is his father, Special Agent Gibbs. The rest are...family also. What can you tell us?"

Gibbs sent a look at Ducky for taking the questions of his hands, but turned back to the doctor who gestured for the men to come to a more secluded corner.

The doctor, to his credit, didn't even blink at blink at the differing last names before he began to share what his information.

"Antho-Tony, first of all, is going to be alright. It's going to take some time for him to recover fully, but he will recover. Please keep that in mind."

Gibbs nodded and swallowed past a suddenly dry tight throat.

"Tony has a concussion, nothing too serious but we should certainly keep watching it. There is no sign of swelling or brain injury, but we're going to monitor it closely just in case. He also has one broken rib on the right side and another that is cracked with some major bruising in the general area. He has a severely sprained left ankle, if it would have been twisted any further it would have been a greenstick fracture."

Gibbs clenched his fists and bit back a cry of rage.

"Now we've come to the most serious problem here. His back. From his shoulders to hips he has deep lacerations, cutting through the skin and even into the muscle in the worst areas. It was a difficult task, trying to save as much of the skin as possible, but we managed. There are over dozen major sutures in his back, and then several smaller stitches scattered in between to keep everything clear. There was some major blood loss to be worried about, and we're running transfusions now."

Gibbs ran a hand down his face.

He's going to be alright?

Really?

You can tell me he's going to be fine and then tell me all of that?

"I...can I see my son?"

The doctor smiled softly.

"We can only allow two visitors at a time, but there will be no problem with you seeing him. Follow me?"

Ducky promised to inform the others while Gibbs followed after the doctor.

He was going to his son.

…

Tony had the strangest feeling of deja vu.

He was in the hospital.

Again.

He could have sworn he was just here.

The colors were back too.

Cool.

"Tony?"

Three hours of sitting in a waiting room and then another two sitting in his room waiting for him to wake up, and Gibbs was finally rewarded with his son's bleary eyes.

Tony blinked his eyes several times trying to clear his vision before his eyes settled on the man sitting next to his bed. He then smiled and whispered.

"Gibbs. You're here. Hi dad."

Gibbs smiled softly at the boy and squeezed the hand he was holding gently.

"Hi son. How are you doing?"

Tony giggled.

"I'm doing fantastic. Everything's all...gooey."

Gibbs raised and eyebrow.

"Gooey huh? Good drugs?"

Tony beamed at him then wrinkled his eyebrows at him, frustration clear on his face.

"I hate these things. I wanted to tell you something, but they make my brain all...fuzzy. Like there's oatmeal in my head and I'm trying to walk through it."

Gibbs chuckled and gently rubbed circles on the back of his hand.

"It's alright, you'll tell me eventually. We have all the time in the world to talk."

Tony blinked once and looked at him, his head turned to the side before a small slow smile spread across his face.

"We do. Huh. Lots and lots of time. And I can talk to you about anything. And you won't get mad. Promise?"

Gibbs leaned closer to him and sighed quietly.

"Promise."

Tony gripped the hand that was holding his and pulled Gibbs closer to him, not stopping until Gibbs was only inches away from him.

"Do you want to know a secret?"

"Sure Tony."

"I knew you were coming."

Gibbs blinked in surprise. And then smiled.

"You did?"

Tony nodded enthusiastically.

"I really want to tell you that I wasn't scared, but I was. I was really scared. But I was mad too. I yelled at him. I've never done that before. It kind of felt nice. He got really made after that. And things get…Actually I don't remember a lot after I yelled. Things get all dark and...I don't know."

It took all of Gibbs' control not to tighten his grip on Tony's hand from reassuring to bruising as his anger spiked.

"But then I woke up in the dark and even thought I was still scared, I wasn't worried. I know that doesn't make a whole lotta sense, but it does to me. Because I knew you were going to come get me. You and Toby and Mike and Tom and Abby and Kate and Tim. You weren't going to let me go away. I knew you were going to come save me. I just had to wait. And that's what I did. And you came. Just like I knew you would."

Tony looked proudly at him while he grinned.

Gibbs burrowed his nose in his son's hair, breathing in the scent.

"I did come. I'm just sorry I didn't come sooner."

Tony shook his head and the movement of the hair made his dad's nose tickle.

"You came right on time. You didn't let him take me, that's what's important. And I'm okay and you're okay. So everything is perfect. I get to be with you, I get to come home. So what could be better?"

What could be better?

If this never happened.

If we would have found you before he laid a finger on you.

If I could ripped that son of a b*tch apart with my bare hands.

What could be better?

"Nothing could be better Tony. We're back together. Nothing could be better."