The team was furiously going through various things that could lead them to Alex, though none of them were coming up with anything. Tony was currently talking on the phone with an agent about the BOLO on the van.
Vance watched all of this from the catwalk that looked over the team's bullpen. The Director made his way down the stairs, then came to a stop at the edge of Tony's workspace.
"Still nothing?" He asked, addressing the group.
"No," came Gibbs' terse reply, without looking up from his own work.
"Well I've got more news. I informed Blunt about this little predicament. He's not exactly happy. He has decided to send in an SAS team to find Alex, and then take him back too London," Vance explained.
"They have about as much to go on as we do. What makes them think they can find them any easier? And on top of that they don't even know if the kid's still alive to take back to London. I don't like the way they're doing that kid, Leon. It's not right," Gibbs said forthright.
"Me neither but there's nothing we can do. It's not our Government agency to interfere with," Vance said sternly.
Ziva butted in shaking her head, "That should not matter. When I was in Mossad and needed help no one even batted an eye about helping me. They did it automatically. Now, Alex needs help we can't just turn a deaf ear as he's being blackmailed," Ziva said getting angry again about the way Alex was being treated, it had taken all of her training she had to not start yelling when Gibbs had explained to them about the blackmailing.
"Blind eye. But you got the 'batted an eye' one right," Tony corrected immediately.
"I'm all for ideas, but not at the risk of hurting this agency. Or country," Vance said as the 'ding' of the elevators sounded.
Being an old habit of his, Gibbs cast a glance to see who had entered.
Gibbs eyes burrowed as he saw who it was. Fornell. Perfect. And here he thought his day couldn't get any worse.
He stood up, eyes locked with Fornell's, as the man made his way over to them.
"Gibbs, you wouldn't happen to be missing anything would you?" He asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, apparently better security in this building. What are you doing here?" Gibbs asked.
"You wouldn't happen to be missing a teenager would you?" Fornell asked, looking around.
"Actually yes. What do you know?" Vance asked suspiciously
"We were infiltrating a known arms dealer today, and stumbled across a child," Fornell said as if that explained it all.
"Well where is he? And what makes you suddenly think he belongs to NCIS?" Tony said slowly as if he was talking to a baby.
"He's currently at the hospital. He was beaten. A rib punctured a lung also. His doctor said he was stable though. He was awake for a brief moment and the doctors said he mumbled the words 'NCIS' and 'Gibbs' before they gave him a something for the pain. The doctor said he was in a great deal of it. You want to tell me who this kid is?" Fornell asked timidly he was no fan of being left in the dark.
"His name's Alex Rider. Which hospital is he at? Is there someone with him now? He shouldn't be alone, Fornell," Gibbs said standing up and grabbing his coat then motioning for his team to follow suit.
"Keep me informed," Vance said before turning back to go to his office to inform Alan Blunt about this news.
"Mcgee, go get Ducky. I'm going to need him to explain all this medical gargle," Gibbs said swiftly.
"He's at St. Peterson's. And I left the agent that found him there to watch over him until you got there. Is this for a case?" Fornell asked as he walked with Gibbs and the team over to the elevator.
"In a way. It's a protection detail. And yes, that's all I'm going to tell you," Gibbs said to his friend.
The elevator doors came open and revealed a startled Abby who was clutching Bert the Hippo tightly to her chest.
"What's going on? Do we have a lead? And why has the FBI decided to grace us with their presence?" Abby asked firing questions at them.
"They stumbled upon Alex today. We're going to the hospital to see him," Tony explained.
Abby's face lit up, "That's great! But wait, hospital? What's wrong with him?" Abby yelled as they all squeezed into the semi- small elevator.
"He was beaten and a rib punctured a lung that's all we know. I take it you're going with us now?" Gibbs asked, seeing as Abby made no movement to hit the button on the elevator to take her to her lab.
"Of course, I am." Abby replied simply, thinking of all the possible outcomes of a punctured lung.
Gibbs only smiled slightly at her devotion to people she hardly knew. It was true when people said that when you're a friend of Abby Scuito's she'd do anything for you.
"How's Alex?" Was Abby's quick question as soon as the doctor made it within earshot of the group.
"Who are you exactly?" The stunned doctor asked, slightly perplexed by the group before him.
"We're from NCIS. We believe you have a teenager here that was in our protection," Tony answered.
"Ah, yes. You said his name was Alex?I'm doctor Bensting the doctor that dealt with Alex when he was brought in. It's good to finally have a face with a name," Doctor Bensting said.
"His name's Alex Rider. Is there any chance of you telling us how he is anytime today?" Gibbs asked, already getting frustrated.
"Yes, of course. Alex has had quite a bit of a day. He has a mild concussion that we're keeping an eye on, also his lung wound up collapsing. We had to put in a chest tube to get the fluid off the lung and for it to re-inflate. We've only just now been able to take out the chest tube. He's also getting the beginning signs of pneumonia, which is common after someone has a punctured lung. He's on oxygen to make sure he's being able to breathe okay. And we're monitoring the pneumonia symptoms closely. He's already developed a fever. Fortunately we have all of this under control at the moment. By the looks of it he was severely beaten. There's some bruising that looks like the outlines of a hand, and boot markings. If he wasn't on a light painkiller he'd be in a lot more pain than he is now," Bensting concluded.
"More than he is now? Why is he in any pain at all?" Mcgee asked.
"Because Timothy with the concussion Mr. Rider has sustained, too much pain medication could do more harm than good at the moment," Ducky answered without thinking before Alex's doctor could.
Ducky gave Doctor Bensting an apologetic look, "Uh, do forgive me doctor. Old habit."
The doctor only smiled at him and replied, "Quite all right, it's good to have someone in a group that understands the medical talk."
"Can we see him?" Abby asked hopefully.
Doctor Bensting seemed to consider this, then nodded, "Visiting hours are over. But I don't see the harm in it. And the poor kid's been alone through this whole ordeal besides that FBI agent all day. Follow me."
The team all followed the doctor to Alex's room, while they were trailed behind by Fornell.
When they approached Alex's room they were met by Kyle's FBI agent who was leaning against the wall of Alex's room.
The man straightened up when he spotted his boss coming over to him.
"Fornell," He greeted, since he didn't know any of the other people.
"Agent Lockhart this is Leroy Gibbs from NCIS along with his team. Their assigned on protection detail for Alex," Fornell informed.
"We want to thank you for finding him and getting him to a hospital so quick. You probably saved his life," Gibbs said extending his hand that was previously laying at his side.
"I was just doing my job," Lockhart said modestly, grasping the older mans rough and calloused hand.
"Have you talked with him?" Abby said looking anxiously at the door of Alex's room.
"No, I peeked in on him a few times, But he was asleep. He looked okay...well as 'okay' as he could be, but he was in some pain," Kyle informed her.
"Gibbs we might have to come back to ask Alex some questions when he's better. That is, of course, if we can't drag it out of this guy first," Fornell said turning with his agent to leave.
"Take care of him agent Gibbs," Kyle said in a concerned tone. This man was obviously a kid person.
Gibbs nodded once, barely listening to the men, then shouldered his way past the doctor that was standing beside the door. He walked into the room with Abby and the team hot at his heels.
When everyone's eyes landed on the still teenager Gibbs was certain not one of his team member were not in shock.
Alex looked down right horrible. He was laying in the elevated hospital bed, with a thin blanket folded over his lap. This torso up remained bare. This was what Gibbs was having a hard time taking his eyes off of.
Nearly every part of the boy's abdomen was black or purple. Some spots were cut and had to be stitched.
Alex's face was not only bruised and cut but to make things worse it was etched with pain, with sweat forming on his forehead. He was definitely in a light and restless sleep. The oxygen mask wasn't helping his appearance much either.
Gibbs watched as Abby walked slowly and quietly up to the side of the bed. With tear-filled eyes she wrapped her gentle hand into Alex's lax, clammy one.
Gibbs glanced at the rest of his team.
Ducky was looking at Alex with assessing eyes, thinking of all the medical things that could be done.
Mcgee only watched from the foot of the bed with sad, sullen eyes.
Tony and Ziva both had hard looks on their faces. This was probably came because of them both having harsh childhoods. They knew what it was like to feel hurt and alone.
Gibbs suspected if he could see his facial expression at the moment it would be that of grief. This was his fault. This happened while Alex was on his watch. He had never let something like this happen before. He was a marine! How could he let a child slip out of his house unnoticed?
"This isn't right Gibbs," Abby whispered as she put Bert the Hippo on the side of Alex for comfort.
"I know Abby," he whispered back.
"You heard the way that man was talking about Alex! They don't care about him. They're just using him. He could be killed, he would've been if the FBI hadn't found him," Abby ranted, eyes still on the kid before her.
"I know, Abby," Gibbs repeated.
"Well... What are we going to do about it?" She asked.
Gibbs' phone then took it's cue to ring. He flipped it open and answered, "Gibbs."
Everyone watched him as he listened.
"Gibbs, we have a problem. MI6 has decided to bring Alex home. They feel that since SCORPIA now knows that he's in DC it would be better to send him somewhere else. They're still sending an SAS team to bring him home," Vance's voice rang out through the receiver and into Gibbs' ear.
"Is there any way you can convince them otherwise? He shouldn't be moved in the state he's in Vance!" Gibbs replied, for some reason Gibbs had a bad feeling about letting them take Alex back.
"I've tried. It seems there's no negotiating with them. They're on their way," Vance concluded.
Gibbs let out a sigh, "Fine." Then he flipped his phone back shut. Sometime he felt that he had two jobs NCIS federal agent plus Director. It seemed he was doing more and more of Leon's job.
He looked around at his expecting team.
"MI6 is sending an SAS team in to pick Alex up and take him back to London then take him somewhere else for protection," Gibbs relayed.
"We have to do something, Boss," Tony said quietly. Behind Tony, Gibbs could see Mcgee's head nodding firmly in agreement. Everyone in the room could see the injustice of what was happening to Alex. Now it was up to them to make it right. No matter what.
Alex then took his cue to groan heavily. He was waking up.
Abby put a hand on the top of his forehead, wrinkling her eyebrows together as she felt the heat radiating off of it.
"Alex? Open your eyes," Abby commanded gently rubbing a hand through his locks.
Alex weakly opened his eyes, squinting at the bright lights that were pounding into his eyes, making his head pound in rhythm.
"Abby?" He managed to croak out, his throat sounded dry and scratchy.
Tony grabbed a cup with a straw on the bed tray that was sitting beside him and gave it to Abby she, in turn, held it to Alex's lips who blushed a bit but took a few gracious sips.
"Thanks," He said quietly as he watched Ducky slip out of the room to alert someone that he had awoken.
"No problem. How do you feel? And don't lie because we'll know. NCIS interrogates for a living," Abby said, Gibbs vaguely noticed that her hand was still grasping Alex's.
The spy gave a small smirk but replied,"It hurts a bit, but I'll be okay."
Then he started coughing deep and seemingly painful coughs. Tony visibly winced at the sound in understanding sympathy and remembering his stay in the hospital coughing.
Gibbs waited for his coughing to subside and for the teen to regain his breath before informing, "Well I got some news Alex. MI6 is sending an SAS team to take you home, then they said something about sending you somewhere else for protection," he finished, watching Alex's face closely for his reaction.
And as expected the boy's face hardened and became blocked off, "When?" he asked sharply, through the pain that the coughing fit had started.
"They'll be here sometime tomorrow," Gibbs answered.
Alex seemed to consider this for awhile. The team watched him closely for signs of an outburst or well, anything. They didn't know what to expect with the boy.
Soon Alex seemed to come to a conclusion.
"When can I go home?...Uh, I mean, when can I leave?" Alex asked, trying to sit up.
The sudden movement caused him to ignite the pain in his middle. He cried out uncontrollably as even more pain erupted in his body, and Abby pushed him gently back onto the bed.
"You're not leaving here anytime soon I can tell you that now, Mister," She said, "You're hurt."
"You don't understand. If they come and send me somewhere else it's more than likely not to an agency like NCIS. They'll say it's for a vacation or some lie like that and it'll turn out to be a mission they've conned me into," Alex said urgently, starting to pant heavily in the pain that was currently settled in his entire torso.
"They wouldn't send you into a mission in the state you in," Abby said, though it was more of a question.
"They'll more than likely give me awhile to heal, but not properly. Not more than a week after I was shot they had me on a mission," Alex said, adding in the whole Ark Angel fiasco to get his point across.
They all turned to Ziva who was more than qualified in the spy field, and saw that she could only look at them and nod in conclusion that Alex was more than likely right. Especially if MI6 was anything like Mossad was.
This seemed to send the team into a long silence. Everyone thinking the same thing; What the hell is going on with this agency?
Suddenly Ducky came back in with a nurse, who was holding a syringe in her hand.
"Hello, Mr. Rider. It sure is nice to have a name with a face. It looks like you're in quite a bit of pain here. I can't give you a heavy painkiller just yet because of your concussion. But I can give you a light one to take the edge off the pain," She said in a nice tone.
Alex found that he could only nod and watch as the nurse administered the painkiller into his IV port then pull out a thermometer to take his temperature.
"101.6, well your fever has come down a bit. So that's good, I'll be back later to administer you some antibiotics for your pneumonia," Was all the nurse replied, before retreating out of the room.
They all waited silently and watched as Alex calmed down and the pain was subsided to a more tolerant level.
Gibbs finally broke the silence, "Where exactly did you think you were going just now?"
Alex seemed to take this in for a moment before shaking his head tiredly, "I don't know. Somewhere. I can't keep doing this. I'm tired of being used, I just want this whole mess to be over. I want to be left alone. I refuse to wind up like the rest of my family."
Gibbs quickly filed away Alex's slip up. Rest of my family. That implies that there was more than just his uncle in the spy world.
"So you're going to runaway?" Tony asked.
"No...I don't know," Alex said obviously defeated.
Abby looked up at Gibbs then looked deep into his eyes giving him a hard looked before she said, "You know Alex we have a motto here at NCIS...Well...Me and Gibbs do it goes; 'if you need help all you have to do is ask," Abby said said looking down at Alex.
"Do you need help, Alex?" Gibbs asked, knowing the answer, but wanting to hear it come out of the teen's mouth.
It was now Alex's turn to look Gibbs into the eyes.
He gave a exasperated laugh before saying quietly, "What can you possible do?"
Abby gave him a wicked smile, "Boss man can do anything, Alex. And we all want to help."
Alex looked around at the people before him, their expressions were all the same. They really did want to help him.
But he shook his head, "I can't ask you to do that, you barely know me. And besides that I don't want to get you in trouble. Yokov's going to come back whether I like it or not and I can't put you at risk. You've been really nice to me."
"Alex, I've had Ducky do a profile on you – it's sorta his specialty, and he has came to the realization that you're obviously not trusting of people. Adults especially. It's time for you to let that shield you've put around yourself down and let us in to help. You have to trust us. We can help you get out of this, but you're going to have to open up," Gibbs in a tone that was firm but gentle at the same time, in a way that surprised Alex himself to find he was comforted by this.
Alex looked at Gibbs and into his eyes. They were strong, protecting. Alex hadn't seen this kind of emotion aimed at him since...well... Ian. And looking down at himself now he undoubtedly needed help. He couldn't keep going on like this. It would kill him.
The teens eyes looked around the room at the concerned people in his hospital room before his eyes landed back on Gibbs. Alex nodded his head and replied quietly, "okay."
Gibbs smirked before leaning back in his chair, "Wise choice."
Alex managed his own small smile. He had a feeling he would've gotten the teams help even if he had refused it.
"What exactly are you going to do?" Alex asked with a yawn.
"They can not force you to come back with them, Alex. And if they do we will handle it. Do not worry," Ziva assured firmly.
"Yes, I do think we've overstayed ourselves here. Alex does need his rest," Ducky replied noticing Alex's yawn, and clearly exhausted look.
Abby pouted but walked away from the bed, promising to see Alex as soon as possible.
"Tony, you're in charge. Call me if you run into any trouble with that SAS team. And while you're waiting you three need to get caught back up in that case Vance assigned us," Gibbs replied.
"You're not going with them?"Alex asked, but snuggling back down in the covers as best he could without causing his injuries to flare again.
"You said it yourself, Yokov is going to come back. Which means I want you with someone at all times. And I have a feeling MI6 isn't going to let you go so easily, so you better get some rest," Gibbs ordered.
Alex closed his eyes, slowly drifting off when he felt a small but firm tap on the top of his head. His eyes snapped open and he was looking at the face of Gibbs, "What was that for?" he asked blankly.
He then heard Abby's giggle by the door and as he looked over he saw the whole team huddled together, smirking widely at him.
"That was for not telling me as soon as you read that letter. And something tells me you're gonna be getting a few more of these headslaps, maybe more than Tony," Gibbs said simply.
"Welcome aboard, Alex," Tony replied with a laugh before exiting the room with the rest of the team.
"Don't worry, Alex. The headslap's are Gibbs' way of showing he cares," Abby said before retreating out of the room.
Ducky lagged behind with a stern warning to the boy in the bed, "Alex, I want you to rest as much as possible, young man. I'll be back tomorrow to see you."
"Okay, Ducky," Alex replied half asleep as the painkillers effect started taking toll on the tired body.
Gibbs looked down at the sleeping boy, he had a gut feeling helping Alex was going to be more than he bargained for. But he also had a feeling that it was going to be worth it.
A/N- oookkkayyy this chapter was the hardest to write...i think EVERY I have no idea what the reaction to this one's going to be so I'm just going to post the chapter and back away sllooowwwllyyy and Hope I don't get my head bitten off.
I've tried like three different ways to get the transition through for Alex to trust the team(especially Gibbs) more...but I just can't make it stick...Hopefully this chapter and the upcoming one is starting to do that.
Now I was going to do more than just the hospital scene in this chapter but it took me this long to just do this so I thought everyone had suffered enough and I just made this one chapter. Hopefully the next chapter won't be as hard to write lol.
And I want to thank my new lovely Beta ChakramVampire for her awesome beta-ness. She helped me pick just the right way to go with this chapter and urged it along abit.
Review and tell me what you think!