PLEASE READ- Everyone knows that the girl is named CLEO, right? Not Cloe. I just wanted to clear that up.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING EVERYONE! THERE IS NO WAY I COULD CONTINUE THE STORY WITHOUT YOUR GUYS' SUPPORT! I do not own NCIS.
Reveiws:
Sue Dooley- Thank you so much for your continued support! Um, I do want to mention that her name is Cleo. I said that above too. It doesn't really matter, I just think you might want to know.
Buckeye am I- Thanks for reviewing. Once again the girl is Cleo not Cloe, not that I care. You can go with whatever name you want!
bunnykoko- I try to update as quick as I can. And too be honest I hardly know where this is going too!
LESLIE hughes- Sorry that it was confusing! I tried hard to straighten it up, but I was still afraid that this would happen. Did you still figure it out alright?
jalsi- As you might notice, I don't really write about Tim. I don't really dislike him, but I find his traits are hard to put into writing. Thank you for reviewing!
Tony's POV-
I must have sat on my butt for ten minutes, unwilling to do anything as even the thought of moving made me want to groan. But then I heard a commotion happening above me, and there was no way Gibbs would find me here, useless. I crawled away from my position by the wall, while avoiding putting weight on injured areas, only to find that I could make it three feet before my chain yanked me back. However, that was still far enough from the door for it to be unreachable. There wasn't anything to pick the lock of the chain with, and even if I did I would have to pick it with my injured arm as that was the only one mobile. I settled for the only thing that I could do, which would be scope the room. It was large, by far the largest room I had been in so far. It was barren, unfinished, and had no heating. Not like the other rooms had really been heated either, though. Even with my high fever I was shivering, and I almost regretted not accepting Gibbs' jacket before he had left. I tapped the walls that were within reach from my sitting position, and they sounded hollow. I sighed. This was getting me nowhere.
I could hear a gun fight occurring between what I hoped to be my rescue and Jeff's gang. The sounds reminded me of a fourth of July that my father had scheduled a meeting on, which basically meant that I had been banished to my room. It was rather similar when you compared the two situations, actually. I felt unincluded from what actually happening and I was stuck in somewhere I did not want to be. Yeah, that basically summed up my messed up childhood.
The gunshots were slowing down and becoming less frequent, indicating that someone had finally won the fight. Judging from what sounded like orders from a SWAT team commander it was my rescue who had victory.
"Hey! Down here!" I attempted to attract attention. "Gibbs!" Well, this was obnoxious. I gave anyone a long pause to respond, but got none. "Hello?" No answer. Great. I had to wait for Gibbs to find me because god help those SWAT agents, they were incompetent. I hated waiting for Gibbs to come help me, with a capital H. But try as I might, there would be no stopping me from passing out soon. The blood loss was getting to me, and the room was spinning rapidly. Maybe I could just rest my eyes…
I cursed myself for allowing my eyelids to slip for even a minute. I would never live it down if- no, when- my rescue came and I was asleep. I looked around to see if there was anything else that could be done, but found nothing. So, all I had to do was stay awake. Theoretically it was straightforward.
I felt like I was drowning in my own lungs with every movement because they caused liquid in my lungs to move. It had worried me at first, but when I discovered it was not pain causing I had lost the energy to care about it. There was other better attention grabbing things, such as my leg and arm at the moment. I focused on the suffering of those areas and suddenly the weights were removed from my eyelids.
Upstairs I could have sworn I heard a commanding voice. I felt something that I realized was a gut feeling, the same sensation that Gibbs often felt, and it told me Gibbs was talking .
"Down here!" I tried, but my voice came out as a raspy whisper. I don't think I had ever been more frustrated in my life. Help dangled in front of my face, but just far enough to be out of reach. "Gibbs!" There was the same outcome. I curled my hands into fists and I felt blood drip down onto my wrists I had pressed so hard. Forget any torment I had felt in the past few days, this was by far the worst torture. I clutched my bleeding head in my hands and tried to regain control over myself. If anyone was looking at me I was sure they would see steam blowing from my ears.
I grabbed my knife from where I had returned it to my belt and threw it as hard as I could. I had never been particularly amazing at knife throwing, but with my rage the entire blade implanted itself in the door with a loud thud. Only about a quarter of the handle could be seen from my side of the door, but I was sure more could be seem from the other side. The thd had been very loud; loud enough that anyone upstairs would have heard.
"Tony?" the voice was muffled from the many walls between us, but I would recognize anything of Gibbs from a mile away. I heard footsteps approaching the room, and in a half minute people were kicking down the knife impaled door. SWAT members were instantly surrounding me, and the numerous faces and voices made me dizzy and confused. The room was still spinning, and I could see that people mouths were moving. The strange thing, though, was the fact I could hear no sound coming from them. A fog was settling on my already troubled eyesight, and suddenly the faces blurred and I was alone.
"Gibbs?"
"Got your six." I glanced over and instantly there he was, kneeling at my right. He laid his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.
"I think I'm gonna pass out," I admitted matter-of-factly.
"What happened to DiNozzo's don't pass out?" Gibbs asked with a ghost of a smile on his lips.
"I call it reserving energy," I managed before I tumbled into a relatively comfortable blackness.
.o0O0o.
I hated coming to after passing out. There was always the confusion and the chaos of my mind. And then, usually, there was the hospital. And God, I hated hospitals. Being left at the mercy of people poking and prodding every inch of me was usually worse than the actual event that lead me to be there.
This time was no different. When I opened my eyes, there was multiple doctors and nurses blocking my line of vision. I was laying down in a hospital bed, and I was no longer wearing my own clothes. I felt a horrible burning feeling sensation in my throat and instinctively reached my hand up to find the source, only to find I couldn't. I felt my forehead crease as I discovered my arms were in padded restraints connected to the hospital bed.
"Hey," Gibbs said and looking past all of the busy nurses I could make out Gibbs looking down at me. "You still can't die," he reminded me.
A nurse who was studying a clipboard glanced up, and saw that I awake. She shooed out Gibbs when she followed my gaze and saw him standing in the background. "You can't be in here," she told him while trying to push him out the door. Gibbs glared at her and quickly fixed the situation by pulling out his badge.
"I'm a federal agent," he clarified.
"Unless he is a criminal you have to leave," she remained stubborn. Gibbs looked unsure of what to say for the first time in his life as she had stayed uncompromising under his glower.
"He is." Gibbs finally decided to lie with a swift nod. I would have smiled at Gibbs for lying to an old lady, but there was something in my mouth that blocked my lips from moving. I realized that it was the same thing that must have caused that burning sensation that I had felt earlier. Whatever it was, I was positive I did not like it, and that it was making it hard to breath. I pulled harder at my arms to get them mobile again, but the restraints simply bit into my skin. I heard a machine start beeping noisily in warning as I felt my heart rate increase considerably.
"He's fighting the restraints and ventilator!" I heard someone call in an urgent tone. I began taking quick, shallow breaths as panic clutched at my heart. Why was I in these stupid restraints? But no matter how hard I pulled, they were unrelenting. I saw someone approaching me in a stark white coat, and I noticed that he gripped my arm a little below my forearm. There was a prick as a needle was injected, and then the peaceful blackness.
.o0O0o.
This time when I woke up, it wasn't as bad. There was much less chaos, and the burning sensation had been removed. The only people in the room where Gibbs and a nurse who were deep into a conversation; too deep to acknowledge my awareness. I was hooked up to a half dozen machines, which was about a half dozen too many, but I figured if any of them were dangerous Gibbs wouldn't allow me to be connected to them. Even though the burning feeling was gone, my throat still felt dry and raw. I tried to swallow, and immediately grimaced at how much it hurt.
I decided I should take an assessment of the damage to my body. My arm was in a uncomfortable, black short arm cast. My ribs along with my leg were wrapped tightly, and I could feel that I had stitches on many areas of my body. Every inch of me was sore, making it safe to assume I probably had about a thousand bruises.
"Gibbs," I tried to use my voice, and though it irritated my throat, it was better than before. Gibbs immediately gave the nurse a pointed look ending their exchange before turning his attention to me.
"How do ya feel?" he asked.
"Like I got ran over with a truck a few times."
"Not bad, considering."
"How long was I out?"
"Two days." My eyebrows shot up with that discovery.
"What did I miss?"
"We arrested all of the men. Mark got the charges dropped. Cleo and Abby are now friends."
"How long till I can get out of here?" Gibbs chuckled at that.
"We have no idea, but probably a while. In case you haven't noticed your temp is still at 104." I wrinkled my nose. I did not want to be here that long, nor did I plan on it. Gibbs must have understood what I was thinking because then he added, "If you even think about signing AMA then I will head slap you so hard you forget your name. Are we clear?"
"Yes, sir!" I mocked. "Can I have some water?"
"No, but there's ice chips." Gibbs helped spoon some to me as I was only one handed at the moment. They felt amazing on my dry throat as I sucked on them, so much so that a smile of pleasure crossed my face. Yet, like all things, my happiness was short lived. I hadn't really noticed it until I had become fully awake, but I was really hot. I felt like my body was being dipped into molten lead, and the fever was robbing me of energy. Just doing the thing that came the most natural to me, talking, was strenuous.
"You don't look so good," Gibbs commented.
"I don't feel so good."
"I'm going to get the doctor."
"No!"
"Fine, but I'm at least getting Duck."
"I'm fine."
"Are not."
"What are you, three?"
"I guess you are rubbing off on me."
"Ha ha."
"I'm getting Ducky." He stated, and before I could once again protest, he was gone. He only took about five minutes to locate Duck and bring him back to my room, which was only a little longer than I had estimated.
"How are you feeling, Anthony?" Ducky asked with his accented voice.
"Dandy."
"Jethro seems to disagree." Ducky replied while moving over to me. He pulled out a thermometer from his voluminous, black bag and pushed it against my forehead, and while being in a bed, there was no where I could go to escape. When Duck pulled it away and glanced at what it said, lines of worry appeared on his face.
"What is it, Duck?" Gibbs asked impatiently.
"His temperature has not gone down. In fact, it has risen to 105." He declared gravely.
"Um, is that normal?" I inquired only mildly worried. Gibbs had told me I was not allowed to die, so the worst thing that could happen would be staying here for a while.
"No, and it is quite worrisome. I will have a word with your assigned doctor," he told me before making a hasty exit.
"You have plenty of visitors," Gibbs informed me. I grimaced at the thought of Abby's hug that was sure to come as soon as she did. "Are you ready for them?"
"Not really," I confessed with my eyes cast downwards.
"They'll understand. You should get some sleep."
"Alright, but not with you standing over me. It's kind of creepy."
"Fine." He left after throwing out his latest empty coffee cup. I rolled over into a slightly more comfortable position on my side, but then immediately went back onto my back with a groan when my ribs erupted with pain. Bad idea, I thought to myself. With these wounds, I would never sleep the entire time I was here. Despite my knowledge of that, I closed my eyes to fake it. If anyone came in I didn't really want to deal with them. It was arduous to be social and keep up my sarcastic masquerade.
After an hour or so, I still had not fallen asleep. Someone had come in twice so far, and by the foot steps I ascertained that once it was Ziva, and the other time it was McGee. I felt bad for lying to them, but I just couldn't handle it with the high fever. And with the pain meds, who knew what I would say.
Okay, I know I said this chapter would be longer. I think it is like 600 words longer, which isn't too much. Sorry! Anywho, PLEASE, Asseblief, Ju lutem, Խնդրեմ, অনুগ্ৰহ কৰি, Sisplau, Amābō tē, REVIEW! According to google, those are different ways to say please in different languages if you didn't catch on :).
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