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"Boss!" McGee's running slowed as the dust caused him to cough. He pulled the neck of his shirt over his mouth and nose and stopped for a moment, trying to somehow will the dust to settle so he could see in front of him. He closed his eyes, feeling sick to his stomach at the thought that he'd left them there to die... He should have stayed...shouldn't have let them do it without him. He could've helped...
Somewhere in the distance he heard coughing. His eyes shot open and his heart pounded in his chest. "Boss?" he yelled and started walking forward again. Through the clearing dust, he saw three figures walking toward him. Tony, with Gibbs and the fireman on either side of him, assisting him as they made their way out. An overwhelming feeling of relief washed over him.
"Thought I told you to get outta here, McGee," Gibbs said as he turned to walk beside them.
"I did...I was, Boss. But the cave-in...well, I thought...didn't know if..."
"I told you I'd get him out, didn't I?"
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"C'mon, Ducky," Tony said from his seat over the edge of the back of the ambulance. "I'm completely fine."
"You've got blood comin' outta your ears, DiNozzo," Gibbs said from his seat beside him.
"From the blast, no doubt," Ducky said. "It's dried, and most likely not serious, seeing as your hearing seems to have returned to normal. Ear drums heal on their own."
"See, Boss?" Tony grinned, "There's nothin' they can do for me. I don't need to go to the hospital."
"My concern, however, is for you leg. It was pinned for a while."
"But I can move it just fine, Ducky. I practically walked outta there myself!" he glanced at Gibbs, "Well...I had some help, but still..."
"It's a bit swollen. You should be monitored for possible Rhabdomyolysis. It happens when the muscle is crushed, releases enzymes into the body and sometimes ends up blocking the kidney."
"You're goin', Tony," Gibbs told him.
"Guys...come on," Tony planted his palms on his forehead. "My head is killin' me...I just wanna go home and go to bed."
"You can sleep at the hospital," Gibbs told him.
"Nah, that's not gonna happen. They're gonna hook me up to things and poke me and prod me every hour..." his hands fell to his lap as he hunched over in defeat.
"I'll make you a deal," Gibbs said. "You go in for the day, and I'll come get you tonight as long as everything checks out okay."
Tony looked at him, "Stayin' at your place again?"
"Gotta keep an eye on ya if you're not gonna be in the hospital," he replied. He had to admit to himself that this wasn't completely just for Tony's benefit.
"Ok, Boss...but don't leave me there too long or I might figure out my own plan of escape."
Gibbs raised his brows in amusement, "Keep talkin', DiNozzo. I'll have a protection detail outside your room in no time."
Tony started to laugh, which quickly developed into a cough that had him lurching over. After a few moments of the continued struggle, Gibbs put a hand on his agent's back and looked to Ducky.
"No doubt he's inhaled some of the dust," the doctor explained. McGee stepped into view of them as he hung up his cell and looked in their direction.
"Eh...might wanna move, Duck," Tony said as he swallowed and flung an arm at the doctor's chest to push him before he began to vomit into the street below them.
Ducky met Gibbs' eyes again, "Most likely, he's had a concussion. If you do check him out this evening, I insist on coming by to check in on him. Maybe I'll stay the night."
Gibbs nodded in acknowledgment, not taking his eyes off of his agent. Tony was simply breathing now, though; catching his breath after the heaving had ended. "You okay?" he asked.
Tony straightened back up, "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that, Boss. I think I'm ready to go, now." He stood with heavy-lidded eyes and swayed a bit. Gibbs stood and steadied him, and Tony turned toward him, wrapping his arms around his boss, "Love ya, Boss." Gibbs smirked, shaking his head as he ruffed the back of Tony's hair. "Where's McGee?" Tony asked as he gently pulled away.
"Right here, Tony," McGee said as he stepped a bit closer.
Tony looked lazily in his direction and smirked, "Thanks for not givin' up on me, Probie."
"I'd never do that," he replied with a furrowed brow.
"You're a good brother, Tim," he said before dizzying and nearly falling over, had it not been for Gibbs catching him.
"Okay, Tony. Let's get you in this ambulance," Gibbs and Ducky assisted the paramedic in getting Tony into the back of the vehicle...
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McGee exited the elevator and headed toward the bullpen. Ziva stood from her desk as she saw him, "What happened, McGee? Is Tony okay?"
"Yeah," he sighed as he threw his pack beside his desk. "He's at the hospital for observation. Ducky says he's got a concussion and possibly a crushing injury from where his leg was pinned under the steering wheel."
She looked him up and down, noticing his filthy shirt and bloody hand, "You are a mess, McGee."
He glanced down at himself, "Yeah...guess I should go clean up." He opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a clean shirt, then headed for the restroom. Ziva decidedly followed him, unbeknownst to Tim, and gave a smirk to the agent who was leaving the restroom as she entered.
As Tim shed his shirt, Ziva could see the red scrapes on his chest and she narrowed her eyes. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, she could tell there was something weighing on his mind. "You are upset," she said, and he jumped, startled that there was suddenly someone else in the room.
He found her reflection in the mirror behind him, "I'd remind you that you're in the mens room, but I know that's never stopped you from coming in here before." She smirked, but remained silent and he knew she was waiting for him to answer. "I'm not upset," he told her. "I'm just..." he sighed as he washed his hands. "Gibbs made Ducky and I leave the garage because the ceiling was in danger of collapsing more. Then when it actually did... Ziva, for a minute I thought they were both dead," he said in barely a whisper before splashing some of the water over his face. He reached for the paper towels.
"But they are alive," she reminded him as she stepped a bit away from the wall.
"Yeah, I know," he said as he dried his face and hands. "But for a minute...I don't think I've ever felt so absolutely..." he squinted as he tried to summon the right description, "Lost...as much as I did in that moment." He threw on his clean shirt and started buttoning it up.
Ziva came to stand in front of him, "It is part of our job...the possibility of losing someone on our team."
"I know that, Ziva," he met her eyes. "I do...Maybe that's why I'm upset. This team is important to me; maybe too important. Losing Kate was tough, but this... I just... I don't think I could do this if they were gone... I couldn't stay at NCIS. Not as a field agent, anyway."
"But you are a good agent, McGee."
"I wouldn't want to do it anymore. Not without them. I dunno if that makes sense, but...that's how I felt." Ziva put a hand on his arm and gave him a small smile and a look with her eyes that conveyed that she did, in fact, understand what he was saying.
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"Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs!" Abby scurried over to him when he entered the lab, "I heard about what happened in the garage!" she threw her arms around him. "Is everyone okay?"
"You mean, besides the Lieutenant?" he smirked.
She pulled away and narrowed her eyes at him, "You know what I mean, Gibbs!"
"Tony's fine, Abby. Whatya got for me?"
"He was in an explosion and trapped in a car, and he's fine?"
"He's in the hospital for observation, Abs. Has a concussion and a minor leg injury, but he'll be fine. Now what do you have for me?"
She pursed her lips and took a breath, trying to contain her stubborn side, before turning to go back to her computer. "Jarod Pinciardi," she began, "Is the name of the guy who planted the bomb." She pulled up his picture on the screen. "He's got a history of petty theft and misdemeanors, but in the past five years, up until now of course, he's been clean."
"Or hasn't been caught," Gibbs said.
She turned her head to look at him with a knowing grin, "Exactly. Ziva interrogated him when they first brought him in, and he claims to have been hired to plant the bomb. But he wouldn't give a name. So I did a little digging," she turned back to her screen as she began typing again. "Pinciardi's father owns a small mechanic shop downtown. Only..." she turned to Gibbs as she pulled up a document on the screen. "His father's been dead for two weeks."
"Left the business to his son," Gibbs surmised.
"Actually, there's no record of whom the business was left to, except on a server the company was paying for."
"Varicon..."
"My guess is, Jarod found out Daddy wasn't leaving him the family business."
"He blew up the garage to destroy the servers on the next floor."
"I'll know for sure when they bring me what's left of them."
"That's good work, Abs," he said as he placed a Caf-Pow down in front of her and a kiss on her cheek.
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McGee stood in front of the two-way mirror in the observation room, looking at Pinciardi where he squirmed in his seat. Ziva entered and sat across from the suspect with a folder in her hand and a satisfied smirk on her face that Tim happened to catch before her face turned from him.
He heard someone enter the room behind him but didn't turn to look. He could tell it was Gibbs before he even joined his side in front of the mirror. They were both silent for a moment as they watched the interrogation. Then Gibbs spoke, "When metro pulls the servers from Varicon, I want you to help Abby go through them."
"'Course, Boss," he replied. Silence filled the room again; voices only being heard through the speaker coming from interrogation.
After a few minutes, Gibbs turned his body to face McGee, which ultimately made Tim look over at him with a furrowed brow, almost afraid of what his boss might say. "Ya did good today, McGee," he told him. Tim looked down a bit, not completely accepting of that. Gibbs cocked his head, "If you hadn't been there...if you hadn't freed Tony's leg before they got there with the saw, we wouldn't have had time to get him out." Tim's eyes met his again. "You're a good agent, Tim," he said in a quiet voice. "It'd be a shame for the agency to lose you if somethin' ever happened to Tony or myself. We wouldn't want that," he subtly shook his head.
McGee wasn't sure how the hell Gibbs knew what he'd told Ziva in the restroom, and he wasn't even going to try to figure it out. His eyes shifted back and forth between Gibbs', then he turned back to face the interrogation room. He wanted to say he couldn't make any promises...but he didn't want Gibbs to think he couldn't handle the possibilities the future could hold. He could handle it, but it wouldn't be the way they wanted him to...
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It was seven thirty before Gibbs was able to get to the hospital. As he entered Tony's room, he noticed that the agent was fairly annoyed at the nurse's presence, but trying very hard not to show it. What he must not have realized was that she was doing the final blood tests so that he could be released. So Gibbs stood there in the doorway until the nurse was finished and started out of the room, then he approached Tony's bed.
"Boss!" Tony grinned as he realized he was there. "I was starting to think you'd forgotten me."
Gibbs cocked his head and tossed Tony's overnight bag into his lap, "You wanna leave with me, you're gonna have to wear somethin' besides that gown."
"On it," he pushed up from bed.
"Talked to the doc; he says you're good to go, but I need to sign something. I'll be back in a minute," he turned to head out as Tony changed. Inwardly, Tony was washed with relief. The sun had started going down just minutes before Gibbs had arrived and he had begun to panic a bit, though he tried his best to suppress it. Now that Gibbs was here, though, his panic was dissipated.
When he finished getting his clothes on, he sat back on the bed to slip on his socks and shoes and Gibbs came back into the room. "Only sleep I got was in the ambulance on the way here," Tony told him. "Every time I started to doze off, someone was in here like clockwork, taking blood or taking me for x-rays. It's like they knew exactly when I was about to pass out...conspiring against me."
"At least they didn't find anything wrong," Gibbs smirked. "And you'll sleep all the better tonight."
"Guess you're right, Boss," he stood and headed out the door with Gibbs. "Always lookin' at the bright side," he grinned as his boss gave him a questioning look which soon faded into a shaking of his head.
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Gibbs had managed to keep Tony awake the entire drive home, updating him on the case and conviction. But as he turned off the ignition in front of the house, Tony yawned deeply. "You can try and get some sleep in before Ducky shows up," Gibbs said. "Or you can wait till he gets here."
"Think I'll try and wait," Tony said as they got out of the car and started toward the house. "If I get jerked from my sleep by one more doctor, I might go ballistic."
Gibbs smirked, "How do you plan on stayin' awake? Ya looked like you were gonna pass out before you even got to the hospital."
"Maybe there's somethin' on TV," he suggested as they made their way into the house.
"How's your head and your stomach? You hungry?"
"I'm feelin' okay, but no, I'm not hungry," he plopped down onto the couch.
"Beer?" Gibbs shouted from the kitchen.
"Not if you're gonna take it away," Gibbs heard the smirk in the agent's voice. Gibbs soon returned to the living room with two beers, handing one to Tony before sitting down beside him. Tony took it with hesitancy, giving Gibbs a questioning look.
"Doc said one would be okay," he told him before handing him the remote. Tony took it and flipped the television on, surfing through the few channels available. Finding nothing particularly interesting, he decided on the news.
After taking a good swig of his beer, Tony sighed. "Sorry 'bout today, Boss," he said in a quiet voice. "I messed up."
Gibbs took a swig of his beer then looked at the tv. "Scared the hell outta me," he said, finally. "But it wasn't your fault, Tony."
Tony looked at him, "You were scared?"
Gibbs looked briefly at his lap then back at the screen. "When McGee told me you were buried under that cave-in, I thought we might've lost you. And the thought of you bein' trapped in there...well I wasn't sure what to expect."
"You got me out," he replied softly. "You always get me out, Boss." Their eyes met as he gave him a weak smile. "I'm just sorry I keep getting myself into situations that require you to do so."
Gibbs raised his brows, "You're lucky you've got a concussion, DiNozzo, or I'd head-slap ya." A big grin plastered Tony's face at that...
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Tbc...
/hr
(Thought I'd lay off on the cliffies for once hehe)