It was supposed to be a simple drug bust. Then again, when is anything simple where Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo is concerned? The seller had supposedly sold some 10 kilos of bad cocaine to Petty Officer Brian Morris, who proceeded to distribute it to his fellow shipmates, leaving two in a comatose state from the added rat poison in the drug.
Gibbs and McGee sat in the darkened van just near the entrance to the alley way, knowing that their position not only gave them a view of the dealing going down, but also could potentially block the entrance to the alley should something go wrong.
"What if I pay you half now and half next week? Huh?" Came the desperate plea of an undercover DiNozzo. "I can guarantee that you'll have your money in full by the 8th. I'm dying here man!" McGee snuck a look out the tinted windows to see Tony desperately grabbing at the guys shirt, and at the same time wiping at the base of his nose as if anticipating the goods he could get. Believable under the circumstances, but both he and Gibbs knew that Tony was just reacting to the pollen in the breezy spring air.
Gibbs gave a snort as he remembered why Tony was given this task.
*Yesterday*
Gibbs strode into the bullpen with his ever present cup of coffee in one hand, his other holding the case file they had been assigned to earlier that week.
"McGee, you traced the dealer yet?" He asked as he through his cup of coffee in the trash and stood by the big screen in the center of the room.
"Almost boss." McGee clicked a couple keys and the map of Washington DC appeared on the plasma. "We know that he sold Morris the drugs here," highlighting a street in downtown Washington, "but that was busted by metro 4 days ago, so we can rule this whole area out. He has 3 other well known areas where he sells –"
"But we cannot stake them all out." Ziva cut in, stealing the clicker from McGee and bringing up the same map of DC, this time with coloured circles spaced out on the map "Which is why I pulled up other dealers sights and narrowed it down to this alley."She zoomed into one of the areas McGee had identified as his selling grounds. "There are no rivals anywhere else in the area, and it is close to the docks where he can receive shipment." Ziva ended with a smile directed at McGee.
"If we could get a sample of his cocaine, we could match it to the samples we have from the other Petty Officers." McGee and Ziva were now in full out war.
"But we do not know when he will go to this street again. He could be laying low." Ziva and McGee were now facing each other, inches apart as they each tried to outdo the other.
"Hey!" Gibbs shouted and the immediately separated and huffed in annoyance. "We still have Morris. McGee, pull up Morris' phone logs from the past two months. Home phone and cell phone."
McGee launched into his chair and began typing like a madman, trying to be the one to please Gibbs. "Got them, boss. His wife and his mother are the only calls that come up on both call logs." Gibbs stepped around the desk to read the screen. He pointed to an outgoing call number on the Petty Officer's cell sheet. "That call was made on the day that he would've bought the stuff. That's the dealer!"
"So what now? We call the dealer and make a drop?" Ziva smiled. "Who gets to be the lucky addict?"
It was unfortunate that at that moment, DiNozzo had to give a moan followed by a procession of sneezes. Three heads swiveled to the right, looking down as Tony slumped back into his chair and regained his restless slumber. Two heads turned slowly back to their leader with evil grins plastered on their faces at the plan forming.
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked. His senior field agent jumped up and stood at the ready.
"On your six-" AACCHHOO! "Boss" He gave an apologetic smile as he reached for a tissue in his pocket.
"Take off your sunglasses, DiNozzo!"
Tony made as if to argue back, but was stopped in his tracks by the famous Gibbs head slap, which knocked his sunglasses off his head and onto the floor.
"Hey! Those were my new RayBans! They cost like 200 dollars!" He protested. At Gibbs' glare and a twitching hand, Tony slumped his shoulders in defeat. Gibbs grabbed his senior agents' head and turned it to the left, then to the right in inspection. DiNozzo's face was pale and grey, his eyes a bit swollen and red, his nose was lit up like Rudolf on Christmas day, and there were black rings under his eyes. All in all, he could pass for the perfect addict.
"Go down to Abby, ask her to start writing up a new believable you." He watched as his agent sulked off to Labby, giving off a few sneezes along the way. "And no stupid names like Gus this time!"
*Present*
Gibbs and McGee listened as DiNozzo negotiated terms on which he could receive the drugs.
"No ways man! I need the 300 upfront or no deal." The dealer wasn't budging, so Tony had to think fast.
"What if I gave you 200 now, and 100 next week? So you have most of it already!"
"You wanna know what happens to people who try cheating me? They end up with the crap end of the deal. Meaning only 20 percent real coke. If you don't wanna die from the stuff, get me the 300!"
"Confession? Morris tried to rip him off so he got bad coke?" McGee whispered to Gibbs. He received a small nod as Gibbs turned to watch his other agent.
While McGee was talking, an argument erupted between Tony and the dealer, where the dealer was now grabbing Tony back as they both shouted at each other. This wasn't going to be pretty.
"Ziva, start moving in from behind, McGee and I are taking the front."
Gibbs and McGee slowly exited the van, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.
As the van door shut, the light reflected off the windows and shone right into the dealers eyes, who looked up.
What happened next seemed to all blur together.
Tony's gun somehow ended up in the dealers hands. He started panicking, knowing he was caught. Tony tried to get his gun back.
BANG!
There was silence.
Everything happened in slow motion.
McGee and Gibbs stopped inching forwards.
The gun dropped to the floor.
The dealer started running towards Ziva.
Ziva stared at her partner.
Tony's eyes widened in shock as he gripped his side.
He fell to his knees.
Gibbs ran towards Tony.
McGee got his phone from his pocket.
Ziva tripped the dealer as he ran passed where she was hidden in the shadows. Her eyes flicked back to where Tony was still kneeling. She saw Gibbs reach him, and knowing that her partner was now safe, her mind could focus on cuffing the guy who laid sprawled on the floor by her feet. As he tried to scramble away, she kicked him in the face, she could tell the director later that his face landed on her shoe when he fell.
She put the metal bracelets on the guy, and heaved him up to his feet, accidentally swaying him head first into the dumpster next to him.
"Oops" she said unconvincingly as she led him to their SUV parked behind the surveillance van.
She looked down as they passed Tony, who was now laying on the ground with his head resting on Gibbs' knees to elevate him. McGee and Gibbs both had hands pressed against the wound on Tony's lower abdomen, close to where his appendix would be. Ziva sighed in relief, there wasn't anything major there, and worst case scenario would be an appendix removal.
"Ziver, take that bastard to NCIS. I'll ride with Tony, Tim will take the van back. Tell Abby and Ducky what happened and then you can meet us at the hospital"
Gibbs' voice was soft but final. Ziva nodded and shoved the dealer towards the car.
She strapped the guy in the back seat, making sure he was as uncomfortable as possible. As she straightened up, she saw the ER van pull up next to her. She slammed to door in the dealers face and ran up to the van, pointing the two men who jumped out towards where her partner lay.
Knowing he was now in safe hands, she got into the driver's seat and took the suspect to be booked in at NCIS, as per Gibbs' orders.
Gibbs sighed as the paramedics gently nudged Gibbs and McGee's hands away and put their own pressure on the wound. They both stood and moved a few steps back to give the men some room.
Gibbs looked down at his blood stained hands, and sideways to see McGee's hands were in a similar state.
"Tim, I've got a few bottles of water in the van. Wash your hands and take the van back to NCIS. Give Abby the recording to process and meet me at the hospital."
McGee knew what Gibbs was trying to do. If McGee had a task to do, he wouldn't think of Tony. He looked down as his partner tried to joke with the paramedics as they strapped him to the stretcher. He gave a smile. Tony would be alright. He nodded, and walked towards the van. Gibbs patted his shoulder as he walked passed.
Everything would be fine.
*Three days later*
"OOWW! Stop that!"
McGee and Ziva both looked to Gibbs as they heard the moans and complaints coming from Tony's hospital room. They continued walking along the corridor to his door and peaked in.
Tony was lying in bed, his hands white from grasping the rails. A Nurse was bent over him with tweezers, pulling out asphalt from his knees.
"Mr. DiNozzo, if you don't stop squirming, I'm going to get Nurse Dylan to do this, and we both know that he won't show any sympathy."
Tony ground his teeth together and locked his jaw. Though when he discovered that the bent over nurse was actually giving him a great view down her shirt, he split into a wide grin.
A grin which was wiped off with a headslap.
"Hey boss! Look, I have road in my legs still!" His grin was lob-sided and boyish. Gibbs looked over at the drip and smiled to himself. Painkillers.
"I'm almost done here Mr. DiNozzo. Then you can wiggle all you want, just keep still now!"
"Sorry."
There was a few minutes of silence between the occupants of the room while the nurse concentrated. The only sound was the metal snip snip snip of the tweezers and a clink every time a piece of gravel would land in the tray.
The nurse then wrapped his knees in gauze and stood up. "All done, Mr. DiNozzo. I'll be back at dinner time to give you more meds. And tonight, let's keep the food throwing to a minimal, hmm?" With a stern look, she shut the door and went to the next room.
"You threw food at a woman DiNozzo?" McGee sniggered.
"It wasn't my fault! It's the drugs! They make me nauseous and I knocked the food over. She just happened to be standing there. Though her shirt did go see-through and-"
Another headslap and a Gibbs glare. Hospital was living up to its awful reputation. It didn't faze Tony though; he was too high to notice he was babbling and just carried on.
"Hey McGee, I just realized something! I hurt my knees when I was kneeling!"
For the next 5 minutes Tony was in and out of fits of hysterical laughter, only stooping to wince as his stomach muscles pulled at his stitches.
"Remember I told you I hurt my knees while I was kneeling!"
More laughter, though it was saddened somehow, as Tony thought of the reason he made up the excuse: he was seeing a therapist to help him deal with the nightmares he had ever since returning from Somalia. His laughter died down, and he was left with a ghost smile on his face, his thoughts no longer in the present.
"Yeah, Tony. I remember."
"I'm tried"
He didn't hear their responses as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep, too exhausted to dream.
"Only Tony could hurt his knee when he gets shot in the stomach!"
For the second time today, an agent got a headslap, but for once it was McGee.
"He did good, McGee. He did good."
Hey, so I haven't written in a while, and this just came to me last night when i tried to kneel down on my bruised knee and remembered the episode Masquerade from season 7. There's no specific timeline for this piece, could be set any time after the episode. Really sorry if there any errors, I don't have a beta. Please review, i don't know where I'm going wrong if you don't tell me :)
xXBleeding-WingsXx