Ziva, Abby and Mcgee all stood in silence in Tony's living room, looking around.
It had taken less than thirty seconds for Ziva to pick the simple lock on Tony's front door, in that thirty seconds they had managed to panic a neighbour into thinking she was witnessing a robbery. Only to be reassured that they were friends of Tony and had lost their key.
"Phew, I was almost ready to call the cops. But I guess you must BE the cops, dear Tony has told me about his friends and his work." Said the elderly woman they had frightened. She lived across the hall from Tony and surveyed them from her doorway, clad in a pink woolen cardigan and matching slippers.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Tony in a while. Has he been away?"
Ziva stepped forward and offered her hand
"Hello, I am Ziva. Tony was injured in a work related accident. He should be coming home soon though, we were just going to get his apartment set up for his return."
"Oh my! Is he alright?" The woman looked at the three wide eyed." I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Margaret"
"His injuries were quite serious; he has extensive burns and had lost his hearing."
The woman gasped and put a hand over her mouth.
"Not Tony! I've spoken to him on a few occasions, he's a lovely boy. Always making sure I'm alright. When will he be back?"
McGee stepped forward. "Uh we aren't too sure, most likely in the next few days."
"Well send him my best dear" The woman nodded at the three and went to shut her door, before she reopened it again causing the them to turn back and face her.
"Sorry, but are you Abby?" She smiled at the goth, who looked slightly confused before smiling back.
"Yes ma'am, Abby Sciuto"
"I thought so, I have heard about you, nice shoes" She said with a smile before shutting the door fully.
McGee shrugged at Abby before entering the apartment.
The small one bedroom apartment was neat and tidy. A large leather couch stretched across half of the room in the perfect viewing position of the large widescreen television and surround sound speakers that were set up. A large bookcase covered one wall; the trio were not to surprised to see that more than half the shelves were dedicated to a wide range of DVDs, all in order of genre.
"It's so-" Ziva started
"Clean" McGee finished.
"Well what did you guys expect?" Abby said, clomping off into the kitchen in her platform shoes, she seemed to know her way around quite well.
"Something much worse, something involving tire tracks running along the ceiling..." Ziva commented
"Well, you should have seen it before he got a maid. I'm not sure the tire tracks were on the ceiling, but they were defiantly all over the walls"
Ziva snickered and wandered into the first door on her right, Tony's bedroom. She stood staring in the doorway. The room was incredibly simple, consisting of a large double bed, a bed side table and a cupboard with sliding doors on the side. A door stood open on the other wall leading into the small bathroom.
"Okay, guys come on lets get this stuff set up" Abby called from the kitchen.
Having somebody that knew about deafness like Abby did was an enormous help. Both Abby's parents were deaf and she was an expert an everything to do with the subject. She had brought over what she called 'her little bag of goodies' which was an enormous black frilly bag crammed with unidentifiable objects.
They worked together in making Tony's apartment easier for him to live in, installing a doorbell that made the lights flash every time somebody pressed the button. They set up an alarm clock that vibrated the bed when it went off. The prize of Abby's goodies was a boxy white machine that she placed next to his home phone. It had a keyboard and a small screen.
"This one is gonna take a little longer to get going, but it should work out so he can talk on the phone in the end" Abby announced, looking down proudly at the lap-top sized object.
"Impressive. You sure your parents don't mind?" McGee said, nodding at the box.
"Yeah they said it's fine, plus this one was spare."
Ziva emerged from Tony's bedroom and joined the other two in the living room as they clustered around the new device. It was quiet and they listened to the noises of the street outside.
"He'll be okay." Abby said flatly, breaking the silence between them. She looked up at her friends for support.
"He'll be fine." McGee and Ziva said at the same time.
"I know we really should be keeping positive, good vibes. You know? I read this study some scientists did in Mongolia with patients benefiting from having people .. Wait, that doesn't matter. The thing is I can't stop thinking about whats going to happen. This is all so wrong you know? This was never supposed to happen. I know this is the thing I should least be worried about, but imagine the scars he is going to have! Imagine what he is going to look like? How will he cope? How will he cope when he can't HEAR?"
"Abby, Abby, Abby" McGee held his arms out and Abby sobbed into his shoulder
"He'll cope."
"What if-"
"Abby, he will cope."
Leroy Jethro Gibbs strode into the autopsy room and straight to one of the cold metal benches without breaking his stride. He sat himself down on it and glanced over at the desk in the corner.
It was eleven thirty and yet Ducky sat under the desk lamp, with a stack of paperwork and a old cup of tea.
"Jethro"
"Hey Duck"
"If you were after more information on our departed Lieutenant friend here, I'm afraid I can't give you much else,"
"No, I'm just waiting on McGee's financial check of Lieutenant Jackson, it's gonna be an allnighter"
"I was just finishing up these papers before retiring for the evening, would you care for a cup of tea?"
Gibbs lifted his hand to wave the half empty Starbucks coffee cup at him, Ducky nodded and looked back to his work.
"Something playing on your mind? Anthony?"
"Yeah"
"What has the director had to say about it?"
Gibbs let out a long breath and rubbed a hand over his face
"He wont be cleared for field work, Ducky"
There was silence in the room, Ducky let out a sigh and placed the lid back on his pen, setting it down on top of the stack of paper.
"Did you ever expect him to be?" Dr Mallard asked turning his attention fully to his friend.
"There is always the chance he could regain-" Gibbs said quietly.
"Jethro, you need to stop kidding yourself. It is a fact; it is highly unlikely that our dear Anthony will ever fully regain his hearing. I understand how devastating this is for you, as his friend. But we really need to be thinking about Anthony at this point in time. How we can aid him in his recovery. You need to accept the permanence of his injury so we can help him progress"
"Vance is offering Tony a desk job, still in the team. As long as we take on another agent for the field."
"Why, that's terrific news!"
"You think he'll take it? You know he can't sit in that chair long enough to fill out half an evidence report."
"Well…"
"Yeah, that's what I thought Duck."
"Jethro. I Know how difficult this is for you, whether you admit it aloud or not this man is your friend. You've known him for more than seven years now and work with him for an ungodly number of hours every week. You are witnessing what we must call his lowest point which is tough on everybody. What Anthony needs now is all the friendship, support and patience he can get. Let him make his own decisions when he is ready.. Maybe advise him in making to correct one ."
Gibb's phone interrupted Ducky by ringing just as he was about to open his mouth. Gibbs spoke a few brief one word replies into his mobile.
Gibbs was sliding off the cold surface of the autopsy benches and was striding towards the elevator
"Duty calls, thanks Duck."
Ducky called after him over the familiar 'ding' of the elevator. "He never ceases to surprise us Jethro, remember that!"
I just want to say thank you so much to everybody that is reviewing and reading and giving me advice, i'm kinda flattered. It's really exciting every time I get a review! I am trying to update it as fast as I can, which isn't hard because I'm so addicted to writing it! I'll try to keep my updating fast but I have exams really quite very very soon so we will see how long this lasts.