[Phoomph-Ten]

Tony laid on the thin hospital bed staring up at the boring white ceiling. There was nothing on the television that was good enough to hold his interest, and if there was something good on, he would most likely fall asleep anyways. So it was just him, the white walls and his thoughts. The quite beeping of the machines was almost calming as it amplified his steady heart beat. He let his mind drift off with each beep, going back to the conversation he had with Gibbs almost two hours ago, and still he could feel the sting of his boss' accusations. He knew that Gibbs was right about the whole situation, about everything. Yet he couldn't seem to come to grips with the notion of letting others take care of him. It wasn't pride or stubbornness, it was some reason he couldn't come up with as his mind got fuzzy as pain medication that he took a few minutes ago started to kick in. He closed his eyes momentarily as he tried to focus back on this thoughts but he got interpreted when he heard the glass door slid open and the cloth curtain pushed back. Tony opened his green eyes only to see a young nurse walk towards him.

"How are you feeling Tony?" Nurse Amy asked. She was nearing the age of thirty, with soft blue eyes and a strawberry blonde hair. Out of all the people walking in and out checking up on him, Nurse Amy was his favorite. Not just because of her looks, although that was a big part of it, but she had the best bed side manner in his hospital history. There were only two other people that would rate higher than her, Doctor Brad and Nurse Emma.

Tony glanced up at her giving her a weak smile. "I'm okay."

"Good." She returned a smile. "I'm just replacing your IV bag." She informed as she held up the clear bag for him to see.

Tony just nodded and watched her stop the flow through the tube before disconnecting the bag. In a few blinks, Amy switched out the bags and started the IV flow once again. Green eyes followed the new flow of flavorless and colorless Gatorade as Amy called it, as it went though loops and curves of plastic tubing before it disappeared into his hand. Amy turned and started checking all the other machines and double checking her patient's chart to see if there were any other orders written by his doctor.

Tony was quietly watching the nurse when suddenly he let out a whimper. Nurse Amy turned around and looked down at Tony with concern. "What is it?"

"It's cold." He said pointing to his right forearm.

Amy let out a chuckle as she smiled. "It is just the IV, it feels weird doesn't it?"

"Yeah." He rubbed his left hand over his forearm in a vain hope to warm up his arm.

"Well everything is looking fine. Do you need any thing?"

"My own bed, and some, real food." Tony managed to say with an almost smile.

Nurse Amy let out a small laughed as she turned to leave, but just stopped shy of the door. "Maybe in a day or two."

Tony pushed his head deeper into the pillow with a sigh as Amy shut the curtain and door behind her as she left. "Great."

[Phoomph]

Gibbs walked into the lab and instantly knew something was wrong. The only sound in the lab was the quite hum of computers. He walked farther into the lab, the glass door slid open, the sound was unmorally loud in the quite. Gibbs found the forensic scientist at her desk with her head in her hands.

"Abby?" Gibbs asked with concern as he moved around the desk.

Abby did not look up or said a word, just let out a sniffle. But when Gibbs got behind her, he found out on his own. There on her computer monitor was the picture that Ziva took, a close up of the face and neck of Tony. Gibbs instantly pushed the power button of the monitor, the screen instantly turned black.

He knelt down ignoring the pain in his knee as he pulled her close to him. "He is fine Abs."

"We almost lost him." She cried. "We almost lost him Gibbs."

"But we didn't." He reassured her.

However it didn't seem to faze her. "I should have stayed with him that night. I should have never-"

Gibbs' voice turned stern, but still soft. "This is not your fault. There was nothing any one of us could have done."

"I know." Abby buried her face in the marine's shoulder.

His blue eyes moved slowly back to the black screen, but his mind still saw the image. "Abby, why did you look at the pictures?" His voice fell soft again.

Another sniffle escaped. "I had to know Gibbs." Abby looked up at him, her mascara streaking down her cheeks. "I needed to see it for myself."

"It's okay." Gibbs soothed as he rubbed small circles on her back. There was a brief moment of silence before he spoke up again. "We might have found this guy."

Abby jerked out of Gibbs' arms and shot up of out of her chair. Her face changing from crying to pissed off. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" She demanded. "And what do you mean 'might'?"

"That's what I need you to find out." Gibbs informed as he slowly stood up. "McGee should have sent you the info on this guy." Abby moved over to her main computer, hitting the stereo's power button on the way filling the lab with its normal loud base music. Lucky for Gibbs, he was able to hear his phone ringing just seconds before the music was turned on.

"What?" Gibbs spoke into his phone, as he watched Abby did a bunch of computer do-da stuff.

"Ms. Millious says that Joseph Scott was very possessive of her." Ziva spoke up loud so Gibbs could hear her over the music. "He never let her talk and be around other men and was pretty much obsessed with her. That is why she had put the restraining order on him after she broke up with him. She also told me that she had to call the cops on him more than once throughout the year."

"He's our man. Ziva bring Ms. Millious in." Gibbs heard Ziva start to question him before he hung up. He turned to Abby and ordered, "Find me this man." He motioned to the plasma as he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, then headed out to the elevator as he started punching in a number in his phone.

[Phoomph]

Brad threw on his jacket as he watched his computer slowly shut down. He was finally going home and hopefully get a much needed night's sleep. Just as his computer went dead, he turned around and took two steps before his desk phone starting ringing. He let his head drop and sighed maybe he wasn't going to get out of here. He moved back to his desk and grabbed his phone.

"Officer Erickson." He answered a bit roughly.

"Do you want to help us catch this bastard?" Brad recognized the voice of Agent Gibbs and a smile formed on his lips, the need for sleep rapidly escaping from his thoughts.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Get to NCIS headquarters now." Gibbs disconnected the call just as brad started to put the phone back into the receiver as he practically flew out of the building not noticing the confused looks of other officers on the night shift.

[Simi-Phoomph]

McGee looked up from his desk as Gibbs rounded the corner; he heard the end of the conversation and was slightly curious. "What's going on Boss?"

Gibbs looked down at the junior agent with a smile that made McGee shift in his chair. "I'm tired of waiting; it's time to get proactive."