A/N: Ah, I did not intend to make you wait so long. I have close friends who live in Joplin MO so the last past few days have been filled with helping and praying for them and all those who have been affected by the tornadoes. Next chapter will be up by Saturday and once again, thank you so much for your support. I'm so glad everyone is enjoying this story.

One last quick note, towards the middle of the chapter is a flashback. It will be in italics.

Chapter Seventeen

Boss works here. When we were in the place, its called a lab, that Abby works Boss walked in and even though he yelled a bit I think he was scared cause he walked over and hugged me really tight and asked if I was okay a couple times.

I told him yeah but that Baron was acting funny but I don't think he heard cause his phone started ringing and he was yelling again even though I don't like yelling. Something bad happened at Boss' work which was why we came I think but I can't figure out why it was so bad.

My head was hurting but I think that was because Boss yelled and Baron was pacing cause I don't think he liked being in a new place cause I didn't even like being in a new place but Boss gave me a pat on the shoulder and then left really fast.

Abby said that it was an emergency sort of like when I have a seizure but different.

Abby showed me a small little TV and she put on a Magnum PI episode and since I didn't remember it, me and Baron laid down on the little bed she had and we watched it, even though I didn't feel very well.

Baron started whining a lot but I don't think Abby could hear him cause she was working really hard and the door was closed. Abby said she had a lot of important stuff to do and that was probably true cause even Probie hadn't been to see me or Jimmy or even Ducky.

And Boss was really busy.

But then Baron was barking really loud and I tried to tell him to shush cause the sound hurt my head but by then, I couldn't really talk right. And something smelled funny.

Gibbs glared at Vance, even though he knew it wasn't this man's fault that some nut job had decided to put a bomb into a shipment that had somehow gotten into the Navy Yard.

Which had in turn had gotten onto a boat.

At least the casualties were minimal. Only ten injured although for a few minutes, everyone had feared the worse.

"Tony's downstairs."

Vance did a slight double take from where he was looking at the footage.

"What?" Leon asked, looking at Gibbs, "I thought, I thought you said he was at home."

"He was. With McGee and Abby."

"God Gibbs," the Director rubbed his head in frustration, "If I had known that was who you had with him, I wouldn't have called them in."

Gibbs glared at Leon but his gazed softened when he saw that the Director was sincere.

"I figured you had an aid, someone else to watch him especially with your leave ending soon," Vance turned completely towards Gibbs, "Are you planning to leave him at a day center?"

The mere mention of the place made Gibbs gut churn. He knew there were wonderful places out there for people who needed a bit of supervising.

He just never thought that Tony would ever…

Gibbs let out a breath of aggravation. Not directed at Vance or Tony or anyone.

But at the situation.

Because as much as Gibbs would love to stay with Tony all day, he knew it wasn't his time. McGee and Ziva still needed him.

And Gibbs just wasn't ready to retire.

And he feared that if was the only one taking care of Tony every day, one day he would regret not ever finding help.

"I don't know Leon," Gibbs ran his fingers through his hair before he settled the gray strands of hair back down, "I didn't want to think about it."

"No to a day center though?" Vance asked a few seconds later.

"No," Gibbs had his reasons, as weird as they might be but just couldn't.

"And I know you would have him with you here but you know that's unpractical right?"

"And not fair to Tony," Gibbs agreed.

"When this mess is over," Vance gestured towards the TV screen, "I will make a few phone calls. Might give you another option."

"Director," Gibbs turned towards the man but stopped when his phone rang.

"Gibbs," Gibbs spoke tersely into the mouth piece. Vance saw Gibbs' shoulder straighten and his eyes widen, "Call an ambulance. I'll be right there."

"Gibbs?" Vance asked, standing as Gibbs practically bolted out of the room.

"Tony's been seizing on and off for the past six minutes," Gibbs yelled back before taking the stairs down towards Abby's lab.

"Gibbs Gibbs," Abby was crying when Gibbs finally ran into the room, "He started and Baron was barking and I ran in and I did what McGee said to do and I made sure his head wasn't hitting anything and he was on my futon so I waited and kept watch on the time like I was suppose to and right around then McGee walked in with Ziva but Ziva went to go get Ducky and McGee went to the front to meet the ambulance but Gibbs he-"

While Gibbs wanted to comfort her, she wasn't his main priority right now.

"Baron sit," Gibbs commanded the dog and the dog did even though he still tried to lick Tony's face as Tony seized. Gibbs grabbed the large German Shepherd collar, not even caring how McGee had managed to lie the dog's way into NCIS headquarters, and attended to Tony.

Tony had taken his seizure medication. Normally, his seizures lasted around two to four minutes but this…

Tony body suddenly stop convulsing and Gibbs breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe…

"He's does that," Abby said, and Gibbs turned around to see her crying in the doorway, "But he'll start again soon."

Sure enough, as if her words had power, Tony's bad arm tensed and seconds later his whole body followed suit.

"Jethro, how long has he been seizing?" Ducky asked as he hurried in. He had his medical bag with him and was dressed in surgical scrubs. It seemed that Ziva had interrupted Ducky while he was autopsying a body.

"On and off for?" Gibbs turned to Abby.

"Eight minutes now," Abby whispered.

Ducky opened his bag digging through it as he continued talking, "Has the ambulance been called?"

"Yeah," Gibbs said, his hands clenching because he knew he couldn't do a single thing to help Ducky.

Gibbs could see that Ducky was reaming calm but it was merely a façade, "Jethro, I can't do anything until they start an IV. He needs a bolus of dextrose and an anticonvulsant."

"Ducky," Gibbs practically yelled but Ducky knew. Gibbs was scared. As they all were.

Minutes…Hours…however long it took for them to get there, when the EMT's finally arrived, they were prepared. Thankfully, they had been close thanks to the explosion that had caused the chaos that had brought them all here.

The EMTs listen to Ducky as he quickly explained the situation before they waited for those few seconds that Tony's body stilled. When it did, the older of the two EMT's inserted an IV into Tony's hand, taping it down carefully to make sure it would withstand another seizure.

"Start the dextrose and thiamine," the EMT pushed the bolus into the line, "Doctor, Special Agent McGee mentioned you had," the EMT paused.

"Tony," Abby inserted Tony's name.

"Tony's medication? He's epileptic correct?" the EMT took the medication and measure out the correct amount before pushing the medication into the line.

"Yes. TBI caused," Ducky said as the EMT's moved Tony's convulsing body onto the stretcher.

"Should he stop by now?" Abby asked what everyone else was still too shocked to say.

"We'll know more once the ER docs look at him," the EMT helped his buddy push Tony back towards the elevator.

"If that's his seizure alert dog then he needs to stay," the EMT said when he caught sight of the large German Shepherd who was still barking and whining, though he remained sitting.

"I have got him Boss," Ziva said quietly, clipping the leash onto the dog's collar, "Go."

Gibbs didn't need to be told twice.

Gibbs paced the halls of the ICU wing, resisting the urge to punch the walls and pull his grey hair off his head.

Tony had continued to seize for just under forty five minutes before they had finally gotten him to stop.

Now Tony was undergoing so many tests to see if anything had caused this- anything besides the fact that he already had a neurological disorder.

"Special Agent Gibbs?" Tony's neurologist, Dr. Clarke finally walked into the ICU waiting room, "Can you come with me please?"

"How's Tony?" Gibbs hurried towards the man, "Is he-"

"Tony's condition is stable," Dr. Clarke said as he and Gibbs made their way down one of the ICU hallways, "Tony suffered from a condition that's called convulsive status epilepticus. Basically, Tony's brain was in the state of a persistent seizure. As you know, Tony's seizure lasted about forty five minutes.

"Because of the length of his seizure, we had to administer general anesthesia to stop Tony's convulsions," Dr. Clarke stopped in front of what Gibbs assumed was Tony's room, "He's intubated and deeply sedated Gibbs."

Gibbs teeth clenched and he knew when this was over, he was going to have to find someone to spar with him.

Suddenly realizing that most of the time it had been Tony that had let him work out his anger and blow some steam made Gibbs want to cry.

"A coma?" Gibbs breathed. Not again, oh please not again…he couldn't…

"A medically induced coma," Dr. Clarke answered being sure to make the distinction very clear to Gibbs', "Tony's only unconscious because we administered the anesthesia. That's the only reason."

Gibbs shook his head as he opened the door. Suddenly he was hit with memories from the last time Tony was here.

"He should be better by now Duck," Gibbs said, Tony's lax hand in his own. The sedation had been stopped and the doctors had told Ducky and Gibbs that it usually took about an hour or two for the sedatives to completely leave Tony's system.

That had been almost twenty four hours ago.

"Jethro," Ducky said, his own hand resting on Tony's leg, "Tony suffered a quite severe traumatic brain injury. No matter how much you want him too, Anthony will just not be able to walk out of here in a day or two. Injuries such as these cause months, sometimes years, to fully recover from. And even then, the Tony who wakes up might not be the same Tony you've come to know and love."

"He'll be okay Duck," Gibbs said, stubborn in his own beliefs, "He doesn't have my permission to be anything else."

Ducky sighed, hoping that Gibbs wouldn't be disappointed when Tony started to slowly awaken. Unlike the movies that young Anthony loved so much, patients who had been in a coma severe as this did not simple "wake up" in the blink of an eye. In fact, the process of waking up was often over the course of a few months as the patient's score slowly rose on the Glasgow Coma Scale.

At this moment, Tony was at a very solid 3, being on the very low side of the scale. In simple terms, Tony was still in a coma, and would be until Tony reached at least a score of 9.

"Come on Tony," Gibbs pleaded with his second again, "Just squeeze my hand if you hear me kid. Just one squeeze."

Gibbs watched, hoping…

But when no movement was forthcoming, Gibbs sighed but didn't let go of Tony's hand. He would be here, waiting, when Tony was ready.

"Hey there's that smile," Gibbs said as he gently rubbed Tony's chest again to rouse his sleeping ward, "What's up kid?"

It had been almost two days since Tony had come in and had to be put in a medical induced coma because of the seizure activity in his brain. Now that Tony's EEG had normalized, he was slowly waking up though the doctors had warned Gibbs that Tony would still be exhausted and would need lots of sleep.

Tony smiled at Gibbs. His throat hurt sorta and he still felt weird but Boss was here and even though Tony was scared, he knew Boss wouldn't let him get hurt.

"'oss," Tony whispered, swallowing and frowning when his throat hurt even more. Was he sick? Blue lights?

"Hey Tony," Gibbs smiled and squeezed Tony's good hand watching the effect it had on Tony, who blinked slowly up at him and smiled. His bad leg and hand were still in the wrist-hand orthosis as well as his ankle-foot orthosis.

"Hospal?" Tony asked looking around. He had been taken off the ventilator yesterday and he had been transferred to the neurology wing of the hospital later that day. It didn't surprise Gibbs that Tony didn't remember if because the younger man had been on some heavy duty stuff when he had first come around.

"Yeah," Gibbs reached over and grabbed a cup of ice chips for Tony when he saw that Tony kept trying to swallow and wet his lips with his tongue, "Want some ice chips?"

"Cream?" Tony asked hopefully, looking at the small cup Gibbs held in his hand.

Gibbs let out a small laugh when he saw Tony's hopeful expression. Tony hadn't lost his sweet tooth, that much Gibbs was certain of, "No Tony. But when we leave I'll get you some ice cream. Right now you can only have some ice chips. Like a popsicle."

"Kay," Tony smiled and nodded as he accepted the spoonful of ice chips that Gibbs gave him. He opened his mouth once more and Gibbs scooped in another spoonful before he smacked his lips together, thankful for the moisture. He blinked once and Gibbs could see the effects of the drugs as they pulled him back under again, "Ni' 'oss."

Gibbs sighed inwardly, wishing Tony could stay awake longer but knew the rest was necessary. Besides, it was hard to be sad about anything when Tony smile, "Goodnight Tony."

I got to get ice cream after I left the hospital. This time Probie, Ziva and even Abby were there too. Boss was there and he got vanilla and I got chocolate.

But we didn't stay at the ice cream place very long because I was still really tired because I have to take a different pill now to keep the shakes away.

The other pill makes me sleepy a lot more but I don't mind. Being sleepy is okay because if I didn't take the pill then I would have seizures and I know those scare Boss and everyone else a lot.

I don't like being in a hospital. It isn't like at home and I can't watch movies when I want to because the nurses come in and always check stuff cause I had stuff that kept track of my brain waves and my heart to make sure I was okay when I go home.

I got to see Baron at the hospital. Abby took Baron to get a test and I think he pasted cause he got to come in even though he had to wear a blue vest that said seizure alert and I got scared at first cause I thought that meant Baron had seizures too but Abby said that Baron made sure to tell someone when I had a seizure.

Boss says he gets to come everywhere with me now even though he didn't come to the ice cream place because he was at home because I was going home because I was tired.

So I'm going home and Abby and Ziva and Probie are going to work and Boss is going tomorrow cause I get to stay with Ducky at my home.

I wonder what Boss is gonna do if Probie or Ducky have to work too.