Silent Night

Chapter 3

Tim looked at his watch; it was only 5:30pm, only three and half hours since they had been in the accident but it felt like they had been here all night. The shed was cold but it was warmer then a car with broken windows. Checking on Tony he was happy to see that the wound on his head and leg had not started to bleed again, there was nothing they could do for the concussion but keeping him quiet and warm was best they could do. Abby had been right, Tony already had two impressive black eyes and the left one was nearly swollen shut.

Abby had dosed off with the dog's head on her lap. They had tried to guess the breed, she was about 50lbs and looked like an Australian Shepherd mix. She was covered in a long gray/black coat, but unlike most Australian Shepherds this dog had a long tail.

The dog had been lying quietly with her head on Abby's lap when she let out a low groan and curled around herself to lick her own genitals. Getting up she walked around in a circle, with Tim's help they had spread hay on the floor earlier, now Bella was scratching at the hay. "Abby what's she doing?" Tim asked as he watched the dog with concern. "Do you think she has to go to the bathroom?"

"Timmy, I don't think she has to go or she would go to the door." Having worked with her brother at the Pet Store, Abby had been present when several cat's had kittens, the dogs behavior reminded her of the mother cats in labor.

Standing she grabbed the dogs tail and held it up, after a quick exam she noticed that the vagina seemed to be dilating. Grabbing a medical glove from the kit, she felt the area as Tim looked on in horror. "Abby what are you doing?"

"Tim, I think the puppies are coming."

"Now!"

"Well, I'm not sure exactly when, but I would guess it will be tonight."

"Puppies, who's having puppies," Tony said in a very sleepy voice, "We, can't have puppies here, we don't have a dog."

Giving Tim a concerned look, Abby answered as she stood to check on her friend. Looking into his eyes his pupils looked even, but he did not seem fully awake. "Tony do you know were we are?"

"Shed."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Deer, hit a deer?"

"That's right Tony, we hit a deer."

"Oh, Gibbs is going to kill me, I was going to make a roast," rolling over to try to get up, "I have to get home, I have to cook."

"Tony, lay down, we aren't going anywhere until they find us."

"Right, Gibbs will come, he'll find us." Tony said as he drifted back to sleep.

"Abby, that was weird, you don't think the head injury is worse do you."

"I'm not sure Tim, he was a little confused, but I think he was more asleep than awake, at least I hope he was." Taking the blanket she tucked it tighter around her sleeping friend.

"Abby, look at the dog," Tim yelled out.

Abby turned quickly to find the dog squatting as the bulge of a puppy in its sack protruded from her vagina.

Getting excited Abby exclaimed, "Yeah, we are going to have puppies."

"Abby, what do we do?" Tim asked, thinking this could not be happening.

"Nothing Tim, that is as long as she is all right. You know birth is a natural process, we just sit and watch, oh this is so exciting."

"But, but she can't just have them here?"

"Tim of course she can, why do you think she came in here in the first place, she wanted to get out of the snow. Oh Tim, its Christmas Eve, and this is like a manger with the hay, we can't send her out in the cold."

Getting on her knees, Abby kept watch of the progress, in a matter of minutes the puppy plopped on the ground, Bella turned and started to lick and bite the bag covering her puppy, within a short period of time she had the puppy free and was cleaning her baby. About 15 minutes later she repeated the process and birthed her second pup.

"Abby, how many puppies can she have?" Tim questioned looking perplexed, as 5 small puppies had now come out of their mother.

"Don't know Tim, varies, some dogs only have 5 or 6 puppies but some can have more then 10 puppies, we just have to wait and see."

About half an hour later Tim woke Tony, this time Tony seemed less confused. Tim wanted him to drink some water and eat a little of the power bar.

Sitting up with Tim's help Tony, got first glimpse of the puppies. "Wow, what happened when I went to sleep there was only one dog, where did all those puppies come from?" he said giving Tim and Abby a questioning look.

"Bella had puppies," Abby responded from position on the floor.

"Bella?" Tony gave Tim an inquiring look.

"Abby found a collar on the dog, her name is Bella and I guess she came in here to have her puppies out of the snow."

"Oh," was the only response Tony could think of, "How many puppies?"

"She had 5 but she could still have more," Abby said as she petting the dog, "Sometimes there can be hours between puppies but I think this maybe it. I felt her belly and I don't feel anymore."

"What time is it Tim? Gibbs must be out looking for us now," Tony asked.

"It's about 6:15," Seeing the disappointment in his friends face, he added, "Tony, I'm sure Gibbs is out looking for us, but its very dark out, it's been snowing, they may not find us till morning."

"I know Tim, it's just that this is the first Christmas since Gibbs and I have lived together, with that last case I didn't think we would really be able to celebrate, so when he agreed to have everyone over, well I was really looking forward to a real Christmas."

"Oh, Tony, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have dragged you all the way out here for a tree, if we had not come out this way, we wouldn't have been in the accident," Abby said.

"Abby, it's not your fault, I wanted a real tree too and we found a great one, plus like you said it was an accident, people hit deer all the time, it isn't your fault."

Standing Abby went over to hug Tony. As she wrapped him in her arms, the sound of a siren caused them to jump. Tim moved quickly and opened the door to step outside, shining the flashlight toward the roadway, he saw the flashing lights of a cruiser, an officer was standing on the roadway, looking down at Tony's car, the snow seemed to have let up and the flashers could now be seen from the road, reflecting on the snow.

"Hey, Help down here!" Tim yelled as loud as he could, while he waved his light.

"Do you need medial attention?" The officer called down.

"My friend was hurt in the cash, we took shelter in the shed," Tim yelled back up.

"Ok, stay down there, I'm calling for assistance, shouldn't be long," the officer called back, as he went back to his cruiser.

After a call for the fire department and an ambulance, the Officer grabbed some items from his trunk and worked his way down to the shed, passing the car on the way, from the road the white car was almost invisible at this point except for the emergency flashers.

Reaching the shed the Officer entered, to his surprise he was greeted by the bark of a dog and squeaking of newborn puppies. "Oh, you guys have been busy, I'm Officer Connors, we've been looking for you, got a call from Director Vance letting us know you three, never made it home. Well help is coming, so who needs medical help?"

The young woman who was sitting on the floor with the dog and the young man who had greeted him outside, both pointed to a very pale looking man sitting up on a bed of hay, while the other two seemed OK from the quick assessment he did as he watched them move, his attention turned to the obviously injured man. Setting the box he brought in with him, he pulled several bottles of water and some emergency blankets, they were thin and compact, when opened it looked like a big sheet of foil but they held body heat. Even thought the shed was warmer than outside it was still cold in the small building. Abby and Tim gladly accepted the extra layer of warmth. They had used the blankets from Tony's car to keep him warm.

Working his way to Tony, he said, "I'm a trained first responder, so I'm just going to check you over Ok." Draping a blanket over the one Tony already had he noted the way Tony was careful not to move his head much, "have a headache?"

"Yeah, you could say that." Tony said.

"Ok let's see what else we have." With skill, the young officer carefully assessed Tony, noting the gash on his leg. Without disturbing the bandage that was on, he carefully wrapped it in a thicker layer of gauze. Then he cleaned the side of Tony's face of some of the dried blood Abby had missed and added another layer of gauze to the head wound. When he was done, he said, "I want you to just lay back and relax, the fire department will be here soon and they will get you out of here."

A/N Thank you to everyone who has taken time to read and thank you to all of those who left reviews. This story is finished, just final edit, should have whole story posted by the end of the week. :)