Silent Night
Chapter 4
Gibbs had been driving through the back roads of Clifton, VA for a couple of hours looking for Tony, Abby and Tim. The area had been kept rural on purpose, with the roads little more then winding country lanes, the lack of street lights made driving at night even in good weather, dangerous. Gibbs was glad the snow had finally stopped falling but with the darkness and several inches of new snow, it would be impossible to find the car if it had gone off the side of the road.
The ring of a cell phone brought him back, listening in to Agent Joaquín Velazquez's conversation as he drove, it was clear that the team had been found, not able to sit patiently he grabbed the phone out of the stunned man's hand.
"What did you find?" Gibbs barked.
"Agent Velazquez?" the voice on the other side of the phone asked.
"No this is Agent Gibbs, what did you find?" he asked impatiently.
"Agent Gibb's this is Sergeant Morris of the Fairfax County Police Dept, we found your missing team?"
Gibb felt heart stop beating for a moment as he briefly thought of the worst-case scenario; no they had to be OK. "Are they OK?"
"A bit banged up and cold but they should be alright, I have an officer with them and EMS is on the way?"
"Give me their location and we'll meet them there."
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
The flashing lights of the police and fire department made finding the crash site easy. As Gibbs jumped from the SUV, he saw Tim and Abby huddled together by the fire truck.
"Where's Tony?" he yelled without any greetings.
"There bringing him up now boss," Tim answered, seeing the worry in his Bosses face, he continued, "A little banged up, concussion, but he should be ok."
Gibbs walked away while Tim was explaining what caused the accident, looking at the direction Gibbs was headed, Tim noticed that the fire dept, had cleared the top of the embankment with Tony in tow, in a stokes stretcher. Tony had been reluctant to be carried up the hill but Officer Connor was pretty persuasive, plus his leg was now so painful, he knew he would not be able to walk up the hill and he was dizzy from the concussion.
Gibbs reached his lover as he was being placed on the waiting wheeled stretcher. Not caring who was around to witness, he grabbed Tony's hand with a gentleness not normally associated with the gruff man.
"You Ok?" he asked, taking in his partners pallor, even with the flashing red lights of the emergency vehicles he could see how pale Tony was. Holding on tight to Tony's hand he used his free hand to softly touch his partners face. His missed nothing: the fine lines that indicated his partner was in pain, the bandage on his head, the dried blood in his hair and looking down he could see the larger bandage wrapped around the left thigh.
Glancing back at Tony's face their eyes met and through years of practice they communicated all that was important without speaking a word. Tony knew Gibbs was worried and Gibbs knew Tony would be all right, Tony also knew that any chance he had of refusing a ride to the hospital was over. The moment was broken as EMS started to move the stretcher back to the waiting ambulance, the wide open doors and brightly lit interior promised a warm ride to the hospital.
As they settled the stretcher, Gibbs looked back at Tim and Abby.
"You two alright?" With his concern for Tony, he had not asked earlier.
"Yeah, Gibbs just some bruises, but Tony took the brunt of the impact."
"He, always does," Gibbs muttered under his breath.
Officer Connor and Agent Velazquez walked up to the group.
"I can take Agent McGee and Ms Sciuto to the hospital to get check out, I assume you will be ridding Agent DiNozzo." Agent Velazquez said as he addressed the group.
"That works," Gibbs said as he turned and boarded the vehicle.
Watching the ambulance leave with their boss and friend, Abby looked at Officer Connor, "What's going to happen to Bella and her puppies?"
Smiling Officer Connor responded, "Oh they'll be fine, the property the shed is on belongs to a local farmer, he runs sheep in this area in the spring. Bella is his dog, don't worry Bella and the puppies have been carefully gathered and we'll get them home."
"Can I say good-bye?" Abby asked, wanting to see for herself that the puppies were OK.
"Sure, they are warming up in the cruiser."
Opening the back door to the police car, Abby looked in, Bella and her puppies were on the seat wrapped in a blanket, leaning in she petted the mother dog and placed a kiss on her head. "Take care of your babies," she whispered.
Standing up she glanced at Tim, "Don't you want to say good-bye?" She said in that voice that meant even if you don't, you will because I asked you.
Knowing that easiest way out of this was to just say good-bye to the dog, he reached in and rubbed the dog's head, backing out quickly.
Leaning into Tim as they walked to the NCIS vehicle, Abby looked back trying to get a glimpse of the damaged car. "Oh, Tim," she sighed, "all of this and we go home with nothing, picking the perfect tree for nothing."
Agent Velazquez and Officer Connor looked at each other and nodded in agreement on hearing the sorrow in young forensic scientists voice.
A/N Plan to have rest of story posted tomorrow night.
Again thank you to all who have taken the time to read, review, follow and favored.
I make every effort to send a personal thank you, with work and working on final edits not much time left, but I hope to send you all a personal note soon. LAG