Disclaimer: Not mine.
"Except for Monday: by Lorrie Morgan"
A/N: This is a continuation of my story Monday, Monday. It's not necessary to read that first, but it is only 750 words, so please, go read that first.
Chapter 1: Monday
"Except for Monday, which was never good anyway"
Gibbs woke to what felt like a jackhammer pounding away in his head. He could tell he was lying down, but other than that, he didn't feel much of his body. He just laid there breathing for awhile, trying to recall the last thing he did.
He knew he had taken a Caf-Pow to Abby. He remembered being in the bullpen with DiNozzo, McGee, and Bishop. He knew they were going over cold cases. McGee had found a possible link between two suspects. He remembered getting in the car to go question one of them. Remembered McGee in the car with him. Then.. the deer. Going over the side of the road. Blood. McGee's blood.
A frantic beeping sound entered his hearing. He tried to sit up, but gentle hands pushed down on his shoulders. "Jethro, take it easy." Ducky's voice soothingly spoke to him.
"Duck. What? Where?" He struggled to put words together. 'Man my head hurts', he thought.
"Jethro, can you open your eyes?"
Slowly he tried squinting his eyes. 'No, that hurts' Gibbs thought, as he slammed his eyes closed again.
"Try one more time Jethro, I turned down the lights."
Once again he slowly opened his eyes and this time it didn't hurt as bad. He could see Ducky standing on his right. "There you are. You had us worried." Ducky said as he sat down in the chair by the bed with a tired smile. "How do you feel?"
"I'm fine, Duck. Tim?" There was only one thing Gibbs wanted answered, and that was how his agent was. All he could see when he closed his eyes, was McGee's head resting on his thigh, his hand covering the bloody hole in Tim's side.
"Jethro, let's focus on you for the.."
"Duck! Just tell me. Is. He. Alive?" Gibbs demanded. 'He has to be.' He thought, 'I gave him an order.'
Sighing, Ducky leaned back in the chair before answering, "As far as I know, yes, Timothy's still alive. He's in surgery at the moment."
Letting out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in, Gibbs closed his eyes and sank his head back into his pillow.
"I'm going to go get your Doctor and tell him you're awake. We're worried about your head, and how bad your concussion may be."
"I'm fine." Gibbs stated again.
"Sure you are my friend. I'll be back in just a moment." Ducky said as he quietly slipped out of the room.
Staring at the ceiling Gibbs kept replaying the accident over and over in his head. The curve, the deer, the blood. Slamming his eyes closed he tried to think of something, anything else, but all he could hear was the wheezing of Tim's breaths, and the weak pulse beneath his hand. Opening his eyes again he saw Ducky walk back in.
"Doctor Jacobs is on his way. Truthfully Jethro, how do you feel?"
Gibbs just stared at the ceiling for a moment before answering, "Numb."
Ducky chuckled and slightly shook his head, "Well that's to be expected with the medications you're receiving at the moment."
At that time a man in a white coat walked into the room. "Hello Agent Gibbs, I'm Doctor Jacobs."
"Hello."
"I'm just going to give you a quick look over and then I want to ask you some questions, alright?"
"Sure."
The exam was quicker than Gibbs had expected it to be. "Alright Agent Gibbs, can you tell me the day?" Dr. Jacobs asked.
"I'm assuming it's still Monday?" Gibbs phrased it as a question, hoping the day had ended already.
"Eleven pm, so yes, it's still Monday. Do you know where you are?"
This got the Doctor a glare, "Hospital."
"Jethro." Ducky quietly sighed.
Rolling his eyes Gibbs replied, "Bethesda."
Dr. Jacobs just grinned as he said, "Okay, I think we're done with the questions for the moment. Now, Dr. Mallard said he would explain your injuries, and answer any questions you had about the accident, but do you have any questions for me?"
"Yeah, when can I get out of here?"
"Good heavens Jethro!"
"I'll just say it's going to be a few days at the least. Doctor Mallard, good luck." Dr. Jacobs said as he hurried from the room.
"Really Jethro, you nearly died. You aren't going to just get up.."
"Duck." Gibbs broke into Ducky's lecture. He could tell his friend was upset, well he was too, but he needed answers.
Sitting down with a heavy sigh Ducky said, "Why don't you start with what you remember, and then I'll fill in the blanks?"
Gibbs didn't particularly want to recall what had happened. While the Doctor had been here Gibbs could block it out, now it came flooding back in.
"Tim and I went to check out the link between two suspects he had found. I wasn't paying enough attention. I don't even remember what I was thinking about, but.." Gibbs stopped as he remembered Tim's yell.
"Boss! Deer!"
"Crap." He tried swerving but the wheels skidded on the loose gravel on the side of the road, sending the car into a spin. "Hold on." He yelled as he desperately tried to get the car under control. But it was too late, the rear tires had already gone over the edge of the road.
"Jethro." Ducky's quiet voice broke into this thoughts.
Clearing his throat Gibbs shakily continued, "Right at the curve, there was a deer, in the middle of the road. I didn't see it until it was too late. I tried, to swerve, ended up going over the side of the road. I don't know how many times we rolled. When I came to, we must have been down there for awhile." Gibbs stopped, and Ducky stayed silent to let him gather his thoughts
Opening his eyes hurt, but his gut was screaming at him that something was wrong. Looking down, he saw his legs were trapped under the steering wheel, that was pushed up into the car. 'Oh yeah, we crashed' he thought. Then another thought crashed into his mind. "Tim!" he exclaimed as he quickly looked to the passenger side of the car.
When the black dots cleared from his vision he saw Tim was slumped partially towards him. "Tim, wake up." He undid his seatbelt hoping it would give him a little more range of motion, since his legs were completely trapped. Reaching over he felt for Tim's pulse, letting out a relived sigh when he felt one. "Tim, come on now time to wake up." He said again as he undid Tim's buckle too. After he did, Tim slide further towards Gibbs and he grabbed him and slowly lowered him down until Tim's head rested on his thigh.
"Do you remember anything else?" Ducky once again broke into his memories.
"I couldn't wake him up Duck." Gibbs whispered. "The entire time. Tim never woke up once." Looking at Ducky, Gibbs was silently asking his friend for answers.
"When Anthony didn't hear from you, he tried calling. When neither of you answered, he went to Abigail. She was able to track the GPS on the sedan. We got there just before the paramedics." This time it was Ducky who stopped to collect his thoughts.
"Tony be careful!" Ellie said as she held onto his ankles.
The drivers side door was partially blocked by a tree, the passengers side was totally crushed inwards, and the front windshield had broken out, so Tony had immediately climbed up on what was left of the hood and reached into the car.
"Gibbs is alive." He said as he then rested his hand on Tim's neck. 'Come on Probie' he whispered to himself. Leaning back out he said, "He's alive, but I can barely feel his pulse". Just as he said this, they all heard the fire trucks and ambulance pulling up.
"When we got there, we didn't know if you were even alive. With how damaged the car was it took the fire department forty-five minutes to cut through the frame, to be able to safely extract Timothy." Ducky stopped again to take a breath. He sat just staring at the floor, looking older than Gibbs had ever seen him.
"Duck."
"As you probably know, a piece of the door went through his side. He nearly bleed out. He was already in hypovolemic shock when we got there. He has a punctured lung. And he also had a slight skull fracture. Which is probably why you couldn't wake him." Ducky had never looked up as he spoke. His voice dropped to a whisper as he continued, "I couldn't believe he was still alive when we arrived. I can't believe he made it to the hospital. With his injuries he shouldn't have been alive Jethro."
Gibbs laid quietly for a moment before he said, "I told him, he didn't have permission to die."
Ducky looked up and saw two emotions in his friends eyes. One was determination that his words alone could keep his agent tethered to the land of the living, and two, was fear. Fear that his words couldn't do just that.
Taking a deep breath Ducky said with a half smile, "Well, Timothy isn't one to disobey an order."
"No, no he isn't." Gibbs smiled back, which was exactly what Ducky was going for.
Ducky let them sit is content silence for a few moments before speaking, "We found you around five pm. Got to the hospital a little after six. Timothy has been in surgery since seven-thirty."
"Why did they wait so long?"
"He wasn't stable enough. They needed to get his blood pressure up, heartbeat stronger, try and replace some fluids, but he was losing them almost too fast." Ducky gave Gibbs a serious look as he continued, "Jethro you have to understand, Timothy may not make it."
"Duck."
"Jethro."
"No." Gibbs said in his no nonsense tone. "He will be fine."
Ducky sat watching as Gibbs glared at the ceiling again. Dropping the subject of Timothy, Ducky moved onto Gibbs. "Along with multiple cuts and bruises, you have a broken femur in your left leg, the doctors have it stabilized for now, they need to surgically repair it, but there was too much swelling to operate tonight. In the morning if enough of the swelling is down, then they will do the surgery. You have two cracked ribs, and a concussion. Which we will keep an eye on, but as usual, it looks like your hard head has kept you together again."
Gibbs just nodded that he understood and he kept his eyes upward.
"It's late Jethro, why don't you try and get some sleep."
"What time is it?"
"It is eleven thirty-eight." Ducky said looking at his watch.
"Thanks Duck." Gibbs turned to look at Ducky, "For everything."
"Of course Jethro. Get some rest." Patting Gibbs on the shoulder, Ducky waited until Gibbs fell asleep before leaving the room.
-NCIS-
Ducky didn't know how he had managed to convince the hospital to let the NCIS team crash in one of the empty doctors lounges, but when he walked in he was glad they had agreed. Anthony was sprawled face down on one of the couches, left cheek half on the armrest, feet hanging over the other end, with his right arm hanging over the edge. Eleanor had curled herself sideways into some sort of pretzel on one of the recliners, without reclining it. Jimmy had taken a love seat, his head draped over the back, feet out and crossed at the ankles. Ducky wondered why he wasn't stretched out like Anthony, until he took another step into the room. Abigail had curled herself into a similar position to Eleanor, but was using Jimmy as a pillow. Softly chuckling he took a seat on the last couch next to the only person still awake.
"How's he doing?" Vance asked.
"His concussion doesn't seem to be as severe as we originally thought. Though they will keep a close eye on him just to be sure."
"And McGee?"
"Still in surgery."
They sat quietly, both falling asleep about a half hour later.
