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Tony saw the bat coming towards him, yet still couldn’t find the time to react. It struck the side of his head with such force that he collapsed to the ground without so much as a fight, vision blurred and ears ringing. It took all of Tony’s strength not to projectile vomit right then and there as he laid sprawled on the ground, pain radiating from the base of his skull down his neck and shoulders. His chest even hurt as though his body was struggling to get his blood pumping.
“Tony!”
Tony barely registered that someone was calling his name as numbness began to spread through is body, starting at the finger tips and working its way up his arms. It wasn’t exactly a pain he had been expecting; it was more of a settling numbness than anything else.
He felt hands on his shoulders, moving and traveling up his shoulders to his head. Tony pulled his head away, but the slight movement caused a sudden pitch of nausea and he began to dry heave, unable to prop himself up on his elbows. He was left coughing and sputtering for breath, tears leaping into his eyes.
The hands were back, deliberate and surprisingly strong. A face then loomed into view and Tony couldn’t help but crack a small smile. “Z-Ziva,” he choked out.
Suddenly the imagine in front of him morphed into the silver haired version of his boss. “Do I look like Ziva to you,” the agent flashed.
Tony screwed up his eyes into a squint. “Well, if you squint, Boss.”
Gibbs huffed lightly and reached a hand around to lightly tap Tony on the back of the head.
If Tony was honest with himself, he couldn’t even feel it, which was slightly worrisome. He didn’t say anything even as the world began to blur even more in front of him and pulses of energy seemed to travel through his body at different speeds and intensities in a way he could hardly describe. It wasn’t inherently painful as of yet, but it certainly wasn’t typical either.
The observation skills of a seasoned NCIS agent could not be exaggerated, especially when that came to one Leroy Jethro Gibbs. A spark of worry showed through him as he snapped his fingers in front of his senior field agent’s line of vision. “DiNozzo, look at me.”
Tony did as his boss requested, fighting hard to look up to him. It was an effort to force his eyes to focus, and truthfully he wasn’t even sure if he was looking directly at him or not. It was like his left eye had a mind of its own and was wandering from its intended target.
Gibbs noted how Tony did his best to look up at him, though his left eye wandered. He snapped his fingers directly in front of Tony’s left eye, watched as it focused for a moment, then drifted back once more.
“I need a medic over here,” Gibbs called over his shoulder before turning back to Tony. “Look at me and smile.”
“B-Boss?”
“Just do it, DiNozzo.”
Tony struggled to look up and flash a charming smile, making it as big and grand as possible. This would ordinarily earn him a head slap for his kind of behavior, yet this time Gibbs regarded him much longer than usually necessary and looked uneasy while he did so. He even went so far as to reach out and slid his fingers against Tony’s left cheek. “You feel that?”
“Uh, sorta, it’s hard to explain.” Tony’s heart plummeted in his chest when he realized that it was difficult to talk. His words were slurred and sounded thick in his mouth. Never before had he experienced something like this when he wasn’t drunk, and he was damn sure he hadn’t been drinking.
Gibbs kept his voice surprisingly calm when he yelled, “I said I need some help over here!”
Tony rested his own hand against the left side of his face, finding out that his left hand was also weak and limp. It took all of his strength and concentration to keep it there while gravity seemed to be too fierce of a contender. His hand flopped back down with an unceremonious thud.
“I-I can’t lift my h-hand, Boss,” Tony suddenly whimpered, looking down at his hand that was now unable to move. “I can’t move my hand, Boss!”
Gibs reached out and grabbed Ton’y shoulder. “You’re going to be fine. If you think that I’m going to train another senior field agent then you’re damn wrong, do you understand that?”
Despite the words that his boss was saying, Tony could detect the warmth and affection there from a mile away. It wasn’t something that could usually hear from Gibbs, which made it all the more alarming. He didn’t possess the strength to ask many questions or even exchange a healthy banter; he could barely form words in his mind, let alone say them verbally. The light was beginning to fade from his mind as exhaustion took over.
Tony felt a couple slaps to his cheeks. They weren’t overly hard, but they should’ve been enough to wake him. Unfortunately, that was hardly the case.
“You are not going to die. Stay wake, DiNozzo!”
Tony was hardly able to process the amount of people that suddenly swamped around him, shouting commands at each other and reaching, grabbing, touching his head and face. He could make out bits and pieces of what was said as he had heard it before during other cases and none of it sounded promising.
“What’s wrong with him?” Gibbs’s voice rang out the clearest, focusing his thoughts like no one else could.
One of the medics stretched Tony’s eyes open, shinning a light to watch his pupils react. Tony didn’t stir, just groaned as a fresh wave of pain washed over him.
“Severe weakness down his left side,” a medic yelled, grasping Tony’s hand in her own and squeezing, frowning when he couldn’t squeeze back. “No resistance or control.”
Another medic looked to Gibbs. “He had bleeding on the back of his head. Was he struck with something do you know?”
“A baseball bat.”
The medic motioned over his shoulder for a gurney as he pulled his radio that clung to his shoulder forward. “We have a possible brain hemorrhage and we need high O2 saturation and a line placed STAT!”
Suddenly, Tony’s eyes rolled up in the back of his head and his body grew completely rigid.
“He’s coding,” the EMT announced, immediately reaching over to start CPR. “Starting compressions.”
Gibbs was immediately pushed back from his agent by two local officers. They easily scooped either side of his shoulders and pulled him off the ground, even as Gibbs thrashed to force himself out of their grip.
“Get the hell off of me!” He ripped himself clear and shot them a piercing glare. “That’s my agent right there and I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on.”
The officer to Gibbs’s right motioned to the other officer, a rookie, to give the special agent some space.
“Agent, Gibbs, you know as well as I do that there’s nothing that you can do for him. Let the medics do what they need to do. They’re trained for this, not you,” he told the older man patiently.
Gibbs shook his head. “You don’t know my agents and you don’t know me.” With that he pushed past them and made a break to the ambulance where Tony was being loaded up with one man still applying chest compressions while Tony laid unmoving and lifeless.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony moaned, head beginning to roll around on something soft. When his eyes finally opened, he saw all white around him. The lights were blinding, however, and he was forced to close his eyes and turn his head partially to the side. It was much more of a struggle than he anticipated and he was left almost coughing from the exertion. That was when he realized that there was a cannula in his nose supplying him with steady flow of oxygen while his arm and hands were filled with lines from numerous IVs that hurt Tony just to look at.
“Tony, are you awake,” a soft voice asked.
Tony let out a weak sounding cough. “Sorta.”
A weight suddenly landed on his chest and he felt arms wrap around him in a tight hug. He panted for breath, smelling the lingering scent of Caff Pow and gun powder.
“Abbs...Abbs...I can’t breathe,” Tony choked out.
Abby drew back, smiling hesitantly. “Sorry, Tony. I’m just so glad that you’re awake! It’s been so long.”
“So long,” Tony echoed hoarsely. “Just how long are we talking about?”
“About a week,” responded Tim from behind Abby, leaning around from behind her. “After surgery they had you under heavy sedation and it was a little touch and go for a while.”
Tony’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Surgery?”
“For the hemorrhage in your brain. They had to operate and relieve the pressure. You had us all super scared,” Abby pointed out, almost shaking when she spoke. “You should’ve seen Gibbs.”
“Gibbs? Gibbs was here?”
“More like Gibbs never left,” Tim replied. “The nurses practically had to chase him out last night to go and sleep in an actual bed instead of that hard chair in the corner.”
Tony couldn’t help but break out into a massive grin. “Awe, Gibbs really does care. Maybe I can even get him to pick up some DVDs from my apartment for me?”
“Not likely, DiNozzo.”
Heads turned as Gibbs stepped back into the room with a coffee in hand. He was looking less than his usual composed self if Tony was being honest with himself, not that he would ever say that to Gibbs. Contrary to popular belief he didn’t enjoy being head slapped by his boss.
“I was just kidding, Boss. Maybe I can just ask some hot nurse to bring me up some new ones,” Tony replied, fingers sprawling against the edge of the thin sheet that was strewn over him.
“Not on my watch.” Gibbs motioned to Tim and Abby. “I can take it from here.”
Abby glanced hesitantly in Tony’s direction, lips pursed in a thin line. Tim came beside her and nudged her toward the door where she reluctantly went, but not before offering a kind smile over her shoulder and a small wave at Tony. He tried to wave back until the tug of the IV in his hand made him draw back and force a smile in Abby’s direction instead.
Once the left, Tony half expected Gibbs to follow or at least keep his distance. What he wasn’t expecting was for his boss to pull up the chair in the corner and pull it over his bed.
“You don’t have to stay here, Boss. I know you have plenty of other things you could be doing besides sitting here with me.....like working on your boat,” Tony pointed out, breath catching at the end of the sentence and sending him on a small coughing fit that took his lungs a moment to bring themselves out of.
Once Tony had regained his composure for the time being, Gibbs reached over and lightly tapped him on the shoulder, avoiding his head. It would be a while before Tony was recovered enough for a headslap of any kind.
“If I would’ve rather worked on my boat, don’t you think that I would be there,” Gibbs questioned, voice a soft growl.
It took longer than usual for Tony to muster a small nod. “I suppose that’s right, Boss.”
“You suppose, right, DiNozzo. I’m going to stay right here and make sure you get better because I cannot be without my senior field agent. Have I made myself clear,” he questioned.
Tony couldn’t help a smile from showing on his face as he laid back against the pillow, knowing his boss would be there for him no matter what.