Chapter Seventeen
Gibbs asked for the phone to be brought to him, while Tony slept. He could have left him and made the phone call at the nurses’ station, but Tony had quite a good grip on his hand and he was worried that if he moved, it would wake the man and it was obvious that he needed the sleep. Sleep helped the body heal and Lord knows, Tony could do with all the help he could get.
The day nurses were nice, but nowhere near as nice as the one or two that had stopped in to Tony’s room during the night. For one, they didn’t let him have any coffee from their staff room and two; they gave him an exasperated look when he asked for the phone to be brought in so he could make a private phone call. He tried to explain to them that he was a Federal Agent and it was concerning an active case, but they hadn’t seemed to be interested or to really care. Still, they brought him the phone, so he couldn’t really complain.
He dialed the number for the morgue first, planning to update Ducky on Tony’s condition, then he dialed Abby’s lab and asked her to catch a lift with McGee and Ziva and come back up to Bethesda to be there when Tony gave his statement. Finally, he dialed the number for McGee’s desk.
“Agent McGee speaking,” was the answer he got after it had rung three times.
“McGee, it’s me.”
“Okay, boss. I’m guessing you want an update on Tony’s case, right?” McGee asked, sounding nervous.
“Yeah, I do, but you can do it in person. I need you and Ziva to collect Abby and come to Bethesda, tell Ziva to bring a sketch pad and you’re going to be taking Tony’s statement about what happened. Hopefully, Ziva will be able to get a good sketch from Tony’s description and we’ll be able to get a BOLO out for this guy.”
“Okay, boss. When do you want us?”
“Now, McGee. Get your stuff, get off the phone and get your butts here. The sooner you get here, the sooner we can get that BOLO out and catch that arsehole.”
“On it, boss,” McGee said, but Gibbs had already hung up. McGee looked over at Ziva who had looked up at the mention of Gibbs being on the phone.
“How is Tony?” she asked, as McGee got up and grabbed his stuff.
“I don’t know, he didn’t say,” McGee replied, hearing the elevator ping. Abby appeared from round the corner and from the looks of things, Gibbs had called her first because she was ready to leave.
“You did not ask? Why not?” Ziva demanded. “I mean, do you not care?”
“Ziva, Gibbs wants us to take Tony’s statement and he wants you to do a sketch of the perp from Tony’s description. Grab your stuff, he wants us at Bethesda now,” McGee explained to the confused Ziva.
Ziva nodded and grabbed her backpack which contained everything she would need when investigating a crime scene, including her sketchpad and pencils. She followed McGee and Abby as they made their way to the elevator and out into the parking garage.
When they got to the car, Ziva grabbed the keys off McGee, “I will drive. We need to get there fast and you drive like an old wombat.”
“I think you mean, woman,” Abby corrected, laughing at Ziva’s mistake.
“Whatever, get in,” Ziva replied, not bothering to correct herself. She knew she still had to learn a lot of the English language, but right now her main concern was getting to Bethesda, seeing Tony for herself and drawing a sketch that would put his attacker behind bars.
~*~
Tony was still asleep when the team arrived in the ICU. Gibbs could see them through the windows that surrounded Tony’s room. He didn’t get up because he knew that Abby had been there before so would show the other two where they needed to go.
McGee knocked on the door and waited for Gibbs to say something before he opened it - that boy was sometimes too nervous for his own good. He set down the kit he had brought with him, as well as his backpack and looked at Tony who was still asleep.
“He’s asleep,” Gibbs told them, he didn’t want them to worry that Tony had slipped back into a coma and he hadn’t told them. “I’ll wake him up in a minute, but first we have a few things to discuss.”
All three of them nodded, Abby settled down in a chair on the opposite side of Tony’s bed than Gibbs, whilst Ziva put down her stuff and leant against the wall opposite Tony’s bed and McGee just stayed standing where he was.
“Have you managed to progress any further in the case?” Gibbs asked.
McGee took the lead and shook his head. “Abby’s run all the samples through all the databases she can think of and we’re coming up with nothing,” he told Gibbs.
“I’ve double checked them all, Gibbs and whoever attacked Tony is just not in the system or if he is, they don’t have his DNA for us to match it to. When we get a suspect, we can get a sample and I can try and match it, but until then there’s nothing I can do,” Abby added, sounding sorrowful.
They all felt pretty helpless because without a description of the attacker or a DNA match or other evidence that may have been washed away when Tony showered after the rape there was little they could do in the way of tracking down a suspect. Hopefully, whatever came of this visit would allow them to start the investigation and actually get somewhere with it.
“Okay, now, Tony is still very sick. His doctor said he’s stable, but he still needs dialysis which should start in a couple of hours so I need you all done by then because there won’t be room for us all and the dialysis unit. He’s had a session with a shrink who was an arsehole and got Tony so stressed out he had a seizure, I need you all to try and keep him as calm as possible…any signs of him stressing out and we’ll do this another time, do you all understand me?” Gibbs explained.
They all nodded. “Good. Now, I’m going to wake Tony but you should all be aware that since his attack, we’ve both come to realise how we feel about each other. If either one of you has a problem with the fact that Tony and I are gay and in a relationship, you should leave now and I’ll arrange for you to be transferred to another team. Needless to say, this remains between us.” They all looked at each other, but none of them spoke up, which Gibbs took to mean there wasn’t a problem, but he had to be sure.
“Well?” he asked, pushing the subject.
“You know I don’t have a problem, bossman,” Abby piped up.
“No problem here, boss,” McGee said.
“I have no problem with it,” Ziva told him, smirking. “I guessed a while ago that there was some gissom between you two.”
“Gissom?” Gibbs asked, looking confused.
“I think she means ‘frissom’,” McGee explained. Gibbs nodded and turned his attention back to Tony, who was still holding tightly onto his hand. It was time for the interview to start and maybe Tony would find it easier with pretty much the whole of his self-made family around him. At least Gibbs hoped it would, the last thing Tony needed right now was another set-back.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?