Chapter Eighteen
Tony woke up slowly, with Gibbs coaxing him all the way. The sedative had long since worn off, but the sleepiness still had some sort of pull on Tony. “Come on, DiNozzo, show me those green eyes I love so much,” Gibbs said, whilst gently shaking Tony’s shoulder - not the one that had recently been the victim of a gunshot wound.
When he finally came round, he look around the room taking in the three new faces and panicked slightly because he could remember Gibbs giving him a kiss in the beginning of trying to get him to wake up. He must have done that in front of everyone, which meant they knew. What were they going to do now? How could Gibbs have been so stupid?
“It’s okay, Tony, we know you and Gibbs are an item,” Abby said, realising why Tony looked so out of sorts. “He told us before he woke you up. None of us have a problem with it and we’re not going to run to the Director and tell her so calm down.” Abby’s voice was soothing and Tony was able to calm himself quickly, whilst still trying to place himself in the room.
“What are you guys doing here?” He asked McGee and Ziva. He guessed that Abby had come for another visit, but since his other two friends hadn’t been to see since he’d been brought in - or at least since he woke up, he couldn’t remember why they were there now.
“We are here to take your statement and I will do a sketch of your attacker,” Ziva told him.
“Remember Tony, I asked you if I could call them in before you went to sleep?” Gibbs asked, his thumb now rubbing small circles on the back of Tony’s hand to comfort him.
“Yeah, I remember, it just took me a while to get there is all,” Tony replied, enjoying the close contact with Gibbs and knowing that his friends and colleagues knew the truth about them and didn’t seem to care either way. It made him feel more accepted than he had ever felt before.
He knew that his parents had loved him, they just hadn’t loved him, they had never been proud of anything he did and had cut him off at twelve, sending him away to military school, from there he went to Ohio State and then onto the Police Academy and eventually after a few jobs in various precincts he moved to Washington D.C. to join the NCIS team and he’d never been happier. His parents, on the other hand, had wanted him to go into the family business and did not approve of his life choices. They certainly would not approve of his relationship with Gibbs and for once, Tony found that he didn’t care because his real ‘family’ approved and were happy for him and that was all that mattered.
“You can begin when you’re ready, Tony,” Gibbs said, squeezing the hand in his gently. Abby took hold of the hand with the IV in and held it in a way so as not to disturb the IV, letting Tony know that she was there to support him through this as well.
Tony took a deep breath and looked around the room once more. McGee had his PDA out and had the stylus poised to take notes when Tony started speaking. Ziva was using a Gibbs style PDA - a pad and a pencil, which he assumed was what she, was going to use to do a sketch of his attacker. Abby was watching the pair of them, praying that they not make a mistake and upset Tony, worried mostly for his health, but also because she liked them and didn’t want to have to kick their butts for upsetting the bossman and Tony.
Tony trusted these people to have his six on crime scenes, to have his back at every other time and he knew that they were the right people to hear what had happened for the first time he spoke about it.
“It was pretty late, and Gibbs was supposed to be picking me up at 6am the following morning so I could get to work, but I decided to get back into the habit of going for a run, I left my cell and my gun at home. I didn’t think I need them - didn’t think at all really. I think part of me didn’t want to run into a cop, him see me carrying and me have to get out my ID and ruin the pace I’d set with my run. Pretty fucking pathetic when you think about it.”
McGee was writing notes on everything Tony said and looked up when he stopped talking.
“Go on, Tony,” Gibbs said, squeezing the hand in his again. Tony took a deep breath and was silent for a few minutes. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, but he knew they weren’t staring to judge him, just to make him feel as safe as they could so that he could talk about the horror of that night.
“I started out on my usual run, going the places I felt safest at that time of night, and then this guy just came out of nowhere, he grabbed me by my bad shoulder and knocked me to the ground. He kept my pinned by putting all his weight on my bad shoulder and it hurt like a son of a bitch, so I couldn’t move. I remember kicking out at him, but he was too quick for me, it was dark, I was blinded by pain, I couldn’t get my aim right, he…he pulled at my pants and I remember thinking what the hell could he want? I was processing it all way too slowly, I don’t know, I just couldn’t understand why he wanted to mug me with my pants down. That was until he had me half naked and pressed against me. God, I thought getting shot hurt, let me tell you, getting ass raped by some guy who doesn’t know the definition of lube? Yeah, that hurts a hell of a lot more,” Tony carried on, letting out a little laugh. He was trying to lighten the situation, but it didn’t work, the room was too serious, as they listened to their friend describe what had to have been the worst night of his life.
“Anyway, he, he…er…he whispered in my ear about how tight I was and how good it felt and then it was pretty much over, he slapped me across the face, cut my lip open. I lay there for what felt like forever, but was probably only a couple of minutes - to make sure he’d gone y’know?” Tony said, stopping to look round the room again. He hated the look on his friends’ faces, they all had different emotions displayed on their faces and none of them were good.
“Is that it?” Gibbs asked, squeezing Tony’s hand to let him know he was there to support him.
“You know the rest, I went home, I showered for a good hour or so, then I took an overdose and I don’t remember anything else until I woke up here,” Tony replied.
“Can you describe the attacker?” Ziva asked, her pad and pencil ready to start drawing whenever Tony gave her something to work with.
“I didn’t see much of his face and it was dark,” Tony admitted.
“Anything is better than what we have now,” Abby said, leaning in to give Tony a hug. “I’m sorry to had to go through that again.”
“It’s fine, it’s was better than talking to that shrink, having my family around me made it easier,” Tony told her, after she’d sat back down from the hug.
“Close your eyes, Tony. I want to try something,” Gibbs said. “Remember that we’re all with you and you’re safe. No one can get to you here, they’d have to come through me, McGee, Ziva and Abby before they could touch you.”
Tony obeyed and closed his eyes.
“Now, I want you to go back to that night. It was cold, dark, and you were scared.” Tony started to breathe deeper and his heart rate started to climb, Gibbs had one eye on Tony and the other on the monitors. “Calm down, Tony, we’re with you this time. Can you see us?”
After a few moments Tony nodded and his heart rate returned to normal. “Now, look at the guy who attacked you, just say whatever comes to mind when you look at him, try to describe him for Ziva,” Gibbs said, in a soothing tone. Tony relaxed and squeezed Gibbs’ hand to let him know he was calm.
“He’s wearing a black hoodie, you know the kind kids wear, his face isn’t covered but I can’t see all of it. His eyes are dark coloured and there’s a tuft of brown hair that the hoodie hasn’t covered.”
“You’re doing great, Tony. What about his height and build?” Gibbs asked, concentrating only on Tony and not on what the rest of the room was doing.
“He’s the same height as McGee and thin as a rake, but he doesn’t look healthy with it. He looks like a druggie, if only I could see his arms to check for track marks, but the way he acts is like he’s after my money, when he’s not. Oh God, why me? Why didn’t he just mug me? Why did he have to rape me?” Tony cried out, his heart rate climbing. Gibbs didn’t know what to do, he hadn’t expected this outburst, even though he’d been warned that it would eventually come as Tony started to come to terms with being raped.
“Open you eyes, Tony,” Gibbs said, trying to calm him before another seizure happened. Tony obeyed and started to breathe fast and shallow. Abby tired to hug him, but Gibbs’ look warned her off.
“You’re safe here, Tony. You’re safe, just concentrate on slowing your breathing and remember you’re safe, I will protect you from anyone who tries to hurt you,” Gibbs said, leaning close to Tony so that all he could see was Gibbs’ face. It look five minutes for Tony to calm down and then Gibbs leaned back into his chair so that Tony could see everyone else.
“We’re going to catch that bastard, Tony,” Abby promised, though she wasn’t sure she should seeing as so far all they had was semen and a sketchy description of the man, but she knew that with Gibbs on the case, they would catch him if they had to interview a thousand people and check a thousand crime scenes. He would not give up.
“I will put together a sketch and bring it back for you to check before we put it on the BOLO,” Ziva told Tony and Gibbs. Gibbs nodded that that was okay.
“I’ll get all of this written out in a report and bring it back for Tony to sign and start sending out a BOLO for a man of that description,” McGee said, Gibbs nodded at him too. “We…uh…we should get back to the office and back to work,” he added, seeing that Gibbs was still staring at him.
“That sounds like a good idea, McGee. Call me here with any news,” Gibbs replied, giving the young probie a smile. They all said their goodbyes to both Gibbs and Tony and left them alone.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?