Chapter Twenty-Two
Tony was still sleeping when Gibbs arrived back in the room, so he took his seat and downed the rest of the semi-warm coffee. He rested his feet on the edge of Tony’s bed and the movement caused him to wake.
“Whas…what?” he asked, not really making much sense.
“It’s okay, Tony, it’s just me, you can go back to sleep,” Gibbs reassured him.
“No, it’s okay, boss, I’m awake. What did the doc say? Do I have a brain?” Tony asked, opening his eyes and yawning as he spoke.
“You do, have pictures of it to prove it now,” Gibbs told him. Even though Tony was joking around, he knew that it was something serious by Gibbs’ body language and the fact that the man hadn’t offered anything voluntarily.
“What’s wrong with me, Gibbs?” Tony asked, seriously.
“They found some damage to your brain, Tony. The first seizure was caused by the build up of toxins in your body from your kidneys going into failure and the other two that happened after you arrested were caused by the lack of oxygen to your brain during the arrest. It’s minimal, but it does mean that you could have seizures for the rest of your life. Dr. Foster has started you on some medication and Ducky says it usually works well for people in your situation, but we’ll have to wait and see. A neurologist is going to come and see you when you’re in a private room to check that you’re coping okay with the medication,” Gibbs explained.
“What about work? Will I be able to come back as an active Field Agent if I have seizures?”
“Ducky thinks so, he’s going to double check the medical guidelines, but he doesn’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to return as long as the seizures are controlled by the medication. You won’t be allowed to drive for until you haven’t had a seizure for six months, but we’ll let Ziva or McGee do the driving for a change.”
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Tony asked, trying to stay calm, but failing because he was worried about what else Gibbs had to tell him.
“You might need a kidney transplant if your kidneys don’t start working on their own soon. If that’s the case, you’ll need dialysis three times a week and you won’t be allowed to be an active field agent, it’ll be desk duty or nothing.”
“Oh, God.”
“Tony, there’s more.”
“How could there be more?”
“They’re going to remove the external pacemaker tomorrow to see if your heart has recovered, there’s a chance that you’ll need a permanent pacemaker to keep your heart beeping at a normal rhythm.”
“How does that effect my chances of coming back to work?”
“I don’t know, Dr. Foster only just mentioned it, I haven’t really had a chance to talk to Ducky about it yet, but he’s checking the medical guidelines tonight and coming in tomorrow morning for when they detach your external pacemaker so he’ll be able to answer any concerns then.”
“I need to know, Gibbs,” Tony asked, sounding desperate. “I don’t mean to sound melodramatic, but my job is my life! If I don’t have that then I don’t have anything.”
“You have me.”
“And what good am I to you as a usual, seizing cripple?”
“Hey, now, don’t talk like that.”
“It’s true, Gibbs. I made one mistake…ONE and my life may be over because of it…if I didn’t feel like killing myself before, I sure do now.”
Gibbs stood up suddenly and leaned in so that his face was millimeters away from Tony’s. “Do NOT talk like that, you’re worth so much more than you think you are. Just because a few of things may be different than they were before means nothing about the state of your life. If you can’t be an active Field Agent, you can do something else. I will not let you let this beat you, let him beat you, do you understand me?”
Tony was so shocked that he just nodded.
“I love you, Tony. I loved you before this and I’ll love you after this, but you can’t just give up, that’s not the Tony I know. The Tony I know would fight against this, would beat the plague even though he had a 15% chance of survival. You’ve beaten the odds before, you can do it again.”
“I know.”
“Come here,” Gibbs said, pulling Tony in for a hug. “It’ll be okay, Tony. Just you wait and see.”
~*~
It was late, but Ziva was determined to finish the sketch before she went home, she had worked on many ‘rough’ drafts, but was not pleased with the result, still she kept hold of them to show Tony in case they resembled his attacker in anyway.
McGee had left with Abby an hour ago, he’d typed up Tony’s statement and it was in a folder, ready to be taken to the hospital with them in the morning for Tony to sign, if only she could get this sketch to go right, then she could go home and get some sleep too. After all she was surviving on about two hours of sleep as it stood.
She held the piece of paper out at arms length so that she could get a good look at it and decided that along with the other versions of the description Tony had given, it would do. She gathered them all up, put them on McGee’s desk, along with the statement and headed to the elevator.
When it opened, she saw the Director - it seemed she wasn’t the only one staying late on a Monday evening.
“Ziva,” the Director said.
“Director,” Ziva replied, giving her a little nod.
“What has you staying so late?” the Director asked.
“I was working on the sketch of Tony’s attacker. I had to do about five of them to get the right look from his description.”
“Have you heard from the hospital? How’s Tony doing?”
“He seemed fine when we saw him earlier. McGee, Abby and I went to take his statement. A little pale and there were a lot of computers attached to him.”
“I think you mean ‘monitors’ that will keep a check on his heart rate and everything?”
“Yes, monitors, he had a lot of them, one that made his chest twitch, but Ducky told me that that one is coming off tomorrow morning.”
“When are you next going to see him?”
“Tomorrow. We will go with Ducky and wait for the medical stuff to be over with before showing Tony the sketches and his statement for him to confirm if he knows who attacked him,” Ziva told her.
“Please, pass on my love to him.”
“I will, Director.”
“Good night, Ziva,” the Director said, as the doors opened on the parking garage.
“Good night, Director,” Ziva replied, making her way to her own car. She hoped that when she saw Tony the following day, he’d look less pale and better than he had when she’d seen him earlier. She checked her watch - it was near enough midnight and she woke at 5am every day to work out before work, she wasn’t going to get much sleep that night either.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?