Chapter Twenty-Three
Tony slept most of the night, meaning that Gibbs could grab his requisite four hours sleep while Tony was out of it. The rest of the night he spent talking to the nice nurse, who again brought him coffee from their staff room and not the cafeteria.
“How’s your friend doing today?” she asked, when she brought Gibbs his third cup of coffee for the night.
“We found out that he’s got some brain damage because of his arrest yesterday, which means he’ll have seizures for the rest of his life. They started him on a drug that apparently - well according to our M.E. - works wonders. I forget the name, begins with a Pheno-something. Anyway, we’re hoping that despite this, he’ll be able to return as an active Field Agent.”
“Oh, you mean, Dilantin. Yeah, it works well in seizure disorders. I hear that they’re planning on removing the pacemaker in the morning?” the nurse - whose name Gibbs still hadn’t gotten - said.
“Yeah, we’re crossing everything that he won’t need a permanent one.”
“I’ll light a candle for him at St. Mary’s. I lit one this morning after I left because he’s such a nice young man, and to have been violated in such a horrible way,” she shuddered, “it doesn’t bear thinking about.”
“We managed to take a statement this afternoon and we have one of our agents working on a sketch to go on the BOLO, so we should catch up with him soon.”
“Good, I hope you put him away, where he deserves to be,” the nurse stated, adamant that this man receive punishment.
“I should let you get back to work. I’m sure you have other patients sicker than Tony to check up on,” Gibbs said, agreeing wholeheartedly that whoever had attacked and raped Tony should be punished, though he wasn’t sure she would agree with his definition of punishment as it was sure to be different than most peoples. That man had hurt the man he loved in the most horrific way and Tony was going to have a long recovery because of his actions after the attack. If Gibbs had his way, then the person responsible would suffer as much as Tony had, if not more.
The nurse smiled at Gibbs, “I do have to check on some other patients, but you let me know when you need more coffee. I suppose it’s redundant of me to ask you to sleep?”
“I’ve already had my usual four hours, I’ve survived on less when I was in the Marines and I don’t generally sleep for long at home - my job is very demanding and my body has adapted accordingly,” Gibbs explained.
“Well, I’m sure our paths will cross again during the night, let me know if Tony needs anything. Nice talking with you, Agent Gibbs.” The nurse gave him another smile and turned and left him alone in the room with only the sound of the monitors for company.
He got himself comfortable in his chair, with his feet on the edge of Tony’s bed, and sipped his coffee. He probably should have picked up a book from home or some paperwork from the office to keep him occupied while Tony slept. Gibbs didn’t like to be doing nothing, it felt like he was wasting time. There was nothing he could do about that now though.
So, he sat and watched Tony breathe in and out, his chest twitching with every beat of the pacemaker. He hoped that tomorrow would bring them some good news, tell them that Tony’s mistake hadn’t caused damage to his precious heart as well. It was bad enough that it had caused a minimal amount of brain damage - not enough to show, but enough to cause a life-long seizure disorder.
Watching Tony’s chest rise, fall and twitch was rather hypnotic and had Gibbs not had several cups of coffee and a warm one in his grasp, he probably would have fallen asleep, sat there, watching him.
~*~
Gibbs managed to nap once or twice through the night so that by the time Tony woke on Tuesday morning, he was ready for anything. He’d had the chance to talk to Maria - the nice nurse with the coffee had finally told him her name - when she wasn’t busy with other patients and she’d come to check and note down Tony’s vitals in his chart more than once through the night
“Good morning, boss. Did you get any sleep last night?” Tony asked, when he’d finished stretching, trying to avoid moving his bad shoulder or his neck too much. They were obviously sore points for Tony.
“I got my required four hours and managed to nap some in the early hours. I’m ready for the day ahead, question is, are you?” Gibbs replied, sitting forward in the chair so that he was looking at Tony.
“I don’t know, a bit nervous, I guess.”
“Ducky should be here soon, try not to worry, I’m sure it’ll all turn out fine.”
“I wish I had as much faith as you do,” Tony said, laughing nervously.
Before Gibbs could reply, Ducky appeared at the door. “Good morning, Jethro, Anthony. Good to see you looking much better, Anthony. I left Ziva and McGee in the waiting area, they’re here for you to look at some sketches and sign your statement, I take it that’s okay?” Ducky said, entering the room and standing at the end of the bed.
“Of course, they’ll have to wait until the doc says it’s okay though.”
“I’m sure they won’t mind, after all once this is done, it’ll put you one step closer to catching that bastard.”
“I sure hope so, Duck,” Gibbs said. They all fell silent as they waited for Dr. Foster to appear with his entourage to remove the external pacemaker and see if there was need for a permanent pacemaker because of any damage the Vicodin may have done.
They didn’t have to wait long, Dr. Foster arrived about ten minutes after Ducky had and wasted no time in heading to Tony’s room - followed by a group of nurses, one of which was towing the crash cart behind them.
“Good morning, everyone,” Dr. Foster said. “We ready to get that pacemaker off and see how it goes?”
“Yeah,” Tony replied. Gibbs said nothing and nodded his head towards the crash cart, the presence of which was worrying Gibbs and Tony.
“This is just in case anything goes wrong, I want it close by so that we are able to work on Tony the very second we need to, it’s just there for safety, try not to concentrate on it, okay?” Dr. Foster explained.
Gibbs nodded again and moved from his chair to stand beside Ducky so that the doctor and nurses were close enough to work on Tony should they need to. He was nervous as anything, the only situation he’d been in that had made him this nervous was when Kelly was born and the doctors decided Shannon needed help with delivering their daughter into the world. He pushed that thought from his mind, right now he needed to focus on Tony and what was going on with him.
Dr. Foster motioned for the nurse closest to the monitor to slowly lowering the pacemaker’s interference with Tony’s body. They all watched the monitor as the machine was lowered and lowered until it was finally switched off. Gibbs let out a breath as he watched the number stay at 90. It seemed that Tony’s heart could cope without the external pacemaker.
It all went wrong quickly, Tony started complaining that he couldn’t breathe and his arm hurt, and Dr. Foster started to listen to his chest, when the monitor started to sound its alarm and everyone else jumped into action.
The nurse adjusted the amount of oxygen Tony was getting through the mask, whilst another took some blood from Tony’s arm. Dr. Foster was telling Tony to concentrate on breathing, whilst ordering a nurse to get the ECG machine so that they could do a tracing of Tony’s heart.
The pain was their main concern and Tony was given his first lot of painkillers since his arrival two days ago, they pushed morphine through his IV to ease his discomfort so that he’d be still for the ECG. Gibbs couldn’t think of anything else but looking at the monitor and watching Tony’s heart struggle to beat.
“He’s bradycardic, doctor,” one of the nurses said.
“Okay, okay, we need to get him back on the pacemaker, do the ECG quickly and then I want to capture and raise to 90,” Dr. Foster ordered.
Wires were place on Tony’s chest and an ECG was done and then Ducky watched as they restarted the external pacemaker. He was taking note of everything that was done so that he could explain it to Gibbs later if the doctor was too busy to.
Once the pacemaker was started back up, the alarm on the monitor silenced itself and Tony started to feel marginally better. The room emptied slowly, and soon it was just a nurse, Dr Foster, Ducky, Gibbs and Tony.
“What happened?” Gibbs asked Dr. Foster.
The doctor was looking at the trace of Tony’s heart and was engrossed in checking that before he looked up and answered Gibbs’ question. “I’m afraid that Tony’s heart was too damaged by the overdose for it to function without the pacemaker, we’ll need to insert one permanently. I’ll arrange for that to be done within the next few days. He’s out of danger now that we’ve restarted the external one so it’s not an emergency, but if his condition changes we’ll book him in for emergency surgery. I’m afraid he’ll be staying in the ICU until the surgery though.”
“How are you feeling, Tony?” Gibbs asked.
“Like a truck just sat on my chest,” Tony replied, still taking deep, long breaths of the oxygen.
“Yes, you’ll feel like that for a few hours until your muscles have a chance to relax, you were close to having a heart attack. The morphine should help ease any discomfort though,” Dr. Foster said. “I’ll be back to check on you later and run another ECG.” The doctor gave Tony a smile and left him alone with his two friends.
“Does this mean I need to start looking for another job?” Tony asked, sounding sorrowful.
Gibbs looked at Ducky. He had no idea what this meant for Tony and whether or not he could be an active Field Agent with not only a seizure disorder, but a pacemaker as well.
“I checked the medical guidelines and so long as your physician declares you fit to work, NCIS has no problems with you returning as a full time, active Field Agent,” Ducky told him, with a smile on his face.
“Thank God,” Tony breathed, then lay back on his pillows to try and get some rest, hopefully soon his chest would stop feeling so crushed and he’d be able to actually celebrate the fact that he hadn’t totally fucked up his life.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?