Chapter Twenty-Nine
The match came just before the phone call and left Gibbs not sure which to respond to first. He wanted to be there when Tony woke up from his surgery but on the other hand, he’d promised him that he would be the one to interview his attacker and catch him in whatever lie he chose to give. The more he thought about it, the more he began to believe that whoever had raped Tony had been paid to do it by someone else, as there was the issue of the fact that they just raped it and didn’t take any money - despite having all the signs of being a drug addict.
Gibbs decided to deal with the match first, and then head back to the hospital whilst McGee and Ziva located the suspect and brought him in, he’d let him stew for a while and then question him. That way he could check Tony was okay following the surgery and still keep his promise that he would be the one to interrogate the suspect.
“Right, Ziva, McGee, bring him in and stick him in interrogation one, I’ll be back in an hour or so,” Gibbs told them.
“Where are you going?” Ziva asked, looking confused.
“The hospital phoned, Tony is out of surgery, I’m going to see him before I do my interrogation. Oh, and make sure the ‘cuffs are tight,” Gibbs replied, empathising the word ‘tight’.
He turned and left Abby’s lab, talking the elevator to the bullpen and then the other elevator to the car park level, where he got out and headed to his car. He was rushing, but that was normal when they were at this stage in a case. Except he wasn’t rushing to catch the perp, he was rushing to get away so that he could come back refreshed from seeing Tony. He hoped the man had come through the surgery safely as he hadn’t been able to get any details on the phone, just a standard message that Tony was out of surgery and would be back in the ICU in a few minutes.
He drove at his normal speed - that was ten miles over the speed limit - because he wanted to be there when Tony woke up; he didn’t want the man to wake up alone after such an important surgery. He got to Bethesda in record time and made his way to the third floor where the ICU was located.
He was pleased to see that although Tony was back in his room, he had yet to wake up from the anesthetic, so Gibbs took his normal place by Tony’s bed in the chair that had been left for him and took Tony’s hand in his, rubbing little circles over the back of it with his thumb.
Tony stirred. “What…wh…huh,” he said, still half-asleep.
“It’s just me, Tony, you can go back to sleep.”
“Did you catch him?” Tony asked, closing his eyes, but staying awake for Gibbs’ answer.
“Yeah, we did. McGee and Ziva are picking him up now. I’m not staying long, I’m going back to interrogate him soon. I just had to check that you were okay first.”
“Good, I’m fine, honestly. Little tired though,” Tony mumbled, falling back to sleep after he spoke. Gibbs sighed and leaned down to kiss the young man’s forehead. Tony would be okay, and they’d caught the guy who’d raped him, now all they had to do was see Tony through a long recovery.
Gibbs stood up when he saw Dr. Foster signaling to him through the glass in the door. “Has he woken up?” the doctor asked, when Gibbs was out of the room.
“Yeah, briefly, he wasn’t really with it though. How did the surgery go? Gibbs asked.
“There were a few sticky moments where we thought we were going to lose him, but he came through pretty well. The positioning of the pacemaker is near perfect and the cardiologist is pleased with his post-operative EKG. It looks like this could be the end of Tony’s heart problems. Once he’s woken up from the surgery and we’ve monitored him for a few hours, I see no reason why he can’t be moved to a private room off the ICU,” Dr. Foster explained.
“I have to leave in about thirty minutes to do something at work, I shouldn’t be longer than three hours, but I’d like to be with him when you move him so he doesn’t get disorientated by it. Would it be okay for you to leave him here and wait for me to get back to move him?”
“We don’t plan on moving him for at least the next twelve hours, we want to monitor the pacemaker and his heart until then to be sure there’ll be no more problems, so you should be back by then anyway.”
“Thank you,” Gibbs said, shaking the outstretched hand.
“Just doing my job,” Dr. Foster replied. He turned and left Gibbs alone standing outside of Tony’s room.
Gibbs went back inside and sat next to Tony’s bed, watching him sleep. He was through the worst now, his kidneys were showing signs of healing and although he’d be on a load of medication for a long while after he was discharged and it would be several months before he could return as an active Field Agent, the job was there for him when he was ready.
~*~
Ziva and McGee watched the suspect through the glass, while waiting for Gibbs to return from the hospital and start the interrogation. It had been a pretty easy arrest, the Petty Officer seemed to have been expecting them ��" but then again when you rape an employee of a Federal Agency, you should expect to get caught, even though DiNozzo hadn’t reported the rape until after he’d taken the overdose, but the Petty Officer didn’t know that.
Gibbs appeared after they had been waiting for thirty minutes; he came into the interrogation side room and looked at Ziva and McGee. “This the bastard?”
“Yes, boss,” McGee said. “We caught up with him on base, he didn’t seem to surprised to see us.”
“Well, when you attack a Federal Agent, you have to know you’ll get caught and arrested eventually,” Gibbs said. “Right, I want everything done by the book, I do not want this guy to get off on a technicality.” He was mostly talking to the guy sat behind them that was in charge or recording the interview both in a visual and sound capacity.
Gibbs took one last look at the Petty Officer through the glass, then turned and exited the room, appearing on the other side of the glass within seconds. “Petty Officer Woodman, my people tell me you weren’t surprised to be brought in,” Gibbs said, starting the interview.
“No, sir.”
“Why’s that then?”
“I was sure you were watching me.”
“Why would we be watching you?”
“Because of the drugs.”
“What, drugs?”
“The heroin I’ve been buying, sir. I thought one of my fellow Petty Officers saw me make a deal with someone and had reported me to my CO, who would have called in NCIS. That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”
“Actually, no.”
“Oh God.”
“Yeah, you did just admit to buying drugs on tape, that will go nicely with the charge that we’re planning to send you to Levenworth on.”
“And what charge is that, sir?”
“Rape,” Gibbs said, simply.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?