Chapter Three
Ducky was greeted with Ziva and McGee working when he arrived in the bullpen. He didn’t really want to have to repeat what had happened to Tony more than once, so before saying anything to the other two, he picked up Gibbs’ phone and called Abby up from her lab.
She arrived within a few minutes, sensing that something was wrong when it was Ducky calling from Gibbs’ phone and not the usual grumpy tone she had come to accept from Gibbs.
“What’s up, Duck?” she asked, when she reached the office. When she saw the grim look on his face, she sank down on McGee’s desk. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
Ducky nodded, motioning for Ziva to join them at McGee’s work station. “Gibbs will not be coming into work for a few days,” he started.
“What happened to the bossman?” Abby demanded.
“It’s Tony,” Ducky corrected her. “We think he was attacked and raped sometime last night, Jethro found him unconscious in his apartment this morning, he’d taken an overdose.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Abby asked, sounding and looking worried.
“The next twenty-four to forty-eight hours will be critical, Jethro plans to stay with him so that someone will be there when he wakes up,” Ducky told her, not mentioning the ’if he wakes up…’ that was going through his mind.
“McGee, can you drive me to Bethesda?” Abby said, turning to face him.
“Abby, Jethro wants you here to analyse any evidence that comes to light with Tony’s rape exam.”
“I need to check he’s okay!”
“I can assure you there is nothing you can do to help Tony right now, Jethro is taking care of it and the doctor is a competent fellow. Your presence would just make things worse and like I said, somebody needs to process the evidence so that we can catch whoever did this to poor Tony.”
Abby looked at Ducky, trying to read his expression but he gave nothing away, just that he too was hurting at the thought of Tony’s suffering. She started to pace up and down the office, hugging herself as she thought of all that could happen to Tony while he was in the state he was, but she accepted that the best place for her was the lab - it would give her something positive to do in such an awful situation.
Ducky looked at McGee and Ziva. “Jethro wants you to go to Tony’s apartment and collect the bed sheets for testing as well as checking for any other evidence,” he told them.
Ziva looked shocked like she hasn’t heard Ducky since he told them what had happened to Tony, but she nodded her head like she had heard and when she saw McGee stand up, she understood what they needed to do and looked over at McGee. “I will drive.” He nodded and they disappeared into the elevator, leaving Abby still pacing and Ducky unsure what to do with himself until he heard from Gibbs about Tony’s condition.
~*~
Twenty minutes after they had settled Tony into his room in the ICU, a nurse carrying a rape kit appeared in his room. Gibbs knew that it had to be done to enable them to catch Tony’s attacker, but still, he wished they didn’t have to violate Tony’s privacy any more than it already had been.
“I won’t be long sir,” the nurse said, setting up the various equipment on a portable table.
“Please call me Gibbs.”
“Do you want to wait outside while I do this, Gibbs? The nurse asked.
“I’m staying with him,” Gibbs told her. He knew that she was trying to protect Tony’s modesty, but he’d have to deal with the fact when he woke up that Gibbs had been present during his rape exam. Right now, he couldn’t imagine himself anywhere but Tony’s side.
“I only ask because I think Mr. Dinozzo would appreciate the privacy,” the nurse said, giving Gibbs a stern look.
Well, he could do stern looks like that best of them and he returned one to the nurse. “It’s Special Agent Dinozzo and like I said, I’m staying.”
The nurse sighed deeply, but said nothing more as she pulled down the blanket covering Tony and moved him in preparation for the exam.
Gibbs watched as she did the exam, squeezing Tony’s hand when he saw something that he thought would hurt the man, he knew that it was high likely that Tony could feel nothing, but in case he could he wanted him to know that he wasn’t alone going through this.
After ten minutes, the nurse had finished and was sealing the evidence container. “I assume you want this to go to NCIS for processing?” she asked. Gibbs could only nod, his voice lost as he thought of all that Tony had had to go through in the past twelve hours. Nobody should suffer like he had and if, no when, Gibbs caught the person or persons responsible he was going to make them pay.
The nurse was gone when Gibbs next looked up and once again it was him and Tony in the silent room. “God, Dinozzo, what am I going to do with you?” he asked the unconscious man. “You could have called me, y’know? I would have been there for you, I would have collected the evidence myself if that’s what you wanted, but to do this, to act like you’re all alone in the world? That I can’t understand, we’re a family - all of us - and whether you like it or not, we’re going to help you get through this.”
He sensed the change in Tony before the alarms sounded and was at the call button before the seizure had its grip on him. “Dammit Dinozzo, you’re stronger than this. You will not die, do you hear me? I meant it when you had the plague and I sure as hell mean it now!” Gibbs told the seizing Tony.
Soon, doctors and nurses flooded the room and Gibbs stood back while they worked on once again stablising Tony. It seemed like an hour before the thrashing stopped and Tony was once again still on the bed, apart from the twitches that the pacemaker caused, and finally Gibbs could breathe again.
The room emptied, leaving only the doctor who had first treated Tony in the ER. “I got the blood results back,” he told Gibbs.
“And?”
“It was as I suspected from the symptoms Tony displayed, he’s taken a massive overdose. It’s been in his system long enough for the tablets to have their full effect, if he survives he’s looking at long term liver damage, heart problems, kidney problems and a list of other things that could effect his day to day living. I’ve ordered some more drugs to combat some of these, but like I said in the ER, it’s critical right now. The next few hours will tell us if he’ll survive and after that we can look at any long term problems he may suffer.”
“Why the seizure?”
“Vicodin at this dosage causes many problems to the body and places stress on all the organs including the brain, I’ll order an anti-seizure drug to stop any damage being done through the seizures, but that’s all I can do right now, I’m sorry I can’t do more.”
Gibbs sighed at this news, he didn’t want to hear about permanent damage done to Tony because of this, he wanted to hear that his senior agent would pull through, would come back to work, would watch his six on cases ��" not that there was a big chance of him being permanently disabled.
“Can I use my cell in here?”
“No, they affect the equipment.”
“I need to call my team and keep them apprised of Tony’s condition.”
“You can call from the desk if you like.”
“I don’t want to leave him.”
“I can assure you he will be fine for a few moments while you make a call. He probably isn’t even aware that you are even here.”
“That’s not the point, I’m staying with him.”
The doctor sighed, realising he wasn’t going to win the battle with Gibbs. “Okay, I’ll arrange for a phone to be brought in.”
“Thank you.”
He left, leaving Tony back in Gibbs’ care. Gibbs took his place back at Tony’s side, reaching out to grab his hand once more. He sighed and looked at Tony, a machine breathing for him, a machine keeping his heart beating and ultimately machines keeping him alive. “Why didn’t you call, Dinozzo?” he asked again, not expecting an answer, but desperately wanting to know.
The phone was brought to Gibbs and he dialed the number for the morgue. Ducky answered on the third ring. “Morgue.”
“Duck, it’s me,” Gibbs said.
“Ah, how is young Anthony?”
“He had a seizure. The doc said it’s to be expected and put him on some drugs to stop him having anymore. The blood results show he took a massive overdose and it’s been long enough since he took them for them to be absorbed into his bloodstream.”
“Oh dear.”
“Told me all the problems he could have if he woke up.”
“You had to have expected that, Jethro. Vicodin is not good for the system even in the recommended dosage, never mind an overdose of the size Tony took.”
“I don’t want him to suffer after this, he’s suffered enough.”
“Nobody wants to hear that about a loved one, but sadly it’s unlikely Tony will make a full recovery.”
“So long as he doesn’t die, otherwise he’ll have to answer to me.”
“Yes, quite. Abby is here, waiting for something to process and I sent Ziva and McGee to Tony’s apartment. As you can imagine, they were all very shocked by the news.”
“Thanks for doing that, Duck. Tell Abby that once she’s processed everything, she can give me her report at Bethesda, it would be nice to talk to someone who isn’t comatosed.”
“I shall pass that on, the poor young girl will be glad to know that.”
“I’ll call you if anything changes,” Gibbs said. Ducky wished him well and hung up, leaving Gibbs with only the beep of monitors to keep him company.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?