Chapter Thirty-Two
“What did you want to tell me?” Tony asked, yawning. He was still a little tired from the anesthesia, but he felt more awake then than he had done in a while.
“Are you sure you don’t want to get some sleep first?” Gibbs replied, noticing the yawn. The news could wait if Tony needed to sleep, though he didn’t think Tony would go for that.
“I can sleep later, tell me what happened?” Tony protested. He may have felt tired but there was no way he was going to sleep until he knew what had gone on while Gibbs had been away from him.
“Okay, we managed to get a DNA match to a Petty Officer Woodman,” Gibbs started, he stopped talking to see if Tony recognised the name - he didn’t. “He admitted to doing drugs which means you were right about his look, but denied the rape until we told him we had his DNA. Now, Tony, it looks like you were set up, he gave us the name of the person who paid him in pure heroin to rape and attack you. That’s how he knew about your shoulder and how to keep you still.”
“If I’d only taken my gun,” Tony said, sadly.
“This is not the time to blame yourself, you didn’t know that you were going to be attacked and raped and you certainly didn’t know someone was going to set it up to happen,” Gibbs told him, squeezing his hand for comfort.
“Who paid him?”
“A Jonathon Kamisnski, ring any bells?”
“Lieutenant Commander in the Navy right? He’s done what three tours in Iraq, must have just gotten back from his last one,” Tony said, recognising the name.
“How do you know him?” Gibbs asked, pleased that they were getting somewhere. It meant that they had more evidence against the man if there was a pre-standing connection between him and Tony.
“From a case I worked in Baltimore. I only know he’s been on so many tours because I didn’t like the look of him then and I’ve been keeping a regular check on his service record,” Tony replied.
“You should have told me about this,” Gibbs said, angry that Tony had kept something like this from him, but more so because it had nearly cost him his life.
“I know, boss, but I had nothing on him that I could prove, it was all just circumstantial and every time I got close to getting something, someone else would take the rap and he’d get away with it.”
“What were you investigating him for in Baltimore?”
“A couple of suspicious deaths were tied to people he knew well, as well as the usual, drugs and prostitution,” Tony said.
“And you’ve been running a file on this guy since you left Baltimore P.D.?” Gibbs asked, trying to keep in his anger at the thought of Tony keeping something like this from him - especially when the man in question was tied to suspicious deaths.
“I didn’t think you’d be interested.” Tony shrugged, and winced when he pulled on the stitches in his chest.
“Dammit, Tony, this man has been linked to murder in the past and you run a file on him without informing me. Is it any wonder he paid someone to attack and rape you?” Gibbs shouted.
“I guess, I never thought he knew. He had no reason to, I only ever applied for warrants for his arrest when I thought I could catch him in a loophole. Like I said, before the warrant was signed someone else would confess to the crime so there was no need for it to go any further.”
“He must know someone on the inside, because he must have known about those warrants and the fact that you were practically watching his every move. Dammit, DiNozzo, do you ever think about anything beyond what goes into your stomach? He could have arranged a hit on you for all you know and we could have been burying you - not that we weren’t close to it already. I’m going to arrange to have a guard put on your door now and when you’re moved, then I’m going back to the Navy Yard to see if McGee and Ziva have anything useful on him and then I’m going to arrest that son of a bitch and put him in Levenworth for the rest of his natural days,” Gibbs told Tony, angry that up until now he’d been kept in the dark and that Tony could still be in danger. “Kamisnski wouldn’t know that you tried to kill yourself, so he wouldn’t expect you to be in the hospital, but if he’s got someone on the inside then he knows now, exactly where you are and how to find you, I don’t want you to leave this room without that guard, you need to pee…”
“Uh, Gibbs? I have a catheter in my bladder, I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.”
“Good. Stay here, stay safe, call me when they move you to your new room and make sure the guard goes with you.”
“You’re not leaving yet, are you?”
“Not until the guard gets here,” Gibbs told him, hitting the call button for the nurse who responded quickly - another sign that the ICU was quiet. “I need to use a phone; can one be brought in here?”
“Of course, Agent Gibbs, would you like a refill on your coffee too?”
“That would be brilliant, thank you,” he said, giving the nurse one of his rare smiles.
They both waited in silence as the nurse grabbed Gibbs a refill and brought the phone to Tony’s room. “You know how to get an outside line?” she asked.
“Yes, press ‘9’ and then dial,” Gibbs replied.
“That’s right, here’s your coffee Agent Gibbs, I’ll be just outside if you need anything.”
“Thanks,” Tony said, once he saw that Gibbs was now ignoring her and concentrating on whatever number he had dialed.
Tony listened as Gibbs requested the help of two Marines that would take twelve hour shifts to watch him and protect him should anything actually happen, which Tony doubted. He was sure that Kamisnski didn’t even know he was close to being arrested, let alone the amount of times Tony had nearly caught him. True, he may have been behind his attack and rape, but why would he come back to do more to Tony if he’d already arranged that? Why hadn’t he just ordered the hit and be done with it. When he thought back to that night, he realised that without his gun or his shoulder in perfect working order, he’d been very vulnerable - not just because of the rape - but that his attacker could have finished him off for real. Using whatever weapon he could find, after all no one had come to his aid when he’d cried out ‘rape’ and there’d been no one around to help him after his attacker had left the area, no one had called the police or even approached him to check he was alright. In fact, as he remembered it, he couldn’t visualise anyone actually being there during or after his attack as he made he way back to his apartment.
Kamisnski must know someone on the inside because how else would he have found out about Tony’s shoulder injury, how else would his attacker have known to use that against him, how else would they have known what route he took. The more he thought about it the more he realised that it hadn’t been some random attack, it had been planned and that made it all the more harder to deal with. The fact that Kamisnski knew so much about it and deemed that he be raped for keeping a file on him, even though he’d only ever been close to arrest a handful of times - if that.
He felt the tears fall and didn’t want Gibbs to see them because then he would ask why and want to stay once the Marines arrived, but he couldn’t hide them because his body was still so weak from the overdose and following surgery and seizures and kidney problems and liver problems. Who knew one action could have so many different consequences?
Gibbs was finished on the phone when he noticed Tony’s tears, he took hold of his hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze. “What’s wrong?” he asked, gently.
“It wasn’t a random attack, it was a punishment for doing my damn job, a punishment that meant I did something that nearly cost me that damn job, and now I’m going to be under lock and key until you have Kamisnski in custody and locked away, all because I did something a Probie would have known not to do,” Tony replied, still crying.
Gibbs leaned forward and enclosed the man in as gentle a hug as he could manage, wary of the tube in his carotid artery and the stitches in his chest - he didn’t want to hurt him any further.
“We’ll get him for this, Tony, I swear to you we will. We’ll get whoever’s feeding him information if I have to beat it out of him, but I swear you’ll be safe from now on, all you have to do is get better so you can come back to work and watch my six on cases, but not even McGee or Ziva do it quite as well as you do,” Gibbs told him, planting a small kiss on Tony’s tear stained cheeks.
Tony sighed, part of him wanted to believe Gibbs, that he would get Kamisnski, but another part wondered how the man would be successful where he had failed so many times before.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?