Chapter Forty-Three
Gibbs entered the bullpen to find Ziva, McGee and Abby all waiting for him. He looked at his desk where there was a cup of coffee with a big red bow around it - a present from Abby no doubt. He picked it up and took a long gulp, his mouth was dry from all the talking he had done during the interrogation.
“What was that for, Abs?” he asked, once he had swallowed the coffee in his mouth.
“For catching and putting that bastard away where he belonged!” Abby told him, giving him an excited hug.
“I had help, McGee was the one to track him down and without them I would never have gotten him,” Gibbs admitted. He wanted to make sure that his team got the praise that they deserved.
“He has gone to Central Holding. I escorted him to the van myself,” Ziva told him.
“Was he still spouting that crap about how it was Tony’s fault?” Gibbs asked.
“Yes, and that if it was the last thing he did, he would have his revenge,” Ziva replied.
“Tony’ll be fine once he’s out of the hospital and staying with me. Kamisnski will be lucky to see the light of day again, with what we have on him,” Gibbs said, reassuring the team. “Still, I’ll keep protection detail on him until he’s out of the hospital, it’s too public and too many people could have access to him, especially after that last attempt.”
“When’s he coming home?” Abby asked Gibbs, figured the bossman was likely to know more than any of them.
“I’m not sure, he’s been in for almost a week now and has made giant steps towards his recovery, they may let him out this week or keep him for another week. I don’t really know, I should go and see him - tell him the good news,” Gibbs replied, before putting down his coffee so that he could get his coat on along with his gun and badge. After what he’d found in Tony’s hospital room the last time he’d been there, he was taking no chances. He picked back up the coffee and headed to the elevator.
“Only call me if it’s life or death,” he called back to his team as he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the parking garage.
~*~
When Gibbs got to the reception desk at Bethesda Naval Hospital, he showed his ID and asked which room Special Agent DiNozzo had been moved to.
“I have to phone someone to check your ID, is that okay?” the receptionist asked.
Gibbs nodded, he was glad to see that the new security precautions had been put into practice following the attack on Tony. He waited and then the receptionist turned back round from making her phone call.
“That all checked out, Agent Gibbs, he’s in this room,” she said, handing him a slip of paper so that no one could accidentally over hear the room number. “You’ll need to show ID to the Marine guarding him, okay?”
“Thanks, I’ll do that. Have a good day,” Gibbs said to her, leaving the desk and heading to the elevator that would take him to the fourth floor where Tony now was.
He was in room 492, the numbering in the hospital confused him, but he was sure there was a reason for it all. Right then, he didn’t care about why they called a room on the second floor 457 and a room on the fourth floor 492, maybe the four wasn’t the floor where it was located but the wing it was in. Whatever the reason, he didn’t care enough to ask. He just wanted to get to Tony and share his good news with him.
The elevator pinged and the doors opened on the fourth floor, Gibbs strode out and made his way along the corridor to find Tony’s room - it was easy to spot because of the Marine guarding the door. He doubted many other people in the hospital had a Marine guard. The Marine smiled when he stopped.
“Agent Gibbs, I just need to see some ID,” he said, recognising Gibbs from the time he’d spent with Tony before they moved rooms. After all, Gibbs had spent every night since Tony’s admittance sleeping on a cot in Tony’s room.
Gibbs showed him the ID and the Marine studied it, checking the photo against Gibbs’ face and after a few minutes, he handed it back to Gibbs and moved out of the way so he could enter the room. Once Gibbs was inside, he saw the guard stand back over the door so that no one could sneak past him.
Tony was sleeping when Gibbs approached the bed, he sat in the chair that he had come to think of as his place when visiting Tony - apart from the cot in the corner, it was where he spent most of his time, their hands entwined so that Tony knew the older man was with him and would die rather than let anything happen to him.
“I was sleeping,” Tony said, waking when Gibbs took hold of his hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze.
“I know, but I have some news for you that can’t wait,” Gibbs replied, brushing the hair out of Tony’s eyes.
“That makes two of us then,” Tony said, a grin on his face.
“Oh? What’s your news?” Gibbs asked, hoping it was something good about Tony’s recovery.
“Do you not see something missing from my usual ensemble of tubes and wires?”
“You still have the heart monitor and the cath… Wait, the catheter’s gone!”
“Yep, I can now pee all by myself!”
“What does this mean in terms of your recovery?” Gibbs asked, trying to not get too excited until he’d heard the full story.
“Basically, I saw Dr. Foster this morning and he said that I was fine following the overdose of heroin that Kamisnski gave me and that it was time to see how well my kidneys were doing, so they took the catheter out and I’ve been able to pee several times so he said that because of that, I don’t have to worry about permanent damage to my kidneys and they’ve recovered from the Vicodin overdose. My blood work showed that my liver is recovering, but I still have to take my pills for a while longer. He said that since it’s the weekend, I only have to stay till Monday and then I can go home - so long as nothing goes wrong between now and then,” Tony explained, grinning.
“That’s great news!” Gibbs replied, “but I have the cherry on top.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we got Kamisnski, there were fingerprints on the syringe he used and the same batch of heroin in both the needle and syringe, so Abby matched them and we got him on attempted murder of a Federal Agent. We also found the mole and arrested her and sent her to Central Holding - in seclusion, the same as Woodman so that we don’t ‘lose’ any witnesses between now and the trial. He was pissed off to be caught out at his own game, but it looks like we have enough evidence to prosecute him for the illegal trading, the hit on you, hiring Agent Lee to feed him information and the attempted murder,” Gibbs told him.
“Wait! It was Agent Lee?!” Tony said, looking shocked.
“Yeah, it seems she holds some kind of grudge against you for treating her like a probie when you led the team while I was away.”
“Man, I thought she liked me.”
“I know, Tony, I didn’t suspect her until she appeared with double copies of warrants we already had and listened in to Ziva’s conversation about where you were being moved to.”
“Is that why I was moved a second time?”
“Yeah, I had to be sure you were safe and Kamisnski couldn’t get to you.”
“I appreciate it, the first room sucked, the second room sucked too, but this one is pretty fine, not the mention the nurses…” Tony started.
Gibbs reached up and gently slapped him across the head.
“Hey! What was that for?” Tony asked, rubbing the back of his head.
“What did I tell you about wandering eyes?” Gibbs asked, a smirk on his face.
“Yeah, ok, got it boss.”
“If you’re coming home on Monday, I should get the spare room ready really, hadn’t I?” Gibbs said, changing the subject.
“I thought I’d be sleeping with you,” Tony replied, looking confused.
“If you want to, I didn’t want to assume because you’re getting over being raped and I wasn’t sure if you were ready to share a bed with a man yet,” Gibbs told him. “If you want to, that’s fine, but I’ll make up the spare bed incase you can’t for a while, okay?”
“Okay.”
Tony leaned back against the pillows and yawned, Gibbs started to run his thumb in circles on the back of Tony’s hand and slowly he watched his partner fall asleep again. With Kamisnski in jail, the rapist caught and the mole found and dealt with, maybe they could rest easy - but that wasn’t Gibbs’ style. He’d be on full alert until the trial was over and he knew for sure that none of them would appear in Tony’s life again. Then he would relax, but until then, he was going to display constant vigilance, whether it was needed or not.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?
Chapter End Notes:
I'm getting to the point where I may end up in hospital so want to get as much of this posted as possible so that you don't all miss out because I'm not here to post it..
Enjoy!
Enjoy!