There had to have been about 50 stairs and he had hit every one of them judging from the bruises on his chest, back, arms and legs and the huge bleeding gash on his head.
Tony had started down the stairs after the suspect, but had quickly lost his footing on the icy stairs. He tumbled to the bottom, which was where he lay, unconscious and bleeding, when Kate caught up to him.
Kate immediately bent down beside him to check his pulse and finding is was strong, fished in her pocket for her cell phone. She relayed their position and Tony's condition to Gibbs so that they could focus on getting the bad guy. She would take care of her partner. She then called 9-1-1.
Tony opened his eyes in the ER, but had to clue as to how he had gotten there or why he was there. He tried to sit up and was met with aching muscles and a throbbing headache. He lay back down.
There were two men outside his door. One was yelling to come into the room, gray haired about 50 years of age. There was another man who was shorter, salt and pepper hair, he could make out an accent and this man looked to be 10 to 15 years older than the first. The younger man was pointing to him and seemed to be saying the same words over and over again. The nurse relented and finally let Gibbs and Ducky into the room with Tony.
"Tony, I...." Gibbs started.
"Who are you? I don't know you." Tony said, scooting back in the bed, as far as he could away from the men.
"Anthony, my boy...."
"I asked you a question." Tony demanded. "Who are you?" Tony repeated, still looking confused. "Who is Anthony?"
"Oh, my!" The older man declared. "He hit his head harder than we thought."
Tony was beginning to wonder if he was speaking out loud. "I am talking to you. Who are you and who is Anthony?"
"I am Doctor Donald Mallard, Ducky." Ducky explained. "I am Medical Examiner at NCIS." Ducky paused. "You are Special Agent Anthony Marco DiNozzo, Tony for short. You also work for NCIS."
Tony just looked at Ducky, confused.
"The man who just left is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He's your boss. He has gone to get the doctor." Ducky explained. He spied Tony's ID laying on a table in the room and offered it to Tony for his inspection. "That, my dear boy, is you."
Tony took the ID in one hand and put his other hand to his head. His headache had returned with a vengeance and his body ached. He wanted nothing more than to sleep. The man staring back at him meant nothing to him. The image brought back no memories and he laid it on the bed.
"That's me?" Tony asked, innocently.
Ducky nodded and smiled, reassuringly.
"What happened to me?"
"It is my understanding, Tony, that you fell down a long flight of stairs hitting your head, several times, and bruising up your body."
Tony nodded. "I can testify to the bruising." He rubbed his chest.
By this time Tony's doctor, Dr. Loren Jones and Gibbs had returned to the room. Tony was sitting up in bed, but showed no recognition of Gibbs.
"Agent DiNozzo, I'm Dr. Jones." The doctor walked up to her patient and began to examine his head and eyes. "I need to shine a light in your eyes and I need to check to see if you have any bumps on your head."
The doctor completed her examination in moments and stepped back. "Your head still hurting?"
Tony nodded.
"Scale of 1 to 10?"
"A 9." Tony replied.
The doctor nodded. "I'll make sure you get something for pain shortly. We will move your out of here to a quiet room. I want to observe you, at least overnight." The doctor paused. "This is not something for you to be too concerned about. There is just a small amount of swelling on your brain. When it goes down the memory problem will most go away, most likely." She patted his arm. "You rest, the pain medicine is on the way. I need to go and talk to your friends for a moment."
"I don't know them."
Dr. Jones nodded. She had talked to Gibbs briefly on the way to Tony's room. "I know. But they know you. They brought you in."
Dr. Jones met with Ducky and Gibbs down the hall from Tony's room. "Agent DiNozzo has suffered a severe concussion. He has swelling on his brain. He...It's good he's awake. That means the swelling is no too serious right now. That will have to be monitored closely. I am ordering CT scans every hour. We need to keep a very close eye on this swelling. Also, his ribs aren't broken, but he has 2 cracked ones."
"He's usually not this cooperative, Doc." Gibbs said, pacing. "He hasn't flirted with any of the nurses. He hasn't begged you to go home. It's not at all like him. He HATES hospitals."
Gibbs turned and looked through the glass at Tony. He was talking to one of the nurses who seemed to be taking his blood pressure. She then ran her hands over his chest, checking his ribs. Tony was smiling and talking to her, but he didn't seem to be flirting.
"Agent Gibbs, Agent DiNozzo has sustained a head injury. It will take a time for him to return to normal. It will take time for him to remember."
Gibbs nodded and pulled out his phone. He needed to call Kate, Tim and Abby and update them.
Story Notes:
I have NO idea how amnesia works or the manner in which a person gets his memory back. So if the manner I use sounds incorrect, trust me, it is. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I am not sure how Abby got her hippo, but I read a fan fic on another site and I liked their story of how Abby acquired Bert. I liked it so much I am using it here. The story is called "A Gift of a Hippo' at fanfiction.net, written by pygmymuse. Thanks for your unwitting contribution to my story.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Tony has amnesia.
Chapter End Notes:
I have NO idea how amnesia works or the manner in which a person gets his memory back. So if the manner I use sounds incorrect, trust me, it is. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I am not sure how Abby got her hippo, but I read a fan fic on another site and I liked their story of how Abby acquired Bert. I liked it so much I am using it here. The story is called "A Gift of a Hippo' at fanfiction.net, written by pygmymuse. Thanks for your unwitting contribution to my story.