Chapter 5
“Family for Anthony Gibbs-DiNozzo?”
Gibbs shot up out of the chair in the waiting room where he’d been sent for the duration of the operation. Coffee cup firmly inserted in his right hand, Gibbs approached the nurse standing in the doorway.
“Yes? I’m his father. Is Tony alright?”
The nurse nodded. “Come with me please sir,” she replied, turning and walking back down the hall without looking to see if Gibbs was following her or not.
Gibbs followed the young woman through the maze of hallways until they reached a ward with a sign on the door indicating they were entering the recovery/resuscitation ward. Just before they entered the area, the nurse pointed out a sink at the doorway.
“You have to scrub up before you are permitted to enter,” she said softly. Gibbs nodded and began washing his hands. The nurse continued while he washed. “Mr. Gibbs-DiNozzo did well in the surgery; he didn’t experience any complications or anything. The doctor will come by to check on him in just a few minutes, but we had orders that you were to be allowed back to join him as soon as possible.”
“That’s right. He’s under protection detail. He’s a police officer.”
The nurse nodded. “Follow me this way,” she said, entering the ward.
Gibbs breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he saw his son. Flat on his back, there was a nurse standing beside his bed checking his vitals. She was carefully monitoring his respiration and heart rates, checking the incision site and monitoring Tony’s level of consciousness. She turned and saw Jethro and smiled.
“You must be his father.”
Gibbs nodded; his eyes were glued to his son’s still form. Though he knew he was alright, seeing Tony so still was always unnerving to him"Tony was never still. He didn’t have the conscious ability to be still. Something on him was always moving"his fingers, his foot, his eyes, something. Seeing him like this…Gibbs fought down a shudder. Get control Gunny, he told himself, he’s fine. He’s just fine. All you got to do is protect him here until you can get him home where no one can hurt him.
The nurse indicated a straight backed chair that had been brought in for his benefit. Gibbs cautiously took a seat and lifted Tony’s good hand into his own and gently squeezed it.
“Hey Tony. You did good in surgery kiddo. They said you had no complications or anything. Sooner you wake up, sooner you get to go home. Let’s get the show on the road, eh, Tony? What do ya say?”
The nurse smiled. “It’s always refreshing to see someone who doesn’t mind having a one-sided conversation.”
Gibbs cracked a half smile at her. “Tony would laugh at you for saying that. He tells me all the time that I could be a functional mute.”
“…stand…by that…too…” a soft voice whispered from the bed.
The nurse leaned over him. “Mr. Gibbs-DiNozzo, can you hear me?”
“Tony,” he said softly, his eyes still closed.
“Tony,” she agreed, smiling down at him, “My name is Tina. Can you open your eyes for me?”
Green eyes slowly blinked open. Immediately Gibbs could tell that Tony wasn’t entirely coherent. He couldn’t blame him though, after being under anesthesia, coherency wasn’t expected really. At least not by Gibbs.
Nurse Tina smiled down at him. “I need you to help me rate your pain level, Tony. Scale of one to ten. One is no pain, ten is excruciating.”
Tony’s forehead furrowed in thought and he blinked his eyes several times. “Where’s my dad,” he asked softly after a moment.
“Right here son,” Gibbs replied. “Answer her question Tony. One to ten, how bad’s it hurting?”
“Uh…like a…mmm…like a seven?”
Nurse Tina smiled and patted Tony softly on the shoulder. “Let me go get you something for the pain, sweetie. I’ll be back in just a second alright?”
“Mmm…kay…” Tony mumbled, eyes sliding shut. He was still fighting off the effects of the anesthesia. Gibbs moved in close where the nurse had been standing.
“You with me Tony?”
“Hey…Dad.”
Gibbs smiled, in spite of himself. Tony always made his world brighter. “Hey yourself, son. You just rest. I have your six.”
“Mmm…” Tony sighed and his body relaxed into sleep almost instantly.
Nurse Tina returned and just as she picked up Tony’s IV line, a voice at the curtain stopped her.
“Wait.” Nurse Tina turned around, surprised to see a police officer standing at the entry to the cubicle. “My name is Detective Stevens; I’m from Internal Affairs, Baltimore Police Department. I need to ask Detective DiNozzo some questions.”
Nurse Tina set the syringe down and inserted herself between her patient and the police officer before Gibbs had a chance to react. “You will just have to wait. The detective is just out of surgery. He’s barely coherent. I’m sure we can arrange for his father to step out and give you an update. He can also call and arrange for your interview when his son feels up to it.”
“I’m sorry ma’am, but I have a court order that says I talk to him today, or I take him into custody. He’s currently under investigation for some wrongful death claims related to an undercover operation that took place this past weekend.”
Nurse Tina’s eyes widened slightly. She glanced at Gibbs, whose face was red with anger. “I’m sorry. I can have you speak with the doctor to work out when would be an appropriate time. Detective DiNozzo is still under the effects of the anesthesia from his operation. This is completely inappropriate.”
Gibbs slipped out and found the doctor and a security guard. He quietly and quickly explained what was going on. He didn’t want to cause a big scene"it seemed Tony was in enough trouble as it was; but he’d be damned if he was going to let this pompous ass waltz into the recovery ward of the operating theater and start questioning and interrogating his heavily medicated son. Who knew what Tony would say"he always reacted terribly to painkillers!
The doctor hurried into the cubicle, where the IA officer was trying to move past the nurse. “If you’ll excuse me ma’am I have an investigation to complete. This will really be quite painless if you’ll just let me pass.”
“OUT!” The doctor boomed. He was a ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ kind of guy. There would be no arguing.
“Doctor I understand what you’re trying to do here but you’ve got to realize"”
“I SAID OUT! People are trying to rest here"they need a peaceful environment to recover from surgery"you are not giving these people that! Get out now or I will call and report you to your chief. You may contact my patient once he’s had the opportunity to fully regain consciousness from his operation. Now leave or I will have you escorted off the premises.”
The officer smirked. “Yeah ok,” he sneered. He looked at Tony. “I’ll be in touch DiNozzo,” he said, a slightly threatening tone in his voice. Gibbs frowned. He didn’t like it. He couldn’t put his finger on what “it” was, but he knew something wasn’t right here. He was missing something. He could feel it in his gut.
The security guard followed the officer out, and Nurse Tina ran a hand over her forehead. “I hate it when police officers try to bully their way into places they have no business being,” she said, forgetting for a moment that she was taking care of a police officer guarded by a federal agent. “Sorry,” she said, realization creasing the lines around her eyes. “I didn’t mean anything about you or Tony,” she continued.
Gibbs nodded. “No harm, no foul. How’s Tony?”
Nurse Tina glanced down at Tony. “He seems to have slept through the entire affair,” she said, smiling gently. She picked up the syringe again and frowned at it.
“What’s wrong,” Gibbs asked, immediately picking up on the confused look on her face.
“I thought I set the syringe down on the tray,” she said. “This one was sitting on the bed. The dosage looks right though…perhaps in all the commotion I just didn’t put it where I thought I did.”
“Don’t give it to him. Put it in a baggie and let me take it to my lab at NCIS. Tony was given a large dose of a potentially lethal drug by another detective in the BPD. It’s why he’s here to begin with.”
Nurse Tina set the syringe down. “Do you think that officer switched needles on me while I wasn’t looking,” she asked, shocked.
Gibbs looked at her. “I left to go get the doctor. Did you turn your back on the syringe tray or the needle at any time?”
Nurse Tina nodded. “Tony moaned like he was in pain at one point and I turned around to check on him. Do you seriously think someone would switch needles on me?”
Gibbs nodded. “After everything that’s happened, I think they’re going to try to keep Tony quiet.” He pulled out his cell phone and called his boss. He explained what was going on, how Tony was involved, and asked him what he should do.
Tom Morrow stroked his chin thoughtfully, seated at his desk in the NCIS headquarters. He turned around in his swivel chair and looked out the window. Gibbs was hands down, his best agent. He knew how devastated the man had been when Shannon and Kelly had been murdered. He could only imagine how he must be feeling now.
“Bring the syringe to Abby and have her check it out. Until we know who the supplier is and where they’re working from, I’d rather Tony not be given any pain medication that can’t be tracked. Then talk to the doctor and have Tony transferred to Bethesda. I’ll have Marines on stand-by to guard his room. No one but medical personnel gets in, except you. Everyone will be required to present ID at the door, no exceptions, no police at all until we figure out what the hell is going on. I thought you all busted the supplier in the warehouse?”
Gibbs ran a hand over his head. “So did I, but apparently we were set up with a hoax. I think Boyes was involved deeply, but I’m not convinced he was the supplier. BPD is working hard to cover all this up…it could be a huge inside job involving nearly everyone. We’re just going to have to keep investigating.”
“I’m going to call Fornell and get the FBI on the case. Tony’s a civilian Jethro. I know he’s your boy, but he’s still not military.”
“I want to be read in to the case and be updated on what is going on.”
“Agreed. You’ll be kept informed, but you need to stay with Tony for now. You can guard him yourself, but I’m still going to post marines outside the door to his room. Let me know when you’re ready to move him.”
“Yep.” Gibbs shut the phone. He took a deep breath and turned to Nurse Tina who was waiting for instructions. “You can’t give him anything for the pain right now.”
The nurse blinked in shock. “What do you mean?”
Gibbs ran an uneasy hand over his forehead. “Until we know who is trying to poison him, where they are, who they’re working for, and why they want to hurt Tony, we can’t risk giving him anything that could be tainted. He’s going to have to do this without meds for a while. I hate it, but there’s no other choice.”
Tony groaned and his good hand moved to the arm that was in the sling. He didn’t wake up, but it was obvious he was hurting. Gibbs closed his eyes. This was out of control and he didn’t like that. His boy was hurting and he couldn’t make that go away. Letting out a long breath he stepped up to Tony’s bed.
“Tony,” he said softly. Tony groaned and moved his head, but didn’t open his eyes.
“Wake up Tony; I need to talk to you for a minute,” Gibbs tried again.
This time, Tony’s tired eyes blinked open just slightly.
“’s goin on? Dad?”
“Right here son. You ok?”
“Hurts,” Tony moaned softly. Gibbs knew it must be bad if Tony was admitting pain. Tony’s eyes started to slide shut again.
“Stay with me, just a minute Tony, then you can go to sleep.”
Tony slowly opened his eyes again. He blinked a couple of times and really tried to get his eyes to focus on his dad.
“Tony an officer from Baltimore PD came by. We have reason to believe he may have made an attempt to drug you again. I’m not sure we busted the entire organization at the warehouse, son. We’re going to put you on protection detail. We’re going to have you transferred to Bethesda and Morrow is going to have Marines put on your door checking IDs of people trying to get in and out. I’m going to be in the room with you at all times"you will not be left alone. As soon as you are well enough you’ll be released and we will continue the protection detail at home.”
Tony tried to process what was going on. He really was trying to understand. But he was so sleepy, and his arm was hurting…not too badly yet, more of an annoying ache…he just couldn’t figure out what Gibbs was talking about. He knew it was big, knew it was significant…he just couldn’t make sense of it.
Tony reached up with his good hand and grasped at his dad’s arm. “Trus’ you…Dad…keep’m’safe,” Tony slurred, consciousness fading quickly.
Gibbs grabbed his son’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “Get some rest Tony. I got you.”
The doctor returned and Gibbs talked to him about what was going on. The doctor agreed that Tony would be safer outside of Baltimore. Gibbs nodded. He pulled out his cell phone and called Morrow.
“We’re going to move him. Have the guards on stand-by. Did you get in touch with Fornell?”
“Yeah Gibbs, he’s pulling together a drug-taskforce team to start an internal investigation. He’s already confiscated all of Tony’s notes. Good information there"your boy’s a good cop.”
“He’s a very good cop, which is what worries me. Good cops working in a dirty PD get killed. This organization needs shutting down, and Tony’s getting out of there.”
“Agreed. Might be time to find him a position closer to home where you can keep an eye on him.”
Gibbs wondered what Tom meant by that, but didn’t figure this was the right time to ask. Right now he had to concentrate on keeping Tony safe, getting Tony out of the hospital and transferred to Bethesda, and getting Tony better. He’d promised to keep his boy safe. Tony was trusting him to keep him safe.
Gibbs knew he’d been given second chances more times than he deserved.
Tony was counting on him to not screw this up. He was a federal agent. He could do this. He could keep Tony safe from the people that wanted to hurt him.
Gibbs knew that their past was peppered with blotchy moments where trust had been questioned and feelings had been hurt. He looked down at his sleeping son. He knew that once Tony fully regained consciousness things would be different. Tony was traumatized. He was going to feel scared, worried about his friends at his job, worried about his career, and concerned about the right people getting punished for the right crimes.
But Tony trusted Gibbs. Tony, his grown up son, had a child-like faith in him that never wavered. Gibbs knew it"could see it"could feel it. It was as much a part of their relationship as the physical or emotional connection. Despite their rocky past, Tony trusted Gibbs. One hundred percent. No questions asked. No matter how bad things were at the end of the day, Tony trusted Gibbs, and only Gibbs.
Gibbs ran a weary hand over his forehead. He’d keep his boy safe.
He wouldn’t screw this up. If he did, he didn’t think he’d be able to live with the consequences.
TBC…
Chapter End Notes:
Warning: Warnings for Poppa-Bear!Gibbs, angst, drama and language from here on, but nothing too bad.