McGee looked down at his watch. How much longer could they take? Unless something was bad wrong that is. He loved his partner but he could do without Tony's reputation as a trouble magnet. If there was trouble anywhere Tony DiNozzo was sure to find it and tonight had been no exception. Abby had won a coupon for a free weekend for two at a spa in Baltimore. Since Jake had a meeting back in Ohio. She had invited Bishop to tag along for a girl's weekend. With Gibbs up in Stillwater dealing with Jack's estate. He invited Tony to go out for drinks and just to hangout over the weekend. Tony had gratefully accepted. Things had been going great until Tony flashed his badge to impress the girl he had been flirting with all night and some drunken idiot thought fighting a cop would be fun. The guy shoved Tony and he tried to ignore it but when he started messing with the girl, Tony had enough and fought back. His attacker shoved Tony hard, causing him to fall into a bus boy carrying a tray of empty bottles and then the two of them hit the bar. McGee came back from the bathroom and found his partner sprawled out on the floor in front of the bar covered in broken glass. McGee and the bouncer were able to take the attacker out and somebody had already called 911. When the ambulance arrived McGee hopped in the back with Tony and made sure the paramedics knew to take him to Bethesda. Dr. Pitt was off that night but Nurse Emma Ingram was on duty and contacted him. She didn't think Tony would have any trouble with his lungs but they wanted the specialist to be on call just to be on the safe side. McGee had called Ducky and Vance to let them know. Vance's nanny was sick and their was nobody to watch Jared and Kayla but he told McGee to call when there was news. Ducky was on his way to the hospital so that McGee would not have to wait alone. He had tried to call Gibbs but his boss wasn't answering his phone. Ordinarily McGee would be furious about Gibbs breaking one of his own rules but he knew how hard it was for the older man to deal with Jack's estate. He was going to wait and contact Abby and Bishop and Jimmy when he knew something. He wasn't going to bother with contacting Senior. Since it was doubtful the old man would care. He only seemed to care about Tony if he wanted something or was in some sort of trouble. Other than that Tony was on his own. Which made McGee grateful that NCIS was such a strong family and Gibbs was so devoted to his agents. Because if not for them Tony would have nobody.

"Family of Anthony DiNozzo?" Dr. Smith asked.

"That's me." McGee replied.

"Mr. DiNozzo..." The doctor began.

"Agent DiNozzo" McGee corrected.

"Right Agent DiNozzo, has suffered some severe injuries. Three broken ribs, two fractured vertebrae," Dr. Smith explained.

"Vertebrae? Is he paralyzed?" McGee asked not sure if he would be able to handle it if his partner and girlfriend were both in wheel-chairs.

"No but he is going to be in pain for a while. He also jarred his right knee really badly unfortunately it is the same one he injured in college." Dr. Smith replied.

"But he's going to be OK? A little beat up but OK?" McGee asked.

"I am afraid those are the least concerning of his injuries. The worst injury he sustained was a massive blow to the head. He has a fractured skull and severe concussion." Dr. Smith explained.

"Is he going to have brain-damage?" McGee asked.

"At this time we cannot tell. I am sorry to tell you this but Agent DiNozzo has slipped into a coma. Do you have power of attorney? Dr. Smith asked.

"No that is our Boss Jethro Gibbs but he is in Pennsylvania for the weekend. I will try again to contact him though." McGee replied.

Gibbs looked around his father's house. This would probably be the last time he would have to come up here. The will had been settled months ago and Danny was keeping the store up the same way Jack always had. All Gibbs had left was to go through and clear out the house. When Jack first died his plan was to sell the place and put the money in his retirement fund but as he worked on the place. He realized that he couldn't sell his childhood home. It was still in decent condition. Just a few minor repairs and it would be fine for a getaway house or place to stay if God forbid him and/or his team needed to go into hiding for a while. He would have had to do a lot more if he were to sell it but he didn't need anything fancy. Just a place to stay with warm memories. After nearly six months he had cleared out everything he wouldn't need. Taking some back to his house in DC, giving some away to people in town, and throwing the rest away. Jack had a lot of junk lying around. By now Gibbs just had a few boxes to go through. Taking one last look around he climbed up to the attic and picked up the old black cardboard box. That had turned up when Jethro was a teen. The last time he saw it was after the Reynosa cartel shot up the store but Jack never let him look inside. Sitting down on the floor Gibbs opened the box ignoring his ringing phone completely unaware that his son was in the hospital and that the box would change the very course of his relationship to his critically injured Senior Field Agent.

A/N: What do you think? What will the contents of the box reveal about Tony? Should I continue? New chapter will be up soon if so. Please review and thanks for reading.