Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of the characters, although I'd gladly take Tony. Story idea is mine.
Rating: T
Spoilers: Meat Puzzle I guess.
A/N: Set before the end of season 2. Thanks to Kat31 for betaing.
"Tony."
There was an upward lilt at the end of the word. Not Gibbs then. Gibbs barked the word, if he ever used his first name at all. Not Kate either, there was usually sarcasm or bemused tolerance behind the word. It wasn't throaty, so not Abby, and there was no other words with it, which meant it couldn't be Ducky.
That left McGee.
"Tony."
The lilt had increased, almost making it a question. Almost, but not quite. His mother used to say his name like that, when she'd find him sleeping on the couch instead of in his bed. There was never any anger there.
"Tony."
McGee still, but no question anymore. Fear and panic. His mother's voice from upstairs. He'd never heard her sound like that before, and had never heard her again.
"DiNozzo."
That was Gibbs. A hard edge to the word, nobody else could inflect so much meaning in his name. He could feel the stinging pain in his head from the usually associated head smack. Funny, he thought the voices sounded too far away for Gibbs to have smacked him. But, he did move quietly, liked sneaking up on people, particularly Tony, so maybe he was wrong.
"Tony."
That was a surprise. Gibbs again. And graduating to his first name, that couldn't be good. The word sounded closer this time, but still not enough for Gibbs to have whacked him before. His head started throbbing in reaction, or maybe resonance, to his thought. It hurt more than Gibbs hitting him for ten years continuously.
He suddenly wondered why he wasn't receiving any input from his environment. A strange choice of words, but he had thought it. Bigger words than Kate would probably give him credit for.
The only things he'd heard had been his name. Surely there should be other noises? Wait...no, there was something else, a white noise. Okay, so something odd was going on.
What about sight? His eyes were closed. Why weren't they open? Okay, it was a bad idea to try and open them, the pain in his head was now Gibbs jumping up and down on it constantly for fifteen years. Make that twenty.
"Tony."
Still Gibbs. He sounded odd. There was more white noise. It suddenly clicked in his throbbing head. The white noise must be people speaking. It didn't make sense that his name was the only word being bandied around. Don't wear it out.
Pain suddenly screamed through the rest of his body.
"Tony."
More white noise. Would be nice to know what else Gibbs was saying. Could be missing Gibbs complimenting him.
"Tony."
It wasn't any of the usual suspects. Didn't help with resolving any of the white noise though. The pain increased again and there was a bright light in his eyes. It hurt.
"Tony."
Gibbs again, almost comforting. He'd never heard him sound like that before.
The white noise increased and overwhelmed everything in his head.
There was beeping, regular. Breathing. His own? His body was pleasantly relaxed, felt a bit like he could melt through the floor.
His eyelids were heavy, sandy and stuck together. His first attempt to separate them wasn't successful. He tried again and a blurry roof was revealed to him. He opened and shut his eyes a few times, relieved when everything came into focus.
"Tony."
The words were soft, distinctly feminine. Kate.
He flicked his eyes down and to the right. Yep, it was Kate. She looked tired. She smiled at him, more warmly then she ever had.
"Hey." His voice was rough, barely intelligible, but there. He licked his lips; his mouth was dry. "What happened?"
"We were chasing Lieutenant Parker. You jumped a fence, there was a twelve foot drop."
"That was stupid." His voice wasn't improving.
"Not your best moment." She smiled again. "You've got a cracked skull, you broke your left arm and leg and you've got so many bruises that they lost count. Luckily you've got a thick skull, or it might have been worse."
He flicked his eyes to the left. His arm and leg were elevated and in casts. Funny, he hadn't noticed that.
"McGee thought you were dead to begin with."
"Tony." Panic and fear.
"He called my name."
"Yes. The paramedics were pretty worried, you were conscious but unresponsive."
"Tony." An unfamiliar voice. Light and pain.
"I heard people calling my name. Everything else was just noise."
"Tony."
"Mom called my name."
There was an uncomfortable silence from Kate.
"Tony…"
His eyelids were heavy and the rest of her words were lost to noise.
He surfaced from the fuzziness and opened his eyes. He scanned the room; he was alone. No, wait, Gibbs was over by the window, drinking his ever-present cup of coffee.
"Boss."
Gibbs almost spilt the coffee. Tony smiled slightly, about time he got Gibbs back.
"DiNozzo. How you feeling?" Gibbs' sharp eyes focused on him steadily.
"Like you ran over me."
His comment earned a slight upturn of the edges of Gibbs' mouth.
"The Doctors' want to keep you in here for another week or two, then you'll have to go through physical therapy."
Tony grimaced. "What about Lieutenant Parker?"
"We got him, two days ago. He knew about the drop over that fence, which was why he wasn't injured."
"I screwed up. I should have checked."
"Yes, you should have. You won't do that again."
He had a sudden fear that Gibbs' words meant he was off the team.
"You'll look next time." There was a glint of amusement in Gibbs' eyes. The bastard had done that on purpose.
"I'll be back in no time, Boss." His mind was spiraling down into sleep again.
"I'm counting on it, DiNozzo."