Chapter Ten
The doctor frowned, looking over a sheet of white paper a nurse had just handed him. Adjusting his glasses a little, he continued to examine the paper.
"What's the prognosis, Doc?" Tony asked from the bed where he lay. The doctors had upped his medication, which had stopped him from vomiting, but he now had a new IV sticking out of his hand. He scratched at it absently. Gibbs swatted his hand away gently from where he stood beside the bed. Ducky sat on the other side of the bed.
The doctor looked up from the paper at Tony's words.
"Well, Agent DiNozzo, as far as bad news goes, you could do a lot worse."
"So what you're saying is, the good news is that the bad news is good news in terms of bad news?" Tony said, a cheeky grin on his pale face.
Gibbs swatted him again, this time on the head.
"Please continue, Doctor." Ducky said.
"Well, the results of the tests show that the damage to your kidneys, whilst evident, is minimal. This particular strain of virus had a shorter incubation period, so the virus was already attacking your kidneys before we started the dialysis. We did stop it, however the damage was enough, to cause the continual vomiting you've experienced. However from my experience, that will not be a permanent side-effect. The vomiting should decrease considerably over the next 3 or so days as you recover, and should cease altogether within a week."
The relief was palpable on the faces of Gibbs, Tony and Ducky.
"The medication, of course, will help you considerably, but you must remember that it cannot prevent the nausea completely."
"I can live with it for a week, I guess." Tony said, glad to hear he wasn't dying. For a while there he hadn't been so sure.
"Agent DiNozzo, you will, however, have to make certain adjustment to your daily lifestyle to prevent any further damage. In particular, we will have to work on the dietary aspects."
Abby rushed ahead of McGee down the white hospital hallway in a rush to see her best friend. She stumbled in the doorway, tripping over her chunky boots in time to see a look of pure horror dawning on Tony's face.
"Ohmygod Tony, what's wrong?" Abby threw herself next to her friend on the bed, hugging him tightly.
The doctor continued. "I think that in light of the situation, we should err on the side of caution. No more fried food, no more take-away, especially pizza. Limit the alcohol, so no more big nights out. Lots of protein, fibre and fresh fruit and vegetables."
Tony's jaw fell open. Wide open.
"You heard the man, DiNozzo." Gibbs said.
"But….pizza…..beer…..Gibbs!" Tony said, tilting his head at his boss, a pleading note in his voice.
Gibbs smirked. "Tony, you will do as the doctor says." He tapped him on the back of the head again.
Tony felt very glad at that moment that he had no desire to even look at food, let alone eat.
"Rather starve…." He muttered grumpily under his breath.
Abby hugged him again, feeling his pain. Tony without pizza was like….Abby without Caff-Pow. She gasped at this mental revelation, hugging him tighter.
"And when do you think Anthony can be released?" Ducky enquired from his chair, scanning over the test results the doctor had handed him.
"I'd like to keep him another night for observation and also to make sure we keep his fluid intake high. After that, I see no reason why he can't go home tomorrow."
"Boss, I can go now. I feel fine." Tony said, sitting up as if to leave.
Gibbs held his finger out firmly, pointing at Tony.
"Do not move, DiNozzo. Remember what happened last time you said that?"
Tony pouted at him.
"Abby, you can stay if you want. McGee, we should probably get back before our suspect dies of a Ziva-induced heart attack."
With that, Gibbs was gone. McGee jumped up, running after him.
OOOOO
"Okay, okay, I'll talk to you! Just stop… stop doing that!" Zeke Lawell exclaimed nervously. Sweat poured from his body even in the cold interrogation room. Ziva sat opposite him, filing her nails with a very large, very sharp knife. Zeke swore he could see traces of dried blood on the blade of the knife.
With a smile, Ziva put the knife back on her belt.
"Go on."
"I…I… I killed Rachel. And the guy with the parrot tattoo."
"Don't stop there. You missed a couple."
Zeke swallowed. He hadn't realized they knew about Maine too.
"And I killed two people back in Maine."
"Good. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Ziva leaned back on the chair with a smirk.
"Why?" She said, her voice curt and strong.
"They- they deserved it! They deserved to die!" Zeke was no longer sweaty. "I gave them another shot at life! Another chance. And they just threw it away. Though I wouldn't notice them. They came to me because they wanted to be clean. And I offered myself to them. I gave up my time to help them. Ungrateful bastards, every one of them." Zeke snarled, his face twisted with disgust and anger.
"You killed them because they relapsed?" Ziva said, slightly in disbelief.
"Yes!" Zeke replied, as if it was obvious. "They were weak, they had no respect for life."
"And Nathan Jones? The one with the tattoo?"
"He was even worse than them! Lowest of the low. He deserves to rot in hell!"
"Well that is debatable, Mr Lawell. So a couple of your group members fell off the wagon and you punished them by injecting them with a virus?"
Lawell nodded eagerly. "That was genius. The virus was altered to react with the drugs in their systems. In anyone else, it would just appear to be a cold. But it causes the most painful death imaginable if you are using."
Or if you have a compromised immune system and damaged lungs, Ziva thought with Tony in mind.
Lawell grinned smugly. "People underestimate priests. I can do more than they realize."
"Evidently," Ziva said, swinging herself out of the chair and putting the handcuffs back on Lawell. She snapped them on extra-tight.
"Ow!" He said, trying to rub his wrists.
"Zeke Lawell, you are under arrest for the premeditated murders of Rachel Huntsman, Nathan Jones, Amanda Berry and Michael Ollivander. You're going away for a long time."
With that, Ziva exited the interrogation room, letting the door slam loudly behind her.
OOOOO
The next day
The sedan pulled up in front of the apartment block with a screech. Gibbs got out of the driver's seat, walking around to open the passenger door for Tony, who climbed out looking a little dazed.
"I tell ya, boss. It's lucky they drugged me up with this medication or your car would be really messy right now."
"Come on, DiNozzo. You gonna stand outside in the cold all day?"
"No boss," Tony said, following Gibbs inside.
Upstairs, Gibbs sat Tony down on the sofa, pulling the bottles of pills out of the bag the hospital had given him.
"Two of the pink ones every two hours, one of the blue ones every four hours and two of the white ones every six hours. Don't forget, DiNozzo."
"I won't Gibbs. Ducky's already been through this, Abby's already explained the exact chemical composition of every pill, Ziva threatened to cut of my….Ziva threatened me if I don't take them and McGee's programmed my watch to beep when I need to take the pills. I think I got it covered."
Gibbs hid a smile, impressed at his team's efficiency and consideration for the young man sitting before him.
"Let me add my threat to that of Ziva's. You will take your medicine, no excuses. You will stay in this apartment for the rest of the week. You will not leave, you hear me, DiNozzo. And don't even think about coming into work. I don't care how you feel, I don't want you throwing up in my office and I sure as hell don't want you infecting the rest of the building. I don't care what the doctors say, you're non-infectious. With you're luck, we'll all catch it. So no, you may not leave however many times you ask. "
Tony chuckled a little, noting in particular the affection that was stronger than usual in his boss's voice. As always, Gibbs had anticipated any possible arguments, leaving no loopholes for him to get out of staying at home. Gibbs knew it drove him crazy.
"Don't pout DiNozzo. Watch a DVD or something."
The door swung open and Gibbs reached for his gun instinctively. He relaxed when he saw it was only Abby, bearing two large paper bags. Tony grimaced a little when he noticed the head of lettuce sticking out of the tope of one bag.
"Hey Tony, hey Gibbs. I come bearing gifts."
Abby set the bags down on the kitchen bench, unpacking them swiftly. Tony wrinkled his nose at the bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, potatoes, lettuce, squash, zucchini, capsicum, wholemeal bread and low-fat milk she lined up on the counter.
"Where's the Oreo's Abs?"
"Very funny, Tony." Abby opened the fridge. "Eww Tony, don't you have anything in your fridge apart from Chinese food, beer and stale pizza?"
"There's pizza in my fridge?"
"Not anymore." The lid of the rubbish bin swung and all too quickly, the fridge was re-stocked with healthy food.
"Don't complain, DiNozzo." Gibbs stood up, satisfied his senior field agent was in good hands.
"Hey boss, don't you wanna stay, watch a movie with us? I was thinking Die Hard, the original and best action movie. Launched Bruce Willis' film career, not to mention Alan Rickman. And you know, they filmed it on top of the-"
The door swung. Gibbs was gone.
"Guess not."
Abby settled down on the couch with her friend, covering him up in a squishy blanket. Suddenly she sat up on the couch, punching him hard in the arm.
"Owww! What was that for?"
"Nearly dying! Scaring me! Making me worry! Making Gibbs worry! Don't ever do it again, Tony, I'm serious."
"Okay Abby. I promise I will not be infected by a genetically-altered super virus."
"Good. I think twice is enough." Abby said, rubbing his arm where she'd punched it.
Tony smiled, picking up the remote.
"Die Hard?"
"Bring it on." Abby said, wrapping her arms around him again. She didn't plan on letting go any time soon.
The End
Thanks to everyone who reviewed or read my story - I really enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoyed reading it :)
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