This story takes place in the time frame of "Semper Fi" & "Aliyah" episodes- at first and just in the first couple of chapters it will alternate between the thoughts of Gibbs, Tony's and Vance. Each time the scene changes from one person to the other, it will be notated by their Initial: G ~ Gibbs T ~Tony and V ~ Vance.

This fic will bring out more about injuriesTony rec'd during the fight but that he didn't tell anyone about - downsizing the other injuries to Gibbs in the Hospital hallway, by reducing the real damage down to - ". . . fractured radius and a couple o' bruises . . ." I decided to write this after seeing Aliyah again last night.

There will also be some danger coming in upcoming chapters that were not part of the original episodes but that I thought, should have been. I hope you like, pls review. :-)

The Long Flight Home

Ducky's Autopsy Room Two Days Prior To The Trip To Israel . . .

As Gibbs and Ducky stood side by side in front of the wall mounted light box that held all of Tony's X-rays. They had just arrived via courier from the Hospital – they were films that had to be taken, to see how badly the Agent had been injured during the explosive Rivkin fight, also to be held as evidence to back up Tony's self defense description of the shooting that took place and ended the fight – along with Michael Rivkin's life.

Unbeknownst to Tony, Gibbs had arrived at the hospital in record time, roughly fifteen minutes after Tony had called him from the ambulance. After finding out that Tony was still inside one of the exam rooms, Gibbs had flashed his badge at a young Nurse, informing her that he was running an investigation. He told her to inform the Doctor who was currently examining Tony DiNozzo, that as part of the investigation - full Xrays were to be taken of every suspected injury - regardless of what the patient might be telling them. He knew that Tony's natural tendancy would be to act fine as best he could, and then refuse any X-rays that he felt were unnecessary. Gibbs smiled to himself, knowing that he had just taken the necessary measures to make sure that didn't happen.

***Flashback to the high voltage confrontation***

After Tony had been screamed at by his partner, to - "CALL AN AMBULANCE! NOW!" he had done just that! The police arrived along with one ambulance. ONce the lead Officer had evaluated the scene and noted two injured men - one far worse off than the other - a second ambulance had been called in just in case. Once the first ambulance had sped away from Ziva's place rushing Rivkin to the Hospital, of course allowing Ziva to go with them, Tony was left and himself being examined by the newly arrived set of paramedics.

While they were checking him over, Tony was briefly questioned by the LEO's that were also on scene - while the two paramedics continued to focus on the job at hand. They noted that Tony's vitals were all over the place - his blood pressure dangerously high - his heart still racing much faster than it should be, his pupils were informing them that the man was obviously still in shock over the way the evening had played out - and had obviously gone South in the process.

~'Domestic violence is probably what they think happened here tonight.' ~ Tony thought as he absentmindedly watched the medics work. ~'They probably think this was just a Lover's Triangle gone bad - bad enough to come to a fatal end. If only they knew what was really going on.' ~ he thought.

Then he realized that he needed to inform the Officer taking his statement, that NCIS needed to be called in immediately. They would have jurisdiction on this one and he decided that would call Gibbs in a minute, he wasn't quite ready to talk to him just yet. He was not only worried about informing his boss about what had just gone down, he also felt he would be unable to form a clear sentence until his adrenaline had gone back down to somewhere near a semi-normal level. ~ 'Yeah, I'll call him in a minute."

He felt a blanket being wrapped around him as he remained seated on Ziva's couch, he knew from experience that it was an effort to keep him from falling further into shock. Then he suddenly caught one paramedic by the wrist, when he noticed an IV needle coming towards him. "What the hell are you doing with that?" he demanded. "Sorry sir," the nervous medic answered, "It's normal procedure for anyone showing signs of shock - which by the way, you are."

"Yeah? Well I don't need it, I'm fine." Tony argued, "In fact, I can drive myself to the Hospital to get an X-ray of my arm - I don't need an escort."

"Yes well, I'm sorry Sir but we cannot allow someone who clearly has a useless hand and arm, to drive. Besides being against our rules, I'm sure that Police officer over there would have a field day if we let you do that. Also Sir, when someone is in shock and full of adrenaline from an incident like you were just involved in, their injuries and pain are sometimes masked by that adrenaline and they don't always know just how bad off they are - until the shock wears off. I have seen it happen numerous times in fact one man involved in a fight that looked to be as bad as this one - ended up having a small bleed internally - that wasn't detected for two days! So you are just going to have to tough it out I'm afraid, because you are going to the Hospital - in the ambulance. We won't use the lights and siren if that helps." the young man joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh, yeah that's great." Tony replied sarcastically. "Oh, and stop calling me Sir! The name's Tony." he added.

Then he just sat there - staring at the spot where Rivkin's bloody body had fallen and noticing the bloody shard of glass that he had planned to murder Tony with, laying on the blood soaked carpet. Before he knew it they had already inserted the IV needle, mobilized his arm for transport, checked his vitals, ribs and neck from where he had clearly been nearly strangled, and then finally helped him rise from the couch and assisted him in walking to the awaiting ambulance.

***End Of Flashback***

Back In Ducky's Autopsy Room . . .

The X-rays Ducky had on display for Gibbs, were of Tony's neck from where he was nearly strangled by the Israeli killer, X-rays of his left radius – clearly showing a bad fracture, and X-rays of his chest and abdomen showing ribs that had also been fractured during the altercation. Ducky knew Gibbs had been impatiently waiting for the arrival of the films and subsequent medical report – but more importantly he was waiting to hear his trusted ME's opinion of the information in relation to Tony's 2 page report/statement.

Ducky jumped right into it. "Tony's left radius was fractured during this . . brawl. But both he, and Officer Rivkin suffered a whole assortment of other injuries – all of them consistent with Tony's version of the story." Dr. Mallard reassured his worried friend. "Tony told the truth." he added.

Gibbs took the medial report from the ME's hands, studying it closely in silence. He had never doubted Tony's reporting of the incident, he knew his Senior Agent would never lie to him about something of this nature, something so serious. From the moment in the hall way of the Medical Center, when his Senior Agent first said it was self defense - that was all Gibbs needed to hear and he believed him. Tony had looked him dead in the eye, almost over emphasizing the gesture just to make sure his boss knew - that there was not an ounce of fraud or uncertainty in his words.

Two Days Later – At A Private Airstrip In Israel . . .

Tony sat silently in the massive cargo plane he had just boarded, heading back to DC along with his boss and Director Vance, but now minus one beautiful, female team member.

After seeing his boss flashing a thumbs up to one of the flight team, signaling them that they were clear to take off - Tony allowed his head to fall back against the wall behind him the moment Gibbs had confirmed that they were leaving Ziva behind – and he just kept it there, eyes closed. He felt awful all of a sudden, though he wasn't quite sure whether it was from the stress of knowing he may never see his beloved Ninja again – knowing that they parted as enemies - or if it was his physical injuries that were to blame.

His mind started to wander, thinking back to recent events of this daunting trip as he brought his hand up, subconsciously unaware that he had begun rubbing at the sore neck and collarbone that had been aggravated and inflamed from when Mr. Eee-li David had purposely crushed the area with one of his strong, assassin trained hands as he tried to 'intimidate' the American Agent in front of him – not so subtly punishing Tony for his continued sarcasm, and for killing one of his men.

G ~

Gibbs had let his own head fall back as well, his eyes appeared to be closed at first glance. But this wasn't the case, he only wanted the Director to think he was sleeping - so as not to be forced into awkward conversation. Personally he had been disgusted at the, so called 'diplomatic' relationship that Vance seemed to have with Director David – Gibbs sat in silence, still wondering just who's side the man was on. Was he rooting for Tony to be cleared of all wrong doing, or silently hoping the smart ass Agent would be punished or even killed by one of Eli's trained Assassins? Eli David was not the type of man to just sit back and take the violent loss of one of his men, and then do nothing about it.

Gibbs decided he had better alert his Senior Agent as soon as they got back, to watch his back for a while, keep better tabs on his surroundings both while at work, and at home. Hell, he might even need to take more drastic measures to keep his man safe – the last thing Tony needed now, was to find himself being stalked by a hit man!

The mere thought of the Mossad Director sending another of his killers to DC on yet another deadly mission, caused the silver haired team leader to shudder. The thought caused him to stealthily glance over to check on his own defeated looking injured man through the bottom of his semi-closed lids. From the angle the Director was seated, it would look as though Jethro's eyes were all the way closed, but with the angle of which Gibbs head was positioned, he was easily able to observe Tony without either he, or Director Vance, even knowing.

Jethro took in Tony's peaked appearance, the sweat forming on his upper lip, his flushed cheeks that were made that much brighter, surrounded by the contrast of blanched pale skin. Gibbs badly wished he could take the anguish away from the man whom had become somewhat of a surrogate Son to him.

T

Meanwhile Tony had settled in for the uncomfortably long flight ahead of them and in doing so he could no longer ignore the increasing pain that was prominent in his back and ribcage from hitting the ground with what felt like the force of a brick thrown from a roof top. His feet having still been in the air when he landed, one arm already rendered useless by the barricade of a sling - leaving him with nothing whatsoever to help break his fall. He heard the familiar sound of a rib snapping as one – or quite possibly two, of the ribs that had previously only been cracked - broke the rest of the way through.

His ribs were throbbing and the pain was bad enough to cause a light sheen of sweat to break out on his upper lip. He felt nauseas but there was no way he was puking in front of his superiors. Vance already hated him and thought he was a poor excuse for an Agent. So seeing him throwing up all over himself would probably amuse the toothpick chewing man.

So he found himself deciding to turn his focus on breathing deeply – in through his nose, and out through his mouth. Something that he learned to do when he had been shot for the first time, as a cop in Baltimore. He found it really helped him control not only the nausea, but the mind blowing pain as well. There was also no way he was going to take any of the prescribed pain medication he had been given at the Hospital, the last thing he needed right now, was for Vance to see how utterly goofy he became when medicated!

G ~

Gibbs never missed a thing – sometimes even when he wasn't even in the same room it seemed, though so far no one on the team had ever figured out just how he was able to do that. He continued his obsessed observation of his agen- . . . his Son, finding himself resorting to deep breathing exercises of his own – not to control any sickness, but more so in his case it was pure, unadulterated anger that was threatening to envelope him.

Anger at Director Vance for forcing them to come here in the first place. Anger over the recent and questionable activities of one Ms. Ziva David, whom he had trusted completely just as he did the rest of his team – and anger over the toll that all of this was taking on his most senior, loyal and caring Agent, Tony DiNozzo, whom had been doing exactly what Gibbs would have done had Ziva been his partner. He would have to tell Tony that as well when they landed, he needed something to hang onto, some kind of confirmation that he did the right thing, regardless of the resulting nightmare.

To Be Continued . . .

I will start from Vance's point of view in the next chapter. One they all get home though, things are not going to start getting back to normal at all – things will go from bad to worse. Thanks for reading.

BnB