A/N: I'm baaaaack! Bonus points if you read that in the voice of the little girl from Poltergeist. As I promised (about 6 years ago) my unfinished stories WILL get finished! Starting with this one! I'm going to try my best to keep this in the same tone/writing style as it originally had, but it has been many years and I am not as familiar with NCIS as I once was. So, keep that in mind while reading and try to cut me some slack. I'm really happy to get back into writing and I hope everyone enjoys!

"I think I screwed up, boss."

Gibbs sat in the hard waiting room chair and rotated his coffee cup in his hands over and over, rubbing his rough fingers over the smooth Styrofoam. He took his first sip since Abby had brought it to him several hours ago, barely noticing that the coffee had gone ice cold.

It felt unnatural for Gibbs to sit around complacently and wait for news. He was used to action, he felt like he should be doing something, anything. Ducky had reminded him six times already that they had done all they could, it was a waiting game now. The woman at the front desk had assured him multiple times that the doctor would speak with them as soon as Tony was out of surgery. Gibbs knew this of course, and he knew that growling at every hospital employee in his sight didn't help the situation, but he couldn't help it. He was worried.

How the hell did DiNozzo manage to get himself into this situation anyway? They had enough close calls on the job, days off were supposed to be the only times his agents didn't have to fear for their lives. Leave it to Tony to waltz right into the middle of an armed robbery on the one day he should've been at home watching one of those dumb movies he loves so much.

Gibbs was broken out of his thoughts when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket to check the caller ID, but put it back a second later when he didn't recognize the number. He had tried calling Tony's father about an hour after they first arrived at the hospital to let him know that his son was hurt, but he had yet to hear back. Part of him didn't expect to, but he still held onto the hope that Tony could wake up to see his father cared enough to at least give him a call. So far, no such luck.

"Nothing from Anthony's father yet, Jethro?" Ducky asked from the chair next to him.

Gibbs just grunted in reply and took another sip of cold coffee, causing Ducky to look away with a sympathetic sigh.

Another hour passed before Tony's doctor walked out into the waiting room asking for the next of kin. Gibbs shot out of his chair like a bullet out of a gun and was in front of the doctor in seconds.

"How is he?"

"Well," the doctor paused, scanning the eager faces in the waiting room, "the bullet missed all major organs."

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief before the doctor continued.

"It did damage a lot of nerves and tissue in his shoulder, he's going to need some physical therapy if he wants full range of motion in his arm again. And he won't be able to participate in active field work for the first few weeks of his recovery. Aside from that, he is expected to make a full recovery."

"Can we see him now?" Abby asked, bouncing eagerly in her spot next to Gibbs.

"The sedatives haven't fully worn off yet, Mr. DiNozzo was still sleeping when I left him. But you're all welcome to stay in his room until he wakes up if you'd like. They just moved him into room 213."

The doctor barely finished his sentence before the team headed out the door of the waiting room in search of Tony.

…

It was early morning by the time Tony fully awoke form his drug-induced slumber. Most of the team had fallen asleep in various chairs that had been pulled into his room, aside from Abby who had taken the initiative to join him on his small hospital bed and curl up with her head on his good shoulder. Gibbs was the only one still awake when Tony first stirred, he was at his agent's side the instant he heard a hint of movement.

Tony slowly rotated his stiff neck until he was facing Gibbs, who was looking down at him with his calm, steely blue eyes.

"Boss?" he managed to croak out before a coughing fit cut him off.

"Don't talk, just rest." Gibbs said and helped him settle back into his pillow.

Tony looked around the room and slowly pieced together his situation. He saw his team, all sleeping in various parts of the hospital room, and he saw the large bandaged area around his shoulder. It wasn't until that moment that he became aware of the quickly-worsening pain radiating from the injury. He was about to ask Gibbs what happened when it all came rushing back – the headache, the convenience store, the man in dark clothing, the gun…

"Are they okay?" Tony asked suddenly, turning to lock eyes with Gibbs.

"Who?"

"The rest of them, are they okay?" Tony asked again, remembering the face of the little girl as the assailant held her to his body, her eyes wide and her cheeks purple with impending asphyxiation.

It took Gibbs a moment to realize who he was referring to; the others in the store at the time of the shooting. Gibbs almost chuckled to himself, leave it to DiNozzo to wake up in a hospital room and be more concerned with the safety of others than himself.

"They're okay Tony, the robber ran off the second you hit the ground. Local police picked him up a few blocks away trying to steal a getaway car."

Tony's features relaxed and he settled back into his pillow once again, his eyelids becoming heavy with fatigue. Several minutes later Gibbs thought Tony had fallen back to sleep when he heard a small voice break the silence of the hospital room.

"My father?"

Gibbs almost didn't think he had heard him correctly at first.

"What's that, DiNozzo?"

"My father. Is he coming?"

Tony's eyes remained closed and he spoke in a solemn tone, as though he already knew the answer to his question.

Gibbs sighed and ran a hand through his short, silver hair. He still hadn't heard back from the elder DiNozzo, but he had to admit that didn't surprise him. If he didn't care enough to show up when Tony had the plague he certainly wasn't going to show up now.

"We're here, Tony," Gibbs said and sat back down in his chair next to Tony's bed. His senior agent made no move to respond and his eyes remained closed. Several minutes later Gibbs let his own eyes close, finally feeling somewhat at ease.

…

When Tony walked into the bullpen for the first time since the incident he was relieved to find that everybody acting relatively normal despite his absence and the sling on his shoulder. He had stayed home from work for less than a week before begging Gibbs to let him come back, even if it was just to fill out paperwork from his desk.

"How are you feeling, Tony?" Ziva asked, looking up from her computer screen as Tony took a seat at his desk.

"Never felt better, Zee-va!" Tony replied with a flashy smile.

"Didn't get involved in a carjacking on your way into work this morning, did you? Or perhaps a mugging," Ziva asked.

"Very funny. Make fun of the special agent who got injured in the line of duty. Very classy."

"You did not get injured in the line of duty Tony, you were not even working at the time. That is what makes it so ridiculous. Only you would manage to get shot on your day off," she replied.

"It takes talent Ziva, you have to be a seasoned investigator to have that kind of luck. Don't worry, you'll get there eventually," Tony said and smirked.

Soon afterwards Gibbs and McGee had also taken their places in the bullpen and the team went to work on their own various assignments. For once Tony enjoyed the tapping of keyboards and the monotonous paperwork, it calmed his frayed nerves and gave him a sense of normalcy for the first time in over a week. It didn't take long, however, for Tony to grow bored and feel the urge to break the silence.

After several minutes of battling with the impulse he looked around at his fellow agents and said, "I think I'm getting a headache… Maybe I should run over to the convenience store and get some aspirin."

All heads shot up at once as the team shouted in unison:

"NO!"

Tony chuckled and leaned back in his chair, flashing his famous toothy grin.

"It sure is good to be back."

A/N: Like I said, I'm very rusty and this is nowhere near my best. It was also a bit rushed, so I apologize for how generic this chapter was. I just really want to get these old stories completed before I move on to anything new. If any of my old readers are still out there, I hope you enjoyed it. And to all my new readers, hello! I hope you'll stick around and see what else I have to offer. As I said in my profile update, I keep getting stuck when trying to think of ideas for a new story/one-shot, so if anybody has any suggestions or requests I am certainly open to hearing them! Please also leave a review if you can so I know what you're all thinking! Critiques are also welcome as always! Hopefully you'll be seeing more of me soon, I'm very glad to be back! Happy New Year to all!

-AgentDiNozzo13