Category: NCIS hurt/comfort pre-slash fic

Rating: NC-17 for some scenes

Characters: Everyone

Series: Yes Spoilers: None intended but anything might get a mention

Summary: Tony refuses to re-live the incident.

Archive: Just tell me where it's going

Additional `stuff': I made the hospital name up. And the Marine.

Title: Strangers in the night Part Three

A few days later…

Tony was sitting up in bed and bored. Very, very bored. He felt better and wanted to go home. Sure his arm was still in a cast. Sure his kidneys were apparently still as swollen as his eye. Sure his body looked like he'd been rolling in a paint box. But he was bored. He had made breakfast last as long as he could, flicked through every TV channel, even started on the book Ducky had brought him.

The only high points of the day would come, he knew, if he got any visitors. And that wasn't likely. Ducky had told him the previous evening that the team was working on the case of a Marine apparently randomly attacked whilst buying groceries at an all-night store. However, questioning the store owner, Gibbs discovered that the Marine had been frisked by his attackers before being shot and left for dead.

The door opened and Abbey breezed in, McGee following her. `Hey Tony.'

`Abs! How did you escape from Gibbs? No way he let you leave. Did'ya slip out while he was getting coffee?'

Moments later, Gibbs appeared in the doorway, coffee in hand. `You were saying Dinozzo?'

Tony grinned, looked at least partially apologetic. `Boss.'

Kate and Ducky filled the remaining space in the room and Tony had to ask. `Why are you all here?'

Gibbs pulled a photograph out of his jacket and handed it to Tony. `Marine Sergeant Frank Moss.'

Tony frowned. `He looks like me.'

Gibbs nodded. `Yeah.'

Tony shrugged. `So?'

`So.' Gibbs began patiently. `We think you were mistaken for him.'

Tony's eyes widened. `You mean someone did this by mistake!'

Ducky moved closer to the bed. `Calm down Tony.'

Abbey and McGee exchanged a worried look at how Tony's mood had snapped in an instant.

Kate nodded. `Yeah. Do you remember anything they said? Anything at all?'

Tony shook his head, face blazing. `No. Nothing.'

Kate sighed. `Well, if you do…'

`I won't!' Tony hissed angrily.

Ducky began to usher everyone from the room, leaving Gibbs behind, closing the door.

`Tony…' Gibbs crossed to the bed and sat on the edge.

`Leave me alone.' Tony turned onto his side, feeling the discomfort as he twisted.

`Tony…what did they say?'

Tony stayed stubbornly silent and Gibbs sat equally quietly, waiting. He stared out the window, watching the trees waving in the strong breeze, birds fluttering past.

`It's not him.'

Gibbs frowned at the whisper. `You sure?'

`Yeah.'

Gibbs sighed. `I'm sorry.'

Tony turned back, looking up at Gibbs, eyes bright with tears. `I heard it snap. My arm. I heard it break.'

Gibbs swallowed hard. For someone who spent much of his time around the dead, he was very bad at dealing with injuries. `Yeah. I fell out of a tree once. I heard it too.'

`When?' Tony tried to picture the grey-haired former Marine climbing a tree as a kid.

`When I was eight. Screamed so loud the neighbors called the police.'

Tony smiled despite his inner anger.

`Is he dead?'

Gibbs shook his head. `Nah. Under guard. A few doors down from you.'

Tony sighed. `Why does someone want him dead?'

Without a trace of irony, Gibbs said grimly. `Because he slept with another Marine's wife.' His wife's infidelity was something he found particularly hard to come to terms with, even after many years.

Tony paled just a fraction. `I didn't…boss…swear I never…'

Gibbs smiled. `No Tony, you didn't. But you were flirting with her at that nightclub.'

`Uh…which…one was she?'

Gibbs sighed crossly. `Doesn't matter Tony!'

Tony lay back on the pillows, trying to process the information he had just been given.

Gibbs stood up, preparing to leave. `You need anything?'

`Can I get out of here?'

Gibbs shook his head. `Your doctor says maybe after the weekend. *If* you take it easy until then.'

Tony huffed. `Yes boss.'

Click here to go to Part Four

Home

Send me feedback on these fics

Return to the NCIS Fic Index