|
Home Stories by Author Stories by Title Links |
|
Lean on Me 2: In The Balance Summary: Tony's life is hanging in the balance, when he gets
encouragement from an unexpected source. Call it a near-death experience,
or maybe a dream. You decide. :-) The surgical team were poised over Tony's unconscious body, ready to begin repairing the damage caused by Lt. Hassan's knife. "Scalpel," the surgeon commanded. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "Ouch!" Tony picked up the paper wad Kate had tossed at his head. Wait a minute ... Kate? Tony looked across his desk. Sure enough, Kate was sitting in the same spot she had occupied for two years. "What are you doing ... here?" he asked. "What does it look like, Tony? Saving your ass. Again." Kate wadded up another sheet of paper and lobbed it at him. "But aren't you ... I mean ..." his voice trailed off. "Taking a dirt nap? Six feet under?" Kate quipped. "Yup. I'm still dead." "So where are we?" Tony was confused. "Neither here nor there. Literally." Kate swung her feet up on the desk. "You've never learned, have you? First it was pneumonic plague, then you got arrested for murder, now this. Don't you know how to stay out of trouble?" "And you're here to ... ?" Tony wasn't following. And how did she know about the arrest? "Come walk with me, Tony. It will all become clear." Kate got up from her desk and walked towards the elevator. Bemused, Tony followed her. The doors shut behind them. She pressed a button and the elevator jerked. The door opened onto a white sandy beach. "What the ... ?" Tony exclaimed. Kate pulled him out of the elevator. "Come on. Let's talk." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "Doctor," the nurse monitoring Tony's vitals spoke. "The patient's blood pressure is dropping." "What is it now?" she asked him. "85 over 55 and dropping." "Damn! There must be a bleeder that we haven't found yet." The team redoubled their efforts to save Tony's life, giving him more transfusions and searching for a nicked vein or artery that was draining his life away. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Tony stumbled alongside Kate. "You okay?" she asked. "I don't feel so good all of the sudden." He sat down in the warm sand. She stopped. "Tony, you're at a crossroads of sorts. You can take the easy way out and come the rest of the way with me." She pointed to the distance, to what looked like an island. "Or you can fight. You still might end up here, but knowing you ... " She smiled. "Easy way out? Fight?" Tony was entirely confused now. Kate shook her head. "Tony, you're dying. If you do nothing, you won't feel any more pain, any more hurt. If you fight it, you're going to feel it. But I think you've got a lot of living ... and loving ... to do. There are a lot of people really worried about you right now. Especially that new girl, Ziva." She smiled again. "She's a pretty one, isn't she?" Tony decided to let that comment pass. "Why didn't you fight?" Even as he asked her, he knew the answer. "I never had a chance, Tony. Ari made sure of that. It's a different story for you. And you owe to those people in the waiting room to put up a good fight." Tony thought for a moment. Thought about Gibbs' face when he last saw him. About Ziva's apology - although he didn't really understand why she should be sorry - the fact that she apologized showed how worried she was. And worried was not how he wanted her to be. He struggled to his feet. Kate helped steady him. "I don't want to go down without a fight," he told her. She grinned. "I figured you'd say that." They walked back and suddenly they were in the elevator again, its doors opening up to the bullpen. "Just don't wait too long to tell Ziva how you feel." She stayed in the elevator and the doors closed on her. "Tell Ziva how I feel? What does she mean by that?" Tony muttered as he walked back to his desk. "Wait a minute - how do I feel about her?" He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the desktop. Before long his eyes drooped shut. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The surgeon eyed the four people in the waiting room. All looked up at her entrance; hope and fear were mixed on their faces. "Your friend came through the surgery. It was close there for a while, and he's certainly not out of danger, but he's still with us and fighting. And that's a good sign." Ziva spoke first. "When can we see him?" "He's in recovery right now, but we should have him in a room in a couple of hours. He won't be awake, but you can sit in there with him. One at a time, though," she cautioned. |