How To Relate: Chapter 25
Title: How To Relate
Author: justhowthisgoes
Rating: T
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family
Pairing: None
Summary: Tony's been getting threatening letters and the team is worried, but Tony isn't taking them seriously. Then come the attempts on his life. Could the new girl at NCIS be involved? And will a secret from Tony's past be revealed in the search?
Warnings: Spoilers up to season 7
Disclaimer: I bow to the genius of Donald P. Bellisario.
Chapter 25
Fight Or Flight
Staring up at the ceiling as she lay across the couch in her small apartment, Ali ignored her cell phone as it lit up and slowly danced along the coffee table opposite her.
After her slight meltdown earlier, she had made her way home and cried herself out. Now having worn through her emotions, she rubbed her aching forehead with one hand as she analytically considered her options.
The phone stopped vibrating briefly, then began again for the tenth time in as many minutes. Ali watched dispassionately as it finally it reached the edge of the table and fell to the floor with a small thump. She gave a sigh and leaned down to pick it up.
Six new voicemails; all from Abby.
She sighed again before pressing a button.
Delete.
The mail icon disappeared along with the messages.
In the hallway outside Tony's room, McGee and Palmer watched as Abby hung up her phone.
"Still not answering?" McGee questioned.
"No." Abby shook her head, her mouth twisted up in a puzzled frown. "I don't understand, McGee. What do you think happened?"
McGee looked across the hall at Ziva, trying to see if she might shed a little more light on the subject being that she was the last to see Ali. However, she appeared to not even be paying attention to their conversation, instead pressing her ear up to the door of the room, shamelessly attempting to listen in on whatever the doctor was saying.
Rolling his eyes, he turned back to Abby. "I don't know."
Palmer spoke up. "Is it just me, or do you guys think that Gibbs and Dr. Mallard know something?"
"What do you mean?" McGee asked.
He shrugged. "Well, just that they didn't seem at all surprised that Ali was gone."
"You know, I think you're right, Jimmy," Abby asserted, with a sudden confidence that McGee envied. "Gibbs will know. And then he'll fix it. Everything will be fine."
Seeing Tony shiver slightly in his sleep, Gibbs adjusted the blanket, pulling it up and tucking it more securely around his agent. Strange that he should feel cold when the waves of heat emanating from his skin made the ex-Marine cringe. This was the last thing Tony needed to deal with right now, on top of everything else.
He turned as the doctor came in the room. "Well?" he barked, paying no heed to Ducky's reproachful look.
"It seems that Tony's temperature is still rising, despite the broad-spectrum antibiotics we've been treating him with," Dr. Flynn told them.
"Well, yeah, Doc. We can see that!" Gibbs retorted, voice dripping with derision.
"Ah, well, yes, of course," the doctor continued, a little flustered. "The main thing we need to be concerned about, of course, is infection, specifically peritonitis, which is the inflammation of the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity. However, Tony's temperature is at 103.4 right now, and that high of a fever in itself can be quite dangerous in adults."
"So what are you planning on doing about it?" Gibbs demanded.
"What Agent Gibbs means," Ducky interrupted smoothly, "is that we would like to know what course of action you've decided on."
"Well, in general, I prefer not to prescribe antipyretics, because pyrexia is the body's natural response to invading pathogens-"
Gibbs was swiftly losing his patience. "In English, Doc!"
Dr. Flynn sighed. "Fever is an immune response that helps the body fight infection," he explained. "In most cases, as long as a fever is not too high, it should be allowed to run its course. But at this point, I'm afraid the danger is greater if we don't treat. If Tony's fever climbs any higher it could cause brain or organ damage or he could possibly even go into convulsions."
Shaken, Gibbs exchanged a worried glance with Ducky.
"So to bring down the fever, we've started him on a drip of Paracetamol," the doctor explained. "We've also upped his antibiotics and his fluids. We're hoping he'll respond fairly quickly and the situation will remedy itself. If not, we may need to open him up again, but that's a worst case scenario. I would really rather not have to do that. It might be too much for his system to handle, weakened as he is right now."
Ducky nodded. "I quite agree."
"We'll be watching his temperature closely tonight." Dr. Flynn turned to Gibbs. "I assume you'll want to stay again?"
"You're damn right," Gibbs replied gruffly, folding his arms as though expecting opposition.
"I can have one of the orderlies bring up a cot, if you'd like," Dr. Flynn offered helpfully.
Gibbs shook his head. "Chair's fine."
It wasn't as if he planned on sleeping.
"Alright. Well, a nurse will be around to check on Tony at regular intervals. I'm on call tonight, so if anything else changes or if he takes a turn for the worse, they'll know how to get a hold of me."
"Thank you, doctor," said Ducky, reaching out to shake Dr. Flynn's hand. "We do appreciate it."
After the doctor had left, Ducky turned back to Gibbs. "Well, Jethro, I suppose I should go let the others know what is going on."
"Duck. Wait." Gibbs paused for a moment, as if not sure of how to ask his question. "How serious is this, really?"
"Oh, it could be rather serious, I'm afraid," Ducky told him, gravely. "A fever this high is never a good thing. But our Anthony is a fighter, to be sure. He's been through worse than this; he did beat the bloody plague, after all. I have no doubt that he can beat the odds again."
After this reassurance, Ducky made his way out of the room.
Gibbs turned back to Tony just in time to see him shivering again, and pressed the call button, intending to have a nurse get another blanket.
"Never do things by half, do you DiNozzo?"
When Ducky came out of the room, Ziva, who had still been trying to listen at the door, nearly lost her balance. Not at all embarrassed at being caught eavesdropping, she quickly straightened up and addressed Ducky.
"Well?"
The others gathered in to hear as Ducky explained what the doctor had said. His audience reacted with predictable concern even as he assured them that they could do nothing waiting around in the hospital all night.
"It will do Tony no good for you all to sit around here waiting. Far better if you go home and get a few hours sleep. Tomorrow, with any luck, things will look better."
"But-" Abby began to protest.
McGee interrupted her. "Ducky's right, Abbs. Come on, I'll take you home. Palmer, Ziva, do you guys need a ride?"
"No, I'm good," Palmer replied. "I drove here."
"Ziva?" McGee looked around.
The agent in question was not in the hall, having seemingly slipped away at some point during Ducky's explanation.
McGee shrugged, perplexed. "Well, I guess I'll take that as a 'no.'"
Ziva drummed her fingers on the wall in frustration as she leaned back against the door that she'd been pounding at for the last five minutes.
Despite what Abby and McGee had thought, she actually had overheard their exchange, and upon learning of Tony's condition, had taken it upon herself to go confront Ali.
She rapped loudly on the door again to no avail.
Perhaps the other woman really was not at home.
Walking around the back of the building to check the resident parking area, Ziva spotted the familiar green Beetle in its spot.
She felt the hood. Still warm.
Muttering angrily under her breath, Ziva marched resolutely back to the front of the building and began hammering on Ali's door again.
"I know you are in there, Ali!" she shouted.
There was still no answer.
Ziva growled furiously. "Fine!" she snapped. "We will do this the hard way!"
She reached for the tiny lock pick set that attached to her belt and quickly worked through the bolts of the door, then none-too-gently wrenched it open.
As she barged inside, the sight of Ali standing not ten feet from the doorway gaping at her sudden entrance only served to further incense the Israeli.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ziva spat out venomously.
Ali blinked a few times in shock. "Me?" she demanded, outraged. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You just broke into my apartment!"
Ziva sniffed, unabashed. "Well, I would not have had to resort to these methods if you had answered the door. Or your phone."
"Or," Ali replied pointedly, folding her arms, "you all could have just taken it as a sign to leave me alone."
"And what if someone needed to contact you about Tony? What if something were to happen?"
A look of pain spasmed briefly across Ali's features before she brought it under control, quickly covering up with a perfectly blank expression. "What if it did?" she asked coolly. "What would that have to do with me?"
Ziva ground her teeth wrathfully, trying not to think of all the various ways she could use items in the room for torture and murder.
"Are you really that selfish?" she snarled. "He is your brother!"
Ali gave a scornful laugh. "Just because we share a few genes doesn't really make us family."
Not understanding that Ali was echoing Tony's words from earlier, Ziva crossed the room in two steps and slapped her across the face, her entire body quivering with barely contained fury.
Ali stared back at her, her mouth open in astonishment as her hand went to her reddening cheek.
"How can you say such a thing?!" Ziva hissed. "For your information, Tony is one of the most decent, kind, self-sacrificing human beings that you could ever hope to know. He nearly died saving your pathetic life, and now you act like this? I cannot believe that I actually thought I was beginning to like you, or even tolerate you. If you can really be so unfeeling, then perhaps it is best if you get out of Tony's life now. You do not deserve someone like him and he does not need someone like you. He will be better off without you."
Ziva paused for a second, seeing that Ali was still staring in shocked silence, before she continued on in coldly acidic tones. "I can see that I have wasted my time coming here. I should be getting back to the hospital anyway. I only hope that Tony has not gotten worse since I last saw him. Of course, you do not wish to be informed either way, correct?"
Ziva stalked back toward the door, flinging one last barb over her shoulder as she went. "Not even if he should die, hmm?"
She heard a choked gasp behind her.
"Wait!" Ali cried out, her eyes wide with dread. "What happened?"
"Why?" Ziva challenged, not turning around, her hand on the doorknob. "You do not care!"
Ali looked down, her jaw working angrily. "Maybe I shouldn't care. I tried not to. But I do."
Ziva scoffed, and began walking out the door, only to be stunned into immobility by the next words out of Ali's mouth.
"He told me to leave. He said that this wasn't going to work. He doesn't want me there."
Ziva slowly turned, distrust written all over her face. But, meeting Ali's eyes, she saw that the younger woman was telling the truth.
"What? Why would-" she began, shaking her head in bewilderment. "I do not understand."
But then she did understand, suddenly realizing why he must have done it. And of course he would have been extremely convincing. There was a reason Tony was so good undercover. Ali would have had no idea that Tony was actually trying to protect her.
And deliberately hurting her like this so that it would be easier for her, or at least less painful, to forget all about him; the man really could be too noble for his own good at times.
He had done something very similar to this with Jeanne, but she had encouraged it then.
For his own sake of course.
She would fervently deny having had any ulterior motives in that situation.
But this was entirely different. This was his sister. He obviously cared for her already and wanted, possibly even needed that familial bond that this relationship had promised. Yet he denied himself this in order to keep her safe and to assuage his misplaced guilt over the situation.
However, Ziva could not shake the sense that it was more than that.
He was afraid. Afraid of being rejected, so he always made sure to end things first. Afraid of the duties and responsibilities that came with family, afraid that he would fail. Afraid also of the benefits that came with family, of the unconditional love, of the feelings involved. He was afraid, and this fear more often than not triggered his flight instinct.
Ziva understood this fear, possibly more than any other member of Tony's surrogate family. She understood it and knew that it was likely where Tony's deeply rooted defense mechanisms had originated. And she understood this, because in some respects she was exactly the same way.
She had a feeling that only she could talk him down from this.
"I have to go," she said distractedly, making as if to walk out the door before she stopped, once again.
Turning back to Ali, she looked her straight in the eye. "Believe me Ali, he cares for you. After this, I am sure of it."
"What do you-" Ali began, as Ziva hurried out.
"-mean?" The last word sounded into the empty room as Ali looked around helplessly, more confused than before.
...
Chapter 26
Author: justhowthisgoes
Rating: T
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family
Pairing: None
Summary: Tony's been getting threatening letters and the team is worried, but Tony isn't taking them seriously. Then come the attempts on his life. Could the new girl at NCIS be involved? And will a secret from Tony's past be revealed in the search?
Warnings: Spoilers up to season 7
Disclaimer: I bow to the genius of Donald P. Bellisario.
Chapter 25
Fight Or Flight
Staring up at the ceiling as she lay across the couch in her small apartment, Ali ignored her cell phone as it lit up and slowly danced along the coffee table opposite her.
After her slight meltdown earlier, she had made her way home and cried herself out. Now having worn through her emotions, she rubbed her aching forehead with one hand as she analytically considered her options.
The phone stopped vibrating briefly, then began again for the tenth time in as many minutes. Ali watched dispassionately as it finally it reached the edge of the table and fell to the floor with a small thump. She gave a sigh and leaned down to pick it up.
Six new voicemails; all from Abby.
She sighed again before pressing a button.
Delete.
The mail icon disappeared along with the messages.
In the hallway outside Tony's room, McGee and Palmer watched as Abby hung up her phone.
"Still not answering?" McGee questioned.
"No." Abby shook her head, her mouth twisted up in a puzzled frown. "I don't understand, McGee. What do you think happened?"
McGee looked across the hall at Ziva, trying to see if she might shed a little more light on the subject being that she was the last to see Ali. However, she appeared to not even be paying attention to their conversation, instead pressing her ear up to the door of the room, shamelessly attempting to listen in on whatever the doctor was saying.
Rolling his eyes, he turned back to Abby. "I don't know."
Palmer spoke up. "Is it just me, or do you guys think that Gibbs and Dr. Mallard know something?"
"What do you mean?" McGee asked.
He shrugged. "Well, just that they didn't seem at all surprised that Ali was gone."
"You know, I think you're right, Jimmy," Abby asserted, with a sudden confidence that McGee envied. "Gibbs will know. And then he'll fix it. Everything will be fine."
Seeing Tony shiver slightly in his sleep, Gibbs adjusted the blanket, pulling it up and tucking it more securely around his agent. Strange that he should feel cold when the waves of heat emanating from his skin made the ex-Marine cringe. This was the last thing Tony needed to deal with right now, on top of everything else.
He turned as the doctor came in the room. "Well?" he barked, paying no heed to Ducky's reproachful look.
"It seems that Tony's temperature is still rising, despite the broad-spectrum antibiotics we've been treating him with," Dr. Flynn told them.
"Well, yeah, Doc. We can see that!" Gibbs retorted, voice dripping with derision.
"Ah, well, yes, of course," the doctor continued, a little flustered. "The main thing we need to be concerned about, of course, is infection, specifically peritonitis, which is the inflammation of the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity. However, Tony's temperature is at 103.4 right now, and that high of a fever in itself can be quite dangerous in adults."
"So what are you planning on doing about it?" Gibbs demanded.
"What Agent Gibbs means," Ducky interrupted smoothly, "is that we would like to know what course of action you've decided on."
"Well, in general, I prefer not to prescribe antipyretics, because pyrexia is the body's natural response to invading pathogens-"
Gibbs was swiftly losing his patience. "In English, Doc!"
Dr. Flynn sighed. "Fever is an immune response that helps the body fight infection," he explained. "In most cases, as long as a fever is not too high, it should be allowed to run its course. But at this point, I'm afraid the danger is greater if we don't treat. If Tony's fever climbs any higher it could cause brain or organ damage or he could possibly even go into convulsions."
Shaken, Gibbs exchanged a worried glance with Ducky.
"So to bring down the fever, we've started him on a drip of Paracetamol," the doctor explained. "We've also upped his antibiotics and his fluids. We're hoping he'll respond fairly quickly and the situation will remedy itself. If not, we may need to open him up again, but that's a worst case scenario. I would really rather not have to do that. It might be too much for his system to handle, weakened as he is right now."
Ducky nodded. "I quite agree."
"We'll be watching his temperature closely tonight." Dr. Flynn turned to Gibbs. "I assume you'll want to stay again?"
"You're damn right," Gibbs replied gruffly, folding his arms as though expecting opposition.
"I can have one of the orderlies bring up a cot, if you'd like," Dr. Flynn offered helpfully.
Gibbs shook his head. "Chair's fine."
It wasn't as if he planned on sleeping.
"Alright. Well, a nurse will be around to check on Tony at regular intervals. I'm on call tonight, so if anything else changes or if he takes a turn for the worse, they'll know how to get a hold of me."
"Thank you, doctor," said Ducky, reaching out to shake Dr. Flynn's hand. "We do appreciate it."
After the doctor had left, Ducky turned back to Gibbs. "Well, Jethro, I suppose I should go let the others know what is going on."
"Duck. Wait." Gibbs paused for a moment, as if not sure of how to ask his question. "How serious is this, really?"
"Oh, it could be rather serious, I'm afraid," Ducky told him, gravely. "A fever this high is never a good thing. But our Anthony is a fighter, to be sure. He's been through worse than this; he did beat the bloody plague, after all. I have no doubt that he can beat the odds again."
After this reassurance, Ducky made his way out of the room.
Gibbs turned back to Tony just in time to see him shivering again, and pressed the call button, intending to have a nurse get another blanket.
"Never do things by half, do you DiNozzo?"
When Ducky came out of the room, Ziva, who had still been trying to listen at the door, nearly lost her balance. Not at all embarrassed at being caught eavesdropping, she quickly straightened up and addressed Ducky.
"Well?"
The others gathered in to hear as Ducky explained what the doctor had said. His audience reacted with predictable concern even as he assured them that they could do nothing waiting around in the hospital all night.
"It will do Tony no good for you all to sit around here waiting. Far better if you go home and get a few hours sleep. Tomorrow, with any luck, things will look better."
"But-" Abby began to protest.
McGee interrupted her. "Ducky's right, Abbs. Come on, I'll take you home. Palmer, Ziva, do you guys need a ride?"
"No, I'm good," Palmer replied. "I drove here."
"Ziva?" McGee looked around.
The agent in question was not in the hall, having seemingly slipped away at some point during Ducky's explanation.
McGee shrugged, perplexed. "Well, I guess I'll take that as a 'no.'"
Ziva drummed her fingers on the wall in frustration as she leaned back against the door that she'd been pounding at for the last five minutes.
Despite what Abby and McGee had thought, she actually had overheard their exchange, and upon learning of Tony's condition, had taken it upon herself to go confront Ali.
She rapped loudly on the door again to no avail.
Perhaps the other woman really was not at home.
Walking around the back of the building to check the resident parking area, Ziva spotted the familiar green Beetle in its spot.
She felt the hood. Still warm.
Muttering angrily under her breath, Ziva marched resolutely back to the front of the building and began hammering on Ali's door again.
"I know you are in there, Ali!" she shouted.
There was still no answer.
Ziva growled furiously. "Fine!" she snapped. "We will do this the hard way!"
She reached for the tiny lock pick set that attached to her belt and quickly worked through the bolts of the door, then none-too-gently wrenched it open.
As she barged inside, the sight of Ali standing not ten feet from the doorway gaping at her sudden entrance only served to further incense the Israeli.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ziva spat out venomously.
Ali blinked a few times in shock. "Me?" she demanded, outraged. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You just broke into my apartment!"
Ziva sniffed, unabashed. "Well, I would not have had to resort to these methods if you had answered the door. Or your phone."
"Or," Ali replied pointedly, folding her arms, "you all could have just taken it as a sign to leave me alone."
"And what if someone needed to contact you about Tony? What if something were to happen?"
A look of pain spasmed briefly across Ali's features before she brought it under control, quickly covering up with a perfectly blank expression. "What if it did?" she asked coolly. "What would that have to do with me?"
Ziva ground her teeth wrathfully, trying not to think of all the various ways she could use items in the room for torture and murder.
"Are you really that selfish?" she snarled. "He is your brother!"
Ali gave a scornful laugh. "Just because we share a few genes doesn't really make us family."
Not understanding that Ali was echoing Tony's words from earlier, Ziva crossed the room in two steps and slapped her across the face, her entire body quivering with barely contained fury.
Ali stared back at her, her mouth open in astonishment as her hand went to her reddening cheek.
"How can you say such a thing?!" Ziva hissed. "For your information, Tony is one of the most decent, kind, self-sacrificing human beings that you could ever hope to know. He nearly died saving your pathetic life, and now you act like this? I cannot believe that I actually thought I was beginning to like you, or even tolerate you. If you can really be so unfeeling, then perhaps it is best if you get out of Tony's life now. You do not deserve someone like him and he does not need someone like you. He will be better off without you."
Ziva paused for a second, seeing that Ali was still staring in shocked silence, before she continued on in coldly acidic tones. "I can see that I have wasted my time coming here. I should be getting back to the hospital anyway. I only hope that Tony has not gotten worse since I last saw him. Of course, you do not wish to be informed either way, correct?"
Ziva stalked back toward the door, flinging one last barb over her shoulder as she went. "Not even if he should die, hmm?"
She heard a choked gasp behind her.
"Wait!" Ali cried out, her eyes wide with dread. "What happened?"
"Why?" Ziva challenged, not turning around, her hand on the doorknob. "You do not care!"
Ali looked down, her jaw working angrily. "Maybe I shouldn't care. I tried not to. But I do."
Ziva scoffed, and began walking out the door, only to be stunned into immobility by the next words out of Ali's mouth.
"He told me to leave. He said that this wasn't going to work. He doesn't want me there."
Ziva slowly turned, distrust written all over her face. But, meeting Ali's eyes, she saw that the younger woman was telling the truth.
"What? Why would-" she began, shaking her head in bewilderment. "I do not understand."
But then she did understand, suddenly realizing why he must have done it. And of course he would have been extremely convincing. There was a reason Tony was so good undercover. Ali would have had no idea that Tony was actually trying to protect her.
And deliberately hurting her like this so that it would be easier for her, or at least less painful, to forget all about him; the man really could be too noble for his own good at times.
He had done something very similar to this with Jeanne, but she had encouraged it then.
For his own sake of course.
She would fervently deny having had any ulterior motives in that situation.
But this was entirely different. This was his sister. He obviously cared for her already and wanted, possibly even needed that familial bond that this relationship had promised. Yet he denied himself this in order to keep her safe and to assuage his misplaced guilt over the situation.
However, Ziva could not shake the sense that it was more than that.
He was afraid. Afraid of being rejected, so he always made sure to end things first. Afraid of the duties and responsibilities that came with family, afraid that he would fail. Afraid also of the benefits that came with family, of the unconditional love, of the feelings involved. He was afraid, and this fear more often than not triggered his flight instinct.
Ziva understood this fear, possibly more than any other member of Tony's surrogate family. She understood it and knew that it was likely where Tony's deeply rooted defense mechanisms had originated. And she understood this, because in some respects she was exactly the same way.
She had a feeling that only she could talk him down from this.
"I have to go," she said distractedly, making as if to walk out the door before she stopped, once again.
Turning back to Ali, she looked her straight in the eye. "Believe me Ali, he cares for you. After this, I am sure of it."
"What do you-" Ali began, as Ziva hurried out.
"-mean?" The last word sounded into the empty room as Ali looked around helplessly, more confused than before.
...
Chapter 26