Title: Choices

Author: PunkyRabbit

A/N, Warnings, Disclaimer: See Part 1

Part 16

Tony woke up in a hospital bed…again. McGee and Gibbs were both in his room. "Hi boss. Guess you didn't get that field promotion yet, Probie. Apparently I lived."

McGee ignored the inappropriate humor, and Gibbs came to stand closer to Tony's bed.

"Welcome back, DiNozzo!"

"Guess it wasn't as bad as I thought, huh?"

"Bad enough. They had to operate to get the bullet, and you lost a lot of blood, but the wound was a lot higher than I had thought it was. It missed your heart completely. Since your shoulder was already torn up, you're gonna have trouble using it for a while, but you should be back bugging the shit out of all of us before you know it."

"You mean I still have a job?" Tony's tone was as serious as McGee had ever heard it, and the younger man took that as his cue to leave the room, claiming the urgent need to tell Abby and Kate that Tony was awake.

Gibbs waited until they were alone, and said. "Of course you have a job, Tony. Why wouldn't you?"

"Well, I had said that once we had the guy behind bars, I'd be out of your hair."

"Actually, what you said was that you would quit, and technically, the guy isn't behind bars. He's dead."

Tony smirked. "Guess I don't have to quit, then, huh?"

Gibbs actually grinned a little, so Tony continued. "So boss. At the scene, when I was bleeding and all, I think I heard you almost apologize!"

Gibbs smirked at that and replied. "You must have been delirious."

Tony knew that was all he was going to get. Gibbs admitted once that he was wrong about any of this being Tony's fault and he wasn't going to repeat it. But, he really didn't need to. Tony heard it the first time, and that was all that mattered.

"" "" "" "" "" "" ""

The next couple of days saw some changes. Abby and Kate were released from the hospital, but of course, wouldn't be returning to work for a while, so they hung out in Tony's room until Ducky was finally moved from the ICU. He was still on oxygen, and his heart was constantly being monitored, but he was stable. Unfortunately, he was also still mostly unconscious.

"" "" "" "" "" "" ""

The day finally came that Tony was allowed out of his room, albeit only if he used a wheelchair, and he wanted his first stop to be Ducky's room.

"How's is he?" Tony asked Palmer as Gibbs pushed him into the room.

"He's waking up more and more, and staying awake longer, but, we still don't know if he remembers anything." Palmer answered from his place at Ducky's bedside.

From the doorway, Gibbs noticed when his old friend opened his eyes.

"Hey, Ducky." Gibbs moved toward the older man's bedside as Palmer vacated the chair situated there.

Ducky maintained eye contact him, tracking Gibbs as he walked across the room, even as Palmer moved to the doorway to help Tony to the other side of the bed. Tony sat silently in his wheelchair, watching as he was moved.

Ducky weakly raised his hand and shakily pointed it toward Gibbs. He only managed to lift it about a half and inch, and it almost instantly dropped again, but he had purposefully moved it in the direction he was looking. He finally, after much effort, opened his mouth, took a few deep breaths, and weakly said, "Jeth-ro"

"Hey, Duck." Tony and Palmer had only seen the tender side of Gibbs when dealing with children, but his voice now was caring and encouraging.

Ducky, still very weak, soon fell unconscious again, but, they now knew that he remembered them…or at least he remembered Gibbs. They knew that it would be a long, difficult road to recovering, but at least they now thought he would recover. They also knew that all of them would be right there with their friend on his journey, however long it may be.

Tony sat back in his wheelchair and looked around the room. Gibbs looked more peaceful than he had since this whole mess started, and Tony felt much more relaxed now. He had the approval of his boss again, his friends (all of them it would seem) were on the road to recovery, and all was right with the world. He still might not like all the choices he had been forced to make in the last week or so, but it finally looked like maybe they hadn't been such bad ones after all.

End