Four-leaved clover

Chapter 19 - Nightmare

His eyes opened but all he was met with was darkness. His hands quickly examined his chest and stomach, remembering the blinding light before the loud explosion. He was alive. How? Exhaling slowly, Gibbs got to his feet and fumbled through the darkness - his heartbeat was elevated out of fear of maybe being blind. When he, however, finally felt a cold surface beneath his fingertips, a relief washed over him before a new question took over in his mind. Where the hell was he?

"Daddy?"

Gibbs tensed when hearing that voice. This was a hallucination or maybe his head had hit something hard by the explosion, right? Shaking his head, he continued to move along the wall.

"Daddy?"

He stopped this time and listened. Was this real? Nah, it couldn't be. How often hadn't he dreamed that she was still alive but he knew it was impossible. This had to be a joke - a very cruel joke set up by his mind.

"You are not real...." he muttered morosly while he continued to shuffle along the wall.

"Where are you, daddy?"

"K-Kelly?" 

It almost hurt him to say her name out loud but hearing her voice again and again, it became futile to ignore her. Hope grew with each second along with each call from her. So, before he knew of it, he was moving towards where the voice came from.

"Daddy? I'm here!"

"Kelly! Hold on, I'm coming!" Gibbs ended up shouting as he had started to run, disregarding the darkness completely. His sweet girl needed him.

~ ~ ~

"How is he, doctor Morrison?" Shepard questioned worried, her gaze flickering to the room in which Gibbs was hooked up on several machines.

The doctor looked up from the cardboard and sighed, "Not as good as I would like him to be."

Jennifer frowned, troubled by that answer. "Will he wake up at some point?"

"Only time will tell, Director Shepard but I do not see why he shouldn't. He survived the most critical hours and surgery."

"But it's been over a week, doctor."

"And sometimes it takes up to months or even years. This is unpredictable, sadly."

Shepard's eyes widened, "Years?!" Her eyes flickered over to the room again and she felt her heart sink while a knot formed in her stomach.

The doctor placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry."

~ ~ ~

It was hard to maintain the energy at work due to the great worry for Gibbs but DiNozzo, McGee and Ziva did what they could eventhough it went in a slow pace.

DiNozzo's phone dinged as Ziva was adding more intel on the case.

'Check out Marine McJefferson. She was involved with Officer Kingsley. -O'

Tony read her text once more and sighed. He felt like the worst friend ever since he hadn't informed her about Gibbs but he was told not to by Col. Mann. He knew why but the reason for everyone was that she needed to finish the work in Gitmo and be focused there. In a way Col. Mann was right but DiNozzo really hated lying to Olivia.

"Something wrong, Tony?" McGee asked.

"Hm?" He looked up from his phone, quickly shaking his head while he texted.

'Checking her out right away. - T'

He pressed send when he noticed both McGee and Ziva watch him.