Being Part of the NCIS Family

Eight

Tony POV
Tim and I got in the car and drove on the ambulance's tail all the way to Bethesda. When we pulled up, we rushed to her brothers' room. They did not take our announcement well.

"WHAT?" roared the oldest one.

"Let us see her. NOW." Monty demanded.

"She and Ziva are in surgery right now, but we'll come get you as soon as Liv can have visitors." Tim said.

"We're discharged in-" Josh was cut off by a nurse announcing she was here to discharge them. "Now." he finished. "We'll meet you in the waiting area." he said. Tim and I nodded and left. When we found Gibbs in the waiting room, Abby, Vance, Jimmy, and Ducky had showed up, too. I sank into a chair as Tim did the same next to me.

"Her brothers are being discharged and are going to join us in a moment." I told Gibbs. As soon as I finished my sentence, Liv's brothers all walked into the waiting area. Each one now had a pronounced limp, like Liv would have. Gibbs stood to meet the men and saluted. They saluted back smartly.

"When will we be able to see Midgie?" Aaron asked. Gibbs smiled.

"Not sure yet. Should be some time in the next- oh, ten, twelve hours?" Liv's brothers sighed in unison.

"I'm going for coffee, then. Who all wants some?" We all raised our hands. Andrew sighed. "You're coming with me, Monty." he said. Gibbs pulled out his notepad and ripped out a piece of paper. He scrawled something on it and handed it and his pen to me. I scribbled down my order, and we kept passing it until all the orders had been written down. Andrew and Monty sighed and pointed to Derek.

"You're coming, too." he said. Derek sighed and consented. The three went off to go get our coffees, and the rest of us waited in silence. I decided to break the ice.

"What's the funniest thing Liv ever did?" I asked the two brothers that were left. Josh spoke first.

"The funniest thing I ever saw Liv do was fall down two flights of stairs." he said, chuckling.

"Jerk. You saw both of us fall. You shoved me and she tried to help me." Aaron said, smacking Josh's shoulder. Josh just grinned. "Well, the funniest thing I ever saw Liv do... hm. Oh! She fell out of our treehouse a couple times." he said, smiling at the memory.

"Why are all of your funny memories of Liv her falling out of things?" Gibbs asked.

"Because we pushed her off stuff for revenge." Aaron said. "She attacked us a lot, so we'd wait until we were on good terms with her again, or so she thought, and bring her to a high spot and push her. Sometimes it failed, and she took us down with her, but it usually ended in a broken body part."

"I think we all broke the most bones playing football." Josh said. Aaron nodded. "Lessee, Liv broke six ribs, both feet, both knees, both legs and arms, her right elbow, and her nose at some point during our childhood." Josh said, laughing. "She broke and sprained the most out of any of us."

"She is half your size." I pointed out. They laughed.

"Coffee!" Derek announced. After they finished handing out coffees, I asked them the same question I'd asked Aaron and Josh. Monty answered first.

"When she broke her elbow playing football. The look on her face was priceless when she realized she broke it, and then she yelled at me to drive her to the hospital." I shook my head.

Gibbs POV
"Y'know," I started, "most brothers would say something about being taller and teasing their sister or something, but you guys seem to really enjoy hurting each other." Derek grinned.

"We're just that kind of family. Our parents met in the Irish military and got married and had us after spending nearly ten years in the Irish Army. We've grown up in a military family all our lives, and we were taught to be tough from the time we could see." Derek answered. I nodded.

We sat in silence for a while, and we all fell asleep. It had been a long day.

Around nine, I jolted awake as a doctor approached our group. I woke everyone up and we looked at the doctor, fearing the worst.

"Family of Commander Reynolds?" We all raised our hands. "Agent David has no family here?" We all raised our hands again. "I see. Well, both women are out of surgery. The Commander unfortunately needed an emergency amputation. Agent David has a broken knee and several large wounds that we fixed up. Once the Commander is awake and alert and feeling a little less like crap, she'll be fitted with a prosthesis and both will need extensive physical therapy, especially Commander Reynolds."

"When can we see her?" Derek demanded.

"Well, I waited to get you until you could since everything went well, so now, if you like."

"Yes, we like." I cut in. "Let's go!" The doctor motioned for us to follow him and led us down a few hallways until he stopped at a door. There was a nameplate on the door that read CMDR OLIVIA REYNOLDS AND S. AGENT ZIVA DAVID with the room number underneath it.

Derek pushed tentatively and peeked inside. He clearly did not like what he saw. His hand went to his head and ran through his hair. He stepped inside and the rest of Liv's brothers filed in, followed by the two healthy members of the team, Ducky, Jimmy, Abby, and me bringing up the rear.

Liv and Ziva were sleeping, but I could tell right off that they weren't doing too hot. They both had bad cuts and scrapes, and I could tell where Liv's leg should've been under the covers. Instead, there was an empty flat spot. Oppositely, there was some extra where Ziva's knee was, because she had a cast on. I sighed and shook my head.

Liv stirred and mumbled something. I sat down at her bedside and found her hand, squeezing it. Then I reached over and grabbed Ziva's hand since they had put the beds pretty close. Liv's brothers congregated around her, each giving her a kiss on the forehead. Meanwhile, Tony, Tim, Abby, Ducky, and Jimmy hovered in the middle, going between. Finally everyone sat down, and after five minutes, we were all asleep again.