More Adventures With an Unbiological Family: An NCIS Fanfic (Book Three)

Ten

I was knocked backwards, vaguely aware of a gunshot that followed.

"Liv. Liv!" called Tony. His voice was tinny and hollow. I felt velcro being ripped apart and my kevlar was lifted off my chest and over my head.

"Owwww..." I groaned. Tony and Gibbs helped me sit up, and Otis trotted around me nervously, sniffing at me. I reached out to pet him, and he ran into my arms, whimpering. I patted him up and down and looked him over thoroughly. When I was satisfied that Otis was fine, I turned my attention back to the fact that I had almost died. I grabbed my vest to look at the damage. The bullet had been stopped just before it was able to enter my lower chest, right over my left lung. The very end of it was just visible on the inside of my vest.

"Thank God you're alright." Tony said. "Ziva found all the evidence we need to convict him even without a confession. Plus, shooting you distracted Parsons and we were able to take him down."

"Always," I groaned, "a silver lining."

Tony and Gibbs helped me up, and Ziva handed me her cold water bottle to hold against the spot where the bullet had hit.

"Any problems breathing?" Gibbs asked. "No weird feeling in your chest?"

"Nah, just sore." I wheezed. "Okay, I take that back, it's pretty hard to breathe, but I just need to get more air back in my lungs."

Gibbs nodded, his forehead wrinkling with concern.

"When we get back to NCIS, go lie down in Abby's lab." he told me. "Just rest for a little while."

When we got to NCIS, I grabbed Otis' favorite stuffed elephant, got ice from the break room and put it in a baggie, and headed down to Abby's. I waved as I walked in front of Abby's monitor setup, grabbed Bert, and laid down in front of Abby's computer setup in the main bit of the lab, using Bert as a pillow.

"Hello to you too." Abby said, coming around to look at me. "What happened?"

"Chasing down a suspect. Shot me point blank right in the lung. Almost went through my kevlar." I said, trying not to wheeze. Otis made himself comfy next to me.

I ended up nodding off for a few minutes, but I started awake at a sudden noise. I tried to leap to my feet, but I had apparently cracked a rib without noticing, because as soon as I moved, pain racked my abdomen. I fell back down to the floor, groaning, and Abby rushed over just as Gibbs entered the lab, presumably to come check on me.

"Whoa, hey, what's wrong?" Abby asked worriedly. Gibbs knelt next to me, resting a hand on my shoulder.

"I must've busted a rib and not noticed with all the adrenaline coursing through me." I groaned.

"Let's take you to Ducky." Gibbs said. "He can put some ice on there and wrap it up good."

Gibbs and Abby helped me up slowly as Otis trotted back and forth in front of me. Gibbs helped me into the elevator as Abby called ahead to let Ducky know what was going on. As soon as the elevator doors opened, we were met with a very concerned Jimmy Palmer who helped Gibbs get me sat down on one of the tables. Ducky walked in with a bag of ice, some saran wrap, and a heavy ace bandage.

I lifted my shirt up so Ducky could get to my busted rib and was greeted with a pretty spectacular bruise over the entire left side of my torso.

"Ooh, that looks worse than a cracked rib." Ducky said. "I think you ought to get and x-ray of that."

"Can't you do that here?" I asked.

"I suppose we can, lay down." Ducky said. I eased down and Ducky positioned the x-ray machine over my torso. He put a bib on and made Gibbs and Jimmy stand outside. After he finished, he pulled the bib off and let Gibbs and Palmer come back in. Ducky went over to his computer to view the x-rays. "As I suspected." he said. "You've got a fractured rib."