Will You Take Care of Me?

Blame

"Bishop, go out to my car, I'll meet you there." She nodded nervously but did so. He looked his wife in the eyes. "Hey, are you gonna be okay if I go with her?"

"Go, Jethro. She needs you." He squeezed her hand and quickly headed down to the car.

When they arrived at the hospital, Ellie ran up to the desk.  "Can you tell me the condition of Nicholas Torres please?"

"I'm sorry, I'm only allowed to update family."

Gibbs stepped forward and showed the woman his ID and badge.  "Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS.  Torres is a member of my team."  She looked down at her computer and typed something in before speaking.

"It looks like he's still in surgery." She told them.

"Do you know what happened to him?" Ellie asked anxiously. "He was doing fine..."

"A doctor will come and talk to you both when he's out of surgery."

"No, I don't wanna wait until he's out of surgery!" Ellie shouted.

"Bishop, come on." Gibbs tried to lead her towards the waiting area.

"No, Gibbs.  They said he was doing okay.  They said he would be just fine.  I wanna know what happened.  I need to know what happened!"

"Bishop, listen, they'll tell us when he's out of surgery."

"No!"

"Come on." He put an arm around her and led her into a corner of the waiting room.

"Gibbs, I need to know what happened."

"You will, Bishop, you will." He pulled her into a hug and she sobbed on his shoulder.

***

After they'd been waiting for several hours, a doctor finally approached them. Ellie had fallen asleep in the waiting room chair, her face tear-stained. When Gibbs saw the doctor headed their way, he stood up and pointed to a nearby corner. "She's had a rough day, I didn't wanna wake her yet." He explained, nodding towards Ellie. The doctor nodded understandingly. "How is Torres?" He held his breath without realizing it as he waited for an answer.

"He had some hemorrhaging in his brain that we hadn't seen before. Because we caught it so late, he's lucky to even be alive."

"But?" Gibbs asked, knowing there was more.

"This amount of blood loss can cause paralysis. Until he's awake, we won't know how bad it is."

"What's the worst it could be, doc?" Gibbs dreaded the answer.

"In the worst case scenario, he would never walk again." Gibbs sighed but said nothing. "I'm so sorry." The doctor offered.

"I- I just..." He trailed off, looking towards the sleeping girl who's heart would soon be broken.

"Do you want me to tell her?" The doctor asked, as if reading his thoughts. Gibbs shook his head.

"I've gotta do it." The doctor nodded at him sadly. "How long until he's awake?" Gibbs wondered.

"There's no way of knowing." The doctor told him before leaving. Before waking Ellie, Gibbs pulled out his phone and dialed the most familiar number he knew.

"Jack..." Was all he could manage.

"Jethro, what's wrong?" She asked worriedly. "Is Nick okay?" He hesitated for a moment. "Jethro, what is it?"

"I have to tell Bishop that..." He hesitated again and took a deep breath. "Nick may never walk again."

"Oh Jethro..." He could hear the sadness in her voice.

"Can I bring her over? Maybe we can tell her together."

"You don't need to go home to tell me." A voice came from behind him.  He looked back to see Ellie. "You just did."  Before he could say anything, Ellie ran out of the hospital and he followed after her.

"Bishop..." He put a hand on her shoulder.  "We don't know anything for sure yet.  The doctor won't know anything until Torres wakes up.  That was the worst case scenario."

"Either way, Nick will have some paralysis, right?" She continued talking without giving him a chance to answer.  "Nick may never be able to be an NCIS agent again." Tears were rolling down her cheeks.  "Do you know what that will do to him?  And it's my fault.  Gibbs, I'm the one they wanted.  He shouldn't have even gotten hurt."

"Bishop, it's not your fault."

"I should be the one lying in that hospital bed, Gibbs.  Not Nick." He tried to put an arm around her but she pushed him away. "You can't fix it this time, Gibbs... no one can." After she said this, she ran off into the parking lot and disappeared between the cars.

a/n: hi guysss i'm back.  i don't have much to say except thank you to lara for helping me with this chapter and drey for helping me with the next few chapters. y'all are amazing!!