It wasn’t boring to watch Tony sleep. As a matter of fact, it was one of the most engrossing things that Jethro had done in quite a while. The younger man was a restless sleeper, not surprising in any way, and was constantly shifting under the covers and making small murmurs. His facial expression changed according to his dreams, as open as he ever was in waking, but unfortunately most of them ranged from unhappy to pained.

At least lately.

When it got too bad, Jethro would rub his hand gently over the forehead, smoothing out the wrinkles. Tony always settled down, sleeping easier after his touch. That alone told him that it wasn’t unwelcome, but he needed more before he could allow himself to hope that Tony really had feelings for him. Tony was, after all, unconscious now, and he’d been nearly so when Jethro had soothed him into sleep; certainly not his usual, comprehending self.

It was about two in the morning that he finally decided to try and sleep, even though he knew that it would be impossible. He left the bedside and took care of business in the bathroom, silently mocking his reflection before heading for the sofa. It was, thankfully, a fairly large and comfortable sofa, bought, of course, with Tony’s long legs in mind. He was tempted to sack out beside Tony on the bed, but figured that would be pushing it.

Then again, if he wakes up and shoves you out of bed, you’ll know for sure, Jethro thought in dark amusement.

It didn’t move him from his spot on the couch, though. He started mentally going over the lists of things he had to do at the office, prioritizing things that needed to get done, versus things that had to get done, versus things that should get done. Despite the doctor’s assurances that he didn’t need to stick around, Jethro knew he would feel better keeping a personal eye on Tony. Mentally assigning Kate and Ducky the most pressing of the issues, Jethro set his internal alarm clock for five hours and drifted into sleep.

* * * *

Blessedly pain-free, Tony cautiously opened his eyes and sighed in relief when the light didn’t stab into his brain like before. Rolling slowly into a sitting position, he remained normal and grinned in outright happiness when he stood without any after-effects. A quick glance at the clock told him it was still early, only just after six, and he left the bedroom for the bathroom. His nose begged him to head for the kitchen instead, but it was overridden by his bladder.

Taking as little time as possible, Tony was in and out of the bathroom in three minutes. He sat at the table with, “Gooood morning, Boss!”

Gibbs arched an eyebrow at him. “You’re looking almost normal this morning. Of course, that’s more normal than any other day.”

Tony grinned and replied, “Thanks, Boss. And man, I am starving!”

“That’s a good sign,” Gibbs observed, setting a plate in front of him.

Tony managed to wait until the other man was also seated with a plate of his own, but just barely. His stomach rumbled a demand and he gave in, tucking heartily into the eggs and nearly moaned in pleasure on finding cheese and spices in it. “Man, this is great, Gibbs!”

Gibbs chuckled and said, “Glad to hear it. I didn‘t actually think that you’d be eating this morning.”

They were silent during the meal and Tony couldn’t help but steal glances at his unexpected roommate now and again. Gibbs didn’t seem to be annoyed by having to spend so much time with him, but then, he had a great poker face. That whole Gunnery Sergeant thing was hell to read through, no doubt about it.

“So what time are you heading out?” Tony asked.

Gibbs eyed him thoughtfully for a moment, then admitted, “I hadn’t been planning on going in, but I might, with how you look now.”

“Go in,” Tony urged. “I’m just going to hang out here and do nothing. It’s not like you’ll have anything to do.”

After thinking it over for a few minutes, Gibbs said, “I think I will. But the minute you take a turn for the worse, you will call me. Got it, DiNozzo?”

Tony offered a sloppy salute and replied, “Yes, Sir!”

Rolling his eyes, Gibbs picked up his plate and brought it to the sink. “I’ll call you around noon to see how you’re doing.”

“Bored to tears, probably.”

“Enjoy the vacation while you have it.”

They shared a grin before Gibbs left the kitchen to get his things together. Tony finished off his breakfast and put his dish in the sink, then started cleaning up.

“Leave it. I’ll get them when I come back tonight,” Gibbs said from behind.

Tony was so startled by the other man’s close proximity that he dropped a glass and it shattered in the sink.

Gibbs barked, “Don’t touch anything! All I need is for you to cut yourself and bleed to death.”

Pulling his hand back, Tony stepped aside and let Gibbs carefully pick the shards out of the sink. When he was done, Tony said, “You don’t have to come back tonight. I think I’m going to be fine now. I probably just did too much, too soon.”

“Yeah, and I’m going to make sure you don’t do that again,” Gibbs stated evenly.

Tony held his hands up in surrender at the pointed glare and agreed, “All right, all right! I won’t lift a finger except to flush the toilet.”

Gibbs’ lips twitched, but he didn’t actually smile. “Good. I’ll see you around 1900 tonight.”

Following the other man to the door, Tony asked hopefully, “Give Kate hell for me?”

At that, Gibbs grinned and answered, “I will.”

“Yes!” Tony exclaimed gleefully.

Shaking his head, Gibbs left the apartment and Tony locked the door behind him. Humming happily to himself, Tony headed for the sofa to check out the news.

* * * *

Kate groaned at the throbbing pain in her head, but the vibrations only worsened the pain. Her stomach was more than a little queasy and she swallowed in an effort to keep it where it belonged. There was a whimper of pain from beside her and she stiffened, suddenly wondering how much she’d had to drink and whose bed she was in, because she knew it wasn’t her own.

Bracing herself, Kate cracked an eyelid and silently thanked God that the blinds were drawn or that it was too early for the sun. She carefully and slowly turned over, cringing in anticipation of what she might find.

A very naked Abby, however, hadn’t been anywhere on the list.

Suddenly very awake, too awake, Kate forced herself to look around and discovered that she was in a large, open-lidded coffin. Abby was curled up in a ball beside her, arms over her head as if to shield herself. Which, if she felt anything like Kate did, was more than likely. Abby’s hair was down, the black locks hiding her face and trailing down her shoulders. Even severely hung-over, Kate could appreciate the long, lean lines of Abby’s body, as well as her curves.

Taking her life in her hands, she whispered, “Abby.”

“‘ckoff,” Abby groaned.

“Abby!” Kate whispered louder. “It’s me, Kate!”

Abby went very still, then peeked one eye up at her, groaned again and pulled a pillow over her head.

Well. Not the most flattering reaction I’ve ever had. Thanks a lot, Abby, Kate thought, affronted. She climbed out of the bed and started gathering her clothes, yanking them on willy-nilly. She ignored the itchy, sticky feeling that told her she’d come a lot the night before, even if she couldn’t remember it.

She found her watch and discovered that there was enough time to run home for a shower before going into work, thankfully. Taking one last look at the lump on the…bed…that was now buried under the sheets and blankets, Kate sighed and said quietly, “I’m leaving, Abby. You can pretend this never happened, if that makes you feel better. I’ll see you later.”

Abby’s apartment was easy enough to get out of, and in a few minutes, Kate found her car in the parking lot and started home.

* * * *

Jethro quirked an eyebrow at the sight of Kate dragging into the office twenty minutes late. Just as he opened his mouth to razz her obviously hung-over self, she glared at him from behind the sunglasses and snapped, “Not. One. Word.”

Smirking, Jethro replied, “I was just going to ask how you were feeling.”

Kate grunted something unintelligible and headed for her desk.

Chuckling to himself, Jethro dove back into the reports that he’d been going through.

The perks of management, he thought dourly. Not only do you get to solve the cases, you get to suffer through death by paperwork each and every time.

The morning passed quietly, which was a nice change. He plowed through report after report, bringing everything up-to-date in anticipation of more time off in the near future. Jethro didn’t know how many setbacks Tony might suffer through, so he had to be prepared. There was going to be at least time off for the visits to the DA’s office, and any other incidents or episodes that Tony might succumb to, from stress.

It was an insidious thought that goaded him into even contemplating the possibility that Tony might not be able to go back to work. That the stress of the job would force him to seek a desk job or leave law enforcement altogether. That they wouldn’t be able to work together at all, in the future.

Shaking off those damning thoughts was difficult, but Jethro did the best that he could by focusing on the work in front of him and the fact that it was only a couple of weeks since the attack. Tony would heal, he’d go through re-certification and be working again in no time. And he could, after all, do the paperwork no problem, as had been witnessed the last week he’d been working without any trouble at all.

He kept half an eye on Kate throughout the morning, too, not liking her behavior. He’d seen her hung-over before and it hadn’t been like this. She’d been pissy as hell and ill the day after, but never tense and withdrawn. Generally, she ranted at Tony as quietly and viciously as possible, drank a lot of water and took aspirin like clockwork. Finally, at lunch, he went over to her desk and said, “Let’s get lunch.”

She swallowed uneasily. “Not a good idea, Gibbs.”

“Fine. Let’s take a walk,” he ordered impatiently. “Unless you’d like to talk about what your problem is right here in the office, because I’ve got no problem with that.”

Kate cursed under her breath and put her sunglasses back on, grabbing her purse and falling into step with him. They went out the front and he almost smirked at her moan of pain when they walked into the bright sunshine. They were halfway down the block before he asked, “What’s the deal?”

“I’m hung-over, Gibbs. What else do you want to be wrong?” she demanded painfully.

Glancing over at her, he replied, “How about the truth?”

She sighed, putting her hand to her head, and stopped walking. “I had a one-night stand last night that I’m wishing wasn’t a one-night stand, okay? I’ll get over it.”

“Anyone I should worry about?”

Kate shook her head, looking out at the street as she answered, “I doubt it. Probably happens all the time to this person, even if it doesn’t to me.”

Nodding slowly, Jethro questioned, “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Fine,” she assured him tiredly. “Let’s get food, since we’re out.”

Even though he wasn’t convinced, Jethro could see that the pain was real and left it alone. He’d been in that kind of situation before and the sooner it scabbed over, the better. Talking it to death wouldn’t do anything except make things worse. “Yeah, okay.”

Pulling out his cell phone, Jethro dialed Tony’s phone number and smiled when the other man picked it up with, “I’m not lifting a finger.”

“You better not be,” Jethro warned. “What are you doing?”

“Watching one of the talk shows. ‘My husband slept with my mother’s lesbian lover, I think.”

Jethro laughed, cutting it short at Kate’s curious look. “Good. I’m glad to see that you’re feeding that brain of yours.”

“Is that Tony?” Kate asked. At his nod, she held out her hand imperiously and he surrendered the phone. “DiNozzo, get your ass to the office, we know you’re faking it for the sympathy and time off. Uh huh. Yeah. What are you talking about!? Right. Bite me, Tony. Here’s Gibbs.”

Jethro grinned briefly as he took the phone and asked, “Nice to see you haven’t lost your touch.”

“Come on, Boss, give me a little more credit than that,” Tony protested humorously.

“All right. We’re coming up on the food place so I’ll let you get back to your Emmy award winning show.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tonight!”

“Bye, DiNozzo.”

Slipping the phone back in his pocket, he caught Kate looking at him funny and demanded, “What?”

“Nothing. Just…the sooner you put him on a leash, the better, you know that, right? For all our sakes, considering his taste in women.”

Jethro grinned, satisfied that she’d both divined it on her own, and had no problem with it. “Yeah, I know.”

* * * *

Abby felt lower than pond scum as she forced herself to continue working on the lab analyses Gibbs had sent down to her an hour ago via Kate. First was the fact that she’d essentially cheated on McGee with Kate. She wasn’t a cheater and never had been. She was either a one-woman woman, or a one-man woman at a time. She took relationships very seriously, which was why she tried not to get pinned down to one in the first place.

Second was the fact that she honestly couldn’t remember what the hell had gone down with Kate the night before. Heh. Well, aside from her, of course. The last thing she really remembered was laughing hysterically with Kate and leaning on the woman as they’d searched for a cab. It had been a great night. They’d had some supper, gone to a couple of clubs, gone to a lot of bars, gone to some more clubs, and then started back to Abby’s apartment, where Kate had parked her car.

Third, and most important, was the way she’d treated Kate on waking up this morning. She’d been so shocked that it had been Kate in her bed that she’d acted like the worst kind of scum in the universe. Kate deserved nothing but her respect, especially considering that it was more than likely that she’d seduced Kate. It was pretty hard to imagine things going the other way. Kate was open minded, but she was pretty sure the agent wasn’t that open minded.

So now, despite her attempt at fierce concentration on the DNA samples, Abby’s thoughts kept drifting back to Kate and the tired, beaten tone of voice that had announcing her departure and that Abby could pretend nothing had happened.

“Abby, my girl. Are you all right?”

Ducky’s voice startled her but, fortunately, she wasn’t holding anything breakable just then. Sighing, Abby shook her head and answered glumly, “I’m lower than pond scum, Ducky. You shouldn’t be around me, I might drag you down.”

Ducky’s eyebrows rose as he said, “I think that I shall risk it. What’s the problem?”

“I had a one-night stand last night and when I woke up this morning, I treated the other person just awful!” Abby wailed. She collapsed forward, hiding her face in the crook of her elbow. “I suck rocks, Ducky!”

“There, there,” he soothed, rubbing her back. “I can assure you that you don’t suck rocks, my dear. We all make mistakes when it comes to love. I’m sure that young Mr. McGee will forgive you, as long as you’re honest with him.”

Abby groaned. “I know he will, that’s my problem!”

Ducky paused, then said, “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

Sitting up, she explained, “I think I might really, really like the person that I slept with last night, more than I like McGee. I mean, I hadn’t really thought about it, not consciously, but my subconscious is a tricky, tricky thing and was probably thinking like this all along. So I think maybe I did what I did last night under the cover of alcohol so I wouldn’t have to worry about consequences, to give myself a way out, you know? But then, this morning, I just felt so horribly guilty and sick and my head was pounding, that I treated the other person like dirt and they can barely look at me now, so now I’m really screwed because I do like them a lot!”

There was another, longer pause as Ducky digested her explanation. Then, at last, he sighed and confirmed, “Abby, my dear, I’m afraid that you have a rather accurate assessment of your situation.”

Abby groaned and thumped her head against the lab table, glad that it exacerbated the headache already in place.

* * * *

Kate grinned broadly to herself at what she’d just overheard. Who said eavesdroppers never heard anything good? Stupid saying. Humming cheerfully to herself as she headed back to the elevator, Kate toyed with the thought of how long she should make Abby suffer before letting her off the hook. She finally decided on at least through the weekend, depending on how the other woman tried to make it up to her in the meantime, as she headed for her desk.

“You look a damn sight better,” Gibbs observed, quirking a curious eyebrow in her direction.

With a Cheshire grin, Kate replied airily, “That’s because there is a God, and she’s a woman who likes payback.”

Lips pursed, Gibbs wisely didn’t comment, instead going back to whatever it was that he had been doing when she’d gotten back. Still humming, she sat at her desk and briefly considered not making Abby suffer, then dismissed the idea.

She’d just settled into cleaning out her email inbox when they got a call about a base murder. She grabbed her gear, filled her water bottle, and snagged the bottle of aspirin in her drawer, not knowing how long they would be out at the crime scene. The car ride over was quiet and more than once she looked over at Gibbs, wondering what the problem was.

It wasn’t just that Tony wasn’t around to keep in line, though that probably had something to do with it. Kate knew just how much Gibbs enjoyed his constant tug-of-war with Tony. There was something to his expression that she hadn’t seen before and it took a while for her to figure out that it was worry. Startled, she asked, “What’s wrong with Tony that you aren’t telling us?”

Gibbs’ jaw tightened, telling her that she’d scored a direct hit, but it was a few minutes before he reluctantly admitted, “Tony might not be able to come back to work again.”

Kate was stunned. “What? Why not?”

“Because he gets debilitating migraines when put under stress,” Gibbs explained. “It happened at the DA’s office yesterday. That’s why I had to bring him to the hospital. And if he can’t handle the stress…”

“Then he can’t work at NCIS,” Kate finished, her good mood evaporating instantly. What fun was going to work without Tony around to harass like the little brother she’d never had? It was different than interacting with her sister, very different, and she would miss it intensely if Tony couldn’t go back to work with them.

Not that she’d ever admit that, unless under pain of perjury.

Gibbs nodded, adding, “The doctor said it was still too early to tell anything for sure, but…you didn’t see him, Kate. The pain he was in…it was excruciating. He couldn’t even hold his head up, it was so bad.”

Kate knew that despite his hypochondria, Tony actually had a pretty high tolerance to pain. For him to have been that bad off, it had to have been just as excruciating as Gibbs described. “So when will we know?”

Sighing explosively, Gibbs answered, “No timetable. Head injuries are iffy at best. It’s difficult to predict who will have a full recovery and who won’t, even in mild cases. And the attack that Tony suffered…”

There was no need to prompt him to go on, because Kate remembered exactly what Tony had looked like right after the attack. Gibbs pulled into the base, showing his badge at the gate, and followed the directions that they’d been given. After Gibbs parked outside the tape, Kate climbed out of the car, grabbed her gear from the trunk and headed for the scene. Assessing the bloody area with a glance, she sighed, knowing that this one was going to take a long time.

* * * *

Exhausted by the thirty-six hour day he’d just put in, Jethro let himself into Tony’s apartment and was glad to find the other man sacked out on the sofa. They’d been in touch via phone over the last day and a half, but it wasn’t the same as being able to look at Tony and check in on him. There was a lingering worry in the back of his mind, a kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The good news was that they caught the psycho and a widow would have her closure. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong damn time, a crime of opportunity, rather than motive. Which made things both easier and more difficult, all at once. Easier, because it hadn’t been planned and there had been evidence left at the crime scene. More difficult because there wasn’t any logical choice of suspect to begin with.

It was done, though, and he’d ordered Kate home to bed. Not having Tony around had hampered them to an astonishing degree. Jethro hadn’t really realized just how much the younger agent did during the course of an investigation.

Looking down at the innocent expression on Tony’s sleeping face, Jethro smiled and thought, I did realize, I just didn’t let myself think about all your contributions, not really. Your intuition, your willingness to do any task, your language skills, that bizarre humor to diffuse tension. All of it such a vital part of the team. What’re we going to do, if we have to do without you, Tony?

He fervently prayed that they wouldn’t have to find out.

As if sensing the gaze on him, Tony stirred, yawning and slowly waking. Jethro moved away from him to set his bag down by the door. When he turned back, Tony was awake and looking at him with a pleased smile. “Hey.”

Sitting up, Tony replied, “Hi Boss. All the I’s dotted and T’s crossed?”

“In triplicate,” Jethro confirmed dryly.

“Hungry?”

“Tired.”

Tony nodded, commiserating, and stood. He moved a little too fast, though, and swayed, unbalanced. Jethro leaped forward and caught him, holding on tight to make sure he didn’t fall over completely. Tony clutched at him, eyes closed, and didn’t move for several long moments.

“You okay?” Jethro asked.

Tony’s eyes opened and he stared back at Jethro with something akin to wonder, as if just figuring something out. “You always catch me.”

An unwelcome flush heated Jethro’s face, even as a teasing smile surfaced. “Someone’s got to keep you from hurting yourself, DiNozzo.”

“Tony.”

Jethro hesitated before questioning softly, “What?”

Serious, Tony stated, “My name is Tony.”

Understanding that this was the signal that he’d been waiting for, Jethro nodded and echoed, “My name is Jethro.”

Humor lit Tony’s gaze as he quipped, “Now that we’ve been introduced, how about mph…”

Jethro swallowed the rest of the sentence in his kiss, unable to wait a moment longer. Just as he took in Tony’s eager moan as the younger man returned the kiss enthusiastically, opening his mouth to it. Wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist, Jethro devoured his willing victim thoroughly, tracing his tongue over teeth and along the roof of the mouth. When he pulled back, they were both breathing heavily and his cock throbbed with urgency, complaining loudly about the lack it had suffered over recent months.

Tony’s hands gripped him tight all of a sudden, and Jethro knew it wasn’t anything to do with passion from the draining of color from Tony’s face. He quickly guided Tony back down to the sofa and helped him lie down. Crouching beside the sofa, running his fingers gently through the thick mop of hair, Jethro waited patiently for the clenched set of Tony’s jaw to loosen. It did, finally, and Tony breathed a long, deep sigh of relief.

“I hope that wasn’t a comment on my kissing technique,” Jethro teased lightly.

A faint smile graced Tony’s face and he replied, “No, definitely not. I may have forgotten to take my meds this afternoon.”

Restraining the impulse to throttle him, Jethro just asked, “Are they still in the bathroom?”

“Unless they walked away, yeah.”

“Don’t move.”

“Not going anywhere, trust me.”

Jethro snorted in dark amusement and walked over to the bathroom. Once there, he realized that he hadn’t asked which ones hadn’t been taken. He grabbed all the bottles and brought them to the kitchen. After taking out an apple, he poured a glass of milk and brought everything back to the living room. Tony had already put some pillows under his head, so Jethro held out the apple, which Tony took and started munching on. When it was half gone, he counted out the right pills and handed them to Tony, along with the milk. That done, Tony returned to eating the apple, giving the core back to Jethro.

“You realize that this means I’m going to be zonked out the rest of the night, right?” Tony pointed out.

Jethro shook his head and countered, “I’d rather that, than you in the ER again.”

“Oh. Yeah. Good point.”

“Come on, let’s get you into bed, Tony,” Jethro ordered, not bothering to hide his exasperation.

It took a few minutes to get him upright again, but the trek to the bedroom went all right. When Tony was comfortable, he grabbed Jethro’s hand and said, “Stay with me. It’s more comfortable here than on the sofa and this is where you’ll wind up eventually anyhow.”

Grinning faintly at the reasoning, Jethro acquiesced and pulled off his shirt, shoes and socks. He climbed into the bed and they shifted until he was spooned up behind Tony, his arm an added pillow for the other man.

“Mmm…this is nice,” Tony murmured, drowsy.

Jethro kissed the spot just under his ear and agreed, “Very nice. Now go to sleep, Di…Tony.”

Even though Tony was already heavy with sleep in his arms, he laced their free hands together, curling Jethro’s arm around his front, too. “Night, Boss.”

Chuckling warmly at the continued use of ‘boss,’ Jethro kissed him again and replied, “Night, Tony.”