Tony looked at Gibbs holding his hand over his eye and began to cry.

"Special Agent Gibbs, are you okay?" Beth asked.

"I’m fine," Gibbs assured her, walking over to Tony. "Tony, don’t worry, I’m fine." He gathered Tony against him, hugging him tight. His eye was beginning to darken and swell, but Tony was all that mattered right now. "Tony, relax, I’m fine. I should have known better than to grab you."

"Boss," Tony said, still crying over hitting Gibbs.

"Tony, look at me." Gibbs put both hands on Tony’s shoulders. Tony was looking down, but Gibbs wasn’t having any of that. "Tony," he said again, trying to get Tony to look at him, finally putting a hand under Tony’s chin and lifting it till their gazes met.

"Boss, I’m sorry."

Gibbs shook his head. "Tony, you didn’t mean to do this. Don’t think twice about it, okay?"

With the combination of the illness, the drugs in his system, and hitting Gibbs, Tony couldn’t seem to stop crying.

"Tony, come on, it’s okay."

Tony nodded. Gibbs put the guardrail down. Beth was still in the doorframe, making sure everything was okay.

Gibbs took Tony in his arms again and hugged him, making sure not to bother Tony’s IV and the other wires attached to him. Tony fell into the hug, more like melted into it. Gibbs sat on the edge of the bed, wanting to get as close as possible.

Beth, seeing that the men were taking care of each other, walked out of the room smiling and closed the door behind her. Those two men were good together.

Tony managed to stop crying and was just breathing in the scent of Gibbs. Gibbs could tell Tony was falling asleep in his arms. He let Tony lean on him, still careful of the IVs and wires.

At about 9:00 AM the phone rang.

Gibbs quickly picked it up. "Gibbs."

Tony woke up, stirring and mumbling, rubbing his face against Gibbs’ shirt.

"Shh, go back to sleep," Gibbs said before turning his attention back to the person on the other end of the phone. He listened, then said, "Yes, send them up."

"Who was that?"

"Security. You have a couple of visitors."

"Who?"

"Someone who wants to surprise you. They wanted to make sure you were awake and up to visitors."

"Cool, hope they brought me a gift," Tony said around a yawn, smiling and still leaning against Gibbs.

Five minutes later there was a lovely middle-aged lady and a ten-year old girl standing in the doorway.

"Monica, Jenny, come in," Tony said with pleasure when he saw who was there to see him.

Exhausted from his night of waking Tony every thirty minutes and from not having had near enough coffee for the day, Gibbs had fallen asleep in the few minutes it took the visitors to come up. He woke up after Tony said something and tried to get out from under Tony where he was snuggled against him, but Tony wasn’t having any of that.

"Tony," Jenny said happily.

"Hey there, half-pint. Why aren’t you in school?"

"I have a doctor’s appointment later, and Mom said we could stop and say hi before I go. Who’s this?"

"Jenny," Monica scolded.

Tony smiled. "It’s okay. This is Special Agent-"

"Gibbs," Monica finished for him.

"Yes, ma’am." Gibbs said with a smile. He hadn’t tried to move again. He could tell Tony didn’t seem to care if these two saw them snuggled together, so why should he? He felt a little weird showing affection for another man in front of people he didn’t know, but Tony seemed to know them, and they seemed to have heard about him.

"Hello, Special-"

"Just Gibbs, ma’am, or Jethro."

"Okay, Jethro, it’s nice to finally meet you," she said, walking over and shaking his hand.

"Yeah, Tony talks about you all the time," Jenny said. "My name is Jenny," she added, standing on Tony’s other side.

"Nice to meet you both. How do you know our Tony?"

"We all live on the same floor," Tony said. "Sometimes Jenny comes down and keeps me company."

"Tony is such a dear. I work two jobs and some nights I can’t get out early enough and he’ll watch Jenny for me."

Gibbs raised his eyebrows. "Really, DiNozzo? Never knew that."

Tony shrugged, a touch of red on his cheeks that had nothing to do with his fever. "It’s nothing, Boss."

"He talks about you all the time, Mr. Gibbs. We watch movies or he helps me with my homework sometimes."

"Heck, she’s the one who does all my spell-checking on reports."

"Good. We both know you can’t spell," Gibbs said, causing everyone to smile.

"So, Tony, does this mean-" Monica was about to say.

"Yes," he interrupted, knowing what she was going to ask.

"Good. You two make a very nice couple."

"Thank you, ma’am," Gibbs said, once again being the polite Southern boy he’d been brought up to be.

"Tony, you know the gift you got me for my birthday was just too much."

"It was nothing, Monica. You give to me all the time, making sure I eat. I just wanted to return the favor. I hope the scent of the bath oil was okay and the lingerie was the right size."

"Tony, that was Lapearla, you know."

"Monica, it was nothing. You need to feel special."

Gibbs smiled at this side of Tony, the way he treated other people. He always was thinking of ways to make other people feel good about themselves. He always talked about chasing women, making him seem like a sexist pig, but even then he always took them to nice places. Whether or not there was more to it than just a meal, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t even want to know. That was the past and had nothing to do with their future.

"Really, Tony."

"Don’t think twice about it, Monica. I love to do that sort of thing."

Monica and Jenny sat with them for nearly half an hour. During that time the nurse came in to ask Tony questions to make sure there were still no complications from the concussion.

"Oh, look at the time," Monica said as she glanced at her watch. "Honey, we need to get you to the doctor’s office."

"Mom."

"Listen to your mother, Jenny," Gibbs said. "If you’re good, when Tony comes home how about you come over and we can make him a special dinner. How does that sound?"

Monica smiled. She was happy for Tony, that he had found the man he wanted, the man he had never shut up about for the last year that they had been living in the same building.

Being a single mother, Monica had to work two jobs just to make ends meet. She worked a 9-5 job at a law firm every weekday in an office building and every few days she would waitress at the local TGI Fridays to make extra cash to help pay the bills. She was always just able to make the payments without much left over, but this was a nice area, with better schools, and she wanted the best for her daughter since her father had jumped ship a while ago.

Not long after moving into the apartment building, she had bumped into Tony in the elevator and they had hit it off and had become fast friends, hanging out when they could. After coming to know and trust Tony, she had one night asked him to watch Jenny when she had to work late and the regular babysitter had to leave. After a while it seemed as if Tony watched Jenny more than the babysitter.

But Tony didn’t mind. He was great with Jenny, and her daughter loved him. Knowing she had someone like Tony there to take care of Jenny made her feel less guilty about the extra hours she worked, especially when she had to work so late while trying to earn the money to give Jenny a special Christmas.

Jenny and Monica left, and Tony was once again falling asleep on Gibbs. Literally. Beth came in at various intervals to take Tony’s vitals, but he would sleep through it. Gibbs, who would nap as well, would snap awake the moment he heard footsteps in the room, even if Beth was trying to be quiet. She had at one point assured Gibbs that leaning on the bed like that was okay but was bound to kill his back.

The day passed much in that same way. Beth would make a signal to Gibbs, and he would wake up Tony every so often to ask the questions. He was almost sure this would be the last day for that. Tony seemed to be getting a little better, even if his skin was still very warm to the touch. Gibbs, however, was not looking so good. His eye was almost black all around now and slightly swollen. He could still see out of it and it didn’t seem to bother him that much. It just looked, as Beth told him, like he’d been in a barroom brawl and come out the loser.

Around 6:00 PM Abby and McGee showed up together. Tony was awake but Gibbs was out cold. He didn’t even hear them come in.

"Tony-"

Tony put his finger up to his lips.

"Boss-man hasn’t slept, has he?"

"Nope."

"What happened to his eye, Tony?" Tim asked.

Tony looked down guiltily.

"Tony punched me for being stupid."

"Boss."

"He was having a nightmare, and I went to hold him, but he woke up confused and struck out at me."

Tony flushed, looking even more miserable and guilty.

"Tony, don’t think about it. I told you, I’m fine."

"Looks like it hurts, Gibbs," McGee offered.

"Nope, not at all," he said, wanting to make sure Tony put the guilt behind him.

Abby and Tim came into the room and sat with the men for a while, McGee sitting in the convertible chair and Abby perching on the foot of the bed near both Gibbs’ and Tony’s feet.

"Look, guys, I’m not sure how to say this…"

"Out with it, McGee," Gibbs barked.

"I’m cool with the two of you…dating."

Tony smiled. McGee was bracing himself for another barked comment from Gibbs and had to blink when all he got was a, "Thanks, McGee," from the boss.

Dinner came, a tray for both Tony and Gibbs.

"I am not eating."

"Tony, you’re going to at least eat the soup. You didn’t eat lunch."

"But, Gibbs, they have me on a liquid lunch," Tony said, pointing at the IV.

"I don’t care. Do I need to feed you myself?"

"No, I think I can do it," Abby said, getting up to help Tony.

Since Tony wasn’t letting Gibbs move, the older man was forced to eat with his left hand.

"Here you go, Tony," Abby said, opening the soup and the spoon. "Think you can manage this, or do I get to feed you?"

Tony grinned. "I think my hand still works, Abs. It’s even steady today."

"Yeah, I can see that by looking at Gibbs’ eye."

Tony rolled his eyes as he began to eat the broth. He managed to eat it all without incident.

"Good," Gibbs said when he was finished, "I’m glad it stayed down."

"You and me both, Boss."

"Gibbs, the Director is having a kitten about you both."

"Yeah, I talked to her this morning, Abby."

"She is such a bitch."

"Jen means well, Abby."

"Still…"

Gibbs just smiled, knowing where his team’s loyalties lay. "Okay, guys I think this man needs a bath, he’s starting to smell."

"I think that is our cue to leave, Abby."

Abby’s lips came out into a pout. "But I want to watch."

"You can have a cheap thrill some other time, Abby."

"Hey, who are you calling cheap?" Tony blustered.

"Not to mention he’s not all that much to look at right now," Gibbs continued, finally able to work himself out from under Tony. He smiled at the pouting younger man.

"Gee, thanks, Boss. You’re no prize yourself," Tony teased back, smiling too.

"Okay, you two, play nice. And no over-exciting yourself," Abby warned with a wink as she and McGee left the room.

"I’ll be right back, Tony. I need to ask Beth a question."

Tony watched Gibbs walk away and grinned, thinking he couldn’t wait till he got out of there and he could see that ass naked.

"Beth, can I close the curtain on the window? I think our boy needs a bath."

"Sure, but-"

"I know, nothing more then that."

She smiled. "I was going to say we can have the nurses do that, but now that you mention it."

Gibbs was laughing as he walked back into the room, shutting the door and closing the curtains on the door and the outside window.

"Oh, you take all the fun out of this. We could give them a show."

"Nope, those goods are mine alone to look at."

Tony grinned. "Well, I won’t argue with that."

Gibbs filled a new basin with warm water and placed it along with soap and a cloth on the rolling table next to Tony’s bed after moving the food trays to the nightstand. He went into Tony’s bag for the first time and took out a pair of boxer briefs and a pair of flannel house pants.

"Only yours, huh?" Tony questioned, still having trouble believing he and Gibbs had finally made it to this point.

"Yes, mine," Gibbs answered with a smile.

Gibbs rolled the table closer to the bed, then took off Tony’s gown, carefully maneuvering it around all the wires and IVs connected to him.

"Okay, lets have you sit up."

"Boss, you think you can give me a shave? I feel kind of grungy with all this stubble."

One corner of Gibbs’ mouth lifted. "I think I can handle that."

Abby hadn’t packed Tony a razor, so Gibbs took his own razor and shave cream from his bag. Wetting Tony’s face, he then rubbed the cool gel on, working it into a cream over the sexy stubble on the younger man’s cheeks, chin and upper lip, his touch more of a caress.

Tony’s eyes never left Gibbs as he slowly stroked the razor over his face, careful not to nick him as he removed the stubble. If Gibbs put this much concentration into shaving him, what would it be like when he finally got around to making love to him? Being the focus of all that intensity would be an erotic experience in and of itself. He closed his eyes and had to bite back a groan as Gibbs gently removed the last little bits of shaving cream from his face with the wet cloth.

Finished with the shave, Gibbs began washing Tony’s back. He wasn’t trying to turn Tony on, but Tony couldn’t help but respond. As Gibbs soaped his back and dipped the cloth into the basin of warm water before washing the soap away, Tony began to make a sound much like a purr. This was GIBBS running his hands all over him, even if it was just a sponge bath, and his body seemed to have a mind of it’s own. By the time Gibbs moved to his arms, Tony was hard as a rock.

"Gibbs, can you help me out here?"

"Tony, I think we better not today."

"Oh, you’re just going to torture me. I see your kink now," Tony said with a smile.

Gibbs finished washing Tony’s arms, then moved to his chest, carefully washing the lightly furred muscles so as not to bother the electrodes attached to him. He moved the cloth downward till he came to a very hard member. He swallowed heavily, wanting to do more than just wash that hardness.

Blue eyes glazed over as his gaze tracked a pearly drop of precum as it slowly trickled down the hard shaft. He wanted to take that hard member in his hand, using the precum as lubricant as he slowly stroked up and down. Or better yet he wanted to trace the path of that salty liquid with his tongue, making sure to get every bit of it before taking the head in his mouth and tasting the source.

Or maybe he would tease him first, licking the shaft, then just licking the head, over and over without sucking it into his mouth. Only when Tony was begging would he take the head into his mouth, sliding his lips down the shaft, his hand following.

Caught up in his fantasy, Gibbs didn’t realize he was doing more than washing Tony until he heard him groan. That was when he became aware of the fact that he was running the washcloth over Tony’s erection in a sexual manner. He immediately stopped before this went too far.

"No, Gibbs," Tony groaned. "Please, Boss, I need release."

"No."

"Boss," Tony whined.

"Tony, do you want to be the one to explain to Beth why the alarm on your heart monitor is going off?"

"Oh, God, Gibbs, you really are a bastard."

"Deal with it, DiNozzo. I’m not about to get on the wrong side of Nurse Beth."

Gibbs moved down to wash Tony’s legs. He was glad he’d already shaved him, because as badly as his hands were shaking right now, he might have slit Tony’s throat. After he finished washing Tony he put his house pants on him. He forewent the underwear, knowing it was best if he didn’t try tucking Tony’s erection into the boxer briefs. The shirt he left off, too, since they hadn’t brought a button up, only pullovers, and he couldn’t put one on him as long as the heart monitor and IVs were still connected.

Not that he minded seeing Tony’s bare chest. The man was beautiful.

"Boss," Tony said plaintively.

"I know, Tony."

Gibbs kissed Tony hard, with love. He finally broke the kiss, leaving he and Tony both hard and breathing heavily. When he opened the curtains over the window and the smaller window on the door, he noticed Beth was no longer at the desk. Instead there was an older lady there now.

"Boss, you can sit on the bed again," Tony said when Gibbs sat down in one of the chairs next to the bed.

"Tony, I’m not sure that’s a good idea."

Gibbs could see the need in Tony’s eyes.

"Sure, okay, but let me shower and change first."

Tony got a pouting face as he looked at Gibbs.

"Do not even think it, DiNozzo. I am not showing the world my business."

"Mine, right?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it is."

Gibbs smiled. Gathering up his razor, shaving cream, boxers and a pair of sweat pants, he went into the bathroom to shave and shower.

Gibbs turned on the water in the shower before stripping. He stepped into the shower and lathered his face. As he removed the whiskers from his face, he couldn’t help but remember shaving and washing Tony. His erection had half-wilted, but now he was hard again, and he wasn’t sure he could go back out there and lay on that bed with Tony without doing something that might get him kicked out of the hospital.

There was only one thing to do. Soaping up his hand, he took hold of his hard member and began stroking, running up and down the shaft, adding a twist over the head. There wasn’t any teasing to this. This was merely about relief, needing the release to continue to be so close to Tony without losing it. It was Tony’s face behind his closed eyelids when he came, spurting his seed in long threads that washed down the drain along with his built up tension.

Gibbs knew it wasn’t fair to Tony that he had gotten off while the leaving the younger man with a case of blue balls, but he would make it up to him later, after they were out of this place. Feeling better after his own relief, he walked out of the bathroom with just his pants on, since he hadn’t taken socks or a shirt into the room with him.

"Now that is not fair."

"What?"

"Boss, you’re not the quietest person in the world when you come."

Gibbs blushed a little.

"But I like this look for you."

Gibbs walked over to Tony and kissed him. Tony responded, his hands roaming over Gibbs’ bare chest, fingers teasing the nipples hidden in the light covering of salt and pepper hair. Gibbs broke it up when his body decided it might be interested again.

"Oh, God, Tony, we have to stop. You need to reserve your energy for getting better. We’ll have plenty of time for this when you get better."

Tony pouted again. Gibbs shook his head at the younger man’s antics as he got a shirt out of his bag and slipped it on. Once he was dressed, he sat down on the edge of the bed, then swung his legs up so that he was stretched out beside Tony. He stayed as close to the edge as possible, wanting to make sure Tony had plenty of room.

But Tony wasn’t going to let him fall off. He scooted down, wrapping his arm over Gibbs and putting his head on his boss’ chest, using him as a pillow. Tony fell asleep like that. Watching him, Gibbs soon fell asleep as well. They slept for about two hours till the older nurse came in to wake him per Beth’s instructions. He thanked her, then woke Tony and asked him the questions.

"Okay, Tony, what’s my name?"

"Gibbs," Tony mumbled against his chest, eyes still closed.

"Full name, please."

Tony was still out of it since they had given him a new round of painkillers while Gibbs had been in the shower.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs," he said sleepily.

"Good. Where do you work?"

"NCIS."

"Good. One more. Who is your personal physician, and full name, please."

"Doctor Donald Mallard."

"Good. You can go back to sleep now."

Gibbs was stroking Tony’s hair, running his fingers through the dark strands even after Tony had fallen asleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night the older lady came in and woke up Gibbs again.

"Sir, I’m sorry to bother you, but, well-" She pointed out to the nurses station where two police officers where standing. "They need to talk to Mr. DiNozzo."

"Did they say why?"

"Not really. They said it was important. Shall I send them in?"

"Yeah, sure."

The older nurse walked out.

"Tony, come on, you need to wake up."

"Um," Tony mumbled, slowly waking up and noticing the two police officers walking in.

"Mr. DiNozzo."

Tony slowly sat up with help from Gibbs. "Yes, that’s me."

"Sir, do you know a Monica Blass?"

Tony looked at Gibbs, then back at the two officers. "Yes," he said slowly.

"Sir, I’m sorry to inform you-"

Tony swallowed, knowing this talk by heart, having given it many times when he’d been a cop.

"No," Tony whispered, starting to cry, the heart monitor beeping faster and faster as he got worked up.

The nurse came running to check him.

"Sir, I’m sorry for your loss, but Ms. Blass had your number and info in her purse, that if something happened to her you were to be contacted."

Tony was still crying, muttering, "No, no."

"Officer, what happened?" Gibbs asked.

The nurse, seeing what was happening, whispered something into the ear of one of the officers, who nodded in return.

"Mr. DiNozzo, there was an accident. She was on her way home from a doctor’s appointment. She passed away on scene."

"Officer, did… what happened to her daughter?"

"She is in recovery now, waiting to be brought up to a room. She was in surgery and is still unconscious. You might have been able to see her when she was first brought in, but it took us hours to track you down, Mr. DiNozzo."

Tony couldn’t speak for the silent tears slipping down his face, soaking into Gibbs’ shirt.

"Thank you, officers," Gibbs said, and both men took the hint and left.