Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters and any copyright infringement is unintended.
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Paperwork. They've been doing it for the past three hours and frustrated to no ends. The team had finally gotten the one lead earlier this afternoon that ultimately helped them solve the case- a nineteen-day heart wrenching, poignant investigation involving the kidnapping of the Fleet Admiral's six-year-old daughter. The MCRT had conclusively gotten a lead from two patrolling officers and were able to break in to where the kidnappers were staying. Three arrests were made and fairly no injuries. Gibbs, though, might have accidently shoved one of them down some steps and broke the guys nose. But it was an accident after all. The little girl, Jenna, was uninjured other than a recently broken left arm and being in a state of mild shock. For being sealed up almost three weeks, her family was pretty happy with that much. The team, nevertheless, were now suffering through a load of files, forms and reports.
Ziva stood in the center of the bullpen, mumbling to herself. She was bent over the printer, gripping and exasperatedly shaking it. It was probably jammed again. While McGee got up to help her, Gibbs marched out from Vance's office and to his desk. He began writing something as McGee got the printer to work again. Both he and Ziva printed off their reports, gave them to the lead agent and went back to their respective desks.
Gibbs looked up from his notes and looked around the bullpen. Each team member looked drowsy and way beyond exhausted. Tony, still, appeared to have double the amount of forms to fill out on his desk than the rest of the team. He was in his own mindset while his partners were ready to head home. As both McGee and Ziva walked towards the elevator, they hesitated in front of Tony's desk. They looked miserably upon him for a few moments before picking up a few forms from his desk and walking back to their own.
Tony's head snapped up. "It's all right guys." He said tiredly, holding out his hand for the return of the forms "I'm almost done anyway. It'll just be a few minutes."
"And now it will take less time." Ziva told him as she sat down in her chair. She smiled softly at the wide-eyed look she received in return.
"Besides, it's not fair for you to do all the extra work simply because of your senior status," McGee added.
"Hey! I'll have you know that it took a long time to get that standing. But if you wanna help, go right ahead." Tony mumbled before looked back towards his notes and muttered a quiet thanks to his partners.
The extra hands proved to be a great help as all the forms and reports were completely filled out to the T in fifteen minutes time. Gibbs looked on as each team member dropped off the files on his desk.
"Good job." With the praise out of the way, Gibbs got down to more serious matters. "Vance took us off rotation for the next four days. It's been a difficult past few weeks and you've done an outstanding job. Go rest. I don't want to see any of you before next Wednesday." He grinned as they stood gazing at him. "Well, go! Grab your stuff and go home!"
Tony, McGee and Ziva rushed to their desks, picked up their belongings and scurried to the elevator.
"Hey guys," Tony said to them once they were in the elevator. "You wanna go down to that new restaurant on Tingey Street for dinner tomorrow? My treat!"
In truth, Tony wasn't sure if a few days off would be enough for him. They past few weeks were more than stressful and he needed his friends to help him out. He was worried that they would take his offer as a joke and push him away, but McGee stopped him from doubting himself any further.
"You know what? That sounds pretty good." McGee said excitedly. "It's been a while since we all just sat down together."
"Are you going to ask Gibbs or Abby?" Ziva asked.
"Oh, I already asked him earlier," Tony looked disappointed as he responded, "He promised Abby with retiling her washroom or something a few weeks ago and didn't want to push it off any longer." Tony didn't want to make the offer seem awkward, so he continued the only way he knew how- with jokes.
"Yes, I offered to help, you know with my big muscles and all, but he said it was a one-person thing really. So, I guess it's just us three..." he trailed off.
"That is all right," Ziva replied, sensing his nervousness. "It will be fun, just the three of us."
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Gibbs was well-rested and ready to start off a new day when he entered the bullpen on Wednesday. He had spent his weekend off with Abby, helping her redesign her washroom and anything else that needed touch ups in her apartment. Gibbs had felt guilty about declining Tony's offer for dinner, but Abby had put his mind to rest as she told him the rest of the team went out with him. He'll make it up to him tonight after work.
When Gibbs came down from Vance's office, he had expected to be the alone for a few minutes. Once he turned the corner and laid his eyes on Tony, however, anger overrode his concern. His napping senior field agent looked haggard and barely revitalized.
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs took no satisfaction of making him jolt, "I told you to take time off. You look like crap. What the Hell have you been doing the past few days?"
"What? No. No, boss. It's not what it looks like," Tony replied through half lidded eyes as he looked up from his desk. "I only went out once and that was dinner with Ziva and McGee. I even told you about that. I don't know- it's just; I think I'm coming down with a cold or something. My head hurts," he added glumly.
"A cold?" Gibbs asked, thinking back to blue lights and revengeful mothers, "You think you can come into the field?"
Ziva and McGee decided to finally come into the office at that moment.
"You do not feel well, Tony?" Ziva asked cunningly. "Are you ill?"
"No! No, I'm not sick! Stop making a mountain out of a mole hole." He tried glaring towards Ziva as she expressed her confusion on the idiom, but his face was starting to feel numb.
"Well, good," Gibbs interrupted, not wanting to put Tony on the spot. "Because we have a case. Gas the truck." Gibbs tossed the keys to the Italian.
To his defense, Tony did try to catch it. It was his arm that decided to ignore him. To anyone else, the slow-responding muscles would be concerning, but the agent put it down to joint pain that came with the common cold. He leaned down with great effort and picked up the keys. Sure it took a few minutes for his eyes to focus and the dizziness to fade away but he's not going to be telling anyone about that. Tony followed his team into the elevator and to the car. He was noticeably slower than them but again; he blamed it on the cold.
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Things were considerably worse at the crime scene. Gibbs was grouchy, Tony wasn't feeling any better and it was snowing. Not the joyful type, with large snowflakes and bright Christmas lights. No, it was wet, slushy and cold. Tony hated it.
McGee and Ziva were assigned sketching and photographing as Tony went to question the witness who found the body. He was having some difficulty getting to that, though. His head was rushing and everything was becoming too blurry. It was just his luck to get sick in the middle of a hot case. Tony wanted to tell the world to stop swaying so much but the sudden thought that it was actually he was swinging told him to be quiet. He wasn't too sure. Still, couldn't he catch a break? Stupid snow, stupid flu, stupid case, he muttered to himself. He was probably acting like a child, but he didn't care.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs yelled. "What's the matter with you? You're swaying all over place."
So it was he and not the world, then.
Pity.
McGee and Ziva observed Tony from where they were crouching. He looked drunk, sick, and confused all rolled into one. The SFA looked unbalanced and his eyes were starting to glaze over. McGee got up and stood protectively near his partner, worry seeping into him.
"You okay, Tony?" McGee asked. He put his hand on Tony's shoulder gently when it seemed like he was going to fall.
"Um, I uh…I don't re-really know," the slurring disturbed them all, even Tony.
Gibbs thought back, wondering if his agent took any medication and these were some side-affects. His gut was telling him to be reasonable, yet he still hoped that the young agent was simply reacting to some medication. This wasn't just the normal cold and they each knew that. And just as Gibbs wanted to walk Tony to their vehicle, the sick agent collapsed.
Gibbs, Ziva and McGee all ran to his side. Try as he might, Tony was barely able to move his right side of his body. His body was growing numb, and it was frightening him more than he would've liked to admit. He tried voicing his alarm but his throat muscles were snubbing him too. Tony panicked, sluggishly waving his left hand back and forth at his throat. Gibbs softly took his jaw in his hand and turned his face towards him.
"Tony," Gibbs said gently. "What's wrong?"
Tony's unfocused eyes flaunted fear, confusion and pain. He gazed sadly at the sky above him before opening and closing is mouth. Other than a few groans, he couldn't speak. Gibbs suddenly looked at the rest of his team in hopelessness. They were just as lost as him. The thought of a desperate Gibbs outright scared the crap out of all of them and Tony didn't want to be the one to cause it.
Tony tried getting up, lifting his head slightly before collapsing once again. He closed his eyes, trying to relax is mind but then Gibbs shook him.
"Hey, DiNozzo, no sleeping on the job." If anyone noticed the slight shakiness to his voice, it wasn't mentioned.
"Buh- Bosss," Tony screeched out. "I, I thi-think I'm gonna gonna call in ssssick today."
TBC
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A/N: Hello! This is my first multi-chapter story and I have written most of it already. It will be around 10 chapters, and will focus on Tony and Gibbs. There won't be much of a case, as this is really just focuses on whumping Tony. I'm willing to admit I may have a problem. Hope you'll bear with me. Please review!