Tim McGee stood off to the side while he watched the x-ray technician position Tony's swollen and increasingly colorful ankle. Tony had insisted it was sprained, not fractured, and he didn't need x-rays, but Tim, Ziva and Gibbs had all decreed he needed x-rays and Gibbs assigned Tim the task of bringing him to the hospital.

Tim would've come to the hospital with him regardless, but that was beside the point. He was grateful that he hadn't had to manufacture any reasons to be the one to accompany him.

"Ow!" Tony hissed as the x-ray tech turned his ankle to another angle to get the film.

"Almost done," the x-ray tech soothed. "Hold still just a moment longer," she instructed gently as she positioned the portable x-ray machine above his ankle.

Tim frowned. Tony seemed to be in a lot of pain for what was presumed to be a sprained ankle. Given the strain on Tony's face, Tim didn't think he was merely attention-seeking, as he was known to do, and it annoyed him that Tony hadn't been willing to get it checked out when he was in that much pain.

In just a few more minutes, the tech was done and she wheeled the machine out of the room. Tony breathed a sigh of relief. The doctor had promised to return once he'd read the x-rays and that left Tim and Tony alone for the time being.

Tony reached for the water on the table and drained the glass before setting it down again. He looked over at Tim. "Why are you all the way over there?"

Tim pushed himself off the wall where he had been leaning and sat down in the chair near Tony's hospital bed. "Was just staying out of the way."

Tony studied him a moment. "You're mad."

"Concerned," Tim countered. "How bad is the pain?"

Tony rolled his eyes.

Tim glared.

Tony smirked. "Give it up, Probie, no one glares like Gibbs does."

"I wasn't trying to glare like Gibbs does."

"Good thing because it was an epic fail."

Tim frowned. "How…bad…is…the…pain?" Tim repeated slowly, emphasizing each word. "And don't roll your eyes at me."

"It hurts a lot, okay. Sheesh!" Tony muttered, annoyed. "Being here is a waste of time. It's just sprained."

"Sprain or fracture, you still don't need to be on it."

"I can still work at my desk."

"Not if you're going to elevate it."

"Can just grab a chair and prop it up."

"Needs to be elevated higher than that, Tony. You know this," Tim said a little impatiently. "I wish you wouldn't be so mulish about your health."

Tony looked over at Tim in surprise. "Mulish?" he repeated.

"Yeah, you act like a damn ass. What if it's much worse than you think it is and you had tried to walk on it? You'd end up doing more damage. Better to find out now what we're dealing with to prevent worse."

"Okay, okay, McPractical. I just hate being here."

"I know, Tony."

Tony dropped his voice a little, "At least Gibbs let you be here with me."

Tim looked over, surprised. Outside of either of their apartments, Tony never brought up the fact that they were a couple, not even a hint. That was the equivalent of ultra top secret information, on par with, "I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you." Not even Abby knew, and both men were very careful when in the same room with her at the same time lest she pick up on something. So far, the few times they'd had to be in the same room with her, they hadn't given themselves away, but she would figure it out sooner than later.

The only one who definitely knew about them was Gibbs. Tim wasn't sure what had given them away. Tony hadn't treated him any differently except that his teasing had lost any cruel edge it used to have but that had lessened anyway as their friendship had grown over time, but Gibbs knew almost right away when things had changed. Gibbs cornered them in the elevator, told them he knew, admonished them to not let their personal relationship affect work because if the director found out, she'd separate them. He'd also said that if they found they couldn't be in a relationship and work together, to let him know so they could work it out without their relationship becoming widely known.

Both of them were so stunned neither could react, but Gibbs had said his piece, restarted the elevator and presumably went for coffee. Tim and Tony returned to the bullpen. Thankfully, Ziva was in a teasing mood and she asked what they were in trouble for. Tony picked up the thread of teasing and fell into their customary banter. It had given Tim the time he needed to find his equilibrium, and made things seem nearly normal. When Gibbs returned, he acted like nothing had been said and the rest of the day passed in an eerie sense of normal, especially when Gibbs smacked Tony in the back of the head for a half-inappropriate comment, causing Ziva to smirk and Tim to just shake his head and chuckle.

Once they got over the shock that Gibbs knew, they made rules for their relationship so they could keep work and personal as separate as possible. The rules worked for them, and as they were private people anyway, found it even easier than they expected to adhere to. The difficult part for Tony was that he sometimes found it difficult to treat Tim as 'probie' instead of equals at work. Ziva noticed that Tony didn't treat Tim quite the same as he had, and Tony had explained it by reason that Tim wasn't really a probie agent anymore and that he no longer needed to toughen him up. Ziva seemed to accept that though for a short time there was a modicum of misgiving in her expression. Since Tony continued to tease Tim good-naturedly, eventually that faded and she didn't seem to suspect anything, or if she did, she kept it to herself.

Tim had always kept his personal life as private as possible, especially after working with Tony, but also because he preferred his privacy. He was glad for that now, because it made things less difficult for him in keeping their relationship quiet. The part he found the most difficult was being around Abby, especially if Tony was present. Abby could read him better than everyone except Tony. Over time, he found the best way to deal with Abby was to not talk about much of anything personal. Fortunately, he knew the things she was interested in and he knew how to get her talking and keep her talking until he had to leave, usually due to Gibbs' demand, and so far that was working. Abby never asked him if he was seeing anyone; he wondered about that as there were times she displayed a little jealousy if he was involved with someone, so maybe she just didn't want to know.

The other big thing that was difficult for him was that Tony sometimes still had to flirt to get information. Tony didn't flirt with anyone the rest of the time, but it often worked to get people talking, and Tony still used that to his advantage. Tim understood intellectually that you did what you had to in order to solve a case (within reason), but he would never like that Tony flirted with anyone but him. At least after the Jeanne Benoit fiasco, Tony had stopped boasting about his conquests in the bullpen. If he still had to do that, Tim would have found it hard to take. He had been jealous before he and Tony became close, if it had continued even now, it would've been unbearable.

Hearing the hiss of pain brought Tim out of his reverie and he looked up at Tony who was clearly uncomfortable. "I'm cold," Tony complained. "Why are hospitals so damn cold anyway? There a blanket around here?"

"Good question." Tim said, realizing that the room was cold and after Tony had taken a bad spill on ice, he was susceptible to a chill. He got up and walked over to the supply cabinet and found a blanket inside. He unfolded it and draped it over Tony's legs, careful to cover the injured ankle but not have it put too much pressure on it.

"Thanks, Tim." Tony sounded grateful as he adjusted the blanket and pulled it up over his chest. He closed his eyes and Tim let him rest as they waited for the doctor.

A half-hour later, the doctor returned, "Tony, I just read the x-!" Tony jerked awake, like he'd been dozing.

"Sorry," the doctor said, smiling apologetically and lowered his voice. He gave Tony a moment to re-orient himself. "Your ankle is sprained, badly, but not fractured. Going to need to rest for several days, and then physical therapy to strengthen it. Off work at least until Monday, then desk duty for at least three weeks, possibly longer." The doctor flipped the blanket back, then carefully placed an Aircast brace over his ankle, checking that it wasn't too tight. "There, that should help with stability. You can take it off to sleep, but on the rest of the time, especially when you're on your feet. That should also help with swelling. Once the acute pain subsides, I want you to start working on range of motion."

"Dammit," Tony huffed as he forced himself to breathe evenly while the doctor handled his ankle.

"What's the pain level on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst?" The doctor asked.

"About five or six," Tony said. "Ankle ended up under me when I fell."

"You're very lucky it's not worse." The doctor scribbled something on a pad. "I'm going to prescribe you a few hydrocodone to use for the next few nights for pain control so you can sleep, but don't use them if you don't need them. You shouldn't drive while on these."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill." Tony sounded annoyed.

The doctor looked at Tim and raised an eyebrow. "He gets loopy on pain killers. I'll look out for him."

The doctor nodded. "Use these for sleep, acetaminophen or ibuprofen the rest of the time, ice 15 minutes at least three times a day, and keep it elevated. Nurse will be back in a minute with discharge instructions and crutches, and then you can get out of here."

"Don't need the crutches. Got a pair at home."

"All right," the doctor said, nodding. You'll probably need them for the rest of the week."

Tony opened his mouth but Tim beat him. "Thanks, Doc," Tim cut in before Tony could say anything about the hydrocodone. He knew Tony would have told the doctor not to prescribe them but Tim had a feeling Tony would need them, at least for tonight, probably tomorrow night too. Tony took the prescription from the doc but he frowned at it.

Tony huffed after the doctor left the room."Great, weeks of doing nothing." He started wadding up the prescription but Tim stopped him and took the paper from him and smoothed it back out. "We're going to get this filled, Tony, just in case you need it." Tim read it. "It's only six pills anyway."

"They make me loopy, not taking them."

"You won't be loopy, you'll be asleep, Tony," Tim said patiently. "And you won't be doing nothing. He said you can go back to work on Monday."

"But sitting at a desk is boring."

"You'll get through it," Tim soothed. He stood up and picked up Tony's sock and carefully put it on over his foot and the Aircast to keep his toes warm.

Tony shifted, trying to get comfortable. It was less painful with the brace on, but he was still uncomfortable. "Dammit! Can't believe I slipped on the freakin' ice. I grew up on Long Island and Rhode Island. I've been shot at, stabbed, got the freakin' plague, and now…this. It's embarrassing!"

"Gibbs thought it was just snow too. He was as surprised as the rest of us were when you skated and tumbled."

"God, I hate that word! I did not tumble!"

"Actually, you did tumble, Tony. If you'd been a couple more inches, you could've grabbed the guy and brought him down with you."

"How is it our ninja chick who grew up in a freakin' desert managed to take him down when I couldn't…on ice?!"

"She probably had super-secret winter-time assassin training from Mossad."

Tony laughed, a smile temporarily lightening the pain in his eyes. "Mossad on Ice."

Tim involuntarily snorted, a smile teasing at his lips. "God, don't let Ziva hear you say that. She would not appreciate Mossad being compared with Disney. Still, watching her skate over the ice…it was almost like watching Mossad turn figure-skater. I don't know how to explain it. It just…it was really cool how she took him down." Tim remembered watching Ziva cut and skate, anticipated their perp's next move and grab him, pulling him off balance so she could drop him. He chuckled, seeing her triumphant look in his mind's eye. "If it's any consolation, when she brought him down, the landing chipped his tooth."

Tony chuckled. "Good! Dumbasses! Why do they always run?"

"Because on TV cops are stereotyped as being bumbling fools and they think they have a chance of getting away. They don't realize in real life, we're much more strategized and efficient. We're not on TV trying to tell a story to entertain people."

"And technical, McPrecise. Don't forget technical," Tony teased with a smirk on his face.

Tim rolled his eyes but smiled anyway.

A few minutes later, the nurse came in with discharge instructions, and a wheelchair. "You ready to go, Agent DiNozzo?"

"More than," Tony emphasized.

Tim helped Tony to his feet and the nurse positioned the chair so he could sit right down. "I'll go bring the car around," Tim said, walking out, and pulling out his cell phone as soon as he was out of the emergency room to update Gibbs.

After they arrived at Tony's apartment, Tony gave him the key and told Tim where the crutches were and Tim ran up to get them. Even now, two months after Tony let him into his sanctuary, he was still stunned by what he coined the 'hidden' Tony DiNozzo. The Tony DiNozzo that had bookcase-filled walls and what appeared to be expensive and beautiful furniture with the most comfortable sofa Tim had ever sat on.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and moved faster to Tony's bedroom closet where the crutches were exactly where Tony said they'd be and took them down so Tony could get inside.

Once Tony was inside, Tim closed the door and set Tony's and his bags down.

"You don't have to stay, Tim. Gibbs is probably already wondering where you are. I'm good."

Tim stopped, surprised. "Gibbs knows exactly where I am, Tony. Come on, you need to lie down and prop up your ankle. I'll fix you something to eat, too."

"You don't have to do that. I can take care of myself. Been doing it a long time now."

Tim stopped and stared but Tony was already on his way to the kitchen.

"Tony, go lie down. I got this. You need to get off your feet."

"I don't need a babysitter."

"I'm not babysitting you. I'm your partner, you've been hurt and I want to help you."

"You've gone to enough trouble for me, Tim."

"It's not any trouble, Tony."

"Having to wait on me hand and foot is no trouble?"

"I'm not waiting on you hand and foot. Just trying to make life easier so you can heal."

"You should get back to work."

"Gibbs told me not to bother. He got a confession."

"What?! Really?"

"Yeah. He said Abby and Ziva can take care of the evidence and get it ready for JAG. We just have to write our reports and e-mail them when we could. Figured I'd do mine after you fell asleep. You can do yours tomorrow when you get bored."

"Gibbs said that?"

"More or less. We know you, Tony." Tim smirked.

Tony looked distinctly uncomfortable. "You still don't have to stay, Tim. I don't want…"

"You're not a bother, or a burden, Tony. I want to be here." Tim lowered his voice. "Now, go to the bathroom and then get in bed. I'll be there shortly to help you." Tim pointed.

Tony looked surprised but after studying Tim a moment, turned around and hobbled out of the kitchen to do as he was told. Tim turned back into the kitchen to see if Tony had anything at all to eat or if he would have to have something delivered.