Hello! Although i'm not new to writing fanfiction, this is my first NCIS Fic, so please, go easy until i develop some kind of flow between myself and the characters.

There is a pre-established Tiva relationship here, Pregnant!Ziva and Sick!Tony will feature heavily here. Father/Son for Tibbs.

Disclaimer: Sadly, i own nothing affiliated with NCIS used in this story,

I hope you enjoy :)

There are a lot of things DiNozzo's don't do. They don't faint, or pass out, they don't cry, they don't show weakness. They do, however, apparently have really bad timing. This entire past year had been a year of being poorly timed. It started when Ziva and I finally told Gibbs we were breaking rule 12, that we were together. Somehow, we'd managed to forget that the day we were telling him was also the anniversary of Jenny's death. Then, the day we told everyone we were moving in together, was the day McGee got evicted from his apartment. After that, when I finally went to the basement and told Gibbs that Ziva was pregnant, it was Kelly's birthday. Don't get me wrong, he was supportive, excited even, he was pleased, but he was also very, very sad. I should have known, every time, but in the excitement, I'd always picked the wrong time. And this was no exception.

Ziva was 19 weeks pregnant when I first started to feel ill, like I had a strange version of the flu. I was run down, tired, a little feverish and my chest ached something awful. In a fit of hopefulness, I went five weeks taking flu medications, using my inhalers, drinking hot lemon and honey and spending as much time as I could in bed. After that, I gave up and just accepted that I had the flu from hell and it was settling in for a while. No problem, I could deal, the plague was a thousand times worse than this. It wasn't until 8 weeks later, when I'd felt increasingly crappy for two full months and hadn't told anyone, that things went very, very wrong.

Staking people out with McGee was fun, when I didn't feel like curling up in a ball and sleeping for a while. I couldn't even build up enough energy to pick on him a little bit. Eventually, he got antsy with my silence and went to get food. I wasn't hungry, I hadn't had an appetite in weeks, but I let him go, because I don't think I could sit for another second without pulling out my inhaler and trying to relieve some of the strange pain in my chest. Of course, keeping with the theme of bad timing this year, that was the exact moment the man we were waiting to catch appeared from around the corner. He spotted me, somehow, I couldn't tell you how he did it, but he started to run. With a frustrated sigh, I threw down my inhaler and threw myself out of the door, radioing McGee that I was after our guy and he damn well better hurry, before taking off after him.

The guy, a high level drug dealer who's bad coke had killed a Navy Lieutenant's daughter a week ago, was heading for the alley that would lead him out into main street. I'd lose him if he got out there, so I tried to kick it up and close the distance, but the pain in my chest worsened. I couldn't pull in any oxygen, the world was beginning to grey and crumble around the edges. Stumbling, I reached out for the wall to stop myself falling to the ground, but never got there. The pain in my chest worsened again, becoming tight and unbearable, and then the world went dark.

Coming round in hospitals is never my favourite thing, coming round in hospitals with nasal tubes in, heart monitors, and shallow breathing is even worse. I panicked, trying to sit up and take a deeper breath at the same time. A strong hand pressed down on my shoulder, keeping me on my back while I scrunched my eyes and concentrated on breathing. Taking the first deep breath made something calm inside of me, the second made it so that I could open my eyes. Looking down from above me was a very concerned and angry looking face, piercing icy blue eyes swimming with emotion that was quickly smothered.

'Boss?' I chocked out, Gibbs moved and brought me back a cup of water, offering me sips until I nodded and he put it back on my bedside table. I tried again.

'Boss, what's going on?'

'I don't know, DiNozzo. You tell me?' Hi voice was bland, but his eyes flickered with emotion again, I just couldn't figure out what it was. I shifted my eyes away from his, because I was going to have to tell him how long I'd not been feeling well for, and then he was going to be pissed.

'Waiting, Tony.' I coughed and stuttered for a moment, before closing my eyes, taking another deep breath, and then making eye contact again.

'I've um, I've not been feeling well for a few weeks. I was going after our guy when my chest started to hurt more than it had been and then I.. um..'

'You passed out.'

'Did not,' I muttered under my breath. 'DiNozzo's don't pass out, Boss.' Gibbs scoffed and muttered a 'yeah, right' under his breath, but didn't get to comment anymore because a doctor breezed into the room with a very timid looking nurse trailing behind him.

'Good evening, Mr. DiNozzo. I'm Doctor Fields.' He held his hand out for me to shake and I took it. 'How're you feeling now?' He asked, pen poised over clip board, ready to take notes.

'Just fine.' I answered without thinking about it, it was the fall back response, as it had been for years. Have the plague? Feeling just fine. Shot in the shoulder? All good, Boss. Collapsed while chasing a suspect? Just fine.

Apparently though, it wasn't washing today, because Gibb's gave me the mother of all Gibbs stares and I couldn't not tell them the truth. I sighed.

'I feel like an elephant is sitting on my chest, my head Is pounding and, do I have a fever because being sweaty and cold is awful?' Gibb's eyes clouded with concern as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked over at the doctor.

'Yeah, you do have a fever, not too high really, but I can imagine it making you feel a bit off. Can you tell me, how long have you not been feeling your best for?'

'Urm, about 8 weeks I think.' I mumbled, Gibbs gave me another glare. 'Sorry, Boss.' I muttered under my breath before turning back to the doctor. 'Do you know what's wrong, can I get out of here?'

'Blood work shows some abnormalities, we'll need to do some more tests to make sure, so the nurse here will take some more blood from you. If all is well, you should probably be okay to get out of here in the morning.' Doctor Fields said with a slight smile, looking up for a second before glancing back down at his clipboard, where a slight frown formed in his forehead.

'Quick as you can with those bloods, Anna, don't want to keep Mr. DiNozzo waiting. I'll see you in the morning.' He smiled once more, shaking my hand, before leaving. Nurse Anna was approaching me with her needle and I felt my eyes widen and my body tense. God, I hated needles. Gibbs chuckled lightly beside me.

'Suck it up, DiNozzo, it's only a needle.'

'Easy for you to say.' I winced as the needled slipped in and blood started to fill the vials. I turned my attention away.

'Urm, Boss, where's Ziva at?' I winced again, only this time not because of the needle. If she found out how long I'd been ill for, she was going to flip.

'She's at mine with McGee. Staying the night. You got real bad timing, DiNozzo, you've got an ultrasound tomorrow.' I groaned. Of course, more bad timing.

'I'll be out in time for that, I'm sure. Tell her not to worry about me.' Gibbs just nodded at me and watched as Nurse Anna finished setting up the IV in my arm and capping all her vials of blood. She smiled at me, timidly, and then scuttled away.

'Maybe you should get off, Boss. Ziva will be worried and she doesn't need the stress.' Gibbs nodded and turned to leave before pausing at the door.

'You sure you're going to be okay for tonight, DiNozzo?' He let his voice fill with concern and it made my eyes sting with tears, this man was more of a father than his own had ever been. He'd never known what concern, compassion, family was before he'd joined NCIS.

'Yeah, I'll be fine. See you in the morning. Oh, and tell Ziva I said I love her.' Gibbs looked at me sceptically when I told him I'd be fine, but he didn't say anything about it, just nodded and smiled.

'Will do, Tony. Try and get some rest, I'll be back to pick you up about ten tomorrow.' With that, he left the room, and I was left to battle with the increasing feeling in my gut that something was very, very wrong. I guess we'd find out tomorrow.