Disclaimer: characters are not mine...booooo...

Summary: He's managed to gain the trust of his new agent on the job but when his new agent seems to have a problem and won't talk to him tempers fly and there's a case that needs solving.

Set pre-season, enjoy. Mainly friendship with some angst and mystery thrown in just for fun. May have a little hurt/comfort in there too.

Burden Of Knowing

Some people liked knowing what was happening, to see what could be done if it were to all go wrong.

Some people preferred to leave it a mystery, to let nature take its course.

However, there was a third category this time.

The ones that didn't necessarily want to know when it came to bad news, but didn't have a choice.

The ones that had to be told so that they could do their jobs properly, but being the one that spent the most time with those involved, needed to know.

Laura fell into the third.

Each and every time she stepped through the doors to start a job that meant the world to her, it twisted and tore at her heart that little bit more.

Especially with some patient's; ones where the family were kind and genuine, ones that didn't deserve what they had been handed. The ones you really got to know, the ones you would do anything you could to try and make the whole thing easier.

It was one of the hardest things she had to do and wouldn't wish it upon even the worst family or person.

It was the power of knowing too much but being able to do too little about it bar make the person in question as comfortable as possible.

So when she crept into the room, to find the man she had come to know as Tony fast asleep at the bedside, knowing that he'd been there all night, she gently woke him.

The green eyes before her changed so fast from an innocent hope, to confusion, to pain, she had to briefly look away; it was the waking up every day that tore this person's resolve down, each day they would have to remember why they woke up in the hospital in the first place.

Any questions the man could have asked had been answered in the past two weeks they'd been in this position.

It's just a matter of time.

There is nothing more that could be done.

Both sentences she knew the tall, brown haired man had heard from both her and the doctors.

Words that everyone hated to hear.

In a few moments she knew that Tony would head for work, having told no one dear enough to him to talk about it too, mask firmly in place and she hated the ease he did it with but didn't question his own coping mechanism. It didn't stop her trying though as guilt flashed through emerald green, as it did each time he left the room, worried that the person currently occupying it wouldn't be there by the time he got back.

"Is there nobody at all you can tell?" The silent hope Laura held behind her own professionalism.

"I don't want to bother them." Was the typical answer she got and she wasn't proven wrong this time.

But this time she noticed a crack in his mask and a profound sadness peaked through. As if he thought that they wouldn't care.

Sadly, having said all she dared, all she could do was watch him walk stiffly away; the hospital chairs weren't meant for sleeping in.

x-X-x

Tony walked out of the hospital slowly, all motion automatic; the nurse had a point.

Maybe he should tell someone what was happening.

Maybe it would make what was to come a little easier.

Not that the hospital staff hadn't helped him as much as they could. They had done a lot, even small actions made all the difference, even down to a friendly mug of coffee or tea when he'd sat by the bed for hours at a time to offering information about anything he would ask. He could tell, even if they didn't show it, that it was affecting the staff too. He would do something nice for them all when the time came.

But he couldn't help the little voice in his mind telling him that his problems were his own to bear. That he shouldn't trouble anyone else because he wasn't worth their time anyway.

He made his way to work on little sleep and knowing that he was going to be late; but dragged out a bright, shining smile anyway.

Ready to face the day.

x-X-x

"DiNozzo, you're late!" Gibbs growled as Tony entered the bull-pen.

"Sorry Boss won't happen again." Tony started launching into a flirtatious story about a new neighbour who had moved in, but stop when a death glare was sent his way.

Gibbs was annoyed at his new Agent, this was the third time in the last week or so that the younger man had been late, and he was obviously not sleeping so well from the bags under his eyes. There was something wrong with his newest Agent but said Agent was being stubborn and not saying anything that mattered.

Sure the Agent spoke a lot but it was about meaningless things, things that didn't matter. Just chatter, to deflect and distract anyone not willing enough to not look closer.

It would almost work as well had Ducky, Abby and most annoyingly had he not become attached to Tony over the past couple of months of working with him. There was something about their new Agent that screamed out to belong.

Not that they'd tell him that they knew.

Oh, he'd tried not to get involved with people under him or working with him as that could only spell out more pain in the future but each of the people working with him had somehow managed to work their way into his heart, not that he would admit that of course.

Most importantly though, he could trust all of them with his life.

He knew that Tony had his six in the field, and he didn't doubt that Tony knew that Gibbs had his back as well, but there was one problem.

Anything other than work, he knew that Tony wasn't forthcoming in the slightest. The man was about as stubborn as Gibbs himself on that account.

But he was going to figure out his new Agent, no matter what.

However, unfortunately, his concern about his Agent would have to wait.

There was a case to be solved.

TBC

This is a less torture focused one but please enjoy all the same, still angsty in parts though it won't be a really long one either, and mainly friendship between the characters...Enjoy!