Written for Miss Sarky herself.
The Prompt: Gibbs is mad at being injured and dishes it out on Tony, who takes it like an angel.
Disclaimah: I don't own it.
Tony walked up the steps to Gibbs' place and through the unlocked door, hung up his coat, and toed off his shoes.
"I'm home!" he called to the upstairs, but he guessed the older man had heard him come in already. It was around dinner time and he knew Gibbs would be getting hungry. A figure alit at the top of the stairs, Ducky.
"Hey Ducky," Tony said.
"Ah, Anthony," Ducky greeted.
"How's he doing?"
Ducky just gave him a pointed look.
"That bad, huh?"
"The conversation was turning to a bit more self-loathing than I would like. The man just doesn't know when to rest."
Tony sighed, preparing himself to deal with an extra-cranky Gibbs tonight. Gibbs was the selfless hero and had pushed a witness out of the way of a hit and run that was premeditated. Instead he got hit a bit too hard in the hip and had let him with a fracture on his femur. After reparative surgery and a good prognosis, Gibbs wasn't enjoying being laid up. Though he wanted to get up and moving he hadn't healed enough for it to be walking around all had stayed with Gibbs for the first week to make Jethro was taking care of himself and when he returned to work, stopped by on his lunch break to check on him. Gibbs was allowed to move around on his crutches to get him back on his feet, but he almost overdid it leaving Tony no choice but to call in reinforcements with Ducky, and find a few places to hide the crutches.
"Thanks, Ducky. I'll take it from here."
He left Ducky to his own devices as he took the stairs two at a time. He went into the master bedroom to see a scowling Jethro propped up against a mound of pillows.
"Hello, dear," he greeted with a smile and leaned over to kiss the man on the forehead and brush a hand through the silver just growled a 'hey.'
"What would you like for dinner?"Jethro said nothing, just continued to pout so Tony knew there was only one solution, he bent down and kissed him full on the mouth, not stopping until he felt Gibbs respond.
"Anything interesting happen today?" Tony tried keeping it light. If Gibbs' glare was a laser, he'd be Swiss cheese.
"I'm stuck in this bed fer chrissakes!" Jethro began to shout. "I'm useless here and no one will let me out! I'm sick of this, I can't do anything here!"
"I know it's been hard, Boss, and you've been doing really well," Tony gingerly sat on the edge of the mattress next to Gibbs' legs.
"Everyone keeps saying that. They just don't want to say that I'm not as young and spry as I used to be, pack of wolves they are," Gibbs ranted, and then went in for the kill. "Bet you've been waiting for the chance to get out of the boss' shadow, make yourself team leader? Let the old man go to pasture. Waiting for the chance, huh?"
Jethro got the desired effect as he saw Tony's stricken look, eyes widening in disbelief. They sat for a moment and he knew he had gone too far with his stomach sinking in his gut. Shutters flew up behind Tony's eyes to cover the hurt. Gibbs opened his mouth to say something, just stood up and kissed Jethro's temple.
"I'll get you something to eat. You must be hungry," came the soft voice and Tony was gone.
"Dammit," Jethro cursed.
He really just said that, didn't he? No wonder he'd been divorced three times. After a little a delicious aroma came floating into the bedroom and he could hear Tony moving around in his kitchen. Being angry took a lot out of him and he fell into a light doze. The scent of food and Tony's light tread woke him later. Tony had made some light pasta with Alfredo and veggies. Tony had been giving him milk and vegetables to "speed the healing" and along the way shown Jethro he was a fair hand in the ate with him perched on the side of the bed, careful not to jostle him. He used the nightstand for his drink and left Jethro to his tray of food. They didn't speak over dinner, Tony never spoke over too serious of topics over dinner, said it messed with digestion. A fact which Jethro was imminently grateful.
"Tony," he began after Tony cleared the dishes. And he was silenced with Tony placing a finger over his lips. Tony had been in thought after he snapped at him.
"First off," Tony began, "you will never be useless. Ever. Infuriating, maybe, but never useless." Tony gave him a small smile.
"Second, yes, you're an older guy and with it come physiological changes, but you're also in great shape and are healing as quickly as can be expected. You're not as young as you used to be, true, but time gets us all in the end."
Tony moved his hand into Gibbs, giving it a soft squeeze. "But you're still the charming guy who can score a hot young thing like me," Tony winked. "But your job right now is to heal, get better, and let me take care of you because I need you."
It was the most vulnerable thing Tony had ever admitted. "I need you, Jethro. I need you to get better so you can get back to ordering me around. I need your headslaps and keeping Probie and Ziva in line. I need you on my six. I need you to come home to every night. I need you to screw me into the mattress the way I like. I need you to love me because you're my whole world. And I need you to rest and get better so that can happen much sooner."
The silence was deafening and Tony looked at him for a long moment.
"Too sappy?" he responded in a grin, now in a better mood and much calmer than he was.
"Nah," Gibbs returned. "C'mere."
It was a chaste kiss compared to what they usually participated in.
"I'm sorry," he breathed against Tony's lips, "I love you too."