This story continues on from where season 2's 'SWAK' left off. Tony-centric.
Gibbs headed straight to his kitchen for a beer as soon as he arrived home that night. It had been a very long day, trying to figure out who had sent them a deadly virus in the mail that ultimately left one of his agents fighting for his life in the hospital. When he had gone to see Tony, Gibbs had not been expecting what he was confronted with. Kate's tears were a shock, but it was heartbreaking to see his normally strong, vivacious, best friend laying in that hospital bed, connected to a heart monitor, and getting oxygen that truly was not helping in the least. His agent couldn't even take a breath without coughing and wheezing. It just wasn't right.
Gibbs had headed back to NCIS to finish up the case, but he couldn't get the image of Tony out if his head. The blue lips, speckled with blood, kept appearing in his mind, worse than what it had actually been. In the end, he had asked McGee to type up his report for him because he needed to get out of there, and left in a rush.
Now that he was at home, however, he was wishing he had stayed at work, where there were people he could talk to, work he could lose himself in. All alone in his house, Gibbs was finding it hard to shake the image of his deathly pale, extremely sick agent. He knew Tony wasn't alone- Kate had chosen to stay with him for the night, Ducky was there if anything was needed, and Tony's doctor had promised to stay with Tony overnight. The nurse that had clearly bonded with his agent hadn't left Tony's side once Gibbs left, but Gibbs felt like he should have stayed too. Back when he had brought Tony onto his team, he had said that he would never let his agent be alone during a crisis, yet he had done the exact opposite when Tony needed him the most.
"Damn it!" Gibbs cursed as he put the unopened bottle of beer back into the fridge. "How the hell did you worm your way in, DiNozzo?"
Gibbs ran up to his room for a quick shower, then headed back out to Tony's apartment to grab what the younger man would need.
Tony was finally feeling like he could rest. His body ached from all the coughing he had been doing that afternoon, he couldn't breathe very well, even with the oxygen, and he could hear the heart monitor beeping much faster than it should have been. But the medication Brad had given him was starting to kick in, allowing him to relax enough to sleep. The day's events had worn him out more than he would ever admit, and he was glad that Kate had chosen to stay the night. She was already asleep on the bed next to him, so he carefully turned his head to look at her. He knew that she would eventually go back to teasing him if Gibbs was right about him not dying anymore, and he actually welcomed it. It was something for him to look forward to, a hope for him to cling to while he recovered.
"Thank you, Kate," Tony whispered just before he fell asleep.
Ducky had fallen asleep in the waiting room outside the isolation chamber. He had watched until Tony finally fell asleep, then watched a little while longer to make sure that Tony wasn't about to cough up a lung again. But after that, exhaustion won over, and Ducky had settled into the seat to fall asleep. That had been an hour ago.
Ducky startled awake when he heard someone coughing violently. He was on his feet in seconds, rushing into the isolation chamber just after Emma and Brad. He could see Kate was awake and at Tony's side, holding him up while he continued to cough.
"Tony, you're okay," he heard Brad say, even though nobody truly believed it yet.
"Gibbs..." Tony choked out between coughs.
"It's the middle of the night, Tony," Brad said softly, "Gibbs is sleeping. He'll be here tomorrow." Even if I have to call him to make sure that he's here, Brad thought.
Ducky gently pulled Kate out of the way and hugged her, noticing that she had started to cry again. He didn't blame her for being scared- they all were scared for Tony.
"I'm here now."
Ducky looked up and smiled. "Perfect timing, Jethro," said Ducky as Gibbs came and gave Kate's hand a gentle squeeze.
Gibbs gave a strained smile, then looked back at Tony, who was shivering as he tried to get his breath back. "Tony, I'm here," said Gibbs gently as he carefully stroked Tony's head.
At first, Tony shied away when Gibbs touched him. Other than the occasional head slap, his boss wasn't a hands on person. And the last person that had touched him like that was his mother, just before she died. However, after a moment, Tony realised that Gibbs wasn't going to hurt him. Nobody had stopped him from touching Tony, so Tony relaxed a little. He looked at Gibbs through half closed, tired eyes and saw his boss was smiling.
"Get some sleep, Tony. I'm not leaving you," Gibbs whispered to his stricken agent.
"Thank... thank you, Gibbs," whispered Tony as his eyes slid shut and he fell into a peaceful sleep.