Trading Places

Summary: "If you could take her place, would you?"

Disclaimer: Yeah, I forgot, I have to actually express the fact that I don't own the characters, etc. It should be obvious, since if I did own them, Kate would still be on the show (I don't care if Sasha wanted out…too bad for her) and there would be a LOT more TATE!

A/N: Wow! Thanks so much for all the great reviews! I really wasn't sure if I should continue or not, but you guys definitely made the decision for me. So, as per your requests, here is another chapter! And it's a lot sooner than I had planned on putting it up too…I was supposed to be studying for my last final! But I read your reviews and melted :)

Therefore, this chapter is dedicated to: harmsarah, JHsoccerchick, Princess-Rachy, BlueTigress, midnight-sk8r, pacificbluegirl, kap0w, Odakota, PKgirl, Emily, Hero, sorgenmond, Grainne, netty, and everyone else that reviewed!

Oh, btw, to those of you that asked about the blue-eyed stranger, I thought I'd leave his identity up to your imaginations…he's more mysterious that way ;)

On to the story! (finally…)

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" –n't worry. He's just unconscious and should be back with us any moment now."

"What about his other injuries? I mean, he had the plague, and I know his lungs haven't healed properly yet, and then this…" she trailed off.

Tony heard the end of the conversation as consciousness finally took hold of him again. Eyes still closed, he concentrated on figuring out who was there. The first voice was obviously male – one he hadn't heard before – speaking in a matter-of-fact way, which led him to deduce that it was either a doctor or a nurse, which meant that he was probably in a hospital. The second voice was definitely Kate's, and judging from the way she was rambling, she was either nervous or worried.

Wait a minute. Kate? Suddenly everything came back to him and he began to try to open his eyes with a renewed urgency.

After several attempts of trying and failing to keep his eyes open due to the intensely bright lights, he finally managed to open them and keep them that way. Rolling his head toward the direction where he heard the voices coming from, he noticed the doctor looking straight at him.

"Well, I think we can ask Mr. Dinnozzo any further questions we might have, seeing that he is now awake," the doctor said with a smile.

Kate, who had had her back to him abruptly spun around only to find to a pair of wide green eyes staring right back at her.

"Kate?" He whispered, still unconvinced that she was alive and well.

"Tony! How are you? Are you alright?" She rushed to his side and began firing the questions before either man had time to react. As she absently brushed her fingers over the newest bruise on his forehead, she continued in a softer voice, "Does it hurt?"

Tony was still mesmerized by the fact that Kate was alive. "Kate? You're alive."

Kate shot a questioning look at the doctor, who was still standing in the doorway, before she turned her concerned gaze back to Tony.

"Of course I'm alive, Tony. Well, thanks to you, anyway. If you hadn't noticed that bomb, we probably wouldn't be here right now."

She paused for a beat, then continued again, her voice barely containing her concern for him, "And what possessed you to go and play hero like that, huh Tony? You haven't even properly recovered from the plague, and you decide that you're in proper shape to outrun a bomb?" Her concern had turned to exasperation as she finished her small tirade, causing her voice to steadily rise in volume.

"Bomb?" Tony replied in a dumbstruck tone. Slowly the pieces began falling into place. He went back in time?

At that moment, the doctor came forward, while Kate shot him an anxious look.

"Mr. Dinnozzo, do you remember how you got here? Do you remember what happened?"

The worry in Kate's eyes had increased, as she stared wide-eyed at Tony. She was not expecting memory loss.

"Uh…" Tony tried to bring back the memories from that day, but he didn't remember going to the hospital. In truth, much of the time that surrounded the events that had unfolded on the rooftop had become blurry memories at best. He did remember the bomb on the car, having spotted it just before McGee turned the lock, but after that he thought he had just gone back to NCIS headquarters.

Both Kate and the doctor were still waiting for an answer, so he told them what he remembered about the bomb. He was careful to leave out any mention of what happened next, saying simply that he didn't remember anything after the explosion until he woke up here just moments ago.

"Well, I'm sure that Agent Todd will be able to fill you in on those details. You seem to be doing fine right now. You've got some bruises from the explosion, so you will be sore for a while. Also, you do have a mild concussion, so make sure that someone stays with you tonight. They should try to wake you every half hour or so, and if you don't wake up, they need to call an ambulance right away. Alright?"

At Tony's nod, the doctor finished, "Good. Otherwise, you seem to be fine. I'll have a nurse get the discharge papers ready. You should be ready to go in a couple of hours – just try to get some rest in the meantime."

Kate thanked the doctor, while Tony simply nodded at him.

As he opened the door, the doctor turned and added, "By the way, Agent Dinnozzo, you shouldn't be back at work for at least two or three days. I would suggest taking the rest of the week off." With that, he finally left the room, leaving Kate and Tony alone together.

"So, care to fill in the gaps, Kate?" Tony said lightly, though his emotions were running wild. He kept his gaze locked on her, afraid that she would vanish if he let her out of his sight. He knew it was crazy to think so, but he had apparently just gone back in time, so he really didn't know what to think anymore.

Kate sat down in a chair that had been pulled up to the bed.

"Well, we just went back to headquarters and Ducky and I practically dragged you down to the morgue so that Ducky could check you out to make sure everything was alright. Ducky made you sit on one of the metal autopsy tables and began to do a check up on you, but halfway through, you just fainted."

She began to fidget with her hands, her eyes staring unfocused at the small plastic hospital band on his wrist, as she recalled the events that had led them here. "Ducky said that you probably just lost consciousness because you had been through a lot, so we laid you down on the table properly and waited for you to wake up. And you did."

Kate paused at this point and took a deep breath, shifting her gaze to meet Tony's.

"Tony, you looked at me like you had seen a ghost when you woke up. You just – you got so…I don't even know how to describe the look you gave me." She looked intently at him, her eyes questioning.

He didn't say anything for a moment. He clearly remembered the pure shock and relief he had felt when he saw Kate's face hovering above him. He was still feeling some of that shock and relief now. The image of her lying on the rooftop, lifeless flashed in front of his eyes and he had to fight hard to keep the flood of emotions from showing. He had to remind himself that she was here, sitting right next to him, alive and well.

But he wasn't sure if he should tell Kate what he had experienced. How could he tell her that he had already lived this day, although a little differently? How could he tell her that she had died and he had somehow gotten a second chance – a chance to change what had happened? She would probably think he had gone crazy; even he felt like he had gone crazy just thinking about it.

He simply looked at her and she seemed to understand somehow that he didn't want to talk about it. So, she just continued telling him what had happened, as if there had been no pause.

"Then, you passed out again. We got worried and decided to take you to the hospital. Gibbs told me to stay with you, and since then, we've just been waiting for you to wake up."

"We?" Tony questioned.

"Well, I'm supposed to call Gibbs and everyone else when you wake up. Speaking of which…" she held up her cell phone as she stood from the chair.

Tony simply stared at her. His eyes felt heavy, but he needed to keep an eye on Kate. She couldn't leave him again because as miraculous as this was, he knew there would be no way to change things if it happened again. That scared him more than anything. This time he knew what was going to happen, and he had to find a way to protect her. He couldn't let her down again.

Kate seemed to understand that he didn't want her to leave. She moved closer to the bed and squeezed his hand reassuringly, "I'll be right back, Tony. I'm going to be right outside, in the hallway." She let go of his hand and walked toward the door, "Try to get some rest."

Tony sighed as he let his heavy eyelids drift shut. He couldn't figure out what was making him so sleepy. Hadn't he just woken up after passing out twice? Must be the drugs.

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Ok, so, I'm not really that pleased with this chapter. I don't know – I just don't like it as much as the first one.

Now, again, I'm not sure if I should continue. I do have part of the next chapter written, but I'm not really sure where I should take this.

So, should I continue or should I let you all decide how things end up between Kate and Tony? And if I do continue, any suggestions on where I should go with it?

Review to let me know!