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Chapter Two: Frozen
"Suck it up, Marine," Tony grinned at Gibbs after he had all but trashed him at poker over the last couple of hours. "I've wiped you out."
Gibbs looked like he wanted to say something as Tony had to sneeze again and a slight shiver ran down his spine. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw Gibbs look at him again with an expression that looked vaguely worried. Not that Tony didn't appreciate the sentiment, but Gibbs was clearly overreacting. Granted, his head and throat were throbbing painfully by now, but besides that, he was mostly fine. He suppressed another shiver as he got up and stretched.
"Should probably try to get some sleep, huh?" he then asked, looking back at Gibbs who was still sitting on his bed. "So that we can go back to DC early tomorrow."
Gibbs nodded thoughtfully and glanced out the window. Tony followed his stare and winced ever so slightly when he saw the snow still falling down incessantly in the dim light of the streetlamp just outside their window.
"Wouldn't count on it," Gibbs grumbled before he stood up and disappeared into the bathroom.
Tony shrugged out of his sweater and was about to get rid of his jeans when the lights above him flickered for a moment before they lit up again. He knitted a brow and once again looked out the window. As beautiful as the snow appeared to be, he really wanted it to be gone by tomorrow morning. He hated sitting around with nothing to do but wait for the time to pass. He finally pulled off his jeans, so that he was only wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts, and quickly got under the covers, just in time with Gibbs re-entering the room.
"Light went out here?"
"Yep," Tony replied and took a sip from a water bottle to get rid of the scratchy feeling in his throat in the hope of not having to cough again.
Gibbs just shook his head, undressed himself to his shirt and boxers just like Tony and turned off the light.
"Good night," Tony said, draping the sheets tighter around him.
"Night, DiNozzo."
-x-
The first thing his mind registered the next morning, even before he was completely awake, was that it was cold. Even though he was still safely tugged in, he was not only freezing, but actually shivering, too. He drew a deep breath and realized with a start that it sounded rather wheezy. He sat up and was about reach for the hankies that were lying on the nightstand when he saw Gibbs kneeling in front of the small fireplace, apparently trying to start a fire there. Tony groggily rubbed his eyes and coughed before spoke.
"What are you doing?"
His boss just turned around, raising an eyebrow, apparently only just suppressing to roll his eyes.
"Making a fire."
"I can see that," Tony replied indignantly and pulled the sheets tightly around him again. "But why?"
"Power's out. And as those idiots here only got electric heating, I'm trying to keep us from freezing to death."
"Damn," Tony shook his head and reached out for his jeans and sweater. "Is it just us?"
"Nope, power's out all over town. Talked to McGee a couple of minutes ago, he says the forecast doesn't get any better. He thinks that we might be stuck here for a couple of days."
Tony groaned and immediately regretted it as his throat throbbed painfully again. He watched Gibbs busying himself with the fire and was glad when the older man finally succeeded in lighting it. He wiped his hands on his jeans before he stood up and finally looked at Tony, that weird worried expression from the night before back on his face.
"You okay?"
"I'm fi…," Tony started, but fell silent when he noticed Gibbs' glare. "I don't know. Head's a bit fuzzy and my throat's… a bit sore. I've had worse, really."
Tony gave him a lopsided grin, hoping that it would convince Gibbs, but he just shook his head.
"I'll say," he replied. "I'll head out for a while, see whether there's any drugstore around here."
"Want me to join you?"
Tony hopped out of bed, happy for any change of scenery, but immediately regretted the rash movement as the world in front of his eyes suddenly began to spin. He took a deep breath and sat back down, closing his eyes.
"Guess, I'll stay here," he said as soon as he had somewhat regained his composure.
"Probably a good idea, DiNozzo. I'll have my cell with me just in case."
"Yeah, can't call you. My battery's dead."
Gibbs gave him a glare.
"What?" Tony exclaimed as he reached for his phone. "Not my fault those new fancy phones have the battery service life of a day fly."
"And you're making fun of my old one. It's still working," Gibbs grumbled, then nodded curtly at him before he was out the door.
Tony sank back onto the warm bed, trying to shake off the slightly uncomfortable sense of foreboding. He knew that he was about to get hit by the flu, all the signs were there after all. Not that he had liked being sick before anything had happened, but ever since he had had the pleasure of encountering the plague, every flu, hell, every cough, was not be underestimated. He hadn't been sick in quite some time now, but this time it apparently was inevitable with the chilliness outside and power being down and all. He slipped under the sheets again, secretly glad that Gibbs had been smart enough to think about a drug store.
-x-
Gibbs returned with not only a few drugs for Tony, but also with a few bottles of water and two steaming cups of what Tony assumed was coffee.
"Here," Gibbs handed him one of the mugs. "Owner of the motel apparently has a wood-burning stove. And I called Ducky. He says you have to take these," he gave him a couple of pills, "every four hours. And you have to take it easy, alright?"
"I know, Boss. Thanks," Tony answered, giving him a rather surprised smile, having not expected the soothing tone in Gibbs' voice, before he took a sip from the beverage only to find out that it wasn't coffee but peppermint tea.
"I hope, you're drinking coffee, at least?" he grinned at Gibbs who simply raised an eyebrow at him as he sat down on his own bed.
"You wouldn't want to see me without a coffee in the morning, trust me."
"Oh, I believe you," Tony smirked, earning himself a rather gentle slap upside the head. "So, what are we supposed to do now? Did McGee send some information?"
"He did," Gibbs replied, "but we should probably watch the battery on your laptop, too, since the power's out."
"Right."
"Up for some poker?"
"You want revenge for last night?" Tony grinned and was already about to get up as Gibbs settled down on his bed.
"Yup."
"You know, this reminds me of a Lifetime movie," Tony slightly smirked before he took a sip from his tea. "Two guys alone in a motel room, the fireplace, completely cut off from the outside world. Very romantic."
"We're not cut off, DiNozzo, and there's nothing romantic about a power outage," Gibbs growled, though he couldn't quite hide the grin on his face.
"Well, we can still heat things up a bit by playing strip poker."
Gibbs let out a laugh before he all but threw the deck of cards at Tony. "Shut up and shuffle."
-x-
By the time they had eaten lunch and were back in their room, Tony was literally shaking. He didn't even know what was up with him. Granted, it hadn't exactly been warm down there, but it wasn't like it was freezing either. He had already wrapped his scarf round his neck, but little had it helped to get rid of the sore throat. Thankful for the still warming fire in their room, he quickly slipped back into his bed, pulling up the sheets to his nose. He didn't need to look at Gibbs to know that the guy was really worried by now as he had eyed him suspiciously at all times during lunch. Tony knew that he was doing a poor job of hiding how bad he was actually feeling, but he simply didn't have the energy to keep up the façade of the ever-joking clown. Not that he needed that mask with Gibbs anyway, but he would have still preferred not to be under the constant surveillance of those icy blue eyes.
The next few hours were spent in comfortable silence with Tony drifting in and out of sleep. Gibbs had been reading a book mostly, though Tony wondered how he was even able to read it without his glasses. He wanted to ask him, but couldn't quite muster up the energy to even turn around.
-x-
"Tony, wake up."
Tony slowly opened his eyes as he felt a hand gently shaking his shoulder. He turned around only to be faced with his boss' blue eyes mere inches away from his own.
"Hey," he pressed out sleepily. "What's up?"
"You got to take your pills," Gibbs replied rather softly. "And take this, too."
Furrowing a brow, and only now realizing that Gibbs was only wearing his t-shirt, Tony took the older man's sweater.
"I can't take that," Tony replied emphatically. "I won't be the reason you're freezing to death."
"Shut up," Gibbs all but ordered. "I'm not cold."
As if to emphasize his point, Gibbs grabbed Tony's hand for a moment and indeed, it was rather warm against Tony's skin. The younger man felt a shiver running down his spine again and reluctantly pulled on the sweater.
"Thanks," he mumbled.
Only now did he realize that it was already dark outside, bathing the room in a somewhat gray light.
"How long have I been out?"
"About two hours, I guess."
"Sorry," Tony said. "Didn't mean to."
"Don't worry about it. Might be a good idea to sleep it off anyway."
Again, there was that soothing tone and Tony felt his insides clench at the thought that Gibbs was actually that worried about him over a little touch of the flu. He tried to give him a smile, but wasn't entirely sure whether or not the corners of his mouth actually twitched. His boss just nodded at him before he retreated to his own bed and Tony turned around again, hoping that it actually was as easy as to simply sleep it off.
-x-
Once again, Tony was drifting in and out of sleep. He had no idea what time it was or if he had actually slept for more than a few minutes at a stretch. All he knew was that his head was all fuzzy, that it actually felt oddly disconnected from his body and that he was freezing, despite the jeans and the two pullovers he was still wearing.
He didn't know how long he was lying there, desperately trying to warm himself up without any real success. He was sure that he was running a fever by the time he felt something warm on his back and soon on his shoulders, too. He wanted to turn around to figure out what Gibbs had managed to heat up for him, but found himself savoring in the bliss of the warmth, so that he simply closed his eyes again, snuggled into the heat and fell into a deep slumber shortly afterwards.
A/N: Reviews would be great!