The next few weeks passed without much chaos, at least as far as everyone else knew. Gibbs stayed somewhat sour and stared at Tony surreptitiously whenever he could. But since Tony was watching Gibbs surreptitiously as well he noticed. But he wasn't sure if Gibbs noticed him noticing.

Tony however had been trying to work his way back into his boss' good graces. He would leave with the team, and come back an hour later, after a quick bite to eat, and work through the night. He'd leave an hour before the rest of the team was due to arrive, grabbing another bite or a half an hour power nap before sauntering in five minutes late or less as usual. It was counter productive to his goal, but if people, or rather, if Gibbs noticed him being the first one there, them he'd think to have Abby or McGee check the security tapes. Then everyone would know he wasn't sleeping and Gibbs would be even more mad.

If anyone was suspicious about how he was alternately silent as a grave or talking up a storm nobody said anything. The only out of the ordinary thing was that Ducky called Gibbs down while they were working on cold cases. Tony dismissed it as the older man wanting company other than Palmer.

"You wanted to see me Duck?" Gibbs asked, leaning against the door frame, arms folded across his chest.

"Yes, Jethro, it's rather important so thank you for making it down here as quickly as you did. Please close the door and sit down." Gibbs nodded, following the Doctor's instructions, sinking into the offered chair, watching as a cup of tea was stirred and then sipped. "I know coffee is more your style, but may I get you a cup of tea?"

"No thanks Duck, just tell me what this is about."

"Alright then. I had noticed in the days preceding the Maddie Tyler incident, and continuing afterward, you have been unusually strict on our dear Anthony. I wish to know why."

"Is that what all this is about? You thinking I'm being too strict on DiNozzo? Well if that's all you have to say then save your breath. I have my reasons."

"Would you at least tell me what those reasons are?"

"You're not going to let me go without answering are you Ducky?" the old man chuckled, shaking his head in amusement.

"Heavens Jethro, you may not be as young as you used to be, but neither am I. I hardly doubt I could stop you if you sincerely wished to leave. I am just asking as a friend, for you to tell me what your reasons are before I show you the things that have come to our notice."

"'Our' Duck?" Gibbs asked raising an eyebrow.

"All in good time Jethro, all in good time. Please enlighten me first."

"Well Doctor Mallard." Gibbs began, settling further back in his chair and taking a deep breath. "DiNozzo's been slacking for weeks. Not only being unreachable for stretches of time, but withholding information, disobeying orders, leaving early and coming in late. And now I've been catching him forgetting things and falling asleep at his desk."

"He's also been strangely silent or overly talkative hasn't he?"

"Yes, but what does that have anything to do with it?"

"Well I believe, and have proof, that Anthony is overworking himself to try and please you, because you hold him to a higher standard than the other agents on the team. A standard that he believes he is not meeting. For example that day on the pier..."

"That day he disobeyed orders." Gibbs was scowling now, adjusting his folded arms, gripping them more tightly. He could sense where Ducky was going with this and he didn't like it one bit.

"And if he hadn't you and young Miss Tyler would be dead. But that is not the point of this. We arrived after the paramedics, but not by much. The way we had arrived, I was able to watch that little exchange between you and Miss Tyler rather clearly. When Tony removed himself from the situation he looked like you had just shot his dog. His arm was bleeding rather badly and he was coughing up that vile water, shaking so hard I thought he would fall in."

"Which is why I told him to never do something like that again, and put him on desk work so he could recover." And gave him a healthy head slap for good measure.

"But you never praised him for a job well done?" Gibbs sighed, running his hand through his hair.

"I didn't think he needed it."

"Well I'd like you to think about that again, after you watch this. Abigail?" From a connecting room, Abby walked in, laptop in hand.

"Hi Gibbs..." The greeting was sheepish, and Gibbs knew that he wouldn't like what she had to say. "I want to start by explaining. This little inquest was kind of my doing. I would come in and find files from Tony on my desk. Ones that he didn't hand me before he left, with you and the rest of the team. So I did some checking. I found this on the security feed. Every night since after the incident where you almost drowned. Which was not cool Gibbs. What would we have done if we lost you?" Abby paused, shaking her head. "But that's not what we're here about. We're here about Tony." She turned the laptop towards him, before standing at his shoulder. "And I can tell you what he's saying."

She pressed play on the laptop, and Tony was seen walking in with his head down, the picture of exhaustion. The time stamp said it was about an hour after they had left. He sat at his desk and pulled a file out, staring at it with his head propped up by his hands. He sat there like that for a good five minutes, not moving, just staring through the closed file. It was almost as if the tape had stopped before Tony reached up and smacked himself in the back of the head, by the way he winced it looked to be harder than necessary.

"Get a hold of yourself DiNozzo!" Abby narrated, trying to sound like a gruff version of Tony. "You'll never find your way back to being the best agent by slacking off like this." She watched the screen for a moment, letting Gibbs see the the lengths that Tony was going to in order to win back his favor. "he spends most of the night either pretending he's you yelling at him more, to keep himself awake, or he's growling to himself."

"I've seen enough." Gibbs said reaching out and tapping keys on the keyboard until the feed stopped. No wonder Tony was falling apart so spectacularly. God what had he done?

"There is one other matter that requires your notice before you go and confront the boy." Ducky stated, setting his cup down. "I am aware of how much you care for Anthony. You will need to tread lightly with him while he's this exhausted. Or you could risk losing him."

"He's not going to quit on us Duck." Gibbs stated matter of factly.

"That is not what I mean and you know it Jethro."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said, standing and heading out of the Medical Examiner's office. He wasn't ready to admit to the very real possibility of falling apart if Tony ever got hurt or killed, and now he was flooded with guilt for not realizing what he had done. All he could hope for was that Tony would forgive him for being a royal bastard.

"Abigail, I do believe that we should be adding 'stamina' to the list of Anthony's physical symptoms." Ducky stated looking at the laptop screen before focusing on Gibbs retreating form.

Tony was nearing the end of his rope. A person could only drink red bull and avoid sleep for so long before they crashed. Vampires could do it longer but they weren't indestructible. Eventually sleep would be needed, no matter where they were. Two weeks was about Tony's limit, though he was sure if Gibbs was a vampire then he'd be able to do over a month easy. But he wasn't Gibbs.

As Gibbs walked into the bullpen he looked at McGee and Ziva, who chorused 'Hi Gibbs' causing Tony to mumble something about not falling for it again, not moving from what looked to be a precariously balanced position. If he startled Tony he could seriously hurt himself. Motioning for the other agents to silently go for a walk he waited for them to comply before crouching by Tony's side, placing one hand on the wheeling office chair before removing the file from the young man's lap.

"Up and at 'em DiNozzo." Gibbs said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes - a habit that he had caught himself picking up from the younger man - when Tony jerked in a way that would have sent his chair rolling back and the files skittering off his lap.

"I am up boss!" He stated, unable to fight a yawn. "What do we got? Another murderer? A kidnapper?"

"Just you goin' home DiNozzo. I know how little sleep you've been getting." Gibbs didn't sound angry yet Tony still flinched when Gibbs picked his hand off of his shoulder to grab at his upper arm instead, guiding him to his feet.

"I haven't been coming in nights, I've been spending them with Veronica."

"The game's up DiNozzo, I'm taking you home." He guided the field agent into the elevator and pressed the button to take them to the garage. They made it most of the way there before something in Tony snapped alive and he reached off, hitting the switch to stop the elevator.

"I don't get it Gibbs! I work my ass off to prove that I'm the best on the team, aside from you, and I get chewed out. I save your ass and I get a head slap and a lecture about defying orders! I say nothing about how bad a match she is for you because hell I could be wrong and after everything you deserve some happiness. But you're still a the worst bastard I've met, because you give the rest of the team nods and good jobs and CafPow! for things that every Probie should know and do! So now why are you concerned all of a sudden?"

"I didn't realize the lengths you were going to to impress me. Didn't realize you needed my praise for doing your job a hell of a lot better than anyone else since you wouldn't let us forget." He paused a moment letting Tony's words sink in. "Why the hell is it you want to go so far to impress me? Angling for your own team?"

"No. That's not it at all. It's just... You need to trust that I've got your six no matter what. And..." Here he trailed off, picking at the nail on his middle finger with his thumb, staring at the railing in the elevator. Gibbs sighed.

"Spit it out DiNozzo." he instructed, and there was another moment of hesitation before Tony reached out like a flash and flipped the elevator switch with one hand while he pulled Gibbs to him with the other. He crushed their lips together in a nearly desperate kiss, trying to channel all of the emotions he felt into that one instant. Even though it was just lips, when the elevator doors dinged open Tony found his head spinning with only one thought of 'oh god what have I done?' floating around in his head.

Doing the first thing that he could think of he suddenly shoved his stunned boss back, whirling around and hitting whatever button he could, sliding out of the elevator as the doors closed. The last thing he heard as he took off at a full out run was Gibbs, shouting for him to get back there. But no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't will himself to go back. He just had to keep going until he got somewhere Gibbs would never think to look.