Sorry this Chapter is a little later than planned, some idiots decided it would be fun to riot in Manchester City Centre so i was keeping an eye on the news and helping with the clean up seen as i live about 15 minutes walking distance away, good news is that the police seem to have it under control at the moment, woo Go Greater Manchester Police service and other services who have also helped out, they have done and are doing an awesome job! Anyway back to the story, enjoy!

Chapter 10

Gibbs almost missed the quiet reply.

"You can stay, Boss"

Gibbs hadn't missed the boss on the end of that short sentence and smiled a small smile. If their working relationship could be fixed then there was still hope for them both yet. Gibbs didn't doubt that it would take time though.

Tony knew that what he had indirectly said was that he wanted to stay with Gibbs for now, and Gibbs hadn't decided to fire him so there was a least one thing to smile about.

Silence wrapped around the two agents as comfortably as possible and all that could be heard were the machines keeping Elise alive. Gibbs thought for a moment that the younger man had fallen asleep but the younger man shifted a little in his seat, as if by habit. Just how long had his Agent been coming here in the middle of the night and then coming into work with little to no sleep?

"What happened, Tony?" Gibbs asked softly. His own emotions were fraying at the scene before him; he would have hated to see Shannon like Tony was seeing Elise.

Tony sighed; he'd been wondering when Gibbs would ask that exact question. Though, he wasn't quite sure what to say about it, he didn't know much himself.

"They weren't sure to start with; none of the symptoms matched anything exactly enough for them to do anything and by the time they had figured it out the damage had already been done." Tony looked towards Elise for a moment, a deep sadness within his eyes, and then continued telling Gibbs what he could remember from all the medical jargon he had heard. "They said it was some kind of rare amoeba that invades the brain and basically starts eating away at it, she's been on life support for about a week and a half now, and in hospital for about three."

By what Gibbs could hear from Tony's tone he didn't blame the hospital or the doctors at all; he just seemed dejected more than anything. "You could have told me, you know, if you needed time off, everyone would have understood." Gibbs had gone for a soothing voice but it wavered on the 'we', he'd almost said I and hoped that Tony didn't notice. However, it only served to anger Tony a little when the younger man glared at him.

"Yeah, I doubt that." Tony knew he sounded like a teenager being angry at the world but this was his fiancée laying in the bed, practically already dead, not anyone else's.

But Tony looked up at the wrong moment and saw something in Gibbs that extinguished his anger and he softened his expression and hoped that what he had just said wouldn't make Gibbs leave now.

Gibbs looked as if he was going to say something but was interrupted by Nurse Laura entering the room; she looked around and noticed two people in the room.

"This is Gibbs, my boss." Tony replied to Laura's questioning gaze.

"About time you told someone." Laura responded then quickly tried to backtrack. She looked apologetically at Tony but she noticed a small smile on his face and relaxed.

Gibbs had been surprised by the easy visitor/nurse relationship Tony and this nurse seemed to have and smiled himself, at least Tony hadn't been completely alone in here in the middle of the night, thinking about it all the staff on this ward seemed to have been pleasant but not overly so and not seemingly annoyed in general like some hospital staff could be.

"Would you both like some coffee?" Laura asked quietly as not to disturb the sense of calm in the room.

They both nodded and Gibbs told her how he liked his coffee then she disappeared back through the door quietly.

Something was bugging Gibbs though. "Has her family not been to visit?"

"They visit during in the day normally, after work and other things." Gibbs seemed to get the impression that there was some tension in Tony's posture on the mention of family but continued with his questions.

"And yours?" At this Gibbs noticed that Tony was getting fidgety again in the chair and seemed to want to look elsewhere.

"Ah, well, we had a little misunderstanding years ago." It was clear to Gibbs that that was all he was going to get out of Tony on that topic tonight and stopped.

Tony cheered internally when Gibbs didn't continue with that question, he wasn't ready for Gibbs to know about that kind of information yet.

Laura came back in with two mugs of coffee and quietly left the room again after checking over the machines, sensing that the two men in the room were having a somewhat heavy conversation.

"Have you decided what you are going to do yet?" Gibbs asked softly.

Tony sighed and tried to look at Gibbs when he answered but his eyes kept wandering away from Gibbs' blue ones.

"If you were given that kind of choice, what would you do?" Tony knew he'd asked Gibbs what he should do before but couldn't help but ask again, he needed at least a little help with this.

"I don't know, Tony, I wasn't given that choice." Gibbs tried to take the words back but he knew that Tony had heard them and it would have tarnished their names if he had anyway.

Both men stayed silent for a few moments; Tony tried to process what Gibbs had said, Gibbs was on edge having not shared this information freely before now and to someone he'd only known maybe a couple of months. Tony also wondered if this had something to do with the look he had seen before and cursed himself for being tactless.

"What do you mean, you weren't given that choice?" Tony's voice was sad of questioning, with no hint of anger anymore. "Who was it?"

Gibbs knew that Tony wouldn't use anything like this against him but he was still nervous about sharing something that he hadn't even told Abby or even Ducky. "My wife and daughter." Gibbs looked up to see Tony's reaction and saw that it was only questioning but he also thought he'd seen a small flinch at the word daughter, but if he was going to do this he needed to carry on, he could ask more questions later. Gibbs respected that Tony stayed silent. "They saw something they weren't meant to see and they were killed for it. I was overseas and not able to protect them." Gibbs stopped and looked down for a moment, trying to gather himself up again before looking up.

The understanding look that was shared between the two agents after the confession meant more to Gibbs than the usual 'I'm sorry for your loss' that he usually got off people. Gibbs was surprised when Tony asked a question and even more so at the one he did ask.

"Did you get the people that did it?"

Gibbs gave him a look as if to say 'ya think', they both smiled at the silent conversation. Maybe they were getting better at communication after all.

Tony couldn't believe that Gibbs had shared something like that, and with him, someone he'd know for only a few months, maybe if he stuck round long enough this time this could be the job and the boss he could stay longer than two years for. They had reached some kind of understanding in the past few hours and the weight that had settled on Tony's shoulders seemed to be lifting, even if only a little.

As silence reverberated again in the room both men looked towards the women in the bed. Light was beginning to pop up from the window; they had spent the whole night in the hospital and not even noticed. Tony felt bad for having forgotten about the case and spoke up.

"What's going to happen with the case?" Tony asked as he rubbed his arm a little.

It didn't go unnoticed by Gibbs but he answered all the same. "I had other agents take him to headquarters, apparently he confessed the whole thing before he even got there. Now it's just a case of collecting the evidence to build a solid case against him."

"Did he say why he did it?"

Gibbs shook his head solemnly, that was the one question they hadn't gotten an answer to. He saw Tony look towards Elise, his eyes suspiciously shiny but let it go, he too couldn't fathom why he would have killed one wife never mind have two separate lives, what mattered is that they had him and he would pay for it.

TBC

Well I think the next chapter is going to be the last one but don't hold me to that, I already have an idea for a sequel, woop please enjoy!