A/N: Here's another chapter.

Don't own

Read and review please.

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Gibbs walked out into the hall outside Tony's room to find Dr. Cavanaugh, Brad Pitt and Ducky conversing in low voices. It filled him with dread.

"Tony wants to talk to you."

Brad responded first. "What'd you tell him?"

"Just that you wanted to postpone the surgery."

"I see."

"Look I am no good at this stuff, and before any of you start I already got reamed out by Tony. I will get this down but could you just help me out here?"

"Of course Jethro; I know this is difficult and that you are not a doctor but Tony is right you must learn all you can so that you and he will be prepared."

"Prepared? How the hell do you prepare for this Duck?" Gibbs anger and frustration was evident.

Cavanaugh stepped in at that point. "Look, I am an oncologist I have a pretty good idea what this process is like for my patients and their families. There are two ways people tend to deal with this situation avoidance and the "knowledge is power" approach. I find the people who decide to learn all they can have a better sense of control and are occupied with the process so that they look to have a handle on the overwhelming nature of the thing. Obviously, it won't change the grief and anger but it seems to help and they are better informed, which can help the person who is ill feel less alone in the midst of all the chaos."

Gibbs took it all in and just nodded.

"Well, shall we go see Anthony now?"

"Yeah we need to get in there he's pretty beat."

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The four men walked into Tony's room just as he was beginning to drift off.

"Hey Tony, how you feeling?" Brad said.

Through some unspoken agreement Brad became the spokesperson for the group.

"Well Brad to be honest like crap."

"Yeah, I figured that. So let's talk turkey okay?"

"I would appreciate that Brad; I'm tired of all the evasion and pussyfooting around." Tony looked pointedly at Gibbs.

"After looking at your labs your red and white blood cell counts are dangerously low. The transfusions will help your RBC's come up and we're going to give you a Neulasta shot to bring up your white blood cell counts."

"I hear a but in there."

"Because of this we're going to have to postpone your surgery, and we have discovered your radiation wasn't as successful as we'd hoped."

"What do you mean? Today was the last day how could you tell anything?"

"The tumors haven't shrunken as much as we'd like." Dr. Cavanaugh responded.

"How much did they shrink?" Tony looked at Ducky.

"Very little I'm afraid."

"At least they shrank." Tony said.

The three medical men looked at one another but before they could answer Gibbs said, "Not at all really."

"Now wait, there's more to it than that Tony." Brad interjected.

Tony snorted. "Not sure I can take any more good news Brad."

"What Brad is trying to say Anthony is that while the tumors are not quite shrinking they are not growing." Ducky tried to reassure.

Tony looked straight at Cavanaugh. "Do me a favor and only you talk. I can't handle hearing this from them."

"Sure Tony. Here's the situation, your tumors did not respond to the radiation as we'd hoped and now your body is having serious side effects from the treatment, enough so that we must postpone surgery for a few days. The problem with postponing is the aggressive nature of this cancer and the added risk of hospital borne infection. You have a few options here. One we wait, keep you in the hospital and do the surgery ASAP. Two is we get you healthier and then go on to the chemo, three is you do nothing."

Tony looked at Gibbs who was pale and tense.

"Why would I do nothing after already going through this? I mean what good would it have been to even do this radiation? So three is out, DiNozzo-Gibbs don't quit." Tony could see Gibbs was visibly relieved by this statement.

"Look, this is not the outcome we'd hoped for but at least we stalled some of the growth." Brad said.

Tony pointedly ignored Brad's optimism.

"Dr. Cavanaugh what do you recommend?"

"I really want to do the surgery, but you have to be much healthier before we do it because it is a difficult procedure. And the bad thing about that is how aggressive this cancer is, time is a definite factor."

There was a tense silence before Tony finally said, "Guess I'll just have to get better quick then Doc."

Cavanaugh looked Tony in the eye with respect and confidence and said, "Okay, so I guess we have a plan. Tony will get his counts up and then we'll do the surgery."

The three medics took that as their cue to leave.

"Get over here and hold me before I fall asleep Jethro." Tony said tiredly.

Gibbs walked over slowly fighting his frustration and fear. There was no way he'd let Tony see him lose it. Tony needed his strength right now and all Gibbs wanted was to drink and throw things. By the time he crossed the six feet to Tony's side, his husband was almost out.

"Come on Marine give us a hug." Tony whispered.

Gibbs bent down and pulled an already thinner Tony into his embrace and fought with everything he had not to scream.

"Love you Tone…" Gibbs managed to force past the baseball lodged in his throat.

"Love you too Jethro." Tony sighed and fell asleep.