Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS. Not even a small, inconsequential part.

A/N: Thank you to everybody who reviewed the last chapter! I really loved hearing your thoughts. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Twenty One

Dr. Baylor

"You missed the exit," Tony pointed out as they drove down the highway through the pouring rain, which seemed to match Jethro's mood.

"No, I didn't," Jethro shook his head.

"Yes you did. To get to my apartment we take the exit onto Jefferson," Tony pointed behind them, confused.

"You don't live on Jefferson," Jethro told him.

"Yes I do," Tony insisted.

Of course he lived off of Jefferson. He'd lived off of Jefferson since he'd moved to D.C. from Baltimore years ago. He had a one bedroom apartment in a brick building and his neighbor had the most annoying little Chihuahua that liked to bark all night.

"Your apartment is on Poplar," Jethro replied.

"No, it isn't," Tony corrected him.

"Yes, it is," Jethro snapped, and Tony cringed.

Jethro had not been in the best of moods since they'd gotten off the plane at Dulles. Tony hadn't said anything about his foul attitude until they got in the car- one Tony hadn't realized was his partners, though Jethro insisted it was. His mood had continued to deteriorate as they drove away from the airport and Tony tried to figure out exactly what was bothering him.

In all honesty, Tony was freaking out inside. He wasn't sure exactly why they'd been at the airport in the first place, or where they were coming from. He'd almost told Jethro this, but decided to keep his mouth shut instead. His partner was not in a good mood, and he didn't need to tell him something that was going to upset him further.

"You just passed the exit for Poplar," Tony sighed after another few minutes, deciding to indulge in his partners delusion.

"We're not going to your apartment," Jethro said.

"You could have just said that before," Tony pointed out, resting his head against the back of the seat and folding his hands in his lap.

Jethro simply shook his head, readjusted his grip on the steering wheel, and fixed his eyes on the pavement in front of them. Whatever was eating at him, it was definitely not good.

"Perhaps we should pick up some dinner before we get back to your place," Tony suggested, though he really wasn't feeling very hungry.

"We had dinner before we got on the plane," Jethro refused.

"Oh, right," Tony nodded, though he didn't remember that happening.

It suddenly occurred to him that he could very well be the reason for his partners bad mood. After all, he was not usually so curt with him.

"Have I done something to offend you?" He wondered nervously, hoping it wasn't so.

They hadn't been together for too long. What if Jethro was going to break up with him? He'd moved to D.C. to pursue a relationship with him, and he wasn't sure what exactly he'd do if they broke up. He couldn't keep working with him, that was for sure…and his heart would probably break into a thousand pieces.

"I'm not upset with you," Jethro sighed. "You haven't done anything wrong. I'm just tired from the flight."

"Okay," Tony said, but he wasn't entirely convinced.

"Really, Tony. You haven't done anything," Jethro assured him.

The rest of the trip passed in silence. When they pulled into the driveway of Jethro's house, Tony squinted his eyes at the car parked in the space where his partner usually parked his truck. It was a nice car and definitely not one that Jethro would ever drive.

"Whose car is that?" Tony asked as he pushed open the passenger door and forced himself out of the leather bucket seat.

"Yours," Jethro replied from where he was pulling their bags from the trunk.

"That's not my car," Tony objected.

He really wouldn't have minded if it was his- it was a very nice car- but he drove a black corvette, and the vintage mustang in the driveway was certainly not a black corvette.

"Yes, it is," Jethro told him.

Something was not right with this picture. They were coming back from a trip he didn't remember taking, in a car he didn't recall his partner owning, to a house he'd visited only a handful of times instead of his apartment- which he was positive was off of Jefferson and NOT on Poplar.

"You coming?" Jethro called from the porch when Tony hadn't moved from the driveway.

Did he have a choice? Without answering, he hurried up the walk and followed his partner into the house. It was familiar, but he really hadn't spent enough time there to notice if anything was off about it. As Jethro took the bags upstairs, insisting he didn't need help when Tony offered, he walked through the downstairs. It seemed just the same as every other time he'd been there- simple.

A set of pictures on the mantel caught his attention, and he walked over to check them out. A picture of an older man sat to the side in an ornate wooden frame that Tony assumed Jethro had made. The subject of the photo was unfamiliar to him, but the pair of people in the middle picture he easily identified as he and Jethro. He had no memory of when this picture had been taken, or who had taken it, but they were sitting together on the couch in that very living room with goofy smiles plastered on their faces. It unsettled him that he couldn't remember it being taken. The last photo- one of a woman and a young child- was completely foreign to him, and he backed away from the mantel. His head was starting to ache from trying to remember who these people were. Was he supposed to know the strangers? Surely, Jethro would have told him about people he was close enough with to have photo's on his mantel of.

"You okay?" The man in question caught his attention as he descended the stairs, his boots making more noise than necessary on the wooden boards.

"Yeah," Tony lied with a fake smile.

Jethro was kissing him before he even realized he'd crossed the room to him, and Tony sank into it willingly. Jethro was a good kisser, and the touch made him feel immensely better. His partners lips drove all of the bad thoughts away until nothing mattered but the continued touching of their mouths and tongues and hands.

He was slightly confused when Jethro pulled away and leaned his forehead against his own. While he loved kissing his partner, something wasn't right…when had they gotten back to Jethro's house? The last thing he remembered, they were on the plane home. He sighed as he realized what must have happened.

"I had a memory lapse, didn't I?" Tony asked with a sigh.

"Yes," Jethro murmured in response. "You're okay though. I got you home in one piece."

"Was I much trouble?" He wondered, feeling guilty for putting his partner through the hassle of it.

"No. You kept telling me that you lived off of Jefferson and wouldn't believe me when I said you didn't, but you were a good boy," Jethro reassured him.

Tony had not taken kindly to the news that he was lapsing back to different points in time. When Jethro had told him, he thought it was a joke, but the look in his partners eyes had told him there was nothing funny about it. It had been easy to not realize he was missing chunks of time when he was in the hospital, forbidden from doing anything but watching television- which really hadn't been so bad until he'd gotten bored of it. There wasn't much to remember in the hospital, but being out in reality, it was very disconcerting to not know how you'd gotten somewhere.

"I don't like this," Tony muttered.

"I know. You have an appointment with Dr. Baylor in a few days. He's going to figure out how to fix it," Jethro replied.

Tony really hoped that the doctor could.

NCIS

One part of Tony enjoyed the fact that Jethro had taken the time off work to stay with him. He enjoyed the company of his partner immensely, and he knew that no matter how bad the memory lapses were, Jethro would never let anything happen to him. The other part of him hated the fact that Jethro had taken the time off work to stay with him. Not only was he going to have to explain their relationship to the people they worked with- because, honestly, he couldn't see any way that they could get around that- but his partner was constantly on top of him, and not in the good way.

He wasn't allowed to leave the house alone, and leaving included only short trips that Tony found to be very unsatisfying. Walks around the neighborhood and zipping in and out of the grocery store didn't give Tony enough time out of the house to feel like he'd actually been out of the house! He understood why he was on such a short leash, and he couldn't say he didn't need it, but he certainly didn't like it. He wasn't used to being sequestered to such a small area of space for so long.

It felt like the three days between their homecoming and his appointment with Dr. Baylor had taken a lifetime to pass. Not even Abby's ever-increasing optimism could make him feel better, and the incessant calls from McGee, Ziva, and Ducky were frustrating him. Didn't they understand that he didn't want to talk?

The memory lapses disconcerted him more than anything else. One minute he'd be in the bedroom putting on his shirt, or in the kitchen making a sandwich, or in the bathroom taking a shower, and the next thing he knew he was somewhere else. Once he'd come to standing in his boxers in the middle of the front yard with Jethro urging him to come back inside while one of the neighbors peered at them from behind the hedge in her yard, clearly thinking he'd lost his mind. At least he had Jethro around to catch him. He knew he could be overbearing and annoying at times, but Jethro never let him do anything stupid.

By the time the appointment with Dr. Baylor was upon them, Tony was begging to go. Whatever Dr. Parker had screwed up in his brain needed to be fixed before he went crazy.

NCIS

Sitting in the waiting room waiting to be called for Tony's appointment was like torture. He had promised his partner that the doctor could fix him, but could he really? Jethro was a realistic person, not an optimist, and while he'd done everything he could to reassure Tony that the problem could be taken care of, he was having a terrible time convincing himself of that. He didn't even want to think about what life would be like if the damage was permanent. He knew that he'd stick by Tony's side through it, but taking care of him wasn't going to be easy.

"Anthony DiNozzo?" A young woman opened a door near the receptionists desk and smiled when they stood up.

Jethro thanked heaven that Tony was not having a memory lapse. Getting him to do anything during an episode was nearly impossible. Sometimes he was so confused about where he was and what was going on that he'd have a complete melt down and he'd only calm down when his memory returned. Luckily, Tony was having a good day, and he followed after the woman with a bounce in his step.

Upon arriving in the exam room after a check of his vitals, they didn't have to wait long for Dr. Baylor. Tony greeted the man enthusiastically before introducing him, and Jethro shook the doctor's hand without pause.

"How're you feeling?" Dr. Baylor asked, sitting down in the swiveling chair in front of the computer.

"Good. The heads a little sore, but I'm good otherwise," Tony replied with a grin.

"That's good to hear. I got the medical records Dr. Parker sent from New York. The scans look good, and the surgery was successful," Dr. Baylor said as he reviewed some notes the young woman who had roomed them left on the computer screen.

"Uh huh," Tony bobbed his head, already knowing this information. "I'm feeling good."

"So what seems to bring you in?" The doctor wondered, swiveling around to face them, and a burst of anger threatened to overwhelm Jethro.

"Dr. Parker didn't mention the memory lapses?" Jethro demanded.

Furrowing his brow in confusion, Dr. Baylor spun around to look at the computer screen again. He was silent for a few moments before he addressed them.

"There's nothing about any memory affects in what he sent us. He pointed out that there was minor post-surgery side effects but concluded that treatment was not important," Dr. Baylor replied. "Is there more to it?"

"More to it?" Jethro wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the question, and Tony set a hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down.

"I've been having some memory lapses," Tony explained to the doctor. "Dr. Parker said it had something to do with swelling in my brain. He wouldn't treat them."

Dr. Baylor didn't look very happy to hear that news.

"He wouldn't treat them?" The doctor demanded.

"He said they would either clear up on their own or they wouldn't," Jethro told him when Tony looked his way for help. "There was nothing he could do."

"How bad are they?" Dr. Baylor asked, and again Tony looked to Jethro for the answer.

"They are definitely having an impact on the way he leads his life. We never know when he'll have one, how long it will last, or how bad he'll react to it. Since we got home three days ago, he's had six," Jethro said.

"Six?" Tony questioned, and he flicked at his fingers for a moment before saying, "when was the sixth? I only remember five."

"I didn't tell you about the one in the basement," Jethro shrugged. "It wasn't a bad one. I didn't want to upset you."

The glare Tony sent his way told him that they would be talking about his lack of communication later, and he turned back to the doctor to continue with their appointment.

"Dr. Parker should have looked into this, or at least documented it in the paperwork he sent over," Dr. Baylor shook his head, clearly very annoyed.

"Is there anything we can do to fix the problem?" Tony asked, an edge of hope in his voice that he couldn't mask."

"We can certainly look into it," the doctor assured him. "This was just irresponsible medicine. I'm going to set you up for another MRI, and we'll go from there.

A/N: So, there's hope! Dr. Baylor's on the case!

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