"Morning Kate!" Tony smiled as Kate rounded the corner to her desk. He was a little surprised that she didn't retort with sarcasm, but blamed it on a bad mood.

"Good morning Tony." Kate was definitely not her normal self that morning. She had woken up with a horrible case of cramps, which were so severe, she was having trouble putting one foot in front of the other.

Finally, Kate was in a position to collapse into her chair, but mindful of Tony's eagle-eyes, she sat down quite gracefully. Tony was going to ask her if there was any particular reason why she was in a bad mood, but Gibbs walked past them and ordered everyone to finish their overdue paperwork by the end of the day, so he decided to leave the matter alone.

"That's it! If I open one more file, I'm going to go insane. Lunch break Kate?" Tony was surprised Kate didn't answer. On any other day, she would have jumped at the chance to stop doing paperwork. He tried again.

"Hey Kate, you want lunch?" What was she staring at? He noticed she wasn't moving, but just staring at a stack of papers in front of her. That worried him, so he got up and made his way to her desk.

"Kate?"

Suddenly realizing someone was talking to her, Kate looked up into Tony's eyes.

"Yeah Tony?" Talking and breathing were becoming difficult for her. She forced herself to steady her breaths in an ongoing effort to lessen the pain.

"Do you want some lunch?"

Kate weighed the options. If she got up, she didn't think she would make it all the way back to the parking garage, but on the plus side Food might help.

"Okay." Slowly she stood only grimacing a little, forcing herself to stand up straight.

"Are you alright Kate?" Tony knew Kate would rather shoot him in the head, than tell him something was wrong, so he was trying not to be pushy, but was also becoming increasingly worried.

"Yeah…"

By the time the double doors opened revealing the parking garage, Kate was seeing double. As she moved to step out of the elevator, the pain overwhelmed her, and her legs buckled. Crying out, she reached for Tony-who was shocked-but caught her and easily lifted her into his arms. By that point, Kate didn't care if Tony saw her cry; she just wanted the pain to go away.

Tony was scared to death when he saw Kate collapse. He was even more shocked when she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shirt.

"Talk to me Kate." He still didn't have any clue why he was standing in the elevator with a now shaking Kate in his arms.

"It hurts Tony." She cried. The pain was so intense she was becoming light-headed.

"Show me." On any ordinary day, this would have had a double meaning for Tony, but right then, the thought hadn't crossed either of their minds.

Kate removed one of her arms from around his neck and placed it on her abdomen, solving the mystery for Tony, who knew more about her problem than she did. Without another word, he pushed a button, closing the doors.

"Ducky!" Tony rushed into the morgue, demanding the older man's attention.

"Dear heavens." Ducky rushed over to them, and felt Kate's head. "She's burning up." He noticed that she was also gripping her stomach, and laid a hand on top of hers. Without warning, he pushed down, causing her to cry out and tighten her grip on Tony. "Breathe Caitlin. You need to steady your breathing." He laid a hand on her forehead and looked up at Tony. "Let's get her in the van."

"Van?" Kate's question was muffled by Tony's shirt.

"Yes Kate. I'm afraid your appendix may need to be removed." Ducky patted her shoulder.

She groaned in reply.

The ride to the hospital was a quiet one. Kate sat in the middle, resting her head on the arm Tony had wrapped around her. She hated hospitals, and was dreading being under the care of a civilian doctor. As soon as the van pulled up in front of Georgetown, Tony eased Kate out, and into a wheelchair. A nurse met them inside, and wheeled her off to surgery.
"What is taking them so long Duck?" It had been an hour and a half since their arrival at the hospital, and after making a call to a very annoyed Gibbs, Tony and Ducky were left to sit and wait.

"Excuse me." Ducky was saved from Tony's impatience by a short nurse with curly blonde hair. "Are you both with Ms. Todd?"

"Yes." They stood up, suddenly towering over the young woman. Tony's mind raced over a million questions, and finally settled on the simplest. "How is she?"

"She's going to be just fine. Normally, removing an appendix is considered minimally-invasive, but apparently this was a problem for quite a while, and the appendix ruptured before Doctors could remove it." She smiled at Tony's worried expression. "It's alright, all this means, it she will need to rest a little longer. She'll be on her feet in two to three weeks."

"Can we see her?" This time, Ducky had to speak for Tony.

"Of course. She'll be out for another hour or so, but when she wakes up, she's free to go-with the promise that she'll stay in bed with absolutely no walking or lifting for 36-48 hours."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Ducky was well aware of the risks of taking someone home so soon after emergency surgery.

"It's not common that we release patients right away, but we are overcrowded, and as long as she gets rest, there should be no problems down the road." Without giving Ducky another chance to protest, but she spun around and walked off calling out Kate's room number over her shoulder.

"I hate civilian hospitals." Ducky complained all the way to Kate's room. "There is no regard for patient safety, all they care about is funding, and patient care suffers."

Tony had tuned out the old doctor's ramblings even before they started. All he wanted to do was see Kate's face, to see for himself that she was okay. As Kate once said, they were NCIS agents, and there was a chance one of them might get shot every time they walked through the door. Tony was prepared for that reality. He was not prepared for Kate to collapse in the elevator with appendicitis. It had nothing to do with terrorists, or sailors, it was something none of them could control, and that scared the hell out of him.

When he finally reached the door marked 306-the number he heard the nurse shout over her shoulder-he pushed the door slowly open. Weary of what Kate might look like, he prepared himself for the worst, but that didn't help. As he neared her bed, he was surprised at how small and frail she looked. Her skin was pale, and she was being aided with an oxygen mask.

Tony was unsure of what to do next. He didn't even know what to think. If she had gotten shot, or hurt while investigating a scene, he would have felt guilty for not protecting her like he was supposed to. If she had been attacked, he would have felt sorry for her, and ready to kick some ass, but there was no ass to be kicked. It was already in a bright red bag, or maybe an incinerator, with the insides of all the other surgical patients. He felt so helpless.