A/N: Huge thanks to Cha Oseye Tempest Thrain and kate98 for betaing.

Tony woke suddenly. He felt hot and his body ached.

"Tony."

He jerked his head to the side where the voice had come from, wanting to be sure that what he'd heard was correct. His vision greyed out for a few seconds, but when it cleared, he saw what he hadn't dared to hope that he'd see.

"Gibbs?" Everything that had happened came back to him with a rush. McGee and Ziva had found them, and he'd been so sure that Gibbs was dead. He'd woken up before, and Kate had been there. She was dead, that had to have been a dream. Maybe this was one too.

Gibbs smiled that odd little half-smile, and suddenly he knew it wasn't a dream. He could fuzzily remember Ziva telling him that Gibbs was alive, and him deciding, stupidly, to try and get a drink.

"Tony, you with me?" Gibbs asked gently.

He had to blink a few times to really focus on his boss. "I think so," he said hesitantly. "I don't feel so good. It's hot."

Gibbs looked at him with an almost tender expression. "You've been pretty sick," he admitted.

"Weren't you, too?" Tony could remember Gibbs lying there so still, not moving for so many hours, that he seemed dead.

"I'm okay," Gibbs said.

Tony narrowed his eyes; that didn't answer his question.

Gibbs sighed and smiled in exasperation. "You don't remember, but I've already explained this to you."

It was hard to figure out how Gibbs could have already explained it to him; he didn't remember anything like that. "You did?"

"Yep. You've had a fever."

"Explain it to me again?" he asked hopefully.

Gibbs raised a hand and gently cuffed him on the side of the head. Tony didn't want to complain, but even that very gentle touch made his head throb even further. "They think that I was given something that acted like a muscle relaxant and an anaesthetic. I was awake for quite a lot of the time that we were there, but I couldn't speak or move." Tony opened his mouth, but Gibbs held up a hand. "So, yes, I heard a lot of what you said."

"How bad?"

Gibbs grinned. "Define bad. If bad includes telling your parents' guests that the help was buried in the basement, and then charging up to your room, then it's bad."

"Oh." Tony closed his eyes. That was bad. He couldn't think how it could get worse.

"Of course, there was also the two for excessive hair."

He groaned. This was Anthony DiNozzo they were talking about, so, of course it could get worse.

"Tony, I need you to remember something. You're not alone," Gibbs' face was deadly serious, his tone sombre, "and you've never disappointed me. Well, other than when you played with the poison ivy, you should have known better." He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

Tony swallowed, holding back stinging tears. "The only reason you said that is because I'm not going to remember this," he accused, his voice raspy. He was ridiculously grateful to Gibbs for saying the words, but pissed off as all hell that he wasn't going to remember them. It wasn't fair that the only validation he got was something that could never really see the light of day.

Gibbs lightly tapped his head again. "You wouldn't be on my team if you didn't belong there, DiNozzo."

Tony nodded, his eyes sliding shut. He'd just close them for a minute.

Tony sat at his desk. He moved the pens and highlighters off to the side, pushed the paperwork that he still hadn't waded through to the back. The office was quiet; it was early, and nobody was in yet. He liked it like this: no noise or people to distract him. He was finally back on full duties today, and he wanted to be ready and waiting for the rest of his team.

Things wouldn't be different for them; after all, he'd been at work the day before. But it felt different to him. Today he could get back to doing his job, and he could stop worrying. He'd been off sick for several weeks and Gibbs hadn't replaced him. Nobody had taken his place, and nobody was going to.

The elevator door opened and Gibbs came striding out. "Call McGee and Ziva," he ordered as he rushed to his desk. "We've got a body."

Tony picked up the phone. "On it, Boss."

The End