Gibbs didn't end up sleeping that night. He had watched Tony for almost an hour before he was satisfied that the younger man was finally asleep. Then he had gone back to his bed, with the intention of sleeping, but had ended up staying awake the rest of the night, listening for any problems coming from the guest room.

Now that he it was almost eight on Friday morning, Gibbs was making coffee. He had already made breakfast for himself and Tony, although he wasn't sure either of them were hungry. Tony was always emotionally and physically drained after a nightmare, and Gibbs had found himself feeling sick whenever he thought about what Tony had been through.

"Morning, boss," said Tony as he stumbled into the kitchen, still in his pyjamas from the previous night.

"Hi, Tony. Did you manage to get any sleep?"

Tony nodded. He looked at Gibbs for a moment, then looked away, finding it difficult to look him in the eye. "Thank you for letting me stay over, and for last night."

Gibbs put a cup of coffee and a plate of eggs in front of Tony. The he carefully lifted his agent's head until Tony had no choice but to look at him. "You don't need to thank me, Tony. I told you that I'm here to help, and if that means helping you wake up from a nightmare, then so be it. You are my friend, and I will continue to look out for you."

"I know. It's just weird, that's all. Nobody has ever been there to help when a nightmare struck, or, even to help when I was a kid going through all of it. You have been great, but I just can't seem to feel comfortable with being comforted."

"You will get used to it, I promise. You just need to let me help."

Tony smiled. "I know that too. Thank you."

Gibbs was relieved to see the genuine smile on Tony's face. He decided to leave the subject alone now, but he would text Rachel a little later to get her to press Tony about the night's issues.

Tony walked into Rachel's office building just before nine-thirty that morning. He was still tired, but the pep talk from Gibbs at breakfast had really helped him. He felt slightly better, and much calmer, now.

"Good morning, Tony," said the receptionist. "Doctor Cranston will be right out. Would you like anything while you wait?"

"No, thank you," said Tony, giving the lady a smile as he sat on one of the soft couches that were spread throughout the room.

"Okay. I'll let the doctor know that you're here then." The receptionist picked up her phone and pushed a button. "Doctor, your nine-thirty appointment is here. Do you want me to send him in?" She listened for a minute. "Okay. Tony, you can go in. I'll bring in some water in just a moment."

"Thank you." Tony stood up and gave the lady a second smile. "Would you be able to do one thing for me, actually?"

"Sure."

"I want to make another appointment."

The receptionist was shocked. Rachel usually made the appointments for Tony, knowing that he didn't really want to be there. "Uh... yeah... of course. When would you like the appointment for?"

"Monday? Unless there's something over the weekend?"

"Doctor Cranston doesn't work weekends, but I can do Monday morning at ten."

"That would be great." Tony knew he was going to have trouble this weekend. His father wanted to appeal the sentence he had been given, which meant that Tony was required to make a victim impact statement on Sunday afternoon. He had told this to Gibbs, and his boss would be coming as support, but it wasn't going to be easy for him to repeat what he had been through yet again.

The receptionist made the appointment and handed Tony a card. She gave him a smile as he entered Rachel's office.

Rachel pulled her phone out of her bag just as Tony entered the room. She quickly read the start of the message, noticing that it was from Gibbs, then opened the whole message, reading:

Tony had a bad night last night. I won't break his confidence by telling you anything, but I think it's something that definitely needs to be discussed. He didn't hesitate to tell me about it at the time, so I'm hoping he'll tell you too. Also, I noticed that his self-worth is still quite low- he asked me last night for a late start today to come to your appointment, and I'm sure he was fully prepared to cancel the appointment if I said no.

Gibbs.

Rachel sighed quietly. She had really hoped that Tony was getting past his issues with self-worth and confidence. It was something she was definitely going to need to address today.

"Hi, Tony. Have a seat. I'll be right there, after I see what my phone wants with me now," said Rachel just as the door opened and the receptionist dropped off two glasses of water.

Tony nodded. He sat on the soft, squishy couch that Rachel had in her office and waited, watching as his friend pulled her phone from her bag and read something on the screen. He saw her face go from annoyance at being disturbed yet again to worry, then back to annoyance as her phone beeped. He saw her flick the switch to turn on silent mode and shove the phone into her bag, which was then shoved into a cupboard behind her desk.

"Sorry about that," Rachel said as she finally took a seat in her armchair across from the couch Tony was sitting on. "People have been cancelling their appointments all morning because of the storms last night."

"Why? It's not even wet outside anymore," said Tony.

"I don't know. That last beep on my phone was my ten-thirty appointment cancelling for the third time in a row. I don't have another appointment until one-thirty now, so if you want to stay longer, that's alright."

"I can't stay too long, I have work today. But I did make an appointment for Monday morning."

"You made your own appointment."

"Yeah." Tony frowned. "I'm going to have a long weekend."

"What do you mean?"

"My dad is appealing his sentence. I have to go on Sunday to court and make a victim impact statement." Tony shuddered at the thought. "Anyway, that is not what I want to talk about today."

"What would you like to talk about? We left off with your mum getting diagnosed with cancer in the last session. Do you want to continue with that?"