A/N: Another wonderful wave of reviews, I love love love it. Haha, and it was pointed out to me that the alerts and reviews don't even count the people who are merely watching out for this story without putting it on alert, so I guess that means everyone and their brother's dog and their neighbor's canary is reading this fic (LOL Verdad-y-Vida). YAY US!! I'm so stoked by how much you guys like this, enjoy! -pj
Tony narrowed his eyes at her and slowly put down the coffee mug.
"What do you mean 'it's here'?"
Abby gave him an almost apologetic look and then stepped back and pointed at the large window, "See for yourself."
Half a moment later Tony was standing at the window, peeking outside as if afraid to see what pushing aside the curtains might reveal.
Everything was coated in white. And not just a little bit. At least a foot and a half of snow had fallen between the night before and that morning. And it hadn't quit yet, it looked as if someone had turned a snow globe with DC inside upside down and shaken. Hard.
"The whole city is practically shut down."
He heard Abby from behind him and turned back to see her standing in front of the television.
Tony bit his bottom lip and contemplated a moment. Tilting his head to one side, he thought of his options. On the one hand, the city was a mess, he felt like crap, visibility on the roads was zero, the LEOs wanted everyone to stay home because of downed power lines and power outages, oh, and he felt like crap. He tilted it to the other side. He also had a video conference with Gibbs at 0800 and there was a dead XO that needed justice.
That decided it.
He turned and went back through the living room, paused at the kitchen counter to quickly top off his coffee. His first cup was barely touched but it had soothed the uncomfortable tickle at the back of his throat and the very thought of the cold outside gave him shivers from his spine to the tips of his fingers and toes.
"Tony? What are you-?"
Tony made a bee-line for the door. But Abby moved quickly even in her boots, so in bare feet and against Tony's weakened state, she was like lightning.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" She demanded, slipping herself in between Tony and the door.
"To work, Abbs," he said tiredly, shifting his backpack on his shoulder, it seemed to be cutting into every knot he had.
"Um…let me think...no," she said in a way that made him think she hadn't had to consider at all, "Tony it's like 'Day After Tomorrow' the Sequel out there. You can't drive in that."
"I'll be fine," he said, trying to sidestep her. She bobbed and weaved to match him and crossed her arms, staring up looking defiant and pissed. Again.
"If I hear that word from you one more time I swear I won't be held responsible for what I do to you," she said, narrowing her eyes in a way that said she wanted him to remember she could murder him and leave no evidence behind.
"Look, Abbs, I have a job to do, alright?" he snapped, his patience all but worn out. He reached up to rub his burning eyes, wondering who'd turned the heat in his apartment up so high.
Abby blinked at him, her tough façade fading momentarily. Tony was hardly ever short with her. But in an instant it was back, almost fiercer than before, his unusually short temper only fueling her belief that he felt much worse than he wanted to admit.
"And so do I, tough guy, and right now, it consists of keeping you from causing a 30 car pile-up on the freeway and then dying of hypothermia while you wait for help to arrive."
Tony opened his eyes and peeked through his fingers at her, the surprise she'd worn a moment before now donned his face. He wasn't used to her sounding so serious. So anxious.
About him.
"Abby I-" he started but whatever argument, or apology, he'd been about to make was lost in a string of wet coughs and he reached out to brace himself against the wall. Abby's anger immediately dissipated and she stepped under his arm and helped him back towards the kitchen. Tony dropped heavily on one of the tall stools that sat at the bar.
She waited until he had his breath back and then dipped her chin.
"No arguments, Tony. You're going to go back in there," she thrust her hand toward the hallway and pointed at his bedroom, "and getting some sleep."
He dropped his bag on the floor, and Abby saw it as the sign of defeat that it was.
"Fine. I'll stay, but I don't need sleep, I need to be working on the case," Abby rolled her eyes and Tony pretended not to see, "can you get me into the criminal databases at NCIS so I can run backgrounds and call records?"
She stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if she would do as he asked. Finally she dropped her arms and shrugged, "fine. But on one condition."
He groaned and it made him cough twice, provoking his headache once more, "more conditions?"
"The other doesn't count now, you're not going to NCIS - but actually it's the same condition." She added after a pause.
"A nap after my video conference?"
"Yup," she nodded, "I'll message McGee and you can do your conference via webcam, okay?"
Tony reached up and rubbed his forehead, he'd had enough negotiations for one day.
"Yeah. Fine."
Abby grinned brightly at him and Tony slowly got up and, apparently abandoning all pretense of feeling 'fine', began to trudge back down the hallway to his bedroom, mumbling that he was going to change out of his suit.
Once his back was turned Abby allowed her smile to fall away and bit her lip. She stared at his shut his door for several moments. She couldn't remember being so worried about someone in a long time. Probably not since Gibbs was blown up and lost his memory. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, pushing the worry to the back of her mind. Right now she had a web conference to set up, and she would feel better after talking to Gibbs anyway.
A minute later she opened her eyes again and frowned. Hands on her hips, she scanned the living room and kitchen as she turned in a slow circle.
"So, if I were Tony's laptop, where would I be?"
---
"Abby?" McGee frowned at his computer screen when the unexpected visage of his pigtailed friend appeared. He lanced briefly at Ziva who was sitting cross legged on her bunk reading the file and then Gibbs who immediatly stood from the desk that had been brought into their barracks/NCIS headquarters and approached.
"What are you doing on Tony's laptop?" McGee asked, confused.
Abby's grin just widened but she didn't respond, prefering to allow his thoughts to run wild.
"Hi Gibbs," she waved.
Gibbs had positioned himself over McGee's shoulder and both had their attention fixed on the two-inch square of 'Abby' on the screen.
"Where are you, Abbs?" Gibbs asked.
"Tony's house," she said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. McGee's brow knitted and Gibbs tilted his head.
"Why?"
Abby's eyebrows flew up, "Gibbs, it's the Winter Apocalypse out here. We got 18 inches of snow last night and they're expecting that to double by this evening. It's a blizzard outside and the city is completely shut down. Thankfully we've still got power, but who knows how long that'll last. They think the storm will hover over the East Coast for another day or so and-"
"Yeah, I know Abbs," Gibbs interrupted smoothly.
Her thoughts sufficiently disrupted, she paused, "you do? How?"
Gibbs sighed long-sufferingly and McGee took it as his queue to step in, "they've grounded all flights, Abbs, the storm's coming right for us."
"Oh. Right." She nodded and then continued, hand gestures flying, "well I couldn't sleep last night and I came to check on Tony 'cause I had a hinky feeling and we woke up this morning to a winter wonderland on steroids," She bit her lip, some of her effervescence fizzling away, "I wouldn't let Tony drive to NCIS. I think he's mad at me."
"You did the right thing, Abbs," he said immediately, then, "didn't she DiNozzo?"
Out of nowhere Tony appeared beside Abby and reached out to turn the laptop toward him, revealing a pale, slightly disheveled version of himself.
"That's right Boss," he admitted, his voice a little bit lower and softer than usual. Upon hearing him Abby squealed and her arms appeared on screen as she wrapped Tony in a hug.
"Abby knows best, Tony," she said, ruffling his hair a bit.
"How you feeling, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked quietly, and everyone froze. The quiet concern in his voice resounding loud and clear to all of them. From McGee who sat below him, Ziva who had come to join them at the computer when she heard Tony's voice and was standing at his other elbow, to Abby somewhere off screen.
Tony licked his lips, not answering as quickly as Gibbs had thought he would. No, Tony seemed to really be thinking about how to answer, and Gibbs was almost curious to see what he would say.
There was the standard 'I'm fine, Boss', which meant he wasn't, but he could handle it. The always classic 'never felt better' which meant he was probably about to fall over and should have taken the sick leave he was offered or the much more common 'I think I'm bleeding out and I'll probably die of a bacterial infection', which meant he'd given himself a paper cut.
But the answer he got was none of the old standbys Gibbs was expecting.
Tony glanced briefly to his right, seemingly deciding something, and then looked back at the computer.
"I'm in good hands, Boss. I'll be okay."
Gibbs narrowed his eyes, processing the information.
"Honest question deserves an honest answer," Tony answered his quizzical look and then cleared his throat to mask a few rattling coughs.
Ziva and McGee exchanged a glance, but said nothing, and Tony pretended not to notice, "So Ziva, how many times have you gotten lost on your way to the head?"
---
The team proceeded to fall back on old habits as they exchanged information and were able to quickly compile a list of suspects for Gibbs and the others to check out.
"We'll contact you at 18:00 with any news," McGee said.
"Sounds good, Probie, see you then," Tony reached forward to shut down his computer when Gibbs appeared on screen again.
"DiNozzo."
"Boss?"
"Get some sleep."
A smile kicked up the corner of his mouth, "Miss you too, Boss."
Gibbs gave him a wry smile and started to reach forward to disconnect the feed when Abby dove across Tony's lap and waved.
"Bye guys! Love ya, be safe," she called, the screen going blank as she finished. She sat back again, still staring at the computer where her friends had been a moment before. It felt oddly empty in the apartment now that they were gone.
She turned to Tony, who was rubbing his face again, looking even more tired than before. He couldn't remember when talking had ever taken so much out of him before.
On second thought though, he could.
"You knew all along why Gibbs made you stay, didn't you?" It wasn't an accusation, merely a statement of fact.
Tony froze briefly and then let his hands drop into his lap, turning slowly to face his friend, "if you mean did I notice the looks Ziva kept giving me like she thought I was gonna drop dead right there in the Squad room? Or that McGee has taken to leaving fresh tea and cough drops on my desk when he thinks I'm not around? Or that Palmer keeps trying to trick me into the x-ray machine and that Gibbs left you with the assignment of being my caretaker while he's gone? Then yeah. I knew."
Abby gave him a soft look and reached for his hand, "we're just worried about you Tony."
He shook his head, turning an irritated look at the blank computer, "it's just a cough Abby. It doesn't sound so great, it doesn't feel too great, but it happens," he shrugged, not looking at her, "I had the plague. What else is new?"
She frowned, her heart breaking at the sound of nonchalance in his voice. As if his life wasn't worth worrying about, "you mean this has happened before?" she closed her eyes, "you didn't go to the hospital then either, did you?"
He gave her a weak imitation of his usual cocky grin, "Abbs, if I went to the ER for every bump or bruise or," he pressed a hand to his chest as a handful of rough coughs interrupted and groaned at the way it irritated his now raw throat, "or cough I had, I would have to move in."
Abby frowned in reward for his joke and reached out to take his hand, curling her legs up underneath her. Having nothing to say and no energy to say it, she scooted closer and, pulling his hand into her lap, she laid her head on his shoulder.
"Just promise you won't leave me, Tony." She said quietly, and she felt his muscles tense up beside her.
Tony took a deep breath to relax and squeezed their entwined hands, "I promise, Abbs."
TBC