A/N: Sorry (again) for the long wait. The World Cup (Go Germany! xD) and general laziness got in the way. Your feedback was very much appreciated and I hope to post one more chapter before going to Asia for three weeks with no access to the internet (sorry again). Hope you like this chapter! :)

Chapter Thirteen: One

With a pounding heart Tony looked up and saw Gibbs standing there, still hooked up on his IV, his cheeks slightly red. He was breathing heavily as if he had just been running to get here…
Yet still, Tony didn't feel a thing.

He chanced one last look at his clock and with a thumping heart realized that it was now counting up from zero. So, it had apparently registered that another person had entered the room. But why didn't it register within Tony then? Nothing had changed. He was still feeling exactly like he had been only seconds before – well, maybe a little bit less anxious and a little bit more confused. As he looked back at Gibbs though, he suddenly felt his own lips start to twitch. Gibbs wasn't exactly smiling at him, it seemed actually like an ill-fitted smirk, but it made Tony instantly giddy inside.

"Made it in time, then," Gibbs all but grunted, that awkward smirk still on his lips.

Tony, however, was still staring dumbfounded at the man he had hoped would be his soul mate and he still had no idea what to say. It was still too strange to process it. Sure, he had hoped – prayed – that it would be Gibbs, but now that it was really him, he couldn't believe his luck. What was wrong this those fucking clocks then? Why hadn't Gibbs' ticked until now and why didn't Tony's stop when they met all those years ago? And how came Gibbs never said anything before, when he apparently had some feelings for Tony, too? Otherwise he wouldn't have run towards his room right then, would he?

In the meantime Gibbs had walked towards the empty chair next to Tony, his eyes never leaving the younger man's. The smirk had finally given way to a look of confusion.

"I thought you wanted…," he said, suddenly looking crestfallen.

"I did," Tony hurried to answer and showed him the clock that was now unmistakably counting the time since Gibbs had showed up in the room. "I'm just kind of… sorry, I don't even know."

Gibbs looked at him for a few long moments before understanding suddenly crossed his face and that smirk from before resurfaced. He then fiddled with the IV bag for a moment or two, giving it his full attention and Tony realized that he was buying himself a little more time. But Tony didn't want to wait anymore. He wanted answers and confirmation that this was really it – even if it seemed a little disappointing right at that very second.

"What is it, Gibbs?" he finally blurted out, unable to take the silence any longer.

"Don't you think you should call me by my first name now that you know that we're… soul mates?" Gibbs answered calmly – far too calm for Tony's taste.

He just stared at him for a moment longer, still unable to form a coherent thought.

"What is it, Jethro, then?" he asked in the end, realizing that Gibbs wasn't likely to continue and god, why didn't it feel weird calling him that?

"You expected fireworks, didn't you?"

"What do you mean?" Tony checked back slightly unnerved by Gibbs' unexpected nonchalance. It was then that he realized that he wasn't able to feel him anymore.

"When I got here, I mean. You expected something to happen, didn't you? Something special?" Gibbs interrupted his musings.

"Yeah," Tony replied slowly, finally catching on what Gibbs – Jethro – was talking about. "Shouldn't there be… fireworks?"

"Wasn't like that when I met Shannon… or you for that matter."

"Huh," was all Tony said, unable to stop staring at the older man who was sitting there, only wearing the hospital gown and his IV.

They stayed silent for a minute or two and instead just looked at each other. Tony felt understanding and realization slowly settle in within him. This was really it. This was really what he had waited his whole life for. Gibbs was all that mattered from now on. It would have seemed weird only a couple of minutes ago, but when he thought of it now it seemed natural somehow. He would have his back on and off the job, would try to make him happy and would try to make him smile – come to think of it, it had actually been all he had been doing these last years since they had met anyway…

"You don't seem happy," Gibbs interrupted his train of thought, the worried and confused expression back on his face.

"No," Tony replied, reaching out for the other man's hand for a second before he drew it back again. "I am! It's… just a lot to take in right now."

"I thought you had figured it out already?"

"No," Tony replied thoughtfully. "I… hoped, I guess. I still don't get anything of it," Tony trailed off now as another thought struck him. "Wait… did you have it figured out?"

"No," Gibbs shook his head. "Not at all. I had no idea. Hoped maybe… but when the nurse came in earlier just when you said the thing… I suddenly couldn't take the chance. I had to find out if it could be true. I ran, just to make sure – either way. Either it wasn't me and I would come here and see you talking to someone else or it would be me."

Tony nodded slowly, trying to process everything that Jethro had just said. Had he actually wanted it to be him? Had he actually hurried from the tests to come here and see him?

"So, you had no idea?"

"None," Jethro replied, smiling rather boyishly at him all of a sudden. "Glad it's me, though."

"You are?" Tony checked back, finally feeling slightly elated.

"Hell yeah. Didn't know I wanted it, to be honest. I just had to know and now that I do… I'm really… glad."

"Okay," Tony nodded and was slightly startled when Jethro finished the younger man's movement from before and took his hand in his.

Tony looked down at their joined hands and realized with a jolt that it felt good, not awkward at all. As if they fit exactly together. And maybe they actually did.

"So… what now?" he asked, squeezing the other man's hand ever so slightly.

"Now," a voice coming from the door to their room startled them both. "Agent Gibbs is coming with me. To complete his tests."

"What?" Tony blurted out, suddenly on the verge of laughing. "Did you run away, Jethro?"

"Yup," Jethro replied, shrugging and grinning. "Not going to happen again," he added, looking at the nurse.

"Not on my watch, it won't," the woman answered, though she was smiling at them secretively. "Come on, the earlier we go the sooner you're back here."

With a sigh, Jethro let go of Tony's hand and then got up and followed the nurse. He came to a stop at the door, though, and turned around, that smile still not quite vanished from his features.

"I'll be here," Tony answered his unasked question. "Always been."

Jethro looked at him for a moment or two, nodded and then was out the room, leaving Tony sitting there, still confused like hell and yet hopeful and happy, too.

##

And there he was waiting again for Gibbs to show up. But this time it was all different. He was still confused, was still hoping that it wasn't all a dream, and yet he was now excited to see him again. Before he had feared that he would meet someone else, now he knew that it was actually him he had been waiting for. How the clocks could have been so wrong, he still didn't know, but he couldn't bring himself to think much about them at the moment.

He probably should – because if they had been wrong before maybe they were now, too.

God, what if they actually were fooling themselves? What if they just thought they were soul mates? What if this was just one gigantic cruel cosmic joke? Tony felt his heart sink. What if Gibbs' second soul mate had actually died thirteen years ago? What if Tony's clock was simply acting up now?

Tony felt himself start to sweat, felt the heat roll down his back. What if this wasn't right, what if he was just imagining the rightness of it all – simply because he wanted it to be right? What if there should have been fireworks and Gibbs simply had told him there were none to make him believe in it all?

He stood up now, walking around the room, counting the steps from wall to wall, hoping to find some consolidation in it, but finding none. He felt anxious again, but in a whole different way than just an hour earlier. Where had the bubbly happy feeling from only moments ago gone? Why couldn't he trust in what Gibbs had said? In what he had felt when they had held hands? Why was it so easy to make himself doubt his own wits? And why the hell was he freaking out?

He sat back down again, putting his head in his hands, trying to calm down again. He willed his breathing to slow down and took a few deep breaths. He still didn't feel right, not at all, but he had it under control. He would bring it under control. He just needed to talk to Gibbs. He just needed him to screw his head right back on where it belonged.

So, Tony waited – and waited – and waited until finally the door opened and Jethro was rolled back in, lying in his hospital bed again. He looked rather tired, but smiled at him nonetheless. He stayed silent until the nurse had left the room and then sat up, patting on the spot next to him, indicating Tony to sit down there. The younger man did what he was told, but remained silent, still, almost desperately, trying not to let his inner turmoil show.

"Hey, it's okay," Jethro said, taking his hand again and wasn't it weird that Tony had immediately started to think of him as Jethro, now that he could look at him again? And wasn't it weird that Jethro seemed to just know he wasn't feeling quite that good?

"What is?" Tony breathed out, weirdly enough feeling more than okay now when he had freaked out only a second before.

"We'll figure it out. Whatever went wrong with the clocks or with us. Okay?"

"Okay," Tony replied, suddenly just knowing that they would, too.

"Okay," Jethro echoed, then closed his eyes and leaned into the younger man.

And before Tony could even register what was happening, he did the same, closing out the rest of the world as his lips met the other man's. And if he had been disappointed by the lack of fireworks when the clock had turned to zero, they were suddenly exploding everywhere around him when he felt Jethro's tongue seeking entrance and even more so when he kissed the older man back.

Yes, this was suddenly all that mattered. All that he had ever hoped for. Screw the clocks, screw his own doubts.

This was it and whatever it was that still needed to be talked about – it could wait.