A/N: Back from vacation - more updates soon :) Thanks for the reviews! :)

Chapter Fourteen: Two

Tony watched Jethro sleep a few hours later. He had wanted to talk more, do more, hell, kiss more, but the other man was after all fresh out of surgery and even though he hadn't said anything, had been getting more tired by the minute. Tony didn't blame him. If it all worked out the way he hoped, they would have the rest of their lives to make everything work anyway.

The rest of their lives.

How weird it had sounded this very morning and how right it suddenly sounded now. It all still didn't make any sense to him. The clocks were weird already when they were acting normal, but what had happened with theirs, then? There was no doubt in his mind that Jethro and he were soul mates but why hadn't their clocks registered so long ago?

He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and typed a few words into the search engine, wondering why he hadn't thought about it before. He browsed through a couple of wacko-sites before he found one that seemed a little bit more reasonable to him. There, people talked about mismatched clocks and how their partner's clock had started counting up days afterwards, but then matching with their own. Some talked about how they were sure that they had met their soul mate much earlier, though Tony couldn't find an example where they had a different encounter than a quick hello – nothing like the history Jethro and he had in any case.

After an hour of searching for plausible explanations and reading hundreds of stories, Tony gave it up. The battery was about to shut down his phone anyway and he wasn't any smarter than before. Nobody had a story even remotely similar to his own, so there was nothing to go by. It seemed like they had to figure it out on their own. One thing about those stories stuck with him, though. There were at least a dozen stories that said that their clocks had matched up hours, sometimes even days after they had first met. Tony strained his neck to get a glimpse of Jethro's arm, but he couldn't see much due to the way Jethro was currently sleeping. An hour ago his clock had still been at zero, but if those stories were true, maybe it had changed, too.
Had it matched up already or was it still at zero, indicating that Shannon was dead? Tony felt his heart speed up all of a sudden and he sat up straighter. Gibbs' clock hadn't been at zero because Shannon had died, not this time at least. It had already started up again, but had then turned to zero the moment he probably had met him, Tony. It had never started to count up, though. Obviously, Tony wasn't dead and yet his own clock along with Gibbs' hadn't registered their meeting – or not how they should have.

Sure, he had been in love with Wendy back then, even though his own clock had shown him days away from meeting the real one. He really had loved her, too, despite everything that fate had against their relationship. Wendy hadn't been as convinced about fighting fate, though. She had walked out on him on their wedding day of all days. She hadn't met someone else – not yet at least – but she had still opted out. But that was months after Tony had met Gibbs, months after Tony's clock had changed back to years again. She couldn't have known – not when Tony hadn't known for another thirteen years.

He ran a hand through his hair, trying to get rid of the headache that was building right behind his eyes. It didn't make sense and obsessing over it wouldn't help. It didn't even matter much after all. He was sure – and his clock, too – that Jethro was the one. There were no more doubts. Staring at the older man for a couple of more minutes, Tony felt a little bit better. They would make it work and just thinking about matchups like Palmer and Breena made him actually giddy inside. This could be good.

He looked at his watch and realized that it was already after midnight. It wasn't like he would go home tonight – he didn't want to miss a chance to talk to the other man, despite their past and future together, but a cup of coffee sure did sound awesome at the moment. He quietly snuck out the room and then nearly let out a cry when he almost ran into Abby who had apparently just been on her way into Jethro's room.

"Jeez, Abby," Tony pressed out, bringing his hand to his heart. "Scared me half to death."

"Follow through has always been my problem," she gave back, grinning at him as she patted his shoulder. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. How's he doing? I would have come back way earlier, but you know work."

"He's good. Can go home tomorrow probably."

"Awesome," she smiled at him before her glance got stuck at Tony's arm where it was still resting across his chest. "Tony!" she let out a shriek which was way too loud for a hospital in the dead of the night. "Your clock," she continued in barely a whisper as she looked around and then dragged him to the nearest chairs where she made him sit down.

"So?" she asked after a moment when Tony just stayed silent, gawking at her as if he didn't know what she wanted to know. "Were you right?"

"Right about what?"

"Tony," she chided and softly poked him, though she was still grinning broadly. "It's him, isn't it? Tell me it's Gibbs."

"It's Gibbs."

"Yes!" she let out another, though a bit quieter, shout. "How is this even possible?"

"I have no idea," Tony replied, feeling a smile tug at the corners of his mouth at Abby's obvious joy for them. "The more I think about it the less sense it makes."

"Does it matter?" inquired Abby, a small frown building on her face. "Or is it something else? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's nothing, Abs. It doesn't matter really, but I still want to know, you know? Why would life be so cruel and make us wait for thirteen years? There's got to be a reason and I want to know. Doesn't change how I feel or anything. I just want to know."

"Yeah, I would want to know, too."

They lapsed into silence for a few long moments, with Tony desperately trying to remain awake and alert and Abby obviously hanging in her own thoughts.

"Tony?" she finally asked. "Did your clock… I mean, you once told me you were pretty close to it once, right?"

"Yeah."

"Would it have matched up with meeting Gibbs back then?"

Tony thought about it hard. "I don't really know. Could be. Back then… I was determined not to meet anybody who wasn't Wendy. So I refused to pay too much attention to it. But I guess, it could be. It has changed a day or so before it was supposed to turn to zero. I was just so glad that I didn't really worry about it anymore. Thought my soul mate just wouldn't show up the next day, so I didn't pay much attention anymore."

"Curious," was all Abby said.

"You tell me," Tony gave back, yawning widely, looking around in hopes of locating the nearest vending machine and finding none.

"What's Gibbs saying to it all?" Abby finally said, as she rummaged through her purse and handed him a snickers.

"Thanks… and you know him," Tony grinned, gesturing vaguely with his hands before he unwrapped the candy bar and took a bite. "Says we'll figure it out. He's an investigator, remember?"

"No," replied Abby, all but giggling. "I don't mean about the clocks… I mean about the two of you."

"Oh! He's… well, you do know him. He thinks we'll work it out."

"Smartass," the Goth chided him again. "Is he happy? And far more important… did you kiss already?"

"Abby, it's been hours, what do you think?"

"Oh, you totally did! That's so awesome."

"Is it?" Tony checked back as he hadn't really thought about the others' possible reaction.

He knew that Abby was happy, but wasn't entirely too sure about the other consequences of it all. It was still all too unreal and yet too real at the same time.

"Of course and don't worry about anything else. Everybody knows how these things work. It's not like you chose to fall for your boss – for Gibbs. Though I blame myself for not seeing it earlier. You two really do match ridiculously well."

"Thanks," Tony replied thoughtfully, trying to figure out if Abby was actually right.

Did they really fit that well? They obviously shared their belief in fighting bad and evil, they both saw the team as their only remaining family, had similar backgrounds family-wise despite their different upbringing and while they were so different at a superficial glance, they really weren't that diverse.

Cut from the same cloth, probably. He suddenly flashed back to a conversation he had once had with Wendy a little while after he had started working for Gibbs all these years ago. She had been throwing a fit because Tony had never been home anymore because she claimed that he'd rather walk around with the precious Gibbs than spending time with her. It had been bullshit of course, Gibbs had been a demanding bastard (still was) at the time and wouldn't let Tony go home before all work was done. Tony had tried to explain it to her, hell, he would have rather spent time with Wendy, too, but she simply wouldn't believe him. They eventually made up for the time being, but now that he thought about it, he realized that Gibbs had been a crucial part of most of their fights back then. When Wendy finally left him, she hadn't given him a real reason, had just talked about their mismatched clocks and that it wouldn't work, but even back then, it had sounded lukewarm to him. Had she known or sensed that there was more to it? That there was more to Gibbs and him than met the eye?

"Tony?" Abby's voice rose him from his thoughts. "You with me?"

"Yeah, sorry, just thinking. What did you say?"

"Are you staying here tonight?" she asked still smiling broadly at him, apparently unaware of his sudden revelation – if it even was one… he would have to call Wendy, painful as it might be.

"Yeah," Tony replied, yawning again.

"Okay. I'll get going then."

They stood up and the Goth gave Tony a long, heartfelt hug and a whispered "I'm so happy for you" before she walked down the hallway and out of sight, leaving Tony behind, staring into nothingness for a moment or two, too wound up about the prospect of confronting Wendy to sit back down again. Eventually he shook himself out of his stupor and told himself to focus on the obviously good thing here. Like Jethro had said, they'd figure everything out – later.

Subtly shaking his head, he went back into Jethro's room and then smiled to himself as he saw the older man lying there, still sleeping the night away like nothing had ever happened. As Tony sat down next to the bed again, he realized that Jethro had moved ever so slightly and he was now able to see his left arm which had the numbers of his clock engraved. Tony stared at them for a moment before his heart made a leap and the numbers registered in his mind. It wasn't the well-known zeros anymore. Jethro's clock was actually counting up now. He quickly checked his clock and realized with a smile that they were showing the same time now.

Everything was well – and would be, too.