AN: Hey every boody so sorry for the really long delay. about twothirds of the way through this chapter my muse decided it needed a vacation and left without me :( but now its back and here is the next chapter I'm not sure I like this chapter too much but it was necessary as a lead up to the next chapter so here you go enjoy.

Also thanks for all the reviews I loved them all. Also I would like to say a huge thankyou to my beta CALLEN37. So I hope you all like this chapter and as always reviews are welcome.

Chapter 8

Of Friends and Doctors

After about three days of staying at the Navy yard everyone was starting to feel a little antsy. But no one was climbing the walls like Tony was. By the end of the third day even Gibbs was threatening to cuff him to his desk and stuff a sock in his mouth.

They all understood how hard it was for him. Tony was not the kind of person to ever be content in one place for too long. But with his injuries and the protection detail he was forced to stay in the building and usually behind his desk.

His one reprieve was that he was able to lose himself in the case against Franklynns. He was developing an almost unhealthy focus on it. Working on it for hours on end without taking breaks for things like sleeping and food. Gibbs had even had to unplug his computer a few times to get him to stop.

Now he found himself once again left behind in the office as the team went to run down a lead. Tony was feeling frustrated about being left behind and with being left with a probie as a baby sitter. It wasn't that he didn't like Dorneget; he did and he thought that the kid showed promise. But it was the insinuation that he couldn't be trusted to be by himself that was really rubbing him wrong. He knew the team was just trying to help him, but it wasn't really helping him to have people in his face and watching his every move 24/7. In fact it was making him more irritable and crazy the longer it went on. So as soon as he was sure Gibbs was out of the building he started working his magical mix of black mail and charm on 'Dorny' and sooner than he thought he was free of his baby sitter and making his way to his favorite spot with the pretense of hitting the head.

Tony knew that he had time since it was almost a guarantee that it would take well over an hour and a half for them to get to the location of the lead with Gibbs driving and then they had to process all the stuff in-between and Tony figured that he had at least four hours of freedom and planned to enjoy his short amount of time alone. All he had to do was avoid being seen by Abby and all would be good.

So after actually hitting the head and grabbing a bunch of candy from the vending machines Tony made his way to his most favored and coveted hiding spot. The roof.

Over the years Tony had turned the rooftop of the NCIS building into a sort of sanctuary second only to his apartment. It was a perfect spot protected all around by major heating and cooling units and with a little finagling he had put up a cover of sorts to block the rain. He had also managed to get several pieces of furniture up there to create a small lounging area. He had two reclining lawn chairs, an old beat up couch, some end tables and a coffee table.

Being handy with electrical things, Tony had also managed to set up a small electrical station with several outlets so that he could have lights and work on his laptop from the roof.

He breathed out a sigh of relief as he sunk his tall frame down onto the sofa. The sofa was the best sofa he had ever had. It even rivaled Gibbs's sofa. He situated himself so that his broken leg was propped up on the opposite arm rest and the rest of him was stretched out. He reluctantly set an alarm on his phone to go off in two and a half hours. Giving him more than enough time to get back to his desk before Gibbs and the rest of the team got back, so that the probie wouldn't get into trouble.

Sighing heavily again Tony quickly fell into a deep relaxing sleep.

NCIS~NCIS

4 Hours, 30 Minutes later:

Tony rushed back as fast as he could on his crutches. He had slept through his alarm, waking up to the sound of Gibbs's ring tone. He had instantly panicked and in his confusion from still being half asleep he had dropped his phone in just such a way that it caused it to completely fall apart. Cursing, he haphazardly made his way down from the roof, tripping and stumbling over his crutches.

Breathlessly he slid to a stop in the middle of the bullpen. Finally taking in his surroundings he saw for the first time the group of people who had gathered around him. They all had varying degrees of anger and concern displayed across their faces. Ducky and Brad had that look that only doctors got when they were dealing with a trying patient. Abby looked as though she was going to burst out crying with relief when she saw him, while Ziva on the other hand looked as though she wanted to strangle him. Tim looked as though he was very weary, while Dornaget looked like all he wanted to do was run and hide. Moreover Gibbs was giving Tony a look of understanding mixed with just a dash of worry and just a hint of disappointment. Tony involuntarily flinched at that look and quickly averted his gaze.

Gibbs didn't blame Tony for escaping. Hell he would have done the same thing. In fact it surprised him that Tony had put up with them for as long as he had. Gibbs knew that it was time to let Tony have some breathing room before he exploded.

Gibbs watched as the whole group descended on the poor kid all at once. He watched as Tony; who was fully into fight or flight mode began to back away from them all as if they were mad men intending to hurt him. He would have fallen down if it hadn't been for the desk that had conveniently been located behind him. Several hands reached out to stop his fall and Gibbs saw what he was hoping to not ever see in his Senior Field agents face. Tony had finally reached his limit.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Tony sat down hard on the corner of the desk and reached out to steady himself along with several other pairs of hands. At that point Tony felt his tolerance level for people being in his face reach the dreaded zero. He roughly pushed their hands away and exclaimed, "Will you all just leave me alone for God's sake!"

With that he turned and limped off without his crutches. Gibbs scowled at them all and after giving Tony a few minutes head start silently followed him making sure to grab the abandoned pair of crutches as he went. He left the group of people where they stood, allowing them to think about their behavior.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Tony had only one thought on his mind; and that was to get as far away as he could. He hated that he was so dysfunctional but he hadn't woken up well and his body was making well known all of the aches and pains that it had. And his brain felt very much like someone had replaced it with a big bag of cotton plus his eyes were bothering him. All this served to make him groggy and short tempered.

He hadn't realized it but he had headed back to the roof and that is where he now found himself. He smiled slightly as he lowered himself back down onto the couch. He didn't stretch out this time. He just sat there and rested his head on the back of it. He looked up at the clear sky and watched the clouds roll by. He realized that he hadn't had the time recently to really stop and notice things like the sky and the different shapes of the clouds.

Thinking about the clouds made him think about when he would lay out in the yard with Shay and the girls and how they would spend hours just watching the clouds roll by and trying to find as many shapes as they could and then they would end up falling asleep on their blanket. Tony blinked suddenly when he felt wetness on his cheeks. He realized that he had tears running down his face. He quickly wiped them away but more kept falling. He couldn't believe he was crying. He never cried unless he was drunk.

He stiffened when the cushion dipped next to him as Gibbs sat down. Tony remained still and refused to acknowledge Gibbs' grunted greeting. They both sat there for a few minutes before Gibbs said, "You know DiNozzo I don't think I've done this much talking since I was married."

Tony shrugged saying, "So don't talk."

Nodding Gibbs said, "I could but I don't think that would help you. You need to talk Tony. You've been holding all of this in for years and now it's bursting at the seams to get out. You need to let it out, let it go so that it's not burdening you anymore."

Tony looked at him from the corner of his eye skeptically saying, "Yah think so boss?"

Gibbs just shrugged saying, "Worked for me DiNozzo. Yah see it took me a long time to do it, but after my last marriage fell apart I took a good look at myself and I figured out that I was trying to replace something that couldn't be replaced. Once I realized that, I got a sense of peace about it. It doesn't bother me to be alone, not any more at least. Yah see before I could come to terms with that fact. I had to let my grief run its course so I did. I realized that me being the crotchety old bastard that I am, was just my way of grieving. You Tony you haven't even begun to let yourself grieve. You've just been hiding from it and from the world. Greif serves a purpose Tony you just gotta let it do its job. It's not a sign of weakness to grieve and it's not a sign of weakness to cry over what you've lost. You've lost a lot Tony and you've got the right to be angry and anything else you need to be or do in order to work through it. Just don't do it alone ok? I know you like to go off by yourself and I'll respect that, just don't block me out completely."

Once he was done Gibbs looked up to see that Tony was staring at him with a shocked expression on his face. After a second of silence Tony shook his head saying, "Damn Gibbs that's most I've ever heard you say in one go. And that was some pretty deep shit."

Gibbs chuckled saying, "Just cause I don't say much doesn't mean that I'm not thinking and feeling it. I just usually tend to keep these things to myself."

Tony sighed and laid his head back against the back of the couch saying, "I know they all mean well and I didn't mean to scare them all but I really don't think I can handle them right now Gibbs."

"Not entirely sure I blame yah on that one." Replied Gibbs with a nod; "They can put even the most laid back person on edge with all of their hovering."

Tony snorted and smiled then with a heavy sigh levered himself up off the couch. He looked around quickly realizing that he didn't have his crutches, realizing that he had left them down in the bullpen. He jumped slightly when Gibbs came up behind him saying, "I left them by the door."

"Thanks Boss!" laughed Tony with a smile and a sloppy salute. Not waiting for Gibbs to get any ideas about head slapping him. He quickly made his way over to the doors and grabbing his crutches he carefully made his way down the long flights of stairs back to the bull pen. He briefly thought of it as his impending doom. He wasn't normally so gloomy but he had a sinking feeling that this day was going to be a very, very long one.

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

The whole group stood there in the center of the bullpen looking appropriately ashamed of them-selves. Finally Ducky said, "Well I suppose we did bring it on ourselves. Rushing the lad like that."

The whole group nodded in silent agreement. They knew their behavior had not been the nicest but they also felt that with everything that had been going on lately that their worry had a basis.

They had all been standing there in the bullpen for well over thirty minutes when Tony and Gibbs casually made their way into the area. Tony hesitated when he came upon the group. He looked hesitantly at Gibbs before he took a deep breath and then pulling himself up to his full height

He really didn't want to deal with this right now. But he knew that he had to at least calm their fears a little before he could even think about getting any more time to himself. He cautiously entered into the bullpen trailing slightly behind Gibbs and just like he had feared as soon as they saw them the group surged forward. To his utter relief Gibbs held his hands up effectively stopping the group and said, "Ducky and Dr. Pitt are going to come upstairs and do what ever they need to do. After that and only after that may you talk to DiNozzo but I want you all to keep in mind how you would feel if you had people watching you24/7."

With that he walked through the group with Tony following behind him and Brad and Ducky bringing up the rear. The team watched as a conference door closed behind the group effectively cutting them all off from view. Abby looked to the rest of the group and shrugging slightly said, "Well I'm hungry any one want lunch?"

NCIS-NCIS-NCIS

Tony sighed with relief as the doctors finally stepped back from examining him. Brad looked from Ducky to Gibbs and then back at Tony and said, "Well I am happy to say that Tony is very much on the mend. His lungs are sounding better, which means that the antibiotics are doing their job. I'm still worried about his fatigue and the weight loss—"

Dr. Pitt stopped short when he saw the looks that the two older men were giving his patient. He looked to Tony and saw that he was clearly avoiding looking at any of them. Dr. Pitt cleared his throat and continued, "But all that aside he is doing well and I think that we can maybe cut back on all of his meds."

Dr. Pitt shot Tony an apologetic look and then hastily left the room sighing as he did so, relieved to be out of the tense atmosphere. He smiled shakily at Dr. Cranston as she slowly made her way up the stairs to the mezzanine. She smiled back at him asking, "So how is our favorite patient and his handlers faring?"

Dr. Pitt shook his head saying, "As well as can be expected but I fear Tony will not be doing so well in a minute."

"Reveal something you shouldn't have Brad?"

Dr. Pitt laughed shakily and drawing a shaky hand through his hair said, "Well I may have just gotten him into trouble with his boss by revealing that he had lost even more weight and that his fatigue was still troubling." Dr. Pitt laughed again saying, "I'm certain that he is right now getting a lecture. Though knowing how Tony gets when he is sick or injured I'm really not too surprised."

Dr. Cranston nodded and then after a few seconds of silence said, "He is a very complex man. I have been reading over my notes from when I first worked with the team and I found a little note on him that said I sensed a lot of his true self was hidden away. Guess I wasn't too far off."

Dr. Pitt was just about to respond when the door to the conference room behind them slammed open and Tony came limping out at a furious pace. He stopped at the top of the stairs and said, "You do what you think is necessary Gibbs, but you'll have to be able to find me in order to fulfill your threat."

With that he made his way down the stars.

The two doctors turned to look at the two men standing behind them. Ducky stood there shaking his head and then began to lay into Gibbs. "Damn you Jethro! I told you that threatening the man would not get you anywhere. I told you, you needed to calm down! But you insisted on doing it your own way. And now he has fled the scene again, and only God knows where or when we will find him this time. Seriously Jethro you would think that for a man of your age and experience in dealing with him you would know better than to do any of what you just did. Honestly!"

With that Ducky gave a curt nod towards the two doctors and then hastily made his way down the stairs. The trio watched as the man disappeared in to the stairwell slamming the door a little harder than was necessary. Gibbs let out a huge sigh effectively drawing all the attention onto him-self. He glared at the doctors and then growled out, "Don't even ask!"

Both doctors held up their hands in surrender. Gibbs glared at them for a second longer before he too took off down the stairs calling out to McGee as he passed the bullpen that he was going for coffee. Dr. Cranston looked to Dr. Pitt and said, "Well things sure are getting interesting."

Dr. Pitt nodded in agreement, his face showing his shock. Dr. Cranston laughed and patted her colleague on the back saying, "Don't worry Brad you get used to it eventually."

The two doctors stayed at their spot over looking the lower level and discussed in great detail the group of people to which they had become acquainted. They both agreed that, this group of people were some of the most interesting individuals that they had ever encountered.