A/N : Thank you for the reviews , follows & favorites, awesome people! You guys made my day & encourage me to write more.

All mistakes are mine.

Chapter 3

It was an unexciting Tuesday. With no active cases, they were stuck in the bullpen since morning. Tony decided to catch up on the mountain of paperworks from the previous case. He was focused on filling up some of the forms when his cellphone suddenly broke the silence. He looked at the unfamiliar number before deciding to pick up the call.

"Tony Dinozzo on the line." He smiled upon answering. Unfortunately the smile doesn't last long as it was a nurse from Bethesda on the other line telling him that his test results are out.

"Yes…yes…I'll be there. No, you don't need to call him. See you later." McGee and Gibbs were already curious with the one sided conversation. Tony's brain was working hard trying to make up a cover story before looking up at both his teammates.

"What was that all about?" McGee asked, curiosity filling up in him. Tony just shook his head.

"Nothing. It's just something to do with my dad." He answered smoothly. He looked at Gibbs before asking him the impossible and praying that Gibbs would let him off.

"Can I be excused, Boss. Please?" Tony was doing his best to escape to the hospital without anyone suspecting.

Gibbs was contemplating. They don't have any active case at the moment. And it was already lunch time. Maybe Dinozzo Sr. did get into some sort of trouble and needed Tony to help him out.

"Go. But make sure you're reachable in case we have any case." Tony quickly got up and grabbed his gear along just to be on the safe side.

"Thanks, Boss!" With that Gibbs was left with McGee in the bullpen. Little did they know that their senior field agent's life was about to change later that afternoon.

Tony made his way toward Dr. Marcus office after checking with the nurse at the front desk. A few knocks and came the reply from inside the office telling him to come in.

"Afternoon, Dr. Marcus." Greeted Tony before taking a seat in front of Dr. Marcus's table.

"Afternoon, Tony. Please, please, take a seat." Dr. Marcus' expression was serious as a heart attack. There's a hint of worry in his face that is starting to unease Tony a little bit. Dr. Marcus turned around facing his back drawer and grabbed a file with Tony's name on the front. Tony was already quivering a little in his seat while Dr. Marcus shuffled through his file.

"So, what's the damage doc?" Tony was already expecting a bad news based on his observation on Dr. Marcus' behavior.

"Tony, trust me it's not easy for me to tell you this. We've run the tests and I'm sorry to tell you that you're on the final stage of brain cancer."

It seems like there's a dark sky hovering over Tony the moment he heard those words from Dr. Marcus. His world was spinning and he feels like he's drowning in the deep ocean. Brain cancer? He has a cancer? A brain cancer? No, no. There must be something wrong with the result. How could he, of all the things in the world, has a brain cancer? And it's in the final stage?!

"Are you really sure about this doc? You sure there are not any kind of mixed up in the files?" Tony was going through the denial stage. This cannot be happening to him.

"I'm sorry Tony. But that is the truth. The headaches you've been having are caused by the pressure of the cancerous tumor in your brain." Dr. Marcus was trying his best to explain to Tony in a layman term. He knew that it was a hard thing for Tony to digest at the moment.

"What are my options now? I mean, you said that it was in the final stage. Is there anything that we can do?"

"Based on the estimations, I can only give you at least 6 months before everything will start to deteriorate. At the moment, you have two options that you can choose. First, we can try to operate on the tumor. But I have to tell you that there's a seventy-thirty chances that things can go wrong. The second option is the safer one; you can go through chemotherapy to help delay the growth of the tumor."

Tony's world was crashing down in a matter of seconds. Six months? That's all he has left according to the doctor. There's so much things that he still hasn't done and wanted to do. And suddenly he only has six months left in this world. He held his head with both his hand and sighed heavily. He didn't want to do the operation and die on the table. He knew his chances are slim because of the state of his lungs. He also didn't want to do the chemo and live with the side effects for the rest of his short life.

"I think we need to tell Agent Gibbs and you guys will have to discuss the next action to take." Dr. Marcus suggested when Tony seems lost in his thoughts.

"No, no! I'm not telling him. And so are you! This is between the two of us." Tony quickly shot down the idea. There is no way in hell he's involving Gibbs or any of the team in this mess.

"But Tony, in this situation it's best for you to have someone to support you physically and emotionally." Tony still shook his head at Dr. Marcus' words.

"I need to deal with this alone. At least for now. You have to promise me that you will keep this between us. Doctor – patient confidentiality."

"I will. But I'm telling you that I still don't agree with your decision."

"I'm sorry but I really need to do this. Thank you Dr. Marcus for everything." With that Tony shook Dr. Marcus' hand before turning his back to leave the room.

"No problem, Tony. I'm sorry too for having to be the bearer of this bad news." Tony turned his face towards Dr. Marcus and smiled a weak smile before leaving the room for good.