Work Text:
Tony knew coming into work was a bad idea. He had woken up feeling the slightest bit sluggish, but had chalked it up to long hours in the heart of a case. After a shower, Tony had only felt worse. Instead of energized, he felt like he could crawl back into bed and sleep for a year. That was also when the coughing started. Deep, fierce expulsions that left him clutching at his chest desperately and left him winded and exhausted. He thought about using some of those numerous vacation days he had racked up before deciding against it. Gibbs needed him. The team needed him. He could suck it up for a few more days.
The drive in nearly had him falling asleep at the wheel, and when he stepped out of the car, a harsh shiver raced down his spin. It was relatively warm out, and here he was shivering in his suit jacket. He hoped it wasn’t too obvious as the last thing that he needed was for someone to point it out. McGee would be oblivious, but Kate on the other hand, she was too observant for her own good. Then there was the one that he really had to convince: Gibbs.
He did his best to avoid eye contact with nearly everyone he came into contact with, shooting shy glances at the floor in hopes no one would stop to talk to him. He entered in the elevator and prepared for the inevitable, shoulders hunched and feet shuffling back and forth under him.
The familiar ping had him lifting his head and forcing as much energy into his movements as possible. He found that he was the last to arrive, though not by much as Kate and McGee were still setting down their things.
“Hey, McGeek. Hey, Kate.”
Kate lifted her head and eyed him warily. “What the hell happened to you? It sounds like you gargled gravel for breakfast.”
“What, no it doesn’t,” Tony protested.
Kate looked over to McGee for support, who shrugged. “You kinda do, Tony.”
Tony sat down at his desk and grabbed a bottle of water. “Just must not have been talking enough this morning. I’l get there,” he replied between anxious gulps that left his throat feeling like it was on fire.
“You tell yourself that.”
“Tell yourself what, Kate,” a familiar voice boomed.
Tony instinctually winced as he looked over to Kate for help. While she may not have been his best option, Tony wished he could reach out telepathically. He hoped his face showed Kate the desperation of the situation.
“Um, that Tony is your favorite,” Kate blurted.
Gibbs’s head swiveled to look at Tony, expression giving away nothing. “Is that so?”
Tony gulped. “Yeah, Boss. Can you believe McGeek actually thought it may be him? I told that it was obviously me.” He hoped that he kept his voice cheerful enough and that Kate and McGee were exaggerating when they said how rough he sounded.
Gibbs didn’t waver, and when he finally turned away, Tony felt like he could let out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding. That turned out to be a terrible idea as the breath caught in the back of his throat and he feared he would fall into another coughing spell.
“Abby is my favorite,” Gibbs told them over his shoulder. “C’mon. She’s got something.”
“Told you it was Abby,” Kate hissed over her shoulder to Tony. Although her tone was light, there was some worry in her eyes.
Tony rested his hands on his knees as he fought the impending attack. “Should’ve guessed it,” he muttered through gritted teeth.
“Are you sure you don’t want of us to wait with you,” Kate offered. “It should only take one of us to distract Gibbs while you collect your bearings.”
Determination surged through Tony as he straightened. The tightness in his lungs didn’t so much as release, as it did slowly dissipate with some movement. “I’m fine, Kate. Don’t need you making excuses for me.”
Kate looked slightly hurt before giving a shrug and pulling ahead with McGee right behind. He slowed to allow Tony to catch up as the Senior Field Agent coughed lightly in his shoulder so that Gibbs couldn’t hear. The former Marine may not have the best hearing anymore, but somehow Tony didn’t want to tempt fate by testing his theory.
The entire group squeezed into the elevator together with Tony clustered towards the back. It took all of his concentration not to cough. His eyes began to water and he was quick to raise a knuckle to his eye and firmly brush them aside. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to think that he was crying.
When the doors mercifully opened, everyone else stepped out, leaving Tony alone. He hovered by the doors so that they wouldn’t shut as he collected himself. He could feel the pressure rising as if something was sitting on his chest. Tony had spent the better half of the morning coughing, and he feared that would only continue the more he tried to control his symptoms.
He allowed himself a few short hacks once he was sure the rest of the group had turned into Abby’s lab. He didn’t want to leave them waiting, and yet he also didn’t want to make a fool out of himself either. After a few more moments of debating with himself, Tony forced himself to stand, once more, and raced forward at a light jog. That turned out to be the wrong decision as his knees wobbled and he leaned against the wall for support before he turned down the hallway.
“C’mon,” Tony grumbled to himself. “You’re stronger than this. It’s just a stupid cold. Get it together!”
Hardly a pep talk he actually felt like listening to, but it was all he got. He took in a rattling breath before stepping through, interrupting the middle of Abby’s excited rambling. Normally all this stuff was way over his head, but today it sounded as though she was speaking another language. McGee and Kate were nodding along while Gibbs asked a clarifying question every now and again. Tony felt his mind wandering as he realized just how much his muscles were beginning to ache.
“And what do you think, Tony?”
Tony almost jumped out of his skin when he realized that Abby had asked him a direct question. Her head was tipped to the side as her pigtail swung behind her. She appeared so excited that he hated that he hadn’t been paying attention to a word she had been saying.
“I’d say great job?”
It came out more as a question than a declaration. McGee shook his head while Kate bit her bottom lip. When Tony looked up to Gibbs, he could see his eyes blazing in annoyance.
“Something else on your mind, DiNozzo? We have a dead petty officer and less evidence than we thought,” Gibbs reminded him firmly. “Can I count on you here?”
“Yes, Boss,” Tony announced as he straightened to his full height, expression hardening.
Gibbs passed a warning look over Tony. “You two head to see Ducky and see if he’s found anything else,” he told McGee and Kate. “I’d like to speak to Tony alone.”
Tony swallowed hard as Kate and McGee exchanged apprehensive glances. It looked as though McGee wanted to say something, but Kate reached out and grabbed his arm while shaking her head. McGee’s face dropped as he turned with Kate to head out of the room. Even Abby looked a little worried as she shuffled back and forth as she sipped her CafPow.
“Abby, mind of we borrow your ballistics lab?”
Tony frowned. Gibbs didn’t ask for things. He told people what he was doing and they were forced to go along with it. What was his angle?
Abby waved him off. “Sure, Gibbs! I’ll just be over here…working.”
Tony knew that she may eavesdrop if possible, though if Gibbs realized what she was going to do, he made no sign of it. He passed by without so much as a look back to Abby.
‘He knows I’ll follow without question,’ Tony though to himself as he hung his head and padded after him.
Suddenly, Abby reached out and grasped Tony hard by the wrist. She pulled him close with Tony’s head tipped to the side to hear her whisper. “You don’t look so good, Tony. Are you okay?”
“M’fine, Abby. Just peachy.” He gave a goofy smile to match, that may have fooled the unobservant. Abby returned it with a smile of her own as she loosened her grip on his wrist. Tony slid past almost silently as he passed by the large door and towards the ballistics lab. He rarely had a reason to come in here, nor did he usually want to. The scent of gunpowder usually meant trouble and pain. Although he was a field agent, that didn’t mean he was overly found of guns.
Tony slid a few paces in front of Gibbs with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t dare lift his head, and no jokes were coming to mind. Truthfully he was too tired to even think about much, let alone how he could make a fool of himself in front of Gibbs. That was something that usually came naturally and now he had no desire for anything.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Tony shrugged. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Boss, it’s really nothing. I’ll kick it into high gear now. You….got—it…” Whatever control Tony believed that he had, disappeared in an instant. He doubled over as his lungs seized and he began to cough so powerfully that he saw stars. The floor seemed to give way as he fell to his knees and continued to cough, breathing so hard that his entire body felt like it was devoid of oxygen.
“DiNozzo!” Gibbs dropped to the floor and looked over his shoulder frantically as he saw Abby draw closer in horror. “Call Ducky and get him down here. Now.”
Abby stood rigid, unable to move.
“Abby!”
She managed to snap herself out of her horror as she turned on her heels and raced out of the room.
Tony wanted to call her back, to assure her that he was fine, but the coughing was only growing worse. Each hack sent pain surging through his body until he wasn’t sure how he was able to remain conscious. Frightened eyes lifted in search of anything to reassure him, and immediately locked on stone cold blue irises looking right back.
“You’re alright,” Gibbs soothed in such a soft voice that Tony didn’t believe it was him. Gibbs forced Tony to lift his head as he turned him so that he was sitting on the floor instead of crouched over it. He pulled Tony close to his chest to prop him upright as Tony continued to cough with no end in sight. “You’re going to be fine. Keep breathing.”
Tony wanted to shout that if he could, he would. But each breath turned into another pathetic sounding cough. This had to be the way that he died. There was no way he could make it out of here without losing his life as every cough brought him closer to the brink. Despite the stability behind him in the form of Gibbs, he doubted if it would last long.
Just when Tony felt himself slipping even farther, a fresh burst of oxygen invaded his lungs. He felt a mask fixated on his face, and when he looked up, he saw Ducky hovering in front of him with the same look of worry on his face that Gibbs had on his.
“Duck….man.”
“Don’t try and talk, my dear boy,” Ducky soothed as he rested a hand on Tony’s shoulder. “It sounds like a nasty case of perhaps bronchitis or pneumonia in those lungs of yours. I fear this warrants a trip to Bethesda.”
Tony’s stomach plummeted even as the hiss of oxygen finally brought an end to his desperate coughing. He wanted so bad to protest how fine he was, yet he couldn’t talk even if he wanted to. Everything hurt and he still doubted whether or not he could articulate that in a way that wouldn’t get him scolded by both Gibbs and Ducky.
“Do we need to call an ambulance,” Gibbs questioned. Tony could feel him almost shaking.
Ducky hummed to himself as he watched Tony continue to struggle for each breath, despite the oxygen. His world began to feel narrower by the moment until dots blotted his vision. That was the last thing he remembered before he lost consciousness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two Days Later
Tony stirred when he felt something cool on his forehead. He lifted his head weakly and opened his eyes to see a man hovering in front of him, moving a washcloth around lightly. Thick beads of water rolled down his neck and wet his hair. It actually felt good if he was being honest with himself, except he was unable to speak.
“You can go right back to sleep once you take your meds.” Gibbs vowed as he grabbed a glass with a straw followed by two chalk white pills. Tony was barely able to open his mouth as Gibbs forced the pills past his teeth and helped lift the straw to Tony’s lips. Tony drank a generous amount before Gibbs pulled it away, much to Tony’s distain.
Tony closed his eyes tightly and thought back on the last couple days. Ducky had been right and it was pneumonia, a pretty severe case as well. When the doctors found the scaring in his lungs from the fire he had been in during college, they had chalked that up to how it had gotten so dangerous so quickly. He could remember a few doctors at Bethesda tell Gibbs that this could lower his immunity long term.
“Make sure he has no run-ins with things such as TB, Measles, or plague and he’ll be fine with treatment.”
Oh, if only they knew the future. It would’ve been poetic if it wasn’t so tragic. Little did anyone know that in a few short months one of those realities would be upon them.
“Tony?”
Tony opened his eyes and struggled to focus on the man in front of him. He attempted to incline his head forward to show that he was listening when the familiar tightness pulsed through him. His mouth opened wordlessly as he started to cough, harshly and viciously, eyes squeezed shut as he longed for the agony to pass him by.
Gibbs hoisted Tony into more of a sitting position and waited until the fit passed. Tony surfaced with a gasp as he swallowed hard, refusing to spit into the bowl Gibbs had beside him no matter how much the older man insisted. There was potential that Gibbs would scold him for it later, but right now Tony was thankful for the silence.
“It sounds like you’re coughing up a lung,” Gibbs grumbled after a few minutes. “Maybe I should call the hospital again.”
Tony reached out and lightly pawed at Gibbs’s arm. The silver haired man glanced down to find Tony lightly shaking his head. He then tapped his opposite wrist two times with his pointer finger.
Gibbs shook his head. “It shouldn’t take this much damn time.”
Tony fell back into the couch and wiggled his head until he found a comfortable position. The doctors had pointed out the benefit of time so many times in the hospital that Tony actually starred to believe it himself. Gibbs, however, not so much.
Just when Tony was beginning to grow comfortable enough to drift off back to sleep, he felt a hand come down lightly on top of his head. He hardly thought it counted as a head slap, but it drew his attention nonetheless.
Gibbs leaned down so that his mouth was next to Tony’s ear. “You ever come down this sick again and don’t tell me, I’ll kill you myself.”
Although Tony detected the threat in Gibbs’s voice, he could pick up the affection as well. Gibbs was worried and that was how it manifested itself.
Tony lifted a hand, eyes still closed, and drew an X over his chest. It felt good to know that someone was worried about him. He just hoped that nothing like this would happen ever again.