Come On, At Least Sleep In a Bed

“Come on, at least sleep in a bed.”

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs did not get sick. Every winter, illnesses spread through NCIS, but every virus seemed terrified to latch onto Gibbs. Every sore throat, sneezy cold, and achy flu always left him entirely untouched. So no one knew what to do one afternoon when Gibbs started sneezing, least of all Gibbs.

McGee had offered his box of tissues until Gibbs’ glare told him to just leave the box on the desk and go back to his computer. Abby had fussed and smothered until Gibbs stopped answering her calls altogether. Ducky had prodded and rambled about something like the nature of disease until they all had headaches. Jimmy had gone out on a coffee run and forgotten Rule #23, to his detriment. Bishop offered up some old home cold remedies that no one else found useful. And Tony put up with Gibbs’ bad mood for all of three hours before hauling him out of the building in the middle of a case.

Gibbs put up a fight, swearing and threatening Tony, until they were driving out of the NCIS parking garage and then he curled up in the passenger seat and gave a sound like a small, wounded animal. Tony’s eyebrows rose. “Boss?”

“n’GTttchhhh-uh!”

Tony’s eyebrows fell. “There are tissues in the glove compartment.”

Gibbs ignored this and scrubbed his nose roughly against his shoulder a few times.

When they got to Gibbs’ house, Gibbs marched inside, swept the breakfast dishes off the couch, then collapsed there, face down against the cushions. “M’fine. You can go.” Tony could hear the statement well enough, though muffled.

“Sorry, Boss. Didn’t catch that. I’m going to see what you have in the way of supplies. Give me a second.”

Gibbs seemed like the kind of guy to be prepared. How could someone call a place a house without at least one box of tissues hiding somewhere? Tony poked around, looking under bathroom sinks and on pantry shelves. He finally found a half-empty box in the spare bedroom and wasn’t sure if he should take it or not. It was sitting next to a couple cardboard boxes labeled KELLY.

“hnn’IHGTSchhhhhh!”

Tony could hear the sneeze all the way upstairs, which made his mind up for him. He brought the box, a spare blanket and pillow, a bottle of Aspirin, and a glass of water back to Gibbs in the living room. “If you’re going to lie here on the couch with a cold, at least do it right.” He got his laptop out. He dug a TV tray table out from under some dusty woodworking magazines. It took him a few seconds to boot up and log in, but then he had Netflix streaming as he tucked the blanket around his boss. “Now stay put. If you need anything, I’ll get it for you.”

“DiNozzo, I’m not that sick.”

“Mmhmmm. You forgot I heard you sneezing all day. And you never sneeze. So this bug’s gotta be a bad one if it was enough to get to you.” He settled on the floor in front of the couch. “You can slap the back of my head all you want if it makes you feel any better, but I’m looking after you today. End of discussion. Case closed.”

“huhh-huh-INGShhh!”

Tony looked over his shoulder at Gibbs holding his nose. Tony pulled a tissue out of the box and handed it over. “Blow your nose and watch this movie. It’s a good one.”

Tony only caught a brief glimpse of the lower half of Gibbs’ face before it disappeared behind the tissue, but he was sure he hadn’t imagined that smile. “Sure thing, Boss.”