"Dinner was great, Ziver," Gibbs told her as they cleared the table. "Thanks."

"It was my pleasure, Gibbs," she gave him a smile as she grabbed his empty plate.

"Ah, yes, I agree," Ducky chimed in as he assisted her. "Perhaps the one perk of one of you being mauled or maimed in some fashion... We all get to enjoy a good home-cooked meal of some sort," he snickered.

"I didn't get a home-cooked meal when I was attacked my Jethro," McGee objected from his place at the sink, where he dried the dishes passed to him by Tony and Abby, who were washing.

"Aw, Timmy," Abby cooed, "Don't worry! We'll do a make-up dinner for you."

"Yeah, Timmy," Tony said in a slightly mocking voice. "I'll even bring the cheese to go with your whine."

"Ha ha, Tony," McGee rolled his eyes as he placed a dried plate on the counter.

"Enough bickering," Ziva snapped, though lightly. "This dinner was for all of us. We were all injured during the last case we worked together, if I need to remind you. Well, except for Abby and Ducky, of course...but they were here for support, isn't that right?" she looked between the too aforementioned.

"Precisely," Ducky replied. "And everyone is well on the mend. Anthony is nearly ready to return to field-duty. Jethro, I assume, is almost well enough to return to desk work..." he looked to his friend for confirmation.

Gibbs simply shrugged.

"I was thinkin' about takin' him on a run with me later on, actually," Tony said, turning away from the sink and drying his hands. "You up for that, Boss?" Gibbs cocked his head in consideration. "I know you still have me beat, Boss... Or maybe we're synced up now," he challenged.

"Maybe," Gibbs smirked.

"I've never known Leroy Jethro Gibbs to lie down so quickly..." Tony raised his brows. By now, everyone's attention was on the conversation, though the played well enough to pretend they weren't listening.

"Who says I laid down?"

"No one said that, Boss!" Tony defended, putting his hands up.

"I am fairly certain that you said that, Tony," Ziva chimed in.

"I said I never knew him to!"

"What do I get, when I win?" Gibbs asked.

Tony shot his gaze back to his boss, "It's not a competition!"

"Sounded like you said something about a challenge, Tony," McGee said.

"You guys make lousy eavesdroppers," Tony sneered.

"Aw, c'mon, Tony!" Abby hopped as she turned to face him. "What are the prizes? If there's no prizes, I call dibs on making up the winnings!"

"If I win," Tony decidedly made up something, before Abby had the chance to make things extremely uncomfortable for all of them, "I get a 'get-out-of-head-slap-free' card."

"Oo! I can make the card!" Abby bounced excitedly.

"Sounds like ya think DiNozzo's gonna win," Gibbs raised his brows at her.

She froze in place, widening her eyes, "That's...that's not what I meant, at all, Gibbs! Honest! I just meant-"

"If I win," Gibbs interrupted and looked back at Tony, "You stay on desk-duty another week, no matter what the doc says."

Tony gave him an incredulous look, "That's not fair, Boss!"

"Sounds like ya think you'll lose, DiNozzo," Gibbs gave an amused look.

"I...you..." Tony stuttered as the thoughts ran through his head with a mixture of slight regret and mild embarrassment at the notion. "Fine! You're on," he conceded. "But I'm not holding back..."

"Were you thinkin' you'd need to let me win, before?" Gibbs couldn't hold back a smirk.

Tony grinned, then. "You talk a big game, Boss. Hope you've got your runnin' shoes."

11 00 11 00 11

"Was it your plan to wear me out by makin' me go upstairs to get your shoes?" Tony quirked a brow as they continued their pace down the street.

"You're not thinkin' of quitting already, are ya?" Gibbs smirked.

"That's not what I said," he let out a small laugh. "I asked if it was your plan...because it was a crappy plan, if that's what it was."

Gibbs let out a laugh of his own, "That wasn't my plan." I needed you to go up in case I couldn't...

"Alright. Well, we're a mile in. Wanna turn around, or keep goin'?"

"If you wanna turn around, feel free."

"That's not what I asked! Stop twisting my words!" he mocked aggravation. Gibbs smiled as they continued on. A few minutes later, he spoke again, "You realize we have to eventually get ourselves back to the house, right?"

"Ya told me, last week, that you an' McGee were runnin' a mile out and a mile back in. We've breached that, now. You need to turn back, just say it, Tony. I won't give ya hell about it."

"I'm not doing another week of desk-duty," Tony retorted. "I don't care if this ends with me vomiting all over my shoes; I'm not letting you win."

"No one's letting anyone win."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah. I know," he smirked...

*~.~*

When they hit the two and a half mile mark and mutually decided to turn around, keeping their same pace. Somewhere about a mile and a half of the way back, they were both sweating and out of breath to the point that their pace had equally slowed, and they were bumping into each other as they swerved from the straight path they'd managed to maintain up to this point.

"Quit getting...into my line, DiNozzo."

"I'm not...in your space... You're drifting...into mine..."

"I'm not drifting... You...are drifting."

"I think maybe...we're both...drifting a bit..."

"You need a break?"

"...No. Do you?"

"No..."

Another minute had them smacking into each other again, and Tony almost spilled over onto the sidewalk.

"I think...you need a break," Gibbs told him.

"No...you almost...knocked me down. Clearly...it's you...who needs a break...Boss..."

"You're wheezing..." Gibbs told him. "You need a break."

"I'm not...wheezing..." he coughed. "Just out of...breath...like you."

"You wanna...call a draw?"

"You forfeiting?" Tony's voice got a little higher.

"No. Just offering...a draw. Think we...both could use a...breather."

"You tryin' to...trick me into...losin'?"

"Wouldn't do that."

"Not so sure..."

"I'm not...tryin' to damn...trick you, DiNozzo."

"What's the draw mean...for the bet? We both...have to do our losses?"

"We both do nothin'... Bet's off if we draw."

"You promise?"

"Don't need to promise... I said it. I don't say things...I don't mean."

"Fine... I'll hold you to that... So...when we stoppin'?"

"Whenever you're ready..."

"Okay... ready? Three...two...one...now." They both slowed to a stop, bending over and resting their hands on their knees as they breathed. It was a couple of minutes before he spoke again, "I'd sit down, if I thought I'd be able to get back up ever again."

"There's a bench up ahead," Gibbs suggested.

Tony straightened and looked ahead a ways, locating what his boss had mentioned. "Carry me there?"

Gibbs let out a small laugh, "C'mon, Tony," he said as they started towards it. "We can walk there."

"Yeah, yeah..." he followed Gibbs toward the bench. "What do you think the odds are that there will be a long-distance chase on foot, in the near future?"

Gibbs shrugged as they moved to sit down. "Probably as much odds as needing to use stairs," he glanced at the younger agent.

"You haven't fallen since that first time."

"Only fell the first time because I wasn't prepared."

"Which means you probably won't have a problem."

"Just means I won't fall. I'm still a bit uneasy about it," Gibbs admitted.

Tony was surprised by the confession, and looked at him with the feeling. "Seein' as that's the only thing that's been affected, I'd say you're doin' pretty damn well, Boss," he told him. "And you've always overcome. I know you don't need a pep-talk, but seriously..."

Gibbs turned to him with raised brows, "And you just ran twice as far as you have since your bout with botulism poisoning. I'd say we're both well on our way to getting back."

Tony's lips turned up a bit at the corners. "Speaking of getting back...we've got another mile to go before we get back to your house. I, personally, vote for sleeping right here, on this bench, tonight."
"Yeah, well," Gibbs grunted as he stood, "You enjoy your bench, DiNozzo. I'm walkin' home."

"I was kidding!"

~Fin~

A/N: I know I usually leave warning for the approaching end...so I apologize lol! There might be an epilogue, if you convince me that something needs to be closed up that I left undone~

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