Hospitals had always been Tony's least favorite place in the world. He would rather be in the field at a horribly gruesome crime scene. He hated the smells, he hated the sounds, he hated hearing codes and machines screaming, but most of all he hated people crying over their lost loved ones. Yes he hated hospitals more than anything else in the world and always had, but today he especially hated them. He especially hated Bethesda and he even hated Dr. Pitt. His chest tightened and another coughing fit took over his body. He noticed the elderly man next to him frantically jumped up and ran over to a seat across the room. Seemingly forgetting that they were in the Pulmonology waiting room. Then again coughing did spread germs and that old man looked pretty sick. "Jesus Christ!" Tony thought to himself he probably would be looking like that in a few months. Maybe even sooner. If he was lucky enough to be alive by then.

"Tony DiNozzo?" Dr. Pitt's nurse called.

Tony pulled himself up and staggered towards Dr. Pitt's office. He made it about halfway back before yet another coughing fit attacked his body. Just his luck this was one of the more powerful ones. In fact it may have been the most powerful one he had suffered. He found his vision growing tunneled and his legs felt like spaghetti. He could feel his knees get out from underneath him. He braced himself and grabbed the coffee table on the way down. The nurse rushed over and helped him stand. She helped him back to the office and then Dr. Pitt helped him up onto the exam table.

"So what seems to be the problem?" Dr. Pitt asked.

"Well I practically had to be carried in here because of a coughing fit." Tony snarked.

"I know but what exactly are your symptoms?" Dr. Pitt asked.

"I have been having between three and ten coughing fits a day for the past two weeks or so. I have been experiencing shortness of breath for the past month." Tony explained.

"Have you coughed up any blood or dark yellow or brown mucus?" Dr. Pitt asked.

"It's been mostly yellow." Tony admitted.

"And when did this start?" Dr. Pitt asked.

"Two weeks ago." Tony admitted.

"Tony you just called last night. You need to be more careful with your health." Dr. Pitt reminded.

"I know" Tony sighed.

"I am going to run a few tests but we are at capacity. So I am going to send you home in the meantime. Can I count on you to follow the rules?" Dr. Pitt asked.

"I will be good." Tony replied.

Dr. Pitt drew blood and took an x-ray of Tony's chest. He gave Tony some medication for the meantime and ordered him to high tail it back to the office as soon as he called with the test results. He must have reminded Tony to take it easy about fifty times before making it out of the office. Tony knew that Dr. Pitt wanted him to stay home and preferably in bed, but he did not want to raise any suspicions. Besides he had been going to work with his shortness of breath and coughing fits for weeks now. Surely he could handle it. He had to. He didn't have an explanation for being gone yet but he damn sure needed to think of one before he ended up in the hospital with whatever the hell this was.

"You're late!" Gibbs barked as he entered the bullpen.

"Sorry I had an appointment." Tony apologized.

"Did you email me or Director Vance about it?" Gibbs asked.

"No sir it uh I just made it last night." Tony admitted.

"And you didn't have time to shoot us an email or make a call?" Gibbs questioned.

"No sir I over slept and I didn't have reception in the office." Tony replied at least he wasn't lying.

"Alright well don't let it happen again." Gibbs replied.

"I won't." Tony assured.

Tony walked back to his desk and collapsed into his chair. He was out of breath just from the walk from the elevator. He rested his head on his desk and prayed to God that whatever this was wouldn't get to the best of him in the office. He closed his eyes just for a minute but did not wake up until he felt McGee shaking his shoulders just a little too roughly.

"Pro... Probie?!" Tony coughed.

"Tony are you alright? You feel a little warm." McGee commented.

"Fine just hot." Tony lied.

"Alright well we have a case. Bishop and Gibbs are already heading down to the car but if you aren't feeling good you need to stay in." McGee explained.

"No way I don't need to piss Gibbs off again." Tony argued.

"Actually Gibbs is a little worried about you. I am sure he will understand." McGee replied.

"You've met Gibbs right? I am not taking any chances." Tony replied.

Upon returning from his lunch break, Dr. Bradley Pitt discovered Tony's X-rays were waiting for him on the table. They were still waiting for some of the blood work to come in but truth be told at the moment the X-rays were the most important thing. They would determine if Tony had pneumonia or if something more serious were going on. Tony was considered a double whammy when it came to the risk of lung cancer. While the former athlete had avoided smoking save for a few joints in college. He had damaged lungs and even more seriously his mother had died of lung cancer when he was a boy and the type she had was more than likely genetic. Dr. Pitt had begged him to get tested but he refused. He said he did not want anything else to worry about. The doctor withdrew the X-Rays from the envelope and hung them on his slide. What he saw made his stomach drop. Tony had spots on both lungs and both spots looked like cancer. He wouldn't know until he preformed the biopsy but things were really looking bad. He pressed the button on his intercom and called his assistant.

"Wendy?"

"Yes sir?"

"Please call Tony DiNozzo back in right away. He needs a biopsy as soon as possible."

"Yes sir."

Much to Tony's chagrin it started to pour when the team was about halfway to the crime scene. Being in the rain was the absolute worst thing for him right now but what could he do? He had come along and he didn't really have a good excuse to just sit in the car once they arrived. Three blocks from the crime scene a third coughing fit took over his body.

"You alright?" Gibbs asked.

"Fine" Tony coughed.

"You sound like shit." Gibbs remarked.

"Well I feel great." Tony lied.

"If you collapse on me again you are in serious trouble." Gibbs warned.

"I won't pass out!" Tony snapped.

"Tony you are burning up." McGee commented.

"Well if somebody didn't have the God Dammed heat on!" Tony snapped punching the back of Bishop's seat.

"Jesus, I am sorry for being cold." Bishop hissed.

"Tony!" Gibbs snapped.

"Sorry" Tony apologized.

By the time Bishop parked the car it was still pouring down rain and Tony felt worse than he had in his entire life. They got out of the car and walked towards where the body had been found. In a drainage ditch in between the dumpsters and some thorny bushes. Definitely one for the books. Ducky's hip was acting up and Jimmy could not get the body out himself. Not wanting to raise any suspicions regarding his health Tony volunteered to go down into the ditch and help Jimmy move the body. Yet another idiotic move on his part but he couldn't raise suspicions. He could hear his phone ringing in his back pocket. Which reminded him. He really needed to make up an excuse for being in the hospital. He didn't want to raise alarms until he knew whatever the hell this was. Then it hit him he couldn't get his phone wet. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and searched for a safe place. Finally Ducky held out his hand and Tony dropped the device into his palm. Tony didn't realize how cold he was until he was in the water. He instantly began to shake and the shaking triggered a coughing fit. This fit made his episode at the doctor's office look like nothing. He was dizzy and his vision quickly went from normal to tunneled and blurry, to gone. A wad came out of his throat and it must have been something bad because the last thing he heard was a collection of gasps and screams from his teammates. He fell down into the dirty water face first with a heavy splash.

"TONY!" Jimmy cried, pulling his friend out of the water.

"What's wrong?" Bishop asked.

"I don't know he felt warm and he was acting weird." McGee recalled.

"Dammit DiNozzo!" Gibbs snapped.

A/N: What is wrong with Tony now and how will Dr. Pitt react when he finds out that Tony went out into the rain? New chapter will be up soon. Please review and thanks for reading.