Don't Let Go

A/NI: Okay, I feel like I'm betraying my main fandom here and stepping out of my usual territory, but I've recently become obsessed with NCIS, McAbby, and Tate. So, here we go... a missing scene for 2x22- "SWAK".

A/NII: Edited on 9/17/13 to lower crap factor.

"You know what this reminds me of? The last scene of Alien," Tony croaked, his voice hoarse and torn from the constant, hacking cough. Kate looked at him, unable to believe him. He had an eighty five percent chance of dying very painfully, very soon, and he was still keeping up his damned movie references.

She just laughed at her partner. Tony was still Tony, even when his life was hanging in the balance.

She looked at Tony, his body shaking with the racking coughs, his lips and fingers blue and black, his eyes bloodshot and watery. He coughed again, and Kate found herself struggling to hold back tears yet again. She was glad that Tony hadn't seen her fall apart after Gibbs arrived. Ducky had called her brave for staying with him.

Right now, she didn't feel brave at all. She felt positively sick. Tony, so strong, so fearless, laying crumpled and dying in the bed next to her. Yeah, Tony annoyed the crap out of her sometimes. He was an immature, womanizing idiot who drove her up a wall every chance he got.

But... she cared about him. She didn't know just how much until his life was put in danger. She didn't realize until right now that the last thing she wanted on earth was for Anthony DiNozzo to die.

"Why'd you stay, Kate?" Tony asked suddenly when he finished coughing. He looked at her, the faint blue light making both of them look ghostly and pale, which only made Tony look worse than he already was.

Kate didn't really know how to respond. She didn't want to leave Tony alone, even for a second.

Maybe she was afraid that if she left, it would be the last time she saw him. Afraid didn't even cover it. Terrified, was more like it. He was her partner. He was her friend.

"It's isolation, Tony. I had to stay," she pointed out, looking away and hoping he would be sick enough not to see through her deflection.

Yeah, not so much.

"I know you weren't sick. And that also doesn't explain why you're here now," he responded before breaking into another bout of coughing.

"Tony..." Kate trailed off, tears finally stinging down her cheeks. She shook her head, her voice trembling slightly. "Tony, don't talk, it's hurting you."

"Everything's hurting me," Tony replied dismissively. "I just... I thought I annoyed you."

"You do," Kate affirmed. "A lot, actually." She let out a shaky laugh. "But I care about you, Tony. I'm not going to just leave you here to... to..." Hating herself, she felt more tears track down her face, and a sob racked her. Tony lifted his head as much as he could.

"Don't-" he coughed harshly. "Don't cry."

"I'm sorry, Tony. I guess I didn't realize how much I'd miss you until I figured out you're not actually an immortal sex god," she joked weakly, wiping a hand across her moist eyes.

"Sex god, yes, immortal, not so much..." Tony said, grimacing as he swallowed painfully. "But I'm not going to die," he told her with a shrug. Kate looked at him, an eyebrow raised in a silent question. Tony laughed. "Gibbs ordered me not to die. So I won't. Got to follow orders."

Kate shook her head at the sheer insanity of it, but knowing Jethro Gibbs, him ordering one of his employees not to die didn't sound all that crazy.

"If you die, Gibbs and I will both kill you," Kate informed him.

"So, you really care if I bite the dust, Kate?" Tony asked. Kate looked at him, and suddenly she swung her legs up and stood on the icy floor, her feet tingling. She padded silently over to Tony's bed, kneeling down beside him. She grabbed one of his cold, oxygen starved hands.

"Don't you dare," she whispered, squeezing his hand. She was scared by how weak his grip was when he squeezed back. "Don't you dare die on me, DiNozzo," she said, still crying. Tony's dark lips twitched in a hint of a smile. He lifted his free hand, it shook violently before it reached her face and settled there. He used his thumb to brush away the tears in her right eye.

"Hey..." he croaked. "I told you not to... not to cry. Dying or not, I'm still senior to you, Agent Todd."

Kate laughed at him, catching his other hand in hers. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"You've made that pretty clear over the past two years," Tony said, now smiling. "Katie?" he asked, using the seldom used variation of her name. Kate tilted her head, his hands firmly entwined in hers.

"Yes?" she asked, pursing her lips.

"Thanks for staying with me," he said, his voice faint. "I really do like you, you know. I may act like a jerk, but I-" he broke off, the worst coughing fit yet hitting him. His whole body twitched as he let out long, barking coughs. Blood shot from his throat, staining his sheets. Kate's eyes burned and her heart twisted as she watched. She held his hands so hard her knuckles turned white. He collapsed back against his pillows, exhausted, and she now saw a tear fall from his eye. "I... don't..." he breathed, his voice so hoarse it sounded nothing like his own.

"Shh, Tony, it's alright, don't try to talk," Kate said, removing one of her hands from his and trailing her fingers through his spiky brown hair, now damp with sweat.

"I... don't..." He closed his eyes as more tears fell. "I don't want to die."

Kate's eyes widened. Tony was afraid. The fact that he was afraid made her afraid. Very afraid. Despite Gibbs reassurances (she couldn't think of anything else to call them), Tony was still scared. He knew there was only a fifteen percent chance he would make it.

She smoothed his hair, and smiled as best she could down at him. "You're not going to die, Tony. I won't let you die," she said fiercely. A glimmer of amusement showed in Tony's bloodshot eyes.

"Stubborn until the end, huh? Gibbs is wearing off on you..." he said. "I'm glad, you know."

Kate's eyebrows knitted together, confused. "Glad about what?"

"Glad it was me... and not you."

A/N: Review, please? This is my first ever NCIS fic, and I'm wondering how I did.