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Title: Nightmares
By: nancy
Pairing: Tony/Gibbs
Fandom: NCIS
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Gibbs isn't immune.

***

It was strange to think that Gibbs had nightmares. The iron-will seemed so all-encompassing that nothing could break through it. Insults were ignored. Fists were deflected. Anger and hate just rolled off the man's back. Doubts never formed, or were at least never voiced. Everything that happened, all the negative crap they all went through day after day, bounced off an impenetrable shield.

But all of that, of course, was during daylight hours.

At night, Gibbs was a different person entirely. For the first month they shared a bed, Tony inevitably wound up on the floor by the morning, literally kicked there by a foot planted somewhere on his back or ass. The first time that Jethro had had a nightmare, it had taken the form of a loud, anguished cry that woke Tony from a sound sleep. The hairs on the back of his neck had risen at the pain in that cry, but a slap in the face had been the reward for trying to wake and comfort Gibbs.

Gibbs hadn't believed him when he'd said the man had slapped him in his sleep, but Tony sure as hell hadn't done it to himself. Fortunately, it had faded enough that he could go to work and claim getting fresh with someone wasn't into men. The ribbing from Kate had been merciless, even McGee had pitched in, but the grateful smile on Gibbs' face had more than made up for it.

Since then, Tony had learned the proper way to wake his lover so that he didn't get another slap, or worse. He stayed where he was in the bed and spoke softly to Gibbs. It distracted the subconscious enough to wake the other man into a befuddled, but non-violent state. From there, he could cuddle up against Gibbs with the claim of being cold or having a bad dream, giving him an excuse to hold on to something. If Gibbs saw through the ploy, he didn't mention it.

It was so damn hard to basically do nothing while his lover was going through the hell of internalized guilt and anger and a serious sense of failure. More than once, Tony wanted to just shake Gibbs' shoulder and bring him instantly out of whatever tormented him, but the added guilt to the other man's expression if he hurt Tony by accident was enough to keep him still.

Then there were nights where Tony wound up playing teddy bear, with Gibbs not even waking up. A stranglehold around his neck and chest, sometimes a leg even thrown around his hip or thigh, and Tony was immobilized until dawn. Those were the days his partner's strength was a definite liability, because he woke sore and stiff, having been unable to move all night. They were also, inevitably, the night's he'd had too much to drink and had to make a beeline for the bathroom as soon as Gibbs woke up. That prompted teasing about a lack of control, but he took it all in good humor.

Despite the aches and pains and inconveniences to being Gibbs' lover, Tony wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

***