The clipped sound of her heels echoed off the brick walls as she hurried down the empty street, trying to lose her pursuer.

"Anna!" the voice called out, and she noted the desperate tone in his voice. Serves him right, that jerk. Running was hard for her these days, even with her extensive Navy training. She stepped into the street, hoping to find something, or someone, to tell her this was all a nightmare. To help her wake up.

Her coat blew around her, hugging her legs tightly, and the black dress she had on flapped at her mockingly. When Anna was picking out the shoes to complete the outfit, she hadn't planned on using them in an escape, and now felt the throbbing in her ankles.

Anna was spun around quickly as he grabbed a hold of her sleeve, and the man bent over and grabbed a hole of his knees for support as he breathed in deeply.

"What?" she shrieked, "what else could you possibly want from me? Everything I had I gave to you, and then you went ahead and threw it in my face." By now, Anna was crying, but she continued anyways. "The last three years of my life have been spent waiting for you. For you to call, for you to write, but no. I got nothing!" She laughed darkly. "Well, that's not true. I do have something. It's just not what I expected." He looked up at her in confusion, his green eyes shining in the streetlights. "Do you know what that thing is? Do you, Tony? No, because every time I try to tell you something, you run away. Well, now you don't have to come crawling back, because we're done. You are nothing but trouble for me, and it's been rocky for some time now. I need you to stop following me. I need you to leave." She took a step back. Normally, she never would have said anything that direct. Being shy helped keep her emotions under control.

Tony stood up and faced Anna with a blank face. "Anna, please, just listen. Let me explain –"

"Explain!" Anna whipped around to face him, "explain what?! There is nothing to explain, Mr. DiNozzo, just the fact in front of us that I'm..." her voice trailed off, and she staggered back on her heels, hitting the curb of the street slightly. He doesn't know, she thought, and I want it to stay that way.

Blind to what she had just said, he plowed on in his speech. "I mean, I know I've been kind of flaky, but there is a reason. A good reason, too. Not just some made up, stupid...thing."

From the way that Anna was looking at him, he knew his argument was losing, and quickly.

"Tony," she said softly, "look at us. We're twenty-five years old, and begging to stay together. We have our whole lives ahead of us, and we need to start living. It was great while it lasted, but we need to move on." As she finished, Tony looked like he wanted to say more, but Anna just shook her head.

"No more worries. No more waiting for the other to call. You'll be fine." Tony looked almost hurt at this, but she finished with, "you always are."

But not this time, he thought. Her hair blew around her face, making her dark eyes seem black in the lack of light. He had always loved the deep chocolate curls that framed her face so nicely, and his heart ached at the thought of losing it all. She had brought up a good point, though. Every other time he had been able to pick himself up and move on, like nothing was the matter. He had told her that himself. But this time would be different, he could feel it. The other girls had never quiet acted like this and caused him to have so much, passion. Not once before had he felt that, but Anna had brought it out. He felt real, he felt alive, and he felt love. For Tony Dinozzo, this was a dangerous thing. Love showed weakness. His father had shown him that plenty of times.

Anna's eyes were passive and hard as Tony looked at her once more before letting her go. She was tall, about five foot seven or eight. Her hair was that dark brown and fell down to below her shoulders in waves and curls. Years or soccer and dancing had toned her body, and made her a strong Navy recruit. He hated it when she had to tuck her hair into the little hat that went with her uniform and she despised the color of the outfit. Many jokes had come out of that, and Tony thought back, Where did things go wrong? What happened here

A whisper escaped Anna's lips, and then she turned and left. "Goodbye."

Tony felt himself falling apart inside, everything turned into chaos; like someone had turned on the heat, causing his organs to melt and blend. He kicked a small pebble on the ground with his foot and looked down. A receipt had been dropped there, and not really sure what to do, he picked it up. Only one item had been bought, and the date showed the day before. Rain started to fall onto the small paper, and Tony looked up, but realized that it was his own tears. Folding the slip, he placed it into his pocket and headed home.

Hey! Thank you so much for reading, I really love writing NCIS. This story is going to be a shoter one, but longer than an episode would be. P.S. - in case you didn't get it, this is sixteen years in the past. Don't worry, it will all catch up and make sense next chapter. Hope you like it, review and leave your comments! Thanks!