Tony lay awake in his bed looking at the ceiling; he hated being alone but lately even when he was in the company of a beautiful woman he felt at his loneliest. None of them wanted to talk to him, to get to know him all they cared about was having a good night with the sexy agent. Tony was guilty of being just like them for as long as he could remember but recently it just made him feel used.

He picked up his cell phone and dialled. "Hey Grace, you don't fancy coming and watching a movie do you?"

Her cell phone began to vibrate, Grace turned to look at her clock, it was late so she knew instantly who was calling. She reached over to grab her phone not even checking the caller id "Can't sleep again Tony?"

"I'm sorry, did i wake you"

"Well yeah, it is 2am DiNozzo, a woman needs her beauty sleep."

"Not you though Gracie, you are perfect already" he smiled to himself.

"Wow, you know all the right things to say don't you, is that cheesy line number 53"

Tony sighed to himself, he really did have a reputation. "Ha, yeah you know me"

"I'll be over in a bit" With that she hung up.

KNOCK KNOCK

KNOCK KNOCK

Tony slowly wondered out of his bedroom and to his apartment door, taking his time to unlock it.

"You force me to come here at 2am in the morning and yet you leave me waiting outside" The young red head threw off her coat and placed her keys on the table by the door as tony closed the door behind her.

"For like a second, and there was no force, you chose to come over and enjoy my company" Tony laughed as he looked the red head up and down.

She stood in front of him wearing pyjamas pants and an old sweatshirt.
"You didn't really think that I was going to waste my time getting dressed did you"

She made her way over to the couch while Tony grabbed two beers from his refrigerator. She smiled as Tony passed her the cold drink.

Taking a long swig from the bottle, she watched tony sit beside her "Late night drinking as well Tony, well aren't we the rebels"

"What can I say, I'm a bad influence"

"I'm sure my dad would agree with you there."Grace began to laugh

Tony's expression turned severe "Well lucky for us, he isn't going to know, is he"

The pair sat and watched Captain America while chatting all the way through which is what they would do every time, when the credits rolled Tony turned to Grace who had suddenly gone quiet. Tony grabbed a blanket that was next to the sofa and placed it over her, being careful not to wake his sleeping friend.

Tony was tucked up in his own bed when his alarm began to buzz. He rolled over and began bashing it with his hand until he finally got it to stop. He was baffled by the silence he was greeted with had she got up early and left, was he really such an unbearable morning person to be around. Suddenly he felt disappointment, that he wouldn't be seeing Grace, he always had fun when he was around her. The majority of his friends were his college fraternity brothers so he was used to just going out drinking and talking about conquests with them, he never really had anyone to just hang out with. Lately he had been spending more and more time with Grace and although he was enjoying being around her he knew that it was a bad idea. He clambered out of his room and over to the couch where Grace had been sleeping. He was right, she was gone leaving a folded up blanket with a note on top.

Morning Movie Buddy,
Thanks for the Blanket.
I'm going home to get ready for work.
See you soon?
Kisses
Gracie

Tony sighed as he read the note, why did it have to be her that he had these feeling for. Out of the entire population of woman he could have felt this about it was the one which he knew he couldn't.

For the next few weeks they carried on the same routine. They would meet for movies; Grace would sleep over and then be gone by morning. Every time he woke to an empty apartment he felt his heart ache a little more. Tony was in his kitchen clearing up the remains of the take away he had just eaten alone. Staring out the window at the rain he found himself thinking about Grace, her smile, her laugh. She had one of those laughs that when you hear it you can't help but laugh alone. Stop it Dinozzo, he thought. His mind snapped back to reality when he hearing a knock at the door.

He hurried to the door as he opened it his face dropped. There in front of him was a wet through Grace, tears streaming down her face.

"Gracie what's happened" said tony pulling her inside.

Tony wrapped his arms round her as she sobbed into his chest. After a few minutes Tony sat her down on the couch while he went to get a towel."Here take this; you are going to get ill if you don't change out of this wet clothes"

"Anthony DiNozzo are you trying to get me naked" as she said those words tony saw her face slowly soften and a small smile graced her makeup stained face.

"Damn, i thought i was being clever. How about if i turn around?" Tony playfully put his hands across his eyes and turned his back to the tearful beauty. He could hear her struggling to pull the wet clothes from her body. Anthony be good, don't turn round as much as you want to right now, yes she is naked but she is also upset and those two are a bad combination ,he said to himself.

"How do i look?"Tony looked her up and down; she was now wearing his NCIS gym tshirt and shorts. She looked as she always did, beautiful.

"It needs a little work" Tony sat next to her placing his arm around her.

"Why so upset Gracie"

"I just had a bad day at work, two patients died on me and one was a little girl. I feel like a idiot coming here and crying to you like a baby, i just didn't want to be alone tonight, i'm sorry."Tony hugged her tighter as tears swelled up in her eyes again.

"Never apologise for coming to see me"

She pulled away "I feel like a fucking failure, to lose one person i can cope with but two i must have done something wrong."

"Hey, don't talk like that. Some people can't be saved, you did your best"

Grace buried her head in her hands"...but my best wasn't good enough was it"

"Maybe not, but that all you can do" As she raised her head he could see the pain in her eyes. He took his finger and gently wiped away the black marks of running mascara off her cheeks. Tony couldn't help but admire how beautiful Grace looked, he had always known that she was an attractive girl, but looking now he noticed the cluster of freckles on her cheeks, her sea blue eyes that seemed to sparkle, her cute dimples that and her plump rosy lips, the very kissable lips. He could feel his heartbeat racing, he was so caught up in admiring Grace that he hadn't realised that he had stopped clearing off the make up and now was just intensely looking at her.

"Thanks Tony" Grace broke the silence.
He reached out and placed his hand on to Grace's, her expression now intense. For a moment Tony questioned whether this was the right time, but he felt his heart race, and he could see Grace starting to breathe more heavily as the pair stared into each other's eyes. He leaned in placing his lips on hers tenderly, she responded by wrapping her arms around Tony and bringing their bodies closer together. Her lips were softer than he could ever imagine and they tasted sweet. She parted her lips, as their tongues collided in an intense battle. She let out a moan, as she felt tonys hand now inside her top rubbing her back. She too clawed at his back wanting to feel his toned body. She tugged at his shirt trying to get it off when Tony pulled her hands off him and broke away from the kiss. Grace sat shocked staring at the confused agent that had initiated the kiss moments ago.

"Well that shouldn't have happened. I just got carried away in the moment" Tony went to stand up when grace pulled him back down to sit with her.

"You didn't like it?"Graces eyes began to water

"NO! The kiss was incredible, but you're upset and I'm many things but i don't take advantage of women"

"Tony, i want this, i have wanted this for so long, longer than you know. Seeing that girl die today made me realise, life is to short to waste opportunities."

"Let's take it slow; i don't want to screw this up. What about a movie?"The pair huddled together on the couch a blanket covering them as he pressed play on the remote.

Well done DiNozzo, you finally had the chance to get into bed with her and you wanted to take things slow. IDIOT! He said to himself as he heard Grace chuckle at something funny in the movie.

Never in his life had Tony wanted to take any relationship slow, he usually needed to fit his relationships into a long weekend but now he wasn't ready to rush things. He just knew that Grace was special and he was sure there would be tough times ahead, so the slower they take things the fewer problems they may occur.

Tony jolted awake at the sound of traffic outside. He instantly felt a pain in his back that he couldn't comprehend until he remembered he had fallen asleep on the sofa. He looked to his side to see the empty spot where Grace had been. She must of woken up early and go, just like she usually did. Had last night just been a dream, are things going to be exactly the same as they were before, tony pondered. He looked over to the clock on the wall which read 10:30, he was going to be in so much trouble.

Tony rushed out of the elevator and over to his desk, hoping no one would notice his absence. Ziva and Mcgee were already stationed at their desks but no sign of Gibbs."Where have you been Tony" Ziva said, while peering over her computer screen

"None of your Business Ziva"

"Well Tony, you look like you have been dragged through a tree sideways"

"I think you mean hedge backwards, but thanks all the same"

"No problem Tony" Ziva turned her attention back to reading her emails.

After moments of expecting to be slapped on the back of the head, Tony began looking round the room "Where's Gibbs?"

"He hasn't come in yet, so you are one lucky guy" Said McGee

"What do you mean he isn't in yet Probie, that's not like Gibbs"

With that director Jenny Shepherd joined them with a stern look on her face, tony knew that face, something was wrong."Agent Gibbs is taken a personal day today, so Tony can you take the lead on this case"

"Sure can Jen I mean Director"

"Agent Dinozzo, any problems and come and find me, Gibbs is not to be disturbed"

Gibbs doesn't take time off; he could be nearly dead and still not miss work, tony thought to himself.
Tony arrived home after a tough day, they hadn't caught the bad guy yet and that always made tony more anxious. As he relaxed down on the coach with a beer he took his phone out to see if he had any messages. His heart sank as he saw nothing from Grace, maybe she was mad at him for the way things ended last night or maybe it wasn't a big deal to her. He didn't want to come across as pushy and needy so he decided to casually phone her up and invite her over as he would do normally.

The phone began to ring; his mind started to race, what was he doing he only saw her last night, he didn't want to come across as needy and controlling. Maybe she needed some space to think things through and before he had a chance to hang up he heard her pick up, he waited but he only heard silence.

"Hey Grace, are you there"

"Tony?"

Tony froze as he heard the familiar voice bellow down the phone. "Boss is that you?"