Author's Notes: I have previously only written in the Star Wars world, and in fact, have my next Star Wars story percolating ("Time Will Tell"). But while it is in the "brewing" stage, my mind came up with this NCIS scenario and title and I have to write it while it is demanding my attention. It will be primarily a Tony and Ziva story, but with input and interaction from all the other main NCIS characters. I hope it will be mostly a case study, with lots of action as the team tries to catch the bad guys, but there will also be a healthy dose of romance, and probably some hurt/comfort going on as well.

Anyway, it may be a fairly short story, with just a few chapters, or I could go on for awhile, based on reviews. So, let me know what you think and if you would like to see this story continue, or wrap up quickly. Thanks. Summary is below:

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Summary:

NCIS has been called in to investigate several crimes against young Navy women, crimes that have run the gamut from harassment, threats, unwanted sexual advances, to rape and finally torture and murder. A few victims who survived the earlier assaults have only been able to describe their attackers as male, and that they seemed to be officers, used to ordering others around. The attackers always wore a mask of some kind, and were able to keep their identities secret. The victims have described several different men, so NCIS is convinced they have a ring of some sort. Research has shown there is a concentration of murders in a certain area. They suspect there is something on the order of a "Fight Club" or secret society, but have not figured out how it operates, who the leaders are or how to stop it.

Tony and Ziva will be sent undercover, posing as man and wife. They will "move" to the suspect neighborhood, and they will have to learn about the club, so Tony can infiltrate it with Ziva guarding his back. She also hopes to learn something useful by making friends with the other wives.

To make things more complicated, Tony and Ziva have begun to confront their feelings for each other. However, Ziva is still suffering from emotional distrust after all she has been through. Though they have been cautiously and covertly dating, she is not willing to commit. Tony, on the other hand, is tired of fighting his feelings and tries to help her understand that he is in this for the long haul. He will see the undercover assignment as an opportunity, not only to close in on the ring of men attacking young women, and bring them to justice, but as a chance to show Ziva how much he truly cares for her. He hopes their time together might convince her to take their relationship to the next level – and even out into the open. Though he is well aware of Gibb's rule # 12, he is willing to risk Gibb's wrath for the sake of his love for Ziva.

Now, on to the story.

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"Unlove"

Chapter One

"Elevators & Head Slaps"

The elevator doors to the bullpen opened and NCIS Special Agent, Anthony DiNozzo, walked out, his step extra jaunty and his smile wide. However, as his eyes took in the heightened activity going on around him, the smile dimmed a little. A surreptitious glance at the clocks on the wall revealed he wasn't late; in fact, he was a good 15 minutes early. But fellow agents Timothy McGee, Ziva David and most importantly, Agent in Charge, Leroy Jethro Gibbs were all at their desks, obviously already working a case.

He made his way to his desk, and sat his backpack down. When no one even looked at him, he realized that whatever it was, it had to be serious. Suddenly, his gut clenched and he knew. "It's another one of the Club Murders, isn't it?" he asked no one in particular. "Boss, why didn't you call me? I would have gotten here early…." His voice trailed off as Gibbs glared at him. "I did call you, DiNozzo. At 0430. But you didn't answer your cell phone." Gulping, Tony kept his eyes away from Ziva.

"Ah, I must have been in the shower Boss. And I didn't check my cell phone. Sorry." He couldn't keep himself from apologizing even though he knew that was against one of Gibb's rules. "Won't happen again, Boss." Tony slid into his chair, turned on his computer and looked up at the screens, all more or less at the same time. "It better not, DiNozzo," Gibbs grumbled.

"What do we have?" Tony asked, as his eyes took in the information coming at him. "Another murder," Tim answered, when Gibbs continued to ignore Tony. Tony glanced again at the back of the Gibb's head, wondering if it was possible he knew that Ziva had spent the night at his place. "Nah, he couldn't, we were careful," he thought to himself. He decided to get Gibb's attention, one way or another.

"Another Navy girl?" Tony winced even as he said it, knowing it would incur Gibb's wrath. But he wanted some kind of a response; he hated being ignored. He was right and the wrath descended on him quickly.

"I don't ever want to hear you refer to one of our victims as a 'Navy girl' again, you got that, Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo?" Gibb's glare could have peeled the paint right off the side of a navy frigate. Tony nodded, knowing that he was back in the game now. "Got it boss. So, who is she?"

"Was," Ziva replied succinctly. "Navy Petty Officer Erin Kinnett. Her body was found about 2 miles from the neighborhood we've been looking at."

Gibbs stood up abruptly, tossed the keys to McGee and headed toward the elevator. At Tony's stunned expression when the keys were given to his Probie (he still thought of Tim that way, even though Ziva was technically more Probie than McGee), Gibbs hid a smile. Whacking his senior agent none too lightly on the back of his head, he managed to be at the elevator doors before Tony could elicit his little pained yip. "Grab your gear. Ducky and Palmer are already on their way."

All three agents scrambled to get their gear and be the first one in the elevator. Tony might have been the last one into the office, but that just meant he hadn't stowed his gear yet. Grabbing his backpack, he leaped over his desk and made it into the elevator with Gibbs, just before the doors closed. Waggling his fingers at Ziva and Tim as the doors shut in their faces, he couldn't keep a big grin off his face.

But the grin faded as he caught a look at his boss' face. Gibbs looked tired. Gibbs hardly ever looked tired, so Tony knew this case was bothering him a lot. "Here all night, boss?" he asked, leaning back casually against the elevator rail. Tony turned his head, back and forth, cracking his neck to ease the tightness of his muscles. So he was unprepared when the elevator slammed to a halt.

"What?" he had to catch himself from sprawling all over the floor. "Tony." Gibbs' voice was rough and deep. "What is going on with you and Ziva?"

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Tim and Ziva stopped abruptly in front the elevator doors. Tim quietly banged his head against the now solid wall. "How does he DO that?" He asked. Ziva was more practical. "He's Tony. He just does." And McGee looked up just in time to see her disappearing at a fast trot down the stairs. "Hey, wait!" he called, hurrying after her.

"Hold up, Ziva! I can't run as fast as you. Especially not with all this stuff!" Tim wondered for about the thousandth time why HE always got stuck carrying most of the team's extra equipment. He supposed it was because he put up with it, and because Tony was always racing off after Gibbs, and Ziva, well, she just had a way about her that kept either of them from asking her to carry stuff. Not that she wasn't strong enough; they just didn't ask her to.

Ziva smiled to herself as she kept two flights ahead of McGee. She knew she could get to the garage before the elevator if she ran on alone, but she took pity on her partner and sort of waited for him. Her smile widened a bit as she thought back to the night before.

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Tony had been trying to get her to stay over at his place for weeks, ever since one particularly harrowing case where Ziva had almost been killed in a cross fire. She had escaped only because at the last possible second Tony had pushed her out of the way and Tim had stood up and killed both of the perpetrators with a cool composure that had amazed all of them. Tony had turned her in his arms, where she had ended up at his flying leap that had borne them both to the ground, and had not been able to stop the words that had escaped his lips. "Don't you ever do that to me again, darling. I really can't live without you, you know." The word darling was so out of character for the Senior Agent that she had thought at first he was teasing her. But one look into his eyes and she had known he was completely serious. If she'd had any doubt, his lips claiming hers for a brief, but extremely passionate kiss had put those to rest.

They had started to spend more and more of their off time together after that; sometimes with the whole group, minus Gibbs, of course, but often they managed to find themselves alone. Usually they were at a restaurant, arguing over what kind of food was best, or just walking around D.C., if the weather was decent. They had spent a few hours at each other's apartments a couple of different times, and Tony had always been a perfect gentleman, which had sort of surprised both of them. Mostly, they were just getting to know each other at deeper and deeper levels and were finding out that in spite of their very profound and real differences, they actually had a lot in common. Their relationship was moving from one of deep friendship to something more, though neither of them was quite sure what that more was.

Tony had started inviting her to his place more often and she had begun to come over and eat with him. Ziva found that to her amazement, she was able to relax at Tony's apartment more than at her own. Probably because of what had happened there, when Tony had killed Michael Rivkin. So far they hadn't really talked all that much about that, or what had followed. They had occasionally touched on it, but both held back, not wanting to damage their emerging, but fragile relationship.

So last night, when he had asked her over for his famous Italian Meatball foot long subway-type sandwich, she had come and had been totally impressed with the meal, though she had of course, not let on how good his cooking actually was. After they had eaten, Tony had let her relax on the couch, and she had drifted off to sleep, listening to him quietly play the piano in the background. It had at first surprised her to learn that he played, but as she got to know him better, she realized it was simply one of the ways he was able to express the softer side of himself, without showing that same side to the outside world.

Ziva had awakened some hours later, to find her head on a pillow and a soft blanket draped over her. Tony was asleep on the floor, not far from her. She had smiled at the romantic gesture of him sleeping near her, but not with her, appreciating the fact he was not pushing anything sexual on her. Though she was definitely physically attracted to him, she had been hurt so often that she actually felt shy when she considered going to bed with him. And while they had flirted outrageously for years, this was somehow different. She had drifted back to sleep for a few more hours before getting up in time to get her shower before Tony did. He had pounded on the bathroom door just as she was toweling off, demanding to be let in to "do his business."

Ziva had considered letting him in, but decided against it, knowing what it could lead to, and wanting more time together before making that particular decision. So she had made him wait until she was dressed. She reached up and gave him a jaunty kiss on her way out of the bathroom and told him not to be late. Ziva had left as he'd gone into the bathroom. In retrospect, she remembered seeing his phone on the coffee table, but hadn't thought about it. Hers had rung as she was on her way back to her place, intending to change, but instead she had gone on into the office. She kept an extra sweater in her desk and had just pulled it on over her blouse. She figured no one, with the possible exception of Abby, would notice and so far she'd been right.

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Ziva brought her thoughts back to the present, when she realized she had slowed down enough that McGee had actually caught up to her. "Well, we'll never beat them now," she said, as she grabbed one of the bags Tim had. "Hurry up, McGee!"

They were both surprised when they got to the garage and saw that the elevator had not arrived yet. "Oh oh," McGee's voice dropped almost an octave. "What did Tony do now? Gibbs doesn't usually use his conference room for one of us."

Before Ziva could reply, the doors slid open, to reveal the objects of their discussion. Gibbs looked even more pissed than usual and Tony seemed to be wavering between scared, angry and a little shell shocked. "Don't!" he snapped at McGee and Ziva, when it looked like they were going to question them. "Just get the car and shut up."

And with that, Tim shoved the equipment bags at one startled Israeli and ran to get the car. Tony ignored Ziva's raised eyebrow and when the car arrived, climbed in the backseat without a word about riding shotgun. When Gibb's got in the passenger seat, and held his index finger in front of his face and barked "Drive!" at Tim, they knew something was very, very wrong.

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A/N: Well? What do you think? Wrap it up quickly or continue for awhile? Reviews and feedback will help me decide. Thanks for reading.