Just the Girl, a ncis fanfic

(Disclaimer: We own nothing. Not the song, not the show, none of the characters. All I own is this stupid computer and a skull-shaped lollipop. All Kels owns is a phial of my perfume and a lethargic snail. Song is Just The Girl by The Click Five, stuck in my head so I wrote a fanfic. R&R appreciated)

Tony sighed and arched his back, stretching his aching muscles. It had been a long day, and after an evening consisting of dinner and inane TV shows which he had only half watched he was tired out and just wanted to sleep. Not even the stack of his favourite DVDs on the table next to him could persuade him to stay up. He had too much to think about. Switching off the TV at long last, he looked around the room listlessly, deep in thought. If she was there, she would have said something about the odd buzzing sound in the room - then put it down to his one brain cell rattling around as he thought. He half-laughed. Dammit, Tony; he thought, you're thinking about her again. Despite their current difficult case, the stack of paperwork Gibbs had told him to do earlier which he had abandoned after five minutes, and the lateness of the hour, she was on his mind again.

She's cold and she's cruel
But she knows what she's doing
She pushed me in the pool
At our last school reunion
She laughs at my dreams
But I dream about her laughter
Strange as it seems
She's the one I'm after

Tony knew what she thought of him. A skirt chaser, who viewed women as little more than a trophy celebrating his own abilities as a ladies man. The world's biggest frat boy. A chauvinistic bastard with little regard for the feelings of the girls he dated. Friends they may be, but she had never hesitated to tell him exactly what she thought of his attitude to females. Little did she know. If she did - knowing that Tony DiNozzo was awake in the middle of the night thinking about her - she would have laughed out loud. He smiled. He loved it when she laughed, even when it was at him rather than with him. He had lost count of the times he had humiliated himself just to see her smile. How many other girls would he do that for? Answer: none. She was something else entirely to all the other girls he had known, dated, slept with...she was really special, and nobody knew it better than he did. Her words from the previous day rang in his head. They had been jocularly discussing relationships, while investigating a murder that may or may not have been commited by the victim's enraged ex-girlfriend. He had reacted to a comment she made about him being a skirt-chasing pig, giving her the puppy-dog eyes that annoyed her so much. And she had leaned back, pushing her dark hair out of her sparkling eyes, and said:
'Tony, you have a different girlfriend almost every week. You wine 'em, dine 'em, bed 'em and dump them- not necessarily even in that order. And I don't think you'll ever change'
That had hurt. And then Gibbs came over and slapped both of them over the head for digressing from the case at hand. That hurt, too. But not as much.

Cause she's bittersweet
She knocks me off of my feet
And I can't help myself
I don't want anyone else
She's a mystery
She's too much for me
But I keep coming back for more
She's just the girl I'm looking for

There was so much he didn't know about her, yet it was the fact that she was still a mystery to him in many ways that made him cherish every new bit of information she gave him like a priceless jewel. He had never wanted to know a woman this much. Sometimes, he had barely remembered their names when he woke up with them. More than once he had received a hearty slap in the face for forgetting or mixing up their name. She had told him he deserved it. And he hated himself for doing it after because it made her think he was nothing more than a skirt-chaser. She had never bothered to ask him why he went through girls like Abby went through Caff-Pows. He wondered what she would make of it if he told her straight out that he did it because he was searching for the right woman - until he realized that the right woman was slap-bang in front of him.

She can't keep a secret
For more than an hour
She runs on 100-proof attitude power
And the more she ignores me
The more I adore her
What can I do?
I'd do anything for her

He loved her gutsy attitude to each case they confronted together. She had certainly quashed any suspicions that she would be any weaker, physically or mentally, than her male colleagues just because she was female. He loved the fact that she argued right back at him instead of getting all hurt and huffy like some girls did when he teased them. They played a constant game of cat and mouse, teasing and irritating each other - only in fun, they both knew that. And even when she won, he didn't mind - because she flashed him her brilliant smile before she got back to work. He had stayed up many night thinking about that smile - not an empty smile like so many people gave like paper money, but a real smile, eyes and mouth working together to make her eyes glint with mischievous happiness and send inexplicable shivers down his spine ever time he saw it.

He was half-glad she didn't know how he felt about her. He had wondered about telling her, but the mental image of her rolling around on the bullpen floor laughing was too traumatic and he scrapped that idea. And if they got together...well, their friendly, flirtatious banter he could put up with, but full-blown lovers arguments - which he was bound to lose against to her, anyway - would put a strain on any kind of relationship. If he made a move, he would want their future to be secure. He smiled to himself, stretching out on the sofa with his arms behind his head. Tony DiNozzo, thinking about a stable future with a woman who had no idea how he felt about her and a less-than-zero chance of reciprocating his feelings. Who'd have thought it...

The way she sees it's me
On her caller ID
She won't pick up the phone
She'd rather be alone
But I can't give up just yet
Cause every word she's ever said
Is still ringing in my head
Still ringing in my head

Occasionally he had dared to put a toe in the water and joke with her about his feelings, playing the old 'What-If...?' game to mask the fact that his questions were genuine. 'What if...I asked you to marry me?' 'What if...I told you I loved you?' 'What if...I kissed you, right here, right now?' Her amused, sceptical reactions to these questions had been confirmation to Tony that she didn't feel the same. But other times - when their hands brushed, their eyes met for a moment too long, their bodies pressed together when they bumped into each other - she had him wondering. There wasn't a snowballs chance in hell that he was going to risk being shot down and tell her, sincerely and openly, how he felt. But he had often fantasized about surprising her with a romantic gesture - a single red rose on her desk, a post-it note on her computer, an e-mail Valentine or something of the sort - with the invitation of a date carefully woven into the action. And then he had imagined her surprised but flattered reaction, a romantic dinner, walking her home like the gentleman she would never have expected him to be - and then a perfect, moonlit kiss outside her front door. Yeah, right. She would probably tell the world 'The Skirt-Chaser tried to add me to the notches on his bedpost today. Can you believe he tried it on me of all people?' Or, alternatively, she would be so shocked that the shallow, immature Tony DiNozzo had thoughts and feelings going above and beyond 'Nice butt...I want to screw her' that she would reject him immediately.
About as subtle and smooth as a brick in the forehead, Dinozzo groaned inwardly.

She's cold and she's cruel
But she knows what she's doing
Knows just what to say
So my whole day is ruined

But what if he didn't care? She was well worth the risk of his pride, wasn't she? With her as his friend and colleague he was prepared to take a bullet for her in the field. And with her as the object of his affections, surely she was worth the threat of rejection. She had light-heartedly turned down his offers of friendly, after-work drinks or a night out with him and the team before. But if he made it clear he felt differently about her to his friends and colleagues - or indeed any of the other girls he had taken out in the not-so-distant past - she might re-evaluate her opinion of him. And even if she turned him down, he was Anthony DiNozzo! He could laugh it off, pretend it was no big deal and carry on with his day. He'd been shot down before, hadn't he? Even though the girls who had turned him down before were few and far between and nothing like her, he was still aware that the chances of her accepting his offer were a million-to-one.

So there was still a chance...

Cause she's bittersweet
She knocks me off of my feet
And I can't help myself
I don't want anyone else
She's a mystery
She's too much for me
But I keep coming back for more

Tony sighed to himself. He was tired of beating around the bush. He was sick of second-guessing himself and hesitating and being indecisive about the one thing that really mattered. He was an NCIS Special Agent, for God's sake! He put his life on the line in the field every other day and he was agonizing over whether or not to get his feelings out in the open for the woman he loved.

He sat up. He loved her. He knew that much. So what was stopping him?

Steeling himself, he reached over and picked up the phone. Taking a deep, calming breath, he dialled the number quickly before he could back out and swallowed as the phone rang. It was late, but this was urgent. Well, urgent enough. He hoped she would understand once he explained himself properly.

Cause she's bittersweet
She knocks me off of my feet
And I can't help myself
I don't want anyone else
She's a mystery
She's too much for me
But I keep coming back for more
Oh, I keep coming back for more
She's just the girl I'm looking for
Just the girl I'm looking for

'Tony?'

She answered the phone on the second ring, sounding sleepy and a little disgruntled at the lateness of his call but otherwise okay. A good sign. He crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.

'Hi...sorry it's late...but we need to talk...'

Just the girl I'm looking for...

(-end)