Author's Note: Now, I am a resolute Tiva fan, and we all know it. However…I um…for this one, I'm not going to be very Tiva, unfortunately. I want the story to progress as though it were coming from the writers of NCIS and (as infuriating it is) Tiva isn't going to happen for a long, long time. Tony does have a reason. I promise!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for this storyline, the character of Lacey, and any other characters you may not recognize!

Tony rolled over and wrapped his arm around the woman lying beside him. He yawned into her hair and kissed her shoulder. "Morning, sunshine…" he whispered.

She let out a sigh and raised a hand to his cheek. "Hey, there," she said, her voice full of sleep. "I have a question for you."

"Ooh, we're starting the morning with questions, huh?" he joked, laughing. "Sure, Lace. Go ahead." Lacey was a strong woman from years of Naval training, long blond hair and sparkling green eyes that let him see almost right into her soul. She had a heart of gold, and wore it on the sleeve of her scrub tops every day that she worked at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Tony had been wary of even talking to her for that reason—the memories of Jeanne—but after one date, he was hooked. She was nothing like Jeanne, and he was completely honest with her from the start about his background. He'd even touched upon the whole Benoit ordeal, and not only had she understood, she'd told him she respected him more because of his honesty.

Lacey nodded and pulled herself up to sit against his headboard. "Yes, Tony. We're starting with questions." She smiled and asked, "If you could go anywhere in the world, for any amount of time short of eternity, where would you go?"

"Hmm…" Tony rumbled, turning so that his head rested in her lap. "Well, it would be somewhere warm and beautiful and sunny," he told her. "Maybe Hawaii or the beaches of Italy."

"Italy, huh?" She ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm not sure I could swing that on my nurse's salary, but Hawaii…"

He raised an eyebrow. "Now, really? You want to take me to Hawaii?" To him, this was a pretty big step. The whole 'let's travel together' thing. While they slept in the same bed at night, they hadn't slept together yet, of which Tony was very proud. He felt he was taking it slow. Maybe for a honeymoon or something, and even then, he was not planning his wedding yet. But Lacey nodded and he stared at the ceiling, pursing his lips in thought. "Maybe someday. If I've got vacation time I haven't used."

"I didn't mean now, silly," Lacey said through tinkling laughter, running the pad of her thumb over his cheek affectionately. "I meant someday. And besides, working in a hospital means you're on call the majority of the time." She cocked her head to the side. "I think the farthest I've ever been is to Pennsylvania, and that was for a funeral."

Tony looked at her, pulling himself up to twirl her over and sit her in his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I've been to California, Paris, and Israel, and not yet have I ever found a girl as beautiful as you." He pressed his lips to the patch of skin right below her ear and rocked her gently. "You're going to be late to work," he murmured, glancing at his clock.

"It's the NICU. They've got extras." She smiled. "You know, you really are a nice man."

Tony grinned. "Why, thank you." Lacey turned her head to kiss his jaw. "But you aren't going to seduce me into letting you skip an hour of work by sweet-talking me, sweetheart, so I'd suggest you get your cute little butt out of bed and into the shower." She froze. "Without me, don't worry." And she relaxed.

"Right." She hopped off of him, straightened her top, and reached for her overnight bag. "I'll be out in a sec." Thirty minutes later, she had emerged, her hair pulled into a smooth ponytail and pink scrubs adorning her curves. One of the things Tony loved about Lacey was the fact she didn't wear much makeup other than a single layer of mascara and a bit of lip gloss, which only accentuated what she already had. He, too, had changed and was dressed in a suit and tie that made his eyes stand out. "You look nice," she murmured, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him. She was short, shorter than Jeanne had been, Tony noticed. Not that he was comparing her by any means. It was just an observation.

He hugged her and handed her a travel mug of coffee that he had brewed. "Thanks. You always look nice." Lacey grinned, placed both of her hands on his hips and stood there for what seemed like forever, just looking up at him. "May I help you?" Tony joked.

"What're we going to do tonight, Tony?" she asked, slinging the bag over her shoulder and leading him to the door. "I was thinking maybe clubbing."

"Uh." Tony was taken aback. The last time he'd been clubbing was when he was…twenty something? Nothing past thirty, for sure. Now, nearing forty, he thought clubbing was a bit… "Well, gee, Lacey, I—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Lacey grinned. "Be ready for Resurrection by eight. I know you don't have to go to work tomorrow, so there are no excuses." She took the lead down the hall to the parking garage and settled in the passenger seat of his car, satisfied.

Tony followed suit and sat in the drivers' side, putting the key in the ignition and starting the car. "Now, I have to warn you that I'm not exactly the best dancer…"

"You'll be fine!" she laughed. "Besides…" Her hand crept up his thigh. "Clubbing isn't dancing…it's drinking and dancing. Just having a good time!" Not quite convinced, Tony just shrugged and drove her to the hospital, where she kissed him and stepped out of the car. "See you later, Tony. At eight. Don't delay!" Before Tony could say anything, she had hurried through the rotating door and out of sight.

When he arrived at work, he walked in looking very satisfied with himself. Not only did he have a beautiful date that evening, but he had something to rub in McSingle's face. He'd have to keep his mouth shut around Ziva, though. He didn't want to say anything in front of her. They'd come to a mutual decision to keep their relationship strictly platonic, since the evolution of Rule Number Twelve was … well, the rule had put a wrench in things from the start. She was beautiful and amazing and everything he looked for in a woman, but he couldn't have her, so why sit there pining over someone he couldn't ever have? Tony hoped she would see that eventually, too.

"Oh, hey, McGriddle," he murmured, eyeing the younger agent's breakfast sandwich jealously. "Thought you didn't eat fast food anymore. What, did you give up on your diet or something?"

McGee rolled his eyes and continued chewing before swallowing and telling Tony, "You wouldn't understand the morning I've had."

Tony looked around and, catching no sight of Ziva, said, "No, McGee, I wouldn't, because I woke up to bright sunshine coming through my window and birds singing and the DVD menu still coursing across my television screen."

"Oh, so your date stood you up, too, huh?" McGee asked, wiping his mouth and setting the sandwich down on his desk. Tony shook his head and his teammate had to question. "Well, then, what made your morning so spectacular?"

"My date did not cancel, McTimmy," Tony said through a grin. He sat in his chair, crossed his legs, and laced his fingers behind his head. "In fact, she stayed the night."

"Then the only reason your morning was good was because you shacked up with some blond last night from a bar you went to."

Lacey was not 'some blond', nor had he picked her up at a bar, nor had it been a one-night-stand. "Actually, I've been dating her for about three months now, thanks, and no, I didn't sleep with her." Adjusting his tie, Tony continued, "In fact, we haven't made that step yet, and I don't know when that will happen, but trust me, you'll be the last to know."

McGee stared at him in a mixture of bemusement and wonder before going back to eating his sandwich.

"Paging Miss Zimmerman," the loudspeaker called, and Lacey groaned. She had gotten to the hospital no more than fifteen minutes ago and already she was being bustled from room to room to check on her charges. "Paging Miss—"

"Yeah, yeah, I've got it," she grunted, making her way down the hall to the nurse's station. "I was paged?"

A woman looked up at her and smiled. "Hi there, Miss Zimmerman. I'm Vauna Granger," she murmured, holding out her hand. "I'm your new nurse manager." Lacey immediately took Vauna's hand and shook it, out of respect and fear. Whenever a new nurse manager was hired, that meant that job cuts were about to take place, and Lacey needed her job.

"Hello…" she said with a small smile. "Was there a problem?"

"No, no, not at all," Vauna said, and shooed Lacey back down the hallway, walking with her. "I was just wondering if I could follow you around, shadow you, you know?"

Lacey nodded. "Uh…sure! I mean, I'm kind of…I have to take a blood sample from this little one," she said, extracting a syringe from the cart in the hall. "And then, I have to check his urine."

"Sounds great," the new nurse manager said, standing in the doorway. She watched Lacey perform all of her duties and then followed her down to the next incubator. "Who is this beautiful child?"

"That would be Sebastian," Lacey explained. "He has bradycardia, so I've gotta monitor his heart rate." She unclipped the board from the hook on the end of his incubator and recorded the heart rate. "He's getting up to normal, but he's still really slow."

Vauna was silent, and then stepped up to read the file over Lacey's shoulder. "Hmm…have you tried aminophylline?"

"We tried that, but it didn't work for very long. I think it's just going to take a while for little Sebastian to overcome it."

The other woman drew her lips to the side in obvious thought. "Is he allowed off of his back?" Lacey nodded and Vauna put on a pair of synthetic gloves. She gently rolled the baby onto his side and rubbed circles on his back with her finger. "There you go, sweetheart," she murmured, and Lacey thought perhaps she knew from personal experience, rather than just nursing school. After all, it's generally a deeper choice to become part of the NICU staff than just deciding it one day when you wake up.

In her experience, that was. As her parents had told her, her older brother had been born premature, with patent ductus arteriosus. That meant that a blood vessel within his heart hadn't closed after birth. The doctors had tried everything; Indomethacin, PDA ligation…nothing had worked. He'd died on the operation table, and Lacey had never forgiven the world for the loss. Her mother had been very young—nineteen—when she'd had Alexander, and Lacey had therefore had made a decision when she went through sex-ed; she would only sleep with her husband, and she would only get married after she turned twenty five.

At one point, she'd thought she would never get married, that she'd never find a man willing to wait that long. She'd been so bitter for so long and had missed some of the best years of her life, but she had gotten her nursing certification and scored a great job at Bethesda, as well as making her way up the Navy food chain. And then, on top of that, three years later she had found Tony. Her life was working out well. Maybe, in a way, this was supposed to happen. Maybe Al's death had been meant to happen, so that she would make those goals for herself and be inspired to save babies' lives. Maybe, just maybe.

Vauna's voice brought her back to present. "So, Lacey, how long have you worked here?"

"Three years," she said, checking off both names on her card and then, to shut up her suddenly noisy beeper, pressed the button on its side. "I'm going to go take my five between shifts. I have a call…I guess it's important. It was really nice to meet you, Miss Granger. I look forward to working with you." Lacey was reminded of Harry Potter and couldn't help but notice that Vauna had frizzy brown hair, big hazel eyes, and seemed to be quite intelligent. This was definitely a story for Tony.

She hurried down the hallway to the break room and, after pulling out a yogurt from the refrigerator, plopped down on the couch. She dialed Tony's number and held her phone up to her ear, peeling back the plastic cover of the yogurt container and whipping a spoon out from her pocket. "Hey, you. Did you need something?" she asked when he picked up.

"Just to hear your voice. I would've been fine with voicemail, but then I remembered you usually had a break around now so I waited," Tony's raspy voice said through the speaker. "How's work going?"

"Oh, you know. Same old, same old. Had two babies to take care of and I met my new manager," Lacy told him, twirling her spoon in the yogurt. "Her last name is 'Granger', and we call our nurses 'Miss'-whatever their last name is. So when I talk to her, I say 'Miss Granger', and it makes me think of Harry Potter, which makes me think of you, because of the movies…"

Tony chuckled on the other end. "Well, I'm glad you think of me when Harry Potter comes into the conversation, love." This was a first; never before had he called Lacey 'love', or any pet name, really—unless it was in teasing. "So I take it your day's going alright, huh?"

Lacey nodded. "Yeah, it is. How's NCIS doing?"

"We're all still living and breathing."

"I want to meet your people!" She took a spoonful of yogurt in her mouth and she grinned. It was raspberry cheesecake. Usually, she was really skeptical about flavors, but this one was spot on. "You've met mine."

"Well, yeah, but that's because I spend a lot of time at hospitals," Tony said, and Lacey could tell he was smiling. It had travelled into his voice. "You'll meet them. I promise."

"I'm not going to push you." Lacey licked the spoon. "However, I do need to push the 'End' button. My five's over. See you later!"

"Bye, Lace."

They hung up at the same time.

It was seven-fifty-two, and Tony still didn't know what to wear. Was he supposed to go for sexy? Or was he supposed to go for looking his age? And how did one dress to look 'thirty-nine'? He flew into his bedroom and grabbed a light-green dress shirt and a pair of jeans. He left the top three buttons undone, and slipped on a pair of Italian suede lace-up shoes. He spritzed a bit of cologne on his shirt and was in his chair—sitting casually—by seven-fifty-five, when Lacey knocked on his door.

"Hel-lo," he murmured as he took in her appearance. She'd curled her hair, done a smoky-eye, and was wearing only a small amount of nude-colored lip gloss. Her dress was a simple, black tube-dress with a sequined bodice. Strappy heels adorned her feet. He'd never seen her in those types of clothes before and could already tell he was going to be in for a lot of learning that evening.

She tilted her head up and kissed him. "You ready to go?" Tony nodded. "Excellent. The limo's waiting."

"Uh…limo?"

Lacey nodded and stared at him in confusion. "Yeah, it's the only way you can get into Resurrection."

"Well, damn." Tony wasn't sure how big of a thing this was. "How many other people are going?"

She shook her head, gently shoving his chest. "Oh, no, Tony. Just us. It's a two-person limo." He let out a sigh of relief. "What, you thought it was gonna be a whole group?"

"I was afraid…"

"Why are you so shy?" She murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck. His only impulse was to rest his hands on her hips. "There you go." Lacey checked her phone and then grabbed his hand, pulling him out of his apartment and only stopping to let him lock his door behind them. "There's champagne in the limo," she told him as the chauffer opened the door for her. "Gracias!"

Tony slid in next to her and realized that the quarters were quite small, and that her hip was rather close to his. The only way he could situate himself comfortably was to have his left leg under her right, his arm around her shoulders, and her entire right side pressed into his chest. And he was completely fine with that. It gave him ample opportunity to kiss her neck, smell her hair, and be a bit more…naughty than he normally was. Finally, Lacey pulled away and said, "Not yet!"

"Well, then, when?" he purred, letting a soft pout form on his lips. "Wait. No, you're saved fo—" She captured his mouth with hers, swiftly cutting him off. When she was sure he wouldn't say anything more, she released him.

"Yeah, I'm saved for marriage. Big deal. Good girls have fun, too, you know," she told him, and said nothing more. She focused on her glass of champagne until they arrived at the club.

The line was relatively short, but the fact they could act like they were important also bumped them up to the front. Once inside, Tony looked around and noticed that it was a pretty clean place, and that there were already at least forty couples on the dance floor. The lights were going, but not in a way he thought would give him a seizure or headache, and the music was a mixture of late-nineties and current music. He could tell the evening would be interesting.

Tony looked so hot. That was all Lacey could think from the moment she stepped into his apartment until they got to the club. If she wasn't saved for marriage, she would have gladly spent a bit more time in the limo with him, but she knew her morals (as did he) and she wasn't about to break them.

"I taste just like candy, so dance with me. I taste just like candy, so dance with me. Yo now let me paint y'all a picture. Fox pimp hard, quiet just like a whisper. Don't get it mixed up. Bad little sista Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good…"

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Tony asked into her ear. "Because that's kind of—"

Lacey cut him off again with a look. "Let me go get drinks. What do you want, a beer?" He nodded and she traipsed off toward the bar. A man approached her, visibly eyeing her ass. "Can I help you?" she sneered. She had learned that the only way to get rid of those types of fellows was to be a bitch. And she was fully prepared to do so.

"You just look so fine, baby," he crooned, approaching her. Lacey shook her head, taking in his military haircut and well-fitting clothes. He was obviously on leave looking for some action.

"Actually, I rarely dress this way. My boyfriend and I are celebrating." She ordered a Fuzzy Navel for herself and a beer for her date and paid the bartender before taking her drinks and rejoining Tony. She hoped the creepy man who had confronted her earlier wouldn't talk to her again as she sipped her drink. "Tony, let's just sit here for a while," she said, taking his hand in hers.

"Alright," Tony answered, sipping his beer. "These songs are rather…"

"Explicit?" Lacey finished for him. "Yeah, but those are the best to dance to. Puts you in the right mindset." He nodded and ran his thumb over her knuckles, watching her with a keen eye. "What?"

He just smirked. "Someone already tried to get in your pants, huh?" Lacey bowed her head. "I've seen a couple of Marines walk in. They're probably just on leave, female deprived, and horny. Trust me, I've dealt with these kinds before." He thought back to the last case he'd worked that involved a Marine who had raped a female Naval officer. It had pitted the two sectors against each other but they'd eventually worked it all out. He just hoped that nothing happened to Lacey. He looked across the table at her and noticed her drink was gone already. "Thirsty?" he joked.

"Yeah, but I want to dance now." The beer had been cheap, so Lacey had no qualms about just leaving it behind. She gave her purse to coat check and dragged Tony onto the dance floor. "You have danced with a woman before, right?" she asked.

"Of course," Tony reassured, and put his hands on her hips again just as another song started. She stepped very close to him and wrapped her arms around his neck so that their position was very similar to when she had picked him up that evening.

As they grinded and held each other, Lacey felt herself growing even more attached to him. Yes, grinding wasn't the cleanest act they could have done. She felt herself growing warmer and warmer, and it had nothing to do with her physical exertions or the rising temperature of the club. It just about made her faint when Tony pressed his lips to her neck, and she knew what it had been from. She was thirty. He was thirty-nine. And they both were old enough to know what sex was.

Tony twirled her as a more classic song came on. "Oh, yeah! Deano, my man!" He clasped his hand around Lacey's and smoothed his other hand on her lower back, pulling her into him but in a tasteful way. This didn't surprise her much, since he was a very traditional man. They danced and twirled and laughed for the entirety of the song, and for the rest of the night they stood the exact same way.

And when they went home that night, both were so exhausted that they didn't bother to discuss their feelings.

Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I forgot, I don't own Candy by Foxy Brown, either.