Tony was playing Tetris as he and Tim staked out the house across the street. As Tim checked the connection they had for the speakers and cameras, Tony noticed that his friend seemed a bit off today, as he kept making mistakes - something he rarely did. He thought to kid him about it, yet held back as he noted the haunted expression that Tim was trying unsuccessfully to hide. It was Tim's frustration that started the muttering, to which Tony tuned into.

"I hate the dreams. Damn it…."Tim swore lightly yet forcefully when he again realized his typing was not up to its usual correctness.

"I'm sorry, what?" Tony now knew without a doubt that something was bothering his Probie.

"Wha…did I say that out loud?" Startled, Tim jumped, almost turning white…more like an off ivory, Tony mused.

"Yes, yes you did. What dreams?" Tony knew now that his waiting was the better choice.

"Well…." Tim hesitated, seeming torn from uncertainty to what he thought Tony would say to also knowing how many years the special agent had from being a policeman to an agent.

"Spit it out, McScaredyCat, you brought it up. What dreams?

I'm not a scaredy cat!

You are when you say something and then you backtrack. Now, what dreams? Do they have to do with a case?

Tim muttered, "More like many cases."

"Oh, Those," Tony sighed, nodding in understanding.

"What do you mean, Those?" Tim jumped at this, hoping that this meant Tony would help him.

"You mean the dreams that are just like a run-on sentence."

"What?" Tim squawked, confused now, wondering if they were talking about the same thing.

"Well, take mine for instance. I find myself in a car driving and a knife is coming from behind me toward my neck when Salim is telling me to keep talking then the scene changes and I am watching Ziva disarm a bomb while I am laying there under blue lights and Kate is telling me she has my back while gunshots are going all around us and Danny is laying there under the saran wrap telling me to find his killer…." Tony stops, looking at Tim, shrugging and adds, "Its just like a run on sentence, it keeps changing yet never stops."

Tim chuckles inanely yet nods, "Oh, I get what you mean. Yeah…I am staring at the cop I shot when suddenly Jethro my dog comes at me baring his teeth and Gibbs is constantly smacking me on back of the head telling me to find the leak while Kate lays there staring at me dead in the casket and Ziva is throwing knives at suspects all around us and telling me that they are much easier to use as they don't have bullets when suddenly I stand there with one of my swords from World of Warcraft and you are telling me that I need to get a gun so I stab you…" He stops, realizing what he has just told the one person he never wanted to tell this to. He shudders, not out of fear, but wondering if a prank or a joke is going to come of this.

Tony actually preened. "Reeeally? You kill me in these dreams?" He can't help but laugh, delighted at this prospect.

No, not really – and not….ok, fine. In this one you actually looked more like a WOW character, but I knew it was you! You kept smiling your biggest smile. Don't know why I stabbed you in this one, probably because I was annoyed due to your multiple pranks lately.

"Well, I'll give you that." (chuckles)

(minutes later)

"So? What do you do about the dreams?"

"What do I dooo?"

"Yeah, well….I mean, sometimes they wake me up in a cold sweat, and…"

"Ahhh, yes, they can get to you at times, don't they? Yes, they are definitely like when in Vertigo - by Alfred Hitchcock, such a classic storyteller of his time - when James Stewart dreams those awesome yet slow motion almost psychedelic dreams after his love plummets to her death? It makes you believe that his dream is more terrifying than the cartoon at the beginning when he wakes up terrified and sweating after he seems to fall to his own death…."

"Tony, Tony, stop, please…" Tim pleads, panicked now thinking that the movie would bring on another strange dream tonight.

Tony sighed; sorry now that he had brought it up, but it had just jumped out of his thoughts, and it was a classic…he silently berated himself, and just looked at his friend, waiting for him to calm down. Tim did, waiting impatiently for what would help him with those dreams.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing that this could have happened at a later date; he had actually had one of those dreams himself not too long ago, and it had been more personal than the one he had brought up. "What do I do….well, first thing is I usually jump in the shower, as sometimes it is hard to get back to sleep, and a warm or hot shower truly helps relax the body to sleep again. Well…" he amended, "Most of the time. Then, you have to go through each thing in the dream slowly, reminding yourself of each case and the outcome of each one. Have you done that?"

Tim shook his head, "No, I just wanted to stop thinking about it! Why would I go over the whole dream again?" Exasperated, Tim thought maybe he had been the wrong person to ask. Tony shook his head, stating, "No, you have to go over each part, think over each case. Take the dream you just told me…the cop you shot. Now I know you still feel like it was your fault, yet we also learned that he did have a gun and you also arrested his partner, right? And with Jethro, your dog…now when you two met, it was pretty shocking and traumatic to have a dog attack you, but now he is your friend. The Gibbs-smack, well, you are going to just have to live with that one…" He grinned for a moment, then sobering, remembering the next part of Tim's dream.

"Kate…" he sighed, looking at Tim, and Tim looked at him, pleadingly hopeful, "Now, just taking a shower and thinking on all of them are not always going to be helpful, especially when it is of ones we have lost in the line of duty." Tony sighed again, then said softly, " I still dream of her too." Tim felt a little better knowing he wasn't the only one who dreamed of Kate. He waited, wondering what Tony would say on the next part.

"Now, Ziva and her throwing knives - why does that terrify you? Was she throwing them past and behind you?"

Tim nodded vigorously, paling a bit again, to which Tony had a hard time not chuckling at but was a master of hiding his thoughts. "Well, you have one great consolation: she never misses." He stated this emphatically.

Tim gulped at this, yet nodded, "Something I will remind myself if I dream of it again."

Tony grinned brightly at him now, as he was at his favorite part of the dream, and Tim, seeing the look on his face, groaned inwardly, thinking, 'Great, now I'm in for it….'

Later... (Ziva and Tim)

"So, I heard you killed Tony in a dream."

"Wha…..he told you?"(squeakily)

"Well, it amused him, apparently. Have I ever been in your…run on dreams – Tony called them that."

"Uh, yeah…." He drew it out, hesitating. "Will you be mad at me?"

"No, I am just curious." She waited. " Well?"Ziva said impatiently.

"Ahhh…well, one of them was a while after we rescued you from Somalia, and you kept on asking me if I was all right when suddenly you were dismantling a bomb and being attacked by a killer which you killed by throwing one of your knives and Tony kept making innocuous comments about movies while we chased down a suspect and Gibbs kept smacking us all on the back of our heads yelling at us to 'find something'…." He stopped, hesitating.

"Interesting…."

"Do, ah…do you have dreams like that?" He was relieved that he remembered one that did not have her mad at him for not deleting those pictures.

"I might, yet I might not."

"You mean you are not going to tell me?"

"If I told you what was in those dreams, I would have to kill you."

"Oh, uh, because some of it is classified from before you came to us?"

"Maybe…"she smiled. He shuddered; he did not think he wanted to ask her again.

Much later...(Abby adn Tim)

"Soooo…I heard you've had dreams…."

"Not you too…."