The Trouble With Dogs:
How Tony and Lori had ended up in this situation it was a complete mystery, one minute they had been happily checking out their latest victim's apartment and were in the bedroom, the next minute there had been the sound of a dog barking and they then heard the scattering sound coming from the kitchen of big paws skidding and sliding on the floor and coming in their direction, so they had both taken a dive into the nearest closet and now they were stuck in there with the dog barking at the door. Lori had heard the stories of Tony's various encounters with dog's in the short time that she had been with the team, but she had kept quiet about her own fear of dog's which had stemmed from being knocked over by the large family dog when she was running around the garden and even though he only ran around after her thinking it was a game, he'd knocked her flying and she landed on her arm subsequently breaking it. After that a year later she and her friend got trapped on the table while they were playing in the garden when her friends dog just turned on them for no reason and she had ended up getting bitten by him, before they finally got the refuge on the table. Her fear though was just from large dogs though and she was absolutely fine with small dogs and it was an incident while she had been walking her King Charles Spaniel a few years ago that had finally sealed her fear of large dogs, when one had appeared from nowhere and had grabbed her dog by the neck and began shaking him, she had kept hold of the lead and had had her arm nearly shaken off before the owners had finally came and got their dog off of hers, but it had then left her very shaken and scared about every large dog that came anywhere near her, although she was fine with small dogs, even though she had been bitten by accident on the finger years ago.
In the end as the dog seemed to eventually settle down from all his barking and scraping at the door to get into the closet with them, and as the both of them started to settle Lori looked out of the slats to find that they had another problem now because the dog had now laid down against the door, with that Tony sighed as he said "Well that's just great, how the hell are we meant to get out of here now?!"
She sighed with just as much frustration as she replied "I don't know, but we've got to find a way because you know that before long Gibbs will be calling to find out where we are and you can just imagine what's going to happen if he and McGee end up having to come and rescue us." She then runs her hands through her hair before adding "Look I know that you're afraid, but we just can't stay hidden in this closet forever... and yes I do very much know how you're feeling because I'm probably about as nervous as you are."
"Says the woman that does actually own a dog herself!"
She replies "I know that I do, but compared to what's outside he's only small and anyway you've never even met my dog because of thinking he's something big. He's just a puppy yes, but even when he grows up he's not going to be that big. Not only that he's exactly the same breed of dog that my last two dogs have been, because I know the breed so well and they are very gorgeous and a very loyal breed. I hate large dogs and I'm afraid of them too, thanks to incidents with various big dogs, but the last one did it for me because my last dog was attacked when I was out for a walk with him by a very large dog when he was about the same age as my puppy is now."
They then fall into a silence and she starts to search her pockets and finds some treats and she then says "I don't know if this will work or not, but if we can get this door open just a tiny bit, I might be able to throw one of these, then we get out of here and I can distract him while you go and find his treats and perhaps a lead, that way I might just about be able to control him enough to either get him in his crate if he has one or outside so that then we can get animal control to come and take care of him."
Later back at the Navy Yard:
With Lori's plan managing to work and after some teasing from Gibbs and McGee to Tony because of the way that they don't quite believe that Tony managed to help her get control of the dog so that everything was ok, the two of them are alone in the bullpen just finishing off their report into the incident. Just as she finishes hers she checks it over and then prints it off, signs it and then as she takes it over to Tony for him to sign it off, she sits just on the edge of his desk as she says "Thanks for today Tony, and you know if at anytime you do want to get to know a nice dog, then you're more than welcome to come and meet my puppy. My mom looks after him while I'm at work, but I do just pop in and collect him from hers and then take him for a walk before we go home."
He asks "Are you sure?"
She replies "Of course I'm very sure, we can do it any night you want, but if you want to come back now you're more than welcome and I can perhaps cook us something after the walk as well."
He says as he signs the reports off and heads to Gibbs desk to put them there as he says "That would be good, thank you Lori."
So with that the two of them then get themselves ready and leave together.
Back at her mom's house:
As she and Tony walk into her mom's place she yells "Hello mom?"
"I'm in the kitchen."
When they walk in Lori says as she kisses her mom "Hi, mom this is my senior field agent at work Anthony DiNozzo, Tony this is my mom."
As they shake hands he says "It's nice to meet you Mrs Smith."
She replies "its Beth please Anthony."
"And it's Tony too."
Just as Lori is about to ask her mom where Blaize is they hear a scrapping at the back door and realise that he was out in the garden, so she then turns round and let's him in, and he is of course very happy to see that his mom is home, so as he jumps up at her she bends down to pick him up and he begins to lick her face. Once his excitement dies down he then sees Tony and starts doing just a tiny little bark at him, which makes she and her mom laugh, when Tony says "What... what is it?"
Lori answers "It's just that as yet he hasn't started barking, but he obviously wants to bark at you."
So Tony then says with a huff "I told you that dogs don't like me."
She carries Blaize still in her arms over to him and says "You're wrong there Tony, because even though he's barking at you I can feel his tail wagging here even if you can't see it. Go on stroke him; I know that he's going to like you."
As Tony gives her a mixture of an uncertain look and also one of "Are you sure?" She gets Blaize into a position in her arms where she can still hold him without dropping him and with her now free hand, she takes Tony's in hers and guides him to start stroking Blaize, when she finally lets go and Tony then strokes him on his own, she sees him visibly relax as he gets comfortable with Blaize, but what she loves the most is seeing the way that Blaize is falling in love with Tony too, with the way that he either gets his head so that Tony can't let go or if Tony does manage to get his hand away Blaize barks to make him start again.
Once they leave her mom's house they then go for a walk in the park opposite Lori's apartment and she actually finds that she loves the feeling of having the lead in her hand and Tony with his hand through her arm, especially as even though the two of them did have a really great friendship, she never wanted anything more to happen between them, but she was very comfortable with them being close like this, and it made her start to think and wonder if perhaps this might end up being a chance of their relationship becoming more and that they may have a possible future together.