Hola all! This picks up immediately after it's predecessor, Soon Parted. Timeline warning I didn't think to include last time: definitely 07.12 Flesh and Blood, 09.10 Sins of the Father, 09.17 Need to Know, and merest hint of 09.01 Nature of the Beast and 09.19 The Good Son. Definitely pre 09.23 Up in Smoke (they may be changing what we know about Dorneget so far, so I have to start posting this! ;), and pretending 08.07 Broken Arrow never happened. Thanks large heaps to Scousemuz1k, ILU Greg, and my Hubbie, for encouragement and great advice, and generally everybody who read and liked my first story. Your support is fantastic!

Warning: if the first story was too short this one may well be too long. Also, the bloodletting takes a bit to get to, just be patient… bwahahaha!

Chapter One

Everyone at NCIS, including Ned Dorneget, knew DiNozzo was a movie nut. But this drive to re-interview Anderson's neighbor was amazing so far; a discussion of their favorite horror movies had led to their agreeing psychological and suspense horror was vastly more interesting than slasher movies. And then the senior agent proceeded to expound rapidly upon the subject for easily twenty minutes straight; literary comparisons, remakes of European films, nods to previous film greats within modern movies. Ned had always heard DiNozzo was a talker, but this was something else, and just a tiny bit disturbing. It was like the senior agent's mouth was on autopilot. Luckily for Ned, he was fascinated by most of what DiNozzo was saying, and made mental note of some of the titles that sounded interesting.

He realized during the monologue maybe this was why DiNozzo's teammates seemed tense after spending too much time alone with him sometimes... Ned couldn't have gotten a word in edgewise if he'd wanted to.

Finally there was a gap as DiNozzo merged onto a busy highway, "Man, you really know this stuff back and forth Tony. You could really be a film professor, you know?"

After a deep sigh, Tony answered, "Yeah, that was... that's been mentioned."

Ned wasn't the most empathic fellow, but had the impression he'd said something wrong. Which kind of worked out, since there was something he'd been wanting to ask Tony about for a while.

"Hey, Tony? You know when you brought me cake that time, and kinda threatened me about my Halloween costume?"

"Oh yeah, totally!" Tony snickered as he exited to a frontage road to avoid construction.

"Well, you said saw me with a little blond in the copy room? Um, were you threatening me with my Gibbs costume... or who the blond was?" Ned asked with trepidation.

"What, that new guy in human resources? What's his name, Steve? Stan? No, Sean, right? Yeah, no, he's cool. You worried about Rule 12 man? You're aiming to be a field agent, not admin, you're totally fine there. Besides, technically you aren't on Gibb's team, so the rules..."

Ned cut him off, "No, no, it was the guy part I was worried you..."

"Ah. Ned," Tony started, shooting a small grin and level glance at his companion, "I've got a lot of character flaws, but being homophobic isn't one of them. Now blackmailing you for that Gibbs wig, oh yeah, I'm all over that. God help you if he ever finds out." As he continued to snicker, Tony's phone rang.

His smile vanished as he glanced at the caller ID. He paled abruptly and immediately pulled the car over to take the phone call. Mumbling a quick, "Need to take this Ned," Tony stepped behind the car to talk.

Ned fiddled with the radio, and was glad they were parked in the shade; his jacket was a little too hot for this warm spring day. Checking on Tony in the side view mirror, he thought whatever conversation that was looked intense. Man, I'm glad he took that out of the car, all that yelling would make my stomach upset. Huh, I knew he was Italian, didn't know he could actually speak Italian. I've got to learn another language if I'm going to be a real field agent. Ok, have I really got all my gear this time? It would be so much worse to be embarrassed in front of DiNozzo than it already was with McGee. I don't even want to think about screwing up in front of Gibbs. Got gun, got extra clip, got pen... and... notepad, yess! Wait, no handkerchief. Is that required? Shoot, what do I do if the neighbor lady starts crying? Wait, it's a cold case... probably ok. Ned, you've got to start remembering the 5Ps; proper preparation prevents poor performance, for crying out loud.

Ned checked on DiNozzo in the mirror again. He's done with the conversation, but just staring at sidewalk now, no expression. Actually... he looks really bad, that's not something you can usually say about DiNozzo. And he's still just standing there. Jeez, he's reminding me of that movie we were talking about, The Happening, where nature fights off the encroachment of man with that weird disease... if he starts walking backwards I'm going to freak out.

Oh crap, he's barfing. I should totally have a handkerchief to offer him, damn.

Grabbing a bottle of water, Ned hopped out of the car to hand it to Tony who was leaning against a streetlight. Cracking it open, swishing and spitting, then drinking half the bottle, Tony walked to the open passenger side door and got in. Dorneget got in the driver's seat and looked questioningly at the pale senior agent, noting the locked jaw and complete lack of expression. With a flick of DiNozzo's finger forward, Ned drove the rest of the way to the neighbor's house... in total silence.

Dorneget was glad that DiNozzo appeared to be his usual self while interviewing Petty Officer Anderson's neighbor, Mrs. Twyler. And was surprised when the subject of the opposite neighbor's house came up, apparently Tony had noticed it was up for sale. Mrs. Twyler hadn't noticed exactly when Mr. Callum had moved out, and had actually assumed it was yet another foreclosure. "He never took care of his yard… one of the signs you know," she confided knowingly.

Neatly sidestepping a lengthy discussion of the housing industry, the agents thanked her and departed. After noting down the real estate agent's phone number, Tony took the wheel again, thankful for the mystery of P.O. Anderson's disappearance to keep him on focus. And now he wondered how well Balboa's team had confirmed Mr. Eddie Callum being away on vacation when Anderson went missing.

During the drive back Tony returned to the topic of movies with Dorneget, but only to keep the younger agent talking. In fact, that discussion morphed to pretty much anything that kept Ned talking, with only a few questions or comments from DiNozzo. Ned finally clued in to this when he found himself describing his sweet favorite fourth grade teacher Mrs. Rose. "Hey Tony, I'm pretty good at keeping quiet about... things? Or just being quiet in general if that's what you want?"

"Hmm, nope. You talking is great. We're, you know…bonding! Hey, you don't write novels in secret do you?"

"Huh? No, I meant… I mean, no I don't write novels. But I mean if you don't want me saying anything about your… ah, you know… earlier?"

Silence returned to the car, and Ned kicked himself. His Mom always said he had to work on his tact skills.

Eventually, Tony said, "You're a good guy Dorneget, but never offer to keep secrets for people you don't know very well, especially when you don't even know what it is you're withholding. It's not a rule, but might as well be. I might be the sort of person who doesn't deserve that kind of consideration."

"Apparently I'm very much the kind of person who doesn't deserve… a lot of things. Karma. Really is a bitch sometimes, yeah? Nice offer though, you'll be a good teammate some day, whether it's Gibb's team or someone else."

Ned wanted to protest, and disagree, and agree, and say thanks, and... got confused if any of the above was a good idea right now. He hoped staying silent while turning the radio up counted as using tact like his Mom said.