"Hey boss, who's that?" Tony jerks his head to the stairs, where a man in Armani is ascending the steps near the bullpen with Vance.

Gibbs looks up, squints a little, and looks down at his papers with a prompt, "don' know."

Tony gapes. Gibbs doesn't know something? Is the world ending? Does one teensy brain cell misfiring in Gibbs brain set off the line of dominoes that lead to the apocalypse? Should he be stocking supplies? Food and water and soap and condoms and-

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs barks without taking his eyes from the paper.

"Yeah boss," he responds automatically, stare returning from middle-distance.

"Don't you have work to do?" Gibbs' eyes snap up to pierce through him, and Tony swallows.

"Yes boss," Tony grapples with his keyboard in an attempt to look busy. McGee and Ziva, who have in this time been playing eye-tennis from Tony, to the mystery man, to Gibbs, back to Tony, back to Gibbs, and back to Tony again, finally rest their gazes on each other to share smirks of amusement at Tony's expense before they turn back to their monitors.

Hours go by and they've long since forgotten the man and immersed themselves in cold cases when smooth laughter reaches their ears. Vance is walking out onto the balcony, large smile in place, followed by Armani Guy with his own smile, laughter having faded. They exchange what seem to be friendly words, and are still smiling when they shake hands at the top of the stairs. Vance watches the man descend for a moment before heading into MTAC, and the man steps off the bottom step... only to head straight for the bullpen.

He stops at the entrance to the pen between Tony and Ziva's desks. "Agent Gibbs," he says with another smile. "Agent Potter. I hear you have a finished boat stuck all on its lonesome in your basement."

Gibbs stares at Agent Potter, face blank as always. "Yeah."

Potter's smile grows. "I'll take care of that for you." He looks suspiciously mischievous, and doesn't wait for a reply before turning to Tim. "And Agent McGee. How's the sequel coming along? I haven't got much time for pleasure reading myself, but I've got a real bookworm for a friend who won't shut up about it, and she knows her stuff."

Tim flushes, smiling as he says, "It's coming along well. Thank you, Agent Potter."

Tony snatches his opening. "What agency you from, Agent Potter? FBI, CIA, MI-6...?" His feet are propped on his desk, hands folded on his reclined torso.

"I'm afraid that's classified," Potter replies, tone and expression pleasant and polite.

"Your agency is classified?" At Potter's nod, he continues, "oh my god, you must be like, a super secret spy! Or part of some crazy conspiracy! Oh my god! Are you an alien? Or like that chick in-"

"Harry!" Jimmy interrupts from the elevator, rushing towards Agent Potter while Ducky follows at a decidedly more sedate pace.

"Long time no see, Jimmy. Ever told you how much you remind me of your cousins?"

"Twice, Harry," Jimmy grins from beside the Agent.

"Ah, Harry. It is such a pleasure to see you again," Ducky says as he catches up to the group.

"You too, Ducky. How's your mum and her merry band of corgis?"

Ducky gives a short laugh. "Mother is as well as to be expected given her condition. And her corgis are, as you say, merry as ever. They're being thoroughly spoiled and loving every moment of it."

"I'm glad to hear she hasn't gotten any worse, I know how it can be. I suppose it's nice to hear the dogs are well, though God knows they'll be blissfully pampered till their last breath." Harry smiles again to the group. "I'm afraid it's time for us to go. I've promised Jimmy lunch and we've got a reservation. It was nice meeting you all, and seeing you again Ducky. Agent David," Ziva startled, "I expect a good old-fashioned sparring match next time I'm in town."

And with that Agent Potter and Jimmy headed to the elevators and disappeared.

When Gibbs got home that night, he found Kelly on a tarp in his front lawn.

A thorough investigation of his house – especially the basement – yielded no clues.

A/N: This has been sitting around for a while even though it only took about 10 minutes to finish up. Let me know what you think :)