A/N: Allo! Chapter 2 already. I just wanted to say thank you to those who have put this story on their Story Alerts list! It means a lot. For those who are giving this story a shot 'just because'…that also means a lot, because I know a lot of NCIS fans out there are really devout Tiva fans. I want you to know that even if this isn't a 'Tony says I love you to Ziva, who returns the gesture' fic, there will be small amounts of that tension interspersed. I'm trying to recreate the show here. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Peace. Out. Xx, Brown Eyes Only.

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, or Wal-Mart.

Tony woke to the sound of his coffee maker pressing water through the grounds, the succulent smell melding with that of butter and toast. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and slowly walked out to the kitchen, where he saw Lacey standing in front of the stove wearing one of his dress shirts. The sight was just enough to send him into a half-baked fantasy. Not even Jeanne had worn one of his shirts; it was an honor that was to be earned, not taken. And Lacey had more than earned that.

She turned around and grinned at him, ashamed. "Sorry, Tony…I didn't have anything else to wear and you were asleep almost as soon as we got home so…I stole one of the shirts you had hanging on the edge of the hamper." Lacey bit her lip and stirred the scrambled eggs. "Is it okay?"

Tony laughed. "Is it okay?" he repeated. "Of course it is." Crossing the room to her he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "You know, I kind of like it." He pressed his lips to her jaw and down her neck.

"Wal-Mart has a few like this but they're made for women," Lacey explained. "I should pick up a few. That way, I won't be stealing all of your shirts." Tony shrugged. He didn't have a problem with her wearing his clothes. She'd stolen a pair of his sweatpants before, and an oversized tee-shirt another time. This was just another 'new' thing that he had to deal with and he was having no problem doing so.

"I've got a lot of dress shirts," Tony said through a smile, and then murmured in a strong Brooklyn accent, "Fuhgeddaboutit." Lacey giggled and kissed him, then, placing a hand on his chest, pushed him away.

At his pout, she said, "Go sit down. Breakfast is almost done."

"Well, gee," he murmured. "You can dance, kiss, and cook. Seems like my life is going pretty well."

Like it's finally all falling into place.

Lacey rarely got a day off, so when she was texted around two that Vauna had switched her with another nurse, she was more than thrilled and had therefore slept in until at least nine, which was later than she usually got up. Tony had been sound asleep, so she had crept into his walk-in closet, grabbed a pair of his basketball shorts and a teeshirt and thrown both on over a pair of fresh underwear and sports bra that she kept buried in the drawer of the bedside table on her side. After her morning run to the market, she had walked back and started breakfast.

Just as the coffee had started to percolate and the toast had gotten hot, Lacey heard Tony roll out of bed. Finally, she thought, I want my morning kiss already! And a kiss she had gotten.

Around eleven, Tony checked his phone and started dialing a number, a concerned look crossing his features. Lacey looked at him, and then went back to scrolling through the channels on his pay-per-view. He left the room to talk to whoever was on the other line and when he returned, he was noticeably shaken. "What's up, buttercup?" she asked, scratching an itch on her leg. "You look down." He sat down next to her and leaned in, and she wrapped her arms around him. "You are down, aren't you?" Lacey murmured into his neck.

"Lace," Tony said, his voice thick, "I guess I don't know how to tell you this, but…" She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. "…Your nurse manager…Vauna Granger."

"Yeah? What about her?" Lacey awkwardly rubbed his shoulder.

"There was an incident at Bethesda. She was caught in the crossfire and …" Tony swallowed the lump that had lodged in his throat as she gasped and closed her eyes. "Vauna's dead, Lacey…" The woman's eyes snapped open and she just stared at him. "Apparently, she sacrificed herself for a baby that was admitted in the NICU. The other nurses were targeted as well, so the unit's on lockdown."

Fear shot across her face. "But what about the babies? The premies? Where're they being kept?" Lacey propelled herself off of the couch and into Tony's bedroom to change and gather her belongings. As she went, she muttered angrily, "Bastard…he knew! He must have known. He must hate children or something. Dammit. Son of a bitch…motherfuc—" Finally, Tony stopped her and held her. She knew she'd never sworn around him that badly and felt a bit chagrined that she had fallen to such a level.

"Look, Lacey, I can't let you go down there. My team's investigating it, but you need to calm down and let us do our jobs." Both Tony's eyes and voice pleaded with her to stop.

"Well," she argued, "I can't just let them get away with this. I have babies to save. Lives to save, Tony." Lacey spun and flew into his walk-in closet. "And besides which," she called behind her, "these are my people. They need me." When she turned around she ran right into Tony's chest. "What."

The man gazed down at her in a mixture of fear and understanding. "I know they do. I know how you feel, Lacey. I've been there." He rubbed a circle on her back. "But that doesn't mean you can just storm in there. It's an ongoing investigation." Tony sighed. "And while they need you…"

"Yeah?"

"Lace, so do I. I need you. And if you go in there…" He sighed. "If you go in there, they'll kill you, too. And I can't let that happen." His voice had grown husky over the past few moments and Lacey knew he was being serious. "Look, Lacey, I know you're upset. I know you are. But me and my team are taking care of it, okay?"

She wanted to go to her apartment, grab her scrubs, and go to the hospital. She wanted to go help. She wanted to work. But she couldn't. She wanted to shove Tony out of the way and say, 'Screw you, I'm going!' But she couldn't. No. Because she cared about him and trusted him and knew he knew what was right. What she had to do.

Finally, she shrugged and stared into his wide, green eyes with her own, and whispered, "But what about the babies?"

He wound a hand behind Lacey's head and through her hair, gently tipping it back to look at her face. His other hand he pressed flat to her lower back. "They've all been saved and transferred to a hospital in D.C."

"So they're … being taken care of."

"Yes," Tony said, nodding. "They're happy and healthy and they're at one of the best places they can be." She leaned up and kissed him softly. "But…you're not allowed to go home."

Lacey groaned. "Well, then what am I supposed to do?"

"You and my partner are about the same size, so she's bringing a suitcase full of clothes with her to the safe house."

"Safe house?"

Tony cradled her body against his, bracing her with his left leg. "Yep. If all nurses are being targeted, they'll be watching you, too."

"Aw, crap!" she whined. "I … but … safe houses suck!" At his expectant stare, she murmured, "Mom told me about them." There had been a time when Lacey's mother had needed a safe house, and apparently, they were dirty, and smelly, and grimy. "Please don't make me go. Please?" She toyed with his hair and sucked on his throat, paying most of her attention to the dip where his neck met his chest.

"Hey!" Tony jumped a bit and then eased her off of him. "I'm not going to be persuaded by physical pursuits alone, Lacey!" She stared up at him with sad eyes. "Actually," he said, lowering his voice, "I'm not going to be persuaded at all. My boss wants you at the safe house by noon."

"Oh, fine," she sighed, and continued to gather her belongings. Besides, this did give her the opportunity to meet his team, and for that, she was very, very excited.

Tony escorted Lacey through the door of the Naval Criminal Investigative Services Headquarters and into the elevator. She was petrified, of course, but who wouldn't be? He looked at her sidelong and noticed that she was shivering. While that could have been from the insanely cold air conditioning, he knew it was because of the news she'd received that morning. He felt awful. Taking her hand in his, he led her down the corridor to the bullpen and she seemed to relax.

"Tony?"

He glanced at her. "Yeah, Lace?"

"Do you think they'll like me?"

"There'll be time for cocktails later," Tony explained. "Our job right now is to protect you from whoever launched the attack on Bethesda's NICU." She squeezed his hand tighter and followed even closer than she had been before.

When they arrived at his desk, Abby nearly flew toward them. "Hi! I'm Abby. Forensic Scientist Abby Sciuto, to be exact, but you can just call me Abby." The Goth girl stuck her hand out and Lacey shook it. "You're Lacey, right?" Tony's girlfriend smiled warmly and nodded. "Do you not talk?" Abby sent Tony a worried look.

"No! I can talk," Lacey laughed. "It's nice to meet you, Abby."

Tony saw Ziva and McGee standing with Gibbs by the last man's desk and led the girl toward them. "Everyone, this is Lacey. Lacey, meet Ziva, McGee, and my boss, Gibbs." Each agent bowed their head when their respective name was called.

Gibbs launched right into the questioning, although it was more casual than taking her to the interrogation room. "Do you have any idea who would want you dead?" Lacey froze and looked up at him, fear etched across every inch of her face. The older man's face melted a bit and he lowered his voice, easing down on the corner of his desk. "Look, Lacey, we want to protect you, but if you don't give us any information, we can't." She nodded, understanding. "So, have you had any run-ins with specific people you remember lately?"

"Well, there was a guy at the club that Tony and I went to last night…" Ziva and McGee's heads snapped up to look at Tony as Lacey spoke. "He was obviously on leave. I thought maybe he was Marines but he could have just as easily been Navy…" Tony stepped closer to her protectively and set his hand on her lower back. It seemed like that was the only way he could portray his care and worry for her because, he noticed, he did this often.

"Muh-Gee, call in a—"

"On it, Boss." McGee hurried to his desk and began dialing numbers into his phone.

Gibbs leaned in, looking Lacey in the eye. "We've been to the crime scene, Lacey." She tensed. "We saw that you had been scheduled to work this morning. What happened?"

Tony looked at Ziva and saw that she was eyeing his girlfriend in a mixture of jealousy and what seemed like comparison. Did she really think she could compare to Lacey? That sounded bad. He thought that both women were gorgeous in their own ways. Beautiful, smart, funny, and strong. Lacey was a nurse in the Navy. Ziva had been a Mossad officer since she'd been sixteen. There was a distinct difference between them but it was no reason for Ziva to compare herself to Lacey…Different didn't mean bad…He tuned back into Lacey's description of the morning, not taking his eyes off of Ziva while trying to be subtle.

"Tony and I went out last night and got back to his apartment at around one. I slept for maybe an hour and then got a text message from my nurse manager, Vauna Granger," Lacey told Gibbs.

He raised his eyebrows. "What did it say?"

She took a deep breath and said, "That she had switched my shift with someone else's, so I wouldn't have to go in until four. I was planning on making the entire day about Tony—maybe taking him to lunch or something—so it sounded great to me…"

"What was your shift?"

"Seven to three," Lacey stated. "During that time, I take care of two babies and have five minute breaks every two hours."

"Sounds pretty nifty," Gibbs said, and Ziva wrote down the information. "Did you know that the attack took place at seven-thirty?" Lacey shook her head, shocked. "They searched through personnel files and when we got there, yours was missing. Who do you think would want that file?"

She frowned. "Um…all of my family lives upstate and I don't have cousins that aren't deployed right now."

"Ex-boyfriends?" Ziva chimed in. "Could they have seen you at the club and been upset that you were sleeping with someone else?" Tony thought he could hear a bite to her voice but wasn't going to call her on it yet.

Lacey stared at Ziva and murmured, "Oh, no, Tony and I aren't sleeping together…" The latter woman's eyes snapped to Tony's in a strange conglomerate of emotions. "We're dating, not having sex. There's a difference. I'm saved for marriage, anyway, so I've never slept with anyone." To Gibbs, she asked, "You don't think an ex-boyfriend would do this, do you?"

"I don't know, Lacey," he said. "But that's what we're gonna find out." He checked his watch and nodded to Tony and Ziva. "Ziva, go to the safe house with Tony and wait for McGee and Lacey to meet you there. If this guy's really intent on following Lacey, he's going to either have guys on her or will be trailing her himself." Without a word more, he swept out of the bullpen and toward the elevator to Abby's lab.

Ziva hesitated for a moment, and then left Tony and Lacey alone, saying she was going to go start the car.

They turned to each other and Lacey stared up at him, for the first time acknowledging the fear that had presented itself only moments before. "That could have been me," she said softly.

"That's why you need to do everything we tell you, Lacey," Tony said, and took her head in his hands and kissed her as gently as he could (and as inconspicuously). "I'll see you at the safe house. You'll be fine with McGee. Just talk to him about the beauty of electronic invoicing and you'll be good to go." She nodded and watched him as he walked in the same direction Ziva had.

It had been quiet for about ten minutes, and awkwardly so. Finally, Lacey decided to test Tony's theory. "So…McGee…about those stupid hard-copies…" she murmured, plopping down in what she assumed was Tony's chair.

Tim snorted. "Yeah, really. They suck, don't they?" Tony had been right; McGee was really nice. "Try looking through hundreds in four hours to find a single suspect. Abby came up with a really good sorting system for that, though. Takes forever, but it makes it a bit easier of a task." He wrote something down on a piece of paper and stuffed it in his pocket. "We've gotta wait here until Tony or Ziva calls and says they're where they're supposed to be," Tim explained.

"Oh." Lacey crossed her legs and started spinning in the chair. Again with the awkward silence.

Suddenly, Tim asked, "You and Tony really haven't…?"

She shook her head and stopped spinning, trying to focus on McGee's face but failing. "Nope. We really haven't."

"Not even…?"

"No, McGee. We haven't done anything." Normally this would have frustrated her but McGee seemed different. "Ziva seemed surprised too. Why is it so hard to believe that Tony might actually survive a relationship without sex?"

He hung his head. "It seems as though sometimes, he talks up his personal life so much that he loses sight of reality. But never—never—does he let us forget the fact he hooked up with someone." Chuckling, Tim reassured, "But he's happier with you. I haven't seen him like this in years."

"Oh, the Jeanne story." Lacey laughed and started spinning again. "I met her. She's…intense." To herself, she thought, Yeah, 'intense' as in 'bitchy'. That was one thing she loved about men; they never actually knew what a woman was thinking. And she preferred it stayed that way.

"Yeah, the Jeanne story," Tim muttered. "It's good to see him smiling again about his love life. For a while he was really down about it all."

"Was he?" Lacey remembered the day she'd met him and had been flirting with him. It had been in the supermarket, of all clichéd places, and she had noticed him near the meat bar. She was in need of a good steak for dinner herself so she'd walked on over and made a joke about the turkey leg. He'd laughed, but after taking in her scrubs, had grown serious again. She'd continued talking to him and introduced herself as a nurse. She knew she'd seen him around the hospital…Hadn't he been the center of gossip for weeks over the Dr. Benoit scandal? she'd asked herself before offering to buy his steak. He'd respectfully declined but had introduced himself as Tony Dinozzo. She had made most of the 'moves' and even given him her phone number (to which he had just smiled and said thanks, but not given her his own). There had been something in his eyes that Lacey found alluring and mysterious; it could have been hurt.

Tim nodded. "Yeah. It's like he's finally in love again."

"Oh, Tim," the nurse said casually, "we haven't even said those words yet. We're taking it slow."

He shrugged. "You don't have to say it to feel it." His cell phone rang and he flipped it open, listening for a few moments before saying, "Yep, we'll be there in twenty."

Ziva wasn't please she'd been stuck with Tony, he could tell. The thick silence between them was uncomfortable. After a few minutes of dealing with it, he eventually asked, "Is everything okay with us, Ziva?"

She turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised. "I have a question for you."

"Shoot." Tony couldn't be sure but he thought he caught her mutter, 'Gladly' under her breath.

Ziva sighed. "Was she serious when she said you two have not consummated your relationship yet?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"And she is saved for marriage?" Again, he nodded. "And you are okay with this?"

Tony thought for a moment before saying, "Yeah, I am." His partner blinked. "Why?"

"You are okay with not sleeping with her and not 'hooking up' and knowing that the only way you will be able to sleep with her is if you marry her?" Ziva blurted.

Wide-eyed, Tony looked at her. "Yeah. I'm thirty-nine. I've got to settle down eventually, Ziva, even if marriage scares me."

She was silent for a few minutes and finally said, "You had been thinking of marrying Jeanne, too."

"I'd also been assigned to dating her just to get information about her father, Zeev," Tony replied. "I made the mistake of falling in love with her along the way. That was an insult to Gibbs' rules and to my own common sense. This time, I'm…"

Ziva bit her lip. "This time you're actually in love."

"Come on. We haven't even said that yet." While he was smiling and trying to make it appear like he was at ease, he couldn't stop the blush that was working its way up his neck and into his cheeks.

As McGee's car drove up the street, she whispered, "You do not need to say it to feel it." Tony didn't acknowledge her words.

"Okay, Lacey," Tony said when he, Ziva, and Lacey were safely inside, "it's going to work in shifts. Ziva and I will be here for this shift, and then McGee will replace me, and finally I will replace Ziva. Understood?" She nodded and glanced at Ziva, who was standing by the window, coldly staring down at the world outside. "What's wrong?"

"I don't think she likes me," Lacey stated bluntly. "She has only said one sentence to me since the moment I met her. She must hate me…she must think I'm stupid for letting this happen."

Ziva turned and pulled the blinds down on the window. "No, Lacey, I do not think you are stupid." The other woman let out a sigh of relief. "Bad things happen to people; it is not my place to decide whether they are stupid or not." Tony rolled his eyes. Typical territory issues between the two women. Awesome, he thought.

"Look, I don't know what's going on," his girlfriend snapped, "but there's someone trying to kill me and he's got my file, so now he has my address and phone number. That's a problem. I think that matters more than your petty jealousy issues." She could tell she was a few years older than the brown-haired agent and wasn't about to let her forget it.

Ziva and Tony shared a look and he started rummaging through the pockets of her jacket, her purse, and her suitcase. "Where's your cell phone?" he asked, taking out his own. "Lacey, where is it?" She extracted it from her pocket and handed it to him. He pushed the power button and the screen went black. "I'll be back."

"Wait! Where are you going?" Lacey asked, following him to the door. "Did I do something wrong?"

He turned and told her, "I'll be back. I have to run this to headquarters. You'll be fine with Ziva."

"Why are you taking my cell phone?" she demanded.

"Because cell phones have GPS cards that whoever's trying to kill you can track and therefore hunt you down and kill you." To Ziva, Tony murmured, "Call McGee. We should probably move." She nodded and Lacey felt as small as an ant.

Ziva glared at her. "You know, this would not have happened if you had just given us your cell phone in the first place," she snapped.

"Oh, so this is my fault, is it?" Lacey retorted. "I see how it works. Since no one asked me about my cell phone or suggested I give it to them, it's automatically my fault. That makes a lot of sense." She stared Ziva down and then plopped down into the couch to wait for McGee.

A call to Ziva's cell phone caught her attention. "McGee?" Ziva murmured, her voice containing the slightest bit of worry. "Mhm.—Yes.—Right.—Okay.—No, no one has tried anything yet.—We will meet you there." She snapped her phone shut and hefted Lacey's bags onto her shoulders. "Come along," she told her, "We are moving." Lacey followed her, casting nervous looks in either direction. "Stop doing that. Look natural. For all they know you were simply visiting a friend."

Easy for her to say! "Look, Ziva, all I know is that you don't like me and we're being followed."

"Are you sure?"

"What?"

"You said we were being followed." Ziva bristled. "Who is following us?"

"Whoever your boss thinks is following us…" Realization hit. "No, not right now. In general. Somewhere out there, someone's trying to find me." The foreign woman snorted, drove her to the next safe house and led her inside. "Has he told you who's after me?"

"No."

Well, gee, sorry for being such a burden… "Why don't you like me?"

Ziva ignored her.

"She seems so nice, Tony!" Abby squealed, taking the cell phone from the bag he handed her. "She's so pretty and shy and she's your age and—"

Tony coughed. "Hey…Abs…do you know if you can take the GPS chip out?" He didn't want to discuss Lacey. Not right now. Maybe later.

"I can!" she vowed. "And I will." She stared at him.

"Thank…you?" She still trained her eyes on him. "Um…"

The Goth girl exploded. "Tell me about her! How'd you meet? Where did you take her on your first date? Did you kiss her? Do you love her? Tell me everything there is to know!" Abby demanded in true Abby Sciuto-fashion.

Tony smiled and promised, "Later, Abby. I need to get back to the safe house."

Abby watched him walk toward the door and then cried, "Wait! Ziva hasn't called you yet. You don't know what one they chose. You've got…" She checked her watch. "…five minutes. Make it good!"

She made a good point, so he relented. "Alright." He sat on a stool facing her. "Lacey and I met at the meat bar at the supermarket almost four months ago." She let out an Aw!, which he dutifully ignored, although he had to grin. "I was still upset over the whole Brenda ordeal and…"

"Well, I know how much the breakup with Jeanne hurt you, too," Abby said, grabbing her cup of Caf-POW. "You're stronger now, though. I've seen it. Go on!"

"She was behind me in line and made a joke about the turkey legs. 'If a caveman walked in right now, I think we'd have a problem, huh?' she said. I turned and laughed, and I think she got a little nervous, so she nudged my arm and said, 'I'm sorry, you're not a caveman, are you?'"

Abby laughed. "You are a strapping fellow, aren't you?"

"I guess," Tony chuckled. "So I said that I wasn't, and Lacey said that was good, because she was just a nurse so she wouldn't be able to fight me off if I were a caveman. She was quiet for a while and when she saw what I was getting, she offered to buy whatever meat it was—I think I was having dinner with Gibbs that night so it was probably a New York strip—but I declined her offer. She was okay with that and gave me her phone number, and told me if I ever wanted to catch up, to text or call…" He stared off reminiscently. "I wasn't going to, but I was bored one night."

"And?" she prodded. "What happened?"

Tony thought for a moment. "I called her and said, 'I don't know if you remember me, but we met at the supermarket…you offered to buy my steak.' We made plans to go out the following evening, and that went really smoothly, so we made another date."

"How many times did you go out before you decided to date her?" she asked, sipping on her drink.

Tony counted. "It was a mutual decision, really. I think we went out about six times and then realized we weren't talking to anyone else, so we'd might as well make it official." He remembered that night. They'd been sitting at the bar of a local restaurant—three star, but delicious menu—and she had brought it up. He'd agreed wholeheartedly. "You know, we're sexually attracted to each other but we're not pressured to sleep with each other. I think it's because we both know that she's waiting till marriage, so we're not like, 'Hey, let's just go for it'. It helps."

Abby grinned. "Sounds like you're pretty serious about her, Tony!" She let out a mischievous chuckle.

"I am."

"Do you love her?"

"I think so. We haven't really…talked about that. We're going with the flow, you know?" Tony ran a hand through his hair. "She sleeps over and we spend all night talking. Literally, just talking. We could talk for hours. And she's so funny." He stared off, thinking about her.

Abby kicked him softly. "You gonna marry her?"

Tony shrugged. "I don't know, Abs. She…and I…we just work together. Really well, actually. I'd love to marry her. I just…"

"You're worried about Ziva?"

"Exactly." He sighed.

"Tony!" She touched his face as though slapping him, but it didn't hurt. "Ziva is a grown woman. You are a grown man. You both agreed that a relationship with each other would be irresponsible. She understands."

Tony nodded and murmured, "Yeah. I know." She looked at her watch. "Time to call?" Abby grinned. "Good talking to you, Abby." With that, he stood and walked from the lab, his phone pressed to his ear as he waited for Ziva to answer.

Lacey would be safe, even if he had to risk his own life to protect her.

Disclaimer: I do not know where the NCIS safe houses are. : )

A/N: Mmkk, hope you enjoyed it! Love, Brown Eyes Only.