Kate's travels were painless but left a small dent in her account, a dent that she would make sure DiNozzo filled. She was now lugging up her small bag up two flights of stairs because the Flamingo hotel was either too old to have an elevator or didn't believe in them, either way Kate was climbing stairs. It didn't take too long before she was standing in front of Tony's room, face flushed from up climbing the stairs, hair a mess from sleeping on the plane and circles under her eyes from not enough sleep. Covering a yawn, Kate reached out with her empty hand and knocked once on the door, hoping beyond hope that Tony was sobered up by now.
Tony heard a faint knock on the door and slowly opened his eyes. His head was pounding and the light from his lamp, which he had forgotten to turn off, burned his eyes. He reached over to turn the lamp off when he noticed a picture lying face down on the night stand. He flipped over the photo and was greeted by a young Kate's smiling face. Suddenly their was another knock on the door, this time louder. "Coming" he said as he stumbled out of bed, still clutching the picture in his hand.
Tony took the chain off the door and opened it, not expecting to see Kate standing their with a small bag and her hair all messed up. He had to admit that she looked pretty damn hot even if she was all groggy and messy from the plane ride. "Hey, Kate" he said casually, while trying to figure out why she was here. Had he called her last night in his drunken state?
"Hey Tony." Kate shifted her wait a little to grip her bag better and then looked at Tony, his eyes were puffy and his hear was all messed up, it looked like he hadn't gotten much either. "Um...so what is it that you needed to talk to me about?"
Tony looked confused for maybe half a second, "Um.......I..well...you see..." he looked down and saw the picture clutched in his hand. "I need to talk to you about this" He held the picture out so that Kate could see it.
Anger rose again inside Kate as she watched Tony struggle to recall why he had asked her to come down here, she knew that he was to drunk to think clearly and probably wanted to tell her something completely stupid in the first place. She was about to yell at him when he held a picture out in front of him. Taking one look at that picture she immediately knew where this was going. "Tony.....its not what you think. That was long ago, I was a child. You don't need to bring that to work or post it on a zillion different sights. I'm embarrassed enough as it is about that picture and that stupid contest. Just hand me the photo and forget you ever saw it."
"No Kate, its not about what you are doing in this picture. Its about what happened after this picture was taken." Tony took a breath and then reached out to grab Kate's bag. "Let me get your bag and come inside so that we can talk in a more comfortable setting"
Kate was taken aback, nobody who she was still in touch with today knew about what happened after the contest let alone the contest itself. "Tony, how the hell do you know what happened. You weren't even there." Despite her annoyance, Kate let him take her bag and she walked into the room and sat down on the end of the bed, since it looked like the only place that was not covered with DiNozzo clothes.
"Actually Kate," Tony said as he set down her bag, closed the door and pulled the desk chair closer to her, "I was there."
"What are you talking about. I didn't know you back then and you didn't know me."
"We did Katie and we were pen pals for quite some time. My letters were signed Your Italian Hunk and yours were signed..."
"C.T" Kate finished his sentence in a small quite voice. She had a feeling all along that it was him but she just couldn't bear to think that the immature, annoying coworker of hers could also be the same man that she fell in love with oh so many years ago. She looked down at her hands, realizing why Tony had wanted her to come in the first place. "Oh Tony. That was so long ago. You know that we were totally different people and that we have changed so much now." She looked up at him hoping that she was letting him down nicely.
"Katie, I know that we have changed and that we have grown apart but I still feel drawn to you. Why do you think I go through your garbage, purse, phone records and emails.."
"You go through my emails!?"
"That's not the point. The point is that I did those things because I wanted you and I wanted you to want me too"
"Are you still drunk DiNozzo? Cause what I am hearing right now is that you invade my privacy because you like me and even tough you didn't know I was C.T until last night, you still felt connected to me?" Kate ran her hands through her hair trying to unscramble her feelings, she did feel that spark when they were near each other and the whole team knew that their fighting was nothing more than shameless flirting.
Puppy dog eyes and all Tony began to speak again, this time using a soft low voice, a voice that could charm a snake, " Kate. I am not asking for us to pick up where we left off because I know that we can't. Too much time has passed, but I am asking for a second chance. A chance to relight the flame and maybe just maybe work back to where we were."
Kate was speechless, her heart was pounding and her face was flushed. The Tony that everyone saw everyday was immature, childish, raunchy and a pervert but the Tony that she knew way back then and the Tony she saw now was sensitive, caring and meaningful. Ignoring the voice in her head telling her to get the hell out of the room, Kate spoke "The second that you break my heart DiNozzo, I will show everyone in the lab the letters you sent me."
"I would never hurt you C.T." Tony said as he leaned in and grabbed Kate's waist, just as their lips were about to meet, Kate spoke. "Um Tony...what about rule number twelve?"
With a smug smile Tony replied, "Gibbs doesn't need to find out." And with that he pulled her into to a kiss filled with passion and the hunger of separation.
