A/N: Okay, this is not as long as I wanted it to be, but I decided to make two shorter chapters out of what I had planned to be one very long one – so you don't have to wait another week for an update. I'll try to write more next time, I promise.

Chapter 7: Changes

Tony was really looking forward to Tuesday evening. His friend Woody had called him the day before and had invited him to the weekly poker night at his place and Tony hadn't had a chance to play ever since he had left Baltimore.

The evening was genius. Not only were there a lot of beer, chips and cigars, but he also won thirty dollars and the respect of the others for being such a good player. He called Kate on Wednesday evening to tell her about the previous night, because for some reason he more and more often felt the urge to tell her all his news. So he told her about all his good hands and about the bluff he had pulled off that had won him the pot.

"Kate? Are you still there?" he asked, when he had finished his story and no reaction came from her.

"Yeah, sure", she said, not very enthusiastically.

"Hey, what's wrong? Don't you play poker? I could show you if you want."

"No, thanks", she said, still sounding as if her thoughts were elsewhere. Had she had a bad day?

"What are you doing tonight?" he asked. "Do you want to come over?"

"I don't know. I'm rather tired. And I have to get up early tomorrow."

"Aw, come on. You don't have to stay over if you rather sleep at home. Just come over for a movie. I can give you a ride home later."

"Tony …"

"Come on, please!"

"Fine", she sighed.

"Yes!" Tony cheered. "When are you coming?"

"Twenty minutes?"

"Perfect!"

When Kate finally knocked, Tony ran to open the door and greeted her with a kiss, then stepped back to let her into the apartment. He had put two burning candles on the coffee table in front of the couch and had dimmed the electric light. He wanted to cheer Kate up by being romantic.

He politely asked her to sit down and offered her a glass of wine, which she accepted. When he asked her about her day she only answered curtly.

"The day can't have been very good", Tony concluded, smiling at her. "You don't have to talk about it, that's okay. There's other things we could do other than talking." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Tony, that's about the last thing I want to do right now!" she said harshly.

Tony's jaw dropped when he suddenly realized that she wasn't having a bad day at all, she was angry with him! What on Earth had he done wrong?

He decided to be careful. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

Kate shrugged.

He tried a smile. "What would you like to do? We don't have to watch a movie. I'm open for suggestions."

"Ah, today you are?"

"What?" Tony asked confusedly.

"Yesterday you didn't ask."

"No, I didn't, because I had plans for yesterday", Tony said, rather impatiently. "And I told you so on the phone when I called you in the afternoon. Seriously, is it such a problem if I spend one evening in the week with my friends?"

"No it isn't", Kate replied curtly.

"Then why are you so upset?"

"I'm not upset."

"Yes, you are!" Tony said. He hated it when women got like that, saying one thing and meaning another and expecting the guy to figure it all out. "We didn't have any plans for yesterday, did we?"

"If you say so", she replied.

"What? Did we have plans?"

"On Monday morning I said that I'd like you to meet a friend of mine and her boyfriend and that we would meet on Tuesday."

Now they were getting there! But Tony wasn't planning on admitting his guilt here.

"No, you said maybe we'd meet on Tuesday, maybe!" he replied. "You weren't even sure if your friend had time. And why can she choose if she has time or not and I can't?"

"Of course you can."

"Then why are you upset?"

"I'm not! I just thought it would be nice if you could keep Tuesday evening free. But obviously it was too much to ask."

"Kate!" Tony exclaimed, almost wringing his hands. "I didn't know you wanted me to keep it free!"

"Okay! You don't have to get so loud over it."

"I'm not …!" He took a deep breath. "I didn't mean to shout", he said, as calm as he could. "But I really don't see what I've done wrong this time. Maybe we could agree that it was a misunderstanding?"

Kate only shrugged, then slowly nodded.

Tony was relieved. He didn't like it when she was upset. But still he wondered why she was making him feel like after all it was still his fault. His only crime was that now he had friends and not every single day of his week was dedicated only to her. She couldn't seriously blame him for that.

Sighing, Tony leaned back on the couch and switched the TV on. He searched for a news program because he hadn't heard the news today and they sat there in silence for some minutes.

But then Kate leaned over, took the remote out of Tony's hands and pressed the mute button. He looked at her in surprise, prepared for a continuation of their argument.

"I … I'm sorry", she said. "I was acting like … I don't know. It was stupid, I'm sorry."

Tony nodded slowly. He was still confused as to what their previous argument had been about and her apology came unexpected.

"I guess I haven't made myself clear concerning my plans", she continued. "You couldn't know that you were supposed to keep Tuesday evening free."

"And what if I had known and still I had wanted to play poker with my friends?" Tony asked. He was growing tired of Kate implying that whenever she wanted he had to cancel all his plans in order to fit in with her timetable.

She looked at him, totally aghast. Then she put on a straight face. "I was just thinking that with our jobs keeping us busy we should try to make good use of the time we have together", she said. "But of course you have a right to spend time with your friends", she added, this time not sounding critical. She opened her mouth to say something else, hesitated, then sighed in frustration. "I think we got our wires crossed this time, didn't we?" She sounded exhausted.

"Yes", Tony agreed. "We definitely did."

Kate sent him a half smile and Tony smirked. Spontaneously, he leaned over and kissed her cheek, then touched his forehead to her temple and remained close to her for some moments. Then he drew back and looked at her. "We both don't seem to be at our best tonight", he concluded. "Maybe we shouldn't take any more risks and just call it a day."

"I think you're right", she said, smiling at him.

He stood up and reached for her hand to help her up from the couch. "Come on", he said. "I'll give you a ride home."

She took his hand and smiled at him. "Thanks."

When they had reached her building, Tony kissed her and said he would call her the next day. She left the car and Tony waited until she had gotten inside before he drove away. What an evening! Never had he expected that having a girlfriend would be such hard work!

The next day Tony accompanied Gibbs down to Abby's lab to see if she had the DNA results for their recent case ready. Abby explained that the DNA they had found didn't match their prime suspect.

"Damn it!", Gibbs muttered. He wanted to drink from his coffee, but obviously the cup was empty because he grunted and threw it away before leaving the lab, very likely in search of another dose of caffeine.

"What's wrong?" Abby asked, as soon as Gibbs was gone.

"What do you mean?" Tony asked back.

"You look like something's worrying you."

"No, it's nothing."

"Talking about it might help."

"Talking about nothing helps?"

Abby crossed her arms in front of her chest and tried to stare him down.

Tony smiled. "Okay, maybe you can help me."

"Oh, great, great, great!" Abby cheered and hurried to get two chairs for Tony and her. She sat down on the edge of hers and looked at him expectantly. "Shoot!"

"Well, there's this woman …", Tony started.

"Of course there is", Abby said compassionately.

"She's my girlfriend, you see? And I like her, I really do." Tony sighed.

"Where's the problem?"

Tony laughed humorlessly. "There shouldn't be a problem. But still … I just can't help it."

"You can't help what?"

"I'm just … I'm not sure … You see, I've never had a real … relationship."

Abby wondered why he was saying 'relationship' like it was the first time the word came past his lips. "There's a first time for everything", she said.

"Yes, of course, but … I don't know … I want to be with her, really. But being with her also means putting an end to the life I've been living so far. And I really used to like my life as it was."

"And you fear that she's not worth it or what?" Abby asked, deliberately trying to challenge him with her choice of words. But he surprised her with his answer.

"Uhm … no, I'm pretty sure that she is worth it. But I don't know if I can live this kind of life. What if at some point I realize that I want my old life back?"

"And you think then she'd tie you to a chair and not let you go?"

"No." Tony sighed. "But if in some years I figure out that I gave up my liberty too early then it will be too late to get it back because then I'll be too old for it and … I'm not making any sense here, am I?"

Abby chuckled. "Don't worry, I think I understand what you mean. But I'm not sure if I can help you with your problem. Have you tried talking to your girlfriend about it?"

Tony shook his head. "It would only hurt her", he said. "And I don't want that."

"Which obviously means you care for her."

"Of course I do! She's great. But there are those moments when she really drives me crazy. Like when she's mad at me for no reason at all. Or when I'm mad at her and she only looks at me and I don't remember the reason why I'm mad."

Abby smiled.

"What?" Tony asked.

"Do you want to hear my advice?"

"Sure."

"Give it a try and be open to learn something new. Don't think of a relationship in terms of losing something, but gaining something."

"That sounds really wise", Tony said.

"Yeah, doesn't it?" Abby grinned.

"Thanks, Abby", Tony said. "I guess I'll have to go back upstairs now and see what Gibbs wants me to do next."

"See you later", she said, watching him leave. "And Tony?" she shouted after him. "When you've sorted things out, I'd really like to meet your girlfriend!"

---

Shortly after seven that evening, someone knocked on Kate's door. She looked through the peephole, then quickly opened.

"Tony", she said. "Hey!"

"Hi. Bad time?"

"Not at all. Come on in."

She opened the door further and wanted to step aside, but Tony caught her around the waist and pulled her to him. Kate soon overcame her surprise, grabbed the lapels of his jacket and lifted her face to him when he leaned in to kiss her. She kicked the door shut, paying less attention to it than to her hands, which moved under Tony's jacket to push it off his shoulders.

"This friend of yours …", Tony said between kisses. "Do you think she has time this weekend?"

"Maybe", Kate whispered against his lips. "Why?"

"Because I'd like to meet her."

Kate drew back. "Really?"

Tony knew what he was agreeing to was a double date, but Kate already sounded so excited that he merely nodded.

"I'll call her tomorrow", Kate said, lifting one hand to his cheek and smiling at him. "I'm sorry for having been so difficult yesterday."

Tony chuckled. "You call it difficult, I call it challenging."

tbc...