The following morning Alex woke up early. Her headache was gone even though she was sure she would have a goose egg on the back of her head when she brushed her hair. She smiled remembering the night she had with Tony. She went to move out of the bed when she realised she couldn't quite move, when she looked down she saw that in the night Tony had put his arm over her, her grin deepened. She liked him a lot more than she should, she had to keep reminding herself that they worked together and that would all it would ever be between them. Still it felt nice having him lying next to her. She felt safe, for once alarm bells weren't ringing in her head telling her not to trust him, in the short time that she had known him, no not just him all of them, she trusted them implicitly. Maybe I'm losing my touch she thought to herself. Being suspicious was what she did it was a defence mechanism. A soft groan beside her told her that Tony was starting to wake up; she quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping. She would take her cues from him.

Tony opened a bleary eye as he lifted his head and looked around, he was in a room he didn't recognise. Then he remembered that he was at Alex's house. He looked at the sleeping woman that lay beside him and that's when he noticed that his arm was around her. She hadn't moved, maybe she's still asleep, he thought to himself. So he put his head back down and left his arm where it was. It felt nice to be sleeping next to woman who didn't have any expectations from him. It had been a long time since he had slept next to a woman. He had his eyes open fully now and he was thinking about last night. They had practically stayed up all night talking, about random things, finding things out about each other. Then she had asked about Kate, rather Kate than Jeanne I guess, he could handle the Kate subject. He was over that one and Paula. He dreaded the day she would ask about Jeanne, he was going to use his free pass on that one. I wonder what she'll use her free pass on, he had a sneaking suspicion it would be the reason why she hated hospitals. As he lay there he felt something twitch, Alex was twitching, she was awake or at least waking up. He felt her move closer to him and he wrapped his arm around her more. Instinctively. NO! Must get up before this gets any more weird he mentally shook himself and lifted his arm groaning as he did so. Beside him he felt Alex stiffen, oh yeah she's definitely awake now.

"Morning Ellie. How's your head?" he asked her, his voice thick with sleep.

"Mornin' yourself. Its fine, although that could be a different story once Gibbs is through smacking it." She laughed lightly. She has an amazing laugh Tony thought to himself and then shook it.

"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked standing up and walking to her bathroom. Tony looked for the chair that had his clothes on it.

"Whatever. Actually I don't think I'm going to be stopping for breakfast, I gotta go get my car, go home and change otherwise Gibbs will pitch a fit. He'll think I've broken rule 12." Alex said something but Tony couldn't hear through the rush of water, Alex was obviously in the shower. He quickly scribbled a note and left it on the dresser, he took a last look around making sure he had everything and then he left.

Alex couldn't hear through sound of the water that was battering her body but she thought she heard Tony say something about the number 12. Not sure she shouted,

"What was that?" she waited for his answer. Since she couldn't hear him, he probably couldn't hear her. She quickly washed her hair and her body, taking more care than normal considering she had been knocked on the head the previous day. Stepping onto the cold tile floor she grabbed the two towels, the first went around her head and the second went around her body. She went into her room to find Tony was gone. As she approached her dresser she looked in the mirror, there was a lovely bluish bruise on her forehead from where she had hit the ground. Looking down she saw that Tony had left her a note,

Gone to get my car. I'll see you at work. Rain check on breakfast? Tony. Alex smiled and got dressed when she had an idea, pulling out her cell phone she texted Ziva. How does everyone take their coffee? Alex. She was going to get Tony something for last night even if it was just coffee. As she was brushing her hair her phone buzzed,

Tony has his black with a hint of hazelnut, Gibbs just plain black and strong, McGee has his white with two sugars and I have mine the same as McGee. You on your way over? Ziva. Alex smiled and texted back, Yeah. I won't be long. Just going to get the coffee. See you in a few minutes. Alex. Alex grabbed her keys and went to get the coffee.

Squad room:

Tony was sitting at his desk by the time McGee and Ziva came in. They both ignored him. Tony looked up from his computer,

"Morning probie. Morning Ziva. How was your night?" he asked them. They both refused to talk to him. "Ok. What's going on?" he asked them. McGee nodded to Ziva,

"You left us! In the middle of an investigation! We were processing that crime scene all night! Where were you?" Ziva shouted at him. She eyed him carefully and got up from behind her desk and perched herself on the edge of his desk picking up a paperclip as she did so, "Are you undercover again Tony?" she asked him as she fiddled with the paperclip. Tony eyed the paperclip and then looked at Ziva,

"No I am not undercover again. Believe me that won't be happening again. I was at the hospital with Ellie. Didn't Gibbs tell you? He told me to stay with her to make sure she was ok." Ziva continued to look at him and he just stared back, neither moving nor noticing that Alex had appeared next to them.

"Am I missing something?" she asked McGee as she walked away from the staring pair and handing McGee his coffee.

"No. Thanks for the coffee."

"It's a peace offering. I'm sorry I bailed on you guys at the crime scene and for stealing Tony away. Forgiven?" she asked McGee.

"Ha! I told you!" Tony said as Ziva relented that he had been telling the truth. Alex approached them again. She handed Ziva her coffee,

"Toda." Alex smiled, she handed Tony his coffee and mouthed thank you. He nodded his head and smiled at her. She walked over to Gibbs' empty desk and placed the coffee next to the keyboard. She went to her desk and waited for the inevitable telling off and headslap. It didn't take long for Gibbs to come downstairs and stalk to her desk.

"How are you?" he asked her. Alex gulped,

"Er…fine boss." Gibbs smiled and tapped her lightly on the top of her head,

"Good." He turned away from her, "McGee what we got?"

"Well boss, Abby matched the blood on the tyre iron to the dead petty officer, and she's running the prints we found on the plastic sheeting. Still no hits on any of his accounts." Gibbs grabbed his coffee from his desk and headed towards the elevator. Alex came around the partition and looked at the rest of the team,

"Did I miss something?" she asked in confusion. Everyone just smiled at her and carried on working.

Two days later:

The team still hadn't found out who had killed the petty officer and Gibbs was not in good mood. They had been working for two days solid, only going home to change their clothes. Everyone was tired and irritable, especially Gibbs.

"Anything? Anyone?" he snapped at his team.

"No boss." McGee answered since he was the only brave enough to. "Now what?" he asked. Gibbs sat in his chair and sighed,

"Now it goes in the cold case file. Everyone go home." He ordered them. The team didn't need telling twice and they grabbed their backpacks and left.

Alex had just walked into her house when her phone started to ring,

"Larkin." She answered.

"What you doin' Ellie?" Alex smiled,

"I'm about to go into the shower and then sleep Tony. Why?" she could hear him breathing down the phone, clearly attempting to think of something to say or imagining her in the shower, "You're mind needs a cold shower Tony." She said teasingly.

"Yeah. So you mentioned something about having a shower and then sleeping correct?" Alex frowned,

"Yes. Why?"

"Do you want some company? I mean you'll go in the shower and wake up. So why don't I come over and we can watch a movie?" he asked her. Alex shook her head as she walked up her stairs, slinging her backpack on the bottom of the banister as she did so.

"What movie you got in mind?"

"Bullitt."

"Yeah. Go on then. Give me twenty minutes." No sooner had she said this then her doorbell rang. She groaned, "Tony someone's at my door. I'll see you in a few minutes." She hung up the phone and ran down the stairs. She opened her door in a flourish trying to think of the nicest way to get the person to go away.

"Tony what are you doing here?" she asked him as she stepped away from the doorway.

"Well I thought I would save time so I came here instead of going home." He smiled at her. She rolled her eyes at him,

"Have you been sitting outside in your car this whole time?" she asked him. He nodded; she slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Make yourself at home. I won't be long."

"Twenty minutes if I remember correctly. Now go you only have sixteen left before I come in there and get you, regardless if your in the shower or not." Alex gaped at him before narrowing her eyes,

"You wouldn't." Tony leaned towards her,

"You sure about that Ellie? You're wasting time." Alex gulped and ran up her stairs and jumped into the shower. Tony smiled and made himself comfy.

NCIS squad room:

Gibbs was about to go home when his computer beeped. He had an email from Abby, she had managed to get a hit on one of the prints from the plastic sheeting, and it had come back on Joey Perry. It was an employment database hit. Benoit Enterprises employed him. His boss was Tony's ex-girlfriend.

"Crap." Gibbs muttered.

A/N:

Please R & R. Thank you very much for sticking with me. There will be Tiva. I have just finished a couple of chapters for later on. Always interested in what people have to say.