Gibbs ran up to the directors office and just walked in. Jenny Shepard looked up,
"Can I help you Jethro?" she asked him.
"I want to know everything about Tony's undercover op from last year." He sat down and waited. Jenny sighed, they had already been over this but clearly something was still bugging him.
"I told you. His mission was to get to close to Jeanne Benoit and help me bring down her father. This worked for all intents and purposes. Except Tony got too involved and it ended badly for the pair of them. A few weeks later Metro PD found her father in the marina. Case closed. Why?" she asked her former partner.
"That dead Petty Officer we've been investigating? Abby matched a print to Joey Perry. He works for Benoit Enterprises. His boss is Jeanne Benoit."
"Coincidence." Gibbs fixed her with a look. Jenny sighed, "I know. Are you going to bring her in?"
"Yes. First thing in the morning. You had better hope that this has nothing to do with Tony." He walked out of the office and headed for him.
Alex's house:
Alex came downstairs with her hair pulled into two very sloppy bunches. She looked at her watch,
"Two minutes to spare. That has to be some sort of record." She smiled at Tony. Tony turned to face her and studied her; she had on a pair grey jogging bottoms and a white vest top with thick straps. She had pulled her hair into two bunches and she had on a pair of red-rimmed glasses. He frowned,
"What?" she asked him as she stepped towards the couch and sat down.
"I never knew you wore glasses." He said looking at her face. Alex shrugged her shoulders,
"There are lots of things you don't know about me Tony."
"Yes. So why don't we change that?" he asked her wickedly. Alex groaned,
"This is why you really wanted to come over? Why didn't you just ask Tony? Instead of the elaborate ruse of wanting to watch a film. Same rules as last time?" she asked him. He nodded.
"Me first. How long have you worn glasses?"
"Since I was a teenager. They thought my migraines were because of eyestrain. They help but not as much as you might think. I usually wear them after I haven't slept in a few days or if I'm reading or watching TV. They would also make a good tool for undercover work. You know like Superman uses his." She said laughing at his look.
"No one would ever believe that. Unless they are stupid." He said laughing as well.
"Lois Lane believed it. For years." Tony pointed at her and said,
"That's my point proven right there. Stupid."
"No Tony. She was just a woman in love who didn't want to see what was right in front of her. Are you telling me you've never lied or misled someone you loved?" Tony fell silent. Alex looked at him, his happiness had gone and now his eyes looked sad,
"Pass. I'm using my free pass." He mumbled. "Have you?" he asked her.
"Never been in love. Or at least I hope I wasn't. Not after the way he treated me. So tell me Tony DiNozzo what's your secret hobby?" she asked him trying to lighten the mood.
"Piano. I play the piano. How did you know that I had a secret hobby?" he asked her liking the way this conversation was going now that they had stepped out of the murky waters of relationships. Alex smiled,
"Tony how does a woman know anything? Intuition." She laughed and he tilted his head to the side, "Ok. It was a guess. Everyone has secrets Tony. It's just a case of asking the right questions to get the right answer. So why the piano?"
"My mom liked the piano. When I was a kid my mom got me piano lessons. I actually quite enjoyed it, became very good at it. I stopped after she died. My father hated it, said playing the piano was only for girls." Alex placed a hand on his arm,
"I'm sorry I had no idea." Tony shrugged his shoulders,
"Its ok. I got over it a long time ago. Come to think of it the piano I used to play on should still be at the house in New York. But it might still be in one piece might not as well." Alex just looked at him with sadness in her eyes. She stood up leaving him with his memories and walked into the kitchen. The last time she hadn't had time to wash her dishes after she had eaten. Walking to the sink she turned on the tap and started to fill the sink with soap and water. She was just starting to wash her dishes when she heard movement to her right,
"You ok Tony?" she asked him as she dived her hands into the water.
"Yeah. What are you doing?" he asked her. She turned to look at him as if he had grown a second head.
"I'm washing the dishes Tony. What does it look like?"
"Don't you have a dishwasher?" he asked her.
"No. I do it myself. You know you could help." She nudged him teasingly as she put the dish on the counter to drain. Tony seemed to consider this but instead he dipped his hand into the water and splashed her. "THAT is not what I meant by helping Tony!" she laughed at him and splashed him back. Within minutes they were having a full-blown water fight when Alex filled a cup and threatened to throw it over him. Tony grinned and ran into the living room. Chasing after him she laughed,
"Oh no you don't!" Tony tripped over the corner of her brown rug and fell over onto the floor. Alex lightly kicked him off his front and onto his back and sat on him. Her knees on his arms. She grinned wickedly at him and tilted the cup towards him.
"You wouldn't!" he said laughing. She raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure about that?" she leaned down so that their noses were almost touching. Tony's eyes were flashing with mischief,
"Yes…" he wasn't entirely sure but he wasn't about to admit that. Alex straightened up and grinned, she tipped the cup so that a little bit landed on him. However she wasn't expecting to jump up as much as he did and she lost her grip on the cup and it hit him on the chest, splashing the both of them. Alex couldn't help it she just carried on laughing and soon Tony was also laughing hysterically. As Alex wiped her glasses Tony took advantage and flipped her over so that she was on the floor and he was sitting on top of her and holding her wrists together with one of his hands. She tried to squirm but it was pointless he was much stronger than her. He looked around for something and spying a cushion he grabbed it and started to hit her with it. Alex could move her head so he let go of her wrists as she attempted to shield herself from the battering cushion. He swung the pillow at her head and she stopped moving. He went to hit her again but stopped mid swing when he saw that she wasn't moving. I didn't hit her that hard did I? He thought to himself. He put the pillow down and looked at her, her head was to the side and her eyes were closed and her hands were hanging limply on his thighs. He leaned closer to her,
"Ellie?" he whispered. She didn't move. He moved his ear closer to her mouth to check to see if she was breathing. She wasn't, he moved her face so that she was facing him, "Don't do this to me Ellie." He was about to give her mouth-to-mouth when she opened her eyes and grinned.
"Ok. I won't but I had to try." She tilted her head to the side as she watched the emotions run over his face, from shock, to annoyance and then eventually to something that looked like mischief.
"What would you have done if I had actually started mouth-to-mouth?" he asked her. She shrugged her shoulders,
"I'm not sure. Why?" he smiled at her and leaned down to kiss her.
As Tony leaned down she felt her heart starting to hammer against her chest. She looked into his green eyes and at the glint that was in them. He was studying her face to see her reaction. She organised her face into what she hoped was an expression of curiosity. She knew what he was going to do and she definitely wasn't going to stop him. As their lips touched Alex felt something that she hadn't felt in ages, the kiss was sending her heart into overdrive, she lifted her hands up and put them around his neck pulling him closer to her. She felt him groan against her mouth. She would have smiled if she could have.
Tony knew he shouldn't have done it but he had never seen her unfazed by anything. He had to get her for her prank; he wasn't expecting the reaction that he got from her however. He had studied her face before leaning down towards her again. She had worn a look of confusion however her eyes were what he had actually been looking at. A lot of what she didn't say was spoken in her eyes. She knew what he was going to do and she wasn't going to stop him. When he had started to kiss her he wasn't expecting the reaction that he got from her. She had put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her. It had felt good to be wanted again, here he was kissing a woman he had only known for a couple of weeks but he felt like he had known her for a lot longer than that. The whole team did, she fit in so well with everyone. He kept telling himself that he was just trying to find out about her, justifying why he was around at her house all the time. But if his heart was trying to tell him something when it started to beat faster when she pulled him closer, his mind was choosing to ignore it. He groaned and started to pull away.
Alex blushed as Tony looked down at her,
"Sorry Tony. Got a bit carried away. It's…uh…been a while." She covered her face with her fingers.
"I know how it feels Ellie. Just so that there's no misunderstandings did you feel anything?" he asked her sheepishly. Lie to him lie to him! Her head screamed. It'll change everything if you don't! Alex sighed; she shook her head from behind her fingers.
"I'm sorry Tony. But no. Did you?" Tony's heart was beating erratically inside his chest he knew she was lying. He stood up and held his hand out for her to take. She peeked out from behind her fingers in confusion and took his hand. He pulled her up and she stumbled towards him, her ear landing on his heart.
"No. I didn't. But this is a good thing it means we can be friends and we know that we'll never have any sexual tension between us." He chuckled. Alex nodded listening to his lying words and his truthfully beating heart. She stepped back realising that he was still holding her and she smiled,
"This is true. Now how about that movie?" she asked him. They sat and watched the movie in silence. As soon as the movie was over Tony jumped up and said,
"Thanks Ellie. But it's late and we have been up for the last two days. I'll see you tomorrow?" Alex nodded. She walked him to the door and he said, "Be sure you lock all of those." He said pointing to all of the locks. He stepped out into the cool air and waited for Alex to close the door and locks. Satisfied that she had done this he walked towards his car and headed for home.
Tony's apartment:Tony entered his apartment and flung his backpack into the corner and started to strip as he walked towards his bathroom. He turned the shower on and looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes were sunken and he had black bags under his eyes, if only anyone knew of the baggage that those could figuratively represent he thought to himself mockingly. His hair was sticking up in every which direction but the right way, sighing he placed his hand into the shower to test the water temperature. Feeling satisfied he climbed in and turned it up a little more, allowing the steaming hot water to sooth his aching muscles, even if it didn't do anything for his aching heart. After his shower he towelled himself dry and pulling on a clean pair boxers, he clambered into his double bed, eyes heavy with lack of sleep. Within seconds he was asleep and dreaming.
He looked around; he was outside the hospital sitting on the bench with Jeanne. The sun was shining on her brown hair making it glisten. Even though they had been through Hell the night before she still looked radiant. With everything the going on that morning she took his news as well as could be expected.
"You need to choose Tony." He looked at her; he should have known this was going to happen. Looking into her eyes he knew she meant it. Just then her father came over,
"We need to go. Tony I will get my driver to drop you off outside the Navy Yard. Come Jeanne." He said in his thick French accent. They clambered into the limo and they were outside the main gate before Tony could even think. He got out and walked towards the NCIS building. In the next breath he was back in Jeanne's apartment and he had the pink note in his hand again asking him to choose. Ziva had already left and he was just sitting there thinking. His mind flash forwarded two months, Jeanne was at NCIS accusing him of murder, and he had stopped her just outside of the elevator,
"Was any of it real Tony?" she asked him. He stepped into the elevator and pushed the down button. He flicked the emergency switch and pulled her close. He started to kiss her and she didn't resist. The kiss changed, from slow and hesitant to passionate and forceful. He pulled back and was surprised to see Ellie.
"Isn't it time you started to dream about someone else?"
Tony bolted upright gasping for air, it had felt so real, and of course he knew it wasn't but still…he flopped back down onto his pillows. That was the first time he dreamt of her.
