A/N: new chapter. I wrote this a few weeks ago and edited it this morning right before my final, so I really hope you guys will enjoy it since I decided to work on this instead of reviewing my notes. Oh well, I don't regret it. If you ever studied marketing, you know why I'd rather go through my fic than reviewing 20 chapters of boring data.

I already wrote the next chapter as well. Maybe I'll edit it before my psychology final!

Hope you'll leave a review!!

Gibbs was confused and he didn't like it; he wasn't used to it. He knew that his senior field agent hadn't just decided to take a day off as McGee firstly suggested; his gut was telling him that there was so much more than that. Waiting for Abby's lab results, he once again cursed mentally at the manager of Tony's apartment complex who had confessed the cameras situated all over in the building weren't really in use and were there just for 'good appearance.'

The phone on his desk rang and he picked up just after a fraction of second. He heard Abby's confused tone, asking him to head down to her lab.

As he hung up, he snapped his fingers as to say to both Ziva and McGee to follow him.

Abby heard the familiar 'ping' of the elevator, and turned around just in time to see the three agents entering her unusually quite lab. She looked at them, for the first time not knowing what to say.

Gibbs broke the silence.

"What have you got for me, Abby?"

The goth played nervously with the hem of her lab coat and then, after a sigh, typed something on the keyboard of her computer and three personal records popped up in the three screens on the wall.

Gibbs gave her a questioning look.

"Gibbs… You know I believe in forensics, right?"

The silver haired man nodded still quite not getting her point. The lab rat continued looking at the three agents standing right in front of her and sighed.

"Those are the results of the fingerprints on the bottles of beer you found in Tony's kitchen."

She typed something on the keyboard once again and two of the three profiles took the entire screen.

Gibbs eyes widened in surprise and confusion. McGee's expression mirrored the one of his boss.

Anthony D. DiNozzo and Caitlin L. Todd.

The names were written in a bold font right above the pictures of Gibbs' senior field agent and his ex partner who had been murdered several years before.

Abby looked at the three agents almost expecting them to burst out laughing and tell her this was their sick idea of a joke. That didn't happen and the lack of reaction only made her even more nervous.

"Gibbs, what is this?"

Gibbs was silent. He didn't know what to make up of the new information he had just received.

"Do you have any positive matches on the DNA from the hair and the blood samples?"

Abby nodded. A new profile appeared on the screen, next to Tony's.

"The blood is Tony's and the hair belongs to well… I am not sure. I mean, I checked both our database and the international DNA database and I got these results, but Gibbs, look at the pictures…"

Gibbs was speechless. He blinked and looked at the screen once again, just to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. The picture was still there, so apparently his eyes were perfectly fine – or as fine as they could be given 'his age', as Tony liked to point out.

The pictures on the two files obviously belonged to the same person. In one picture there was Caitlin Todd during her times in the Secret Service while the other picture looked like a more recent picture of the same person. The face was exactly the same. The only different thing was the hair, which was now wavy, long and dark blond, just as the hair they had found in Tony's bedroom. The other difference between the two profiles occupying the screen was the name.

"Rebecca Falck, Mossad…"

As Gibbs read that name out loud, Ziva jumped slightly reminiscing something.

"Gibbs…"

The man turned around to face his agent.

"I… I think I met her. It was years ago, she had just started working for Mossad and I was about to leave to come and work for you. We just shook each other hands, but I could swear it was her. Is she… is she Kate Todd?"

Gibbs turned back to question Abby, looking for an answer. He didn't know much about forensics, but he did know that the same DNA couldn't belong to two persons at the same time.

"Yes, Gibbs. They're the same person. The DNA on the bottle of beer is a match."

She paused a few seconds.

"Gibbs, does this mean that Kate is still alive?"

The older agent didn't know what to answer.

"Abby, open Kate's record."

The goth started typing frantically, her heartbeat faster and her hands shaking for the excitement. She knew that DNA didn't lie and that the result she had got meant that Kate was very much alive, whether Gibbs was willing to admit it or not. Of course she understood his attitude towards the news she had just delivered to him and the team; for years they had all believed that Kate was dead and had grown used to the fact that was an irreversible situation. Being too positive about her being still alive could mean being deeply disappointed if it turned out she wasn't. The rational side of herself, didn't keep Abby from feeling the warm happiness inside that made her feel better than hundreds caf-pows.

The flow of positive thoughts permeating her mind was suddenly interrupted by a nasty sound her computer made as she tried to open Kate's record. She re-typed the information required, but the annoying noise and the warning on the screen didn't change.

McGee noticed Abby's confused look.

"It's classified?"

Abby nodded, still furiously trying to access the file.

Gibbs didn't quite know what to think. He didn't know what to make of the evidence he had just got from Abby. Kate being still alive was just wishful thinking, if he thought about it rationally, but then again, how did her DNA and her fingerprints ended up at Tony's place? And how was Tony's sudden disappearance was connected to Kate? Also the fact that her record had been classified had to mean someone was trying to hide something. It was just too much to deal with.

"Who classified it, Abs?"

"I will need some time to figure that out, Gibbs."

Gibbs sighed and turned around to leave the lab, followed by Ziva and McGee.

"McGee, help Abby with that computer thing…"

The younger agent nodded and obediently sat in front of a computer.

"McGee… Do you think Kate is still alive?"

The man shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to answer her. He didn't want to keep her hopes up; he knew Kate's death had been hard on Abby and he also knew that making her believe that her friend was still alive, only to find out she wasn't, would have been like going through her death all over again.

"Abs… you know that this might as well be just a conspiracy, right?"

"Oh c'mon McGee! Who would go through all this trouble? I mean, fingerprints, DNA, Tony's weird behavior. It has to mean something! Tony wouldn't just take off and leave if it wasn't for a good reason!"

McGee sighed.

"You think Tony's disappearance has anything to do with Kate?"

"Duh! I mean, how would you explain the evidence that you guys found in Tony's apartment?"

"Well, then why didn't he say something? Why didn't he bring her back to NCIS?"

"Well, maybe there's something hinky going on between them, McGee…"

McGee was saved from replying with something that wouldn't have pleased Abby by Abby herself.

"I found it!"

McGee hurried by her side to see the name of the person who had classified the files and sighed. Gibbs wasn't going to like this.

Tony was still driving. He wasn't tired, but he had to admit his arm was starting to hurt. A lot.

Kate noticed him grimacing in pain, and gave him a concerned look.

"Tony, are you okay?"

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. He didn't want her to point out another reason to leave him out of her plan.

She sighed at his stubbornness.

"Seriously, Tony?! Are you seriously gonna play the macho man thing with me? You got shot at just two days ago and you're only human."

"Kate, you asked if I was okay, and I told you I am. When I won't be okay, you'll be the first to know. Pinky swear."

Kate ignored his pinky pointed towards her.

"Hey! You have to intertwine your pinkie with mine to make it work!"

She let out a small laugh at his pretended outraged tone.

"Tony, lets stop for the night. It's already 5 PM and you've been driving for over eight hours."

"Hmm, Kate, if I didn't know you, I would think that what you just said was a subtle invitation… Are you in such a rush to spend a night in a room alone with me?"

Kate let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Good one, DiNozzo. What about you? Are you in such a rush to meet up with dangerous Al Qaeda terrorists?"

"I thought you were the one who was in a rush to do that."

"Well, I am not. Can we stop now?"

"Kate, I really am fine."

Kate rolled her eyes. He was so stubborn!

"Tony, I know you're fine. I just wanna rest a little. Can we stop?"

Tony gave her a side-glance and saw the concern in her eyes, feeling bad for not noticing it before. In that moment he saw that she really care about him, no matter how sarcasm-covered her words were, she really cared, maybe as much as he cared about her. That thought made him feel good but at the same time it scared him like hell for some reason that he couldn't quite recognize. That feeling, though, made him take the first exit on the freeway and head out towards the small town that seemed to be located just in the middle of the forest.

After driving for a few minutes, he spotted a motel by a gas station. He parked in the small parking lot turning to see if Kate was fine with spending the night there.

She shrugged her shoulders in response. The old self wouldn't probably even consider spending one minute in a dump in the middle of nowhere, but at the moment she didn't really care, as long as she had a bed and a shower.

Tony looked at the surroundings. It was almost dark and the temperature was probably around the lower 30s. It smelled like trees; trees and rain. He grinned as Kate took both of their bags out of the trunk and looked around.

Walking towards the reception, that was just a small room right next to the gas station, he realized that he needed to get to a bank first thing the next morning. Credit cards were easy to track down and he didn't want to lose Kate's trust again.

"Hey, I think I need to go to a bank tomorrow morning. To get cash, you know?"

Kate smiled at him.

"I have some cash…"

"Well, we need more than 'some' cash, don't we?"

"I have a few thousand dollars. I think for now they are going to be enough."

Tony looked at her in surprise. She knew he was about to ask her how she got that money so she just shook her head.

"Don't ask."

He sighed. He had started to understand that getting information out of Kate wasn't as easy as it used to. He couldn't go through her trash or her PDA, or just annoy her until she gave in. He came to the conclusion that, whomever trained her, did a good job. He decided to change topic.

"I've never been to Tennessee."

She smiled at his smart choice of not pressing the money matter any further.

"Me neither. And I never thought I would have had…"

"Why not? I bet there are so many interesting things to do out there."

"DiNozzo, if by 'interesting things' you mean charm local girls into your bed playing the city boy card, know that I'm not interested."

Tony grinned at Kate, who just rolled her eyes in response.

"No, Kate, that's not what I mean. I was thinking more along the line of camping, kayaking, fishing… you know the great outdoors!"

"Funny."

"I am serious, Kate. I mean, we could at least go kayaking!"

"You're worst than a five years old!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Oh c'mon Kate! Don't you feel like you need a break?"

Kate grabbed Tony by his good arm until his gaze met hers.

"DiNozzo, even if I do feel like I need a break, even if I'd give anything to just get away for a week and spend it entirely eating sea food, getting long massages, and relaxing on the beach, I also know that those things a luxuries I've lost long time ago. Can we drop this thing, now?"

"Oh c'mon, Kate! Take a chill pill. I can give you a long massage if you want one…"

Kate scoffed and got into the small room where a rather creepy guy was watching some old movie on the television, barely acknowledged her presence and distractedly pointed towards a notebook. Kate turned to Tony who grinned and then took a pen out of his pocket and wrote his name on the notebook, not sure of what to do after that.

Kate cleared her throat and the man looked up. He reluctantly stood up from his armchair and handed them a key.

"It's 30 dollars a night."

Tony quickly pulled the money out of his wallet, not caring about Kate's sounds of protest. He was the man after all, and he was secretly enjoying pretending to be the knight helping the damsel in distress, even though he perfectly knew that Kate could have kicked his ass any time and was far from being a damsel in distress!

Climbing the small set of stairs, they reached their room. It was small and it smelled like Chinese food. Kate noticed there was only one king size bed in the room, and even thought they had slept in the same bed the previous night, she still shook her head wondering why they didn't get two rooms instead of one. Her thoughts were interrupted by Tony's breath on her neck as he whispered something.

"You can take the bed. I'll sleep on the couch."

She stood still for a few seconds, a little bit shaken up by the pleasant shiver that ran down her spine at the feeling of Tony's breath on her neck. She then turned around to face him, and her eyes widened noticing how they were still standing dangerously close. She opted to take a step back.

"We are adults, Tony. We can both sleep in the bed."

That said, she grabbed her nightwear from her bag and headed to the restroom.

Tony followed her with his eyes and grinned. Now he knew that he wasn't the only one feeling butterflies in his stomach every time he and Kate were standing too close, invading their personal spaces; from her reaction he was positive that she felt those damn butterflies too.

R&R! I love some feedback! ;)