A/N: Thanks again for your reviews, alerts and favorites! :)

Chapter Eleven: Caught

They had driven to work separately, but still managed to arrive there at almost the same time, despite Gibbs' detour to his own house. Tony shook his head, not sure whether or not he really wanted to know just how fast the other man had been driving. He got out of the car and watched Gibbs park his car and then walk over to him, his glanced fixed upon Tony.

"You're fast."

"Always – when I'm driving."

Tony wiggled his eyebrows at the obvious innuendo and was slightly surprised that he wasn't even remotely freaked out about it. Even more surprising was that Gibbs quickly looked around the garage, making sure that no one was within eyeshot and then placed a soft kiss on Tony's lips, who felt himself respond instantly as he pulled his arms around the older man's waist. When they finally broke apart, Tony was slightly out of breath, but grinned at Gibbs nevertheless.

"Wow, I'm starting to like the unprofessional Gibbs."

The older man just snorted and then slapped him upside the head, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'And I'm back', before he made his way towards the elevators leaving Tony standing there for a moment, gaping after him.

-x-

They had barely sat down at their desks that Gibbs' phone started to ring and only seconds later, the usual 'Grab your gear' was to be heard, followed by three rather excited agents jumping off their chairs. Tony was relieved that they wouldn't be spending yet another day on the tedious paperwork. He was finally feeling completely healthy and couldn't wait to start investigating again.

Little did he know that the case would occupy them for the next three days straight, barely leaving them with a chance to eat, let alone catch some sleep. In fact, Tony had just dozed off for what felt like two seconds early in the morning two days later when Gibbs walked back into the bullpen, surprisingly carrying four cups of coffee for all of them, barking at McGee to pull up the dead Petty Officers financial records. If Tony hadn't been almost startled to death, too, he would have laughed at the junior agent as he almost fell off his chair.

He grinned nonetheless as he stood up, stretched himself and then reached for the coffee that Gibbs was holding out to him. For a split of a second, their fingers touched and Tony looked into his boss' icy blue eyes and felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. To his surprise, Gibbs replied it with a small one, too, before he all but ordered, the boss-mask firmly back in place.

"DiNozzo, go down to Abby's, see if she found something on the petty officer's clothes."

"On it, boss."

Making a detour to get her the beloved Caf!Pow, Tony arrived there a couple of minutes later, only to see himself confronted with not only Abby, who was looking like she about to murder someone, but also with a rather young looking guy, who was standing there, reading something on her computer screen.

"Hey Abs," Tony greeted her, giving her the drink which she took with a silent nod. "So, who's your friend?" he continued, when Abby had made no move to say anything.

"That's Blake Jones, my new assistant," Abby all but snarled at him and Tony winced ever so slightly, but still made a step forwards and reached out his hand to shake the other man's.

The guy stared at him for a moment, his mouth slightly hanging open, before he subtly shook his head as if to get out of his headspace and took Tony's hand.

"I'm Tony DiNozzo," he said, still slightly startled by the other man's behavior. "I'm with Team Gibbs. You'll see a lot of us around here." He leaned in a bit more, causing the other man to actually take a step back. "And Abby is usually a nice person. She just doesn't like the superiors making decisions without her knowing. If you're good, she's going to love you in no time."

The other man nodded, getting paler by the second and Tony decided to step away from him, not sure whether he was annoyed or freaked out by the kid's behavior.

"Abs, you got something from the clothes, we brought in?"

"No yet, Tony, sorry," and she really sounded it, too. "But I can tell you that it wasn't Petty Officer Black's blood on his shoes. I have yet to determine whose it is, though."

"Okay, thanks, Abs," Tony replied and smiled at her as she grabbed his upper arm and all but dragged him out of her lab with her.

"Gibbs did talk to the director, right?" Tony asked, rubbing his arm.

"Yeah, but it was already too late, apparently I'm overworked. Like there's such a thing for Abby Scuito. Thing is, the guy's pretty cool actually."

"So, what's the problem?" Tony snorted, wondering when exactly he had missed the 'cool guy' just in there.

"I don't like having an assistant, Tony."

"What if he can actually help?" Tony whispered, grinning at her. "Would that be so bad?"

"No, I guess not," Abby replied slowly, her shoulders slumping. "Though he was acting really weird with you just now."

"You don't say," he answered sarcastically.

"I'll put him straight on that, trust me. No one's rude to my Tony."

"Except for Gibbs," Tony finished her sentence and promptly got a punch on his already hurting arm in return.

"Don't say that, he just knows when you need it. But now go. I have to break in the new kid."

Tony snorted and then made his way up towards the bullpen again.

-x-

A couple of hours later, Gibbs ordered all of them to join Abby and Jones in their lab as she had apparently just called to tell him that they had found something. Silently praying that this would be their break, Tony trailed behind the others, yawning widely. He could really use a couple of hours of sleep by now, preferably wrapped in Jethro's arms, but that was probably not in his near future. They reached the lab and Abby immediately started to ramble about how they had managed to find out how the petty officer had been killed and especially who had done it.

Tony opened his mouth to cut her off and tell her to cut to the chase, but before he could even make a sound, Abby had turned towards him, wearing the same deadly expression that she had fixed Jones with that very morning. Tony shut his mouth and out of the corners of his eyes, he saw McGee furrowing a brow at her.

"Abby," Gibbs, apparently oblivious to whatever was going on, interrupted her. "What have you found?"

"Well," the Goth replied and the smile was back on her face when she turned towards the boss-man, leaving Tony even more uncomfortable as he tried to figure out what exactly he could have done wrong this time, but came up empty. "It seems like Black was killed by a blow to the head, I'm sure, Ducky has already told you that. But I - or I guess we - matched the fracture to a baseball bat. And the blood we found on Black's shoes was from Lt. Harry McKenzie, his CO."

"Good work, Abby," Gibbs said as usual kissing her forehead before he nodded at Jones and then turned around to look at his agents. "DiNozzo, Ziva, bring in the lieutenant, McGee get me as much information on the guy as you can."

-x-

It was already after midnight when Tony leaned back in chair, running a tired hand over his face. He had just finished his report, had made sure that he had dotted the i's and crossed all the t's and was now really looking forward to going home. Their suspect had caved pretty quickly after Gibbs had used his infamous death-glare on him in interrogation, claiming that the petty officer had refused to give him his part of a shared lottery win. Tony shook his head, wondering why in the world someone would kill somebody over not even $5.000, but then realized that he was never able to understand murders in the first place.

He printed out his report for Gibbs to read as his thoughts strayed to Abby again, the uneasy feeling that she was mad at him for some reason still not vanished. He internally ran through all the things that had happened between their last talk about Blake and now, but he wasn't able to come up with anything. What could have happened that had made her look at him like that? Or had he imagined it after all? But then, McGee's furrowed brow came back into his mind and his heart sank again, realizing that it had indeed been very real. He'd have to talk to Gibbs about that, see if he had noticed that something was off, too.

He grabbed the printouts, stapled them together and then offered the pieces of paper to Gibbs, who took them with the slightest of smiles as their eyes met. Involuntarily, Tony yawned again and caught Gibbs grin at him ever so slightly.

"Go home," he all but ordered then, raising an eyebrow at him and Tony nodded in return, hoping that Gibbs was once again able to read his thoughts.

The barely audible 'okay' that followed was enough for him to know that the older man would show up at Tony's place at some point during the night and Tony released a soft sigh at the mere thought of it. He went back to his desk, grabbed his backpack and had already nodded good night to Ziva and McGee as Gibbs spoke up again.

"Go down to see Abby before you go, you got that?"

Tony turned around again, eyeing him for a moment and then realized that his boss had all been but oblivious earlier. He nodded once again and made his way down into the lab, internally bracing himself for whatever might lie ahead.

"Abs, you still here?" he called out when he reached the lab which was still illuminated by the lights, but oddly enough there was no music playing.

"Yeah," came back the quiet answer and Tony was now able to see her sitting in front of one of her computers in her office.

Tony approached her, making sure that Jones had already left and was mildly satisfied when he realized that they were alone for once. He sat down next to her, trying to make her look at him, but her glance was still fixed on the screen in front of her, even though she was basically just staring at her screensaver.

"Is something up?" Tony tried to gain her attention, but she still refused to look at him.

"Nope."

"Then, why are you mad?"

"Am not," came back a snot-nosed answer and Tony felt his heart suddenly pick up pace as he realized he had no idea what was up with her.

"What have I done wrong then, 'cause if you don't tell me, I can't apologize."

"It's not what you did, but what you didn't do," Abby replied, finally turning to look at him.

Her expression wasn't angry anymore but rather hurt now and Tony felt the sudden urge to wrap his arms around her, but realized that that was probably a foolish idea.

"Help me out here, please? What is it that I haven't done exactly?"

Abby crossed her arms across her chest, glaring at him once again as if he had just killed her favorite puppy. He tried to give her a smile, but stopped dead in his tracks when she started to speak again.

"Don't play dumb on me. Blake saw you."

Tony shook his head, trying to figure out what exactly her new assistant could have seen exactly. Very briefly his thoughts reached Gibbs, but they had barely talked to each other those last two days, except for a 'Shut it, DiNozzo' and an 'On it, boss'. Tony shrugged now, urging her to go on speaking, but once again she remained silent.

"He saw me doing what? I really can't think of anything I could have done to make you mad, I'm really sorry."

"Why haven't you told me before, Tony? You know you can talk to me and tell me anything! Don't you trust me?"

"Of course, I do, Abby," Tony hurried to reply, feeling himself getting restless all of a sudden.

"Then you should know that I'm not prejudiced or anything."

"I know that. I really do. You're the most open-minded person I know."

"Then why the hell didn't you tell me you were seeing a guy?" Abby cried out and stood up now, pacing around her small office.

Tony stared at her for a moment, simultaneously feeling his insides freeze and his heart pick up pace. He was pretty sure he was looking like the often-cited deer caught in the headlights. He had opened and closed his mouth at least three times before he ran a hand through his hair and his mind went back online again.

What the hell had the guy seen? He thought about the last two days and then felt his heart sink, when he realized that he had kissed Gibbs in the parking lot the other day. Jones must have seen them there, there was no other way. Tony sighed and was about to speak up again, was about to soothe the Goth who was still staring at him with a hurt look on her face, her hands on her hips, as another thought suddenly crossed in his mind. It was quite obvious that Abby was mad at him, but hadn't she been acting perfectly normal towards their boss? Was there a chance that Jones had only recognized him, but not Gibbs? The chances were probably pretty slim, but he had to try anyway.

"What did he see?" he finally asked so quietly that Abby immediately stopped pacing and looked at him again, some of the anger vanishing from her beautiful features.

"He saw you kissing another guy in the garage. That's why he was acting all weird around you because he was sure that he hadn't been supposed to see it."

"No, he really shouldn't have," Tony replied only above a whisper, rubbing a hand over his face, somewhat relieved that Abby apparently didn't know who exactly the other guy had been. "I'm sorry, Abs, I should have told you about it. But I didn't know how, okay?"

Abby nodded slowly now and tilted her head ever so slightly. Tony felt his pulse slow down as he realized that she seemed to be mollified by his apology. He still had no clue what to tell her, still had no clue what to do now and how she would react to all of this but then, she sat down next to him again and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Tony felt himself relax against her and took a deep breath, his mind still working overtime.

"Don't tell anyone?" he then asked as she had finally let go of him.

"I promise and I'll tell Blake, too. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable or anything. Who else knows?"

"Nobody," Tony replied. "It's still new, you know."

"Okay. So, is this only different because he's a guy or is there really something more this time?"

Tony thought about it for a moment before he felt a smile spread on his face, realizing that he didn't even have to lie about it for once.

"No, it's different different. Like I said before, this seems real, you know."

"Oh, I'm so happy for you, Tony," Abby answered enthusiastically and once again hugged him. Still beaming, she continued. "Didn't know you were playing for both teams, though. You being Mr. Womanizer and all."

Tony let out a laugh and subtly shook his head as he thought about an honest answer to that one. "I don't think I am. This thing with the guy just happened, you know. I still have no idea what exactly we're doing, but it seems right."

"You're so cute," Abby beamed. "Can I meet him sometime? You know I have to approve of any love interest of yours."

"Since when?" Tony quipped, only earning himself a soft punch on his shoulder. "Yeah, once things have settled down, I'll introduce you."

He sighed inwardly as remorse began to creep up his spine. He didn't like lying to Abby at all, but he couldn't see any other way at the moment. At least he hadn't blatantly lied to her as he had merely concealed the fact that he was seeing Gibbs.

"Great," she replied and hugged him again before she got up. "And now, shoo. Go home, get some sleep."

"Okay, ma'am," Tony stood up, too. "And you're not mad anymore?"

"Not mad, I promise. Pinky swear."

-x-

Once in his car, Tony fished his cell out of his pocket, hit speed dial and waited for Gibbs to pick up his phone.

"Gibbs."

"Hey, it's me. You still in the bullpen?"

"Uh-huh," came back the reluctant answer and Tony realized that he wasn't alone.

"Okay. Just talked to Abby. In a nutshell, she knows I'm seeing a guy, but not that it's you. Jones apparently saw us kiss the other day. I'm so sorry."

"Okay," Gibbs' answer was immediate and Tony wasn't able to read anything into it. "Not your fault."

"Still be seeing you at my place later?"

"Uh-huh. About half an hour," Gibbs replied and Tony heard the ding of the elevator in the background.

There were a few moments of silence before Gibbs spoke again, his voice sounding rather clangorous as he was apparently standing in the elevator now.

"Abby still mad at you?"

"No, she's just been disappointed I didn't tell her. But she understood once I told her that it was still new and all."

"Good," Gibbs replied and then softly continued. "You okay?"

Tony thought about it for a moment or two, realizing that he was just that – okay. "Yeah, still kind of shell-shocked, you know."

"Don't worry, we'll figure everything out, okay? I'll come by your place later and we can talk things through."

Tony sighed again as he started his car and then answered. "I'd rather not. At least not tonight. I just want to cuddle up in bed and forget anything has ever happened if that's okay."

"Sure, works for me," Tony could almost hear the smile through the receiver and felt himself relax again.

"See you later then."

"Yeah, bye, Tony."

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