Tony walked into Abby's lab the next morning, a smile on his face while he whistled a happy, nameless tune.

"You got them test results, Abbs?" Tony asked cheerily as he set a Caf-Pow down on the table next to the Goth.

"You're in love. Again" Abby replied, completely ignoring Tony.

"What?" Tony asked, knitting his brows in confusion.

"Tony, you come in here at least twice a month, whistling happy tunes with a lovesick smile on your face and then you tell me all about 'the hot girl from the gym' or 'the girl who sold you coffee' or 'the blonde chick who smiled at you on the street'. So, who is it this time?"

"Nobody" Tony replied, although, he had been in a bad mood this morning until he remembered that Kate had phoned him the night before and asked if he could have the twins for an hour tonight while she and Rachel went for a coffee after work.

"You're lying!" Abby poked Tony in the chest before crossing her arms across her chest.

"Ow! I am not!" Tony retorted whilst rubbing the sore spot on his chest where Abby had poked him.

"Yes you are! Your left eyebrow always twitches when you lie! Do not lie to me Anthony DiNozzo Jnr!"

"I'm not lying, Abbs!"

Abby narrowed her eyes at Tony and bit her lip staring him out.

"Okay, okay!" Tony threw his hands up in the air, he couldn't hide anything from Abby. She had creepy superpowers, and quite frankly, she scared him a little. "There is someone I like"

"Who is it? Tell me!" Abby jumped up and down, clapping excitedly.

"She's...she's...nobody you know" Tony lied, hoping Abby wouldn't see through this one. "But there's no way in hell she would ever like me back" Tony added quickly, in hopes that Abby would focus on that.

"What, why?"

"Well, one, she's got twin 6 year old girls and two, she's smart, classy and mature"

Abby gave Tony a gob smacked look, usually the women he would explain to her would be no older than 27 and he would explain his favourite body part first, not the fact she was a mother and that she was smart.

"Smart, classy people can like you too, Tony. I like you" Abby smiled.

"Yes, but you're not a mother of two who until a few days ago thought I was nothing but a 15 year old in a 30 year olds body"

"How do you know?" Abby raised a playful eyebrow. "Well, if she's now changed her opinion of you, doesn't that mean you at least have a chance?"

"Abbs, I've known her for years. There is no way she's ever going to like me back. I've only realised I actually had feelings for her a few days ago!"

"Tony, you're smiling like a lovesick puppy. Your face lights up whenever you talk about her. You may only have realised your feelings a few days ago, but by the looks of it, they've been there a while!"

"You're not really helping, Abbs!" Tony sighed.

"Wow, I've never seen you like this over a girl before Tony!" Abby exclaimed. "How do you know she doesn't like you back? Has she actually said she doesn't?"

"No but, she's far too good to like me back. Plus, I highly doubt she's even going to be looking for a relationship when she's a working, single mother!"

"Tony, I can see why you're not chasing after her the way you normally would with a girl but unless you try, you'll never know. I say you should just plant one on her and see what happens!"

"I've already done that"

"And...?" Abby asked, gesturing Tony to elaborate.

"And what?" Tony asked.

"And what did she do?"

"Well, she kissed me back-"

"-see, she likes you back!"

"She was caught up in the moment, that's all"

Before both Tony or Abby could say something else, Gibbs entered the lab with an angry look on his face.

"Abbs, where the hell are those results. I sent Tony down here 15 minutes ago!" Gibbs spat.

"They're right here!" Abby handed Gibbs the file. "Tox screen showed enough GHB in her system to knock out a field of bulls in her system. And her blood work also showed that she was pregnant, early stages, probably about 3 months. She had also been trying to get off drugs as I took the liberty of testing a strand of her hair too. She had been trying to get clean for at least 4-6 months"

"That ties in with what her boyfriend said, they had been trying to get off drugs for five months" Tony added.

Gibbs headed out of the room and back up to the Bullpen followed by Tony. Abby watched his retreating form and took a sip from her Caf-Pow. Tony DiNozzo was head over heals in love with someone, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

(-)

They had both been so busy with work, they had hardly seen or spoken to eachother all day. Although, the few moments they did spend at their desks, most of them were spent stealing glances at one another.

Kate sat in her kitchen, chatting to Rachel whilst they waited for Tony - who was running late - to come and baby sit the girls.

"Mama, Uncle Tony is here!" Lilly exclaimed as she and Amelia ran past the kitchen towards the front door.

Kate followed her daughter to the front door and opened it with a smile.

"Hey" Kate smiled, stepping aside to let Tony in.

"Hey" Tony smiled back. "I'm so sorry i'm late, I was in the video store and I wasn't sure what the girls liked, I mean, I haven't watched Disney in like forever and I've certainly never watched any chick flicks, or kid flicks, so I asked this spotty teenager and well, he told me that his little sister was really into some film I can't remember so I figured I would just go with the safest option" Tony rambled on but Kate had listened to every word, not taking her eyes off him for one second.

"And the safest option was?" Kate asked.

"Shrek!" Tony smiled like a child.

"I love Shrek!" Amelia smiled.

"Me too!" Lilly added.

Kate and Tony had almost forgotten about the twins, they had been too caught up in staring at one another. Neither of them had even noticed Rachel in the doorway, watching her younger sister and her co-worker more or less drooling over eachother, until she coughed and decided she'd introduce herself.

"Hi, i'm Rachel. Kate's older sister" Rachel stuck out her hand for Tony to shake.

"H-hi" Tony said, pulling himself away from staring at Kate.

"I've heard a lot about you"

"All bad I guess" Tony joked.

"Yep" Rachel said shortly, not really knowing what to make of Tony, as she had only known him as some childish womanizer Kate had so often complained about.

Both Kate and Tony let out nervous laughs, but before things could get any more awkward, the twins pulled Tony into the living room.

"Are you sure you'll be alright minding them for a couple of hours?" Kate asked, he voice full of worry.

"Of course!" Tony smiled reassuringly.

"I mean, they're a lot to handle-"

"-Kate" Tony looked Kate square in the eye. "I know they're going to be hard work, but I've spent so much time with them, I love them. If I didn't think I could handle it, I wouldn't have said yes. And besides, you deserve a night to yourself. So go and enjoy yourself. Really, we're going to be fine" Tony smiled.

Somewhere into the conversation, Tony had taken one of Kate's hands in his and was now stroking her knuckles, both of them gazing into each others eyes, almost getting lost.

"Er, Kate. We'd best be going now" Rachel laughed awkwardly.

"Oh...right" Kate replied in the same tone as her sister. "Well, thanks for having the girls. I'll be back before you know it. And if you need me, you can just get me on my-"

"-I won't need you. Go. Have fun!" Tony smiled.

"By babies, I'll see you soon!" Kate said to the girls, who were far too into Shrek to even realise Kate was talking to them.

Kate walked over to the couch and placed a kiss on the top of her daughters' brown locks and without thinking, placed a kiss on Tony's cheek. For a second they could feel awkwardness starting to form between them, despite the fact that they both liked what she had just 'accidentally' done, and so, Tony but on his best child voice and replied "goodbye mom" which caused Kate to smile.

(-)

"So...Tony seems nice" Rachel gave Kate a knowing smile as she took a sip of her coffee.

"He is" Kate smiled back, thinking about just how nice Tony actually was.

"You like him don't you!" Rachel stated bluntly.

"I've always liked him, he's got this charm-"

"-No, you like him like him!" Rachel widened her eyes, emphasising what she meant.

"What are we? Back in high school or something?" Kate replied sarcastically.

"You seem to be the way you drool over Tony!" Rachel laughed. "And besides, you're deflecting!"

"I am not!" Kate defended.

"You are, little sis! You like Tony and you know it so when I bring it up, you change the subject! You can't lie to me, I know you inside and out" Rachel smiled smugly.

"Well, I don't like him, and even if I did, he doesn't like me back" Kate replied sheepishly before taking a sip of her coffee to try and mask the slight hurt in her voice.

"What is it you do again?" Rachel asked, screwing up her face.

"Oh, now who's deflecting?!" Kate raised an eyebrow at her sister.

"No, seriously, what is it you do for a living?!"

"I'm an NCIS agent, you know that!"

"Oh, yeah well you're either a really bad agent because you can't spot that Tony is craaaaazy for you, or, you're even more stupid than I thought!"

"Well you're a worse psychologist than I thought if you think that me and Tony like eachother!" Kae scoffed.

"When you lie, the corner of your mouth always curves slightly. It has done since you were five and you told mum Joe and Rick were playing football in the house and broke her vase, when it was in fact you fighting with Tommy!"

Kate moved her coffee cup in front of her mouth.

"Look Kate, I know love when I see it, and what I saw an hour ago, whether you guys know it yet or not, that was love! I've never seen you this happy, Kate. You deserve it"

"I don't...I don't know how I feel about him" Kate sighed. "I mean, I like him, at least I think I do, but he's my partner. My friend. I just, I don't know if I can go through with that again"

"Go through with what?"

"Getting hurt"

"Kate, Tony's not going to hurt you-"

"-I know him Rach, he's not a one woman kind of guy, he's not even a third date kind of guy! I can't expect him to have changed over night!"

"It seems to me like he's changed. He seems to spend as much time as he can with you, seems to find all the excuses in the world to stare at you, to touch you. You need to take a risk every once in a while"

"Things between me and Tony are good, and i'm not about to go and ruin them any time soon!" Kate spat in a stern tone, letting Rachel know that this conversation was over.

There we have it! Hope you guys liked it, it took me longer than I expected to write. So, Kate is scared of getting hurt again, can Tony prove to her that he won't hurt her? Will Abby find out who it is Tony loves? lemme know what you think! Thank you for the revies and please keep them coming!:)