Sitting on the couch in Gibbs' house Maggie leaned against Gibbs with her back to him, his arms wrapped around her and a bowl of popcorn in her lap. 'Pride of the Yankees' starring Gary Cooper was playing on the television, Freckles was curled up sleeping in front of the fireplace.
"You know the only reason I'm watching this is because it's about Lou Gehrig right?" Maggie told Gibbs.
"You hate the Yankees that much?" Gibbs teased her.
"Honey, I'm a Boston Red Sox fan through and through."
"And if I said I was a Yankee fan?"
Maggie turned to look at Gibbs and with the straightest face she could manage.
"Then I'd say no more popcorn for you mister."
Maggie moved the bowl of popcorn away from Gibbs as he tried to reach for it. Maggie moved far enough away until she was stretched out across the couch. Gibbs grabbed the popcorn bowl with one hand and pinned her to the couch with the other. His hand hit the right place on her side and she started laughing.
"You're ticklish?" Gibbs was surprised. How had he not known this?
"Nope, I'm not." Maggie tried to squirm out of his reach, but now that Gibbs knew her weak spot, he went after it full force.
"Stop…" Maggie laughed as she tried to get away from him. But what started as simple tickling had moved onto something a little more. Gibbs' hands moved under her sweatshirt and they started kissing.
"And this is why you need to lock your door."
Gibbs moved up and pulled Maggie with him while Freckles started barking at the person who just woke her from her car chasing dream.
"You could have called Tobias." Gibbs told his friend.
"I didn't think you'd have company. And can you call the dog off."
Gibbs whistled and Freckles walked over and sat down in front of him. She was rewarded with a scratch behind the ears.
Fornell walked over and reached his hand out to shake Maggie's.
"Your boyfriend lacks manners."
"No I don't." Gibbs countered.
"I'm Tobias Fornell. You have to be Maggie. I've heard a lot about you."
"Nice to finally meet you too Tobias."
"So he does talk about me." Fornell said to Maggie.
"Help yourself." Gibbs commented as Fornell scooped up some popcorn from the bowl.
"I will. Do you have any more beers?"
Gibbs gave Fornell a the 'hello, you were interrupting here' look, but Tobias either didn't see it or was enjoying annoying Gibbs.
"You can have a beer on one condition." Maggie told Fornell. "Are you a Yankee fan?"
Fornell smiled at her over his shoulder as he walked to the kitchen. "Cubbies all the way."
Maggie closed her eyes and shook her head. Gibbs pulled her close and kissed her on the side of the head. "He's not all bad, took one alimony away from me."
Gibbs could have kicked Fornell out, he was intruding, but it was nice to see how well Maggie and Fornell got along. They watched the rest of the movie together and discussed baseball, no shop talk at all. Maggie got up to take Freckles out to the back yard; Gibbs caught Fornell checking Maggie out.
"Hey." Gibbs snapped.
Fornell smiled. "I'm human Gibbs and she's attractive. She a runner?"
Gibbs stood and took Fornell's beer from him.
"Time for you to go."
Fornell knew he'd pushed the jealousy button on Gibbs and liked the reaction.
"Worried I'm going to steal wife number 5?"
"Nope." Gibbs smirked. "I gave you number 2 you can't have number 5."
The statement was out before he'd realized it. Fornell caught it and just smiled knowingly at his friend before walking out the door. This time Gibbs locked the door. He knew what he'd said, the fact that he'd said it out loud surprised him.
"Tobias gone?" Maggie asked when she came back into the living room.
Gibbs nodded and pulled her into his embrace.
"Dog have water?" he asked her.
Gibbs had bought small bowls for the dog to have at his place for the nights that Maggie stayed there. He'd even gone as far as buying a smaller bag of Freckles food and some treats to keep in his kitchen. Gibbs liked having the dog there. Freckles favorite resting space besides in front of the fireplace was the landing in the basement. If Gibbs was down in the basement working, Freckles would be down on the landing watching what he was doing. Maggie liked kidding Gibbs that he'd stolen Freckles affections with his belly rubs.
Maggie stood on her tip toes and slid her arms around Gibbs' neck.
"Bed time?" she smiled at him.
"Thought you'd never ask." He grinned back.
Ziva clipped on the visitors pass and followed the secretary's directions down to Maggie's classroom. A young boy walked out of the room and saw her. He smiled at her and stuck his hand out to her.
"Hi. I'm Hando." He reported. "Who are you?"
Ziva couldn't help but smile at the boy. His infectious grin showed he had lost his front teeth but one was coming back in. Ziva remembered knew that Maggie taught children who had different levels of autism. She reached out and shook his hand.
"Hando. What are you doing?"
Maggie stepped out of the classroom and was surprised when she saw Hando and Ziva shaking hands.
"Hi Ziva." Maggie said. "Is everything okay?"
"Miss Maggie, is this your friend?" Hando inquired as he moved from shaking Ziva's hand to holding it.
"Alejandro, this is my friend Ziva. She works with my brother Tony."
"Can Ziva come and have snack with me?" Hando smiled at his teacher. "I have peanut butter crackers; do you like peanut butter crackers Ziva?"
"I love peanut butter crackers." Ziva smiled at the young boy.
"Hando, why don't you go set up your snack, we'll be right in."
Hando let go of Ziva's hand and got his lunch box out of his cubby before going back into the classroom.
"I am sorry to bother you at school Maggie. I looked for you this morning when I was running." Ziva started.
"I ran last night. I had to be here early, flu season and I wanted to clean the room." Maggie told her. "Is something wrong with Tony?"
"No, Tony is fine. I came to apologize."
"For?" Maggie wondered.
"The night we met, I followed you and I.." Ziva hesitated.
"You know about me and Gibbs."
Ziva looked surprised.
"Gibbs told me."
"You are not mad at me?" Ziva wondered.
"Why would I be mad? You must have had your reasons for following me."
"I did. I saw you going the wrong direction and when you drove into Gibbs neighborhood I put that together with the note I saw him slip into your coat pocket…"
"What note?" Maggie asked.
"Come on Ziva, snack is ready." Hando came out and took Ziva by the hand back into the room.
"Is it okay?" Ziva whispered.
Maggie nodded her head and followed them into the room.
"You mentioned Tony. Does he come to the school to visit?" Ziva asked when Maggie sat down at the table with them.
"Coach Tony?" Hando said with his mouth full of crackers.
"Hando, chew first then talk." Maggie reminded her student.
"Tony comes by once a week and coaches basketball." Maggie continued when Ziva looked confused. "This school has an afterschool program where the kids can learn a sport. Tony comes by and teaches them basketball. The boys love him."
"Well he is a big kid himself after all." Ziva smiled.
"Whaddya got for me Abs?" Gibbs asked Abby as he walked into her lab.
"Mass Spec just told me that the substance we found on the dead guys shoes is the same that was found at the suspects work."
Gibbs gave Abby his usual kiss on the cheek for good work.
"Oh and Gibbs." Abby called to him before he walked out of the lab.
"Yeah Abs." Gibbs stopped at the door.
Abby smiled at him. "I approve."
Gibbs gave her a confused look.
"Approve of what?" he asked.
"Of you and Maggie. I like her a lot."
"Didn't know I needed approval." Gibbs responded.
"Well you have mine." Abby made a shooing gesture with her hands. "Now go, I have work to do."
Gibbs shook his head as he stepped into the elevator. As the doors shut, he took a sip of his coffee and smiled.
Joe sat in his rented SVU across the street from Maggie's school. He'd sat outside her house last night and followed her to another house where she spent the night. He fought the urge to go into that house and drag her cheating lying ass out of the house after he beat the shit out of the guy she was fooling around with. But he calmed himself. He'd been planning this for over a month, he wasn't going to screw things up now. He waited all night and watched the house. He followed her back to her house where she dropped off the mutt and then went to work. He checked his watch and knew she had an hour before she'd be leaving for home. Putting the car into gear, he left the school and went to make sure everything was ready.