Chapter 3

Natalie dressed carefully. The Marriott was somewhat fancy and she didn't want to embarrass her grandfather. Plus she was nervous. She wore a simple dark blue dress that had a boat neck neckline. It covered her ample chest. The dress was snug through the body and flowed off her hips down to her knees. She wore her only pair of dressy shoes, low closed toe kitten heels. She was horrible in heels. Always been such a klutz in them. She was wearing the only pair of pantyhose she owned that nearly matched her milky pale skin. Natalie hated the sun. She burnt. Evidence of this was the scattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks as well as her shoulders. She put a white cardigan over the dress as the night was cooling off.

Natalie's mom had been a make-up artist for Broadway when they lived in NYC and she picked up how to do subtle things. Nat had a very neutral look going except for her ruby red lips. Her deep auburn hair was pulled back into a low bun with a small barrette holding the layers at the front of her face back. It was silver and sparkled along with the small diamond studs she wore in her ears. Her only other jewelry was a small silver locket around her neck. In it was a picture of her mom and a lock of her own baby hair. It was her mother's and she swapped the picture of herself out for one of her mom. She grabbed her purse, a small grey handbag, and locked her apartment. She had 45 minutes to get to the Marriott and it was only a 30 minute walk away according to her internet search.

"Miss Kane, you look lovely," came the deep baritone she recognized as Ronald Glover.

She smiled at him as he was locking his office up, "I didn't know you worked on Saturdays," she remarked.

"Usually no, but had a client who wanted to meet. Where are you off to? A nice date?" he asked while he walked with her to the main doors.

"No, actually I am having dinner with Mr. Morrow," she said shyly as she ducked her head.

"Well if I may, he's a nice guy, you have nothing to worry about. I wouldn't have given you his information if I felt he wasn't worth meeting." He held the door for her and waved her off.

Natalie walked down the street and around the corner to go around the back side of the building smiling as she saw people working out and her trainer helping a guy by spotting him. She continued down the street marveling at how quiet the neighborhood was getting on a weekend evening. She also took note on her walk of a few restaurants in the area for future reference. She wasn't much of a cook and while the café in her building was nice she wanted a bit of variety.

There was a pizza place not far as well as a Chinese place. She was happy to see a sushi and Japanese cuisine place a few blocks away and an Italian restaurant across the street from it. There were a few other restaurants she couldn't determine their cuisine by their names. Near the Marriott there was a couple coffee shops and a couple more restaurants, though those looked to be more high end.

Natalie entered the Marriott at a quarter to 6 pm and walked across its lobby to the restaurant. A hostess was standing at the entrance. She was pretty. A little older than Nat with short blonde hair and hazel eyes. She wore a uniform with cat eye make-up and nude lips. Her nails were painted black and Natalie notice a class ring on her left ring finger. A promise ring likely she thought.

"Name please" the hostess asked. Natalie read her name tag as Shawna.

Natalie was nervous, she wasn't sure who's name to give. "Um, I'm meeting someone at 6. I'm Natalie Kane, he's Tom Morrow" she gave the names up suddenly feeling incredibly nervous. Relax Nat, you can always leave if you feel uncomfortable and he's probably as nervous as you are.

Shawna smiled in reassurance seeming to understand the situation somehow, "Yes, Director Morrow made reservations this morning, he's actually already here, I'll take you to your table." She lead Natalie past a few tables, most occupied couples or business associates and near the windows was a booth and in it sat a man in his 50's or 60's. "Here you go," Shawna said gesturing to the booth and NCIS Director Tom Morrow rose from his seat to great her. "I'll be back with menus and Mathieu will be your server this evening," Shawna said before heading back to her post to grab menus.

Natalie held out her hand to shake and it was gently engulfed by her grandfather. She gripped him tighter when they shook and a slight smile appeared on his face making him look years younger. "Sorry, I was always taught to give a firm handshake," she said while blushing.

"It's a good skill, I'm afraid I'm still old fashioned and tend to be on the gentle side with women, you think I would learn by now," he chuckled. He gestured to the other side of the booth and Natalie sat while he sat opposite her. He had a tumbler with amber liquid in it which he set aside as Shawna dropped off menus.

"I know I'm early, but I hate to be late to things," Nat said as she picked up her menu to read the drinks list.

Tom chuckled, "I'm the same way and in my line of work its important. Never know what you might miss in conversations before meetings start."

A tanned man in his mid 30's came to their table. He was dressed similarly to Shawna but held a small black notepad and small pencil. "May I get you some drinks?" he asked with a slight French accent.

"I'll just take a water with a slice of lime please," Natalie ordered. Not being of age the impressive wine list was lost on her.

"I'll have the same, and my scotch is fine at just one." Tom replied. He blushed when he looked up at her, "I have to admit I stopped at the bar to get something to calm my nerves."

Natalie smiled, "That's fine, what kind is it? An old professor of mine had a preference for Glenfiddich."

"Macallan. I developed a taste for it when my predecessor introduced me to it."

Natalie smiled and then looked back down at her menu, lost for what to say next. Tom did the same. It wasn't easy to carry on a conversation with someone you just met, let alone someone who is family. Mathieu returned with their waters and left to give them time to look over the menu. "What's good here?" Nat asked looking up into the steely eyes of the man across from her. He had wisdom in those eyes, but also a sadness. But when he looked at her it was like the sadness bled away to joy.

"The chef here does excellent work. The steak, salmon and foix gras are my favorites." He chuckled at her expression when he said foix gras. "Not a fan of fine cuisine?" he asked her.

"It's not that, I'm just not interested in things like foix gras, escargot, well I suppose fine French cuisine" she chuckled. "I do however have a liking for Japanese, sushi, and Italian. Oh and Mexican, the real stuff not Taco Bell."

"Sushi?" he said with a gross look on his face. "Couldn't eat raw fish."

She smiled while reading the menu, "You know its not all raw fish. In fact there are many maki rolls that don't contain raw fish. They even have vegetarian rolls."

"Oh God, please tell me you aren't a vegetarian," he exclaimed.

Mathieu had arrived and to answer her grandfathers question she order a steak, medium-rare with mushroom sauce. "And your sides Mademoiselle?"

"What are my choices?" she asked. She found she could determine what was good based on how a server responded. The slight inflections in their voice as they names the sides often gave way to their favorites, if you paid attention.

"We have your choice in roasted potatoes, mashed of course, baked potato, there is also mixed seasonal vegetable. Tonight is a combination of green beans, peas, carrots and cauliflower. You have the option of wild rice as well as soup or salad. Salads are house and Caesar. House comes with your choice of dressing: French, Italian, Balsamic and chef Torren's own blend of spices in a vinaigrette. Tonight's soups are tomato bisque and French wedding." Mathieu leaned closer and stage whispered, "That's like Italian wedding but with a red wine reduction as its base."

"I'll have the mixed vegetables with a house salad, the chef's dressing please." Mathieu had a lot of respect for that particular dressing and the seasonal vegetables were always a favorite of Natalie's.

Their server nodded then turned to Tom, "And you sir?"

"I'll have the salmon with wild rice and a bowl of tomato bisque please. And can I get extra sauce on the side for the salmon?"

Nodding again Mathieu said, "Certainly sir," before walking away to place their order.

"I find the lime cilantro pesto sauce quite good and like to add it to my rice or potatoes, depending on what I have." Tom explained to her.

"That sounds delicious, I may have to try the salmon another time." Natalie became nervous again. They were without their menus, so nothing to distract them from each other and it would be at least 20 minutes before their server came with their food. "I was sorry to read that your wife passed, as well as your son" she said taking a sip of her water.

"Yes, Janet lost her battle with breast cancer, not many people knew. Tom has been gone a few years now. He was awarded a silver star for his valor." Tom Sr. responded sipping his own water. "I'd hate to ask, I don't want to upset you, but would you mind telling me what your mother was like? I understand if it's too painful." He took a sip of his scotch this time.

"No it's fine." Natalie put aside her water. She had prepared herself somewhat to talk about her mom. It would be important to him and it was good for her to reminisce. It also meant someone other than her could remember her mom.

"She was a great mom. Never seemed shocked at my intelligence growing up. In fact, she pushed me to challenge myself. When I was 4 she took a cosmetology course and did make up for events and weddings and things. I remember studying geography while she was studying and she'd let me make maps with her eye shadows and lipsticks. When I graduated high school, I was only 14. Most kids my age were just starting. She was so proud though. Didn't matter to her that I didn't have many friends and she always stood up for me when kids would bully me."

"You were bullied?" Tom asked, worry on his face.

"Yes, small town, kids can be mean to someone who is different. Mom always reminded me that different wasn't bad. That I was special, and people like to put down what's special because they don't know what makes them special yet. She was happy to move to NYC when I was accepted to Columbia. It was a full scholarship. I lucked out on that with my education. My intellect gets me to go to school for free I guess. She started working on Broadway as a makeup artist. Even worked on Cats. I got to see a lot of shows from behind the scenes. And we had this sweet old lady landlord that would be there with me when mom had to work late. Mrs. Esposito passed when after I got my undergrad, she was there for my graduation. Her son took over the building and he was always good to us."

"What did she like to do? Other than take care of you?" Tom asked, alternating between his scotch and water while she talked.

"Mom loved books. Mostly true crime and mysteries. She had a weakness for smutty romance though. Thought I didn't know about them. We had a cat growing up, Mr. Whiskers. She would teach him tricks like sitting pretty, turning around in a circle and fetch. She was nice to everyone but was fiercely protective of me. It took her many months to get used to my boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend?" he asked her.

"Not anymore, he went to Stanford for medical school. He was really smart like me, just a couple years older and we dated in college. It started out as just studying and being friends. There weren't many young teenagers in our classes. We keep in touch, he's actually looking to propose to his girlfriend who's a nurse at an old age home. He's completing his residency in San Francisco." I told him.

"I see, was afraid I'd have to continue you're mother's protectiveness and do a background check," he joked. But Natalie could see in his eyes that it was not out of the question. He would likely look into anyone she got close with. She didn't mind that.

Mathieu came around with there dinners and a promise to be back soon with refills on their waters. The food smelled so good Natalie couldn't help but dig in. It was then that something completely unexpected happened, "Would you like to try a bit of my salmon, my dear?" her grandfather asked while offering a small bit to her. She nodded and he placed it at the edge of her plate. When she tried it she found it was quite good and went back to her steak which was cooked to perfection.

They ate in a comfortable silence for some time before Natalie got the courage to ask her first question of the evening. "Could you tell me a bit more about yourself?" she asked shyly.

"Of course," he replied around a bite of salmon. He swallowed, "I've been the director of NCIS for 5 years now. It's been a challenging but rewarding job. I have to admit that I am rather protective of those in the navy and marines. NCIS exists not only to investigate crimes committed by naval personnel but also protect them. They work so hard at keeping out country safe it feels like the least we can do."

"I've always been a supporter of our military myself. I may not always understand why our country does what it does, or even agree, but I know the men and women in the armed forces are only following orders and deserve our support," Nat responded before taking a bite of her veggies. "Have you always worked for NCIS?"

"No, I was a senators aide when I was younger and after an incident of an assault at the pentagon and I met my first NIS agent, as they were back then, I enrolled in the FLETC. That's the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre," he explained. "I applied to various agencies upon graduation and was gladly offered a job with NIS. I started as an agent then took my experience on capital hill to the administrative side of things."

"It sounds very interesting." She was finding she was nervous again. She was rapidly eating her meal and didn't want her evening to be over just yet.

Tom decided he was curious about this shy young lady in front of him, "What about yourself, you have degrees in biology and psychology," he started, "do you have any plans after your doctorates?"

Natalie had to think for a moment. She had thought of medical school at one point but fell in love with the mind and found herself constantly intrigued by the thoughts and feelings of others. The biology doctorate was mostly in hopes of continuing to study neurobiology as it helped her better understand the brain and she told him as much. "I'm not sure what I'd like to do with everything when I'm done. Perhaps open a practice. I do find I've become more and more interested in the criminal behavior and have actually been looking to do my doctoral thesis on something within that range."

"You should look into working with law enforcement for it then. They often have varying cases, and I know from experience the toll it can take on the officers themselves. Many agencies and departments have psychologists on hand to help them manage. You seem very compassionate and understanding. Patience is key too. Men in particular don't like talking about their feelings. Janet used to have to drag what was wrong out of me." Tom chuckled in memory.

"Is it much different investigating crimes in the navy?" Natalie wondered out loud as she finished off her meal.

Tom was just finishing his rice when he responded, "In some ways it can be. The crimes remain the same but the policies in place and rules and regulations regarding the crimes and how to investigate change."

Natalie was becoming more and more interested, not so much in the crimes themselves but the type of people who investigated them. She imagined the psychological toll for them could be quite debilitating. "Out of my own curiosity, would I be able to talk to a few agents, just to see the psychological effects?" she asked.

"I would be glad to see if a few would be willing. What is going on in that head of yours you seem like some of my agents when they are following a lead?" Tom asked. She must have looked intrigued. Her mother always said she got this look in her eye when she found something interesting.

"Well to be honest I'm thinking about a paper I read last year. A psychologist had done studies on the emotional damage and mental health side effects of medical examiners and it made me think of the people who investigate crimes. I had thought of seeing about doing my paper with metro police officers but I think NCIS agents and their counterparts could be much more rewarding."

"I can look into it if you'd like. If it is something you would like if you do up a formal proposal I can take it to SecNav to sign off on." Tom responded.

Natalie asked, "I'm sorry what or who is a SecNav?"

Tom chuckled before he responded, "It's the short hand we use for the Secretary of the Navy, he is my boss so to speak."

Natalie nodded in understanding as Mathieu came by to take their dishes, "Did you enjoy your meals?" he asked. "Would you like any desserts this evening?" Natalie shook her head. She was stuffed and she still had her first appointment with her trainer after this.

"No Mathieu I think we are good." Her grandfather handed over a credit card, "Would you put the meal on this for me please?" After their server walked away Tom checked his watch, "Would you like a ride home? I'm worried about you meeting your trainer on time, I'm afraid we took up more time than I anticipated." He smiled at her before adding, "Not that I'm complaining."

"I hadn't realized the time, yes a ride would be welcome, I have to change before I meet with Ephraim. He owns and runs the gym in my building."

Tom nodded his head, "I've heard of the place, I hadn't realized they did personal training this late though." Mathieu arrived at their table with Tom's card, a receipt and a small white box.

"For you director, the chef wanted you to have some of your favorite white chocolate truffles to go, on the house."

Tom smiled, "I've been coming here for years and I'm afraid they know me too well. You should take one before I drop you off, if anything to eat later. They are worth the extra calories."

"I will gladly have one," she said. "And I know trainers generally don't make appointments this late but it was a special situation." She took a deep breath before she explained to Tom her biggest fear and why she was doing this. "I had a very bad situation happen back in New York, it actually led to the accident that mom died in. Someone became aggressive and stalker like and I never want to feel like I did that day. I froze. Despite all my learning with psychology and how to help people I couldn't do anything." She sighed, her grandfather looked murderous, and she knew it was not at her, but at the man who had done this to her. "Ephraim Hyatt used to be a part of Mossad. He is going to teach me Krav Maga."

"Dangerous martial arts, but worth knowing." Tom stood with her to leave the hotel. "I know we have just met, but I want you to be safe, and feel safe. If there is ever anything I can do please let me know. Now who was this…" he paused trying to come up with a word she figured, "excuse my language, but fucker."

Natalie laughed. Here was such a proper man with manners who held doors for her and called her 'my dear' and when push came to shove, he had to swear. "You don't have to worry, they are pretty sure they recovered his body out of the Hudson. It's unidentifiable but they are waiting for results to come back."

Tom nodded his head in understanding and took a sigh of relief. "Let me know when they have the results," he asked and Natalie nodded her ascent. They walked up to a very nice looking Lexus in a dark color and he drove the few minutes back to her building. He pulled up to the front entrance and put his four-ways on. "It has been wonderful talking and getting to know you Natalie." He seemed as awkward and she felt.

"Could I hug you?" she asked very shyly. He just reached over and embraced her as his answer. Natalie felt herself tear up, "I'm glad you found me, grandpa," she whispered.

"Me too kiddo," he replied. They pulled apart and Natalie saw the tears shining in his eyes. He reached over and wiped the ones that had started to fall down her cheeks. She smiled and reached into her purse. She pulled out a small piece of paper and handed it to him. "Your numbers?" he asked reading them.

"Yes, I decided if tonight went well, I wanted you to be able to contact me too." They wished each other good night and Natalie walked into her building. She turned around once inside the doors and saw that he waited to see her safely inside before driving away. Natalie had a good feeling about him. He was strong, capable and fiercely protective. He felt like family to her, more than any other family member of hers with the exception of her mom. She felt like maybe, just maybe, DC was a good fit for her. She hurried upstairs to change and go meet up with Ephraim.