Chapter 21

It had been a long day. Luckily this time away from the university gave Natalie plenty of time to interview NCIS employees. In between her various attacks from agents. So far she had been attacked 3 times since the elevator incident. One agent even pulled a gun (it wasn't loaded) but they wanted to see if she could disarm them. It was tough going. She didn't manage and heard the click signaling her loss of that fight. That agent was Kate.

She had been using a desk in the bullpen for the last hour typing up notes and organizing an outline for her thesis. Gibbs' team had been in and out most of the day getting evidence on Paul's explosion at the Hotel. Security confirmed it was him who placed the device. It was larger than the one he placed on the car, and he managed to place it beneath the room Gibbs had reserved. It wasn't enough to do damage to that floor but it would have been felt. It was designed to scare her. If she was honest, it was scaring her. It was one thing to be attacked or kidnapped and another thing entirely to be blown up.

She finished her outline and thesis statement. She even managed to get her opening chapter finished and sent to her academic advisor. Hopefully with his approval she would be able to get to writing her report. She wanted to have most of it completed by next semester so that she could focus on actually helping some of the agents with some of their problems and finish her paper with a conclusion of results rather than hopes for the future.

She must have been very distracted because she didn't notice the team got back again. This time with food. Pizza! Gibbs had grabbed her some and was walking over to give it to her. "Don't eat it all DiNozzo, leave some for everyone!" Kate snarked at him.

"Buff I'm sarwing."

"Chew first, then speak."

Tony chewed quickly then swallowed, "But I'm starving. I haven't eated since this morning and its nearly 6 o'clock."

"Whatever." Kate was dabbing some grease off her slices before biting in.

Natalie couldn't help but smile at the two bickering agents. She knew they had the hots for each other and in a different situation they may have actually gone out, but in this job it's important to keep relationships as professional as possible. Course that didn't stop agents from dating as there was no NCIS policy against it. Just a Gibbs policy. "Thanks," she said as she took a bite. After chewing and swallowing she said, "I didn't realize it had gotten so late. I got so wrapped up with work. Good thing no one tried to attack me at the desk. Kate wouldn't have been the only one to beat me today."

"I'll have you know you did remarkably well," Kate called over across the bullpen. "After Jacobs mentioned he pulled a knife on you I was disappointed because I was going to try that. He said you did well, got a pressure point so he dropped it pretty quickly. I wanted to try something new, and it's something we would do with the president at times as part of his training."

"Wow, I feel honoured." Natalie devoured her slices as Gibbs and Tony ate mostly in silence.

Tony couldn't not take part in a conversation of course, "I just don't get why you didn't ask me?" he asked.

Gibbs chuckled, "DiNozzo, did you really want to get your ass kicked by Nat?"

"You don't know that, I'm unpredictable!" he argued.

"Okay Tony, after lunch lets you and I take it to the mat at the gym?" Natalie offered.

Tony grinned shoving half a slice in his mouth, "Yooo oon."

"DINOZZO, what did I say about talking with your mouth full!" Kate sniped.

Tony's response was a non-verbal unkind gesture.

Soon enough they were in the outer building that held the NCIS training centre and gym. They had changed (Kate leant Natalie her clean gym clothes) and wrapping their hands. Tony was already bouncy and talking smack. Nat was just quietly preparing.

"Watch his left hook, he usually jabs with his right immediately after," Gibbs told her as he handed her a mouth guard. Tony was all ready to go so Natalie decided to do a few stretches first. She was bruising in a few spots from her spars of the day and a muscle in her thigh would protest at times from a hard fall with Agent Hellyer this afternoon.

They circled each other giving some half hearted attacks before Tony lunged for real. He was right. He was unpredictable at times but Natalie saw that he held himself too loose. His hits were hard, but he avoided her head. She dropped when he tried hitting her and swept his legs out from under him. She pounced and tried to grab an arm to control his movement. He was squirrely and manged to flip her. She wrapped a leg up by his shoulder and one around his middle effectively making his left arm useless. She used her arms and weight to turn and twisted him to his side. He tried kicked and pulling her legs apart but she had him locked. She locked his right arm in another hold and waited for him to tap out. His response was to try and stand. He managed to lift her with his one arm in hold so she let it go and lifted herself up so she was almost sitting on him. She quickly loosened her grip letting herself drop and re-gripped Tony while she brought him down in a twisting motion. They hit the mat hard, Tony almost completely on his face. She let him go part way down and managed to jump on top of his back. She grapped both arms and pulled them hard behind him and felt satisfaction when he called "UNCLE".

"Jesus, okay, Gibbs you were right," he said rubbing his sore face, and shoulders. His nose was bleeding slightly so Nat knew he hit hard.

"Sorry Tony, are you okay?" she asked him peering up at his face.

Tony nodded while pinching his nose to stop the blood, "Yeah, Kate can I have a tampon?"

"Why are you asking me?" she replied.

Tony gestured at his face as the blood starting flowing faster, "Because I think my nose is broken."

Natalie rushed to hug him, "I'm so sorry Tony!"

She glanced up as Kate ran back with a tampon for his nose. She saw Gibbs grinning at her. "I don't know why anyone worried about you. That was the most impressive hand-to-hand I've seen today" he told her. "DiNozzo, you need to see Ducky?" he asked.

Tony shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine. I think my ego is more hurt. How the hell did you do that spinny twisty thing? One minute I'm standing, the next my face is hitting the floor."

"Yeah, I want to learn to do that." Kate chimed in.

"It's really hard, I didn't even do it right. I'm still learning it from Eph right now. It's hard for him to show me since he's not little enough to get up on someone like that. The best we manage is me getting into position and him moving me in the motion. I've seen it done on tape though, I'll bring it by for you guys to see."

"I think we're ready for tomorrow," Gibbs told them. "Lets head to Abby's lab to go over the plan."