Kate put her hands on the hard corset stays and pressed, huffing slightly when she managed to get the last hook fastened. She pushed her hair up, moving back to take in the delineated curves of her waist and sighed down at her suddenly surprisingly ample cleavage. When a familiar hand snaked around her hips she looked up, blinking at the couple in the mirror. "We look like the cover of one of those tawdry romance novels."

"Cool, huh?" replied Tony, turning to admire the cut of the tight pants and the shimmer of the vest above the satin black silk of his shirt.

"That wasn't exactly my reaction," said Kate.

"We're buying them," decided Tony authoritatively.

"We are," she returned, unconvinced.

"Unless you want to try on that rubber suit."

Defeated, Kate sighed again. "We're buying them."

oOooOooOooOooOooOooOooOo

Kate slapped away the hand that tried to place the wire. "I can do it."

"Hold still, Kate," ordered Gibbs, taking the wire from the offended crime lab tech. "We want it somewhere that no one will see."

"No one's going to see there," countered Kate, removing the device from Gibbs' fingers, "including you."

He watched her haul up the silk skirt in one hand and stalk to the bathroom.

"What about you?" he asked DiNozzo.

The younger man's blue eyes looked worriedly toward the bathroom door. "We're going to do this solo, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

oOooOooOooOooOooOooOooOo

"How's it going, Duck?" Having closed the door to the van and taken a quick look at the video monitor, Gibbs picked up the abandoned headset.

"You get Abby?"

"Dropped her at the hotel. Thought it might calm her down." He fiddled with the gain on the receiver. "DiNozzo's wire is going in and out."

"I noticed," acknowledged the ME. "But I thought I better keep an ear to Kate."

"She okay?"

"Seems to be. Had a few ardent admirers but they all seem to be interested in her biting them, rather than the other way around."

"What about DiNozzo?"

"Can't really make a lot of it out. He had a rather ... odd conversation with a man with a strangely affected accent. Seems he knew young Anthony in a previous life. He said he'd visited him when he had a canopy bed."

"He offer to bite him?"

"No, not in the least. Just wanted to talk about Louis XV furniture, it seemed."

Gibbs pressed a couple fingers to the ache at his temple. "Tell me, Duck. Are we really sitting here hoping to get a vampire on tape?"

oOooOooOooOooOooOooOooOo

Exiting the last bar, Tony nodded toward a waiting Gibbs, grinning in approval over the now-topless car. "You put the top down."

"Abby put the top down." Gibbs frowned at the plastic cup in Tony's hand. "That better be ginger ale, DiNozzo."

"Off duty, boss," retorted the younger agent, leaning against the fender of the convertible in the early-hour dark, sipping the potent rum and fruit juice blend through a neon straw.

Gibbs twisted out of the way of a pack of drunken, beaded office workers, mainly women. Most of whom did an almost choreographed pirouette to keep a darkly costumed Tony in their sights. Gibbs rolled his eyes as Tony preened under the alcohol-lubricated giggling.

"Where's Kate?" Gibbs snapped impatiently.

Tony chewed on the tip of the straw. "Ladies room."

"You feel like you got anything?"

"Besides a headache?" answered Tony, looking, suddenly, a little pinched and drawn in the yellow tint of the sodium streetlight.

"You okay?" The way the wire had been cutting in and out of the headset, Gibbs really didn't know what had gone on. What he had heard had, occasionally, been a little lurid, but nothing that should shake the man.

"There are some weird people on the planet, boss." Tony shook himself slightly trying to rid himself of the strange malaise that seemed to keep creeping up on him as the night went on. "Nobody offered to shish kabob my arteries, if that's what you mean."

Gibbs let him settle back against the car with just a nod. For all his loquaciousness, Tony sometimes came off of undercover assignments quiet and, almost, contemplative. Gibbs appreciated the need to take time to let everything settle without being forced to discuss it. Kate, on the other hand, he decided as the thin brunette emerged from the Olde Dungeon Bar, looked positively energized. He moved to intercept her, deciding an obviously flagging Tony might need the protection. "Give me a report, Kate."

Sweeping her rather voluminous skirt inside the car, Kate shut the door.

"Overall? Mostly young. Some of them bright. Most of them looking for peer-group acceptance. Except for the more ... sadistic fantasies, it just seems to be another way to fit in. I didn't get that most of them were actually looking to make their experiences 'real', although some of them talked a good game."

Gibbs looked her over critically. "How come you don't look like DiNozzo?"

"Two X chromosomes?" Kate grinned back. "I don't know. I found it all rather energizing. I don't usually get that much attention in bars."

"Don't usually dress like that," slurred Tony from the backseat.

Gibbs looked sharply in the rearview mirror. "How many of those drinks have you had?"

Looking slightly wounded, Tony turned the thin plastic tumbler in his hand. "One."

"One," repeated Gibbs, suspiciously.

"One. I swear." Tony frowned down at the remaining meager contents and pulled out the maraschino cherry, popping it into his mouth. "I'm just tired." He met Gibbs' gaze in the small rectangular mirror. "Been a 24-hour day, boss."

"All right," conceded Gibbs, "we go back to the hotel and get some sleep."

oOooOooOooOooOooOooOooOo

Doors between the three adjoining rooms were all swung wide open. They found Abby and Ducky ensconced in the last, Abby rapidly working the keyboard of her laptop and the ME kibitzing over her shoulder.

"Not bad, my sister-in-crime-fighting." Abby gave Kate's dress two thumbs up. For Tony she had a more predatory gaze and an approving, "Yo, Tony."

Gibbs latched the door behind him. "You get a bite?"

"Cyberly-speaking," acknowledged Abby. She gestured Tony over. "You've been a busy boy on the net."

Tony scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I have?"

"Oh, yeah. Of course, first I had to come up with a name. I thought about Bela Kiss, but that's kind of on the wrong side of things if you want to be the victim and not the biter. But I liked the way it sounded – Bela Kiss, kind of like 'beautiful meeting of the lips'."

"Abby," prodded Gibbs.

"Anyway, Bela was a serial killer and Tony just doesn't look like the serial killer type. So I tried this vampire-name generator and got Uriel de Pompadour, which was funny, but -- no. I went with Dhampir. It means 'vampire's son'. I logged into a few chat rooms, said I was in Nawlins for the next few days and that I'd like someone to get my bite on."

"You got a reply?" asked Kate, taking one of the chairs, skirt settling in a silken rustle. When Ducky took a preternatural interest in the line of the corset, she self-consciously crossed her arms.

"I got 'replies', plural," Abby returned. "Most of them are gonna be all talk, but there's a couple that just might be who they say they are."

Gibbs looked over at Tony who was now slouched on the bed, the buttons of the brocade vest unbuttoned, the black silk shirt untucked.

Abby followed his gaze. "You're not looking so good, Tony, my man."

"Long day," dismissed Tony, shrugging the vest off half-heartedly. "Tired."

Tilting her head, Abby looked at Kate. "You, however, look ... perky."

"Probably running on adrenaline." Kate shrugged at the look Gibbs gave her.

Abby turned back to Tony, causing all other eyes to fix on him as well. Tony shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny. "You start feeling tired when you were talking to someone?"

A pale hand worried with one of the dark cloth-covered buttons. "Maybe that weird guy with the furniture-fetish."

"I think you've been bitten," deduced Abby.

Tony's hand flew to the side of his throat.

"Not physically bitten," Abby hastily amended. "Psychically bitten."

"I'll get my bag," said Ducky, retreating back into the next room.

Tony rubbed his throat again. "You've got to be joking."

"I do not believe in psychic vampires," the physician reassured him as he returned to sink next to him on the bed. "But you do look a bit peaked."

Ducky's fingers wrapped around Tony's wrist. "Pulse is nice and slow." He dragged a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope from his leather case.

"Your bites?" Gibbs pointed a too-curious Abby back in the direction of the laptop.

"Got a couple people willing to meet Tony at the ball and help him with his lack of ... experience. One guy's named Sergei and the other calls himself," Abby scrolled down the screen, "Goethe Drakul."

Reading the sometimes macabre dual chat Abby had going with the pair, Gibbs tuned out the murmuring between Tony and the ME -- until the physician was suddenly behind him, grasping his arm. "I sent Anthony to bed. His blood pressure is a little off, nothing to be alarmed about, probably will be back to normal in the morning."

"Normal for Tony or ... normal?" smirked Kate.

Gibbs ignored her. "You're sharing with Abby. I'll take DiNozzo. Duck, you can go solo."

The ME waved a hand in thanks and made for the most distant room. Gibbs could see him stop for a moment and hold a soft conversation with an unseen DiNozzo halfway along his path.

Abby was in rhythm again at the keyboard. "I'll keep chatting for a while. If you want to go to bed, Kate, I can work in the dark. It'll be ... appropriate," she decided. She waved a dismissing hand in Gibbs' direction "I find another biter I'll let you know in the morning."

oOooOooOooOooOooOooOooOo

DiNozzo was bundled under the covers, face-down and breathing deeply and slowly, by the time Gibbs re-opened the bathroom door, spilling light into the darkened room. In the shaft of illumination that struck the nearest double bed, Tony's face still looked oddly blanched. With a slight frown, Gibbs snapped the light off and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to just the pale light seeping in off the well-lit street.

Tony muttered something unintelligible, burrowing deeper into the bed's pair of pillows but didn't wake. In a moment Gibbs could see well enough to make his way to his own bed. He tossed a few minutes on the unfamiliar mattress, failing to get comfortable. Abby and Kate's voices waxed and waned distractingly through the left-hand wall. Obviously not going to drop off immediately, he blanked his mind, determined to rest even if he couldn't sleep. He always needed a good hour of labor on the boat and a shot of bourbon to truly relax.

Mentally planing the hull framing, he'd just about managed to cross the dividing line between nautical meditation and true sleep when Tony's voice suddenly echoed loudly in the confines of the dark room. The words were still garbled, but the tone was disturbed. Gibbs snapped on the light but Tony didn't wake; instead he twisted more into the sheets, perspiration beading on his forehead.

"DiNozzo. DiNozzo," he repeated. There was no response: just an increase in the panting breaths, a continuation of the pleading tone. "Tony!" he tried louder.

This brought the younger man bolt upright, hands scrubbing through sweat-dampened hair. "Gibbs?"

"You okay?"

"Um," disoriented, Tony peered tiredly at his temporary roommate, "yeah, I think so. Weird dream."

Gibbs waited.

"I ... it kept getting darker. And colder. And I thought ..." he trailed off, hands kneading the wrinkled sheets. "I thought I was going to die." A shudder went through him. "Guess I should have laid off the 150 proof."

"Go back to sleep, DiNozzo," ordered Gibbs. "It was just a dream." He met the still-shaken gaze. "Have a few of those myself."

"You do?"

At the hopeful query, Gibbs rolled over and faced the wall, drawing the covers back up around him. "Sleep, DiNozzo."

oOooOooOooOooOooOooOooOo

Kate emerged from the bathroom to find Abby observing her, arms crossed and a wily grin on her dark lips.

"You really got into it, didn't you?"

Kate picked up the discarded dress from where she'd tossed it and hung it in the closet. "Maybe," she conceded. "Just a little."

"Just wait until tomorrow," promised Abby. "We'll get you a whip."

"Abby!"

"You need to live a little." Abby spun around a full three-sixty in the chair. "And I can tell you're gonna get off on it; you like torturing Tony way too much. It's in your blood."

Kate turned down the nearest bed. "I do not torture Tony."

"Yeah, you do," observed the lab tech.

"Well, Tony tortured me first."

"Our man Tony is not the torturing type. It's more ... playful than serious. Tony is teasing." She fixed Kate with an appraising look. "With you, it's serious."

"God, you make me sound like a ..." Kate wrinkled her nose, "really bad person."

"You just need a place to express it. Get it out of your system. Release the inner bitch before she releases herself."

Kate crawled under the covers. "We are not having this conversation."

"'kay," Abby capitulated, "but you gotta admit, you had a good time."

"Not having this conversation," wafted again from beneath the ornately floral bedspread.

"I'll turn off the lights," offered Abby, padding across to the switch. "Then I'll just get back to offering Tony's sweet neck to the masses."

oOooOooOooOooOooOooOooOo

Tony groaned and plunked the pillow over his head when Gibbs snapped the light on at seven.

"You can stay there," Gibbs informed him. "I've got a meeting with Detective Branson."

"Need me to come, boss?" mumbled Tony, clearly hoping the answer was no.

"Nope." Gibbs made his way over to the door they shared with Ducky, knocking twice. "Duck?"

The door opened, the sound of the morning news drifting through. "In a minute, Jethro."

"I've got to get dressed myself." Gibbs leaned in to find the ME shuffling through his case.

"I thought I'd check Anthony's blood pressure."

"Good luck," muttered Gibbs, passing by the body tightly wound in the hotel's sheeting as he made his way to the bathroom. Inside he could hear snatches of conversation between DiNozzo and the ME. The words "not to worry" and "just take it easy" traveled through the closed door.

"Duck?" inquired Gibbs when he'd shaved and dressed. He'd exited the bath to find Tony once again oblivious to the waking world. "DiNozzo okay?"

"He's got a headache and his blood pressure is still a little low. Nothing to worry about. Could be anything. Perhaps he's simply coming down with a virus."

"No psychic vampires?"

"Very doubtful," said Ducky.

"Hope he's up for shopping." Abby bore a drink holder and a large paper bag which she plunked down on the end of Ducky's empty bed.

Gibbs gratefully took the coffee Abby pushed in his direction, taking a deeper sip when he realized it wasn't the usual weak hotel mix. He brought the cup up to eye-level.

"Café du Monde's French Roast," explained Abby. "I went for a walk. Didn't think you'd go for the chicory. You've got that 'no additives' thing going on."

"You been asleep, Abs?"

The glossy ponytails swirled in negation. "Nope, but I'll catch a nap later. Beignet?" She fished into the bag and handed one of the still warm, white-sugared pastries to Ducky, smirking at Ducky's "Une bien jolie petite marchande de beignets!"

"Les marchandes de beignets ont les lèvres roses," she pointed out smartly.

"So they do," acknowledged Ducky with a laugh.

"French doughnut," she translated for Gibbs. Digging out one of the doughy delicacies for herself, she sat down in the floor, back against the bottom of the bed. "Got Tony two dates. Same pair I told you about last night. Other than that, he'll just have to stand there and look edible and see if anybody..."

"Don't say 'bites', Abby," cautioned Gibbs, ignoring the pastries in favor of snagging a second coffee.

"Makes a move," she finished. "You guys going to see the homicide dude?"

"The 'homicide dude'," reported Ducky, "seems quite happy to leave this particular homicide in our hands."

"Too little manpower. Too many murders." Gibbs popped the lid off the cardboard cup. "Not all of them hang on to a case like DiNozzo."

"Yes, well, we can do without repeating that particular tug-of-war in the New Orleans Harbor as well." Ducky grinned slyly. "Although fishing both of you out of the Baltimore Inner Harbor was rather—" The ME stopped, enjoying the uncomfortable tension in the shoulders of the senior agent. "I'm sure Abby's heard that story enough."

Gibbs snagged the keys to the rental off the room's desk. "We'll be back. We're going to pick up another van for tonight, then you can have the car to get what you need."

"And the credit card?" asked Abby, blinking with studied winsomeness at his feet.

"And, though I may regret it," acknowledged Gibbs, "the credit card."

"All right!"

"Get some sleep, Abs." Gibbs pointed toward the room's unused bed. "Consider it an order."

(tbc)