NCIS Building
After their respective phone calls had been made Horatio, Tony, and Gibbs sat down with sighs and fresh cups of robust coffee. A few moments of silence elapsed before Gibbs spoke, "I take it your calls went as well as mine did. Amanda's gonna let her new boy toy protect her."
Both of his friends nodded, knowing that he was remembering, and gave him a moment to regroup.
Flashback to 1776 A.D.
The masquerade ball at the Garrison home was filled with gentleman, ladies, and British officers. They were all gathered together to forget for a time about the war raging outside the well-furnished walls. Mortal and Immortal, they danced, laughed, and flirted.
Jethro Gibbs surveyed the scene before him with minimal interest. He spotted his friend Gregory, another of Anthony's pupils who had almost a century on him. Gregory was most intelligent but was oft enticed by parties and women. On this particular night he had a woman for each arm. Jethro decided to stroll over and see if the red head could be spared for a few hours.
"Ahh, Jethro, I thought you would be back in Boston by now," said Gregory flippantly. "I would like to introduce you to my friends. Rebecca, Amanda, meet Jethro."
"This is indeed a great pleasure," he said sizing up the Immortal women. They were beautiful, he could not of course see their faces, but what he could see told him enough. Amanda had smooth, porcelain skin and devious eyes. She was crafty, using her feminity as a powerful weapon. Then, like the day to Amanda's night, there was Rebecca. Her fiery hair and bright eyes accented a kindly face. She was currently masked by purple silk and green feathers. "Ms. Rebecca, would you honor me with a dance?" At her nod, he bid the others farewell, "Until later, Gregory. Ms. Amanda, it was a pleasure to make your lovely acquaintance. Perhaps we shall meet again some day.
Reviving from memory, Gibbs looked to Horatio for his news about Daniel's response.
"Daniel reacted as would be expected all things considering," Horatio took his cue.
Taking his Tony simply stated: "Lily is dead."
Horatio patted Tony's shoulder in a familiar, fatherly gesture. He knew his former student had to be reliving his time with Lily. One of the curses of immortality seemed to be vivid memories and lots of them; they haunted you in the quiet if you weren't at peace with the past. H knew that one of Tony's biggest regrets was leaving Lily the way he did.
On Tony's other side Gibbs bowed his head momentarily before getting back to the matter at hand, "It's just the three of us then. What do we know about our adversary? If it is an enemy rather than a headhunter we can narrow it down to someone from 1882 to 1885."
"Oh that helps!" exclaimed Tony sarcastically. "Between the seven of us we must have ticked off the entire area."
"But this person is Immortal. I myself only recall a few Immortals that we crossed paths with and didn't kill," put in Horatio.
"Too bad we can't get McGee to break into the Watcher database," muttered Gibbs. "We're going to each make a list of every major conflict, mortal or Immortal, that we remember. Tony, I suggest you do it at your desk, pretending to work. We'll discuss again tomorrow.
Kate Todd's Apartment
Kate checked the clock as she headed into her bathroom. She had twenty minutes before Richard arrived to take her out for Mediterranean food. This was going to be their tenth date. She had not been on that many dates with the same man in a very long time. Richard was an old fashioned gentleman with a sharp wit and a good sense of humor. He seemed wise and fun at the same time.
The couple met in a very cute and classically romantic way. She had been at an art fair displaying some of her portraits. He'd been browsing her booth, chuckling at the depictions of her brothers as pigs and devils when she first noticed him.
Flashback to the art show a month before"My brothers didn't appreciate it quite as much," laughed Kate.
"Well, I doubt I would have myself, Miss…" he glanced at the nearby sign, "Miss Todd."
"Please, call me Kate, Mr…"
"Collins," he supplied adopting his best British accent, "Richard Collins."
Kate smirked, "Now there's a line I've only heard a million times. One of my colleagues has a decent Sean Connery impression which he uses whenever possible."
"I apologize. What line of work are you in?"
"NCIS, we investigate crimes in…"
"The Navy and Marines. I'm surprise, you're an artist and a warrior," he said smiling.
"Well I'm surprised you know what NCIS is, you don't seem the government type."
Richard replied, "Definitely not. Believe it or not, under this unshaven face and hole filled jeans lies an investor. As for knowing about NCIS, I confess I picked that up doing some research for the last election."
As the two conversed on a variety of topics, he continued to peruse her drawings and sketches. Eventually they got to several done of her coworkers. His eyes seemed particularly drawn to a charcoal portrait of Gibbs smirking. She offered, "That's my boss."
"It's very good," he said looking into her eyes. "They're all very good."
After a few more minutes of flirting, they had a dinner date planned. Things progressed from there. Now here she was waiting for his knock.
Knock, knock. And there he was.
Later at the restaurant….
"…so that was my day. How was your day? Catch any interesting criminals? Defend your coffee? Mock chauvinistic coworkers?"
Kate smiled warmly and said, "All of the above. It was a good day. I met one of Gibbs and Tony's old acquaintances from a Miami case. He's got the whole over-the-top righteous cop persona. I figure he's got a dark past. I'm guessing that's why he gets along with Gibbs. But enough talk about work, this food is delicious…"
The rest of the evening was enchanting and once more left Kate to hoping there would be many more to follow. She didn't want to get too serious too fast though. Like most women would, she kept reminding herself that she barely knew him. Of course, being a profiler lent a certain comfort.
After a date or two she had begun to form a profile of Richard Collins. On the outside he was polite, charming, and generous. Beneath that gentle exterior she saw an acute sense of justice, inflamed if not clouded by some past wrong. He did not seem to dwell in the past though. There was also something of timeless sageness in his remarks. On the whole she was glad to know him and hoped to know him better.
NCIS Building
Five o'clock came the next day and Ducky was going to ask Jethro to join him for supper. These last few days the ex-marine, and Tony too come to think of it, had been a little off. He was planning to discover what was bothering his friend.
He heard hushed voices in the room to his right. Tony was speaking, then Gibbs, and not it seemed their friend from yesterday had returned. Working in an environment of investigating, Ducky had picked up a habit of eavesdropping. Now he was putting it to use. He crept closer as stealthily as possible.
"I've got nothing. I went through every contact I have: not so much as a whisper," said Tony exasperated.
Horatio reported, "I checked out the police reports on Dalton's death. The CSI's had no leads, the case is already cold."
"So we're nowhere!" thundered Gibbs. "How long can he hide?"
"He'll come out when it suits him," stated Horatio. "Until then we wait, we prepare. We have to face facts…"
Ducky heard footsteps and retreated before he was spotted. Whatever Jethro was dealing with was important, supper could wait.
"He'll come out when it suits him," stated Horatio. "Until then we wait, we prepare. We have to face facts; one or all of us could die. I don't know about you but I plan to be ready."
Gibbs rose to his feet, a smirk surfacing. "I thought I was supposed to give the inspiring speeches."
"Yeah, that and give the orders, Boss," joked Tony.
"Here's an order: to the work out room."
And off they went to the gym room where Kate had beat the snot out of McGee. The three Immortals stripped down to their slacks and undershirts. It was decided that Tony and Gibbs would spar first. Tony's blade was elegant with gold and jewels in the hilt, while Gibbs wielded a strong broad sword he had acquired during the French Revolution. Their fighting styles were equally different. Even though Tony had passed on his skills to Gibbs when he taught him, over the years they had developed differently.
Horatio watched them, scrutinizing every movement. He was proud of Tony's finesse, something he believed sprang from Roman vanity. Tony's fighting was swift and smooth. Gibbs had had other teachers after Tony and had come to rely more on strength than fluidness. He would overwhelm his opponent with fierce blows so that they focused more on their defense. Despite Jethro's approach it looked more and more like Tony was getting the upper hand.
As Jethro hammered Tony's defense, Tony was whirling away from every blow in time to take advantage of small openings. He inflicted small wounds that made some maneuvers difficult. It took nearly ten minutes but Tony was the first to touch his sword to his opponent's neck.
After Gibbs had fully healed it was Horatio's turn. Mimicking Tony's flourish at first, the teacher within him made sure Jethro adapted before progressing to his own style. The fight was shorter than the previous one. All it took was a trick Jethro had never learned and he went down.
Jethro shook his head. "If it were anyone else, I would be ashamed right now."
"If it were anyone else," put in Tony, "I'd be ashamed to be your teacher."
"If you two are done, I believe its my turn to take on Tony," said H taking up a fighting stance.
McGee heard Lt. Caine's statement from where he was walking down the hallway. Intrigued, he glanced through the cracked door in time to see the duel begin. The metal flashed and banged each time the swords made contact. He stood mesmerized by the fluidness of movement and the control exerted. A new respect for Tony arose within him when he realized the discipline it must take.
Up until now Tim had never had any interest in sword fighting; however, as he watched he began to feel almost a longing to learn it. He didn't know how long he stood there lost in what he saw. Suddenly the combatants froze their swords at each other's throats and irrepressible smiles on their faces.
A moment later McGee was back on his way with the duel replaying in his mind. He didn't here the words spoken behind him.
"Think McGee enjoyed the show, Boss?"
"Yeah, Tony, I think I did."
A half-hour later McGee was telling Abby what he had seen.
"They were seriously sword fighting?" asked Abby incredulous. "Like Jack Sparrow vs. Will Turner fighting or like prep school fencing?"
"Well, they were using real swords not fencing foils," answered McGee still hung up on what had happened. "It was amazing! Tony was actually awesome, like he practiced every day."
Abby shrugged. "Guess that explains the sword under his bed."
Tim looked up surprised. "Under his bed?"
"Yeah, under his…Oh! I'm sorry," Abby said, "I forgot you didn't know. Tony and I used to go out."
"What! When!"
"About two and half years ago. It was before Kate started working here."
"I cannot believe you went out wit Tony DiNozzo!" It was McGee's turn to be incredulous.
Abby smiled. "He's actually pretty sweet, so is Gibbs."
"You went with him too!" Before he could yell anymore, Abby had pulled him into a deep kiss banishing his jealous thoughts.
The next morning Kate and Tony returned from a follow-up interview bickering about something Tony had mentioned about dyed hair. He upheld that unnatural shades looked hot. She thought it was sexist not to think natural women were hot.
"Look I'm not saying that blonde, brunette, or in Gibb's case red hair isn't hot because it can be," defended Tony, "I just happen to like…"
"Women who are insecure enough to sleep with you," finished Kate.
"You know I'm beginning to think you keep comin' back to that insecurity thing because you really aren't secure enough to do those things yourself."
Kate stammered, "What! I would…I mean, I have…Ughh!"
McGee whispered to Tony, "I'm impressed. You beat Kate in something besides a name calling contest."
"Watch out for those double-edged compliments, Probie. I can still kick your butt," warned Tony.
Gibbs breezed by saying, "Threats are not becoming of you, DiNozzo."
"Yes, Boss."
Quiet descended on the bullpen as people either worked on case paper work or left for lunch. Horatio had gone to get Chinese takeout so when Gibbs and Tony felt the familiar spine tingle they didn't worry. Then when they heard heavy footfalls they glanced up into the face of someone entirely different. Tony warily peeked at Gibbs and thought his friend was about to explode.
The Immortal who stood before them was tall and broad. His dark hair was well groomed and his face clean-shaven. He barely spared them a moment's notice as he approached Kate's desk. She rose and gave him a small kiss. Then she declared that they were going out for lunch.
The minute they were out of sight Jethro grabbed his coat and ordered Tony to do the same. They took the stairs and set out to follow the couple to their lunch date.
In the car DiNozzo questioned, "Jethro, what's going on? Do you know that guy? Do you think he's the killer?"
"That guy is Rafe Covington! So yeah, I think it's more than a coincidence. Call Horatio."