As ever, the usual disclaimer applies - I don't own NCIS or anything like it.

Thanks again for all the very kind comments, here's the next chapter. Brace yourselves for some slight emotional trauma though - but not too much! I hope you all continue to enjoy it, and thanks again for all of you who have set update alerts and submitted reviews, I bow to you all (Singers and Witches never curtsey!)!

The evening seemed to fly by.

The band played song after song, taking a break while people politely dug into the buffet and mingled, taking time out to rest their feet from the demands of the dance floor. The team sat round their table, which was soon littered with the remains of their pickings from the buffet, talking and laughing, totally relaxed in each other's company.

When the orchestra started their second set, Tim jumped up and grabbed Abby's hand. "We have to dance to this one!" he said.

"Okay -" Abby threw him a quizzical look as they headed for the dance floor.

"What was that all about?" Gibbs asked Ducky quietly.

His friend smiled knowingly as the vocalist started singing "Witchcraft".

"Ah." Gibbs nodded and smiled.

The band finished with a flourish, and started with "I Won't Dance". Kate took a deep breath, stood up and held her hand out to Gibbs.

He looked up at her, mildly surprised, but pleasantly so. "Kate?"

"Gibbs?"

He stood up and took her hand, leading her back to the dance floor.

"When you dance

You're charming and you're gentle

Especially when you do the Continental

But this feeling isn't purely mental

For heaven rest us

I'm not asbestos

So that's why

I won't dance

Why should I?

I won't dance

How could I?

I Won't Dance

Merci Beaucoup

I know that music leads the way to romance

So if I hold you in my arms

I won't dance!"

The singer crooned to the couples on the floor. Kate felt oblivious to the other people around them, for the duration of the song she was only aware of looking into her partner's eyes and being held in his arms.

"My goodness, they make a handsome couple don't they?"

Tony flinched at this comment, as the voices from the table directly behind him carried. He was only too aware of the fact. He had been trying to ignore it all evening. If he was honest with himself, he had been trying for longer than that, but tonight it seemed he could no longer ignore it.

Despite that it wasn't encouraged, despite the fact that part of their boss' mantra was "Romance between agents doesn't work", that same boss was dancing with their colleague in a way that left very little room for any other interpretation.

Ducky saw the way the younger man beside him slumped at the sight of Kate and Gibbs moving together and sighed. He had feared this was the way things were going to go. He had only known Tony for a few years, but with years of experience Ducky knew the sight of a man enamoured of a woman. He had hoped that some other of Tony's many (fabled?) encounters would lead him away from Kate, but it obviously hadn't. And, in many ways, why should it?

Ducky, as Gibbs had told Kate once, was old, not dead. He appreciated the sight of beautiful woman as much as the next man. It was the problem of his profession that most of the women he did come into contact with were in no condition to be danced with.

And the next man was Anthony DiNozzo, he reminded himself.

"Tony - you don't want to be stuck here with an old man like me - there are dozens of very attractive young women here, why don't you work your magic with one of them?" he suggested, albeit a little heavy handed.

Tony tried to smile at Ducky. What was the point? If he wasn't dancing with Kate, why bother? All his careful preparations for the evening had come to nothing. "Nah, thanks Duck. If you don't mind, I'm feeling a bit warm in this" he motioned to his jacket, "Think I'll step outside for a little while" and with this he stepped out of the room.

Ducky watched him go.

"Oh dear" he sighed and returned to watch his friend and colleague enjoying himself.

He had seen Jethro like this only once before - at his first wedding. And look how that had turned out!

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Will you never learn?" Ducky tutted under his breath as the music changed to "I've Got You Under My Skin"

Tony walked through the hall, out the tall open doors into the small garden maintained in this small inner courtyard. The dark was softened by small lights hung in the solitary tree to the right of the fountain that spluttered in the centre.

Tony walked to the far end of the courtyard and sat under the tree, looking at the water bubble over the fountain's stone.

He sighed.

"I don't know why I bother," he said to himself.

TBC…