Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of their characters, plots ect… If I did, Twilight would never have happened. I am in Twilight Denial…. I do however, own Tiana, as well as anyone else you don't recognize….

Sorry about the delay between chapters, I had a massive case of writers block... Read and let me know what you all think, and tell me who you think the Man is... :)

Chapter 25:

In the car on the way back to their apartment Tony knew there was no point in yelling at Tia, because he knew her and he knew what sort of person she was. She was the sort of person who would sit on a nine story window ledge to help out a friend, and he loved that about her. He just slept a lot better if he didn't think about exactly what lengths Tia would go to for her job, or her friends.

The Man had been watching the apartment since the day Tiana had moved in, waiting for the right time to approach, and when his girl and the reprobate she was engaged to failed to return home at their usual times, he knew he was clear to go in.

The Man let himself into Tia and Tony's apartment, feeling slightly disappointed at the pitiful locks as he felt Tia at least should have known better, before he carefully closed the door behind him and stood for several minutes in the entranceway, letting his eyes acclimatize to the dark and savouring the moment. He could smell the lingering traces of her perfume in the air, and he felt the excitement build within himself. This was her home, the place she felt safest. And he was here. Free to explore...

Keeping an eye on the time, he crept silently through the apartment, studied the framed photographs scattered throughout the rooms, examined the premium home entertainment system and toyed briefly with the idea of planting one of the spycams he carried 'just in case', but decided against it, just in case Tia was more thorough with her home security than the locks suggested. He noted several CD's in the collection that he would be adding to his own in the morning before he crept silently down the hall towards the bedroom.

The sight of the bed his baby shared with the hoodlum filled him with an intense rage but he pushed it aside to be dealt with later. He quickly and efficiently completed his mission, and indulged himself with a few minutes in her wardrobe before he let himself out the way he had come in.

As Tony unlocked the front door to their apartment Tia felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention, and she instantly shoved Tony flat against the wall and pulled a handgun from the small of her back "Tia what-?" Tony asked and Tia shook her head "Someone's been in our apartment" she whispered and Tony pulled his own gun from the holster without asking her how she knew. He knew enough about her past, her background to know that she was even better trained than the military suspected, so he followed her lead confident in her abilities as well as his own. Working as a team, Tia and Tony silently searched the apartment but other than a few photos moved slightly here and there, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary...

The Man sat in his habitual dark, one of Tiana's shirts grasped to his chest. He gently stroked the material and breathed the scent of his girl in deep, and was instantly flooded with memories...

The first time he had seen his girl, she had been just nine years old. The minute he laid eyes on her the world stopped. She had been so beautiful, so pure and bright. She had been the apple of her father's eye, and in one short afternoon she became the centre of his own heart. When her young world shifted so dramatically he had wanted to go to her and comfort her, to protect her from the abuse inflicted on her tiny body for something that was no fault of her own, but he had been forced to stand on the sidelines of her life and cheer silently as she grew up and defeated her enemies with one crushing blow. He could be proud of that.

But in the dark, alone here as he was so many nights now, he could sit and remember, rewrite the past and begin to make plans for their future...