I know I have said it tons of times but I'll say it again. Sorry about the wait! Working all summer gives me even less time to write so I do what I can. Thanks for following and sticking with this story, hope you keep enjoying it!

...

[Faking It]

...

3rd Person POV:

Tony was scarfing down his breakfast of eggs and toast while reading the paper at his kitchen counter. His head perked up as he heard the door opening but wasn't overly bothered by it when he heard the voice that followed shortly after.

"Tony?" Claire called as he heard the sound of her travel bag hitting the floor. The duo had taken to commuting to work a few times a week so it was no surprise that she had stopped by this early. Tony swallowed a burnt piece of toast with a grimace. Breakfast wasn't exactly one of his specialties. How he could manage Italian dinner dishes and not toast was beyond him.

"Kitchen." He answered, taking a swig of his highly sugared coffee to get the taste out of his mouth.

"Tony does this outfit make me look fat? I couldn't decide at home and I knew I had a couple extra pieces here so…" she quickly informed, walking into the kitchen smoothing down her outfit. Tony looked up as she entered and stared at her for a moment. She looked quite the opposite actually. He took in her toned legs and her ass that were accentuated in her dark skinny jeans she had paired with some heeled booties. Her figure being shown along with her flattering V-neck shirt was quite distracting. But he wasn't going to complain about that. This distraction was very welcome.

"…no…doesn't look fat at all." He muttered after a few seconds of staring. Claire looked up from where she had been picking a piece of lint off her thigh glared at him suspiciously.

"You hesitated." She accused. Tony's eyes widened in surprise.

"What, no I didn't." he countered. Claire pursed her lips and popped a hip, arms crossed across her chest. He was really in for it now.

"Yes, you did so I'll ask you again and be honest. Does it make me look fat?" she inquired. Tony instantly shook his head in denial.

"No, absolutely not. You look great." He assured her. Nodding hesitantly, she took his word for it and walked over to rummage through his fridge for some orange juice. Tony watched her intently, as he chewed on another forkful of eggs. His eyes narrowed worriedly as his mind started to wander. If he was distracted by her more than usual in that outfit…then what were other men's reactions going to be? He couldn't have that.

"So…you're really going to wear that to work?" He asked casually. Claire paused, her drink halfway to her mouth.

"What?" She inquired. Tony cleared his throat, turning to face her from across the room.

"Are you really wearing that to work?" he asked again. Claire glowered at him.

"You just said it looked fine. Were you lying to me?" she asked warningly. Tony swallowed nervously.

"I'm not lying to you." He assured.

"So it would be perfectly fine if I wore this to work right? Cause you wouldn't let me walk around in something unflattering, would you?" Clare challenged, staring at him intently.

"Yea, go ahead. You look great." he answered with a grin.

"Liar." She countered instantly. Tony sputtered indignantly.

"Wh…I am not lying." He insisted his voice taking a higher pitch.

"So, you really think I look fat in this." she snarled, setting her half empty glass aside. Tony quickly held up his hands to placate her.

"No!" he told her sternly. Claire watched him with a skeptical stare as he slowly approached her as if she was going to strike him at any moment.

"You do not look fat. I promise." He told her seriously. As he reached her Claire's glower lessened and her shoulders relaxed as he ran his hands up and down her arms comfortingly.

"If I did you would tell me and not let me walk around like that right?" she asked him one last time. Tony nodded.

"You ready to go to work now?" he asked tentatively, trying to distract her from the problem at hand. He knew that they were stuck with this outfit now, he couldn't exactly tell her not to wear it now. That would just continue making the mess bigger than it already was. He would just have to be extra vigilant. Claire pursed her lips but didn't answer. Tony slowly leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. Her lips quirked up minutely before she scowled at him again, not quite ready to relent.

"Please?" he pressed with a small grin. Claire shrugged. Tony leaned in and pressed a longer kiss to her lips, Claire responding just a bit more.

"How about now?" he asked. Claire bit her lip and grinned thoughtfully.

"Not quite yet." She hummed. Taking the hint Tony leaned in and kissed her soundly, swelling with male pride as she hummed in pleasure while returning his affection.

"Fine, we can leave now." She chuckled wrapping her arms around his waist in a hug. Tony laughed at how quickly her mood would shift before letting go of her to clean up the remains of their brief breakfast.

...

Now back at NCIS, Claire watched in confused fascination perched atop Tony's desk as the man balanced a pencil on the crown of his nose in boredom. They had nothing to do but kill time until a case came up. Claire glanced up as she heard the 'ding' of the elevator, revealing the arrival of their other two coworkers.

"Men are such bad liars" Ziva scoffed as she and McGee exited the elevator.

"But if a good liar told you a lie then you wouldn't know he was a liar." McGee countered. Ziva scoffed out a laugh.

"I would." She chuckled smugly as they entered the bullpen area.

"How would you know?" McGee inquired skeptically.

"Know what?" Tony hummed as he sat at his desk, staring at the pencil with great concentration. Claire smiled in amusement as his eyes crossed.

"When an expert liar is telling Ziva a lie." McGee answered, turning to face Tony. He frowned and looked over to Claire for explanation on why Tony was balancing a pencil on his nose.

"We got bored." She muttered with a shrug in clarification. McGee nodded in acceptance.

"And this started how?" Tony inquired, his eyes still crossed as he focused on the pencil in the middle of his face.

"When I told Ziva that I went to the gym this morning." McGee explained. At this Tony let the pencil drop into his hands, shooting the man a deadpan stare.

"No great skill in guessing you were lying there, Probie. You may have lost some weight and personally I am very proud of you, but gym is definitely not your middle name." Tony pointed out, shooting Ziva an unimpressed glance. McGee rolled his eyes.

"Ok well Ziva thinks that all men are liars." McGee continued. Tony laughed in amusement.

"Well I don't think they're all liars but most men are bad liars." Claire added, agreeing with her thought. Ziva grinned and gestured towards Claire as if to say 'see, she gets it.' Tony frowned and eyed the women skeptically.

"Really?" he mused in interest. Rolling away from his desk Tony jumped up to face Ziva as he leaned against the front of his desk. Claire rose to stand next to McGee, eager to watch the inevitable challenge.

"So if I were to lie to you, you…would be able to tell." Tony asked, obviously not believing her claims. Ziva chuckled.

"Particularly you." She pointed out demeaningly. Tony still grinned.

"You think" he countered smugly.

"I wouldn't go there Tony." McGee warned, turning to leave but Tony quickly put a hand on his chest to stop him from moving away.

"Oh watch and weep." He assured the man, his eyes never leaving Ziva's.

"I wouldn't miss this for the world." Claire hummed, beaming in excitement. For someone who was very good in undercover situations, Tony was a bad liar to those close to him.

"True or false, I had eggs for breakfast this morning?" Tony hummed. Ziva narrowed her eyes at him for barely a second before answering.

"True." She answered, standing up straighter and moving closer to Tony. His smile dropped off his face at how fast she answered.

"Lucky guess." He sneered as she stood in front of him, causing him to look up at her as he was still sitting on his desk.

"Last night, I had a date with a very beautiful woman." Tony asked. Ziva tilted her head.

"False." Ziva told him.

"She's good." Tony muttered. Claire hadn't been over last night, she had dinner with some old college friends of hers.

"My first car was a shiny new red Corvette." Tony asked with a grin.

"False." His smile dropped once more.

"Strike three, I win." Ziva taunted before sauntering back to her desk. McGee watched with an amused grin, smiling over at Claire who was snickering.

"How did, how did you do that?" Tony muttered in disbelief.

"When you said you owned a Corvette you looked down and to the left…." Tony glanced down in thought as she explained, his face full of confusion.

"..a telltale sign when people lie." She explained.

"And the date?" He asked.

"Tony, if you had gone out with a beautiful woman last night you would have talked about it all day." Ziva chuckled knowingly. Claire nodded along in thought, that was true. He would gloat about it every time which to be honest, greatly boosted her self-esteem.

"I would?"

"Oh yea." McGee confirmed with a brief head nod.

"How could you possibly know that I had eggs for breakfast this morning?" Tony continued, standing up and frowning at her. Before Ziva could answer, Gibbs cut in.

"Gear up. We got a message from a dead guy." Gibbs informed them, the agents quickly grabbing their bags and guns.

"Ready to go!" Tony called as he grabbed his head.

"DiNozzo" Gibbs called as he passed. Tony whipped his head up questioningly.

"Yea boss?"

"You've got egg on your shirt." He pointed out, walking backwards for a brief moment before heading to the elevator.

"Not just on your shirt." Ziva added as she followed after Gibbs. Tony glowered at them. He quickly joined the group, walking alongside Claire as she passed his desk.

"You couldn't have told me I was walking around with egg on me?" he whispered accusingly. Claire bit her lip trying not to laugh.

"I might have been waiting to see how long it would take you to notice." She sheepishly admitted. Tony glared at her halfheartedly.

"You are a cruel woman." He muttered. Claire laughed, pleased with herself as they entered the elevator.

...

Claire's POV:

At the crime scene we walked over towards the crashed car with the dead man inside. The car had collided with a police cruiser while the cops were arresting another man they had pulled over. As we walked up to join Gibbs and Ducky the officer at the scene gave us the rundown.

"According to his military ID his name is Jack T. Vale. You know him?" the man asked Gibbs.

"No" Gibbs shook his head.

"Well he knows you guys." The officer gestured to the passenger seat. In the empty seat beside the dead man, the letters NCIS had been spelled out in his blood, and judging by the red stains on his fingers, Vale was the one to write it.

"Jackpot, there's got to be 50 or 60 bucks there." Tony commented looking down at the bags of coins that had spilled out of the car in the crash.

"There's more in his trouser pocket." Ducky added as he examined the man's stomach wound.

"What do you think, illegal slots?" Tony questioned as I snapped photos next to him.

"Maybe he was on his way to a video arcade." McGee suggested.

"What grown man would go to an arcade during the day, let alone with that many quarters?" I pointed out, looking over at Mcgee. I stared at him in surprised amusement as he refused to meet my gaze and simply shrugged. The things you learn about people.

"Maybe he was doing laundry." Ziva put in her own suggestion.

"That's a lot of laundry." I wrinkled my nose as I stared at all the quarters.

"Maybe he was a once a month kind of man." Ziva pointed out.

"I do mine once a week." Tony commented. I looked up at him curiously.

"Laundry." Tony clarified. Ziva grinned disbelievingly and chuckled at the lie. He definitely went longer if I didn't get on him about it. Tony made a face as we turned our backs to him, trying and failing to hide our grins.

"Who's the fare?" Gibbs asked, looking over at the man in the back of the cop car.

"Oh, that's Robert John Stevens. The guys got an accent as thick as polish sausage so I ain't buying it. He had a loaded .38 on his seat, recently fired." The officer explained as Gibbs passed the man's ID to Tony. He held it out so I could snap a photo and get a closer look at it myself. Decent fake but not one of the best I had seen.

"He got an exit wound?" Gibbs asked, turning to Ducky.

"Well there doesn't appear to be an exit wound. So, I'll take out the bullet, you match it to the weapon and hey presto! Justice prevails." Ducky summarized with a grin, causing me to smile at his optimism.

"Open and shut case, boss." Tony mused with a smile of his own.

"No such thing DiNozzo, only water tight." Gibbs countered before making his way towards the man in the cop car.

"Will you give me a call when you're finished?" Ducky inquired, looking over at Tony and I.

"You've got it, Ducky." I assured.

"Thank you my dear." He nodded before heading back to the autopsy van. McGee and I had maneuvered over to the passenger side of the car while Ziva looked over the driver. I was still snapping photos. Ziva stood and looked over Tony's shoulder at the mystery man's driver's license.

"It doesn't look like a fake ID." Tony hummed thoughtfully.

"Fake." Ziva countered easily.

"What are you talking about? You barely got a look at it." Tony scoffed.

"I can spot a fake a mile away." Ziva explained smugly.

"She's right, it totally a fake. A decent one but still a fake." I informed him. Tony pursed his lips and looked at the ID again.

"I had the best fake ID in college, I never got turned away from a bar." Tony boasted. I let out a snort but tried to cover it up quickly as Tony narrowed his eyes at me warningly. McGee bit back a grin at my reaction. From across the car Ziva turned around from where she was examining the scene and leveled him with a disbelieving stare.

"Never?" she inquired pointedly.

"Never." he insisted defensively. Ziva continued to stare at him.

"Once." Tony grit out.

"Once?" I taunted knowingly. He glared.

"Or twice."

"A month?" Ziva prodded. Tony grit his teeth.

"A week, but listen it was a college town and we went out every night. It was tough there, eagle eyed bouncers and you really had to act the part too." he quickly defended.

"Oh yea they really cracked down up there. I could only get in every other day." I added sarcastically.

"Ok whose side are you on?" he snapped, not enjoying my added quips. I shrugged innocently and lifted the camera up to momentarily blind him with the flash. Tony yelped at the assault to his eyes while I ducked down and got back to work.

"You had to act very mature, worldly, kind of grown up." Tony continued trying to justify himself to Ziva.

"So it wasn't the ID it was you" she commented.

"Are you kidding me no. No I…..I am the master of fake." Tony quickly schooled his emotions not sound so defensive. Ziva smirked in amusement. Before the debate could get any farther along, McGee pulled out the man's bloodied cell phone and checked the call list.

"The last call dialed was 911. The cops will have it on tape." he informed us with a satisfied expression as I snapped some photos of it.

"Maybe this one will be easy." He shrugged hopefully. Hopefully but I doubted it, nothing we did was ever that easy.

...

3rd Person POV:

In interrogation, the mystery driver sat silently across from Gibbs who skimmed through the file on the desk.

"Fake name, fake plates, real weapon, real guy dead." he listed aloud, calmly and quietly staring at the man in front of him. The man sighed in boredom, resting his head on his knuckles while staring at the corner of the table, away from Gibbs.

"When he first saw you, he called 911." Gibbs continued. The man looked up at him but didn't shift from his position.

"When you realized he was trailing you, you shot him." the man shifted slightly, resting on his cheek instead of his forehead.

"Even the very, very good ones….slip up eventually." Gibbs smirked slightly. The man narrowed his eyes at Gibbs and calmly leaned back in his chair, still remaining silent.

"And you Mr…Stevens?" Gibbs smiled in amusement at the name before looking at the man.

"…you're not very good." He finished. The man huffed in amusement.

...

From observation, Ziva watched the man, standing in front of the glass while Tony lounged against the monitors behind her.

"Women want men to lie to them." Tony informed, still trying to justify the whole men are liars thing.

"Not true." She dismissed. Tony looked over at her incredulously.

"Honey, does my butt look big in these pants to you….actually yes, sweetheart your butt looks as big as Alabama. Didn't want to say anything but you got the 'Bama butt going on." Tony monologued a mock conversation. What he didn't notice was that Claire had quietly slipped into the room and was staring at him intently. Listening to his explanation that sounded vaguely familiar.

"You want us to lie to you so we do, especially if your butt is as big as 'bama." He muttered.

"Really now?" Claire chimed in, slowly making her way towards them. Ziva grinned in amusement as Tony's face drained of color.

"So that's what you really think? That our butts are big and we want you to lie about it." She challenged coolly. Ziva rose a brow as she watched Tony's face contort as he thought of how to get his foot out of his mouth.

"No…not that your but is big….I mean not that I've even looked…" Tony nervously backtracked, aware that Ziva was in the room which made things a bit more tricky.

"Liar." Ziva quickly pointed out. Tony groaned in frustration, shooting her a heated glare.

"Ok, I have looked but you know I have never…"

"Never what?" Claire asked tightly. Tony laughed dismissively, pointing at her with a grin. He glanced between the two women nervously.

"Oh no…no…I'm catching onto you two." He chuckled nervously, not wanting to get caught up in the inevitable trap they were setting for him.

"You're going to get me to say something and then have Ziva do her Mossad, true or false trick." Tony explained, vehemently shaking his head to indicate he wasn't falling for it.

"I'm too smart for that." He noted. Ziva laughed.

"Of course you are." She hummed sarcastically. Tony glared at the back of her head. Before he could comment, the door opened and he looked over to see Gibbs walk in to join them. He walked over to stand behind her.

"Ziva?"

"Gibbs?" she asked back. Gibbs smirked.

"How many languages do you speak?" he inquired. Ziva looked over at him curiously. Gesturing for her to follow, Gibbs and Ziva left the room. Once the door had closed Tony quickly reached over to get Claire's attention.

"What was that all about. Are you still on about this morning?" he whispered worriedly.

"You were the one that claimed all women want to hear lies." She countered with a frown.

"I didn't mean that, I was just proving a point." Tony assured with a wince. Claire pursed her lips staring at him intently.

"Do you really believe that I want you to lie to me? Do you lie to me regularly because you think that's what I want to hear?" she inquired seriously, not necessarily talking about this mornings discussion. Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"No, I don't lie to you." Claire rose a brow and quirked her lips, indicating for him to adjust the statement. Tony grinned shaking his head.

"OK I may neglect to add details or simply not tell you things when I can't, but I have never blatantly lied to you." He insisted, staring at her to prove his sincerity. She nodded.

"I know there are times when you can't tell me things, like you're whole deal with Jenny. I get that sometimes it's part of the job so I won't push. I just don't want you to think that I want you to lie to me to keep me happy. I would much rather you be honest and hurt my feelings than lie and let me go on believing something that's not true." Claire elaborated. She didn't want lots of secrets between them, that's not what she wanted in a relationship. She wanted honesty, or as much as you could when dating another agent. Tony nodded in understanding, holding her hands in his own.

"I was just making a point that had nothing to do with you. Honestly." He insisted, pulling her into a hug. Claire however was still a bit self-conscious.

"Then honestly, what was all the fuss this morning. You said you don't lie to me so tell me why you were making a big deal this morning?" she requested, crossing her arms across her chest as she looked up at him. His lips quirked, causing her to frown.

"Honestly…I thought you looked hot." He admitted with a chuckle. Claire's frown deepened.

"So?" she asked, waiting for him to clarify.

"So, I didn't want other men to notice. I mean if I was staring…then any other breathing male would be." Tony explained pointedly. Claire's face cleared up in understanding. She smiled a little before nodding thoughtfully.

"That's stupid." She blurted out, trying not to laugh. Tony grimaced and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"I like to think of it as more romantic, protective, really any other description would do." He pouted. Reluctantly she grinned, sighing in amusement.

"Sure I guess you could say that. I wouldn't ….. but you could." Claire teased. Tony pursed his lips, but bit back a grin. They stepped apart when the door rattled, signifying Gibb's reentry into the room.

...

Claire's POV:

We looked up as Gibbs came back into observation while Ziva was sent into the interrogation room. She sat there quietly for a bit, sorting through some paperwork on her PDA to kill some time. She looked up at the man. speaking French. He stared at her blankly. Gibbs and I watched in front of the window while Tony returned to his previous position, leaning against the monitors.

"Ah French." Tony mused. Ziva spoke another, looking for some indication from the man.

"Und German." He continued. Ziva tried more.

"Italian. Of course." Tony grinned, triumphantly. I glanced at him in amusement. Tony was Italian so duh he would recognize that language.

"Greek?" Tony guessed.

"Arabic." Gibbs corrected.

"Nice boss!" Tony congratulated with gusto, nodding in approval. Ziva tried yet another language. On the last one the man's eyes shifted.

"Bingo. Russian." I grinned. Tony bolted forward to join us by the mirror.

"He looked down and to the left, a sure sign of a liar." He informed Gibbs. I let out a snort, but quickly covered it up when Tony jabbed me with his elbow.

"That's very good DiNozzo." Gibbs nodded, looking at him knowingly.

"Thanks boss." Tony preened under Gibb's praise.

"Did Ziva tell you that?" Gibbs inquired. Tony pursed his lips, glancing away from Gibbs innocently while I finally let out a snicker.

...

Once the man in interrogation was identified as Nicholia Pochenko, who was wanted by homeland security, Gibbs returned to interrogation to take another crack at him. He spoke to the man in Russian, knowing he would understand it. Gibbs got his attention when his name was used. Pochenko lawyered up. Then to add even more mystery to this case, down in autopsy the bullet had disappeared. It had entered Vale's stomach with no exit wound and from there it had disappeared entirely. So that was all we had to go on when Gibbs sent us off to do some research.

...

So now we were up in the bullpen, McGee was pulling up photos on the big screen map while Ziva watched. Tony and I were on our own section of the case, tracking down anything having to do with the name Nicholas Pochenko.

"The 911 call was routed through the cell tower here." McGee pointed out.

"Anyone ever heard of operation Sunburst?" Tony inquired from his desk, his head resting in his hand as he frowned at the screen.

"That puts Vale somewhere around here when he made the call. Anywhere outside of this circle would mean that it was routed through a different cell tower." McGee continued over Tony, coming to stand beside Ziva.

"What year? I haven't gotten anything about it in my records." I asked Tony, frowning at the unfamiliar name.

"Back in '91? Come on anyone, operation Sunburst?" Tony looked over at us all in exasperation, throwing his arms out.

"It's about 3 city blocks.." McGee continued to mutter, ignoring Tony. Tony waved a hand at the two of them dismissively even though they had their backs turned to him. He looked over at me and rolled his eyes dramatically. I grinned in amusement, going back to looking up my own set of records. Gibbs walked in to stand beside the two at the plasma.

"Abby said the signal dropped out, that would probably put him at the outside edge of that tower." Gibbs added, pointing to the areas in question. McGee stared at the map in pleasant surprise.

"That's pretty clever boss, how did you figure that out?" he asked sincerely. Gibbs pursed his lips.

"Too much time around you." He quipped, heading around the man to get to his desk. I watched McGee's face slowly shift into a smile of pride. That was quite a compliment coming from the boss man.

"Boss, operation Sunburst do you know it?" Tony asked, getting his attention. Gibbs changed direction and walked over to stand behind Tony, leaning a little to get a better look at his computer screen.

"It was a sting, one of our ops. Chief Vale was part of it. He was just a PO3 back then, detailed from the supply department to NIS for 5 weeks." Tony read for him.

"Get that file from archives." Gibbs instructed easily.

"Well I can't." Tony frowned. Gibbs turned to give him a look. The one that demanded that what Tony had claimed was not an option. He quickly rephrased the statement.

"Well I mean its impossible boss. I got the index reference but when I called the archives they said the file was missing." Tony explained, Gibbs coming back to stand in his previous spot behind Tony.

"Check the logs, see who booked it out last?" Gibbs suggested. Tony pulled up the logs.

"The CIA…so I guess it's not much a who but more of an it." He rambled thoughtfully.

"Who was the NIS case agent?" As the file picture come up Gibbs sighed in exasperation while Tony grimaced.

"What time is it in Mexico right now?" Tony mused. I smiled wryly, knowing that the case agent must have been Mike Franks.

"Cantina time." Gibbs answered, striding over to make a call at his desk.

...

We all watched curiously as Gibbs chatted with Franks about the case on his desk phone. As he hung up Gibbs sighed heavily, tossing his pen down.

"Have we got a case yet DiNozzo?" he asked wearily.

"Like you said, working on it boss." Tony answered, referencing to what Gibbs had told Franks.

"We narrowed down the area where he was shot and we do have a suspect in possession of a gun." Ziva pointed out.

"That means murder one." McGee added helpfully.

"With a bullet." Tony tacked on to the end of his thought.

"Well technically we don't have the bullet. So it's only a solid case if we can find it." I reminded with a wince. Everyone turned to frown at me, but I couldn't be sorry.

"Someone had to point that out." I offered as an apology. Gibbs nodded in agreement, clenching his jaw tightly as he stared at the files on his desk. We needed to build up a case fast if we wanted to keep Pochenko in our custody.