Thanks to my wonderful beta Kristen! I've been having an argument over the term 'desiccated' which is used later, but I am 99% sure it is the right word. More Jenny secret coming up...

Chapter 6: Stakeout

Lily looked over at her partner for the evening, and smiled. Not her first choice, perhaps, but definitely not her last.

It definitely was not her first choice of location though. Dexter Boxall lived in a seedy apartment next door to a nightclub. It seemed to be a popular place, but she could not see the attraction. She had already seen several hundred things she wanted to erase from her brain.

On the plus side, she was with Tony. McGee and Ziva had taken the first shift, and she had been placed on the second. LJ wanted to try to persuade Jenny to go with him on the third, before McGee and Ziva took over again.

Knowing her luck, she would end up doing two shifts in a row: one with Tony and one with LJ. At least she would have the opportunity to sleep with LJ around.

Tony was still acting uncomfortably around her, although the slight flirting was still present. She wished he would pluck up his usual courage to talk to her. She was not fond of men who couldn't speak for themselves. She was not going to make his life any easier.

"Why did you join the CIA?" Tony finally asked.

Not the question she was expecting, but she could answer it. "I was headhunted."

"Seriously?"

"My Great Aunt was a very good agent, and she mentioned to her boss that I was a handful. Her boss was intrigued, and I got hired."

"That's the short version."

"Pretty much."

They sat in silence for a while longer.

"I give up," Lily announced. "Ask the other question."

"What other question?"

She gave him a glare to rival LJ.

"Oh, that one. Why did you tie me up?"

"Because LJ told you to stop me leaving! I had to leave; lives were depending on it. You're a good kisser, by the way."

"Thanks." She caught his faint blush in the darkness. "As are you."

"I didn't want to tie you up, but I had to do something LJ couldn't fire you for. Tying you up seemed the best option. It probably wasn't my wisest idea, but it worked at the time."

"Is that an apology?"

She smiled. "No, this is. I'm sorry Tony. I honestly could not see another way out of the situation, short of knocking you out."

Silence reigned for another few minutes.

"I still think you're hot though," she added. "If I wasn't engaged…"

Thursday evening

"If you weren't engaged, what?" Alex chuckled.

"He'd only be a plaything," Lily noted. "He's handsome, but he wouldn't challenge me."

"And you need a challenge."

"Damn straight I need a challenge."

Tuesday evening

"Well," Tony smiled. "If you two ever split up…"

"I will let you take me out to dinner," she confirmed.

Her cell phone rang; its jingling ringtone sounding odd in the car. Lily slowly retrieved it, having a funny feeling it was either Arbourne or LJ. She did not really want to deal with them right now.

"When you find me dead," she began, not letting the caller say a word, "My desiccated corpse propped up staring lifelessly through the telescope at drunken frat boys peeing and vomiting into the gutter, just know that my last thoughts were of you. And how I'd like to kill you."

"Mom?!"

"Jasper, honey. You did not hear what I said, okay?"

Lily snuck into Jenny's office a few hours later, not surprised to find her sister still sitting at her desk, reading a file.

Whenever she was worried, Jenny had a habit of throwing herself into her work. Lily did the same, but was normally aware of what she was doing. Jenny never noticed. Lily did, but only because Charlie called her on it every time.

LJ had not been able to persuade his former partner to go with him. When he had arrived to take over and order Tony to stay, he had asked Lily to go check on her. He had not needed to make it an order; Lily was worried about her too.

But for different reasons. LJ was attempting to work out what was going on, while Lily was trying to sort it out so things could go back to normal.

It was not going to be an easy task. Whoever he was, he was covering his tracks well. He was taking every precaution he could think of. Lily's only real hope was that he would slip up. They could get lucky, but no one was that lucky.

Hope kept her going. Hope, and the desire to smash his skull into tiny pieces. She would sort this out, even if it killed her.

It was all her fault, anyway. She should not have allowed herself to be distracted by mourning her father's passing. She should have stayed alert, asked someone else to help her, told someone else. Her mania for secrecy had led to this, but she'd had good intentions. She didn't mean for this to happen.

"It's midnight," Lily called softly.

Jenny still jumped out of her seat. "Don't do that to me," she warned.

Lily was not concerned. "I've been standing here for the last five minutes. Want some coffee?"

"Please."

Lily disappeared into Cynthia's office and rooted around for a while. It didn't take too long to locate the coffeemaker and find a few mugs. She carried the hot liquid through carefully, not wanting to waste a drop.

"Ta da," she announced, placing it on the edge of the desk.

"Cheers," Jenny muttered, taking a few sips.

"So, what am I missing in the joys of paperwork?"

"Not much. Case files, request forms, complaints, letters."

"I'll take a pile if you want."

"Nearly done anyway."

"You mean you've done what you want to do here, and then you're going to sit down in my spare room and deal with another batch."

Jenny glared at her. "It's none of your business."

"It is every bit of my business. Go home. See the twins. I would, if I were in your position."

"You're not."

"See, the only thing that would hold me back is the concern he might be out there."

That earned her another glare.

"If I take you home, there won't be a problem," Lily continued.

"Everyone wants to kill you," Jenny observed.

"Correct. But I like it that way."

Jenny sighed, finished off her coffee and left the files as they were.

"Good," Lily smiled. "If you want to tell him, you can."

"Who? What?"

"LJ. And you know what."

The next morning, Lily sat in Ziva's chair, going through her desk.

Chocolate, deodorant, little mints, elastic bands, paper clips, a camera…

A camera!

She started to scroll through the images to pass the time. LJ was busy hitting his keyboard again, cursing under his breath about his favorite coffee shop being closed. What he didn't know was Lily might have 'accidently' cut the power to the place before coming into the Navy Yard.

McGee was sitting in his corner, happily typing something up. She did not know what file it was, and didn't really care. She had spent a good twenty minutes staring at him earlier, trying to work out how someone so smart could be so innocent. She filled away the realization that she was fond of it for later.

Tony was being Tony. He had decided to ring some of Boxall's friends to see if he could get an insight into the man. Of course, this had involved calling all the females on the list first. Lily was enjoying the banter floating over to her desk. The conversation last night appeared to have perked him up, and he wasn't complaining about the serious lack of sleep.

Ziva was on stakeout, but not with McGee. LJ had ordered some analyst named Nikki Jardine to go with her. Lily had feigned ignorance of the woman, not intending to mention she was a source.

Hmm. The camera pictures were interesting. They all seemed to involve Tony in some way. Presumably, they had spent an afternoon larking around with the camera, before Ziva had forgotten all about it.

Steal the photos, not steal the photos. Lily let the internal debate continue for a few minutes before deciding to leave them. She didn't need them and couldn't use them to her advantage. She slipped the camera back into place and carried on searching.

Another pile of rubber bands. Perhaps she should flick them at Tony and see what happened. Or she could make some paper airplanes and throw them around. Or she could let down some tires in the parking garage. Every third car sounded about right. She wouldn't actually deflate the tires, merely give them a slow puncture so the agents would be halfway home before they realized.

She was about to get up and disappear for a few hours, when McGee decided to strike up a conversation.

"Did you see the weather forecast this morning?"

"No, Probie-san," Tony answered for her. "She was too busy with her fiancé. Care to tell us some details?" He grinned at her.

"Ask Alex yourself," she shot back. "I'm sure he'd love to tell you."

"Anyway," McGee interrupted before the discussion could escalate into a fight. "It looks like there's a huge storm coming in."

"Oh really?" Tony replied. "Who cares?"

"No, a really big storm. The sea level's going to rise, low lying areas will flood, the rain will pour down… it's going to be bad."

"Don't worry," Tony smiled at her. "The Probie gets easily scared."

Lily smiled at McGee instead. "Thanks for the warning," she told him.

Tony's phone rang and he answered it rapidly. "Hello? Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo here."

Lily watched his face as the other person spoke. This was not going to be good news…

At last, he replaced the receiver. "Err, boss?"

"Speak, DiNozzo," came the order.

"One of the neighbors reported a commotion last night in Boxall's place. Ziva went to check it out, and found Boxall dead on the floor."