CHAPTER TWO

Saturday dawned early. Jess was awake by 7 a.m. Tony called, saying that Gibbs was going to swing by his place first, where they'd load up the last of Jess' stuff and bring it over.

"Make coffee," Tony directed.

"Planning on it," Jess assured him.

By the time the guys arrived, there was a pot of coffee, a plate of bagels and cream cheese, and a pitcher of orange juice waiting for them. After a quick breakfast, Tony and Gibbs headed back outside to unload their cars while Jess made room for the incoming boxes and continued the unpacking from night before.

Gibbs had to leave at 11 o'clock to sign off on an evidence transfer, a favor he was doing for Abby so that she wouldn't have to leave her Habitat for Humanity site. Gibbs promised that he wouldn't be gone long and that he'd bring lunch back with him. Jess and Tony were happy for the break. They each grabbed a soda and headed for the deck.

"So …" Tony said. "Feeling more like home now?"

Jess nodded. "Yeah. I can't thank you guys enough. I have no idea when I'd have gotten to this if I had to do it on my own."

Tony smiled and pulled her into a one-arm hug. "I'm just glad to have you within easy driving distance for a change." It had been a long time since they'd lived near enough to see each other more often than once a year. "Have you got your bearings here yet?" he continued. "Know all the good stores? Restaurants? Strip clubs?" He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Yeah," Jess said with a laugh and a roll of the eyes. "Because, like you, strip clubs are a top priority for me when I'm scoping out real estate." She gave him a light punch in the side. "What I do need," she continued, "is a bank. Most of what I need to do I can do on-line or at the Pentagon, but I have some stuff that needs to go into a safe deposit box and I'd like that to be somewhere other than work."

Tony thought for a second. "My safe deposit box is in a bank about a block from the office," he said. "You can put your stuff there if you want. It'd save you the box rent and it would be easy for you to get to." She considered the offer. "Plus," he continued, tentatively, "if anything were ever to happen to me, then I'd know that …"

"Don't," Jess said, suddenly serious. They'd talked about this kind of thing before, and neither one of them really wanted to admit that they worked in risky and unpredictable professions. Tony's job was far more dangerous than Jess', but working at the Pentagon had its hazards too, especially since 9/11.

"I'm just saying…" Tony said, and then let his voice trail off. They looked at each other for a second, and Tony continued. "I'm just saying, that if you want to share the safe deposit box, there's plenty of room. Unless, of course, you're looking for a safe place for those weird Chinese dolls. Then, you're on your own."

Jess laughed, the tension of the earlier moment gone. "Thanks," she said. "I would love to put my few measly tokens and mementos into your safe deposit box. Just tell me where, and I'll get them there at some point."

"Give them to me at the end of the day, and I'll drop them in on Monday," Tony offered. "There's nothing there that you don't want me to see, right?" His eyebrows went up and he smiled suggestively. "No secret divorce settlements, envelopes of money, fake passports …?"

Jess shook her head at him with a chuckle. "You watch way too many movies." She reached over and gave him a quick hug. "Thanks," she said. "Remind me later."

"Will do," Tony replied, returning the hug. Then they stood against the railing, watching the traffic.

A minute later, Tony turned to her. "Hey Jess?" he said. "How'd you get that scar on your shoulder?" He reached over and pulled her t-shirt down over her shoulder and pointed to a triangle-shaped scar. "I saw it a while ago and I've been meaning to ask you."

"Sky diving," she said. His eyebrows went up. "Senior year. A bunch of us decided it would be a rush to jump out of a plane. I landed wrong. Broke my wrist, and rolled way off target into a sand pit. I think I hit the only rock in the area with my shoulder. Took off a hunk of skin."

He laughed.

"Have you ever?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. Tony looked confused.

"Skydived," Jess said. Then she frowned. "Skydove?" He laughed.

"Yeah," Tony replied, with an embarrassed grin. "It was part of a case. Gibbs and I went up, but I was the only one who jumped. Or, more accurately, fell out of the plane. I landed wrong too – didn't flex my knees enough. I sprained an ankle and was stiff and limping for a week."

"Then between the gash in my leg and this … I'm winning," Jess said with a smug smile. They had been playing "I have more scars than you do" since childhood.

"Oh, no," Tony said, reaching over to grab her. "I don't think so. I've been shot and beaten up and all sorts of things over the past year. You've been sitting in meeting rooms and behind control consoles. I am – and will always be – the Scar Master!"

He pulled her back into the house. They were jockeying for position as they moved into the living room. The two of them were rolling on the floor, wrestling and tickling each other when Gibbs walked in.

"I brought …," his voice started to fade out. "…lunch."

Tony and Jess stopped what they were doing and lay on the floor, breathing heavily and looking guiltily up at Gibbs.

Jess jumped up, lightly kicking Tony's leg as she walked over to Gibbs. She took the bag of sandwiches and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she said sweetly. "Let me get you some fresh coffee."

Gibbs looked at Jess with a smile, then down at Tony. "Is he okay?" Gibbs asked, with just the merest touch of genuine concern.

"He's fine," she said, dismissing the question, taking Gibbs' arm and propelling him to the kitchen. "We were just discussing skydiving."

Tony grinned up at Gibbs.

"Of course you were," Gibbs said, shaking his head, with a slightly confused look on his face.

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly. Once they got into a rhythm, boxes were being emptied at a pretty good clip. They worked in relative silence, with only the music from the stereo playing in the background. It was an interesting conglomeration of music, actually. Each of them had chosen a CD from Jess' fairly eclectic collection, and then they'd set the CD changer on "random." Which meant that throughout the afternoon, they'd jump randomly from the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Tony) to the London cast album of "Oklahoma!" (Jess) to Chicago's Greatest Hits (Gibbs). Going from "Saturday in the Park" directly into "Californication" and then to "Surrey With the Fringe on Top" made for an interesting mix, but it kind of kept them on their toes.

By dinner time, almost everything was done except the clean-up. Jess ordered pizza, and the three sat on the floor of the living room, around the coffee table, as Tony told stories about adventures he and Jess had had as kids. Jess would frequently break in with "Um … that never happened …" with a side look to Gibbs, which of course made Tony 'embellish' his stories even more.

After dinner, Gibbs helped Tony put away the last of the kitchen stuff and then they spent an hour or so breaking down boxes and making dumpster runs. Then they each grabbed a beer and sat on the couch, looking around at the much more livable space they'd created out of the mountain of boxes that were there that morning. Jess was in the bedroom, putting away the last of the clothes and the shoes, something neither one of the guys were allowed to help with, much to their relief.

"So," Tony said, casually. "Where are you guys going for dinner tomorrow?"

"No idea," Gibbs said. He looked hopefully at Tony. "Any suggestions?"

Tony shrugged. "She likes barbecue and steaks just as much as fancier stuff … not a fan of Mediterranean food, in general." He thought for a moment. "And stay away from cauliflower and cilantro." Gibbs gave him a curious look. "Just trust me on this, Boss," Tony said.

"You two have a lot of history," said Gibbs, picking up a framed photo on the end table that showed a young Tony and Jess in home-made "Junior Spy" outfits.

"Yeah," Tony said with a genuine smile. "THAT shot," he continued, pointing his beer at the photo Gibbs was holding, "was taken the year I decided that being a secret agent would be cool." Gibbs laughed.

"Seriously," Tony said earnestly. "Did you ever see 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation'?"

"A movie, I take it?" Gibbs replied.

Tony nodded. "TV movie, starring Robert Wagner as this guy who collects information about all of these people at a summer resort. By the end of the movie, he's got files on all of them. Jess and I saw it on TV really late one night, and decided it would be fun to do the same thing. By the end of the summer, we had full dossiers on most of the people in the neighborhood. Names, addresses, work addresses, license plate numbers, photos … all sorts of stuff. We even had fingerprints."

"Fingerprints?" Gibbs said, with surprise.

"We'd sell lemonade on the corner and use glasses instead of paper cups. We'd offer free lemonade to anyone who we wanted to 'spy on' …"

Gibbs cut him off. "And then lift their prints after they gave the glass back." Tony nodded. "Very clever," Gibbs said with an appreciative nod. He'd just gotten more information about Tony's passion for investigation in that short conversation than he'd had since he hired him.

"It was a lot of fun," Tony said with a laugh, as Gibbs put the photo back on the table. "She probably still has the dossiers in a box somewhere. Who knows what she's got on me."

"Hi," Jess said, as she walked into the room. Both men jumped in surprise.

"Boy, for two Federal Agents, you guys are really easy to sneak up on," she teased.

Tony and Gibbs looked at each other, each one wondering how much she had heard of their conversation. Jess saw the look and smiled.

"Talking about me, were you?" she asked, playfully. They both looked up at her innocently. "Fine …" she said, staring down at Tony. "You know that I'm going to find out sooner or later." He looked guiltily at Gibbs.

"She will," Tony said, in a matter-of-fact tone.