CHAPTER 2

Gibbs tries to go about his normal day, knowing he would be dealing with Ms. Hart sooner or later. He wondered if she would have the nerve to show herself here after their confrontation in his house last night. It is just before noon and he is beginning to think she won't show up when he hears the elevator bell. Thinking it is Holly's arrival, Gibbs stands up and turns to watch the doors slide open with a smile on his face.

The woman who steps out has her arm looped through the arm of the Secretary of the Navy and Gibbs fights hard not to let his smile turn into a scowl as their eyes meet across the room. Hart's eyes met his the moment she stepped off the elevator, hoping Gibbs would be there to see her arrival with the top man in the Navy. The smile on his face, although she was momentarily thrilled to see it aimed at her, quickly turned into a façade. Gibbs held the smile in place, but she could see he was not happy to see her walking on the arm of his big boss.

Gibbs gives her a slight nod and then strolls casually over to greet them, addressing himself politely. "Mr. Secretary. Ms. Hart."

"Agent Gibbs, good work on that case last week, Allison was just expressing her gratitude for what a good job you and your team did."

"Is that so?" Gibbs allows his eyes to slide slowly from the man to the woman at his side. Hart kept the pleasant smile on her face, but Gibbs could see the triumphant glint in her eyes, although they maintained their civil demeanor.

"Yes, Agent Gibbs. I was just filling Martin in on how pleasant it is to work alongside such professionals as yourself... and your team. In my line of work, that's a rarity."

"I'm sure it is, Ms. Hart." Gibbs holds her eye a long moment then the elevator bell draws their attention once more. This time, Holly Snow steps off and the room seems to fall silent as everyone stops to watch the beautiful woman striding in like a breath of fresh air. This time, the smile on Gibbs' face is real as he holds out his hand to her. Holly comes to his side, taking his hand as he leans over to drop a quick kiss on her cheek. He then seems to remember the others and turns back to introduce them. "Miss Snow, may I introduce the Secretary of the Navy."

Gibbs hides the smirk at the uncomfortable tension in Martin as he holds out a hand to her... pretending they have never met. "Nice to meet you, Miss Snow."

"And this is Ms. Allison Hart, hard core attorney on Capitol Hill." Gibbs makes a point of stressing the 'Ms.' as a slight to her femininity. Holly is quick to pick up on it and floats her hand out to meet Hart's in a quick touching of the hands.

"Ms. Hart. Your reputation is well known... in certain circles on The Hill." Holly gives her a direct stare, then turns on the charm as she looks back to the man at her side. "Jethro, we really don't want to be late."

"Of course. Mr. Secretary, I believe Director Vance is in MTAC at the moment. I'll have Agent DiNozzo let him know you're here since Ms. Hart's pass is restricted within the building. Tony, notify the Director that he has company."

"On it boss." DiNozzo had been watching the interchange from his desk, but now grabs for the phone to call up to MTAC.

Gibbs turns his attention to Holly and gives her his full smile as his arm politely cradles her elbow. "Shall we?" He leads her back towards the elevators and without looking back, he knows Ms. Hart is glaring after him.

Once the elevator doors close, Gibbs sighs out his stress and runs a hand down over his face. Holly picked up on his stress immediately and correctly guesses the cause of it. "So, you gonna tell me why you asked me to meet you here for lunch, dressed like I'm on my way to a five star hotel?"

"What? You don't like getting dressed up to have lunch with me?" He grins at her, but she knows he isn't telling her everything.

"You know I value our down time together, where I don't have to be 'me'. So, was this all for the benefit of Martin... or the woman?"

"You are perceptive, Holly. I'll give you that." He escorts her out of the building and towards his car. Once they are seated and he is driving out of the lot, he continues, "The woman... Allison Hart, is a problem... and I need your help."

"Really? You're asking me to help you dump an unwanted girlfriend, Jethro?" She is a bit surprised by this and hopes he isn't as shallow as all that.

"No! Holly, have you ever seen me with her? She is not my girlfriend... believe me." He negotiates some traffic and then turns his attention back to their conversation. "She's a high powered attorney working for a man who doesn't particularly like me. And before you ask, it's because I put him in a Mexican prison two years ago for using military contracts for his own private mercenary business. He managed to buy his way out of jail and over the past few months has been keeping a low profile in Mexico."

"But he's still got Ms. Hart on the payroll."

"Yes and he's pulling her strings. She's a five hundred dollar an hour attorney, but she's been taking on every pro-bono case she can find that has ties to NCIS. She's been ingratiating herself with Vance and SECNAV, as you just saw, until she's wormed a building pass from them."

"To what ends? For a high priced ambulance chaser... she could find clients a lot easier outside of NCIS."

Her agenda isn't clear, but it involves me... and if that's her goal, then she's acting on the directions of her boss, Colonel Merton Bell."

"Aahh, retired Army colonel... hardnosed, always butted heads with command until they finally told him to retire or else. To spite them, Bell formed his own private security company and used military contract money to build up enough hardware to arm a small country."

"You know Bell?" Gibbs is surprised by her knowledge of the man... although he shouldn't be. "Personally or professionally?"

"Professionally... and no, not personally. He was a client and had distinct tastes. He also had a bad habit of roughing up my girls. He always apologized and offered to pay double, but I had to drop him from the client list... he was bad for business."

"Is Hart his type?" Gibbs pulls into the restaurant and parks the car as he turns to give her his full attention now.

"No... I don't think any man is her type, from what I've heard."

"I heard the same thing... which makes what happened last night even stranger. Hart's been forcing herself into our investigations, as I told you for months now. She keeps turning up where ever I'm at, acting like it's a coincidence."

"You don't believe in coincidence."

"Exactly. I've been avoiding her, since I know she isn't interested in me and I don't know what her agenda is... only that it probably involves Bell. Then last night, I come home and she's in my house, waiting for me in the dark."

"You do keep your door unlocked."

"Yeah, well that's going to change. I don't know what she was doing before I arrived, but she said she wanted to talk and knew I was avoiding her. She tried to make me think she was there because she was interested in me."

"Really... and were you?"

"No. I was not. Am not... and the closer she gets to me, the more I keep expecting to be stabbed in the back."

"So, what do you need from me?"

"I need a legitimate girlfriend... to frustrate her efforts to get close to me. I was hoping you..."

"You want me to be your girlfriend?" Holly had been expecting some offer of help with intel or information gathering from her sources. She had in no way envisioned him asking her this!

"Yes... as an illusion only, Holly. Just enough to make her think it's real... you know some well timed action when she's around. That's all."

"That's all? Just create the illusion of a romance? Ha! You know, if this was anyone else asking me this... I would think they were making this all up just to get close to me. But you... Jethro, I've gotten to know you pretty well over the last few months. You don't play games." She studies him for a long moment, seeing the tension in his mouth as he thinks she is about to refuse. She reaches out to lay her hand on his arm and gives him her answer. "Okay, you need me to spin the illusion... consider it done."

Ever since their private dinner several months ago, when she admitted she didn't have a lot of friends... and she considered him one of them; they have become close. Neither wanted the world to know so it was a private thing between them. Holly loved being able to dress down and just be the girl she had been on her family farm back in Ohio. Gibbs loved having her with him in his basement as he taught her about working with wood, finishing furniture and sailing. They didn't see each other often, maybe once or twice a month and neither questioned what happened during their time apart.

Holly would occasionally get phone calls, asking for her to be somewhere in the evening and each time she would agree, then reluctantly tell Gibbs she needed to leave. He had his suspicions what the callers wanted, but he never asked. She had offered to explain it to him that first night, but he told her he didn't care... and at first he hadn't. Now that he knows her better, the calls have begun to bother him. He wasn't jealous exactly... since he didn't have a right to be jealous of her activities away from him, but he wasn't happy when those calls cut into the time spent with her.

He could see her more often, call her up for lunch or dinner; maybe an evening out and she would say yes, but he didn't. He knew that was a slippery slope and once he began trying to climb it, trying to reach the top... he knew it would be all consuming. He knew he could make it to that goal at the top, but would he be able to hold on to that prize or would she slip away the next time the phone rang? Gibbs was experienced enough to know he didn't share. It was better to have her as his friend, see her occasionally and don't ask questions about what she did with the rest of her time.

What Gibbs didn't know was that Holly was having similar thoughts. She liked the fact that Gibbs wasn't complicated. She could relax with him and just be herself... but she had no doubt Jethro Gibbs would be a demanding man in a relationship. She had learned a little bit about him in their short friendship... stuff she hadn't learned when she put together her file on him when they first met. It never hurt to know your enemy; at least that's what she considered him when they first met. After all, he had arrested her for facilitating the payment to hired killers. However even though she'd pled guilty, she couldn't be angry with him. He'd gone out of his way to ensure she got a very light sentence... a few days in jail and probation. Sure, she had to wear that ankle monitoring bracelet for a while. And she had to do those public service training sessions on workplace sexual harassment, but over all she'd gotten off with hardly a slap on the hand. It was that dedication to enforcing the law, but also looking out for her, knowing what she'd done that made her respect him.

Her respect turned to intrigue the more she got to know him. By the time the serial killer case came along two years later she'd been happy to see him. He'd asked for her help in locating one of her former call girls who was mixed up in four murders, but Holly knew she wasn't a killer. She'd offered to help with the investigation and had almost ended up getting killed by the guy herself. Gibbs had put an end to that... and the killer, charging in with is gun blazing just as the freak lawyer was about to slit her throat. It was still a blur to her, but Holly distinctly remembers his hand, reaching down to help her up... and then his arms wrapping tightly around her. This was a man who cared deeply, but chose not to show the world this side of himself very often.

After that case, Gibbs had convinced Director Vance that Holly had assets the agency could use. Her skill at setting scenes, doing stings and creating any illusion they needed to work a case. Holly knew Vance didn't trust her and probably never would, but he trusted Gibbs and his judgment, so he had gone along with making Holly Snow a consultant for NCIS. They had called on her a few times over the months, but Holly had her own business and always re-arranged her schedule to do the jobs they needed when Gibbs asked.

Now, it appeared Gibbs needed her to spin her illusions once again... this time with him. Holly had given his request a lot of thought after he dropped her off at her car after lunch. She was at first excited about the opportunity to get closer to him... see if she was right about him. She knew he was a confident man, but she sensed he kept a tight leash on the animal inside him. She'd once teased him about 'liking it rough' and he'd just smirked at her. She'd also asked him if he was into role playing, but he'd said no. He intrigued her because he was so intensely private and she wanted to see that inner Gibbs come out. This was her chance to get under his skin, maybe push his buttons and see how far he was willing to go under the pretext of their relationship. Maybe she'd see just how much control he had over himself.