A/N: I wrote this and the next chapter during Valentine's day, with a pretty bad hangover and after watching "reservoir dogs", so I apologize if you might think that some things do not really make sense. I hope you'll enjoy anyway.

Reviews are always appreciated!

The noise of a car leaving the driveway woke Tony up. It was barely 6.30 in the morning. He yawned loudly as he opened his eyes and looked around, still sleepy, trying to remember where he was. As his eyes met the ones of a young Kate Todd's portrait, he remembered he was in her childhood home in Indiana to investigate on a mysterious tape Mrs. Todd had received the previous day.

He quickly put on some clothes and left the room, tape in his hand, heading towards the kitchen.

He was surprised to see Laura Todd already awake, unloading the dishwasher and at the same time cooking some eggs and bacon for breakfast.

"Good morning, Tony."

From her face and her concerned voice, Tony assumed she didn't have a good night rest. He nodded back at her, smiling.

"I hope you like eggs and bacon. You know, Caitlin never ate any of these things and I don't know if healthy eating habits are a general agent thing or it was just hers…"

She smiled at him while placing some eggs and bacon on a plate and offering it to him, who gladly accepted.

"I do love bacon and eggs."

Laura Todd sat down across the table from Tony and looked at him. She wondered how close he had been to Kate. Were they just colleagues? Friends? Or maybe even something more? She had never have a very close relationship with her daughter, especially after she had moved out right after high school and she had never been up to date on her love life. She just randomly got news from her oldest son, Josh, who was the only member of the family Kate was close to. She hadn't been the biggest fan of her career choice, and neither had been her husband. They both had been pushing her to become a lawyer, but she was too stubborn to do as told.

Tony quietly observed the woman sitting in front of him, noticing the similarities between her and Kate. She was very slender and very composed. Her hair was light brown, shoulder length and slightly wavy. Her eyes were bright green though, as opposed as Kate's hazel ones. Even thought he had seen her during the funeral, over four years back, he didn't notice how much of Kate she had in her. He wondered where Mr. Todd was. He assumed he was the one who had left early in the morning, maybe to go to work.

The woman suddenly interrupted the comfortable silence between her and Tony.

"You know, Caitlin never liked it here in Indiana. She wanted to travel the world and move somewhere else. She was always up for an adventure."

Tony nodded silently as encouraging her to go on.

"She was really popular during high school. She was the prom queen, but she never really cared about any of these things. She just wanted to leave. She was still wearing her graduation gown when she hopped into her car and drove all the way to Washington. You know, she had got a summer internship there and she had been admitted to Georgetown. She wanted to major in Psychology but we really pushed her into Political Science – Pre Law, so she compromised by double majoring. We rarely heard from her during her college years, and she rarely came back home for the holidays. She always preferred traveling with her friends somewhere far away from us."

Tony noticed her voice was shaky. She had obviously been hurt by Kate's choice to keep distance from the rest of her family.

"After she graduated she came home for a few days. She told me she was planning on moving to California. She never told me why, but she told the reason to her brother, Josh. He told me why only a few years ago. Apparently she had met this great guy while she was in Mexico with her sorority sisters. He was almost 10 years older than her and was an aspiring actor in Los Angeles. He talked her into move in with him. So she did, and she got into Law School at USC. I don't really know what happened, but only one year after she moved out there, she decided to move back to DC and apply for a job in Law Enforcement."

The woman paused and bit her lower lip. After taking a sip of orange juice she started talking again.

"She never really gave us news on what was going on in her life. We only got to know about her job when something bad happened, like during the terrorist attack while she was protecting the President or when, well… when she passed…"

Tony looked at the woman who was now holding her head with her hands and silently crying.

"Kate was a brilliant agent. She loved her job at NCIS and we all loved her. She left a big void."

He stood up and walked around the table, resting his hand on Laura's shoulder.

"She had a big heart. I am sure she loved you all, even if she couldn't always show it."

Laura Todd gave him a weak yet thankful smile.

"Did you find anything? I mean, about the tape…"

"I will need to check something on my laptop. I think the account number he wrote down on the piece of paper might be a good lead. At least we will know who's the person behind this prank and if he's working for someone."

"I am going to run some errands. If you need anything, here's my cell phone number."

As Laura Todd left, Tony decided to call Abby to ask for help. He wasn't going to tell her why he needed her, but he knew the goth was the only one who he could have counted on in that particular situation. He felt sorry for somehow breaking his promise to Laura and not keep the entire situation to himself, but with Abby's help things would have been a whole lot faster.

Abby promptly picked up the phone.

"Tony! Why are you calling me so early on a Saturday morning? Do I have to get to HQ?"

Tony smiled at her hyper tone, wondering how she could be so full of energy at that time of the morning, on a weekend day.

"Abby, I need your help. Can you please give me the name of an account owner? I have the coordinates here…"

The forensic scientist mumbled something on the other side of the line that Tony wasn't quite able to understand.

"Tony, why do you need me to do that?"

Tony sighed. He knew this was going to be hard, given Abby's natural curiosity.

"Listen Abs, I can't really tell you about this but it's really important and I really need you to help me out here. Please."

After giving it a few seconds of thought, Abby decided to help Tony out.

"Okay. Give me the coordinates of the account."

After about half an hour, Tony had a name and an address.

"Thank you so much, Abs."

As he hung up the phone, he started typing the newfound name on the NCIS database.

Elliott Partridge, 31. Clean record.

He decided he needed to check on this guy himself, so after booking a flight to Philadelphia he headed back to Kate's old bedroom to pack his things up.

Waiting for Laura Todd to come back, he decided to take a look around the lower floor of the house. Entering the living room, he couldn't help but noticing how neat it was. It looked like nobody really lived in there. There was furniture, there were pictures, but it felt empty. There was a piano and a picture of a red-haired girl on it. He assumed her to be Kate's sister. Other pictures were hanging on the walls, mostly were family portraits and old pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Todd. They looked like a normal, slightly more conservative than average, middle class family.

While he was looking through the various photos, Laura quietly entered the room and smiled. She was impressed by how that man seemed to genuinely care. As she cleared her throat to make her presence noticed, Tony turned around. He was relieved to see that the woman didn't look upset by his looking around.

"I found a lead. I am booked on the 3 PM flight to Philadelphia."

Laura nodded gratefully at Tony.

"I'll give you a ride to the airport."

Tony lifted his bag and followed Laura to her car. The drive was silent but not uncomfortable. Both of them were in fact lost in thoughts. As Laura parked the car in front of the terminal, she hesitated a few seconds before taking out a small tin box with the word 'NCIS' written on the upper right corner, and handing it to Tony.

"Josh found it in her apartment. It's locked and we've never opened it. I think you should keep it. See what's inside."

Tony gave the woman a questioning look. It didn't feel right to him to have something that belonged to Kate and that she obviously cared enough about to lock it.

Laura sensed Tony's hesitation in taking the small box, but insisted.

"I know she would have rather you to keep it."

Tony nodded slightly, finally accepting the box and placing it in his suitcase, and extended a hand to Laura, who took it and shook it.

"Thank you, Tony. Please, keep me informed. I… I need to know why someone who'd be doing such a thing to us. Like we hadn't been through a lot already…"

"I will give you a call as soon as I'll know something more, Laura."

"You're a good man."

Tony walked towards the automatic doors and turned around to wave at Laura, who had just got back into her car and was waving at him as well.

He took a deep breath and proceeded to check in. So much for a relaxing weekend, he thought.

R&R!!!!