A/N: Well, it looks like everything has decided to get in the way this last week; work, things to study... and cherry on top of the cake, my computer has decided to crash every five minutes. But here it is, the new chapter already posted. And I have a surprise! Yeah, I've learnt how to use quotation marks in the dialogue! Once again, I want to thank my faithful beta read; darling, love you! And thnks once more!

Timothy McGee leaned on his chair, puzzled. He read again the lines flashing on his computer screen. His fingers went for the keyboard, but stopped before typing anything. His mind was concentrating hard on the task before him. Well, maybe concentrating a bit too hard, as he didn't notice Tony's tiptoeing steps until it was too late.

"What are you doing, Probie?"

McGee closed the window immediately. "Nothing."

"Trying to fool us, McGee?" He nodded towards Ziva's desk. "Me and crazy ninja over there were wondering what the hell you were doing, since you looked so-"

"Your face was hilarious", Ziva mocked, mimicking his concentrated look.

"So, Probie, what's that blue window you've just closed?"

"None of your business, Tony."

"Wrong answer."

"Well, fine. It's a game."

"A game?"

"Yeah, a game."

"Where are the graphics?"

"It doesn't have any. It's called Interactive Fiction, alright?"

Tony grabbed his mouse and opened the window. "Are you telling me this thing is a game? How the hell do you play it, there's no pictures!"

"Do you choose a book the same way, Tony?"

"Don't pull that one on me, Probie. Of course not. Are you forgetting I read that wonderful work of fiction called 'Deep Six'?" Tony turned his attention back to the 'game'. "It looks more that you're hacking into the FBI. Check it out, Ziva."

The Mossad agent left her desk, joining them behind McGee's.

"For your information, this is Infocom's classic 1986 game called Trinity, by Brian Moriarty, whose storyline has been praised for-"

"I'm with you Tony, this is so geek."

McGee was about to reply when his eyes fell on the lift. "Lift is going to stop on this floor."

In less than a second, Tony and Ziva where sitting behind their own desks, looking as busy as ever. The lift doors opened and a few junior agents came out, heading towards their desks on the other side of the bullpen. But Gibbs was nowhere to be seen.

"False alarm," said Tony, leaning back on his chair, no longer pretending to be busy.

"It's almost 0800," Ziva remarked.

"So? Want me to go fetch him? Go back to your weird game, Probie. Boss isn't in the area."

"Gibbs is never late," Ziva insisted.

"There's a first time for everything."

"Maybe he's in MTAC," McGee pointed out while reopening his game's window.

"Or maybe he fell asleep under the boat. C'mon, the man is human too."

"No, he's not, Tony. You should know that by now," said a voice from behind him.

"Abby? You, upstairs?"

The Goth girl came around his desk and sat on it, her metallic bracelets rattling with every movement. "It's so dull in the lab. Nothing to do yet. You'd better have a case today, or I'm falling asleep on my futon."

"There are other teams working on this building, Abby," Ziva said from her desk.

"I know. But their cases are nowhere as exciting as yours. So, why is my silver fox late?"

"No clue." McGee answered, typing on his keyboard.

"Guess what, I'm tired of just waiting for Gibbs to show up." Tony got up and grabbed his coat. "I'm going out for coffee. Who's coming with?"

Ziva's conscience wandered between her duty and her caffeine fix; the latter eventually won. "I am."

"Ok. You stay here, McGee. Boss'll kills us all if he arrives and nobody is here."

"Why me? I want a coffee too."

"We'll bring you one." Leaving no time for McGee to protest, Tony and Ziva went to the lift. As soon as they pressed the button, the lift doors opened again, this time with Gibbs inside. And he was not alone.

"DiNozzo. Ziva. Leaving already?"

"Boss. Director. 'Morning."

Jenny held onto a smile as Tony's eyes jumped back and forth between Gibbs and herself. "Good morning, Agent DiNozzo."

"We… we were only going to the coffee shop," Ziva explained.

"Already ran out of caffeine without any work to do?"

"Going back to our desks, Boss."

"Good. See you in a minute." Gibbs leaned and pressed the last floor button, closing the doors on an astonished Tony and Ziva.

"I told you arriving late wasn't a good idea," Jenny said, smiling.

"Tell me it wasn't worth it." He rested his head on the curve of her neck, caressing her face.

"Oh, definitely. But you know, I could hear DiNozzo thinking."

"I can take care of him. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried. But I bet that right now your entire team is wondering what the hell you're doing, escorting me to my office."

Downstairs, Tony was still looking at the closed lift doors. "Where the hell is he going?"

"Upstairs."

"Thank you, Ziva, I could figure out that much by myself." They both turned, heading back to their desks.

"Where's my coffee?" McGee asked without looking away from the screen.

"Forget coffee, Probie. We've got much more serious issues to discuss."

"For example?"

"Why Boss man and Boss lady arrived together."

"Tony, you don't know if they arrived together. They could have met in the lift." Ziva sat back on her chair.

"Yeah, right."

"Mummy and Daddy arrived together?" They had almost forgotten that Abby was still in the bullpen with them.

"We don't know, Abby-"

"Have you ever seen any of them arriving late?" Tony cut Ziva.

"The Director was late once," McGee remembered.

"She'd been kidnapped. I don't think that counts." Tony was now smirking widely. "Fifty bucks says they spent the night together."

"I would like to get fifty bucks from you every time you said that," Ziva responded. "By the way, how do you plan to find out if you're right?"

"I'm an investigator, remember?"

"No. You are a nosey bloke."

"I'm putting fifty on Tony."

"Thanks, Abs."

Ziva rolled her eyes.

Tony opened the top drawer of his desk and took out a small, worn notebook. After finding an empty sheet, he grabbed a pencil. "So, that's fifty from me, fifty from Abby, fifty from Probie-"

"Hey!" McGee blurted out. "Don't write me in!"

"Don't be a spoilsport, McGeek. Besides, this is a win-win situation, trust me. Where was I… Right, fifty bucks from Ziva in how they're not sleeping together. Loser."

"Stop it, Tony." In less than a second, Ziva had jumped from her desk and was trying to snatch Tony's notebook. "So this is where you keep all the bets…"

"DiNozzo, David." Gibbs said, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

"Boss!" The notebook was tossed back into the depths of the drawer.

Thankfully, Gibbs' desk phone rang.

"Dead woman found at Quantico. Stop acting like children and gear up."

Jenny took a look at the clock on her desk. She had to be in MTAC in half an hour for a meeting with SecNav. Despite the lovely weekend she had had, she couldn't stop wondering if SecNav had really bought her excuses. Facing the man on the big screen would definitely tell her if he had.

Her hand travelled up to the spot on her neck where, just minutes ago, Gibbs had been kissing her. If she hadn't practically thrown him out of her office… the corners of her lips twisted playfully at the thought of what would certainly have happened.

In order to be able to work properly, she dismissed Gibbs from her thoughts. She rose from her chair and went to the drinks cabinet. Ignoring the bourbon bottle, she took a glass, went over to the sink and filled it with water. It would probably be wisest to give to Gibbs the bottle, later that day, to keep the temptation at bay.

Searching through her handbag, she found the medicines flasks and briefly studied them. The recent change in her medication still confused her a bit. After a quick check at the prescriptions she took two different pills and swallowed them with the water. The flasks were tossed again into her handbag, safely hidden at the bottom. It had been hard to take her medication on time behind Gibbs' back during the weekend, but somehow she had managed.

Jenny drank what little water was left in the glass and put it on her desk. She grabbed her spectacles and prepared herself for another round of report-reading, but the phone on her desk rang as soon as she had opened the first file.

"Sheppard."

"Director, SecNav's office has called. He'd like to know if your meeting in MTAC could be sooner. In ten minutes, more precisely.

"Yes, it can. Call MTAC and say that I'm heading there."

"Alright, madam."

"How could anyone drop a body here and not be seen?" McGee didn't wait for an answer, as the rest of the team was wondering the same thing. When they called in, they hadn't mentioned that the body was lying right under the Marine Memorial, at the Base front gate.

A uniformed man was waiting near the gates and was now walking in their direction. "Special Agent Gibbs?"

"That'd be me."

"Gunnery Sergeant Andersen. Commander Phillips has sent me to welcome you and give you all the possible information."

They walked towards the gates, Gibbs now at Andersen's side. "Any clues on the victim's ID?"

"Not yet, I'm afraid, Agent Gibbs. It takes time to go through almost twelve thousand people, military and civilian."

"I'm aware of that."

"But you can trust that as soon as we have any information, you'll be the first to know."

The team stopped at the Memorial. Lying at its bottom was a woman's body, messily tossed at the pavement. Her face was not visible through the dishevelled blonde hair, but from the bruises on her arms they could tell she had been assaulted.

"Ducky should be here by now. Where is he?" Gibbs asked while the rest of the team was busy opening their kits and preparing all the material.

"They were right behind us, I don't know why they haven't arrived when we did…" Ziva answered, removing the cover from her camera's lens.

Gibbs just shrugged and moved towards the body, careful not to touch it. He leaned down and took a better look.

"He's in a good mood," Ziva heard from behind her.

"And?" she answered, facing her camera's screen and not Tony.

"This is Gibbs we're talking about."

"It happens."

"Yeah. Once in a year. And last Friday he was in a good mood too."

"So it happens twice in a year. Get a life, DiNozzo. Leave Gibbs' alone."

"He's not even pissed off with Ducky being late. Don't tell me that's not weird."

"Out of character, maybe. Not… weird." Ziva stepped near the body and started taking pictures.

A car's noise came from the base gates and the large NCIS Medical Examiner MPV appeared, parking by their car. A stressed Ducky came out of it a few seconds later, walking towards them while Palmer was busy taking the stretcher and the medical kits.

"I deeply apologise…"

Gibbs rose from near the corpse. "What happened, Duck? Weren't you just behind us?"

"We were, but when Ziva turned abruptly out of the highway, Mr Palmer had no time to turn and we went straight to Interstate Highway connection. It was awhile before we found a turning point. I could swear we were going to end up in Iowa."

"See how much damage you can do with a steering wheel on your hands, Ziva?"

"Oh, shut up, Tony."

"So, what do we have here?" Ducky asked, approaching the dead body.

"We're waiting you to tell us. We've got nothing so far." Gibbs explained.

Ducky kneeled. "My knees aren't what they used to be… Caucasian woman, apparently defensive wounds on her arms and knuckles…" he turned her slowly and lifted her hair from her face, "A young woman, I'm afraid… And quite an unseen hairstyle these days…"

"What do you mean, Ducky?" McGee asked.

"Despise being dishevelled, our lady was using a French Twist. See here?" The doctor pointed to what was left of the twisted ponytail.

"It might not be the most fashionable hairstyle nowadays, but it's not uncommon," Ziva remarked.

"Is it just me or does she look like she came straight from the fifties?" Tony asked after a better look. "Hair, polished nails, you can still see what was left of the make-up… even the dress. I doubt she was in the Marine Corps. More likely a marine's wife."

"Or a civil employee." Ziva remembered.

Gibbs leaned a bit, something calling is attention. "Another bruise in her face."

"Yes. And a nasty one." Ducky looked around, until he spotted Palmer coming over, bringing the medical gear. "Mr Palmer?"

"Here, Doctor Mallard."

"Help me check the liver's temperature, Mr Palmer."

"Cause of death?" Gibbs asked.

"Give me some minutes, Jethro. Death occurred eight to ten hours ago, but the night was cold, so…"

"That's gives us…between 2200 and 0000, more or less." McGee counted.

"No petechias. No concussion or any visible marks, neck and mouth included. I guess we'll got to wait for the tox screen."

"That's all, Duck?"

"Yes, Jethro. Mr Palmer, just let me check here… Yes, a few livid marks inconsistent with her current position."

"So, she's been moved?"

"I would say so, yes."

"Thanks Duck." Gibbs turned to face his team. "Ziva, DiNozzo, finish the search on the perimeter. McGee, you and I are going to start asking questions. We need to know if anyone from around here has seen anything, and try to identify her. Duck, are you returning to D.C. already?"

"Yes. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can find the cause of death."

"Let me know then."

"Of course. See you later."

Gibbs nodded, turning to McGee. "Let's go then."

Jenny grabbed her coat, getting ready herself to leave the office. After making sure she wasn't leaving anything behind that would force her to return, like her spectacles or her mobile phone, she took her handbag and headed for the door.

Instead of taking the lift, she came near the catwalk and gazed at the empty bullpen. She smiled the moment her eyes focused on a certain occupied desk. Trying not to be noticed, she went to the stairs and crossed the bullpen.

"Working overtime, Jethro?"

His head rose from whatever he was reading. "Sort of. More of an excuse to wait for you, actually. How was your day?"

"Crappy." Jenny grabbed an empty chair from Ziva's desk and sat across him.

"What about… SecNav?" Gibbs couldn't help but grin.

"As stubborn as last Saturday. But no, he didn't… hmm, mention anything, no. Nor have I noticed anything."

"Good."

"How's the case? Brief me, I barely had time to know what it was about."

"The Stepford Wife?"

"What?"

"That's what DiNozzo calls her. For Abby, she's just Marilyn."

"But why? Does she-"

"Resemble the typical housewife? Yes. But we've come up with an ID. Laura Carlson, married to Sergeant Hank Carlson, who serves in Recruiting Command. He had been supervising an exercise outside the base all morning, so it was a neighbour who recognised the body. Abby has begun to run the tox screen, but nothing has shown up yet and Ducky couldn't determine the cause of death."

"Dead end so far?"

Gibbs shrugged. She knew he disliked being stuck. Tossing the papers he was reading into the top drawer, he grabbed his things. "Shall we go?"

"Together?"

"Of course."

"What happened to not living together?"

"We haven't started pissing each other yet, so let's enjoy it."

"I kind of like that, you know…" Jenny rose from the chair and followed him to the lift. "Whose place then?"

"You choose."

"Mine."

"I knew it. I'll have to stop by my place, then. I need some clothes. I can't wear the same shirt three times in a row."

"Don't complain, I washed it for you like a good housewife."

He laughed.

"Every time you laugh at my domestic skills, I wonder I didn't let you starve back in Serbia."

He laughed again and, taking advance of the bullpen's emptiness, he caressed her face fondly.

Reviews are welcomed and loved! :D