A/N: Couldn't make ya wait too long for part 2 of 'The Date'... *smile* The lab scene was a bit of a struggle for me - I had it partially written one way, hit a total wall, then blew it all away and started over in a different direction. Let me know if I got it right, please?

Warnings/Spoilers: General spoilers up to & including Season 7

Disclaimer: Canon characters belong to DPB, CBS et al. No copyright infringement intended.

Thursday, June 3, 2010 2:37 p.m.

"How did she die, Tony?"

He should have expected the question; it was the sort of thing Pete would have asked, if he were interested in knowing such things. So… she was a straight shooter, just like her brother.

He hadn't thought about his mother's death for a very long time. Whenever someone asked about her, he usually regaled them with one of the various humiliations to which she'd subjected him (such as the sailor suit travesty), or one of the embarrassing gaffes she'd committed after drinking six or seven mint juleps.

None of those inquiries had ever revealed the fact that, in spite of it all, Tony had loved his mother.

She'd been the one to tuck him into bed at night (never mind the smell of alcohol on her breath). She'd been the one who'd stayed up all night in the rocking chair, holding him in her arms, nursing him through a bad case of tonsillitis when he was four years old. She'd been the one who'd helped him cut little hearts out of folded red construction paper to make his very first valentine, for Amy Huntington, in first grade.

He'd never told anyone about how she used to cry herself to sleep at night. He'd never told anyone about the time she'd gotten in between him and his father, acting as a human shield when Senior, in a drunken rage, had threatened to beat him to within an inch of his life with a belt.

And he'd never told anyone about her death. No one had ever asked. Until now.

"She fell down the stairs and broke her neck. It was a very dramatic exit – everything my mother ever did was dramatic."

Louisa's eyes widened in shock at the flippant comment. But she was perceptive enough to realize that this was Tony's way of deflecting the pain this memory obviously caused. She waited a moment, just to see if he'd share anything more, but his smile told her that was all the information she was going to get out of him, at least for now. His defenses were firmly in place, and she'd just attempted a full-on assault behind the lines. She silently cursed her faux-pas, and beat a hasty retreat.

"I'm so sorry, Tony. It was wrong of me to ask you that."

"No, it wasn't. The whole point of this is to get to know more about each other, right?" She nodded warily. "Ok, so tell me what it was like growing up with Pete."

She rolled her eyes, relieved that he'd shifted the conversation in a new direction. "He was such a terrible tease. Never left me alone. When I was little, his favourite thing was to tickle me until I turned red in the face and went into hysterics. One time, they couldn't get me out of it for about five minutes, and I think I really scared him. He never tickled me again after that. But he found other ways to get me."

Tony was grinning and nodding steadily as she recounted the episode. "I knew there was a reason I liked him. Sounds like something I would've done if I'd had siblings."

"Oh God. Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead," she groaned.

He pouted. "Why? You can't tease someone unless you like them. Otherwise it's just being cruel."

"It's a fine line," she fired back, and Tony sensed a visceral undercurrent to her voice.

"Does he push too far sometimes?" he ventured.

She nodded. "Nothing I can't handle, though." And there it was. Just as he had suspected – the trademark Penachetti grit.

"That Concealed Weapon Permit comes in handy, doesn't it?" he joked. She went red, and they both laughed, remembering Gibbs' question to her in interrogation several days ago.

The waitress returned to take their plates. Louisa looked at her watch – 2:53 p.m.

"You'll be late back to work," she remarked. The disappointment in her voice was obvious. The time had gone by so fast, and she didn't want this date to end. Nor did he, but he didn't want to push his luck with Gibbs. He asked for the check.

He took both her hands in his. "When can I see you again?"

She sighed. "This would be so much easier if I could just get on the day shift. I've had my name on the list for over a year. With Jake gone, we're even more short-staffed on evenings... there's no way I'll ever get out of there." She thought for a moment. "My trio is playing a wedding on Saturday night... what about Sunday evening?"

"Your trio?" He went over the layout of her apartment in his mind, and remembered the cello he'd seen standing in a corner of her living room. "So that cello wasn't just for decoration, huh? I'll have to get you to play for me sometime. Ok, let me think... Sunday evening... oh, that'll be game 5 of the Stanley Cup..." The moment the words were out of his mouth, he realized how bad that sounded. "But I can tape it... " he added lamely.

She tossed her head back and laughed at his discomfort. "I have a better idea. You're gonna be at Pete's, right?"

"Well, that was the plan..."

"Mind if I tag along?"

He looked confused. "Of course I don't mind... but that won't be much fun for you..."

She closed one eye and looked up at him under her eyebrows. "You and Pete really are too much alike. You think, because I'm a girl, I couldn't possibly be interested in hockey. My name isn't Julia, you know. If the Blackhawks don't win this thing, I'll be mighty pissed."

Tony grinned broadly. "Chicago? I'll have to show you the error of your ways, sweetheart. How about if I pick you up, say around 19:00? We're ordering in pizza and wings."

"Sounds great!" Louisa chirped. She winked at Tony. "Did Pete say you could bring a date?"

"Nope," he replied, wearing his best Cheshire Cat smile.

They ambled back to the Navy Yard arm in arm, stretching the moment out for as long as possible. Arriving back at NCIS Headquarters, Tony drew her aside, out of view of the front doors, and pulled her close. He ran his fingers through her hair, pressing her head gently against his chest and breathing in that wonderful vanilla/apricot scent that seemed to be her trademark. Neither of them wanted to move, but DiNozzo knew that by now Gibbs was probably wearing a hole in the carpet up in the bullpen, and thinking about how hard he could get away with slapping Tony's head without being brought up on assault charges.

He took her face in his hands, and gazed at her. "I'll call you tomorrow. Hope work goes better tonight."

She smiled. "Thank you for lunch – it was absolutely wonderful." She didn't just mean the meal, and Tony knew it.

Another long, delicious kiss followed. As their tongues engaged in reconnaissance, Louisa ran the fingers of her right hand playfully along the edge of Tony's left ear, until he almost couldn't stand it. He quivered and laughed, pulling away and giving her a disapproving look. "Have mercy! I gotta be able to focus when I get back up there. Gibbs gave me a lecture about being 'fully present' in the office..."

"Sorry," she murmured. "I've been waiting a long time for this... a very long time."

As their eyes locked, Tony noted the earnestness in her face, and marveled again that this lovely woman had not been snatched up long ago by some eager young buck. Here he was, pushing 40, with a long, damaged history of romantic liaisons taken up and just as quickly discarded, and yet she'd chosen to be with him. It shook him to realize in that moment that he didn't feel deserving of her attentions. She should be able to do so much better.

"I can't imagine why... "

"I'll tell you sometime... " She looked at him wistfully, then quickly pulled away and strode towards the parking lot. Glancing back over her shoulder, she blew him another kiss. He stood there, transfixed, watching her climb into her SUV and drive off, following her with his eyes until she was completely out of sight. What had she meant by that? She made it sound as if being a bachelorette had been a deliberate choice...

Giving himself a shake, he pulled on the mantle of Professional Tony, and strode back into HQ, determined to finish his report on the Halpern murder before leaving the office tonight.

2:27 p.m.

Ziva headed down to the forensics lab, intending to check on Abby's progress with processing the items she'd recovered from Jacob Halpern's apartment. If Tony was going to be seeing the Petty Officer on a regular basis, she reasoned, he'd be able to deliver the items to her once all the necessary evidence had been lifted from them.

She always found Abby's music to be annoying at best, and intolerable at worst. Steeling herself, she strode into the lab, and stopped dead in her tracks, as she beheld the image of Tony and Louisa, fully displayed on the main plasma screen. But Abby had not distorted it as she had originally planned. Rather, she sat studying it, chin in her beggar's-gloved hands.

The Goth sensed Ziva's presence, and spun around in her chair, taking a sip of her Caf-Pow and smiling broadly. She motioned back at the screen. "There's something different about this one."

"Yes. This woman is very special to him."

Abby sensed that Ziva had information that she was lacking. If Tony had genuinely found love, she needed to know all about it. "C'mon Ziva, spill!"

Ziva shrugged her shoulders. "There is nothing more to tell. Louisa is nothing like any of his previous girlfriends; she's not even much to look at. But his feelings for her are genuine."

"But how do you know that, Ziva?" Abby pressed.

"He told me so," she admitted.

"He told you so?" She jumped up and circled around her chair, chopping the air with her hands as she squawked, "Wait. This is Tony we're talking about here. Tony only talks about his relationships when they're not serious."

"As you said, this one is different." Abby took a deep breath, but Ziva steamrolled her before she had a chance to respond, and held up her hand. "He will tell us more when he's ready."

The Goth closed her mouth and squeezed her eyes tight. "Right. Ok. Just… promise me, if you hear something, you'll tell me right away. I'm always the last one to know." Ziva nodded. Abby glanced back at the photo on the plasma and muttered, "I really, really hope she's the one. He so deserves to be happy." She cocked her head, and tried to imagine Tony as a contented family man.

She didn't see the momentary flicker of melancholy in Ziva's eyes.

"Abby, I really came down here to see if you were finished processing that hairbrush and the other items I brought in from Halpern's apartment."

"Oh, yeah. I took them back down to the evidence locker yesterday. All of the items had Halpern's prints on them. My guess is, they were his little trophies. He was probably trying to mess with Louisa's head, by systematically stealing her stuff. I had this boyfriend once - "

Ziva didn't wait for her to tell her story. "So the hairs we found likely weren't planted by Noreen Jessop… if they had been, the top set of prints on the hairbrush would have appeared to be the Petty Officer's herself, from the latex fingertips Jessop used…" Ziva contemplated this new evidence in light of everything else they knew about Halpern's murder.

"Any hits on the BOLO?" Abby inquired.

"None. There are two possibilities… either she is long gone and safely back in Israel, or…"

"Or, she's lying in wait for her next assignment." Gibbs entered the lab, handing a fresh Caf-Pow to Abby. "I've got a theory about that, Ziva." The former Mossad agent raised an eyebrow, inviting Gibbs to elaborate. "I'm putting a protection detail on you, effective immediately."

Abby's eyes went wide as she realized what Gibbs was implying. "You think she's after Ziva?"

"Think about it. Jessop must've known NCIS would be called in to investigate the transmission and the murder. She didn't make much of an effort to hide her tracks – took us less than 24 hours to figure out she was responsible. She would've known Ziva would be on the investigating team. And she would know that as a former Mossad agent herself, Ziva'd be the one most anxious to track her down."

"But she could not engage in an operation like this without orders from higher up…" as Ziva thought out loud, a horrible realization came over her. "My father… he ordered her to neutralize me."

"Neutralize? You mean kill, Ziva! Gibbs, this is awful!" Abby wailed.

Gibbs nodded. "That's what I'm thinking. And that's why I'm assigning DiNozzo to lead the protection detail, as soon as he gets back."

Ziva was indignant. "I do not need protection. I can take care of myself."

"This isn't a debate, David. As soon as Tony gets back, go with him to your apartment and pick up what you need. You'll be staying at one of our safe houses for the next while, until Jessop surfaces."

Abby gave Ziva a too-tight, too-long hug. "Be careful, Ziva! Do as Gibbs says, he's always right about these things."

The former Israeli rolled her eyes. "Very well. But this is a waste of NCIS resources. Assuming we are right about her plans, Jessop will not make a move as long as she sees a security detail around me. This could be a very long stalemate."

"That's ok, Zivers. We'll talk about how to set the bait later. Right now, I need to know someone's on your six at all times."

A/N: Ok, this last bit was originally supposed to come much later in the story, so I have no more idea what's going to happen next than you do. Guess we'll find out, huh? *smile*