~o~
"Where are we at, McGee?" Gibbs asked as he charged into the bullpen the next morning.
Kate had arrived extra early, remembering Gibbs' habit of rolling in before the rest of the team, and she'd set up her laptop at Ziva's desk until that woman had arrived. They'd ended up sharing the desk, with Ziva sitting behind the desk and Kate pulling up a spare chair in front.
Tony had shuffled in almost an hour later, looking just as sharp as he had the day before, this time in grey, with a pale blue shirt and tie. He'd dropped his bag and trench coat behind his desk and settled into work without so much as a greeting. Ziva had looked at Kate, an apology in her eyes. Kate's answering smile was forced, but neither woman said anything else.
McGee had been there before everyone, only the tan suit he wore indicating that he'd been home at all. The silence in the bullpen had been oppressive, but with the pressure of the weapons still at large, and no idea where to start looking, no one was particularly interested in idle chat anyway.
Gibbs' arrival had changed that. McGee stood up and grabbed the remote, pulling up some files on the monitor next to his desk. The rest joined him.
"I've been through the financials on all four Marines," he said, calling up more files. "If these guys got paid for stealing the weapons, they didn't put the money in their accounts."
"Any idea where Roland and Keener are now?" he asked.
"We've been watching their credit cards, but they could be paying cash for everything, and we wouldn't know," Tony said.
"Ya think?" Gibbs snarked. "We got anything else?"
"No—" McGee started to say, but was interrupted by his phone ringing. He picked it up and listened for a moment. He thanked the caller, then hung up the phone. "That was Baltimore PD. They found a crate with US military markings on it in a warehouse this morning. They saw our alert and gave us a call."
"Tony, Kate, go check it out," Gibbs said. "McGee, keep digging."
And just as quickly as he'd appeared, he strode out of the room.
"Let's go," Tony said without preamble.
He grabbed his backpack and coat and swept past her without another word. Kate glanced at Ziva, who wore a look of absolute sympathy, then shrugged. Without another word, Ziva handed over Kate's bag, then sat down and watched the other woman follow in Tony's wake.
"What was that all about?" McGee asked as he sat down at his own desk.
"If you do not know," Ziva said, "then I will not be the one to explain."
With that, silence descended on the bullpen. McGee thought back over the events of the last few minutes, but couldn't for the life of him figure out what he'd missed. Shrugging, he pulled his keyboard towards himself and got back to work.
~o~
Gibbs strode into Abby's lab to find the music down low, and Abby herself sitting on her stool, leaned back, seemingly lost in thought. He snuck up behind her and put his mouth close to her ear.
"Got anything?"
Abby jumped almost out of her seat. She spun around to find Gibbs smiling unrepentantly, causing her heart to do a little flip-flop in her chest.
"Gibbs, you startled me!"
Gibbs chuckled. He knew she was miles away, so he'd taken the opportunity to sneak up on her. It didn't happen very often.
"You get anything from the car?" he asked.
Abby smiled. "As a matter of fact, I did." She spun back around and punched a few keys. "I found three sets of prints in the car. Two of them belong to Staff Sergeant Keener and his brother."
"And the third set?" Gibbs asked.
"Unknown," she said. "It wasn't any of Keener's squad mates. I'm running it through the database, but so far I haven't found a match."
"So we may have a fifth perp?"
"Or just an unhappy coincidence," Abby said. "I found the prints on the steering wheel and on both the driver's and passenger's doors."
"Means he was probably driving," he said as he watched Abby's computer scroll through potential matches.
"Based on the seat position, I can tell you something about him," she said. She pulled the keyboard to her and typed a few things in. The picture on the monitor changed. There was now a graphic showing the outline of a human body. "He's about 5" 8' and has black hair."
"Black hair?" he asked. "How do you figure?"
"Because I found a couple of his hairs clinging to the driver's seat," she said, grinning. "Longer than both Keener's and his brother's hair. There wasn't a root tag, so no DNA."
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Ballistics from San Diego came through," she said, hitting yet more keys on her computer. "The gun used to kill the two Marines at Pendleton was Keener's service weapon: a 40 caliber Beretta. The gun used to kill Keener's brother was a .45. No hits in IBIS."
Gibbs thought about that for a bit. All of it added up to another suspect. Only problem with that was that they knew even less about this guy than they did about the four Marines who'd pulled off the job. But right now, it was all they had.
"Good work," he said.
He turned and moved in to kiss her on the cheek, but she turned her face at the last second, and their lips connected instead. Gibbs froze, and Abby held very still. Slowly, very slowly, as the shock of the moment faded, his eyes fell closed, and he stepped into the kiss. It was soft, gentle, and ended way too soon.
When Gibbs pulled back, Abby opened her eyes to find him smiling at her. "Thanks, Abs," he whispered.
And then he was gone.
She watched him go, and when the doors to the elevator opened, he stepped inside and turned around. Just as the doors closed, he smiled and winked at her. When the doors closed, she let out a little shriek of joy and set her stool to spinning as she laughed out loud.
~o~
The warehouse district was a bleak, desolate place. Economic hardships had forced many of the businesses that used to operate out of the area to close. It was a perfect place for criminals to operate: there would be no one around to see any suspicious activity.
Tony pulled the NCIS sedan up next to the Baltimore PD squad car, its lights still flashing. He and Kate stepped out and silently made their way over to the two officers, standing beside their patrol unit.
It had been a silent, tension-filled ride to the warehouse. Kate hadn't known what to say, and since Tony didn't speak a word, she decided that discretion was the better part of valor and had kept quiet as well.
She pulled out her badge and flashed it at the two officers, seeing Tony do the same out of the corner of her eye. "Special Agents Halladay and DiNozzo. What happened?"
If Tony noticed she'd taken the lead, he didn't show it.
"We got a call this morning," the taller of the two officers said. "One of the other owners reported seeing folks coming and going from this warehouse yesterday. Said he didn't recognize them, asked us to check it out."
"And you're just now getting around to it?" Tony asked.
"Tony," Kate said warningly.
"It was a busy day," the other officer said, ignoring the exchange. "Besides, the guy said the place has been shut down for a while."
"Okay, we'll take it from here," Kate said.
"Stick around in case we need you," Tony said, earning displeased glares from both officers.
Kate turned without another word and headed across the alley to the door. She pulled it open and stepped inside, Tony following. The room was large and dimly lit. It was also still stacked with boxes, as if whoever had once owned this building had simply abandoned it in the middle of the day.
They stepped inside, weaving around the boxes. They moved in tandem, just like they used to, as if no time had passed. The only noticeable difference was the lack of conversation. Kate's hand moved to her gun subconsciously, and she released the snap on the holster, just in case. Near the rollup doors, she spotted a box van, looking considerably cleaner than anything else in the room.
"Over there," she said, and moved that direction.
As the van came into view, she saw the crate. It was sitting on the floor near the back of the van, its lid lying cockeyed over the top, obviously empty. She and Tony approached cautiously, checking inside the cargo area of the van. There were several more identical crates, some with the lids lying against the walls of the van, some with the lids simply ajar.
"They didn't mention this," Tony said, indicating the multiple crates.
"I guess that means we won't be tracking the weapons using the RFID tags in the crates," Kate said.
Tony moved around to the front of the van while Kate climbed up inside to check the open crates. Sure enough, they were all empty.
"Kate," Tony called out.
She jumped down and rounded the van to join him. "Damn," she swore.
"Yeah, the cops didn't mention this, either."
In the driver's seat, slumped over the steering wheel, sat the lifeless body of Private Roland. She could see blood on the front of his shirt, pooling down between his legs. Tony reached in through the open window to touch his fingers to his pulse point.
"Body's cold," he said. "He's been dead a while."
"We'd better check the rest of the warehouse, just in case," she said.
Tony nodded, and the two of them swept the rest of the warehouse, but found nothing else out of the ordinary.
"Why this warehouse?" Kate asked absently as they stood staring at the van from across the room. "I mean, not all of the businesses in this area are closed. How did they know they could use this one and not be found?"
"They could've just picked it at random," Tony suggested. "Maybe they just went through checking doors until they found one that was unlocked."
"Maybe," she said. "But wouldn't that be kinda risky? I mean, someone might see them."
"Someone did," Tony said. He sighed. "I'm gonna call Gibbs."
"I'll go see if I can find anything in the office," Kate said.
The office was near the rollup doors, with a full view of the van and their new crime scene. It hadn't been cleared out when the business was shut down, making Kate think that they might find clues to who might have dumped the van and the body.
Kate walked into the one-room office and started riffling through the papers on the desk. There was a layer of dust over most of the surfaces, but it looked like this desk had seen recent activity.
"Well, Gibbs and the others are on their way," Tony reported from the doorway.
Kate looked up. "Good," she said, before going back to shuffling through papers.
Tony crossed the room and started checking the file cabinets. They worked in silence for a time, each focusing on one area of the room. After a while, Tony glanced at Kate, standing behind the room's only desk. "So," he said, "it's Halladay now. Who's the lucky fella?"
Kate glanced at him, but he was busy looking through files, so he didn't notice. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, making her think that answering him might turn out to be a bad idea, but she did it anyway. Anything but the tense silence they'd been operating in.
"My uncle," she said, going back to what she'd been looking at.
"That's…creepy," he said, frowning slightly.
"I visited him after the Marshall's released me," she explained. "He was the one to suggest I use it. New name, new start."
Tony bristled. "Oh, so your uncle—whom you've never mentioned, by the way—rates a visit, but your team—hell, your family—doesn't even rate a phone call?"
Kate slammed the file she'd been reading down on the desk and wheeled around. "You think I chose this?" she practically yelled at him. "You think I wanted to be smuggled out of a hospital at three am? You think it was any fun for me being stuck in Madison, Wisconsin, working as an insurance adjuster while my friends went on with their lives? I didn't choose this for myself, Tony, so don't talk to me about what's fair."
"And what about after that, Kate?" Tony shot back. "You were in WitSec for two years. What about after you got out? You still didn't call or write or even just show up. We thought you were dead. Dead. Do you get that?"
"I was ordered not to contact you," she ground out. "Any of you. For any reason at all."
"Ordered by who?" Tony asked.
Kate took a deep breath and ran her hand through her hair. "By Director Sheppard. She offered me a team in San Diego, but on one condition: I had to stay away from you and the rest of the team. She said you were involved in 'a sensitive undercover op', in addition to taking over Gibbs' team, and that she needed to 'minimize distractions'."
"Sensitive undercover op?" he asked, racking his brain. Then it dawned on him. "Jeanne."
"Who's John?" she asked.
"Not John, Jeanne," he said. "She was—is—a doctor. And the target of an investigation."
"A girl," Kate said, her anger asserting itself once more. "Your 'sensitive undercover op' was a girl? And you're pissed at me?"
"Hey, we were tracking an arms dealer," he argued.
"Oh, because that sounds so much better than playing doctor with a doctor," she said. "I don't believe you."
"You don't believe me?" he asked. "I'm not the one everyone thought was dead."
They stood staring at each other, eyes flashing, stalemated.
"You two about done?" Gibbs asked from the doorway.
They both turned, jaws slack. They'd been so involved in their argument that they hadn't even noticed that the rest of the team had arrived. They stared at each other for a moment more. It was Tony that broke the silence.
"Yeah," he said, looking Kate straight in the eye. "We're done."
He stalked off toward the van, leaving Kate standing in the office alone.
"McGee," Gibbs called as he watched Tony leave. "The van. Shoot it, tag it, bag it."
"Right, Boss," McGee said, and Kate saw him walk over to the van and get to work.
"Ziva," Gibbs said.
"The office," she said, sliding past Gibbs.
"Kate, call the Director," Gibbs said. "Let him know what we've found." He looked at her briefly, then turned to leave. "DiNozzo."
"What?" Tony barked. Realizing who had called his name, he softened his tone. "I mean, yes, Boss?"
"Let's go," he said, and headed out without checking to make sure Tony was following.
~o~
Ziva watched as Gibbs and Tony headed out of the warehouse, presumably to canvass the area. McGee had already started processing the box van, and Ducky and Jimmy Palmer were just pulling up in the ME's van, but she had no idea what to look for in the office.
And then there was the matter of Kate. She was still standing behind the lone desk, hands now hitched on her hips, staring into nothing.
"Are you well, Kate?" Ziva asked gently.
Kate shook her head, then gave Ziva a wan smile. "I'm fine."
Her gaze drifted to the warehouse, to where Tony had been standing only a moment ago, and sighed.
Ziva's eyes followed Kate's, then back to regard the woman herself. "He is angry."
Kate gave a mirthless laugh. "Tell me something I don't know."
"He is more angry at himself than at you," Ziva said. Kate's head whipped around. "He believes he should have known that you were still alive."
Kate closed her eyes. So many things would have been different if she'd turned down Director Sheppard's offer, but she hadn't. She'd needed NCIS and the normalcy it provided. She'd needed to get back to living as close to her old life as she could.
"Jennie ordered me to stay away from him," she said, opening her eyes and turning to face Ziva. "She said that Tony was involved in an undercover op, and that if I came back into his life at that point, it might damage the entire operation. She said they needed the target to lead Tony to this big arms dealer they were after."
"La Grenuille," Ziva said, nodding.
"You knew?" Kate asked.
"Not until later," Ziva admitted. "I knew there was something going on, but Tony would not tell me anything. I finally found out that he was seeing someone—"
"Jeanne," Kate said.
"Yes, Jeanne," Ziva agreed, nodding. "He had been seeing her for a while, but had not told anyone. We did not find out until later that he was seeing her at the personal request of the Director, for the purpose of getting to her father, La Grenuille."
"Jeanne's father was the arms dealer?" Kate asked. "How awful."
"Yes, and she was unaware," Ziva said. "She was also unaware that the only reason Tony was interested in her was in order to get close to her father. They were together for nearly eight months."
"I guess Jennie thought there was more between Tony and me than just friendship," Kate said quietly. "She must have thought I wouldn't understand. She was wrong on both counts."
"Jennie got Tony involved without the knowledge or permission of her superiors," Ziva said. "La Grenuille had killed her father. She had been seeking revenge for ten years. She did not want anything to stop that from happening."
"So he's using Jeanne, while being used by Jennie," Kate said. "It's no wonder she didn't want me within a thousand miles of him."
"He was not the easiest person to be around," Ziva agreed.
"Thanks for telling me, Ziva," Kate said.
She laid a hand on the other woman's arm as she walked out of the office.
"Will you be alright?" Ziva called after her.
Kate paused and turned to face her friend. "I don't know," she admitted, then turned and walk out the door.
~o~
"Did you know the owner of this warehouse?" Tony asked.
They were interviewing the man who'd called in the tip. He was a middle-aged, scruffy, work-worn man by the name of Owens, but he was also a veteran, as he'd explained immediately upon meeting them, and was happy to help any way he could.
"Yeah," he said, "old Tom. He was from the 'Old Country', as he put it."
"And what 'old country' would that be?" Gibbs asked, clearly growing impatient.
"Ireland," the man answered. Gibbs and Tony shared a look. "He told me he moved here not long after he got married in order to escape 'The Troubles'."
"Northern Ireland?" Tony asked. "The sectarian violence? Catholics versus Protestants?"
"That's it," the man said. "He didn't want his kids growing up with all that."
"How long ago did he shut the business down?" Tony asked.
"Tom died about two years ago," he said. "The younger boy tried to keep it going for a while, but he finally shut it down, oh, six months ago, maybe?"
"And you hadn't seen anybody around until yesterday?" Tony asked.
"No," he said. "And I probably shouldn't have called you guys even then."
"Why not?" Gibbs asked.
"Because one of the guys I saw…well, he looked like one of Tom's boys," the man said. "I haven't seen them in a while, but I could have sworn it was the older one: Brian."
Tony and Gibbs shared another glance. "Tom's last name wouldn't happen to be Keener, would it?" Tony asked.
"Yes," the man said, surprised. "How did you know?"
"Thank you for your time," Tony said. He nodded at the BPD officer standing to one side, and that officer escorted the man away.
"So, Keener's family owned this warehouse," Tony said. "Explains how the perps knew they could use the place without worrying about being caught."
"Also means Keener's still alive," Gibbs said.
"You want me to put an APB out on him?"
"With what, DiNozzo?" Gibbs said. "We don't even know what kind of car he's driving."
"Right," Tony said. "So, now what?"
"Keep trying to track him," Gibbs said. "Figure out what his next move is."
"Right," Tony said.
Gibbs glanced around the alley, and saw Palmer and Ducky loading the body into their van while a tow truck pulled up, presumably preparing to tow the van back to the lab for Abby to go over. McGee emerged from the warehouse, carrying a box of bagged up evidence, Ziva following him out. The last one to leave the warehouse was Kate.
He watched as Tony caught sight of her, and saw the frown crease his brow. He reached out and delivered a slap to the back of Tony's head.
"Ow," Tony said, raising a hand to rub at his new sore spot. "What was that for?"
"Get your head out of your ass," Gibbs said, giving him a pointed look before walking away.
Tony looked around, his eyes once more landing on Kate. He sighed, shook his head and made his way to the car.
~o~
"I still do not understand why Keener would throw away his career by stealing these weapons," Ziva said a couple of hours later.
They'd returned to headquarters and left Abby with a raft of new evidence. But they were still nowhere on the location of the weapons, and no closer to figuring out why they'd been taken or where they might be going.
"I think I might have an answer to that," Tony said.
He stood up and walked over to the big screen next to Gibbs' desk, Ziva, McGee and Kate joining him.
"Something the guy at the warehouse said caught my attention," he explained. "Remember the picture of Keener and his brother with that girl?"
"No one at Twenty-Nine Palms knew who she was," Ziva said.
"I think I do," Tony said. He pushed a button on the remote, and the picture came up on the screen. He pulled a photo from his pocket, safely encased in an evidence bag. Holding it out, he let them compare the two images.
"That's the same girl," Kate said, taking the photo from him. The three were in the same pose as the other picture, the only difference being that they were obviously younger.
"I found this one on the refrigerator at Keener's brother's house. It was taken in 1980," he said.
Kate turned the photo over. "Belfast, 1980. Brian, Craig and Ciara," she read.
"I checked with the British Embassy, to see if the Keener's had any family left in Northern Ireland," he explained. "Turns out their mother still had family there."
"So, Ciara could be a cousin?" McGee suggested. "Maybe Keener went to visit her while he was in Ireland."
"That's what I thought," Tony said. "So I did some digging. Turns out that Craig was with Brian on that trip. I checked with the Irish Embassy, and they have both boys crossing into Ireland twice: once on landing in Dublin, and once at a crossing from Northern Ireland."
Tony pushed a button on the remote, and the picture changed. It was another picture of the Keeners, this one of just the two of them, but it appeared to have been taken in the same place. "These were on the computer we found at Craig Keener's house."
He flipped through a few more, when suddenly, Kate called out. "Go back!"
"What, you see something?" Tony asked. He scrolled back a couple of pictures, only to have Kate's hand on his arm stop him. The anger, which had burned so hotly within him for the past two days, dissipated under the warmth of her touch.
"There!" she said. "That's Brendan O'Day!"
"Who is Brendan O'Day?" McGee asked.
"Brendan O'Day was a high-ranking member of the Real IRA," she said. "We profiled him back when I was with the Secret Service. The President was planning a visit to Northern Ireland, and there was some concern that he might be attacked while he was there."
"The Real IRA?" Tony asked sarcastically. "As opposed to the Fake IRA?"
Kate cast him a withering glare. "The Real IRA, as opposed to the IRA that some of the provos think sold out with the Good Friday Accords."
"Provos?" McGee asked.
"Provisional soldiers," Kate said. "The Irish Republican Army has always been divided into two groups, or wings: the political wing, which preferred to negotiate a peaceful end to 'The Troubles', and the provos, who favored a more violent solution."
"Wait, you said 'was'," McGee said. "He's not with them anymore?"
Kate sighed. "After the Accords, a number of provos split off and formed various splinter groups, like the Real IRA. O'Day's group was known as the Sons of Gerald Donaghy."
"Is that anything like 'The Sons of Katie Elder'?" Tony asked sarcastically. Three sets of eyes turned to him. "Oh come on, don't tell me you don't remember. John Wayne? I'll admit it wasn't one of his best. Now, 'True Grit', that was a masterpiece. I'm not sure the Coen brothers are really gonna be able to pull off the remake—"
"Tony!" Ziva interrupted. He stopped his rambling and gave a sheepish look. It was nice to see him snapping out of his funk, but they had more pressing matters. Turning to Kate, she asked, "Who is Gerald Donaghy?"
"Gerald Donaghy was a seventeen year old kid who was shot by the British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday," Kate replied. "The crime scene photos showed he had nail bombs in his pockets when he died, but no one who attended to him after he was shot remembered him having them. He was part of one of those youth groups that supported the IRA, so no one questioned the discrepancy until years later."
"It would appear that Ciara and O'Day are quite close," Ziva observed, returning their attention to the matter at hand.
"I've been going through Keener's emails and phone records," McGee said. "I didn't find any long-distance calls, except the ones he made to his brother. I did find some emails signed 'C'. Could be her, but they weren't about stealing weapons. It was mostly just friendly correspondence."
"Maybe he had another email account we don't know about," Kate said.
"Have you looked at the brother's emails?" Tony asked. "Maybe he was using his brother as a go-between."
"Couldn't hurt to check," McGee said.
"I still do not see a motive," Ziva said. "His cousin's boyfriend asks him to steal the weapons, but does not pay him? It does not pad up."
"Add up," everyone said at once.
Ziva frowned. "Whatever. I am still not seeing it."
"Don't need motive," Gibbs said, sailing into the room. He picked up a file from his desk and joined the group. "Where are we on a location for Keener?"
"Nothing so far, Boss," McGee said. "Either he's left the area or he's gone to ground."
"Keep searching," Gibbs said. He strode out of the room and up the stairs, headed for the Director's office.
They looked at each other, then headed back to their desks, settling down to continue the search.
~o~
Hours later, Kate sat on the bed in her hotel room absently flipping through the channels on the TV. As soon as she'd gotten to her hotel room, she'd shed her suit and put on a tee and her lounge pants, turned down the sheets and crawled up onto the mattress, hoping to get a good night's sleep. Instead, her eyes refused to shut. Between thoughts about the case and worrying over Tony, she didn't think she'd be getting any sleep tonight.
She still couldn't figure out why Keener had done it. Why throw away a promising career? For money? If he had, the money was nowhere to be found. And how had the team gotten the mortars from California to Maryland? They couldn't have driven the whole way; that would have taken too long. And the train was out for the same reason. Which only left flying. So, they FedExed the crates?
She snorted to herself. Now she sounded like Tony. At the thought of her one-time teammate, she sobered. Tony was a lot of things: boyish, charming, irreverent, loyal, inappropriate at times, and always in a good mood. What he never was, was angry. Not this level of anger, anyway. Ziva had said he was angry with himself for not knowing that she was alive, but Kate would bet good money that he was a little angry with her for not trying to contact them. Probably more than a little.
A sudden pounding at her door caused her to jump out of bed. Cautiously, she made her way to the door. She gasped in surprise when she saw who it was through the peephole. She pulled back the deadbolt and turned the knob. The door swung open to reveal Tony, standing with his hands braced against the doorjamb.
"Tony!" she exclaimed.
He looked up, an unreadable expression on his face. Without waiting for an invitation, he brushed past her into the room.
Kate sighed. She closed the door and followed him tentatively, stopping just a few feet in as she caught sight of him. He was standing near the bed, running a hand through his hair, looking more than a bit rumpled. His tie had been loosened slightly, the top button of his pale blue shirt unfastened, and she could see the whiskered wrinkles on his pants, a sure sign that he'd been sitting, probably in his car, for a long time. And his face, normally expressive, was a blank mask. Had he been taking lessons from Ziva?
She sighed again, raising a hand to her forehead. "Tony, I don't want to argue anymore."
Suddenly, before she'd even realized that he'd moved, he was in front of her, cupping her face in his hands. And then he was kissing her.
"Good," he said, pulling back slightly, the heat and intensity in his eyes burning into her, "'cuz neither do I."
And then he was kissing her again. These were not chaste kisses, not gentle kisses, they were the kisses of a man drowning in passion, not caring that he was going down for the final time.
He pulled away from her for only the time it took to shed his trench coat, and then he drew her to him once more. This time, with the shock mostly worn off, Kate met him measure for measure.
Tony held her close, shedding her clothes and his as he walked them backwards to the bed. And when, at last, the final barrier between them was gone, they fell back onto the bed and into each other.
It wasn't frenzied, as she'd expected it to be. He didn't hurry, but he didn't linger. His hands were in constant motion, touching her everywhere at once, learning her every curve. In turn, she canvassed his entire body, head to toe, mapping the planes and memorizing every inch. And when, at last, he slid into her, it was as though it had always been this way. He pushed her higher and higher, until, finally, she fell to pieces in his arms.
When their breathing and heart rates had mostly returned to normal, Tony levered himself up and fell back onto the sheets, pulling Kate to his side. She curled against him, pillowing her head on his chest.
"We should have done that a long time ago," he said, kissing the top of her head.
"Yeah," she agreed. "But then, you'd have had to come with me, and you'd have hated WitSec."
He froze for a second before relaxing once more. "Was it really that bad?"
"Madison is a lousy place to spend the winter," she said on a sigh.
"Didn't you make some friends while you were there?" he asked. He hated thinking of her being lonely and isolated.
"I met some very nice people," she said wistfully. "But when they call you by somebody else's name, it's hard to feel like they really know you."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that," he said, placing another kiss in her hair.
"It wasn't your fault, Tony," she said, snuggling deeper against him, loving the concern in his voice. "I got my life back, and that's all that matters."
He was quiet for a moment. "So, why your uncle?"
She sighed. "When they released me, they asked me where I'd like to go. The first place I thought of was my uncle's cabin in upstate New York. He lives on this wonderful little lake in the Adirondacks. We used to spend a few weeks every summer up there with him. My dad would stay home during the week and go to work and then come up on the weekends."
"Sounds nice."
"It was," Kate said, and there was no mistaking the smile in her voice. "He was twelve years younger than my mom, so she was always a little protective of him. I knew what that felt like, having four older brothers, so he and I kinda bonded over that. I knew he'd be okay when they told him the news. And he was. He just pulled me off the porch and into the biggest hug I'd ever had."
Tony winced. He hadn't even thought about hugging her when she'd turned up in the bullpen with the Director. He'd just felt angry, and more than a little hurt. Brushing that aside easily, now that they'd just made love, he asked, "How long were you there?"
"About a month," she said. "Jennie called while I was there and offered me the San Diego position. Kyle was the one who encouraged me to take it. He thought it would be good for me to get back on my feet—do what I was trained to do."
"Did she really tell you to stay away from all of us?" he asked. He'd hoped it wasn't true, because it meant that Jennie had been in worse shape than any of them had realized.
"Yeah," Kate said. "I think she thought there was more going on between us than there actually was. She was afraid I'd ruin your op by getting in the way."
"Well, she thought wrong," he said. "Jeanne was just a subject. I think I can tell the difference between a real relationship and the job."
"I'm sure you can," she said, kissing his chest as she snuggled in closer. "It's a good thing I'm not the jealous type."
"Good to know," he said, smiling.
"Doesn't mean I wouldn't castrate you if you so much as looked at another woman," she said.
"Duly noted," he said, chuckling. "So what do your brothers think of all this?" Kate was silent for a bit. Tony pulled back a little and looked at her, questioning worry on his face. "What happened?"
"Kyle told me they took my death badly," she said, sighing. "They were never very happy with my decision to join the Secret Service. They were convinced something like this was going to happen. Kyle said they felt vindicated, in a way. And they were so angry with me that all four of them said they wouldn't forgive me, even though I was dead."
"Oh, god, Katie," he said. "I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault," she said again. "I knew they weren't happy about my career choice. Kyle and I talked about it and decided that it was best that they not know that I'd been in the Witness Protection Program. It wouldn't serve any purpose to tell them if they weren't going to forgive me."
"Is that when you decided to take his name?"
"Yeah, he suggested it as a way to start over." She levered herself up and looked at him. "I didn't change my name to hide from anybody. I'd done that for two years. I just needed to start over."
"And be connected to someone who cared about you," he said, reaching up to caress her cheek. "I think I get it."
She leaned down and brushed her lips over his before settling back down beside him. They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a time. Tony was the one to break it.
"So, are you staying?"
Kate chuckled. "It's my hotel room, so I think I have to."
"Funny," he said. "I meant in DC. Are you staying in DC?"
"You don't need me," she said succinctly. "Besides, what about Rule #12?"
"Never date a coworker?" he asked. "I prefer Rule #18 myself."
"'It's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission'," she quoted. "Not a bad strategy. But you guys still don't need me on the team. You've got Ziva now, and from what I can tell, she fits in well."
Tony pushed himself up, pressing Kate onto her back. He propped himself up on an elbow and looked her in the eyes as his hand settled on her hip. "Ziva is great, you're right. She fits well, and we've come to trust her. But don't for a minute think that we don't need you. That I don't need you."
"I missed you," she said, tearing up a bit at the bald honesty of his words. "More than anyone else, I missed you."
"Well, thank you. Thank you very much," he said, in his best Elvis imitation.
She giggled, all thoughts of tears suddenly gone. She was glad to see his playfulness coming back. She thought for sure she'd killed it by just showing up.
He leaned down and kissed her, soft and slow. When he pulled back, the look in his eyes took her breath away. "I said it to Jeanne, but I never meant it. It was never real with her; not like it is with you. I love you, Katie."
Kate's eyes filled with tears this time. She reached up and caressed his cheek once more. "I love you, Tony."
He let out the breath he'd been holding. "I was hoping you'd say that. Otherwise, I would've felt like I had my fly down."
Kate lifted the sheets, peering down at his rather impressive assets. "You do have your fly down."
Tony tackled her into the sheets, kissing and tickling her. When he finally let her up for air, he was sprawled out, half on top of her, his face inches from hers. He turned serious, running a finger along her forehead to push her hair out of her eyes.
"We'll figure this out, Katie," he whispered. "No matter what it takes. No matter where you are and no matter what happens next. We'll figure it out. This is right, we're right. And I don't want to miss this."
The warmth in Kate's chest threatened to explode out of her. She smiled brilliantly. "You know, I wasn't sure what would happen when the Director ordered me to DC. I'm glad I came."
"I'm glad you came, too," Tony said, smiling. He rolled off of her, pulling her back into his side as he settled on his back.
"You keep calling me Katie," she said after a few quiet moments had passed.
He stiffened a bit. "You don't like that."
"I've never much cared for anyone calling me 'Katie'," she said. "But with you, it feels…special. Just as long as it's not at work."
"Deal," he said. He glanced over at the clock on the night stand and winced. Placing a kiss on her brow, he pulled the covers up over them. "Get some sleep. We've gotta get an early start tomorrow."
"Will you be here in the morning?" she asked. She hated how weak and timid she sounded, but she needed to know that she hadn't imagined the whole thing. She needed him there in the morning to prove that she hadn't just dreamed it.
Sensing her uncertainty, he reassured her the only way he knew how. "Wouldn't be anywhere else."
He flicked the switch on the light, plunging the room into darkness. Kissing her one more time, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, Kate following right behind.
...continued...