Filler and tag for "Black Water."

If you choose to see just a tiny smidgen of Tate in this, you could probably find it. If you choose to just see friendship and partnership, you can do that too. I promise I am not going into any official "ships" with any of my stories that aren't canon. However, since "Life Before His Eyes" aired, I believe it is canon that either Kate and Tony would have gotten together had she lived or that it is simply something that Gibbs feels would have happened in his own mind. And he had to have gotten that idea from somewhere. (Not to mention that at some point, I believe someone associated with the show admitted that there were plans for a relationship between Kate and Tony before Sasha Alexander announced she was leaving).

Regardless of how you see the relationship, I do believe Kate and Tony got closer during the second half of season 2. Which, of course, never means they stop tormenting each other.

"To Have or to Have Not"

"You ok, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, noticing the still-clenched fist of the man in the passenger seat next to him. He understood the anger, of course. Seeing someone almost get shot when you are standing right next to them can have that effect. Not being able to catch the shooter doesn't help either. Even so, Tony seemed to be holding on to his anger and frustration a bit longer than usual.

"He was gonna shoot Saleena Lockhart right there in the open. McAllister's a sick…."

Gibbs cut him off. "We don't know that it's McAllister yet. And we don't know he was actually planning to shoot Saleena Lockhart either. Like you said, she was right there in the open talking to two cops, up close. Shooter had to know we'd see the red dot."

"Not you too, Boss," Tony bit back in frustration.

Now something was definitely up. DiNozzo didn't snap at him like that for no reason. Or at least not while on duty. "Me too what, Tony?" the older man asked with forced patience.

The younger man bit his lip just before saying with dripping sarcasm, "You've joined the Thomas McAllister fan club, I see. Kate is a founding member."

I should have known. Gibbs had caught a snatch of his two agents bickering when they'd returned from questioning McAllister. Tony had said something about Kate flirting with the other man. Kate had been very defensive of McAllister while Tony had displayed quite the opposite reaction. The Lead Agent was now questioning the objectivity of both of them. Still, sending Kate to dinner with their suspect was the best option currently presenting itself for getting at the truth. But first, he needed to know exactly what had occurred during the questioning. "Spill it, DiNozzo. What happened?"

Tony let out a brief, mirthless laugh before relating the tale. "Well, you know how Kate feels about rich people. Or, I suppose I should say, felt, about them. Except, of course, she probably does still feel that way about them, but has made an exception for Mr. McAllister…."

"DiNozzo…" Gibbs was not feeling particularly patient right at that moment.

"Right. Sorry, Boss. So, Kate and I got to the hangar and of course she had to pick apart everything, including the name of his airline. When I mentioned I liked it , she turned on me and called me 'Rockefeller.' At least I finally know where she gets her low opinion of my skills. It seems Ms. Todd thinks I didn't have to work for anything," he said heatedly.

Gibbs doubted it was that extreme, though he had picked up on Kate's general hostility towards those with money. And Tony had been known to be sensitive about people assuming he hadn't earned his spot on the MCRT on his own. "She actually say that?"

The other man sighed. "No," he admitted. "Not in so many words. But she was quick to point out that she had to work every day of her life to be where she is. Apparently, I didn't."

"And did you get as mad then as you are now?"

"Yeah, at first. I kind of blew up at her. But she looked really surprised and said she was sorry. So I pretended to be joking."

His boss had seen him do that before. Plenty of times. Back off rather than showing his true feelings. Make everything a joke. "She believe you?"

"I'm pretty sure she did, yeah. Like she believed you yesterday when you told her my parents withheld their money from me cause they knew what I'd do with it. I meant to thank you for the save, by the way."

Gibbs nodded and offered, "Didn't think you wanted to get into the stuff with your father. Seemed like the quickest way to end the conversation."

"You're right about that. I don't even want to think about trying to explain my dad to Kate."

Trying to get the younger man back on topic, Gibbs asked, "So is that all that happened?"

"Oh, no, that wasn't even the best part," he said, with his sarcasm returning. "No, the best part was the complete 180 she did when we walked in and met Thomas McAllister working on his own plane. Obviously, mechanics turn her on or something. I have never seen anyone change their tune so completely in that short a period of time. It was nauseating, really. I mean, it took like 30 seconds. And she's known me, what, a year-and-a-half now?"

The Lead Agent allowed the younger man his rant, letting him get it out of his system. He let a moment of silence hang in the air between them before asking, "You angry because you think it was McAllister that shot at Saleena Lockhart? Or because Kate gave him more benefit-of-the-doubt than she gives you?"

Tony took a deep breath to calm himself. "Both, I guess," he answered truthfully. "But now something else is really bothering me."

"And what might that be?"

"We're sending her to have dinner with him while you and McGee search his house. But I don't think she can be objective, Boss. It seemed like a good idea earlier, but after the way he just blatantly took a shot at that woman in broad daylight…."

"Someone took a shot at her, Tony. We don't know who yet," Gibbs reminded once again. While Kate was known for letting her empathy influence her judgment, this time his gut was telling him that McAllister was innocent. In fact, he had a pretty good idea who the guilty party may be, but so far had kept it to himself. He didn't want to influence his team before all the evidence was in.

"So, you want to take that chance? Getting her that close to a murder suspect? I mean, look what happened to me a few weeks ago, and we didn't even know White was a murderer. You think if Kate was in that situation with McAllister that she'd take the shot? Cause she certainly didn't with Ari Haswari."

The older man clenched his jaw tightly at the mention of his nemesis. Mossad or no, he hated that man. With some effort, he refocused his thoughts on the subject at hand. "I'm sending you as her backup. You'll be right outside and she'll be wearing a wire. You'll be able to step in before things go that far." Noting that Tony was still extremely uncomfortable with the idea, he added, "It's still our best shot, Tony."

Knowing he was defeated, DiNozzo nodded tightly. But he didn't have to like it.

Tony was still tense on the trip to the airport and Kate could feel it, even if she didn't immediately know the source.

"Are you sure you weren't really angry about what I said yesterday, Tony?" his partner asked.

"Why would you think that, Kate?" he sighed wearily.

"I don't know. You just….seem angry about something. And that's the only thing I can think of. I really didn't mean anything against you. It's just…" Kate hesitated. She didn't often share personal things with her partner, but considering the current circumstances it seemed appropriate. "I had to work my way through college. And I knew lots of people who didn't because they were there on their parents' dime and I guess I resented them for it. Maybe I still do sometimes. Maybe I feel like I missed out on something coming from a middle-class family with five kids and having to work since I was sixteen."

"You know how I paid for college, Kate?"

She looked at Tony with great interest. Kate had always assumed his father had paid the tab. Was it possible that wasn't the case? "How?"

"Sports. I went on scholarship."

"You were that good?" Kate asked with surprise.

Tony smiled, but not with arrogance as his partner might have expected. It was more like nostalgia. "Yeah. I mean, I was a Phys. Ed. Major. I assumed I'd be playing basketball for the first twenty years of my career."

"So what happened?"

His smile faded. "I broke my leg during a football game. Wasn't even my primary sport. The leg was never quite the same and the doctors said it had gotten as good as it was gonna get. I had to come up with a backup plan in a hurry."

"Gosh, I'm so sorry, Tony," Kate whispered. "That must've been tough to accept."

"It was," he replied seriously. "And all the money in the world still wouldn't have fixed it."

"I know. I really do know that money doesn't fix everything. Even if I do forget sometimes. But, what led you to become a cop?" Now that she'd gotten just a tiny piece of the puzzle that made Tony, well, Tony, she wanted more.

"That, Kate, is a very long story for another time," he said with relief as they pulled up to the airport. He'd shared quite enough for one evening, and the story of pulling Jason King out of that burning building was one he didn't think he had the energy to relive just now. "Because you've got a date to get to."

Suddenly Kate felt very nervous. This wasn't just a date. Thomas McAllister was a murder suspect, albeit a very charming one.

Sensing her anxiety, it was Tony's turn to suppress his own and offer assurance to his partner. "Now, I'll be right out here and if anything goes hinky I'll be there in a flash. I'll need you to test your mike before you go in."

She nodded and pulled down the sun visor to check herself in the mirror just one more time. "I'd ask you how I look, but I already made that mistake once tonight." Tony had practically ignored her altogether, but when pressed he'd simply offered an indifferent "Eh."

"I lied."

Distracted, she answered, "Huh?"

"I lied. Earlier. When you asked me how you looked. Actually, you look beautiful, Kate." And he meant it, all trace of his earlier hostility suddenly gone.

Stunned into shyness, Kate stopped her primping and gave a very soft, "Thank you, Tony." She very briefly caught his eye just before steeling herself and getting out of the car.

For some reason, she just couldn't help the playful kiss she'd thrown to her partner just before stepping into the hangar and the unknown.

The elevator doors closed and Tony slowly walked back to his desk preparing to go home at last. The case was closed and Kate had been right. McAllister really wasn't a murderer. And now she was headed off to New York with him for "dessert" at 2:30 in the morning. He knew he should be happy for her, but something still nagged at him. And the fact that something still bothered him actually made him even more bothered. It was a never-ending mountain of anxiety, really…

"My gut tells me he's a good guy, DiNozzo."

Leave it to Gibbs to read my mind…even when I don't know what's in it. "I'm sure he is, Boss. It's just that Kate still barely knows him and she's jetting off to New York in the wee hours of the morning. Doesn't that seem a little strange to you?"

"You mean, stranger than your last girlfriend egging your car and putting your name on a herpes website?" Gibbs responded dryly.

"Thanks for the reminder," Tony said with chagrin. Returning to the original subject, he continued, "It's just that I'm not sure if Kate really likes him or if she just likes his money." Catching sight of his boss' glare, he quickly corrected, "I didn't mean that the way it sounded. What I meant was, you know, maybe Kate's all caught up in the magic."

"Magic?" Gibbs asked skeptically.

"Yeah. Like Cinderella going to the ball. I mean, did she really love Prince Charming or was she just in love with the ball?"

DiNozzo and his stories. At least I recognize that one. Rule 12 briefly flashed across the Lead Agent's brain before he recalled that it was almost 3am and Tony was probably just operating on a lack of sleep and the crash from their earlier adrenaline rush that always accompanies the end of a case. "It's late, Tony. Go home and get some sleep. Kate's a big girl."

Of course, Gibbs was right as always. Kate was a grown woman who could take care of herself. A federal agent. One who used to protect the President, as she was so fond of reminding them all. She'd be fine.

Even if he couldn't shake the image of her from a few minutes earlier in the elevator, eyes wide with excitement like a little girl, shyly holding Prince Charming's hand. He hoped she was enjoying the ball.

He also hoped her carriage wouldn't end up turning into a pumpkin.

Kate finally arrived back at her apartment at 8am, still too wound up to sleep in spite of having been up all night.

She took off her coat and hung it on the rack, then walked over and plopped down on her couch, kicking off her shoes in the process.

What a day it had been. If someone had told her 10 years ago that one day she'd be flying to New York for dessert in the middle of the night with a rich, handsome, single man….

Well, even now she was laughing out loud. It was absurd, really. It was like a dream.

And maybe that was the problem. Because as wonderful as it had all been, she also knew that she wouldn't be seeing Thomas McAllister again.

"Morning, Tony," Kate said casually as she entered the office on Monday morning.

Her partner simply greeted her with a stare of expectation. Finally growing impatient, he simply said, "Well?"

"Well, what," she replied feigning ignorance. She knew DiNozzo was dying to hear all the details of her date, especially since he'd attempted to invite himself along. Teasing him with it was just too great a temptation.

"Well, I don't know, Kate. If I'd jetted off somewhere in the middle of the night on some chick's private plane, I'm guessing you wouldn't stop hounding me 'til I shared details. Am I right?"

"Not everyone is as nosy as you are, Tony. Thank God," she said smugly.

"Okay, then. You want to play it that way, fine. But I have McAllister's number," he threatened teasingly. Even McGee was looking at her expectantly.

"Fine, Tony. It was nice, ok?"

"It was….nice? I waited all weekend for…just nice?"

"What do you want me to say, Tony? We flew to New York on his plane, had dessert at a very fancy restaurant, walked around a little, and came home. There really isn't much to tell."

"And…so…does he do this every weekend or what?"

"I really don't know."

Confounded, he continued teasing, "Well, I hope when he flies you to Europe someday you'll remember your friends."

"I don't think that'll be happening. I wasn't planning to see him again."

Tony's hackles went up immediately. "What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything. He was a gentleman. It was just that….the whole thing….just wasn't real, you know?"

"No, I'm not sure I do."

Kate laughed at the utterly confused expression on DiNozzo's face. "I mean that it just wasn't me. It was a great experience and a wonderful memory. But to do that all the time….it just isn't who I am."

"Oh," Tony replied with more than a little relief, but also disappointment as a realization hit him. "Well before you tell him that, couldn't you arrange just a small dinner party in Paris and tell him you'd like to invite a few close friends…."

"Not in a million years, DiNozzo."

Kate may have voluntarily chosen the rags over the riches, but in a magical twist of irony, it was Tony now feeling that his carriage had been turned into a pumpkin.