Tim coughed and twitched as he stood outside Clancy's. He REALLY didn't want to do this. But if he bailed? Gibbs would want to know why and would just make another time to meet Dante. It would all be very friendly of course but eventually Gibbs would get his way. Tim took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He might as well get this torture over and done with. If he kept putting it off he would probably get a stomach ulcer.

Dante stepped out of the shadows looking as ordinary as Tim had ever seen him and Tim smiled.

Thank you

Dante was wearing expensive dark blue dress jeans, a smart white shirt that wasn't tucked in and a soft rich beige suede jacket. The blindingly white shirt had the effect of making Dante's pale skin appear slightly richer in color than normal. He looked smart but relaxed. Tim wished he looked as calm as a trickle of sweat rolled down the side of his face. Dante leaned into him and wiped it away with his thumb before he sucked it off with a smirk.

Tim frowned at the teasing affection.

"Dante, please this is really serious. This is Gibbs. He's my Boss and this is really important to me. We need to make this short and normal. Hello, how are you, I'm fine and then we are out of there Ok? Gibbs can smell fear and the longer we are in there the more suspicious he is going to get."

Dante smiled affectionately at his Companion as he flushed in anxiety.

You are beautiful when you are nervous. Do you know that?

Tim glared at the handsome vampire and poked his finger firmly into his chest.

"And that's another thing. No kissing, no touching, no smirking even. I don't want anything setting off Gibbs's spidy sense anymore than it already is."

Dante backed away and put his hands in the air, grinning.

"Okay okay I understand. Human. Normal. No touching. It feels like I'm walking into the Spanish Inquisition. And trust me I know. They were a really bad crowd."

Tim rolled his eyes and prepared himself to enter the bar straightening his jacket and smoothing his immaculate hair nervously.

"And watch the bizarre historical references too."

Dante leaned forward and quickly pinched Tim on the ass as he followed him into Clancy's making Tim squeak furiously.

*******************************************************************

Tony couldn't help grinning as he watched McGee and Dante walk into the bar. Oh seriously this was going to be good. It was like a terrible car crash you know you shouldn't but you just had to turn and watch.

Gibbs turned from where he was leaning on the bar to watch McGee walk in followed by a tall handsome dark haired man. Dante presumably. Gibbs wasn't really a good judge of male attractiveness but even he could see that the man would be considered extraordinarily handsome. Huh. Score one for McGee.

A lecture attending Pathologist for some reason had conjured up a vision of someone rather bland with glasses. And a hell of a lot smaller. How tall was this guy? Six foot three? Four?

Gibbs noticed McGee looked cross at something and anxious while Dante seemed very relaxed as he followed behind a slight smirk on his face. Gibbs looked across at Tony who was doing a bad job of hiding his smile behind the beer he was drinking.

Tim stopped in front of Gibbs awkwardly and indicated Dante with a waive of his hand.

"Um Boss this is Dante. Dante this is my Boss Special Agent Gibbs"

Gibbs stood up and reached out to shake Dante's cool dry hand. No sweating palms there. Bright blue eyes met bright blue eyes as they considered each other. Dante's eyes seemed much older than the rest of him. There was also cold hard steel under that initial warmth that told Gibbs if someone was to shove this man he would seriously shove back. Gibbs estimation of this pathologist went up another notch as the man didn't even flinch from the dead stare that had been known to drop men screaming to their knees. Dante just tightened his grip on his hand slightly before pulling back to stand at McGee's side.

No fear. Gibbs grinned. This was going to be interesting.

"Would you like a drink?" Gibbs offered

"Uh no…we won't be here long…" McGee tried to jump in

"Actually a nice cold beer would be nice"

Dante's rich voice complete with some sort of light European accent overrode McGee's and Gibbs smirked. No guesses who wore the pants in that relationship. Gibbs could practically hear McGee grinding his teeth together in frustration.

Dante stepped in beside Gibbs and leaned casually back against the bar matching Gibbs relaxed body language as they studied each other.

Gibbs slowly took a swig of his own beer and turned his blue eyes back to study Dante.

"So Dante? That's an interesting name. Is it short for anything or is that your first name?"

Dante smiled with dazzling perfect teeth and pretended equal nonchalance.

"Well Leroy I have several names actually. The name I was born with was Claudius Dantesourisus. Since I don't like my name shortened to Claude and the full version of my surname makes me sound like a dinosaur I go by Dante."

Gibbs watched him with narrowed eyes. So Dante was calling him out on his own slightly unusual name? And who the hell was called Claudius these days?

"So what other names do you have then?" Gibbs handed Dante the cold beer the bartender had brought over and he took a deep swig.

"Well I'm actually a hereditary Prince of the country now known as Bulgaria. By marriage of course. A distant…..relative helped wipe out some dark blood plague being visited on some helpless villagers and they gave him their princess's hand in marriage. I don't use it though. It tends to put people off or give them great expectations if they have to say Hello Prince of the Shield of Justice."

"Uh huh" Gibbs wondered if the man was lying but he didn't seem to be giving out any of the tell tale signals. McGee on the other hand was being slapped hard on the back by Tony as he coughed and choked on his drink staring wide eyed at Dante.

"You're a Prince of Bulgaria?" He wheezed out as his eyes watered

Dante shrugged "Only by marriage though. Not really a big deal"

Dante turned to Gibbs with a grin and pulled himself up to his full height and looked down at Gibbs with a dangerous glint in his eye.

"You can call me the Prince of Darkness if you like?"

Dante laughed as if he found that terribly amusing. Gibbs looked across at Tony with a raised eyebrow who was again smacking McGee on the back while he experienced another choking fit and was making muttered distressed sounds.

Gibbs decided to continue his interrogation before McGee whisked Dante out of the bar never to be seen again.

"So do you enjoy being a pathologist?"

Dante grinned with grim humor at the job his Companion had given him. Timothy would probably never forgive him but it was too much fun to stir Gibbs up. He liked Gibbs. He could see why Timothy had such faith in him. There was a steely eyed certainty in his eyes that reminded Dante of his old Centurion Commander. Now there had been a man of blood and steel who held his men's allegiance strong in his heart.

Dante returned to Gibbs's question "Yes I do. You can tell almost everything about a person from their blood. Are they sick, anxious, stressed, pregnant, healthy, bitter or sweet? It's amazing what you can learn about a person from a single drop of their blood."

Gibbs watched as for some reason Dante's eyes slid across to McGee's and caressed his face while McGee seemed to frown at him crossly. Dante shook himself and returned to Gibbs's watchful stare. Gibbs continued to look at Dante and take in his fit muscled form, the smooth balance he had as he moved and he watched as Dante unconsciously straightened to attention.

Gibbs smirked "Have you got a military background of any sort Dante?"

Dante considered "Well I have spent some time in the Air Force"

Tim looked at Tony in horror before he whispered harshly. "The Air Force? Is he saying that because he can fly?"

Tony shrugged and returned to watching the battle of wills over ownership of McGee that seemed to be taking place beside him.

"The Air force Hummm?" Gibbs took another swig of his beer. He would have picked the army for some reason.

Tim was making frantic getting out of here motions to Dante and Dante tried to sooth him through their bond sending him calming thoughts but Tim was having none of it.

What are you doing??? Stop talking to Gibbs now!

Dante continued "Yes you see…my Great Grandfather was a World War II bomber pilot. He was an expert on the night bombing raids they took over Germany. Excellent night vision. So I decided to continue in the same vein."

Gibbs nodded. That made sense. You tended to go for something that had a family connection when joining the services. Well that was good. It wasn't the Navy but at least he wasn't some crack smoking psychopath or anything. He was a little odd but most of Abby's friends seemed to be worse.

If one of his boys was going to be dating a guy it might as well be a tall handsome ex Air Force Doctor from some very old European family.

Gibbs looked across at McGee who seemed to have given up trying to leave and was sagged on a bar stool his hands on his knees and his head sagging. Tony had a paper bag handy in case he started hyperventilating.

Gibbs took another swig of his beer and watched as Dante did the same. Ok time for the nitty gritty.

"Look Dante I have to tell you. I don't particularly care what my people get up to in their spare time. As long as they turn up on time and they are ready to work that's all that matters to me. Now McGee is an excellent field agent and he means a lot to this team. You seem like a decent person. You're smart and I can tell you care about him. But if you do anything to hurt him or screw him over I won't be happy about it. You got that?"

Dante smiled and stood at attention giving Gibbs a slight bow of the head.

"Loud and clear Sir. His ass belongs to you at work and I shouldn't screw with that"

Gibbs couldn't help but smirk at the unspoken sentiment that OUT of work McGee's ass definitely belonged to Dante. And that Gibbs shouldn't screw with that.

He nodded his head to Dante in acknowledgment. So a Détente had been reached in what potentially could have been a cold war.

"Oh hello again!"

Gibbs and Tony turned in surprise as Ziva smiled and stepped forward to welcome Dante, placing the tray of snacks she had been bringing over down onto the bar.

Dante stepped forward with a smile and kissed Ziva on the cheek

"Hello again my mysterious beauty"

Tony frowned and elbowed McGee hard in the ribs.

"Why didn't you tell me Dante knew Ziva?"

"I DIDN"T know" Tim hissed back. Oh he was so having words with Dante after this. He was a PRINCE! He had been MARRIED! He was a World War Two bomber pilot? Why hadn't he mentioned these things to him before?

Ziva looked up to see Dante smiling at McGee who looked like he was rather upset about something. Suddenly their conversation in the Chinese Restaurant fell into place for Ziva.

"Oh when you said you were in love with a Timothy….I didn't realize you meant McGee. You are the Dante Gibbs wanted to meet yes?" Ziva whispered to Dante eagerly.

Dante nodded an acknowledgment and then pulled a face at Ziva as he felt his Companion shout his angry thoughts silently across to him.

"I don't think he's in love with me much at the moment. How about you? Any luck so far with …you know who?" Dante whispered back conspiratorially

Ziva rolled her eyes and flicked a look at Tony who was pretending to ignore the two of them and was swiftly finishing his beer. He sat rigid on his stool and looked like he was going to crush the beer bottle in his hand as he held it in his white knuckled hands.

Ziva shrugged "Ah you know day by day. But you shouldn't worry about McGee. Whatever you have done he will forgive you. He is very generous like that."

Dante smiled and his eyes were warm as he studied his adorably cross Companion over her head.

"Yes he is isn't he? I feel like I can be myself around him and for me that is very rare."

Tim sighed as he felt a wave of affection and care wash over him from Dante and Tim shot him a dirty look. Dante knew it was hard to stay mad at him when he was feeling like that. Frustrating vampire.

Ziva smiled as she saw the open affection on Dante's face and she patted his arm.

"That is true. I wish you both the best. Have you already had the Gibbs talk?"

Dante smiled and nodded "Yes. Sorry you missed it. I am under notice that if I hurt Timothy in any way Gibbs will be very put out."

Ziva nodded "That is true. I also will come for your head if you hurt him. There are few decent generous men in the world that we should hurt the ones we have. And believe me you should be more afraid of me than even Gibbs."

Ziva grinned at Dante dangerously and Dante felt a flash of her past. He gave Ziva a small bow.

"I consider myself well warned. But know that I do care for him and will see no harm come to him my Lady"

Gibbs watched as Ziva whispered into Dante's ear and laughed with him. They seemed like friends. Well that was good. Ziva didn't just idly chat to anyone. Tony on the other hand seemed VERY put out that Ziva was talking to McGee's boyfriend.

Gibbs sighed and wondered how long it would take for Tony to get his act together with Ziva. He always figured that Tony would be the one to cause him trouble but so far it had been McGee that had surprised him. He had the feeling that Dante could be a handful at times. Hopefully McGee didn't turn up with another tatt. McGee in love seemed to be fond of grand gestures.

"I think it is time we should go." Dante looked across at his Companion who was still shooting him dirty looks and consequently making him hot under the color for him. Timothy when he was mad with his flashing eyes and locked jaw made Dante think of nothing but lustful ways to please him.

Tim breathed out a sigh of relief. Finally. "Bye Gibbs, Tony, Ziva. Uh have a good weekend."

Tim instinctively grabbed Dante's hand and towed him quickly towards the door. Dante's eyes were hooded and he seemed to be unable to peel his eyes from McGee's ass as he trailed behind him.

Gibbs smirked. Huh maybe McGee was a handful for Dante in his own way. Well good for him.

*******************************************************************

Tim groaned as Dante licked his way down his shaft before pulling it into his cool mouth.

"Don't think this means we aren't going to talk about you being married and not telling me" Tim ground out through his clenched teeth.

Dante pulled off and looked up at Timothy as he sagged against the wall.

"I have lived a VERY long time Timothy. I have seen and done a lot of things. Besides it was an arranged marriage and she NEVER pleased me the way you do."

This made Tim smile but then he hid it away determined to be mad at Dante for just a little while longer.

"Well then I plan on being around for a long time so you might as well start at the beginning. Claudius"

"All right then your wish is my command" Dante made to stand up and Tim whimpered in disappointment as the pleasurable sensations ceased.

"How about AFTER you finish with me? I'm still mad at you" Tim huffed and then groaned as Dante resumed his eager work with a smile.

If this was the way Dante stopped him from being mad he was going to need to get angry with Dante a lot more often.