Agent McGee had had a good weekend: he had met up with some of his friends from MIT and enjoyed seeing their impressed faces when they saw his gun and badge. They had played some on-line games and he had been pleased to discover that his work at a real life shooting range had improved his reflexes when targeting trolls. Somehow, however, he thought he wouldn't share that 'good' news with Agent Gibbs. His car had that freshly valeted smell and he had won $50 on the DC Lottery. Life was good. Then he saw Agent Todd lurking by the main entrance.

In his secret, innermost self, Tim knew that he was intimidated by Kate. He would tell himself that he had the highest academic qualifications of the team; that he had seniority over Kate; that he could, on occasion, better her in the gym and would always be able to beat her if he should ever play her at Dungeons, Dragons, Fiends and Ghoulies … but somehow, one of her assessing stares still made him instinctively look to see if his fly was undone. He encountered one of those stares now and thought that perhaps the weekend had been too short.

"Morning, Kate," he said, determined not to show his anxiety.

"McGee," said Kate as she grabbed him by the arm and hustled him into the elevator.

"Uh, Kate?" asked Tim. "Are you all right?"

Kate's glare frightened other potential passengers into taking the stairs. She stabbed the button for their floor and Tim hoped that they would have a quick journey to the squad room. He told himself that she couldn't and wouldn't murder him but his stomach was begging to differ. Tim thought his stomach had the right idea when Kate threw the emergency switch and the elevator ground to a halt.

"Kate! What you doing?"

"Stopping the elevator," said Kate.

"I can see that," squeaked Tim. "But why? And why aren't the alarms sounding?" Tim's sense of what was fitting was outraged by this failure of safety protocols.

"Don't know," said Kate. "I thought the alarm would go off too but Gibbs showed me that it doesn't."

Tim looked around, almost expecting Gibbs to emerge from the control panel. "Gibbs?" he asked.

"Gibbs uses the elevator as a sort of conference room," Kate explained. "When he doesn't want anyone to see what's going on."

"Why did Gibbs want to be alone with you in the elevator?" asked McGee, proving that he knew the right questions to ask. Kate glared at him and he wondered if that had been a good question to ask after all.

"Not for the reason you're thinking," she said curtly.

"I-I-I wasn't thinking anything," said Tim.

"He was chewing me out for something," said Kate.

"And he didn't want anyone to know?" said Tim incredulously. Somehow it seemed unfair that Gibbs didn't mind telling him off in front of the whole of NCIS but should choose to retreat when Kate was his target.

Kate shrugged. "That's not important," said Kate dismissively. "Tim … did you know that Tony is married?"

"Married?" repeated Tim. "Tony? Married?"

Kate scrutinized his face and seemed satisfied that his bewilderment was genuine. "So you didn't know either?"

"No," Tim shook his head vigorously. "Who's he married to?"

"Commander Coleman."

She was surprised to see a look of comprehension dawn on Tim's face. "What?" she demanded. "What do you know?"

"Nothing," said Tim hastily.

"You know something," said Kate. "What is it?"

"Well," said Tim. "It sort of makes sense. Something I noticed."

"What?"

"Well, I wondered why they had matching rings."

"You noticed that?" asked Kate.

Tim shrugged modestly. "I did well in my observational skills at FLETC."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't like to. You know … sometimes gay people wear their … relationship rings on their right hands. Don't ask, don't tell. So I didn't – either."

"Oh," said Kate thinking this over. "I see."

Tim was relieved that she seemed to be calming down. He reached out a hand towards the emergency switch but Kate batted it away.

"They have a child," she said accusingly.

Tim didn't think that was his fault either and wisely opted to stay silent.

"A daughter," continued Kate. Her face softened as she remembered Tilly's smiling face.

"How old?"

"About a year and a half, I guess," said Kate. "Matilda. They call her Tilly."

"That's nice," said Tim noncommittally. Then his face did the lightbulb moment thing again. "Oh," he said.

"What?" demanded Kate.

"Explains why Tony sometimes comes to work with food stains on his tie."

"So?"

"Toddlers tend to spit up a lot," explained Tim. "Tony doesn't spill food on himself when he eats here. Makes sense if it's his kid that drops food on him."

"Huh," said Kate. She stared hard at Tim once more and then threw the elevator switch putting an end to Tim's ordeal.

"Morning, Agents," said Tony. "Get stuck in the elevator?"

"Uh," said Tim. "No, not quite." Kate smiled sweetly and went to sit at her desk. "How you feeling, Tony?" he asked. "Your eyes look better."

"Fine. Thanks, Tim," said Tony. "My … er … wife looked after me well."

Tim nodded and switched his computer on.

"We've got a new case," announced Tony. "Investment fraud. Some retired marines have been targeted."

"Why have we got it?" asked Gibbs. "We don't usually get the fraud cases."

"Lot of money involved," said Tony. "And the fraud team are snowed under. I said we'd take it. We can at least do the preliminary legwork."

"Thought you preferred cold cases," said Gibbs. "Look what happened last time we went out to a case outside our scope."

"It'll be fun," said Tony optimistically. "Well, at least it'll get us out into the fresh air talking to real people," he added less brightly. "Come on, people," he said encouragingly. "Means our Probies can practise their interviewing skills! McGee, you're with Gibbs. Kate, you're with me."

Kate and Tony had been driving for about ten minutes before Kate was unable to keep silent anymore.

"Why did you keep being married a secret?" she asked.

"I didn't," said Tony. "Well," he amended, "I didn't talk about it. It wasn't a secret."

"You didn't introduce Commander Coleman as your wife when she came to the Navy Yard," Kate pointed out.

"True," agreed Tony. "But like I said, we have a rule. At work, and in uniform, we stick to titles and don't talk about home life. Lots of people know about us being married. I meant it when I said that we'd obviously dropped off the gossip machine."

"But you never even spoke about being married," said Kate with a hint of a whine.

"I guess," said Tony. "Well, I guess I remembered what it was like to be on a team where the married people did nothing about talk about their domestic life. I got fed up with it when I was single. And it's not as if anyone else on the team is married."

"How do you know?" asked Kate challengingly.

"Agent Todd," said Tony with a smile, "You forget, I've read all your personnel files. Unless you're married and didn't mention it when you filled out your application …"

"No," said Kate. "No, I'm not married."

"I wasn't keeping it a secret," repeated Tony, "But talking about my wife and family didn't seem quite to work when there was nobody else on the team with similar things to talk about."

"And your daughter?" asked Kate. "You kept quiet about her too."

"Guilty and ditto," said Tony. "And if you ask around, people who were here when Faith was pregnant will probably tell you that I pretty much bored the pants off anyone who made the mistake of listening. Lasted for the first 3 months of parenthood … then I figured out the reason why people walked out of the room whenever I walked in and decided to can it."

"I see," said Kate.

"But I'm reliably informed that when Tilly starts painting and drawing that my pin board will be covered with her artwork and everyone will know about it," said Tony. "And I'll probably being bringing stuff in for everyone else as well."

"I won't mind," said Kate wistfully. "You have a lovely daughter, Tony."

"Thank you," said Tony. "I like to think she takes after me."

Kate laughed. "I thought she looked more like her mother," she said thoughtfully.

Tony drew the car to a stop and gave her a mock glare. "We're here," he said.

NCISNCIS

Over coffee and homemade brownies, Mr and Mrs Villeneuve told the sad story of the plausible advert which had suggested they could double their savings with no risk.

"Should've known better," said the retired Sergeant. "But it sounded good. We didn't put everything in, just some money that wasn't earning much interest. But the money went out of the account and never arrived where it was supposed to. And the man who sold the policy to us seems to have disappeared. Not answering his phone or replying to emails."

"We called it our extras pot," explained his wife. "You know, the money for holidays, little treats. Money we could manage without if we needed to."

"Truth to tell," said the Sergeant, "We nearly didn't tell anyone."

"We're embarrassed," said Mrs Villeneuve. "I mean, you hear about things like this and you can't imagine falling for it."

"But we did," sighed her husband. "And it's even more stupid because my brother lost a chunk of savings some time back."

"How long ago?" asked Kate.

"Ten years or so," said the Sergeant. "Like us, it was spare money. Baltimore PD investigated but didn't find anything."

"We thought we should report it," said Mrs Villeneuve. "We wouldn't rest easy if we found out that someone else had been duped. Someone who couldn't bear the cost like we can."

"How much have you lost?" asked Kate gently.

"About $35000," said Mrs Villeneuve. "Most of it was some money my sister left us. The rest of it is what we saved."

"How did you find out about the investment?" asked Kate.

"A flyer through the door," said the Sergeant. "Said it was aimed at retired professionals. The guy who came when we called said they only deliver them to houses which look well kept. He says you can tell that people who live in houses like ours are reliable. Huh! I bet his house is a shambles."

"Do you have the leaflet?" asked Kate.

Mrs Villeneuve retrieved a piece of paper from a bureau. Tony put on a pair of gloves and put the flyer in an evidence bag.

"Probably a long shot," he said. "But there may be prints on it."

"Would you be able to describe the man who sold you the investment?" asked Kate.

"No, Dear," said Mrs Villeneuve. "He was just very pleasant. Nothing stood out."

"What about you, Sir?" asked Tony.

"Like my wife said, he was … non-descript," said the Sergeant."

"Would you come to the Navy Yard tomorrow?" asked Tony. "Sit with one of our sketch artists? They're very good. They may be able to help you remember."

"We'll do anything we can to help," said the Sergeant. "I've always tried to do what's right and I'm not going to stop now."

"I appreciate that," said Tony. "Someone'll be in touch about the arrangements."

"Thank you, both," said Mrs Villeneuve. "And thank you for not making us feel stupid."

"It's not your fault," said Kate.

"We'll do our best to find out who did this," said Tony.

Tony and Kate took their leave, refusing an offer to give them a box of the brownies.

"Make arrangements for the sketch artist, Kate," said Tony when they got back in the car.

"Right," said Kate. "Makes me so mad. Nice people like that being conned."

"Yeah," said Tony. "It reminds me of something."

"A movie?"

"No. For once, not a movie. I think there was a case when I was back in Baltimore. Something similar. They targeted people with spare money, who might not make a fuss if they lost it all."

"What happened?"

"Don't remember. I think I was working on it just before I transferred to NCIS. Don't remember if we solved it or not."

Back at the Navy Yard they discovered that McGee and Gibbs had had a similar conversation with their interviewees although they hadn't had the benefit of brownies.

"Leave it for today," ordered Tony. "We can't do much more until the victims have sat with the sketch artist. McGee, do you think you can do something with tracing where the money's gone?"

"I can try," said Tim, "But I may only be able to track when it got taken out."

"Do your best," said Tony. "But tomorrow. It can wait till tomorrow." He switched his computer off, put on his coat and then scribbled a note on his scrap pad before heading out.

NCISNCIS

Kate, McGee and Gibbs were in the squad room early the next morning but Tony hadn't yet arrived. The elevator dinged to announce an arrival but it wasn't Tony.

"Commander," said Gibbs as Faith walked in.

"Agent Gibbs," said Faith. "I came to tell you that Tony won't be in today."

"Is he all right?" asked Kate.

"No, he's not. He's been sick all night. I told him … I told him to stay in bed," replied Faith.

"OK," said Gibbs.

Faith turned to go. "He shouldn't have let Alexander feed him so much chilli," she said as turned back again.

Gibbs' head shot up. "What did you say?"

"He shouldn't have let Alexander feed him so much chilli," repeated Faith. "Oh, I nearly forgot. Here's the folder on the Dimitri case." She handed a file to Gibbs. She nodded to the other members of the team and walked towards the elevator.

Kate and McGee watched her go. "Gibbs," said Kate, "Is something wrong?"

Gibbs didn't answer. He was reading the folder Faith had given him.

"Gibbs?" repeated Kate.

"Boss?" said Tim.

Gibbs banged his fist on the desk. "Where did you two learn to write reports?" he demanded. "This is trash!"

Kate and Tim looked at one another in alarm.

"Conference room! Now!" bellowed Gibbs. He grabbed hold of the folder and strode towards the elevator. Tim was not surprised when Gibbs threw the emergency switch and the elevator came to a halt.

"Boss," he began, "That's not one of our reports."

"Faith just used the duress word," Gibbs announced.

"What?" asked Kate.

"'Alexander' is the DiNozzo duress word," said Gibbs. He waved a piece of paper from the folder Faith had given him. "Tony went out for a run this morning and hasn't come back," he said reading from the note. "Faith got an email saying he'd been taken. Warned her not to tell anyone or else he'll be killed."

"Have they asked for a ransom?" asked McGee.

"No. The email said that Faith has to mess up a case she's prosecuting tomorrow. Major David Sutton is being court martialled for dereliction of duty."

"But she'd told us," said McGee. "Sorry, that's obvious."

"Faith knows it's the best thing to do," said Gibbs. "But she's trying to hide that she's told us. Email said that they've got eyes and ears on JAG and NCIS so they'll know if she tells anyone. We need to investigate this carefully."

"Where's Tilly?" asked Kate.

"She goes to Childcare on Mondays," said Gibbs. "Kate, pay a visit later. We'll keep her under surveillance. Bring her in if we need to."

"What do you want us to do, Gibbs?" asked McGee.

"Can you get into Faith's emails? Work out where this email came from?"

"Yes."

"Carefully," said Gibbs. "We don't want to send up any alarms. Kate, look into this Sutton case. It wasn't one of ours so look to see who might be interested in him getting off."

"Yes, Gibbs. Er … are we sure this isn't some sort of trick? That the Commander isn't mistaken?" asked Kate.

"No, we're not sure," said Gibbs. "But Faith isn't easily fooled. DiNozzo wouldn't play this type of trick. For the moment we treat this as a genuine threat."

"You don't … you don't think they'd kill Tony, do you?" asked McGee.

"Not while this Sutton is waiting to be tried," said Gibbs. "That gives us some time." He threw the emergency switch to restart the elevator. "Remember," he said, "Quiet does it. I'm going to brief the Director."

A couple of hours later there had been no news. McGee had traced the email to an internet café near to the DiNozzo home in Georgetown but it seemed to be an account set up for that purpose and he couldn't detect any other traffic on it. Gibbs, Kate and McGee got together in one of Tony's favoured campfires.

"Gibbs," said Kate softly, "David Sutton is the son of Albany Sutton. He's a multi-millionaire from New York. I guess he'd have the resources to do this."

"Any history of criminal activity?" asked Gibbs.

"A few brushes with the law," said Kate looking at her information. "Breaches of building regulations. He owns a lot of property; some of his tenants have complained about conditions. No obvious links to organised crime but it's possible."

"And the Major?" asked Gibbs.

"Good record so far," said McGee, "Wouldn't have got to his rank otherwise. Seems to have fallen apart over the last couple of years. Marriage broke down, wife took the children. Nasty custody battles. He began to be careless in his work. Which led to the court martial. He's been fighting it all the way. Lots of delaying tactics, alleging unfair practices, saying he's sick. Ran out of excuses and the date was finally set for tomorrow."

"OK," said Gibbs. "We'll focus on him and his father. Known connections. Look out for properties either of them own."

"On it," said McGee and Kate.

As they stood up to return to their desks they were surprised to see Faith walking towards them with Tilly in her arms.

"Commander," said Gibbs. "What can we do for you today?" He was working on the assumption that Faith would still keep the façade of silence about Tony.

"Gibbs," she said, fighting to keep calm, "There's no point in keeping it quiet any longer. I can't mess up Sutton's trial."

"You wouldn't have to do it for real," said McGee. "We'd find a way."

"You don't understand," said Faith. "Major Sutton has decided to plead guilty. It's out of my control. The kidnappers have no reason to keep my husband any longer. What if they kill him?"