Disclaimer – I don't own NCIS

Authors note – I hope that you all like this, I am sorry for the delay; there will be more jibbs in the next chapter. Thanks for all of your reviews, please keep them coming and enjoy

"I took a picture for you but I painted it black, One more dream around a run a way drive, Now there's one less burned out star in the sky, leaving California tonight." – Boys like Girls, Leaving Califonia

It had been a week since Tony DiNozzo had woken up with the feeling f betrayal washing over him. A week and in that time he had barely spoken to Ali, using the excuse he needed to work. Yet in reality he hadn't, in fact they had had very few cases and yet he could not face her. There was a feeling of absolute dread that washed over him when he thought about telling her what he had done. Somehow he could not seem to be able to face it. And with all of his internal battles and contrasting emotions inside of him he ended up taking out all of his frustration on those he cared most about. He was grumpy, he was tired from not sleeping and more than anything he was filled with self hatred. All of this added to him being in an extremely bad mood all week, this bad mood had been taken out on Tim when he explained thing that the senior agent did not understand. He insulted Abby when he snapped, and upset her. When ducky had been going on about some tale Tony had walked out. The only person he hadn't dared to snap at was Gibbs yet even Gibbs had noticed that the younger agent was not his usual self.

However today was the day on which Ali was due to return from California for a few days. So, Gibbs had decided that he would most likely have his senior agent back to normal as he had decided to accept that Tony's extraordinarily strange mood was due to missing Ali. Yet he was proved wrong, as instead of Tony's mood improving by the fact that he would see the redhead in only a few hours, instead it worsened. Whereas Gibbs thought that he would be happy, instead Tony was worrying that he would end today alone.

Gibbs sat at his desk looking forward to when he would get the chance to leave. Ali had told Jenny that she could have that evening off since she had been the one to run the bar for the last few evening. However Jenny and Jethro had decided to go to the bar for a few drinks and listen to the music before escaping off back to his house. Smiling as he thought of the evening tonight he looked over to the desk where tony was sat in time to see his senior agent chuck a stapler across the room and storm of. Sighing and running a hand through his hair the older agent accepted now things had gone too far and so he got up to followed Tony to the lift. As they waited Gibbs said nothing, he just stood there beside his agent. But as soon as the pair had stepped inside of the cold steal box and the doors had closed, a tense and eerie silence filled the space. As the lift began to move Gibbs leant forward – and just as tony had anticipated – he flicked on the emergency stop. Turning to the younger agent he glared his infamous Gibbs glare.

Tony however for once did not shrink. He was so fuelled up and annoyed that a simple glare would not weather him down. "What the hell was that DiNozzo?" He asked, he was not impressed, in fact he was fuming.

"Nothing." Said the younger agent, averting his eyes from the piercing glare and leaning back against the wall.

"No, because it seems to me that something is eating you up."

"It's none of your business."

"No? Well when it starts affecting your work, and when you start taking it out on people who have done nothing, then it becomes my business. So DiNozzo, what the hell is going on?!" Tony looked up at his boss, and closed his eyes, running his hand thought his waxed brown hair. Now, he decided it was time to come clean. "Well?"

"I've screwed up Gibbs." He said, bashing the wall next to him with a clenched fist. "For the first time in . . . in so long I was happy! And now . . . then I had to go and make a mess outta it!"

"What have you done DiNozzo?"

"I . . . that night after Paula had . . . that night I went to this bar, and I." He swore under his breath. "I slept with someone else Gibbs! I didn't even know her name! I mean, I just needed to forget!" He swore again and slammed the wall.

"You cheated on her!"

"I was drunk boss! I-"

"Go! She's at the bar now, you go down there, you take her somewhere private and you tell her DiNozzo! God-dammit! Whatever she says you accept, and if she ends it then you have no one to blame but yourself!" Gibbs shouted before putting the lift back into action and leaving at the next floor. As he watched his boss leave and he was left alone, Tony realised just how hard it must be for Gibbs to have listened to that when he was dating Ali's aunt and saw her as a sort of daughter.

As Tony got to the ground floor he walked out of NCIS, not quite knowing what to do. HE knew that he had to do what Gibbs had said or else his troubles would just end up being more than doubled, and that he also needed to think about things. So he left the car and began to walk. He had no coat, and for a fact he actually had no car keys either. The wind was brick and cold against his shirt covered torso. The distance between NCIS and DC's Duke seemed too short for his liking. It seemed shorter that it ever had before, and now was the one time he wanted it to be longer.

Ali sat in the bar with Jenny. They were sat on the edge of the bar; the place was silent and all ready for that evening. Between them was a splayed out magazine that neither of them was bothering to acknowledge. They smiled as Jenny quizzed her niece on the events of California. "So, what the place like?" Jenny asked, desperate to know.

"It was run down, half blown up and falling apart when I bought it, but now . . . now it is amazing!" Said Ali laughing. "I sear, only I would buy something that had falling down walls and barely any roof. But by the time I got down there it had been made structurally sound. There is a flat above, and the bar. . . Well put it this way, half of it is white the other half is brick work. The booths are similar and the bar is dark wood. It's like here, but there is something different too. "Jenny looked at the younger woman who she looked at like a daughter and smiled.

"What do you mean?" she asked, wordlessly attempting to picture exactly what the bar was going to look like in her mind.

"I . . . I guess it's so much more a marine style to it. The entire bar staff hat I have hired are former marines. There is a wall of members lost in battle. It seems . . . I don't know it's just so different to the Duke."

"I cannot wait to see it darling." Said Jenny gently hugging her niece.

"Yeah, about that."

"What? Don't you want me to come to opening anymore?" Asked Jenny, not quite understanding what it was that Ali was saying.

"No! Of course I want you there! I was wondering if you would try and persuade Gibbs to come too. I know he had worked any everything, but he's sort of become like an uncle to me – even if it had only been a month – and I want him there." Ali said with a hint of nervousness in her voice. Jenny could not help but let the smile spread across his face.

"I'm sure he would be honoured Al. I'll talk to him tonight." Said Jenny, hugging Ali once more before getting up and grabbing a cloth to go and wash down the tables once more.

It was at that moment that Tony DiNozzo finally built up the confidence to walk in. He opened the door to see Ali sat on the bar, casually flicking through a magazine. She had on a pair of black and white striped jeans with a baggy pink off the shoulder sweater. Her shirt for the evening was hung up in the back. She turned around to see him and got up; she near enough ran over and hugged him, feeling safer in his arms. But the pause in his response, the stiffness in him and the way he seemed nervous worried her. She pulled back and looked at him.

"You okay?" She asked, her English accent overwhelming him. She looked cold being back in DC.

"Can. . . Can we talk?" HE asked.

"Sure, you want to go for a walk?" She asked, somehow knowing what he was about to say would not be something that she would want her aunt to whiteness.

"Yeah."

"Let me get my coat."

Within ten minutes Ali and Tony were walking down the road, they'd closed up the bar in which Jenny was cleaning still ready for the evening. They walked in silence all the way to park, sat down on the park bench. Tony leant forward, running a hand through his hair and burying his face in the palms of his hands. Ali watched him, the sense of nervousness growing ever more in the pit of her stomach. "Tony, what is going on?" She asked, attempting to hide the shaking from her voice. "Is it about Paula? Because you know you can talk to me." She said, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"No, no Paula had nothing to do with it."

"Then what is it Tony, you are worrying me."

Sighing he swallowed his pride and faced the music. "You know the night you couldn't get a hold of me?" he said, hoping he was imagining it all and that it would go away in the blink of an eye.

"Yeah, yeah you got drunk and passed out. You explained it all, I understand its fine."

"No Ali, it's not. I . . . that night I did get drunk, but . . . I left something out. Quite a lot."

"Tony, please tell me."

"Ali I screwed up! I left the yard and went to some messed up bar. I was so annoyed; I was so upset I felt responsible!" He stood up and began to pace. "Ali, I . . . there was some woman there. WE got talking, drank way too much! Ali it meant nothing I swear to you!"

Ali stood up and placed her hands on his shoulders. She looked directly in his eyes before removing her hands as if his shoulders were fire. He saw that change in her eyes, the way they almost drained of colour. "You . . . you slept with her?" She said it so quietly.

"Ali-"

"NO!" She shouted. "Will you just tell me the god damn truth Tony?"

"I slept with her." He said, his eyes cast down before looking up. "But I was drunk Ali, I didn't know what I was –"

"Do not use that excuse! Tony I work in a bar, I see how people react to Alcohol every day; do not tell me you didn't know what you were doing!"

"I was drunk."

"Yeah, well Tony when a person is drunk, they still know what they are doing." She had tears building up behind her eyes. She turned away and sat on the bench, burying her head in her hands. He felt the wave of guilt hit like a tsunami. Kneeling down in front of her he placed his hands on her knees.

"Ali we can work through this, I will never do it again-"

"Get off me." She said and he moved back. "I can't do this Tony. Once is enough, it's all it takes. For the first time I let myself fall in love with someone. Hell I trusted you! And look what you have done; you've thrown it back in my face." Alison stood up, and sighed. "I can't do this Tony."

"Are you saying it's over?" He asked it was the worst case scenario, something he didn't want to be true; something that he had hoped would not be true.

"Yeah, Tony I think I am. For now at least, maybe at some point we could be friends again. But . . . it's too much. Goodbye Tony." She said, turning away with tears streaming down her face.

Tony DiNozzo watched the woman he had fallen in love with walking away. He saw the tears on her face that he had been the course of. Tony DiNozzo roughly pulled a hand down his face and sighed. He really had messed up. With the threat of tears about to fall, he walked off to the firing range. If he couldn't throw something, then maybe shooting something would help.