Warnings: Spoilers for "Jet Lag"

A/N: Hello lovelies! Happy weekend! I hope I haven't chased too many of you away with the, ehem, adult content in the last chapter ;). This will be the last update for a bit, since I am going away on vacation Monday morning. I will not be bringing my laptop, but will be bringing my iPad. I'll have time to write but no time to edit and post, so look for a swarm of posts on my stories when I get back :). Until then, enjoy!

"Looks like we're going to be here two more days, boss," Tony said over the video feed in MTAC. "Miss Williams wants to finish her project before leaving. And there's just no stopping her. We tried."

"I'll make sure Vance lets SecNav know," Gibbs said, frowning slightly. He was hoping to have his team back by tomorrow. Investigating a murder down two agents was going to be hard, but the Director was leaving him no choice since both Tony and Natalie were overseas. "Guess Burley and I are going to have to handle this without ya, DiNozzo."

Tony pouted, even if it was in jest because he was perfectly okay with being in Paris at the moment. "Hope you're not going to replace me with Stan the Man, boss. I mean… I rather like my job and all my stuff is in D.C. Do you know how hard it would be to move my DVD collection if I was reassigned? We're talking hundreds and hundreds of boxes!"

Gibbs glared at the senior field agent, resisting the urge to grin. "Are you done, DiNozzo?"

"Yeah. Thanks for letting me get it out of my system, Gibbs."

"Anytime. Tony?"

Tony arched his eyebrows up in a questioning look. "Yeah boss?"

Gibbs did grin this time before cutting the MTAC feed and simply stated, "You have lipstick on the corner of your mouth." He chuckled as he saw the senior field agent panic and use his thumb to wipe the evidence of his earlier doings away, just as the screen went black.

Stan was silently standing by him, arms crossed, studying his face. He wasn't sure what he'd just witnessed. If he had been the one to be caught with lipstick on his mouth… probably his partner's lipstick no less… Gibbs would have fired his ass on the spot. Yet… he'd made a joke and carried on like nothing had happened. Stan could only hope that he was still around when Tony and Natalie returned from Paris to see how this whole thing played out. "Ducky called while you were chatting with DiNozzo. He has the time and cause of death on our marine. Guy was dead days before we got the call. Kitty litter, um, covered up the smell."

"Did you get into that safe we found yet?" Gibbs asked as the two agents left MTAC.

"Abby was going to take a drill to it," Stan replied.

"Until we get into the safe we might not have a motive," Gibbs surmised. "The apartment hadn't been touched. Wasn't a robbery."

Stan nodded in agreement. "The way he was placed in the tub and with the litter, makes me wonder if this was a professional hit."

Gibbs took a steadying breath, "Not professional enough. The guy was found." Now, it was there job to find out who killed their marine and why.

A brisk, cold wind gusted at them as they stepped out onto the observation deck at the top of the Eiffel Tower. This had been Natalie's idea, when they had learned they had two days to spend in Paris on NCIS' dime, to go to the top of the Paris landmark and see the city at night.

Tony had just wanted to go back to their hotel room and catch a nap. It wasn't like they had gotten a lot of sleep the night before. But, when she looked at him, pouted her lower lip out teasingly and begged… he couldn't resist. Besides, it was well worth it now seeing her eyes light up. He held back, watching her, the wind blowing her hair about wildly, how beautiful she looked against the backdrop of the Paris skyline at night…

He distracted himself by taking photographs… of the skyline, sneaking them of Natalie when she wasn't looking. When he snapped the last one, immediately he knew it was going on his computer so he could look at it when he missed her. She was looking slightly towards the camera, hair blowing behind her and she had a carefree, easy look on her face, a slight smile, the setting sun casting a glow about her. Tony was completely enraptured by her…

Natalie finally caught him staring and snatched the camera out of his hand. "Stop taking photos for one second and just look! Just look how beautiful it all is, Tony. You need to stop looking at it all through a camera lense and appreciate it!"

"Oh, believe me, I appreciate the beauty of the world," Tony quipped, his green eyes never leaving her face.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Natalie said, rolling her eyes playfully.

Tony reached out and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her towards him and kissing her, softly. "What did you mean then?"

Natalie leaned into his embrace and rested the palms of her hands on his chest. "Just that we only have two days to enjoy all this. And then we'll be back in D.C juggling the job and our relationship… here in Paris… we can just forget for a couple of days about all that."

He dipped his head towards hers and slowly brought their lips together. She deepened their kiss, sliding her arms around his neck and pulling him in closer to her. Tony chuckled against her mouth, "You know, this is how I got lipstick on me earlier. Gibbs noticed, too."

She smiled and kissed him once more. "What did you tell him?"

"Nothing. He cut the feed before I could explain."

"What were you going to tell him?"

"That I found some French madam…"

Natalie pulled back from their kiss and glared at him. "A French hooker? You were going to tell him that you hooked up with some whore?"

Tony shook his head, nervously, "It was just a cover…"

"Why not just tell him you got lucky after the flight?"

"That wouldn't be a lie…"

"Well if you have to lie can you please at least make me sound not so dirty?"

Tony ran his eyes over her and hugged her to his body tightly. "Well… I suppose… but you know… some of the things you did last night… a hooker would have charged extra." Before she could protest or get angry at him, he made sure to silence her with a hungry kiss.

Natalie melted against him as she let him deepen their kiss. She smiled to herself thinking about how she could now say she had shared a kiss with a lover at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Pulling back with a little sigh she rested her forehead against his, loving the feel of his arms around her, keeping her warm against the cold wind. He was her sanctuary—he had been since Somalia. He didn't mind her vulnerability, her insecurity and he knew just what to do to make her feel better. He had her back through everything, never faltering… Abby was right… Tony was all soft and gooey on the outside but hundred percent rock on the inside.

Of course Natalie wondered if she meant that as a jab that Tony very rarely let people or in, but she preferred to think that it meant he was strong. He was certainly her strength and she was alright with that. A cold wind picked up and she shivered. "Maybe we should go—find some place to get warm," Tony suggested, kissing her forehead before he took her hand and led her away. They only had forty-eight hours to enjoy the romance and splendor of Paris and he didn't want to waste a second of it.

Abby had used a drill to get the safe open just before Gibbs and Burley were going to take a lunch break. "Did you get to speak to Tony?" the scientist asked with a smile. "I bet he was really sad being forced to stay in Paris a few more days."

Gibbs shook his head, ignoring her obvious sarcasm. "He was fine with it. Hard to be upset when your stuck in Paris with an attractive woman."

Burley glanced at Abby and saw the confused expression run through her eyes. Good, he wasn't the only one feeling that Gibbs calm acceptance of Tony and Natalie was out of character for the marine. "You find anything in the safe, Abs?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I found a bunch of things. Some rather expensive watches… there was a folder with newspaper clippings on the murder of a New York City real estate mogul… unsolved, and another folder with a photograph in it," Abby said, gesturing to her findings. "I don't know what all this means but I figured you guys would... or you would be the ones to figure it out."

"Hey, boss, do you think Parsons was a hit man? It would explain the money to afford such a nice place and the maid service," Burley guessed while Gibbs glanced at the files.

"Get DiNozzo back on the feed in MTAC," Gibbs ordered, tucking a file underneath his arm. "Our case and his assignment just became linked."

Abby looked between the two agents. "How so?"

Gibbs frowned and held up the photograph of a woman from the second folder Abby had found. "Because this… is Nora Williams… the witness that Tony and Natalie had been assigned to escort back to Washington. She was Parsons' next hit."

Tony straightened his tie while he waited for Natalie to emerge from the bathroom. A quick glance at the clock stated that they still had thirty minutes before their dinner reservation. It was true, they were on assignment… but who said they couldn't enjoy Paris in style? Even Natalie had said they should sit back and enjoy it, as they had spent the entire day sight seeing. He grinned and smoothed his hair back, turning about to look at the large hotel room that NCIS was going to be paying for them to have this romantic little, impromptu get-away.

It had a sweeping view of skyline of the City of Lights… a large, king-sized bed with a navy blue comforter and stark white sheets. That were tossed about last night, he thought, with a little playful grin. And then again this morning.

Behind him he heard the bathroom door click open. Tony turned to see Natalie exit the bathroom and instantly his pulse raced. "Nat," he growled, low in his throat. "What are you wearing?"

Natalie paused, briefly and looked down at the black cocktail dress. It was the same one she had worn when they had gone undercover on their date, back before she had even been a member of their team. "It's a black cocktail dress."

Tony, clearly, could see it was a black cocktail dress… but did it have to be that dress? The one that hugged her in all the right places, revealed the sensual curves of her body that she hid underneath blouses and dress pants in the office. He stepped closer to her, licking his lips, "I can see it's a black cocktail dress. Why are you wearing it?"

"Because… we're going out to dinner," Natalie deadpanned, noticing the lustful look in his eyes. "I want to look nice."

"Nice, huh? Do you know what every man in that dining room is going to want to do to you?"

"Including you?"

"Yes."

Natalie smiled, coyly, and wrapped her hair around her finger. "No, Tony. I don't know what they are going to want to do."

Tony closed the space between them, leaving only inches of air before them. "They're going to want to take that dress off of you, Natalie," he whispered, huskily in her ear as his fingers brushed along the zipper in the back. "I want to take that dress off you, Nat."

"Maybe you should."

"If I do that—we'll miss our reservations."

She kept smiling at him, flirtatiously while she said, "But what if I'm not hungry for French food?"

He chuckled as his cell rang. "You're a naughty little vixen, Callahan," he quipped before answering his phone. "Hey Burley. Boss driving you crazy yet?"

"Not yet. He's mellowed since I last saw him, DiNozzo. How'd you manage that?"

"Well… when you're good, you're good."

"Yeah, well if he doesn't talk to you and Natalie on the MTAC screen in five minutes all your hard work is going to blow up in my face."

Tony frowned and found the laptop he had used earlier to video-conference with Gibbs. "Why does he want the conference? Something going on?"

Burley paused. "Yeah. See you soon." He hung up and Tony looked at his partner.

Natalie wasn't smiling anymore. "What's going on?"

"Don't know," Tony said as he powered the laptop up. "Guess we're about to find out."

"Must be something do with our assignment," Natalie guessed. Her eyes went wide for a second. "Do you think… do you think Gibbs knows?"

"Knows what?"

"That we, you know… had sex?"

Tony smiled at her and laughed silently. She could be completely sexy and sultry with him , but the thought that someone else knew they were sleeping together embarrassed her. He wasn't concerned about Gibbs finding out about them being together. He already had his shove- rule 12- up -your -ass speech ready to go when the time came. "Unless the boss has spies here in Paris… I doubt he knows."

Natalie sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for Tony to call up the video call program. Looking at her dress, she knew Gibbs was going to figure it out the moment he saw her—Tony had been attracted to her in that dress back during their undercover assignment—it was the whole reason she had packed the dress, you know, just in case they got to spend a nice evening out. If their boss had not figured it out by now that they were seeing each other, he was going to know it by the end of this video chat.

Gibbs appeared on the screen then, looking rather annoyed. "DiNozzo. This isn't a holiday."

"Believe it or not this is a work suit, boss."

"Oh? And is that a work dress, Callahan?"

Her cheeks grew red, and Natalie nervous chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Well… technically I did wear it for an assignment."

He raised his chin, and Gibbs' eyes twinkled for the slightest moment. "You two are scheduled to fly out tomorrow morning. Nora Williams will be waiting for you at the embassy."

"Tomorrow? I thought she wanted to finish a project first?" Tony questioned, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, yeah, she did, DiNozzo, but that was before we found evidence that someone placed a hit on her," Gibbs snapped. "I'll see ya tomorrow!"

The laptop screen went blank. Tony and Natalie sat there in silence for a moment. She looked at him sheepishly for a second, then smiled, softly, "Well, I bet you're glad now that I told you we needed to live in the moment."

Tony felt the corners of his mouth pull into a grin and took her by the hand. "Yes. And I think, my fair lady, that we still have time to have a nice dinner. After all, we don't have to be professional until tomorrow morning."

Natalie latched onto his hand and allowed him to help her into her coat and then lead her out of the hotel room. Even in Paris duty caught up to them. She was just glad that they got to enjoy the few moments they had been given, because come tomorrow there was going to be no room for mistakes with the witness' life on the line.

We'll check in with Timmy next chapter, promise :)