Kate jogged along the icy streets, she rubbed her nose and sighed, looking down at her shoes, they were untied again. She slowed to a walk, slightly out of breath. She put her foot up on the arm or the nearby bench and began to tie up her shoe.

A young woman was sat there, she looked up.

"Caitlin?" She asked.
"Yes, do I know you?" she replied, putting her foot back down on the floor.
"Yes, it's Jodie … Jodie Green, from your high school? Don't you remember me?"
"Jodie. Yes, I remember you." She smiled weakly, paying little interest.
"I didn't know you lived around here!" She smiled her smile bright and cheerful.
"Have done for a while now, couple of years."
"I just moved here with Darren, you remember him right, he was in some of your class's right?"
"Yeah, I remember him…" She sighed, Kate used to be pretty good friends with him.
"Well we're getting married!"
"Congratulations!!"
"Thanks Kate. We're having a party; I'd be delighted if you would come, all the old friends will be there, Karen, you remember her right? And Pippa, Adam, Richard, Hayden, Darren obviously, Cherish, They'll all be there!"
"Well, thanks for the invitation but it's been so long and …"
"Please come, you'll love it."

There was a long and awkward silence were Kate looked at a spot on her trousers and began to pick at it. Jodie looked as if she was about to throw herself on to the floor and beg.

"I'll think about it." Kate said, finally giving in.
"Thank you Caitlin, thank you. Here's my number, call me and I tell you when it is and everything. Thanks again Caitlin!" She smiled, hugging her as if she was in tears.
"Yeah … well. I gotta go so …"
"Oh Caitlin, bring a date, everyone else is. Or a friend if you don't have one." She said snobbishly.

--- --- ---

"Oh Kate you gotta go!" Abby said kicking her legs, firmly sat on Tony's desktop.
"No I don't ‘Gotta' go Abs."
"Why don't you want to?"
"Because, we're not really friends anymore, it would feel awkward. I'm not really going to know anyone there, and well, it won't feel right!"
"She said take a date right?"
"Yes Abs."
"Well then you won't be alone!"
"It's just there's going to be a lot of people there who don't like me."
"Look, Kate, if you don't want to go tell her. But at least if you went, you could show them all you aren't scared of facing them."
"I'm not scared of facing them!"
"Well then go!"
"Fine!" Kate shouted.

"Pay up McGee." Abby grinned a few minutes later.
McGee sighed and walked over handing Abby a $20 bill.

"50/50 for lunch. Was that really that hard."
"No."
"So you're going."
"IF I can find a date."

Abby clapped and smiled.

"Take Tony." Gibbs smirked.
"Yeah Kate take Tony." Abby said, more seriously.
"And what, have him get off with Jodie?! I don't think so."
"Come on Kate. Tony's hot. All the girls will be jealous."
"Right Abby. I think I'll have to pass on that one."
"Who's Jodie?" Tony asked, walking into the bullpen.
"An old … Uh friend. Why?" Kate replied.
"Because she's behind me looking for you."
"Caitlin, Kate. The party is tomorrow night, I'm sorry, the planner wants it moved because we want the wedding earlier." Jodie said, emerging from behind the taller man.

"Right. Well, Jodie, I might not come." She said quietly.
"Why?" She gasped, sounding completely horrified.
Tony looked over. "Yeah Kate, how come. I love weddings!"
"Unless they are your own." Abby coughed subtly.
Kate let out a laugh. "Because … I uh … Don't have a date." She said, completely improvised.
"Bring a friend."
"Yeah Kate, take DiNozzo." Gibbs smiled.
"Yeah Kate, take Tony!" McGee laughed.
"Who is taking young Tony out now?" Ducky asked walking into the bullpen.
"Yeah Kate take…" Abby began.
"Ok … ok, ok, OK! I'll take Tony."
"So you're coming! Thank you Caitlin!" She smiled, hugging her again.

Jodie left with a wave. Kate groaned.
"Man, she was hot!" Tony said following her with his eyes to the elevator. She waved again and he smiled back.
"SEE WHAT I MEAN!" Kate shouted in a high pitched tone.

Everyone laughed.
"I'm only kidding Kate."

A $5 dollar bill was handed to Tony.
"Abby paid me to say it. I needed paying Kate, she was surprisingly not that bad ."
"Tony!" Kate said raising her eyebrows. "Well, yes, I suppose she is kinda pretty. Anyway off the point, do not say anything to any of the girls and please wear something descent."
"When don't I wear decent clothes Kate?"

She shrugged and got back to her work.

"When am I supposed to pick you up?"
"Well, you could meet me there if you like."
"Nah, my treat."
"Ok, pick me up at six at this address." She said after scribbling down her home on a piece of paper.
"Kate, I know where you live …"
"How, I never told you …"

Tony smiled and tapped his nose.

"He followed you and Dwayne out on the date, then back to your house again." Gibbs said out of the blue.
"DiNozzo!" Kate yelled.

--- --- ---

Kate sighed. She was not looking forward to this at all. She had finally decided the red dress looked better than the black one. It was floor length and spread out a little around her feet, otherwise it clung to her figure perfectly. It was laced up, almost corset like at the back but also had a halter neck tie. She had a pair of expensive diamond earrings with a necklace and bracelet to match. Her hair was beautifully curled into small tight ringlets; they hung idly around her shoulders, but bounced back to life whenever she moved.

She had a small amount of mascara and a little blush; she preferred to look more natural than perfect. She slipped into a pair of black heeled shoes and her look was complete. She didn't even know why she had spent so long getting ready. It's not like she had to impress anyone was it? Well. Whatever the reason, she had made her self look beautiful, she was finally satisfied, just in time, and Tony arrived with a tap at the door.

"You ready to go Kate?" He asked.
"Yes, I am."
"You look beautiful ‘Caitlin'." He said, mimicking Jodie and the way she addresses her.
"Shut up DiNozzo." She glared.

Tony laughed and led her to the car, opening the door and shutting it behind her.

They arrived shortly after; it was a very classy restaurant with fountains and statues outside of it. A Sheet of pure white snow covered it all and it glimmered in the headlights of arriving cars. People were walking inside already, Kate recognized most of them. She suddenly felt really ill.

She stepped out of the car and waited for Tony to walk around and meet her. She linked his arm and breathed in heavily. Her thoughts were swimming, memories she had pushed to the back of he mind were being resurrected.

People turned around to look at Kate. Men smiled and stared as their partners and wives hit them. There was an eerie silence within which only a few whispers were heard. Suddenly a tall, orange haired woman walked over.

"Well, if it isn't Caitlin Todd. Jodie told us you were coming. Didn't think you would show …" Said the woman looking rather amused with herself.
"Ha! Kate Todd. What an unpleasant surprise." Said a much prettier brown haired girl.
"Well Caitlin, aren't you going to introduce us?" Said the red head indicating to Tony who was by now looking rather annoyed with them both.
"Tony …" She sighed. "This is Pippa …"

She looked towards the red headed girl.
"And this is Cherish." She finished looking at the brown haired woman.
"Nice to meet you." Tony said nodding at them both.

"Did you miss me?" Pippa smiled.
"Not particularly." Kate said.

A tall dark haired man walked over to were the girls were stood. He was rather handsome with bright flashing green eyes.
"Pippa are you ready to come and sit d-" He began. "Kate?!" He said with a mixture of surprise and happiness on his face. "Is it you?"
"Yes Hayden it's me." She said, sounding completely uninterested.
"Wow you look amazing."

Kate blushed slightly. "Thank you. You don't look half bad either."
"Oh, Kate it's been ages, we have so much to catch up on!"
"Tell me about it, you have some explaining to do as well." She said rather sternly.
"Yes, yes I know, I know. You really do look absolutely amazing Kate." He smiled.

Pippa glared at him. "Honey, can you get me some wine please?"
"But Kate and I have so much to catch up on!" He began.
"Now." She said sternly, causing a few people to look at them.
"Yes Pip…" He said. He walked over to Kate and kissed her softly on the cheek. "…We'll talk later." He whispered into her ear.

"Well, if I was your date, I would be incredibly pissed right now …" Tony smiled.
"Yes well, you're not."

Kate's face turned bright red as she poked her tongue into her cheek nervously.
Pippa stalked over to Kate, her heels tapping on the hard floor beneath them.
"Listen up Kate, good and proper. Hayden is mine now; we're getting married as well. You talk to him even talk to someone about him and I will seriously kill you." She said walking back over to Cherish who led her inside.

Kate ran her fingers through her hair with a sigh.

"Wow Kate. That sounded like one hell of a threat." Tony said with raised eye brows.
"Yeah, and lets just say, she's someone who wouldn't carry it through…" Kate said.
Tony shrugged. "Ok then. Are you ready to go inside Kate?" He said, re linking her arm and walking her to the door anyway.

They were led to a table, a few gold name tags scattered the neat cream cloth covering it. In the middle was a great big metal candelabrum holding about half a dozen gold candles. Curving around the base was a piece of gold wire threaded with petals of a white Lily.

Kate sat down where her name was, Tony sitting beside her. Opposite them, Hayden and Pippa. To their right, Darren and Jodie and to their left were Cherish and Adam. Tony pushed her in and she thanked him with a small smile. As the other people sat down in their seats, some slow classical music came on.

Pippa took her seat first. Hayden tucked her in and then sat down himself. Pippa clicked her finger and a man walked over with a tray of cocktails, placing one down before her. Cherish and Jodie took one, none of them taking the time to thank the man for his service.

"Would you like one Ma'am?" He offered walking around to Kate's side.
"Oh, well thank you." She said smiling sweetly, taking a cocktail gently off the tray.
"You're very welcome Ma'am." He smiled, nodding his head and walking away.

Richard who was also due to sit at their table came back with a tray of beer. There was uproar from all the guys as they took one and cracked off the tops.

"So…" Cherish began. "It's Caitlin Todd. You're not married are you, are you married?"
"No. I'm still Kate Todd."
"Ah, lucky for him then." Pippa said taking a sip of her cocktail. "Now, I really would feel sorry for him if he had to put up with you."
"Pippa!" Hayden said, sounding rather shocked at how harsh she sounded all of a sudden.
"What do you do for a living anyway Caitlin." Adam smiled, mimicking the other women.
"Well, I work for NCIS. I did work for the secret service though."
"Wow, nice to know our president was in good hands. Passing his protection to you, no wonder they get assassinated." Pippa said into her glass.
"Pippa, I am warning you, just be nice for one night please?" Hayden begged. Jodie sighed at her.
"Anyway, nice to know we are in good hands hey Hayden?" Adam said. "We're marines." He smiled.
"Wow!" Kate smiled, looking at Hayden, then looking away as she caught Pippa glaring at her.
"So Caitlin. Is he just a friend. He seems way too handsome to be dating you."
"We are --" Kate began, about to say ‘Just friends'.
"Dating." Tony said, receiving a glare from Hayden.

Pippa snorted into her glass. "You're kidding right?"
"No, we're not." Tony scorched, sounding more and more angry.
Kate still looked completely taken aback by Tony's last comment about them dating.
"Poor, poor man. Are you just dating her for sympathy? Like Hayden did?" She whispered, but everyone could hear it and she knew this.
"He did not date Kate for sympathy!" Darren said.
"Well isn't this lovely dinner time conversation…" Jodie mumbled into her glass.
"Conversation change please…" Cherish sighed.
"Why would he date Kate for sympathy? She was pretty, clever, funny … All those nice things that you never were Pippa, well, maybe you were kinda pretty, but I think you were just Jealous of her!" Adam said.

Kate felt a comfort in the people sticking up for her. It wasn't like they did before, but this time it felt good. She had done something with her life and she felt proud of herself for a change.

"Wow Kate, looks like you got a fan club." Darren smiled.

Kate smiled back weakly.

"Can I join?" Richard asked, jokingly putting his hand in the air.

There was a silence after this comment in which Hayden coughed uncomfortably and Cherish sniffed rather loudly.

"Well … How did you and Tony meet?" Jodie asked out of the blue, knowing the answer, but she was really just trying to make some pleasant conversation seen as everyone else seemed incapable to do so.
"At work." Kate said, taking a sip out of her glass.
"Haha, work relationships, destined to fail." Pippa added, almost instantaneously.
"You would know pippa wouldn't you? Remember Jack, I sure as hell do…" Hayden Snorted angrily, he had taken about as much as he could, she was really getting to him now.
"Anyway, how did you get our Caitlin, Tony?" Adam asked.
"I didn't get her; even if I did I wouldn't refer to it like that." Tony laughed.
"Please give us the secret, I tried so many times and failed on each occasion, so did Richard. Hayden was the only one … Darren had a go aswell actually, no Hayden, didn‘t you date for a while after?"

Darren nodded with a smirk, then hugged Jodie.
"But Jodie's mine now." He smiled.

"Excuse me; you act as if I am some kind of prize!" Kate said in disbelief, but was still quite chuffed.
"One I wouldn't mind winning." Richard laughed.
"Okay, okay, enough, enough." Hayden smiled, hushing them; smiling at Kate who gave him a very thankful and appreciative look.
"Got any kids yet Kate, are you a parent?" Pippa asked.
"No, I'm not been realy busy with work and stu-" She began but Pippa cut her off.
"Well that's funny because I'm pregnant with Hayden‘s baby."

There was a long pause in which Jodie gasped and Kate looked rather upset.

"What?" Hayden asked, looking at her looking rather shocked, he had no idea about it.
"Oh like you didn't know?!" Kate said dangerously.
"Kate … I-I swear I didn't!" Hayden stuttered, still in shock.
"Yeah, I've even got names." Pippa smiled.
"Wha? What, I can't believe you're … Pregnant?" He said sounding completely dumbfounded.
"For a girl I'm thinking Caitlin, for a girl maybe Todd?" She suggested with a smirk causing Hayden to stand up in complete and utter rage, Richard to curse her, Kate to just become rather numb and causing Tony to get up aswell.

"Pippa that is crossing the line and you know it." Cherish said, Adam standing up beside her and following Hayden who had stormed off towards the bar. The other men followed leaving just the women around the table, none of them talking. Cherish and Jodie just looked plain angry, Kate looked as if she was about to burst into tears and Pippa just looked rather smug with herself.

"It's not crossing the line! I like the names, simple as."
"That was real bitchy Pippa, do you actually get joy out of hurting other people? Because if you do, you are pathetic." Jodie sighed.

Hayden sat down at the bar looking incredibly angry. The other guys rushed around him grabbing stools, handing him beers.
"Hey man, are you ok?" Adam asked.
"No, she fucking crossed the line and she knows it! I swear, I didn't even know …"
"I believe you Hayden!"
"Yeah well I still can't believe her, she is just so God damn inconsiderate." He said, taking an angry gulp of beer.
"She always has been, especially to Kate …" Richard said.
"Yeah I know, it's not even like she'd done anything!" Adam sighed.

Tony just sat rather quietly, nodding. He was kind of in the dark, he hadn't gone to school with them, he didn't know how Pippa was to her back then. He sat looking rather confused.

"Tony, you look confused." Adam coughed. "I suppose you really had to be at school to know how bad it was."
"Well. Kate had three brothers, a twin brother Jack, and two older brothers Zack and Nathan. Pippa first met Kate when she was dating Jack … Now they were young it was one of those ‘We're going out things', nothing serious. Then they split and she went with Nathan, but she actually cheated on him with Zack. Yeah it's confusing …" Adam said seeing Tony's face. "Anyway, Pippa and Kate argued about it and then they were friends again, and the group was back together. Then Kate dated some guy, Ryan or something but he cheated on her with Pippa. Now by this point, Kate was pretty annoyed, but she was a real nice girl, she kept it all down didn't let it show or nothing. Then she dated the lovely Darren here for ‘couple of months, anyhow, the same thing happened. By now Kate was on the verge, she had tried talking to Pip but she was having none of it. Then her and Hayden got together, and they were very serious until the last year of college, when Kate supposedly was told Pippa was dating Hayden behind her back, Pippa even admitted it just so she could ruin it between Kate and Hayden, he wasn't off course but Kate left and no one had really had any contact with her since."
"So why is Kate so upset now, I would have thought she would have moved on … Well is was like three years you dated or something wasn‘t it?" Richard sighed.
"Four." Said a man walking over to the bar. It was Nathan, Kate's brother.
"Hey Nate. Welcome to the really, really bad party."
"She's upset because I asked her to marry me … Before the thing about me a Pip came out…"
"What?" Richard and Darren asked in unison.
"Yeah, only Adam and Nate knew …" Hayden sighed, taking another gulp of beer. "Obviously she said no because she believed Pippa over me when Pippa confessed to sleeping with me, when we didn't."
"I don't believe you did mate." Nate said, punching him on the arm playfully.
"Well, Kate obviously did."
"Anyway, where's my manners … Nate this is Tony, he's dating Kate, and Tony this is Nate, Kate's brother."
"So you're dating her huh? Well, you don't seem too bad …" He smiled, holding out his hand to shake. Tony took it with a grin and shook it.

"Well, I suppose we better go back over to the girls before one of them gets hurt." Adam said standing up, but only seeing Pippa at the table. His question of where the others were was answered when the other girls came out in a large congregation from the toilets, Kate in the middle of the group.
"Is Pippa flirting with Jack?" Richard asked walking over.

Jack looked at Pippa, snorted and walked off.
"Cheap bitch, you really think you can pull another one on me?!" He shouted, walking away.
"And that was my little brother Jack …" Nathan said as he stormed out.

Tony had just had about as much of Pippa as he could handle. He couldn't understand why Hayden would get engaged to her, he really didn't see anything nice about her.

The night continued and the guest had their meals, and drinks and champagne and had a bit of fun dancing aswell. The night seemed to have took a turn for the better, Pippa had backed off and was keeping pretty much to herself, taking the odd chance of having conversation with Cherish, but she didn't want to.

The men were sat around the table, watching all the women dancing and having a good time.
"Hayden I've gotta tell you something. Me and Kate, we aren't dating." Tony sighed.
"I know. I could tell from the look on Kate's face when you said it. Why did you say it?"
"Because, I didn't want Kate to look like she was alone. Plus Pippa probably would have laughed in her face."
"Mmm." Hayden agreed with a sigh.
"You still love her don't you."
"I'm sure we've both changed to much since then …"
"That's not what I asked." Tony smiled. "I can tell you do."
"So what if I do, it would never work now, not with the baby and me a Pippa splitting up."
"What?!" Tony asked in shock.
"Me and Pippa are splitting up, I'm sick of her."
"But she's pregnant!"
"I know, and I've offered her a fair share of money a month to help bring it up."
"Tell her you still love her." Tony smiled.
"I can't…"


Tony patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.

"Anyway, been meaning to ask, who's that guy over there, in the corner?" Tony asked, pointing over to a barely visible man, that if the door to the toilet hadn't been opened, you wouldn't have seen him.
"Where?" Hayden asked, not seeing anyone.
"Wait for the door to open…" Tony said, pointing him in the direction of the man. "There, there look now." He said, as the door opened, revealing the face of a quite pale, bony, dark haired looking man.
"Shit." Hayden shouted, getting up hurriedly, and running over to Darren.

Tony sat looking rather confused.

Hayden walked over to Kate, whilst Darren brought Jodie back to the table, his arms around her shoulder. As Hayden and Darren brought back two rather confused women, Tony kept a close eye on the man who was watching the girls, his eyes were following Kate and Jodie, he was playing with his hands uncontrollably.

Hayden lowered his voice. "Kate, Jodie, stay with Tony a second ok?"
"Hayden, what's going on?" Jodie asked after him.
"Did either of you two invite Jason?" He asked, Kate and Jodie.
"Jason who?" Tony asked.

Jodie looked up, her face full of fright and shock, Kate followed suit after thinking for a while.

"Why the hell would I do that?" Jodie asked in a low tone.
"I just wanted to know, look stay here ok?"
"Why would I invite Jason?"
"Look, sweetie, we were just wondering." Darren said softly.
"Don't let him get near the girls, we'll be back in a minute." Hayden whispered to Tony.