Chapter 1

Tony was already sitting at his desk when his boss arrived for work that day. He watched as Gibbs glanced around, saw Tony, kept walking, and then did a double take.

"What?" he asked innocently as Gibbs gave him a searching look.

"Just one of the few times you've ever beaten me here DiNozzo," Gibbs told him. Tony just smiled as he fired up his computer. Gibbs watched almost in amazement as Tony began to sort through the mountain of paperwork that littered his desk. Gibbs stood there momentarily shocked. Tony working. It was almost unreal.

At that moment Ziva walked in, closely followed by McGee. She stopped in her tracks, McGee nearly running into her, as she shot a questioning look from the busy DiNozzo to Gibbs, standing at his desk looking disbelieving.

The phone on Gibbs' desk rang suddenly, breaking the silence. Gibbs answered as Ziva and McGee continued to their desks.

"We've got a case," he told them hanging up the phone. Tony jumped to his feet as though electrocuted and ignoring his co-workers looks, was the first to follow their boss into the elevator.

"Is it just me, or is Tony acting a bit…" Ziva began to ask when Tony was out of earshot.

"Weird?" suggested McGee, "Yeah, he is." They exchanged a slightly worried look, before rushing into the elevator after him.


A few minutes later they arrived at the crime scene, and Tony surprised them again. They were at the home of Petty Officer Erin Landon, who had been found dead by her next door neighbor, who had come over while Mr. Landers was at work. The body was almost completely naked, dressed only in her underwear, and was sitting on a couch. She was quite attractive. The team stood around, waiting for Tony's usual obnoxious comment, but it didn't come. They were all staring at him, as he looked around the room at the crime scene.

"What?" He asked, finally noticing their stares.

"Nothing," McGee muttered, and they dispersed to investigate the scene. When Ducky finally arrived, Gibbs went to meet him.

"Oh my," he said, when he spotted the body, "I bet Tony had something to say about this one."

"Actually he didn't say a word, Duck," Gibbs informed him.

"Well that's very uncharacteristic of him," Ducky replied as Gibbs nodded, "Maybe our Tony's finally growing up."

"Or he's up to something, "accused Gibbs. Ducky agreed.

"Yes, or that."

Chapter 2

Tony was bagging and tagging evidence when his phone rang. Glancing down at the caller id he quickly made his way for the door.

"Tony," he answered once he was outside and out of earshot. He listened for a moment before laughing softly.

"I can't," he replied, "We got a case." After another moment he agreed.

"Sure, later is fine," he said, glancing around and seeing Gibbs coming towards him, looking angry, "Gotta go, you too. Bye."

"Something important DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, suspecting that it wasn't.

"Yeah Boss, Mr. Landers' office said that he didn't show for work today," Tony told him, glad that he had checked this earlier.

"Okay," said Gibbs. If he was surprised, he hid it well.

"Go get a statement from the neighbor who found her," he ordered. Tony nodded and set back off towards the house. Gibbs stood there staring after him. What's going on with you Tony, he wondered, before following his agent.


Back at the office Gibbs gave his orders to the team. Ziva was to find Mr. Landers, McGee was to run background checks on all of them, but before he could get to Tony, he was interrupted.

"I'll take the evidence down to Abby," he said grabbing the bin with the crime scene photos and few other things they had found, and carrying it to the elevator. Gibbs stared after him for a moment, before following him to the elevator to go check up on Ducky.

"It must be a girl," commented McGee to Ziva.

"Why would you say that>" she asked, each going to their desks, "Tony's dated lots of girls, but he's never acted like this. He'd have talked about her all morning."

"Then what is it?" McGee asked, echoing what they were both thinking.


"What have you got for me?" asked Gibbs as he entered autopsy.

"Not much I'm afraid," said Ducky bending over the body on the autopsy table.

"It appears that this woman was suffocated, judging by the bruises around her neck and on her windpipe. No other injuries, nothing at all to indicate any kind of struggle," Ducky explained, "How's Tony? Still acting odd?"

"More than usual that is," answered Gibbs, "Thanks," he replied and turned, walking quickly out of autopsy and heading for Abby's lab.


As he walked towards the lab he passed Tony, coming up in the opposite direction. He was grinning wildly.

"Hey," Gibbs said, catching him by the arm, "You've not been back upstairs yet?" There was something almost accusatory in his voice.

"On my way now," explained Tony, shrugging and gesturing towards the elevator, "Abby had a few questions for me." It wasn't exactly a lie. She had asked him some things. Gibbs let him go.

"Well get a move on," he said, "This case isn't gonna solve itself."

"Sure thing Boss," Tony replied. As he walked away he shook himself mentally. That had been close. Gibbs stared after his senior field agent until he was out of sight, and then followed the muffled sound of music coming from Abby's lab.


"Got anything yet?" Gibbs asked her as she walked into the lab.

"That depends on what you've got for me," Abby replied, staring into the screen of one of her many computers. She spun around in her chair, and seeing his empty hands scolded him.

"Aww, Gibbs," she whined, "You know I can't work without my caffeine fix."

"I'll bring you one later," he told her placatingly. She sighed and acted angry for a moment.

"Fine," she said pouting, but seeing his look she smiled again. "Well you didn't give me much to do on this one, but from what I got I can't tell you anything," She added quickly, "Yet."

"You've got an hour," he told her, about to leave the lab, "Just one more question."

"Shoot," Abby said.

"Why is Tony so damn happy today?"

"No idea," Abby lied, turning away from him so he couldn't see her grin.

Chapter 3

"We got anything on the whereabouts of the husband yet?" Gibbs asked, once he was back upstairs.

"No but we put out an APB on his car, so we should find him soon," answered McGee quickly.

"Good, anything else," he asked sitting down at his desk. The three agents exchanged worried looks.

"Umm no," McGee said cautiously, "I mean not yet, Boss, working on it," he amended quickly, after Gibbs shot him a hard look.

"Actually Boss," Tony cut in, "Numerous phone calls were placed from Landers to Carson, the neighbor's house. It-"
The phone began to ring and he paused as Gibbs answered.

"We got a hit on Landers," he told them hanging up the phone, found him in a warehouse few miles from here."

"What was he doing in a warehouse?" asked Ziva confusedly.

"He's dead," Gibbs replied bluntly, "Come on."


They arrived at the scene minutes later.

"Tony shot, Ziva sketch, McGee bag and tag," Gibbs ordered. The three agents jumped to work. Ducky soon arrived to examine the body, which was laying face down on the floor.

"Oh my," Ducky muttered, "Help me turn him over Jethro." Gibbs obliged and after rolling the dead man over, they both stepped back. The man had a large number of stab wounds to the chest. Tony walked up behind the older men, looking at the dead Mr. Landers.

"Thirty-seven stabs to the chest," he said with a long low whistle. Both Gibbs and Ducky turned to look at him.

"Don't you have work to do DiNozzo?" Gibbs snapped at him.

"Finished Boss," Tony said brightly, then suddenly realized something.

"Thirty-seven. That's the number of calls made from Lander's house to Carson's."

"Get me Carson in interrogation," Gibbs ordered quickly.

"On it Boss," Tony said, but he lingered for a moment as though he had more to say.

"Now, DiNozzo," prompted Gibbs and Tony turned away biting his lip and looking as though he had missed his chance to tell him something important.

Gibbs noticed these things, but brushed them to the back of his mind as he got back to the case.



An hour later there was a very angry, slightly nervous young woman sitting in the interrogation room. Tony, Ziva and McGee were watching her in the Observation. Ziva nudged McGee and nodded toward Tony. He grimaced at her insistence.

"She's cute," McGee commented, he and Ziva both watching Tony carefully for his reaction. He said nothing, but smiled slightly.

"What's going on with you? You've been acting ve-" Ziva began to ask but he silenced her with a gesture. Gibbs had entered the interrogation room. They turned to watch him as he sat down across from the woman. McGee had been right. She was fairly attractive with long brow hair and dark green hair. She was slim and petite, but none of this mattered to Gibbs as he looked into her eyes. All that mattered was the hatred that he found there. She did was guilty, it was obvious she was hiding something, but he needed to prove it.

"You can't keep me here," she said suddenly, "I didn't do anything wrong." Her voice was high pitched and shrilly.

"Right," said Gibbs sarcastically, "So the murders of Petty Officer Landers and her husband are suddenly ‘not anything wrong'?"

"Bill's dead?" she asked sounding surprised, and suddenly pale.

"Yeah," Gibbs said impatiently, "You killed him," he accused.

"I could never," she said truthfully, " Not Bill, I- I loved him."

"So what about Erin Landers?" he asked coolly.

"That piece of scum. She's a dirt bag. I c-"

"So you killed her," said Gibbs staring her in the eyes.

"I want a lawyer," she stated.

"Get a d*** good one," Gibbs said angrily. He stood and left the room. Moments later he joined his team in Observation.

"So wh-" McGee began, but Gibbs cut him off.

"She and Bill Landers were having an affair. She kills his wife."

"And him?" asked Ziva.

"No," replied Gibbs.

"Then who?"

"Her husband," answered Tony.

Chapter 4

The NCIS sedan pulled up to the Carson household minutes later. The agents quietly got out, guns drawn.

"Federal agents. Don't move!" Gibbs yelled as they burst in the door. The man, who had been standing in the middle of the room, contemplating the knife, froze.

"Drop the weapon," Gibbs said dangerously. With a clatter it fell to the ground. Tony moved forward with the cuffs grinning.

"Jerald Carson, you are under arrest for the murder of Bill Landers…" he told him smiling. Carson let himself be cuffed.



Back at the office they had congregated in Abby's lab. There had been no problems proving the murderers guilty. Abby had been able to confirm that Carson's knife was the murder weapon. Both of the Carson's had been taking away and Tony was the one who had figured it all out.

"Good work today," Gibbs said gruffly. The team smiled knowing that praise was rare.

"There's just one thing that's been bugging me," McGee said to Tony.

"What?" asked Tony surprised.

"Why were you so…" his question trailed off as he tried to come up with the right word.

"Insufferably happy?" supplied Gibbs.

"Yeah," agreed McGee. Tony was smiling bigger than ever. He looked from Gibbs, to McGee, to Ziva and finally his eyes turned to Abby, the only person who wasn't watching him intently.

"Because of this," he said, and Abby turned to meet his gaze. He swept her up in his arms and she returned his embrace kissing passionately. To them the rest of the team seemed to fade from the room. It wouldn't have mattered to them if the building blew up around them. All there was, was Tony and Abby.