"Oh Come on, Kate. Just once. I promise I'll take good care of it" Tony clapped his hands together, begging.

"Forget it, Tony! I'm not going to let your flavour of the week borrow my old school uniform. How old is she this time? 18? Doesn't she have her own uniform?"

"She's 25 for your information, but that's not the point. Pretty please!" Tony said, leaning his head slightly to the side, and staring at Kate with those wonderful eyes of his.

"NO Tony, there is not a chance in hell that that's going to happen." Kate

"What isn't going to happen, Kate?"

Tony and Kate both jumped and spun around, none of them having noticed Gibbs entering the bullpen.

"Uh nothing, Gibbs. Tony and I were just talking about….uhm" Kate paused.

"Bungee jumping… Boss. I was thinking of going this weekend, and just wanted to know if Kate wanted to come" Tony quickly said, Kate nodding eagerly.
"But I'm not much for extreme sports, so…" Kate said, trying her best to sound convincing.
Gibbs looked at them both with penetrating eyes, not taking his eyes of them.
Tony didn't know what to do, and cautiously asked; "did you want to come, Boss?"
Gibbs finally looked down on his desk, opened his top desk drawer and pulled out his gun.
"No thank, Dinozzo. But if you wanna challenge death with nothing but a rubber band holding you up, then be my guest" Gibbs said, smiling. "But in the meantime you still work for me. Pull up the service rapport on a petty officer Kevin Hawks. Kate, pull up his driving license and home address"

"Sure thing, Boss. Any reason why?" Tony said as he walked over to his desk and started working on his computer.

Gibbs looked over at him in that special way only Gibbs can do. "Yeah Dinozzo, someone decided to kill him and dump his body in an alley down town"

Tony opened his mouth to say something, but decided not to and instead he turned his attention back to his computer, quickly finding what he was looking for.

Gibbs grabbed the car keys and threw them over to McGee. "McGee, gas the truck", McGee nodded and left, "and both of you, bring the papers with you".
Already having hit the print button, Tony smiled, "already did Boss", trying to get a responds from Gibbs. Nothing.. Kate finished her search, and started to get ready to go.

Getting in the elevator, Gibbs stood in front of Tony and Kate, and said;
"And Dinozzo, it you don't stop bothering Kate about that uniform, I'm personally going to make you wear it!"

Sitting in the truck on their way to the crime scene, Tony and Kate were going thru the petty officers records.
"Petty officer Hawks was stationed on the Eisenhower. According to this he just got back 2 days ago after 4 months at sea on a….", Kate said but she was interrupted by Tony, who was smiling all over his face, "oh ho, sweet! Boss, this guy owns a '84 Camaro Z/28! That's a smoking hot car!"

Tony was ecstatic at the thought of driving that particular car, and looked up, hoping to find the same enthusiasm in his co-workers. But all he got was en annoyed stare from Kate, basically saying grow up. Gibbs stared strait forward without a word, and McGee, sitting in the back of the truck, looked down, remembering his first car. "Oh come on! Anybody?" Tony said, his hopes dashed…
"Anything else of interest in the petty officers file?" Gibbs asked Kate without taking his eyes of the road.
"No not really. No family and he lived alone" Kate answered, closing the file.

Ducky was already examining the body, when they arrived. The petty officer was lying on his back, face tilted to the side. He was still in his uniform. Ducky was kneeling by the body, when Gibbs walked up to him.
"What've we got, Ducky?" he asked as he was putting down his case.
"Well, it's bit of a mystery, Jethro. There are no apparent injuries on this young man. Although his lips and fingernail are showing signs of cyanosis, indicating suffocation, this could just as well be from joining the Lord upstairs" Ducky said pointing a finger into the air.
"Kate, shoot, Tony, measure and sketch, McGee, bag and tag" Gibbs ordered the team, turning his attention back to Ducky.
"There are no signs of strangulation around the neck, and no bruises around the mouth. I won't know any thing specific until I open him up. Funny thing, this actually reminds me of a similar case I saw my first year…." Ducky started but he was quickly interrupted by Gibbs, "can you give me a time of death, Ducky?"
"Sorry? Oh yes, our poor sailor hasn't been dead for very long. I'd say 5-6 hours" Ducky responded, pulling his lever probe out of the sailor.

Fifteen minutes later, they had finished all their work, and Ducky was getting ready to move the body.
"I don't think he was killed here, Boss" Tony said, finishing his sketches. "Yeah, why is that Dinozzo?" Gibbs asked, standing up after searching the body. "Well, there are no signs of struggle in the alley. No turned over trashcans and no bruises on the body. Besides McGee found tire tracks about 30 feet from here"
Gibbs looked at Tony for a minute and then he said, "That's good work Tony. He's right; we're dealing with a secondary crime scene". Gibbs didn't say anything but on the inside, he was smiling. He observed Tony, who was still sketching, but now there was a hint of a smile on his lips. Gibbs thought to himself, that he made a really good choice, when he decided to hire this young smart cop from Baltimore. Sure there was the attitude, and the occasional screw-up, which required a head-slap, but Tony's instincts were some of the best he'd ever seen. And though everybody didn't like his methods, Gibbs liked them, but most of all he loved the results. Maybe he didn't give Tony enough credit and praise, but that would only go to his head. Instead Gibbs resorted to head-slapping, which also made Tony feel appreciated.
"There's nothing more here" Gibbs concluded as he closed up his bag. They cleared the crime scene, and Ducky went back to NCIS with the body. "Kate, you've got the address for our petty officer?" Gibbs asked as they were getting in to the truck. Kate nodded. And they drove off, heading for the apartment.

They arrived at the apartment building, found the janitor, and entered the apartment. Tony was looking anxious, and Gibbs suddenly saw what I was, he reminded him of: a 5-yearold child, desperately wanting to ask his parents for something. "What is it, Dinozzo?" Gibbs asked, sounding very parental with a mixture of anger and something else. Tony was surprised, that Gibbs could tell his eagerness, but then again, he always could. "I-I was just wondering if you wanted someone to go down and check if Hawks' car was still here. Cause if you did, I-I could volunteer", Tony responded, ducking his head a little hoping it wouldn't result in a head-slap. Much to Tony's surprise, Gibbs said, "You've got 10 minutes, Dinozzo. If you not back by then, and have not found anything, don't bother coming back at all!" On that note, Tony was out the door in 2 seconds. "That was nice of you Gibbs" Kate smiled, and started going through petty officer Hawks' mail.

There it was. Just standing there for everyone to enjoy. Tony was surprised, that the car was even there. The car was a classic and belonged in a garage of its own. But what a beauty! Tony walked around the car, carefully sliding his fingers over it. He even got a slight tingle in the fingers just touching this amazing car.
Totally occupied with the car, Tony almost didn't notice the sudden pain in his thigh. It wasn't painful enough to be a gunshot, and Tony hadn't heard a shot fired. He looked down, and noticed a tiny arrow sticking out. It couldn't be more than 2 inches long, but its effect was instantaneous. Tony started losing any feeling in his legs, and after a few seconds, they weren't able to sustain the weight of his torso. He fell to his knees, quickly loosing his balance, and fell to the side. He tried to break the fall with his hands, but they wouldn't listen. The pain was short when his head hit the pavement, and a small pool of blood started to form. Tony tried to move his hands to reach for his phone, but his body was no longer obeying him. The last thing he saw before total darkness was a pair of black army boots. Then darkness surrounded him.

Gibbs looked at his clock. It said 6.28 p.m. which meant that Tony had been gone for 20 minutes. He pinched his eyes and let out a harsh breath. Kate looked up from her search; "He's late. Didn't think he would without calling" Then she leaned over to McGee and whispered, "whau am I glad I'm not him". Gibbs looked around the room, where they hadn't found anything suspicious so far. He grabbed his phone and dialed Tony's number. When there was no answer after a minute, he slammed the phone shut, and was just about to curse at Tony, when something hit him. A strange feeling in his gut, like something was horribly wrong. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead he turned around and ran out of the apartment. Kate and McGee looked at each other, one looking more puzzled than the other. Then they dropped everything and ran after Gibbs. While running Kate suddenly remembered her own words. ‘He wouldn't do that without calling', and she got the feeling that something bad had happened.

Gibbs ran as fast as he could down the stairs. Please let him be there, so I can yell at him, and that will be it.

They all stopped at the door to the garage and pulled out their weapons. On three they entered opened the door, starting to search the garage for the car and hopefully Tony. It didn't take them long to find the car as it wasn't a big garage. But that was the only positive thing about the situation; Tony wasn't there. Gibbs felt a huge knot tying up his gut, when he saw to blood by the side of the car. Behind him he heard Kate gasp at the sight of the blood. Gibbs saw something lying beside the blood, but couldn't tell what it was. A syringe?
"Seal it off. This is a crime scene"