I awoke the next morning lying on my side and feeling refreshed. I pulled back the covers and saw a muscular arm draped across my stomach. I looked behind me and smiled; there next to me was Tony, sleeping peacefully. I didn't get up, as was my original intent, but instead gently laid the covers back down and then slowly inched closer to him until body was pressed against his.

I felt his arm tighten around my waist, and then heard a mumbled, "'Morning, Kate."

"Good morning, Tony." I started to get up, but his arm kept me firmly in place. He leaned over and started kissing the back of my neck. "My, you move fast," I commented, loving his attention.

"Only when there's nothing stopping me," he murmured into my neck.

After a moment I said, "You know, Tony, Gibbs is gonna come and break the door down soon if we don't get a move on."

"Probably." He continued kissing me.

"Tony, come on." I freed myself from his grasp. "We have a case to solve."

He sighed. "Oh, alright."

I grabbed a fresh set of clothes and my shower stuff and headed for the bathroom. Tony stood up and started to follow me into the small room. "And just where do you think you're going?" I asked him.

"If we shower together, it would save time," he said with a trademark DiNozzo grin.

"In your dreams, Tony," I chuckled, walking into the bathroom.

"Aw, come on." He stuck out his bottom lip and tried his best to look pitiful.

"Ha. You're cute, but you're not that cute." With that, I shut the door in his face. I heard a muffled 'hmph' on the other side and smiled. I showered quickly, dried off, and got dressed. I emerged from the bathroom and said, "Your turn."

"Finally," Tony said, hopping off the bed. "You took long enough."

I looked at the clock. "I took fifteen minutes!" I cried, incredulous.

"Yeah!" he nodded. "That's a long time." He walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

I rolled my eyes and reached for the hair dryer that was attached to the wall.

No more than five minutes later, Tony came out of the bathroom, clean and dressed. "See, Kate?" he said over the noise of the hair dryer, That's fast."

"Whatever." I continued brushing and drying. I bent over, letting my hair hang down in front of me so that I could dry the underside. I noticed Tony watching me intently and asked, "And just what is it that you find so fascinating?"

"Nothing," he replied nonchalantly, but continued staring.

I was about to chalk it up to his being bored when I realized that, from where he stood, he had a pretty good view down the front of my blouse. I immediately straightened up, flipping my hair behind me with a whip of my head. "Tony, you are such a pervert." He just grinned. I sighed in disgust and hung the appliance back on the wall. Then I tried to pull my un-cooperative hair into a ponytail.

"So, Katie," he began, watching me fight with my hair, "how long have you had the hots for me?"

I blushed. "I dunno, but I thought you were cute when I first met you on Air Force One."

"Really? 'Cause I thought for sure you had a thing for Gibbs."

"Oh, please. Gibbs is a great, hard-working guy, and he's handsome and all, but being with him all the time would drive me crazy. Ha!" I succeeded in forcing my hair into a decent ponytail.

"So, Gibbs is handsome, but I'm just cute?"

"Yup." I grinned and reached for my toothbrush.

He looked at his watch, grabbed his toothbrush, and joined me at the sink.

When I had finished, I looked up at him. "How long have you-" I made quotation marks with my fingers "-'had the hots' for me?"

He rinsed and spit into the sink. "When we were on the Enterprise and we were arguing about which way to go was when I first thought of the possibility of us as something more than just coworkers." I smiled at him. He took a step towards me, and our bodies nearly touched. "Katie?"

"Hmm?"

"I…I love you, Katie."

I licked my lips nervously as he placed hand on the side of my face, then slowly leaned in to kiss me. His lips were an inch away from mine when here was a loud pounding at the door.

I gasped and Tony dropped his hand.

"Pack it up! Let's go!" came the unmistakable bellow of our boss. 'Darn you, Gibbs!' I thought as Tony looked from the door back to me; I could see the longing in his eyes. I gave him a sympathetic smile and said softly, "We should go."

"Yeah," he muttered as he watched me gather my toiletries. "Katie?"

"Yes, Tony?" I looked up as I unzipped my duffel.

"This isn't over." This time I noticed a twinkle in his gorgeous green eyes.

"I know." I winked at him and he wiggled his eyebrows in return. We quickly packed our duffels and met Gibbs and McGee in the lobby.

xxxxxx

After getting a lead confirmed by Abby, we drove out to a pawn shop; it was where the suspected murderer of Holmes was supposed to be selling Holmes' coin collection. Gibbs assigned Tony and me to the back door while he and McGee took the front. "We don't move until we see the coins," he instructed us.

As we waited there, crouched in the alley behind the shop, thoughts of earlier that morning filled my mind. "Tony?"

"Hmm?" Our eyes met

"Don't you think that now's as good a time as any to finish what we started?"

He grinned and leaned over once more to kiss me. This time, our lips were a hair's breadth apart when we heard Gibbs' voice over out earpieces. "We have a visual! Move in!" I groaned as we stood; these interruptions were getting on my nerves.

xxxxxx

Well, we caught the guy, and he immediately confessed. We sent him away in a squad car and straightened everything out with the shop owner.

"Alright, guys, let's go," Gibbs said as he and McGee began walking to the car.

As soon as Gibbs turned his back to us, Tony grabbed my arm, pulled me against him and pressed his lips to mine. It wasn't a long kiss, but it was wonderful, nonetheless. When we pulled away, he was grinning triumphantly. I smiled, glad that we hadn't been interrupted this time.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs called. 'Oh my gosh! Did he see us?' I thought worriedly. 'But he couldn't have; he didn't turn around.'

"Yes, boss?"

"You do that again on company time," he said, not looking back, "and I'll partner you with McGee for the rest of the year."

Finis

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Author's Note: I hope you guys liked it. I hope it wasn't too corny. I am sorry about the weird numbers that were appearing all over the story. Hopefully they are now fixed. I will have another fluffy story coming out in time for Valentine's Day. : ) ;):D