The house Drake parked across the road from was dark except for a light in the basement.
The door was unlocked. He opened it and moved silently across the kitchen floor to the basement door, it was partially open and he could hear a television. It sounded like CNN.
He looked at the hinges, well oiled. He pushed the door gently and looked down the stairs. One man working on a boat in the basement of his house. He wondered how he was planning on getting it out.
Gibbs stopped sanding the spar he was working on. He turned and picked up an almost empty bottle of Jack Daniels and poured some into a glass.
By now Drake was half way down the stairs. He sat down and silently pulled a full bottle of Jack from his coat pocket.
"A peace offering." he said and was comforted to see Gibbs startled.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"I come bearing gifts." He offered the bottle. "Don't worry I'm not Greek."
Gibbs took the bottle and placed it carefully on the workbench. "Ok, you've proved you're a sneaky bastard. So why come see me?"
"Look I'm not a threat to you or your people."
"The hell you're not. You could have got Ducky killed!"
"Oh come on Gibbs! Ari obviously knew where Ducky lived. If he wanted him dead, do you think he would still be doing autopsies for you?"
Gibbs continued to stare at Drake saying nothing.
"Ari knows you well enough to know how you would react to him talking to me and you have played right into his hands. You have taken your senior field agent and set him on watching one of your allies."
"Yeah, DiNozzo told me about your little ‘trust' speech and you have a point. But I still don't trust you."
Drake smiled, "I'm used to people not trusting me. It goes with the job. Any chance of a drink?"
Gibbs smiled very slightly, picked up a tin cup that had pencils in it; he took the pencils out and shook out the dust. Opening the new bottle of Jack he poured some for Drake.
"Thanks Gunny."
It was the most relaxed that Drake had felt since his arrival. This assignment might workout yet.
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"WHAT?!" Paula and Joy both whined at the same time. She had just told them about going to dinner. Paula looked at the papers spilled across her desk. "Maybe I can fake sick." she suggested.
"Stop it you two! He's making an attempt to be nice. The least you can do is go to dinner with him. He might turn out to be a really nice person." Gillian said sternly.
"Are you ordering us to go?" Paula asked.
"No Paula. I'm not going to force you to go. But think if you were him. You've just flown across the ocean to help these strangers on a difficult case. You leave everything you know to come to a strange place. You invite your co-workers to dinner and no one wants to go. How would you feel?"
Joy and Paula fell silent.
Finally, Joy whispered, "So, you said we don't have to go right?" she smiled.
Gillian stared at her two friends. "You guys are going." With that, she turned on her heel and left the office.
She walked to the NCIS main office, into the bullpen. Her eyes scanned the five empty desks.
"Boo!" Two hands wrapped around her arms, making her jump out of her skin.
"Tony!" She slapped him hard on the arm while a grin spread across his face. "Don't scare me!"
"What are you doing here?" He asked as he made his way to his desk.
"I came to ask a favor."
Tony smiled at her. "Yes, I'll go out with you."
She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Drake has invited all my team out to dinner."
"So?" Tony said as he rummaged through his desk.
"I was kind of hoping you'd come."
Finding a green apple, he took a bite out of it. "So you did come here to ask me out."
"If that's what you want to call it, then yes." She laughed.
Tony stood up and walked over to her. Grabbing her hand, he got down on one knee. "Oh my dearest Gillian. I will grant your wish. I will go to the ball with you."
Gibbs' hand came down upon the back of Tony's head.
"Hey!" Tony said rubbing his head.
"No time for chit chat DiNozzo. You're supposed to be following Drake."
"I was; it's snack time." Tony said, holding up the apple. Gibbs just gave Tony a look.
"I mean, I'll get on that right now boss."
"I'll see you at 7 then." She smiled.
"Ok." Tony leaned down to give her a kiss.
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked.
"Hold that thought." He smiled at her than ran off to find Drake.
Laughing, she left the NCIS office and made her way back to NCTC office.
-------
Tony got into his car and started the engine, "Ok DiNozzo, coffee shop, office or apartment. Where should I start looking for the Brit?" He asked himself out loud.
"Try behind you." said Drake, from the back seat. "Don't you guys look at your cars before you get in?"
Tony tried to cover the fact that he had nearly jumped out of his skin. "I thought you were kidding about the carpooling stuff." He said trying to sound casual.
"Actually I wanted to ask you a favour. Since we have a date and I'm a stranger in town, I wondered if you would be good enough to suggest a restaurant."
Tony smiled. "Oh this is so sudden, I had no idea you felt this way."
"I see what Gibbs means about feeling like a high school principal now." said Drake, shaking his head with a smile on his face.
"You've talked to Gibbs?" asked Tony surprised.
"Yeah. Last night in his basement, we had a couple of drinks. Don't worry I didn't mention that you were sitting outside my apartment building eating pizza."
"No way! You were in your apartment all night. I saw you." insisted Tony.
"Oh c'mon I didn't expect you to fall for that. You, I thought you knew movies. The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce."
Tony was momentarily confused. "You mean it was a dummy? But I saw it move. Didn't I?"
Drake treated him self to a chuckle. "You saw a lighting effect, a couple of household electrical time switches set up in sequence. You saw the shadow move, not the dummy. Dummy… You want to slap your self on the back of the head or should I do it for you?" Drake sat back in the seat and relaxed. "Ok driver, let's take a turn around the park shall we?"
Tony was angry. "Look I'm not your driver and if you try to slap the back of my head I'll break your arm." He took a breath, and tried to calm down. "Dinner's at 7. I'll make the reservations. You are paying, right?" Tony looked over his shoulder and smiled.
"Well actually technically speaking, I suppose the British tax payer is paying since I plan on putting it on my expenses. So you may choose an expensive restaurant by all means." Drake said levelly. "Now, would you mind dropping me off at my apartment?
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