Monday At Mickey's Pub, the team walks in and heads straight for the stairs to the manager's office. Two security guards step in the way and Gibbs flashes his badge. "Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS."

"NCI who?" The big, bald one asked.

"Naval Criminal Investigative Services." McGee explained.

"So? What do you want?" The second, bigger security guard asked.

"We're going to talk to the manager. Step aside." Gibbs told them.

"No one sees the Mr. Delacroix without an appointment." The first guard informed them.

Ziva had slipped around behind the guards and was already up the stairs to the office. "That's ok, Gibbs. I'll just see if he can come down to us."

As the two guards moved to retrieve Ziva, Tony told them, "Lay a hand on her and you both will be brought in for obstructing an investigation. After Ziva finished with you that is." Ziva was dragging Mickey Delacroix out of his office. "Tell the guards to let my friends up." She said and put a little pressure on his arm.

"Let them up. They are federal agents. They can come in anytime." Mickey told his men and Ziva turned his arm loose.

Gibbs walked by the guards without glancing in their direction. Tony and McGee couldn't help but smirk as they walked by and Agent Lee marched on as if they didn't exist.

Mickey showed them into his office and asked, "What can I do for NCIS?" "You can tell us what you know about these three women." Agent Lee said and placed the photos of the three missing Marines on his desk.

"They've been weekly contenders in my competition. That's all I know."

"That's all you know?" McGee asked. "Are you sure?"

"Sure, I'm sure. They come in, they change into their swim suits and parade around on stage for cash prizes. I didn't even know they were military until I saw one of them had left their purse. I took it they decided not to compete last night and left. Then I got a call from your office about them missing."

Tony and Gibbs exchanged a look, knowing this was all they were going to get out of the man for now. "If you think of anything, call us." Tony told him and handed the card over. As they left the bar, every employee in the place was looking them over.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You told me that you would do anything if I told you about my date with Tony." Abby reminded Carly.

"Yes, but you obviously are holding back, so how does that make me have to comply with my end of that deal?"

"You have to tell me something. I told you some things."

"Abby, are you not telling me things because you don't want me to know how much this means to you?" Carly asked out of the blue.

"No, I am not. And you are not getting out of this."

Sighing, Carly sat down on the stool in front of her computer. "All right. Gibbs brought my car back and I cooked him dinner, then I took him home."

"Yeah, sure, there is more to it than that. What did you eat? What did you talk about?"

Flashback

"You cook a mean steak Gibbs." Carly said after swallowing another juicy mouthful of perfect beef.

Gibbs sat watching her tear into her meal, realizing she always ate as though food was something to be savored not rushed. It had been a long time since food had been good enough for him to savor it. "The potatoes are good too."

With a smile, Carly took a drink from her soda. "Don't overwhelm me with praise Jethro I might faint." She laughed then realized she had called him by his first name. Her smile slipped from her face.

"You can call me Jethro, Carly; you wouldn't be the only one." He said.

"I've only heard Ducky and the Director call you that to your face." She admitted with a small smile looking at him across the table.

Nodding and cutting a piece of steak, he said "True, but Tony's wanted to call me that for years. He just hasn't gotten the nerve yet."

"No, I can't believe it would take nerve to call you by your name. You aren't the least bit scary." She twisted her mouth to keep from grinning at the blatant lie.

With a bark of laughter, Gibbs gave up and looked into her dark blue eyes. "You don't seem to be too scared."

"Well, that's because Abby tells me what a teddy bear you really are."

"A teddy bear?" Gibbs repeated, almost sounding horrified.

"Only with her of course. But still, you have to admit that your soft side shows when you're around Abby."

Denying it completely, Gibbs retort was, "I don't have a soft side."

"If you say so." Carly said and started eating her steak again.

After dinner was over, she changed her shorts for pants and threw on a long sleeve shirt over her tank top. Once they arrived in front of Gibbs house, she was reluctant to end the evening. Leaning over the gear shift, she meant to kiss his cheek in thanks for bringing her car back. At that same moment, Gibbs turned his head to tell her goodnight and her lips touched his. When Gibbs brought his hands up to capture her face she let out a small sound of pleasure. He deepened the kiss until she was breathless and she giggled. He raised a brow questioningly at her. "Your mustache tickles." She said and touched it with her fingertips. Gibbs took her hand in his and placed a chaste kiss in the palm.

"Have a goodnight Carly." He said and quickly got out of the car before he did anything foolish like inviting her in.

End Flashback

"Carly, are you still on earth? What happened after dinner?" Abby asked.

"I took Gibbs home then went back to my place to go to bed." Carly added leaving out the dreams she'd had after that kiss.

"Sure. I believe that." Abby said and they started laughing at each other, knowing they were both holding back something.