CHAPTER 1- FIRST ENCOUNTERS

Tony had a horrible headache. It had been a tiring week at work. They had had a case with so many twists and turns that Tony still felt like he was lost in a maze. In the end it had been the wife. It's always the wife Tony thought to himself. He'd known this from the beginning, but it had taken them all week to find the evidence to support his gut instinct. So now it was 5am Friday morning and he was finally getting home- the case wrapped up and paperwork submitted. Gibbs had given them the weekend off and he was looking forward to sleeping straight through it.

Tony had been asleep for about two hours when the shaking of the wall and a loud pounding sound suddenly disturbed him. He shot out of bed expecting violence of some sort only to be met with the sound of drills and hammers. You've got to be kidding me Tony thought to himself. The headache he'd had from the stress of the week which had started to abate with sleep was now once more rearing its ugly head. Grumbling to himself he decided to get dressed and go next door to find out why his new neighbor felt it was imperative to do construction work before 10am. He shrugged into a worn pair of NCIS sweats and walked into the hall. He knocked briefly on the door and waited. Nothing happened so he repeated the process. Right as he was ready to give up and go back in and call his manager the door opened. A woman around his age dressed in sweats looking like she was about to go running started to walk out the door. She nearly ran into him and looked surprised to see someone standing outside her door if the fishy face she was making was any indication.

"I'm Tony from next door and I wanted to know if you could keep it down for a little while since its only 7am." Tony said hoping to get things settled and get back to bed as soon as possible.

"Sorry." The girl vocalized in a voice with a distinct speech impediment. Her hand formed a fist and made a circular motion on her chest as she spoke. "I can't hear you." She continued pointing to her ears and shaking her head in the negative.

Tony recognized the sign language immediately from his years of working with Gibbs and Abby. Those two were always having 'secret' conversations with each other. At least they thought they were secret. Over the years Tony had become quite proficient in signing though he chose to never let them know. He'd always been in the habit of keeping his intelligence and skills under wraps as it didn't always fit in with the masks he wore.

"I understand." Tony signed by taking the pointer finger of his right hand and flicking it by the right side of his forehead like turning on an imaginary light bulb there.

"You Sign" the girl asked in return moving her pointer fingers around each other and then pointing to Tony. She seemed excited by the prospect and Tony imagined it would be exciting to find someone else knew your language if you were new.

"Some" He responded by drawing his right hand vertically across the palm of his flat left hand.

"Noise too loud?" She asked wiggling her hands by her ears and then making a gesture like big and raising her eyebrows to indicate a question.

"Yes. I was sleeping and it scared me." Tony responded by making a fist with his right hand and shaking it up and down then pointing to himself and pantomiming sleep and fear.

The girl grinned at his facial expressions and then continued the conversation. "Sorry putting in new equipment to help me with sounds. This only time they could come."

Tony took a minute to take in her signs and then nodded his head in acceptance.

"Oh I see." He signed back.

"My name Jana what yours?" She signed again.

"Tony. I'm your neighbor."

"Nice to meet you." She continued by taking one pointer finger and holding it straight up by her chest and doing the same with the other hand only having it towards Tony and then bringing them together as if they were meeting.

"Same" Tony signed back by holding up his pinky finger and thumb and leaving the other fingers bent and then moving his hand back and forth in a parallel motion between him and her.

"I go run now. See you later, maybe." Jana signed.

"Later." Tony repeated with a shy smile.

He watched for a moment as the girl ran off to the stairs. A pounding behind him is what startled him out of his musings about her. It also reminded him just why he had come over in the first place as his head began pounding again. One thing was clear he wasn't going to get any sleep here and he needed it. Sighing to himself he went back to his apartment and grabbed his go bag. It was time to head to Gibbs and rest there. His boss had always made it clear Tony was welcome. He'd only taken him up on the offer to stay over a few times willingly when it wasn't due to recovering from illness or injury. This seemed like a smart time to take advantage of the offer before it became a necessity due to illness. With that in mind Tony found himself walking to the stairs his intriguing new neighbor had just gone down. As he walked he hoped he would see her again- there was something captivating about her smile.